ConEdison Joining Solar Power

   Sempra U.S. Gas & Power and Consolidated Edison Development (ConEdison) became equal partners in two of Sempra U.S. Gas & Power's solar power facilities, the 150 megawatt Copper Mountain Solar 2 plant near Las Vegas and the 150 megawatt Mesquite Solar 1 plant near Phoenix. Under the terms of the joint-venture agreement, which was announced in May 2013, each company will own a 50% interest in each of the solar facilities. The terms of the transaction, however, were not disclosed.

      Mesquite Solar 1, the first phase of the Sempra U.S. Gas & Power's Mesquite Solar Power complex located in Arlington, Arizona, was completed in late 2012. Mesquite Solar 1 generates enough clean electricity for about 56,000 homes. Power from the facility has been fully sold to Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) under a 20-year contract. 

       The first phase of Copper Mountain Solar 2 is also complete and is currently generating 92 megawatts of solar power. When the second phase is fully constructed (expected in 2015), the project's total operating capacity will be 150 megawatts. The solar power plant generates enough clean energy to power about 45,000 homes. Power from the facility has also been fully sold to PG&E under a 25-year contract.

Washington Gas Solar-Powering California University

       Washington Gas Energy Systems, Inc. will own and operate a solar array at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, California. Financial terms were not disclosed. However, "the facility will be opened and operated by Washington Gas Energy Systems, Inc. under a 20-year power purchase agreement," Washington Gas said. Green Energy Group LLC developed the project, which will be completed next month. 

       The roof-mounted system includes 2,688 solar panels on three campus buildings and will produce more than 1,100 megawatt hours of solar energy a year. Washington Gas Energy Systems, Inc., is actually a subsidiary of Washington Gas parent WGL Holdings, which owns commercial-scale projects in 10 states, including the largest solar photovoltaic panel system in the District, at Catholic University at America. 

150 MW California Solar Power Plant is Bought!

      The 150-megawatt Solar Generation 2 photovoltaic power plant, located in Imperial County (California), was recently bought by First Solar, Inc. The construction of this solar power plant is planned to start this year and is set to be completed next year. Once completed, the new photovoltaic solar power plant is to produce enough electricity to power more than 60,0000 homes while displacing more than 115,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. This solar power plant will estimably save around 93,000 metric tons of water per year.
      The San Diego Gas and Electric Company (SDG&E) has agreed to purchase the electrical output under a 25-year power purchase agreement. Once this agreement is started, the photovoltaic solar plant is expected to provide over 800 construction jobs within Imperial County, which has been overcome with high unemployment.
       "We are very pleased to help SDG&E meet its clean energy goals and provide clean, reliable, renewable power to their customers," said Dana Diller, First Solar Vice President of U.S. Business Development. "We are also proud to once again bring the economic benefits of utility-scale solar development to Imperial County, where both county officials and the Imperial Irrigation District, with which this plant will interconnect, have been extremely supportive."
        The financial details of the new purchase is still unknown but it does include 40 megawatts of solar modules that the project had previously purchased from another supplier. First Solar, Inc., is actually planning to integrate those modules into construction and make up the difference with their own modules in order to complete the construction of the power plant. In addition, First Solar will be providing project development, engineering, procurement and construction (EPC), and grid integration services.

Japan to build nation's largest solar park

Softbank Corp., Japan's third largest mobile phone company, and Mitsui & Co. joined together to build what may be the nation's largest solar power plant. From previous nuclear disasters in a quarter of a century, Chairman of Softbank, Masayoshi Son’s ambition grew towards installing more renewable energy and had signed a pact with Mitsui & Co to build a 39.5 megawatts in capacity of solar energy. Since the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011, Japan's government had swayed away towards the reliance of atomic energy and moved onward favors of natural gas and renewable energy. Softbanks plans on investing about 230 megawatts of renewable energy, mostly towards solar. Mitsui will be getting 90% of the profit from trading in metals, oil, and gas and had took the role of Chief Executive Officer in project management.

Investments towards renewable energy

      European investors in the next five years are withdrawing their finances from the construction of facilities generating fossil fuels and inserting them into better use: development of renewable energy sources, known as the RES. These claims were made from representatives from gas companies surved by the British-based Gas Strategies Group at the European Autumn Gas Conference, known as EAGC 2012.
        According to this survey, it was claimed that 42% of gas industry representatives believed that the whole share of investments would go to the wind power sector, 28% believed it would be towards the solar power industry, 13% thought it to be the coal-fired industry,  11% to the gas industry and 7% to the nuclear power industry.
       From last year, it seemed that opinions have indeed changed dramatically: support of solar energy has grew from 4% to 28%, coal-fired industry has grew from 2% to 13%, nuclear energy from 5% to 7%, wind power sector from 52% to 42%, and lastly but not least the gas industry from 37% to 11%.
       There have been reports in the Bloomberg New Energy Finance, that global investment in renewable energy development in 2012 was $268.7 billion, whereas there was $142 billion in investments towards solar power energy as well as the remaining $78.3 billion in the wind power sector.

      Ukraine has also been increasing their involvement in renewable energy. At the beginning of this new year, the total number of companies operating power plants, derived from renewable energy sources has increased to 80, and the number of the power plants has increased to 133, in which 39 are used for solar power energy.
     Ukraine actually has what is known to be the largest power plant in Europe.

Once construction is completed in 2015, this solar power farm is said to be equivalent to 207 football fields. It is expected to produce 100,000 megawatt-hours of electricity per year, meaning it can be enough to power 20,000 average-sized households.
Even today, Ukraine ranks 12th in energy rankings with installed renewable energy capacity of 54 GW.

Boss

Now you know there are people out there that don't give a crap about having the gas prices skyrocketing since his own car is modded to run on solar energy. Amazing.

Wipe out your electric bills!

      Some countries have already begun piquing their curiosity and experimenting with solar technology. What about the United States? Are we also far behind when the countries around us are advancing their resources?

     No. It seems California is advancing as well, as we speak. Compared to the East Coast, the West Coast has more tendencies to support such technology. Due to the warm weather conditions, with the support of the communities as well as many government grants and programs, there has been many rooftop solar installations on residential and commercial buildings. They are even free of charge after incentives for businesses and  off grid rebates for homes that are struggling to pay their bills on time.

     The east coast, on the other hand, are not so Eco friendly. Therefore, Our fellow neighbors settled in the east coast took their matters into their own hands by purchasing portable gas powered generators, powering their own appliances through the use of gasoline. But these generators have no value outside power failures, especially when gasoline can never be produced but bought. For example, homes that were affected by hurricane "Sandy" had no way of getting their hands on gasoline when it was limited in supply. Therefore, the government had provided gas stations with limited amounts of gasoline. The government had no choice but to set up a gas rationing plan, "odd-even", restricting cars with odd-numbered license plates on odd days as well as even-numbers license plates on even days. The rationing had been going on for until weeks end.