Group items tagged

The solar industry and semiconductor industry are intimately connected. Both industries rely on silicon and both use much of the same processing technology and supply chain to produce their products. Nowhere has this connection been on better display than last week at the Moscone Center in San Francisco California, where the Intersolar North America made its debut in conjunction with SEMICON West 2008. The show provided an opportunity for those in the two industries to connect and allowed those companies that work in both spaces to showcase their collective efforts. According to Chris O'Brien, Head of Market Development and Government Relations for North America for Oerlikon Solar, holding the two conferences together gave companies greater exposure and showed the promise of the U.S. solar market. In recent months a number of traditional semiconductor companies including Intel and National Semiconductor have made announcements that they are making plans to enter the solar industry in one way or another. Intel spun off it's solar research area into a new solar company called SpectraWatt. National Semiconductor announced that it will be introducing it's first solar product, SolarMagic, that could raise the efficiency of residential and industrial solar systems. Kevin Kayser, Senior Marketing Manager at National said that he product will be targeted at installers and integrators and much planning went into the company's decision to enter the solar space. "Photovoltaics currently has less than 1% of the energy market, but we think it has potentially one of the fastest growth rates of any alternative energy source. Now certainly we're looking at wind, we're looking geothermal, we're looking at other sources, but from an electronics point of view we saw that we had the most immediate potential impact in solar photovoltaics," Kayser said.

The Yukon Environmental and Socio-Economic Assessment Board (YESAB) has recommended that the controversial Carmacks copper mine project can go ahead, providing that the Western Copper Corporation (TSX: WRN) complies with 148 conditions to mitigate potential adverse impacts. The tiny community of Carmacks with a year-round population of 500 is still considered an important service center for mining and for transportation, a century after it was a popular rest stop for the Yukon gold rush. However, members of the Little Salmon Carmacks First Nation want Western Copper to negotiate a better environmental engineering solution as part of an Impacts Benefits Agreement with the community. Located 38km northwest of the Village of Carmacks and 192 km north of Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory, the Carmacks copper project is planned to be an open-pit operation that will yield about 14,000 tonnes of copper cathode annually. Western Copper has targeted production to begin during the fourth quarter of 2010. Among the comments and concerns raised with the YESAB were routing of mining-related traffic, the heap leach detoxification process, sludge management, heap leach liner performance, and the estimates of closure costs. Among the comments and concerns raised with the YESAB were routing of mining-related traffic, the heap leach detoxification process, sludge management, heap leach liner performance, and the estimates of closure costs. The YESAB Executive Committee said it was satisfied that: Western Copper adequately consulted with the First Nations in whose territory, and the residents of any community in which the project will be located or might have significant or socio-economic effects; The project proponent provided sufficient information in the project proposal to allow for the assessment of potentially significant effects; Significant adverse environmental or socio-economic project and cumulative effects identified within the scope of the scre

Upgrades on Eve of Democratic National Convention's 'Greenest Political Convention in History' Held in Denver\n\nDENVER, CO--(Marketwire - August 22, 2008) - Data393, a Managed Data Holdings Company and a leading provider of colocation, managed hosting, disaster recovery and IP network services, announced today the completion of "Green" initiatives to decrease the facility's carbon footprint. The announcement was made in support of the City of Denver's role as host of the 2008 Democratic National Convention, which is touted as the "greenest political convention in history." Data393's Green initiative also follows in the footsteps of the City of Denver's efforts to leave an enduring legacy of sustainability programs in the Denver metro area. \n\nResulting from the expansion of its multi-million-dollar, 30,000-square-foot data center, Data393 has implemented technological advances and infrastructure upgrades at its Englewood data center, just south of Denver, that reduce its environmental impact. \n\n

Over the past six weeks, executives have become markedly more optimistic about current economic conditions and prospects for their national economies, a new McKinsey survey shows. Expectations started out so gloomy, however, that even now, fewer than a third expect an economic upturn this year, and two-thirds expect their nations' GDPs to decrease in 2009.\n\nSimilarly, at the company level, more executives still expect to shed workers than to hire, but the share expecting to decrease the workforce has fallen below half for the first time since January. And a full third of respondents now expect profits to increase in 2009, up 8 percent in six weeks. Furthermore, even though respondents see fallout from the crisis in a variety of financial and nonfinancial measures such as employee morale and the pace of innovation, strong majorities expect those effects to be short-lived.

IEA's dire warning on green stimulus and renewables Kate Mackenzie, Financial Times The IEA's report for G8 energy ministers, to be presented this Sunday in Rome, has generated a few stories. Some picked up on the oil supply squeeze that awaits the world due to massive cuts in production investment. I wrote yesterday that the IEA forecasts that, for the first time since World War II, world electricity consumption will decline in 2009. IEA chief economist Fatih Birol said he personally thought the electricity forecast was the most striking finding of the report. However he was also keen to highlight concern about green spending in the G20 stimulus packages: The agency will also tell ministers that its calculation of the stimulus spending required from G20 nations on renewable energy was inadequate and should rise by a factor of six if greenhouse gas emissions targets set by the United Nations were to be met... (22 May 2008)

"A new national security report has just been released: The 2015 National Defense Stockpile Requirements Report documents projected shortfalls in various metals, minerals and materials required for the U.S. defense industrial base and, in this day of dual-use technologies, the "essential civilian economy.""

Today, the National Hydrogen Association released a new report called the "Energy Evolution: An Analysis of Alternative Vehicles and Fuels to 2100." The Energy Evolution shows that a scenario which initially includes a mix of alternative vehicles, and is later dominated by hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles sales is the only way to simultaneously cut U.S. greenhouse gas pollution by 80% below 1990 levels; reach petroleum quasi-independence by mid-century; and eliminate nearly all controllable air pollution by the end of the century. The report also shows that an expansion of hydrogen stations is more affordable than most people think.

"The Kazakhstani project is designed to resolve power deficiencies caused by expansive urban and industrial development in Almaty, the capital city. LS Cable & System will provide products, such as 127km of 220kV level extra high-voltage transmission cables and joints, and technical consultation until August next year. In addition, 140km of OPGW (optical ground wire, see glossary) and 1,100km of 220kV level gap conductors (see glossary) will be supplied together with installation support by year end to San Lorenzo and Guarambare for national backbone power and communication network implementation in Paraguay. "

"Donald Sadoway: The missing link to renewable energy Tweet this talk! (we'll add the headline and the URL) Post to: Share on Twitter Email This Favorite Download inShare Share on StumbleUpon Share on Reddit Share on Facebook TED Conversations Got an idea, question, or debate inspired by this talk? Start a TED Conversation, or join one of these: Green Home Energy=Hydrogen Generators-alternative sources Started by Kathleen Gilligan-Smith 1 Comment What is the real missing link in renewable energy? Started by Enrico Petrucco 8 Comments Comment on this Talk 60 total comments Sign in to add comments or Join (It's free and fast!) Sort By: smily raichel 0 Reply Less than 5 minutes ago: Nice smily raichel 0 Reply Less than 5 minutes ago: Good David Mackey 0 Reply 3 hours ago: Superb invention, but I would suggest one more standard mantra that they should move on from and that is the idea of power being supplied by a centralised grid. This technology seems to me to be much more beneficial on a local scale, what if every home had its own battery, then home power generation becomes economically more viable for everyone. If you could show that a system like this could pay for itself in say 5 years then every home would want one. Plus for this to be implemented on a large scale requires massive investment that could be decades away. Share the technology and lets get it in homes by next year. Great ted talk. Jon Senior 0 Reply 1 hour ago: I agree 100%. Localised energy production would also make energy consumers more conscious of their consumption and encourage efforts to reduce it. We can invent and invent all we want, but the fast solution to allowing renewable energies to take centre stage is to reduce the base energy draw. With lower baseline consumption, smaller "always on" generators are required to keep the grid operational. Town and house-l

The SERC (State Electricity Regulatory Commission) has released stricter technical regulations, especially for LVRT (Low Voltage Ride Through) reformation. Additionally, 18 industry standards have been released in November 2011 by the National Bureau of Energy. There are two immediate effects of the regulatory changes. Adding a LVRT capability will increase the cost of the Chinese turbines. This, coupled with slower demand, will lead to a squeezing out of the marginal producers who won't be able to afford to fit new equipment. Thus, the domestic wind power manufacturing sector in China is poised for tough times, when consolidation may even change the positioning of the top five players.