Yes We Can Include Energy

President Obama made it clear in his Inaugural address that energy will play a central role in the “remaking of America”. In his speech, the President cited both energy and the environment as symptoms of the crisis facing America.

The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act — not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories.

“With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet.” He even nodded to America’s higher per-capita use of energy and natural resources: “[N]or can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.”

Obama’s Big Speech: Yes We Can Include Energy

Google’s Footprint: The Environmental Impact of Internet Searches

clipped from blogs.wsj.com Forget the economic meltdown, rising unemployment, and trillion-dollar deficits. The burning question of the day is: Are your Google searches killing the planet? To recap: The Times of London reported on Sunday research purportedly showing that Internet searches, by flitting from desktops to servers around the world, have a significant environmental impact—7 grams of carbon-dioxide emissions, to be exact. Or, to use the British standard for energy consumption, about half as much as comes from boiling a “kettle of tea.” Multiply that by Google’s five billion searches a day, and the green-talking Internet darling started to look like an environmental villain. Except that the numbers in the study were widely inflated, Google contends. It says a Google search produces about 0.2 grams of carbon dioxide. Tech outlets and the blogosphere have been buzzing with claims and counter-claims about Google’s true environmental footprint.

Steven Chu: Okay, Coal’s Just a ‘Pretty Bad Dream’

clipped from blogs.wsj.com “If the world continues to use coal the way it has been—I mean China, India, Russia—then it is a pretty bad dream,” Dr. Chu said. China has yet to tackle even coal’s basic particulate pollution problem, he said. But coal is also a “very abundant resource,” Dr. Chu added, making it “imperative” that the U.S. learns to capture carbon-dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants. “If confirmed, I will work very hard to extensively develop” clean-coal technology, he said. Nodding to widespread environmental opposition to continued use of coal—clean or otherwise—Dr. Chu said, “Even if we turn off coal, China and India will not.”

Bernie Madoff's Victims: The Slideshow

Solar Power, Inc. to Present at the 11th Annual Needham Growth Stock Conference

For more information about the conference, visit: www.needhamco.com

clipped from www.reuters.com Solar Power, Inc. (OTCBB:SOPW), a vertically integrated manufacturer of photovoltaic (PV) modules and marketer, designer and installer of PV solar electric systems for commercial, public and residential customers in the United States today announced that the Company will present at the 11th Annual Needham Growth Stock Conference held at the New York Palace Hotel in New York City. Mr. Jeff Winzeler, Chief Financial Officer, is scheduled to present at 9:00 a.m. (EST) on Tuesday, January 6, 2009.

JA Solar Signs Deal with Solar Power

The deal allows the Chinese company to further penetrate into lucrative U.S. markets.

clipped from green.tmcnet.com Chinese solar power company JA Solar Holding Co. has signed a deal with Solar Power to supply 60 megawatts of solar cells. Solar Power says the 60 megawatts of solar cells are enough to power about 45,000 homes and the company will also use them to make solar modules for projects in Japan, Asia and the United States. “This agreement represents a strategic alliance between our companies. Through SPI we will be able to expand sales of our cells and gain deeper penetration into the U.S. market,” said Samuel Yang, CEO of JA Solar.

Solar energy project makes advances in costs

At a cost of 7.5 cents a kilowatt-hour it costs less than the 9-cent benchmark for conventional electricity.

clipped from www.latimes.com Sempra Generation, a subsidiary of Sempra Energy in San Diego, just took the wraps off a 10-megawatt solar farm in Nevada. That's small by industry standards, enough to light just 6,400 homes. But the ramifications are potentially huge. A veteran analyst has calculated that the facility can produce power at a cost of 7.5 cents a kilowatt-hour, less than the 9-cent benchmark for conventional electricity. If that's so, it marks a milestone that renewable fans have longed for: "grid parity," in which electricity from the sun, wind or other green sources can meet or beat the price performance of such carbon-based fuels as coal and natural gas.

‘Generation E’ — Innovating, Motivating

This article contains lots of interesting information.

Read and let us know your reaction.

clipped from dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com I’ve gotten to know a heap of young people of late — people I call “Generation E” — who are working on every facet of the climate-energy challenge. Some are trying to spread awareness of climate science and its implications. Others are working on ways to cut the human impact on the environment as inventors or entrepreneurs.

Gazprom Prepares To Leave Ukraine Shivering

The Russian energy company is poised to cut off the gas supply to Kiev as disagreements regarding debt repayment and pricing persist.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned that there would be "serious consequences" for Ukraine if the country were to intercept gas supplies destined for the rest of Europe.

Gazprom Prepares To Leave Ukraine Shivering
Melinda Peer

With negotiations between Russian energy company Gazprom and Ukraine at an impasse just a few hours before the firm's midnight deadline, it looks increasingly likely that Kiev residents will start 2009 without supplies of gas. Gazprom engineers are prepared to make good on a threat to shut down the gas pipelines in the absence of an agreement.

After Gazprom reiterated on Wednesday that failure to resolve the dispute over Kiev's $2.0 billion gas-supply-related debt would result in a cutoff, the company said. Without a new gas supply contract, Gazprom said it "won't have any legal grounds to supply gas beyond the customs territory of the Russian Federation to Ukraine." Shares of Gazprom trading on the pink sheets gained 10 cents, or 0.7%, to $14.40, during New York's afternoon trading session.

"The talks with Ukraine haven't brought any concrete result," said Alexey Miller, chairman of Gazprom's management committee. "We are seeing now during the talks that the gas issue has ceased to be an economic one, but is a political bargaining chip for Ukraine," he added, as concerns spread regarding the availability of gas supplies for European states that get gas from pipelines that transit through Ukraine.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned that there would be "serious consequences" for Ukraine if the country were to intercept gas supplies destined for the rest of Europe. Previously, Ukraine had said Europe's supply would be unaffected by the dispute.

The two sides have been engaged in negotiations regarding Kiev's $2.0 billion debt ahead of Wednesday's deadline but had made little headway as of late Tuesday. (See "Gazprom Feels The Pinch.") According to TradeTheNews.com, by early Wednesday, both sides appeared to be set on resolving the dispute by means of political intervention from Moscow, but little progress was achieved Wednesday, as the players argued over supply pricing for the coming year. Gazprom raised the country's prices by 40.0%, but they are still cheaper than those Western Europe is paying.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year

Wishing each and everyone of you a wonderful new year.