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"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

Newmont Mining Corp. posted a sharply higher second-quarter profit Thursday, with record-high gold prices and production gains pumping revenue past most analysts' expectations. Newmont (NEM:Newmont Mining Corporation News, chart, profile, more Last: 49.02+0.25+0.51% 2:30pm 07/25/2008 Delayed quote dataAdd to portfolio Analyst Create alertInsider Discuss Financials Sponsored by: NEM 49.02, +0.25, +0.5%) shares rose $1.82, or 3.9%, to close at $48.77. The stock is up 12% over the past 12 months. Newmont reported net income for the three months ended June 30 swung to $277 million, or 61 cents a share, from a year-ago loss of $2.06 billion, or $4.57 a share. The year-ago numbers were heavily skewed by a $1.67 billion write-down tied to the company's exit from merchant banking and a $460 million charge for settling price-capped forwards contracts. Adjusted earnings from ongoing operations more than doubled to $230 million, or 51 cents a share, from $103 million, or 23 cents, a year earlier. Gold sales during the quarter totaled 1.27 million equity ounces, fetching on average $900 an ounce, as the precious metal rode a huge spike in commodity prices. Gold prices were averaging about $600 an ounce a year ago. Costs per ounce rose, however, to $440 an ounce from $417 a year ago. Copper sales accounted for $183 million during the quarter, down from $340 million a year earlier. Newmont stood by its earlier 2008 production forecast of 5.1 million to 5.4 million ounces of gold, with production cost expected to range from $425 to $450 per ounce.

"By region, the largest industrial market for connectors is found in Europe with a 35% share of market. North America follows with a 25% share. The smallest region is ROW (Rest of World) with a 6% share of the industrial market."

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Lonmin shares surged on Wednesday after Swiss rival Xstrata launched an unsolicited $10 billion takeover bid for the platinum producer, with the move sparking gains across the entire London-listed mining sector. Lonmin (UK:LMI: news, chart, profile) shares traded 46.9% higher at 34.06 pounds, above the 33 pounds a share that Xstrata said it's prepared to pay to take control of the platinum producer in order to boost its own production of the metal.

LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK) said Monday it expects to generate between $2.8 billion and $3 billion in revenue and ship between 1.45 gigawatts and 1.55 gigawatts of silicon wafers in 2009. The Chinese company also said its wafer manufacturing plant has reached 1 gigawatt of annual capacity. It's a noteworthy milestone on the way to production capacity targets of 1.2 gigawatts by the end of the year, 2.2 gigawatts by the end of 2009 and 3.2 gigawatts by 2010 that the company announced earlier this month. LDK shares rose more than 8 percent to reach $49.63 per share in recent trading. The wafer maker's stock has climbed since it posted blockbuster second-quarter earnings on Aug. 11. LDK's net income grew more than fivefold year-over-year to reach $149.5 million, or $1.29 per share. Second-quarter sales more than quadrupled to $441.7 million from $99.1 million from the year-ago period (see LDK 2Q Profit Triples, Margin Falls). Strong demand for its wafers has prompted the company to expand its production capacity quickly. LDK also plans to start making it own polysilicon, in addition to buying the raw material for making the wafers. Production at LDK's first polysilicon plant is expected to begin soon and produce between 100 metric tons and 350 metric tons by December. The company is also building a second plant (see LDK Silicon Confirms Plant Is on Track). LDK CEO Xiaofeng Peng told analysts two weeks ago that the company had a backlog of more than 12 gigawatts of wafer orders. LDK expects to generate between $1.65 billion and $1.75 billion in revenue and ship between 750 megawatts and 770 megawatts of wafers for the whole of 2008.

Prysmian declared the offer it advanced for Draka Holding on January 5, 2011 unconditional. The offer concerns all Draka shares in circulation, valuing them at EUR 8.60 apiece in cash plus 0.6595 ordinary Prysmian share. All offer conditions, except for the condition for granting all necessary authorisations, have been fulfilled, Prysmian said, adding it was waiving the regulatory condition. Prysmian will start a post-tender offer, which will run until 22 February, for the remaining minority shares in the Dutch company, at a price of EUR17.20 (USD23.43) per share in cash and stock. Including the preference shares to be acquired from Draka's minority shareholders ASR Levensverzekering and Kempen, Prysmian's holding will reach 91.4% in total, the buyer added. Upon a successful acquisition, Draka shares will cease trading on the Amsterdam stock market.

"At present, the market share of foreign manufacturers in the Chinese low and medium-voltage inverter market exceeds 70%. In 2013, the top 5 low and medium-voltage inverter manufacturers by market share were all foreign companies, namely ABB, Siemens, Yaskawa, Delta Electronics and Schneider Electric, of which the market share of ABB and Siemens were 16.6% and 15.4%, respectively."

"This latest research states that of the top 10 countries forecast to have the highest transmission line additions between 2014 and 2020, China will account for the largest share, with 48%. India and Brazil will follow, with 21.6% and 4.9% shares, respectively."

There is no consensus among the analysts on Inmet Mining Corp.'s (IEMMF.PK) C$345-million hostile bid to take out its junior partner Petaquilla Copper Ltd. (PTQLF.PK). On the positive side, Raymond James analyst Tom Meyer wrote that by moving its stake in the Petaquilla copper project from 48% to 74%, Inmet would gain "important strategic flexibility" and lower the risk profile on the project. If Petaquilla Copper was bought out, Inmet and Teck Cominco Ltd. (TCK) would be the sole remaining partners and the legal action between Petaquilla Copper and Teck would presumably end. In a note, Mr. Meyer wrote: With two shareholders in the project as opposed to three, we believe it is safe to say that rational decision-making may likely become less of a bottleneck and the project can move forward at a faster rate. He added that by going to a 74% interest, Inmet could be in a position to potentially buy Teck Cominco's stake as well. Analyst Greg Barnes from TD Newcrest presents the negative view. He wrote that the economics of the Petaquilla project are "marginal" and figures that it would need a long-term copper price above $2.25 a pound for it to work. He also noted a "lack of clarity" on how Inmet could optimize value from the project. He wrote: Until Inmet is able to verify improved project parameters, we feel that the company is overpaying for a project that has less than compelling economics. Over at UBS Securities, analyst Onno Rutten's opinion is a little more mixed. He thinks that Inmet's C$2.00-a-share offer for Petaquilla Copper is "a steep premium," but would accelerate the project's development if it is successful. That could unlock value for Inmet. However, Mr. Rutten shares Mr. Barnes' concerns about the risks of the project; he pointed out that Inmet, a C$3-billion company, is trying to build a project that costs close to C$4-billion. He also said that Petaquilla needs strong copper prices to be economic. But he wrote that the financi

Kulicke & Soffa Industries Inc (K&S) has announced that the company has entered into definitive agreements to acquire substantially all of the assets of Orthodyne Electronics Corporation, a supplier of wedge bonders, and sell the K&S wire business unit to WC Heraeus GmbH, a precious metals and technology group. Under the terms of the Orthodyne agreement, K&S will fund the acquisition of Orthodyne with approximately 7.1 million shares of K&S common stock, plus $80 million in cash. If the transaction is not consummated by October 31, 2008, the purchase price will be approximately 19.6 million shares of K&S common stock and no cash. The deal includes possible earn-out consideration up to an additional $40 million in cash if certain financial objectives are met by Orthodyne over the next three years. The closing of the transaction, which is expected within approximately 60 days, is subject to certain working capital adjustments and closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. "The acquisition of Orthodyne is in line with our stated strategy and positions K&S to capitalize on our strengths in equipment manufacturing and further cement our position as the leading supplier of interconnect solutions," commented Scott Kulicke, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of K&S. "Orthodyne is a fast growing, profitable market leader and provides us with deeper penetration into the discrete side of the semiconductor market, particularly in the attractive power management and hybrid module markets."

MOSCOW - In what would be one of the biggest mining deals in Russia this year, the metals tycoon Mikhail D. Prokhorov announced on Tuesday that he would sell 16.6 percent of the Arctic mining giant Norilsk Nickel to his former business partner, Vladimir O. Potanin. The two tycoons agreed last year to divide their holdings in Norilsk, a Russian factory founded by Stalin, whose value soared along with high commodity prices. Norilsk is the world's largest producer of nickel, a key alloy in stainless steel. Under the terms, as laid out in a statement from Mr. Prokhorov's investment company, Onexim, Mr. Potanin agreed to pay $10 billion for the 16.6 percent, in $6.5 billion cash and 35.2 percent of the shares in another mining company, Polyus Gold. The deal valued Norilsk Nickel at $315 a share, well above Monday's closing price of $216, and despite a recent drop in nickel prices, concerns of an economic slowdown and diminished demand for stainless steel.

The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index (ST:SXXP: news, chart, profile) ended 0.9% lower to 277.59, with markets missing an upturn in the U.S. when crude-oil prices fell sharply. The metals sector was in full retreat as platinum futures tumbled for a second session amid worries about global auto sales, sparked by the $15.5 billion loss from General Motors, BMW's profit warning and weak July sales in the U.S. Copper futures also fell sharply, and copper miners had a difficult session. Kazakhmys (UK:KAZ: news, chart, profile) shares fell 9.5%, Xstrata (UK:XTA: news, chart, profile) shares fell 5.9% and Boliden (SE:BOL: news, chart, profile) lost 5.4%.

Further to Nexans's announcement that they would make an offer to buy Draka's outstanding ordinary shares for €15 per share, Draka commented that such an offer would substantially undervalue the company. Draka characterised the offer as inadequate, not addressing the position and legitimate interests of all stakeholders. Strategic alternatives, including continuing Draka's stated stand-alone strategy, will be reviewed. In response to the above announcement, Nexans said that their offer represented an attractive premium of 28.4% compared to the average closing share price of the three months preceding October 18. As a result, Nexans commented that their offer fully values Draka.

BHP Billiton Limited, Australia's mining giant, recorded a 14.7% increase in profit for the 2008 fiscal year. The company's record US$15.39bn profit was slightly higher than expected, with most analysts predicting US$15.372bn. BHP said, "emerging economies continue to drive demand for commodities, [and] a slowdown in developed countries will have minimal impact." BHP achieved record annual production across seven commodities including copper. Underlying EBIT for the company's base metals unit increased by 16.2% y-o-y to US$7,989m. "Higher average prices for copper, lead, silver, molybdenum and gold increased underlying EBIT, partially offset by lower average zinc prices," said the company, adding that, "in the short term, we expect prices to remain high relative to historic levels, albeit with higher volatility." The final dividend for the year ended 30 June 2008 was US41c per share, bringing total dividend for the year, together with the US29c per share interim dividend in March, up to US70c per share, a 49% increase on FY2007.

Copper miner Tamaya Resources has suspended trading of its shares on the Australian stock exchange and begun discussions with creditors, a month after delivering a A$141.2 million ($168.4 million) half-year loss.

Prysmian said that it has agreed to buy all the preferred shares of Draka, which are not subject to the takeover deal. It was reported that the preferred shares are held by ASR Levensverzekering and Kempen Bewaarder Beleggingsfonds 'Ducatus'. One of the conditions of the agreement is that the share transfer should take place before 1st March 2011.

"The report analyzes the revenues, average price and volume by power transformers used by various voltage line segments for the key eight countries in the market. The market shares for the key players in each country have been provided. At global level, the drivers and restraints of the market is also provided."