Tag Archives: green inc blog

Todd Woody/Green Inc. Blog: Samsung Enters Solar Deal in California

Seth Woody reports from the Green Inc. blog at the Times

Samsung, the Japanese conglomerate best known to Americans for its televisions and cellphones, is jumping into the American solar business.

Pacific Gas and Electric, the California utility serving much of the northern and central parts of the state, asked regulators last week to approve a series of 25-year contracts [pdf] for 130 megawatts’ worth of photovoltaic power plants to be built by Solar Project Solutions, a joint venture between Samsung America and ENCO Utility Services, a former subsidiary of the utility company Edison International.

Samsung’s first commercial solar plant in South Korea. Photo via Green Inc. blog at NYTimes.com

The deal is the latest of a spate of such agreements signed by California utilities as they take advantage of the increasing attractiveness of photovoltaic power as the price of solar modules falls and new competitors enter the market.

Unlike large solar thermal power plants that use mirrors to heat liquids to generate steam to run electricity-generating turbines, photovoltaic farms can be built relatively quickly near cities and existing transmission lines.

Todd Woody,–  Samsung Enters Solar Deal in California,

on the Green Inc. Blog (NYTimes.com)

Mr. Woody’s point about photovoltaic systems is well-taken: here’s another photovoltaic application, the Marine Corps’ recently announced GREENS system:

A year ago, U.S. Marines operating in the Arabian Desert only viewed the sun as the source of the region’s relentless heat. Recently, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Advanced Power Generation Future Naval Capabilities program introduced technology that allows the Marines to harness some of that sunshine to help power their field equipment.

Fueled by the sun, the Ground Renewable Expeditionary ENergy System (GREENS) is a 300-watt, photovoltaic/battery system that provides continuous power to Marines in the field. ONR began exploring the GREENS idea in fall 2008 in response to a Marine Corps requirement from Iraq for an expeditionary renewable power system.

“It’s vitally important to have power in the battlefield especially these days in an irregular warfare environment,” said Marine Col. Thomas Williams, a senior officer at ONR.

Via Solar Daily.

Link to Solar Energy Powers Marines on Battlefield – media release from the Public Affairs/Corporate Communications Office, Office of Naval Research








Energy and Green Business – Green Inc. Blog – NYTimes.com

Siemens Wind Farm

Siemens Wind Farm, Courtesy Siemens.

Lars Kroldrup reports, on the Green Inc. blog at the Times, that Siemens has announced its intention to expand in the United States market. From Siemens Touts Growth in Renewables and the Value of the American Market:

Since acquiring the Danish wind turbine company Bonus Energy in 2004, the German industrial giant Siemens AG, has become one of the larger players in the wind power game with roughly 7 percent of the market.

Still, with rivals like GE Energy and Vestas controlling roughly 18 percent and 19 percent of the market, respectively, Siemens suggested at a financial presentation in Copenhagen on Monday that it’s looking to climb the rankings — and that it sees the fledgling American wind power market as a way to do that.

“We want to be one of the leading companies on the American market,” Andreas Nauen, the chief executive of Siemens Wind Power, told Green Inc. on Monday. “We are on our way, and would like to play an important role. The U.S. market is, and will be in the future, an important market to us.”

According to Siemens, over the next 20 years, the percentage of global power generation arising from renewable sources will grow from less than 5 percent now to about 17 percent by 2030. About half of that, the company said, will come from wind power.

Just 15 years from now, the company expects the global wind energy market to be worth nearly $300 billion, compared to a little over $40 billion today.

Much of that growth, the company is betting, will be in North America, the company estimated. “We have recieved big orders in both the United States and Canada,” Mr. Nauen said.

Of course, just how much the United States will benefit economically from any wind power expansion by foreign companies entering the market — particularly as it relates to the creation of manufacturing jobs — is a matter of some debate.

Read Mr. Kroldrup’s complete piece here: Siemens Touts Growth in Renewables and the Value of the American Market.

Via Green Inc.