Joint venture makes $20 million bid for ailing EV company Fisker

A joint venture consisting of China-based Wanxiang group, former General Motors head Bob Lutz and industrial Gilbert Villarreal offers troubled electric vehicle manufacturer Fisker Automotive in a prefabricated insolvency purchase valued at $20 million, to deal according to reports.

Like Tesla Motors, which recently their loans repaid, $529 million in the form of received vehicles Fisker Automotive of loans from the Department of energy (DOE) under the advanced technology manufacturing loan program.

In contrast to Tesla Fiskers issued loans was seized but money by DOE if the company not to payments or to meet production quotas. The company has approximately 171 million $ in DOE loans still outstanding.

Fisker was founded in August 2007 by Henrik Fisker, who later left the company, that relying on differences of opinion over corporate strategy. Reuters reported that Fisker and a Hong Kong-based investor named Richard Li are common Fiskers DOE pay off loans and save the carmaker from bankruptcy.

Fisker dismissed three-quarters of its workforce in April. The company has its headquarters in Anaheim, California.

According to the company, Fisker was valued at around 2 billion $ until 2011.

The lone car, the Karma Fisker has a base price of more than $100,000. The company has sold a car reportedly since July 2012.

Wanxiang group bought Fisker's former battery manufacturer, A123 systems, at an auction in 2012, after the bankruptcy of the company.

Lutz was quoted in 2008 as saying that the electrification of the automobile "inevitable."

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Department of energy invested $9 million in data-driven SunShot projects

The Department of energy announced on 30 January its selection of seven data-driven projects, to reduce opportunities for solar energy and accelerated deployment of solar energy in the United States dig out. The Department is about 9 million $ in the seven projects to invest in six States: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, North Carolina and Texas. The projects are part of the SunShot initiative to make competitive solar energy a joint national effort until the end of the decade with other energies.

$7 Million offer for four projects Energy Department research teams led by Sandia National Laboratories, the national renewable energy Laboratory (NREL), Yale University and the University of Texas - Austin (UT-Austin). These teams will solve industry problems in cooperation with public and private financial institutions, utilities, and statistical and computational tools to be applied to State agencies and lead regional pilot projects in the country, to test the impact and the scalability of their innovations.

For example, will design solar challenge Yale University of researchers partner with SmartPowers New England and implement innovative strategies that guided bulk purchasing programs for solar power can increase the effectiveness of the community. The team of UT-Austin with complex sets of data from six Texas utilities, is working to better understand customer needs, and identify to optimize the installation and networking opportunities. As NREL develop a computer model for the analysis of data from a network of US solar installers and new kinds of community and regional level strategies for financing and delivery costs identification.

The Department to invest $2 million in three projects led by the University of North Carolina - Charlotte (UNC Charlotte), to analyze the Massachusetts Institute of technology (MIT) and SRI International, decades of scientific publications, patents, and information on costs and production. SRI International will develop advanced software that reads and analyzes to discover thousands of scientific publications and patents, to speed up new ways to solar energy technology innovation and commercialization. Meanwhile, UNC Charlotte apply and computational tools for patent, cost and production data to accelerate solar cost cuts and better predict future costs for new energy technologies. See the DOE press release and the full list of projects.

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Energy Department provides $12 million to accelerate solar cell efficiency.

The Energy Department on January 25 announced a new $12 million funding for innovative, to develop highly efficient solar equipment, the the gap with the theoretical limit of efficiency. This limit is defined as the highest possible proportion of sunlight converted directly into electricity. Currently there is still a considerable gap between the efficiency of laboratory and commercial solar photovoltaic (PV) and the predicted maximum efficiency of different solar cell materials. Shortening of the breakthroughs in solar cell efficiency helps reduce the total cost of solar energy.

The new initiative - the Basic program for the advance cell efficiency II (FPACEII) - aims to speed up record-breaking conversion efficiency, the gap with this theoretical limit for a wide variety of PV cells, including silicon-based technology and thin-film materials such as cadmium telluride and Cooper-Indium-Gallium diSelenide. The new possibility of funding initiative FPACEI builds the SunShot projects awarded in September 2011, which reached cells in the laboratory and produced the efficiency of typical cells on production lines to eliminate the gap between the efficiency of the best prototype.

In the current advertising FPACEII seeks proposals by collaborative teams of researchers from national laboratories, universities and industry, the materials of model systems develop and manufacture prototype devices that the theoretical limit can achieve efficiency in the vicinity. See the alert DOE progress and the funding opportunity announcement.

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Department of energy offers $10 million for algae biofuels

The Energy Department on January 17 announced that up to $10 million available to the potential of bio-fuels from algae is produced. The funding supports research projects to increase the productivity of algae cultivation systems and demonstrate algae harvesting and processing technologies, such as centrifugation and extraction. The Department encourages applicants from industry to apply universities and laboratories April 1, 2013.

These research projects maximize the yield from algae and production of bio-fuels helps intermediates that are the products of the cultivation of algae and preprocessing to improve. The yield of biofuel helps intermediates, lowering the cost of biofuels, and while enhancing the sustainability of biofuels algae by capturing energy from all parts of the raw material available. On a large scale, speed could help these technologies marketing of domestically produced low-cost biofuels from algae. A portion of the costs by at least 20% of the total cost of the project is required. The Department of energy progress warning message is displayed.

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Agriculture Department invests $25 million in bioenergy research

The USDA has awarded $25 million for bio-energy research and development.
Credit: Todd Johnson

The U.S. Department of agriculture (USDA) on 11 January awarded $25 million for four projects in four States for the financing of research and development of next-generation renewable energy and organic products from a variety of biomass. The projects will be funded by USDA National Institute of food and agriculture by the biomass research and development initiative and the Energy Ministry will make more awards from this program. Research helps to increase the availability of alternative renewable fuels and organic products of the country's energy resources to diversify. Each award has been through a competitive selection process.

Fellows shall contribute at least 20% of matching funds for research and development projects and 50% matching funds for demonstration projects. Winners must keep track of projects, the integration of science and research in three areas of Engineering: feedstocks development, development of bio-fuels and organic products and development analysis of biofuels and bioproducts.

The following projects were selected for the awards: Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, are trying the rape crop camelina provide a low-cost bio-fuel and sunflower oils feedstock; Ohio State University in Wooster, Ohio, that an anaerobic digestion system for the production of liquid transportation fuels and electricity from animal dung, wood biomass, agricultural residues and energy crops to focus on; Ceramatec, Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah, the infrastructure compatible renewable diesel, biolubricants and BioPower lignocellulose converted; and the USDA Agricultural Research service in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania, a distributed farm technology will develop for the conversion of waste wood, horse manure, switchgrass and other perennial grasses in bio-fuels and high-quality specialty chemicals. See the press release of the USDA.

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On the roof, solar challenge II gets $12 million Department of energy support

The Energy Department on December 20 announced $12 million in new funding for rooftop projects supported solar challenge II, to make solar energy companies more efficient. The possibility of financing builds the rooftop solar challenge on the success of 2011 and is part of a larger Department to encourage solar power deployment by making it easier, faster and cheaper to finance and install solar energy systems.

The challenges are processes in fine and improving the funding at a lower cost for residential and small commercial solar roof systems for the optimization and standardization of local zoning, dosing, and connection. Dramatically reduce 22 regional teams have through the first round of the non-hardware costs or soft for solar. Standardize this comprised installation and fees over multiple jurisdictions allow establishing group purchasing discounts and advanced online at Nice. These soft costs can go 40% of costs include solar. The teams are selected for the second round, which selected may include teams in the first round, in the entire period of solar market maturity models, developed by the Department of SunShot initiative with two and a half years project judged. The Department of energy progress warning message is displayed.

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Department of energy Awards $10 million developing advanced biofuels

The Energy Department on January 3 over 10 million announced $ for five projects in California, Texas, Maryland, and Washington, to be the development of new technologies to convert biomass to advanced biofuels and bio-products such as plastics and chemical intermediates. These projects use processed sugar biomass to convert innovative synthetic biological and chemical techniques, which can be converted into bio products and drop-in biofuels for cars, trucks, and aircraft.

Two of these projects to develop cost-effective ways to manufacture chemical intermediates from the lignocellulose deconstruction. Lignocellulose is a construction material that comprises much of the mass of plants. Intermediates are valid biofuel biomass-based products, treated as commodities and a refinery in the supply chain can be passed finished as biofuel from the manufacturer. Three projects proposes new conversion techniques to transform biomass intermediates in advanced biofuels and bioproducts. The Department of energy progress warning message is displayed.

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Energy Department Invests $29 Million in Solar Energy Grid Solutions

The Energy Department on December 7 announced a $29 million investment in four projects that will help advance affordable, reliable clean energy for U.S. families and businesses. These projects, part of the Energy Department's SunShot Initiative, are aimed at improving grid connection and reducing installation costs through innovative plug-and-play technologies and reliable solar power forecasts.

The Department announced a $21 million investment over five years to design plug-and-play photovoltaic (PV) systems that can be purchased, installed, and operational in one day. Plug-and-play PV systems will make the process of buying, installing, and connecting solar energy systems faster and less expensive for homeowners. Fraunhofer USA’s Center for Sustainable Energy Systems in Cambridge, Massachusetts, will develop PV technologies that allow homeowners to easily select the right solar system for their house and install, wire and connect to the grid. Additionally, North Carolina State University will lead a project to create standard PV components and system designs that can adapt simply to any residential roof and can be installed and connected to the grid quickly and efficiently. This effort is part of the Department’s broader initiative to bring down "soft" or non-module hardware costs.

The Department also announced an $8 million investment in two projects to help utilities and grid operators better forecast when, where, and how much solar power will be produced at U.S. solar energy plants. The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, based in Boulder, Colorado, will research methods to understand cloud impact and develop short-term prediction techniques based on this work. Also, the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Armonk, New York, will lead a new project based on the Watson computer system that uses big data processing and self-adjusting algorithms to integrate different prediction models and learning technologies. These projects are working with the Energy Department and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association to improve the accuracy of solar forecasts and share the results of this work with industry and academia. Enhanced solar forecasting technologies will help power system operators to integrate cost-competitive, reliable solar energy into the electricity grid.

The SunShot Initiative is a collaborative national effort to make solar energy cost-competitive with other forms of energy by the end of the decade. See the Energy Department press release.

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ARPA-E Awards $130 million for 66 power engineering projects

The Energy Department on 28 November announced 66 research projects by the advanced research projects Agency (ARPA-E) energy total $130 million received in funding through its program, selected "OPEN 2012". ARPA-E seeks transformational technologies that show promise fundamental technical but are not ready for private-sector investment. The selected projects include 11 technology areas in 24 States.

The OPEN 2012 projects focus on a wide range of technologies, including advanced fuels, vehicle design and materials, building efficiency, grid modernization, energy storage, and renewable energy.

For example, is the electron energy develop for the growing market of electric vehicle motors and generators for wind turbines, Corporation in Landisville, Pennsylvania, a technology for the production of permanent magnets, the less cost and are stronger than they are today. For another project of the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, North Dakota, develop an air-cooled unit for power plants, which offers low environmental impact and helps maintain water and energy efficiency in power generation.

The projects were selected by a process on the basis of merit by thousands of concept paper and hundreds of applications. They are based in 24 States with approximately 47 per cent of the projects conducted by universities, 29% of small businesses, 15% of large enterprises and 7.5% from national labs and 1.5% from non-profit organizations. The announcement brings ARPA-E projects total approximately 285, for a total amount of around 770 million $ awards. See Energy Department press release.

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DOE updated national solar thermal test facility

The Energy Department national solar thermal test facility (NSTTF), operated by the Division of Sandia National Laboratories was recently overhauled. The updating of the NSTTF $17.8 million State-of-the-art test features added. The resulting research in the plant is expected to lead to more use of solar power across the grid.

The American recovery and Reinvestment Act funded the project of nine part consisting of about new additions and updates at the test center, of which much had not been updated since it was built in 1976. Improvements include a new $10 million molten salt test loop, an optical process laboratory and others add critical test features and updating the parabolic trough test platform. It included also an investment of $3.8 million to 218 original aimed heliostat mirrors of the solar Tower, a significant improvement, because glass and reflective technology have change significantly over the last three decades to replace.

The system uses concentrating solar power (CSP), the mirror, the heat of the Sun on a receiver focus employs. The receiver takes thermal energy which can immediately generate electricity or save for later use. CSP receiver increasingly use molten salt to store the heat from the Sun because it is cheap and stores the heat over a longer period, offers greater flexibility for the grid.

USDA Announces $134 Million in Smart Grid Funding

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on October 11 announced funding to modernize and improve the efficiency of rural electric generation and transmission systems. The announcement includes additional loan support of $134 million in Smart Grid technologies in 16 states. The selected projects are located in Alabama, California, Iowa, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming. In August, the USDA reported that it had met its goal to finance $250 million in Smart Grid technologies in fiscal year 2012.

USDA also announced nearly $264 million in loans to partially finance wood-burning plants in Colorado, Hawaii, and Texas that are expected to generate 69 megawatts (MW) of electricity. Additionally, $14,565,000 was announced to finance the construction of a 5.5 MW solar-powered generating facility in Maryland. See the USDA press release.

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Department of Energy Announces $1 million for hydrogen fuel technology way

The Department of energy on October 5 announced new funding, the most promising technology paths in direction to the gasoline equivalent reach of hydrogen as a fuel of the $2 - to $4 per gallon by 2020 to evaluate. The financing help the Department broader give efforts to drivers and businesses more opportunities and to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

To help achieving this aggressive target by 2020, the selected projects will determine through this program cost-efficient materials and processes generates hydrogen from renewables and natural gas. Researchers in these projects will manufacture and supply of technologies, analyze also, to identify the main challenges and priorities; You are to assess further progress and hydrogen costs. This effort will include annual analyses of the key technical challenges with the Department of energy hydrogen analysis models (H2A) in addition to other industry tools. The Department of energy progress warning message displayed.

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USDA Announces $10 Million in Rural Smart Grid Funds

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on September 20 the latest in a series of funding steps to modernize and improve the efficiency of rural electric generation and transmission systems. The agency will offer loan guarantees to support nearly $10 million in smart grid technologies.

One of the loan recipients is Nobles Cooperative Electric, which serves counties in southwestern Minnesota and northwestern Iowa. Their loan includes $850,000 in smart grid projects. The Gundy Electric Cooperative, Inc., which serves customers in Iowa and Missouri, has also been selected for a loan guarantee that includes over $700,000 in smart grid projects. Earlier this month, the USDA announced it had met its goal to finance $250 million in smart grid technologies in fiscal year 2012. See the USDA press release.

In 2009, the Energy Department released the first Smart Grid System Report, which examined smart grid deployment nationwide. The report noted that smart grids have the potential to dramatically change how we experience electricity in the country. See the July 22, 2009 edition of the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Network News newsletter.

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New York Offers $107 Million for Large Solar Power Projects

New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo on August 9 announced that $107 million is available for a major solar power incentive program that will increase the amount of electricity generated by photovoltaic (PV) systems throughout New York. The NY-Sun Competitive PV Program, administered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, seeks proposals for PV systems greater than 50 kilowatts to be installed at larger commercial and industrial customer sites.

The newly established NY-Sun Competitive PV Program will make $36.4 million available in 2012 and $70.5 million in 2013. This phase of the program is available through the end of 2013 for PV projects in New York City and upstate New York at eligible customer sites. This is an expansion of a two-year-old program that previously focused on large PV systems for the commercial, industrial, and municipal sectors exclusively in New York City, Westchester County, and the lower Hudson Valley. All projects will require co-funding to best leverage state resources with funding capped at $3 million per project. See the New York press release and the NY-Sun Competitive PV Program initiative website.

The governor also signed a series of bills on August 17 as part of the NY-Sun initiative that will make solar energy more affordable for homeowners and businesses. The new laws include statewide tax credits for the lease of solar equipment and power purchase agreements, statewide sales tax exemptions for commercial solar equipment, and an extension of the real property tax abatement in New York City for solar installations. See the New York press release.

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Department of energy award of $43 million for energy storage technologies

The U.S. Department of energy announced on 2 August 19 new projects total $43 million of advanced research projects Agency energy (ARPA-E) received breakthrough energy storage technologies development. The projects focus on innovations in the battery management and storage for electric vehicles (EV) technologies advance, increase the efficiency and reliability of the electrical network and deliver important energy security benefits for US forces. They are supported by two new ARPA-E programs: Advanced management and protection of energy storage devices (AMPED) and small business innovation research (SBIR).

Twelve research projects get $30 million in funding in the context of the AMPING programme, which aims, develop advanced and control techniques could significantly improve grid scale and vehicle batteries sensors. In contrast to other energy Department efforts, the limits of the battery chemistry of push AMPED focuses on maximizing the potential of the existing battery chemistry. These innovations will help to reduce costs and the performance of the next generation of storage technologies that both plug - in can be applied and hybrid EVs. Such as the Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio, an optical sensor to monitor the internal environment of a lithium-ion battery in developing real time.

ARPA-E grants also $13 million in seven enterprising small businesses, the innovative energy storage developments for stationary and electric vehicles track. These companies are new battery chemistry and battery models as part of the larger Department-wide small business innovative research (SBIR) / small business technology transfer (STTR) program develop. Z. B. energy storage systems, Inc., in Portland, Oregon, is a flow battery for grid scale storage with an enlarged cell design construct and electrolyte materials of low-cost iron. See Energy Department press release.

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California Awards $1.1 Million for Energy Research Projects

The California Energy Commission on July 11 awarded $1.1 million for energy research projects, including a variety impacting renewable energy and energy efficiency. Funds for the 10 projects come from the Commission's Public Interest Research Project program. Commissioners approved $300,000 to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California at San Diego in order to better understand differences in regional climate model projections for California and how they impact hydropower generation forecasting.

The remaining nine projects are from PIER's Energy Innovations Small Grant program. The program provides money to small businesses, non-profits, individuals, and academic institutions to conduct research establishing the feasibility of new, innovative energy concepts. These grants are capped at $95,000. Among the projects is a project dealing with small soluble organic molecules designed to increase the lifetime and reliability of photovoltaics, and a study of enhanced cooling towers for cooling buildings. See the California Energy Commission press release.

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Department of Energy Announces $102 million for small business research

The Department of energy announced on June 27, it is to new funds for 104 small businesses nationwide. The grants amounting to more than $102 million, supported with the commercialization and job creation to develop a strong potential companies in 26 countries, companies, promising technologies help.

From the Department of energy small business innovation programs funded research (SBIR) and small business technology transfer (STTR), are the choices for phase II work. In phase II, are companies build on the conceptual work in phase I and track to take the next steps in the technologies to the market. The phase II Awards are up to 1 million $ for work for two years. The awards support developing technologies in areas of large wind turbines up to more energy-efficient data centers. For example, the Xunlight works 26 solar company of Toledo, Ohio, on transparent, flexible cadmium telluride modules for photovoltaic. See the DOE press release, the list of awards and the site SBIR and STTR.

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Management ensures a 26 million US-dollar competition for advanced manufacturing

The Obama Government announced on May 29 a $26 million multi-agency advanced manufacturing jobs and Innovation Accelerator challenge fueled job creation through public private partnerships to promote innovation. The challenge will support projects aimed at, grow a region industrial cluster by strengthening connections on regional economic development opportunities and advanced manufacturing facilities to help; Capacity one region, to create high-quality sustainable employment; develop a skilled and various advanced production workers; Exports should be increased; Promoting the development of small businesses; and technological innovation to speed up.

This is the third round of the competition jobs Accelerator, which is financed by the Ministry of energy; The U.S. Department of Commerce economic development administration and National Institute of standards and technology; Employment and training administration of U.S. Department of labor; the small business administration; and the National Science Foundation. In this round about 12 projects should by a competitive inter-agency grant will be selected. These coordinated investments help catalyze and using private capital to promote building an entrepreneurial ecosystem and cluster-based development in regions in the United States. The deadline for applications is July 9, 2012. See Web site Manufacturing.gov and the possibility of granting on Grants.gov interagency press release, jobs and Innovation Accelerator challenge.

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Energy Department Awards $11 Million for Clean Energy Small Businesses

The Energy Department announced on May 23 a total of $11 million in innovative research and technology grants of up to $150,000 awarded to nearly 67 small businesses in 22 states. The grants were awarded under the department's Small Business Innovation Research program, part of the Obama Administration’s broader support for job-creating small businesses and startup companies nationwide. These businesses are located in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington. The businesses will work on 75 research projects including designing better wind turbines and fuel cell technology. They will then be eligible to compete for a second phase of the program with awards up to $1 million over two years.

For example, the Seachange Group in Maine will work on a process that determines the best conditions for thermochemical conversion of biomass into drop-in transportation fuels, which has potential for under-developed rural communities. And Creare Incorporated of New Hampshire will focus on improving battery pack thermal management for electric vehicles. See the DOE press release and the description of all the projects.

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Energy Department Announces $2.5 Million for Fuel Cell Baggage Vehicles

The Energy Department announced on April 25 up to $2.5 million in funding is available this year to demonstrate and deploy fuel cell electric vehicles for transporting passenger baggage at major U.S. airports. Up to three projects selected for funding will demonstrate first-generation, fuel cell-powered baggage-towing tractors under real-world operating conditions, and will collect and analyze data to test their performance and cost-effectiveness. The funding will help industry bring advanced fuel cell technologies into emerging markets. It will also provide airlines and airports with new choices for ground support operations that cut energy costs, air pollution, and petroleum use.

The Energy Department seeks applicants to demonstrate and test the performance and economic viability of advanced fuel cell systems for up to three years. The 50% cost-shared projects will supply both information on fuel cell system operation and data on the economics of these vehicles to the Hydrogen Secure Data Center at the DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory for analysis and comparison. Data will be collected from actual airport operations so that engineers and economic analysts can assess the technology's performance, durability, and cost-effectiveness under the real-world conditions of commercial airports. Conclusions will be drawn from the data to evaluate the commercial viability of this fuel cell application, and the data will be shared with fuel cell manufacturers, helping to improve their designs and optimize overall performance and costs. See the DOE Progress Alert and the funding opportunity announcement.

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