News

“I congratulate Sen. Baucus for jump starting a much needed debate on energy tax reform,” said Malcolm Woolf, senior vice president for policy and government affairs at Advanced Energy Economy, a national business association. “AEE hopes that his discussion draft leads to a new approach for energy tax policy, one that is technology neutral, provides stability and predictability, and uses market forces to drive better energy options.

Coca Cola's newest fleet vehicles will be 2014 Chevrolet Express vans featuring electric drivetrains from XL Hybrids. Initial tests showed a 15-20% reduction in fuel consumption over existing vans. Coca Cola's decision is driven solely by economics -- the company is receiving no grants or tax incentives for the new vans. Read more here. 

The U.S. Department of Energy announced  $150 million in tax credits  for building America’s capabilities in clean energy manufacturing. The tax credit was made available to 183 domestic clean energy-manufacturing facilities as a result of $2.3 billion in funding during Phase I of the program. Phase II was launched to utilize $150 million in tax credits that were not used by previous awardees. These awards will support thousands of new manufacturing jobs in nine states. Among the awardees: AEE member company  Natel Energy , which received $2 million in tax support for equipping a manufacturing facility on the former Alameda Naval Air Station in California to produce 200 advanced hydropower turbines with capacity of roughly 90 MW.

Boston-based AEE member,  Retroficiency, is waging war on energy waste in U.S. military installations . The company is set to install its remote-auditing software in 640 military buildings around the world to identify ways to manage energy better and identify opportunities for energy-saving investment. Through the end of the year, Retroficiency’s military deployment could bring the company’s energy monitoring to over 1 billion square feet globally.

Boston-based EnerNOC entered into a demand response deal with Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), a Japanese utility still reeling from the effects of the Fukushima Taiishi accident and looking for ways to meet electric needs without the nuclear power plant – which makes demand response a natural. That arrangement is the first growing out of EnerNOC’s new joint venture with Marubeni Corp., one of the largest independent power producers in Japan.

Richard Branson’s Virgin Group announced plans to enter a team in the Formula E racing series—the world’s first all-electric auto races, which are scheduled to begin next fall in Beijing. “The launch of the Formula E Championship is exciting news for racing fans but also for those that believe in developing the great electric cars of the future,” Branson said. “The need to create fast, dependable and durable race cars will help to accelerate the sector and showcase electric cars to a large global audience.” Read more about it and see an image of the car here.

AEE member company First Solar, America’s largest solar power project developer, announced plans to expand into Japan. First Solar’s move comes as Japan pivots away from nuclear power. According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the Japanese solar market is booming. The country is projected to add more solar capacity than any other country this year.

SolarCity and Tesla Motors will be expanding their partnership in battery storage technology. The two companies, which already collaborate on electric vehicle supercharging stations, have joined together to create a solar panel system with a battery storage unit included. The system, dubbed DemandLogic, would automatically store electricity during low-use hours for use during peak hours – offering savings for commercial and institutional customers that pay charges based on their peak electric load.