Ausra Secures Series A Funding to Build and Operate Utility-Scale Solar Thermal Electric Power Plants
Ausra Inc. has secured more than $40 million in funding from venture capital firms Khosla Ventures and Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers (KPCB). The company has assembled a team of solar power scientists, power project developers and financiers to make reliable, large-scale solar thermal power a reality today for electric utilities.
Ausra's power plants drive steam turbines with sunshine. Locally manufactured solar concentrators made of steel and glass focus sunlight to boil water, generating high-pressure steam that drives conventional turbine generators. New thermal energy storage systems using pressurized water and low cost materials will provide for on-demand generation day and night. Ausra's core technology, the Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector (CLFR) solar steam generation system, was originally conceived in the early 1990s by founder David Mills while at Sydney University. Mills later worked with Graham Morrison to develop the idea between 1995 and 2001.
Ausra aims to expedite the utility industry's transition to clean energy, helping utilities meet renewable portfolio standards while keeping rates low and the power on for consumers day and night. "Economic development around the world, coupled with recognition that carbon emissions must rapidly be eliminated, has created an enormous market opportunity for companies that can deliver solar power at large scale and at reasonable cost,” says KPCB Partner and Ausra investor and board member Ray Lane. "Solar thermal power is the main event in renewable energy, and Ausra has the deep expertise and a simple, yet effective, design to fully capitalize on the opportunity to deliver the majority of our future power needs.”
Thailand Palm Oil Company Expands us of GE Energy’s Jenbacher Biogas Engines
Illustrating the effectiveness of GE Energy’s Jenbacher biogas engine technology, Natural Palm Oil Ltd. in southern Thailand has installed a third Jenbacher unit at its mills to utilize biogas created from the anaerobic digestion of palm oil waste material.
The project ties in with the country’s efforts to increase renewable energy production to eight percent of the nation’s total electricity supply, up from the current one percent, by 2011. This support includes specific feed-in tariffs to help biogas applications become more economically feasible for developers, making the return on investments more predictable and also easier to calculate additional income from the plants. The power generated by the two Jenbacher units, already commissioned on site, will be sold to the regional grid, able to serve the electricity requirements of about 33,000 Thai homes.
Because effluent (waste) from the extraction process cannot be disposed without treatment, the company has installed the three Jenbacher biogas engines as part of its waste-water treatment systems at separate mills in Surat Thani and Chumporn (also called “Chumphon”).
The effluent from the extraction process is collected in an open basin, cooled down and then fed into an anaerobic digester. The resulting gas must be dehumidified and cleaned in a desulpherization unit before it is delivered to the Jenbacher units for power generation.
“We are excited that Natural Palm Oil Ltd. is expanding its use of GE Energy’s Jenbacher biogas technology to help the company address a key environmental and regulatory concern of what to do about waste created during the palm oil milling process,” said Prady Iyyanki, CEO of GE Energy’s Jenbacher gas engine business. “The project illustrates the capabilities of Jenbacher engines to provide a highly reliable, on-site power supply to help customers meet their energy and environmental goals.”
Oregon Coast Housing West Coast’s First Ocean Wave Energy Test Buoy
Bobbing in Pacific waves, just two miles off the shore of the small Oregon coastal community of Newport, is the West Coast’s first wave power buoy. Deployed by Finavera Renewables, Inc. this month, the 75-foot prototype wave energy converter will be used to determine the buoy’s potential for future electricity generation. The pilot project has benefited from an informal public-private partnership with Oregon State University (OSU), which will be installing a second test buoy in the same location at the end of September.
Over the next several weeks, Finavera Renewables will be gathering data from its AquaBuOy 2.0 wave energy converter, moving the company closer to achieving its goal of commercial electricity generation from ocean waves in two years.
Finavera, which has its US headquarters in Portland, Ore., contracted with Oregon Iron Works, also based in the Portland metropolitan area, to build the prototype buoy. All onboard data gathering and diagnostic equipment is powered by solar panels and small wind turbines on the buoy providing secondary electricity generation. Information collected will be streamed live to the company through wireless and satellite technology in order to gather and analyze the data.
“The Oregon Coast is an excellent location for the launch of the test buoy because of the state’s commitment to pursuing alternative energy sources,” said Finavera CEO Jason Bak. “The capture of renewable ocean wave energy will play a significant part in the emerging new energy economy and has the potential to power millions of homes in the United States alone.”
Shimadzu and Groton Biosystems Partner to Enhance Ethanol Monitoring System
Shimadzu Scientific Instruments and Groton Biosystems are collaborating to interface Groton’s ARS series of online sampling monitors with Shimadzu’s Prominence HPLC (high performance liquid chromatograph) to form a closed-loop solution for online analysis. Manufacturers can now optimize enzyme levels in mash by incorporating this system into the bio-ethanol production process.
With this automated HPLC ethanol monitoring system, manufacturers can determine the appropriate times to add enzymes with a few key strokes. Optimized enzymes yield more product and limit the formation of useless by-products.
“Our collaboration with Shimadzu gives ethanol manufacturers more control over the fermentation process,” said Bill Dinardo, CEO of Groton Biosystems. “Now they can sample product automatically, monitor enzyme levels, and get the reliable data needed for fermentation trend analysis.”
Groton Biosystems provides the biofuel industry a sterile sampling system able to function in the high-solids/high-viscosity environment found in both corn and biomass fermentations. The ARS system provides automated and real-time online sampling to commercial fuel ethanol plants, enabling the monitoring of both enzyme activity and ethanol production from corn starch.
Shimadzu has been working with biofuel manufacturers from the outset, providing a range of HPLC instrumentation to meet specific needs. Today, Shimadzu supports both bioethanol and biodiesel, working with central commercial labs, R&D and academic facilities engaged in biofuels research and, of course, biofuel plant labs.
M-Power, LLC Secures Wind Rights to Proceed with North Dakota’s Largest Community-Owned Wind Energy Development
M-Power, LLC has secured the wind rights necessary to develop the first phase of its community-owned wind energy project in eastern Griggs and western Steele counties. The first phase of the project will be located on 32 sections of agricultural land and will consist of 150 MW. The footprint of the first wind farm would involve over 90 landowners.
M-Power is the largest community-owned wind energy development in North Dakota. Following this first phase of the project, M-Power will develop additional phases, eventually expanding between 380 to 500 MW. M-Power is in advanced negotiations with two major utilities to utilize the power output of the first phase of the project.
“The main objective of M-Power, LLC is to retain more of the wind project’s economic benefits for the local area,” says Keith Monson, president of M-Power. “We want to share the economic benefits of this wind energy project with as many landowners and local investors as we can. All of the landowners in the footprint who have signed wind options have been awarded shares in M-Power.”
The community-based approach to wind energy projects has seen a strong growth trend over the last year, according to the US. Department of Energy. North Dakota is capable of supplying 1.2 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of annual electricity, which is 14,000 times the electricity consumption in the state. The first phase of M-Power’s first project alone could provide enough electricity to power nearly 44,000 homes, displacing nearly 400 tons of greenhouse gases.
Grassoline Projects Fuel Knoxville-Oak Ridge Innovation Valley
The University of Tennessee will build a $40 million “grassoline” plant to create ethanol from switchgrass and other plants. UT will build and operate the demonstration scale facility in partnership with cellulosic biofuels developer Mascoma Corp. in the Niles Ferry Industrial Park in Monroe County, Tenn. It is the second major alternative fuels project announced this year for the Knoxville-Oak Ridge Innovation Valley.
In June, the Department of Energy awarded Oak Ridge National Laboratory $125 million to build a Bioenergy Science Center to address fundamental science and technological challenges to cellulosic ethanol production. Researchers at the new biorefinery hope to use innovations that emerge from the national lab’s Bioenergy Center. The University of Tennessee manages Oak Ridge National Laboratory in partnership with Battelle and shares numerous joint institutes and professorships.
The university’s biorefinery will be about one-tenth the size of a commercial production facility. It will allow researchers to create a system that can be expanded to larger plants across the state in coming years. Construction will begin by the end of 2007. The plant will be operational in 2009.
Researchers say that eventually Tennessee could produce over one billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol a year, which could offset up to one-third of the state’s petroleum usage.
Schott Solar Plans Aggressive Expansion of US Solar Business
Schott Solar has made a major commitment to the US solar power, as it announced plans to build a new photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing facility that will increase its domestic PV production by more than 60 MW. Schott Solar is currently evaluating locations for the new facility, which is scheduled to go online in 2009.
In addition to producing solar PV modules, the new facility will be designed to produce receivers for concentrated solar power (CSP) plants. This will provide Schott with the ability to begin producing solar receivers at the facility if the market develops as the company anticipates. Anticipating future production increases of its solar power technologies, the new site will be built to support later expansion of both Schott’s PV and its solar receiver lines as the US renewable energy market continues to grow.
Solar Power Partners Raises $6 Million in Series A Funding
Solar Power Partners (SPP) has secured $6 million in Series A funding led by Globespan Capital Partners. The Series A funds will be used to expand business operations and accelerate sales and marketing of commercial Power Purchase Agreement solutions in partnership with leading solar integrators in selected US markets.
Solar Power Partners has to date signed 47 solar PPA projects nationwide representing 14 MW of clean energy generating capacity including clients such as the largest grocery store chain in America, a 50 kW boutique winery, a top California university, a global internet backbone operator, a 1.2 MW water district, a detention center and several Fortune 1000 manufacturing facilities. Originally focused on the California and Hawaii markets, SPP has several MW of new projects slated for closure shortly in the Northeast U.S.
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