End to San Francisco redevelopment may be near

Solar tower technology uses mirrors to reflect sunlight on to a thermal receiver atop a tower. The reflected sunlight boils water inside the receiver to create superheated steam at 440C (824F), which drives a turbine and generates electricity.

The plant is a demonstration facility built by eSolar, one company among dozens in California aiming to heed President Obama’s call for a new energy industry that is less reliant on fossil fuels. ESolar, which is based in Pasadena, started less than three years ago and has gathered $170 million (£107 million) of investment, including funding from Google, in its attempt to make solar power mainstream.

The Sierra SunTower facility features two 190ft (58m) towers surrounded by 20 acres (8ha) of mirrors in neat rows that stand at about chest height. The five-megawatt plant produces electricity for Southern California Edison (SCE) and can power more than 4,000 homes. Each one-metre-square mirror, or heliostat, sits on a mechanism that allows computer software to move it in precise increments, so that it is always at an optimal angle to reflect the Sun’s ray’s on to the thermal receiver.

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ESolar claims that its tracking software makes the plant far more efficient than previous technologies for concentrating solar power. The company says that its prefabricated modular designs have solved many of the problems that have held back large-scale solar generation, includ-ing cost, speed of deployment and proximity to existing transmission lines.

In particular, it says that the lightweight mirrors need much less steel and concrete to set them in place, which reduces construction costs. The company touts the Sierra SunTower model as one that can be replicated anywhere that the Sun shines, on industrial sites or on uneven ground, and is looking to franchise out its technology to other companies to build and run solar power plants.

Bill Gross, the chief executive of eSolar, said: “Sierra is just the beginning. Soon eSolar technology will be deployed worldwide to provide clean, affordable energy to hundreds of thousands of homes. We’re at an historic point when technology can finally enable clean, renewable energy at a price competitive with fossil fuels.”

In February eSolar announced an agreement with NRG Energy to develop three plants in California and New Mexico that will generate up to 465MW of electricity. The first plant is expected to come onstream in 2011.

ESolar is also looking overseas. India, in particular, has ambitious plans for solar power generation and, in March, the company licensed its technology to ACME Group, which is based there, for approximately one gigawatt of solar thermal capacity. Its first 2.5MW plant is under construction in Rajasthan and the installation of a 46MW plant is likely to begin in 2010 for completion in 2011. India boasts arguably the most ambitious solar energy development plan in the world, with a target of 20,000MW for 2022. The country has excellent solar resources, particularly in the northwest.

Raed Sherif, eSolar vice-president of international development, said that the business was in talks with companies in Jordan, Kuwait and Egypt and had opened an office in South Africa.

The US Energy Department has calculated that a 62-square-mile (160 sq km) parcel of the Mojave that straddles Nevada, Utah, California and Arizona receives enough sunlight to power the entire country. In Lancaster, the site of the eSolar facility, there are about 300 sunny days a year and the company says tests indicate that the plant works even on partially cloudy days.

Other Californian start-up companies are getting in on the act. BrightSource Energy, based in Oakland, has contracts with Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison for its Ivanpah plants, with a capacity of 440MW in the Mojave. Bechtel, the huge American project-management specialist, has signed on as the engineering contractor and equity partner for the project. BrightSource is also constructing a 29MW thermal plant for Chevron in Coalinga, California, and the company has operations in Israel and Australia. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Governor of California, has become a keen supporter of solar power generation in the Mojave and has fostered legislation to cut carbon emissions and tackle climate change. Last month he mandated that, by 2020, at least 33 per cent of state energy comes from renewable sources.

In all categories of solar power generation, including photovoltaic, the United States ranks fourth, after Germany, Spain and Japan, producing about 8,800MW last year, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, or less than 1 per cent of America’s energy use.

President Obama has called for that figure to rise substantially. In all, $80 billion of stimulus grants has been spent to jump-start clean-tech industries such as solar thermal. The American Solar Energy Society has forecast that a shift to renewable sources could create as many as 37 million jobs by 2030.

Global solar industry leaders went to Copenhagen this month to highlight the impact that solar energy technologies can have on combating climate change. Solar arrays leave no carbon footprint after manufacture of components and construction.

However, the ultimate aim of achieving “parity” with fossil fuel power production — when it is as cheap to make electricity from solar sources as from coal — is still some way off, according to experts.

Obama admitted that the “idea may not be very glamorous” but declared Tuesday that he found insulation “sexy.” Lawmakers also are getting excited by the concept, which they said could help create badly needed jobs for the beleaguered building trades.

Some supporters have dubbed the program “cash for caulkers” because it would use direct government incentives to consumers to spur economic activity, similar in some respects to the popular “cash for clunkers” rebates that sparked a surge in auto sales last summer.

Under one proposal being considered by House Democratic leaders, $20 billion from February’s economic stimulus package would be used to offer incentives of $1,000 to more than $3,000 for people to apply to projects that improve the energy efficiency of their homes. About 5 million homes could be retrofitted under the program, saving homeowners a total of $3.3 billion annually on energy bills, supporters said.

“Here’s what’s sexy about it: saving money,” Obama said at a Home Depot store in Alexandria, Va., as he stood in front of rolls of pink fiberglass insulation.

“If you saw $20 bills just sort of floating through the window up into the atmosphere, you’d try to figure out how you were going to keep that,” he said. “But that’s exactly what’s happening because of the lack of efficiency in our buildings.”

The idea is simple, he said: The incentives would increase consumer spending, helping create jobs at retailers such as Home Depot and for contractors who would do the weatherization work. The program also would help consumers save on their heating and electricity bills as well, saving on the nation’s energy use.

Australia launched a similar program aimed at retrofitting 2.9 million homes that it projects will create 4,000 jobs.

“It makes sense because it’s a win-win-win,” said Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), who proposed such a program last winter. “Our U.S. manufacturers are the ones that produce about 85% of the product. It’s our local contractors that do 100% of the work.”

Welch’s proposal was included in climate change legislation passed by the House this year that would take effect in 2012. The Senate has not acted on that legislation. But Welch and other lawmakers recently have begun pushing to offer weatherization incentives immediately as a way to create 600,000 to 850,000 new jobs.

Former President Clinton and Silicon Valley venture capitalist John Doerr also have been promoting versions of such a program. Environmental groups, labor unions and construction industry groups support the concept, along with building supply dealers and manufacturers.

“This is the kind of thinking that is going to get America back to work — and make a big difference in many homeowners’ monthly utility bills,” said Joe Robson, chairman of the National Assn. of Home Builders.

Lane Wesley Burt, manager of building energy policy for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the program could be set up as a government rebate administered by certified contractors that would shave the money from a homeowner’s bill when the work was completed. The contractor then would apply to the government for reimbursement of the incentive, similar to how auto dealers administered cash-for-clunkers rebates.

But auto dealers complained about balky government computer systems and slow reimbursements with that program. And some Republicans are critical of a cash-for-caulkers program. They said the cash-for-clunkers program paid money mostly to people who intended to buy cars anyway and argued that $5 billion in weatherization funds in the $787-billion economic stimulus package passed in February hasn’t helped reduce unemployment.

Obama said the new weatherization program is among several “strategic surgical steps” he is pushing to help create jobs as the unemployment rate remains at 10% despite a return to economic growth after the deep recession. He sketched those ideas in a speech last week and added more detail to the cash-for-caulkers concept Tuesday.

Obama was joined at the event by Frank Blake, chief executive of Home Depot, and Michael Thaman, chief executive of insulation-maker Owens Corning, as well as workers from the Laborers’ International Union of North America. Obama said Owens Corning had seen an increase in exports of insulation to Australia because of that country’s weatherization incentive program.

Thaman said afterward that he could not quantify the increase but said he would expect to see growth in the U.S. as well for its domestically produced insulation.

“We believe if there were a direct incentive to homeowners to improve the energy efficiency of their homes, that would result in a nice uptick in demand for insulation. And obviously we think that’s both good policy and good for Owens Corning,” Thaman said.

He said homeowners usually prefer to invest in home improvements that are more visible to friends and neighbors, such as new windows. But with government incentives, many could be lured into adding insulation, which is a simple way to improve energy efficiency.

“That emotional attachment to insulation just isn’t here, yet it’s critically important to the country,” Thaman said.

Obama said that homes built in the first half of the 20th century can use about 50% more energy than those built today. Much of the energy is lost through leaky roofs and windows.

Making homes more energy efficient not only helps the environment but also helps homeowners save money and boosts the economy, he said.

” “We’re going to create . . . so many business opportunities for contractors here that over the course of the next several years, people are going to see this, I think, as an extraordinary opportunity,” he said. “And it’s going to help America turn the corner when it comes to energy use.”

Bond Program Expanded To Aid Contractors

(NAPSI)-There’s good news for small construction or supply companies that require a completion bond–also known as a surety bond–to bid on a project.

As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Small Business Administration (SBA) can temporarily guarantee bonds on contracts of up to $5 million for small businesses that might not otherwise be able to obtain such bonds.

A surety bond guarantees a company will fulfill an obligation to another party–such as work to be done or goods to be delivered under a contract. In the event the company does not fulfill the contract, the bond is supposed to cover the other party’s losses.

For more than 30 years, the SBA’s Surety Bond Guarantee program has helped small and emerging contractors who have the knowledge and skills necessary for success but lack the combination of experience and financial strength to obtain bonds through regular commercial channels.

The SBA guarantees bid, performance, ancillary and payment bonds issued by surety companies to small and emerging contractors and reimburses the surety a percentage of loss if the contractor defaults.

The agency does not directly bond a contractor. Instead, the contractor chooses a bonding agent, and the SBA reimburses the bond writer between 70 percent and 90 percent of the costs incurred if a contractor defaults.

This government guarantee allows sureties to write bonds for contractors who would not otherwise meet their minimum standards–thus providing small and underserved contractors with contracting opportunities for which they would not otherwise qualify.

In addition to meeting the bonding company’s qualifications, a business must qualify as a small business. This means a company must meet the SBA’s definition of a small business.

The SBA has also implemented another provision of the Recovery Act that would allow it, in some cases, to guarantee bonds in contracts of up to $10 million.

For more information, visit http://www.sba.gov/financialassistance/borrowers/surety/index.htm or call (800) U-ASK-SBA.

USA TODAY

Construction spending by federal, state and local governments has reached record levels, lifting the economy and employing some blue-collar workers despite a collapse in home building.

The building of new homes and apartments fell in July to its lowest level since 1991, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. A boom in government projects has picked up some of the slack.

INDUSTRY NEWS:

Governments are on track to spend a record $300 billion this year on schools, roads, bridges and other projects, the Census Bureau reports. That’s a 7% increase on top of a 12.4% jump last year, the biggest increase since 1993, when the agency began tracking construction spending.

In a dramatic reversal, government projects now generate more spending than construction of homes and apartments. By contrast, in 2005, residential construction generated a record $481 billion — more than twice what governments spent.

The government construction boom is winning plaudits from economists and fiscal conservatives.

“Tax rebates peter out. Building a new bridge helps the economy long after the work is done,” says University of Oregon economist Mark Thoma.

The Massachusetts Taxpayer Foundation, a fiscal watchdog group, applauded its state Legislature’s decision last week to authorize borrowing $16 billion for projects such as courthouses and roads. “This is fiscally responsible spending that helps the economy,” President Michael Widmer says.

The Illinois Legislature is considering selling future lottery revenues to help fund $25 billion in construction for mass transit, roads and colleges. Democrats and Republicans are working together.

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat, touts the creation of jobs. Former U.S. House speaker Dennis Hastert, a Republican, emphasizes fiscal prudence because the federal government will match most state spending.

Some key public projects:

• College buildings. Most public universities have major construction underway. Coppin State University, a 4,000-student institution in Baltimore, opens a $70 million academic building this month and a $130 million sports center next year.

•Airports. San Antonio’s airport is building a $200 million terminal and parking garage. The project — funded by airport revenues — employs 500.

• Bridges. The collapse of the interstate bridge in Minneapolis last year boosted bridge work nationwide. Missouri plans to replace 800 bridges.

Most projects underway were authorized before the economy weakened.

A slowdown may be on the way: Government borrowing fell 9% to $116 billion in the first six months of the year compared with 2007, reports The Bond Buyer newspaper. Governments finance construction by debt, taxes and federal funds.

In Las Vegas, the school district pulled a $7 billion bond request from the November ballot. “We need to recalibrate our construction plans,” says Walt Rulffes, superintendent of Clark County (Nev.) schools. The district added 15,000 students two years ago. This year, it may add none.

Thoma says states should invest in infrastructure. “You don’t want to spend money on fireworks or a monument to the mayor,” he says. “But construction projects create a lot of employment. That’s what lags in modern recessions.”

]]> http://www.shamrockbonding.com/government-construction-spending-up/feed/ 0 http://www.shamrockbonding.com/the-3rd-featured-news/ http://www.shamrockbonding.com/the-3rd-featured-news/#comments Thu, 05 Jun 2008 23:44:23 +0000 admin http://www.shamrockbonding.com/?p=77

A workforce battered by layoffs and a 15.3% unemployment rate is ready to get to work, even if it means moving or retraining

By Moira Herbst

Mike Agostini needs a job. Having worked in the construction industry for 15 years—starting out as a laborer and moving into supervisory positions—he was laid off in January 2008 by a Kissimmee (Fla.) real estate firm. Agostini, 45, had been earning $93,000 a year supervising repair work on homes the company sold. Now he is collecting unemployment insurance on an extension; his last check will arrive next week. He says he’s willing and able to do any construction job that might come of the $825 billion stimulus package that is working its way through Congress.

“I’ll do anything — drywall, electrical, plumbing, repairs, general labor,” says Agostini, who moved in with his parents in May after having his home foreclosed on. “If it’s $12 an hour digging trenches, give me a shovel and point the way.”

Agostini is one of hundreds of thousands of out-of-work construction workers around the country. At 15.3%, the construction industry is suffering the highest unemployment rate of any sector of the economy. The home-building boom kept the building trades near full employment for years, but fortunes shifted quickly after the subprime bubble burst and the housing crisis unfolded into a globalcredit crisis.

TWO YEARS, 800,000 LOST JOBS

Now, as the U.S. plans to carry out the largest public works program since the New Deal, that workforce is preparing for what it hopes will be a boom of another sort. President-Elect Barack Obama has been making the case for a stimulus plan that would include massive federal expenditures on infrastructure projects—such as repairing schools, bridges, and roads—to employ more Americans. The U.S. House of Representatives introduced a version of the bill on Jan. 15.

Will the workers be there to tackle the jobs? Rajeev Dhawan, a professor at Georgia State University’s Robinson College of Business, is confident they will. Other economists agree. “I’m not worried about a skill shortage, given the slack in the economy; everybody’s begging for work or will be soon,” says Nariman Behravesh, an economist for Global Insight, an economic forecasting firm.

A Jan. 9 report by Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein, both of whom will serve in advisory roles in the Obama administration, estimates that of the 3 million jobs Obama says he’ll help save or create, about 678,000 will be in construction. That number comes close to covering the numbers of recent layoffs in the industry; over the past two years, about 800,000 construction jobs were lost, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Construction and manufacturing firms, labor unions and their allies are pressing Obama and Congress to make infrastructure and construction work a heavy focus of the stimulus package, which will also include funding for education, health care, expanding broadband access, and tax cuts. On Jan. 8 the Associated General Contractors of America announced that a survey of U.S. contractorsindicates they could lay off up to 30% of their workers through 2010 because of anticipated downturn in construction activity. The group said a robust stimulus plan could reverse the job loss to 25% growth.

$1 BILLION, 18,000 NEW JOBS

On Jan. 16, the Alliance for American Manufacturing, or AAM—made up of U.S. manufacturers and the United Steelworkers Union—released a study which says roughly 18,000 new jobs would be created for every $1 billion in new infrastructure spending on transportation, energy, water systems, and public schools. That’s 22% more jobs created than using $1 billion for other purposes like tax cuts, according to the study, undertaken for AAM by a team of researchers at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst’s Political Economy Research Institute.

“By making major investments to repair and upgrade our infrastructure, we will create much-needed, good-paying jobs that will help to get the economy back on track,” said United Steelworkers President Leo W. Gerard at a press conference.

As Congress debates the contents of the stimulus package, underemployed construction workers across the country are combing job listings and mining their networks searching for opportunities.

Terrence Blackman, a self-employed carpenter and construction worker in Paterson, N.J., says work has been abysmally slow in the past year. As the phone stopped ringing for jobs, Blackman, 46, has taken to posting his contact information on job search Web sites like Indeed.com and distributing fliers to neighbors to pitch his services. So far, those efforts haven’t been successful. “There’s no work now,” says Blackman. “I’m just trying to survive.”

NAILING NEW SKILL SETS

That effort may call for sacrifices not reaily borne. “The question is, are [the workers] prepared to relocate if a job is in a different area?” says Dhawan. “And if a worker decides to move from California to North Dakota, will he be able to sell his house? If you’re a middle-class worker, most of your assets are likely tied up in your house; a lack of liquidity in the housing market may impede movement.”

There are plenty of examples, though, of construction workers moving where needed, sometimes rapidly. Ross Einsenbrey, vice-president of the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank in Washington, points to worker movement from states like Minnesota and Ohio to the Gulf of Mexico for reconstruction work after Hurricane Katrina.

For his part, Agostini says he’s willing to relocate to any other state. “The reality is, I have to,” Agostini says. “It would be time away from my kids, but you do what you have to in life. Geography is not really a limit; if I have to go to California I will.”

Some workers will need retraining to match the specific skills required to, say, improve the energy efficiency of buildings, install solar power cells, or upgrade the nation’s electrical grid. Phil Angelides, chair of the Apollo Alliance, a coalition of business, labor, and environmental groups lobbying for federal spending on renewable energy, points out that some states are aggressively developing retraining programs. In Pennsylvania, for example, auto workers are being trained to build wind turbines. Labor unions’ apprenticeship programs are also retraining manufacturing and construction workers to build turbines and solar panels.

Blackman says he’s more than willing to learn new skills for a job, as long as he makes enough income to support his three young girls. “I would do anything—carpentry, masonry, anything on offer,” says Blackman. “I’d go entry level if it would take me where I need to be. Something is better than nothing.

But that’s exactly what Jim James, owner of James Gang Construction in Victorville, got when he opened his latest insurance statement.

The Contractors State License Board mandates that contractors are bonded by a licensed surety company for a minimum of $12,500, to protect customers in case the job isn’t finished or not done up to par.

A year ago, James was paying $400 every two years for the needed bond.

This year that bill shot up to $1,343 each year, for a 670 percent annual increase.

Other local contractors confirmed their bond fees went up significantly this year as well, though they declined to have their name included in this story.

“We don’t have a choice but to come up with the money otherwise we lose our licenses,” James said. “It’s a real hardship right now, right before Christmas and with school just starting back up

Offsite public improvements that the bond covers include: streets, adjacent landscaping, streetlights and other lighting, sidewalks, curbs, driveways, sewers, water, and many more. There are different kinds of subdivision bonds, and they all serve a purpose in the chain of bonds required to protect city property.

Monument Bonds. This guarantees that the property is surveyed and marked. It provides for the payment of the proper specialists to complete it, and the placement and accuracy of the monuments.

Tax Bonds. This bond guarantees that the owner will pay the property taxes based on the improved value of the land, and usually is for one year.

Performance Bond. This guarantees that all construction will meet the requirements and regulations of the subdivision agreements, and that the work will be done in the time specified. The performance bond is also an important agreement between the property owner and the contractor.

Payment Bonds. These bonds are a guarantee that the contractor will pay suppliers, workers, and subcontractors involved in that particular project. This bond is also called a Labor and Material Bond, and can perform at several levels in a contract.

Maintenance Bonds. A maintenance bond is usually written for one year after the government approves the construction, and guarantees that the property owner will maintain the improvements during that time at his or her expense.

It’s clear how the subdivision bond can guarantee preservation of a city’s property when owners and developers need to improve adjacent private property. The infrastructures of an area are important to all citizens, so it’s only right that they be cared for and restored in case of damage. If you are a developer or owner, make sure you check with your government offices at both the city and county levels to make sure you get the proper bonds and in the right amounts before you make a costly mistake.