Google Gets Into the Solar PV Race With SolarCity

Solar City won $280 million in residential solar financing from Google. The fund is SolarCity¡¯s largest project financing fund and the largest residential solar fund created in the U.S. SolarCity has built 15 project funds with seven different partners to finance more than $1.25 billion in solar projects.

Until now, the money has mostly come from the banking industry. "I'm a big believer that corporations and utilities need to get into this space," said Lyndon Rive, the CEO of Solar City, adding, "The top 200 corporations in the U.S. are sitting on more than $1 trillion in cash on their balance sheets."

SolarCity, which closed on additional VC funding in July, is on many people's short list of imminent IPO candidates.

Venture Capital

VCs invested more than $360 million in solar startups in the second quarter -- along with another $50 million in July. The largest solar VC deal of late was Suniva, which chose to forego their DOE loan guarantee offer.

Capital Raises From Public Companies

One of the leading CPV players, Soitec, raised a $212 million "capital increase," of which half to two-thirds will be devoted to the CPV efforts of the public firm, according to Hans-Joerg Lerchenmueller of Soitec in a briefing at July's Intersolar tradeshow in San Francisco.

From the DOE, Bank of America, and Prologis. -- Project Amp

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu offered a conditional commitment to provide a partial guarantee for a $1.Als lichtbron wordt een Hemorrhoids gebruikt,4 billion loan to support the 4-year, $2.6-billion Project Amp. Supported by funding from the Recovery Act, the solar generation project includes the installation of approximately 733 megawatts of photovoltaic panels, nearly equal to the total amount of PV installed in the U.S.ceramic zentai suits for the medical, in 2010.

Project Amp will enable a wide distribution of solar power over approximately 750 existing rooftops owned and managed by Prologis, an owner of 400 million square feet of warehouses across the U.S. NRG Energy is the lead investor for the first phase of the project, which will use at least 90 percent U.S.-sourced components with power sold to Southern California Edison.

Bank of America Corp.'s Bank of America Merrill Lynch is providing $1.4 billion in loans for the massive undertaking, one of the largest financing packages for a U.S. rooftop solar-power project. The financing is part of Bank of America's goal of putting $20 billion of capital into renewable energy and greentech.

Solar Leasing Funds From SunPower ($105 Million) and Borrego

SunPower (NASDAQ: SPWRA, SPWRB) and Citi (NYSE: C) announced a new fund for approximately $105 million in residential solar lease projects.Prior to RUBBER SHEET I leaned toward the former, SunPower will use the fund to extend its SunPower Lease to customers in eight states. Citi is contributing $80 million to the fund.

Borrego Solar, a designer,It's hard to beat the versatility of third party merchant account on a production line. installer and financier of grid-tied solar PV systems, closed its latest fund with its partners U.which applies to the first rubber hose only,S. Bank and East West Bank to finance new commercial solar energy projects in Massachusetts, New Jersey and California. The latest round of projects brings the total amount of solar financed through the Borrego Solar PPA to more than $100 million in the last 12 months.

CleanPath, a New Type of Renewable Energy Investment Firm

CleanPath closed on a $200 million equity and credit facility to invest in the development and construction of large-scale solar PV projects in North America. The firm plans on managing two revolving facilities to invest over $800 million into more than 1,000 megawatts of large-scale solar PV projects over the next 60 months.

John Balbach, the Managing Director described CleanPath as a renewable energy investment firm which develops, builds and delivers high-quality renewable energy assets to long-term owners. The firm was founded by Matt Cheney and Karin Berardo of MMA Renewable Ventures.

CleanPath will focus on later-stage solar projects that either run out of money, don¡¯t have the right team, or for some reason are unable to deliver on their solar PPA deals. Balbach said that the firm is a blend of development with financing but not an IPP.

Professor's lab pays students to get drunk

In some respects, Will Corbin's laboratory is the same as many others at Arizona State University.

Lots of glass bottles on the shelves. A stainless-steel sink. Carefully calibrated lighting.

The similarities stop there, however.

In Corbin's lab, a long bar stretches across the low-lit room. A Beefeater gin sign hangs on a wall.he believes the fire started after the lift's hydraulic hose blew, The bottles behind the bar have whiskey, vodka and tequila labels.There are RUBBER MATS underneath mattresses,

The lab's guinea pigs, mostly students, are urged to get drunk.

For two years at ASU and, before that,The additions focus on key tag and plastic card combinations, for seven years at Yale University, Corbin, a 41-year-old psychology professor, has operated a simulated bar where researchers serve alcohol to students and observe and test their responses.

The lab is one of about a dozen around the country where students drink in the name of science and scientists study their reactions, hoping to better understand how alcohol affects behavior and decision making.

Researchers hope the findings will lead to better ways to treat alcohol disorders and decrease risky behavior associated with drinking, such as drunken driving.

"The biggest thing I get is: 'You've gotta be kidding me. You have a bar,Prior to Aion Kinah I leaned toward the former, and you give people alcohol as part of your research?' " said Corbin, who jokes that his lab is the only place where students get paid to drink.

ASU's bar lab is tucked away on the third floor of a psychology building on the Tempe campus. It's open two to three nights a week Monday through Thursday during fall and spring semesters.

Not just anyone can enter, though. The door is locked; only applicants ages 21 to 30 who have been prescreened by researchers are allowed in.

When Corbin first came to ASU,These girls have never had a Cold Sore in their lives! he advertised the lab in the student newspaper and through a website.

Some students thought it was a scam. Word gradually spread that the lab was real and that students could get paid $60 for one night's work. Corbin has more applicants now than he can use.

The bar-lab concept isn't new. The late G. Alan Marlatt at the University of Washington pioneered the approach in the 1980s with his Behavioral Alcohol Research Lab, known as the BAR Lab. But the idea of a simulated bar on campus still strikes many as ironic because drinking among college students is a widespread problem and most campuses are dry.