President Obama took the occasion of Independence Day to announce that the federal government will authorize $2 billion of Recovery Act funding to support the solar industry. Administered by the Department of Energy, the funds will target two companies: Abengoa Solar and Abound Solar Manufacturing.

Abengoa – an international solar firm with its roots in Spain—plans to build the world’s largest concentrating solar power plant in Arizona. The company says the facility, dubbed the Solana Project, will produce enough energy to power 70,000 households.  The plant will use thermal storage equipment to parabolically recover energy for a 280 MW output capacity. The administration says the project will create 1,600 construction jobs. (more…)

Biofuels produced from algae hold “significant promise” as an alternative to polluting petroleum-based fuels, but the technology will require years of development before it is ready to be deployed at a large-scale, commercial level, according to a U.S. Department of Energy report. The “National Algal Biofuels Technology Roadmap” identifies the state of the technology and the challenges facing researchers, engineers, and policymakers in the advancement of algal biofuels. (more…)

Fisker Automotive, the Irvine, California based start-up auto company is certainly creating waves these days, even though it has been reported that full production of the Karma will not occur until February 2011, later than expected. Fisker recently announced that they have secured an additional $189 million in capital. In addition, the company secured a $529 million loan in April from the Department of Energy to support its first vehicle, the Karma, an extended range plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and the development of a more family oriented model codenamed Project NINA.

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New Zealand-based Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation announced this week that it will collaborate as a co-funding partner with the United States Gas Technology Institute (GTI) on an advanced biomass conversion technology program worth $3.1million that will be part funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Earlier this year, Aquaflow also announced it would be working with Honeywell’s UOP on another algal technology project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.

“We have reached another major milestone in expanding our U.S.-based partnerships and project involvement and we are delighted to be working with GTI in this space,” said Aquaflow director Nick Gerritsen. (more…)

The Department of Energy, under its Smart Grid Investment Matching Grant Program, provides reimbursement of 20 percent of qualifying smart grid investments.

Qualifying costs include, but are not limited to, certain manufacturing related costs, software that enables computers or other devices to engage in smart grid functions, and metering devices, sensors, and control devices that are capable of engaging in smart grid functions.

Recently, questions have been raised as to whether the DOE grant under this program is subject to federal income tax.

The IRS, in Revenue Procedure 2010-20, concluded that the DOE grant is not subject to federal income tax. (more…)

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles have created a synthetic “gene” they say can capture carbon dioxide emissions.

Omar M. Yaghi, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry, has developed thousands of so-called crystal sponges that absorb gases and have proven effective in the lab at storing CO2.

The synthetic crystals, which code information in a “DNA-like manner,” have nanoscale-sized pores that Yaghi says allow molecules to go in and out.

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With the recent surge in money going towards renewable energy research and implementation, many people are forgetting a key factor in reducing our impact on the environment: energy efficiency.

Utilizing renewable energy in your home or commercial building is great, don’t get me wrong, but before this expensive option is employed, you should first look at the efficiency of your home or building’s energy systems.

If your building wastes energy, you should prioritize improving this aspect and use the money that you had set aside for a renewable project to accomplish the task.

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The U.S. Department of Energy has granted a $43 million loan to a Massachusetts-based company to prove the value of a new technology in which spinning flywheels are used to improve the efficiency of the electric grid. Beacon Power Corp. will build a 20-megawatt flywheel plant in upstate New York in which flywheels spinning up to 16,000 times per minute will act as a sort of short-term power storage system for the state’s electrical distribution system, according to the Associated Press.

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The Smiths have a Ford, and the Johnsons have a Nissan… but how long will it take the Jones to have a Tesla in your neighborhood?

Tesla Motors, along with Ford and Nissan, were recently awarded loans from the US Energy Department, totaling about $8 billion, to help automakers transition to making more fuel-efficient vehicles. Tesla Motors, which produces high performance, consumer-oriented battery electric vehicles, received $465 million to finance the manufacturing plant for their Model S, as well building a powertrain plant. The Model S, an electric sedan, expected to start production in 2011, will cost roughly $49,900, after a $7,500 tax credit.

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A recent post extolling the virtues of trash as an energy source has stirred up a lot of comments.

Those include an e-mail and phone call from the folks at BlueFire Ethanol, who have a patented process that turns garbage into gas, or cellulosic ethanol, to be more precise.

The company is building a plant in Lancaster, California, where it plans to use a Concentrated Acid Hydrolysis Technology Process to convert “green waste” from an adjacent county landfill into as much as 3.7 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol per year, a company representative says.

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