The Sustainability Mantra

Green Energy

2012-02-10T00:23:00.000-08:00

The Chopping Block: 3. Green energy | FP Comment | Financial Post

Reuters

The Canadian government has a long list of grants and tax incentives for wind, solar, biomass, biofuel and host of other clean sources of energy.

Flaherty could chop another easy billion in subsidies
By Jack M. Mintz

In the upcoming federal budget, the Minister of Finance, Jim Flaherty, has an opportunity to reduce further various green-energy incentives. Contrary to the typical fabrication, these subsidies do not create more jobs. Sure, if you throw enough money at something, you can create jobs in that sector. But it doesn’t mean more jobs or growth for the whole economy.

In recent years, the federal government has steadily scaled back several incentives for fossil fuels, such as accelerated depreciation for capital in the oil sands, earned depletion and various others designed to encourage exploration and development. Other changes may be brewing, too, as the federal government looks to implement last year’s G20 Pittsburgh accord to reduce further these subsidies. In fact those subsidies, as seen in a study being released today by me and my colleague, Kenneth J. McKenzie, are themselves based on dubious assumptions.

Business investments should be taxed at similar rates to ensure that resources are allocated to their best economic use. The only problem, at this juncture, is that oil and gas industry investments typically bear more tax than those in the non-resource sector, although there are some special cases.

While governments are focusing on fossil fuel subsidies, incentives have grown immeasurably for alternative energy in the past decade and a half. The Canadian government currently has a long list of grants and tax incentives for wind, solar, biomass, biofuel and host of other clean sources of energy. Provinces, especially Ontario, have their own green energy support programs.

The largest federal grant programs include the pulp and paper green transformation fund ($539-million), ecoENERGY for biofuels ($258-million), ecoENERGY for renewable power ($143-million), clean energy fund program ($142-million), ecoENERGY technology fund ($48-million) and wind power production incentive program ($32-million). Tax incentive programs include accelerated depreciation for renewable energy and conservation (since 1996) and tax-preferred flow-through shares for mining, oil and gas and renewable energy, the latter being shown to encourage investment in projects with sub-par economic returns.
Recently, the federal government has been scaling back some of these programs. Grants to support ecoENERGY for home and small business retrofits, totalling $435-million, as well as several other programs ,have been curtailed or eliminated. Environment Canada’s climate and clean air program has been hacked back from $240-million to $99-million.

Nevertheless, Minister Flaherty could chop another easy billion in green-energy subsidies.
Of course, further aggressive action would create howls in the minds of those who believe that green energy is the wave of the future. By a very big leap in logic, subsidy proponents argue that governments should support renewable energy since markets are too dumb to figure it out for themselves.

The worst analysis put forward by those clamouring for sector-specific subsidies is based on economic multipliers. Create a job here and, presto, create another two or three jobs elsewhere. If we added up every multiplier calculated by an industry, Canada would be the same size as the United States. Multiplier analysis is fraudulent since it does not take into account displacement effects that arise from shifts in technologies, competition for resources among businesses and extra taxation that reduce job demand in other sectors.
Americans are now realizing that throwing money at new energy sources can be pretty costly in generating jobs. Solyndra, a California solar company, has been able to extract US$535-million in loans from the federal government before declaring bankruptcy. This is the same company proudly presented by President Obama in 2009 as an example of a transformative green investment. In total, the U.S. government is providing US$18-billion of such subsidies.

Of course, the Obama regime, after throwing good money after bad, just can’t help itself in announcing a further US$1.1-billion in new loan guarantees to solar projects in Nevada and Arizona as it winds down its failed program. This is expensive energy to bring to market. While natural gas energy costs 6.3¢ per kilowatt-hour, offshore wind and solar thermal plants cost 24.3¢ and 31.2¢ per kilowatt-hour respectively. I would doubt that environmental considerations could justify such large outlays.
And it is questionable if these business subsidies really achieve their aims. As the recent head of the U.S. President’s Council of Economic Advisors, Austan Goolsbee, showed in a paper several years ago, capital subsidies force up input prices, such as wind turbines, thereby blunting their effectiveness in promoting the desired activity.

Environmental groups have been particularly critical of the Canadian federal government in not keeping up with the Americans by doling out billions of dollars in more subsidies for green energy. With continuing bad news of falling solar prices and other challenges facing the renewable energy industry, not keeping up with other countries might turn out to be a good thing if we want to improve our productivity performance.
Spending hard-earned tax dollars on grants and special tax incentives to build green energy supply is the wrong economic approach, especially when facing deficits and slow growth. Minister Flaherty has more work to do to clean up this mess.

Financial Post
Jack M. Mintz is the Palmer Chair in Public Policy, School of Public Policy, University of Calgary.
The Chopping Block is an ongoing FP Comment series on how to cut federal spending and balance the budget.

Paul Rand on The Role of the Imagination | Brain Pickings

2012-02-08T22:45:00.000-08:00

Paul Rand on The Role of the Imagination | Brain Pickings

The Role of the Imagination

by Maria Popova

Paul Rand (1914-1986) — design legend, professional curmudgeon, uncompromising businessman. He is best remembered as the author of Thoughts on Design (1947), one of the most important design books of all time, but nearly half a century later, he produced another indispensable tome: From Lascaux to Brooklyn, published mere months before his death, gathers his life’s wisdom on the basic principles of design, creativity, and timeless visual communication.

From it comes this absolute gem, which echoes Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, and Anne Lamott’s sentiments on intuition vs. rationality, succinctly captures Steve Jobs’ famous advice on dot-connecting, and reflects my own philosophy of combinatorial creativity:

The role of the imagination is to create new meanings and to discover connections that, even if obvious, seem to escape detection. Imagination begins with intuition, not intellect.”

Then again, The Little Prince said it first.

acumenfund's Channel - YouTube

2012-02-08T22:42:00.000-08:00

acumenfund's Channel - YouTube

Bringing sustainable light to communities off the grid

From: acumenfund | Jul 21, 2010 | 2,609 views

The Challenge

* In rural India, more than half of all households remain un-electrified. The electrification of rural India has been extremely uneven, leaving 80% to 90% of poorer states in India's "Rice Belt," like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa without electricity.

* Villages in this region currently use kerosene lanterns for household light, and diesel generators for irrigation and commercial power — which are costly and harmful to health and the environment.

The Innovation

* Husk Power Systems (HPS) uses biomass gasification technology to convert abundant rice husks into combustible gases, which produce clean, safe and efficient electricity at affordable rates.

The Impact

* By the end of 2010, Husk Power aims to operate 50 plants, electrifying 125 villages. Their goal is to be the global provider of off-grid electrification services using biomass, with a long-term vision of deploying 2000 plants, which will reach 5,000 villages (more than 20 million people) and create 6,000 jobs.

Read more about Husk Power Systems on our website: http://www.acumenfund.org/investment/husk-power-systems.html

View comments, related videos, and more

Angel Fish Mimicry

2012-02-08T10:01:00.000-08:00

Uploaded by ForaTv on Feb 1, 2012

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2012/01/24/Diversity_and_Evolution_of_Coral_Reef_Fishes

Luiz Rocha, Assistant Curator and Follett Chair of Ichthyology at the California Academy of Sciences, highlights the evolutionary advantage of the surgeon fish. The surgeon's genes allow them to mimic angelfish, entitling them to greater resources in the coral reef.

Image credit: Norbert Potensky via Wikimedia Commons

Dr. Luiz Rocha, Assistant Curator, Ichthyology, California Academy of Sciences. Join us to welcome new curator on the ichthyology team, Dr. Luiz Rocha. Dr. Rocha's research interests center on the evolution, biogeography, and ecology of coral reef fishes. His overarching goal is to understand what drives the extremely high biodiversity found in tropical reefs. He has embarked on numerous expeditions around the world, including the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, Polynesia, Micronesia, the Caribbean, South America, and Africa. His field work in Sao Tome was covered by National Geographic in 2008, and he appeared in a Science Channel documentary in 2009 discussing the effects of radiation at Bikini Atoll. - The California Academy of Sciences

License: Standard YouTube License

Australia's deeply troubled ecology demands fresh thinking | David Bowman | Environment | guardian.co.uk

2012-02-07T17:36:00.001-08:00

Australia's deeply troubled ecology demands fresh thinking | David Bowman | Environment | guardian.co.uk:

The challenge is to stabilise ecosystems, control feral animal populations, curb massive fires, and break the 'grass-fire cycle'
David Bowman
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 1 February 2012

A rabbit flees a bushfire near the town of Rylstone, northwest of Sydney, on November 22, 2009. Photograph: Torsten Blackwood/AFP/Getty Images

Australia has a deeply troubled ecology and current land management approaches are failing. The challenge is to stabilise ecosystems sent out of whack by a perfect storm of factors, starting with Aboriginal colonisation around 40,000 years ago that was coincident with the mass extinction of a diversity of large animals. What followed was a sustained tradition of Aboriginal landscape burning that ecosystems adjusted to but which European settlers have unwittingly disrupted.

Europeans found a continent primed for large grazing and introduced a variety of useful large herbivores (horses, donkeys, pigs, cattle, goats, sheep, camels,) which become feral or that were intentionally set wild (rabbit, foxes, deer). There were few land predators to control these animals, and the two largest were a threat to livestock (Tasmanian tiger and Australian wolf or dingo). The Tasmanian tiger was driven extinct by the 1930s and dingos have been subjected to a sustained campaign of culling by shooting and poisoning.

A number of flammable grasses have been introduced to Australian rangelands, in some cases in the mistaken belief that they would benefit livestock. This has initiated a vicious circle of uncontrolled fires in some outback landscapes. For example, the giant grass introduced from west Africa (gamba grass) dramatically increases the destructive power of fires killing eucalypt plants, renowned for their fire tolerance in the northern savannas. It is claimed by some scientists that this grass could cover 5% of the continent if left uncontrolled. Already we are seeing massive savanna fires – last year after the soaking rains, at least 5% of the continent was burnt in massive fires, one the size of Tasmania.

All these facts demand we apply some fresh thinking to managing Australian landscapes, which must include control of feral animal populations, curbing massive fires, and breaking the "grass-fire cycle". Current approaches aren't working well clearly. But options that could work are challenging, more often that not because of cultural and social factors as much as biological reasons. Australians have some double standards when it comes to feral animals: lethal control of horses in a hugely sensitive issue but we are more sanguine about the current mass cull of camels in the outback.

Australia needs effective top predators to control the ferals that periodically degrade ecosystems. The options are all problematic. We could allow dingo populations to form packs, but this has obvious downside for livestock and possibly humans. We could introduce komodo dragons to replace the extinct giant lizards, as suggested by Tim Flannery. I think a better option is to employ Aborigines to hunt animals.

It is a bitter irony that the vast Aboriginal lands of the outback that were handed back to Aboriginal groups are a shadow of their former selves because of the ecological disruptions described above. Aborigines have been activity encouraged to settle in townships and give up their nomad lifestyles, entering into a poverty trap of which there are few escape routes - one is land management. Epidemiological studies have shown Aboriginal engagement with land management is a powerful health intervention that can contribute to reversing the appalling health statistics of our indigenous people.

But to tackle some issues, like gamba grass, we may need to consider introducing more large herbivores - such as elephants. I do not advocacate releasing a barge load of African animals, rather I can imagine using these creatures as powerful ecological tools that are possibly less harmful that the conventional approaches of herbicides and mechanical disturbance. They could be radio-collared and sterilised to make sure they never become feral.

Obviously we need to proceed carefully in managing the Australian landscape, but a do-nothing attitude is no longer an option.

Australians are in fact already embarking on some very large-scale management interventions. For example, Aborigines are being employed to undertake fire management in western Arnhem Land to curb greenhouse gas emissions from fires.

Alternatives to current approaches are all fraught and only honest debate and evidence-based analysis will lead to sustainable management – I suspect there are solutions out there but they may be difficult to accept.

• David Bowman is professor of environmental change biology at the University of Tasmania

Australia's deeply troubled ecology demands fresh thinking | David Bowman | Environment | guardian.co.uk

2012-02-07T17:36:00.000-08:00

Australia's deeply troubled ecology demands fresh thinking | David Bowman | Environment | guardian.co.uk:

Australia's deeply troubled ecology demands fresh thinking

The challenge is to stabilise ecosystems, control feral animal populations, curb massive fires, and break the 'grass-fire cycle'

David Bowman
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 1 February 2012 18.00 GMT
Article history

A rabbit flees a bushfire near the town of Rylstone, northwest of Sydney, on November 22, 2009. Photograph: Torsten Blackwood/AFP/Getty Images

Australia has a deeply troubled ecology and current land management approaches are failing. The challenge is to stabilise ecosystems sent out of whack by a perfect storm of factors, starting with Aboriginal colonisation around 40,000 years ago that was coincident with the mass extinction of a diversity of large animals. What followed was a sustained tradition of Aboriginal landscape burning that ecosystems adjusted to but which European settlers have unwittingly disrupted.

Europeans found a continent primed for large grazing and introduced a variety of useful large herbivores (horses, donkeys, pigs, cattle, goats, sheep, camels,) which become feral or that were intentionally set wild (rabbit, foxes, deer). There were few land predators to control these animals, and the two largest were a threat to livestock (Tasmanian tiger and Australian wolf or dingo). The Tasmanian tiger was driven extinct by the 1930s and dingos have been subjected to a sustained campaign of culling by shooting and poisoning.

A number of flammable grasses have been introduced to Australian rangelands, in some cases in the mistaken belief that they would benefit livestock. This has initiated a vicious circle of uncontrolled fires in some outback landscapes. For example, the giant grass introduced from west Africa (gamba grass) dramatically increases the destructive power of fires killing eucalypt plants, renowned for their fire tolerance in the northern savannas. It is claimed by some scientists that this grass could cover 5% of the continent if left uncontrolled. Already we are seeing massive savanna fires – last year after the soaking rains, at least 5% of the continent was burnt in massive fires, one the size of Tasmania.

All these facts demand we apply some fresh thinking to managing Australian landscapes, which must include control of feral animal populations, curbing massive fires, and breaking the "grass-fire cycle". Current approaches aren't working well clearly. But options that could work are challenging, more often that not because of cultural and social factors as much as biological reasons. Australians have some double standards when it comes to feral animals: lethal control of horses in a hugely sensitive issue but we are more sanguine about the current mass cull of camels in the outback.

Australia needs effective top predators to control the ferals that periodically degrade ecosystems. The options are all problematic. We could allow dingo populations to form packs, but this has obvious downside for livestock and possibly humans. We could introduce komodo dragons to replace the extinct giant lizards, as suggested by Tim Flannery. I think a better option is to employ Aborigines to hunt animals.

It is a bitter irony that the vast Aboriginal lands of the outback that were handed back to Aboriginal groups are a shadow of their former selves because of the ecological disruptions described above. Aborigines have been activity encouraged to settle in townships and give up their nomad lifestyles, entering into a poverty trap of which there are few escape routes - one is land management. Epidemiological studies have shown Aboriginal engagement with land management is a powerful health intervention that can contribute to reversing the appalling health statistics of our indigenous people.

But to tackle some issues, like gamba grass, we may need to consider introducing more large herbivores - such as elephants. I do not advocacate releasing a barge load of African animals, rather I can imagine using these creatures as powerful ecological tools that are possibly less harmful that the conventional approaches of herbicides and mechanical disturbance. They could be radio-collared and sterilised to make sure they never become feral.

Obviously we need to proceed carefully in managing the Australian landscape, but a do-nothing attitude is no longer an option.

Australians are in fact already embarking on some very large-scale management interventions. For example, Aborigines are being employed to undertake fire management in western Arnhem Land to curb greenhouse gas emissions from fires.

Alternatives to current approaches are all fraught and only honest debate and evidence-based analysis will lead to sustainable management – I suspect there are solutions out there but they may be difficult to accept.

• David Bowman is professor of environmental change biology at the University of Tasmania

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Australia contemplates rewilding with elephants, rhinos | Grist

2012-02-07T16:53:00.000-08:00

Australia contemplates rewilding with elephants, rhinos | Grist

Introducing elephants to Australia could help the continent's troubled ecosystems, argues Prof David Bowman in the journal Nature. Photograph: Torsten Blackwood/AFP/Getty Images

Giant African Gamba grass, introduced in the 1930s, has taken over the Australian outback, crowding out native plants and seriously increasing the risk of massive bush fires. David Bowman of the University of Tasmania thinks the most viable way to get rid of it is to introduce things that eat it in Africa, like elephants.

“I’m talking about using elephants as a machine or ecological tool to manage this grass,” he said in an interview for the Guardian, acknowledging that his proposal is radical and has major risks associated with it.

Not least among the risks: Australia has a notable problem with getting completely overrun by invasive species. It’s not clear what makes anyone think this will be less of a disaster than the toads, the air-conditioner-eating camels, or the rabbits. And good luck containing these giant herbivores with an “elephant-proof fence.”

“If we did go down the road of introducing elephants to Australia, we had better develop the technology to clone saber-tooth tigers to eventually control the elephants,” [said Ricky Spencer, senior lecturer with the Native and Pest Animal unit at the University of Western Sydney.]

Zing!

Christopher Mims’s dystopian non-fiction is sought after by an ever-growing roster of publications.

straight to the source
African gamba grass, introduced in the 1930s, wreaks havoc on the landscape and provides dangerous fuel for wildfires, experts say, The Guardian

Elephants and rhinos in Australia 'could control damaging wild grasses'

African gamba grass, introduced in the 1930s, wreaks havoc on the landscape and provides dangerous fuel for wildfires, experts say
by Alison Rourke
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 1 February 2012

Elephants and rhinoceros should be introduced to the Australian outback to control the impact of damaging wild grasses, according to an Australian professor of environmental change biology. But other Australian academics warned the proposal risked its own set of problems.

Prof David Bowman of the University of Tasmania says the giant African gamba grass, introduced as food for livestock in the 1930s, wreaks havoc on the landscape and provides dangerous fuel for wildfires across northern and central Australia.

"Australia has a deeply troubled ecology and current land management approaches are failing," he said.

Because of its height, gamba grass almost completely replaces native vegetation. Its fuel load is up to eight times greater than that of native grasses meaning it burns with greater intensity and produces substantial greenhouse gases.

Bowman estimates that at least 5% of the Australian continent was burnt in massive fires last year, an area three times the size of England. He says, if unchecked, the gamba grass has the potential to grow to cover an equivalent area of the country.

In an article for Nature magazine, Bowman proposes introducing large herbivores like elephants and rhinoceroses as a way of containing Gamba grass which can grow to four meters in height.

"It is too big for marsupial grazers (kangaroos) and for cattle or buffalo, the largest feral mammals," he said.

"I'm talking about using elephants as a machine or ecological tool to manage this grass," he said in an interview for the Guardian, acknowledging that his proposal is radical and has major risks associated with it.

"You'd use all the sophisticated technology available to manage and husband the elephants, containing and tracking them with GPS collars and tracking their fertility," he said.

Scientists at Charles Darwin University in Darwin acknowledge the urgent need to tackle the spread of gamba grass, which has been declared a pest by the government, but say conventional methods will work.

"There is an urgent need for action but we need to pursue the problem in a conventional, strategic and well-resourced way," according to Dr Samantha Setterfield, associate professor of environmental management and ecology at the university.

"Introducing elephants is a very extreme proposal that would have very significant social and environmental impacts," she said.

"It suggests that we've exhausted the conventional options like the use of common herbicides like roundup which work on gamba grass," she said.

Ricky Spencer, senior lecturer with the Native and Pest Animal unit at the University of Western Sydney says introducing elephants would pose significant problems.

"If we did go down the road of introducing elephants to Australia, we had better develop the technology to clone saber-tooth tigers to eventually control the elephants," he said in a statement.

The biggest opposition to Bowman's suggestion though is likely to come from Australian quarantine authorities which impose some of the world's strictest requirements on the importation of animals. Currently the importation of both rhinos and elephants is prohibited under the Quarantine Act, according to a spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Animals destined for zoos may only be imported under special provisions.

Dangers of Fracking

2012-02-07T14:28:00.000-08:00

Dangers of Fracking:

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Doritos® - Man's Best Friend -- Crash the Super Bowl 2012 Finalist - YouTube

2012-02-07T02:19:00.000-08:00

Doritos® - Man's Best Friend -- Crash the Super Bowl 2012 Finalist - YouTube
y CrashtheSuperBowl on Jan 3, 2012

It's up to you to decide which commercials will air on the Super Bowl. And for every 100,000 votes we get, we'll spice things up by giving away $10,000 to one lucky voter. Vote today at http://www.CrashTheSuperBowl.com and
http://Facebook.com/DoritosUSA

Economic sustainability movement gains traction in Beaufort County, organizers say | islandpacket.com

2012-02-07T02:04:00.000-08:00

Economic sustainability movement gains traction in Beaufort County, organizers say | islandpacket.com

Developer Charles Fraser designed Sea Pines on Hilton Head Island in the 1950s to meld the community into its surroundings and conserve its natural beauty.

Sixty years later, that philosophy has been adopted by a growing number of businesses and nonprofits working to promote sustainability and conservation throughout Beaufort County.

On Feb. 28, a pair of independent nonprofit associations, both formed in 2011 and based in different parts of the county, will discuss ways residents and business owners can work to secure Beaufort County's resources and make it more self-sufficient.

"We have incredible tidal, solar and geothermal resources in this county, and right now they're basically untapped whatsoever," said Mallory Baches, executive director of Beaufort-based Sea Islands 2050.

The goal of her fledgling group is to establish Beaufort County as a national model of sustainability by 2050.

To this end, Baches said she's working with residents and elected officials to combat any reliance on imports, so that future generations will be able to feed, clothe and shelter themselves using only locally produced materials.

"Pop culture tends to take a direct, simplistic approach to sustainability, but we're talking about the ecological, economic and social longevity of a community," she said.

Teresa Wade, executive director of Hilton Head-based Experience Green, encourages people to incorporate sustainable practices into their personal and professional lives.

The discussion will follow a workshop hosted by Experience Green called "The Business Case for Sustainability," which Wade says will demonstrate how local businesses can save money by incorporating her strategies.

"We've hit the ground running and have been developing quickly," Wade said. "It's exciting to see (the practices) already integrate in our communities."

One such beneficiary of Wade's lessons was Tony Wartko, director of facility services at Sea Pines. He said he attended a lecture she delivered last year and was inspired to incorporate changes to his preparations for the upcoming RBC Heritage golf tournament.

"We'll be doing more vegetative composting, and reusing trimmings from the course as mulch," he said. "And we've installed more purple martin birdhouses, since they eat a lot of mosquitoes."

Wartko said the local trend toward sustainability reflects a broader change he's seen in recent years in guests from around the country.

"We get a lot of questions about our sustainability now, like how much water we use," he said. "And people planning weddings here will ask for only local and organic food.

"That didn't happen before."

Follow reporter Grant Martin at Twitter.com/LowCoBiz.

Related content

Hilton Head hopes to tap into 'green' money machine, Sept. 17, 2011

Read more here: http://www.islandpacket.com/2012/02/06/1954966/economic-sustainability-movement.html#storylink=cpy

Sustainability is the Moneyball of the Global Economy - Bloomberg

2012-02-07T02:02:00.000-08:00

Sustainability is the Moneyball of the Global Economy - Bloomberg

Baseball has always provided Americans a rich mine of metaphors and parables. Then along came Michael Lewis’s book Moneyball, now a movie nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, to knock one out of the park. Its lessons are applicable far from home plate.

Moneyball tells the story of Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane, who two decades ago threw aside commonly held assumptions about how to build a team roster. He proved that deep statistical measurement and analysis are more useful than conventional wisdom, sending the A's to the World Series on one of the lowest budgets in baseball.

Sustainability is the Moneyball of the global economy. Investors are pushing for new kinds of sustainability “stats” to measure an investment's prospects. The protagonist of Greenball isn't the general manager, but rather the prescient fund manager or company executive. Instead of restricting his understanding of a company's value to traditional financial metrics, these investors are looking at environment, social and governance data (ESG).

Like A's manager Billy Beane, sustainability investors are ignoring stolen bases and grand slams and focusing on who is consistently moving forward. ESG disclosure scores are the new OBP. There are dozens of possible ESG metrics. Topics are as universal as greenhouse gas emissions, water use, employee sustainability training or percentage of board members that are women. Measures are also sector-specific, such as number of spills, which are monitored in extractive industries.

Corporate sustainability reporting is still missing the uniformity and ubiquity of traditional financial reporting. Movements are afoot on some stock exchanges to encourage sustainability reporting, including initiatives at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and Brazil’s Bovespa.

Despite much progress at collecting ESG data, now measured by financial data companies including Bloomberg and Reuters, the current backlog of five years of aggregate data is insufficient to quantify the value of pursuing sustainability. Do sustainability efforts drive better stock performance? What are the best ways for investors to weigh a company's sustainability? The World Series of the global economy will play out over the coming decades, and sustainability rosters are just being filled out.

Brilliant Teacher Silenced

2012-02-07T01:44:00.001-08:00

My learning about many things has been greatly advanced by watching the many wonderful TED Speeches. Sometimes watching favorite speeches many times over. Mike deGruy generated enthusiasm for the oceans with his passionate presentation and he was a pleasure to watch.

In this talk, as in his photography and his many films, you can sense Mike’s infectious humor, his passion for the oceans — and his example of a life well and richly lived.

We are saddened by the news that ocean photographer, filmmaker and storyteller Mike deGruy died yesterday in a helicopter crash in Australia. Mike was truly one of the great teachers and advocates for the oceans, as you can see in his TEDTalk, filmed aboard Mission Blue in 2010:

2012-02-05T15:16:00.000-08:00

http://myconservationpark.goodworldgames.com/?jump=4&aff=

Conservation Game dby Orangutan Outreach, RedApes.org

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M.O.M. - Missing Orangutan Mothers 2012 Campaign Video - YouTube

2012-02-05T14:34:00.000-08:00

M.O.M. - Missing Orangutan Mothers 2012 Campaign Video - YouTube: ""

Uploaded by redapes on Jan 29, 2012

Every year on Mothers Day Orangutan Outreach celebrates orangutan mothers in zoos around the world. We take this special day to bring attention to the hundreds of orphaned orangutans being cared for in rescue centers in Borneo and Sumatra. Learn more about the campaign:http://redapes.org/mom

This year's MOM Campaign is dedicated to the memory of an angelic baby orangutan called Luna. She 'went missing' under questionable circumstances last year: http://redapes.org/luna
Learn more: http://redapes.org/sintang/jaan

Orangutans desperately need your help: http://redapes.org/donate

Adopt an orangutan today: http://redapes.org/adopt

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Willie Smits restores a rainforest | Video on TED.com

2012-02-05T14:31:00.000-08:00

Willie Smits restores a rainforest | Video on TED.com:

By piecing together a complex ecological puzzle, biologist Willie Smits has found a way to re-grow clearcut rainforest in Borneo, saving local orangutans -- and creating a thrilling blueprint for restoring fragile ecosystems.

Willie Smits has devoted his life to saving the forest habitat of orangutans, the "thinkers of the jungle." As towns, farms and wars encroach on native forests, Smits works to save what is left.

y you should listen to him:

Willie Smits works at the complicated intersection of humankind, the animal world and our green planet. In his early work as a forester in Indonesia, he came to a deep understanding of that triple relationship, as he watched the growing population of Sulawesi move into (or burn for fuel) forests that are home to the orangutan. These intelligent animals were being killed for food, traded as pets or simply failing to thrive as their forest home degraded.

Smits believes that to rebuild orangutan populations, we must first rebuild their forest habitat -- which means helping local people find options other than the short-term fix of harvesting forests to survive. His Masarang Foundation raises money and awareness to restore habitat forests around the world -- and to empower local people. In 2007, Masarang opened a palm-sugar factory that uses thermal energy to turn sugar palms (fast-growing trees that thrive in degraded soils) into sugar and even ethanol, returning cash and power to the community and, with luck, starting the cycle toward a better future for people, trees and orangs.

"This man has dedicated his life to saving the world, and for this he earns our deepest respect."

Jean Kern, Ode

Willie Smits on the Web
Homepage: Masarang Foundation
Nonprofit: Orangutan Outreach
Twitter: @redapes
Bookmark this speaker
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How we rescued the "dancing" bears

2012-02-05T13:44:00.000-08:00

Kartick Satyanarayan: How we rescued the "dancing" bears | Video on TED.com:

Traditionally, the Kalandar community of India has survived by capturing sloth bear cubs and training them to "dance" through extreme cruelty. Kartick Satyanarayan has been able to put an end to this centuries-old practice, and in so doing discovered a lesson of wider significance: make the practitioners part of the solution.

Kartick Satyanarayan works tirelessly to save India’s wild animals from illegal captivity and poaching -- most notably rescuing hundreds of “dancing” bears.

Kartick Satyanarayan on the Web
Website: WildlifeSOS.org
Twitter: Wildlife SOS

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New kind of high-temperature photonic crystal could someday power everything from smartphones to spacecraft

2012-02-04T03:14:00.000-08:00

New kind of high-temperature photonic crystal could someday power everything from smartphones to spacecraft: "A team of MIT researchers has developed a way of making a high-temperature version of a kind of materials called photonic crystals, using metals such as tungsten or tantalum. The new materials — which can operate at temperatures up to 1200 degrees Celsius — could find a wide variety of applications powering portable electronic devices, spacecraft to probe deep space, and new infrared light emitters that could be used as chemical detectors and sensors."

A microscope image of the tungsten photonic crystal structure reveals the precise uniform spacing of cavities formed in the material, which are tuned to specific wavelengths of light. Image courtesy of Y.X. Yeng et al.

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Clean Water

2012-02-04T03:01:00.000-08:00

Kevin Carter’s Pulitzer Prize winning photo taken in 1991 during the Sudane famine. The picture depicts a famine stricken child being stalked by a vulture. The child is crawling towards a United Nations food camp, located a kilometer away.

No one knows what happened to the child, including the photographer who left the scene as soon as the photo was taken. He later confided to friends that he wished he had intervened. Journalists at the time were warned never to touch famine victims for fear of disease.

Three months later, and only weeks after being bestowed with the Pulitzer Prize, Kevin Carter committed suicide.

Jane Goodall on Roots and Shoots

2012-02-01T09:35:00.001-08:00

Roots and Shoots

2012-02-01T09:32:00.001-08:00

Roots & Shoots youth raise funds for trees in Tanzania

After a year of literally sowing seeds of hope, participants in the “ReBirth the Earth: Trees for Tomorrow” campaign—as part of Jane Goodall’s global Roots & Shoots youth program—have something to celebrate:

Raised: $16,415 (USD)
Planted: 3,550 trees

The youth-initiated and youth-led campaign blew the top off of its tree-planting and fundraising goals, which were to raise $10,000 for five Roots & Shoots tree nurseries in Tanzania while planting 3,000 trees in the United States. Campaign organizers called on young people across the US to panda miti (Swahili for “plant trees”) and get sponsorships for every tree planted. Our campaign was supported by Animal Planet and the National Arbor Day Foundation and led by Campaign Chairperson Bryan Lairmore.

Money raised paid for seedlings, their transport, nursery tools, and training youth in Tanzania how to start and maintain nurseries. Now, Roots & Shoots members from three schools in Moshi, near Mount Kilimanjaro, have put 1,351 seeds into sprouting beds. Meanwhile, in the Morogoro region, young Roots & Shoots members began bedding seeds this month, hoping to have 10,000 seedlings ready for planting by year-end. As the youth work to establish the tree nurseries, they’re learning about local tree species and sustainable growing practices.

The ReBirth the Earth campaign started in 2006, after 10 Roots & Shoots youth leaders from the US traveled to Tanzania as part of an immersion experience. While there, they joined local Roots & Shoots groups in planting trees and learned there was a need for more nurseries.

“This is a fantastic and exciting campaign, because it is completely conceived, organized and implemented by our Roots & Shoots young people,” said Dr. Goodall. “These youth are gaining the worldly knowledge and practical skills to make a real difference in their own communities and in the communities of their new-found friends in Tanzania.”

land,soil,water and wildlife conservation.avi - YouTube

2012-01-31T14:14:00.000-08:00

land,soil,water and wildlife conservation.avi - YouTube: ""

http://www.youtube.com/user/nascentedutech?feature=watch

About nascentedutech's channel

For school students, to learn with animated and interactive content..

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Lessons from the Sustainable Agriculture Farming Systems Project

2012-01-31T13:48:00.000-08:00

This speaker highlights that change does not come easy and it does not come quickly in agriculture.

Lessons from the Sustainable Agriculture Farming Systems Project - YouTube: ""

by eOrganic on Mar 25, 2011

Presented live at the 2011 USDA Organic Farming Systems Conference by Karen Klonsky, University of California, Davis. Part of the panel on Profitability in Organic Farming Systems - Findings from U.S. Long-term Experiments. For all recordings visit http://www.extension.org/pages/33545/usda-organic-farming-systems-conference-...

Category:
Science & Technology
Tags:
eOrganic
organic
research
USDA
farming
agriculture
License:
Standard YouTube License

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Modern Sustainable Agriculture - YouTube

2012-01-31T13:44:00.000-08:00

Modern Sustainable Agriculture - YouTube: ""

Takes on myths about modern agriculture perpetuated by films like Food Inc & popular media, presents facts about 'factory farming', corn, organic food & pesticides, biotechnology, livestock production & climate change, meat consumption and climate change .

( a longer slower version of 'A Guide to Sustainable Agriculture')

This provides an example of the impacts of economic growth and technological change, the invisible green hand.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

sustainable agriculture biotechnology agriculture sustainability green technology organic food livestock beef corn

License:

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"We are Farmers, We Grow Food for the People"

2012-01-31T13:33:00.000-08:00

"We are Farmers, We Grow Food for the People" - YouTube: ""

ploaded by fooddemocracynow on Dec 24, 2011

The story of the historic Occupy Wall Street Farmers March.

On December 4, 2011, farmers and activists from across the country joined the Occupy Wall Street Farmers March for "a celebration of community power to regain control over the most basic element to human well-being: food." The Farmers March began at La Plaza Cultural Community Gardens where urban and rural farmers addressed an excited crowd about the growing problems in our industrial food system and the promise offered by solutions based in organic, sustainable and community based food and agricultural production. This was followed by a 3 mile march from the East Village to Zuccotti Park, the birthplace of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

We would like to thank Occupy Wall Street, the OWS food justice working group and all the farmers and citizens, urban and rural that participated in the day's events.

Produced by Food Democracy Now!
Directed by Anthony Lappé, INVISIBLE HAND
In association with No Umbrella Media
DP (NY): Dave Ambrose
Additional footage courtesy of Pull-Start Pictures
Music by Libby Kirkpatrick with Daron Murphy
InvisibleHandMedia.net

Category:
News & Politics
Tags:
Occupy Wall Street
#OWS
organic
family farms
Monstanto
small farms
Farm Bill
Food Democracy Now!
License:
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Willow Retreat

2012-01-29T11:48:00.000-08:00

About Us

Nestled in the foothills of the Cape Breton Highlands, Nova Scotia, on the world-famous Cabot Trail, is a special place called Willow Retreat. Completely off-grid, the log home sits on twenty-five acres, four acres of which are organic gardens, the rest is forest. The property is in a quiet, secluded location and backs onto thousands of acres of Crown land. If you're stressed to the max, if your Blackberry is running your life, if you're badly in need of some down time, then come and take a break from the urban/suburban grind and relax in a beautiful, peaceful country setting.

At Willow Retreat we offer a variety of interesting workshops, as well as Reiki treatments and training, meditation sessions and nature walks and hikes. We also offer custom retreats for those involved in all aspects of the creative arts.

Exclusive

We only accommodate six guests at a time, so you are guaranteed a high level of attention and service.

Creative

We aim to stimulate your creativity, whether it be painting a rose in the garden, putting the finishing touches to your novel, or simply sitting by the waterfall and dreaming the day away.

Contemplative

From relaxing on the Reiki table to picking raspberries in the garden, from walking the woodland trails to meditating beside a tranquil pond, we are confident you will find your favourite way to unwind, refresh and recharge.

Bald Eagle

2012-01-29T11:27:00.001-08:00

Source: Fragment from BBC Nature's Great Events - The Great Salmon Run: http://www.bbc.co.uk/naturesgreatevents/

Pt 1 - Symposium: Energy, Climate and the Environment - YouTube

2012-01-27T14:45:00.000-08:00

Pt 1 - Symposium: Energy, Climate and the Environment - YouTube: ""

loaded by UChannel on Apr 8, 2008

Welcome and Introduction. (length 48:09)

H. Vincent Poor
Dean, School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Michael Henry Strater University Professor of Electrical Engineering, Princeton University

Charles M. Vest
President, National Academy of Engineering, and President Emeritus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Robert Socolow
Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University
Living in a Greenhouse with the Help of Stabilization Wedges

Category:

News & Politics
Tags:
uchannel
princeton
climate
environment
energy
science
global
lectures
academic
License:

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Pt 1 - Symposium: Energy, Climate and the Environment - YouTube
► 48:10► 48:10	www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUjxMLcVTQg8 Apr 2008 - 48 min - Uploaded by UChannel Welcome and Introduction. (length 48:09) H. Vincent Poor Dean, School of Engineering and Applied Science ...

Pt 2 - Symposium: Energy, Climate and the Environment - YouTube
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► 49:44► 49:44

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Unequal Use of Resources 0f the Planet

2012-01-17T01:43:00.000-08:00

Doughty Hanson & Co.

2012-01-16T19:16:00.000-08:00

Merchant Banker behind Sustainable Technologies:

http://www.doughtyhanson.com/technology-ventures/portfolio/cleantech-and-energy/sustainable-energy-technologies.aspx

http://www.sustainableenergy.com/

Higher Energy Yield
5-15% more energy production with the elimination of mismatch and partial shading losses

More Power per Rooftop
Increased energy density on the roof with the flexibility of parallel architecture to work around obstacles and eliminate dead space

Safer Solar Power

With SUNERGY inverters all high DC voltages are eliminated, ensuring the safety of anyone who may come into contact with the array

Sustainable Energy is changing the way the world installs solar power, with innovative solutions to enhance energy output from solar power systems.

SUNERGY inverters offer the industry’s highest performing, most reliable, and safest solution to connect solar panels to the grid.

NEWS
ASTech recognizes Sustainable Energy for Innovation in Solar System Integration

Sustainable Energy was selected from over 50 nominations as the award winner for Outs

Sustainable Energy Ships Additional 65 Units to Leading US Distributor and is Poised to Ship Additional 112 Units Before Year End

Sustainable Energy Technology Ltd. (TSX-V: STG) (“Sustainable Energy”)

SUNERGY Inverters

SUNERGY inverters enable parallel wiring for PV arrays, boosting performance and setting a new benchmark for system safety.

Upcoming Conferences

• CanSIA Solar Canada (Dec. 5-6), Metro Toronto Convention Centre

Quick Links
• 2011 Corporate Presentation

• SET Reference Projects

• Spec Sheets, Manuals, Warranty

• SUNERGY Inverters -Ontario

gulfnews : Global meeting starts to explore innovative technology

2012-01-16T19:07:00.000-08:00

gulfnews : Global meeting starts to explore innovative technology:

"Global meeting starts to explore innovative technology"

Global meeting starts to explore innovative technology

650 companies and 20 national pavilions taking part in exhibition

Staff ReportPublished: 00:00 January 16, 2012

Image Credit: Abdel-Krim Kallouche/Gulf News

The Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre gets final touches yesterday for the World Future Energy Summit. The world’s foremost annual energy meeting is committed to promoting advancement of future energy technologies that include renewable sources, energy efficiency and water and waste management. Leaders will focus on innovation and business and investment opportunities to search of solutions to the growing need for sustainable energy.

Abu Dhabi: World leaders, international agencies, sustainability advocates, global heads of businesses and experts, academics and students interested in future energy technologies gather today in Abu Dhabi for the World Future Energy Summit (WFES 2012), running till Thursday at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.

The summit comes a few days after Dubai announced its biggest renewable energy initiative — the Dh12 billion Solar Park — last week. Hydrocarbon rich Gulf states are pumping in billions of dollars in diversifying their energy mix to make economies more sustainable.

"Now in its fifth year, the World Future Energy Summit is the world's foremost annual meeting committed to promoting advancement of future energy technologies, including renewable resources, energy efficiency, water and waste management ... [This will be done] by engaging political, business, finance, academic and industry leaders to drive innovation, business and investment opportunities in response to the growing need for sustainable energy," said a spokesperson.

Built around the theme ‘Powering Sustainable Innovation,' WFES 2012 will stage both a high-level conference and exhibition, with companies from all over the world promoting their latest products and services. Over 26,000 attendees, including 3,000 delegates, 650 exhibiting companies and 20 national pavilions are participating.

Student pledge

The summit will open with a ‘Policy and Strategy Forum', where leaders in government and global development organisations will put the future energy challenge in perspective.

Keynote speakers at the opening ceremony include UN Secretary General Ban-ki Moon, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, South Korean Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik and UN General Assembly president Nasser Abdul Aziz Al Nasser.

Speeches by Bertrand Picard, chief executive officer of Solar Impulse, and Aiden Dwyer, a young innovator from the US, along with a pledge by a group of UAE students to commit themselves to innovation for a cleaner future, will conclude the opening ceremony.

The summit will then split into three Ministerial Panel sessions with former heads of state, ministers and key advisers to governments on energy exchanging views on ‘Sustainable Energy for All,' ‘Action Towards Universal Energy Access' and ‘The Role of Government Institutions in Accelerating the Transition to a Global Clean Energy Economy'.

"The attendance of key political leaders from across the world is a reflection of the convening power of Masdar, which is rapidly emerging as a globally-renowned brand in the renewable energy field," said Naji Al Haddad, the WFES exhibition director.

Balance

"As governments and policymakers face a development dilemma, a multi-sector and multi-disciplinary approach to encouraging investment in innovations is critical to ensuring energy security.

"In this regard, Masdar's contribution to the summit has been invaluable. As every year, WFES will approach the energy challenge in its entirety, emphasising all aspects from environment and technology to investment and trading," he said.

To ensure equitable balance on all issues associated with energy, sustainability and development, WFES has dedicated each day of the conference to a topic of global relevance.

Investment

The second day of the conference will discuss "Business and Policy" while "Technology and Innovation" will take centre stage on the third day.

Investment will be the theme of the final day.

For the second consecutive year, a Project Village, hosting select projects in renewable energy and energy efficiency from the Middle East, India, Africa, and other markets is a significant component of WFES.

The summit will also host the Young Future Energy Leaders (YFEL) programme, an initiative organised in partnership with Masdar Institute. This will provide an opportunity for future leaders to interact with government representatives and business leaders involved in clean energy initiatives.

A new development this year is the Innovate@WFES zone dedicated to select small and medium-sized businesses working across the future energy value chain.

Irena assembly begins

An important week for renewable energy began in Abu Dhabi on Friday with a Pacific Leaders' Meeting organised by Irena, the International Renewable Energy Agency.

The Irena Assembly, which features interactive ministerial roundtables, plenary sessions and technical meetings, attracts more than 800 of the most influential voices in renewable energy, representing 131 countries and 57 organisations, and includes 64 ministers and other high-level officials.

"I look forward to the debate, negotiations, networking opportunities and exchange of ideas that our second assembly brings," said the agency's director general Adnan Z. Amin. "This will be a year in which we realise our full role in stepping up international efforts to create the enabling environments that will allow renewables to fulfill their potential in the world's energy mix."

Highlights of the Irena Assembly will be two interactive ministerial roundtables, one discussing cooperation with the private sector, and the other focusing on policy issues related to Irena's medium-term strategy. Other activities include the high-level group sessions, and technical meetings on the Global Solar and Wind Atlas, and the competitiveness of renewable power generation.

Irena and its partners will also host an information and discussion booth at the World Future Energy Summit.

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Canadian transplants bring U.S. bald eagle back from the brink

2012-01-13T19:38:00.000-08:00

Canadian transplants bring U.S. bald eagle back from the brink:

Bald Eagle On Mountaintop
Photograph by: Pamela Joe McFarlane, Getty Images/iStockphoto

The bald eagle — the U.S. national bird and a species on the brink of extinction in the lower 48 states just a generation ago — is now thriving again in the heartland of the American Revolution thanks to a series of transplants from Canada.

New Jersey has become the latest U.S. state to celebrate the majestic raptor's revival, with wildlife officials announcing a "milestone" achievement of 100 nesting pairs at the start of 2012 — nearly all of which are descended from the 60 eaglets imported from the bird's healthier Canadian habitats since the 1980s.

Some of the individual birds introduced from this country may yet be alive and counted among New Jersey's current bald eagle population.

Eagles have been known to live beyond 30 years in the wild.

"The recovery of the bald eagle from one nesting pair in an isolated swamp in southern New Jersey in the early 1980s to more than 100 pairs today is a truly remarkable success story," the state's environmental protection commissioner, Bob Martin, said in a statement after the release of a report last month that found 102 pairs nesting in the state.

The statement attributed the bird's recovery "from the edge of extirpation" to a ban on the use of the pesticide DDT and "decades of restoration and management efforts" by New Jersey wildlife officials, who "released 60 eaglets from Canada into New Jersey in the 1980s and early 1990s to rebuild the population."

DDT was a widely used pesticide that had caused fatally thin eggshells among eagles and other bird species in the 1960s and '70s. The ban on the chemical was spurred largely by the precipitous decline in bald eagle populations, an existential environmental crisis in a country where the white-headed bird ranks with the Stars and Stripes among the most potent symbols of American nationhood.

New Jersey wildlife officials noted in the December report that bald eagle nests have now been documented in 18 of the state's 21 counties, and that the total population of birds probably exceeds 300.

"In addition to the continued increase in the overall numbers of eagles," state wildlife biologist Kathy Clark said in a statement, "what's really exciting is that they are being found all across the state in all types of habitats, including along small lakes and reservoirs in northern New Jersey."

A similar record of success has been reported in New Jersey neighbour Pennsylvania, where that state's bald eagle population has rebounded from just three nesting pairs in 1980 to more than 200 today — thanks largely to the emergency reintroduction of 88 eagles from Saskatchewan between 1983 and 1989.

"The recovery of the bald eagle has been one of the great wildlife conservation stories in the history of both the state and the nation,'' the Pennsylvania Game Commission, which oversees wildlife conservation in the state, declared in a 2010 report. "Pennsylvania's nesting bald eagle population has increased steadily and dramatically in recent years, roughly 15 per cent annually."

Other U.S. states, including Massachusetts, have also imported Canadian bald eagles to replenish native populations that had all but vanished before recovery efforts began in earnest around the time of the U.S. bicentennial in 1976. The 200th anniversary of the country's birth led many American conservation advocates to lament the iconic eagle's sorry state.

The bald eagle effectively became the U.S. national bird in 1782 when it was placed at the centre of the Great Seal of the United States — seven years before George Washington even became the first president of the newly independent federation of former British colonies.

Officially declared endangered in the lower 48 states in 1967, the eagle was upgraded to "threatened" in 1995 and finally removed from the U.S. endangered species list in 2007.

The effort to restore bald eagle populations south of the U.S.-Canada border is one of many cross-border projects aimed at preventing the extinction of signature species in North America.

The continent's tallest and most endangered bird, the whooping crane, has been the focus of a long-running recovery plan involving wildlife agencies from both Canada and the U.S. Once reduced to a few dozen individuals, the whooping crane population remains vulnerable but now numbers about 400.

The species' only wild flock migrates annually between its Canadian nesting grounds in Wood Buffalo National Park, on the border between Alberta and the Northwest Territories, and its summer habitat at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Texas.

Similarly, efforts to sustain the endangered North Atlantic right whale — a species that also has about 400 individuals — involve various Canadian and American government agencies and research bodies and scores of marine biologists.

rboswell@postmedia.com

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We Are Prodigal People When Viewing Our Role As Stewards oOf Our Planet

2012-01-10T12:57:00.000-08:00

Henri Rousseau

We have inherited an incredibly beautiful and complex garden, but
the trouble is that we have been appallingly bad gardeners.

We have not bothered to acquaint ourselves with the simplest
principles of gardening.

By neglecting our garden, we are storing up for ourselves,
in the not very distant future, a world catastrophe as bad as any
atomic war, and we are doing it with all the bland complacency of an
idiot child chopping up a Rembrandt with a pair of scissors.

--Gerald Durrell

picture:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Henri_Rousseau

Why Bill Gates Says We Must Triple Our Clean Energy Innovation Funding | Bob Keefe's Blog | Switchboard, from NRDC

2012-01-09T16:55:00.000-08:00

Why Bill Gates Says We Must Triple Our Clean Energy Innovation Funding | Bob Keefe's Blog | Switchboard, from NRDC:

Share||

Some politicians are trying to turn clean energy into something dirty. They say we ought to cut federal support for energy programs - unless maybe they involve drilling for oil and gas.he money to do it by eliminating tax breaks to Big Oil companies.

In a Science magazine editorial, Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates says that if Americans don’t do more to support clean energy innovation, we face a very dim future.

Gates is part of a group of business leaders (the American Energy Innovation Council) that is urging the country to increase federal energy research funding from $5 billion to $16 billion a year.

“The United States is uniquely positioned to lead in energy innovation, with great universities and national laboratories and an abundance of entrepreneurial talent,” Gates writes in Science. “But the government must lend a hand.”

The richest person in America says the investments needed to develop major new technologies like clean energy are just too big to be covered only by venture capital or traditional energy companies. He also points out that the market alone can’t drive enough growth in clean energy needed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions that are causing global warming and all the climate problems that come with it. Government needs to help.

Even if we don’t support clean energy to help save our planet, America should support clean energy if we want to save our economy and our future as a world leader, Gates adds.

“History has repeatedly proven that federal investments in research return huge payoffs, with incredible associated benefits for U.S. industries and the economy,” he writes. “Yet over the past three decades, U.S. government investment in energy innovation has dropped by more than 75%. In 2008, the United States spent less on energy R&D as a percentage of gross domestic product than China, France, Japan, or Canada.”

Unfortunately, funding clean energy investments may be even more difficult due to the failure Monday of the so-called super committee to agree to a deficit-reduction plan.

But as Gates points out, and a new USA Today analysis shows, investing in clean energy is a good idea.

While conservatives in Congress and on the campaign trail continue to beat up the Obama administration over the Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program, USA Today's analysis confirms that government has actually been pretty good at picking winners and losers in clean energy and other technologies when you look beyond Solyndra.

“So far, the legislation has sparked adoption of electronic medical-records software and nurtured an electric-car industry that will sell at least 20,000 cars this year,” USA Today contributor Tim Mullaney writes. “At least 19 companies have gone public or filed for IPOs after getting stimulus money, from Solazyme's $21.8 million grant to build a pilot biofuels refinery to a $1.6 billion loan guarantee letting BrightSource Energy build the world's biggest solar-generation plant of its kind, according to securities-disclosure filings.”

According to the USA Today analysis conducted by tech research firm International Data Corp., federal investments have helped spark:

-An 82 percent gain in the stocks of 11 health care technology companies since President Obama took office.

-A 263 percent gain in the three public companies that took $7.8 billion of federal financing to build next-generation vehicle factories.

-A 79 percent jump in stocks of the four leading energy-efficiency companies.

-A 54 percent increase in stocks of companies involved in developing smart electric grids.

Overall, the federal investment in new technologies has soundly beaten the stock market and most venture-capital funds raised in 2008, according to the USA Today piece.

As Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu has taken to saying, America has a choice when it comes to clean energy.

This time, the choice is whether we listen to nay-saying politicians and pundits who say clean energy is “propaganda” and that we ought to just give up and let China take over America’s energy future.

Or, we can listen to visionaries like Bill Gates and investors who see America’s future in clean energy.

It’s our choice.

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Kelvin Thomson on Rising Population Impact

2012-01-06T12:01:00.000-08:00

Kelvin Thomson discusses immigration and population growth's global impact on rising food prices, increased demand for grain and petroleum, and population's direct impact on social unrest. Recent findings demonstrate how rapid population growth fuels political instability. Thomson discusses the situation in countries such as Tunisia, Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana, where too many people competing for scarce available resources ultimately lead to social conflict. In many developed countries, high immigration has lead to higher unemployment rates and civil unrest. Thomson explains how policy makers should focus on policies to slow migration to solve social problems.

Ben Zuckerman- Growing U.S. Population

2012-01-06T12:00:00.000-08:00

Ben Zuckerman discusses the impact of a growing US population on the natural environment. According to Zuckerman, overpopulation is clearly an intergenerational and interspecies ethical issue. California's diversity hot spots are closely related to California's areas of high population growth. Zuckerman describes how California is more densely populated than Germany and by 2040, California at 50 million, will surpass China's population density. More importantly, Zuckerman emphasizes that unlike China, California has no plan to fix its population crisis. Zuckerman points out that our current economic model requires high per capita consumption, which is in direct conflict with the requirements of sustainability. Because of the impact of population growth on our environment, catastrophic events, rather than the decisions of rational human beings, are likely to determine the course of events over the next century.

Black Gold

2012-01-06T11:46:00.001-08:00

Penguins - BBC - YouTube

2012-01-04T14:17:00.000-08:00

Penguins - BBC - YouTube: ""

'via Blog this'

Like Add to Share
Uploaded by BBC on Mar 31, 2008
Film maker and writer Terry Jones discovers a colony of penguins, which are unlike any other penguins in the world.
Making of: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzhDsojoqk8
Category:
Entertainment
Tags:
bbc flying fly penguins terry jones iplayer trail trailer april fool fools cgi special visual effects
License:
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6,513 likes, 187 dislikes

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India's Bajaj unveils ultra-cheap car - YouTube

2012-01-04T14:06:00.000-08:00

India's Bajaj unveils ultra-cheap car - YouTube: ""

'via Blog this'

Published on Jan 3, 2012 by AFP
Indian manufacturer Bajaj Auto unveils an ultra-low-cost car ahead of the country's premier car expo. It's Bajaj's first foray into the four-wheel market, pitching the vehicle as a solution to urban pollution and congestion.Duration: 00:57
Category:
News & Politics
Tags:
WEB INDIA AUTO POLLUTION BAJAJ
License:
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Let's go to the Beach!

2012-01-04T10:40:00.001-08:00

Beach in China

Overpopulation- The Making of a Myth

2012-01-04T10:20:00.001-08:00

by ColinPri1

Effects of Urbanization

2012-01-04T10:06:00.001-08:00

Presentation by Ana Romero
Music Lonestar by Norah Jones

Sustainability Trends in 2012

2012-01-02T16:42:00.000-08:00

2012is finally upon us and it's time to look at the sustainability trends for the new year. The last few years have been pretty challenging, with the financial crisis and the efforts by climate denialists to make it appear that it's all business as usual. But perhaps one of the biggest obstacles to sustainability is the "lack of consistent and comparable standards for defining and measuring sustainability," says Dan Probst, chairman of energy and sustainability services at Jones Lang LaSalle, an international financial and professional services firm specializing in real estate.

Probst has spotted four major trends that will shape sustainability-related actions in 2012. One of them is transparency. "Five major U.S. cities and two states have enacted energy performance measurement and disclosure policies to date, and nine more cities and states have bills under considerations, to help tenants and investors make better informed decisions. Buildings in Europe are required to display energy performance certificates, and Australia is implementing similar requirements," he said.

Probst also believes global consistency will be a major sustainability trend in 2012. He says deeper sustainability reporting by cities and corporations has intensified the need for consistent ways to measure the effectiveness of energy, water and other sustainability strategies on a global basis. He mentions LEED as an example. The building sustainability rating system originated in the U.S. is now frequently used in many countries with their own systems, as owners seek to attract international tenants. Energy Star, the U.S. EPA energy benchmarking standard, will soon be able to provide accurate ratings across North America, thanks to a new cooperative agreement with Canada.

2012 will also see more public and private collaboration, Probst foresees. The Better Buildings Challenge, a $4 billion energy retrofit commitment announced in December by the U.S. federal government and 60 CEOs, mayors, university presidents, and labor leaders, is a clear example of the private/public nexus. The eight-year initiative includes $2 billion in energy upgrades of federal buildings and another $2 billion of private capital to improve energy by 20 percent in buildings totaling 1.5 billion square feet.

Finally, there will be more focus on solar energy in 2012. Probst says the growth seen in 2011 will carry forward into 2012, albeit at a slower pace. Commercial properties have driven growth, although utility-based installations saw a 325 percent rise between the second and third quarters. He predicts several variables will determine the fate of solar in 2012, such as basic supply and demand economics, technological improvements, and the amount and type of available incentives.

Saving the Baobab Trees

2012-01-02T11:04:00.001-08:00

Building Reefs in Bali

2012-01-02T10:59:00.001-08:00

A sunny day for Google, invests $94M in solar power projects | VentureBeat

2011-12-21T01:23:00.000-08:00

A sunny day for Google, invests $94M in solar power projects | VentureBeat:

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While the implosion of solar power company Solyndra has seemingly cast a shadow on the viability of the solar industry, that hasn’t stopped Google from investing $94 million in photovoltaic (generating power through solar radiation) projects in California.

Google says it’s investing the funds in four photovoltaic projects near Sacramento, Calif. which are being built by Recurrent Energy. The investment brings Google’s total clean tech portfolio to over $915 million. At this rate, Google’s clean tech investments will likely reach $1 billion within the next year.

“We’ve already committed to providing funding this year to help more than 10,000 homeowners install solar PV panels on their rooftops,” writes assistant Google treasurer Axel Martinez. “But this investment represents our first investment in the U.S. in larger scale solar PV power plants that generate energy for the grid — instead of on individual rooftop. These projects have a total capacity of 88 MW, equivalent to the electricity consumed by more than 13,000 homes.”

Google is making the investment together with KKR, which is today forming a new venture for solar projects, SunTap Energy. This will be KKR’s first clean tech investment in the U.S.

Solyndra ended up falling apart because it couldn’t compete with the falling solar panel prices from competitors. The company received a $535 million loan from the Department of Energy, a move that has undergone quite a bit of scrutiny over the past year. The failure of Solyndra is definitely a warning sign for the clean tech community, but hopefully more high-profile investments like Google’s will serve to rekindle excitement in clean tech, and specifically solar power.

Solar Power: (FSLR, JASO, LDK, NRG, STP, TSL, YGE)

2011-12-15T23:06:00.000-08:00

Is Solar Power Dead?
By Travis Hoium

First Solar's (Nasdaq: FSLR ) lowered guidance yesterday ...and stock prices fell.

As is often the case in emerging industries, the growing pains can be, well, painful. Bankruptcies have started to make headlines in 2011, and the real shakeout of suppliers will take much more than the exposure of a few weak manufacturers.

Solar stocks are a minefield right now, but if we decouple these stocks from the health of the industry itself, the story looks a little rosier.

The important numbers

According to a recent report by GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association, U.S. PV installations in the third quarter reached a record 449 MW, 140% growth year over year, more than all of the solar installed in 2009, and nearly matching the first three quarters of 2010 combined. The tremendous growth recently has been driven by massive utility scale projects from First Solar, NRG Energy (NYSE: NRG ) , and many others.

The Solar Foundation says there are now more than 100,000 people working in the solar industry in the U.S. and employers are expected to add another 24,000 jobs by August 2012.

Quarter over quarter, the weighted average installed price of solar in the U.S. fell from $5.20/watt to $4.45/watt driven by utility scale projects. Residential costs fell $0.17 to $6.24 per watt, nonresidential fell $0.26 to $4.94 per watt, and utility scale solar fell $0.30 to $3.45 per watt.

Judging by the outstanding growth and falling costs, the solar market in the U.S. seems to be improving quite rapidly. In fact, manufacturers such as Suntech Power (NYSE: STP ) ,Trina Solar (NYSE: TSL ) , and Yingli Green Energy (NYSE: YGE ) are pointing to the U.S. as one of the most stable solar markets right now.

Politics

The effect politics has had on solar may be the death knell for some companies and could hold back further progress in 2012. In Europe, squabbling over a solution to the region's debt problems has left installers unable to finance viable projects. Here in the U.S., Republicans are holding up an extension to the 1603 Treasury Program, which gives a tax credit in a cash grant in lieu of an ordinary tax credit.

This is important in the U.S. because the solar industry alone has grown to more than 100,000 workers and according to a group of industry participants has driven $23 billion in investments in 22,000 projects.

That doesn't mean the entire industry is healthy

So the industry as a whole is growing, at least here in the U.S., costs are falling, and jobs are being created. All of those are positive signs for solar.
But that doesn't mean investors should rush into just any solar manufacturer this holiday season. As the drop in First Solar yesterday shows now every company is on the right side of industry trends.

Suppliers such as LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK ) and JA Solar (Nasdaq: JASO ) have seen sales flounder under weak demand, and low efficiency manufacturers are being hit especially hard. Stronger manufacturers with high efficiency modules have had margins squeezed, but with installers seeking quality, these companies will be the winners in the end.

Just like the early computer business or early in the Internet's development, the strong, high-quality companies will survive and the weak will slowly die off. As they do, it looks like trouble for the industry, but it's actually making the industry as a whole stronger.

Foolish bottom line

Just because solar stocks are down doesn't mean the industry is in trouble, and just because the industry is improving doesn't mean you should be buying solar stocks. Be judicious and consider companies with project development pipelines and high efficiency modules first.

SOLAR certainly is not dead!
ASPs are falling because the cost of a solar panel's main raw material, poly-silicon, has fallen dramatically. If costs go down, because of cheaper supplies and greater plant efficiencies, margins won't be squeezed by lower ASPs as much as most analysts predict. A supply glut leads to lower selling prices. Lower prices increase sales, not the other way around as the author stated.

Millions of home and business owners have been waiting for solar prices to come down. Well, they finally have, and they may get even lower, thus making the potential solar market even larger. Difficult financing of projects may be the biggest obstacle to sales now.

Do not forget that Japan, still stunned by the Fukushima disaster, has vowed to replace half of their electric energy supply with renewable sources by 2020. That will mean a lot of the glut will be absorbed there. In addition, Germany still plans to phase out the rest of it's nuclear reactor fleet in the next decade. They also plan to replace that supply with renewable energy sources. The USA still has it's 30% tax credit in place for solar energy expenditures. The credit is good for a few more years too. With today’s reduced prices on panels, they are finally cost effective. In states with an additional tax credit, the pay back period is less than 10 years. The expected usable life of a system is 25 years. That gives you 15+ years of free energy!

While it's true that newer technologies will be superior to today's, look how long it took for the current stuff to scale up to mass production.

Source:
Is Solar Power Dead? (FSLR, JASO, LDK, NRG, STP, TSL, YGE):

Solar Power Companies:
Yingli Green Energy Holding
Trina Solar
Suntech Power Holdings
NRG Energy
LDK Solar
JA Solar Holdings
First Solar

Related Tickers

12/15/2011 4:00 PM

FSLR	$31.45		-2.00	-5.98%
First Solar		CAPS Rating:

JASO	$1.35		+0.07	+5.47%
JA Solar Holdings…		CAPS Rating:

LDK	$4.24		+0.03	+0.71%
LDK Solar Co., Ltd…		CAPS Rating:

NRG	$18.21		+0.21	+1.17%
NRG Energy, Inc.		CAPS Rating:

STP	$2.29		-0.01	-0.43%
Suntech Power Hold…		CAPS Rating:

TSL	$6.63		+0.16	+2.47%
Trina Solar Limite…		CAPS Rating:

YGE	$3.61		+0.00	+0.00%
Yingli Green Energ…		CAPS Rating:

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Top50-Solar - The most popular internet websites about renewable energies and solar energy

2011-12-15T21:55:00.000-08:00

Top50-Solar - The most popular internet websites about renewable energies and solar energy:

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First Solar slashes forecast, staff & plans to flee subsidized markets

2011-12-15T20:56:00.000-08:00

First Solar slashes forecast, staff & plans to flee subsidized markets — Cleantech News and Analysis:

First Solar will focus on sales in countries in which providing low-priced equipment and engineering services will make money versus subsidized solar markets.

Solar panel maker and project developer, First Solar will unveil a 3-year plan early next year to describe just how it will move into and stay in markets that aren’t heavily dependent on government incentives. The goal is to avoid political risks that cause shifts in government funding for solar electricity.

The company’s 2012 action plan is to target the utilities market and to reduce its focus on the rooftop and off-grid market that serve businesses and consumers.

The company cut its 2011 sales forecast by about 12% to $2.8-$2.9 billion because of delayed projects due to “weather and other factors”.

Cost cutting measures forced the layoff of 100 workers, or nearly 1.5 percent of thier workforce.

The global solar industry has depended so much on government incentives, from guaranteed solar electric pricing to rebates or tax credits to offset the cost of installing solar projects.

Government subsidies have been the means for turning countries such as Germany and Italy into the largest solar markets in the world. In United States the chief solar industry trade group is fighting to extend a federal grant program that covers 30 percent of the cost of a project.

These subsidies, while helping to build a fast-growing market for solar electricity, also can change quickly from political decisions that are driven in large part by worries that the subsidies will cost too much money. These concerns are particularly prevalent during times of weak economy, when governments struggle to tighten spending.

Moreover, government subsidies have attracted manufacturers, particularly those in China that have been able to build up huge fleets of factories and ship huge volumes of cheaper products, even when demand is low. That imbalance of supply and demand has been particularly significant this year and led to trade complaints against Chinese solar manufacturers that make silicon solar panels.

First Solar ran an analysis of key government subsidy programs and noted that how countries such as Spain, Czech Republic and France cut their programs dramatically after realizing that their incentive programs were causing a solar construction boom that they hadn’t anticipated.

The growth of the U.S. solar market has depended largely on policies in states that require their utilities to include an increasing amount of renewable electricity in their supplies. California has become the largest solar market thanks to its aggressive mandates for utilities and also incentives for consumers to put solar panels on their rooftops. But Ahearn pointed out that the state has capped its program from the start – the requirement calls for sourcing 33 percent of the electricity from renewable sources by 2020. Utilities in the state have been signing so many contracts to buy renewable energy for delivery in the coming years that they are close to meeting their state mandates, he added.

Pacific Gas and Electric, for one, expects its renewable electricity mix to hit around 19 percent by the end of 2011, PG&E’s spokeswoman, Lynsey Paulo, told me yesterday. The state mandate is to reach an average of 20 percent during the years of 2011 to 2013. PG&E has signed power purchase agreements that will deliver more than 10 gigawatts of renewable energy, including solar, and they will more than meet the 20 percent goal for the next few years, Paulo added.

Ahearn said First Solar could make panels and design and develop solar power projects at even lower costs, and that advantage should allow it to compete in unsubsidized markets. The goal is to deliver solar energy systems at a price of $1.40-$1.60 per watt, which does not include the development costs that project owners will have to shoulder. “We don’t think our Chinese competitors can get there directly or indirectly” and remain profitable, Ahearn said.

“The real competition is (fossil fuel-based power), and we need to focus on the road ahead as opposed to the review mirror of these silicon guys,” Ahearn said.

.................................................................................
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:

Report: Cleantech’s Third-Quarter Growing Pains

Flash analysis: lessons from Solyndra’s fall

A 2011 Green IT Forecast

More companies to rearch:
http://www.top50-solar.de/en

Global Warming

2011-12-15T20:29:00.000-08:00

First Solar slashes forecast, staff & plans to flee subsidized markets — Cleantech News and Analysis

2011-12-15T18:59:00.000-08:00

First Solar slashes forecast, staff & plans to flee subsidized markets — Cleantech News and Analysis:

First Solar slashes forecast, staff & plans to flee subsidized markets

By Ucilia Wang Dec. 14, 2011, 8:24am PT 1 Comment

First Solar has had enough with subsidized solar markets and will bet its future on sales in countries in which solar companies that can provide low-priced equipment and engineering services will make money and stay in business, company executives said Wednesday.

The solar panel maker and project developer will unveil a 3-year plan early next year to describe just how it will march and stay into markets that aren’t heavily dependent on government incentives and political whims that can dramatically shrink their appetite for solar electricity, said interim CEO Mike Ahearn during a conference call to discuss the company’s 2012 action plan. The company plans to target the market that serves utilities and reduce its focus on the rooftop and off-grid market that serve businesses and consumers, he added.

In the mean time, the company cut its 2011 sales forecast to $2.8-$2.9 billion from the previously announced $3-$3.3 billion because of delays in certain projects from “weather and other factors”. Earnings for 2011 should hit $5.75-$6 per share. For 2012, the company expects to generate $3.7-$4 billion in sales and $3.75-$4.25 per share in earnings.

The company also announced the layoff of 100 workers, or nearly 1.5 percent of First Solar’s workforce. That reduction will include about 60 people at the research and development center in Santa Clara, Calif., in order to focus on developing its core technology of producing cadmium-telluride thin films, said First Solar spokesman Alan Bernheimer. The center will have about 40 people left. Bernheimer declined to confirm aDow Jones story from late last night about the departure of Markus Beck, who moved from Solyndra to First Solar in 2008 to develop solar cells using copper, indium, gallium and selenium at First Solar’s Santa Clara research center.

The conference call on Wednesday created a lot of anticipation beforehand not just because First Solar is an industry bellwether but also because it’s got to figure out how to weather a stormy time in the market. First Solar has struggled along with many of its rivals, some of whom have closed factories, lay off workers or even declared bankruptcies. The company’s previous CEO, Rob Gillette, left abruptly in October after being on the job for two years.

First Solar brought back Ahearn to serve as the temporary chief executive in October, and all eyes are on him to come up with a business plan that can ensure the company’s longevity. For nearly 10 years Ahearn presided over the rise of First Solar as manufacturing powerhouse before he left to pursue other interests, such as launching a $300 million greentech fund earlier this year. Can Ahearn work his magic this time around?

Although investors will have to wait until early 2012 to hear the detail of the company’s 3-year plan, they got a glimpse of it Wednesday when Ahearn laid out the roadblocks that he said have made it necessary to avoid markets heavily subsidized by the government. It’s a bold pronouncement considering that the global solar industry has depended so much on government incentives, from guaranteed solar electric pricing to rebates or tax credits to offset the cost of installing solar projects.

Government subsidies have been the means for turning countries such as Germany and Italy into the largest solar markets in the world. The same is true for the United States, where the chief solar industry trade group is fighting to extend a federal grant program that covers 30 percent of the cost of a project.

These subsidies, while helping to build a fast-growing market for solar electricity, also can change quickly from political decisions that are driven in large part by worries that the subsidies will cost too much money. These concerns are particularly prevalent during times of weak economy, when governments struggle to tighten spending.

Moreover, government subsidies have attracted manufacturers, particularly those in China that have been able to build up huge fleets of factories and ship huge volumes of cheaper products, even when demand is low. That imbalance of supply and demand has been particularly significant this year and led to trade complaints against Chinese solar manufacturers that make silicon solar panels.

The growth of the U.S. solar market has depended largely on policies in states that require their utilities to include an increasing amount of renewable electricity in their supplies. California has become the largest solar market thanks to its aggressive mandates for utilities and also incentives for consumers to put solar panels on their rooftops. But Ahearn pointed out that the state has capped its program from the start – the requirement calls for sourcing 33 percent of the electricity from renewable sources by 2020. Utilities in the state have been signing so many contracts to buy renewable energy for delivery in the coming years that they are close to meeting their state mandates, he added.

Pacific Gas and Electric, for one, expects its renewable electricity mix to hit around 19 percent by the end of 2011, PG&E’s spokeswoman, Lynsey Paulo, told me yesterday. The state mandate is to reach an average of 20 percent during the years of 2011 to 2013. PG&E has signed power purchase agreements that will deliver more than 10 gigawatts of renewable energy, including solar, and they will more than meet the 20 percent goal for the next few years, Paulo added.

Ahearn said First Solar could make panels and design and develop solar power projects at even lower costs, and that advantage should allow it to compete in unsubsidized markets. The goal is to deliver solar energy systems at a price of $1.40-$1.60 per watt, which does not include the development costs that project owners will have to shoulder. “We don’t think our Chinese competitors can get there directly or indirectly” and remain profitable, Ahearn said.

“The real competition is (fossil fuel-based power), and we need to focus on the road ahead as opposed to the review mirror of these silicon guys,” Ahearn said.

Photos courtesy of First Solar

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

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Solar News Site Map

2011-12-15T18:52:00.000-08:00

Imprint
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Plunder Your Neighbor

2011-12-15T18:45:00.001-08:00

It is impossible to introduce into society a greater change & evil than this: conversion of the law into an instrument of plunder.

- Bastiat

Solar Cells Capture Lost Energy - ScienceNOW

2011-12-15T16:55:00.000-08:00

Solar Cells Capture Lost Energy - ScienceNOW:

Researchers have created a new type of solar cell that captures some of the excess energy in sunlight normally lost as heat. So far, the new solar cells still convert sunlight to electricity at an efficiency well below commercial solar cells. But if the process can be improved, it could help pave the way to a new generation of solar cells with higher efficiencies.

For most materials, the conversion of photons of sunlight to electricity is well understood. Photons of different colors have different amounts of energy. In the visible spectrum, reds and oranges have less energy, while blues, violets, and ultraviolet photons carry progressively more. When high-energy photons hit a semiconducting material in a solar cell, they give up this energy to the semiconductor's electrons, exciting them from a static position so that they are able to conduct. In many cases, high-energy photons—violets and ultraviolets—carry far more energy than is needed to give electrons the nudge to conduct. But this excess energy is lost as heat.

Several years ago, researchers from a number of teams reported that high-energy photons in sunlight could actually excite more than one electron if the semiconductor they hit consisted of nanometer-size particles called quantum dots. This process, known as multiple exciton generation (MEG), held out hope that researchers could improve the efficiency of solar cells by collecting these extra charges. But making working MEG solar cells proved a bear. Even when extra charges were being generated, researchers struggled to get them to jump out of individual dots and make their way to an electrode that was connected to a wire, where they could be sent on their way to do work.

Last year, researchers led by Bruce Parkinson, a chemist at the University of Wyoming, Laramie, reported inScience that they'd made a device with a single layer of lead sulfide quantum dots atop another semiconductor, which excited more electrons than it received photons, thus generating a larger electrical current -- the MEG signature. But the apparatus was more a proof of concept than a working solar cell: The single layer of dots made it easy to transfer electrons out, but they captured only a tiny fraction of the light, and thus the overall device wasn't efficient.

Now, researchers led by Arthur Nozik, a chemist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, report that they've created the first working MEG solar cell. The key in making the device, Nozik says, was coming up with a recipe for chemically synthesizing and then processing quantum dots. When synthesized, the dots—which are clusters of lead and selenium about 5 nanometers in diameter—end up decorated with long organic molecules that prevent separate dots from clumping together. But past studies showed that these long organic chains act like a plastic insulator around a wire. They prevent excited electrons generated inside one dot from skipping through its neighbors on to an electrode.

So Nozik's team treated their dots with a one-two chemical punch of two colorless liquids, hydrazine and 1,2-ethanedithiol, which left the dots coated with short-chain organics. That allowed charges easier mobility. And it resulted in solar cells with about a 5% overall efficiency at converting light to electricity, the team reports online today in Science. That's still well below conventional silicon solar cells, which still do a better job making use of the full solar spectrum and are about 20% efficient. But more importantly, the devices collected 30% more electrical charges than the number of photons that struck the quantum dots, making these the first true MEG solar cells.

"They've taken it to a real device and demonstrated that they were able to collect real power," Parkinson says. And that, he adds, "shows promise for next generation [solar cell] designs." Parkinson notes that the new work also shows that excess electrons are generated when the amount of energy in the photons is about 2.5 to 3 times the amount needed to kick electrons into their energized conducting state, roughly the same level seen last year by Parkinson's group.

Both Parkinson and Nozik say the key for the field now will be to find ways of synthesizing dots to get this closer to 2 times the energy needed, which should markedly boost the efficiency of the solar cells. If that happens, the solar cell business could find itself with a new contender.

MEGa. Researchers have created the first solar cells capable of harvesting more than one electron for every photon of light that hits it.
Credit: Science/AAAS

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KW50 | Concentrating solar power: CEC to begin review of 750 MW Rio Mesa project - SolarServer

2011-12-15T16:52:00.000-08:00

KW50 | Concentrating solar power: CEC to begin review of 750 MW Rio Mesa project - SolarServer:

: The Rio Mesa project will utilize BrightSource's solar power tower technology

The California Energy Commission (CEC) has begun a review of a proposed 750 MW concentrating solar power (CSP) project in Riverside County, California, consisting of three 250 MW plants using solar power tower designs.

The CEC voted on December 14th, 2011 that developer BrightSource Energy Inc. (Oakland, California, U.S.) had provided sufficient information in the application for the Rio Mesa Solar Electric Generating Facility to begin the review process. If approved, construction is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2013 and finish in the second quarter of 2016.

Project located partially on public land

As the lead agency under the California Environmental Quality Act, the CEC will examine public health and safety, environmental impacts and engineering aspects of the proposed project, as well as all related facilities including transmission lines.

As the project is located partially on public land, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management will require an environmental impact statement and approval for a right-of-way grant. This also makes the project more vulnerable to lawsuits from environmental groups and other organizations.

USD 3 billion in capital construction costs

The plants will utilize solar power tower designs, whereby a field of mirrors (heliostats) reflects light onto a central receiver, to heat a fluid which drives a turbine to generate electricity. Each plant will comprise roughly 85,000 heliostats, and will feature towers 230 meters tall.

The project will be located 21 kilometers southwest of Blythe, California, and will occupy 23 square kilometers of land. Capital construction costs for the project are estimated at USD 3 billion, and the project is expected to employ an average of 1,040 workers per month during the 16-month construction period.

Rio Mesa latest of large CSP projects in Southern California

If approved, the Rio Mesa project will join nine large CSP projects planned for Southern California that the CEC approved in the final months of 2011. BrightSource's 370 MW Ivanpah project was the first of these projects to begin construction and will likely be the first to be completed, in 2012 at the earliest.

Several of these projects have been converted to solar photovoltaic (PV) technology due to the falling costs for PV equipment.

Our editorial selection of breaking solar news is published at:
www.solarserver.com/solar-magazine/solar-news/top-solar-news.html

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US Solar Power Grows In 2011 But Future Cloudy - Study - WSJ.com

2011-12-15T16:50:00.000-08:00

US Solar Power Grows In 2011 But Future Cloudy - Study - WSJ.com:

US Solar Power Grows In 2011 But Future Cloudy - Study - WSJ.com:

U.S. solar-panel installations this year topped previous years, due primarily to large solar farms, but the outlook for U.S. solar-panel makers and continued growth for the domestic market is uncertain, according to a study released Wednesday.

More than 1,000 megawatts of solar panels were installed in the U.S. through the third quarter, the most during any year to date, according to the study, by GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association. The study predicted that U.S. developers would install 1,700 megawatts, or 1.7 gigawatts, of solar panels this year, up 89% over last year.

Companies installed nearly 450 megawatts ...

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1 out of 2 Americans are Poor!!!

2011-12-15T15:44:00.001-08:00

Woody Guthrie-This Land Is Your Land - YouTube: ""

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Its a Mean Old World

2011-12-15T15:14:00.001-08:00

THIS SHOULD ENCOURAGE THE POPULACE TO EMBRACE THE OCCUPY WALL STREET PROTEST.

Census shows 1 in 2 people are poor or low-income
- HOPE YEN, Associated Press

“If Americans ever allow banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children will wake up homeless.”
- Thomas Jefferson

"One of the funny things about the stock market is that every time one person buys, another sells, and both think they are astute."
- William Feather

One in Two Americans are Poor

2011-12-15T14:32:00.001-08:00

According to new supplemental data from the Census Bureau, nearly half of Americans have fallen under the poverty line or are classified as “low income” .

................................................................................
Census shows 1 in 2 people are poor or low-income
By HOPE YEN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans — nearly 1 in 2 — have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income.

'Stagflation':

Stagflation occurs when the economy isn't growing but prices are, which is not a good situation for a country to be in. This happened to a great extent during the 1970s, when world oil prices rose dramatically, fueling sharp inflation in developed countries. For these countries, including the U.S., stagnation increased the inflationary effects.

The latest census data depict a middle class that's shrinking as unemployment stays high and the government's safety net frays. The new numbers follow years of stagnating wages for the middle class that have hurt millions of workers and families.
About 97.3 million Americans fall into a low-income category, commonly defined as those earning between 100 and 199 percent of the poverty level, based on a new supplemental measure by the Census Bureau that is designed to provide a fuller picture of poverty. Together with the 49.1 million who fall below the poverty line and are counted as poor, they number 146.4 million, or 48 percent of the U.S. population. That's up by 4 million from 2009, the earliest numbers for the newly developed poverty measure.

*146.4 million people represents a huge number of votes.

A survey of 29 cities conducted by the U.S. Conference of Mayors released Thursday points to a gloomy outlook for those on the lower end of the income scale.

Many mayors cited the challenges of meeting increased demands for food assistance, expressing particular concern about possible cuts to federal programs such as food stamps and WIC, which assists low-income pregnant women and mothers. Unemployment led the list of causes of hunger in cities, followed by poverty, low wages and high housing costs.

Many people in the U.S. are in dire straights and with the cost of bank bailouts and two wars the government does not have much stored wealth to provide the 'safety nets' people need.

If you have shopped in Walmart lately, you know few goods are made in North America. In order to ensure a steady stream of cheap consumer products, America has moved jobs overseas and the effects of that failed policy are beginning to show. Stagflation, falling house prices and few well-paying jobs leaves one feeling hopeless. Is this nearly the bottom in the economic cycle? Things always look thier worst at the lowest level of economic activity and begin to pick up from there.

Boeing Jet Assembly Factory 2.6 MW Solar Installation

2011-12-14T19:34:00.000-08:00

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/UNI-SOLAR-R-Powers-Boeing-pz-3760797518.html?x=0

UNI-SOLAR(R) Powers Boeing's Dreamliner Assembly Plant in South CarolinaPress Release: Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. – Wed, Dec 7, 2011 9:52 AM EST

Companies:
Energy Conversion Devices, Inc.

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AUBURN HILLS, Mich., Dec. 7, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --United Solar, the global manufacturer of UNI-SOLAR(R) lightweight, flexible solar modules and a wholly owned subsidiary of Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (ECD) (Nasdaq:ENER) announced today that Baker Renewable Energy has completed the installation of a 2.6 megawatt (MW) system containing its photovoltaic laminates on the roof of Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner jet assembly plant located in North Charleston, South Carolina.

"We are very pleased with the results of the project. The design, installation and commissioning of the system went as planned. We are very proud of the team effort put in by SCANA and Baker Renewable Energy to execute this for Boeing," said Jason Epstein, Executive Vice President of Baker Renewable Energy.

As one of the largest rooftop solar installations in the United States, the 2.6 MW project is expected to offset both a significant percentage of the building usage and 3,660 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. In addition, the energy generation is projected to be over 3,950 MWh per year and is enough to supply power to nearly 870 homes. The assembly plant was operational this past July and the first 787 Dreamliner to be built there will take flight in mid 2012.

"United Solar is proud to have been selected by Baker Renewable Energy for this 2.6 MW rooftop installation, highlighting Boeing's commitment to clean, renewable solar energy," said Julian Hawkins, President and Chief Executive Officer of ECD, parent company of United Solar. "UNI-SOLAR PV laminates are engineered to be building-integrated, ultra-lightweight and non-reflective making them ideally suited for large buildings around airports where low profile, lightweight, and low glare solar solutions are needed. The Baker Renewable Energy team has done a world class job bonding our laminates to Boeing's membrane roof and executing on this project."

View a short video courtesy of South Carolina Electric & Gas (SCE&G) and Baker Renewable Energy at http://bit.ly/UNI-SOLAR_Boeing_Installation.

United Solar has more than 25 years experience in the solar industry, is the largest manufacturer of lightweight flexible solar panels in the world and has been awarded nearly 70 United States patents for various technological advancements.

About United Solar/UNI-SOLAR(R)

United Solar has been a global leader in building-integrated and rooftop photovoltaics for over 25 years. The company manufactures, sells and installs thin-film solar laminates that convert sunlight into clean, renewable energy using proprietary technology for which the company has been awarded over 70 U.S. patents. UNI-SOLAR(R) brand products are unique because of their flexibility, light weight, ease of installation, durability, and real-world energy production. The company also designs, manufactures and installs rooftop photovoltaic systems, which enable customers to transform unused rooftop space into a value-generating asset. With the Open Solar(TM) initiative the company is seeking to build a community of solar innovators who will commercialize new products using the underlying, patented UNI-SOLAR technology. For more information on United Solar visit uni-solar.com or follow UNI-SOLAR on Facebook.com/unisolar and Twitter.com/uni_solar.

About Baker Renewable Energy

Baker Renewable Energy is a premier provider of renewable energy and green building strategies in the southeast. We offer a full line of residential, commercial, and governmental solutions, built on the foundation of 97 years of quality service and installations in the construction industry as a Division of Baker Roofing Company.

Baker Renewable Energy, A Division of Baker Roofing Company, is a full service engineering & procurement renewable energy contractor. Baker has been a construction leader for nearly 100 years since it’s founding in 1915. Since then, Baker has grown to become one of the largest, and most recognized specialty contractors in the nation; with such recognitions as Engineering News Records SE Specialty Contractor of the year (2011).

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