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DOE Announces Funding for Advanced Vehicle Technologies

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the selection of five next-generation vehicle research projects, which will receive up to $19 million in DOE funding to further the development of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), and fuel cell vehicles (FCVs). Combined with industry’s cost share, projects selected for negotiation of awards total $33.8 million (FY’07-’10). Projects will focus on reducing the cost, weight, and size of electric drive and power conversion devices while also increasing vehicle efficiency. Selected projects focus on advancing research on four areas: high-temperature three-phase inverters; high-speed motors; integrated traction drive systems and; bi-directional DC/DC converters. Selected projects: Delphi Automotive Systems (Troy, Michigan): $4.9 million for high-temperature three-phase inverter research. Three-phase inverters control and regulate the speed of electric motors. Other team members include Dow Corning, GE Global Research, GeneSiC, Argonne National Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University of Blacksburg, Virginia: $1.7 million for a project that will focus on developing an advanced softswitching inverter for reducing switching and power losses. Other team members include Azure Dynamics, Powerex, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. General Electric Global Research (Niskayuna, NY): $3.4 million for work on developing […]

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MEMC to be Added to S&P 500

MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. (NYSE: WFR), a silcon manufacturer, has been admitted to the widely tracked S&P 500 index. It will replace investment brokerage Kinder Morgan which is being acquired by an investor group. Shares of MEMC Electronic Materials jumped about 3 percent on the news in extended trade.

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Climate Awareness Bond Launched

A “Climate Awareness Bond” linked to the performance of a new index of companies with environmental policies has been launched by the European Investment Bank. In what is expected to be the largest syndicated equity-index linked bond to date, the 5-year euro bond will be used for the bank’s lending projects in renewable energy and energy efficiency. “The EU has taken a leading role in tackling climate change. With this bond EIB is inviting investors and the banking community to join that endeavor, further highlighting EIB’s commitment to promoting EU objectives,” Bertrand de Mazieres, director general of finance at the bank, said in a statement. Instead of paying a coupon, the bond will be redeemed at 100% of face value plus an amount at maturity linked to the performance of the FTSE4Good Environmental Leaders Europe 40 index, floored at 5 percent. If the amount exceeds 25%, investors can use the excess to buy and cancel CO2 allowances under the European Union emission trading scheme. Dresdner Kleinwort, Merrill Lynch and UniCredit are managing the sale. The bond will be offered to investors from May 29 to June 22.

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Suntech Starts Construction of Thin Film Plant

Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (NYSE: STP), one of the world’s leading manufacturers of photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules, has begun construction on a thin film R&D and manufacturing facility in Caohejing Hi-tech Park in Shanghai, China. The first phase of the new plant is expected to begin operation in 2008 reaching 50MW of thin film solar cell production capacity in 2009. Suntech’s thin film module production will be based on technology that deposits amorphous and micro-crystalline silicon thin film on glass substrate. The product will use less than 2% of the silicon required to manufacture equivalent crystalline silicon PV products. Suntech currently projects that the thin film modules will have a solar conversion efficiency of 6% to 9% and an initial production cost of approximately $1.20 per watt (based on 6% solar conversion efficiency), which should decline as both production scale and conversion efficiencies increase. The thin film modules will be nearly 6 square meters in size, which would make the balance of system installation costs of Suntech’s thin film solution significantly lower than other PV solutions. “After having acquired MSK, one of the industry leaders in the building integrated photovoltaic products (BIPV) space, we were very pleased to […]

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