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During his weekly address to the nation last Friday, President Obama announced the allocation of $2 billion in loan guarantees to two solar companies with big projects planned or underway in the United States. Abengoa Solar Inc., a Spanish firm, will build a large solar thermal electric power plant in Arizona, and Abound Solar will use funds to build manufacturing plants in Indiana and Colorado.

$1.45 billion goes (with conditions) to the Abengoa Solar project, dubbed “Solana.” The 280-megawatt CSP plant will be located near Gila Bend, Arizona, about 70 miles southwest of Phoenix. Solana will require a new 230-kilovolt (kV) transmission line to interconnect with the Arizona Public Service (APS) electric grid. According to President Obama, the project will create roughly 1,600 new jobs, and over 70 percent of the construction components and products involved will be manufacturing in the United States. Upon completion, Solana will be one of the largest solar power-generating plants in the world.

Abound Solar Manufacturing is getting $400 million in loan guarantees to open two new plants that will manufacture second-generation thin-film solar modules. The first, to be built in Tipton, Indiana, will involve the renovation and reuse of an abandoned Chrysler factory, while construction of the second plant is already underway in Longmont, Colorado. Combined, the two plants will create more than 2,000 jobs, said Obama, with better than 75 percent of those jobs being permanent positions.

All told, the three projects will create over 5,000 new jobs, according to a White House fact sheet. And the announcement of these latest federal loan guarantees brings the total to $14.8 billion that the Department of Energy has invested in $22.4 billion-worth of solar energy projects.

Photo Credit: ReCharge

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First Solar, Southern Co. and Turner Renewable Energy inked a deal last week that will add 30 megawatts of utility-scale solar power to the New Mexico electric grid. First Solar announced the project, which will consist of 500,000 cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar panels made by the thin-film industry’s leading manufacturer. Construction is due to begin before the end of March and the power plant should be operational by the end of the year.

First Solar is trying to expand its range within the solar market through commercial and utility-scale solar projects. Last year, the company took on responsibility for nearly 2,000 MW-worth of prospective solar projects from struggling solar company OptiSolar. Those projects included the proposed 550 MW Topaz Solar Farm scheduled to begin construction in 2010 and be fully operational in 2013.

First Solar has the lowest production costs in the solar industry, although its CdTe solar panels are less efficient than silicon-based panels, the leading solar product on today’s market. The Arizona-based company will engineer, construct and operate the PV plant under a 25-year contract. The northern New Mexico plant will supply enough solar power for up to 9,000 homes or 18,000 residents. The financial aspects of the deal were not disclosed.

Source: Reuters

Photo Credit: Treehugger

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In the Netherlands, green building is the law. Certain energy efficiency requirements are in force for all new buildings. And in the world’s 28th most densely populated country, with over 16,000 people per square mile, housing projects are vital to conserving green space. In 2007, Netherlands enacted its Energy Efficiency Action Plan in an effort [...]