Tesla Motors has raised the price of some of the options on its near-$100,000 electric-powered Roadster — and about 400 people who've put down $50,000 deposits on the cars can take it or leave it. That's the gist of letters and phone calls customers of the San Carlos, Calif.-based electric car startup got last week. Facing some financial troubles and seeking federal loans, Tesla has given those customers of its 2008 model year Roaster a choice — pay extra for options, or receive a full refund. "We need to improve the margins on the car for the next round of investors," Tesla spokeswoman Rachel Konrad said Tuesday. "They could be venture capitalists, they could be public shareholders after an IPO, or it could be the federal government." That's because Tesla is seeking a $200 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy to help it restart its expansion plans, including a now-stalled $250 million factory for its less-expensive second model, the Model S. Beyond laying off staff and closing a Detroit office, Tesla has now delayed the $50,000 sedan to mid-2011 (see Tesla Hit by Market Freefall, Tesla Coughs up Sedan Price, Details on Economy Car and Funding Roundup: How Poor do Investors Feel?). Telsa is also seeking up to $400 million of a $25 billion federal bailout loan package aimed at keeping car companies afloat through the economic downturn. As for the new charges on 2008 model Roadsters, chief among them is the high performance charger that allows them to charge up in about three and a half hours, rather than overnight. That's going to cost $3,000 now. Forged alloy wheels will now cost $2,300 extra, and the "SolarPlus" windshield will now cost $400. Other options that formerly cost extra have risen in price, while others aren't facing price hikes. (For a more complete list, go to this Tesla owner's blog). The 2008 Roadsters are selling for between $92,000 and $98,000, Konrad said. The newer 2009 models are selling for $109,000, and Tesla introduced a juiced-up, $128,000 Roadster Sport model at the North American International Car Show in Detroit earlier this month. Because all the 2008 Roadsters to be produced from now until October are sold already, adding charges for newer customers only wasn't an option for immediately improving the company's margins, Konrad said. About 150 Roasters have been delivered so far, she said. "We did not do this lightly," Konrad said. "But it's a decision we think helps ensure the viability of the company going forward." Tesla raised $40 million in November, soon after CEO and Chairman Elon Musk denied rumors that the company was facing bankruptcy. Tesla did get a boost from news last week that it had a deal to supply its lithium-ion battery packs for Daimler's Smart cars.

The government of Greece last week announced changes to its solar feed-in tariff program, one of the most generous in Europe — and the biggest change they're promised is to make the program work. That's according to Francesco D'Avack, analyst with New Energy Finance, who said Greece last week pledged to speed up a back-logged application process for its feed-in tariffs that has up to 3 gigawatts of solar power projects waiting for approval. Launched in 2006, Greece's feed-in tariff offers from €0.40 to €0.50 (52 cents to 65 cents) per kilowatt-hour of solar power produced, D'Avack said — one of the most generous in Europe, where feed-in tariff prices tend to be in the range of 32 cents to 35 cents per kilowatt hour. "Only no one can get it, because it's almost impossible to get the license," he said. The government in March completely stopped all new applications to work through the backlog, he said. "The government now says they're going to take action on that" by setting new rules on application approval, though D'Avack warned that those rules must be backed by giving the agency responsible for application processing the resources it needs to fix the problem. Feed-in tariffs are set prices at which utilities must buy power generated by renewable energy sources, giving them a boost against cheaper — and dirtier — sources of electricity. Greece had about 24 megawatts of solar power installed as of December, of which 15 megawatts came in 2008, D'Avack said. That's far below the government's goal of 700 megawatts under the feed-in tariff program, which was changed from a cap on installations to a soft target in last week's program changes. Greece also said it wants to establish a program this year to bring an additional 750 megawatts of solar rooftop installations to the country, though D'Avack said no concrete guidelines have been set. Germany's feed-in tariff program  has helped make the country the world leader in solar installations (see Solar Prices Set in Germany), and other European countries are also following the practice. Japan, which ended its solar feed-in tariff program in 2006, is now considering reinstating it, Reuters reported last month. But not all the programs have run smoothly. In Spain, the government instituted a feed-in tariff in 2007 that had a hard cap on how many megawatts of solar power could apply for it — 400 megawatts at first, then raised to 500 megawatts in September. But that was still far lower than the solar power projects installed in the country — up to 3.1 gigawatts in 2008, more than three times expectations, according to a recent government report (see Spain Installed More Than 3GW of Solar in 2008). And that, along with reports of fraud in the program, have crashed solar panel prices in the country (see Solar a Bust in Spain). So far, feed-in tariffs haven't taken off in the United States, though a few exceptions exist. Gainesville, Fla. plans to launch a 32 cents-per-kilowatt hour feed-in tariff for solar power in March (see Gainesville to Launch Solar Feed-In Tariff) and California's Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) also approved a feed-in tariff program in early 2008, though it applies mostly to solar power systems at public water and wastewater facilities.

ABU DHABI -- Torresol Energy has borrowed €171 million to complete construction of its first power plant to use the sun’s heat to generate electricity.

Formed last year by Masdar in Abu Dhabi and Sener in Spain, Torresol now has the entire €240 million it needs to build the 17-megawatt solar thermal power plant called Gemasolar, said Manuel Fernandez, chief financial officer at Torresol Tuesday.

Torresol, based in Madrid, started building its Gemasolar plant last November, and is scheduled to complete the project in the first quarter of 2011. The €171 million is coming from Banco Popular, Banesto and the Instituto de Credito Oficial. The rest of the €240 million is equity coming from Torresol, Fernandez said.

Torresol is a joint venture between Masdar, owned by the Abu Dhabi government, and Sener, an engineering firm with a 60 percent stake in Torresol. Abu Dhabi is using Masdar as an investment and power plant development vehicle to get a slice of the growing renewable energy market around the world (see Abu Dhabi Picks Suntech, First Solar For 10MW Solar Farm in Masdar City).

Masdar and the Abu Dhabi government have been using the World Future Energy Summit to announce their efforts on investing and building renewable energy projects. Abu Dhabi organized the summit partly to highlight its initiatives to develop a new type of energy economy that doesn’t rely on oil. As a wealthy oil-producing country that launched Masdar only in 2006, it likes to do things on a grand scale.

Gemasolar, located in southern Spain, will use a type of solar-thermal technology that uses heliostats, or an array of flat mirrors, to focus the sun’s light onto a central collector atop a tower and use it to heat up the molten salt to more than 550 Celsius.

The salt is good at storing the heat, so the power plant operator can use the heated salt even at night to run the generator.

Torresol is one of many companies developing this type of solar thermal power projects. Competitors in the field include Abengoa Solar, a large solar player also based in Spain.

Torresol also is developing two other solar thermal power plants that will use the more conventional parabolic trough technology. The technology uses curved mirrors to channel the sun’s heat to boil oil for steam generation.

The two power plants, with a 50-megawatt capacity each, will sit next to each other in southern Spain as well, near the town of Jerez. Torresol plans to raise between €500 million and €600 million total for the two projects, Fernandez said.

Construction for the plants is scheduled to begin in the second half of this year.