In this weekly radio address on Saturday, President Obama announced that the Department of Energy would commit more than $1.85billion in loans to solar projects across Arizona, Colorado, and Indiana. This is great news – not only for the environment, and the possibilities of energy dependency, but a huge boost to the ecomonomy with the creation of sustainability-related jobs.
There are two companies that will benefit from the loans: Abengoa Solar Inc and Abound Solar. Abengoa will receive a loan guarantee to the tune of $1.45 billion to build a solar power plant in the aptly-named Solana in Arizona; while Abound Solar, a US start-up, will get a loan guarantee of $400 million so it can expand operations in Indiana and Colorado. Together the companies will create more than 2,000 construction jobs and 1,500 permanent jobs.
Both these investments and the corresponding organizations’ plans are interesting and part of the President’s commitment, via the $862 billion economic stimulus, to bring new technologies and industries to America. In his address he said: “ We’re going to keep competing aggressively to make sure the jobs and industries of the future are taking root right here in America.”
At The Refinishing Touch we’ve always had a soft spot for how technology can impact green initiatives and sustainability – it’s a subject lose to our hearts, so the Abengoa project has caught our eye and our imagination as the plant which will be built in Arizona will be the first in America to store thermal energy so solar energy collected at day can be used after the sun has set. Technology such as this can transform how energy is distributed – and literally bring a ray of sunshine to new energy sources.
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