A Texas policy institute is saying the health claims in the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s air quality regulations are “deeply flawed,” and are “misleading” the public, as indicated in their latest report. "For the last three years, the E.P.A. has justified a series of strict and incredibly expensive new air quality regulations on the assumption that even trace levels of particulate matter can accelerate death," said the report's author, Kathleen Hartnett White of the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

Siemens Energy will be shipping out its first wind power products for Chile for the country’s largest wind project, El Arrayan. The company has received an order for 50 of its “SWT-2.3-101” wind turbines that will have a combined capacity of 115 megawatts for the wind farm.

Solar projects builder SunEdison signed a loan agreement with the North American Development Bank amounting to $65 million for a 20-megawatt solar park it is planning to build in Picture Rocks, Arizona. "We are very pleased to sign this loan with SunEdison, a company with a well-established presence in the solar energy sector,” said the development bank’s managing director Geronimo Gutierrez.

I.B.M. said an advanced “smart building” technology it’s setting up with the United States General Services Administration will save around $15 million in taxpayer dollars every year. I.B.M. will install a system that monitors building performance in initially 50 federal buildings nationwide and stream data to a central facility for analysis.

Wisconsin-based contractor RMT, Inc. is adding 555 megawatts worth of wind projects to their renewable energy portfolio in 2012. RMT, which specializes in the design and construction of wind and solar energy projects, currently has a renewable energy portfolio of around 5,000 MW.

The first solar panel has been installed at the Topaz Solar Farm in San Luis Obispo County, California. The 550-megawatt Topaz is a project of MidAmerican Solar and First Solar, Inc.  Said to be one of the largest solar projects under construction in the world, the Topaz project will provide enough energy for approximately 160,000 California homes. 

The Chinese government is protesting the anti-dumping duties imposed on Chinese solar cell producers and exports by the United States Department of Commerce called the ruling “unfair” and “unreasonable,” and stating that higher tariffs could hurt efforts to promote clean energy. “By deliberately provoking trade friction in the clean energy sector, the United States is sending the world a negative signal about trade protectionism,” said Shen Danyang, spokesman for the country’s Ministry of Commerce.

EnergySource has completed their first 49.9 megawatt geothermal power plant in California. During the dedication ceremony for Hudson Ranch I, the first stand-alone geothermal plant in the Salton Sea area in 20 years, the geothermal company announced that the plant would now be known as the John L. Featherstone Plant in honor of the geothermal technology pioneer and founder of EnergySource.