Saturday, April 19, 2008

BioFuels

The experts say there is "no script" to handle the world food shortage occurring. Sure there is, just end subsidies and trade restrictions, and food where flow where it is needed.

But just as the conservatives got to have their disastrous war in Iraq, it's the liberals turn, and they will have their biofuels, no matter how many people it kills.

You can tell it is murder when Hamiltonians (Dem & Repub) put a halo on it.


Thursday, April 17, 2008

China Surpasses USA As Largest Exporter

The Hamiltonian degeneration continues apace, and we can cheer a return to USA as the best country in the world when this is over. In the meantime, the world reorganizes...



According to the Financial Times article...

WTO economists are also sceptical about how long emerging developing countries that have spearheaded global growth “can maintain a strong pace in the face of sluggish demand in major developed markets and rising inflationary pressures.”

Well, as long as freedom spreads it can be sustained...


Meanwhile, trade in commercial services, boosted by big increases in transport and travel services, last year increased by 18 per cent to $3.3 trillion, said the WTO.


Germany, China, the rest of the world... USA contributed to that, but mostly sending things to Iraq...

Another stellar performance by China, which recorded a 26 per cent rise in its merchandise exports to $1.2 trillion, enabled it to surge ahead of the US to be ranked the world's second biggest exporter and is breathing down the neck of top-placed Germany.

Attaboy!

The UK's decline in recorded exports of 3 per cent to $436 billion, associated with fraudulent VAT declarations, pushed it down one slot to eighth place behind Italy.

I was convincingly informed once that the UK pays lip service to USA hegemony, but actually does as it will...

He said that the best way to reinforce the global trading system would be to conclude the Doha global trade talks, which were launched in November 2001.

You mean the best way to protect the rich from the poor...



When The Internet Is Shut Down...

I have made a prediction, that the internet will be shut down, by popular demand, in the next few years. Here is a SouthPark take on it...


First Homes, Now Student Loans

Now the other "right" everyone assumes they are owed in USA, an "education" is heading down the same path as home loans. The government has no business in housing or education.


Nanosolar Moves Ahead

This company is doing great things, but your local government is making it too hard to bother helping you... the money quote:

"The truth is that a lot of the money for residential solar only feeds bureaucracy."

But of course...

. Municipal Solar Power Plants
By Martin Roscheisen, CEO

At Nanosolar, we believe very much that meaningful scale for solar will come foremost from utility-scale solar power plants, in particular from municipal solar power plants of 2-10MW in size. These are rows of solar panels mounted onto the ground of free fields at the outskirts of towns and cities, feeding power directly into the municipal electricity grid.

A 2MW municipal solar power plant requires about 10 acres of land to serve a city of 1,000 homes — that’s acreage generally easily available at the outskirts of any city of such size in even the most developed countries. Similar for a 10MW plant for a city with 5,000 homes: This would require five such lots.

Municipal solar power plants are an avenue for delivering a GigaWatt of power in a state through one solar farm each in a few hundred cities — local to where the power is needed — as opposed to constructing a new coal-fired or nuclear plant. They can also be deployed very rapidly. (It takes 10-15 years to get a new coal plant done; a solar plant can be done in 12 months — provided no administrative blocks exist).

In a solar power plant, solar panels are mounted onto rails above the ground so that grass and flowers can continue to flourish in between and below the rows of panels. Care is taken that sufficient amounts of rainwater can drop through between adjoining panels so that the flowers and organisms below are not starved.

Municipal solar power plants integrate very naturally into the existing landscape as well as the existing electricity grid. By feeding power into the grid directly at municipal voltage levels (typically 20kV), they even avoid the expense of a substation for down-transforming power from high (multi-100kV) transmission voltages as required by conventional power. Furthermore, the solar power plants utilize power inverter electronics with increasingly intelligent features which enlightened utilities around the world are now recognizing as a very good way to improve grid power quality especially at the outer branches of the electric grid where power quality is hard to manage otherwise.

In any region with a decent amount of sunshine, there is no more economic way of reliably providing municipal power during the day than through a municipal solar power plant.

Ground-mounted solar power plants are installed in industrially streamlined ways, with specialized tractors deploying standardized substructure components according to standard system block designs to achieve optimal cost efficiency.

While rooftops are surely a good application too for solar panels, it is a business that’s difficult to scale rapidly in a truly meaningful way. Crawling onto rooftops and mounting solar panels in compliance with building codes is fundamentally always a somewhat more expensive proposition. The truth is that a lot of the money for residential solar only feeds bureaucracy.

Municipal solar power plants can be deployed at a different level of efficiency and speed. This is just not yet known very well to the public, particularly in the United States and in California (where we have California Solar Incentives which are adminstered by the state utilities and which presently block this most cost-efficient form of installing solar).

But towns and cities throughout Europe and Asia have already proven the concept, and more and more — increasingly entire counties in fact — are now implementing plans to go 100% renewable based on a mix of solar and biofuels. It works, it is economic, and it is possible now. (Any U.S. utility executive who is concerned about the new world of local power but desires to learn more should join this trip.) It is a silent revolution going on that the press rarely reports about.

A good exception is an article today in our local newspaper – “Local communities reach for power over energy” (SF Chronicle) – describing how Marin County in California is wrestling with going for local renewable power. We salute their effort. It is well timed, smart, and with a lot of foresight. They are on the right track based on what we see happening in our own industry and in energy overall. In a few years, they will have less expensive power than it is available in the rest of PG&E territory.

The amount of activity going on behind the scenes in readying technologies, sites, and financings for such is tremendous, and this will become very visible to the public in many locations in the United States in 2010. There is a reason why one of the world’s largest power producers invested in Nanosolar.

But now is the time for cities and counties to lay the adminstrative foundation for having their own power, 100% renewable, if they care to make a difference by then.


EDF Energies Nouvelles Enters Strategic Partnership with California-Based Nanosolar
EDF Energies Nouvelles (Paris:EEN) announces the signing of a photovoltaic panel supply master agreement with Nanosolar and a $50 million investment in the company.

Silicon Valley based Nanosolar uses innovative technology to manufacture thin-film photovoltaic cells of Copper-Indium-Gallium-Selenide (CIGS) using a printing deposition process. Under the master supply agreement, EDF Energies Nouvelles will gain access from 2009 onwards to part of Nanosolar’s production of solar panels.

In a solar market in which cutting production cost represents a major challenge, EDF Energies Nouvelles is thus securing its supply of panels at competitive prices. These panels will in particular also help EDF Energies Nouvelles to expand its solar activities in North America.

In parallel to the signing of the panel supply agreement, the Group, through its EDF Energies Nouvelles RĂ©parties subsidiary, is also participating via a $50 million investment (€31 million) in an equity financing completed by Nanosolar to further accelerate the company’s production ramp.

About EDF Energies Nouvelles
EDF Energies Nouvelles is a world-class player in the green electricity generation market, with gross installed capacity of 1,443 MW worldwide at 31 December 2007 plus 1,100 MW in gross capacity under construction. With a presence in nine European countries and in the United States, EDF Energies Nouvelles operates in four renewable energy segments (wind, solar, biomass and hydro). Wind energy currently accounts for more than 80% of its installed capacity. With its unique profile as an integrated operator, EDF Energies Nouvelles has a presence spanning the entire value chain, from development and construction through to production and operations & maintenance. The Group also pursues the development and sale of structured assets, which consists primarily in selling renewable energy generating assets to individuals or to energy services companies.

About Nanosolar
Nanosolar is a global leader in solar power innovation. Nanosolar's solar electricity panels deliver unparalleled cost efficiency, enabling customers to use green power without paying more. More information on Nanosolar is available on the Internet at http://www.nanosolar.com/.


Tuesday, April 15, 2008

30 Years and $1Million Fine

To tell a lie on a mortgage application is to be subject to 30 years imprisonment and $1million fine.

Why such a stiff penalty?

. Well of course, if public policy was to subsidize and encourage home ownership, someday someone may cheat, and abuse the system.

Today, probably some 21 million people in USA have lied on mortgage applications.

We had laws on the books, severe ones, to curb abuse. They were never enforced.

We had the enforcers on the payroll, but they "enforced" other things.

When the FED printed funny money and lowered the interest rate, the government signaled a desire for a real estate bubble, necessarily achieved by people lying on loan applications. The carry trade, the banks and the brokers did their part.

Laws were broken, nobody did anything wrong. All very confusing.
.


Here Is How It Works

We've seen how the conservators trap us with a contrived war, with Iraq as an example.

Now that Hillary will be the next president, we can see how liberals do it.

First define a problem that does not exist, in this case, Global Warming.

Second...



Second, have the government controlled media hype the problem. (Note nearly 40 million hits on the topic.)


Come up with one of many solutions to the problem that does not exist, in this case biofuels.

Go to congress and get a subsidy to solve this problem.

Joint Venture with a billionaire whose money is protected in a "Charitable Trust" and can be used to jump start brand new ventures that make tax dollars flow into the billionaires' coffers.

Build a plant at taxpayers expense, and meet none of your goals. Sell your output overseas, contrary to your stated goals.

Distort the marketplace, make a bundle of cash, spread some around to the powers that be, and depart under a cloud, with your obscene profits safely tucked away.

Then watch blacks suffer, which may be the heart of liberal politics, since it seems to be the result every time.


All Hail Toshiba al-Araby!

The head of Toshiba-Egypt explains how business makes for peace and prosperity, and war is foolish.  Many smart lessons in the article too.