The Rise & Shine is your daily source for all solar-industry news. Brought to you by Sweet Solar Home and the Experts at Sweet Solar Home and the Experts at SunRun.

CALIFORNIA NEWS
Jay Leno is a Big Fan of Solar Panels
Jay Leno uses solar panels and wind turbines to produce electricity for the garage that houses his huge collection of cars.

NATIONAL NEWS
SEDOM Gets Halfway to Funding Rooftop Energy Project
The Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation recently announced the awarding of a $267,000 matching grant for the installation of a photovoltaic roof panels that would be fitted atop the 40,000-square-foot SEDOM building.

Sunrise Solar Selected as a Finalist in $30M Solar Project
Sunrise Solar Corp. is in advanced negotiations to design and install a solar project in a major foreign capital city that could be worth $30 million.

Richland, WA Homeowner Sells His Solar Power
Waite worked with Richland to create a “net-metering” program that helps track how much power he generates and what gets banked with the city for future use. It also allows consumers to earn cash incentives offered by the state through 2014.

Hung Jury in Solar Energy Whistleblower Case
Jurors today announced they could not come up with a verdict in the case of a New Jersey Board of Public Utilities fiscal officer who said he was punished for complaining about mismanagement in a $125-million solar energy subsidy program.

UTILITY INDUSTRY & REGULATORY NEWS
RGGI States First CO2 Auction Completed
All of the 12,565,387 allowances offered for sale on September 25, 2008 were sold at a clearing price of US $3.07 per allowance.

Gore’s Rebellion
Mr. Gore really got going and told his disciples to head — literally — to the barricades to “stop” coal.

SMUD Rates Customers on Energy Consumption
In the nation’s first experiment of its kind, SMUD has 35,000 randomly selected customers receiving a monthly “home electricity report” with bar graphs comparing their consumption with the neighborhood average.

FINANCIAL NEWS & MARKETS
Solar Power Partners Raises US $100M
Solar Power Partners, a CA startup that only had $6M in funding a year ago, has reached $100M in funding with some $60M more available for project financing.

Funding Roundup: Greentech Investors Diversify
Solar, biofuel and wind companies get cash, as well as firms involved in energy efficiency, energy storage, transportation and more.

eSolar Partners with Kleiner’s Solar Startup Sundrop Fuels
eSolar, the solar thermal startup using algorithms to produce low cost solar gear, has signed its first commercial contract with Sundrop Fuels.

Is the Sun Setting on Solar Energy?
While investors and analysts are still bullish on the sector’s long term prospects, the next year or two could see a major shake up in the crowded solar energy space.

Solar Stocks Clobbered; No ITC Extension Before Election
Solar stocks are getting an especially ugly drubbing on a very nasty for stocks overall, on news that Congress is unlikely to approve an extension to solar energy investment tax credits before the November election, and possibly not until a new president is sworn in early next year.

GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
US Renewable Energy Credits Bog Down in Congress
House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland told reporters Monday that the House would not have time to consider the Senate’s version of the renewable energy bill and urged the Senate to approve the legislation passed by the House.

Lawmakers at Impasse on Incentives for Renewable Energy
The House and the Senate conceded Monday that they were in a stalemate over proposals to provide tax incentives for the production and use of renewable energy, leaving the future of the nascent industry in limbo.

SEIA Calls on Congressional Leadership Not to Leave Until Tax Extender Legislation is Complete
As the CEOs of the nation’s leading renewable energy trade associations, we respectfully urge House and Senate leaders to remain in Washington until there is a successful resolution of the current impasse between the House and Senate on tax extenders legislation.

TECHNOLOGY
DOE to Provide Up to $17.6 Million for Solar Photovoltaic Technology Development
The DOE announced up to $17.6M for 6 early stage PV module incubator projects that focus on the initial manufacturing of advanced solar PV technologies. Including the cost share from industry, which will be at least 20%, the total investment will reach up to $35.4M.

Nippon Oil and Sanyo to Establish Thin Film Joint Venture
Nippon Oil and SANYO will explore the possibility of establishing a joint company to handle the expected expansion and development of the thin-film solar cell market.

Waste Not, Want Not: A New Approach to Solar
Vinod Khosla says he’s found a solution that doubles or even triples the energy yield from solar panels. He’s funding a company called PVT Solar, of Berkeley, CA where engineers are trying to harness wasted heat.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Neo Solar Seals 7 Year Deal with REC
REC will provide NSP solar wafers for the period from January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2015.

Fotowatio Acquires Four Solar Plants
Fotowatio, one of Spain’s largest and most successful solar companies, announced today it acquired four solar photovoltaic power plants producing 32 megawatts of clean energy in Murcia, Spain.

Solarig Connects 3 MW Solar Project
SOLARIG recently connected to the grid its innovative solar plant incorporating solar tracking technology to obtain the best energy output.

JA Targets A Capacity of at Least 1GW by the End of 2009
Pure cell manufacturer JA Solar Co. Ltd. says it is expecting at least 1 GW of cell capacity by the end of 2009.

ABB Signs $36M Systems and Equipment Contract with LDK Solar
The agreement will see ABB supply electrical systems, equipment and project management services to LDK for its new polysilicon production plant in Xinyu City, China.

Solar Panels Installed on Vatican Roof
The first solar panels were installed Monday on top of the papal audience hall at Vatican City.

Kunming to Build Biggest Solar Energy Production Base in China
Kunming is aiming to become a solar energy demonstration city with the characteristics of a solar energy industry base in China.

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There is little doubt anymore that Berkeley solar rocks. For the past year or so, the city has been ironing out the details of its solar lending program, the most progressive in the world. Essentially, what the program will do is set up The Sustainable Energy Financing District, which makes Berkeley residents eligible for a [...]

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The Department of Energy is sending more money to solar projects. The department announced another $67 million for solar research and development recently. In accordance with the federal government’s usual tendencies regarding solar power, the money will go to researching and developing new storage techniques for Concentrated Solar Power (CSP). CSP solar systems concentrate and [...]

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SANYO North America Corporation, a subsidiary of the Tokyo-based SANYO Electric Co., announced plans on Monday to construct a new solar component plant in Salem, Oregon. The facility, set to open in October 2009, will produce silicon ingots and wafers, the major component in conventional solar cells, and will create over 200 new green jobs. Slated to cost $80 million in development and construction, the plant will more than triple the company’s overall US photovoltaic production from 30 MW to 100 MW once fully operational by April 2010; for comparison, the cumulative US output for PV production in 2007 was 201 MW, 31% greater than in 2006. As high demand for solar panels is currently outstripping supply, this greater production capacity should help to lower retail costs across the global market.

The announcement is yet more evidence that Oregon’s incentive programs for renewable business seem to be working. Thanks to the state’s Business Energy Tax Credit (BETC), which provides tax breaks of up to 50% on capital investments of up to $20 million for renewable energy projects, solar manufacturers are moving there in relative droves. SANYO joins three other companies that shifted their operations to Oregon last year alone - German-based SolarWorld, and Solaicx and Peak Sun Silicon, both of California. All in all, a study released this past spring by ECONorthwest projects that the two energy tax credit programs combined (the Residential Energy Tax Credit program being the other) would “create nearly 2,100 new jobs, boost economic output by $178 million and cut energy costs by $60 million” over the next fifteen years.

The factory will join SANYO’s Carson, CA manufacturing plant and expansion at other production facilities in Japan, Hungary and Mexico to boost the company’s expected PV output to 340 MW globally by the end of 2008 and 600 MW by 2010. Among its other solar ventures, in 1997 SANYO introduced its highly efficient HIT (Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin layer) solar cells, which combine single crystalline cells with amorphous silicon to achieve an impressive 20% conversion efficiency rating. Also check out SANYO’s Solar Ark in Japan, the world’s largest solar-generating structure and a state-of-the-art science center.

Sources: press release (us.sanyo.com); Oregon Department of Energy; “Oregon Welcomes Yet Another Solar Maker, Sanyo”, earth2Tech;“Economic Impacts of Oregon Energy Tax Credit Programs in 2006?, ECONorthwest; “SB 819 Passes Out of House Committee by unanimous vote”, Pacific Northwest Energy and Sustainability Venture blog;“Sanyo to Build Solar Cell Plant in Oregon”, GoodCleanTech; “Sanyo chooses Oregon site for new solar PV ingot, wafer factory”, Photovoltaics International; “Solar Manufacturing Takes Flight in the United States”, US Department of Energy, EERE News; “Big Photovoltaic Price Drop Due to Large Silicon Supplies?”, FuturePundit; “PV Status Report 2007?, EU Joint Research Centre, Institute for Environment and Sustainability; “Japan’s Sanyo to Build New US Plant”, AFP wire report.

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So here’s the deal. The Harbinger SG Blocks Showhouse was bad out. Everyone I talked to loved it. You might think that a shipping container home would feel closed-in and…

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The need for solar power is slowly rising and that is a good sign. This surely means that more people are more likely to convert to solar power as a good source of energy. And for those who are in the industry, it would mean more sales for them.

Now, in California, a new kind of solar power plant is going to rise and the construction of the facility is already going on. Behind the new facility is eSolar, a company that is based in Pasadena. And they are saying that in building the facility, they are actually going to use a new kind of design.

Robert Rogan is the VP for sales and marketing of the company and on this, he says, “By using modular mass-manufacturable design, we are able to reach economies of scale that allow us to reduce the total cost of a power plant. Instead of a small number of big things, we build a big number of small things.”

Tags: eSolar, Solar, solar-plant, solar-power

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Scientists at the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory have set a world record in solar cell efficiency with a photovoltaic device that converts 40.8 percent of the light that hits it into electricity. This is the highest confirmed efficiency of any photovoltaic device to date.

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The California Center for Sustainable Energy (CCSE) is hosting its 4^th annual Solar Energy Week from October 12^th through 18^th. Sunday October 12^th will be Family Solar Energy Day and Saturday October 18^th will be a Solar Homes Tour.  http://www.sdenergy.org/ContentPage.asp?ContentID=291&SectionID=287

And, Wednesday October 15^th is Public Night at Solar Power International from 5:30pm to 8:30pm at the San Diego Convention Center. If you’re thinking about solar for your home, this is a great event for educational workshops and to meet solar companies. Come by and visit SunRun at booth 1942! http://www.solarpowerconference.com/

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