First Solar just cut the ribbon on a huge new factory in Iberia Parish, Louisiana, and it dwarfs the New Orleans Superdome. The company’s $1.1 billion, fully vertically integrated facility spans 2.4 million square feet, or about 11 times the size of the stadium’s main arena.
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Fort Polk, a US Army installation in Louisiana, is about to get a big solar power boost. Clean energy developer Onyx Renewables has wrapped up construction on two 13 megawatt ground-mount solar projects. The solar arrays are scheduled to come online this fall.
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Lightsource bp’s 180 megawatt (MW) Prairie Ronde Solar in Louisiana is now online and generating enough power for the equivalent of around 31,000 homes.
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Japan’s UBE Corporation has broken ground in Louisiana on what will be the US’s only dimethyl carbonate (DMC) and ethyl methyl carbonate (EMC) plant – key components for lithium-ion batteries in EVs and battery storage. DMC is also used in semiconductors.
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The US Department of Energy (DOE) announces $1.5B for four transmission projects – including connecting the Texas grid to the Southeast grids for the first time ever.
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Japan’s UBE Corporation will build an EV battery chemicals factory in Louisiana to set up a US EV battery supply chain – and compete with China.
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In a significant move, the White House will delay a decision on whether to approve what would be the US’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal, according to the New York Times.
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Louisiana is making US history by launching its first two offshore wind farms, Cajun Wind and Diamond Offshore Wind, in state waters.
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The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Programs Office has announced a conditional commitment to lend up to $107 million to Syrah Technologies for its Syrah Vidalia Facility in Vidalia, Louisiana. The facility produces a finished natural graphite-based active anode material (AAM), a critical material used in lithium-ion batteries.
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Great find from @mgillet onTwitter. This appears to be a Tesla dashboard at the headquarters showing significant growth in charging over the past few months. More importantly, we some highly anticipated charging stations ‘coming soon’. Probably most exciting for Tesla is the Oregon and northern California stations that will close the I5 corridor meaning the West Coast will be covered. Also two stations on the California/Arizona border will allow trips to/from Phoenix and LA/San Diego.
You’ll notice that two stations, one in Colorado and one in Texas, are lit up even though Tesla hasn’t pushed to the Supercharger Station website Map, below.
Texans will get two more Supercharger stations in Eastern Texas linking them to Arkansas and Louisiana. East coasters will get a couple in Northern New Jersey as well as Virginia and North Carolina allowing folks in Vermont/New Hampshire to travel to the Carolinas and vice versa.
Some fun facts:
Compare with the current map as of today, 10/21/2013:
