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TMCnet GreenTech Week in Review
Green Technology Featured Articles
May 12, 2012

TMCnet GreenTech Week in Review

By Cheryl Kaften
TMCnet Contributor

In green technology news this week, Saudi Electric Company is restructuring in preparation for privatization, while researchers in Iran have received a U.S. patent for their innovative restructuring of solar cells; and Siemens (News - Alert) is testing hybrid diesel trucks that can switch to electric power from overhead wires; while Kyocera Solar is cutting the overhead for solar installation by offering up to 100 percent financing on U.S. commercial deployments.


Accenture (News - Alert), a global management consulting firm, has been selected by Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) for comprehensive restructuring as part of the privatization efforts that will lead to an eventual liberalization of the electricity market in Saudi Arabia. The restructuring comes in line with the recently launched Electricity Industry Restructuring Plan (EIRP), which provides the guidelines to move toward a more competitive wholesale electricity market in the Kingdom. As the first move of the company’s multi-year restructuring strategy, SEC (News - Alert) recently created the National Grid Company, a wholly owned power transmission subsidiary. Within this phase of the restructuring program, SEC also will create and spin off four generation companies, and one distribution company.

Researchers at Iran’s Sharif University have received a U.S. patent for their innovative restructuring of solar cells. Iran’s Nanotechnology Initiative Council reports that, because “single-sided dye-sensitized solar cells [have] a vertical patterned structure” there is no need to use conductive glass. By eliminating the need for conductive glass, the team from Sharif may significantly drive down the cost of producing solar panels.

The U.S. subsidiary of the Munich-based Siemens Corporation rolled out an “eHighway of the Future'” concept at the 26th Annual Electric Vehicle Symposium in Los Angeles this week. Just like modern trolley cars, hybrid diesel semi-trucks have been designed with the built-in technology and software to automatically switch to electric mode when they detect and attach to overhead wires.  Once the trucks leave the electrified power lines, they switch back to diesel. The infrastructure for the eHighway is constructed on select highway lanes—similar to the separate HOV (high occupancy vehicle) lanes that already are allocated on many roadways. The eHighway currently is being tested in Germany; and pilot projects are being planned that will enable the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in California to connect to cargo centers.

Kyocera Solar, which according to industry estimates, dropped to number 18  in 2011 among photovoltaic (PV) solar cell producers worldwide, from number 10 the year before, is bringing more money to the table, in the hopes that financing will drive business in the U.S. market.  The U.S. division of Japan’s Kyocera Group is offering up to 100 percent financing on loan and tax lease options for qualified consumers seeking light commercial and mid- to large-scale commercial solar PV installations.  Funding will be provided through a partnership between Kyocera Solar and De Lage Landen Financial Services, Inc. (DLL), headquartered in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

San Francisco-based, Clean Power Finance, the online marketplace for residential solar financing; MS Solar Solutions Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Morgan Stanley; and Main Street Power Company, a North American solar developer and Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) provider, have created MySolar, a residential solar lease facility that will provide funding for up to $300 million in projects. Zions Energy Link, part of Zions Bancorporation is the first member of a syndicate of debt providers to the MySolar residential solar lease facility. The MySolar lease initially will be available in Arizona and California.

Last month, Call2Recycle published a survey that found that, although the majority of the public suffers from “green guilt” from not properly recycling cell phones and other types of technology, it is often just too much of a hassle. Sprint (News - Alert) has made some efforts to raise awareness of greener methods of disposal technology by offering incentives to recycle through its Buyback Program. This week, the program awarded the U.S. Postal Service a check for $250,000 for recognition of their good work in e-cycling.

The all-electric trucks introduced by PepsiCo's Frito-Lay North America convenience food division have charged their way to a million miles this month. Over the past two years, 176 all-electric trucks manufactured by Smith Electric Vehicles (SEV) have been added to Frito-Lay’s commercial delivery truck fleet. To date, these trucks have eliminated the need for approximately 200,000 gallons of diesel fuel. Frito-Lay also announced that it will purchase 100 Newton Series 2000 all-electric commercial vehicles in 2012 from Kansas City-based SEV—bringing the total number of its EVs to more than 280. That represents about 1.4 percent of its motor pool of 20,000 delivery trucks—the seventh largest privately owned fleet in America. Among Smith Electric Vehicles’ other current customers are TNT Express delivery services, Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Ltd, Coca-Cola, DHL, FedEx, and the U.S. Army.

National Technical Systems has launched a comprehensive smart energy product certification program that includes three areas not yet tested by the industry: interoperability, radio frequency performance, and security. These areas, identified by utilities as “vital” for new products, are missing from existing assessments. NTS (News - Alert), a provider of testing and engineering services based in Calabasas, Calif., said the Smart Suite Certification Program would concentrate on key components that are highly important in the selection of smart energy devices.

GE Lighting has designed a new smart LED bulb that is going to serve as a replacement for the 100-watt incandescent light bulb. GE claimed that it has leapfrogged the competition and gone beyond the expected 75-watt incandescent replacement.  The GE Smart incandescent-shaped (A-19) LED bulb requires only 27 watts of input power and was designed by a collaboration of GE and its ecomagination challenge winner, Nuventix, creator of LED cooling technologies for energy-efficient lighting. The new Smart LED bulb debuted on May 9 at LIGHTFAIR International in Las Vegas.

Finally, corporate members of the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) Climate Savers program cut their carbon dioxide emissions by more than 100 million tons over the period from 1999 to 2011, according to an independent review released on May 9. The figure is double the current annual emissions oin Switzerland. WWF is releasing the results of its review to coincide with three days of meetings it is holding in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, where it will encourage existing Climate Savers and other corporations to further boost industry efforts against climate change. The review, conducted by the international energy consultancy Ecofys, located in Utrecht, The Netherlands, also finds that, as Climate Savers companies continue to deliver on their commitments up to 2020, overall emissions savings since 1999 could exceed 350 million tons. This would be roughly equivalent to the current annual emissions of Spain.





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