Renewable Energy Archives - Page 55 of 55

This just in: $1 Billion and 500 new solar jobs in Tennessee

By / Published: March 18, 2009

Green Jobs No matter how much their name makes me laugh, there’s nothing funny about Wacker Chemie AG settling on Tennessee as a good place to build its first solar manufacturing plant in the U.S., much less all the solar jobs going to Michigan, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Just one look at the DOE’s solar radiation map tells me that Texas should be blowing Tennessee (and all the other states) away when it comes to attracting businesses that rely on solar radiation.

The truth is that solar companies WANT to come to Texas. Right now, there is an intense lobbying effort going on in the capitol to get Texas up to speed with other states that have already adopted solar-friendly rebates and policies like Renewable Portfolio Standards, which would bring more solar jobs to Texas. There’s a lot of excitement from legislators too. By my count, more than 70 bills have been filed to help make Texas more attractive to renewable energy manufacturers and generators.
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Everything’s Bigger in Texas-Except Solar CSP

By / Published: March 3, 2009

Concentrating Solar Power

It’s great to see NRG and other utilities investing in “solar thermal” electricity, or Concentrating Solar Power (CSP). I have to admit though that it’s disappointing Texas isn’t mentioned anywhere in these news articles – even though there wouldn’t be much to say about Texas and CSP.

Why? Although Texas is one of only five states in the entire U.S. with the kind of direct sunlight to make a large amount of CSP viable, it is the only one of those states that doesn’t have a single CSP project in the works. These CSP plant vendors have set up shop in California, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico, and there have even been some test projects in Colorado and Utah, but Texas has been left in the shade when it comes to solar thermal electricity. You don’t have to talk to very many people in the CSP industry to find out why: While other states in the Southwest have established renewable portfolio standards (RPS) and tax exemptions attracting industry attention, the Lone Star state has fallen behind the renewable energy crowd.