Applied Materials is a capital equipment producer that services a number of manufacturing industries, including semiconductor, TFT LCD display, solar (thin film and crystalline), and glass. There are four primary groups of Applied Materials – Energy and Environmental Solutions, Display, Silicon Systems Group, and Service. Because of its industry, Applied Materials has been extremely involved in the clean technology sector, especially within the branches of renewable energy and energy efficient.

1 ) World’s Most Advanced Solar Research and Development Center. In 2009, Applied Materials opened the most advanced solar research and customer demonstration facility in the city of Xi’an in China. Known as the Applied Materials’ Solar Technology Center, this non-government solar energy research facility is comprised of a number of laboratories and offices over 400,000 square feet. It contains a full Applied SunFab thin film manufacturing line and a full crystalline silicon pilot process. Customers from all around the world can walk along the building with the technologists to learn all about what is available.

2 ) Applied Materials Launches New Solar Tools to Meet Increased Demand. In August of 2011, Applied Materials unveiled a brand new set of equipment to enables customers to lower their production costs and increase cell efficiency. Known as Baccini Pegaso, it covers all equipment used for screen printing metal lines that serve as the necessary highways to conduct and transport electrons out of the cells.

3 ) Applied Materials Expands their Taiwanese Solar Manufacturing Business. In March of 2010, Applied Materials opened a new Tainan Manufacturing Center in Tainan, Taiwan. This manufacturing plant will create flat panel displays as well as thin film solar photovoltaics. This is one of Applied Material’s biggest investments in the Asian continent and puts Taiwan on the map for solar equipment technology manufacturing.

4 ) Applied Materials Partners with IIT Bombay for CLEAN Lab. In April of 2011 Applied Materials partnered with IIT Bombay, a high rated university in India, to create the Chemistry Laboratory for Energy and Nanoelectronics, or CLEAN on the IIT Bombay campus. The laboratory includes the research and development of brand new materials that may be potentially used in a number of electric and renewable energy-focused applications, including next generation solar cell development. “Our goal is to serve as a catalyst for developing the critical technology needed to solve the many challenges of next-generation electronic and solar device manufacturing. Applied Materials has grown to become IIT Bombay’s most important industry collaborator in terms of the scale of research collaboration,” said IIT Bombay Professor, Devang Khakhar.

5 ) Applied Materials Demonstrates New Solar Cell Screen Printer. In September of 2011, Applied Materials released the details of a new platform for screen printing solar photovoltaic cells. “Efficiency is ultra-important. The challenge our customers have today is that we’ve reached a point where efficiency and cost reduction must happen simultaneously because the balance of system cost is becoming a larger fraction, sometimes even larger, than the cost of the modules themselves,” said Applied Material’s Dr. Mark Pinto.

6 ) Applied Materials Takes Unused Space and Turns it into a Solar Energy Solution. Applied Materials worked with SunPower to create solar power systems that offered two megawatts of energy to Applied Materials’ Sunnyvale, California corporate facilities. “This is another exciting milestone in the adoption of solar power in California,” said Mike Splinter, president and chief executive officer of Applied Materials. “More companies are realizing the wisdom of integrating solar as a non-intrusive, clean, silent form of energy generation into our businesses and communities. We’ve converted our parking lots to power plants and we encourage others to join us in making solar power a meaningful part of the energy supply.”

7 ) Applied Materials Received 2009 Environmental Protection Agency Green Power Leadership Award. In 2009, Applied Materials received the Green Power Leadership Award which is awarded by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. This award recognizes the leading purchasers of green power in the country for their continued contribution and commitment to assisting in the development and the advancement of the green power market. “Purchasing and generating green power are important elements of our long term commitment to business and global sustainability,” said senior director for Applied Materials’ Environmental Health and Safety and head of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability, Bruce Klafter. “Through our solar installations we are demonstrating the ease of integrating clean energy into existing business campuses and proving that solar power is a sound business decision, in addition to being an important choice in combating climate change.”

8 ) Applied Materials Demonstrates Leadership in Clean Energy. IN 2007 Applied Materials expanded an agreement to buy 8,220,000 kilowatt hours of renewable energy a year from solar and wind generation sources throughout the state of California rather than getting energy from nonrenewable sources of energy. This amount equals roughly 12 percent of all the energy consumed in the Santa Clara facilities. This consumption will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over five percent. This will make Applied Materials one of the leading purchasers of renewable energy in Silicon Valley. This purchase was done as part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Fortune 500 Green Power Challenge. “We are committed to demonstrating practical environmental leadership in industry and the conservation of natural resources,” said Mike Splinter, president and CEO of Applied Materials. “We challenge other companies to join us in purchasing renewable power as we believe heightened demand will lower cost and increase availability for both business and consumer use.”

9 ) Applied Materials Received 2007 Environmental Leadership Award for Energy Efficiency Product Design. In June of 2007, Applied Materials received the Business Environmental Award from Acterra for its demonstration of environmental leadership. The award is known as the “Susanne Wilson Award for Pollution Prevention/Resources Conservation: Special Project” and Applied Materials won it for its design program for energy efficient semiconductor equipment. The award is commonly given to companies that seek to improve production or operation processes that reduce the consumption of resources and decrease pollution generation.

10 ) Applied Materials Partners with DuPont for Solar Cell Efficiency. In 2009, Applied Materials Partnered with product manufacturing company DuPont to collaborate on the advancement of multiple printing technology that would increase the efficiency of crystalline silicon photovoltaic solar cells. This would make photovoltaic power much more cost effective when compared to other available forms of energy.

Article by Shawn Lesser, Co-founder & Managing Partner of Atlanta-based Watershed Capital Group – an investment bank assisting sustainable fund and companies raise capital, perform acquisitions, and in other strategic financial decisions. He is also a Co-founder of the GCCA Global Cleantech Cluster Association ”The Global Voice of Cleantech”. He writes for various cleantech publications and is known as the David Letterman of Cleantech for his “Top 10″ series. He can be reached at shawn@watershedcapital.com

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Cleantech and renewable energy professionals now have a new legal resource at their disposal. Professionals looking for help on legal or policy issues can submit their environmental, clean tech, and renewable energy legal questions to CleanTechies’ Legal Q&A at http://law.cleantechies.com and get answers from cleantech law experts.

CleanTechies has joined forces with Cleantech Law Partners, a boutique law firm that caters to the unique legal needs of renewable energy and cleantech companies. The firm’s attorneys review the legal questions that are submitted on CleanTechies and provide their answers online.

Users can provide additional feedback by commenting on the discussion and sharing their own experiences and insights on cleantech and renewable energy law.

To submit your questions about environmental, clean tech or renewable energy law, follow this link.

As new technologies develop and awareness about climate change evolves, cleantech and renewable energy laws, policies, and regulations play an increasingly important role in the United States. This service will provide a much needed resource to help cleantech and renewable energy professionals navigate the rapidly changing legislative environment.

“The Legal Q&A on CleanTechies helps close a significant gap in the online knowledge base by allowing renewable energy project developers, startup companies, service providers, and other professionals to ask our attorneys about legal and policy issues they encounter on a daily basis. We hope this resource will contribute to the overall growth of the sector,” said Jack Jacobs, founder and managing partner of Cleantech Law Partners, a boutique law firm that caters to the unique legal needs of renewable energy and cleantech companies.

The new online legal forum is built on strong foundations: It combines CleanTechies’ powerful Internet presence and reach of tens of thousands of cleantech professionals every month with Cleantech Law Partners’ legal expertise and industry-specific cleantech insights.

“We are excited to team up with Cleantech Law Partners to provide cleantech professionals with another valuable resource on our website,” said Ceylan Thomson, CEO & Co-Founder of CleanTechies, a leading network and knowledge hub that provides cleantech professionals with insights, resources, and opportunities. “Our goal is to provide better access to expert knowledge and facilitate understanding of important issues by offering cleantech professionals a platform to share their insights. The Legal Q&A will contribute to this goal by shedding light on important legal and policy issues.”

Visit the Cleantech Legal Q&A, and post your questions on clean technology and renewable energy law.

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It’s likely that you’ve heard of EnergyStar and seen the recent headlines about US Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency efforts to ensure that appliances are as energy efficient as the blue EnergyStar label indicates. It’s less likely that you’ve heard of a parallel DOE effort to ensure that minimum energy conservation standards are being met.

Because mandatory efficiency standards apply to the manufacture of appliances and therefore are less noticeable to the consumer, standards don’t often make the six o’clock news. However, DOE is actively taking on the enforcement of standards as shown by the recent headlines on the website of the DOE General Counsel:

• “DOE Requests Information to Improve Energy Efficiency Enforcement Process”
• “DOE institutes Enforcement Action against 4 Showerhead Manufacturers for Failure to Certify 116 products”
• “DOE Opens Three Investigations into Alleged Refrigerator Efficiency Violations”

In the latter press release, DOE notes that it: “takes seriously and will respond promptly to all credible information that products do not meet the federal energy efficiency standards.”

The stepped up enforcement is part of the Obama administration’s efforts to significantly increase the certification and enforcement of existing energy conservation standards. On May 4, DOE published a Request for Information asking for public feedback on a number of enforcement related issues. The website notes that DOE wants “to encourage compliance and to prevent manufacturers who break the law from having a competitive advantage over those that adhere to the rules.” According to General Counsel Scott Blake Harris, improvements will “make sure that [DOE] energy efficiency rules are rigorously and fairly enforced in order to save both energy and money for American consumers.”

Suggested improvements include the development of an ongoing program for verification testing of products sold on the market. Called “off-the-shelf” testing, it would involve acquiring products from stores for verification and then testing them at independent laboratories to verify that they meet conservation standards.

While the standards program is thought to have a generally good record of compliance, the lack of rigorous enforcement to date undermines confidence in national appliance standards.

Article by Marianne DiMascio, writing for the Energy Efficiency Markets newsletter.

photo: Mr. Wright

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With the United States of America’s ever-mounting trade and budget deficits, unemployment above 10 percent (and, dependent on counting, un- and under-employment above 20 percent), looming peak oil and other resource (water, for example) limitations, environmental challenges, and ever-mounting climate chaos , America faces a very serious situation.

In fact, to one degree or another, these same intertwined challenges (with the exception of trade/budget deficits for some countries) are those face by societies and nations throughout the globe in our networked, systems-of-systems global community.

These serious challenges are a networked system-of-systems that interact and reinforce each other. As we strive to stop digging the holes deeper and climb our way out, we can seek to deal with these challenges in a stove-piped manner or address them with W6 solutions that have wins across multiple arenas:

• Move toward sustainable energy system
• Create and protect jobs
• Foster economic activity (cost effectively)
• Strengthen long-term economic prospects
• Address negative environmental impacts (from local pollution to acidification of the oceans)
• Help mitigate climate change

As some are wont to say, crises create opportunities. One good piece of news, amid all the serious concerns that that list above should create for all of us (the US and globally), is the reality that many Win-Win-Win-Win-Win-Win (Win to the Sixth) opportunities lie before us, if we choose to seize them.

Very briefly, here are eight examples that meet these criteria:

Energy Efficiency: The “negawatt” and “negagallon” is the least expensive incremental power source available in the United States (and much of the world). At a cost of less than 4 cents per kilowatt hour, the United States could cut its power demand by over 20 percent over the coming decade (at less than half the cost of the cheapest new power source options).

A serious focus on energy efficiency would improve business competitiveness globally, reduce fossil fuel usage (and health impacts Greening Public Schools represents one of those ‘no-brainer’ actions that we should all embrace as it is potentially the only path to improve educational performance, improve youth health, improve community and global environment, create jobs, and strengthen local government financing (enabling money to spent on true educational costs (teacher salaries, supplies) rather than on over-paying to heat poorly insulated structures.

Financing Net Zero (& Lower Energy Demand) Building : As discussed here, Architecture 2030 developed The 2030 Challenge Stimulus Plan that would create roughly nine million (yes, 9,000,000) jobs and several trillion dollars of building activity through a two-year, $192.47 billion program focused on using financial instruments to spark investment in energy efficiency in private buildings throughout the nation. Buildings account for roughly 40 percent of America’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This program would put a serious dent into that figure while skyrocketing the United States in a global leadership position in building energy efficiency.

Rail Electrification: A $100 billion federal commitment over the coming decade could spark a matching private sector investment that would cut perhaps ten percent of America’s oil use, more than paying for the total cost via reduced imported oil costs (without even considering the benefits through reduced pollution, etc …).

Rail electrification is occuring throughout the globe with the notable exception of the United States. More cargo can be moved with less energy and less pollution as a rail system is moved to electricity from diesel.

Plug-In Hybrid Electric School Buses : Current school buses get about 5.5 mpg of diesel. Conversion to PHESB improves this to about 11 mpg. Diesel fumes from school buses are a top threat to the health of America’s K-12 population. PHESBs cut diesel fume exposure by half or more.

In addition to helping cut America’s oil addiction (by 2020, a decent PHESB program could lead to a 0.5 day reduction in US oil demand (about 11 million barrels, year), PHESBs offer the opportunity for improved disaster services (imagine 5000 mobile generator / storage systems ready to move into the Gulf Coast from surrounding communities post Katrina), improving electricity energy efficiency (through having distributed power storage in PHESB parks).

DESERTEC: One of the most powerful images for a renewable energy future, a burning hot one we might suggest, is TREC, which is a grand vision for connecting solar power in North Africa, wind power from the Eastern Mediterranean to the North Sea, bio-mass, and hydropower with a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) system of power lines to provide assured renewable electricity for the Mediterranean basin and Europe.

This concept, which has seemed ever so Renewable Energy COOL to me from the first time I encountered it, looks to be moving down a path from fantastic innovative concept to potential reality as Europe is beginning investments that might total into the $100s of billions in the coming decades to make this a reality.

This system won’t necessarily just produce clean power, but a ‘waste’ product will be clean water than can support agriculture and local jobs. If connected to a serious bio-char/agro-char program for enriching the soil, this could lead to ever-increasing agricultural productivity in employment and water-starved regions while sequestering serious amounts of carbon. (Thus lowering emissions due to clean energy production and lowering CO2 levels via enhanced-natural sequestion: attacking the GHG problem from two ends.)

Imagine this in employment starved and conflict prone areas like Israel-Palestine or along the US-Mexico border.

Trent (OMEGA) Algae: This a developing OMEGA effort , led by Jonathan Trent of NASA, to make algae biofuel in a renewable energy process that will clean up sewage currently being dumped into the world’s oceans. There is also the potential that electrical power generation could be connected to the fuel production. (OMEGA Algae is still in testing, but is a great example of the looming Win to the Sixth opportunities there for the taking … if we would only choose to seize them.)

Concepts to provide multi-faceted solutions were core to Energize America from its earliest moments. How to ‘make the right choice, the easy and preferred choice’ with paths that would address energy, environmental, and economic challenges in a systems fashion rose to the top above stove-piped concepts. We must, as individuals and as a nation, pursue such Win to the Sixth opportunities or risk stove-piped approaches that seemingly solve one problem while exacerbating others.

Article by A. Siegel appearing courtesy of Celsias

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Author and scholar Michael Levi says in the current issue of Foreign Affairs that the odds of signing a climate treaty in Copenhagen this December are extremely small and argues that policymakers and environmental advocates should rethink their expectations for the summit.

Levi, a senior fellow for energy and environment at the Council on Foreign Relations, contends that the conventional treaty model – which focuses on high-level agreements on emissions caps and carbon trading schemes – is fundamentally flawed because emissions caps are largely unverifiable and unenforceable. Short of bullying with punitive sanctions, nothing can be done if caps are exceeded.

In addition, Levi said developing countries will lobby for lenient emissions caps, in part because they can be a source of income; if emissions goals are coupled with a cap-and-trade carbon market, countries request easy targets so that they can sell carbon credits once they have exceeded their low emissions goals.

Levi recommends a more bottom-up approach, saying that real change happens when individual nations adopt laws and programs to reduce carbon emissions. Rather than investing great hopes in occasional summits, Levi argues, nations should conduct ongoing climate talks — aimed, for example, at sharing technology — similar to international trade negotiations.

Appearing courtesy of Yale Environment 360.

[photo credit: Council on Foreign Relations]

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In a new study conducted by the University of Cincinnati (UC), environmental health researchers found that major countries in three continents fail to acknowledge the hazards of lead based paint, allowing manufacturers to continue selling consumer paints containing dangerously high levels of lead. According to study, 73 percent of consumer paint brands tested from 12 countries representing 46 percent of the world’s population exceeded current U.S. standard of 600 parts per million (ppm). Additionally, 69 percent of the brands had at least one sample exceeding 10,000 ppm. Scott Clark, a professor of environmental health at UC, stated that “lead paint exposure remains a serious global health threat” considering the majority of American consumer goods are being produced overseas.

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The US Environmental Protection Agency today announced the next steps in a coordinated strategy to reduce emissions from ocean-going vessels. EPA is proposing a rule under the Clean Air Act that sets engine and fuel standards for U.S. flagged ships that would harmonize with international standards and are expected to lead to significant air quality improvements throughout the country, especially near ports.

“These emissions are contributing to health, environmental and economic challenges for port communities and others that are miles inland. Building on our work to form an international agreement earlier this year, we’re taking the next steps to reduce significant amounts of harmful pollution from getting into the air we breathe,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson.

“Lowering emissions from American ships will help safeguard our port communities, and demonstrate American leadership in protecting our health and the environment around the globe.”

Air pollution from large ships, such as oil tankers and cargo ships, is expected to grow in line with port traffic increases. By 2030, the domestic and international strategy is expected to reduce annual emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) from large marine diesel engines by about 1.2 million tons and particulate matter (PM) emissions by about 143,000 tons. When fully implemented, the coordinated effort would reduce NOx emissions by 80 percent and PM emissions by 85 percent compared to current emissions.

The emission reductions from the proposed strategy would yield significant health and welfare benefits that would span beyond U.S. ports and coastlines, reaching inland areas. EPA estimates that in 2030, this effort would prevent between 13,000 and 33,000 premature deaths, 1.5 million work days lost, and 10 million minor restricted-activity days. The estimated annual health benefits in 2030 as a result of reduced air pollution are valued between $110 and $280 billion at an annual projected cost of approximately $3.1 billion – as high as a 90-to-1 benefit-to-cost ratio.

For more information, visit the EPA.

This article originally appeared on ENN, the Environmental News Network.

[photo credit: greatshippics]

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A partisan divide, climate change doubters ridiculed by by environmental advocates, concerns about the global competitive impact of being a carbon control leader, and uncertainties surrounding market function, pricing and cost to consumers… Sound familiar?

Now imagine it all in Paul Hogan’s accent instead of in the halls of the Capitol, and you have the Australian debate over cap-and-trade legislation.

NYT runs a story that gives evidence of one of the major obstacles to getting real global energy reform, the “you first” problem.

The story notes, “Conservatives say [the country] should not commit itself to any target before the world’s biggest emitters — China and the United States — lay their cards on the table, and a successor to the Kyoto agreement, which expires in 2012, is reached.”

In other words, the Aussies are waiting for us. We’re waiting for the Chinese and Indians, they aren’t sure they want to play the game anyway. And, everyone is waiting to see what happens in Copenhagen in December, but its unlikely that anything substantial can be achieved without national action in the interim.

And there have been few profiles in courage on climate change and cap-and-trade. Leadership has been lacking on this geopolitical scale, where no one but the Europeans has taken a carbon cap-and-trade leap. And, on the national political stage, the progressives have compromised on the bill to a faretheewell at the urging of brown state Dems who are trying to protect their local industries, and the GOP has taken the head in the sand approach by hiding behind scare tactics.

Now that science seems to agree that the world needs to act together to make real progress on reversing climate change, political institutions will have to adapt from the “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours” Kabuki dance.

The UN has done admirably in advocating for climate change policy and breaking the issue down into self-interest slices that can appeal to the developed and developing world. But, it doesn’t have the horses to get consensus or force action. What’s needed is a coalition that leverages soft power, economic incentive and mutual interest. All the more reason for the US to take the lead. But, even if Waxman-Markey can make it through this summer, the legislation is not likely to generate a Jerry Maguire “slow clap” (see video below) when Obama walks the lobby in Copenhagen this winter.

[photo credit: Chang Huang]

Watch the video “Jerry Maguire: The Things We Think and Do Not Say” on YouTube

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