16 October '09
3:14 PM UTC
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Solar

The Spanish Armada is Coming, Acciona Lands U.S. Army Contract for 500 MW Solar Farm

Spanish Flag

Spanish companies are developing some of the largest wind and solar farms in the U.S.

If one needed more proof of the ascendancy of the Spanish cleantech sector, then look no further than the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which yesterday announced an MOU with Madrid-based Acciona to develop a $2 billion, 500 megawatts CSP parabolic trough solar facility at Fort Irwin in the sun-drenched California Mojave Desert.

Acciona’s solar unit, Acciona Solar Power, and Arlington, Va.-based Clark Energy Group, a unit of the construction company, Clark Construction Group, will jointly develop the project. The facility will take a long time to develop — it’s not expected to be fully operational until 2022.

The news is yet another indication of the growing dominance of Spanish clean energy developers, which, back in their home market, were able to develop thanks to generous government funding. In fact, Spain’s subsidy program inspired Obama’s own green-focused energy plan.

And there again Spanish companies are coming out as big winners. Over the past month, European companies, particularly Spanish ones like heavyweight Iberdrola, got the lion’s share of the U.S. Department of Energy cash grants, getting nearly half of the $1 billion distributed so far out of the total $3 billion allocated. Read More »

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16 October '09
11:54 AM UTC
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Cleantech

On Washington’s Green Energy Money

We followed up with Scott Stewart, who recently joined Washington, D.C. law firm Patton Boggs from the Justice Department where he was a litigator with the department’s environmental team.

Stewart best summarized Washington’s growing importance as a funding source for cleantech companies. He said:

The ability to access the federal government’s [funding] programs I think, in this economy, is going to be a crucial component of failure or success for cleantech companies.

How important is Washington  these days for the cleantech sector? Take California solar developer OptiSolar, which in March, at the height of the credit crisis, shutdown  and laid off all of its workers after it failed to get the $300 million government loan guarantee it was counting on to finance construction of a large manufacturing plant.

To get to that government money law firms have been staffing up their respective D.C. offices with environmental/greentech lawyers. For more on that see, here or here.

Does Patton Boggs plan to hire more green lawyers?

Stewart says “yes,”but  declined to provide more specifics.

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16 October '09
8:46 AM UTC
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Wind

General Electric Earnings: Energy Infrastructure Still Strong

Once again, General Electric’s energy infrastructure unit outperformed the rest of the company, posting an 11 percent or $1.58 billion earnings gain in Q3 even as revenues fell. Here’s the release and the presentation.

General Electric’s overall quarely earnings fell 45 percent, on a year over year basis, and 51 percent on a per share basis.

The numbers aren’t as good as they were in Q2 for energy infrastructure but will likely improve.

The unit’s revenues were down 9 percent, to $8.9 billion on flat sales of wind, a 30 percent decline in thermal energy and 10 percent jump in energy servvices.

The stimulus, as the company’s presentation says, is expected to ramp up in Q4 and give a boost to General Electric’s wind and smart grid technologies.

Environmental Capital’s Keith Johnson has some good analysis here.

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16 October '09
7:30 AM UTC
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Cleantech

Update: Details Emerge on Tres Amigas Financing

Tres Amigas: The electron superhighway

Tres Amigas: The electron superhighway

GER had an insightful talk with Russell Stidolph, founder of cleantech-focused PE firm AltEnergy, a majority owner of the Tres Amigas grid interconnection project, on which we wrote about earlier this week.

Stidolph says Tres Amigas has raised enough money to fund its three-year long development program. He declined to say how much money the company’s raised but noted that, as a minority owner, American Superconductor (NASDAQ: AMSC) invested $1.75 million in the company.

Once operational Tres Amigas will route power from mostly isolated wind and solar farms to the country’s three-grid system (the Western and Eastern Interconnections and Ercot of Texas), ensuring that more green energy  flows to large power markets. Read More »

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15 October '09
12:49 PM UTC
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Cleantech

Revolving Door: Patton Boggs Hires DOJ Litigator for Greentech Practice

Patton Boggs, the D.C. law firm, has hired a litigator with the Justice Department‘s environmental team to beef up its clean energy practice.

Scott Stewart Joins the firm as a partner after having spent eight years with the DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, where he enforced key environmental laws including the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act.

These days lawyers with green creds are sought after by firms eager to beef up billable hours helping clients access the $37 billion in DOE clean energy monies. We recently posted on Silicon Valley firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, poaching a partner from Baker & McKenzie’s clean tech practice for its own Washington office, see here. There’re  some hefty fees to be made helping clients get government cash.

And reading between the lines of his prepared statement, released yesterday, Stewart intends to do just that for his clients. He says:

My goal is to establish a full-service renewable energy and clean technology practice, while building a supporting, client driven environmental regulatory and litigation practice.

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