A promising approach to reducing the cost of solar power is moving forward with the construction of an installation in Indianatown, FL, that will combine a field of solar concentrators with a natural gas power plant.

Today The New York Times has an update on the project, which the utility Florida Power and Light (FPL) announced almost two years ago, and which we wrote about here. When completed later this year, the power plant is expected to generate up to 75 megawatts of power by making use of turbines at the natural gas plant, which itself has a 3,600 megawatt capacity.

The solar concentrators generate steam, which can be used to drive the turbines. Using existing turbines and generators can greatly reduce the cost of a solar power plant. FPL says the current project reduces costs by 20 percent, according to the Times.

Similar natural gas-solar hybrid projects are being built in Egypt, Morocco, and Algeria. There's also an effort to pair solar concentrators with coal fired power plants. Abengoa, the Spanish based company that's building natural gas plants in Morocco and Algeria, is working with Xcel Energy in Colorado to build solar coal hybrid test facility. According to Abengoa, such hybrids could cut the cost of solar power by 30 to 50 percent to as low as 6 cents per kilowatt hour, which is competitive with many fossil fuel power plants.

President Obama today announced 48 new advanced battery and electric-drive projects that will receive $2.4 billion in funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The money could help start a battery industry in the United States, which could be essential for US automakers to start manufacturing plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles at a large scale.

For more on the significance of this funding for the battery industry, click here.

The announcement, with a list of the groups receiving funding, can be found here.

On its own, the money won't be enough to build the large-scale factories that some companies are planning. One, A123 Systems of Watertown, MA, received $249 million in grant money. But it has also applied for $1.84 billion in federal loans to finance its proposed factories in Michigan.

Today President Obama announced a new plan for increasing fuel economy standards. It will speed up an earlier plan established by Congress that would have required vehicles to have an average fuel economy of 35 miles per gallon by 2020. The new plan will require a slightly higher standard of 35.5 miles per gallon, and the standard must be met much earlier, by 2016.

In his announcement, Obama said:

[I]n the next five years, we're seeking to raise fuel-economy standards to an industry average of 35.5 miles per gallon in 2016, an increase of more than eight miles per gallon per vehicle. That's an unprecedented change, exceeding the demands of Congress and meeting the most stringent requirements sought by many of the environmental advocates represented here today.

As a result, we will save 1.8 billion barrels of oil over the lifetime of the vehicles sold in the next five years. Just to give you a sense of magnitude, that's more oil than we imported last year from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Libya, and Nigeria combined.

According to the Wall Street Journal, "new passenger cars sold in the U.S. will have to meet an average mileage requirement of 39 mpg, up from 27.5 mpg currently. Light trucks would have to deliver an average of 30 mpg, compared with about 23 mpg today."

The plan doesn't give automakers much time. Only a few cars--hybrids--meet these standards today, and it can take 5 years to develop a new car. The good news is that technology exists to achieve these standards, and automakers are already planning on rolling out much of it. That includes lightweight materials, direct-injection engines paired with turbochargers, and various types of hybrids, including plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles. But ramping up production will take time. Also, convincing consumers to buy enough of the most fuel efficient cars to make up for other people buying larger cars will be difficult. Gas taxes have helped meet a similar fuel economy standard in Europe. A proposed system of government fees and rebates could also help, and might be more palatable to consumers than raising gas prices.

Here's a more in-depth analysis of the issues involved, based on an earlier Obama plan.