Powering up: The University of Louisiana at Lafayette is expected to begin construction soon on a six-acre, $4 million solar farm that will both reduce power costs for the university as well as create research opportunities, The Advertiser reports. Louisiana Generating, a subsidiary of NRG, is not only contributing funds to help build the farm, but is also donating $1 million to the UL Foundation to maintain and operate the project for 25 years. The project will include 5,000 black, glass panels that will make up the 1.1 megawatt Photovoltaic Applied Research and Testing Lab where researchers will test three types of commercial-grade solar panels under weather conditions in Louisiana. Read more.
Raising funds: Rumored to have its funding cut in President Donald Trump’s proposed budget, Lake Charles Methanol, a $3.8 billion clean energy facility in southwest Louisiana, has extended its temporary lease at the Port of Lake Charles for the second time this year, The American Press reports. The move allows leaders to continue sorting out the project’s financing and gives the project until February to sign a long-term lease with the port for 75 acres along the Calcasieu Ship Channel. The federal government had agreed to help finance it with a conditional loan for up to $2 billion. The project would use petroleum coke, a dirty byproduct of oil refining, to make methanol. Read more.
Head to head: Roku is reducing the price on the next generation of its best video streaming player in an attempt to fend off competitive threats from Apple and Amazon. As announced this morning, the latest Roku Ultra player will sell for $100—a 23% decrease from the Roku Ultra, which was released last year for $130. Roku is also upgrading an array of other streaming devices, priced from $29 to $70, less than a week after completing an initial public offering of stock that raised $219 million for the Los Gatos, California, company. Read more.
