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Solar research received a nice boost from Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Earth Day. The Department of Energy allocated $200 million for research and development of solar power and a variety of water power technologies. The funding is aimed less at discovering new innovations and more toward improving processes to accelerate the path to commercialization for promising technologies that already exist. The funding breaks down as follows.

PV Manufacturing Initiative

Up to $125 million over five years will go to “university-focused development” and “industry-focused development” of photovoltaic manufacturing. Both focal points will involve collaborative research projects designed to speed up manufacturing-related technologies.

PV Supply Chain Development

$40 million over three years will be geared toward “component and manufacturing technologies that show a strong potential to impact a substantial segment of the photovoltaic industry within two to five years.” That includes low-cost coating materials, electrical components, reducing manufacturing waste and equipment that improves the speed of manufacturing or installation.

National Administrator of the Solar Instructor Training Network

The DOE wants a national administrator to be a central coordinator for a national solar training network, and it’s willing to spend up to $4.5 million over the next five years to get it. The Solar Instructor Training Network, founded in 2009, is dedicated to creating well-trained, local personnel at the solar industry front line. This includes sales, design, installation, commissioning and inspection of residential solar electric and solar thermal systems.

Marine and Hydrokinetic (MHK) Technologies

Finally, a range of water power technologies will receive up to $39 million over four years. The goal is to advance the commercialization of affordable, renewable water power, including power from waves, currents, tides, free-flowing rivers or energy stored in ocean thermal gradients (changes in temperature between deep and shallow waters).

Photo Credit: Treehugger & DOE

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The Obama administration has given initial approval for $1.4 billion in federal loan guarantees to help build the world’s largest solar power complex in California’s Mojave desert. Brightsource Energy’s Ivanpah solar complex would consist of three phases (Ivanpah 1, 2 and 3), totaling nearly 400 megawatts of concentrated solar power. Obama’s decision to guarantee the loans to build the complex are vital to financing, although the project must still overcome environmental and regulatory hurdles before being built.

The $1.4-billion guarantee is the largest that the Department of Energy has ever offered for solar power. It represents an effort by the US government to ensure American leadership in renewable energy. As Energy Secretary Steven Chu put it, “We’re not going to sit on the sidelines while other countries capture the jobs of the future.” Brightsource Energy estimates that the Ivanpah project, which will cover up to five square miles of desert land, would create about 1,000 temporary construction jobs and 86 permanent jobs in operation and maintenance.

If built to its originally planned capacity, the complex would create enough solar energy to power 140,000 homes. But that is a big IF, as environmental controversy continues to inhibit progress. Despite the loan guarantees, Brightsource Energy must still meet financial requirements and get past state and federal permitting processes (the complex is to be built on publicly owned land).

Environmental groups have been stalling such projects due to concerns over the fate of the notoriously sensitive desert tortoise, an endangered species that would undoubtedly be affected by the destruction of more than 3,000 acres of its habitat. Brightsource recently offered to scale down the complex to leave some vital lands for the tortoise to thrive, but, according to USA Today, groups like the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife still feel that the entire project should be moved elsewhere.

The issue of renewable energy projects versus wildlife habitat has become the most volatile industry within the solar industry. The Department of Interior and the Bureau of Land Management (which administers leases on public lands) are working to designate solar energy zones where power plants and permitting could be fast-tracked, but progress remains slow. The Obama administration’s backing of loans for Ivanpah is also a show of support for this and other desert solar projects, but will it make a difference? Brightsource Energy, itself based in California, has at least shown a willingness to compromise, which may give it that extra edge in getting regulatory permission and some wiggle room from environmentalists.

I suppose time will tell. If nothing else, Brightsource should have a much easier time getting financing for Ivanpah — a sizable $1.4 billion hurdle — which is certainly a plus. But it doesn’t compare to the $8.3 billion in loan guarantees Obama recently offered to help finance two new nuclear power reactors in Georgia.

Via USA Today

Photo Credit: Climate Progress & Phoenix Sun

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U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu this week announced the selection of five projects to receive a combined US $20.5 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to support deployment of community-based renewable energy projects including biomass, wind and solar installations.

On Monday, The White House announced that it will be initiating a new program, spending $350 million over a period of five years in order to supply developing nations with clean energy technology to combat greenhouse gas emissions and reduce global warming. The funding will be granted by drawing funds from international partners.

According to this program, solar power alternatives will be distributed for homes, including sun-powered lanterns and cleaning equipment and appliances. The funding will also be used to encourage renewable energy systems in the world’s poorer nations.

The Major Economies Forum (MEF) established the funding plan among the world’s top economies in the beginning of this year, planning to produce the details and spending at the July summit meeting in L’Aquila, Italy.

Spokesman Robert Gibbs from the White House said in a statement that U.S. will be supporting the program through a funding of $85 million, while the rest of the amount will be given by Australia, Britain, Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland.

According to him, President Barack Obama had given the responsibility to Energy Secretary Steven Chu to coordinate with partners in the MEF to insure immediate action on the program.

The White House said that the U.S. and it’s partners have been working to develop several technology action plans, in order to provide some suitable options to ambitious government action on 10 key clean energy technologies including:

1. advanced vehicles
2. bio-energy
3. building energy efficiency
4. carbon capture, use and storage
5. high-efficiency, low-emissions coal
6. industrial energy efficiency
7. marine energy
8. smart grid
9. solar energy
10. wind energy

The announcement was made in conjunction with the ongoing U.N.-sponsored climate change summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, which Obama will be attending later this week.

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U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced that the Department of Energy (DOE), has issued the final rule amending DOE’s regulations for its Loan Guarantee Program. The revised rule will allow for increased participation in the program by financial institutions and other investors. Chu said that this will enable the support of more innovative energy technologies in the United States.

Viryd Technologies Inc. has been selected to participate in a U.S Department of Energy (DOE) funded wind energy industry research consortium lead by the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced the recipients last week as part of DOE’s efforts to spur university-led wind research facilities. Viryd was one of three wind turbine companies named as consortium members out of a pool of 100 applicants.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Energy Secretary Steven Chu this week hosted a group of clean energy developers and manufacturers at the White House to discuss how the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) is creating jobs and helping expand the development of clean, renewable domestic energy.