Sports Stadiums Looking To Go LEED

Sports Stadiums Looking To Go LEED:

With stadiums in most major cities, sports occupy a huge part of American life and culture. So it is great to see some of these stadiums embracing green ideals by trying to acquire LEED certification. Two new stadiums being constructed will seek LEED certification: the new NFL stadium being built in Los Angeles, and the new Marlins stadium being built in Miami. There are also a host of current stadiums that have achieved LEED certification.

Los Angeles

Although the city of Los Angeles has yet to actually land an NFL team, that hasn’t stopped the AEG company from building a new stadium to host a potential team. The stadium, dubbed Farmer’s Field, is hoping to be the first NFL stadium to receive LEED certification. AEG says it will be working with both the U.S. Green Building Council and the Natural Resources Defense Council to ensure that they meet their green goals. The stadium is guaranteed to be carbon neutral, as the California State Senate and Assembly passed a bill requiring that the stadium be one hundred percent carbon neutral, including the emissions generated from private vehicles taken to the stadium. The stadium will have a MetroLink station on site, which will hopefully offset some of those carbon emissions by making it easier for people to get to and from the stadium without taking their own vehicles. Some of the other planned green features are 100 percent reclaimed water, 50 percent solar power for the buildings, 40 percent less steel used thanks to the natural topography of the area, and 10 percent recycled building materials. The stadium will seat 72,000 people and will be located in downtown Los Angeles.

DOE Races Against the Clock: Two Solar Loans Closed, Seven More to Go

DOE Races Against the Clock: Two Solar Loans Closed, Seven More to Go:

The deadline to complete the remaining DOE loan guarantees is 48 hours away from the end of the fiscal year close.

The DOE just finalized a $337 million loan guarantee to Mesquite Solar 1, part of a 700 megawatt photovoltaic project as well as for the Crescent Dunes solar thermal project which includes thermal storage for $737 million.

That's two down but the there are seven more outstanding conditional commitments for solar projects. And two of them (SolarStrong and Topaz), as we've covered, are not going to make it.

Here's the list of projects that are likely leading to some long days and nights at these firms and at the DOE loan guarantee office -- In the free time they have that's not occupied by the Solyndra affair.

• 
  First Solar's Antelope Valley 230-megawatt project with a loan guarantee of $680 million remains in the pipeline.


• 
  First Solar's 550-megawatt Desert Sunlight project with a partial guarantee of $1.88 billion remains in the pipeline.


• 
  First Solar's Topaz project with a partial guarantee of $1.93 billion will not meet the deadline.


• 
  Prologis Project Amp partial guarantee of $1.4 billion could close in the next two days.


• 
  SolarCity's SolarStrong with a partial guarantee of $344 million will not meet the deadline.


• 
  SunPower California Valley Solar Ranch loan guarantee of $1.187 billion for the 250 megawatt project is still in play.


• 
  Fotowatio's partial guarantee of $45.6 million for the 20 megawatt Apex plant in Nevada is still in play.


• 
  The is also a wind (Nordic Windpower) project and a biofuels project (Abengoa) in the queue.

Note that this deadline is just for the 1705 program and that projects using newer technologies like CPV or new inverters can take advantage of the 1703 program. This interview with Jonathan Silver of the DOE by the folks at GigaOm does a good job of explaining some of the intricacies of the loan guarantee program.

The two solar projects that have just reached the finish line:

Sempra Generation's massive 700-megawatt Mesquite Solar project, located near Phoenix, Arizona with Zachry Holdings as the EPC and Suntech as the panel supplier for the initial 200-megawatt (DC) phase of the build. The project is located near the Hassayampa 500-kV switchyard, a major transmission hub with access to southwestern U.S. markets. Transmission upgrades and site grading for the entire project have been completed in advance on the flat, privately held land. A 20-year power purchase agreements has been signed with Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) for the first phase of the project. When completed in 2013, Mesquite Solar I will be one of the largest photovoltaic solar installations in North America. The project will use "a non-trivial" number of Pluto panels, Suntech's high-efficiency PV panels. Mesquite will use transformer-less and liquid cooled inverter technology from Advanced Energy.

SolarReserve of Santa Monica, California closed a $140 million venture round in 2008 and just closed a $737 million loan guarantee from the DOE for a 110-megawatt molten salt storage power tower with more than 10 hours of thermal energy storage. This will be the tallest molten salt tower in the world, according to the DOE website. The firm licenses the molten salt power tower solar technology from Rocketdyne, a division of Hamilton Sundstrand, a subsidiary of UTC. SolarReserve has a power purchase agreement (PPA) with NV Energy for this project.

According to this chart from the Las Vegas Review Journal the PPA price for the Crescent Dunes project is $0.135 per kilowatt-hour







Will the DOE be able to close the other five projects?

Will Solyndra take a further toll on these lower-risk solar projects?

And will solar thermal projects be financeable in the future absent a loan guarantee?

We'll be able to answer at least two of those questions in the next 48 hours.

***

Here are some detailed stats on the Crescent Dunes project courtesy of Brett Prior at GTM Research:

Project Name: Crescent Dunes

Developer: SolarReserve

Technology: Power Tower

Capacity: 110 megawatts

Location: Tonopah, Nevada

Total Capital Cost: $983 million

Capital Cost: $8.93 per watt

Capacity Factor: 55 percent

Solar Resource: 2685 kWh/m^2/yr

Electricity generation: 480 GWh/yr

Solar-to-Electricity Efficiency: 17%

Acres: 1600 = 15 acres per megawatt

Cooling Method: Hybrid

EPC: UTC Pratt & Whitney

Operator: SolarReserve

Electricity Purchaser: NV Energy

Construction jobs: 600

O&M jobs: 45

# of heliostats/mirrors: 17170

Tower Height: 165 meters

Heat transfer fluid:Molten salt

Inlet Temperature (°C) 288 °C

Outlet Temperature (°C) 566 °C

Temp Difference 278 °C

Storage (hrs) 10

Break ground Oct-11

On line Jul-2013

PPA Date Dec-09

PPA Rate ($/kWh) $0.135/kWh

PPA/Tariff Period (yrs) 25

PPA approved by PUC Y

Land Type Public

Fast-tracked Y

Draft EIS 9/3/10

Record of Decision 12/21/10

Notes Thermal storage efficiency 99%

New SolarWindows Would Be First See-Through Windows To Generate Electricity

New SolarWindows Would Be First See-Through Windows To Generate Electricity:

Solar technologies are constantly evolving, becoming more and more effective as new designs and discoveries are made in the field. New Energy Technologies continues this trend with the advent of their new product, the SolarWindow. The new windows will be the first see-through windows that can also generate electricity through a specially designed spray put on the window.

They are developing six different types of SolarWindows for different situations:

• Commercial- A flat glass window for installation in commercial buildings


• Structural Glass- Structural glass walls and curtains for tall structures


• Architectural Glass- Textured and decorative interior glass walls, room dividers, etc.


• Residential- Window glass for installation in residential homes


• Flex- Flexible films that can be applied to existing windows


• BIPV- Building product components associated with building-integrated-photovoltaic(BIPV) applications in homes, buildings, and office towers.

7 Places Poo Will Power the Future

In the not-so-distant future, don't be surprised if you find poo providing energy in any of these places. Read more

Scientists Developing Fuel Cell that Generates Power While Cleaning Nuclear Waste

Scientists Developing Fuel Cell that Generates Power While Cleaning Nuclear Waste:

Researchers at Michigan State University (MSU) have isolated and explained the phenomenon that causes microbes to generate electricity while cleaning up nuclear waste. The team is hoping to use their findings to create a microbial fuel cell that is capable of generating renewable energy while it cleans up environments exposed to nuclear waste. The bacteria the team studied is a kind of geobacter that is covered in a coat of tiny, natural nanowires that protect the bacteria from the toxic materials. The nanowires are also the essential elements in immobilizing radioactive material and preventing it from seeping into the groundwater. While completing the complex task of stabilizing radioactive spills, the bacteria simultaneously creates energy that can be harnessed and used as a zero-emissions power supply.

Read the rest of Scientists Developing Fuel Cell that Generates Power While Cleaning Nuclear Waste

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ENN Group Wants to Invest Billions in US Clean Energy Projects

ENN Group Wants to Invest Billions in US Clean Energy Projects: China's ENN group plans to invest $8 billion in US clean energy projects over the next decade, according to reports.