Enel Green Power and the Marcegaglia Group signed an agreement for the installation of a photovoltaic system with a capacity of more than 4 MW on the roof-tops of the industrial facilities of the Marcegaglia Group, a world leader in the steel processing industry and, among other operations, also active in the production of energy from renewables.

The project, one of the largest innovative technology roof-top systems in Italy, will be implemented in Taranto on the roof-tops of the Marcegaglia Group’s plants, fully integrating the system into the existing architecture. The system will be mostly equipped with innovative flexible thin-film amorphous silicon photovoltaic modules. It is scheduled to start operating in 2010.

Once fully operational, the system – owned 51% by Enel Green Power and 49% by Marcegaglia Group – will be able to produce over 5 million kWh annually, enough to meet the energy needs of approximately 1,900 households, thereby avoiding the atmospheric emission of some 4,000 tons of CO2 per year.

“We are very pleased to have reached this agreement”, said Francesco Starace, Chairman of Enel Green Power, “with the first concrete implementation at the Taranto facilities of Marcegaglia, a major group that, like us, understands the considerable potential for the development of photovoltaics. Enel Green Power has an ambitious growth plan and a substantial pipeline of photovoltaic projects in Italy and abroad: this agreement enables us to further strengthen our presence in the steadily expanding domestic market, in which we firmly believe.”

“The agreement with Enel Green Power”, remarked Antonio Marcegaglia, Chief Executive Officer of the Marcegaglia Group, “is a significant one both for its scale and because it is the first project to be developed with Enel Green Power as part of the broader collaborative initiatives that our groups could pursue in the photovoltaic sector and in energy generation from renewables. An important part of the plant will be implemented with the BrolloSolar photovoltaic panel, manufactured in our Taranto facility, with which we have already carried out major roof systems, among the largest in Italy.”

Enel Green Power is the Enel Group company devoted to the development and management of power generation from renewable resources at the international level, with presence in Europe and the Americas. It is the European leader in its industry thanks to 17.2 billion kWh of electricity generated from water, the sun, wind and the heat of the earth, enough to meet the annual consumption needs of some 6.5 million households and avoid the emission of 13 million tonnes of CO2 each year. The company’s installed capacity totals about 4,700 MW, produced by more than 500 plants in operation around the world, with a generation mix that includes wind, solar, hydro, geothermal and biomass.

The core business of the Marcegaglia Group, wholly owned by the family of the same name, is steel processing. With 6,500 employees and 50 manufacturing plants in Italy, Europe, the Americas and Asia, it operates in markets around the world.

As part of its diversified activities, Marcegaglia Energy is the business unit devoted to generating electricity from renewable resources. It has been operating since 1995 in power generation from biomass and refuse- derived fuel (Euro Energy Group). In 2006 it introduced photovoltaic technologies: with Arendi in the area of thin-film on glass substrates and with Marcegaglia Buildtech for flexible thin-film systems.

WASHINGTON – President Obama announced the award of $2.3 billion in Recovery Act Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credits for clean energy manufacturing projects across the United States.   One hundred eighty three projects in 43 states will create tens of thousands of high quality clean energy jobs and the domestic manufacturing of advanced clean energy technologies including solar, wind and efficiency and energy management technologies.

As part of the Recovery Act, these tax credits are focused on putting Americans back to work by building a robust domestic manufacturing capacity to supply clean and renewable energy projects with American made parts and equipment.  These credits are also an important step towards meeting the President’s goal of doubling the amount of renewable energy the country uses in the next three years with wind turbines and solar panels built right here in the United States.

“Building a robust clean energy sector is how we will create the jobs of the future,” said President Obama. “The Recovery Act awards I am announcing today will help close the clean energy gap that has grown between America and other nations while creating good jobs, reducing our carbon emissions and increasing our energy security.”

“By investing in innovative clean energy manufacturing projects like these, we are not only creating good jobs now, but helping lay a new foundation to keep America competitive in the 21st century economy,” said Vice President Biden. “This is what the Recovery Act is all about.”

“There is no greater priority for this Administration than getting Americans back to work,” said Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. “The awards announced today, together with the more than $5 billion in private sector capital spurred by our investment, will drive significant growth in the renewable energy and clean technology manufacturing sectors, good jobs, an energized private sector marketplace and a leadership role for the U.S. in these crucial high-growth markets.”

“The world urgently needs to move toward clean energy technologies, and the United States has the opportunity to lead in this new industrial revolution,” said Secretary Chu.  “Today’s awards will create new jobs and jumpstart the industries we need to both solve the energy problem and ensure America’s future competitiveness.”

This effort, along with other Recovery Act investments, will drive significant growth in the renewable energy and clean technology manufacturing sectors and give the United States the ability to lead globally in these markets.  The investment tax credits, worth up to thirty percent of each planned project, will leverage private capital for a total investment of nearly $7.7 billion in high-tech manufacturing in the United States.

The projects announced today address the broad spectrum of manufacturing capabilities needed to support a robust clean energy economy.  The projects were competitively selected through a rigorous merit review process and the companies chosen say they will create more than 17,000 jobs in some of the fastest growing parts of our economy.

Today’s announcement includes tax credits for numerous clean energy technologies and companies, including:

Smart Grid – Itron, Inc.’s OpenWay CENTRON meter is one of the first smart meters for the residential market providing built-in, two-way communications and a remote on/off switch which will give customers more choice and enable utilities to provide higher reliability at lower cost.

The expansion of manufacturing capacity in their facility in South Carolina will allow an annual production of four million meters. Itron estimates that one year’s production of the meters will be able to reduce electricity use by approximately 1.7 million MWh per year.

Building Efficiency and Energy Management – W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc. is producing an advanced membrane for high efficiency fuel cells for buildings and vehicles.  The company’s products can help enable lower-cost fuel cells for use in electric vehicles or to power homes and businesses.  They are also manufacturing an advanced turbine filter to improve the performance of gas turbines to produce greater outputs at lower cost and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Solar Energy – PPG Industries, Inc. will produce a double anti-reflective coating for glass to make solar cells more efficient.  At their Louisiana facility, PPG will produce a special tire tread component that reduces rolling resistance and improves fuel economy.  Before the solar industry had begun, PPG pioneered the first low-iron glass that has been used in solar cells and on countless solar installations over the past two decades. Today, this credit will help to expand the manufacture of one of the critical components of glass solar cells, the transparent conductive oxide (TCO) coatings of the glass, without which the cells cannot function.

Wind Energy – TPI Composites, Inc. is building a new manufacturing facility in Nebraska to produce next generation wind turbine blades. TPI says the facility will create over 200 new jobs and will have a capacity equivalent to supplying 265 turbines rated at 2.5 MW for a total electrical output of 663 MW  TPI will also be expanding their existing manufacturing facility in Iowa to meet the anticipated increased demand for composite wind turbine blades.  TPI’s composite materials made in both facilities are used to make lighter and stronger wind turbine blades and lighter and stronger (and more fuel efficient) vehicles.

While projects selected for this tax credit generally must be placed in service by 2014, approximately 30 percent of them will be completed in 2010.

As part of an innovative partnership between the Departments of Treasury and Energy, the two cabinet agencies worked together to develop, launch, and award the funds for this program in record time.  The Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit authorized Treasury to provide developers with an investment tax credit of 30 percent for facilities that manufacture particular types of energy equipment. Qualifying manufacturers will produce solar, wind, and geothermal energy equipment; fuel cells, microturbines, and batteries; electric cars; electric grids to support the transmission of renewable energy; energy conservation technologies; and equipment that captures and sequesters carbon dioxide or reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

One hundred eighty three projects have been selected for the tax credit today.  Read the full list of Selections for Section 48c Manufacturing Tax Credit (MS Excel).

The UK is missing out on an affordable and plentiful source of renewable energy through its failure to deploy micro-hydro technologies capable of generating usable power from existing river weirs.

That is the view of Steve Welsh, managing director of Water Power Enterprises (h2oPE), a so-called community interest company that aims to install 5MW of renewable energy capacity from micro-hydro projects by 2015 and reinvest its profits in community-led environmental projects.

“The infrastructure to do this is already in place, as there are thousands of river weirs across the country that were built during the industrial revolution and are still in good nick,” explains managing director Steve Welsh. “As the infrastructure is already there the capital costs are manageable – the issue is picking the right sites, gaining planning permission, clearance from the Environment Agency and a lease from the landowner.”

These barriers mean that renewable energy companies have so far largely ignored micro-hydro technologies on the grounds that the relatively small amounts of power generated means it would take five to seven years to deliver a return on investment. But Welsh insists that micro hydro technologies, such as modern Archimedean screws, will generate energy for around 40 years providing h20pe with a long-term and predictable revenue stream.*

Full Article – Source : ©BusinessGreen

Global warming ranks far down the concerns of the world’s biggest companies, despite world leaders’ hopes that they will pioneer solutions to the impending climate crisis, a startling survey will reveal this week.

Nearly nine in 10 of them do not rate it as a priority, says the study, which canvassed more than 500 big businesses in Britain, the US, Germany, Japan, India and China. Nearly twice as many see climate change as imposing costs on their business as those who believe it presents an opportunity to make money. And the report’s publishers believe that big business will concentrate even less on climate change as the world economy deteriorates.

The survey demolishes George Bush’s insistence that global warming is best addressed through voluntary measures undertaken by business – and does so at the most embarrassing juncture for the embattled President. For this week he is convening a meeting of the world’s largest economies to try to persuade them to agree with him.[...]

Read article – Via : ©independent.co.uk

Why do you market your company as ethical ? Do you do it because you have to, or because you want to
?

Some companies might do it as a form of self-preservation, because they are afraid of what customers will say if they don’t. Other, more progressive firms may do it because they realise that there is an opportunity to target customers who feel strongly about the issue.

In the UK, the Co-Operative Bank’s 2007 Ethical Consumerism report, published in November, showed that ethical spending in the UK had jumped by 81 per cent since 2002. At £29.7bn, the market is still relatively small compared to the annual consumer spend of over £600bn, but that presumably means that there is plenty more headroom for market growth. Meanwhile in the US, the Natural Marketing Institute (NMI), a market research firm that focuses exclusively on this area, classifies the whole target market under the banner of lifestyles of health and sustainability (LOHAS) – the sector is worth $209bn on that side of the pond.

Who is buying these ethical products and services, and how can companies reach these customers effectively? Trying to pigeonhole the green consumer by pointing to a single demographic was probably naive 20 years ago. Today, it would be extremely foolish.[...]

Read article – Source : ©businessgreen.com

Its task is elegantly direct. The 9-foot-tall device, encased in see-through plastic, scrapes the chief global warming gas — carbon dioxide — right out of the atmosphere. As air wafts through, CO₂ sticks to large chemically coated panels while oxygen and other innocuous gases breeze by. The carbon inhaler’s developer, Global Research Technologies, is among hundreds of U.S. companies scouring for ways to reduce the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and cash in on federal requirements anticipated by 2010 to combat global warming.[...]

Full article – Via : ©usatoday.com