2012 Award of Merit
Industrial/Manufacturing Category
Alamosa Solar Project
Alamosa, Colo.
Cogentrix Energy completed construction and start-up of a concentrating photovoltaic facility near Alamosa, Colo., that is the largest plant of its type in the world. The site of the 30-MW facility, on 225 acres in the San Luis Valley, was chosen for its outstanding sunlight, high elevation and the presence of an existing 115-kV transmission line.
Despite challenging economic times, Cal Poly Pomona has amassed more than $100 million in donations and pledges midway through an ambitious fundraising campaign, university officials announced Wednesday.
The Campaign for Cal Poly Pomona was launched in November 2010 with a goal of raising $150 million for research, scholarships and other campus needs. The first comprehensive fundraising effort of its kind at the school, it began amid a recession that sapped resources from potential donors as well as from state coffers, resulting in steep funding cuts to California’s public colleges and universities.
California State University’s 23 campuses lost $750 million in state funding in 2011-12, with cuts to the Pomona campus totaling nearly $32.5 million. But those and previous cuts have spurred support from alumni and others, including 5,000 donors who made first-time contributions, officials said.
Because of all the media attention about solar power, most people think of photovoltaic (PV) solar panels. People in or on the fringe of the clean energy business might know about the Chinese’ so called “dumping” of low cost PV panels onto the U. S. market; about how schools and universities are installing PV panels to save on their electric bills, but also to educate tomorrow’s future decision makers; and about how the California solar panel maker Solyndra went bankrupt after receiving a $500 million grant from the Department of Energy (DOE). Many of these headline stories even make network TV news, but much is misunderstood.
What is solar energy? What are the differences in different types of energy technology in existence today?
Portland, Maine IntertechPira is pleased to announce it will be offering a complimentary online learning event, "Competitive PV Manufacturing in the US," on Wednesday, March 7, at 12 p.m. EST. The webinar will be hosted by three solar industry experts who will be presenting at IntertechPira's upcoming conference, Photovoltaics Summit 2012.
The one-hour joint online session will feature Roger G. Little, Chairman and CEO, Spire Corporation; Chris O’Brien, head of Market Development, Oerlikon Solar; and Vahan Garboushian, Founder, Chief Technology Officer and Board of Directors Chairman, Amonix, Inc. Each speaker will give a 15-minute presentation, which will be followed by a 15-minute question and answer session at the conclusion of the webinar.
SOLARTAC IS A PARTNERSHIP of solar equipment manufacturers, research organizations and electric utilities that want to make use of a real-world outdoor site to develop, test, validate or showcase solar products. The SolarTAC mission is to facilitate the commercialization of solar technologies, including photovoltaic and solar thermal systems. It does this by providing the members with readily accessible land and all the necessary infrastructure and resources needed to rapidly and economically install their technologies. SolarTAC is located on 74 acres of land in Aurora, Colo., within minutes of the Denver airport, offering a flat, graded topography and 300 days of sunshine a year.
The concept for a solar technology facility germinated in 2007 with Xcel Energy, a public utility based in Minneapolis. Xcel has voiced a commitment to renewable energy, sponsoring a variety of solar, wind and energy efficiency programs in its service territory. SolarTAC became a reality when the right core group of stakeholders came together, with Xcel providing the initial funding and grid interconnection, the City of Aurora providing the land, and MRIGlobal, formerly Midwest Research Institute, providing the legal structure of the partnership and acting as the management and operating contractor. Abengoa Solar and Sun Edison joined as founding members and agreed to develop the first 10 acres with their solar technologies.
Copyright 2012 Amonix Inc. All rights reserved.
Amonix, Inc. • 1709 Apollo Court, Seal Beach, CA 90740 USA • 562.200.7700
