New investment in clean energy jumped in the second quarter of 2011 to $41.7 billion, 27 percent above the first quarter and 22 percent higher than the same quarter last year, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Analysts attribute much of the increase to the financing of a string of large solar thermal electricity projects. Read more here

Known for its internet companies, Silicon Valley is gaining steam as the nation’s leading clean technology center. Venture capital funding to energy-related companies has helped the region shift to become an epicenter for clean tech and to weather the economic downturn by growing renewable energy jobs 109 percent over the last decade. Read more here

Opinion: Bad economy can't stop Bay Area communities from advancing clean energy By Rachel Massaro and Rafael Reyes.

Special to the Mercury News

With unemployment still alarmingly high and budgets thin everywhere, great concern about the direction of the economic recovery persists. At the same time, the continuing tragedy surrounding Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant reinforces the importance of safe, clean energy to power the economy. Can we create jobs, improve budgets, strengthen our energy security and address climate change? Yes, and throughout the Bay Area, communities are showing leadership by moving toward innovative energy initiatives.

As one example, Santa Clara County, the Valley Transportation Authority, RethinkWaste and several cities are collaborating to make the largest multiagency purchase of renewable energy in the United States.

When the installations are completed later this year, 4 million square feet of space at community centers, city halls, fire and police stations and other public facilities from Pacifica to Morgan Hill will be covered with solar photovoltaic panels. The collective effort saved money, and when the installations are deployed, they will generate more than 14 megawatts of clean, safe power -- enough to power 2,700 average California homes. This will stimulate $60 million in local economic activity and create more than 300 jobs. These sites will more than double the entire existing solar-installed capacity for nonresidential systems across Santa Clara County in one year.

Sonoma County recently won the EV-Ready Community Award for its work preparing to support electric vehicles. As part of the Sonoma County Local Governments Electric Vehicle Partnership, the county has streamlined permitting for home charger installation, is deploying public chargers in strategic locations to support shopping, tourism and sightseeing -- nearly 90 over the next 12 months alone -- and is deploying plug-in vehicles in its fleet, including the region's first municipal Nissan Leaf in service. If just 10 percent of the Bay Area's vehicles become plug-in vehicles, residents would save over $1 billion otherwise used for gasoline that could be reinvested in the region, creating jobs.

Palo Alto is considering a community power source that will turn costly and pollution-inducing waste into fuel to power homes, with a leading-edge "anaerobic digester" at its old dump. An initiative on whether to allow it will appear on the November ballot. The technology, proven abroad, would be a national showcase in the U.S.

A digester is a facility that uses microorganisms in a closed container to break down yard and food waste into biogas and compost. The biogas is then prepared to produce electricity. The project would likely save $1 million annually, power some 1,400 homes with clean energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20,000 tons per year.

These are but a small sampling of the many opportunities communities around the bay are grasping to power the economy and create jobs. The advances are stimulated by California's Global Warming Solutions Act, known as AB 32, which has spurred investment in clean energy. Advancing these kinds of initiatives will pay off big. Leaders in all sectors should pursue them aggressively to rebuild the economy, create jobs and safeguard our resources from climate change.



RACHEL MASSARO is associate director of Climate Initiatives at Joint Venture Silicon Valley. RAFAEL REYES is executive director of the Bay Area Climate Collaborative, a project of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, and a member of the national Sierra Club board of directors. They wrote this for this newspaper.

The private sector has been getting serious about solar investment. Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Prologis, and NRG just announced a partnership that aims to finance up to $2.6 billion of commercial and industrial rooftop solar arrays. Once finalized, the partnership will represent the largest distributed solar deal in history.

Through this distributed solar project, more than 10,000 full-year jobs will be generated across 28 states. After completion, these installations are estimated to supply about 733 MW of distributed solar energy, which would provide renewable energy to power roughly 100,000 homes.

Bank of America, a major partner of the Bay Area Climate Collaborative, will serve as the main financial backer of this project, supported by a US Department of Energy loan guarantee and $1.4 billion loan commitment. Prologis, an industrial real-estate owner, will serve as a developer and program sponsor by providing access to rooftops while making an equity investment in the project. NRG, one of the nation’s largest utility companies, is funding the first phase of the project as well as providing development resources. Together, they hope to produce large amounts of clean energy while generating thousands of jobs across the states.

This news follows closely on the heels of a similar announcement from Google, which is targeting residential solar. Further solidifying its emergence as a major, VC-level investor in clean power projects, Google has recently announced that it is creating a $280 million fund for rooftop solar panel projects to be installed by SolarCity, a sponsor of the Bay Area Climate Collaborative’s SunShares outreach program. Having previously invested in large-scale wind and solar thermal projects, this is Google’s first foray into residential and distributed solar.

SolarCity has raised at least a dozen funds similar to the Google one, but it usually raises these funds from banks like Citi and U.S. Bancorp (and has also worked with utility PG&E). Lyndon Rive, SolarCity CEO, said the biggest hurdle to getting its solar projects deployed is raising project financing.

According to the California solar Initiative (CSI), there are approximately 48,000 residential solar systems currently installed in the state. The Google SolarCity investment could have significant impacts on the number of installed residential solar in California and the nation.

Google’s $280 million fund could help deploy between 7,000 and 9,000 rooftop solar projects depending on the size of the systems, said Rive, in an interview this week. Because there are so few solar rooftop projects in the U.S. right now, the fund could theoretically help deploy one in 10 solar rooftop projects over the next two years, said Google Director of Green Business Operations Rick Needham.

Private sector investments of this kind can play a significant role in helping solar providers get projects deployed. Lyndon Rive, the CEO of SolarCity, says that “Google is setting an example that other leading American companies can follow.”