If, one day, HelioVolt manages to move out of their 40 MW facility in Austin, they probably still won't find a market in the United Kingdom. The UK government has slashed the allowable grant for its low carbon buildings program, from £7500 to £2500 per home. Significantly, the number of homeowners applying for the program dropped in half from 2006 to 2007. In 2006, the program awarded 5,104 grants, while only 2,339 grants were awarded in 2007. Andrew Cooper, Head of Onsite Renewables for Britain's Renewable Energy Association said the government has ignored the industry's advice and the "blindingly obvious evidence of their own statistics - making a failing programme fail." His remarks were addressed to Faily McFailerson, a nearsighted Member of Parliament from Failside-upon-Fail.
Speaking of fail, John McCain will hit the stump, so to speak, this week in an attempt to build support for his environmental policy platform. Among other things, McCain is expected to throw his support behind the Lieberman-Warner climate bill, which should be a no-brainer, considering this bill has been reincarnated twice: it's first iteration was the Lieberman-McCain Climate Stewardship Act, while it's second was the McCain-Warner Climate Security Act. Despite these grand gestures, McCain has voted against bills aimed at raising fuel-economy standards and establishing a federal renewable portfolio standard. He's also spearheaded calls for a gas-tax holiday, which makes me weep for the loss of childhood innocence. And if anyone sees Jim Woolsey, McCain's 'environment' guy, tell him he owes me dinner.
And one more thing today. Further proof that our suspicions were mostly true- "If there was a magic wand to wave, I'd be waving it, of course." Really, President Bush could be talking about anything here.
The Morning Feedstock
Daniel Englander: May 12, 2008, 12:27 AM
CIGS maker HelioVolt has achieved a 12.2 percent conversion efficiency on its proprietary FASST thin-film cells. CEO BJ Stanberry will make the announcement today at a meeting of the IEEE PV Specialists Conference in San Diego. The Austin, TX-based company, which raised one of last year's biggest VC rounds, has developed a proprietary production process that Stanberry claims can produce cells in six minutes - the 12.2 percent cell was produced this way. Though the 12.2 percent cell falls far short of the world record breaking 19.9 conversion efficiency set by NREL researchers on a CIGS cell in March, it is a shot over the bow to HelioVolt's competitiors. First Solar, Miasolé, Nanosolar Global Solar, Optisolar, and others, have achieved production efficiencies in the 9 percent to 10 percent range. And, while Heliovolt's cell came in at the high end of the efficiency range for their production line, the company believes its average efficiency will fall higher than others, possibly in the 10 percent to 12 percent range.
If, one day, HelioVolt manages to move out of their 40 MW facility in Austin, they probably still won't find a market in the United Kingdom. The UK government has slashed the allowable grant for its low carbon buildings program, from £7500 to £2500 per home. Significantly, the number of homeowners applying for the program dropped in half from 2006 to 2007. In 2006, the program awarded 5,104 grants, while only 2,339 grants were awarded in 2007. Andrew Cooper, Head of Onsite Renewables for Britain's Renewable Energy Association said the government has ignored the industry's advice and the "blindingly obvious evidence of their own statistics - making a failing programme fail." His remarks were addressed to Faily McFailerson, a nearsighted Member of Parliament from Failside-upon-Fail.
Speaking of fail, John McCain will hit the stump, so to speak, this week in an attempt to build support for his environmental policy platform. Among other things, McCain is expected to throw his support behind the Lieberman-Warner climate bill, which should be a no-brainer, considering this bill has been reincarnated twice: it's first iteration was the Lieberman-McCain Climate Stewardship Act, while it's second was the McCain-Warner Climate Security Act. Despite these grand gestures, McCain has voted against bills aimed at raising fuel-economy standards and establishing a federal renewable portfolio standard. He's also spearheaded calls for a gas-tax holiday, which makes me weep for the loss of childhood innocence. And if anyone sees Jim Woolsey, McCain's 'environment' guy, tell him he owes me dinner.
And one more thing today. Further proof that our suspicions were mostly true- "If there was a magic wand to wave, I'd be waving it, of course." Really, President Bush could be talking about anything here.
If, one day, HelioVolt manages to move out of their 40 MW facility in Austin, they probably still won't find a market in the United Kingdom. The UK government has slashed the allowable grant for its low carbon buildings program, from £7500 to £2500 per home. Significantly, the number of homeowners applying for the program dropped in half from 2006 to 2007. In 2006, the program awarded 5,104 grants, while only 2,339 grants were awarded in 2007. Andrew Cooper, Head of Onsite Renewables for Britain's Renewable Energy Association said the government has ignored the industry's advice and the "blindingly obvious evidence of their own statistics - making a failing programme fail." His remarks were addressed to Faily McFailerson, a nearsighted Member of Parliament from Failside-upon-Fail.
Speaking of fail, John McCain will hit the stump, so to speak, this week in an attempt to build support for his environmental policy platform. Among other things, McCain is expected to throw his support behind the Lieberman-Warner climate bill, which should be a no-brainer, considering this bill has been reincarnated twice: it's first iteration was the Lieberman-McCain Climate Stewardship Act, while it's second was the McCain-Warner Climate Security Act. Despite these grand gestures, McCain has voted against bills aimed at raising fuel-economy standards and establishing a federal renewable portfolio standard. He's also spearheaded calls for a gas-tax holiday, which makes me weep for the loss of childhood innocence. And if anyone sees Jim Woolsey, McCain's 'environment' guy, tell him he owes me dinner.
And one more thing today. Further proof that our suspicions were mostly true- "If there was a magic wand to wave, I'd be waving it, of course." Really, President Bush could be talking about anything here.
