Green Skeptic Friday LinkFest - 08/13/10

(photo Erika Nortemann/TNC)

It's a special Friday the 13th edition of The Green Skeptic Friday LinkFest!

Some spooky news this week:

A quartet of earnings reports came out this week in cleantech: SunPower, Cree, and A123, LDK: Earnings
 
While there was some good news for Solazyme, which netted $52M for its algae fuel biz: Green with Algae

Not so scary is my old pal Sanjayan from TNC who is profiled in Outside Magazine. The guy is "Mr. Nature" on cable TV these days and looks pretty hot in a tee shirt (look out Anderson Cooper): Sanjayan
 
TechCrunch covered Philly-Based Incubator DreamIt Ventures as 14 Startups were graduated from the Summer 2010 program: DreamIt

Meanwhile, Philly VCs are keeping a close eye on Massachusetts. Technically Philly explains why: Philly VCs

Rapidly becoming one of my favorite greentech reporters Katie Fehrenbacher reported on the joint efforts of  Google and Vinod Khosla to save California's greentech market.
 
Razor sharp insights from Lucy Marcus on why companies need active, engaged, independent, and interested board members: Non-Exec Boards
 
My pal Andy Swan pointed me to this article that explains why cash is the ultimate vote. Do you have a list of people that will BUY what you are selling? 10 Buyers
 
And in case you missed it, here's a link to my appearance on FOX Business with Varney & Co this week, talking about $BP oil spill: Wheres the Oil in the Gulf?

Have a great weekend everybody!

(Disclosure: I hold long positions in $CREE and $AONE. This post is for informational purposes only and is neither intended to be investment advice nor an offer, or the solicitation of any offer, to buy or sell any securities.)

 

FiTs and Starts: Are Feed-in Tariffs Fit to Be Tried?

Image via Wikipedia

NREL, Golden, CO

With the death of Cap-and-Trade legislation in the Senate, Feed-in Tariffs (FiTs) are starting to become more and more attractive to renewable energy boosters.

But are FiTs all they are cracked up to be?

NREL, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, recently released a A Policymaker's Guide to Feed-in Tariff Policy Design that largely sings the praises of various FiT schemes.

According to a Deutsche Bank study quoted in the NREL guide, 75 percent of global solar PV and 45 percent of wind development are directly related to FiT schemes. In the European Union alone, over the past ten years, FiTs have led to the deployment of 15,000 MW of solar PV and 55,000 MW of wind power.

The benefits of FiTs are obvious to the renewable energy (RE) industry, as NREL states, FiTs drive "market growth by providing developers long-term purchase agreements for the sale of electricity generated from RE sources. These purchase agreements, which aim to be both effective and cost-efficient, typically offer aspecified price for every kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity produced and are structured with contracts ranging from 10-25 years."

Furthermore, "payment level can be differentiated by technology type, project size, resource quality, and project location."

And therein lies the rub. FiTs do not a free market make: 1.) Fixing the price doesn't mean the best price for consumers or taxpayers and 2.) the government picks the technology, site or size of the project.

While you can't argue with success, we are already seeing that such success can lead to excess.

According to a renewable energy player familiar with a variety of country-based FiT policies, such schemes have led to an excess of solar development (viz. the German example) or prices that don't take into account future efficiencies and cost-savings, which can result in windfall profits for developers and manufacturers.

More of our focus needs to be on making renewables more efficient and cost-effective so they don't have to rely on government props and subsidies. The example of Spain should be a warning, where retroactive cuts to their FiT scheme due to the bad economy may endanger that country's solar industry and renewable production altogether.

Fixing prices and picking technologies shouldn't be the job of governments. I'm not saying that FiT schemes can't be properly designed to allow as free a market as possible, I just don't want to see us all go to Abilene yet again chasing the latest "Get FiT" fad.

 

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• Businesses play key role in feed-in tariff take up (businessgreen.com)
• Spain's F.I.T Puts Solar Industry's Future In Peril (solarfeeds.com)
• The Feed-in Tariff Discussion Heats Up (greentechmedia.com)
• Not sure it FITs with state goals (jcwinnie.biz)
• Feed-in tariffs responsible for three-quarters of the world's solar power | Cooler Planet News (solar.coolerplanet.com)
• NREL Study Finds Feed-in Tariffs Are Responsible for 75% of all Solar PV Deployments (environmentalleader.com)

Where's the Oil in the Gulf? The Green Skeptic on FOX Business

I was on FOX Business with Varney & Co this morning talking about the BP Oil Spill.  While it is not the greatest environmental disaster in history, there are still many people whose lives and livelihoods are affected by this spill and we won't know the full extent of the damage for months, if not years to come.




Here is a link if your browser is not compatible with the video above: Where is the Oil in the Gulf?

Green Skeptic Friday LinkFest - 08/06/10

An EV1 all-electric car by GM that escaped in 2005.

Digging in this week post-vacation.

After five months of intense work with some great clients, my consultancy, VerdeStrategy, finally has a couple of open slots for new projects and clients. Contact me here if your company can use some help with strategic communications, business planning or developing your investor presentations.


Now, after that shameless self-promotion message, on to the links.


A lot of Electric Vehicle love  this week:

First, how'd you like to travel from Alaska to Argentina in an Electric Sports Car? Greentech Media has a story about two entrepreneurs who did just that: Sports Car

Anna Clark from GreenBiz explains that consumer choice will be the ultimate driver when it comes to EVs in Selling Electric Cars Requires Plugged-In Drivers

CleanTechies blog notes that Fast Vehicle Charging Goes by Many Names (Just don't call it Al...)

And here's a video link to my appearance on FOX Business Network this week on $GM and the Chevy Volt: Green Skeptic on FOX

All that EV goodness aside, our StockTwits pal Gregor MacDonald reminds us that we're still Eating Gasoline in America

Is solar now cheaper than new nuclear? A new US study says it's true in North Carolina: Solar

Up next: Two Energy Efficiency Stories from Beantown (or thereabouts):

Always smart @cleantechvc on Energy Efficiency: Where angels will shine.

And congratulations are in order for Green Skeptic-favorite EnerNoc (ENOC) on a profitable quarter and almost 5GW under management: $ENOC

Have a great weekend everyone!


(Disclosure: I hold long positions in ENOC. This post is for informational purposes only and is neither intended to be investment advice nor an offer, or the solicitation of any offer, to buy or sell any securities.)

Can a Disruptive PV Technology Topple First Solar? (from GreentechSolar)

Eric Wesoff at Greentech Media raises some interesting questions for $FSLR investors and ponders whether there's a "new black swan improbable pyro-nano-quantum-thingamajig technology" waiting to displace thin-film PV:

As we watch First Solar lower their industry-leading costs from $0.81 per watt in Q1 to $0.76 per watt in Q2, we get a clearer picture of their cost trajectory. First Solar's roadmap sees their costs dropping another 20 percent to 30 percent by 2014. They also envision their efficiencies climbing to 14 percent from today's 11.1 percent. Is this the best that the solar industry can do?

The leading (and bankable) Chinese crystalline silicon manufacturers will continue to price their product exactly where it needs to be to win commercial and utility business.  And folks like SunPower, with their high efficiencies and high costs, will attempt to keep up. Other public companies without the benefit of very high efficiency, very low costs, or big balance sheets are going to be on the losing end of Shyam's Solar Shakeout.

So, why aren't there solar panels everywhere?

Read the full article here: Disruptive

(Disclosure: I hold long positions in FSLR. This post is for informational purposes only and is neither intended to be investment advice nor an offer, or the solicitation of any offer, to buy or sell any securities.)

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• How China Can Speed Up Solar Exports (solarfeeds.com)
• 2011: The Return of the Solar Shakeout (greentechmedia.com)
• First Solar Drops Cost to 76 Cents a Watt (greentechmedia.com)
• UPDATE 2-First Solar profit beats, raises forecast (reuters.com)
• First Solar Earnings: A Mixed Bag (earth2tech.com)

Not Electrified by Volt: Green Skeptic on Fox Business

I appeared on FOX Business with Stuart Varney and Company this morning, talking about GM and the Chevy Volt.  Here is the video:



And here is a link, in case your browser doesn't support the format: Green Skeptic on Fox Business

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• Test Drive the New Chevy Volt With Me (biggreenpurse.com)
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