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General Category => EV Stocks => Topic started by: Richard230 on March 11, 2011, 03:56:57 AM

Title: Solar power is hot!
Post by: Richard230 on March 11, 2011, 03:56:57 AM
That is what an article in the business section of my newspaper proclaims. The article says that the US market for solar panel installations jumped 67% last year, with California leading the nation in photovoltaic solar installations. Some of the most active states include: CA @ 259 MW; NJ @137 MW; NV @ 61 MW; AZ @ 54 MW; CO @ 53 MW, PEN @ 47 MW; NM @ 43 MW; FL @ 35 MW; NC @ 31MW; TX @ 23 MW; everywhere else amounted to 135 MW, for a total solar panel power installation in the US of 878 MW.

These installations included rooftop, hot water heating and utility-scale projects. Their value went from $3.6 billion during 2009 to $6 billion in 2010. Total mW for the nation increased by 102%, up from 435 MW in 2009 to 878 MW in 2010.

The article mentions the venture-backed company of SolFocus, which was founded in 2006. They have experienced so much growth that they are moving their headquarters from Mountain View, CA to a much larger, 44,000 sf facility in San Jose, CA. The company uses CPV, or concentrated photovoltaics, to concentrate the sun's energy onto photovoltaic cells. It recently completed a 1-mW installation at Victory Valley College in San Bernardino County.

Also mentioned is San Jose-based SunPower, which reported $2.2 billion in revenue in 2010 and recently announced three power purchase agreements with Southern California Edison to deliver 711 MW of solar power by 2016.
Title: Re: Solar power is hot!
Post by: gasdive on March 14, 2011, 07:04:32 AM
I know it's a small thing, but mW is 1/1000th of a watt.  MW is 1000000 watts.  It's just that as I read that I had to keep readjusting my brain thinking "he means Megawatt" sometimes several times per sentence.

Sorry for being so pedantic.

Cheers Jason =:)
Title: Re: Solar power is hot!
Post by: Richard230 on April 13, 2011, 04:16:18 AM
It has taken a while but Oakland-based BrightSource Energy announced Monday that it has finalized $1.6 billion in loans for its Ivanpah, 392-MW ( ;D) solar power plant to be built in the Mojave desert. The final piece of the puzzle was apparently Google's investment of $168 million in the Ivanpah project. This is Google's largest cleantech investment to date. The largest investor in the project is NRG Solar, a wholly owned subsidiary of NRG Energy.  Construction on the plant began in October and is expected to be completed by the end of 2013.