OPEC: It's Not Our Fault!

clipped from www.forbes.com The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Counties decided to keep production on hold Wednesday, a widely-expected move that did little to dispel worries over the current record price of crude oil. OPEC repeated its mantra that the market was "well-supplied" on Wednesday, arguing that an economic slowdown in the United States and the wider financial crisis would scale back demand in 2008. The cartel's next scheduled meeting is in September, which suggests that it does not see any urgent need to change the supply-demand balance--despite the fact that oil is currently trading at $100 a barrel. "If the prices are high, they are definitely not due to a lack of crude," said Dr. Chekib Khelil, Algerian oil minister and president of OPEC The cartel accounts for some 40% of global oil production, and although its announcements do give some direction for the market, the current uncertainty has left the 15 members rather reluctant to act. (See "OPEC Could Be Powerless To Cool Crude")

Dethroning King Coal

clipped from blogs.wsj.com Another one bites the coal dust. As we noted last week, it isn’t just climate-change worries or regulatory uncertainty that is sinking Big Coal: It’s current costs. The latest project to fall by the wayside? Missouri’s Associated Electric Cooperative Inc. pulled the plug yesterday on a 660-megawatt coal-fired plant. When the project was started in early 2005, its total price tag was estimated at around $1 billion. But skyrocketing construction and engineering costs, as well as rail transport and new transmission capacity, pushed the total price to around $2 billion, AECI says. The cancellation won plaudits from environmental groups like the Sierra Club, which had been campaigning against new coal-fired capacity. But it’s economics, as much as—if not more than–environmentalism, that’s helping to shift investment away from coal. Big banks are getting colder feet when it comes to coal financing Missouri’s first three wind farms defective Suzlon turbines

Gored: Why Skeptics Need Al

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clipped from blogs.wsj.com The striking thing about the “Manhattan Declaration” that ended the Heartland Institute’s global-warming skeptics’ conference this week wasn’t its rejection of man-made global warming or the host of alternative scientific theories. No — the first recommendation the group made after days filled with scores of presentations and films was to take a shot at the Nobel prize winners: Now, therefore, we recommend: That world leaders reject the views expressed by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as well as popular, but misguided works such as “An Inconvenient Truth.” The Heartland Institute invited several prominent members of the opposite camp, including Mr. Gore and James Hansen, the NASA climate expert. But they threw down a global-warming debate challenge only to Mr. Gore; a similar challenge was issued by Lord Monckton, a former Thatcher adviser. Even Mr. Gore’s old professors come under scrutiny like Dan Quayle’s never have.

Steel forges foundation for cheaper solar power

clipped from www.physorg.com These so-called “nanostructured dye solar cells (DSCs)” are a relatively new family of photovoltaic devices. Their simple manufacturing methods are hoped to lead to lower production costs compared to conventional solar cells. Traditionally, DSCs are deposited on conductively coated glass sheets which accounts for more than 30 percent of the material costs. Preparing DSCs on flexible stainless steel sheets is one way to reduce the costs and also to enhance mass production, according to Kati Miettunen and colleagues at the Helsinki University of Technology. Uncertainties existed, however, over the performance and stability of stainless steel photovoltaics. In the new study, researchers describe construction of DSCs with stainless steel components and tests of the devices’ performance. “It was shown that relatively high efficiencies can be obtained with DSC deposited on stainless steel substrate,” Subsequent work will investigate the durability of the stainless steel components

U.S. Department of Energy Selects Venture Capital Firms to Accelerate Adoption of Advanced Energy Technologies

clipped from www.energy.gov “The Entrepreneur in Residence pilot program provides venture capital-sponsored entrepreneurs with access into three Energy Department’s world-class national labs to accelerate adoption of advanced renewable energy and energy efficient technologies to fundamentally transform how we power this nation,” Assistant Secretary Karsner said.  “In an effort to further the President’s comprehensive strategy to diversify our nation’s energy sources, and reduce emissions, the Department is leveraging private-sector expertise in new ways to capitalize on cutting-edge technologies that are ripe for commercialization.” DOE has selected Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers ARCH Venture Partners Foundation Capital Using their vast business expertise, the selected firms will be permitted to give proven start-up entrepreneurs the opportunity to work directly with laboratory staff for a hands-on look at various, commercially viable technologies.

Smart Clips: We Are The Ones Song by will.i.am

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Biggest U.S. Solar Panel Farm Opens

clipped from www.reuters.com LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The biggest photovoltaic solar panel array in the United States opened this week at a U.S. Air force base in Nevada and the biggest array that sells power to an electric utility began operation in Colorado, companies involved said. A 14-megawatt solar farm covering 140 acres opened at Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas, Nevada on Monday. It will generate 30,000 megawatt hours a year and will supply about a quarter of the electricity used at the air base. About 12,000 people live and work on There are bigger solar farms in the United States, but they are concentrated solar thermal projects that use mirrors to heat water rather than to use panels to convert sunlight to electricity. The Alamoso solar project in the southern part of central Colorado, near the border with New Mexico, will generate about 17,000 megawatt hours each year, enough no-emissions power to serve about 1,500 homes.