Advanced Energy Signs Solar Service Agreement with Colorado State University
AMEC, an international engineering and project management company, has engaged Advanced Energy Industries Inc. for a multi-year agreement to provide SiteGuard services for Colorado State University’s new, 2MW photovoltaic solar power plant located in Fort Collins, CO.The new solar facility started producing power in early December and is expected to be fully commissioned in early 2010. advanced-energy.com / amec.com
 

Simplified Impulse Testing of Photo Voltaic Panels
Compliance West USA has released an easy-to-use impulse tester designed to conduct the Impulse Test defined in IEC 61730-2, Section 10.5. The MegaPulse 1.2 x 50-8 PV allows users to provide a corrected waveform corresponding to the capacitance of the PV panel in accordance with IEC requirements. Compliance laboratories worldwide have added the MegaPulse 1.2 x 50-8 PV to their test equipment in order to perform these tests.

Compliance West USA, Inc. specializes in the manufacture of state-of-the-art Impulse and Surge Test equipment for laboratory testing and production verification testing.  Manufacturers wishing to pretest their products, as well as agencies such as UL, TUV, CSA, and NEMKO, rely on these products to provide a fast, safe, and reliable method for product safety testing. compwest.com
 

ARC Opens Nation’s First Petroleum-Based Refinery
Advanced Refining Concepts (ARC), developer and manufacturer of proprietary motor and industrial fuels, is opening the nation’s first petroleum-based refinery in more than 30 years. It will be situated on just 10 acres of land in Northern Nevada. The plant will be clean and compact, producing fuels utilizing ARC’s ClearRefining process, the world’s first pollution-free refining system liquefying natural gas, or other biogases, to form clean liquid motor and industrial fuels.

Phase I of ARC’s Peru Heights GDiesel refinery will produce 100,000 gallons per day. GDiesel improves fuel economy, is smoke- and soot-free, and requires no modifications to vehicles or power generating equipment. To date, more than 16,500 gallons of ARC’s GDiesel fuel has been used by the majority of heavy equipment vehicles being used for construction of the Peru Heights GDiesel refinery. advancedrefiningconcepts.com
 

Siemens Expands U.S. Manufacturing Facility
Siemens Mobility, in response to the federal government’s recent investment in high-speed rail, is taking steps to expand its U.S. manufacturing plant to meet future demand for the trains and rail infrastructure technologies required for the systems. Specific actions taken include the purchase of land for plant expansion and adding power supply from renewable energy sources.

Siemens makes a line of trains that run up to 220mph, which are currently operating in Germany, China, Russia, and Spain. These trains are a match for the systems proposed for California and Florida. Siemens also produces a line of trains that go between 110mph and 125mph, which would fit the requirements of other high-speed-rail corridors, including the Midwest. usa.siemens.com
 

AWEA Defends How Recovery Act Money is Being Spent
AWEA responds to recent alternative energy criticism with just the facts.

• 100% of Recovery Act dollars going to the wind industry were provided as a tax credit for investment in wind projects constructed and operated in the United States which employ Americans. To date, 48 wind projects across 23 states have been built due to the support from the Recovery Act. It was the Recovery Act funding that provided a spur in investment for these projects resulting in the continued employment of 40,000 Americans. This investment means American construction, engineering, installation, transportation, and operation and maintenance jobs that can not be outsourced. This means payments to landowners, farmers, and ranchers. This means property tax payments to local governments.
• Stimulus dollars are not going overseas. It is the law that recovery dollars must go to U.S. wind projects. To receive recovery dollars, wind projects must be built and brought online in the United States with private investments that cover the full cost of the project before one penny of recovery money leaves our Treasury. Without the stimulus, thousands of megawatts would not have been built in 2009.
• In fact, the recovery dollars are leveraging billions of dollars from around the world and bringing investments into the U.S. economy, supporting jobs here. $10 billion of additional investments into the American economy has been publicly committed by global companies due to stimulus incentives.

We are a global industry with global companies. Investments can be made in strong wind markets around the world. We need to compete for these dollars so that we can grow jobs in the United States. awea.org
 

Non-Glass, Rigid, C-Si Solar Panels
SBM Solar recently became the only company in the world to earn UL certification on their non-glass, rigid, C-Si Solar Panels.  

“UL approval is significant to both our customers and the solar industry as a whole,” explains Jay Rao, SBM’s chief marketing officer.  “To our customers, it provides a peace of mind and confidence that SBM’s panels will perform at the highest level. To the solar industry, UL approval marks the beginning of a market shift to non-glass technology.” sbmsolar.com
 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk
Receives 2010 Award
The 2010 Automotive Executive of the Year Innovator Award is sponsored by DNV Certification and is presented to Elon Musk, chairman, product architect and CEO of Tesla Motors, in recognition of his technology leadership and innovation, as well as his enlightened vision for the automotive industry’s future. Based in California’s Silicon Valley, Tesla Motors is the only automaker selling electric vehicles that are both highway-capable cars and in serial production, and the company has been credited with pushing the entire automotive industry toward EVs. teslamotors.com
 

GM to Invest $494M in U.S. Manufacturing
General Motors will invest more than $494 million and create nearly 550 jobs in three U.S. plants to produce the next generation fuel efficient Ecotec engine. The project consists of the following:

• Tonawanda – $425 million will add capacity for the next generation Ecotec engine at 370,000 per year creating about 470 jobs
• Defiance – $59 million will support precision sandcast block at a capacity of 188,000 annually and result in about 80 jobs
• Bay City – $10.5 million will bring new product to the plant (Ecotec connecting rod) and will create about 15 jobs

The investment includes facility renovation, new machinery, equipment, and special tooling and will go toward producing two next-generation Ecotec engines. The new engines will have additional capabilities to improve fuel efficiency and improve performance through advanced design and by adding technology.

The Ecotec engine family is known for its reliability, fuel efficiency, and performance. GM Ecotec engines have been on the forefront of delivering leading edge technology. gm.com