Duke Energy might abandon a project to experiment with distributed solar energy unless North Carolina state regulators change their minds about how the utility can recover the project’s cost.

Duke petitioned the North Carolina Utilities Commission Thursday to remove the limits the commission set last December. Back then, the commission said Duke could only pass on part of the $50 million project cost onto ratepayers under the state’s 2007 renewable energy law. The utility might be able to recover the rest of the cost in a separate process.

Duke now says those restrictions could force it to violate federal accounting rules governing how the utility can take advantage of up to...

Could manure become cost-competitive as a source of energy?

U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson thinks so — with a little federal stimulation.

The Nebraska Democrat has introduced legislation to give tax credits for producing methane — i.e., natural gas — from manure, according to the New York Times’ Green Inc. blog.

That could help out manure-to-biogas producers like Environmental Power subsidiary Microgy or BioEnergy Solutions in California’s Central Valley (see Sixteen Ancient Technologies Reborn). They’re among about 120 projects around the nation now generating enough gas for about 256,000 million kilowatt-hours of power, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection...

We broke the story yesterday about layoffs at SunPower, and reported that the company’s chief marketing officer, Brad Davis, was one of the casualties. But the company got back to us later to say that wasn’t true. We apologize for the mistake.

While SunPower wouldn’t confirm names of those who have been let go, its director of communications, Stephen Wright, pointed out in an email that all the executives listed on the company’s Website are still gainfully employed. That means Davis is still with the company.

SunPower, like many other solar companies, are cutting staff and costs to weather the economic downturn. The San Jose, Calif.-based company said yesterday it had let...

San Jose Mayor chuck Reed isn't giving up on Tesla Motors. Speaking to an audience at the "State of the Clean Green Industry" held by the SD Forum at Sun's headquarters, Reed said that he is working with Tesla to put some operations within the city limits. In fact, he was touring real estate sites with Tesla execs. Tesla might put in R&D or powertrain assembly in the city. But what could be called a complete assembly facility? Probably not. "One site on Zanker road? That is probably not feasible." Last year, Tesla announced plans to build a massive facility here with the blessing and support of the city and state. Since then, however, the economy has gone south and CEOs...