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Will U.S. power consumers ever rely on Chinese green power for their electricity? This notion, that just a few years ago seemed far fetched, will likely become a reality.\u00a0 On Tuesday, Chinese wind turbine maker A-Power Energy Generation Systems received Chinese regulatory approval<\/a> to proceed with a 600 megawatts, $1.5 billion wind farm to be constructed in Texas. The greenlight by the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission is a crucial hurdle to pass and will allow the project developers to, among other things, start approaching banks for financing.<\/span><\/p>\n A-Power announced the project\u00a0last fall and quickly ran into trouble when Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), learning that the wind farm’s turbines would be made in China,\u00a0urged Energy Secretary Steven Chu to reject a request by A-Power for $450 million in stimulus funds<\/a>.<\/p>\n In his letter to Secretary Chu, Senator Schumer wrote:<\/p>\n The idea that stimulus funds would be used to create jobs overseas is quite troubling and, therefore, I urge you to reject any request for stimulus money unless the high-value components, including the wind turbines, are manufactured in the United States.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Shortly after Schumer’s very public letter, A-Power and its partners\u00a0announced that they would build a turbine plant in Texas and vowed that a minimum of 70 percent of\u00a0each turbine would be U.S.-made.<\/p>\n In Washington, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hotly contested endangerment finding<\/a> is facing a pile of law suits (16 at last count), according to GreenBiz.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n The\u00a0U.S. Chamber of Commerce, whose anti cap-and-trade stand has cost it the membership of\u00a0various prominent companies<\/a>,\u00a0has joined one of these lawsuits<\/a>. The list of plaintiffs reads like a who’s who of the carbon-dependent industry. Besides the Chamber, they also include\u00a0the Georgia Motor Trucking Association, Peabody Energy Co., the National Mining Association, Competitive Enterprise Institute, as well as\u00a015 U.S. House of Representatives.<\/p>\n General Electric, a big fan of\u00a0President Obama’s renewable energy policy, and an unabashed backer of cap-and-trade<\/a>, is making a noted return in the project finance arena. Its energy financing unit, GE Energy Financial Services, inked a $65 million production tax credit equity deal <\/a>this week with CPV Renewable Energy Company to support the construction of its\u00a0 $319 million, 152 megawatts Keenan II wind farm in Oklahoma. That the second equity deal announced by GE in as many months<\/a> – it underscores the company’s renewed confidence in the U.S. renewable energy market.<\/p>\n Samsung, which a couple of weeks ago inked a huge investment of its own in Ontario<\/a>, said it would partner with ENCO Utility Services to build five solar photovoltaic power plants<\/a> with a total of 130 megawatts of electricity that will be bought by Pacific Gas and Electric as part of a long-term power purchase contract.<\/p>\n Other noteworthy Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) announced this week include NextLight Renewable Power securing a 25-year contract with NV Energy<\/a> for the 50 megawatt output of\u00a0the NextLight’s Silver State Solar Power PV project in\u00a0Nevada. Horizon Wind Energy signed a 20-year PPA with the Tennessee Valley Authority<\/a>, which will buy 115 megawatts generated by Horizon’s Pioneer Prairie Wind Farm in Iowa.<\/p>\n On the earnings front thin-film PV maker First Solar announced strong\u00a0fourth quarter results<\/a> of\u00a0 $141.6 million, slightly down from the $153.3 million registered\u00a0in the previous quarter, but higher than the\u00a0 $132.8 million earned over the same time period, a year ago. The company worked hard to assure the markets that an expected fall in demand in Germany brought on by a cut in the country’s solar feed-in tariffs would be offset by its project pipeline in Italy, France and North America. But to no avail<\/a>, on Friday – just one day after the earnings call, First Solar shares fell by 8 percent.\u00a0 This was in part due to concerns by investors on\u00a0the toughening market conditions<\/a> in Germany, where First Solar generates a majority of its revenues.<\/p>\n VC Alert<\/strong><\/p>\n Tragedy struck Tesla Motors<\/a>, the California electric car company, this week when three of its senior executives were killed in a plane crash in Palo Alto, Calif. on Wednesday. VentureBeat reported <\/a>that the three employees who died in the plane crash were Doug Bourn, Brian Finn and Andrew Ingram. The plane, which was owned by Mr. Bourn and heading to a Los Angeles area airport, crashed in foggy weather, early Wednesday, shortly after take off.<\/p>\n Tesla, which raised over $220 million in venture capital funding, recently filed for an Initial Public Offering<\/a>.<\/p>\n Chrysalix Energy<\/a>, a renewable energy-focused venture capital fund based in Vancouver, B.C., plans to close on a $150 million for its third fund\u00a0by the end of next month.<\/p>\n Canadian biofuel company Enerkem brought on a new CFO, former Lazard M&A banker Patrice Ouime<\/a>t. He replaces Pierre Richard, who left the company last month. Enerkem, scored $50 million in stimulus funding from the Department of Energy to support construction of a waste-to-biofuels power facility in Pontotoc, Miss. The company\u00a0has also raised venture capital from Rho Ventures, Braemar Energy Ventures and BDR Capital.<\/p>\n eSolar, the developer of concentrated solar thermal power backed by Bill Gross’s Idealab, forged a strategic partnership with Germany’s Ferrostaal <\/a>to develop power plants in Europe and the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n