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Government Energy Innovation: Well Worth It

November 21, 2011 by Walter Frick
with 330 views
0

The Washington Post ran a piece in its Outlook section this weekend on government investments in energy that is rightly getting significant push back. The question it poses is: “What does Washington have to show for these investments?” The answer, by all accounts, is Plenty. And plenty more would be gained by increased investment in energy innovation. [read more]

Beacon Power Files For Bankruptcy; Boulder Contemplates Municipalization Its Power Assets & Other Energy Stories of Note

November 3, 2011 by Michael Giberson
with 423 views
0

Brief notes about energy stories in the news. Flywheel energy storage company Beacon Power has filed for bankruptcy. News stories have highlighted the point that Beacon was a recipient of federal energy technology loan guarantees, which will give an additional boost to Solyndra critics, but I predict the apparent lack of high-level... [read more]

How Many More Solyndras?

November 2, 2011 by Geoffrey Styles
with 199 views
0

Another firm that received a loan guarantee from the Department of Energy has just filed for bankruptcy. Beacon Power had drawn down $39.1 million of the $43 million authorized by the DOE for the construction of its 20 MW energy storage facility in Stephenstown, NY, but was still operating at a loss and unable to find additional backing... [read more]

Drawing Conclusions from Solyndra

September 29, 2011 by Geoffrey Styles
with 279 views
1

When the energy portions of the 2009 stimulus were announced I remarked to a colleague that I wouldn't be surprised if its billions in incentives led to a future scandal or two. In fact, I was thinking more along the lines of fraudulent diversions from the Treasury's renewable energy grant program, which has handed out $8.7 billion since its inception. That program had its own day in the spotlight when it turned out that a significant portion of the initial disbursements were going either to non-US companies or to pay for equipment made outside the US, undermining its green jobs rationale. However, I wouldn't have guessed that the biggest scandal would erupt from the ostensibly lower-risk loan guarantee program of the Department of Energy. The prospect that a tussle over a small cut to that program, for which eligibility is due to end in a few days, nearly set up another government shutdown crisis seems even stranger. [read more]

Solyndra - Let's Keep It Real Folks

September 14, 2011 by Arno Harris
with 837 views
13

Election year politics ensure that Solyndra is going to get at least a full news cycle's worth of attention. Here are some interesting facts to consider as the Solyndra kerfluffle builds steam: Solyndra was a very small piece of the policy picture - Solyndra's $535M loan is just 1.2% of the total $38.6B loan guarantees issued by DOE. (... [read more]

2011: The Summer Rooftop Solar Goes Big

June 21, 2011 by Chris de Morsella
with 317 views
0

Solar power continues along its firmly established downward cost curve and edges ever closer to achieving the historic milestone of grid parity. Today it just got a huge boost that will help it scale out in this country and will go a long way towards tipping the long term balance in favor of solar. In fact as the industry achieves scale... [read more]

Recent Renewable Federal Loan Guarantees

May 8, 2011 by Nathan Temple
with 338 views
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The Department of Energy has provided some juice to the renewable industry.  Here is a list of recent action source: DOE announced on April 18 its offer of a conditional commitment for a $2.1 billion loan guarantee to support Units 1 and 2 of the Blythe Solar Power Project, sponsored by Solar Trust of America, LLC. The concentrating... [read more]

Patrick Moore ratchets up the rhetoric

November 14, 2010 by Dan Yurman
with 1,126 views
1

Nuclear energy advocate departs from stump speech When Patrick Moore (right) first got started with his Clean & Safe Energy Coalition to promote nuclear energy, his target was a nexus of green groups that opposed it. However, in an interview and in a speech to the nuclear industry in Cleveland last September, Moore came across as an... [read more]

Constellation walks away from Calvert Cliffs

October 9, 2010 by Dan Yurman
with 956 views
0

Utility blames feds for “unworkable” terms on loan guaranteeConstellation Energy (NYSE:CEG) sent a letter Friday 10/8 to the Department of Energy (DOE) “that it cannot move forward” with a loan guarantee for the Calvert Cliffs III nuclear reactor project. The Washington Post reported that Constellation told DOE the terms for the loan... [read more]

Nuclear fabrication vendors waiting for loan guarantees

October 8, 2010 by Dan Yurman
with 1,672 views
2

You can't make stuff if utilities aren't building reactors This blog post is based on my report published in Fuel Cycle Week V9:N395 on 09/30/10 by International Nuclear Associates, Washington, DCThe annual conference of the Nuclear Fabrication Consortium (NFC) held in Cleveland Sept 21 was a glum affairs for the 100 or so vendors who... [read more]

Obama seeks $9 billion more in nuclear loan guarantees

May 21, 2010 by Dan Yurman
with 379 views
0

Energy Sec. Chu calls for support three short-listed new reactor projects Congress will get a pair of requests for new energy loan guarantees of $9 billion each – one for nuclear energy and one for renewable energy technologies including solar and wind. The move comes as the gulf oil spill continues to spiral out of control bringing... [read more]

Protecting Taxpayers from a Financial Meltdown - Calculating the Credit Subsidy Fee on a Loan Guarantee for a New Nuclear Reactor

March 9, 2010 by Joseph Romm
with 202 views
4

A few weeks ago, Obama tripled the budget for the nuclear loan guarantee program,  though there hasn’t been a single promising application in two years.   CAP Policy Analyst Richard W. Caperton explains what that risky move means for American taxpayers in this repost. President Obama has made two major announcements in... [read more]

Nuclear Energy – Green Power?

March 8, 2010 by Rich Maltzman
with 318 views
0

Is a nuclear power plant a green way to provide energy?  There seems to be quite a division in thinking on this one.  President Obama thinks that nuclear power is a good thing and his administration is promising $8+ billion of federal loan guarantees to build two new plants.  But the 800 pound gorilla continues to lurk... [read more]

Answer to Carl Pope at the Sierra Club

March 7, 2010 by Dan Yurman
with 149 views
0

Ignoring the fundamentals of electricity supply won’t change reality One of America’s top environmental leaders thinks expanding loan guarantees for new nuclear power plants is a bad idea. Carl Pope, (right) the Executive Director of the Sierra Club, writes in the Huffington Post that Congress should not approve the $36 billion increase... [read more]

DOE Loans for Clean (maybe), Renewable (or not) Energy

March 7, 2010 by Osha Davidson
with 1,216 views
48

From the Department of Energy, some good news and some bad news for renewable energy advocates. First, the good news: The DOE released a list today of the dozen projects currently participating in the Department’s energy loan programs. The loans and guarantees total more $19 billion and will “create or save” 50,000 jobs, according to... [read more]