125 MW solar power plant to land in Arizona by end of 2013

Maricopa County, Arizona is set to play host to a 125 MW photovoltaic solar power plant, according to an announcement on Tuesday from Fluor Corporation. The company has won the separate contracts to build and maintain the facility, which upon completion will fleetingly join the ranks of the the world’s largest photovoltaic solar farms. The project, known as Arlington Valley Solar Energy II (AVSE II) will be built on 1.8 square miles (4.7 sq. km) near to the Arlington Valley Combined Cycle Facility, a 577 MW natural gas plant also designed and built by Fluor.

(more…)

Share

Renewable energy investments are surpassing investments in new fossil fuel power for the first time ever, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance as reported by Joe Romm on ThinkProgress. Adding to the encouraging news, Bloomberg New Energy Finance reported that the trillionth dollarhas been invested in renewable energy, energy efficiency and smart energy technologies.Wind, solar, wave and biomass energy attracted $187 billion of investment capital in 2010 compared to $157 billion for natural gas, oil and coal, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s latest data and calculations. A faster pace of wind and solar power installations, along with oversupply in various wind and solar power plant inputs, is driving installed costs lower, making these clean, renewable alternatives more competitive with coal using conventional cost and return on investment measures and methods, even given their increasingly glaring inadequacies.

(more…)

Share

Billionaire Buffett Bets on Solar Energy

The “Oracle of Omaha,” who made his fortune by betting on technologies that appear underpriced, is now putting his money into solar.

The solar industry got a turbo-boost of both name recognition and mainstream credibility on Wednesday as a subsidiary of billionaire Warren Buffett’s investment company MidAmerican Energy Holdings announced plans to purchase the Topaz Solar power development from thin-film PV module maker First Solar. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

(more…)

Share

Floating Marine Solar Cells Harvest Energy from the Sun and Waves

Marine Solar Cells (MSC) by Phil Pauley are conceptual hybrid solar and wave energy generators designed to generate renewable energy off shore. The solar wave unit captures wave energy through natural buoyancy displacement and solar energy through photovoltaic cells, taking advantage of natural light reflecting off the ocean’s surface to increase solar capture by 20%.

(more…)

Share