CleanTech OC Daily - 6/28/12

Solazyme now moving into biofuels in a major way
Algae company Solazyme plans to break in to the biofuel market in a more commercial way – the company announced the ground-breaking of a plant that will produce biofuels in Brazil through a joint venture with Bunge. Bunge is providing the sugar stock and Solazyme is utilizing its sugar to oil production technology. The plant will produce 30 million gallons of Solazyme’s algae-based oil a year, and the oil will be used in both the specialty chemical and fuel market.

New Lithium-Ion Battery Design Stores 7X More Energy

Researchers at the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) have come up with way to increase battery storage and performance without increasing in battery size. This advancement could lead to batteries that not only store much more energy but batteries have longer lifetimes.

Report: Solar Panel Supply Will Far Exceed Demand Beyond 2012

GTM Research reported on Wednesday that solar panel makers are on track to deliver 59 gigawatts of their products worldwide this year when demand will likely hit 30 gigawatts. In order to re-establish a supply and demand balance, an estimated 21 gigawatts of existing factories will close by 2015. The oversupply problem began in early 2011 and has led to a 50% drop in wholesale solar panel prices over the last year.