We’re talking $2.3 billion dollars in federal tax credits handed out by the Department of Energy (DoE) to create green manufacturing jobs in 43 states.

DoE says the credits will generate 17,000 clean energy jobs and provide a boost to 183 renewable energy projects. The 30% tax credit approved by the energy agency is expected to pull in another $7.7 billion in private investment to help companies make:

1. solar cells, panels and arrays
2. wind turbines and microturbines
3. fuel cells for homes and businesses
4. high-tech batteries
5. electric cars
6. energy efficiency upgrades
7. smart grid technology products, and
8. pollution control equipment that captures carbon dioxide.

Some of the tax credits approved by DoE:

• AAF-McQuay, Inc., won $2.7 million to produce more efficient industrial chillers and filtering equipment in Kentucky and Virginia,
• Abound Solar, Inc., won $12.6 million to expand production in Colorado of solar panels made with cadmium telluride semiconductor technology,
• Brevini Wind USA, Inc., won $12.5 million to build a factory in Indiana that will make the gear boxes for wind turbines,
• CaliSolar, Inc. won $53.6 million to build a California facility that will make silicone used in solar cells,
• DuPont won $50 million to produce film coatings used to make solar cells,
• General Electric received more than $92 million to make Energy Star heat pumps, refrigerators, dishwashers, gas turbines, a heat-pump powered clothes dryer and a more fuel efficient airline engine. GE’s also getting credits to relamp some of its manufacturing facilities with fluorescent lighting systems,
• SolarWorld Industries America, Inc., won $82 million to make solar components and materials in Oregon, and
• United Technologies Corp., won $110 million to produce a more efficient jet engine in Connecticut.

All of the Section 48c Manufacturing Tax Credits approved by DoE must be completed by 2014. Roughly 30% of the projects will be ready in 2010.

Iowa’s Medline Industries, Inc., just deposited a $113,400 check as a bonus after it adopted energy efficiency improvements in its new building.

Medline also earns green credits for helping fight global warming because the building uses far less electricity than similar manufacturing facilities. It has reduced power demand by 320,565 kilowatt hours, which eliminates 230 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) that would have been released without the energy-saving programs.

The green innovations the healthcare products manufacturer adopted include:

• energy efficient lighting
• solar-tracking skylights that continually point solar panels towards the sun to maximize power generation
• tankless hot water heaters that provide hot water only as it’s actually needed
• daylight harvesting to use sunlight to provide electricity for interior lighting
• digital photo sensors to automatically balances a mix of sunlight and electric lighting, and
• a geothermal heating system.

The fancy lighting systems are reported to cut energy consumption and lighting costs by 84%.

The energy-saving programs were developed by Alliant Energy.

Medline’s story is here.

There will soon be a flood of clean energy equipment on the market. Reason: The feds just approved a $2.3 billion tax credit program to push manufacturers of renewable energy equipment to get off their butts and put these products on the market.

The Departments of the Treasury and Energy have approved a federal stimulus program to offer 30% investment tax credits to companies that make components to produce clean energy from:

• solar panels
• wind turbines
• geothermal systems
• biodiesel engines
• fuel cells
• microturbines, and
• batteries.

The tax credits are also offered to those making smart-grid technology that will support transmission of renewable energy to end users.

The money can also be used to invest in emission control technology that can capture carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions and store them (sequestration).

Big plus for the job hunters out there: The investment in solar technology alone is supposed to create 110,000 new green jobs by the end of 2010, according to Rhone Resch, CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association.

The funding approval’s expected to set off a scramble among clean energy and emission control companies because the funding is only available for two years. Plus, the feds are planning to hand out the money on a first come, first serve basis, provided of course a proposal meets detailed DOE requirements.

The details from the Department of Energy are here.

Companies that agree to hire union workers seem to sail through approval hearings. Those that buck the union system get hammered with environmental impact reviews, costs and delays.

The New York Times reports that when solar power developer Ausra wanted to build a solar plant, it was challenged by labor lawyers who were terribly worried about protecting the environment and animal habitats.

Ausra didn’t want to hire union workers.

But an even larger solar plant proposed by BrightSource Energy sailed through the approval process, with enthusiastic support from the same union group, the California Unions for Reliable Energy.

BrightSource had agreed to hire union workers.

The NYTimes story warns that the battle over hiring union workers to build California’s solar power operations is expected to spread to all renewable energy projects.

The California Unions for Reliable Energy touts itself as specializing in conventional and renewable energy projects, “while protecting the state’s air, land and water from pollution.”

The NYTimes article is here.

Well, it’s happened, though of course it’s not for everybody — certainly not for facilities relying on fossil fuels.

But a very rosy scenario — a $277 billion market — is predicted in a new market forecast by Pike Research for green telecommunications equipment.

Most of this new demand is for green equipment that can cut users’ energy costs and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, especially in developing nations.  It’s this combination that will drive a 46% increase in the market for green telecom gear by 2013, according to Pike’s Green Telecom Networks report.

Green networking infrastructure is increasingly already sought after by manufacturers and companies with overseas operations for two reasons. First, green equipment helps companies meet their corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies.

Second, energy efficiencies have very practical applications in developing countries that have spotty electrical service and rely on older and dirtier coal-fired power plants. To reduce GHG emissions, energy-efficient networking equipment could be powered by renewable sources: solar photovoltaic systems, wind, energy and fuel cells.

And in remote areas, telecommunications gear powered by solar and wind energy will replace diesel-powered electrical generators.

To get help measuring the efficiency of networking products, the telecom and tech industries created the Energy Consumption Rating Initiative. Click here to check it out.

High costs of renewable energies (such as solar, wind and thermal) compared to electricity created by burning coal, has been a huge hurdle for the clean energy sector to overcome. Traditional wisdom has it that renewable energy can only be a niche player in the power markets.

But Google set out in 2007 to disprove this wisdom, and this week, the search engine company said it expects to buy all of its electricity from renewable energy suppliers at prices cheaper than electricity provided by coal-fired power plants.

Google’s so-called green energy czar, Bill Weihl told Reuters news service it’s “even odds, more or less” that Google will run totally on clean energy that’s cheaper than coal within three years.

If Google pulls this off, it could open the door for all sorts of companies and industries to switch to clean energy, based on renewable sources, which would make it much easier for the U.S. to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The bold goal of replacing coal-fired electricity is part of Google’s green goals to reduce its carbon footprint, adopt efficient computing and help employees go green. Click here for Google’s green plans.

The company’s story is here.

Google has also developed a smart power meter that gives consumers the ability to monitor their daily electric power usage on their home computers. Google has partnered with eight power companies to test the Google Powermeter so homeowners can control usage and cut costs.

There are plenty of problems — basic economic realities — that make electric vehicles look like pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking. Technically, the plug-in electric vehicle works, but they aren’t ready for prime time. They’re costly and don’t go more than 40 miles without a recharge.

This downbeat assessment’s not coming from the oil industry, which would lose out on gasoline sales to the plug-in electrics. This red-flag warning’s coming from the federal watchdog agency, the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

On paper, plug-in vehicles offer lots of environmental promise. They can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reduce U.S. dependence on petroleum, especially imported oil.

But there’s no reliable, clean electricity source today that can meet these twin criteria. Reason: Most electricity today comes from coal-fired power plants, which are the nation’s largest source of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. That’s not green.

To power these hybrids without creating a CO2 problem, the electricity for plug-in hybrids has to come from nuclear power or renewable energy like wind, solar and biofuels. But these power sources are controversial, unpopular and expensive compared to coal-fired electricity.

Another obstacle is the basic price of the hybrids. The much touted GM Volt plug in will be a $40,000 car that might get 40 miles on battery charge. For the economics to work, a breakthrough is still needed that can significantly drive down the price of the batteries and extend a vehicle’s range.

To make the economic case for hybrids, GAO also points out that gasoline prices will have to be much higher than today’s. Which politicians are going to survive when they make the case for raising motor fuels taxes?

The GAO plug-in report is here.

While productivity and efficiency improvements do pay for themselves, General Electric (GE) isn’t limiting its horizon. It’s salivating over a $25-billion market that includes new, green products. And, this market is not futuristic.

GE execs expect it to materialize in 2010, despite the slack economy. GE’s green-related sales topped $17 billion in 2008.

Energy efficiencies are still a huge boost to the company’s bottom line. GE expects to reduce operating costs by $100 million through efficiencies. It also claims a 30% reduction in its greenhouse gas emissions.

But GE execs also told Wall Street this week that they expect to generate $25 billion in sales in 2010 from green product innovations started in 2005 under its green business plan, known as Ecomagination. Nearly 80 products fall under this umbrella, including:

• compact-fluorescent lights
• smart-grid electric technology to encourage homeowners to reduce demand during peak hours
• clean-energy products, including wind turbines and solar panels, and
• high capacity batteries for electric-hybrid railroad locomotives.

Fancy new electric battery technology has GE excited. It’s investing in lithium batteries for use in consumer products and electric vehicles. That’s why it recently acquired a stake in battery maker A123 Systems.

You can purchase a transcript of the GE presentation to Goldman Sachs financial execs here.

It’s not pie-in-the-sky, warm and fuzzy feelings that are creating demand for green power created by renewable energy sources. It’s cold, hard economic reality.

Energy prices will jump once the feds regulate greenhouse gas emissions, especially carbon dioxide (CO2). So how do you counter this? Many companies are betting on green power from renewable energy sources.

They’re already making the switch to renewable energy suppliers to get a competitive edge to avoid or at least temper the carbon taxes the feds will assess on electricity powered by fossil fuels, especially from coal-fired power plants. And, the companies jumping on the green power bandwagon aren’t the big industrialists.

The top 50 green energy purchasers include big names like Intel Corp., PepsiCo, Kohl’s Department Stores, Wal-Mart Stores, Dannon, Sony, Motorola, Dell, Inc., Whole Foods Market, Johnson & Johnson, the U.S. Air Force, Cisco Systems and the city of Houston. Some have already switched to 100% green power.

EPA’s list of the top purchasers of green power is here.

They’re part of 1,000 companies that have joined EPA’s Green Power Partnership.

Green partners are currently purchasing more than 16 billion kilowatts of green power a year, and they’re getting credit for helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions for their switch to renewable power sources. So far, they can lay claim to collectively reducing the equivalent of the carbon dioxide emissions generated by coal-fired power plants to power 1.5 million American homes.

Companies can meet EPA’s green power purchase requirements using any combination of:

• purchasing renewable energy certificates
• generating their own on-site alternative energy, and
• using green power supplied by electric utilities.

Green power sources include:

• wind
• solar
• geothermal
• biomass
• biogas, and
• low-impact hydropower.

These sources are gaining market share because they create less air pollution than conventional coal-fired power plants and don’t contribute to climate change because they don’t create GHG emissions.

To find green power suppliers and the price differences for green power, click here for a link to EPA’s Web page that lists participating energy companies.

If the U.S. renewable energy sources were to provide 25% of American power generation, this would generate one million new manufacturing jobs in the energy sector and 2.5 million in related industries, according to the Apollo Alliance. The group has just launched a national lobbying campaign to keep these expected jobs here.

The Alliance is a coalition of business, labor, environmental and community action groups that see the future in U.S. manufacturing in the clean energy sector, especially renewable energy industries like solar, wind and geothermal.

The group says the writing is on the wall, that renewable energy will play a huge role in the future. But the problem is that Americans aren’t making all this new green technology. For example, only 50% of the existing wind turbines in the U.S. are made here.

This group is lobbying Congress to fund a variety of clean energy projects. They see huge demand and profits ahead for the clean energy industry. But they want taxpayer money to help them get started. They’re asking the feds to pay for:

• retooling at clean energy manufacturing facilities
• retraining workers at clean energy facilities
• streamlining the clean energy component supply chain to make American companies more competitive, and
• additional Green Jobs Act funding to enable American workers to meet the demands of a clean economy.

Benefits of this investment include creating millions of new green jobs as well as cutting greenhouse gas emissions and other related pollution.

Their goals are outlined here.

A color brochure detailing this Green Manufacturing Action plan is here.