BBC News: Sat firm eyes huge rocket campaign

Sat firm eyes huge rocket campaign

The OneWeb company, which aims to take affordable internet connectivity to every part of the globe, says it will need the biggest commercial rocket campaign in history to get all of its satellites in orbit.

Read more:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33268180


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Fwd: Business Proposal - Zytech Solar India !

Monty Bannerman
ArcStar Energy
+1 646.402.5076
www.arcstarenergy.com

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Kabir Ahmed <sales@zytechsolar.co.in>
Date: Thu, Jun 25, 2015 at 2:20 PM
Subject: Business Proposal - Zytech Solar India !
To:

Dear Sir !

Zytech Group is a Spanish group of companies with international presence and activities on five continents. Zytech Solar is a leading manufacturer and Supplier in Europe, US & Asia with its most advanced machinery, produce a wide range of highly efficient and reliable poly-crystalline silicon modules in India with capacity of 100MW per annum, SPV Modules power ranging from Poly 100p to 300p.

*Poly 100p - 200p at Euro 0.50c per watt*

*Poly 200p - 300p at Euro 0.43c per watt*

The rates are ex-works our facilities in Hyderabad, India. Payment terms are 25% advance against PO and remaining 75% before dispatching goods.

The company has projected to start 200 MW automation plant in Hyderabad, India fully owned and operated by Zytech Solar.

Our Company Video for your reference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zajss3s8hc&ab_channel=ZytechSolar

Please feel free to contact us for any further information that you may require.

Maximum Quality, Efficiency and Reliability Product.

-----x-----

Kabir Ahmed

Director - Sales

Tele: +91 40 659 76527 (S.O.L.A.R)

India: +91 70328 02089

Email: sales@zytechsolar.co.in

Registered Address - India

ZYTECH SOLAR INDIA PVT LTD

P-41, Chandragiri Colony, 

Tirumalagiri, Secunderabad - 500016 

Telangana INDIA.

(CIN) U74930TG2014PTC096987

Corporate Headquarters - Spain 

ZYTECH SOLAR S.L 

P. Industrial. Centrovia,  

C/R.Janeiro, 12 E-50198, La Muela  

Zaragoza - Spain

Tel: +34 976141819

Fax: +34 976141818

www.zytech.es

www.zytechled.com

www.zytechgroup.com

Zytech Group: Spain(Headquarters)⎜India ⎜France⎜Germany⎜Italy⎜Benelux⎜USA⎜Mexico⎜China⎜HongKong.

El contenido de este mensaje de correo electrónico es confidencial y está protegido por el artículo 18.3 de la Constitución Española, que garantiza el secreto de las comunicaciones. Si usted recibe este mensaje por error, por favor póngase en contacto con el remitente para informarle de este hecho, y no difunda su contenido ni haga copias. A los efectos de lo establecido en la Ley Orgánica 15/1999, de 13 de Diciembre, de Protección de Datos de Carácter Personal (L.O.P.D.) y de la Ley 34/2002, de 11 de julio, de Servicios de la Sociedad de la información y de Correo Electrónico (LSSI),  ZYTECH SOLAR S.L. garantiza la confidencialidad de los datos personales de sus clientes. Le comunicamos que sus datos personales forman parte de una base de datos gestionada por ZYTECH SOLAR S.L. con la finalidad de tramitar los servicios acordados e informarle de futuras campañas comerciales.Si desea ejercitar sus derechos de acceso, rectificación, cancelación y oposición de sus datos de carácter personal, puede hacerlo por correo electrónico a través de la dirección C/ Fernando Díaz de Mendoza, 34. 28019. Madrid

BBC News: Adobe issues emergency Flash fix

Adobe issues emergency Flash fix

Adobe releases an emergency software patch for Flash after it finds a serious vulnerability being exploited by hackers.

Read more:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-33255033


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BBC News: Gmail adds an 'undo send' email tool

Gmail adds an 'undo send' email tool

Gmail adds an "Undo Send" email tool to stop the wrong emails being sent.

Read more:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/articles/33256814


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400% increase in nations adopting renewable energy targets | GulfNews.com

http://gulfnews.com/news/uae/environment/400-increase-in-nations-adopting-renewable-energy-targets-1.1533011#.VXk6POv9OcM.linkedin

Mexican ruling party wins elections amid violence - Inside Costa Rica | Inside Costa Rica

http://insidecostarica.com/2015/06/08/mexican-ruling-party-wins-elections-amid-violence/

Fwd: From Darkness to Light: The 7 White Horses Drawing the Chariot of India’s Solar Mission - Renewable Energy World

http://blog.renewableenergyworld.com/ugc/blogs/2015/05/from_darkness_tol.html

From Darkness to Light: The 7 White Horses Drawing the Chariot of India's Solar Mission

Aditya Goel

May 30, 2015

The suddenness in the acceleration of the Solar initiatives being launched by the Government of India has not only taken our country by surprise, but also caught industry participants off guard. It would thus be natural in a sense, to assume the difficulty of the global community to fathom the pace of developments that the Solar Industry in India is presently witnessing. Especially in the backdrop of India's historical Hindu rate of growth.

What may warrant attention nevertheless — although slightly departed from an economic or business perspective — is that while the growth of the Indian economy has always metaphorically compared with the movement of an elephant, in Hindu mythology, the chariot of the sun is drawn by seven white horses.

If the Chariot were to symbolize our Nation's resolve to make electricity available to all citizens and make India a global destination for Manufacturing — and the sun was to represent the potential that Solar Energy today has, to facilitate the achievement of this desired objective, then each of the following seven ideals that we are witnessing as India pursues its Solar ambition — may fittingly portray one of the seven horses that is drawing the chariot of India's Solar Mission forward.

1. A Nation's Belief in the scale of the stated mission to achieve the targeted 100 GW capacity addition.
2. The Determination of our country's leadership, that such a seemingly impossible task is also achievable when backed by an unshakeable resolve.
3. An Alignment of government policy and framework to facilitate the achievement of the stated ambition.
4. The extension of Co-operation by Nations to facilitate the transfer of information to replicate globally successful models in the Indian context.
5. Creation of a favourable economic and business environment to attract foreign capital to invest into the undeniable potential of India's power sector as a Global centre for long term growth.
6. Encouragement to enterprise and innovation to develop and implement unique business models to make Solar power an economically viable energy alternative.
7. Ground level Action which has been visible over the past 4 months – and thereby dispelled the oft harboured doubt that riddles government initiatives of vision not being translated into action. 

India's power sector is one which is saddled with the history of a chequered past. Accumulated debts and cumulative losses limit the ability of State Electricity Boards to offtake relatively more expensive Solar power from power plants that the government is pushing the construction of through various schemes and benefits. Hence there is a logical constraint on the long term viability of such proposed initiatives to make India energy sufficient by emphasizing on Renewable Energy generation in lieu of Conventional Energy sources.
 
As a result, the flow and scale of investment required to enable India to achieve the envisioned addition of Renewable Energy capacity has so far been limited by the fear of delinquency of a financially overstretched counterparty who was the purported offtaker of the generated power. This undeniable fact, along with the inherent currency risk that is associated with inflationary economic growth, have cast a veil over the future potential that India's power sector holds as an investment destination for Global Capital.

However, in between this chequered past and uncertain future, is the determination of the present, which provides a firm belief that India's repeated assertion of its intent to scale the installed Solar Power capacity from 3 GW to 100 GW by 2022, is not merely an aspiration, but infact a pursuit driven by definitive action.
 
Over the past few months in the follow up to Re-Invest 2015, India's Solar Industry has been the subject of unparalleled global attention. The government has in turn pro-actively engaged with global investors, taken concrete steps towards the implementation of its earlier announcements and sought the flow oftechnical knowledge and financial assistance across International boundaries from the World's leaders in Renewable Energy. 

In the backdrop of this intent, and in a display of adaptability of policy to align with the demands of global capital markets, the recent announcements made by NTPC (National Thermal Power Corporation), which is India's largest energy conglomerate and 431^stin the '2015, Forbes Global 2000' ranking of the World's largest companies, assume increased significance.

The key takeaways from the announcements made for the Global Investor community and Solar Industry participants seeking to enter the Indian Solar market are:

• NTPC, which is a Government Public Sector Undertaking and one of only four Companies to have been awarded 'Maharatna' status, would buy 15,000 MW of solar power on behalf of the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) by buying power on their own balance sheet.

Guidelines for the allocation of 3,000 MW out of this 15,000 MW, being that the First tranche of this allotment have been finalised, and the tender for 500 MW of this said capacity was released last week.

NTPC provides a far more secure counterparty to invest with, as compared to the financially stretched State Electricity Boards, who had till date been the sole offtakers of power, which had led to scepticism in the flow of investment to India in the desired scale.

• The 15,000 MW solar power being bought by NTPC in lieu of State electricity boards, will be in addition to NTPC's own plans to set up 10,000 MW of Solar power capacity in a Power Developer mode, for which it would be awarding EPC contracts to companies having requisite experience in the execution of large scale EPC projects – with a technical understanding of the Solar industry.

3,300 MW is the capacity addition that has been rolled out as the First Tranche of this initiative of NTPC, for which 250 MW was recently awarded for the state of Andhra Pradesh, with an additional 500 MW due to be tendered in May '15 and 250 MW in June '15.

• For the allocation of these capacities to interested companies, NTPC would run a reverse bidding process for the procurement of solar powered electricity and — under the aegis of the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy - are also in the process of finalising the guidelines for procuring such produced power in dollar denominated tariff to reduce currency risks for international investors sourcing off shore capital investments.

This is when the economic viability of procurement of Solar power vis-à-vis conventional power would drive the growth of the Industry independent of the support of the Government and regulatory enforcement on State Electricity Boards to purchase comparatively more expensive power.

• NTPC would sell the power it buys to the states, initially by bundling the procured Solar power with unallocated conventional power to bring tariffs down, and with the scale of deployment being envisaged being largely unparalled, it is expected that economies of scale would further drive the cost of solar power to grid-parity.

The announcements made by NTPC display the alignment of all our nation's resources to facilitate the achievement of the lofty goal which has been set out by our country's leadership. This, in itself, is a task worthy of commendation, as governing a federal democracy brings with it its own challenges, which are often overlooked in a global perspective. 
 

In addition to NTPC, the state government's and SECI (Solar Energy Corporation of India) continue to release their own tenders for the establishment and procurement of power from power plants established on Rooftops, Warehouses, Ground mounted installations, just as private developers are independently developing Solar parks for the sale of Power under the Open Access schemes of various states. 

The scientific interpretation of course of the Seven Horses that draw the Sun God's chariot is that they each represent one band of the visible spectrum of light, which we see in the form of a rainbow, when a ray of light breaks through clouds of darkness.
 
But just as the beauty of a rainbow lies in it's unannounced arrival, the rarity of its occurrence, and ephemerality of its presence, so too is the charm of India's Solar revolution in the unprecedentedness of its scale, the confidence in its achievement and the strength of the nation's resolve to make it happen in the face of all doubt and uncertainty.

‎

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Monty Bannerman
ArcStar Energy
+1 646.402.5076
www.arcstarenergy.com

Fwd: Scientists Start $150 Billion Program to Cut Clean Energy Costs - Renewable Energy World

R&D gaining massive scale.

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/news/2015/06/coalition-of-scientists-start-150-billion-program-to-cut-clean-energy-costs.html

Scientists Start $150 Billion Program to Cut Clean Energy Costs

June 2, 2015

By Louise Downing, Bloomberg 

LONDON — Scientists and economists including BP Plc's former chief executive officer, John Browne, are inviting governments to join a $150 billion program that aims to make clean energy cheaper than coal.

The 10-year plan, known as the Global Apollo Programme to Combat Climate Change, will fund research into renewables, power storage and smart-grid technologies to make them cheaper than fossil fuels. It aims to create an international task force of scientists, entrepreneurs and policymakers.

"There is a looming catastrophe that can be avoided," David King, an Apollo founder and former chief scientific adviser to the U.K. government, said in London. "What we need to do is create clean energy that is less costly than fossil energy, and once we get to that point, we're winning all battles."

Apollo already has attracted considerable interest from countries including India, China, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates, King said. The project plans to make public its members by November, ahead of the United Nations climate change talks in Paris the following month.

Apollo's goal is for new-build renewables to be cheaper than new-build coal plants in sunny countries by 2020, and worldwide from 2025. Generating electricity from the sun currently costs about $136 a megawatt-hour on average, compared with about $91 for coal, according to Bloomberg estimates.

Rising Concentrations

Concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are rising at about 2 to 3 parts per million annually, and for the first time it averaged more than 400 parts per million in March, according to U.S. government measurements. The UN has said that greenhouse gases should peak at no more than 450 ppm this century to maximize the chance of limiting the global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celcius.

Climate negotiators are gathered in Bonn for 11 days of talks to iron out their differences ahead of the Paris conference. The goal of envoys from more than 190 nations is to agree on a deal that for the first time would require developed and developing countries to take action.

Participants in Apollo would be required to spend an average of 0.02 percent of gross domestic product from 2016 to 2025, largely in their own jurisdiction, to help fund the technology development. The program will have a Commission with representative from each member country, and there will be a Roadmap Committee that will produce a document of research and development areas that need to be addressed.

'Man on the Moon'

"This challenge is at least as big as the challenge of putting a man on the moon," Richard Layard, another Apollo founder and the director of the Wellbeing Programme at the London School of Economics' Centre for Economic Performance, said. "We don't think that this problem can ultimately be cracked unless we reduce the cost of clean energy below that of dirty energy."

Other founders of the program include Gus O'Donnell, the former U.K. cabinet secretary, Martin Rees, former president of the U.K.'s Royal Society, Nicholas Stern, chairman of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and Adair Turner, senior research fellow at the Institute of New Economic Thinking.

Copyright 2015 Bloomberg

Lead image: Science theme. Credit: Shutterstock.‎

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Monty Bannerman
ArcStar Energy
+1 646.402.5076
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Fwd: Solar Tracking – A Key Technology for Unlocking the Full Potential of Utility-Scale PV - Array Technologies Inc News

http://buyersguide.renewableenergyworld.com/array-technologies-inc/blog/solar-tracking-a-key-technology-for-unlocking-the-full-potential-of-utilityscale-pv.html

Solar Tracking – A Key Technology for Unlocking the Full Potential of Utility-Scale PV

By: Bob Bellemare - Mykrobel LLC, Chief Operating Officer for Mykrobel LLC & financial consultant for Array Technologies, Inc.
Wednesday, June 3, 2015 

Quotes for very large solar photovoltaic projects in sunny parts of the United States are coming in at an astounding 5 to 6 cents per kWh. Certainly these projects enjoy economies-of-scale advantages compared to smaller, or rooftop type photovoltaic projects.  There is, however, one other very important technology advantage - since the utility-size systems are ground mounted, trackers can be used to follow the sun throughout daylight hours.  The advantages of trackers are dramatic, often increasing annual power production 20 percent compared to "fixed" (or non-moving) mounted systems.  For most states in the lower 48 states, trackers will more than make up for their modest increase in upfront costs over the lifetime of a system, often leading to the lowest levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) in projects.  Not only is annual production increased but also tracking systems produce more power during peak demand hours compared to "fixed" mounted systems.

Tracking the Sun Can Lead To Significant Advantages

Very large PV projects are ground mounted, presenting a basic question for a utility – whether to use a fixed mounted PV system or a system that tracks the sun during the day?  Key considerations include the total annual electricity production and the amount of electricity produced during hours when electricity demand is at its highest ("peak" hours).

PV Watts®, available athttp://pvwatts.nrel.gov/pvwatts.php and provided by the National Renewables Energy Lab (NREL), is a useful tool for examining the tradeoffs involved.  The software predicts the power produced from a PV system under various configurations. If a sunny location, like Albuquerque, New Mexico is selected, the software indicates a single-axis tracker would produce about 20% more energy compared to the same size (Wdc), optimally oriented/tilted fixed PV system.  But the story is deeper than that.  A tracking system will also produce more energy when a utility most wants it – when electric demands are at their peak.

Take for example the following hourly simulation of power production on a July 23 day in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  The maximum production in hour 14 was set to 100 MWh. Notice how much more the tracker is producing during "on-peak" hours 8, 9, 10, and hours 15, 16, 17 compared to a fixed mounted PV system.  In hour 13 the tracker and fixed system are forecasted to have nearly the same output because they are essentially operating at the same orientation at "solar noon."  There was also a cloud event in that hour which would diffuse the sunlight.  Which raises a point about fixed versus tracker – the benefits of trackers can go down in areas where sunlight is scattered due to clouds.

Trackers typically add 2 to 10% additional upfront costs on large, utility-scale project.  Recouping that added investment is certainly location dependent but generally speaking, single-axis trackers produce about 20% more energy compared to fixed mount systems just about anywhere in the U.S. However, the amount of annual energy produced in a cloudy location like Seattle is only about 60 percent of a sunny area like Albuquerque, which will greatly impact the economic tradeoff analysis.   

One hurdle for trackers is an outdated perception of added maintenance requirements or lack of reliability.  But that is an image of the past, as more mature tracker manufacturers are reporting 99.99% uptime with gigawatts of installations under their belt. Some recent innovations include simplified designs having fewer motors, self-calibration, and no required routine maintenance.

The Utility-Scale PV Market Is Taking Off

Turn the clock back just 5 years and solar power was largely viewed as a curiosity in the utility industry.    Solar costs were multiples higher compared to its renewable competitor, wind energy; so high in fact that some states made "special" carve outs for solar in their renewable portfolio standards (RPS) so that solar would not be left out. 

What a difference 5-years makes.  The install cost for solar has steadily dropped, positioning solar to be the lowest cost renewable energy source available for many parts of the U.S.  The following "cost per watt (AC)" graph was generated from Go Solar California, which has a database of all customer-installed solar projects available athttps://www.californiasolarstatistics.ca.gov/reports/quarterly_cost_per_watt/, illustrating the dramatic drop in the install cost of solar.

Notice since 2007 the install price for smaller PV systems (under 0.5 MW) has dropped from around $10 per Watt AC to around $5.  The cost for medium size systems (0.5 to 1 MW) are about 60% that of smaller systems around $3 per Watt AC today.  Even larger PV tracking projects over 25 MW in size are now being installed for under $2 per Watt AC.

With the drop in solar costs, installations have soared. According to SEPA, the US market for PV ballooned to 6 GW in 2014, more than six times what it was in just 2010. The good times are expected to continue with a forecast of 12 GW of PV installed in 2016, representing a "gold rush" to take advantage of expiring federal tax credits.  The soaring growth has in large part been driven by utility-scale systems, whose annual installations increased from near 0 GW in 2009 to 4 GW in 2014, and are forecasted to be around 7 GW in 2016. 

2017 may, however, see a dramatic drop in the PV market size as the federal tax credits will be lowered unless the current law is changed. Hopefully solar will continue its downward trajectory in costs to offset the reduction in the tax credits.  With the continued improvement in performance and cost of all major components including modules, trackers, and inverters, it appears utility-scale solar is here to stay and is positioned to be a very competitive source of electricity going forward.

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Fwd: Opportunities for New York Public Entities to go Solar - Borrego Solar Systems Inc News

Interesting emerging market here, commented on by old company acquaintance.

http://buyersguide.renewableenergyworld.com/borrego-solar-systems-inc/blog/opportunities-for-new-york-public-entities-to-go-solar.html

Opportunities for New York Public Entities to go Solar 

By: By Aaron Silverman, Project Developer, Borrego Solar 
Tuesday, June 2, 2015 

Governor Andrew Cuomo's commitments to solar has put New York on a clear trajectory to become one of the nation's leading solar states. His push for solar started with the NY-Sun Initiative, which has expanded the state's solar energy market and driven down the cost of solar for New Yorkers.

Last year, lawmakers announced $94 million in funding for large-scale solar projects and its Megawatt (MW) Block program, which assigns each region and sector a series of MW targets at certain incentive levels, or "blocks" that decline over time. NY-SUN began accepting applications for the first stage of the MW Block program for systems more than 200 kW in size in early May. The program creates a positive sense of urgency by providing more incentives to the solar projects that sign up early.

Last year, lawmakers also doubled the state's net metering cap to 6 percent, which enables twice as many homeowners and businesses to receive credits for the solar energy their systems feed onto the grid. New York also approved remote net energy metering (RNM) for distributed renewables, creating a new mechanism to build solar and receive on-bill credits for remote generation.

The state did, however, recently announce some changes to its NEM rules that will affect New York entities' ability to install solar through a financing mechanism called a power purchase agreement (PPA). Many businesses and public entities afford solar with a PPA, whereby a third-party investor finances and owns the solar energy system and agrees to sell the power generated to the solar offtaker at a $/kWh rate that is less than the rates charged by the utility. This agreement to purchase cheaper power lasts the term of the PPA agreement—typically 20 years. The NEM credits are a key determinant in how lucrative the investment is for the PPA-provider and ultimately the offtaker.

On June 1, New York changed the way it assigned value to the RNM credits solar owners receive, by shifting from what is known as "monetary" to "volumetric" calculation. This will reduce the value of the credit for customers on demand-metered service by enough to make an investment in RNM solar for demand-metered customers much more challenging to finance.

There is good news though. Entities can still utilize a PPA, while also getting the more lucrative monetary RNM credits offered prior to June 1, 2015, by partnering with a solar company that secured sites for solar by submitting interconnection agreements to the utilities before the rule changed. More on this below under "Being an offtaker."

Ways New York businesses and public entities can go Solar

So, what's the next step to taking advantage of incentives and going solar? There are a few options, including:

Being an offtaker: Entities that don't have space suitable for solar, but have a high energy need and an interest in offsetting those costs can buy energy through remote (virtual) NEM. As an offtaker, you agree to purchase the solar energy produced by an installation built on a remote site within the same utility load zone. The system cost is covered by a third-party, and the energy credits are applied to your meter at the full retail rates. You pay the system owner a set dollar amount per kilowatt hour ($/kWh) of energy applied to your meter, which is less than the retail rates. With PPA's, there are no upfront installation costs and you're cash flow positive on day one.

Being a host: Entities that have space for solar, but don't need to offset energy costs can host an installation and receive lease payments. As a host, you're generating additional revenue by providing access to space where a solar installation is built. This is similar to leasing roof space for cell phone towers in the 90s. Solar hosts receive a simple monthly or annual lease payment for the right to access their space, and their energy consumption and costs are unchanged. This is a simple additional revenue source for landowners or facilities with at least 100,000 square feet of rooftop or parking lot available.

Being a turnkey solar user: This approach combines both the offtaker and host option for when you already own space that can accommodate solar and are the offtaker. This is the most traditional way to participate in the solar market. As an owner-occupied entity, the solar will be constructed on property you own, and the credits will be applied to your meters. For multi-meter property owners, thanks to remote net metering, the solar installation doesn't have to be constructed at the same meter where the solar energy credits are applied, potentially yielding greater economic benefits.

By Aaron Silverman 
Project Developer, Borrego Solar

Mr. Aaron Silverman was the third member to join Borrego Solar's growing New York Project Development Team. As a Project Developer, Aaron specializes in working with customers in the commercial and public sectors. Aaron supports clients in the Mid-Atlantic region, with a primary focus on New York, where market forces and supportive government policies are enabling ratepayers to earn attractive returns on their solar investments. Prior to joining Borrego Solar, Aaron spent five years in the wind energy industry with Gamesa, where he led cross-functional project M&A teams and played an instrumental role in the development, construction, and sale of over 400 megawatts of wind projects. Before working in wind, he was a management consultant with Bain & Company and a renewable energy consultant with the Rocky Mountain Institute, an independent, non-partisan think tank dedicated to research and education in the field of sustainability. Aaron earned his BA in Psychology and his MBA from Yale University.

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Fwd: State and Metro Governments, Consumer Actions Drive Dramatic Shift in US Energy Landscape - Renewable Energy World

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2015/06/state-and-metro-governments-consumer-actions-drive-dramatic-shift-in-us-energy-landscape.html

State and Metro Governments, Consumer Actions Drive Dramatic Shift in US Energy Landscape

June 3, 2015

By Ron Pernick, Clean Edge 

The United States is experiencing a significant shift in its energy landscape. Last year, utility-scale wind and solar power combined for 47 percent of new generation capacity in the U.S. Based on this expansion, 11 states now generate more than 10 percent of their electricity from solar, wind, and geothermal power, with three of these states — Iowa, South Dakota, and Kansas — exceeding 20 percent. In 2014, California became the first state in the nation to garner 5 percent of its electricity from utility-scale solar. When including hydropower, four states —Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and South Dakota — now exceed 70 percent renewables generation.

Just released to the public, Clean Edge's2015 U.S. Clean Tech Leadership Indextracks and ranks the clean-tech activities of all 50 states and the 50 largest metro areas in the U.S. The Index highlights the dramatic shifts taking place by tracking a wide range of leadership indicators, from EV and renewables adoption to patent and investment activity.

Against this national backdrop, the top states and metro areas tracked by our 2015 Index are accelerating their clean-energy goals to levels once believed unthinkable. In California, the #1 state in the Index for six consecutive years, Governor Jerry Brown set a target of 50 percent generation from renewables by 2030 in his January 2015 State of the State address. The California cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and San Diego (along with much smaller cities like Burlington, Vt., Georgetown, Tex., and Greensburg, Kans.) have renewable energy goals of 100 percent. And lawmakers in Hawaii, a state that's back in the top 10 in this year's Index, made the biggest splash of all in May, establishing the nation's first statewide 100 percent renewables target (by 2045). That audacious goal passed the two houses of Hawaii's state legislature by a combined vote of 74-2 and was awaiting Governor David Ige's expected signature as our latest Index report went to press; the Aloha State is currently at about 20 percent renewables.

Making these goals possible, in addition to the significant expansion of wind power over the past decade, is the recent surge in the growth of solar energy and energy storage. The U.S. added more than 6 GW of new solar capacity in 2014, a 30 percent growth rate. And breakthroughs in advanced batteries are poised to enable the mass adoption of distributed and intermittent renewables, while giving companies and individuals the opportunity to help ease strains on the grid during periods of high-energy demand.

State Leadership Spans East, West, and in Between

California leads all states in the Index by a wide margin for the sixth consecutive year. The rest of the top five states in last year's Index — assachusetts, Oregon, Colorado, and New York — repeated their respective rankings in our 2015 edition.

Places six through 10, however, showed some notable movement from last year. Fellow New England states Vermont and Connecticut each jumped three places to #6 and #7, respectively. Illinois held steady at #8 for the third straight year, but Washington fell two spots to ninth, its third consecutive yearly drop since ranking #4 in 2012. Hawaii moved up two places to rejoin the top 10. The Aloha State has climbed in the ranks significantly since ranking 19^th back in 2010. The bottom five states in this year's index are West Virginia, North Dakota, Alaska, Mississippi, and Nebraska.

Metro Leadership Across the Nation, But South Lags

On the metro front, the San Francisco Bay Area remains the nexus of clean-tech leadership in the U.S. The San Francisco metro area is #1 in the Index for the third straight year with southern neighbor San Jose in second place. San Francisco's nearly 15-point lead a year ago shrunk to about six points, with an overall score of 86.5 to San Jose's 80.6. But both remained well ahead of #3 Portland at 59.7.

San Diego dropped from third to fourth this year while Los Angeles rose from #7 to #6. But Sacramento, ranking #5 in 2014, dropped out of the top 10 to #12 this year and Denver (10^th last year) also fell off the leaderboard to 11^th. Seattle, out of the top 10 last year for the first time, rebounded to place seventh. Tenth-place Chicago joins the top 10 for the first time after placing 12^th in each of the first three years of the Index.

At the bottom of this year's metro index are eight southern metros: Louisville, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville, Memphis, New Orleans, and Birmingham.

The transition to a clean tech and energy efficiency-based economy, based on the many indicators we track, is well underway. As highlighted above, solar and wind power, along with natural gas, are now the mainstream choices for meeting the nation's electricity needs; coal-fired and nuclear power, the dominant choices of the 20^th century, have become the marginalized "alternatives." Similarly, energy-efficient appliances, LED light bulbs, green buildings, and hybrid and electric vehicles are expanding as conventional offerings, in most cases, fall further behind.

Regional governments, at the state and metro level, are setting a range of targets as we increasingly transition to a low-carbon economy. The goal of 50 percent, 80 percent, or 100 percent renewables will not be easy and will require innovation across the clean-tech value chain — in technology, policy, and capital. By indexing the activities of states and metro regions, we can track overall progress, and learn from both emerging best practices and unforeseen mistakes.

Information contained in this article is not intended to be investment advice or used as a guide to investing.

Lead image: Renewable energy. Credit: Shutterstock.

‎

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.

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Monty Bannerman
ArcStar Energy
+1 646.402.5076
www.arcstarenergy.com

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