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Fiete M

Electricity Shortage California - 0 views

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    This article talks about electricity prices in California and how they were controlled, which created a energy shortage in California. Further it talks about how price control is a problem.
Marenne M

HPGCL starts process of slimming power generation bills - Economic Times - 0 views

  • improve efficiency of its thermal power stations and bring down cost of generation.
  • power distribution utilities in the state were turning to non-state players due to the high variable cost.
  • ring down the cost of generation at Panipat, Hisar and Yamunanagar.
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  • analyse performance parameters, cost, heat rate, efficiency and safety at the plants every month.
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    This article describes how the Haryana Power Generation Corporation Ltd (HPGCL) is trying to bring down the cost of generation after an increase of competition due to the electricity act of 2003. Power Distribution companies in the state are turning to non-state generators due to the high variable costs of HPGCL. They are now trying to bring down these costs by more closely monitoring the heat rate, the efficiency and the cost.
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    This article describes how the Haryana Power Generation Corporation Ltd (HPGCL) is trying to bring down the cost of generation after an increase of competition due to the electricity act of 2003. Power Distribution companies in the state are turning to non-state generators due to the high variable costs of HPGCL. They are now trying to bring down these costs by more closely monitoring the heat rate, the efficiency and the cost.
Haydn W

Japan's consumer inflation set to reach five-year high | World news | The Guardian - 0 views

  • Country sees core consumer prices soar as sales tax hike forms part of PM Shinzo Abe's plan for reviving moribund economy
  • Core consumer prices in Tokyo, a leading indicator of nationwide inflation, appear to have risen by the largest amount for 22 years in April after an increase in Japan's sales tax drove up prices
  • The poll also suggested the headline figure for Japan's nationwide consumer inflation may have reached a five-year high in March
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  • Higher inflation is a key aim of the economic policies of the country's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, who was elected in 2012
  • Japanese consumer prices are expected to keep showing steady headway towards the Bank of Japan's 2% inflation target. But the erosion of consumer spending power due to the sales tax increase – to 8% from 5% – underlines the need for long-stagnant wages to catch up with inflation to underpin consumption and help economic recovery.
  • The core consumer price index for Tokyo, available a month before the nationwide data, is likely to have increased 2.8% in April from a year earlier
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    Japan's inflation rate continues to rise according to this article from the Guardian. Prime minister Shinzo Abe aims to boost the inflation rate in the country to an approximate 2% level but, as typical with many countries, wages have not caught up with these levels and thus consumer spending power has been reduced drastically. Other interesting things to note are the rise in electricity and gas prices contributing to the increased CPI data.
Pietro AA

Effects of dumping radioactive waste in ocean need more study, scientists say - 1 views

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    I found this article very interesting because it has to do with externalities and common goods. I think this article may be associated with the article "Trajedy of the Commons" which we read because instead of talking of men's overconsumption of grass lands, it talks about the overcosumption of the ocean's self-purifying system. Generally, when talking about production of electricity through fission power plants, there will be unusable waste that is highly harmful for men and the environment because it emits highly ionizing radiation. But producers of that energy simply throw that waste in the oceans and wash their hands of the problem. The cost of society for that energy is equal to the producer's cost plus the cost for that damage the nuclear waste does. The marginal social cost is greater then the marginal private cost. But since, in a free market, it the private who determines the quantity consumed, there will be too much nuclear electricity produced with respect to society. "too much" means that resources are not optimally allocated and therefore there is a market failure.
John B

The Chevy Volt's $89,000 production cost: A waste of money? - The Week - 0 views

  • the environmentally friendly Volt's base price is about $40,000, says Reuters, production costs per vehicle run a stratospheric $89,000 — given the car's pricey lithium-polymer batteries, hybrid gas-electric engine, and next-age electronics. That means GM is losing $49,000 for each Volt it sells.
  • No. The investment in the Volt will pay off: The Volt represents "a long-term investment" that is helping GM become a car company of the future
  • Yes. The Volt will never be profitable: The Volt's high production costs "prove that the innovative plug-in hybrid is impractical and will probably never be more than a niche product,"
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  • The Volt demonstrates to consumers that the "reinvented company is capable of producing a high-tech, fuel-efficient car," and the Volt's technology "will almost certainly find its way into" other cars in GM's lineup.
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    This article is about a car made by General Motors. The company have, if we look at this as in the way that the car will never be profitable, made a huge mistake of miscalculating the costs and profits earned from the car. But if we look at it as if the car would be profitable, they might have thought of making a good car that will sell easily. It is a car that is environmental friendly, and this will affect the cars coming up in the same series. It will then be more of a long-run investment.
Pietro AA

Analysis: Energy costs keep Japan's focus on nuclear, despite risks and use of renewabl... - 0 views

    • Pietro AA
       
      Other scarse vaariables introduced: time and technology
    • Pietro AA
       
      safety is a desire of most men and it is also not infitite therefore it is scarse.
  • ctions take about six months for each reactor, and obtaining con
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    • Pietro AA
       
      a conflict between the scarsity of safety and scarsity of energy
    • Pietro AA
       
      a conflict between the scarsity of safety and scarsity of energy
  • Energy costs keep Japan's focus on nuclear, despite risks and use of renewables
  • other plants remained closed for intensified safety checks
  • The issue is cost, and to a lesser extent, concern over a resurgence in climate-changing carbon emissions due to increased use of coal and oil to generate power. Clean energy still only accounts for 10 percent of total consumption — most of it hydropower. Much of the new capacity approved has yet to come online.
  • nuclear power remains essential, even with a surge in generation capacity from solar, wind and other renewable sources, and that the world's No. 3 economy cannot afford the mounting costs from importing gas and oil.
  • Japan has managed to avoid power rationing and blackouts. Industries have moved aggressively to avoid disruptions by installing backup generators and shifting to new sources, such as solar power.
  • households no
  • paying 30 percent more for electricity than before, with more rate hikes to come.
  • prompted a rethink of plans to raise nuclear capacity from one-third to over half of total demand.
  • Reliance on imported oil and gas has surged from about 60 percent of energy consumption to about 85 percent.
  • The recent weakening of the Japanese yen has added to the burden on the economy from oil and gas imports.
  • Abe and others in favor of resuming nuclear power contend that renewable energy is too expensive and unreliable — wind doesn't always blow, the sun doesn't always shine.
  • Apart from those issues, national security requires that Japan retain some self-sufficiency
  • Local communities are divided: many have relied heavily on nuclear plants for jobs and tax revenues, but worry over potential risks.
  • hat there's a huge opportunity in power
  • We're also seeing radical efficiency gains.
  • he disposal and security of nuclear waste are issues yet to be resolved.
  • For now, however, it appears any phase-out of nuclear power will be very gradual.
  • "In the long term if we can create new resources that are more efficient than the current oil-based system, then we can rely less on nuclear power, that's quite possible," Adachi said. "But it will take quite a long time."
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    This article shows how, since the meltdown of the Fukushima plant in 2011, the "want" of security (which is scarce) increased and gave energy problems to the country (energy is one of the most important scarce resources . Japan finds itself making decisions limited by the scarcity of energy, safety, time and technology. Should it take risks and stop spending money? Should it keep everybody safe and just go for the hydrocarbur plants? Should it simply invest on renewable energy plants? Should it take time and reaserch   Pietro
Yassine G

Water Demand for Energy to Double by 2035 - 0 views

  • The amount of fresh water consumed for world energy production is on track to double within the next 25 years
  • the IEA calculates that water consumed for energy production would increase from 66 billion cubic meters (bcm) today to 135 bcm annually by 2035.
  • The agency estimates oil and natural gas production together would account for 10 percent of global energy-related water demand in 2035.
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  • "It takes a great deal of energy to supply water, and a great deal of water to supply energy. With water stress spreading and intensifying around the globe, it's critical that policymakers not promote water-intensive energy options."
  • Fellow
  • IEA sees coal-powered electricity driving the greatest demand for water now and in the future
  • Steam-driven coal plants always have required large amounts of water
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    This article gives you an idea of how we get our energy today, and how we will be getting it in the upcoming years. It emphasizes mostly on water, as water is being used in Steam-driven coal plants in a large amount. These plants are increasing as they are more environmental friendly. This means that demand on water is increasing rapidly although water itself is a becoming very scarce. This High demand for this scarce very important natural resource raises many questions about how we would be able to survive in the long run.
Haydn W

South Africa at 20: Storms behind the rainbow - Opinion - Al Jazeera English - 1 views

  • April 27 marks the 20th anniversary of South Africa's first democratic elections.
  • Many things have improved in South Africa since 1994, to be sure. State racism has ended, and the country now boasts what some have described as the most progressive constitution in the world. People have rights, and they know that there are institutions designed to protect and uphold those rights. Still, everyday life for most South Africans remains a struggle - a struggle that is infinitely compounded by the sense of disappointment that accompanies it, given the gap between the expectations of liberation and the state of abjection that the majority continues to inhabit.
  • South Africa's unemployment rate in 1994 was 13 percent - so bad that most were convinced it could only get better. Yet today it is double that, at about 25 percent.
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  • And that's according to official statistics; a more reasonable figure, according to most analysts, is probably closer to 37 percent. The situation is particularly bad for young people. The Economist recently reported that "half of South Africans under 24 looking for work have none. Of those who have jobs, a third earn less than $2 a day."
  • South Africa also boasts a reputation for being one of the most unequal countries in the world. Not only has aggregate income inequality worsened since the end of apartheid, income inequality between racial groups has worsened as well.
  • According to the 2011 census, black households earn only 16 percent of that which white households earn. About 62 percent of all black people live below the poverty line, while in the rural areas of the former homelands this figure rises to a shocking 79 percent.
  • The ANC's Black Economic Empowerment programme has succeeded in minting new black millionaires (South Africa has 7,800 of them now), but can't seem to manage the much more basic goal of eliminating poverty.
  • during the negotiated transition of the 1980s and early 1990s. The apartheid National Party was determined that the transition would not undermine key corporate interests in South Africa, specifically finance and mining. They were willing to bargain away political power so long as they could retain control over the economy. And so they did.
  • The ANC was forced to retreat from its position on nationalisation and an IMF deal signed just before the transition deregulated the financial sector and clamped down on wage increases.
  • Still, when the ANC assumed power in 1994 it implemented a progressive policy initiative known as the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). The RDP was designed to promote equitable development and poverty reduction
  • Despite its successes, this policy framework was abandoned a mere two years later. Mbeki and then Finance Minister Trevor Manuel held clandestine discussions with World Bank advisors toward drafting a new economic policy known as GEAR (Growth, Employment, and Redistribution, even though it accomplished precious little of the latter).
  • Given these contradictions, it's no wonder that South Africa is ablaze with discontent, earning it the title of "protest capital of the world".
  • Early this year some 3,000 protests occurred over a 90-day period, involving more than a million people. South Africans are taking to the streets, as they give up on electoral politics. This is particularly true for the young: Nearly 75 percent of voters aged 20-29 did not participate in the 2011 local elections.
  • The government's response has been a mix of police repression - including the recent massacre of 44 striking miners at Marikana - and the continued rollout of welfare grants, which now provide a vital lifeline to some 15 million people.
  • So far the protests have been focused on issues like access to housing, water, electricity, and other basic services, but it won't be long before they coalesce into something much more powerful
  • as they did during the last decade of apartheid. There are already signs that this is beginning to happen. The Economic Freedom Fighters, recently founded by Julius Malema, the unsavory former leader of the ANC Youth League, is successfully mobilising discontented youth and making a strong push to nationalise the mines and the banks.
  • It seems that the ANC's legitimacy is beginning to unravel and consent among the governed has begun to thin. It is still too early to tell, but the death of Mandela may further widen this crack in the edifice of the ruling regime, as the ANC scrambles to shore up its symbolic connection to the liberation struggle.
  • In short, the situation in South Africa over the past 20 years opens up interesting questions about the meaning of democracy. What is democracy if it doesn't allow people to determine their own economic destiny or benefit from the vast wealth of the commons? What is freedom if it serves only the capital interests of the country's elite? The revolution that brought us the end of apartheid has accomplished a great deal, to be sure, but it has not yet reached its goal. Liberation is not yet at hand.
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    From Al Jazeera I chose this article about the poor state of the economy in South Africa, 20 years after Nelson Mandela and the ANC came to power, ending the system of political, social and economic segregation, Apartheid. Despite reforms in the 90's the majority of wealth and power is still held by rich whites. With around 30% unemployment rate and young people struggling to find work many feel only anger and resentment to the current ANC government led by Jacob Zuma. Economically speaking South Africa's imports are up and exports down, reducing GDP as AS is shifted left. This is especially evident in industries like mining and banking which many are now calling for to be nationalised. 20 years on from Nelson Mandela's historic victory in the 1994 general election, South Africa, despite being free of the shackles of segregation is not in the boom many predict. The ANC must be careful in there actions, should they, following the death of Madiba lose contact with his legacy and what he stood for.
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