Most Jobs for Chinese Wind Farm in Texas to Go to China: WSJ

A consortium of Chinese and U.S. companies want to build a 600-megawatt wind farm in Texas that they say will create jobs in the U.S.

Well, some.

The project, which will cost an estimated $1.5 billion, will create 2,800 jobs, backers told the Wall Street Journal. Fifteen percent – or around 240 – will be in the U.S. The rest will be in China. The wind farm is being developed by a joint venture formed by Shenyang Power Group, the U.S. Renewable Energy Group and Cielo Wind Power. Shenyang will own 49 percent of the project. It will employ turbines from A-Power Generation. Jinxiang Lu is CEO of both SPG and A-Power. Commercial banks in China will provide financing.

The backers will also seek stimulus funds and tax credits.

The deal is fascinating and bears worth watching for several reasons. First, the deal – like the deal between Duke Energy and China's ENN to build solar farms – will not just involve bringing comparatively inexpensive wind turbines or solar panels to the U.S. Chinese companies and banks will likely be actively involved in building and managing these power plants. In other words, Chinese companies will be involved in the sort of higher-value services that white-collar America craves.

Second, alternative energy appears to be China's opportunity to establish brands worldwide. Companies like Toyota, Sony and Toshiba helped Japan move from a back-end manufacturer to a maker of goods in its own right. South Korea's economy was greatly enhanced when Samsung and LG became respected leaders in consumer electronics. China hasn't really had a brand yet. Many thought Haier, the electronics maker would be the first, but that hasn't happened. But in alternative energy, Suntech is already a brand name in solar and some of the companies listed above will likely become familiar, at least in some regions in the U.S.

Don't get me wrong. I actually admire Chinese companies. The quality and ambition of the entrepreneurs behind companies in China has consistently impressed me. They also pay their CEOs less than U.S. companies. The companies behind the wind venture also wouldn't be the first international entries into the stimulus derby: Spanish and South Korean companies have received millions through U.S. joint ventures. But it is an interesting trend. In the near future, one of the best places to work might be a U.S. subsidiary of a Chinese company.

IBM in the Water: Monitoring Its Quality in Ireland

To help solve the world's water problems, we're going to need data first.

As part of its water initiative IBM has created a portal with An Taisce, the national trust of Ireland, to monitor water quality, pollution levels, tides, weather and other factors at 130 beaches and lakes. The plan is to then roll this out to other regions and nations. The portal, called Splash, is open to the public.

While Ireland is obligated to collect the data under EU directives, the goal of the program is not just to obtain localized information. Ultimately, IBM hopes to mine the data to see if it can discern trends in storm water runoff, pollution percolation and other issues.

"It is more of a predictive tool," said Cameron Brooks, director of Big Green Innovations at IBM.

While IBM has begun to conduct research and assume projects in smart grid and solar, expect to see Big Blue increasingly identified with water. Water represents one of those sprawling, under-researched problems that will take time, government grants, logistical know-how and scientific expertise to fix. Thus, it's ideally suited for conglomerates like IBM, General Electric and Siemens.

The projects and issues vary widely. In the Netherlands, IBM is engaged on flood control projects, which involve creating computerized simulations for various levee and storm water scenarios for Rotterdam and other cities. In Malta, IBM is trying to figure out if there are ways to increase water use efficiency and reduce the power associated with delivering water: Malta now heavily relies on desalination. In Dubuque, Iowa, it is working on a system that can more accurately predict leaks in the delivery system.

"Thirty percent of the water that is treated [on average in the world] does not make it to the tap," he said.

Another project in Northern China revolves around pollution analytics. IBM is also experimenting in the labs with materials to see if anything it has devised for semiconductors can be used for desalination or producing power through osmotic pressure.

Scary fun facts: The earth pretty much has the same amount of water – 1.4 billion cubic kilometers – as it did a few billion years ago. Only about 0.75 percent of that, however, consists of readily accessible groundwater or freshwater, according to the World Water Council. The rest is frozen (2.25 percent) or salty (97 percent.).

China’s Trony Solar Files for IPO

Trony Solar is seeking to raise up to $200 million through an initial public offering in the United States.

The company wants to be listed under the symbol "TRO" on the New York Stock Exchange, according to the company's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday.

The company hasn't disclosed how many American depositary shares it plans to offer, or the pricing.

Trony's filing came about a week after another solar company, Specialized Technology Resources (STR) in Connecticut, said it intends to raise up to $212.2 million.

The U.S. market hasn't seen a solar IPO for more than a year.

Trony makes amorphous-silicon solar panels, and had the manufacturing capacity of 115 megawatts per year by the end of August this year, said its SEC filing. Its manufacturing cost was $1.15 per watt for the fiscal year ending June 30 this year. From June to September, the company lowered the cost to $1.09 per watt.

The company began production in 2006 and focused on the off-grid market. It's expanding to on-grid market as well. A recent on-grid project that used Trony's panels was a 1-megawatt array in South Korea.

The company generated RMB 451.5 million for the fiscal year ending June 30 this year, up from RMB 272.8 million in the 2008 fiscal year, and $26.2 million in the 2007 fiscal year.

Trony posted RMB 164.9 million in net income for the fiscal year ending June 30 this year. Net income was RMB 85.5 million for fiscal 2008, and RMB 5.2 million for fiscal 2007.

For the three month between June and September this year, Trony posted a net income of RMB 72.5 million on a revenue of RMB 254.6 million. Those represented an 81.1 percent jump in revenue and 61.5 percent growth in net income from the same period a year ago, the company said.

Ford’s EV Partners: Smith Is Out, Azure Is In

Ford Motor Co. has changed up its partners on developing its Transit Connect electric van, ending its work with Smith Electric Vehicles to switch to Azure Dynamics Corp., it announced Friday.

But that hasn't changed Ford's timeline for getting the electric van to market by 2010, to be followed by an electric Focus in 2011 and a plug-in hybrid of yet-undetermined model in 2012, the automaker said (see Ford Deploys Electric-Car-to-Grid Communication System).

Smith and Ford say they mutually agreed to end their partnership. Smith said the move would allow it to concentrate on making its electric Newton trucks, according to a statement from its U.K.-based parent company, The Tanfield Group.

Smith got a $10 million Department of Energy grant for its Newton trucks, as well as $4.5 million in orders through the US Clean Cities Program, and started producing vehicles at its Kansas City, Mo. plant this month.

Tanfield also announced that Smith would work with military and commercial vehicle maker AM General to develop all-electric post office delivery trucks.

Mich.-based Azure Dynamics, for its part, has turned to Johnson Controls-Saft for the lithium-ion battery cells and packs for the Transit Connect. Both Azure and Ford

Ford will continue to work with The Tanfield Group in Europe.

New Solar Hotspot: The Midwest

Solar companies may start looking inward, and around the Mississippi, for new business.

That's the word from Rosalind Jackson, one of the people at the advocacy and policy group Vote Solar. At Solar Power International this week, Vote Solar spent a lot of time talking to various state officials and the interest in solar in the middle of the country.

Missouri voters passed a referendum for renewable power and the legislature is now assigned the task of coming up with companion legislation and regulations to make it happen. Illinois is expected to build out 750 megawatts of solar capacity. Kansas is studying net metering. Earlier this week, Ohio and Michigan issued reports predicting green tech job growth.

"Pennsylvania," she said with emphasis.

Ontario, just North of this region, is already a booming solar spot. Over time, one can likely expect to see these states adopt the tax credits and other incentives adopted elsewhere.

So if you want to expand the market share for your microinverters or thin film BIPV tiles, you might want to start introducing yourself to the electrical contractors and others in the Jefferson City area.

Who Really ‘Invented’ the Hybrid?

The Griffith Hack law firm in Australia recently published a report that analyzes hybrid car patent filings and how those filings affect innovation and success in the hybrid car market.

The report, entitled “Who holds the power? Lessons from hybrid car innovation for clean technologies”, was written by Justin Blows and Mike Lloyd, both members of the firm’s Clean & Sustainable Technologies Group.

Dr. Blows and his colleague used patent analytics tools to compile a list of all hybrid car patents filed internationally since 1980, group those patents into families, and rate the quality or “dominance” of those patents.

Their analysis found that Toyota is the world leader in hybrid car patent families with 43% of the total, or more than 4,000 families.

Interestingly, the study also found that a small U.S. hybrid drivetrain developer called Paice, which has been aggressively litigating its patents against Toyota with some success, holds four of the ten most dominant patents.

The implications of Toyota’s patent dominance is discussed at length in the report. Dr. Blows’s blog post summarizes as follows:

the market leader in hybrid technology has filed so many patents ahead of its rivals, that other major manufacturers are now being forced to use the technology ‘under license’ or develop very different types of vehicles

According to the report, there is an apparent correlation between the number of hybrid cars sold by Toyota and the number of patents filed.

Moreover, and perhaps most important, the report posits that Toyota’s agressive patent filings have helped the automaker build its hybrid brand and set “the standard for the hybrid power train” by creating early and lasting exclusivity in its vehicles’ dual-mode capability, i.e., the ability to drive using one or both of an electric motor and a conventional motor.

More broadly, in his comments about the report, Dr. Blows echoes Green Patent Blog’s raison d’etre:

“Our report shows that clean technology innovators are massively investing in IP, to ensure they remain competitive as the world moves into a new age of clean technology.”

Eric Lane is a patent attorney and intellectual property lawyer at Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps in San Diego, where he is in the Intellectual Property and Climate Change & Clean Technology practices. Eric is the founder and author of Green Patent Blog, which provides discussion and analysis of intellectual property law issues in clean technology.