Monthly Archives: October 2005

DayStar Technologies Inc (DSTI) was awared the 2005 Technology Innovation of the Year Award in the field of copper-indium-gallium-diselenide (CIGS) photovoltaic cells. Each year this Award is given to a company that has carried out new research, which has resulted in innovations that have brought, or are expected to bring, significant contributions to the industry in terms of adoption, change and competitive posture. This Award recognizes the quality and depth of a company's research and development program along with vision and risk-taking efforts that enabled it to undertake such an endeavor. It's nice to see that...

Distributed Energy Systems Corp (DESC) has been awarded a contract to install and commission three additional NorthWind 100® wind turbines for Anchorage-based Alaska Village Electric Cooperative (AVEC). The contract brings the total number of turbines AVEC has purchased from Northern Power to 10, representing what is believed to be the largest investment in wind turbines made in Alaska in a single year. The Northern Power Products division will also supply and install wind turbine Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems for the villages of Toksook Bay and Kasigluk. These systems will leverage Northern Power's SmartView® software, which...

Electro Energy Inc (EEEI) and In-Q-Tel, a private, not-for-profit venture group funded by the Central Intelligence Agency, today announced a new technology development agreement for advanced rechargeable bipolar lithium ion (BPLI) batteries. The resulting BPLI battery is intended to exhibit both high-specific energy and high-specific power, due to the efficiency of the EEEI bipolar cell and battery design. In previous work, EEEI has demonstrated BPLI cells with a specific energy greater than 200 Wh/kg and an energy density greater than 400 Wh/l. The development will be conducted at EEEI's battery manufacturing facility in Colorado Springs, Colorado. ...

XSUNX Inc. (XSNX) announced that it has expanded its business opportunities to include the product development of a new opaque solar cell device. This unique four-terminal solar cell design uses a combination of thin film transparent cell technology, derived from the company's Power Glass initiative, with that of a nano-crystalline solar cell. XsunX believes that the combination of these two technologies into a single device holds a promising opportunity to deliver low cost, high efficiency, flexible, and light weight solar cells providing performance characteristics commonly found only in various forms of expensive crystalline wafer technologies. The decision to...

NanoLogix Inc. (NNLX.PK) announced that it has signed an agreement to install a NanoLogix hydrogen generation system using Welch Food's waste organic matter. The NanoLogix methodology for hydrogen production is being developed for the limitless production of hydrogen from organic containing waste waters. The NanoLogix reactor will utilize multiple proprietary methodologies for synergistically creating a hydrogen bioreactor. The hydrogen production method will utilize organic waste from Welch Food's waste stream. NanoLogix is very much a penny stock and has been steadily declining over the last year. It now sits at a low of $0.15. They...

Manhattan Scientifics Inc (MHTX) announced that it has received its first micro fuel cell patent in Japan. Marvin Maslow, CEO of Manhattan Scientifics, said, "Though our micro fuel cell is not yet commercially feasible, we continue our effort to complete the development. Our goal is to create future revenue as a result of ownership of key protective patents. Earlier this year micro fuel cells were everywhere. You saw articles in tech magazines, gadget websites, and slashdot. There has been very little news about it recently. It seems that all the big ticket energy producers have taken...

Here are some additional notes I took from the Solar Energy conference. I was meaning to post this one earlier, but life and time got away from me. This session dealt with the Growth of Solar. It was not one of the more interesting sessions, but some of the people on the roundtable were very interesting. The first person to speak was Edwin Hill, President of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. His major focus for the reason why he and the IBEW was attending the conference is to state that they want to be a partner...

My nine year old daughter still receives Highlights magazine in the mail on a monthly basis. If you have a child and have ever spent any amount of time in a pediatricians office, you have probably logged a fair amount of time flipping through this magazine while waiting to see the doctor. This weekend I was at home flipping through the November issue of Highlights and was very surprised to find an article about Microturbines. The introduction gives the basics of how a turbine works. Then the single page article give a very good description of...

Starwood Hotels & Resorts has expanded it use of Fuelcell Energy Inc (FCEL) Direct FuelCell power plants with an installation at the Westin San Francisco Airport Hotel. "Our use of fuel cells at Sheraton hotels has successfully reduced our energy costs while offering us quality power with strong environmental benefits, and we are eager to begin applying this formula to our Westin and other brand hotels," said John Lembo, Director of Energy for Starwood. "With DFC installations at hotels on both coasts of the U.S., we are fulfilling our pledge to be the best business neighbors with a...

Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. (ADM) has announced plans to build a 50 million gallon Biodiesel production facility in North Dakota. This will be ADM's first wholly-owned venture into biodiesel in the US. Currently the US consumes about 30 million gallons of Biodiesel a year. This is a significant investment by ADM in the US marketplace. "ADM is a world leader in renewable fuels," stated Mike Livergood, ADM Vice President-Global Oleo Chemicals. "Leveraging the success of ADM's experience in the biodiesel market in Europe and ADM's success in the ethanol market in the U.S., we are pleased to bring biodiesel,...

The one session I was most interested in attending at the Solar Energy confernce dealt with Investing in Solar. This session was primarily focused on venture capital. The panel was moderated by Ron Pernick from Clean Edge The panelists were: Bill Gross - Energy Innovations and IdeaLab. His company is making small CSP units that can be used for roof top installations. Dave Pearce - Miasole. This company is reasearching and producing a CIGS based thin-film PV. Howard Berke - Konara. This company is producing an organic based polymer solution for thin-film PV ...

Here is a continuation of my notes from the Solar Energy Conference. The next session was a roundtable of various participants from the solar industry. The topic of this roundtable was what is needed to grow the US market for solar energy. The following people were on the roundtable: Christopher O'Brien, VP of Sharp Solar (Manufacturer) Tom Dyer, VP of Kyocera Solar (Manufacturer) Barry Cinnamon, President of Akeena Solar (Installer) Jeffery Wolfe, CEO of Global Resource Options (Wholesale Distributer) Joseph Henri, Director of Pacific Gas and Electric (Utility) John Ralston, VP of Premier Homes (Homebuilder) William Garnett,...

Beacon Power Corp (BCON) announced that it has been awarded a contract through the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), and co-funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the U.S. Department of Defense. The contract, valued at $750,000, is for the preliminary design of a space-based flywheel energy storage system for satellite applications, and is a Phase II award under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program of the U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Technology. Beacon announced completion of an associated Phase I project earlier this year. This was welcome news for this company...

Last week on Thursday and Friday I attended the Solar Power 2005 conference. My primary goals were to try and talk with some of the public companies that I follow in this sector and also to try and gain a better understanding about the industry. I understand the fundamentals of solar technology, but I was looking to get a better understanding of the industry itself and not just the technology. This conference (like many other industry specific conferences) was geared towards people that are already in the industry. So being at an industry conference like this and talking...

For the next two days I will be at the Solar Power 2005 conference in Washington DC. I'm currently deep in the bowls of the Hyatt and I'm finding that wireless internet (and also cell phone) coverage is spotty at best. I just finished the first session and will be posting conference notes later when I have a strong internet connection. It looks like there is about 300 people in attendance and the first session on Introduction to Solar was informative. If you happen to be reading this and you are attending the session, say Hello, It would...

Scottish Power plc (SPI) is an electrical generation and distribution company primarily focused in the UK. They have two subsidiaries that are based in the US, PacificCorp and PPM Energy. They are currently in the process of trying to sell PacificCorp to Berkshire Hathaway. PPM Energy is a company with extensive wind energy development and generation. Scottish Power also has extensive wind farms in Scotland and Europe. They are also developing off-shore wind power of the Welsh coast. This stock has been moving strong recently and it looks like it is building a base at the $40...