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Is Energy Pressure on Water Supply Rising?

2011-07-11T04:47:00.000-07:00

Water risk: Energy Pressure on Water Supply is Rising

World leaders are pondering the nation's energy fate without adequately considering the effect that such policies will have on limited water supplies. Energy production is water-intensive.

On World Water Day, a new report draws attention to the link between energy use and water depletion. Traditional and alternative energy technologies are consuming a rising amount of water per unit of energy, putting new demands on increasingly scarce water supplies, according to the policy paper from the World Policy Institute and EBG Capital. The trend has wide-ranging implications for policy, business, security, environment, justice, development, and sustainability.
Now - as new energy policies are emerging - is the window of opportunity to add water to the agenda as nations evaluate their energy options and develop policies to encourage sustainable energy production. Water needs to be part of this debate, the report contends, noting in particular the need to manage the trade-offs between water and energy at the local, national, and cross-border levels. In the United States, generating energy consumes 20% of the water not used by agriculture.

"The competition between water and energy needs represents a critical business, security, and environmental issue, but it has not yet received the attention that it deserves," said Diana Glassman, one of the report's authors. "Energy production consumes significant amounts of water, and vice versa. In a world where water scarcity is a major and growing challenge, water deserves a place on the energy agenda alongside cost, carbon and security considerations."

"THE WATER-ENERGY NEXUS: Adding Water to the Energy Agenda," by Diana Glassman, Michele Wucker, Tanushree Isaacman, and Corinne Champilou, New York: World Policy Institute and EBG Capital, March 2011, provides the context needed to evaluate key water-energy tradeoffs. The paper focuses on consumption -that is, water that is permanently removed from its source- while noting that water quality and withdrawal (water removed then returned to its source) are also important issues. It includes a comprehensive, user-friendly summary of the most credible available data about water consumption per unit of energy produced across a spectrum of traditional and alternative energy technologies. The paper provides a tool for experts and non-experts alike to frame issues, ask the right questions about our energy portfolio, and begin identifying appropriate solutions to our emerging water-energy crisis.

Among the report's findings:
Both emerging petroleum and alternative transportation fuels consume more water than conventional petroleum-based fuels.
Petroleum from the Canadian oil sands extracted via surface mining techniques can consume 20 times more water than conventional oil drilling.
Irrigated first-generation soy- and corn-based biofuels can consume thousands of times more water than traditional oil drilling, primarily through irrigation.
The picture on electricity generation is mixed.
Among conventional power plants, gas-fired plants consume the least amount of water per unit of energy produced. Coal- and oil-fired plants consume roughly twice as much water as gas-fired plants. Nuclear consumes approximately three times as much.
One of the "cleaner" coal technologies, the integrated gasification combined cycle process, reduces a coal plant's water consumption by half, while also reducing carbon emissions and other pollutants. Emerging carbon capture technologies could increase a coal plant's water consumption by 30%-100%.
Wind and solar photovoltaic electricity consume minimal water and are the most water-efficient forms of conventional or alternative electricity production.
The solar thermal form of electricity generation consumes twice as much water as coal and five times as much as gas-fired power plants.
Natural gas produced by hydraulic fracturing is a game-changer that could alter the entire energy mix of transportation fuels and electricity generation. Current data indicate that natural gas produced this way consumes seven times more water than conventional gas extraction but roughly the same amount of water as conventional oil drilling.
The paper also identifies specific areas where information gaps hinder effective decision-making but, conversely, could pull together new alliances to break the logjam around energy policy. These include evaluating the water impact of the full range of emerging technologies; updating and filling information holes regarding hydraulic fracturing and Canadian oil sands among others; and incorporating data about water consumption by various industries.

The paper marks the launch of a World Policy Institute program focusing on the Water-Energy Nexus, including follow-up research and analysis, events, and public education efforts.

The World Policy Institute emphasizes to political leaders that they must consider the nexus between energy policy and water consumption. The technologies to reduce carbon emissions are coming to the fore. But some of those ideas require high levels of water, a scarce resource that is required by all energy forms.

Is nuclear renaissance over?

2011-03-21T04:53:00.000-07:00

Is Nuclear renaissance over?

Yes, it is PETER BRIMELOW!

But why it it sure now, that nuclear renaissance is over?

Mother Nature want it!

Go back to the year 1986 and study all what happened around Chernobyl disaster, a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian SSR (now Ukraine).

It is considered the worst nuclear power plant accident in history, and it is the only one classified as a level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale.

After the Chernobyl disaster most governments and citizens wanted to stop nuclear power plants, the Germans did it!

An American energy trading company analyzed that the failure at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was linked to human failure and they decided to change their employment policy in recruiting only the best!

ENRON started, together with McKinsey & Company, the War for Talent, that should avoid or mitigate future disasters like Chernobyl disaster!

ENRON went bankrupt in 2001!

In July 22, 2002, Malcolm Gladwell wrote an intriguing article in the New Yorker about ENRON's failure and why the experience of older, experienced employees is more important than the talent of newly hired college graduates!

Onle five years after his articles, the global financial crisis started because the global banks had fired all older, experienced employees before!

To hire only talents and to fire all older, experienced employees, wasn't the solution as well as to continue using nuclear power plants wasn't the solution either!

In New Statesman, Nassim Nicholas Taleb wrote in "Beware those Black Swans" about the epistemic arrogance of our talent warriors and said: "My dream is to have a true "epistemocracy"; that is, a society robust against expert errors, forecasting errors and hubris, one that can be resistant to the incompetence of politicians, regulators, economists, central bankers, bank ers, policy wonks and epidemiologists."

Can we rely on our talents?

No!

Can we believe our talents, when they assure us that nuclear power plants are save?

No!

Is Nuclear Power Worth the Risk?

No!

Is the price too high?

Yes!

What did us cost the War for Talent?

It cost our economies over 120 millions older, experienced employees who were unemployed and we risk that 60% of all our countries will go bankrupt within 50 years because of our waste in human capital!

In A Country's Lasting Aftershocks, New York Times OP-ED CONTRIBUTORS SATORU IKEUCHI, GENICHIRO TAKAHASHI and MITSUYOSHI NUMANO explain us the problem we're faced with!

Science's Arrogance

And they introduce the problem as: "The physicist Torahiko Terada wrote in 1934, "The more civilization progresses, the greater the violence of nature's wrath." Nearly 67 years later, his words appear prescient.

Humans have become increasingly arrogant, believing they have conquered nature. We build ever larger, ever more concentrated, ever more uniform structures. Scientists and engineers think that they are responding to the demands of society, but they have forgotten their larger responsibilities to society, emphasizing only the positive aspects of their endeavors."

For the first time in the history of nuclear power plants, human failure cannot be blamed anymore!

It's an act of god that has caused the disaster, a natural catastrophe as an answer to science's arrogance and we have to listen to mother nature and to end the game!

We have no other choice!

What do you think?

Is nuclear renaissance over?

Please feel free to comment!

Have a great and prosperous time!

Greenpeace foresees a renewable future

2011-01-22T08:04:00.000-08:00

Greenpeace foresees a renewable future - Rapid

The European Union has the potential to generate almost all of its energy from renewable sources by 2050, it has been claimed.

According to the AFP news agency, environmental campaign group Greenpeace believes that if nuclear were to lose its priority access to distribution networks, then renewables could play a much larger role in meeting energy needs.

Indeed, it argues that 99.5 per cent of electricity used by the 27-member bloc could come from sources such as solar and wind 40 years from now.

Greenpeace claims that at present, wind farms are often "stopped in peak production periods" to give priority access to nuclear energy and energy from coal-fired power stations.

Reversing this could have a dramatic impact on the EU's energy landscape, the group believes.

The claim comes after the European Wind Energy Association issued a report stating that EU member states were on track to exceed their collective 2020 target for renewable energy generation.

Rapid Electronics is a leading UK supplier of energy saving products, electronic components andelectrical equipment.

Geothermal could supply 20% of European energy by 2050

2011-01-22T04:34:00.000-08:00

Geothermal could supply 20% of European energy by 2050 - Renewable energy focus

Geothermal could supply at least 20% of European energy demand in 2050, according to the European Geothermal Energy Council (EGEC).

“Things must change if Europe is to reach its energy decarbonisation objective, and that will not be possible without a substantial contribution from geothermal energy,” says EGEC President Dr Burkhard Sanner.

“Providing a renewable base load, geothermal energy does not have external costs such as storage, grid infrastructure or waste management. Conventional geothermal power is already a most competitive energy source, but only possible in certain regions.

“EGS, a breakthrough technology successfully demonstrate, will allow a geothermal development anywhere in Europe. EGS (short for ‘Enhanced Geothermal Systems’) will become competitive within a few more years.

“Geothermal will be a key player in an optimal energy mix,” Sanner concludes.

EGEC calls on national governments and European institutions to:

Invest in R&D to deploy EGS and bring down the cost of EGS plants;
Adopt a feed-in tariff suitable for EGS development; and
Create a European Risk Insurance Scheme to mitigate the geological risk.

This article is featured in: Geothermal

Proliferation of Emissions Offsets Threatens to Depress Europe's Carbon Trading

2011-01-18T02:45:00.000-08:00

Proliferation of Emissions Offsets Threatens to Depress Europe's Carbon Trading - New York Times

A huge influx of international greenhouse gas emission offsets looms over the carbon markets, but traders and banks don't know yet what to make of the situation.

Participants in Europe's Emissions Trading System (ETS), the main market for the credits, are normally used to worrying about an oversupply of government-allocated emissions allowances sinking carbon prices. Many of them are now wondering if they're now facing an oversupply of offsets having a similar effect.

Procedural reforms and new hires at the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), an agency established by the Kyoto Protocol and headquartered in Bonn, Germany, have led to record issuances of offset credits from that office since December. As a result, credits are getting approved and flying out the door faster than ever before.

Some experts worry that the incoming rush of new offsets could depress the total value of carbon trading globally this year.

"If it continues accelerating like it has since the end of November, it will, because obviously, this is not what is priced in today," said investment analyst Emmanuel Fages at Orbeo, the carbon market arm of Société Générale. "What was priced in even some weeks ago was very regular, average issuance level."

But Fages and others also caution that the influx could be a temporary phenomenon not likely to last for the entire year. Indeed, most carbon market experts expect supplies of the CDM's Certified Emission Reduction (CER) credits to become much tighter into 2012, because uncertainty of whether the CDM will even exist after that year is causing the number of new projects to shrink fast.

"Our predictions for the issuance volumes are very high in the third week, but going into week four or five, that goes down significantly," said carbon market expert Milo Sjardin at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. "In the longer term, we're still having the problem that the issuance volumes in general are not as high as they could be."

For the moment, more feast than famine

Last week, the office that runs the CDM hit a milestone when it announced that the program had hit 500 million CERs allocated to offset project developers since the system began. About 60 million more credits are pending, and up to half of these are expected to be delivered this month.

The end of 2010 saw monthly CER issuance hitting new record highs, and January is on track to again break the record, with up to 47 million CERs possibly heading to the offset projects that are requesting them.

CERs can be sold to governments seeking to meet their Kyoto Protocol emission reduction targets or to firms facing compliance rules under the European Union's ETS. For years, supply into the carbon markets was predictably slow, as project approval and CER issuance had difficulty navigating the CDM's cumbersome bureaucracy, but reforms to the system and more manpower are speeding things up much faster than analysts had earlier predicted.

CDM officials express confidence that the new quicker pace is now permanent, and not a temporary rush to clear up a backlog of work at the end of the year as some observers theorize.

"We'll be keeping a close eye on the number of submissions and will be working to reduce the wait times to 15 days," CDM spokesman David Abbass said. "As a result of the concerted push in December, which made use of outside experts, the secretariat now has a pool of contractors that it can draw on to help deal with peaks."

Point Carbon expects 253 million more CERs will be issued in total this year, more than half the amount of all CERs put out since 2006 and about 90 percent above the volume issued in 2010, 132 million.

Fages and his team at Orbeo only expect issuance to be about 30 percent higher this year, rising to 170 million CERs by the end of 2011. But they admit that they may have to revise this figure upward if the current trend continues.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance predicts a 40 percent growth in CER allocations this year. Predictably, CER prices have been trending lower in recent days.

From a high of about €14 per metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent pollution reductions, CER prices are now running in the €11 range, and some market analysts are warning that they could dip lower. Thus far, the dip has not affected prices for E.U. allowances (EUAs) traded under the continent's ETS, but that could change should the downward momentum continue.

Newly approved HFC-23 projects add to offset influx

The spike in CER levels is attributable not only to the end-of-year push that Abbass described, but also to the release of credits requested by hydrofluorocarbon-23 (HFC-23) destruction projects that were earlier held up while the CDM Executive Board investigated accusations of fraud. HFC-23 is a potent greenhouse gas caused by manufacturing refrigerant gases in the developing world.

A large quantity of CERs were also recently issued to projects that destroy the greenhouse gas nitrogen oxide (N2O) recently, further inflating the numbers. Together, HFC-23 and N2O destruction have historically accounted for around 75 percent of all new CER supply entering the markets.

Though some argue that the picture will return to normal once these three factors are accounted for, available data suggest that CER supply could continue to rise even without the help of HFC-23 and N20.

For instance, numbers available on the CDM's website shows that the majority of new CERs are being issued to renewable energy projects, mainly large wind and hydroelectric operations in China. Of the more than 4 million credits issued on Wednesday last week, none went to large industrial gas projects.

Analysts at the investment bank Barclays Capital in London see a trend here. They predict that industrial gas destruction's share of the CDM will continue to slide, from about 75 percent today to 68 percent by the end of the year, and moving further lower after then.

CER issuance volumes will continue to stay high for some time, they predict.

Longer-term trade prospects remain 'strong'

"We do expect that heavy CER issuance in the coming weeks and we have seen some pressure on prices," said Barclays Capital analyst Trevor Sikorski in an e-mail. "Generally the supply of CERs will help moderate price gains across 2011 and this was reflected in our recent revision downwards of our price forecasts."

But despite the inundation, most experts don't see carbon prices falling through the floor this year.

Sikorski and his research team see plenty of support to hold CER prices at an €11 to €12 per ton range. Compliance purchases by companies in Europe will help firms hedge their supplies in anticipation of future shortages, and new trading in New Zealand should keep the market buoyant, he said.

And the sudden explosion of new offsets supply shouldn't be a drag on EUA prices, either, experts say.

"The European market has a lot of other fundamental drivers that impact the carbon price there," said Sjardin at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. "And if you look at the longer term, longer-term, the prospects are still strong."

One analyst with a major Wall Street bank, speaking on background, even argued that the faster tempo at the CDM will actually hurt the system in the longer term. The European Union's plans to ban HFC-23 and some N20-derived CERs from its system beginning in 2013 could cause some players to raise concerns about the quality of other offset projects.

The analyst worries in particular about the large hydroelectric projects being awarded CERs. A seeming push to please developing nation governments and project developers may lead some to turn away from CERs if they conclude that the CDM has given up on assuring "additionality," the industry term for verifying that a carbon abatement project would not have existed were it not for the offsets trading system.

Abbass at the CDM headquarters in Bonn says the Executive Board is well aware of this perception problem and is carefully managing it. Reforms at the CDM have been carefully tailored "to the need for changes to the way requests for registration and issuance are assessed, to make the process quicker without compromising environmental integrity," he said.

But Fages at Société Générale also expressed concern that the CDM has seem to have undergone a fundamental change in culture -- from one focused on stringency and quality assurance toward a heavier emphasis on getting projects approved quickly and feeding as many CERs into the system as possible.

"Why I'm surprised is that now they're shifting to accelerated issuances, as if they have changed their stance more than they're staff," said Fages.

"I'm a bit hesitant to change my [CER supply] forecast just now because I'm not completely sure yet that they have changed their attitude," he added. "But if they are considering the projects differently from now on, then yes, I will have to increase my supply forecast."

Clean Technology in China -- a Difficult Balance Between Cooperation and Competition

2011-01-18T02:39:00.000-08:00

Clean Technology in China -- a Difficult Balance Between Cooperation and Competition - New York Times

Executives of ECOtality Inc. believed in 2009 that their battery charging technology would be a winner when plug-in electric vehicles began to hit the market this year. But with debts running far ahead of revenue, the San Francisco firm needed immediate financial support to stay in the game.

The help came from China, through a $2 million investment that year by a Chinese company. In return, the Chinese company received the rights to make and sell ECOtality's chargers in its country and in other Asian markets. The relationship is one example of the complex linkage between American clean energy technology and Chinese capital and markets that will be a subject in this week's U.S.-China summit in Washington led by President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao.

¶The relationship is contentious and collaborative at the same time, commented Georgetown University's Joanna Lewis, writing in the latest assessment of China's environmental activities for the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

¶The United States contends China is illegally subsidizing its wind power equipment manufacturers, effectively locking U.S. and other foreign suppliers out of key parts of its booming market. The Obama administration has taken the dispute to the World Trade Organization for adjudication. U.S. officials and American commentators noted progress, however, on the dispute over wind turbine technology during the December meeting of the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade.

¶A key emphasis at this week's meetings will be on clean energy collaboration, says David Sandalow, assistant secretary of Energy for policy and international affairs. "The United States and China are the two biggest energy producers and consumers in the world. We have many shared interests in finding climate solutions," he said.

¶Robert Kapp, former president of the U.S.-China Business Council, said he assumes that U.S. companies have saved up announcements of new clean energy projects for this week.

¶Cooperative research to get another push

¶At the government level, in the past year, the two nations have been implementing a $150 million joint program of Cooperative Energy Research Centers, which includes research on carbon capture and storage at West Virginia University, on electric vehicles at the University of Michigan, and on building efficiency at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. This program will get another push forward this week, Sandalow said.

¶"We are focused on protecting U.S. interests, but in the course of that, there are ways we can learn from each other," he said.

¶Other high-level technology partnerships under way include a U.S.-China Steering Committee on Clean Energy Science and Technology Cooperation, a U.S.-China Electric Vehicle Initiative, and a U.S.-China Renewable Energy Partnership, Lewis noted.

¶But, she added, "Despite the long list of official bilateral agreements signed between the United States and China in the area of clean energy and climate change, there have been many challenges to following through on the successful implementation of agreed upon activities," beginning with inconsistent funding. "Cooperation is also hampered by the increasingly competitive relationship between the United States and China in the global economic marketplace," Lewis said in the recently published Issue 11 of the Wilson Center's China Environment Series.

¶"Clearly there is a long way to go to build the trust that will be crucial to scaling up clean energy cooperation between the United States and China that the world needs," she said.

¶As the fastest-growing market for wind and nuclear power and the leader in solar power modules, and with a commitment to expand electric vehicles and carbon capture from coal plants, China is the place to be for American clean energy companies with global aspirations.

¶"Certainly we should find something in between to make it win-win," said Zou Ji, China country director for the World Resources Institute in Beijing. "Some people believe now Chinese [clean] technology has been advanced, but that depends.

¶"In manufacturing, China has made great progress, but for R&D and design, China is still very weak." The United States and China can collaborate on joint research and development and scale the technology up in China, where costs are lower, he said.

¶Concerns about China's 'very tough game'

¶But if access to China is tied to a drain of leading-edge U.S. technology, the hopes for future American leadership in clean energy development -- a top priority for Energy Secretary Steven Chu -- could be erased.

"China is America's fastest-growing export market but it still maintains significant barriers to U.S. goods and services," said Nina Hachigian in an overview of U.S.-China issues on the Center for American Progress' website.

While the trade frictions between the two countries over clean energy are improving, in Kapp's view, serious issues remain, he said.

"In many commercial negotiations, the Chinese play a very hard game of trying to trade market access for technology, and American companies are always faced with the question of how much they're willing to part with, in terms of crown jewels or other advanced technologies ... in return for opportunities to make money in China," Kapp said. "The Chinese are not saints, and they play ... a very tough game," he told reporters last week.

A report last year by a U.S. National Research Council panel criticized China's recent anti-monopoly law that prohibits "abuses" of intellectual property rights by foreign multinationals in China, an element of the country's "indigenous innovation" strategy.

The policy pressures foreign companies to transfer their technologies in return for market access to state-directed markets, the report said. "China is also likely to use the standards-setting process to compel multinationals to transfer the technology that is implicated in the standards or face the legal consequences of noncompliance," the report added.

"While still clouded with suspicions and disrupted by setbacks, the broader trends in the U.S.-China relationship today are fundamentally positive," concluded the report by the council team, led by C.D. "Dan" Mote Jr., former president of the University of Maryland, and John Gannon, an executive with BAE Systems Information Technology and former chairman of the National Intelligence Council.

The challenge -- and solution -- to the issue of technology transfer lies with the protection of intellectual property, Kapp said. "And on that," he said, "the jury is still out."

Case studies suggest caution

Every U.S.-Chinese clean technology venture seems to have its own story and unique issues. For example, First Solar, the leading U.S. solar power company, made headlines in September 2009 with its agreement with Chinese officials to build a 2,000-megawatt photovoltaic energy project in Inner Mongolia.

More than a year later, the project has not gotten off the ground. Under pressure from Chinese energy companies, Chinese officials have not yet approved a feed-in-tariff that would subsidize the cost of the solar farm's electricity.

"Until that happens, it is not economical to make the commitments and take the risks of undertaking a project like this," said First Solar spokesman Alan Bernheimer.

When the project was announced, a local Chinese official expressed the hope of having a local factory make the First Energy solar cells, which are based on an advanced -- and closely guarded -- technology employing thin films of cadmium telluride as the photovoltaic material.

"No question the Chinese would love to have us site manufacturing facilities there, to work with our technology and gain experience using it," Bernheimer said.

"There has been no commitment to putting manufacturing facilities in China," said Bernheimer. "We've only discussed the construction ... of solar generation plants. We've left open whether that could eventually involve manufacturing ... it's an open question."

First Solar's research and testing occur at its factory in Ohio. The solar cells for the Mongolian project would most likely to produced at First Solar factories in Malaysia or Vietnam, he added, but that would not entail technology transfer to those countries. "We have not done that to date with anybody. Our manufacturing processes are the crown jewels of our technological advantage."

Protecting the 'crown jewels'

ECOtality also has traced a careful line in its relationship with its Chinese partner, according to company officials and its public statements.

The company had invested in research on hydrogen-power vehicles during the George W. Bush administration, and when that initiative was cut short by the Obama administration, ECOtality turned its efforts toward electric vehicle charging, where it has a base in equipment it produces for airline use.

The $2 million investment by Shenzhen Goch Investment Ltd. came at a crucial time. A month after it was announced in July 2009, ECOtality won a $99.8 million stimulus grant from the Energy Department -- later raised to $114 million -- to supply 15,000 of its Blink chargers for the Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt plug-in vehicles that form the vanguard of the U.S. electric vehicle industry.

The company got a validating $10 million investment this month from ABB, the Swiss energy technology giant, and will use ABB electronics in its charger products.

The chargers for the DOE project will be made in the United States by a leading auto parts supplier, said ECOtality Vice President Chip Read. "We're spending a lot of money to get manufacturing up to speed in the U.S. That's not something we want to abandon."

But ECOtality sees its chargers as contenders in a worldwide market that is just beginning to take shape. Shenzhen Goch Investment is the majority partner in two joint ventures to build and market the chargers in China, and to export them to Asian markets. ECOtality has the minority position in the venture, which includes technology transfer under license agreements that the U.S. company controls, Read said.

Read said that ECOtality's strongest intellectual property position -- its crown jewels -- lies not in manufacturing, but in the back-end software and electronics that will control the customer charging operations, vehicle interfaces, billing and possibly linkages to the grid. These are likely to vary to some degree country by country, he said.

"We have to take into account that we have a high-quality product, not just low-cost one. That will play a big role on where we source components."

Over 60 German companies to take part in World Future Energy Summit 2011

2011-01-11T04:01:00.000-08:00

World Future Energy Summit 2011

German companies and high-ranking government officials, led by Mr. Jost de Jager, Economic Minister of Schleswig-Holstein state, will be playing a major part in World Future Energy Summit (WFES) 2011, with over 60 companies from Germany now confirmed to take part in the event taking place in Abu Dhabi from 17-20 January 2011. HE Jurgen Becker, State Secretary, Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Germany, who recently participated in the UN Climate Change Conference (COP16) in Mexico, will also be speaking at a panel discussion on Day One of the summit.

The announcement comes just weeks after the German government affirmed its commitment to giving renewable energy a central role in future energy policy with the announcement of plans to raise the share of renewable energy sources in power generation from 16% today to 80% by 2050.

Leading German Financial Services Provider, Deutsche Bank Group is Principal Sponsor of WFES 2011. Other companies confirmed to take part include Siemens, the global technology provider, which is Platinum Sponsor, along with the automotive company Daimler, which is the official transport partner for the event.

H. E. Ambassador Klaus-Peter Brandes, German Ambassador to the UAE, commented on Germany's participation in this year's event: "Germany has participated from the outset in the World Future Energy Summits at Abu Dhabi and is proud to be represented once more in 2011 as one of the key players and as major exhibitor in this prestigious international fair. I have noted with great satisfaction that Germany was chosen as focus country in 2011. There is no doubt: Germany is an internationally recognized pioneer for climate protection and a trailblazer in mitigating global climate change."

In addition to Mr. Becker, there are currently ten speakers from Germany confirmed for the upcoming summit. Caio Koch-Weser, Vice Chairman, Deutsche Bank Group, UK, will be welcoming delegates to an afternoon of panel discussions on Day One in which Mr. Becker will be discussing 'Tackling the World's Future Energy Challenges' alongside other international energy ministers.

Other speakers at the summit will include Rene Umlauft, CEO Renewable Energy Siemens alongside Tilman Krauch, President Construction Chemicals, BASF SE, who will provide expert business insights into renewable energy. Thomas Braig, Head of EcoCommercial Building at Bayer Material Science will be speaking on building sustainable green cities, Herbert Kohler, Vice President E-drive and Future Mobility at Daimler will be taking part in a discussion about e-mobility, and Bernd Holling, Vice Director, Business Development at Lind Group will be participating in a session on carbon capture and storage.

Two exhibitions will run alongside the 2011 summit, featuring over 40 leading German energy companies as part of the German Pavilion, Organised by Germany's Federal Economic Ministry, putting it among the largest of any of the country pavilions.

Germany also had a strong presence at the recent UN Climate Change Conference (COP16) in Cancun, Mexico, from 29 November to 10 December 2010. In a speech given at the conference, Norbert Röttgen called for more support for climate protection by pointing out the potential benefits for economic growth. Speaking in Cancun, Mr. Röttgen called upon countries around the world to take concerted action by creating robust international rules , and it is expected that he will continue this sentiment at WFES in Abu Dhabi.

Held under the Patronage of His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed forces and hosted by Masdar, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Mubadala Development Company focused on advancing the development, commercialisation and deployment of renewable energy and clean technology solutions, the World Future Energy Summit themed 'enabling future energy solutions' will run from 17-20 January 2011 and comprises the four day conference, alongside two exhibitions - a World Future Energy Exhibition and World Future Environment Exhibition.

South Korea president says to nurture solar, wind, nuclear power

2011-01-03T10:51:00.000-08:00

S.Korea president says to nurture solar, wind, nuclear power - Reuters

SEOUL Jan 3 (Reuters) - South Korea, heavily dependent on energy imports, will strengthen its new and renewable energy sectors, President Lee Myung-bak said on Monday.

Asia's fourth-largest economy expects its new and renewable energy sectors to achieve exports of $40 billion in 2015, compared with $4.6 billion in 2009, with the government to set up four or five test beds for solar and wind power generation in 2011 with an investment of 20 billion won ($17.7 million).

"In the future, the solar power industry will be nurtured as the semiconductor industry was, and the wind power industry as shipbuilding was," Lee said in a New Year speech.

"By taking the opportunity to export to the United Arab Emirates, the government will actively nurture nuclear power as an export industry to cope with the era of climate change," he said, referring to an up to $40 billion nuclear deal awarded to a South Korean consortium in late 2009.

One of the world's fastest-growing carbon polluters, South Korea is seeking to shift from its dependence on fossil fuels, expanding investment in green resources.

In October last year, the government said it would spend 40 trillion won by 2015 in a combined push by the public and private sectors to boost renewable energy resources. (Reporting by Cho Mee-young; Editing by Chris Lewis)

Goldman Offering Clients a Chance to Invest in Facebook

2011-01-03T10:43:00.000-08:00

Goldman Offering Clients a Chance to Invest in Facebook - New York Times

Tony Avelar/Bloomberg NewsThe deal could double the personal fortune of Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s co-founder.

Goldman Sachs has reached out to its wealthy private clients, offering them a chance to invest in Facebook, the hot social networking giant that is considering a possible public offering in 2012, according to people familiar with the matter.

On Sunday night, a number of Goldman clients received an email from their Goldman broker, offering them the opportunity to invest in an unnamed “private company that is considering a transaction to raise additional capital.” Another person briefed on the deal said that Goldman clients would have to pony up a minimum of $2 million to invest and would be prohibited from selling their shares until 2013.

A Goldman spokesman declined to comment.

Facebook has raised $500 million from Goldman Sachs and a Russian investor in a transaction that values the company at $50 billion, according to people involved in the transaction. As part of its deal with Facebook, Goldman is expected to raise as much as $1.5 billion from investors for Facebook.

The email sent to Goldman clients warns that recipients who trade in secondary markets where private firms like Facebook trade may want to steer clear of participating because if they opt in they may receive material non-public information on the unnamed company that will restrict future trading.

The email said that even clients who receive the non-public information and decide not to invest would have to wait at least six months and possibly longer before they would be able to trade Facebook shares in the secondary market.

These restrictions are lifted if Facebook goes public in the interim.

Even though Facebook is not a public company it trades on secondary markets. The sellers in these markets are typically former employees of companies like Facebook and investors looking to unload their stakes. The buyers are mostly wealthy speculators looking to snag a piece of the next Apple or Google before the rest of the investing public can.

Goldman clients who opt to receive more information will receive a private placement memorandum from Goldman in the coming days. That document will confirm the company involved is Facebook, and give other more detailed information about the investment.

The original article is below:

By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN and EVELYN M. RUSLI

Facebook, the popular social networking site, has raised $500 million from Goldman Sachs and a Russian investor in a deal that values the company at $50 billion, according to people involved in the transaction.

The deal makes Facebook now worth more than companies like eBay, Yahoo andTime Warner.

The stake by Goldman Sachs, considered one of Wall Street’s savviest investors, signals the increasing might of Facebook, which has already been bearing down on giants like Google.

The new money will give Facebook more firepower to steal away valuable employees, develop new products and possibly pursue acquisitions — all without being a publicly traded company. The investment may also allow earlier shareholders, including Facebook employees, to cash out at least some of their stakes.

The new investment comes as the Securities and Exchange Commission has begun an inquiry into the increasingly hot private market for shares in Internet companies, including Facebook, Twitter, the gaming site Zynga and LinkedIn, an online professional networking site. Some experts suggest the inquiry is focused on whether certain companies are improperly using the private market to get around public disclosure requirements.

The deal could add pressure on Facebook to go public even as its executives have resisted. The popularity of shares of Microsoft and Google in the private market ultimately pressured them to pursue initial public offerings.

So far, Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, has brushed aside the possibility of an initial public offering or a sale of the company. At an industry conference in November, he said on the topic, “Don’t hold your breath.” However, people involved in the fund-raising effort suggest that Facebook’s board has indicated an intention to consider a public offering in 2012.

There has been an explosion in user interest in social media sites. The social buying site Groupon, which recently rejected a $6 billion takeover bid from Google, is in the process of raising as much as $950 million from major institutional investors, at a valuation near $5 billion, according to people briefed on the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly.

“When you think back to the early days of Google, they were kind of ignored by Wall Street investors, until it was time to go public,” said Chris Sacca, an angel investor in Silicon Valley who is a former Google employee and an investor in Twitter. “This time, the Street is smartening up. They realize there are true growth businesses out here. Facebook has become a real business, and investors are coming out here and saying, ‘We want a piece of it.’ ”

The Facebook investment deal is likely to stir up a debate about what the company would be worth in the public market. Though it does not disclose its financial performance, analysts estimate the company is profitable and could bring in as much as $2 billion in revenue annually.

Under the terms of the deal, Goldman has invested $450 million, and Digital Sky Technologies, a Russian investment firm that has already sunk about half a billion dollars into Facebook, invested $50 million, people involved in the talks said.

Goldman has the right to sell part of its stake, up to $75 million, to the Russian firm, these people said. For Digital Sky Technologies, the deal means its original investment in Facebook, at a valuation of $10 billion, has gone up fivefold.

Representatives for Facebook, Goldman and Digital Sky Technologies all declined to comment.

Goldman’s involvement means it may be in a strong position to take Facebook public when it decides to do so in what is likely to be a lucrative and prominent deal.

As part of the deal, Goldman is expected to raise as much as $1.5 billion from investors for Facebook at the $50 billion valuation, people involved in the discussions said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the transaction was not supposed to be made public until the fund-raising had been completed.

In a rare move, Goldman is planning to create a “special purpose vehicle” to allow its high-net-worth clients to invest in Facebook, these people said. While the S.E.C. requires companies with more than 499 investors to disclose their financial results to the public, Goldman’s proposed special purpose vehicle may be able get around such a rule because it would be managed by Goldman and considered just one investor, even though it could conceivably be pooling investments from thousands of clients.

It is unclear whether the S.E.C. will look favorably upon the arrangement.

Already, a thriving secondary market exists for shares of Facebook and other private Internet companies. In November, $40 million worth of Facebook shares changed hands in an auction on a private exchange called SecondMarket. According to SharesPost, Facebook’s value has roughly tripled over the last year, to $42.4 billion. Some investors appear to have bought Facebook shares at a price that implies a valuation of $56 billion. But the credibility of one of Wall Street’s largest names, Goldman, may help justify the company’s worth.

Facebook also surpassed Google as the most visited Web site in 2010, according to the Internet tracking firm Experian Hitwise.

Facebook received 8.9 percent of all Web visits in the United States between January and November 2010. Google’s main site was second with 7.2 percent, followed by Yahoo Mail service, Yahoo’s Web portal and YouTube, part of Google.

For Mr. Zuckerberg, the deal may double his personal fortune, which Forbes estimated at $6.9 billion when Facebook was valued at $23 billion. That would put him in a league with the founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who are reportedly worth $15 billion apiece.

Even as Goldman takes a stake in Facebook, its employees may struggle to view what they invested in. Like those at most major Wall Street firms, Goldman’s computers automatically block access to social networking sites, including Facebook.

New Capital for Groupon Sets Stage for an Offering

2011-01-01T05:57:00.000-08:00

New Capital for Groupon Sets Stage for an Offering - New York Times

Tim Boyle/Bloomberg NewsGroupon employees at the company’s headquarters in Chicago.

The 30-year-old founder and chief executive of Groupon, Andrew Mason, could raise as much as $950 million from investors in the next few weeks, laying the groundwork for a multibillion-dollar initial public offering in 2011.

The social buying site, which offers coupons for local businesses, has so far locked up $500 million in fresh capital from Fidelity Investments,Morgan Stanley, T. Rowe Price, and other large investors — allowing Mr. Mason and eight other directors to take a significant amount of cash off the table.

In the coming weeks, the company could bring in another $450 million, according toa Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Thursday.

If successful, Groupon’s latest fund-raising effort would be the largest ever for a start-up, a venture capital record held by DreamWorks Animation SKG for the last 15 years, based on Thomson Reuters data.

A spokeswoman for Groupon declined to comment on the outside investments.

The fund-raising is all part of the typical life cycle for an Internet start-up. But Groupon has gone from a quirky idea to Web darling in about two years — an especially fast evolution that got a turbo charge when the Chicago-based company spurned a $6 billion takeover offer by Google in the first week of December.

A frenzy of activity followed the failed bid.

Within days, institutional investors started lining up, ready to provide significant capital infusions. On Dec. 20, Groupon hired its first chief financial officer, Jason Child, a former Amazon.com executive. By Thursday, Fidelity, T. Rowe Price, Morgan Stanley and others had committed $500 million, according to two people with knowledge of the fund-raising who asked for anonymity because they said they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Meanwhile, Groupon, with revenue above $1 billion, continues to grow at a breakneck pace. In the last month, the site’s subscriber base has jumped 42.3 percent to more than more than 50 million worldwide, the company said. On private exchanges that facilitate trading in tech start-ups, Groupon has an implied valuation approaching $5 billion, up from $1.2 billion in June.

With its giant war chest and investor excitement, Groupon is planning to hold an I.P.O. at the end of 2011, these people said.

The company’s eagerness to enter the public markets stands in stark contrast to another Internet star, Facebook. The social media giant reluctantly — almost grudgingly — seems headed for an I.P.O. in the next two years. The S.E.C. is looking at private trading in Facebook shares, which may prompt the company to go public earlier than it wants.

If either company holds a public offering, it would be the most highly anticipated since Google’s in 2004. A multibillion-dollar deal would also go a long way to reviving the moribund I.P.O. market, which has been in a slump since the financial crisis. In the last three years, only 61 tech start-ups have gone public — and none valued at more than $1 billion, according to boutique investment firm Renaissance Capital.

“The market has been waiting a long time for that innovative young company, like a Groupon, to hit,” said Paul Bard, a vice president at Renaissance Capital. “Having one of these companies go public would validate the I.P.O. market for a lot of smaller companies waiting in the wings.”

Groupon could be rushing its debut, in part, to cement its dominance in the online advertising market. While Groupon is the 800-pound gorilla, it is a highly competitive space that has spawned scores of clones that are becoming viable threats. The No. 2 player, LivingSocial, has more than 10 million subscribers and recently raised $175 million from Amazon.

For now, Groupon has first-mover advantage. But that edge can quickly evaporate as Friendster and MySpace learned when Facebook entered the social media fray years ago.

“If they raise all this money privately and then become the first to go public in this space, they will become the de facto winner,” said Peter Falvey, co-head of technology investment banking for Morgan Keegan. “They have a good lead, but the idea is to go for the knockout punch — an I.P.O. would be a huge branding event.”

For Groupon’s new class of investors, it is all about that eventual payday. By jumping in now, T. Rowe Price, Fidelity and Morgan Stanley get an opportunity to peer into the company’s books and more important, get in before the public offering so the potential for a windfall is greater.

T. Rowe Price and Fidelity have participated in venture capital deals before. In 2008, the two firms teamed up on a $50 million fund-raising effort for Slide.com, a Web application developer. T. Rowe Price also has a stake in Twitter, which recently raised $200 million.

“Institutional players are dealing with a competitive environment, and they’re looking to put capital to work in a differentiated way,” said Tige Savage, a board member at LivingSocial. “They see it as an opportunity to get involved earlier at a better price and lock themselves into larger positions at these companies.”

As institutional investors patiently wait for their payout, Groupon’s directors could soon get a windfall. The company plans to use $344.5 million from the latest fund-raising round to let Mr. Mason and the rest of the board cash out some shares.

That would be the second time this year the company’s founder banked profits. “Historically, most private company investors don’t get meaningful liquidity from other private investors,” Mr. Falvey said. “Groupon is the exception, not the rule.”

Is 2011 the Year of the Blockbuster Tech I.P.O.?

2011-01-01T05:46:00.000-08:00

Is 2011 the Year of the Blockbuster Tech I.P.O.? - New York Times

Evelyn M. Rusli asks in New York Time's Deal Book if 2011 will be the Year of the Blockbuster Tech I.P.O.? A question that merits our attention!

FarmVille, Zynga’s online game.

For technology start-ups, the initial public offering has long lost the sheen of the dot-com era, when it seemed like anyone with an idea could go public. At the peak of the bubble, the Silicon Valley factory was in overdrive, pumping out hundreds of I.P.O.’s. a year.

In the wake of the financial crisis, there were just 45 offerings of tech companies in 2010, according to investment firm Renaissance Capital. The year before, only 16 debuted.

Now, Silicon Valley could see a modest return to the prerecession days — and even a hot brand-name initial offering from the likes of Groupon, Facebook or Zynga analysts say.

“If the equity markets remain stable, I expect a solid I.P.O. market,” said Peter Falvey, co-head of technology investment banking for Morgan Keegan. “We could see 20 percent more deals by value and by number.” Mr. Falvey and others also see increasing odds for a “Death Star explosion” — a blockbuster, multibillion dollar offering from a major Internet company. That theory gained credence on Thursday, when DealBook reported that that social-buying site Groupon is preparing for to I.P.O. at the end of 2011.

Silicon Valley is waking from a deep slumber.

The credit crisis paralyzed the technology I.P.O. market, as investors shunned unproven ventures. Only 20 companies went public from 2008 to the end of 2009, according to data from Renaissance Capital.

Meanwhile, initial offerings have become less attractive to young entrepreneurs who do not want to be burdened with the costly bureaucratic challenges of going public, including increased regulatory scrutiny, constant filings and high investment banking fees.

Instead, more founders are delaying initial offerings in favor of additional venture capital. Facebook raised more than half a billion dollars from the Russian firm Digital Sky Technologies. As DealBook noted, Groupon is negotiating with Fidelity, T. Rowe Price and Morgan Stanley for another round of financing that could be as large as $950 million.

Still, several analysts say I.P.O.’s may be regaining favor again, thanks to the improving stock market and a better economic environment.

“We may be nearing an inflection point,” said Paul Bard, a vice president at Renaissance Capital. “Companies are feeling good about their businesses, the buy side is more interested in growth and new money is coming into the market. When you have those three things happening in concert, that creates the potential for a very vibrant market for tech I.P.O.’s.”

The market may also be supported by the steady flow of Chinese companies, looking to go public on American exchanges. Eleven technology companies based in China had initial public offerings in the United States this year, including DangDang, an online retailer that experienced higher-than-expected demand in its debut, raising $272 million.

After a sluggish start, I.P.O. performance and pricing has picked up in the second half of this year. The shares of technology companies that have recently gone public are up 50.3 percent from their initial offer price, according to Morgan Keegan.

Although there are a few well-known names in this group, including the electric-car marker Tesla, the vast majority are little known, small-cap stocks. And some have done very well.

Shares of the software maker RealPage, which began trading in August, have roughly doubled. RealD, the 3-D technology company that went public in July, is up 60 percent.

The average first-day increase in share price was 18 percent, said Mr. Bard, adding that the recent rally would encourage small and midsize tech start-ups to take the plunge next year. He says he expects 2011 I.P.O. activity for technology stocks to match the levels of the years preceding the recession. In those years, the market averaged 53 public offerings a year with a value of $9.6 billion, according to Renaissance Capital.

There are 22 companies in the tech I.P.O. pipeline, including the Web chat serviceSkype, which many predict will be a billion-dollar offering.

The latest parlor game, however, is placing bets on whether Internet companies like Groupon or Facebook, which already have multibillion-dollar valuations, will join the fray. There has been significant demand for these Web darlings in the secondary markets, private exchanges that match buyers and sellers, including former employees looking to sell their stock. Facebook, at the center of the frenzy, is trading at an implied valuation of $42.4 billion, according to SharesPost.

Although the company’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, has said that he is in no rush to go public, the company may face increased pressure in the near term. As more investors pile into Facebook shares, often through special investment pools, the company could soon surpass 500 shareholders. That milestone would subject the company to a Securities and Exchange Commission rule that would require Facebook to register with the S.E.C. and submit financial results.

As DealBookreported, the S.E.C. has started to ask for information about secondary-market trading in the shares of Facebook, Twitter, Zynga and LinkedIn.

If Groupon or Facebook, or one of their peers, do go public in 2011, Mr. Falvey said it would be a game changer for the industry.

“There’s a chance that you get that Death Star I.P.O. in the tech market that draws huge attention to I.P.O.’s,,” he said, “the kind of attention we haven’t seen since the tech bubble burst in 2000.”

Energy companies in Switzerland join forces for new nuclear plants

2010-12-23T06:07:00.000-08:00

Swiss nuclear firms join forces on new reactors - Reuters

Axpo, Alpiq, and BKW will each take a third in a new project company

Swiss utility companies Axpo, Alpiq (ALPH.S: Quote) and BKW (BKWN.S: Quote) have decided to club together in their plans for two new nuclear power stations to replace existing capacity, they said on Thursday.

Although new capacity is probably a decade away, the plans show Swiss operators are determined to keep control of some 3,200 megawatts of capacity that currently supply 40 percent of Swiss electricity usage from five generation units. [POWER/CH]

"This represents a milestone in the bid to ensure security of supply in Switzerland," said a statement issued by Axpo.

"This will speed up the political process and official procedures, enable synergies to be exploited in the evaluation process, and save on costs," it added.

The aim is to compensate for existing plants reaching the end of their operating lives and for French import agreements that are due to expire, it said.

Switzerland's role is pivotal in central European power markets, where prices are converging. Nuclear serves as a basis while its big hydropower sector supplies neighbours in years with high water supply but necessitates imports in dry years.

Under the latest plans, the three companies will further develop previously separate projects jointly and be given equal shareholdings each in a joint planning and project company, which might also become a joint operating company in the future.

Decisions on sites and the prioritisation were expected to be made in mid-2012, they said.

Sites at Niederamt, Beznau and Muehleberg have already been declared suitable for replacement plants and further feasibility studies are under way.

The ratio of power procurement entitlements has also been laid down, with some minor adjustments. It will roughly be 59 percent for Axpo and its subsidiaries Axpo AG and CKW, 25.5 percent for Alpiq and 15.5 percent for BKW, commensurate with their existing share of current production capacity.

The existing Swiss capacity is split betwen the three firms, with some participation of cities and Cantons, and Germany's E.ON (EONGn.DE:Quote), which has a 20 percent share in Muehleberg. (Reporting by Vera Eckert; editing by James Jukwey)

Probable Carcinogen Found in Tap Water of 31 U.S. Cities

2010-12-21T06:09:00.000-08:00

Probable Carcinogen Found in Tap Water of 31 U.S. Cities - New York Times

In 25 of 35 U.S. cities where tap water supplies were tested for hexavalent chromium -- deemed likely to cause cancer in humans in a U.S. EPA draft review this year -- levels of the chemical exceeded the minimum set by the state of California to protect public health, according to a report released today by an environmental group.

The Environmental Working Group's (EWG) new findings mark a public flare-up in the behind-the-scenes battle over estimating the carcinogenicity of oral exposure to hexavalent chromium, also referred to as chromium-6. The draft EPA assessment released in September could pave the way for a national drinking-water standard for the chemical, best known for polluting groundwater in Hinkley, Calif., where activist Erin Brockovich won a multimillion-dollar settlement for locals and became a household name.

The outcry over cancer cases in Hinkley helped push California to set a tap-water public health goal of 0.06 parts per billion (ppb) of chromium-6, an early move on the way to a binding state standard (Greenwire, Aug. 21, 2009). Of the 35 cities where EWG tested drinking supplies, 31 contained some level of chromium-6, and 25 -- including Washington, Los Angeles and Norman, Okla., where samples showed 12.9 ppb -- contained levels higher than the California goal.

EWG senior scientist Rebecca Sutton, an environmental chemist who crafted today's report, said her group's data provide new ammunition for measuring and restricting chromium-6 in drinking water nationwide. The federal government made "a very poor choice" by mandating its current drinking-water tests for total chromium, a metric that blends hazardous chromium-6 with the essential nutrient trivalent chromium.

Sutton added that while "industry is doing its very best to slow the process down even further," she hopes to see California advancing its chromium-6 limits to serve as a potential model for broader action. "Sometimes the state of California can lead the way, can show, 'Hey, this is possible,'" she said.

Brockovich, now an author and full-time consumer advocate, predicted in an interview that further chromium-6 water contamination issues would emerge "not only at a national but a global level."

"There is no reason why we can't address this without sounding some kind of panic alarm, which [critics] are going to accuse us of doing," Brockovich said.

A heavy metal commonly used in industrial dyes and coatings that also occurs naturally in small amounts, chromium-6 is known to be carcinogenic via inhalation. The cancer-causing effects of oral exposure through water, however, remain the subject of intense debate between environmentalists and industry.

The recent EPA draft review of chromium-6 incorporated the results of a 2008 National Toxicology Program (NTP) study that found a higher occurrence of gastrointestinal tumors in exposed rodents. The American Chemistry Council and the American Water Works Association, which represents water utilities that could bear the costs of broader chromium-6 testing, have both questioned the application of the NTP study to human exposures at lower levels.

ACC and AWWA have called on EPA to postpone further action on its chromium-6 risk assessment until new studies, including one funded by industry, are released next year.

A senior official at the Southern California Water Committee (SCWC), an alliance of industry and local governments active on water quality issues in the state, also asked EPA to delay the chromium-6 assessment until more studies are released.

Using the 2008 NTP data to assess the cancer-causing effects of lower exposures to chromium-6 "may not reflect the true risk and will have significant consequences for the public's confidence in the quality and safety of their drinking water," SCWC Executive Director Richard Atwater wrote to EPA in October. "Furthermore, it would prematurely trigger regulatory levels that water supply agencies simply don't have the equipment to monitor and detect."

Click here to read EWG's full report on hexavalent chromium in drinking water.

Wyoming Natural Gas Fracking Rules for Point the Way for Public Disclosure of Chemicals Used

2010-12-21T06:04:00.000-08:00

Wyoming Natural Gas Fracking Rules for Point the Way for Public Disclosure of Chemicals Used - New York Times

To coax more oil from a wildcat well named "Mad Hatter," Halliburton Co. is planning to inject water mixed with small concentrations of napthalene, ethanol, "1,2,4-Trimethylbenzene" and "hydrotreated light petroleum distillate" into a hole in the ground near Casper, Wyo.

Such detailed chemical information was once a closely guarded secret. But it is available to anyone with an Internet connection now that Wyoming is demanding that drillers disclose each chemical that they are putting in each well.

Led by Gov. Dave Freudenthal (D), state regulators decided that the best response to fears about water contamination and the prospect of federal regulation was to order the country's most detailed disclosures of the ingredients used in hydraulic fracturing.

Though companies had long argued that fracturing fluid recipes are trade secrets worth millions of dollars, there has been relatively little grumbling since the rules kicked in Sept. 15.

"I'm not hearing many complaints," said John Robitaille, vice president of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming. "I think we're OK."

And Wyoming's regulations could be the shape of things to come. The Obama administration is looking to the Cowboy State as a model for fracturing disclosure on federal lands in the West. Interior Department officials figure it would be hard to argue against an approach developed in petroleum-friendly Wyoming.

If that led to Western state governments adopting similar rules, Eastern states such as Pennsylvania could feel pressure to demand similar information from drillers tapping into the rich Marcellus Shale.

"It will certainly become a model for disclosure," said Dave Alberswerth, a former Clinton administration Interior official now with the Wilderness Society. "It'll be more difficult for industry to argue against this."

In fracturing, crews inject tanker-loads of water and sand underground to blow apart the rock and release gas. A small fraction of that concoction is a mixture of chemicals as mundane as ice cream thickener and as toxic as benzene.

Improvements in fracturing technology have opened the vast shale formations in Pennsylvania and other states that were previously considered too difficult and expensive to tap.

But the rapid expansion of drilling and fracturing has intensified fears that the toxins and carcinogens in fracturing fluid might contaminate drinking water. Environmentalists and congressional Democrats have pushed not only for public disclosure of fracturing chemicals but also stricter federal regulation of the practice.

Drilling companies, though, say fracturing is safe and existing state regulation is sufficient. They stress that the fracturing fluid is injected thousands of feet below drinking water aquifers and maintain that there has never been a proven case of groundwater contamination from the fracturing process.

Hushing the debate

With the regulations, Wyoming has done what Washington failed to do: quiet the burgeoning debate about fracturing.

The rules accomplish much of what congressional Democrats and environmental groups were seeking in the arena of disclosure. Though they cover only one state, that state accounts for a tenth of all gas production in the United States. Neither industry nor environmentalists are completely happy with the disclosure regulations, but both have accepted them.

The oil and gas industry has arrived at this point after years of struggle. Companies have long maintained that public disclosure of fracturing fluid ingredients would unfairly cost them millions of dollars. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this year, Halliburton said federal or state requirements to disclose the composition of fracturing fluid would be a regulatory burden that could decrease profits.

Halliburton spokeswoman Teresa Wong referred questions about the Wyoming regulations to trade groups such as the Petroleum Association of Wyoming.

"As for Halliburton, we will of course continue to comply with all laws and regulations," Wong said.

But as pressure grew, companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp. insisted that they actually were disclosing the ingredients because they posted "material safety data sheets" (MSDS) at work sites. But those information sheets are for industrial accidents, not groundwater monitoring, and they often omit key data.

When Colorado overhauled its regulations in 2007, it required more disclosure, but not to the public. Colorado now requires drillers to keep a detailed inventory, but they only give a copy to regulators if asked.

But as the public profile of fracturing has risen to become the subject of independent film documentaries and network shows like "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," more companies have embraced the need for full public disclosure.

"Giving the public a greater sense of transparency is an important step forward," Anadarko Petroleum Corp. spokesman John Christiansen said. "Once the process is better understood, we think the public will be more comfortable with it."

Industry advocates say that the quiet compliance of drillers of Wyoming proves that their objections were not so much about informing the public so much as opposition to giving more power to a federal agency such as U.S. EPA.

Arkansas has approved well-by-well disclosure regulations that go into effect next year. Also, an association of state oil and gas regulators called the Ground Water Protection Council is developing a voluntary system for well-by-well disclosure that has been endorsed by drilling companies.

Interior studies Wyo. model

Still, other Western states have even fewer requirements for disclosure. New Mexico regulations, for instance, do not address disclosure of fracturing chemicals.

In the East, Pennsylvania currently requires public disclosure of fracturing chemicals, but only the MSDS sheets, which are available at regional offices. But amid a strengthening gas rush, the state is still determining how it will tax and regulate oil and gas production. New York has banned most high-volume fracturing while it studies the process and develops rules.

Congressional efforts to force disclosure of chemicals stalled this year and will likely disappear when Republicans take over the House next year. But at a forum on fracturing late last month, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced his department plans to develop rules on public disclosure of fracturing chemicals used on the vast public lands of the West (E&ENews PM, Nov. 30).

"I'd like to see that happen," Wyoming Oil and Gas supervisor Tom Doll, who shepherded the new regulations, said in an interview. "What we're saying is have something that's working. Nothing beats success like success."

Interior officials confirmed that they are looking to Wyoming as a model for such regulations, which would primarily affect lands and minerals overseen by the Bureau of Land Management. And Salazar gave Doll a keynote role at Interior's fracturing forum. Administration officials used the forum to explore how public disclosure has worked on federal lands in Wyoming.

Still, Salazar's announcement sparked outrage from Republicans on Capitol Hill.

"I oppose adding burdensome, new red-tape that will further discourage oil and gas production on public lands in the West," Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) wrote to Salazar after the announcement.

Barrasso declined to comment about how he would react to Interior adopting Wyoming's rules, saying through a spokeswoman that he would not comment on a "hypothetical situation."

Drillers also remain wary of the idea of federal regulation, even if it is modeled on rules they have accepted at the state level.

"If they copied it verbatim, we'd have no problem with it here in Wyoming," the state petroleum association's Robitaille said. "But in my experience, that's not how it works."

As gratified as they are to see movement toward greater disclosure, environmentalists say they still want to see stricter regulation, preferably by U.S. EPA under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

"Disclosure helps only after your water is contaminated. It doesn't prevent your water from being contaminated," said Amy Mall of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

'Trade secrets'

And environmentalists are also worried that Wyoming is agreeing to too many industry requests to shield compounds as "trade secrets."

"While we've been getting disclosure, it looks like that will be tightening up," said Jill Morrison, an organizer with the Powder River Basin Resource Council in Sheridan, Wyo.

But Doll said secrecy will be the exception, not the rule. He said his staff has been careful not to shield the chemical ingredients of broadly used "plain vanilla" fracturing fluid.

"Initially, I think people thought, 'They'll say that everything is a trade secret,'" Doll said. "That hasn't been the case."

The application for the Mad Hatter well, a "frack job (pdf)" for Strachan Exploration Inc. of Englewood, Colo., was denied (pdf) last month because it failed to list the ingredients of compounds for which Halliburton had not yet received trade secret protection.

The Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission website lists 16 approvals for trade secret protection, some for single products and some for long lists of compounds.

Halliburton has gotten five fracturing products shielded. BJ Services won trade secret status for 36 products, including fracturing sand.

Their requests are public record, and their reasoning points to the importance of fracturing chemicals, even though they amount to a tiny fraction of the total volume of what is injected.

ChemEOR Inc., a Los Angeles-based oilfield chemical company, told Wyoming regulators it spent more than $400,000 directly on research and development of a product called InFlo 250 W. Halliburton said it spent "tens of millions of dollars" researching new fracturing fluids during the past five years. The company said that public disclosure of its proprietary formulas could cost it $375 million.

Halliburton also argues that public disclosure of the chemicals in the compound would discourage research into fracturing fluids that reduce damage to the environment.

Wyoming regulators gave trade secret protection to many products that are toxic, which could keep raising questions about the value of secrecy. An MSDS sheet (pdf) on file with Ohio regulators, shows that ChemEOR's Inflo 250 W contains toxic methanol and 2-Butoxyethanol, a fracturing ingredient cited in several contamination allegations, and other hazardous components.

In several cases, Wyoming regulators granted trade secret status to compounds used by Halliburton and BJ Services but stated that they "are not approved for use in groundwater." That generally means they include some form of hydrocarbon, such as a petroleum distillate.

"The thing about trade secret protection," NRDC's Mall said, "is that it's only going to work if the public thinks its credible."

Industry Group, BLM Spar Over Decline of Oil and Gas Leases

2010-12-18T10:40:00.000-08:00

Industry Group, BLM Spar Over Decline of Oil and Gas Leases - New York Times

An industry report last week showing a 79 percent decrease in oil and gas leases issued on public lands has ignited a debate over whether the Obama administration's leasing policies are stifling job creation and energy production.

The Western Energy Alliance -- representing more than 400 oil and gas companies in the Rocky Mountain states -- said its data show a dramatic decline in the use of public lands for oil and gas development and a corresponding dip in government revenue.

"This trend, if continued, will result in a decline in energy development with a resulting loss of jobs, and less revenue for federal and state treasuries at a time when Americans are very concerned about out of control deficits and spending," said Spencer Kimball, the group's manager of government affairs.

The Bureau of Land Management in fiscal 2010 issued 79 percent fewer leases in Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Utah and Wyoming than in fiscal 2005, the Denver-based group found.

The alliance also found leasing revenue on public lands dropped 46 percent over the same period, and overall onshore royalties slid 33 percent over the past two years. Both revenue streams are roughly split between states and the federal government.

BLM responded by saying oil and gas leasing is market-driven and linked to price and energy consumption, rejecting industry claims that its leasing program had led to the decline.

"In response to falling oil and natural gas prices, oil and natural gas development companies have scaled back energy development and leasing activities," the agency said in a posting on its website, "a downward trend that is reflected in decreased leasing nationally, not just on federally-managed lands."

BLM presented a graph suggesting leasing and permits have generally followed the price of oil and natural gas over two decades.

Dave Alberswerth, the Wilderness Society's senior policy adviser on energy issues, said agency data show that although BLM issued 4,487 permits to drill in fiscal 2009, the permit recipients drilled 3,267 new wells, leaving 1,220 permits unused for the year.

"Though the industry complains about administration policies restricting 'access' to federal lands for oil and gas development, they didn't use anywhere near the number of drilling permits issued by the BLM in the last fiscal year," Alberswerth said. "It's a classic price-demand sort of relationship."

He added that the alliance "is selecting the facts that fit their arguments."

Declining demand for leases

The recent decline in natural gas prices, in fact, has caused a corresponding decline in the number of acres that industry asked BLM to offer for lease, according to a Greenwire analysis of government data last spring (Greenwire, April 1).

"Regardless of decreased commodity prices and reduced industry activity, the BLM continues to offer industry-nominated parcels for auction, and has even seen an increase in generated revenues for American taxpayers," BLM said.

The agency held 29 onshore lease sales in 2010 covering 3.2 million acres in the West and Alaska that netted more than $213 million -- a 57-percent increase over 2009, according to BLM, which has scheduled 36 lease sales in 2011.

To hammer home its point, BLM quoted a Greenwire article that quotes Kathleen Sgamma, the alliance's government affairs director, stating, "Drilling is down because of the economy. I don't think anyone denies that."

But Jon Haubert, spokesman for the alliance, said this week that BLM had failed to include the second half of Sgamma's statement: "As the economy recovers, these [BLM] policies will affect companies two or three years out and slow the recovery of the West."

"I have to admit, we are a little surprised they came out swinging directly at us," Haubert said in an e-mail, "I guess it's pretty apparent we struck a nerve."

While the alliance's energy "dashboard" stops short of blaming Interior Department policies for the leasing decline, the group has criticized the agency for reforms it says have sent a chilling message to oil and gas firms.

The group earlier this year blasted Interior's oil and gas leasing reforms, as well as decisions to analyze the greenhouse gas impacts of leasing and withdraw several dozen oil and gas leases sold in Utah a year ago.

The group also has two pending lawsuits in the U.S. District Court in Wyoming challenging BLM's failure to issue leases within 60 days of their sale, as required by law, and the agency's restricted use of categorical exclusions used to bypass environmental reviews.

Departing Sen. Dorgan Brings Earmark Deluge to N.D.

2010-12-18T09:45:00.000-08:00

Departing Sen. Dorgan Brings Earmark Deluge to N.D. - New York Times

Despite ranking 47th among the states in population size, North Dakota may land some of the biggest earmarks in the nation for water projects: $14.3 million for infrastructure, $13.4 million for rural water supplies and a provision -- its price unspecified -- to require the federal government to pay for all future flood control work at Devil's Lake.

Those earmarks carry among the largest price tags in the water and energy section of the spending bill Senate Democrats hope to pass before year's end.

For the potential local tax dollars saved and jobs created, North Dakotans can thank outgoing Sen. Byron Dorgan. The Democratic chairman of the Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee has wielded his influence expertly, echoing the calls across Capitol Hill for greater investment in the nation's crumbling water infrastructure while using his powerful seat to ensure that an outsized portion of that investment flows to North Dakota, observers say.

"We have very serious needs for investments in water infrastructure," Dorgan said in July at a subcommittee markup of a bill that proposed spending nearly half a billion dollars more on water projects than President Obama proposed in his budget.

In an analysis of earmarks lawmakers requested this spring, North Dakota ranked first in the nation in dollars per capita requested, about $3,911 per person, or almost twice as much as Mississippi's $2,262, according to the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense. That group's analysis of the latest spending measures is not yet complete.

The group also found that Dorgan ranked 12th in the Senate for total earmark money requested, not far behind the Senate's top three earmark-requesters, by dollar amount: Louisiana's Mary Landrieu (D), Mississippi's Roger Wicker (R) and Kansas' Sam Brownback (R).

"He's proven pretty adept at getting them," said Steve Ellis, spokesman for Taxpayers for Common Sense. "Senator Dorgan's no slouch."

A Dorgan spokesman dismissed the comparison. "We'd be high, per capita, for anything," said spokesman Barry Piatt.

Earmarks are generally defined as specific federal spending requests made by individual lawmakers for projects in their home district. The practice, often associated with "pork barrel" or "pay to play" politics, once again has come under intense scrutiny, since Senate Democrats unveiled a 2011 spending proposal this week that includes thousands of them, requested by both Republicans and Democrats, including some members who have criticized the practice.

Dorgan is not one of those. He defends earmark spending as the logical way for Congress to target federal dollars to region-specific needs and a relatively insignificant portion of federal spending. The 6,700 earmarks included in the proposed $1.1 trillion spending plan total $8.1 billion.

"You would think members of the House and Senate know best about the priorities of the states and the regions," Dorgan said. "The way to reduce the federal budget deficit is not to change the issue of earmarks."

Asked about the water projects he earmarked, Dorgan described a separate issue: a state-federal agreement struck decades ago that promised irrigation projects in return for flooding a large swath of North Dakota farmland.

"This is the result of finishing an agreement with the federal government," Dorgan said.

The deal dates back to a 1944 act of Congress in which North Dakota allowed for six dams to be constructed along the Missouri River. In exchange for the 300,000 acres of farmland that would be flooded, Washington, D.C., promised the state more than 1 million acres of irrigation by moving water to the eastern part of the state.

Over the ensuing decades, progress has started and stopped amid concerns over environmental effects, costs, land acquisition and Canadians' fears that water might be pushed north into their country from the Missouri River.

"That's the rationale for a lot of what he does: Promises were made. A flood was delivered. We still need to get what we were supposed to get in exchange," said David Conrad, senior water resources specialist for the National Wildlife Federation.

Conrad said Dorgan's water earmarks raise complex questions about the federal government's role in protection against flooding and providing for irrigation and infrastructure.

In the case of Devil's Lake, Dorgan's earmark would assume all costs for maintenance and rehabilitation of a levee designed to hold back waters of a lake that has no natural release valve and has, as a result, tripled in size since 1993 thanks to a string of wet years.

Environmentalists admit it is a "crisis situation" for the nearby town of Devil's Lake, population 7,200, but add that for the federal government to assume the cost of all future levee maintenance sets an unsustainable precedent, because hundreds of levees around the nation have been deemed to be at risk of failing. Since 1993, already more than $800 million has been spent relocating utilities, raising roadbeds, and buying and moving homes in the way of the waters, Conrad said.

"That's quite an impressive rider to put into such a bill, with obviously substantial future costs and possibly, setting a precedent that could ultimately open the floodgates to call upon the government to assume levee costs elsewhere," Conrad said. Normally, the federal government would split such costs, were it not for the $65 billion backlog in the Army Corps of Engineers' construction budget and the vast maintenance needs of the nation's levees.

"There's not enough money in the world for the federal government to pay all the local costs associated with levees in the country right now," Conrad said.

Generous Tariff Lures British Farmers Into Raising Solar Power Arrays

2010-12-15T09:47:00.000-08:00

Generous Tariff Lures British Farmers Into Raising Solar Power Arrays - New York Times

GLASTONBURY, England -- Michael Eavis is not your average farmer, but this year he is following the herd. Spurred on by a new tariff that pays individuals to produce their own electricity and sell it to the nation's grid, Eavis has installed 1,100 solar photovoltaic panels on the roof of his dairy barn. He calls it his "Mootel."

"I have wanted to do this ever since I built the barn about 10 years ago. The feed-in tariffs just made it much easier and more profitable. Everyone is thrilled to bits with the array. It is working really well," he toldClimateWire.

"The panels will earn about £50,000 [$79,053] a year, so in 10 years we will have paid off the £500,000 [$790,398] we borrowed from the bank to build the array. Solar power is really clean -- even more so than wind -- and it is free. There is enough energy from the sun to power the whole world during the day," he added.

Eavis is just one among a throng of people, including many farmers, who have leaped at the chance the tariff scheme offers both to make money and to get "greener." In contrast to many other such schemes across Europe, the U.K. feed-in tariffs pay for all power produced, not just that exported to the grid. They also have the added attraction of being guaranteed for 25 years.

Of course, not every farmer can do this on the scale Eavis has. He is the sponsor of the 40-year-old Glastonbury Festival, a three-day music and performing arts event that draws 150,000 rock fans to his Worthy Farm, which is about 130 miles west of London.

But a lot of them are trying. Meanwhile, the new, austerity-prone British government, which inherited the scheme, is trying to maintain a stiff upper lip. Well aware of the retrospective changes being discussed in Spain to slash the cost of its runaway solar power sector, the government has pledged that, while new, lower rates could be implemented in 2013, there will be no backsliding.

"There will never be any changes made retrospectively to the feed-in tariffs," a spokeswoman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change said.

Rate of applicants accelerates

Government figures show a phenomenal rate of uptake since the April 1 start of the scheme in the United Kingdom, with solar photovoltaic far and away the favorite technology. As of the middle of last month, 11,370 individual projects had been registered since the scheme started, representing a total of just under 44 megawatts of power capacity, and according to Ofgem -- the government's energy watchdog -- the rate of applications is accelerating rapidly.

Of these, 10,552 were photovoltaic, which also accounted for 60 percent of rated power capacity; 699 were wind; 114 were hydro; and five were micro combined heat and power. Close to three-quarters of the total was domestic, with most of the rest commercial.

The government didn't divulge how many of the applicants are households and how many are farmers. But Farming Futures, part of an agricultural think tank, has done a poll that found that 80 percent of farmers in the United Kingdom want to put solar photovoltaic panels on their roofs within the next three years -- before any changes can be implemented in the tariff's payout.

"We have seen a real appetite for investing in solar this year, and it is great to see so many farmers recognizing this opportunity to create an income and diversify, as well as contribute to developing a low-carbon economy in the U.K.," said Madeline Lewis of Farming Futures.

Under the scheme a solar photovoltaic array with a capacity of 4 to 10 kilowatts will earn the owner 36.1 pence (55 cents) per kilowatt-hour of power produced and consumed on-site. The rate falls to 31.4 pence (49 cents) for installations of 10 to 100 kW and 29.3 pence (46 cents) for those from 100 to 5,000 kW -- the range into which Eavis' 200 kW array fits.

Worries about melting cables

All power exported to the grid earns 3 pence (4 cents) per kilowatt-hour, and in all cases, the tariff is guaranteed for a quarter of a century.

"Traditionally, farming revenue is quite seasonal. But now we are making money by creating clean energy, we have the peace of mind of another income, and we are doing our bit reducing our carbon footprint," said farmer Michael Frankel, who installed a solar power array on his barn roof earlier this year.

There is one possible hitch. The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government that inherited the scheme -- and a £180 billion ($238 billion) budget deficit from Labour when it took power in May -- has said it will not review the scheme before 2012 unless there is a higher-than-expected uptake.

It has not said what that would be, but a DECC spokeswoman said she expected the early review trigger level to be announced very soon "to give absolute clarity" -- although she insisted that any review would only be of future rates.

The newly formed British Photovoltaic Association industry lobby group calculates that the U.K. solar market, with the feed-in tariff scheme securely under its arm, could reach 60 MW by the end of this year and climb to 1,000 MW by 2015 and 5,000 MW by 2020.

Eavis certainly has plans to expand his array, possibly before he has even paid off the bank loan to build the original, because the future income is already known and the duration of the income stream likewise.

"Most of the electricity will go to the farm, although some will also go to the grid. Ideally, I would like to get a second batch the same size as the first one, so we would have 2,200 solar panels in total," he said. "But we have to make sure we have the right cables. Put too much down them, and they start to melt."

Energy - Nuclear prospects - Nuclear Option Unclear

2010-12-15T09:37:00.000-08:00

Nuclear Option Unclear - FM.co.za

Costing doubts and technical controversy bedevil SA’s nuclear future

Nuclear energy could contribute 13,4% of SA’s electricity generation needs by 2030, according to the department of energy’s draft integrated resource plan (IRP). The proposal has drawn both criticism and praise during this month’s public hearings.

SA’s total electrical generation capacity is projected to reach 85241MW by 2030, of which 9600MW will be from nuclear power (on top of Koeberg’s current 1840MW capacity) as envisaged in the department’s revised balanced scenario. The types of nuclear power plants being looked at range from 1000MW to 1600MW in size, which means six to 10 reactors could be constructed.

Energy minister Dipuo Peters told the media recently that nuclear was becoming a preferred solution to SA’s energy needs. “The acute need to secure reliable energy supplies and the urgent requirement to reduce carbon emissions has put nuclear energy firmly on the agenda as a viable choice to be pursued in order to achieve a suitable energy mix for our country,” she said.

But the technology is controversial, to say the least. Debates cluster around four main issues.

The first is cost. The capital expenditure required to build a nuclear plant is high. Using a reference price of R26575/kW, the 9600MW fleet would cost R342bn, and would be built between 2016 to 2030. But while the initial investment is high, nuclear plants have low operating and fuel costs .

SA Nuclear Energy Corp CEO Rob Adam says examples in the US and France show that once a nuclear power plant is amortised (in 15-20 years), with low operating costs, it can generate large returns. “With the new generation of plants having an initial licensed life of 60 years, the return can be substantial,” says Adam.

But criticisms focus more on the uncertainty of costs. Looking at the fleet as a whole and not the life of the individual plant, costs may actually increase over time as the technology develops — firstly because it’s a seller’s market globally (at least for now) and secondly because of design changes and increased safety mechanisms.

“The IRP numbers based on the nuclear industry are proven to be underestimates,” says Rianne Teule of Greenpeace. Teule argues that global examples show a downward-sloping learning curve, and says the capital costs of France’s 58 reactors have increased with each new addition.

The size and capital costs of nuclear plants introduce a second concern cited by critics — their inflexibility, and the likelihood of excess capacity.

Given the fact that demand projections are estimates at best, such large centralised plants do not allow the industry to flexibly respond to changes in demand or technology, unlike renewable options, says Ruth Rabinowitz, chair of MamaEarth and a former IFP MP. The lead time of a nuclear plant, including commissioning and construction, is a minimum of 10 years, and they are seldom built on time or within budget. Then there is the commitment to a plant lifetime of 30-60 years (depending on the plant). If available renewables are given priority on the grid in the future, as is the case in Germany today, excess capacity from the nuclear plant could remain unsold. “That’s one of the concerns for investors,” says Teule, “what is the chance you can sell excess capacity in the future?”

Adam argues that this is not a concern, and that the same can be said of the coal- fired power stations Medupi or Kusile. The concerns underpin Greenpeace’s argument of an inherently uncertain net present value of nuclear plants.

The third danger of nuclear power, say critics, is the legacy of its waste. The spent fuel is highly radioactive. Simply put, uranium is transmuted into other elements that are radioactive, some of which take seconds to decay and others which take millions of years. It would take about 100000 years for the waste to reach natural levels of radioactivity. The waste also needs to be stored in deep underground containers to remain stable for this amount of time. “Nowhere in the world has the issue of storage been solved,” says Rabinowitz.

SA’s waste is temporarily stored under water at Koeberg.

“While there is no doubt that this waste is dangerous, it is compact and manageable,” says Peet du Plooy, sustainable growth programme manager at Trade & Industrial Policy Strategies, an economic research institution. For comparison purposes, a 1000MW coal- powered plant would require around 3Mt/year of coal and produce around 1Mt /year of ash; a nuclear power plant of the same size would use 17t/year of nuclear fuel and produce 17t of spent fuel, with a volume of less than 20m³ for long-term storage, according to Adam.

There’s also the option of reprocessing the spent fuel by extracting the uranium and plutonium to be (re)used , leaving smaller quantities for long-term storage. France, England and Russia are already reprocessing waste, but aren’t using the fuel because it’s more expensive.

Adam says the technology exists to take this one step further by breaking down the waste into shorter-lived products that would remain radioactive for only a couple of hundred years, but that the costs of these technologies are the problem. “It doesn’t reflect well on [the industry] to not have a complete business plan,” he says. “It’s an R&D challenge, but it’s a question of engineering and economics — the science is there.”

Opponents also raise a concern — the fourth — about safety. While an accident like the 1986 Chernobyl disaster (which caused an estimated 4000 deaths after technical mishaps brought about a series of explosions) is unlikely to happen today, given current safety standards, incidences in France are increasing, according to Teule. “They are not all serious, but they are showing that things can and do go wrong.”

But modern science allows us to rely on passive safety, says Tony Stott, nuclear assurance manager at Eskom. The physics of generation 3 plants make them inherently safe, but more expensive to build. Generation2 plants like Koeberg still rely on engineered safety and backup systems, but with added modifications they are deemed as safe as the newer technologies. Around R1bn has been spent over the past 20 years on modifications to ensure Koeberg’s safety. This has improved its safety by a factor of 10 (the probability of the fuel melting should be less than one in 10000/year; now it is one in 100000). Future plants would likely be either modified generation 2 or generation 3 plants.

Du Plooy argues that the only real safety issue is ensuring that enriched uranium doesn’t reach the hands of rogue regimes. Connotations with Hiroshima and Nagasaki illustrate the potential destructive power of the technology, though nuclear weapons require uranium to be enriched to a higher level than for power generation. SA dismantled its nuclear weaponry programme in the 1990s.

There is a need to ask what the best trade-off is between costs, megawatts of electricity produced, and the reduction of carbon emissions .

Both WWF and Greenpeace argue that an energy mix that excludes nuclear, and introduces renewables while phasing out coal, is both optimal and possible.

The prevailing view is, however, that given the high cost of renewable energy (which may decrease as the technology develops), a plan that excludes nuclear would be too costly, and that renewable energy doesn’t make for a sufficiently reliable supply.

But with dual challenges of climate change and energy security, the solution lies in finding the most efficient way to meet future energy demands in a way that is sustainable and clean — and a balanced mix of technologies may be the best way to do this.

Is Natural Gas A Viable Partner In the Low-Carbon Future?

2010-12-11T09:39:00.000-08:00

Is Natural Gas A Viable Partner In the Low-Carbon Future? - Domestic Fuel

Posted by Joanna Schroeder

Is, and should, natural gas be a viable partner in the movement to a low-carbon future? This was the question asked and answered in a new report published by the Worldwatch Institute and authored by Worldwatch Sustainable Energy Fellow Saya Kitasei. “Powering the Low-Carbon Economy: The Once and Future Roles of Renewable Energy and Natural Gas,” concludes that natural gas and renewable energy such as wind and solar, could form a powerful partnership to move the world toward low carbon energies.

The report notes that “natural gas offers a cleaner alternative to coal” and sets up the stage for natural gas to play a starring role in the future of energy for its “flexibility, scalability, and cost-competitiveness to complement the variable distributed nature of wind and solar power generation.”

“If the world is to truly move away from coal as its primary means of electricity production, then natural gas must realize its full potential as a partner to the renewable energy industry,” said Kitasei. “Natural gas is undergoing a renaissance. Our research indicates that the environmental community should pay attention to the opportunities that this resource brings. When deployed as part of an integrated approach, renewable energy and natural gas can reduce coal dependence, deliver emissions reductions, and catalyze the transition to a low-carbon economy.”

According to the report, there are four key mechanisms that can enable the combination of renewable energy and natural gas to displace coal and provide needed reductions in power-sector emissions:

• First, air pollutants such as nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, and mercury must be tightly regulated.
• Second, a cost must be attached to emitting carbon dioxide.
• Third, electricity system operators should allow wind and solar plants to balance their own output with on-site resources.
• Fourth, the markets on which system operators purchase electricity must be highly responsive, allowing them to react to fluctuations in electricity supply and demand as rapidly as possible.

The report is part of a larger look that the Worldwatch Institute is taking into the role of natural gas in the future global economy.

In Germany, New Power Generation in 2009 Came Mostly From Solar, Wind

2010-12-11T09:24:00.000-08:00

In Germany, New Power Generation in 2009 Came Mostly From Solar, Wind - The Solar Home & Business Journal

PHOTO CREDIT: ERIN MILNES / SOLAR
HOME & BUSINESS JOURNAL
A sign denotes a German exhibit at a solar
industry conference in San Francisco.

About 80 percent of total growth in electrical generating capacity in 2009 in Germany’s electricity market was based on an increase in solar and wind power systems, according to the Monitoring Report 2009 issued by the Bundesnetzagentur, the country’s electricity regulatory agency.

"This rapid growth provided solar power operators in 2009 with total earnings almost comparable with those for wind energy operators, although feed-in from wind power systems was almost six times that of solar power feed-in,” said Matthias Kurth, president of the agency. “And we can expect this rapid growth in solar generating capacity to continue, with the attendant consequences for the renewables surcharge and the electricity networks.”

The renewables surcharge will rise in 2011 to 3.53 euro cents per kilowatt-hour, 1.5 euro cents more than the 2010 surcharge, the Bundesnetzagentur reported. But Mr. Kurth said higher returns for electricity network operators are not justified.

“The Bundesnetzagentur is supporting the network operators in upgrading and expanding their infrastructure, for instance by approving their investment budgets. Yet in the consumers' interest, we must resist new calls for higher returns. Current data do not justify these. On the contrary, the current yield established by the Bundesbank, an important determinant of the return on equity, has even fallen," Mr. Kurth said.

Average electricity prices for domestic customers rose by around 3 percent, the agency reported. The reasons include a large increase in the renewables surcharge at the beginning of 2010 and the prevalent long-term procurement strategies of the energy suppliers.

"Consumers themselves can cut their bills considerably by changing to different pricing plans. Standard, or default, supply continues to be the most expensive form of electricity supply. It is cheaper if consumers change pricing plan with their default supplier, or change their supplier. So far, however, not more than half of all domestic customers have done so, although they have a choice of some 120 suppliers on average and can save up to 160 euros a year," Mr. Kurth said.

The Bundesnetzagentur report said electricity networks proved highly reliable in 2009 for suppliers and for domestic, business and industrial customers.

“Although the integration of renewables is a huge technical challenge for the network operators, the electricity infrastructure itself is reliable and stable,” the news release said. According to the current report from the agency on supply interruptions in 2009, the average interruption in the Federal Republic of Germany was 14.6 minutes per final consumer. This figure, called the System Average Interruption Duration Index, has fallen for the third consecutive year and represents a top performance internationally, the agency reported.

“Guaranteeing a high degree of grid reliability is a tremendous challenge in light of the rapid growth of renewables, and one that can only be met if there is huge investment at all network levels,” the Bundesnetzagentur said. Germany’s Power Grid Expansion Act, or EnLAG, promotes realization of the necessary expansion measures, and names 24 projects for priority treatment. Some of the projects have been delayed, however, and planned start dates may be several years late in some cases.

The reports from the transmission system operators on grid extension planning likewise show delays in 37 of the 139 projects, the agency said. The investment data in the Bundesnetzagentur's Monitoring Report document a considerable time lag in the construction and expansion projects for the transmission networks.

The issue is one not unknown in the United States.

"The real problems," Mr. Kurth said, "lie not in companies' lack of willingness to invest. Most people, when asked, are definitely in favor of sustainable generation for the future. But when it comes to a mast being set up near their homes, their agreement is often retracted. The desire for an open landscape for themselves often outweighs theoretical support for global protection of the environment. Much work will have to be done here to persuade people otherwise. The Bundesnetzagentur is aware of its responsibility in helping to win acceptance. Cross-sectoral approaches might be one way of going forward. If a high-voltage mast can bring high-speed Internet to the countryside, resistance may be averted."

The agency said the European internal market for electricity is growing “bit by bit.”

“A market coupling initiative was launched on 9 November 2010 between Germany, France and the Benelux countries,” the agency said in its news release. “On the very same day, this coupling was linked with the Nordic region market coupling, which also includes Germany. The Bundesnetzagentur played a crucial role in creating the coordination mechanisms for this ‘super integration’ to come about. For electricity trading, it means a market that now spans half of Europe.”

The report also discussed electricity trading in 2009 on spot energy exchanges. A clear increase in volumes traded on the exchanges could be observed in the first half of 2010, along with a moderate rise in price levels, it said, mentioning the “growing significance of exchange trading for the integration of renewables.”

An End To Coal Fired Power Stations In South Australia?

2010-12-07T11:01:00.000-08:00

An End To Coal Fired Power Stations In South Australia? - Energy Matters

South Australian Premier Mike Rann has announced plans to set carbon emissions limits for new electricity production in South Australia so strict, it would effectively prevent the future construction of new coal-fired power plants in the State.

Presently, 34% of South Australia's electricity is generated by coal-fired power. Gas accounts for almost half, with 18% of the State's electricity coming from wind power generation. South Australia is aiming for 33% of its electricity to come from renewable energy sources by 2020

"South Australia is host to half of Australia's wind power and last month we passed through the threshold of 1,000 MW of installed wind energy capacity", said Mr. Rann. "This outcome has been driven by South Australia aggressively capitalising on the Commonwealth Government’s expanded 20 per cent by 2020 Renewable Energy Target."

South Australia has only two coal fired power stations, both of which use brown coal - one of the most carbon emissions intensive fuels. Both plants source their fuel from dwindling resources at Leigh Creek, meaning that the plants may need to convert to natural gas in the future.

Mr. Rann has planned consultations next year with industry and interest groups relating to setting a maximum carbon content for electricity generated from any new plant in South Australia, with the starting point for discussions being a limit of 0.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per megawatt hour

"The limit will be introduced as a transitional measure pending the introduction of a national carbon policy", said Mr. Rann; who also flagged the approach may have implications for initiatives such as off-grid diesel and syngas projects where power generation can form part of a larger process. The Government intends to provide sufficient flexibility in its legislation to be able to address unintended outcomes.

Titan Energy Worldwide Service Revenues Reach All Time High in November

2010-12-07T10:21:00.000-08:00

Titan Energy Worldwide Service Revenues Reach All Time High in November; Record Year of $3.5 Million for Service Sales Projected for 2010 - Marketwire

Titan Sets New Standards for Service and Maintenance in the Multibillion Dollar Onsite Power Generation Industry

MINNEAPOLIS, MN--(Marketwire - December 6, 2010) - Titan Energy Worldwide, Inc. (OTCBB:TEWI), a leader in distributed power generation products and intelligent energy management services, announced today that service revenues of $350,000 for the month of November were the highest ever recorded in the company's history, and that service revenues for the year are projected to exceed $3 million for the first time.

"With November gross sales topping all but one month in our company's history, it is certain that we will end the year on a strong note. In particular, I am very proud of our service team for achieving record revenues for the month of November and for the year. We will achieve more than $3 million in service sales for the first time in the Company's history. Service sales represent multi-year contracts with our customers for service and maintenance of their onsite power generators," stated Jeffrey Flannery, Chief Executive Officer of Titan Energy Worldwide.

"Our superior service benefits nearly 1,000 customers, and has allowed us to establish national accounts with several major companies, demonstrating our ability to operate effectively throughout the United States. We also manage generators enrolled in demand response and other utility programs which played a significant role this past summer in managing the power load on the nation's electrical utility grid.

"Our growing reputation for offering the finest service programs for onsite power just got better. With the acquisition of Stanza Systems, we have established new capabilities and goals for our service offerings. In addition to the superior service provided by our fleet and trained technicians, we will soon be providing the most advanced technology for the remote monitoring and control of onside generation.

"There is an estimated 170 gigawatts of onsite power generation residing in as many as 500,000 industrial generators around the nation, enough power to light up several major states. Many of these power systems are poorly or inadequately maintained. Titan's services will provide automation, control, and reporting capabilities never before seen in this industry. The result will be a powerful new way to manage onsite power generation, further establishing Titan as a leader in energy management," added Mr. Flannery.

About Titan Energy Worldwide, Inc.

Titan Energy Worldwide is a provider of onsite power generation, energy management and energy efficiency products and services that help support and improve the performance of our nation's electrical utility grid. We operate in an area of the overall electrical utility infrastructure called Distributed Generation, whereby we specialize in the deployment of power generation equipment at the consumer's facility and the integration of that equipment through monitoring and communication systems with the needs of the utility's electrical grid. These onsite power generation systems support a customer's critical operations during times of power failure and serve as demand response systems that work to reduce energy usage and decrease demand on the electrical grid during peak periods. When managed with the proper intelligent monitoring systems and controls, Distributed Generation offers a vital and significant contribution to the development of the nation's Smart Grid. We contribute the tools and resources to produce immediate and long term improvements in the performance and stability in the energy production and transmission segments of the electrical grid and reduce the need for new power plants. From emergency and back-up power technologies, to demand response programs and Smart Grid applications, Titan Energy is setting a path for the future in energy management. For more information, please visit the company's website at: www.titanenergy.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Investors are cautioned that certain statements contained in this document as well as some statements in periodic press releases and some oral statements of TEWI officials are "Forward-Looking Statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Act"). Forward-looking statements include statements which are predictive in nature, which depend upon or refer to future events or conditions, which include words such as "believes," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "expects," and similar expressions. In addition, any statements concerning future financial performance (including future revenues, earnings or growth rates), ongoing business strategies or prospects, and possible future TEWI actions, which may be provided by management, are also forward-looking statements as defined by the Act. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to materially differ from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and to vary significantly from reporting period to reporting period. Although management believes that the assumptions made and expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, there is no assurance that the underlying assumptions will, in fact, prove to be correct or that actual future results will not be different from the expectations expressed in this report. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and TEWI has no specific intention to update these statements.

China to invest billions in solar power infrastructure

2010-12-04T07:16:00.000-08:00

China to invest billions in solar power infrastructure - People's Daily Online

On Dec. 2 in Beijing the Chinese government declared a strategy of promoting solar photovoltaic power generation across the country through various demonstration projects, which coincides with the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Cancún, Mexico.

The initiative is sponsored by four departments: the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the National Energy Administration.

Thirteen development zones around the country have been recognized as the first demonstration projects for the solar power generation. Zhang Shaochun, vice minister of finance, said that the effect of the existing demonstration projects, which was put into operation in 2009 and 2010, would be further exploited so that the application would reach at least 1,000 megawatts annually since 2012. A stable solar power market will be in place and expand as a result.

Reuters reported on Friday that China's central government is considering allocating 1.5 trillion yuan to support seven strategic industries, including alternative energy.

One of the 13 new projects for solar power generation will be located in Yizhuang, Beijing. With an investment of 460 million yuan, it will boast 20-megawatt installed capacity and be deployed on the roofs of buildings.

Statistics show that more than 700,000 square meters of roof in industrial zones for auto, equipment manufacturing, mobile communication, electronics and digital TVs in Yizhuang are available for the deployment.

It is estimated that the power generation can reach 22.72 million kilowatt-hours annually once in operation. That will amount to 568 million kilowatt-hours for 25 years. The pressure of the grid at peak hours for industrial production can be eased effectively as a result.

More importantly, it is significant in terms of environmental protection. The use of solar power can save 8,200 tons of coal equivalent and reduce emission of industrial dust, CO2 and sulfur dioxide by 123 tons, 21,430 tons and 180 tons, respectively.

China's solar power has been developing rapidly in recent years. With the progress in technology, industrial system, market potential and policy framework, the industry is ready for the launch of a full-fledged application. In addition, the industry has entered into a new stage of scale economy globally.

The Chinese government will give more support to the demonstration projects. A 50 percent subsidy will be granted to suppliers of key equipment who win the bidding. An additional subsidy of 4 yuan per watt and 6 yuan per watt will be given depending on different projects.

The next step is to connect those areas with demonstration projects. It is necessary to explore an effective business model for the industry. More demonstration projects are in line with development or industrial parks as the main focus. The aim is to install the solar power system at all the plants in those parks.

The State Grid will streamline the power connection process and improve its tech standards and management.

A new mechanism integrating the fiscal support and R&D (research and development) efforts will be in launched soon. It is expected to encourage the application of new products and technologies by enterprises to bring costs down so that the promotion of the Solar-PV power generation could be made easier and faster in the future.

By Li Jia, People’s Daily Online

The future will be distributed

2010-12-04T06:53:00.000-08:00

The future will be distributed - Sustainable Industries

Decentralized renewable energy production is taking off but challenges remain.

Bigger may be better in some cases, but when it comes to the future of renewable power generation, small may be best.

That’s according to a new report from Pike Research and a panel of analysts and industry experts who convened in San Francisco this week to talk about distributed generation and microgrids as part of the Berkeley-Stanford Cleantech conference series.

Distributed resources include solar and small wind. Photo: M.Gifford.

“The wave of the future is dealing with energy supply problems as close to the load as possible,” Peter Asmus, a Pike Research senior analyst, told the audience at Pacific Gas and Electric’s headquarters.

That’s because, in addition to providing low-carbon power, distributed resources can also skirt complicated transmission and permitting issues that can plague large projects. Decentralized power generation can also offer increased reliability, especially if combined with energy storage, demand response and grid management technologies, panelists said.

“Central power plants cost too much and have too much risk to be good investments,” said Amory Lovins, co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute. “A diversified portfolio of renewables is more reliable.”

While photovoltaic panels comprise the bulk of renewable distributed generation, such resources include a wide range of technologies and scales and can be defined as any situation in which a customer is self-generating electricity, said Helen Priest, PG&E director of emerging markets.

Today, renewable distributed generation makes up about 2 percent of the global power supply. But the Pike report predicts that the worldwide system revenues from renewable distributed generation will reach almost $155 billion by 2015, up from about $51 billion in 2009. Driving those new installations will be renewable energy requirements and financial incentives such as net metering and feed-in tariffs. Leasing programs, power purchase agreements, community ownership and price drops in solar modules could also fuel a shift towards distributed generation.

Despite the bright outlook for distributed renewables, figuring out how to manage diverse power sources will likely pose a challenge for utilities, but could offer big opportunities for startups.

“The potential lack of standards and control will create a barrier to distributed generation,” said Eric Dresselhuys, chief marketing officer of smart grid startup Silver Spring Networks.

For utilities, concerns range from how to make sure distributed sources are reliable to how to charge customers for electricity.

“A hell of a lot of this comes down to billing,” Priest said. “Tracking financial flows is very complex -- that’s where I’d like to see innovation.”

XZERES Wind Introduces Micro-Generation Utility Model

2010-12-02T07:07:00.000-08:00

XZERES Wind Introduces Micro-Generation Utility Model - Market Watch

Company Launches Disruptive Business Model Selling Wind Energy Directly to End-Users Globally

XZERES Wind Corporation(XWND 1.19, 0.00, 0.00%), designer, developer and producer of distributed generation, wind power systems for the small wind market (2.5kW-100kW), today launched its Micro-Generation Utility model. This innovative business model offers residential and commercial customers all the benefits of owning small wind power systems while providing the company with a high margin, recurring, revenue stream. Utilizing this platform, XZERES will sell the energy generated by its wind power systems, onsite at a discounted price below the local utility rates via power purchase agreements (PPAs). Designed to eliminate upfront capital costs and other operational barriers, the Micro-Generation Utility model provides customers with clean, renewable energy while serving as a hedge against volatile electricity rates for 20+ years.

"Essentially, XZERES has entered the retail energy business serving as the energy provider to its customers, much like a utility. We are very excited to launch this novel business model, which represents the accumulation of months of work by our team. XZERES is the first small wind power systems company to adopt a 'wind-as-a-service' business model, taking advantage of a similar, but uniquely different, PPA financing mechanism that has accelerated commercial solar installations over the past few years," said Frank Greco, XZERES' CEO. "The Micro-Generation Utility model allows customers to reap significant long-term cost savings with their energy bills without the long-term risk of rising electricity rates, and XZERES maintains a high margin, recurring revenue stream for the duration of the contract. It promises the best-case scenario for all parties."

The Micro-Generation Utility model is available for the XZERES 442 10kW small wind power system, equivalent marine unit and our future, to-be-released larger devices. Typical installations can vary from approximately 1-50 turbines, depending upon site characteristics. Under the terms of the agreement, XZERES will conduct site-assessment, permitting, installation and grid connection as well as the management and support of the wind power systems. At the end of the contract term, the end user customer then owns the wind power systems for a significant portion of its remaining useful life and continues to enjoy the ongoing benefits of onsite energy production from the systems with no further costs.

"The creation and launch of what we believe to be the small wind industry's first Micro-Generation Utility offering demonstrates XZERES' commitment to introducing new business models, products and services that will further our growth objectives, provide cost-effective renewable energy solutions for our customers, and has the potential to create significant shareholder value" added Greco. "Thanks to the creativity of our team in developing this unprecedented program, we are now able to provide customers in the United States and globally with the opportunity to benefit from wind energy without the upfront costs associated with system purchase. We've received very positive feedback from potential customers regarding this new program, and we expect to announce our first customers in the near future."

For more information on the XZERES' Micro-Generation Utility model, XZERES Wind Corp. or any of its products, please visit www.xzeres.com

About XZERES Wind Corp.:

XZERES Wind Corp designs, develops, manufactures and markets distributed generation, wind power systems for the small wind (2.5kW-100kW) market. Our grid connected and off grid wind turbine systems, which consist of our 2.5kW and 10 kW devices and related equipment, are utilized for electrical power generation for applications and markets such as residential, micro-grid based rural electrification, agricultural, small business, rural electric utility systems, as well as other private, corporate infrastructure and government applications. Our wind power systems are focused on distributed energy, where a specific machine's energy output is largely or entirely used on-site where the equipment is installed, as well as grid connected applications. While many of our customers take advantage of their local net-metering rules within the United States and Feed In Tariffs that are often available in Europe and Internationally (to sell power back to the grid), our wind power systems are not dependent on transmission needs to carry the energy produced to another location. For more information please see the Company's web site at www.xzeres.com

Energy: Supergrid

2010-12-02T07:04:00.000-08:00

Energy: Supergrid - Nature

Is a vast undersea grid bringing wind-generated electricity from the North Sea to Europe a feasible proposition or an overpriced fantasy?

Colin Macilwain

Download a PDF of this article

North Sea energy used to mean oil and gas. Today, production of both is waning, and the rough weather that challenged the drillers has itself become a resource. In a speech last September, Alex Salmond, Scotland's first minister, estimated that the winds and waves lashing the Scottish coast could generate seven times more energy than Scotland consumes. Other countries around the North Sea hold similar potential. The problem is getting all that power from the windy edge of Europe to its populous, energy-hungry heart — the region roughly bounded by London, Berlin and Milan. "What we need above all is an efficient transmission system," Salmond says. "And the most efficient one would be a grid built across the North Sea."

On 3 December, ten northern European nations are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding spelling out how they'll build an undersea electricity 'supergrid'. The project is a major engineering and political challenge, comparable in scope, scale and ambition to the rush for oil and gas in the same waters 40 years ago. Thousands of kilometres of undersea cable would be laid, at a cost of at least €1 million (US$1.4 million) per kilometre. Unlike onshore grids, which operate on alternating current (a.c.), the subsea grid would use direct current (d.c.) and would therefore require new types of offshore and onshore substations, control systems, converters and circuit breakers in a set of projects costing billions of dollars (see'Wiring up Europe'). The whole project has an estimated €20-billion price tag.

An even more ambitious project, called Desertec, is planned to bestride the Mediterranean Sea and North Africa, pumping electricity generated by wind and solar power from the Sahara to Europe's cities. And a group of US investors led by Google released plans in October for an undersea grid in the North Atlantic that would ship power from offshore wind farms to the eastern seaboard of the United States. But the North Sea supergrid is closest of the three to becoming reality.

Click for larger image

Momentum for the project comes from two main sources. A 2003 European directive, updated last year, demands that European Union (EU) states open up their electricity markets to competition with each other, which will require stronger connections between their national grids. And the EU has pledged to cut carbon emissions by 20% from 1990 levels by 2020, which will require a 35% cut in emissions from electricity generation and a vast expansion of renewables. "Without these grids, there will be no meeting of emissions targets in Europe," says Georg Adamowitsch, the EU coordinator for offshore grids in northern Europe.

Wind energy is already a mainstay of clean power generation in Europe, with 74 gigawatts of capacity installed so far, and another 136GW anticipated by 2020, according to projections released by the European Commission (EC) in August. (By comparison, just 14GW of new nuclear generating capacity is likely to be added by then.) Analysts expect much of this capacity to be installed offshore, because it is windier and easier to get planning permission. The need to connect up those offshore farms — and future wave- and tidal-power farms — to the mainland is the first reason that a North Sea grid is inevitable, analysts say.

The second is that it would permit the large-scale storage of electricity in the only type of 'battery' so far developed for that purpose: pumped-storage hydroelectric dams, mostly located in Norway. Wind and other renewable energy sources are intermittent, but by using the energy to pump water uphill and recapturing power as the water flows down again, these dams can store electricity at more than 85% efficiency, evening out fluctuations in supply.

“Without these grids, there will be no meeting of emissions targets in Europe.”

The attractiveness of such storage helped to spur the completion in 2009 of a 'point-to-point' high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) link between Norway and the Netherlands, which allows surplus power from the low-lying Netherlands to be stored in the Norwegian fjords, and brought back when needed. But on their own, such links cannot tap into offshore power sources, and cannot integrate the multiple electricity markets bordering the North Sea: only an undersea grid would do that. Last December, nine EU nations (the United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg), joined later by Norway, agreed to start an initiative to get such a grid built, resulting in this week's memorandum. At the same time, the EC is supporting researchers who are looking in detail at the costs and benefits of different grid configurations — and at the technical challenges of taking a power grid offshore.

Edison rules

A crank called Thomas Edison once expected that most electricity would move around as d.c. But almost all transmission has turned out to use a.c. instead, chiefly because it can easily be transformed from high-voltage transmission lines down to the safe 120 volts or the somewhat less safe 240 volts in the home. It is also easy to isolate parts of an a.c. grid, to deal with faults and do routine maintenance, using massive mechanical circuit breakers that slam open just as the sine wave of the alternating current hits zero.

Alternating current is no good for underground or subsea transmission over more than about 80 kilometres, however, because of heavy reactive losses which arise when the aluminium or copper conductor is buried. In effect, the cable and the surrounding earth form a capacitor, draining power from the a.c. lines, and rendering them useless over long distances. So a subsea grid has to be d.c. — posing a challenge for electrical engineers who lack the technological tools they have developed for a.c. power. "There's no such thing currently as circuit breakers for high-voltage d.c.," says Paul Neilson, transmission development manager at Scottish and Southern Energy in Perth, UK. "If there was a fault in the grid, all the energy would pour straight to it, a bit like decompression in an aeroplane. You need to be able to isolate it, automatically, in milliseconds."

Breaking the circuit

Electrical engineers in industry and academia are addressing this and other challenges through a three-year €60-million programme called TWENTIES, a consortium of 26 academic and industrial partners supported by the EC. One TWENTIES project, led by Energinet, an agency of the Danish Climate and Energy Ministry, is seeking to design a control system that would react when storms approach. Electrical grids are designed to cope with some degree of perturbation — but a storm could make it necessary to rapidly shut down a whole cluster of wind farms. "This may develop into a system security problem, if we don't improve the present storm control algorithms," says Poul Sørensen, an electrical engineer and project partner at the Risø National Laboratory in Roskilde. "One of the solutions we're looking at is to control the turbines more, and ramp them down slowly."

Another TWENTIES project, led by transmission company RTE in France, will study the optimal configuration for a d.c. grid and test a prototype d.c. circuit breaker. Major electrical-engineering suppliers, including ABB, based in Zurich, Switzerland, and Siemens, based in Erlangen, Germany, are developing such circuit breakers, although they are not revealing details of their designs.

“It's not practical to roll out a pre-designed grid like a roll of linoleum.”

Dragan Jovcic, an electrical engineer at the University of Aberdeen, says that existing approaches are unlikely to yield appropriate d.c. circuit breakers, being either too slow in responding to faults, or "very high cost". Jovcic has developed and patented a new type of d.c.–d.c. converter, which involves a set of inductors and capacitors linked in a resonant circuit to step up d.c. voltage. This type of converter also doubles as a d.c. circuit breaker and, says Jovcic, could weigh five times less than some other designs that rely on conversion to a.c. and back again, because it lacks the heavy iron core transformers. Extra weight is expensive because the connection points will be mounted on platforms offshore, for maintenance access (see D. Jovcic and B. T. Ooi IEEE Trans. Power Deliv. 25, 2535–2543; 2010).

In October, Jovcic won an award from the European Research Council to design new models for high-voltage d.c. converters. These have to work on microsecond timescales, rather than the milli-second timescales at which a.c. oscillates. The new model will also be able to deal with the complicated configurations in a substation that connects four or five high-voltage d.c. lines together.

But solving the technical problems will only go part-way to getting a North Sea supergrid built. The capital costs of laying grids offshore are immense. A report published in July by the EU-funded research project OffshoreGrid, based in Brussels (seehttp://go.nature.com/cssy3s), envisages, for example, that €32 billion will be invested in offshore interconnectors in northern Europe by 2020 and a further €58 billion by 2030, if wind farms are connected up individually. It suggests that €15 billion could be shaved from this if wind farms were clustered. On top of this, the opening up of electricity markets will require wholesale legal and regulatory change: at present, for example, generating companies that receive subsidies for feeding renewable energy into a German grid receive nothing if they supply power elsewhere.

Not all European countries are equally enthusiastic about the North Sea supergrid. The United Kingdom has embraced the project because it needs offshore wind capacity to meet its carbon-emissions targets. Ireland, Norway and Scotland are especially keen, because they want to build new industries that manufacture and service offshore wind and wave farms. But despite their stated intention to sign the memorandum of understanding, the French and German governments have been lukewarm, admit grid advocates, with Germany pushing instead for Desertec, which is led by German companies.

The North Sea supergrid is technically more radical than this and other proposals, and could prove almost as politically taxing — despite the theoretical commitment of EU states to get it built. And however much high-level planning goes on, the supergrid's evolution is likely to be messy, much like that of a national highway system. "Things will happen incrementally," says Neilson. "It's not practical to roll out a pre-designed grid like a roll of linoleum."

See Editorial p.599

Colin Macilwain is a freelance writer based in Edinburgh, UK.

Geothermal power holds key to future

2010-11-30T06:31:00.001-08:00

Geothermal power holds key to future - Daily Nation

If Vision 2030 is to be realised, Kenya will have to invest aggressively in geothermal electricity production.

It is estimated that the Menengai fields in Nakuru District alone have the potential to produce more electricity than what the whole country currently consumes. Indeed, Kenya is in the cusp of a boom in geothermal energy.

So far, about 14 prospecting sites have been identified, most of them in the Rift Valley. Studies carried out at these sites indicate that the country has the potential to generate over 7,000 megawatts of electricity.

This presents the best option out of dependence on rainfall for power generation. We depend on rainfall for electricity and we can’t generate enough power.

Presently, the effective installed capacity of electricity when we get normal rainfall is a mere 1,428 MW — against a peak demand of about 1,200 MW. This means that the economy has a thin reserve margin of just about 20 per cent.

The ritual is all too familiar. During low rainfall, the peak demand predictably outstrips available capacity, resulting in power shortages.

Inevitably, the government resorts to installing expensive diesel-driven emergency power generators. When diesel prices increase, electricity tariffs are automatically adjusted upwards.

While goethermal electricity production has been going on for many years, what the government is doing now is a major point of departure. It has created a special agency — the Geothermal Development Corporation — to deal with exploitation.

It has started developing capacity to drill wells more cost effectively by employing its own equipment.

Clearly, geothermal energy is the most economical electricity generation option for this country.

Austria assures cooperation in power sector

2010-11-30T06:21:00.000-08:00

Austria assures cooperation in power sector - Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Austrian Minister for Economy, Dr Reinhold Mitterlehner on Monday assured to invest in the hydel power, alternate energy development projects and to provide technical assistance in the forthcoming hydropower generation projects in Pakistan.

He was talking to the Federal Minister for Water and Power, Raja Pervez Ashraf in a meeting held at Vienna (Austria). The meeting also discussed various matters of mutual interest to explore ways and means to further enhance the bilateral relations between the two countries.

The Austrian Minister said that Austrian companies are already working in Pakistan in energy sector and are keen to expand their business while the new ones are also interested in this sector. He said that Austria will also provide technical cooperation in the hydel power projects. Austria has vast expertise in the manufacturing of hydel machinery, and has already offered Pakistan to consider “mega hydel power projects”.

Earlier, the Federal Minister Ashraf briefed him on the current energy situation and the measures being taken to meet the future water and power requirements. He gave him details of the water and power sector projects being initiated by the present government.

He said that Pakistan has planned to change its energy mix and is now focusing on hydel, coal, wind and solar generation to provide cheaper and reliable power the consumers. He said that Pakistan will welcome the Austrian investment, technical cooperation and joint venture projects.

As Austria has expertise in the manufacturing of hydel power generation equipments, Pakistan will facilitate the investors and manufacturers of hydel power plant producers, particularly for Terbela-4th Extension hydel power project.

A ‘Crazy Bad’ Day in Beijing

2010-11-27T12:58:00.000-08:00

A ‘Crazy Bad’ Day in Beijing - News York Times

Last week Elisabeth Rosenthal wrote about the global environmental impact of rising coal exports to China. Sea shipments of thermal coal, used for heating and electricity generation, are skyrocketing, undermining attempts to tamp down the growth of global greenhouse gas emissions.

But there are also immediate tangible effects in terms of local pollution –- and nowhere more so than in China itself. Last week, just after Beijing’s mostly coal-fired heating system kicked in for the winter, the pollution became what an official Twitter account of the United States Embassy in Beijing briefly referred to as “crazy bad.”

Since last year, the United States Embassy has been issuing hourly Twitter updates on Beijing’s air quality, and some of the readings have been pretty shocking. The tweet emerged last week when levels of tiny particulate matter (known as PM 2.5) rose to over 500 micrograms per meter cubed. That’s about 20 times the limit that the World Health Organization regards as “acceptable and achievable” for a 24-hour period.

To protect public health, the United States Environmental Protection Agency sets the goal for the average annual concentration at 15 micrograms per meter cubed, and the 24-hour average at 35 micrograms per meter cubed.

The tiny PM 2.5 particulates travel deep into the lungs and are associated with lung disease, heart disease and cancer. (A nice summary of the risks is here.) PM 2.5 are created not just by burning coal but also by burning other fossil fuels and by things like car exhaust and construction dust.

“Crazy bad” is not part of the United States Embassy’s official air quality rating system, and the embassy quickly adjusted its assessment to a more scientific (and diplomatic) “beyond index.”

As a reporter for this newspaper, I enjoyed living in Beijing from 1997 to 2003, but “crazy bad” sometimes seemed like an apt description of air quality. On some days, we couldn’t see the ground from our 11th-floor apartment, and the sun in Beijing was often a glowing disk behind the pollution. My young son suffered bouts of asthma, bronchitis and pneumonia, problems that disappeared when we moved away.

We didn’t have the information in the embassy’s tweets then. (The embassy reportedly installed the necessary air monitoring equipment last year.) The embassy’s precise measurements do provide more specific — and worrisome — information than Beijing’s system of reporting the number of “blue sky days.”

By all accounts, Beijing took great pains to improve air quality in the lead-up to the 2008 Summer Olympics, and we all remember the beautiful blue skies we saw on TV. But since last year, China has been a large coal importer. And as it buys up the world’s coal and burns it, could it be slipping back?

How to minimize the pollution that goes with rapid economic development? What are the health consequences for China’s citizens of being exposed to such high levels of particulates? China’s leaders live in Beijing, just as many of their children and grandchildren presumably do. Elisabeth Rosenthal wonders what they think about that.

Power generator expands to insurance sector

2010-11-27T12:51:00.000-08:00

Power generator expands to insurance sector - People's Daily

China Guodian Corporation, one of the largest State-owned power generation groups, is expanding its range of interests in the financial sector.

"Financial business will be one of our strategic focuses in the future," said Shao Guoyong, general manager of Guodian Capital Holding.

Shao is also president of Old Mutual-Guodian Life Insurance, a Sino-UK joint insurance venture.

In February, Guodian acquired the stake that Beijing State-owned Asset Management Co Ltd had in the 50:50 joint life insurer with London-based Old Mutual Plc for 330 million yuan ($49.2 million). The joint venture was previously called Skandia BSAM Life Insurance Co.

After the acquisition, the two shareholders injected a total of 100 million yuan into the new company in September, boosting its registered capital from 520 million yuan to 620 million yuan.

Guodian's stake purchase in the joint life insurer, however, is not its first attempt to work in the financial sector.

Meanwhile it is also considering initiating a property and casualty insurance company in which Guodian will take a controlling stake.

Prior to that, the company had purchased a stake in All Trust Insurance, a non-life insurance company.

Besides active participation in the insurance sector, Guodian Group has set up Guodian Capital Holding, serving as the company's financial platform.

It also set up an asset management company with Citic Trust.

Meanwhile, Guodian Group has a controlling stake in Shijiazhuang City Commercial Bank.

A source close to Guodian Group said the company plans to build a financial platform which will include all the major financial sectors.

However, Guodian still lacks a license for securities and trust business.

"How to maximize the synergy between the power sector and the financial sector will be a big challenge for us," said Shao.

"Old Mutual-Guodian will be an important subsidiary to boost our financial sector's profit contribution," Shao added.

According to the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, Old Mutual-Guodian had a premium income of 665.5 million yuan during the first nine months this year, up 35.6 percent year-on-year.

Zhang Guohou, chief accounting officer of Guodian Group, said earlier that the company is quite optimistic about the insurance sector, due to the country's huge aging population.

But for Zheng Wei, an insurance professor with Peking University, State-owned enterprises (SOEs) have to be patient in the insurance business.

"As the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (the watchdog for China's largest SOEs) tightened the performance evaluations of the top management of those SOEs, they could hardly be patient with the business development of their joint life insurance ventures, which usually lose money in the first seven to eight years," said Zheng.

Japan warming up to solar power exports

2010-11-25T09:30:00.000-08:00

Japan warming up to solar power exports - Asahi Shimbun

A scorching desert in Tunisia provides a site that symbolizes the end of the "cold shoulder" treatment the Japanese government has given to Japan's solar thermal power industry.

Japanese companies next month will start surveying the area in the North African desert for a project to jointly build a solar thermal power generation plant with the Tunisian government.

But it was the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry that obtained the order for the project.

After three decades of not supporting Japan's solar thermal power generation industry, the Japanese government is pushing sales of the country's solar thermal power technology to other nations.

Tadahiro Matsushita, senior vice minister of economy, trade and industry, visited an experiment plant for solar thermal power generation in the United Arab Emirates in January.

The plant was built by Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co.

"We want to spread these Japanese technologies more," Matsushita said, as he watched experiments being conducted at the site.

A UAE government organization and Japan's Cosmo Oil Co. paid 1 billion yen ($12 million) needed for the experiments.

"We had repeatedly asked the Japanese government for support, but the government gave us the cold shoulder," said Yutaka Tamaura, a Tokyo Institute of Technology professor involved in the joint experiments.

In the 1980s, the Japanese government and the private sector joined hands under a "sunshine plan" and developed solar thermal power generation technology.

However, the government's support in this area stopped for about 30 years due to a lack of efficiency in power generation and expectations that the technology would not spread due to a lack of enough sunshine in Japan.

The situation changed when the government led by the Democratic Party of Japan decided that exporting infrastructure, such as nuclear power plants, high-speed railways and water supply and sewerage systems, would be a pillar in its growth strategy.

Solar thermal power generation plants re-entered the equation.

Demand for solar thermal power generation has rapidly increased in deserts, but promising markets in the Middle East and North Africa are already dominated by European businesses, which are closer to those areas. Japan has been desperately trying to catch up.

After senior trade ministry officials toured Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia in efforts to sell Japanese solar thermal power technology, Tokyo reached an agreement with the Tunisian government in July to start the joint solar thermal power generation project.

The Japanese government will pay up to 3 billion yen to Japanese companies building the plant.

"The government made a complete about-face in its stance," Kazuaki Ezawa, a Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding official said.

Ezawa welcomed the policy shift as a major advantage for Japanese companies seeking future orders for building plants.

But Japan is not the only government stepping up efforts to help the private sector win contracts abroad.

Japan upgraded its efforts after the UAE late last year awarded a contract to build nuclear power plants to South Korean companies that had received direct help from President Lee Myung-bak and the government-run Korea Electric Power Corp.

Several major Japanese companies teamed up with Innovation Network Corp. of Japan to establish International Nuclear Energy Development of Japan Co. The arrangement created an "all-Japan" team trying to win an order to build two nuclear power plants in Vietnam.

A number of Cabinet ministers also cooperated, and Japan won the order for the 1-trillion-yen project.

But concerns have arisen that if the government becomes too deeply involved in private-sector business, the conditions of the deals could become unclear.

To win the contract in Vietnam, the Japanese government pledged additional yen loans worth 79 billion yen. Depending on future negotiations with Vietnam, the government or the Japanese companies may have to cover additional costs.

"The government's assistance is very powerful for making an initial breakthrough," said Hideaki Omiya, president of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. "However, we are being asked to climb a mountain together without being able to really see the whole mountain yet."

Omiya said if competition among governments escalates, it could go beyond a scope of what can be considered proper private-sector activities.

In the lab, pursuing a more intelligent wind turbine

2010-11-25T09:24:00.000-08:00

In the lab, pursuing a more intelligent wind turbine - Smart Planet

University researchers are working hard to improve the design of the wind turbine.

In 2008 and for the first time, new wind turbine power generation capacity topped new coal-fired capacity in the U.S. The growth of the nascent wind power market only promises to drive down costs in the future, but engineers say the design of the wind turbine itself could use an upgrade.

One problem is that the turbine is designed to work best under one wind condition: steady. Mother Nature, of course, rarely lets that happen.

So researchers at Syracuse University are testing intelligent systems-based active flow control methods to allow large turbines to better handle naturally-occurring gusts, turbulence, wakes and shear.

With support from the U.S. Department of Energy and the University of Minnesota Wind Energy Consortium, researchers Guannan Wang,Basman El Hadidi, Jakub Walczak, Mark Glauser and Hiroshi Higuchiare using their technology to estimate the flow conditions over the blade surfaces from surface measurements.

By feeding the information to an intelligent controller, they can implement real-time actuation on the blades to control the airflow and increase the overall efficiency of the wind turbine system.

The result, according to their simulations: allowing a turbine to have a wider operational range with the same rated power output. What’s more, the flow separation may help reduce noise and vibration.

Meanwhile, researchers at the University of Minnesota are investigating how to reduce drag on wind turbine blades.

To reduce the effect, the researchers are implementing tiny grooves — described as triangular “riblets,” just 40 to 225 microns deep — by scoring them into the coating on the blade.

The researchers – Roger Arndt, Leonardo Chamorro and Fotis Sotiropoulos — are testing various groove geometries on the airfoil surfaces of a 2.5-megawatt turbine, in both simulations and the wind tunnel.

The concept of “riblets” is hardly new, but it’s not yet been applied to turbine blades. Conventional thinking grouped wind turbine blades with airplane wings, but it turns out that the peculiarities of the job — turbulence near the ground, a different blade design — means turbine blades require a different approach to drag reduction.

According to the researchers, the riblets will increase wind turbine efficiency by about 3 percent.

Both ideas were presented this week at the 63rd annual American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics meeting in Long Beach, Calif.

TEDxNewSt - Thomas Power - The Future of Social Networks

2010-10-23T21:42:00.000-07:00

Thomas Power is reaching the conclusion that it takes 10 years to develop an open, random and supportive digital mindset and it could be longer. Much longer.

He's been online since 1994. 16 years. He has built a network, a club, a gang, a fan club, a following. This has taken him 16 years of relentless activity. Fortunately he loves it. Not everyone does.

Thomas has learned how to blog, post, tweet, share youtube videos, respond to debates, criticisms, write books, make speeches and deal with endless technological challenges of Nokias, BlackBerrys, iPhones, servers, switches and open source software. He moved from Unix, to Windows, to Mac and back again to Windows. He has studied hard. He has read 1000 books. He has met 12,000 people in the last 12 years. He has been to 50 countries. He has joined 600 social networks and tested them to destruction. As he says he loves his work. This has not been hard for him.

He has a digital mindet.

He thinks digital.

Every problem he's faced with he thinks how can he solves that problem electronically online. How can he solves that issue digitally.

How can we fight against global warming?

2009-10-30T16:50:00.000-07:00

Fight for America's Clean Energy Future!

Become a citizen co-sponsor of the Kerry-Boxer bill!

Let's not beat around the bush: you know as well as I do how urgent it is that we take action on climate change and build a clean energy economy right now. We can't wait; our economy can't wait for a new, clean energy future, and our planet can't wait to start cutting carbon pollution.

The Senate needs to hear from you. Barbara Boxer and John Kerry introduced the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power act and Barbara Boxer is moving it through the EPW Committee, but they need your voice added to theirs to give this legislation the momentum it needs.

So will you join Barbara Boxer and John Kerry as a citizen co-sponsor of our legislation? Please click here to add your name to show the Senate how important it is that we take action right now.

Clean Energy Economy Forum
John Kerry is meeting with Senators just about every day helping to find the path to 60 votes, but your voice can make a big difference. If they can demonstrate the size and scope of their movement demanding action, they can give energy and climate reform a tremendous push, and begin to tackle the enormous crisis of climate change.

Big Oil and the forces of the status quo will fight hard, so they need all of you pulling together to win this fight.

Google Retail Blog: Back-to-School Shopping Gets Back in Session

2009-08-23T04:55:00.000-07:00

Google Retail Blog: Back-to-School Shopping Gets Back in Session: "8/10/2009 09:21:00 AM"

Depending on which state you live in, school is starting somewhere between 2 weeks to 4 weeks from today--which according to marketers' calendar typically signals the end of the back-to-school retail season. But in this not so typical year, we're noticing that the 2009 back-to-school retail season is just getting back in session as we enter August. Sure, shoppers are expected to spend a little less this season than the economy would like, but as much as they're stretching their shopping dollars, students and parents are also stretching their shopping cycle. In a recently released NRF back-to-school survey, we've found that up to 82% of shoppers are expected to still be shopping for back-to-school items this week, or have not even begun shopping yet. [1] If surveys aren't enough indication, real-time data is showing signs that marketers really should amp up their back to school campaigns now, instead of pulling back or completely pulling off their campaigns.

Back to school searches have been steadily rising in popularity the past month, to nobody's surprise. As we closed out the month of July, we saw various keywords rising especially fast this year compared to the same back to school time frame last year. Users around this time are showing much stronger interest in 'college laptops,' 'school shoes,' and 'backpacks' among other things than 2008: [2]

What struck me as most interesting about these searches was the idea of using these trends as a starting guide to dig into keywords that uncover what may be on students' and parents' shopping lists this year. New keywords that surface in back to school categories can reflect new or popular items everyone is looking to stock up for the back to school season. In that case, we can expect more boys and girls donning North Face backpacks and Jessica Simpson 'Carsi' sandals this year, while accessorizing their cell phones with new faceplates and skins, and parents and college students decorating new rooms with zebra bedding and hip barstools. [3]

Historical trends on Google Insights for Search show us that the back to school shopping season is just approaching its height and expected to reach its peak online in the next two weeks. So even for those who haven't had a chance yet to run their back to school campaigns, there's still time to capture many of these shoppers online now.

[1] NRF's "2009 Back-to-School and Back-to-College Surveys," released July 14, 2009. Percentage total of those who begin shopping 1 month (4 weeks) before school starts, to those who begin to shop after school starts, based on all Adults 18+ respondents from Back-to-School survey.
[2] Google Insights of Search in US. Query Volume Index growth refers to year-over-year growth based on Week of 7/19-7/25 in 2009 compared against corresponding week in 2008. **Growth rates are indexed to the highest point of search volume and are expected to vary as active searches increase. Please use for directional purposes only.**
[3] Hitwise, Industry Search Terms Comparison Report. New search terms driving traffic to 'Apparel & Accessories,' 'Appliances & Electronics,' and 'House & Garden' category sites during 4 weeks ending 7/25/09 compared against 4 weeks ending 6/6/09.

Posted by Julia Tang, the Google Retail Team

Magma Energy buys US$25 million stake in Icelandic geothermal energy producer

2009-07-26T06:07:00.000-07:00

Magma sinks cash into Iceland geothermal producer

Canada's Magma Energy Corp said on Thursday it will boost its geothermal production power with an investment of up to $40 million in Iceland's HS Orka, a producer poised for expansion.

Geothermal Power Plant Ribbon Cutting Ceremony on KUTV News
Recently listed Magma shares touched a new high of C$1.90 on the Toronto Stock Exchange before slipping back to C$1.80, a gain of 16 Canadian cents, at the close on Thursday. Magma, which generated C$100 million or an equivalent of US$91.7 million in its IPO July 7, said it will buy the minority interest in privately-held HS Orka from Geysir Green Energy. Magma will first buy an 8.62% stake for about $20 million, payable at deal closing, and a 2.16% holding for about $5 million, due by March 31, 2010. It has an option to acquire another 5% share by investing $15 million into HS Orka.

"The geothermal sector is attracting increasing interest! There are 9,000 MW worldwide, however, a lot of utilities now, I think, will be entering the market! Major utilities, especially in North American, know that a cap and trade system is coming. And so they'd be better off to use their money to buy existing renewable companies...as opposed to continually buying carbon credits."

McIlveen cited a bid by TransAlta Corp, Canada's biggest publicly traded electricity producer, for Canadian Hydro Developers as an example. Separately on Thursday, Canadian Hydro Developers recommended shareholders reject the bid from TransAlta, which is worth about C$654 million.

Iceland's largest privately owned energy company, HS Orka has installed geothermal power capacity of 175 MW of electricity from its Svartsengi and Reykjanes power plants. It plans to expand production to 425 MW by 2015. The company also generates 150 MW of thermal energy for district heating.

Much of its geothermal power is sold in U.S. dollar contracts to a large aluminum smelter, Magma said, with expansion capacity earmarked for a new aluminum smelter under construction. Magma, run by mining magnate Ross Beaty, is currently a small producer of geothermal energy, with one plant in Soda Lake, Nevada. It has four advanced-stage exploration properties in the western United States, Chile, Argentina and Peru. Magma has said it plans to use the C$100 million from its IPO to double capacity at Soda Lake from 8 MW to 16 MW, advance its exploration properties and make acquisitions.

"I think Magma's more interested in acquiring online assets than pipeline projects.They have a considerable pipeline now and really don't need to acquire more projects."

Geothermal power comes from hot water and steam produced deep below the earth's surface. They are piped up to the surface and used to drive turbines that generate electricity.

Michael Jackson dies

2009-06-26T01:16:00.000-07:00

Michael Jackson: talented, troubled voice of pop

Jackson was one of the most innovative songwriters of his era

Pop star Michael Jackson, whose life and career were the stuff of both popular music record books and tabloid television, died Thursday afternoon at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center after being rushed by ambulance from his rented Holmby Hills home. He was 50.

Paramedics responded to a call at about 12:30 p.m. and tried to resuscitate Jackson at his home for almost 45 minutes, then rushed him to the hospital, where doctors continued to work on him.

"It is believed he suffered cardiac arrest in his home. However, the cause of his death is unknown until results of the autopsy are known," his brother Jermaine said.

Police said they were investigating, standard procedure in high-profile cases.

Fans began to gather outside the hospital soon after the news broke on the Web site TMZ.com and then in other media outlets. TMZ first quoted Mr. Jackson's father, Joseph, as saying his son was not doing very well. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Jackson's death was confirmed by the family. As the day wore on, the throng of fans outside the hospital grew.

The death of Michael Jackson brought a tragic end to a long, turbulent and often bizarre career, marked by legal and financial problems, charges of child molestation and failed comeback attempts. At times, it seemed as though everything Mr. Jackson did became fodder for the media, from his marriage to Lisa Marie Presley, to the photograph of him dangling one of his children over a balcony, to his plastic surgeries.

Born in Gary, Ind., on Aug. 29, 1958, the seventh of nine children, all of whom were famously pushed into performing by Joseph Jackson, a steel mill worker.

Once the Jackson 5 was launched, Michael Jackson became an immediate sensation. The group included older brothers Jermaine, Jackie, Tito and Marlon, but young Michael was the star. After the group racked up hits such as "I Want You Back" and "ABC," Mr. Jackson eventually moved off on his own, building a career that peaked with the release of "Thriller" in 1982. That album still holds the title of the best-selling album of all time, with 28 million copies sold in the United States and 50 million worldwide.

Mr. Jackson was often credited with breaking the race barrier on MTV with his innovative videos for the singles "Billie Jean" and "Beat It." When "Thriller" earned him a record-breaking eight Grammy Awards, Mr. Jackson appeared at the ceremony wearing his signature white sequined glove and with Elizabeth Taylor as his date.

But as time passed, he became an increasingly freakish and sometimes reclusive figure. His skin became lighter, his nose narrower and smaller, and he often appeared in public in heavy makeup or hiding his face behind scarves. He surrounded himself with children at his opulent Neverland ranch and kept a chimpanzee named Bubbles as a companion.

In 2005, he was found not guilty on charges he had molested a 13-year-old boy at Neverland two years earlier. The trial, like so much of Mr. Jackson's public life, was a media circus.

His financial struggles necessitated the near-sale of Neverland and much of his personal memorabilia.

Mr. Jackson was scheduled to perform an unprecedented 50 shows in London, his first public performances in eight years. The first was set for July 13, and he was in rehearsal in Los Angeles for the concerts.

The London concerts, for which 750,000 tickets had been sold, were planned as a way to reverse his fortunes. Press reports said the singer hoped the concerts would serve as a trial run for a lengthy world tour, new album, Michael Jackson museum and Las Vegas stage show, as well as helping to erase his huge financial problems.

Mr. Jackson, however, had publicly protested that he was not physically ready for the shows and the opening dates had already been pushed back.

Earlier this month, Mr. Jackson reportedly told a group of fans outside his Burbank rehearsal studio, "I'm really angry with them booking me up to do 50 shows. I only wanted to do 10, and take the tour around the world to other cities, not 50 in one place. I went to bed knowing I sold 10 dates and woke up with the news I was booked to do 50."

Funeral arrangements have not been announced.

The King of Pop

1958: Michael Joseph Jackson is born Aug. 29 in Gary, Ind. He is the seventh of nine children.

1966: His father, Joseph Jackson, a steel mill worker and guitar player, organizes the Jackson 5. The group comprises Michael and brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine and Marlon.

1969: The Jackson 5 signs with Motown and scores its first hit a year later with "I Want You Back."

1972: Michael Jackson releases his first solo album after recording 14 albums with the group. His first hit is "Ben," a song about a rat from the cult film "Willard."

1976: The band leaves Motown for Epic Records, changes its name to The Jacksons.

1978: Jackson makes his film debut as the Scarecrow in "The Wiz."

1979: Releases "Off The Wall." Produced by Quincy Jones, the album heralds his arrival as an adult star.

1982: "Thriller" is released.

1983: Jackson debuts his signature "moonwalk" during a Motown television special.

1984: He reunites with his brothers in the Jacksons. Hair catches fire during the filming of a Pepsi commercial. Co-writes the charity anthem "We Are the World."

1986: Stars in the 3-D Disney park film "Captain EO," directed by Francis Ford Coppola and produced by George Lucas.

1987: Releases "Bad." Also attempts to buy the bones of the so-called Elephant Man, John Merrick.

1988: Jackson puts out his autobiography, "Moonwalk." Has surgery to add cleft to chin. Moves into Neverland Ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley (Santa Barbara County).

1991: "Dangerous" released on a new recording contract with Sony. The album sells 7 million copies.

1992: Named "highest paid entertainer" by the Guinness Book of World Records.

1993: He appears on "Oprah," claiming he suffers from vitiligo, a condition that makes his skin lighter. A lawsuit claims he molested a 13-year-old boy at Neverland, but the victim refuses to testify so no criminal charges are filed. Jackson cancels his world tour and announces he is addicted to painkillers.

1994: The molestation lawsuit is settled out of court. Jackson secretly marries Lisa Marie Presley, the only child of Elvis Presley.

1996: Presley and Jackson divorce. The singer marries nurse Debbie Rowe, who is already pregnant.

1997: Rowe gives birth to a boy, Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., also known as Paris Michael I. The Jackson 5 are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

1998: Rowe gives birth to a girl, Paris Michael Katherine Jackson.

1999: Rowe and Jackson are divorced.

2001: Jackson releases "Invincible," which sells 2.1 million copies. He is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist.

2002: Accusing Sony Chairman Tommy Mottola of racism, Jackson tries to leave the label. His third child, Prince Michael Jackson II, a.k.a. "Blanket," is born to a surrogate mother. Jackson later dangles him from a fourth-floor Berlin hotel balcony.

2003: Jackson admits having sleepovers with young boys on the television documentary "Living With Michael Jackson." He is arrested on child molestation charges by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department, facing 20 years in prison.

2004: Jackson pleads not guilty on the molestation charges.

2005: Acquitted of all charges, Jackson moves to Bahrain.

2008: Promoters announce plans for 50 Jackson concerts at London's O2 Arena, which sell out instantly.

2009: Jackson dies on June 25.

Fans from Sydney to Bogota mourn Michael Jackson The Associated Press

BBC News - Chicago Tribune - Newsday - TIME

"It's time to roll up your sleeves" says President Barack Obama

2009-06-22T12:01:00.000-07:00

Barack Obama today sent a message to supporters about the kick off of United We Serve calling on people to volunteer to be part of this effort.

Dear Friend,

Last week, I announced United We Serve – a nationwide call to service challenging you and all Americans to volunteer this summer and be part of building a new foundation for America.

And when I say “all,” I mean everyone – young and old, from every background, all across the country. We need individuals, community organizations, corporations, foundations, and our government to be part of this effort.

Today, for the official kick off of United We Serve, members of my administration have fanned out across America to participate in service events and encourage all Americans to join them.

The First Lady is rolling up her sleeves and getting to work too. But before she headed out today, she asked me to share this message with you.

Our nation faces some of the greatest challenges it has in generations and we know it’s going to take a lot of hard work to get us back on track.

While Michelle and I are calling on every American to participate in United We Serve, the call to service doesn’t end this fall. We need to stay involved in our towns and communities for a long time to come. After all, America’s new foundation will be built one neighborhood at a time – and that starts with you.

Thank you,
President Barack Obama

Today starts the United We Serve Kick-Off!

Moving U.S. from carbon energy to clean power

2009-06-07T03:05:00.000-07:00

The American Clean Energy and Security Act begins to lay the groundwork for a future powered by the wind and sun. America needs this bill to maximize job creation, invest in the skills of our workers and the long-term economic prosperity of our country, and significantly reduce the pollution that has been caused by fossil fuel industries for decades.

University of Massachusetts economists estimate that investing $100 billion in clean energy and green infrastructure over two years would generate 235,198 jobs here in California. Between the $80 billion in the president's economic recovery plan and funding in his budget, we're on track to do even more.

To deliver on the promise that clean energy holds to transform our economy, the House of Representatives should strengthen the act in these ways:

Increase the clean energy standards to 30 percent by 2020, combine renewable energy and energy efficiency to deliver more clean energy jobs to the U.S. economy more quickly.
Restore authority to the EPA to regulate carbon emissions from power plants under the Clean Air Act.
Reduce incentives to polluting industries to supplement programs that create green jobs and train workers to fill them.

There may be efforts to roll back the target for reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 2020. The bill's science-based standards aim to reduce U.S. global warming pollution by 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, and achieve an additional 10 percent reduction through agreements to prevent tropical deforestation, for a total reduction of 27 percent by 2020. By 2050, the bill would reduce emissions by 83 percent. We are urging Congress to oppose any effort to weaken the pollution reduction targets.

Congress needs to hear from people who are ready to repower America - to move away from the polluting energy sources of the past and toward the clean energy technologies of the future.

The author of this article, Representative Michael Honda is a member of the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition. Actress Amy Smart serves on the boards of the Environmental Media Association and Heal the Bay.

Obama Announces US$467M in Stimulus Funding for Geothermal and Solar Energy Projects

2009-06-02T03:33:00.000-07:00

President Barack Obama announced that more than US $467 million from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act could be used to expand development, deployment and use of geothermal and solar energy throughout the United States.

The Recovery Act makes a US $350 million investment in geothermal technology. Recovery Act funding will support projects in four areas: geothermal demonstration projects; Enhanced Geothermal Systems or EGS research and development; innovative exploration techniques; and a National Geothermal Data System, Resource Assessment and Classification System..

Secretary Chu delivers addresses a Nobel Laureate Symposium on Energy and Climate Change at St. James Palace in London.
Geothermal demonstration projects will recieve $140 million. Enhanced Geothermal Systems Technology Research and Development will get $80 million. EGS makes use of available heat resources through engineered reservoirs, which can then be tapped to produce electricity. While the long-term goal of EGS is to generate cost competitive clean electricity, enabling research and development is needed to demonstrate the technology's readiness in the near-term.

Research into innovative exploration techniques will get $100 million. Finally, a National Geothermal Data System, Resource Assessment, and Classification System be see $30 million invested. DOE will support the development of a nationwide data system to make resource data available to academia, researchers, and the private sector. Finally, DOE will support the development of a geothermal resource classification system for use in determining site potential.

Solar energy will see a $117.6 million investment. Photovoltaic technology development will account for $51.5 million and another $40.5 million will be used for deployment. Projects in this area will focus on non-technical barriers to solar energy deployment, including grid connection, market barriers to solar energy adoption in cities, and the shortage of trained solar energy installers. Finally, CSP technology research and development will get $25.6 million. This work will focus on improving the reliability of concentrating solar power technologies and enhancing the capabilities of DOE National Laboratories to provide test and evaluation support to the solar industry.

Energy Risk - Democracy at Work

2009-06-01T02:57:00.000-07:00

Political science teaches compromise as art form. And nowhere is that tenet clearer than with the carbon constraint bill now debated by Congress.

It's one thing to have principles. It's another to pass legislation representative of those ideas, especially in a body comprised of 536 strong-willed individuals. With control of the White House and a majority in both chambers, the Democrats undoubtedly rule. But the party is certainly not homogeneous as its members represent varied interests throughout geographically diverse areas. As such, they rally behind their leaders only after they serve their constituents.

Legislation will therefore reflect that reality.

That's why the House Energy and Commerce Committee, led by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., has softened its approach to carbon reductions and why the utility sector has become less "combative." It's not a function of slick lobbyists weaning their way into political coat pockets.

It's a lesson in how democracies work.

Simply, special interests have a right to petition their government and to explain their viewpoints, resulting more palatable bills to all sides.

Waxman, a seasoned representative who holds strident views, believes that man-made greenhouse gases are the single biggest contributor to global warming and therefore wants to mandate caps on such emissions. The early phases of his legislation gave a nod to the utility industry but overall, it swung for the fence.

Democrats on his committee, however, have agreed to concessions by which such releases must be trimmed from 20 percent to 17 percent from 2005 levels and all by 2020. They will also cut their target of forcing utilities to generate 25 percent of generation from renewable energy sources to 15 percent by 2020. That allowance, though, would be made up in part by requiring eight percent gains in energy efficiency by the same time. The overall goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions, the main greenhouse gas component, by 80 percent by 2050 still holds. The move mollifies a utility industry that has long winced at mandatory reductions in carbon emissions. While the conciliation is less than what such companies would have hoped, they generally say that a slower timetable will allow the technology to catch up with the demands. It still says that consumers will end up paying thousands more each year.

"We want to reduce our carbon dioxide by 80 percent by 2050. So, okay, that means Americans by then instead of 20 tons would be putting out about four tons a year, and so you ask yourself the question: When did we last emit about four tons of carbon dioxide a year? And the answer is, when the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock."

First Step

Environmentalists look at it differently. Some groups want lawmakers to start from scratch, saying that the industrial lobbyists have watered down the measure. A grassroots coalition of 130 community and green organizations called the TheClean.org says that compromises by the U.S. House Energy Committee cause the bill to "fall short."

The group goes on to say that the American people expressed themselves during the 2008 elections and did so in an unambiguous way. But the activists maintain that those calls have been waylaid by "corporate polluters" that have spent $80 million lobbying Washington in 2009 alone. ExxonMobil, for example, spent $9.3 million.

Among the steps that the group says should be implemented are a 15 percent increase in energy efficiency standards at utilities, 25 percent reductions in carbon emissions by 2025 and the removal of any federal monies for the purposes of building "clean coal" projects that it says are meant to get the coal industry on board. Meanwhile, the green group wants either a carbon tax or an auction of all carbon credits so that the cuts can start immediately and avoid perpetuating the problem by giving away billions of dollars in free credits. They also take issue with the provision that puts a halt to new coal plants until the technologies to allow them to be carbon-free become commercial, noting that the bill currently exempts 45 coal plants that are in various stages of permitting or approval.

"While we remain hopeful that Congress will do the right thing on energy and climate, we are not prepared to 'give away the farm' just so that we can say that we helped to get legislation passed. There are some costs that are too high to pay when it comes to the environment, clean air and clean water. We urge Congress to either fix the Waxman-Markey bill or dump it and start over."

The organization feels that its stance is undermined by some of its peers that are willing to bend so that the process gets underway. They include the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Pew Center and the Environmental Defense Fund, which collectively feel that the revised bill lays a "critical foundation" that will spur investment in clean energy and thereby create millions of new jobs.

"Just four months into the new Administration and Congress, businesses, labor, and environmental advocates are working together to unleash American innovation and make a clear break from the past."

Despite the clear Democratic majority in both chambers, the moderates actually hold the power. Any greenhouse gas reduction measure must therefore become more tenable to that group that also has close ties to industry. It's a first step but one that might end up making a world of difference.

Geothermal, the 'undervalued' renewable resource, sees surging interest

2009-05-22T06:44:00.000-07:00

Nearly 200 million acres of public lands, mostly in the West, could become prime generators of emissions-free electricity by extracting steam heat from the earth's core to drive electric turbines.

Yet despite a $400 million stimulus bill allocation to spur geothermal energy production in the United States, industry groups and other experts say the technology remains a distant third behind wind and solar with respect to combined public and private investment in renewable resources.

That could soon change.

Efforts by Congress and the Obama administration to fast-track renewables development nationwide has the geothermal industry on the verge of an unprecedented expansion, the groundwork for which is being established by the departments of Energy and Interior. The Energy Department is expected this month to announce its list of geothermal projects that will be helped along with the $400 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service are working together to streamline permitting for new geothermal projects that could occur on federal lands.

The moves have sparked a flurry of activity on public land, with industry geologists scouring prospective federal sites in search of exploratory drilling locations that could later host geothermal production facilities, said Kermit Witherbee, BLM's national geothermal program manager.

And just this month, the Interior Department said it would open new permitting offices in four Western states and place renewable energy teams in five others as part of its broad push to expedite renewable energy projects on public lands (E&ENews PM, May 5).

"As a result of all the new stuff that's going on, we're starting to receive new lease applications and we can better deal with them now."

According to Interior's estimates, by 2025 geothermal power generated from federal lands will produce enough electricity to power more than 10 million homes. If realized, that would be a huge increase over current production and could place the technology on par with the two leading renewable energy resources, wind and solar.

An underused resource?

While the United States remains the world's leader in geothermal energy production, the industry's current generation capacity of 3,000 megawatts is a pittance compared with the 28,200 megawatts of capacity for wind-generated power, or the 9,183 megawatts of capacity for solar power.

"Geothermal energy is, in our opinion, an undervalued option that needs a serious look and could pay off big if there is a long-range, year-to-year commitment to it."

Meanwhile, some question whether the recent federal moves, including the stimulus spending, signal the kind of long-term commitment necessary to move geothermal production into the mainstream of U.S. energy supply. Industry leaders who have consulted with federal officials on the $400 million allocation say it appears the money will be used to develop longer-term commercial technology rather than tapping the huge amounts of readily available energy that could get several geothermal plants up and running.

"This has caused a lot of angst among our members."

Gawell said his members want more money spent on technology to reach existing underground resources and to locate the best sites for drilling. The Bush administration consistently cut funding for such work, industry observers say.

"The stimulus money would be a blessing compared to the zero dollars [the industry] has gotten in the past. But I'm equally as concerned about what happens next. If things go back to where they were before, it's the kiss of death."

Prospects for expansion

But a retrenchment may be unlikely given the current momentum toward large-scale expansion of renewable energy production. President Obama has set an aspirational goal of achieving an 80 percent dependence on renewable energy nationwide by 2050. Meanwhile, Congress is nearing completion of far-reaching energy legislation that includes a mandate that by 2020 at least 15 percent of the nation's electricity must come from renewable energy sources like wind, solar and geothermal.

The Bush administration in December finalized programmatic environmental impact statements for 11 Western states and Alaska identifying 111 million acres of BLM land and 79 million acres of national forests with modest potential for geothermal energy development.

The government has also streamlined the geothermal permitting process, allowing applicants in development-approved areas to secure leases and begin production without undergoing the years-long environmental reviews that industry officials say have slowed U.S. production.

"But it will probably be another two years before there is a significant increase in drilling activity and production. That is because most companies want to do extensive research before committing to build expensive production-scale plants. A single well, for example, can cost more than $5 million to drill. Much of the new geothermal production in the short term is likely to occur in two states, California and Nevada, which host most of the 530 geothermal leases issued by the government so far. Lagging investment and anemic past public interest has resulted in 29 of those leases being used to produce geothermal power, yet they still generate about 1,275 megawatts of electricity."

Currently BLM, which handles subsurface leasing for both its lands and those belonging to the Forest Service, is reviewing about 200 lease nominations involving parcels identified by industry as having potential geothermal resources. Besides California and Nevada, nominations have been filed for sites in Oregon, Utah and Idaho, Witherbee said. And other states getting more focused attention include Arizona, Montana, Washington and Wyoming.

"I think we have more geothermal projects under development now than at any time in history."

A 'robust, long-lasting option'

Yet research suggests the geothermal boom could expand even more, with big implications for the nation's future electricity profile, which remains largely skewed toward coal, natural gas and nuclear power generation.

According to a comprehensive Massachusetts Institute of Technology study completed in 2006, geothermal technology "provides a robust, long-lasting option with attributes that would complement other important contributions from clean coal, nuclear, solar, wind, hydropower, and biomass."

More recently, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated that the nation may have enough super-heated water underground to generate more than 30,000 megawatts of electricity, enough to power upward of 25 million homes. And the technology already exists to access a significant portion of the nation's geothermal resource, said David Blackwell, a geophysicist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas and one of the co-authors of the MIT study. Meanwhile, advances in water injection technology may expand that resource even further, he said. Scientists are working to develop a type of geothermal technology in which wells are drilled miles down to the super-hot rocks and water is injected. When the water comes into contact with the hot rocks it turns to steam and powers turbines that generate electricity. Widescale commercial development of these "enhanced geothermal systems" or EGS could result in the annual production of as much as 100,000 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power about 85 million homes. These systems could operate around the clock, unlike solar and wind power, providing the much sought-after baseload electricity to millions.

"Geothermal energy from EGS represents a large, indigenous resource that can provide base-load electric power and heat at a level that can have a major impact on the United States while incurring minimal environmental impacts. Further, EGS provides a secure source of power for the long term that would help protect America against economic instabilities resulting from fuel price fluctuations or supply disruptions."

The cost to develop this technology is no more than a $400 million investment over the next 15 years, according to the MIT study. That is the exact amount allocated to DOE for geothermal energy development in the economic stimulus package.

"It's only a valuable resource when we figure out how to get it and how to use it."

Looking beyond the West

The petroleum industry may also hold a key to expanding geothermal development beyond its traditional Western production center, including locations in the Midwest and Gulf Coast, where oil and gas producers have compiled extensive geologic data over decades of drilling. In much the same way regulators are looking to use abandoned hardrock mines to house wind farms and solar arrays, geothermal experts say thousands of spent oil and natural gas wells could be used to tap into the super-heated water in regions where thick layers of cap rock have made geothermal drilling cost-prohibitive.

"Texas and northern Louisiana, for example, could both be potential hot spots for geothermal energy."

Blackwell, whose SMU laboratory last year eceived a $500,000 grant from Google.org to map geothermal hotspots, said he has identified at least 3,000 oil and gas wells drilled in the last five years that have hit water as hot as 400 degrees Fahrenheit, more than adequate temperatures for most geothermal systems.

"In the oil and gas areas, there's a lot of deep drilling and we know about the [geologic] conditions already. We've been trying to make people aware that there are high temperatures associated with gas and oil development in old gas wells. If we can use existing formations, it's there to be mined."

Launch of Clearing Services for Electricity Swap Futures

2009-05-22T04:36:00.000-07:00

Operational Risk - Launch of New Clearing Services for Electricity Swap Futures

CME Group yesterday announced the launch of clearing services for two new electricity swap futures contracts, scheduled to launch on June 7 for trade date June 8. Clearing services will be available through CME ClearPort®, a set of flexible clearing services open to over the counter or OTC market participants to substantially mitigate counterparty risk and provide capital efficiencies across asset classes. These contracts are listed for trading by NYMEX through CME ClearPort, and are subject to NYMEX rules and regulations.

The swap futures contracts and their commodity codes will be: PJM PECO Zone 5 MW peak calendar money day-ahead LMP (4N) and PMJ PECO Zone 5 MW off-peak calendar month day-ahead LMP (4P).

Utilities and marketers will use these contracts to provide liquidity and transparency, in conjunction with the other zonal products cleared through CME ClearPort.

The first listed month will be July 2009

The contracts will be listed for current year plus the next five consecutive years. The peak contract will be 80 megawatt hours in size, and the off-peak contract will be five megawatt hours. The minimum price fluctuation will be $0.05 per megawatt hour.

Energy Risk - Smart Grid, New Products Promoting Wise Use of Energy

2009-05-19T01:46:00.000-07:00

When discussing Smart Grid and Smart Metering, the topic usually centers on the new advancements with the energy distribution and metering capabilities. This not only includes the utility companies themselves, but also the metering hardware and software vendors supplying them. The implementation of these system wide modernizations provide the critical backbone of the infrastructure, but the capability of achieving the goal of using energy wisely to reduce the carbon footprint and manage peak demand is also dependant on new parties entering and fulfilling the important role of providing necessary products and services to consumers.

New developments in home appliances will be required in order to complete the overall infrastructure of the Smart Grid.

Many of the new players in the industry are large, well established companies who will be adding the new functionality and expanding their existing product lines to meet the new Smart Grid requirements. I imagine there are several engineers excited about the opportunities these changes are bringing.

Appliance Manufacturers

General Electric and Whirlpool are two major appliance manufacturers that are taking a lead role in providing smart appliances to help shift some of the energy load from peak hours to other parts of the day to reduce the need to build new peaking power plants. Both companies are working with industry leaders to help accelerate the adoption of these new capabilities to address how appliances will interact with the Smart Grid. Bracken Darrell, president of Whirlpool Europe recently announced that by 2015, the company will “make all the electronically controlled appliances it produces—everywhere in the world—capable of receiving and responding to signals from smart grids…” This promise is based upon two key conditions:

The development by the end of 2010 of an open, global standard for transmitting signals to and receiving signals from a home appliance and
Appropriate policies that reward consumers, manufacturers and utilities for using and adding these new peak demand reduction capabilities.

General Electric is introducing appliances that are capable of receiving pricing increase signals and adjusting their functions to reduce power consumption until prices goes back down.

They currently have a pilot program in Louisville, KY to determine the effectiveness of the Smart Grid enabled appliances. The utility is providing a pricing plan where prices varies across the day and once customers have established their preferences based on pricing, these smart appliances will adjust their operations automatically. However, customers will have the ability to override the automated response at any time.

In addition to the major appliance manufacturers, several manufacturers already have thermostats and other proven products that not only allow automatic control of the heating and air, but also serve as portals to display both pricing and billing information. A variety of companies are ready to deliver wireless energy dashboards that will monitor energy consumption data, i.e., Google PowerMeter, GreenBox and EnergyHub. Some of these companies are targeting end users while others are focused on utility partners. Regardless of the equipment, providing the customer the ability to control all of their smart devices without requiring a Ph.D. is critical for the acceptance of these new products. Manufacturers must balance the customer's desire for using energy wisely and managing their energy spending with their need for convenience and simplicity.

Communications

While smart metering providers have incorporated communication networks within their devices, wireless carriers such as AT&T and T-Mobile have started to work with partners to enter the Smart Grid arena. These wireless companies already have high-bandwidth communications infrastructures in place. By taking advantage of these networks that are already in place, utilities have another option to consider going forward for local area networks and many are already using cellular communications for wide area network communications.

The utilization of existing wireless networks may also facilitate the support of cell phones and other wireless devices for control and monitoring of home appliance and other energy consumption.

With Congress allocating the $4.5 billion of the economic stimulus package to develop new smart grid technologies, the major U.S. wireless carriers are working to create a business model that will allow them to effectively enter the smart grid market with new products and services that can compete with the existing utility vendors.

Government

As in every sector of the industry, various levels of government play a critical role in the successful implementation of the Smart Grid. The new US administration has been activity defining and promoting the implementation and acceptance of the "Smart Grid" initiative. On March 16, the DOE worked with the Senate to introduce S.598 "Appliance Standards Improvement Act of 2009" which would amend section 324A of EPCA to strengthen the joint DOE/EPA Energy Star Program. The plan is for these new standards for appliances to save consumers over the long run despite higher up-front costs for improved products.

Individuals and companies are also given the opportunity to take advantage of tax credits and deductions by installing approved energy saving products. State and local regulations will need to be modified to introduce new pricing models with saving incentives based on these new products and consumer awareness of using energy wisely.

With the stimulus package and the increased focus on green policies, the government is aggressively promoting development and acceptance of the Smart Grid. These actions are providing incentives for new players to invest in the development of the necessary products and services to make the Smart Grid successful.

Utilities and Traditional Utility Vendors

The addition of these new players in the industry sector provides opportunities for new partnerships and acquisitions. Traditional software and hardware vendors will need to be able to support these new appliances, whether through pricing structures, billing, data gathering, inventory, monitoring and controlling. Security and the volume of data will also present new challenges. Utilities need to be able to respond to the needs of the customer, which will change significantly as smart appliances and metering penetrate the market. Education and marketing programs will need to be developed to introduce their customer base to these dramatic changes. Utilities will also need to invest in additional training for their call center agents to use new systems and features and be able to assist customers with new pricing plans, smart thermostats and in-home display devices, as well as investing in new systems and business processes to support these new products and services.

GridSolar Project fills demands, creates jobs, at lower cost

2009-05-17T02:33:00.000-07:00

Despite claims to the contrary, we don't need to upgrade CMP's transmission lines in order to transmit the power from wind generation facilities in Maine to electricity users in the Northeast. Wind projects are already online in Stetson and Freedom and under construction at Kibby Mountain. New projects have been proposed in Rollins, Roxbury, Dixmont and Rumford, while many others are in the pre-development stages. Maine's current transmission grid is more than adequate for these projects and many more like them. This is because Maine's transmission grid was built to transmit electricity from Maine Yankee and Wyman Station, an oil-fired plant in Yarmouth, to businesses and households throughout the state.

Today, Maine Yankee is closed and Wyman Station hardly ever runs because oil is too expensive. These two plants had a combined capacity of about 1,650 megawatts, an amount that is almost as large as CMP's total load and more than three times the total capacity of all of the wind projects built, under construction or proposed for development in Maine today.

There is a much better way to promote renewable generation in Maine than to spend billions of dollars on transmission, as CMP has proposed.

On an average day, the amount of solar energy that hits Maine is more than the total amount of energy Mainers use in an entire year, yes, that's right, more than all of the heating oil, gasoline, electricity, coal, biomass, cordwood and all other fuels combined. CMP is wrong, Maine does not have to spend $1.5 billion to upgrade its transmission grid to meet projected energy needs on hot summer days when people turn on their air conditioners. This approach is the old way of thinking about electric grids, one that is designed to bring electricity from power plants in Canada into Maine.

The result will be that Canada receives the benefits of the jobs, investments and property tax revenues from the generation, while CMP's owner, the Spanish utility Iberdrola, gets a guaranteed 13% return on its investment. Maine ratepayers should not be asked to finance billions of dollars of transmission investments so that jobs can be created in Canada and businesses in Massachusetts can have cheaper power.

There is a much better way to ensure that our electric grid is reliable, our GridSolar Project.

The GridSolar Project is a first step in bringing the benefits of a "smart" electric grid to Maine. It relies on solar generation to serve the electricity demand of customers during the peak hours of the year when air conditioning is running full blast. Instead of a massive upgrade and widening of CMP's transmission corridors, GridSolar proposes building numerous small (25-acre) solar generating facilities close to the communities where the power is actually needed. These solar facilities will be backed up by propane-fired generators for those very warm summer evenings when consumer use of electricity remains high, but the sun isn't shining.

In this way, the GridSolar Project is a game-changer for the development of solar power and for Maine's future economic development, a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Maine to provide the needed power and reliability while creating thousands of "green collar" jobs in Maine, all at a cost that is substantially less than the $1.5 billion CMP is proposing to spend.

The GridSolar Project offers Mainers electricity at approximately 3 cents a kilowatt-hour for 20 years, compared to today's cost of about 8 cents a kilowatt-hour. It will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the same amount as taking more than 100,000 cars off the road and will create far more jobs, long-term jobs, than any money spent on unnecessary transmission.

And if that is not enough, our GridSolar Project does not require us to use eminent domain to take land from private property owners. In fact, we have already had people call us to ask us to consider their property as possible sites for our GridSolar installations. When was the last time someone asked CMP to use his or her land to string high voltage transmission lines and towers?

Maine needs to look to the future and not to spend money on yesterday's technology. We need to invest in smart electric grids and distributed solar generation such as the GridSolar Project to enable us to become less dependent on fossil fuels, to reduce our collective contribution to global warming, to create long-term, green-collar jobs for Maine workers and to keep property tax revenues right here in Maine. This decision needs to be made now, because once the transmission lines are built, this opportunity will not be available again for decades.
Richard Silkman and Mark Isaacson are founding partners of GridSolar LLC.

Energy Risk - Replenishing the Ranks

2009-05-07T01:45:00.000-07:00

If green energy is to launch the nation into a new economic realm, then modern technologies and skilled engineers must be the catalyst.

But a flood of retirements may thwart that promise, prompting industry, academia and government to collaborate and offer tangible ways to ensure progress. President Obama's rise has also energized the utility sector and given it an opportunity to help pivot the nation into economic recovery. Indeed, the emphasis on reducing carbon emissions and the greening of corporate America is leading to the research and development of alternative generation and the intelligent utility that offers two-way communications between providers and their customers. And while that may spark interests in power engineering, the fear is that the overall effort may be insufficient.

"The corollary of 'the market will solve the engineering workforce problem' is that 'I don't have to take any responsibility for the solution'. The thesis of the Collaborative Action Plan is that all stakeholders need to take ownership of some part of the solution."

The Collaborative Action Plan to which Ray refers is led by the IEEE Power & Energy Society and is an initiative to address concerns about the U.S. power and energy engineering workforce. Federal and state regulators, for example, would consider how their rules might affect recruitment. Industry, meanwhile, would sponsor scholarships and research efforts while higher education would offer degreed programs to meet the expected future hiring needs.

Skill-gap risk in action

Over the next five years, roughly 45 percent of electrical engineers in this country will be eligible for retirement, according to a 2008 survey by the Center for Energy Workforce Development. That translates into the need

educate,
hire and
train 7,000 power engineers.

And while many of those eligible to quit working will continue on either because they choose to do so or because they cannot afford to stop, the same survey shows that the schools can't crank out enough graduates to fill would-be openings.

Pending retirements within academia are also undermining efforts to gear up.

The IEEE says that about 40 percent of electrical power engineering professors will have reached the age of retirement in the next five years but it goes on to estimate that 27 percent of them will actually step down. In any event, the process to encourage interest in power engineering begins at the elementary school level where math and science must be emphasized. Those students that excel by high school should then have an opportunity to receive scholarships. The goal is to double the number of graduate and undergraduate students completing electric power and energy engineering degrees and to assist by providing $4 million in immediate awards and $50 million in research to such schools over the next five to eight years.

Mass Exit

When deregulation of the energy sector surfaced in the 1990s, technically oriented positions were forsaken in favor of those emphasizing marketing and finance. But as the nation makes its transition to a digital economy that will profoundly affect the energy sector, the need to hire for power engineering jobs is paramount.

That immediate demand for knowledge, however, has run headlong into a recession that is forcing utilities to postpone their capital expenditures in generation and transmission.

Undoubtedly, the electricity industry faces a serious paradox involving its commitment to modernize its infrastructure with the short-term financial hits it is now taking. The economic lull may quell any sudden mass exit of qualified engineers. But utilities generally realize that it not a viable long-term solution. Both Wall Street and the credit rating agencies, in fact, have said that the 'utilities of the future', those that making key investments in the smart grid and clean energy generation, will be best positioned to attract capital and remain creditworthy.

"We will ride out the storm while our 401ks recover. But that masks the problem. We can try to keep those seniors engaged and they will for a period. But eventually they will retire. We will still have to bring in the new engineers to be mentored. The worst thing we can do is to not bring in new ones right now. We need to prime the pump.

Clearly, the power industry is trying to be proactive. According to a study performed by Sierra Energy Group, a division of Energy Central, about 57 percent of all utilities have a strategy in place for managing the impeding shortage of qualified workers. FirstEnergy of Cleveland, for example, has hired hundreds of experts in everything from engineering to information systems, all to permit newer employees to learn from veteran workers. The Progress Energy Foundation, furthermore, has distributed millions to educational institutions throughout North Carolina so as to attract everyone from engineers to linemen. Meanwhile, Colorado Springs Utility sponsors local power engineering classes and Bismarck State College in North Dakota offers technical instruction in electrical transmission and nuclear power technology.

"With the stimulus package and its thrust on the smart grid and renewable energy, the power industry is brandishing its image. It is not clear, however, that we have the people in place to deliver the desired outcome."

The push for next generation power plants and intelligent grids is certainly getting stronger and giving new luster to a utility industry long thought to be in the Dark Ages. The result, in any case, underscores the need for all stakeholders to collaborate in the effort to replenish the utility ranks with a fresh crop of power engineers.

Investors see bright future in wind energy

2009-05-05T13:48:00.000-07:00

When President Barack Obama stood in front of wind turbine towers in a Newton, Iowa, factory last week he was not only pushing his green energy policies but promoting an industry that has been growing rapidly and gaining favor with investors.

Revenue from solar, wind power, ethanol and biodiesel fuel grew 50 percent to about $116 billion last year, according to Clean Edge Inc., a research and publishing firm. The spike in green revenue, and the backing of the federal government to explore these energy sources has excited investors.

"They favor green investment right now because they think that's the way the world is going."

The federal stimulus package includes $17 billion for the current fiscal year to upgrade and expand the antiquated national power grid. It also allocates $11 billion to develop a smart grid, an electronically controlled distribution system that will be much more efficient. All told, last year global investments in energy technologies expanded by 4.7 percent to $155 billion, according to research and consulting company New Energy Finance Ltd.

"The smartest investors put their own personal prejudices aside. Many people think global warming is propaganda, but they're aware that the bottom line is climate change legislation is going to happen. Investors smart enough to realize this know there's an opportunity there."

THE WIND INDUSTRY

Investors looking to put their cash into an area that's seen tremendous growth might look to wind energy, said Ron Pernick, a spokesman for Clean Edge Inc. Wind has jumped ahead of other green energy sources because innovations in turbine technology (think: windmills) have improved the efficiency and made systems the most cost effective alternative. Turbines can generate electricity with wind speeds starting at 8 to 16 miles per hour according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Turbines are typically built in groups on wind farms where the wind is the strongest. The largest U.S. wind farm is near Abilene, Texas, with 421 turbines scattered across 47,000 acres.

"Of all renewable energy sectors, this is the one reaching the largest scale right now," said.

Another reason wind surged to the forefront is because many states passed standards that require that a percentage of the state's electricity to be made from renewable energy sources. California, Iowa, Oregon and Texas are among those with such goals. That pushes utility companies such as AES Corp, Alliant Energy and MidAmerican Energy to invest in wind farm ownership or at least buy a portion of their energy from wind providers to meet the minimum green energy requirements.

THE PLAYERS

Because it's an emerging technology, investors may choose to get involved by owning a piece of larger conglomerates such as General Electric Co. Its energy division lead the industry in newly installed turbines in the U.S. last year. It provided roughly 48 percent of the more than 5,000 turbines installed according to the American Wind Energy Association. This added an additional 3,657 megawatts. In its 2008 annual report, GE said its energy division brought in 21 percent of revenue for the year. That includes technologies developed to harness wind, oil, gas and water. The division has seen a 53 percent increase in revenue over the past three years and a 73 percent increase in profit due to worldwide demand for energy and alternative sources of power. GE shares are trading in the $12 range, well off their 52-week high of $34. Trinity Structural Towers, the Iowa company President Obama visited last week, is a division of Dallas-based Trinity Industries Inc. (TRN), a diversified company with railroad car, highway construction materials and wind turbine tower divisions.Shares of the company have gained nearly 18 percent since Obama's visit. They were trading 12 percent higher, near $15 a share and have traded between $6 and $41 over the last year. But significant growth in wind turbine installations was propelled forward by many European manufacturers. They've set up factories and distribution centers in the United States to meet demand for turbines, blades, and other large components that are too expensive to import. Many are traded in the United States including Vestas Wind Systems (VWSYF), which was second only to GE in terms of the wind power it supplied last year, some 1,120 megawatts. Siemens AG (SI), the German industrial conglomerate, with 791 megawatts, was third in terms of installed capacity. Other leaders investors may look to are Spain's Gamesa Corp. and Britain's Clipper Windpower, both considered pure play companies because they focus just on wind energy production.

THE CONSIDERATIONS

Because many wind energy companies are foreign-based there are always geopolitical and currency risks to weigh. Investors also will want to be wary of emerging companies with unproven ideas. At a minimum, you'll want to be sure that the company is well capitalized and has a strong business model. When investing in a fund, such as an exchange traded fund, Siegel of Green Chip Stocks recommends making sure it is balanced. Some funds are very sector specific, focusing on solar stocks, for example. If something were to happen to impact that industry such as a shortage of the electronic components that convert sunlight to electricity, your entire fund could crash. There are funds such as Market Vectors Global Alternative Energy ETF Trust (GEX), which includes wind, solar, geothermal and other business types. As you look for investment opportunities, be aware that the global economic slump began hitting the renewable energy sector hard late last year and it's continued into the first quarter. Global new investment in clean energy fell 53 percent to $13 billion in the first quarter of this year compared with the same period a year ago. That's mostly due to inadequate bank financing, a result of the credit crunch and low stock market confidence from the continuing recession. In the United States, financing of new projects fell by $500 million, down from $5 billion in the first quarter of 2008. Analysts at New Energy Finance said the dramatic fall illustrates how badly government stimulus money needs to begin flowing to businesses. So, whether you're interested in investing directly into a green energy company, or seeking out a mutual fund, you have many choices to consider if you've been thinking of a greener investment strategy.

Business Musings From Woodstock for Capitalists

2009-05-04T09:01:00.000-07:00

Buffett and Munger Play the Main Stage: Views on Newspapers, Triple-A Ratings, Complex Math and More

Here are some highlights of Warren Buffett's and Charles Munger's remarks at the Berkshire Hathaway Inc. shareholder meeting this past weekend.

Mr. Buffett on Newspapers

Mr. Buffett has long held himself out as a newspaper man. As a child, one of his first jobs was delivering newspapers. An Omaha newspaper Berkshire owned, Sun Newspapers, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1973 based in part on a tip Mr. Buffett provided. One of Berkshire's biggest investments in the 1970s was the Buffalo News, which it still owns. But his view on the future of the newspaper industry is dismal.

"For most newspapers in the United States, we would not buy them at any price. They have the possibility of going to just unending losses."

Reuters

Warren Buffett, left photo, noshes on an ice-cream bar at Berkshire's annual meeting in Omaha, Neb., on Saturday.

As long as newspapers were essential to readers, they were essential to advertisers, he said. But news is now available in many other venues, he said. Berkshire has a substantial investment in Washington Post Co. He said the company has a solid cable business, a good reason to hold on to it, but its newspaper business is in trouble.

"a national tragedy.... These monopoly daily newspapers have been an important sinew to our civilization, they kept government more honest than they would otherwise be."

A Washington Post Co. representative couldn't be reached for comment.

Mr. Buffett on Insurance

In response to a question about the worst possible development for Berkshire Hathaway's vast insurance operations, Mr. Buffett responded: nationalization. If inflation jumped and insurance policies became extremely expensive, pressure could rise on the government to nationalize the insurance industry, he said.

"When people get outraged, politicians respond."

It's highly unlikely that such a development would happen, he added. But he did note the example of Social Security, which is a form of a nationalized annuity.

Mr. Buffett on Housing

"In the last few months you've seen a real pickup in activity although at much lower prices."

Mr. Buffett was citing data from Berkshire's real-estate brokerage business, HomeServices of America Inc., which is one of the largest in the U.S.

Reuters

Attendees wait in a food queue on Friday at the meeting's kickoff celebration.

In California, medium and lower-price homes, under $750,000, have been selling more, though there hasn't been a bounce back in sale prices, Mr. Buffett said.

"We see something close to stability at these much-reduced prices in the medium to lower part of the market."

Mr. Buffett on Moody's

Mr. Buffett was asked about Moody's Investors Service, which gave a triple-A rating to billions of dollars of mortgage securities that subsequently lost value. Berkshire has a 20.4% stake in the company.

"Basically, four or five years ago, virtually everybody in the country had this model in their heads, formal or otherwise, that house prices could not fall significantly. It was stupidity and the fact that everyone else was doing it."

He said that if Moody's had started to take a negative view on residential real estate, the ratings provider would have been hauled before Congress to testify about why it was hurting the U.S. economy with its bearish ratings.

"They made a huge mistake, and the American people made a huge mistake."

Bloomberg News

One Fruit of the Loom mascot adjusts the hat of another at the Berkshire meeting on Saturday. The apparel maker is one of Berkshire's holdings.

A Moody's representative couldn't be reached for comment.

Mr. Buffett on Treasurys

Berkshire Hathaway had only one slide at this year's annual meeting. It displayed a Dec. 19 trade ticket showing a Berkshire sale of $5 million of Treasury bills. They were coming due on April 29 this year, roughly four months after Berkshire sold them. Berkshire sold the bills for $5,000,090.70. If that buyer had instead put their money in a mattress, by April 29 they would have been $90.70 better off, he said. Negative yields on Treasury bills show how tumultuous last year was, Mr. Buffett added.

"We may never see that again in our lifetimes."

Messrs. Buffett and Munger On Math and Theories

Messrs. Buffett and Munger made clear their complete disdain for the use of higher-order mathematics in finance.

"There is so much that's false and nutty in modern investing practice and modern investment banking, that if you just reduced the nonsense, that's a goal you should reasonably hope for."

Regarding complex calculations used to value purchases, he said:

"If you need to use a computer or a calculator to make the calculation, you shouldn't buy it."
Said Mr. Munger: "Some of the worst business decisions I've ever seen are those with future projections and discounts back. It seems like the higher mathematics with more false precision should help you, but it doesn't. They teach that in business schools because, well, they've got to do something."

Mr. Buffett said:

"If you stand up in front of a business class and say a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, you won't get tenure....Higher mathematics my be dangerous and lead you down pathways that are better left untrod."

Mr. Munger on the Future

"As I move close to the edge of death, I find myself getting more cheerful about the economic future."

Mr. Munger sees "a final breakthrough that solves the main technical problem of man," he continued.

By harnessing the power of the sun, electrical power will become more available around the world. That will help humans turn sea water into fresh water and eliminate environmental problems, Mr. Munger explained. "If you have enough energy you can solve a lot of other problems."

Test drive: All-electric Mini and Ford Fusion Hybrid

2009-05-01T13:09:00.000-07:00

It's not every day that you get to drive an all-electric car and a brand new gas-electric hybrid. But that's just what I did last week when I took both the Electric Mini Cooper and 2010 Ford Fusion for a spin. The two cars represent two technical approaches to gaining fuel efficiency through bigger car batteries. Like the Toyota Prius, the newly released Ford Fusion is a gas-electric hybrid that drives primarily on the gas engine, supplemented by a nickel-metal hydride battery. By contrast, the Mini Electric, which will start to be leased to drivers next month as part of a trial, runs entirely on lithium-ion batteries, the latest battery technology.

The trade-offs of both approaches are pretty apparent.

The Fusion gets over 40 miles per gallon and it's more or less like any other car you've driven: you fill it up with gasoline and it goes.

The Mini Electric, on the other hand, sacrifices the entire back seat for its battery pack. That allows it to go 100 miles on a charge, sufficient for most daily driving. Two of its advantages are that you never go to a gas station and there are no emissions from the car itself. There's another technology in the mix, what General Motors calls a range, extended electric vehicle or what engineers call a series hybrid, as opposed to a parallel hybrid. In that case, an internal combustion engine does nothing but charge the batteries that propel the car.

On the road

There's a lot of focus on how lithium-ion batteries are paving the way for cars with a longer range, although cost is still a great concern. In both the Ford and the Electric Mini, there are a number of other fuel-saving tricks at work. The big one is regenerative braking, where the battery charges when the driver presses the brake. The Ford Fusion didn't feel very different from any other automatic transmission car. But the regenerative braking in the Electric Mini was different. When I took my foot of the accelerator, the car slowed significantly. It's noticeable but something that I got used within a few minutes of riding. Automakers say a key component to mainstream electric car adoption is an in-board feedback system that lets drivers know how to maximize their efficiency. This is probably old hat to Prius drivers looking for ways to save on gas. But it becomes particularly important in all-electric cars, as automakers don't want drivers getting stuck with an empty battery and no place to charge.

The Ford's dashboard LCD shows when you're using the gas motor and when you're running on battery. The way to optimize for efficiency is to get to cruising speed and then tap the brakes to charge the battery. The car also has an on-dash rating system that displays a plant sprout. More leaves distinguishes the hypermilers from the lead-foots. The Electric Mini feedback system is pretty simple: how much juice you have left is on the front dash while another meter shows whether you're drawing from or charging the battery.

How do you like these two electric cars?

Would you like to drive electric car in the future?