Five Promising Thin Film Solar Startups

Five Promising Thin Film Solar Startups

It is a rough time to be a startup in the Solar Photovoltaic sector. The financial crisis and deep recession has not only dried up capital, but has also hit demand for solar panels, which has lead to a global supply glut and a price collapse. In this very difficult environment startups must compete with much larger established global suppliers that have factories of hundreds of megawatts each, an established customer base and well developed brand names and sales channels. In this post we look at five promising CIGS thin film Solar PV startups based in the US and try to catalog their unique strengths and accomplishments.

President Obama Awards $2.3 Billion for New Clean-Tech Manufacturing Jobs

President Obama Awards $2.3 Billion for New Clean-Tech Manufacturing Jobs

Yesterday, at the White House, 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. The 183 projects in 43 states will generate more than 17,000 high quality clean energy jobs and the domestic manufacturingof advanced clean energy technologies including solar, wind, and efficiency and energy management technologies. This investment will be matched by as much as $5.4 billion in private sector funding likely supporting up to 41,000 additional jobs.

27 Areas of Potential Job Growth In the Green Economy

27 Areas of Potential Job Growth In the Green Economy

Stephen Hinton, provides a compilation of professionals that will see growth as the US economy goes green. He predicts that those in STEM professions (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) will experience the most job security.

GSA’s Robert Peck Offers Vision for Federal Green Building

GSA’s Robert Peck Offers Vision for Federal Green Building

Robert A. Peck, Commissioner of Public Buildings at the U.S. General Services Association (GSA), presented a keynote presentation at Ecobuild America this week entitled GSA: Green Pioneer – Green Proving Ground. Peck presented his vision for the GSA as a leader in green building technology and discussed how the 5.5 billion dollar appropriation from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) will impact the GSA’s work.

Global Change Education Program Graduate Research Environmental Fellowship

The U.S. Department of Energy-Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) funds the Global Change Education Program (GCEP) to promote undergraduate and graduate education and training supportive of the Department’s global change research activities. Global change research encompasses a number of technical areas, including atmospheric sciences, ecology, global carbon cycles, climate, and terrestrial processes.

Join The DOE Environmental Management Professional Development Corps

The Department of Energy with the office of Environmental Management are looking for new graduate students for their spring 2010 EMPDC recruitment program from engineering, science and management field. Eligible participants will be trained under experts from Environmental Management Community and participants will carry out duties related to their work and will be posted in any location nationwide.

DOE Announces $104 Million to Establish Clean Energy Research and Testing Facilities

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced $104.7 million in funding for seven new research and testing facilities located in DOE national laboratories. The announced projects will support the development and improvement of clean energy and efficiency technologies that are in the US strategic national interest. The new funding is supporting research in techniques to reduce the cost to manufacture carbon fiber on a large scale; finding ways to improve efficiency and lower costs for car batteries; and for developing net-zero energy building technologies.

For a Secure Energy Future, Obama Must Be Like Ike

President Obama is faced with some of the same challenges former President Eisenhower faced when he was confronted with a patchwork of county and state highways that impeded interstate commerce. History is repeating itself. President Obama’s goal of securing 25 percent of our electricity from renewable sources by 2025 is restricted by state regulators who fail to cooperate on interstate goals. President Eisenhower granted the Bureau of Public Roads authority to plan and place the new, interstate highways and Steinberg is advocating for the Obama administration to extend the same authority to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in order to update the grid.

ALERT: Two DOE Webinars Tomorrow: PACE and State of the States 2009

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Weatherization and Intergovernmental Program is hosting two Webinars tomorrow, Wednesday, November 18. The first targets recipients of Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants (EECBG), and the second targets state and local officials interested in the role of policy in renewable energy market development.