Premier Power announced today it has completed 51% of the massive “Meca Trackers” project being installed on the West County Wastewater District in Richmond, California. The project is expected to be operational by Jan 15^th 2008. The Richmond water district installation is comprised of 90 of the nation’s largest bi-directional solar tracking arrays. Each of the 90 solar arrays designed and engineered by Premier Power stands over three and a half stories tall (forty five feet tall by forty five feet wide) and each continuously tracks the sun for maximum efficiency. Each tracker and panel array sit on platforms made with over forty four thousand pounds of concrete specifically designed to distribute the weight for application in wetlands.

Much of the Richmond water district land is highly corrosive and contaminated and can not be disturbed during installation. Premier’s proprietary engineering solution allowed an above ground installation that does not disturb the property and turns unusable land into energy producing property.

Dean Marks, President of Premier Power said: “What a way to kick off the New Year – with clean energy coming from previously unusable contaminated land! This is an outstanding milestone for Premier Power and Solar Energy in general. We are pleased to be on track to complete an installation other Solar companies could not achieve. These are the largest bidirectional trackers in the nation and the idea that they convert previously unusable land into energy producing property is outstanding.”

Two other companies had begun work on the ambitious project but could not overcome the engineering issues.

Miguel de Anquin - said “This is an example of how Premier Power benefits from its international operations. Meca trackers are made by ET Solar and were first discovered by our Spanish operations and became a perfect solution for an otherwise very challenging job. We must give credit to our outstanding engineering and project teams as well as our international subsidiary.”

National Wind Solutions reports began to surface this week of canceled alternative energy projects including up to $1 Billion in wind power projects. With Wall Street in a panic, credit sources are canceling commitments to build out much needed wind infrastructure in America.  After evaluating the status of the economy, NWND has determined to face the wind rather than to turn its back and walk away. It is noteworthy that President-Elect, Obama, announced that a cornerstone of his economic recovery plan is to expand and accelerate the implementation of alternative energy projects.

“We agree with the President-Elect that this is not the time to abandon America’s energy security out of fear of the economy,” noted Kathy Delaney, CEO. “The need for energy independence and the creation of green jobs such as those we are developing at NWND are critical to America’s future. It is when everyone is running away that the strong seize the day and prosper.”

National Wind Solutions is based in Houston, Texas and will deliver wind solutions in Texas and nationwide in partnership with investors and entrepreneurs who see the vision for an energy self-sufficient America. Wind power is rapidly becoming a significant source of electricity in America and NWND expects to see its growth increase as people realize the efficiency of this natural energy source.

Atlas Energy is also pleased to report that it has successfully drilled and cased its second horizontal well to the Marcellus Shale having a lateral length of approximately 3,000 feet. The Company plans to complete this well, located in Washington County, Pennsylvania, with an eight-stage frac. Atlas has spud its third and fourth horizontal wells and is on track with its previously announced plan to drill 12 horizontal wells in the next six months. These horizontal wells are being drilled in an industry joint venture where Atlas Energy will typically have a 50% working interest and is the operator.

“These results clearly demonstrate our growing expertise at Atlas Energy”, stated Richard D. Weber, President and Chief Operating Officer. “Using these advanced techniques, we look forward to accelerating our growth in reserves and production.”

GreenFactor, an ongoing global technology and environmental research initiative, finds that consumers are getting more savvy about green and are demanding that electronics brands provide more clear information about their products’ energy savings, as well as sustainable materials, and shipping and production methods. The GreenFactor survey was conducted by Strategic Oxygen and Cohn & Wolfe during Sept. and Oct. 2008.

The primary findings of the survey of more than 10,000 adults in 12 major markets around the world include:

• “Saving energy” ranks first in importance to U.S. consumers considering green electronics (54 percent); “design” (5 percent) is near the bottom of the list of attributes and “image” (4 percent) is dead last.
• The number one barrier to green sales of consumer electronics in the U.S. is “lack of awareness” (53 percent) – that is, brands are not adequately educating consumers on the energy savings and other environmentally-friendly aspects of their products. The number two barrier to purchase is “price” (45 percent).
• Consumers say they rely heavily on information on a product’s “packaging” (33 percent), a “brand’s web site” (32 percent), and “independent brand comments online” (28 percent) rather than seeking green product input from “friends / peers” (13 percent).
• Consumers still are reticent to pay premiums for green gadgets: 57 percent say they do not expect to pay premiums and are not willing to pay. Only 15 percent of consumers say they are expecting premiums and are willing to pay.

“We’re seeing green trends globally, and it’s shocking how consistent consumer needs are worldwide for information about green electronics,” said Michael Gale, CEO of Strategic Oxygen. “There is a global green ethos emerging with global definitions for how consumers see green. This is one of the few worldwide trends Strategic Oxygen research reveals for marketing as a whole.”

Green Brand Leaders

According to the GreenFactor research, only a few brands have achieved global green recognition. Consumer perception of brands’ green leadership varies by region. For example, consumers in the United States have completely different ideas about green electronics than those in Japan. Dell, Apple, Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard are identified as green leaders in the U.S. Japanese consumers prefer Japanese companies and say Panasonic, Sharp, Sony and NEC are leading green.

To understand “perception vs. reality,” GreenFactor cross-tabulated its findings against Greenpeace’s “Guide to Greener Electronics” which ranks the 18 top manufacturers of personal computers, mobile phones, TVs and games consoles according to their policies on toxic chemicals, recycling and climate change.

This cross-tabulation reveals that the brands most associated with green do not necessarily adhere to the most green practices as defined by Greenpeace, in the case of Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Apple and Microsoft. In contrast, some brands, like Samsung and Nokia, are not getting credit with consumers for their green realities.

“When we compare GreenFactor results with Greenpeace’s assessments of consumer electronics brands it becomes glaringly obvious that many brands have consumers believing they’re investing much more into their green programs than is true,” said Gale. “Some companies, like Nokia, have an opportunity to better communicate their green initiatives to earn a higher spot on the perception scale.”

Green Priorities by Technology

GreenFactor research reveals consumer priorities for purchasing green electronics:

• The green-ness of High Definition Televisions (64 percent), Desktops (64 percent), Notebooks (63 percent) and Printers (60 percent) is very or somewhat important to consumers.
• Consumers are less interested in purchasing smaller green electronics, which may be perceived as consuming less energy to use and produce. GPS (51 percent), Digital Cameras (53 percent) and Media Players (53 percent) are at the bottom of the list of green priorities.

Green Barriers

When asked “What are the biggest barriers to adopting a green approach when buying electronics products?” consumers were fairly consistent worldwide. The top barriers were:

• Lack of awareness (53 percent)
• Price (45 percent)
• Lack of availability (20 percent)
• Do not understand the product’s capacity to save energy (13 percent)

Product design ranked at the bottom of both green barriers and priorities, demonstrating that for the consumers who say green buying is important, marketers should focus on making a product’s financial return on investment easy to understand. Otherwise, brands may risk accusations of greenwashing by making a less-green product look like one.

Green Communication

GreenFactor reveals sophisticated consumer evaluation and comprehension of brands’ environmental initiatives:

• Information on a product’s packaging (33 percent) is twice as important as a product’s design (12 percent) to consumers assessing technology green-ness.
• Brand web sites are twice as important (32 percent) to consumers as a source of information for a product’s green-ness than their friends / peers (13 percent).
• Important to brands’ prioritization of marketing resources, 54 percent of 25-34 year-olds say they are willing to pay more for green technology, while 23 percent of those 65 and older say a green electronics approach is not important to them.

“Technology companies have a significant opportunity to establish leadership as innovative and sustainable companies, and many of them are rising to the occasion,” said Annie Longsworth, Global Sustainability Practice Leader for Cohn & Wolfe. “Our research clearly shows, however, that there’s a disconnect between what drives consumer purchase and loyalty, and what consumer electronics brands are prioritizing and communicating.”

Solargy Systems today announced it has hired Cinergex Solutions, a Canadian provider of Waste to Energy (WTE) technology and equipment, to begin work on a $120 million energy facility that will be operated by Solargy Systems. The facility will generate over $100 million in revenue and open the door for additional facilities, using the Solargy model of combining solar and waste to create efficient power.

“Selecting Cinergex as a partner was no accident,” said Carl M. Nurse, Solargy CEO. “Cinergex has extensive experience developing modular WTE systems in Africa and throughout the developing world, and with their expertise we will be able to deliver these systems in a timely and affordable manner.” The 1,000 ton per day facility will be completed in 2010.

Management at Solargy are in the advanced stages of discussions relating to projects in the Caribbean, Africa and South East Asia. “Clearly, the economics are right, and we expect to have a number of firm commitments for our hybrid waste to energy systems soon. These projects will add several hundred million in revenues when completed. We share a vision of helping emerging economies meet the challenges of supplying economical green power solutions. Projections for 2009 are estimated at $25 million from solar photovoltaic systems and expand with the introduction of hybrid systems to $120 million in 2010,” said Nurse.

BioSolar continues to garner interest from solar cell manufacturers and members of the media, including California Energy Circuit and PV Tech, following the company’s recent announcement that it is preparing for preproduction of its anticipated BioBacksheet, a protective covering for photovoltaic solar cells made from renewable plant sources, rather than the expensive petroleum-based film currently in use.

Dr. David Lee, CEO of BioSolar, will appear on Grok’s Science Radio Show on Wednesday, November 26, 2008 to discuss his company’s breakthrough technology and the potential cost savings it could yield for the solar industry. The show is heard on radio stations across the country; please visit the show’s website to view a complete list of stations and air times. A podcast will also be posted on the website in the days following the interview.

“BioSolar has significantly expanded its activity recently, and we are excited that our new developments and continued progress have not only generated interest from partners, manufacturers and analysts, but have brought our BioBacksheet™ to the forefront of the media’s attention as well,” said Dr. Lee.

In a recent article from RenewableEnergyWorld.com, Beacon Equity Research analyst Victor Sula noted that BioSolar’s material has “durability characteristics similar to conventional petroleum-based plastics” and noted that previous attempts to make a backsheet with bio-plastics were unsuccessful due to the material’s “low melting temperature and fragile molecular structure.”

The latest wave of media coverage follows the company’s official announcement of the technology behind the BioBacksheet at the SPIE Symposium on Solar Applications and Energy conference on August 12, 2008 which was reported on: GreenTech Media, CNET, Scientific American and United Press International, among others.

Ontario is turning to wind turbines to help create jobs and power a green energy future.  Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty helped open a 44-turbine wind farm near Port Alma, on the shores of Lake Erie on November 13. The Kruger Energy Port Alma Wind Power Project will produce enough clean electricity for 30,000 households.

Building the wind farm created up to 70 jobs and workers will be hired to maintain the site. Local farmers will receive up to $300,000 a year for leasing their land. The energy generated will keep 300,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas out of the air every year — the equivalent of taking 62,500 cars off the road.

By the end of 2008, Ontario will be home to Canada’s three largest wind farms. Ontario is committed to ending the use of coal-fired generation by 2014. Today, almost 75 per cent of our energy is emissions-free.

The Port Alma wind farm is part of the government’s five-point plan for a strong economy and a cleaner environment.

“Developing more renewable energy projects is not only good for the environment; it’s good for the economy. Renewable energy projects like this help ensure a cleaner, greener and stronger future for Ontario families and our world,” said Premier McGuinty.

“Our drive for renewable energy has pushed Ontario from lagging to leading in green energy,” said George Smitherman, Deputy Premier and Minister of Energy and Infrastructure. “This marks a success for all Ontarians by boosting our supply of non-polluting power and the jobs and investment makes it even more a success for the Port Alma community.”

Ontario’s wind power capacity has increased more than 6,200 per cent since 2003. Canada’s largest wind farm is in Shelburne, Ontario.

PECO will lower its natural gas rate by 18.8 percent for its 484,000 natural gas customers in the Philadelphia suburbs, effective December 1. An average residential heating customer uses 160 ccf (or hundreds of cubic feet) per month during the heating season. PECO said its rate decrease will save customers almost $50 in December, compared with the current gas rate ($261.58 for 160 ccf down to $213.43, including taxes and other monthly charges). Actual usage depends on a customer’s billing cycle, weather, the size of the home and its energy efficiency, and the number of gas appliances in the house, such as heater, water heater, laundry and kitchen appliances, and fireplace.

Now with this decrease combined with another cut September 1, PECO’s natural gas rate will be virtually the same as last December. Natural gas wholesale prices spiked last winter through June, causing gas rates for local consumers to rise from $1.28 per ccf (the unit of measurement on most customer bills) to $1.68 per ccf in June.

For energy saving information and payment options, consumers should visit www.peco.com/save. For more information about natural gas or energy prices generally, visit www.aga.org or www.eia.doe.gov.

Mark Alden, PECO vice president, Gas, said the company buys wholesale natural gas in a variety of ways to manage its overall supply costs and mitigate market volatility for customers. “We are pleased to reduce our gas rate for customers at a time when gas usage increases with the colder weather. Natural gas provides great value as the clean, efficient fuel of choice for home heating, cooking and other uses,” he said. “We encourage any customer who needs help with managing their utility costs to contact us, so we can help.”

PECO said the new rate reflects recent gas costs as well as projected costs for buying gas on behalf of its customers through November 2009. (The “purchased gas cost”, PGC, covers three line items on a customer’s bill – the natural gas supply charge, the balancing service charge, and gas cost adjustment.)

The company plans to file the gas rate adjustment with the Public Utility Commission (PUC) later this week. This gas rate change does not affect PECO’s electric rates. PECO’s electric rates are expected to remain the same in 2009 and 2010, under agreements with the state PUC, which reviews and approves utility rates.

Unlike gasoline, oil or propane dealers, PECO can only adjust the PGC portion of its gas rate each quarter, if necessary, to reflect changes in the commodity market prices. The charges are a pass through without any utility markup. The PGC represents roughly three-quarters of the total bill, while PECO’s customer service and delivery charges cover the remainder.

Technology and environmental leaders today announced a new initiative to develop a national strategy for information and communications technologies (ICT) to improve the energy efficiency of the economy.  The Digital Energy Solutions Campaign is made up of leading technology companies and organizations as well as environmental and energy conservation groups working on energy efficiency initiatives. The Campaign will work with the incoming Obama Administration and Congressional leaders to educate and promote how ICT strategies can make our economy robust while at the same time becoming increasingly energy efficient and environmentally friendly.

“As Congress considers a new economic stimulus package, adopting policies that drive ICT implementation can not only provide a near-term boost to our economy but also help us achieve the long-term goal of making our economy more energy efficient,” said DESC Co-Chair Stephen Harper, Global Director of Environment and Energy Policy at Intel.

DESC members include the technology sector leaders Dell, EMC, HP, Intel, the Technology CEO Council, and Verizon. Non-governmental organization members include the Alliance to Save Energy, The Climate Group, and the World Wildlife Fund.

The fact that DESC was launched at the Smart2020 Conference reflects the group’s goal of working with established and leading authorities such as The Climate Group and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) to drive the adoption of a national strategy to utilize information and communications technologies to boost energy efficiency.

The event is a product of the recent study of the same name by The Climate Group and GeSI, which found that ICT-enabled solutions could reduce global carbon emissions by 15 percent by 2020.

“There has never been a time in which the future of our economy, our energy needs and environment have been so inextricably linked,” said DESC Co-Chair Paul Brownell, Senior Manager, Federal Government Affairs at Dell. “We must take an approach that leverages technology to make our economy more energy efficient and promotes new green industries that will spur a wave of growth and job creation.”

DESC outlined a policy framework to make private industries and government more energy efficient, create behavior changes to make us more energy efficient and reduce ICT’s energy needs. Among its proposals, DESC calls on Congress and the new Obama Administration to establish a national strategy to build political support for, and prioritize the critical elements of, a program to promote the role of ICT in driving economic, energy and climate solutions. Such elements might include:

• Implementing utility decoupling so that a utility’s profit is no longer merely tied to the volume of sales but to how efficiently the utility delivers energy.
• Creating incentives for green tech infrastructure such as parking-garage facilities for plug-in hybrid cars. National programs are needed to ensure standards are set to accelerate the market.
• Implementing policies to promote smart buildings, including federal government model building codes for the construction of building that use less energy. The federal government can also lead by example with the construction of its own “smart buildings.”
• Creating incentives to encourage telecommuting such as allowing businesses to accelerate the depreciation on the home work equipment.
• Creating education and promotion programs for Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS). HEMS can reduce energy consumption by 30 percent in homes are currently offered but because of the lack of incentives for utilities are not widely encouraged or adopted.

Washington Gas announced that more than 400 customers in the Shaw neighborhood of Northwest Washington, D.C., experienced a temporary disruption in natural gas service. The interruption occurred last night and was caused by a closed valve in the service area.

The Kennedy Recreation Center at 1407 7th Street, N.W., is being used as a warming center.

Officials are surveying individual residences in the affected area to determine their heating needs. Many residents may be using alternate heating methods, such as space heaters. Fire officials remind that if space heaters are being used, at least three feet of space should be allowed around the heater. Also, the heater should be turned off if the room is vacated.

Washington Gas is working to restore gas service quickly and has begun to re-light appliances in affected homes.

Washington Gas and District of Columbia fire officials also remind the public that anyone smelling an odor of natural gas should call 9-1-1. Anyone in need of medical transport, should call 9-1-1.