Finavera Renewables, a Vancouver-based wind and wave power developer, has enough troubles these days. The publicly traded company has shares trading at 5 cents and as an untested newcomer to the developer scene it’s considered much riskier than more established rivals when it comes to raising money, whether that be equity or debt. Not good when you’re staring in the face of the worst credit-crunch and financial-sector meltdown in at least a generation.

Nothing a prescription of Ativan can’t deal with, right? But then the California Public Utilities Commission comes along and nixes a wave-energy power purchase agreement between Finavera and Pacific Gas & Electric, which agreed to buy electricity from the Canadian company’s 2-megawatt wave project — the first commercial wave contract in the country, experts say. It was to use Finavera’s AquaBUOY technology, devices that turn the kinetic energy of vertical wave motion into emission-free electricity.

Greentech Media has the messy details here. The bottom line is that the commission declared the power-purchase price too high and the technology too unproven to proceed. Finavera has since put on a brave face, saying it will focus its efforts on projects under development in Canada and Ireland. But as nobel or attractive or economic any of those projects could be, the sad reality is that in this market at this time there’s not much wiggle room for setbacks.

NOTE: Speaking of Darwinism, the credit crunch and those least fit to survive, read this post from the Globe and Mail’s Andrew Willis about the struggles wind developer EarthFirst Canada is having because of difficulty finding financing. The death watch is on.

Well, not so white — as in snowy — yet, but certainly north. And Great, I should add. It is, however, starting to getting pretty cool these days. Maybe it’s because the federal Conservatives were re-elected? Hmmm…

Below is a wrap-up of news from Lignol Energy, Wal-Mart Canada, Enbridge, VRB Power, and 6N Silicon, ending with my suggestion of three cleantech/energy books that are good reads. (more…)

There’s a tendency during times of economic trouble to cast eco-friendly policies as risky, expensive, dangerous and reckless, and this is exactly what Prime Minister Stephen Harper did in the lead-up to last week’s Canadian federal election. Thanks to the effectiveness of the media soundbite, it worked. The public got scared, embraced the “steady as she goes” line, and pretty much derailed any hope of serious federal action on climate change and clean-technology development (beyond carbon capture for use in enhanced oil recovery). Fortunately, Canadian provinces are picking up a lot of the slack.

Still, it would be good for provincial officials to read a new study out of the University of California, Berkeley, which found that aggressive energy-efficiency policies embraced by California between 1977 and 2007 created nearly 1.5 million jobs, far outstripping the 25,000 jobs such policies eliminated (hat tip to Joe Romm for the tip at Climate Progress, where he provides his own take on the study). (more…)

I acknowledge that nuclear power has to play a role in our battle against climate change, with the caveat that we exhaust all other reasonable, low-emission alternatives and maximize efficiency and conservation. The industry will have its hands full just trying to replace the megawatts lost as older plants are decommissioned or refurbished. This leaves open the question, in the current market environment, of how much *new* nuclear is likely to be built over the coming decade. My Clean Break column today looks at how the rising cost of building nuclear plants could affect its competitiveness with other alternatives, even excluding some of the environmental question marks like waste management uncertainty and plant safety. (more…)

The City of Toronto has awarded contracts to equip 20 municipal facilities with solar thermal equipment that will provide heat to buildings. But instead of owning the systems, the city is only purchasing the heat energy to offset the use of fossil fuels. Fifteen of the sites will have systems built, owned and operated by Mondial Energy Inc., while the remaining five go to CC Solar Inc. – both companies from Toronto. These “solar utilities” have struck 20-year heat purchase agreements with the city, replicating a model that has worked for companies like SunEdison for the deployment of solar PV systems. It’s believed to be the largest solar *thermal* utility contract signed with a major North American municipality.

This just in: Mondial has also announced it is one of two solar utilities chosen by the State of Wisconsin to supply solar heat energy to government buildings, including sites at the University of Wisconsin and state correctional institutions. It’s being touted as the first initiative of its kind at a state level.