News

Citing recent success in alternative power, GE Energy, a subsidiary of General Electric Co (GE) is hoping to boost its solar energy sales to $1 billion annually by the end of the decade, the head of GE's solar business said.

BusinessWeek.com discusses John Kerry's plan to increase alternative energy usage for the country. John Kerry's blueprint for energy independence doesn't suffer from lack of ambition. In early August, he'll unveil an energy plan that he says can break America's addiction to foreign oil, revitalize the U.S. auto industry, help farmers and coal miners, fight global warming, and create jobs all for just $2 billion per year. "We can live in an America that is energy independent," Kerry promises.

Astris Energi Inc. (ASRNF), the world's leading alkaline fuel cell (AFC) technology company, announced today it has paid down an existing debenture thus eliminating Astris' only long-term financial liability.

On September 1, 2004, the Portland Oregon Visitors Association (POVA) is scheduled to become the nation's first convention and visitors bureau (CVB) to launch a website 100 percent powered by solar energy. That's right, in a city renowned for its lush, abundant rainfall, the local CVB's website— www.travelportland.com —is transitioning to a completely solar-powered energy source.

Western GeoPower Corp (WGPWF) has received approval to start drilling on their new Geothermal energy operation facility at South Meager in Canada. This new facility could amount to over 100 MW capacity. GeoPower expects to have the South Meager plant ready for commercial generation by mid-2007.

The impact of Katrina to the gulf coast has caused a corresponding impact to the cost of energy. Up to 90% of output from the Gulf Of Mexico remains closed today and the uncertainty surrounding how long it will take to get back online drove crude oil prices above $70. This region supplies approximately 25% of all US energy and is home to nearly 10% of US refinery capacity. This short term impact on the cost of oil has many of the Alternative Energy stocks up with double digit percent gains yesterday. Be very careful at this...

IDACORP (IDA) is a holding company that has businesses in electrical generation, financial services, and telecommunications services. The IdaTech division that focuses on production of fuel cell systems has recently signed an Italian firm to represent them in the Italian market. Press Release Monday June 28, 8:00 am ET IdaTech has entered into an agency agreement with Italian energy engineering firm, RENCO S.p.A (RENCO) for the market development and distribution of IdaTech's fuel cell systems and hydrogen generation products. IDA is a well run utility paying a 4% dividend. They have recently crossed back over their...

The political climate for many of the western states are slowly starting to change to see the need for conversion to renewable energy sources. These test installations for Solar, Geothermal, and Wind energy are now producing real power for these areas. The key for us is to find the vendors that supply these installations. As the funding increases in these test beds, our growth will increase. Here is a good article from the sfgate.com about the various western states initiatives. "California's goal is to produce 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2017. New Mexico...

California officials are proposing that half of all new homes in the state be running on solar energy in 10 years, an effort spurred by $100 million in annual incentives paid for by electricity consumers. This type of legislation would be a boon for the solar energy companies in California. In related news Kyocera Corp (KYO) announced today that it will begin large-scale assembly of solar photovoltaic (PV) modules this fall at its maquiladora facility in Tijuana, Mexico, with plans to establish a regional office in San Diego for solar system engineering and marketing.

Sumitomo Corporation has announced that is has obtained Japan's first certification for a 700-bar (10,000psi) pressurized hydrogen storage system for fuel cell vehicles in collaboration with Suzuki in July 2004. The hydrogen storage system that Sumitomo is using is produced by Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide Inc (QTWW). This is the third country where Quantum hydrogen storage system has been approved for use.

Japan's Honda Motor Co. said Thursday it will start sales of a fuel cell vehicle equipped with a cell stack capable of operating at subzero temperatures in North America in the second half of this year. The Honda fuel cells utilize the Ballard Power (BLDP) fuel cell stacks for their fuel cell equipped vehicles.

FuelCell Energy, Inc. (FCEL), a leading manufacturer of stationary fuel cell power plants for distributed generation, today announced that it will be providing a 250-kilowatt Direct FuelCell(R) (DFC(R)) power plant as part of a temporary distributed generation micro-grid for the Democratic National Convention to be held at the Fleet Center in Boston July 26-29, 2004. The Company's DFC300A power plant will operate on natural gas supplied by Keyspan Energy and will be combined with generators to provide power for the Fleet Center and media stations. FuelCell Energy's DFC power plant, which generates electricity electrochemically and without combustion, will produce...

Here is a round-up of some news and information I have come across in my readings: Venture Capital in Alternative Energy Rob May at CleanTechVC made a great post about venture capital investments in energy technologies.Here are some excerpts from his post: US energy technology VC investments are at $1.7B so far in 2006 compare this with $0.9B for all of 2005 solar tech has received more than 10% of all energy technology VC investments so far this year. Interestingly, while investments in fuel cell technology have been generally flat or dropping over the past...

An editorial article from South Carolina's TheState.com expresses concern for funding for Fuel Cell research. The guess columnist expresses his concerns and feels that they would be better served looking at Biomass alternatives. An abstract of this opinion article is show below, with a link to the full story. A growing group of distinguished scientists sees the “hydrogen economy� as a ruse ��? a distraction from the much more viable alternative of biofuels. Nor has the hydrogen illusion escaped the notice of astute investors, as the major fuel-cell companies have seen their share prices drop by half...

AutoWeek has an article about one man's quest to travel the entire United States using anything but gasoline to power his variety of alternative fuel vehicles. Featured are bio-diesel Hummers and RVs, a solar-powered canoe, and an poop-powered scooter

Ford engineers have equipped the Ford Focus C-MAX with a prototype hydrogen internal combustion engine (H2 ICE). The vehicle was unveiled on July 12th at the Research Conference of the German Car Manufacturer Association (VDA) in Stuttgart, which was attended by the German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. The Ford fuel cell team has been using the Ballard Power (BLDP) fuel cell stacks for their line of fuel cell cars.