The 150 megawatt Mesquite Solar 1 installation in Maricopa County, Arizona. | Photo courtesy of Sempra Energy.

Posted by Heidi Schwartz

Sempra U.S. Gas & Power and Consolidated Edison Development (ConEdison Development) have announced an agreement to partner in two of Sempra U.S. Gas & Power’s solar power facilities, the 150-megawatt (MW) Copper Mountain Solar 2 plant near Las Vegas and the 150-MW Mesquite Solar 1 power plant near Phoenix.

Under the sales agreement, each company will own a 50-percent interest in the two solar facilities, which are among the largest photovoltaic plants in the U.S. Sempra U.S. Gas & Power will continue to provide operations and maintenance services to both plants.

“This strategic partnership bolsters Sempra U.S. Gas & Power’s ongoing plan to improve its financial returns, deconsolidate debt and redeploy the proceeds from the transaction into new renewable growth projects,” said Kevin C. Sagara, vice president of renewables and corporate development for Sempra U.S. Gas & Power. “We look forward to partnering with Consolidated Edison Development to continue operating world-class solar facilities that supply clean, emission-free electricity to our customers, and to capitalize on our shared view of near-term growth opportunities.”

“This transaction provides ConEdison Development with the opportunity to work with an outstanding partner while we expand our presence throughout the United States,” said Mark Noyes, vice president of ConEdison Development.  “We are partnering in two strategic renewable assets, both with strong project fundamentals, and advancing our commitment to growth in the renewable energy marketplace.”

Phase 1 of Copper Mountain Solar 2 is complete and is currently generating 92 MW of clean solar power.  When the second phase is fully constructed, expected in 2015, the project’s total operating capacity will be 150 MW. Power from the facility has been sold to Pacific Gas & Electric under a 25-year contract.

In September 2011, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Program Office awarded Mesquite Solar 1 a $337 million loan guarantee that enabled it to build this innovative photovoltaic plant, one of the largest in the U.S.  The agreement is subject to approvals from the U.S. Department of Energy and regulatory agencies.  Those approvals are anticipated in the second half of 2013. The terms of the sale were not disclosed.

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Technology shares the spotlight with music and film at the annual South by Southwest festival in Austin, TX.

By Jenny Vickers
From the March/April 2013 issue

Technology innovation is happening across the country, but there is no better place to witness the revolution other than Austin, TX, home to a rapidly expanding technology industry.

Every year, tens of thousands of people descend on the city for South by Southwest (SXSW), a nine-day stretch of festivals and conferences designed to highlight the hottest new entrants in the world of music, film and technology. Collectively, SXSW is the highest revenue-producing event for the Austin economy, with an estimated economic impact of $167 million in 2011. It has also grown very rapidly over the years—700 participants attended its first event in 1987 and over 30,000 attended this year (up 25 percent from 2012).

The interactive portion of the event focuses on technology and is a breeding ground for new ideas and creative technologies. Foursquare launched there in 2009 and now has 20 million users. This year, BF was on hand at the event to find out more about it. We attended several events hosted by the Austin Chamber of Commerce and caught up with several new innovative tech companies.

Launch Pad For New Tech

“SXSW is a great launching point for new technologies,” said Susan Davenport, Senior Vice President of Global Technology Initiatives at the Chamber who is the lead of all things SXSW tech. “It’s really a huge innovation opportunity to get your new ideas out there and into the mainstream.”

Austin-based medical device company Spot On Sciences, Inc. attended SXSW to pitch its newest device, Hemaspot™, which helped the company become a finalist in the SXSW Interactive Accelerator for innovative health technology.

“Our device allows anyone to take a blood sample in any location at any time and ship or store the samples at room temperature,” said Dr. Jeanette Hill, CEO of Spot On Sciences.

The company is only three years old and has been on the market for three months, yet it has already gained a lot of traction in international markets. The device is now being used in remote locations in Africa for HIV testing and in Scotland for diabetes research.

“For centuries, you had to go into a blood testing facility and it’s a really big barrier for people who are the sickest, homebound and the elderly, as well as people who live in remote locations,” said Dr. Hill. “With this device you can take the test from home or any location. You don’t need a lab, centrifuge, or to ship it cold. You can take a sample then mail it to the lab.”

For its groundbreaking work, the company received a $1 million Small Business Innovation Research award from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in July 2012.

“DARPA did the initial work to develop the Internet, GPS system, and rockets,” said Dr. Hill. “They think big. So they are funding us because they see our device as a way to really change the way we do health care. We really want to revolutionize clinical science.”

The device is based on dried blood spot (DBS) technology, which is best known for newborn screening and has many additional commercial uses for clinical trials, bio-banking, population studies and a wide range of medical research.

Digital technology startup UMeTime is changing the way businesses are connecting with new customers. They have built a platform that gives local business the ability to control and offer deals at their convenience. Whether you are a business that needs to speed up your slow hours, fill your empty chairs and tables, or sell sitting inventory, UMeTime offers merchants the capability to overcome these barriers and drive sales and revenue.

The company has officially launched its mobile application and is available now on iTunes or Google Play.

“Unlike Groupon and Living Social, UMeTime functions on a hyperlocal level,” said UMeTime co-founder Brett Berman. “The app allows locals to see what’s happening around them in real time, from local businesses that they like. Customers can use it for free on their mobile device.”

UMeTime moved from L.A. to Austin three months ago to take advantage of its bustling tech scene and lower taxes.

“Austin is a very collaborative environment, from the Chamber to the government to the capital factor, startups want to support each other here,” said Berman.

Since launching in Austin just three years ago, local start-up Tabbed Out has grown from a few bars and restaurants in downtown Austin to 1,000 locations nationwide. It has developed an app that lets customers pay their tabs with their phone.

“We not only made the app, but also the software that goes on the point of sale,” said Meredith Schultz, managing marketer at Tabbed Out. “We are the only company targeted for hospitality—bars and restaurants. Our app solves the pain of tipping and splitting the tab, as well as provides the ability for customers to provide feedback to the bar or restaurants.”

Tabbed Out now has a partnership with T.G.I. Fridays and is expanding to other cities including Seattle, San Francisco, Portland, Denver, DC, Dallas and Houston. The company is located in downtown Austin close to the famous 6th street, a popular location of bars and restaurants. “Austin is very friendly for start-ups and emerging technology companies,” said Schultz. “In L.A. it’s more competitive, but in Austin everyone is friendly and there to support you especially when you are starting a new business.”

We also caught up with Firefly LED Lighting’s founder and CEO Steve Barcik Amstel, who is stepping into a new role with Convergence Wireless, a wireless networking technology company that has produced the first all wireless lighting control system for buildings.

“Whereas now there is no easy way to do an energy management system without pulling a lot of wire, our product will allow you to install an energy management and information management system and even cellular, just by adding our device to light fixtures,” said Amstel.

After Firefly LED Lighting was acquired by a larger lighter company, Austin-based Convergence Wireless seemed a perfect next step for Amstel, who has lived in Austin for 27 years and started out as a facilities engineer at Texas Instruments. Amstel founded Firefly in 2009 and won the GM technology award for his work in developing long life and high efficiency LED lighting.

“I’ve always had an interest in energy management and facilities management and how can we use new things like Internet and sensing and bigger computer power to make a difference,” said Amstel. “There is so much opportunity to reduce our country’s energy demand and to save money for facilities through these technologies that I keep getting involved in it because I get excited about what we’re going to be able to do.”

Convergence Wireless is part of the Austin Technology Incubator, which helps breakthrough a number of clean energy and energy efficiency companies each year and has led Austin to being dubbed the “Clean Energy Capital of the U.S.”

“When you look at the number of startups in Austin around clean energy and environmental considerations it’s really taken off as a clean energy mecca for start-up companies,” said Amstel.

Amazon Puts Three New Warehouses In Texas

Amazon has announced plans to open three new fulfillment centers in the state of Texas, creating more than 1,000 jobs. The sites, which will use advanced technology to help fulfill customer orders, will be located in the cities of Coppell, Haslet and Schertz.

“We look forward to putting more than 1,000 Texans to work at our new fulfillment centers in Schertz, Coppell and Haslet,” said Mike Roth, Amazon’s vice president of North American fulfillment. “We appreciate the state and local elected officials who have helped us make this exciting investment in the state of Texas.”

“We’re pleased Amazon is investing in Texas by bringing three fulfillment centers and more than 1,000 jobs to our state,” said Texas Comptroller Susan Combs. “I thank Amazon for working with us—making it possible to bring new jobs and revenue to the state of Texas.”

“This is the biggest economic development partnership announcement in the history of our city,” said city of Haslet Mayor Bob Golden. “The jobs and potential tax base that this development will bring to our community is a major milestone in our city’s growth.”

The 1.2 million-square-foot site in Schertz and the 1 million-square-foot site in Coppell will handle larger items—anything from televisions to bbqs, for example. The 1.1 million-square-foot site in Haslet will handle smaller items like books, small electronics or DVDs, to name a few.

“Amazon, coming to Coppell, complements our strategy of building a quality business base that supports the community and the region,” said Coppell Mayor Karen Hunt. “We are thrilled Amazon chose Coppell for a new fulfillment center. We recognize their large capital investment and new jobs brought to this area.”

Recently, Amazon committed to hire more than a thousand veterans in the U.S. in the upcoming year to join the hundreds of veteran employees it has on staff currently. The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates there are more than 1.6 million veterans in the state of Texas.

“We are thrilled to welcome Amazon to Schertz,” said city of Schertz Mayor Michael Carpenter. “The investment Amazon is making in our community is significant, and it is a manifest expression by yet another highly successful and well-respected company that Schertz is a great place to do business.”

USAA Real Estate Company is building the project in Schertz. Hillwood Development Company is building the project in the city of Haslet as part of AllianceTexas, a 17,000-acre, master-planned community, and is also constructing the project in the city of Coppell.

Pipe Mill Coming To Bay City

Tenaris has announced it will build its first U.S. seamless pipe mill in Bay City, Matagorda County, TX. With its proximity to Houston and to Tenaris’ North American headquarters, the location offers a combination of favorable geography, operational logistics and availability of a skilled workforce.

“Our new facility will complement our integrated global manufacturing network and work closely with our existing North American operations to further strengthen domestic production,” Paolo Rocca, Chairman and CEO, said.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (with hard hat) and Tenaris President, North America, German Cura at a recent press conference announcing Bay City as the location of Tebaris’ first U.S seamless mill.

“This announcement is only possible, thanks to the hard work of state and local officials, as well as, the area business community, which always plays a major role in decisions like this,” Gov. Rick Perry said. “The most profound statement about our favorable economic climate comes when companies like Tenaris make an investment of this size in our state.”

“With this investment, we will strengthen our local production and service capabilities to address the growing demands of the energy industry,” German Cura, President, North America, said. “We are grateful for the support we have had from The State of Texas, Matagorda County and Bay City.”

An analysis conducted on the economic impact of Tenaris in Matagorda County states the company will have a large direct and indirect influence on the area. The new plant will generate 600 direct manufacturing jobs and offer substantial economic impact in Matagorda County as well as in the surrounding areas.

“The company’s commitment to the environment and safety is a top priority,” Cura said. “The facility is being designed according to the most stringent environmental and safety standards, with the implementation of control technologies that will reduce our emissions footprint and exceed state and federal regulations.” The new facility is expected to begin operations in 2016.

The growing biotech sector the Lone Star State recently got a shot in the arm from a federal initiative to expand domestic manufacturing of flu vaccines. [See related coverage of Texas biotechnology activities here.]

GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK) and Texas A&M University System announced that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has approved the establishment of a $91 million influenza-vaccines manufacturing facility as the anchor of the Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing (CIADM) in Bryan-College Station, TX.

“The Texas A&M Center, anchored by this facility, is expected to bring more than $41 billion in expenditures within the State of Texas over the next 25 years, and will add more than 6,800 direct and related jobs to Texas,” Gov. Rick Perry said.

“GSK is privileged to deepen our commitment to U.S. public health, as part of this unprecedented public-private collaboration to protect against pandemics and bio-threats,” noted Antoon Loomans, senior vice president, GSK Vaccines. “In Texas A&M, we have found a partner with a rich tradition of service and with pioneering technologies that will benefit the entire pharmaceutical industry in making vaccines available and accessible to all in need.”

The Texas A&M Center for Innovation is headed by Dr. Brett Giroir, vice chancellor for Strategic Initiatives at the Texas A&M System, and a core team of A&M experts in biotechnology, infectious diseases, facilities planning and construction, federal acquisitions/contracting, and government affairs. The partnership with GSK was founded on a long, collaborative relationship between Texas A&M and the Wallonia Region of Belgium, with specific planning for this project beginning in the spring of 2010.

Once constructed and operational, the Center’s influenza manufacturing facility will be able to supply 50 million doses of pandemic influenza vaccine within four months of an outbreak.

“GSK’s decision to partner with Texas A&M and bring their vaccine manufacturing to our state is a testament to the investments that the A&M System and the State of Texas have made in the people, infrastructure and technologies, much of which came from critical state programs such as the Emerging Technology Fund,” Giroir said.” GSK brings unequaled influenza vaccine development, manufacturing, and regulatory expertise to our Center.”

Hitting The Sweet Spot In Sugar Land, TX

The City of Sugar Land, TX has combined a great quality of life, a growing constellation of cultural attractions and a business-friendly climate that should prove attractive to companies looking for prime locations for their facilities and tourists looking for an interesting and entertaining destination.

The focal point of Sugar Land’s push to become a destination of choice is the redevelopment of the Imperial Sugar refinery and adjacent Tract 3 property. Last year, Constellation Field, became the first project to open within the Imperial Development. This a gem of a ballpark, already becoming the go-to place for year-round entertainment, embraces the three goals of the redevelopment: historic preservation of key buildings; continued aesthetic/architectural quality; and economic development that creates successful and vibrant community projects.

The Sugar Land Skeeters’ inaugural minor league baseball season at Constellation Field last year set an Atlantic League attendance record of 465,511. When compared to minor league teams affiliated with Major League Baseball, Sugar Land ranked third in Texas behind the Triple A Round Rock Express and Double A Frisco Roughriders. In a national comparison of all professional minor league baseball teams, both affiliated and independent, Sugar Land’s average game attendance was in the top 25, with 6,751 guests per game. Constellation Field was chosen via fan vote for Baseball America’s 2013 Great Parks Calendar, the Skeeters organization was named a runner–up for Baseball Digest ‘s 2012 Organization of the Year and the new stadium was selected to host the Southland Conference Baseball Tournament, scheduled to take place in May.

Constellation Field serves as a year–round venue for community events, such as concerts and sports tournaments. It has a variety of dynamic settings, accommodating intimate catered events to large–scale stadium seating of up to 5,000 for on–field events. The stadium offered a variety of indoor and outdoor meeting and party rooms for businesses, weddings or other events. The stadium’s first two concert events were performances by REO Speedwagon and ZZ Top.

Design has begun on planned indoor Performing Arts Center that is planned for a 21-acre site near the intersection of U.S. Highway 59 and University Boulevard, with a letter of intent with ACE SL, LLC was approved in August by the Sugar Land Development Corp. The City intends to create a financially feasible, operationally self–sustainable signature facility that will promote economic development, create jobs and enhance educational offerings.

To help give ACE input on the facility’s amenities, appearance and function, two planning sessions were held in the fall with team members from ACE, the architects and the City. The schematic designs are expected to be completed and ready to share with the community this spring. No timeline has been set for completion of the project. The venue will be located in Telfair within a larger mixed–use development that includes the future campuses of Fluor Enterprises, Inc. and Texas Instruments, Inc., and other proposed uses, such as a hotel and restaurant.

Sugar Land Town Square is a 32–acre, award–winning, mixed–use, public–private development. It is now fully developed and contains upscale retail and restaurants, Class A offices, a hotel and conference center, residential condominiums and City Hall. Retailers that opened in Town Square in fiscal year 2012 included Sur la Table, Gem and Bead Gallery, Pinot’s Palette, Brilliant Sky Toys and Books and Revolution Studio. New restaurants included Ruggles Green, Guru Burgers & Crepes and BLU.

The 1.3–acre plaza hosted 200 free events in fiscal year 2012 attended by nearly 100,000 people. Events included Fitness in the Plaza, Halloween Town, Christmas Tree Lighting and the New Year’s Eve event, as well as art and fashion shows, international festivals and awareness campaigns.

At the Houston Museum of Natural Science in Sugar Land, the Hall of Paleontology has been expanded and is now twice its original size. Arranged in chronological order, it features a triceratops and many exquisite fossils from the Paleozoic era, as well as a large collection of trilobites, extinct arthropods, Stenopterygius, Holzmaden and a sea crocodile. A new, saltwater aquarium includes a wide variety of fishes and aquatic life.

Sugar Land’s stable local economy is a magnet for relocating and expanding firms. In fiscal year 2012, significant relocations were announced, including several Fortune 500 firms that operate internationally and other national and local firms. These combined projects will result in more than $221 million in new capital investment, 1000 new jobs, 2,000 retained jobs and more than 423,000 square feet of newly constructed or leased space.

Several key planned development applications were approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission and City Council during 2012, including the Imperial/Tract 3 and Telfair developments. The City Council approved the Imperial General Land Plan Amendment 1 and zoning applications for 690–acres (the majority of the development in Imperial was Constellation Field and the associated street construction). Several key projects continue within the Telfair commercial area near U.S. Highway 59, including a Costco store, the future office campus for Texas Instruments and Fluor and planning for the performing arts center.

At the end of fiscal year 2012, Sugar Land had more than 23 million square feet of commercial space; this included 7.5 million square feet of office space, 7.6 million square feet of retail space and 8.2 million square feet of industrial space.

The Sugar Land Development Corporation and Sugar Land 4B Corporation (SL4B) each collect a quarter cent sales tax that directly funds economic development programs and City activities. The focus of SLDC is business recruitment and retention initiatives, while SL4B focuses more on quality–of–life initiatives and strategic development projects.

Propane Mega-Plant Fuels Job Growth In Alvin, TX

Gov. Rick Perry recently announced that Ascend Performance Materials Texas Inc. will construct a new propane dehydrogenation facility in Alvin, Texas, creating 100 jobs and $1.2 billion in capital investment. The state is providing $1 million through the Texas Enterprise Fund to close the deal on this expansion and job creation. Execution of the state’s agreement is contingent upon finalization of a local incentive package.

“Through our combination of low taxes, predictable regulations, fair courts, skilled workforce and competitive incentives like the TEF, Texas is a national model for creating jobs and prosperity,” Gov. Perry said. “Ascend’s new facility in Brazoria County, with more than a billion dollars worth of capital investment and the creation of 100 new jobs, further strengthens the Gulf Coast’s economy and chemical production industry.”

Ascend is a global leader in proprietary technologies central to the production of chemicals, and Nylon 6,6 plastics and fibers. Nylon 6,6 is the material of choice for high performance applications in the engineering plastics and fibers industries globally, and can be found in thousands of commercial and industrial products such as apparel, automotive, building and industrial, chemicals, consumer goods, electronic and military industries. The company has five manufacturing facilities in the U.S., which allow it to develop new products from its core technologies, and provides flexibility to respond to the expanding needs of its customers. The new facility in Alvin will focus on propane dehydrogenation, a method of producing propylene, which is common chemical building block for plastic and synthetic fiber products.

“This project builds on the existing strength of the Ascend position as a global leader in the chemicals and nylon businesses. The active support of the governor’s office, as well as that of state and local authorities, has contributed to our progress in the early stages of the development of the project,” said Tim Strehl, Ascend president.

“Ascend picked the right place to expand their business,” State Sen. Larry Taylor said. “The talented workforce in Senate District 11 and the State of Texas can provide the perfect partners for innovative companies looking to succeed.”

The Ascend project is just the latest of several major projects that have come to fruition in Texas as the oil and gas giant continues to flex its energy muscles. Gov. Perry announced last year that Dow Chemical Co. will create 150 new jobs and $1.7 billion in capital investment with the location of a hydrocarbon cracker in Brazoria County. The governor was joined at the announcement by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, Dow CEO and Chairman Andrew Liveris and lawmakers; Perry committed the state to investing $1 million through the Texas Enterprise Fund (TEF) to close the deal on this project.

“When it comes to attracting jobs, the Texas Enterprise Fund may help close the deal and provide the final piece of the puzzle, but it’s Texas’ growing reputation as the country’s best place to build your business that puts us in the running in the first place,” Gov. Perry said. “This announcement is great news for Texas, and even better news for the people who will eventually work at this new facility thanks to this TEF investment.”

Dow Chemical Co. is a worldwide manufacturer and supplier of products that go into businesses such as specialty chemicals, electronics, agrosciences and plastics. The new ethylene cracker in Brazoria County will processes natural gas and natural gas liquids to create ethylene, to produce plastic resins and other chemical intermediates that are used to manufacture a variety of materials including transportation, building and construction, infrastructure, wire and cable, medical devices, personal care and food packaging. This will be Dow’s largest ethylene cracker worldwide, and will use U.S. produced shale gas and natural gas liquids.

“Dow is proud to be making a significant investment in Texas with the construction of a new world-scale ethylene production plant—a key part of our comprehensive plan to further connect our U.S. operations with cost-advantaged feedstocks available from increasing supplies of U.S. shale gas,” Dow Chemical Company chairman and CEO Andrew Liveris said. “We received a lot of support from our local community and from this business-friendly state via the Texas Enterprise Fund, and are proud to expand upon our longstanding history of investing in Texas.”

The Legislature created the TEF in 2003 and has re-appropriated funding in every legislative session since then to help ensure the growth of Texas businesses and create more jobs throughout the state. TEF projects must be approved by the governor, lieutenant governor and speaker of the House. The fund has since become one of the state’s most competitive tools to recruit and bolster business. To date, the TEF has invested more than $498.8 million and closed the deal on projects generating more than 67,400 new jobs and more than $19.9 billion in capital investment in the state.

Gov. Perry has made diversifying the energy mix of Texas’ electricity market one of his major priorities, helping to lower electricity prices. In 2012, Texas relied on a variety of fuel sources to meet the growing demand for electricity, including 34 percent of energy produced coming from coal, 45 percent from natural gas, 12 percent from nuclear, 9 percent from wind, and 0.5 percent from other sources such as hydro, biomass, landfill gas, and solar.

In 2007, Gov. Perry signed comprehensive energy efficiency legislation, House Bill 3693, into law. This legislation created incentives to reduce energy costs through investing in energy efficiency technologies. As a result, Texans reduced electric consumption in 2009 alone in the state by 506,000 megawatt hours. In 2011, Perry signed Senate Bill (S.B.) 1125 increasing the energy efficiency goals, including cost caps for those programs to ensure the costs remain reasonable for customers, and allowing consumers to participate in the generation market through demand-management.

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PMF’s existing 120,000 square foot facility in North Central Pennsylvania.

Posted by Heidi Schwartz

Gov. Corbett has announced that Pennsylvania is expanding its commitment to advance clean, alternative and renewable energy sources with the investment of more than $9.6 million in 13 projects in 11 counties.

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Posted by Heidi Schwartz

Construction is expected to begin early next year on the new La Paloma Power Plant, to be located in the Harlingen Industrial Park in Harlingen, TX. At its peak, the enormous $650 million project will have more than six hundred workers on site, with most of the work force to be recruited locally. The plant is being developed by Coronado Power Ventures, LLC and Bechtel.

Robert Deatherage, Vice President and Industrial Relations Manager for Becon Construction Company, is general contractor for the La Paloma Power Plant project. Deatherage met with Harlingen EDC, Cameron County Workforce Solutions and Texas State Technical College executives to discuss employment and training of the customized work force needed for success of the project.

“It’s the start of a long and exciting project which will provide enough energy to interest additional manufacturers and other heavy power users,” says Raudel Garza, CEO, Harlingen EDC. “The first step involves survey and environmental crews, with human resource personnel to begin the hiring process by the end of 2013.”

Jobs to be filled will include site preparation workers, carpenters, iron workers, concrete finishers, pipe fitters, welders, and electricians as well as administrative, mechanical, electrical and industrial personnel.  Project construction is expected to take nearly two and a half years.

“With a young, abundant and trainable workforce, and a low cost of living, in addition to our pro-business environment and quality of place, it makes sense for this project and other businesses to locate facilities in Harlingen,” stated Rick Ledesma, HEDC Board Chariman.

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Posted by Heidi Schwartz

Woodward, Inc. has announced that it intends to acquire a corporate campus site for its global headquarters and selected business group operations in Fort Collins, CO. The acquisition decision was made after extensive work with the City of Fort Collins to plan the site and to obtain necessary approvals for its intended use.

The Colorado Office of Economic Development and Colorado Economic Development Commission arranged important business assistance associated with planned new jobs and investment and the Northern Colorado Economic Development Corporation provided valuable site selection assistance.

The downtown Fort Collins site, adjacent to the Poudre River and its 21-mile recreational trail, is within walking distance of the community’s dynamic “Old Town” historic area—a popular Northern Colorado destination for shopping and entertainment. Colorado State University, a longtime Woodward partner in energy technology development, is a short drive away. A key consideration in the selection of the site was the ability to leverage Woodward’s investment and employment on the new campus to help achieve long term planning goals of the Fort Collins community, particularly for the Old Town area.

Woodward anticipates that the attributes of the site, the community, and the new campus will represent compelling, competitive differentiators for long-term retention and attraction of talented members. Of the 101-acre parcel to be acquired, Woodward is planning to donate to the City of Fort Collins approximately 30 acres, which is adjacent to the river, for restoration by the city as a natural area and for improvements to the city’s extensive trail system.

Through competitive processes, Woodward selected Ghafari Associates of Dearborn, Michigan to provide architectural and engineering services and M. A. Mortensen Company of Minneapolis, Minnesota as the construction manager/general contractor for the Colorado project.

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Facebook’s Prineville, OR data center

By Bill Trüb
From the March/April 2013 issue

Data centers are crucial to operations across countless sectors, from retail to information technology, government to biotech, logistics to engineering. Many consumers, however, have little awareness or understanding of just how massive and expensive these facilities are. Large-scale data centers are known to use the amount of electricity equivalent to small towns and, despite many greening initiatives, some centers release a significant amount of air pollution in the form of diesel exhaust. Furthermore, the amount of security necessary to run a successful data center is enormous due to the highly sensitive information and pricey equipment housed in such storage units. So high are these stakes that the Telecommunications Industry Association has even published a document detailing the minimum requirements for the infrastructure of data centers and computer rooms.

But the business of IT is one that changes quickly. The International Data Corporation claims the average data center is nine years old, which is troubling when coupled with research company Gartner’s assertion that data centers more than seven years old are obsolete. In May 2011, Uptime Institute reported that 36 percent of large companies will exhaust their IT capacities within the next 18 months. Yet according to a “Green Data Centers” report by Pike Research,the global market for green data centers segment of the industry is expected to more than double in size in the next four years. It can be overwhelming to try and keep abreast of these fast-moving, ever-changing, air-conditioned rooms of priceless information.

Greene And The Greening Of Data Centers

In an effort to reduce the shocking levels of diesel exhaust that many data centers emit into the atmosphere, the industry is being proactive in finding environmentally sound operating solutions. Aptly-named Nicholas Greene, writer for www.greendatacenterconference.com, penned “Ten of the Biggest Data Center Trends” at the tail end of 2012. Let’s recap a few of his most notable prognostications.

“Cloud Computing’s still got a long way to go before it’s the world-changing behemoth that everyone predicts it will be, but this year saw more and more organizations finding their way to cloud computing, and loving every moment of it,” writes Greene. “Hybrid clouds took off, and Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Software-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service vendors really came into their own. Unfortunately, the great strides cloud computing made this year are going to have some unfortunate side-effects in the near future. Moving forward; scalability is going to be a huge concern: our current data center infrastructure, powerful as it is, might not be able to handle the increased demands of the cloud.”

Greene continues, “2012 also witnessed the birth of the software defined data center. As a direct result of this, we’ve been seeing an increased focus on virtualization with the configuration of the data center’s hardware dealt with by upper-level software. Software Defined Networking, though still in its nascent stages, has the very real potential to revolutionize the way data centers are operated, with new options for resource optimization, availability, storage, and mobility.”

According to Greene, the push for eco-sensitive options has been a success. “The environment has been getting a lot of love from data center operators this year,” he says. “We’ve been seeing a massive shift towards green computing throughout 2012, with big names such as Apple and Microsoft hopping on the environmental friendliness train. The looming threat of global warming, coupled with the obvious energy savings one accrues as a result of green initiatives (not to mention the good press an organization can receive) have combined to make green IT a near-integral part of data center design.”

Greene gives us the word of the year: “Server racks are becoming denser and denser as many organizations consolidate their data centers in order to save on energy and real-estate costs. Consolidation is the word of the year, as data centers grow smaller and more powerful and energy management turns from a good idea to an integral discipline for data center operation.”

And finally, openness and transparency is where the industry is headed, led by kingpins Facebook and Google. “In April 2011, Facebook founded the Open Compute Project—an initiative which I’m sure that many initially took as a very bad April Fool’s Joke. It wasn’t—and it’s been gaining steam ever since,” asserts Greene. “The notion that data centers should be defined by their software infrastructure rather than their physical hardware seemed novel at the time, but Facebook has demonstrated that it’s got real value. Even organizations that are typically secretive to the point of paranoia, such as Google, have loosened up a bit, giving us some insight into the inner workings of some of their facilities. Maybe one day in the future, Facebook’s ideals will pay off, and we’ll be rewarded with true transparency in data center operations.”

Google Searches, Hits On South Carolina

Speaking of such Internet giants, Google held a groundbreaking ceremony in January in Berkeley County, SC to announce it will expand its operations at the Mt. Holly Commerce Park. The additional $600 million in investment at the site brings Google’s total investment to more than $1.2 billion. The data center in Berkeley County currently houses thousands of servers to support services such as Google search, Gmail, Google+ and YouTube. As Google’s services grows, the company must ramp up its data centers to meet demand.

Google’s data center in Berkeley County, SC. Google is using the rainwater retention pond as another means for cooling its data center.

“Today’s announcement is another big win for South Carolina,” says Governor Nikki Haley. “We celebrate Google’s decision to grow its footprint in Berkeley County with a $600-million investment. When a world-class company like Google decides to expand in the Palmetto State, it shows we are providing the sort of business environment that helps foster success.” Many states aggressively pursue data center business through various tax incentives because data centers are often a boon for local economies.

“South Carolina and the Berkeley County community are great places in which to work and grow,” says Data Center Operations Manager Eric Wages. “When Google first announced plans to come to Berkeley County in 2007, we were attracted to not only the energy infrastructure, developable land and available workforce, but also the extraordinary team from the local community that made us feel welcome. Today’s announcement is just a continuation of our investment in the state. Google is proud to call Berkeley County home.”

Google first announced plans for a South Carolina data center in 2007, making an initial investment of $600 million to get the center up and running. In November 2010, Google announced plans to construct a second building at the site, which is now serving traffic.

Google is also involved in supporting science and mathematics programs in South Carolina’s schools. Since 2008, it has awarded more than $885,000 in grants to local schools and nonprofits. It also has helped implement a free, downtown Wi-Fi network in Goose Creek.

“Google has been a great partner, exceeding expectations when the data center was first proposed,” says Berkeley County Supervisor Dan Davis. “They have invested capital, created good jobs and more importantly partnered with local businesses to help them do business better.”

“When our community came together to develop this business park, we wanted to attract leading companies that would establish deep roots and grow,” says South Carolina Sen. Paul Campbell. “Google’s expansion is an example of how Berkeley County can serve the needs of the world’s most innovative and dynamic companies. I hope Google’s growth here prompts other growing businesses to put down roots.”

Facebook ‘Likes’ Oregon

Facebook stores more than 240 billion photos, with users uploading an additional 350 million new photos every single day. To house those photos, Facebook’s data center team deploys 7 petabytes of storage gear every month. But what do you do with an exabyte of digital photos that are rarely accessed? That was the challenge facing Jay Parikh, Vice President of Infrastructure Engineering at Facebook.

The team decided a dedicated data center at its Prineville, OR campus could house older photos in a separate “cold storage” system and would dramatically slash the cost of storing and serving these files. The facility has no generators or UPS systems, but can house up to an exabyte of data.

Last year, Facebook built a 62,000-square-foot data center on its Prineville campus to house its cold storage, which can house 500 racks that each hold 2 petabytes of data, for a total of 1 exabyte of cold storage. Similar facilities will be built at Facebook’s data center campuses in North Carolina and Sweden, Parikh said.

The cold storage data center has no generators or uninterruptible power supply (UPS), with all redundancy handled at the software level. It also uses computer room air conditioners (CRACs) instead of the penthouse-style free cooling system employed in the adjacent production data centers in Prineville.

Most importantly, each rack uses just 2 kilowatts of power instead of the 8 kilowatts in a standard Facebook storage rack. But Parikh said it will be able to store 8 times the volume of data of standard racks. Not many companies face storage challenges at the kind of scale seen at Facebook. But Parikh believes more companies will be confronting these massive storage issues.

“Our big data challenges that we face today will be your big data challenges tomorrow,” he says. “We need to keep coming up with advanced solutions to our storage problems. The most important innovations are the problems people solve before the scale of the problem emerges. I believe big data is one of those problems. And we won’t keep up unless we work together.”

Facebook completed a second huge data center on its campus in Prineville, Oregon in 2012. The facility is similar to its existing 300,000-square-foot data center, Facebook Data Center Manager Ken Patchett announced at a Prineville City Council meeting.

“We believe the construction of the phased expansion of Building 2, and the operation of Building 1, staffing and supplying of the Prineville Data Center will continue to have a positive impact on the Crook County-Prineville economy,” Patchett told the city officials.

The second building in Prineville created up to 450 construction jobs, with the project lasting approximately one year. At the time, Facebook said it would add 10 full-time jobs in Prineville, where it currently employs 54 full-time employees providing building maintenance, security and server maintenance. The Prineville project is Facebook’s first company-built facility, and is optimized from the two-story structure right down to the servers to reflect the company’s vision for energy efficient data center operations.

CoreSite Realty Picks NJ

CoreSite Realty has purchased a 280,000-square-foot building in Secaucus, NJ for a new data center, and expects to invest $65 million to buy the facility and redevelop the initial phase of 65,000 square feet of data center space.

The facility, which will be dubbed NY2, is the company’s first data center in New Jersey and a sign of continuing activity in the northern NJ market. CoreSite already has a site in New York City and the Secaucus facility will mark an important expansion for the provider.

CoreSite is under contract to acquire the building, with the acquisition expected to close in early February. The 280,000-square-foot facility sits on 10 acres of land, which allows additional data center development as the market demands. At full build out, CoreSite expects it will offer 19 critical megawatts of capacity. Construction will start in Q1 2013, with turn-key capacity expected to be available in Q4 2013.

CoreSite intends to ensure the availability of high-capacity and high-speed lit services as well as a robust dark-fiber tether between NY2 and CoreSite’s NY1 location at 32 Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan, enabling CoreSite to provide seamless interconnection across its New York campus.

The company has been aggressively building out data center campuses across America. Focusing on network centric and cloud oriented applications, these data center campuses are network-dense.

“CoreSite’s entry into Secaucus is an important step in the execution of our strategy to extend our U.S. platform supporting latency-sensitive customer applications in network-dense, cloud-enabled data center campuses,” says Tom Ray, President and Chief Executive Officer, CoreSite. “Our New York campus is designed to meet performance-sensitive customer requirements supported by our location at the nexus of robust, protected, low-latency network rings serving Manhattan as well as global cable routes to Chicago, Frankfurt, London, and Brazil. Additionally, customers are able to connect directly to service nodes for Amazon Web Services Direct Connect.”

The Secaucus facility follows the launch of CoreSite’s previously announced 15 data center, located in Reston, VA. CoreSite’s national platform spans nine US markets and includes more than 275 carriers and service providers and more than 15,000 interconnections.

The availability of direct connections to high speed networks in NY2 will be of particular interest to financial firms looking to reduce latency and improve performance. Three network service providers have pre-committed to serve NY2, consisting of CoreSite partners Sidera Networks, Zayo, and Seaborn Networks, each of which provides high-performance network support to the financial services, cloud and network communities.

“The new CoreSite data center in New Jersey fits perfectly with Sidera’s growth strategy,” says Clint Heiden, President, Sidera Networks. “This expansion gives CoreSite customers immediate access to over 40 financial exchanges and the Sidera Xtreme Ultra-Low Latency Network.”

In addition to the new facility, the company also announced an Open Cloud Exchange, an initiative looking to offer a range of cloud services to customers. The Exchange will offer best-of-breed partnerships and services from a broad range of providers. It capitalizes on demand for hybrid infrastructures, letting Enterprises, Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and Systems Integrators (SIs) in CoreSite facilities connect directly, via a single resource, to the cloud service providers of their choice. This provides customers with flexible options to securely and easily connect to all types of cloud offerings.

“We’re building the industry’s premier home for cloud services,” says Jarrett Appleby, COO, CoreSite. “With networks—the oxygen for cloud services—as the foundation, adding the industry’s leading cloud providers will create best-in-class scalability, management, automation, software, and many-to-many exchange capability. The Open Cloud Exchange offers our customers enormous provider flexibility, guaranteed performance, real-time monitoring, and easy management of cloud infrastructure services.”

The initial four best-of-breed partners in Open Cloud Exchange are CENX, Rightscale, RiverMeadow Software and Brocade.

• CENX will provide its CENX Automated Ethernet Lifecycle Management software specially designed for CoreSite’s Open Cloud Exchange, enabling easy, single sign-on management of Layer 2 cloud infrastructure services and full MEF CE 2.0 compatibility.
• RightScale, will provide its platform for deploying and manage business-critical applications across public, private, and hybrid clouds. RightScale offers efficient configuration, monitoring, automation, and governance of cloud computing infrastructure and applications.
• RiverMeadow Software will deliver its automated cloud onboarding SaaS developed specifically for migrating servers and workloads into and between Carrier Service Provider Clouds.
• Brocade will provide the hardware infrastructure and switching logic at the heart of the Open Cloud Exchange.

Planned future enhancements include the ability to connect to providers across multiple CoreSite locations within the same metro area; connections between customers and providers in various on-net buildings throughout the country; and the Choice between numerous software and services providers to support performance sensitive customer applications through a marketplace portal. The service is available immediately in seven campuses: Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, New York, Northern Virginia, Boston, and Washington, DC.

In addition to this monster of a facility from CoreSite, Northern New Jersey has been no stranger to activity these last few months. Internap announced a 100,000-square-foot project in Secaucus last October, its third in the NY Metro region, to address growing demand. With its supply of data center space in northern New Jersey running low, Digital Realty recently announced construction in Clifton.

Apple Blossoms In NC

Apple currently is building huge new data centers in three states, including the North Carolina iDataCenter. Meanwhile, it is leasing large quantities of data center space in California’s Silicon Valley.

Many of the largest cloud computing providers opted to lease new Internet infrastructure in 2012, according to new data from a veteran market watcher. The report highlights the shifting tides in the “buy or build” decision, in which geography and market economics are contributing to a two-tier infrastructure for many of the largest Internet players, with footprints split between company-built data centers and wholesale space.

Apple, Facebook and Microsoft were among the largest consumers of turn-key “wholesale” data center space in 2012, according to Jim Kerrigan, Director of the Data Center Group at Avison Young. Microsoft leased 12 megawatts of new wholesale space in 2012, with Facebook (10 megawatts) and Apple (8 megawatts) not far behind.

The trend is notable because all three companies have recently been building their own massive data center facilities. Facebook has 1.5 million square feet of data center space that is either built or nearing completion, while Apple has finished its huge iDataCenter in North Carolina and is building new facilities in Oregon and Nevada. Microsoft has built its own server farms in seven sites around the U.S. and Europe over the past 5 years.

After years of building huge data centers in remote areas, in 2012 the geographic focus shifted back to historic Internet hubs in northern Virginia, Silicon Valley and Chicago. Apple and Facebook have moved armadas of servers to rural locations in North Carolina and Oregon that offer cheap power and cheap land. Cloud builders will continue to do this going forward, but a portion of their infrastructure must always be housed near the Internet’s key intersections, where they can connect with dozens of other networks. Both land and power are more expensive in these Internet hubs, resulting in different economics for large-scale new construction. That’s why the largest wholesale data center providers have a large presence in these markets.

General Motors Gets Specific In Georgia

General Motors announced plans to hire approximately 1,000 high-tech workers to staff its new Information Technology Innovation Center near Atlanta. The automaker needs software developers, project managers, database experts, business analysts and other IT professionals for the third of four centers in the United States.

“Locating this center in Atlanta makes good business sense,” says GM Chief Information Officer Randy Mott. “We can draw from a deep pool of high tech expertise through the surrounding colleges, universities and talent residing in the area.”

“This Innovation Center is exactly the kind of employer we want in the state,” says Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal. “The information age will be with us for a long time, and attracting companies such as GM that are on the cutting edge of manufacturing and technology is a huge win for Georgia.”

Mott is leading a rebalancing of information technology at GM under which the majority of IT work will be done by GM employees instead of being outsourced, which has been the GM model for most of the last three decades.

“We look to the Innovation Centers to design and deliver IT that drives down the cost of ongoing operations while continuously increasing the level and speed at which innovative products and services are available to GM customers,” Mott says. “The IT Innovation Centers are critical to our overall GM business strategy and IT transformation.” The location of the fourth site will be announced at a later date.

Gartner’s View On Cloud Computing

Drue Reeves, Gartner’s Vice President and distinguished analyst, recently outlined five trends that will transform the data center industry for Computer Weekly. Reeves’ expert predictions focus heavily on cloud computing, which requires the use of computing resources (both hardware and software) that are delivered over a network, usually the Internet. The name comes from the use of a cloud-shaped symbol as an abstraction for the complex infrastructure it contains in system diagrams. Cloud computing entrusts remote services with a user’s data, software and computation. Here are Reeves’ five trends, in his own words, for the future of data centers.

• Hybrid IT: Perhaps the greatest effect of public cloud computing on IT concerns operations. IT organizations realize that not only do they need to compete with public cloud service providers (CSPs), but also act as intermediaries between internal customers and all IT services (internal or external). IT organizations are becoming brokers of a set of IT services hosted partly internally and partly externally — that is, of hybrid IT. As intermediaries, IT organizations can offer internal customers the price, capacity and provisioning speed of the external cloud, and the protection and security of the internal cloud.
• Internal clouds: When businesses grow accustomed to consuming IT as a service, IT organizations will be compelled to build internal clouds. Unfortunately, building an internal cloud is hard work and few blueprints exist. Although vendors are building products that will help customers build internal clouds, there is no turnkey solution. IT organizations will struggle to cobble together the necessary pieces to build internal clouds. Nevertheless, building them will be a key data center trend in 2012 because of the need to compete with external cloud computing.
• Hybrid clouds: Hybrid clouds are connections between two clouds, usually an internal private cloud and an external public cloud. They are constructed using software that enables applications and data to migrate more easily between clouds. For example, many applications depend on identity management systems to authenticate users, have gigabytes of data, and have input/output latency dependencies for storage. These attributes often prevent applications from migrating to the external cloud, but hybrid cloud solutions them in unique ways. For example, hybrid cloud software can enable WAN acceleration and VPN connections between clouds that allow IT organizations to keep application services and critical data in the internal cloud, and to move the workload itself to the public cloud. As IT budgets continue to shrink and capital resources remain scarce, hybrid clouds will become a more popular option for augmenting IT capacity and enabling disaster recovery than building another data center or signing a long-term outsourcing agreement.
• User-centric computing: To compete in a global market and retain key employees, organizations often have to accommodate staff who live in remote locations and use personal devices for work. Some organizations are attempting to radically reduce the operational expense of supporting numerous desktop devices for large groups of users with various application requirements. These needs create new challenges for IT organizations to secure data; back up data; support smaller, less functional devices; and support a broader range of devices. Therefore, many IT organizations are rethinking their desktop and mobility strategies and adopting a user-centric, rather than a device-centric, point of view.
• Data center efficiency: Competing with the external cloud requires IT organizations to strive for hyper-efficiency in their data centers. If critical data and applications are to be housed in an internal private cloud, IT organizations must deliver internal IT services in an efficient, cost-effective manner. This requires them to squeeze further costs out of their data centers by virtualizing as many applications as possible, using storage efficiency technologies such as data deduplication, and buying servers that enable them to maximize space and power and to consolidate applications.

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The explosion and fire released massive quantities of radioactive particles into the atmosphere over much of the western USSR, Europe and Scandinavia. The Politburo hacks running the last vestige of the Soviet empire decided not to warn anyone for three long days until reindeer meat in Sweden started registering on Geiger counters and the truth could no longer be denied.

The Soviets claimed the official casualty count from Chernobyl did not exceed 31, which of course belongs in the dustbin of whopping Orwellian falsehoods issued by the USSR’s now-defunct Ministry of Information. It took hundreds of firefighters, most of whom were not equipped with radiation suits, to put out the fire at Chernobyl so work could begin to entomb the melted reactor core. Nearly 500,000 workers toiled for months to erect a concrete sarcophagus around the shattered and woefully inadequate structure that had been Chernobyl’s containment vessel.

We’ll probably never know how many of them died hideously within days from radiation poisoning, or slowly over the years from radiation-induced cancer. It’s also hard to tally the collateral damage from Chernobyl, but here’s an example that can serve as a starting point for extrapolations: thousands of Latvian children — a small Baltic nation whose people have a natural iodine deficiency — eventually developed thyroid cancer because their bodies eagerly absorbed unnatural radiation from Chernobyl.

For more than 25 years, Chernobyl stood as a stark warning that the panacea of cheap electricity from nuclear power came wrapped in a deadly package that always is one breach from global catastrophe. Even before Chernobyl blew up (and since), there has been no long-term solution for the problem of where to put a growing radioactive stockpile of spent fuel rods. So we’ve built up smoldering clumps of the stuff all over the world, atom bomb-ready waste with a radioactive half-life of 50,000 years. But after Chernobyl, one could at least hope that adequate precautions would be taken to prevent a repetition of the 1986 disaster.

Japan apparently did not get the memo. On March 11, 2011, an earthquake spawned a monster tsunami that flooded the Fukishima Daiichi nuclear complex on Japan’s northeastern Pacific Coast.

It was never a good idea to build nuclear power plants in a nation that has experienced more earthquakes than any other, but we can understand how energy-starved Japan concluded the risk was worth it. It’s much harder to fathom how they could decide to put no less than six nuclear reactors in a facility standing just a few yards from the ocean, with a low-lying wall its only protection, no back-up cooling system if ground-level generators failed and an open pond on the roof for storage of spent fuel rods.

It made no difference to the outcome that half of the reactors at Fukushima had been shut down or defueled when the disaster hit. When the cooling system was overwhelmed and disabled by the tsunami, the three remaining reactors overheated and began to melt.

As at Chernobyl, brave firefighters were given the suicidal task of putting out fires and workers rushed in to spray the red-hot reactor cores with water. You might assume they simply hooked their mobile pumps up to the largest supply of water in the vicinity — the ocean — but you’d be wrong. The intrepid managers of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), Fukushima’s operator, delayed this critical step for days because they knew saltwater would permanently destroy their expensive reactors.

The TEPCO managers assured the world they had the situation under control, until the meltdown breached metal cladding surrounding the fuel rods in the reactor cores and touched off huge hydrogen air-chemical explosions in units 1 and 3. Because reactor 3 was connected to reactor 4 by piping, the latter also exploded. The explosions occurred at the top of each unit, known as their upper secondary containment structures, so an open pool containing nearly 1,000 spent fuel rods also began to heat up. TEPCO’s hapless crisis managers couldn’t have done a more thorough job if they’d invited Godzilla to walk in and kick the place to smithereens. And so the world’s second Level 7 Event commenced.

We’ll skip over the details here of the near-term consequences of the Fukushima disaster, including a still-incomplete tally of casualties, a 20-square-kilometer evacuation and widespread radioactive contamination of crops and water supplies. Japanese officials maintain the overall release of radiation at Fukushima still totals only about a sixth of what escaped from Chernobyl, but in a sad echo of the cataclysm in the Ukraine they’ve been rebutted by the silent testimony of test results which show that more than 36 percent of the children in the Fukushima Daiichi region are now experiencing abnormal growths in their thyroid glands.

While the near-term picture has been terrible, a recent report on the front page of The New York Times tells us the long-term prognosis for Fukushima may be even worse. Our second Level 7 Event will be with us for a long, long time and it is likely to eclipse Chernobyl in terms of its overall impact.

According to the Times report, ongoing efforts to keep the three melted reactors at Fukushima from overheating — by pouring water into the wreckage of the reactors at a rate of 75 gallons per minute and then pumping it out so it doesn’t swamp a makeshift cooling system — have generated a flood of highly radioactive wastewater.

Focused as they understandably have been on stabilizing the damaged reactor cores, the TEPCO team — yes, they’re still in charge — apparently hasn’t figured out a permanent solution for the larger problem of what they’re going to do with the growing ocean of radioactive wastewater they’re creating on a daily basis. In the two years since the tsunami, the Times reports, an army of workers has filled huge silver storage tanks that have been set up on 42 acres of parking lots and lawns surrounding the Fukushima complex. Each tank holds the equivalent of 112 Olympic-size swimming pools of highly radioactive water.

Unable to develop a more sustainable solution, TEPCO’s managers have belatedly admitted they’ve now run out of space to store the wastewater and the situation is — cringe alert — “an emergency.”

So TEPCO has sent out an all-points bulletin for tree-cutters. They plan to chop down a forest on the southern edge of the Fukushima complex to make room for hundreds more tanks. While they’re looking for Paul Bunyan-types with axes, the TEPCO team also has to figure out what caused a 29-hour power failure in the makeshift cooling system at the crippled complex, a system they had proclaimed was failsafe.

The Times’ description of the makeshift cooling system in use at Fukushima reads like a script for a disaster movie. A snakelike maze of pumps, filters and pipes crawls for more than two miles along the ground through the complex. The pool for storing spent fuel rods remains precariously perched on the roof of one of the damaged reactor buildings while TEPCO tries to figure out how to safely move them (and where to put them).

The status quo is bad enough to contemplate, but did we mention that the Fukushima Daiichi complex sits on one of the most active earthquake fault lines on Earth just a few feet from the Pacific Ocean? The last time we checked, the planet was still geologically active and Fukushima has even less protection than it had before the 2011 tsunami. While they were busy not figuring out what to do with the wastewater at Fukushima, TEPCO reportedly rejected a proposal to build a concrete wall more than 60 feet into the ground to surround the complex and block water from reaching the reactors and turbine buildings. Instead, they erected plastic- and clay-lined underground pits around the buildings which quickly developed leaks.

TEPCO apparently assumed it eventually would be able to resolve the entire problem by routing tons of wastewater — after filtering out 62 different types of radioactive particles, including lethal strontium 90, they assured everybody — into a nearby repository that has more than an adequate capacity to absorb it. That would be the Pacific Ocean. Fortunately, the outcry provoked by TEPCO’s admission they secretly vented a limited amount of wastewater into the ocean in 2011 has forced the Japanese government to prohibit any further dumping into the Pacific. But you might want to skip the fish platter the next time you order dinner in Honolulu.

Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of Japan’s recently created Nuclear Regulation Authority (yes, they didn’t have one, and the one they created only has nine inspectors), told the Times his concern is rising that another meltdown cycle is looming. He’s suggested that perhaps it’s time to take the cleanup responsibility away from TEPCO and bring in some experts. (We’re very tempted to draw an analogy here with the global financial crisis and the banking industry, but a simple “Duh!” will suffice).

We hate to end these reports on a down note, without making a useful suggestion or two. So here’s our two cents worth: for decades, the oil industry has had an international team of disaster experts on standby, ready to jump on a plane and race to the scene when a wellhead blows up. These wildcats risk life and limb to cap humongous torches of crude. They are the best in the world.

If we’re going to continue to satisfy our insatiable appetite for electricity by setting off nuclear reactions in tons of enriched uranium and plutonium fuel rods in concrete barns — while filling the planet with deadly radioactive garbage dumps — would it be too much trouble to organize an international SWAT team of nuclear experts to dispatch when one of these plants blows up?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

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Posted by Heidi Schwartz

The Prolamsa Group has announced it will build its new 300,000-plus tons-per-year pipe and tubular products facility at Texas Triangle Park in Bryan, TX. The mill, which will cost in excess of $120 million dollars, is expected to employ more than 285 people.

The facility will operate under a newly formed company, Axis Pipe and Tube, Inc. It is scheduled to begin production by mid-2014 and will produce Energy tubular products aimed at meeting the growing demand of the U.S. oil and natural gas industries.

Bryan, TX located in Brazos County, was selected after a comprehensive search of possible sites throughout the southeastern and southwestern United States. Company officials said that Bryan was chosen for several reasons including the business-friendly environment, the adequate supply of skilled labor nearby, and its proximity to a large and growing base of customers for the plant’s products. Prolamsa has been granted approvals for certain economic incentives and is in the process of processing and finalizing others, which played a critical role throughout the site selection process.

Company officials went on to praise the state and local public officials who assisted in the selection process. A company spokesman said, “Everyone from Governor Perry’s office, to public officials from Brazos County and the city of Bryan, and the Research Valley Partnership was extremely helpful and provided the information and an enthusiastic spirit that convinced us to locate in Bryan. We felt they truly wanted us as neighbors and business partners.”

The new 183 acre plant will produce ERW energy tubular products in diameters up to 16″, with wall thicknesses up to .625″. It will have the capability to produce API grades as well as ASTM specified products.

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MidAmerican Solar and Silicon Valley based SunPower are building the 579-megawatt Antelope Valley Solar Projects, the world’s largest solar power development under construction, co-located in Los Angeles and Kern Counties. Approximately 650 jobs are being created during the construction and more than $500 million is expected in regional economic development benefits. (PRNewsFoto/SunPower Corp.)

Posted by Heidi Schwartz

MidAmerican Solar and SunPower Corp. have marked the start of major construction at the Antelope Valley Solar Projects— two projects co-located in Kern and Los Angeles counties in California. The 579-megawatt development will employ approximately 650 workers during a three-year construction period; generate more than $500 million in regional economic impact, the majority of which will be generated during construction; and serve California’s growing electricity demand with clean, renewable solar power.

The Antelope Valley Solar Projects make up the world’s largest solar power development under construction. When complete, the projects will provide enough energy to power approximately 400,000 average California homes.

“The Antelope Valley Solar Projects are already creating needed jobs and economic opportunity in local communities, while at the same time, providing direct, long-term  environmental benefits,” said Paul Caudill, president of MidAmerican Solar. “We look forward to continuing our involvement in the Rosamond, Lancaster and Palmdale communities and, as we move forward, in the surrounding areas. The MidAmerican Solar team is committed to working hand-in-hand with the development’s neighbors and stakeholders. We also look forward to providing a reliable source of renewable energy to our customer Southern California Edison.”

“The start of construction on the Antelope Valley Solar Projects underscores that solar is a reliable, cost-competitive energy source,” said Howard Wenger, SunPower president, regions. “SunPower is proud to partner with MidAmerican Solar and Southern California Edison on this historic project, which is bringing critically needed jobs and economic opportunity to California today and will generate abundant clean, renewable power to the state over the long term.”

The Antelope Valley Solar Projects are owned by MidAmerican Solar. SunPower designed and developed the projects and is the engineering, procurement and construction contractor. SunPower also will provide operations and maintenance services for the plants via a multiyear services agreement.

The Antelope Valley Solar Projects will provide renewable energy to Southern California Edison under two long-term power purchase contracts.

“Southern California Edison appreciates the opportunity to work with MidAmerican Solar and SunPower to meet California’s renewable energy goals and recognizes the start of construction as an important step on that path,” said Steven Eisenberg, Southern California Edison’s vice president of energy contracts.

Electricity generated by the projects will displace approximately 775,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year—the equivalent of taking approximately 3 million cars off the road over the next 20 years.

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Posted by Heidi Schwartz

The United States ranked first among 21 countries most actively using the tax code to influence sustainable corporate activity, according to the inaugural edition of the KPMG Green Tax Index, reflecting the country’s extensive and long-established program of federal tax incentives for energy generally, including specific incentives for energy efficiency, renewable energy and green buildings.

Japan, the United Kingdom, France, South Korea and China were also among the leading countries using tax as a tool to drive sustainable corporate behavior, according to the index. Key policy areas explored in the index include energy efficiency, water efficiency, carbon emissions, green innovations and green buildings.

“The KPMG Green Tax Index provides important directional insight for corporate sustainability decision makers, CFOs and board members into how countries are using taxes to influence corporate behavior,” said John Gimigliano, principal-in-charge of sustainability tax in the Washington National Tax practice of KPMG LLP. “Japan, for example, tops the rankings in its promotion of tax incentives for green vehicle production, while the United States favors a comprehensive system of renewable energy tax incentives. As a result, we’re seeing more green cars coming out of Japan and dramatic growth in the U.S. renewable sector.”

“These activity-based rankings can be of value to corporate sustainability decision-makers as they allocate budgets and evaluate investments around the world,” said John Hickox, advisory partner and U.S. practice leader for Climate Change & Sustainability Services at KPMG LLP.

The KPMG index identified over 200 individual tax incentives and penalties of relevance to corporate sustainability. At least 30 of these have been introduced since January 2011, reflecting the quickening pace of green investment globally.

The United States tops the KPMG Green Tax Index ranking primarily due to its extensive program of federal tax incentives for energy efficiency, renewable energy and green buildings.

According to the KPMG Green Tax Index, the U.S. tax code provides a range of tax credits, including a production tax credit on renewable energy and tax incentives construction of efficient buildings.

The United States uses green penalties less than other Western developed nations apart from Canada. When green tax penalties alone are considered, the United States drops to 14^th.

“The KPMG Green Tax Index demonstrates how important it is for corporations to make sure their head of sustainability and their head of tax are talking,” said KPMG’s Gimigliano. “At many companies these functions may have never met. One critical lesson from the Green Tax Index is that for companies to enhance the return from its green spend, the tax and sustainability functions should collaborate before the investment decision is made.”

“Green investment continues to gain momentum globally and the KPMG Green Tax Index provides a greater understanding of the entire financial picture of green investments, pre- and post-tax,” added KPMG’s Hickox.

Ranking of Additional Global Economies

• Japan is ranked 2^nd overall but, in contrast to the United States, scores higher on green tax penalties than it does on incentives. Japan also leads the ranking for tax measures to promote the use and manufacture of green vehicles.
• The United Kingdom ranks 3rd and has a green tax approach balanced between penalties and incentives. The United Kingdom scores most highly in the area of carbon and climate change.
• France occupies 4th place in the overall ranking with a green tax policy more heavily weighted toward penalties than incentives.
• South Korea ranks 5^th, and like the United States, has a green tax system weighted toward incentives rather than penalties. South Korea leads the ranking for “green innovation” which suggests that South Korea is especially active in using its tax code to encourage green research and development.
• China ranks 6^th with a green tax policy balanced between incentives and penalties and focused on resource efficiency (energy, water and materials) and green buildings.

“The very investments that can drive change and secure competitive advantage may never be made if green tax systems are not fully understood and used,” said KPMG’s Gimigliano. “Investments that struggle to make a case on a pre-tax basis can flourish after green tax analysis. Companies should not underestimate the potential of green tax incentives to deliver efficiency and productivity benefits, drive innovation and contribute to the bottom line.”

The KPMG Green Tax Index focuses on 21 major economies around the world that KPMG International believes represent a major share of global corporate investment activity. A high ranking in the Index does not necessarily mean that a country is “greener” than others. It means that the government is more active than others in using the tax system as a tool to influence corporate behavior and achieve green policy goals.

A lower ranking does not mean that a government has no green tax or incentive instruments in place. Every nation listed on the KPMG Green Tax Index uses green taxes and incentives to an extent worthy of investigation by corporate tax and sustainability professionals. Countries in which the government does not use green taxes or incentives at all, or does so only minimally, have not been included in the sample of countries selected for review in the Index.

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