Power Plays

FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
The latest on alternative-energy deals from Dow Jones Clean Technology Investor

By YULIYA CHERNOVA and JONATHAN SHIEBER
February 11, 2008; Page R15

Solar power has been one of the hottest areas of alternative-energy investment in recent weeks, thanks to requirements passed by more states that utilities increase their use of renewable sources of energy.

Sharp Solar Energy Group, for one, is developing a new business with utility customers in mind: power-generation equipment that uses solar-concentration technology, in which lenses focus sunlight more intensely on the photovoltaic cells used to capture the sun's energy ...............

The Power of Waste

In states with limited wind or solar resources, utilities are increasingly turning to biomass, or organic material.

Atlanta-based Biomass Gas & Electric LLC, a developer of biomass-driven power plants, recently signed a 20-year agreement to supply power to Progress Energy Florida, a subsidiary of Raleigh, N.C.-based Progress Energy Inc. The deal comprises a waste-wood-to-energy plant not yet built that is expected to produce 75 megawatts.

"We joke here in the office that [the Southeast] is the OPEC or Saudi Arabia of biomass," says Biomass Chief Executive Officer Glenn Farris.

In some developing nations, garbage can be a strong energy alternative. Masada Resource Group LLC, a privately held Birmingham, Ala., developer of waste-to-energy plants, says it's planning to raise $60 million to help develop and operate commercial-scale plants in Central and South America.

Read the full story