Now that the U.S. has frozen the building of new solar projects on public land, interest in smaller solar systems that can be more easily built on private lands could see a boost. One such system comes from a young startup incubated at MIT called RawSolar. Earlier this month the company said its solar-concentrating dish prototype had passed some initial tests; this week the company said it’s moving to Berkeley, Calif., to start on its commercialization business plan.

RawSolar claims its dish technology could be the most cost-efficient solar system in the world because it will use simple, standard materials and components, which can be ordered from local distributors anywhere in the U.S. The company’s manufacturing processes are simple enough to be accomplished at any functional machine shop, according to RawSolar co-founder Matt Ritter (pictured in the shots below), who says he helped build the MIT prototype with a standard drill press.

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The hoard of companies rushing to build solar power plants in the U.S. deserts has one big hang-up — there’s just too many of them. This has led the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to put a freeze on new solar plants on public lands until a proper environmental assessment can be done, reports the New York Times this morning.

Such an environmental analysis could take a good two years, which means new applications for solar projects on public lands could be out of luck for that period of time. While this would not effect the more than 130 solar proposals that have been filed with the Bureau since 2005, it could put a damper on startups and entrepreneurs that have been late on getting their paperwork in. The Times report quotes execs from Ausra and Solel on how the freeze is a disturbing setback.

On the other hand, other solar companies say that the moratorium on new applications will actually be a good way to streamline an inundated application process. Charles Ricker, senior vice president of marketing and business development for Oakland-based solar thermal company BrightSource, says that the “process is getting clogged,” and “there are just too many applications” filed right now.

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British Prime Minister Gordon Brown did not shy away from transformative language when he said yesterday that “business as usual” would not achieve the “green revolution” the UK must undertake. The EU has set a target for 15 percent of the country’s energy to be generated from renewable sources by 2020. Brown said the endeavor will require £100 billion ($199 billion) in private investment, which would be facilitated by new government incentives.

“This is a green revolution in the making,” Brown said, as the Guardian reports. “It will be a tenfold increase on our current deployment of renewables, and a 300 percent increase on our existing plans: the most dramatic change in our energy policy since the advent of nuclear power.”

The plan would include thousands of wind turbines, a sweeping set of efficiency standards and lifestyle changes for the average British citizen. Brown estimates the revolution would create some 160,000 green jobs and much of the cost would be put right back into the domestic economy, spurring cleantech growth all over the British Isles.

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The campaign trail got heated over energy this week with Obama calling McCain’s plans for offshore drilling and a $300 million battery prize “gimmicks” while the McCain campaign tried to label Obama’s opposition to many energy proposals as a move by “Dr. No.” Since then, Obama has met with Detroit automakers and new critics have come out against McCain’s offshore oil proposal:

GM to Obama: ‘We Need Money’: In a panel discussion on the economy in Pittsburgh, Obama asked GM Chairman Rick Wagoner what he could do as president to best help Detroit “pivot” as quickly as possible and start making greener cars. Wagoner listed three things: research assistance for new technologies, incentives and rebates for consumers, and help converting manufacturing plants. So, really, he said Detroit needs one thing: money, money and money.

Schwarzenegger Criticizes McCain on Offshore Drilling: Speaking yesterday in Miami, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger attacked McCain’s claim that offshore drilling would lower gas prices. “Anyone who tells you this would bring down gas prices any time soon is blowing smoke,” the governor said. Schwarzenegger’s host, Florida Governor Charlie Crist, had modified his stance on the issue earlier in the week, saying he’d support offshore drilling if it was environmentally safe.

Obama Launches Energy Policy Website: To highlight the differences between Obama’s and McCain’s energy policies, the Obama campaign has launched a new web site with a side-by-side comparison of the two candidates’ energy plans. In case you were getting tired of clicking back and forth between our takes on Obama’s and McCain’s energy plans, this could be useful.

While we just spoke to Shai Agassi inside the beltway, the Project Better Place founder and CEO was back on Capitol Hill yesterday to testify before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence & Global Warming. The hearing’s topic was “$4 Gasoline and Fuel Economy: Auto Industry at a Crossroads” and Agassi explained to the committee of representatives that “the electrification of the automobile is inevitable.”

At first Agassi raised some Congressional eyebrows when he explained he wanted to offer electric cars for free. But by the end Chairman Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) concluded by saying “I couldn’t agree with you more.”

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Feds Say Automakers Gets No Extra Time in Cali Regs: The US District Court for the Eastern District of California ruled that automakers shouldn’t get an extension to comply with California’s emission standards. Assuming the EPA grants California it’s waiver, of course - Green Car Congress.

Global Biofuel Output to Double by 2030: The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that worldwide biofuel production will rise to 2.7 million barrels per day in 2030 from 1.3 million barrels per day in 2010, a big jump from the EIA’s previous estimate of 1.7 mbd in 2030 - Reuters.

Analyst Predicts “Mass Exodus” of Cars with $7 Gas: Jeff Rubin at Canadian brokerage CIBC World Markets predicts oil hitting $200 a barrel by 2012 facilitating “the greatest mass exodus of vehicles off America’s highways in history” - WSJ Environmental Capital.

Duke Energy Buys Wind Developer for $240M: Duke Energy, one of the biggest coal burners in the world, bought Vermont’s Catamount Energy, which operates 300 megawatts of renewable energy, for $240 million - Cleantech Media.

First Pics of ZAP’s Alias: Our friends at Autoblog Green, with the help of an intrepid commenter, have located what seems to be the first pics of ZAP’s all electric Alias - Autoblog Green.

California introduced an ambitious energy road map today to achieve the state’s goal of cutting emissions by 28 percent. The policy mandates that a third of the state’s energy should come from renewable sources, and also boosts the efficiency of appliances, buildings and automobiles. Facilitating this entire process, the California Air Resource Board has proposed a cap-and-trade system on carbon emissions from utilities, the power industry and businesses. The plan represents one of the most aggressive economy-wide cap-and-trade systems in the U.S.

This plan provides the details for the state’s 2006 decision to cut emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, which Schwarzenegger signed into law but left to regulators to figure out. The plan does not estimate the burden of the cost on the effected industries, though Mary D. Nichols, head of the California Air Resources Board, tells the New York Times their “macroeconomic analysis” shows the plan will actually boost California’s gross domestic product by one percent.

While the plan might hit traditional fossil fuel industries hard, it will be a boon for cleantech companies across the board. An aggressive renewable portfolio standard in California has already driven a lot of clean power innovation in the state. And companies selling energy efficient products and services could potentially generate revenue for businesses through carbon credits salable on the newly minted carbon market.

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Yesterday our parent site GigaOM held an awesome conference, Structure08, which had some of the top minds in IT discussing and debating cloud computing. The big takeaway for Earth2Tech readers is that as the demand for Internet services keeps on growing, it’s requiring a massive amount of computing and that equals huge power needs. And one company that we met in the halls of the conference that is helping companies manage power is San Francisco-based CSRware, which offers what it calls “eco-analytics,” or a suite of services that measures and manages a company’s energy consumption, water use and waste.

CSRware CEO and president Gary Hermansen chatted with NewTeeVee’s Chris Albrecht to explain 4 topics companies can focus on to reduce their cloud’s energy use: virtualization, heating and cooling, intelligent meters that can determine which rows and racks are sucking up the most power, and making sure you’re running the newest, most efficient CPUs. Hermansen also tells Albrecht the company is out looking to raise its first round of venture funding. (disclosure: CSRware is a sponsor for the GigaOM network).

The Sunshine State could soon capitalize on its namesake and become one of the largest producers of solar energy in the country, if Florida utility FPL follows through on its plan to build three new solar power plants. FPL announced yesterday that it plans to generate 110 megawatts of solar capacity from three separate solar power plants - a 75 megawatt solar thermal plant at FPL’s existing Martin combined-cycle power plant, a 25 megawatt photovoltaic plant in DeSoto County, Fla. and a 10 megawatt photovoltaic plant at the Kennedy Space Center. FPL will build the plants and estimates the three projects will cost a total of $688 million.

FPL says that the 25 megawatt plant will be the largest photovoltaic plant in the world, just eking out the 21.5 megawatt plant SunEdison and Duke Energy claimed would be the largest last month. But neither are nearly as large as OptiSolar’s planned 550 megawatt photovoltaic plant. FPL says that these 110 megwatts, in addition to its subsidiary Beacon Solar’s plans for 250 megawatts of solar thermal power in California, make it the world’s largest producer of solar power.

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eSolar is one of a dozen startups that are looking to build solar thermal plants in the deserts of California. While the company says it’s using the lessons of infotech — computing and algorithms — to make low cost modular solar, we were wondering what really makes eSolar stand out? The company has certainly gotten a lot of attention — receiving at least $130 million from Google.org, Bill Gross’ Idealab, and other investors, and inking a deal with California utility Southern California Edison for a 245 MW solar thermal power plant. We thought we’d check in with eSolar’s CEO Asif Ansari and see what all the fuss is about.

1). There’s about a dozen other companies building solar thermal plants in the desert, why will eSolar be a leader in this area?

eSolar is producing easily scalable and rapidly deployed concentrating solar power plants and we’ve brought the minimum economic size of our power plants down to just 33 MW. We build power plants in these 33 MW modules, and replicate the number of modules depending on the size of plant a utility needs, so it’s just as easy for us to build a 33 MW plant for a smaller utility as it is to build a 245 MW or larger plant for a huge utility like Southern California Edison.

This uniform modularity makes it easier for any sized utility to incorporate concentrating solar thermal power into the grid. It also substantially increases the addressable market in developing countries. Most other companies in the United States right now are only building huge power plants, even though companies such as Acciona and Abengoa are also following the trend toward the smaller, mid-sized utility-scale plant in projects in Spain.

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