Posted on: Sun, 17 Oct 2010 02:12:54 EDT
Oct 16, 2010 Prime Sun Power Inc. announced that it has entered into a Master Acquisition Agreement with DFD Select Group Ltd. and EnWay SAS, a Financial Advisory Company specializing in capital preservation and EnWay an Operational Coordinator in the renewable energy industry, to co-develop up to 100 Megawatts (MW) of photovoltaic (PV) plants in France in 2011.
The Company said that under the agreement, PSP and DFD/EnWay will jointly develop the 100Mw power plants until Grid connection. PSP plans to acquire and operate the Grid connected power plants as a long term company asset. Both parties agree that, where possible, some of the modules for the PV-Plants will be provided by strategic partners or suppliers pre-selected by PSP.
According to a release, the 100 MW power plants will be allocated on land identified by DFD/EnWay in the region of "Arles" and "Castres" in the South of France. Engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) contracting and long term financing will be provided by French institutions currently in discussions with PSP.
"The French market provides attractive energy output levels as well as rewarding investment returns. DFD/EnWay have substantial knowledge about the licensing procedures and have excellent relationships with prime landowners and regional authorities. The projects' indicative profitability and key financials are promising. In addition to the Italian market, this step accelerates the projected growth of PSP as a utility-scale PV power plant developer and operator" said Olivier de Vergnies, CEO of PSP.
"PSP has an impressive business model and experienced management. We are pleased to participate in their vision and jointly establish a major project portfolio in France "said David Tucker, Chief Executive Officer of DFD and Jean-Pierre Philippe, Chief Executive Officer of EnWay.
PSP noted that it is in the process of appointing a European investment bank with successful global track record in clean energy sector for the equity and capital raising of up to EUR160 Million required for the development, construction and installation of 225Mw of PV-Power Plants which PSP has in its pipeline in Italy, France and Greece. PSP has exchanged communications with the bank which has indicated keen interest to accept the mandate. PSP expects to disclose the details of the financing upon completion of the due diligence related to closing the final agreement. The bank considers PSP projects pipeline interesting for its client base which includes financial investors (such as infrastructure funds focused on renewable), institutional investors (e.g. insurance companies), and strategic investors looking to secure downstream pipeline (such as module manufacturers), utilities and IPPs as well as industrial companies interested in diversifying in the renewable space.
PSP has also received a term sheet for the financing of its solar power plant projects in Italy on a leasing basis providing 80 percent of the investment cost.
DFD Select Group Limited was created in 1996 and has been acting as an Investment Manager.
EnWay is a development company, which coordinates financial, industrial, and operational partners. It has a portfolio of both French and international projects.
PSP is positioning itself as a clean energy utility company with an emphasis on the development, construction and operation of its own and third party utility-scale photovoltaic power plants. The Company is focusing on photovoltaic solar power generation in Europe, particularly in Italy, Greece and Turkey.
More information:
www.primesunpower.com
Monday, 18 October 2010
Google in major bid for Eastern US wind power
Saturday, 16 October 2010
Investors led by technology giant Google on Tuesday announced a five billion-dollar project to power the US East Coast with wind from the Atlantic Ocean, in an ambitious bid to spur alternative energy.
The project would set up offshore wind turbines and a new transmission grid stretching 350 miles (565 kilometers) from New Jersey to Virginia, the most densely populated part of the United States which suffered blackouts in 2003.
Google, the Internet search giant whose interests now run the gamut from broadband to robotic cars, said it would provide 37.5 percent of the initial funding.
Rick Needham, director of green business operations and strategy at Google, described the project as a new "superhighway" for alternative energy, creating jobs and eventually providing enough power to serve 1.9 million households.
"We're willing to take calculated risks on large-scale projects that can move an industry. Indeed, that is what's made our company so successful to date," Needham told a news conference in Washington.
The companies said they hoped to begin work on the project, called the Atlantic Wind Connection, in early 2013 and complete it by 2020, subject to government approval. Needham said Google was open to further investment later.
Bob Mitchell, the chief executive of Trans-Elect, the private electric transmission company leading construction of the project, estimated total costs of five billion dollars.
Good Energies, a company which invests in green energy, is also investing 37.5 percent in the project, while Japanese trading house Marubeni has a 15 percent stake.
John Breckenridge, an executive at Good Energies, described the Atlantic Wind Connection as landmark in its ambition, hoping that it would succeed in "fixing a lot of what's been done wrong" in renewable energy.
"Renewables have been deployed in a very haphazard manner around the world, where you've installed solar farms, wind farms, without looking at the whole," Breckenridge told the news conference.
"This project enables us to do this in a planned way that will optimize this and really create the basis for the kind of energy infrastructure that we as a country and really as a world need to evolve to," he said.
Investors said they would not seek government funding. The US Congress has soured on efforts to battle climate change, with legislation to impose restrictions on carbon emissions all but dead in the Senate.
With elections approaching, President Barack Obama's administration on Tuesday ended a ban on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico which was imposed after the BP oil spill in April.
But the administration has also backed alternative energy. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar last week approved the first US offshore wind farm near Massachusetts and pledged to speed up approval for future projects.
The United States is already the world leader in wind energy in the raw amount of energy production, according to an industry study last year. But wind farms are concentrated in sparsely populated states in the Western plains.
Offshore projects have encountered opposition due to residents who find them an eyesore and environmentalists who fear they will harm animals, particularly migratory birds.
Mitchell voiced confidence that the Atlantic Wind Connection would not face significant opposition as the farms will be at least 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the coast, meaning they would be only partially visible on a clear day.
But Mitchell admitted that the grid may transport a "relatively small percentage" of energy from coal, which is loathed by environmentalists as one of the dirtiest forms of energy.
Despite rising US production, European nations lead the world in wind's share of total energy production, with Denmark topping the world at 20 percent.
With the right incentives, wind power could meet one-fifth of the entire world's electricity demand within 20 years, environmentalists Greenpeace and an industry group said in a report released Tuesday in China.
Investors led by technology giant Google on Tuesday announced a five billion-dollar project to power the US East Coast with wind from the Atlantic Ocean, in an ambitious bid to spur alternative energy.
The project would set up offshore wind turbines and a new transmission grid stretching 350 miles (565 kilometers) from New Jersey to Virginia, the most densely populated part of the United States which suffered blackouts in 2003.
Google, the Internet search giant whose interests now run the gamut from broadband to robotic cars, said it would provide 37.5 percent of the initial funding.
Rick Needham, director of green business operations and strategy at Google, described the project as a new "superhighway" for alternative energy, creating jobs and eventually providing enough power to serve 1.9 million households.
"We're willing to take calculated risks on large-scale projects that can move an industry. Indeed, that is what's made our company so successful to date," Needham told a news conference in Washington.
The companies said they hoped to begin work on the project, called the Atlantic Wind Connection, in early 2013 and complete it by 2020, subject to government approval. Needham said Google was open to further investment later.
Bob Mitchell, the chief executive of Trans-Elect, the private electric transmission company leading construction of the project, estimated total costs of five billion dollars.
Good Energies, a company which invests in green energy, is also investing 37.5 percent in the project, while Japanese trading house Marubeni has a 15 percent stake.
John Breckenridge, an executive at Good Energies, described the Atlantic Wind Connection as landmark in its ambition, hoping that it would succeed in "fixing a lot of what's been done wrong" in renewable energy.
"Renewables have been deployed in a very haphazard manner around the world, where you've installed solar farms, wind farms, without looking at the whole," Breckenridge told the news conference.
"This project enables us to do this in a planned way that will optimize this and really create the basis for the kind of energy infrastructure that we as a country and really as a world need to evolve to," he said.
Investors said they would not seek government funding. The US Congress has soured on efforts to battle climate change, with legislation to impose restrictions on carbon emissions all but dead in the Senate.
With elections approaching, President Barack Obama's administration on Tuesday ended a ban on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico which was imposed after the BP oil spill in April.
But the administration has also backed alternative energy. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar last week approved the first US offshore wind farm near Massachusetts and pledged to speed up approval for future projects.
The United States is already the world leader in wind energy in the raw amount of energy production, according to an industry study last year. But wind farms are concentrated in sparsely populated states in the Western plains.
Offshore projects have encountered opposition due to residents who find them an eyesore and environmentalists who fear they will harm animals, particularly migratory birds.
Mitchell voiced confidence that the Atlantic Wind Connection would not face significant opposition as the farms will be at least 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the coast, meaning they would be only partially visible on a clear day.
But Mitchell admitted that the grid may transport a "relatively small percentage" of energy from coal, which is loathed by environmentalists as one of the dirtiest forms of energy.
Despite rising US production, European nations lead the world in wind's share of total energy production, with Denmark topping the world at 20 percent.
With the right incentives, wind power could meet one-fifth of the entire world's electricity demand within 20 years, environmentalists Greenpeace and an industry group said in a report released Tuesday in China.
Russia and Venezuela strike nuclear power station deal
Hugo Chávez says he wants to cut oil reliance, while Moscow asserts Venezuela's right to 'full range of energy choices'
Luke Harding in Moscow and agencies guardian.co.uk, Friday 15 October 2010 14.23 BST
Russia has agreed to help Venezuela build its first nuclear power station in a move likely to raise concerns in Washington about increasingly close cooperation between Moscow and Caracas.
President Dmitry Medvedev announced the move at the end of a two-day visit to Moscow by Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez. The Venezuelan economy is overwhelmingly reliant on oil and Chávez has said he wants nuclear power to diversify energy supply.
Medvedev has implicitly acknowledged the deal is likely to be unpopular with the US but defended Venezuela's right to seek access to peaceful nuclear technology. The station is likely to be built over the next 10-15 years. Its cost has not yet been revealed.
"An agreement has just been signed on co-operation in the atomic sphere. I don't know who will shudder at this," Medvedev told a press conference after his talks with Chávez. "The president [of Venezuela] said there will be countries in which this will provoke different emotions. But I want to say specially that our intentions are absolutely pure and open." Russia wanted Venezuela to have a "full range of energy choices".
Chávez's visit is his ninth to Moscow and the first stop on a 12-day European tour that includes visits to Belarus and, for the first time, Ukraine – now once again within Moscow's sphere of influence. On previous occasions, Chávez has bought billions of dollars worth of military hardware from Russia including submarines, helicopters and attack aircraft. Both leaders have reaffirmed their plans to continue military-technical co-operation.
Viktor Semyonov, an economist at Moscow's Institute of Latin American Studies, said it was logical for Venezuela to seek civilian nuclear technology since its economy was even more dependent on oil than Russia's. Russia was already building a nuclear power station in Iran and holding talks with other Latin American countries, including Brazil and Argentina.
"We are a country that exports nuclear technology around the world. Venezuela's economy is 94 or even 95% made up of oil. Russia's is 65%, which is already a lot. They (the Venezuelans) want to widen their sources of energy so they are less dependent on it," Semyonov said.
Speaking in Moscow on Thursday night, Chávez offered assurances that Venezuela had no interest in building a nuclear weapon and only wanted peaceful nuclear technology. He described the collapse of the Soviet Union as a "catastrophe" and launched a familiar attack on the United States, denigrating it as a "Yankee empire".
Chávez went for a spin in a Lada car, causing miles of gridlock on Moscow's traffic-clogged streets. Before heading to the airport Chávez handed Medevedev several gifts. They included three bars of chocolate, banana jam and a tin of cocoa.
Luke Harding in Moscow and agencies guardian.co.uk, Friday 15 October 2010 14.23 BST
Russia has agreed to help Venezuela build its first nuclear power station in a move likely to raise concerns in Washington about increasingly close cooperation between Moscow and Caracas.
President Dmitry Medvedev announced the move at the end of a two-day visit to Moscow by Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez. The Venezuelan economy is overwhelmingly reliant on oil and Chávez has said he wants nuclear power to diversify energy supply.
Medvedev has implicitly acknowledged the deal is likely to be unpopular with the US but defended Venezuela's right to seek access to peaceful nuclear technology. The station is likely to be built over the next 10-15 years. Its cost has not yet been revealed.
"An agreement has just been signed on co-operation in the atomic sphere. I don't know who will shudder at this," Medvedev told a press conference after his talks with Chávez. "The president [of Venezuela] said there will be countries in which this will provoke different emotions. But I want to say specially that our intentions are absolutely pure and open." Russia wanted Venezuela to have a "full range of energy choices".
Chávez's visit is his ninth to Moscow and the first stop on a 12-day European tour that includes visits to Belarus and, for the first time, Ukraine – now once again within Moscow's sphere of influence. On previous occasions, Chávez has bought billions of dollars worth of military hardware from Russia including submarines, helicopters and attack aircraft. Both leaders have reaffirmed their plans to continue military-technical co-operation.
Viktor Semyonov, an economist at Moscow's Institute of Latin American Studies, said it was logical for Venezuela to seek civilian nuclear technology since its economy was even more dependent on oil than Russia's. Russia was already building a nuclear power station in Iran and holding talks with other Latin American countries, including Brazil and Argentina.
"We are a country that exports nuclear technology around the world. Venezuela's economy is 94 or even 95% made up of oil. Russia's is 65%, which is already a lot. They (the Venezuelans) want to widen their sources of energy so they are less dependent on it," Semyonov said.
Speaking in Moscow on Thursday night, Chávez offered assurances that Venezuela had no interest in building a nuclear weapon and only wanted peaceful nuclear technology. He described the collapse of the Soviet Union as a "catastrophe" and launched a familiar attack on the United States, denigrating it as a "Yankee empire".
Chávez went for a spin in a Lada car, causing miles of gridlock on Moscow's traffic-clogged streets. Before heading to the airport Chávez handed Medevedev several gifts. They included three bars of chocolate, banana jam and a tin of cocoa.