Layoffs are moving to solar thermal too. Ausra, the solar thermal specialist that moved from Australia to build utility-scale plants in the Southwest, has shed some of its employees in a layoff, according to people who were laid off by Ausra. The layoffs began in December. And a pair of high-level executives have left the company as well. Glen Davis, executive vice president and chief commercial officer, and Robert Morgan, executive vice president and chief development officer, sent notes to various acquaintances and colleagues this weekend stating that they both have left the company. The two plan on reinvigorating Agile Energy, the company they were at before Ausra. A number of solar companies have already started cutting employees in the wake of the credit crisis and economic slowdown. Optisolar laid off 300 employees, or about half of its staff, recently. Optisolar makes solar panels and wants to run solar power plants. SunEdison, a power provider, cut around 50 employees in December. HelioVolt, which makes CIGS solar panels, cut about 15. Suntech Power Holdings, the giant Chinese solar panel maker, cut 10 percent of its workforce in December. The company has around 8,000 employees. Ausra marks the first solar thermal company we've seen with layoffs. But again, more should be expected. Solar thermal plants are huge, multimillion dollar projects that rely on massive financing packages. Some of the solar thermal companies planning projects now won't be producing power for a couple of years. Back in the '90s, the solar thermal company went under after the state of California refused to continue real estate tax exemptions for these parks. The company has been trailing some of the other solar thermal companies in landing big contracts, so it was also the most likely to have layoff first. Ausra landed a contract to build a 177-megawatt solar farm for PG&E (and recently opened a 5-megawatt demo facility in the state). But those are small in comparison. Brightsource Energy has a 500-megawatt contract with PG&E that could be expanded to 900 megawatts and Stirling Energy Systems has a 600-megawatt contract with San Diego Gas & Electric and another 850-megawatt contract with Southern California Edison. Solel, one of the early thermal pioneers, is working on a 533-megawatt plant for PG&E. In these contracts, the developer builds the solar thermal farm and the utility agrees to buy the power. The utilities need to get power from these plants to meet their renewable power requirements in California. But, if the plants aren't built, it is unknown what will happen to the renewable standards in the state.

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ABU DHABI -- Here the advice to Barack Obama and Congress from Nicholas Stern, a former World Bank chief economist, about what not to do in crafting a carbon emissions cap-and-trade program:

“Don’t be pushed too hard by domestic pressure and move as quickly a possible the auctioning of permits. Do allow international trading and buying of credits.�

Stern, or Lord Stern to those who are mindful of his knighthood and membership to the House of Lords in the British parliament, made his comments during a press event on Monday at the big renewable energy confab in Abu Dhabi called the World Future Energy Summit. Obama will take office Tuesday, and what he can and will do to resuscitate a poor economy and curb greenhouse gas emission is a hot topic at the conference, which is attracting business executives, government delegations and royalties.

Having advised the United Kingdom on the economics of climate change and currently a professor at the London School of Economics, Stern has watched the birth of the European Union’s carbon cap-and-trade program and struggles to fix the program's shortcomings.

The European program, started running in 2005, sets emissions-emitting limits for certain industries and issue emissions permits to companies. Companies that can’t emit below the limits will have to buy permits from those who are able to or have gotten credits from developing green energy projects.

When carbon credit prices crashed at one point, for example, the EU realized it had issued too many emissions allowances. The EU also has been giving away the permits largely free of charge, something that it’s looking to change.

American business and environmental groups also want to avoid the same mistakes, though they are offering different solutions. One of those groups, the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, drew lots of criticism when it presented its proposal to a Congressional committee last week. The group wants the government to give away a big portion of the allowances for free. Obama, on the other hand, wants to auction them off to raise money for a variety of initiatives, including greentech research and development.

Stern is siding with Obama because he believes polluters should have to pay dearly for their transgression. He warned against giving in to business or political pressures to weaken any climate change legislation.

“We should tax things that are bad. We are not paying the price of destruction,� Stern said. “There are $250 billion worth of energy subsidies [worldwide], mostly in hydrocarbon, and we should get rid of all of them.�

Asked whether the United States should choose a carbon tax instead of a carbon cap-and-trade program, Stern said both. He noted that European countries levy heavy gasoline gases, and the EU is trying to tighten its cap-and-trade program and broaden the program's coverage to include more industries. The current cap-and-trade program covers about 40 percent of EU’s emissions.

Stern said a cap-and-trade program such as the EU’s generates incentives for developing countries to embrace renewable energy generation and other greentech ideas. As part of EU’s program, companies that need to buy emissions permits can buy from those who have built solar or wind energy projects in the developing world and garnered credits that can be sold to make a profit.

“I think it’s horses for courses,� Stern said about which approach would be a better fit for the United States. “I wouldn’t turn it into a simple arm wrestle with one over the other.�

Here's a new twist on distributed energy. IST Energy in Massachusetts is plugging a new device called the Green Energy Machine that turns the garbage at hospitals and industrial parks into heat and energy, according to Martin Lamonica at News.com. The unit converts the trash into a synthetic gas and then into usable power. The company claims it can convert 95 percent of the waste -- up to three tons of trash a day -- into usable energy. Three tons of trash is enough to power a 200,000 square foot building with 500 employees. Put another way, that's 12 pounds of crud per employee. Theoretically, this works on a couple of levels. It gets rid of trash, reduces landfill, and cuts down on hauling fees. It also cuts back on the need for fossil fuels. Is it economical? IST says yes, but trash-to-fuel companies have been stumped by the numbers before. That's why companies like Ze-Gen are getting interest from VCs. The company's process -- which involves dipping garbage into vats of molten iron -- can get around some of the economic difficulties of exploiting trash as a source of fuel. The GEM unit costs $850,000 and can pay for itself in three to four years, the company says, and you get credits. Customer trials over the next few years will make their case.

ABU DHABI -- Abu Dhabi wants 7 percent of the electricity it generates to come from renewable sources by 2020. The emirate expects most, if not all, of that renewable energy to come from solar, said Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, CEO of Masdar Monday.

Jaber announced the emirate’s renewable energy goal during an opening remark at the World Future Energy Summit, a three-day conference and exhibition in Abu Dhabi that is expected to bring 15,000 people. The conference schedule is packed with executives from large and startup greentech companies in solar, wind, geothermal, water and others.

Abu Dhabi, part of the United Arab Emirates, came up with the 7 percent figure by figuring out what renewable energy sources are abundant and available to the kingdom by the Persian Gulf. Wind energy isn’t a great fit, but solar is, said Ziad Tassabehji, director of the utilities and asset management business at Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s ambitious greentech initiative.

Masdar already has announced a plant to build a 100-megawatt solar thermal power plant using parabolic trough technology. Its project to build a new, 6.5-square-kilometer city also includes plans to build 240 megawatts worth of renewable energy when it’s complete in 2016. About 80 percent of the power will come from both crystalline silicon and thin-film solar panels (see Abu Dhabi Picks Suntech, First Solar for 10MW Solar Farm in Masdar City).

Masdar began building the new city, called Masdar City, only last year, and the first tenants aren’t scheduled to move until this fall. It’s currently erecting a 10-megawatt solar power plant to run construction activities.

Exactly how Abu Dhabi plans to achieve the 7 percent goal remains to be seen. Al Jaber said the emirate would release an action plan later. It would take about $6 billion to $8 billion by 2020 to achieve the goal, he added.