The Banking Bailout or Succour for Speculators

It may well be true that our Government needed to guarantee the banks to the tune of 400 Billion. It is without doubt that certain Irish banks were in difficulty, the banks which chose to use historically low interest rates to fund a massive house building boom. As a means to give themselves extra dosh they financed the buying of the land, the building of houses, the marketing,and all the other sub-contractors involved in the build. And then, having taken money at all levels to bring the developments to market,they decided they needed another bite. At the jugular of another huge opportunity.

So they and their media friends-whose loyalty lay more with the Advertising Department than with their audiences, who acted as PR men for the whole charade, the well-rewarded presstitutes who promoted the new developments, growing fat on the plump property pages profits. British televison shows taught us we could all get rich developing property if not terminally thick. The ads from the finance houses rolled in,the plugs for the rapacious lifestyle, for measuring people by their house and not for themselves. And having helped create panic that not getting on the property ladder all around they sucked in parental money for deposits. And harnessed our next generation to 40 year mortgages. This meant absurdly-priced homes being thrown up with no regard or responsibility to quality or to minimising their environmental impacts. Minister Roche was the man responsible for getting his developer friends derogations from European insulation levels whilst the largest number of houses ever built were being hurriedly and profitably built. It would have added 3% to the build cost of those houses to have made them energy-efficient during construction. But no,even as their profits grew as they raised house prices on a daily basis. No. Instead the greedy devolopers and builders cut corners and showed their utter contempt for their client, because it was a sellers market. Their contempt for the environment is truly a disgrace, and says more about them than I can say. Do these gombeen men plan on having no grandchildren, and care not a jot for the sort of world for the world their great-efficiency grandkids might inherit? (Roche really should be embarrassed, and hounded out of public life. His environmental crimes will cost money as long as the houses last). So we may have a lot of people with the sub-standard, energy-inefficient, but tax-free second home, especially in the BMW region. Many of these homes will have low energy efficiency certificates,making them harder to sell,and reduce their value. With ever-rising energy costs, why buy a home which costs more to run? This boom has led to a lot of empty homes, and the mortgages on them still have to be paid.. No easy and profitable exit strategy in sight. No tenants to rent the buy-to-let pad. Especially now the Eastern European builders left.And the mortgage is probably going to up. Still historically property has always gone up in value. Which is true to a point. In the old days, the bad old days of the early 1980s when I bought my house in London at an interest rate of 16.75% and on a damn good salary, I couldn't get a mortgage even twice my salary. More usually the salary you got might get you twice your salary, as well as half your wife's. ( Yes, wife, as living with someone wasn't accepted by the banks.They needed proof of marriage. Honest.) What happens to the property and motgage if a job is lost? A major illness? It comes a nasty shock when people discover that their critical illness cover is worth bugger-all, with more get-out clauses than a Hollywood pre-nuptial agreement. The very bankers and financiers who are responsible for this mess, the economists who were assuring us only a few short months ago that there was no need to worry, that all was rosy, this thieving cartel walk away with their hands in our pockets, their debts covered and their fat salaries secured. Now they urge us to overlook how we got here, how we got into this mess,promising that we can examine this later. (Yeah, right.) How convenient! Some even now have the gall to blame us, the people they seduced into becoming so massively These are people for whom "ethics" is an English county Lenin observed that Capitalism was ready to pay any price to ensure its survival, so long as the workers get to pay that price. I wouldn't often agree with Vladimir Ilych, but have to admit he was right. Why don't we copy the model used by the Scandinavian countries when they went through a similar disaster in the early 1990s? In return for getting their assets and debt protected, the banks transferred equity to the State. At least let us, the plebs, profit when the banks overcome their difficulties, having returned to more sound and old-fashioned banking principles. And let us not ever forget just who got us here. Let us also make sure they are not allowed forget, either. Or profit on the back of our sweat.

'The best thing that could happen to the country is if no oil is found' | Business | The Guardian

'The best thing that could happen to the country is if no oil is found' | Business | The Guardian This is a really disconcerting piece showing what happens when poor countries begin to believe in the promise of undreamt-of oil wealth. It tells a story we don't hear enough about. Which may tell us a lot about our mass media myopia.

On-site admin device a hit with UK builders - Irish, Business - Independent.ie

On-site admin device a hit with UK builders - Irish, Business - Independent.ie The Green Capitalist is in favour of technology which saves energy and resources. So much the better if the tech also saves lives, as well as saving companies cash. Every year many lives are lost on construction sites, and every one is a tragedy with outwardly expanding ripples, and which leaves people bereaved. And apart entirely from the human cost there is always a cost in insurance too, to be considered. There may even be criminal charges for the building firm involved. This Irish company INSERO sells a product which was developed at Dublin City University, and which sells into the building industry. And although the construction industry may be taking a hammering here in Ireland and in the UK, it still goes on. We continue to need new roads and houses. This is the sort of new company and product we should look to see more of; a knowledge-based application invented at a university. I do not suggest that universities should prostitute themselves to the market; not all research should be expected to have immediately obvious commmercial benefit, and I wouldn't support any who argue with research for the sake of knowledge. But it is great to see it work. So this is one to keep an eye on, and I'll watch for their going public.

River use banned after French uranium leak | Environment | The Guardian

River use banned after French uranium leak | Environment | The Guardian More proof of just how safe Nuclear Power really is. Losing 75 kg of Uranium is the lowest level of accident? Really?

Scientist Warns Plasma And LCD Televisions Could Be Destroying Our Environment

Scientist Warns Plasma And LCD Televisions Could Be Destroying Our Environment We tend to think our technology must be more efficient than the old; after all, when we are all aware that even the most despised energy company is running ads to show how green it is, it seems a no-brainer that the newer must be more planet-friendly, right? Wrong. Our new plasma and LCD TVs not only are super-slim, sexy and desirable, taking up less space in theliving room, but they also use far more electricity than the old-fashioned cathode tube running in the corner. Funnily enough this is never mentioned by the ads or the keen salesmen. I had to ask twice before finally insisting on being shown that useful little plate on the back. So when I saw the headline of this article from Tom's Hardware I was expecting some scientist to simply confirm what I already knew. And I was wrong,again. I was quite stunned to read this report which claims that a gas used in the production of our new toys,nitrogen trifluoride,(NF3), is 17000 times more damaging than our current big baddie, CO2 The Green Capitalist reckons his 2002 Philips will live a while longer in the corner of my living room. Not only for environmental reasons either. Having paid £600 for the TV changing it now would mean it cost me £100 per annum, and admittedly,if I sell it on eBay I might get some cash back. Ploughing the proceeds back into buying a flash new thin telly guaranteed to push my electricity bill even higher before my CRT snuffs it doesn't seem to make sense. Besides, I have a 20" LCD screen on my PC. This news may well slow the advance in market share of the LCD and Plasma TV. I doubt for long, though, because I'm sure the producers will rapidly find a less harmful production method. So what has this to do with Green investing? It all depends on how rigid you are as an investor. Some of you may wish to avoid the makers for a while, others not.

Wave power

Wave power This is a useful look at renewables from a Norwegian perspective. Although it seems to date back to 2006, their explanations also bring up the names of companies which don't get much coverage, and which well merit a look. Certainly some of the names are well-known, and shipping company Fred Olsen is well known. Norway has stewarded its oil resources well, and has ensured a high quality of life for future citizens. Yes, it has high taxes,but that has long been the Scandinavian model. But with a certain farsightedness which shows just how other other countries have frittered away oil bonanzas by comparison, the Norwegians decided to set a significant part of their oil revenues aside,as a hedge against the inevitable end of black gold.If any country has demonstrated that popular buzzword 'Prudence', then this one is arguably it. The Norwegians may even have a claim on having created the first national sovereign fund. Here in Ireland there are several companies which are actively testing full-size prototypes, but nome seem yet ready for an IPO. In the current climate,when IPOs are as thin on the ground as happy bankers that is hardly a surprise. But one day soon some of these technologies will come to the market for funds. When they do, The Green Capitalist will alert readers,and urge them to fill their boots.

Ulster Bank: Press Releases - 25th February 2008

Ulster Bank: Press Releases - 25th February 2008 I came across this when doing some research into photovoltaic finance. Ulster Bank in Northern Ireland offer special terms and mortgages to encourage home-owners to install PV Panels. Now,it would be interesting to know if the offer still exists, given the current credit squeeze. So an email has been sent to the bank, and watch this space!

BBC NEWS | Business | 'Green' energy spending on rise

BBC NEWS | Business | 'Green' energy spending on rise Reading this excellent piece from the Beeb I felt a strong sense of deja vu, or of an echo of something familiar. I imagine this is shared by readers who know me. About 1995 their eyes started to glaze over when I banged on about this ecological stuff. And how much potential it had. The Market has a lot of money sloshing around at the moment, as irrational behaviour of panicked investors, the coming home to roost of really dodgy behaviour by their oh-so-clever acned geniuses who have slashed stockholder value in their banks (and who remain employed), and the stock market slide has made people fearful of equity investing. Property too no longer seems a safe haven. Gold, Commodities and most other areas still have potential downsides,and folk who have just seen the value of their pension pretty much halved are wary,if not quite leery about putting their cash down. And let's not forget that institutional investors need to invest in something.

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Toxic find halts Philippine dive

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Toxic find halts Philippine dive Another reason for tree-huggers to love Mosanto. Oh yes. This might put a dent in the utterly dishonest and despicable lobbying and press campaign suggesting that GM foodstuffs are the answer to starvation and food shortages. Where are the new wonder crops, the ones we keep hearing about, the ones which produce high yields from marginal land, the ones capable of growing on saline soil ? Erm, they remain the theoretical children of the boffins. We have been looking at and listening to this promised future for decades now. Let them show the proof. Twenty years ought to have been sufficient, no? Meantime, Green Capitalists should take a look at some of the companies buying Black Earth, some of the most fertile soil on the planet. Land in Ukraine,once brutally collectivised by Stalin, is now being bought by western farmers who bring new expertise. And since the land was not raped by the collectivisation far lower level of inputs are needed than in the overworked soil of the West. Meantime the shares of Potash just keeep growing.

German minister criticises UK's renewables record | Environment | guardian.co.uk

German minister criticises UK's renewables record | Environment | guardian.co.uk At last someone has come out and stated the obvious. British Government commitment to renewables is as genuine as the famous 'dodgy dossier'. It has been obvious for a long time that Brown and his friends have decided that nuclear is the way to go. Not only that,but they even got caught trying to rig the public consultation and got slapped down by the UK Courts for it. Undeterred, they tried to skew the debate again, They are utterly devoid of shame,and having 'Accenturised' everything in the belief that everything must be measured,in order that progress can be shown. And just as when thirty years ago the workers of Lucas Aerospace spent two years consulting the entire staff before producing their 1200 page Alternative Corporate Plan, a plan which truly sought to turn swords into ploughshares ,and which would protect jobs by making 'socially useful' products such as dialysis machines rather than weapons, and which was first lauded and then cynically ignored by the then Labour Government, so New Labour are not really committed to the Green agenda now. Of course back then the real problem was that the plan hadn't come from the board. Management couldn't accept that the workforce might actually have good ideas. Nowadays Labour are still wedded to the white hot technological revolution promised by Harold Wilson. Unfortunately the technology they're in love with is out-dated. And still the idiots fail to see the economic benefits offered by the Clean Tech sector, which have been amply demonstrated by Germany. I spent 10 years in Britain and still love the place, particularly the wilder reaches. Daily I give thanks I now live in Ireland, a place where the Ministers in charge of two of our most important Ministries, those of Environment, Heritage and Local Government and Communications,Energy & Natural Resources are Greens.

China's Suntech Power rises on bargain hunting: Associated Press Business News - MSN Money

China's Suntech Power rises on bargain hunting: Associated Press Business News - MSN Money The Green Capitalist thinks that once again the market has been 'analysed' by idiots with acne, idiots too clever to grasp simple concepts. The over-educated who never have actually been on a factory floor. And since their Clevernesses were good enough to screw the entire financial system just so they could pick up their commissions, now, having destroyed more shareholder value than Al Quaida or Stalin managed, they are now nervous as hell and jumping on every rumour. And since anyone who knew anything about solar or alternative energy and technology in the Brokers, which last had a head of steam in the aftermath of the 1973 oil shock is retired or dead and which was killed off when oil became ridiculously cheap again. Where it remained until lately. Younger readers will be unaware of two day queues for the rationed petrol,now doubled to 50p per gallon. That's nines litres for a pound. And so technology which promised so much got frozen, and indeed,frozen out. And now we find ourselves having to find out for ourselves,as the kid hacks don't understand. So as when Germany had a recent look at the REFIT rates it was going offer, recently, so it is with Spain and the awaited Royal Decree. Some are even unaware that Suntech have huge back-orders. More are unaware that their Andalay system could become an industry leader. Journalists write, whether or not they're right. Lazy ones used to have to go the library of cuttings kept by all papers. Stories were based on what someone else had written and got into print,and the errors in one article would be repeated over and over. And the Internet amplifies this. So it is a pleasure to read this article about Suntech (STP). Down by half since January,the share price has being slowly beginning to crawl back up. Now dear reader,excuse me while I check the change jar and what I can find down the back of the sofa.

Zignals - About Zignals.com - Stock Alerts and market alerts

Zignals - About Zignals.com - Stock Alerts and market alerts This is a new Irish start up which has attracted money from Microsoft,and which should interest many of you out there. Or not. Worth watching.

Bosch Acquires Ersol Solar, Large Industrials Moving Into Solar Sector | Alternative Energy Stocks

Bosch Acquires Ersol Solar, Large Industrials Moving Into Solar Sector | Alternative Energy Stocks We had one of the first fridges in our small west of Ireland town and would be still working if my mother hadn't foolishly bought a new one after 25 years. Our fridge was made by Bosch. Now we see Bosch positioning themselves for the future in the solar industry. For a firm so associated with the automotive industry - just look under the car bonnet - it is true that a company such as Bosch is first in it for the money, and don't usually get it right. So now we have yet more proof that the sector is viable,vital and growing. As if we needing telling.

German REFIT Scare

Solar took a nasty dive last week after the German government began debating the country's solar feed-in tariff.

The REFIT rate (Renewable Energy Feed-In Tariff) has been a vital driver of the huge leap in Solar PV production,installation and exports,led by companies which have largely located in areas of high unemployment in the former DDR.

The feed-in tariff basically requires utilities to buy electricity from solar sources at a fixed, above-market rate for 20 years. And each year the law is in effect, the size of the tariff declines for new entrants. This allows for the fact that the first movers had higher costs since they would have had all the hassle and expense that Pioneers and Early Adapters usually have to go through.

The aim is to offer consumers a payback time of about 8 years, although some claim payback times as low as 4 years. Financial Companies and Banks compete to offer financial products for purchase and installation of the Solar PV units.And as the technology improves and the numbers of customers builds up, so the cost of entry reduces,which is the reason for the gradual reduction.The cost of this subsidy has the merit of only paying for power produced. Since the cost of the subsidy is usually spread across all electricity users,it is usually just a pretty small bit of the averagee consumer bill.

The alternative subsidy driver has been the nameplate consumption figure and this relies on the manufacturers claimed output. Now I am a great believer in the public having their money spent cost-effectively, and can't help but think that this method might lead to a certain amount of inflation in claimed output figures.

However, because the scheme has been such an enormous success in Germany some parties fearws that the tariff could cost taxpayers up to €120 Billon by 2035,x there was a proposal to change the 15 percent reduction scheduled for 2010, to a 25 percent reduction.

By last weekend, happily,an agreement was reached where support would decline by only 8 percent in each of the next two years, and by 9 percent in 2011.

With Germany home to some of the most enticing and consumer-friendly initiatives in the world,there are lots of solar companies there,and this poloitical interference caused the stock prices to sneeze a bit. Although the market recovered it is a reminder that the sector is volatile and can yo-yo a bit.Green Capitalists can take advantage of lower prices to top up or to get in for first time. My guess is that the shares will seem cheap soon enough,As the cost of producing solar cells keeps reducing,parity arrives earlier than forecast.

Geothermal Electricity Booming in Germany

Geothermal Electricity Booming in Germany My reader (Hi Mammy!) will know that The Green Capitalist has been following Geothermal closely,mostly about Ormat.But I hadn't expected to discover that the Germans have moved into this industry too. And given the enormous success they have had with PV Solar over the last 4 years,building an industry and 150000 jobs in only 4 years from a standing start, this should be an interesting space to watch. And just as I prefer to have shares in the makers of the technology rather than the end users,and have chosen Ormat, so now off go my minions to find out more about Kalina method. More anon.

World-first as Irish firm supplies tidal energy to grid - Irish, Business - Independent.ie

Here in Ireland we have been blessed by nature in many ways. Most readers will of course be familiar with images of the natural beauty of this country. Indeed, it is the very thing which most people think of when asked. But we also have huge assets we are only now beginning to realise we can harness,situated where we are, out on the western edge of Europe. Here we endure/enjoy -depending on whether we have the right clothes on for the conditions - the full force of the Atlantic rolling in from the west. This gives us lots of wind resources,and we have lots of wind farms, a lot of which were pioneered by Airtricity, a firm I have written about previously. But one resource which was known of and harnessed by the monks of 1500 years ago is only now coming to commercial application. Who knows when Tidal Power was first harnessed? Yet all around the Irish coast are inlets which have the archaeological remains of tidal mills,used for grinding wheat and other cereals. Several technologies are being developed,and which will emerge as the dominant one only time will tell. Several are being tested at serious prototype level, and as an Irishman, I would hope that the winner will be one developed here. However,I suspect that a variety of viable methods will emerge,each suited to a different location. But is great to see that that one technology has now gone live and is feeding power to the grid. I'll return to this and give it the coverage it deserves in a future post. Meantime let's hope for an IPO and for the success of the company. World-first as Irish firm supplies tidal energy to grid - Irish, Business - Independent.ie

$135 Oil and the Ignorance of 'Analysts'.

One of the things that really pisses the Green capitalist off is the Ignorance of Analysts. Seldom has a such a bunch of overpaid, over-pampered and over-educated bunch of idiots existed.Not since before the French Revolution. Earning, and I use that word loosely, salaries and bonuses vastly more than those we, the people who invest money or paid work can only dream of. Warren Buffett has always refused to invest in firms he couldn't understand. And ever since the demise of the Dotcom boom, Brokers have tended to being very conservative on any alternative stocks. This means that most of what you hear is bollocks. If my language has offended anyone,I do apologise. It is a measure of my anger. So it goes. But because these gilded youths are precisely the geniuses responsible for the credit crunch we are all enjoying so much, can anyone think of a reason to believe a word they say? Yet Mr. Market reacts to their pronouncements as though these people actually know and understand the disruptive technology model. They don't. It would seem that just as the elite went to Cavalry Regiments prior to WW1 whilst plebs went to the infantry,once again the elite and our leadership are perfectly prepared for the previous war. All it takes is for one 'analyst' to issue a negative opinion and the stock crashes. Heaven forfend that anyone should suggest that brokers ever act to protect themselves and their interests ahead of the interests of their clients. Only cynical investors will wonder about the curious case of the Swiss Bank which downgraded all,repeat all, the Irish Banks because of worry about their exposure to the sub-prime crisis.Promptly the stocks plummet,even though the exposure of the Irish Banks was mostly imaginary. Naturaly, this is entirely unconnected to the fact that that UBS fessed up to a $multi-Billon writedown on dodgy loans a matter of days later. And at least once more subsequently. Sheer coincidence. So it goes. What raised my ire is the way one respected analyst, Cheryl Tang of Goldman Sachs downgraded Solarfun.Her claim that it would lose up to a quarter over the next year. Solarfun became a 'Sell' That would be acceptable except she upped both her price target and earnings estimate for the stock at the same time. That seems very odd,if not hypocritical. And despite solar stocks having being reporting record numbers, growth and profit lately, the weight of Goldman Sachs was enough to cause the sector as a whole to lose nearly 20%. Maddening,yes, but The Green Capitalist is used to this. Basically, the overpaid who even manage to get paid for failure are as remote from the real world as are our Judges alleged to be. It's almost as if we have an economy run by a bunch of Mammy's boys, living at home with their parents and getting fed and having laundry and ironing done for them, and hence have absolutely no idea what it costs out in the world. Sorry, Reader, for the rant.

Google eyes Israeli geothermal firm Ormat | Green Tech - CNET News.com

I recently wrote about Ormat, and I have been following them for some time now. Not only do they themselves own and operate geothermal electricity power stations in the United States, but they also are the leading manufacturer of the equipment. Now we have this report from C-Net reporting the interest in the company from Google. I had hitherto this report no idea that Ormat is an Israeli company. And Israeli firms have developed many new technologies and products in renewables. So just as it is better to own shares in companies such as Danish Vestas,the wind turbine maker than in individual windfarms, so it make sense to invest in Ormat shares. Ormat shares have risen from $ 34 to being on the way to $50+,as I write. Maybe time for me to see just how much loose cash I have in the jars I throw it in!. (NTSE: ORA) I read some nonsense yesterday,where someone who seemed to be Israeli gloated that Libya and other Arab Countries would be be unlikely to use solar thermal electricity because a lot of the technology had been invented was invented by Jews. What rubbish. The implication that "Jewish technology" exists and is somehow superior to other peoples is a little unpleasant, and echoes something I heard before.... Google eyes Israeli geothermal firm Ormat | Green Tech - CNET News.com

Microsoft Is Joining Low-Cost Laptop Project - New York Time

So Microsoft,which is owned by the richest man in the world,finally gets round to joining a project to benefit the poor kids in the globalised economy. The ones who can help pay your pension. Charging $3 per licence is just stupid. Why not allow for the marketing foothold they might gain downstream? After all, the chances are that kids accustomed to Linux won't feel any reason to buy software when they grow up,as using Open Source will be second nature. And this will mean that kids weaned on Linux will realise they don't need Microsoft at home. Or in the offices,companies and organisations they run. Dumb move,MS. Are you short of cash, or just lacking vision? After all, most of us are creatures of habit,and tend to stick to the things we are most used to, because it's easier for us. The Jesuits may have been the first claiming for a long time now that catching consumers young enough can ensure brand loyalty.That isn't quite how they put it and I will dig out the right quote later. If Microsoft were to be clever they'd fall over themselves to hook newbies just like the banks do with students. And rely on inertia and famliarity to keep clients. But vision from Microsoft? Buying Yahoo,or wanting to? That's vision. Right. Microsoft Is Joining Low-Cost Laptop Project - New York Times

Which Is Greenest Large Cap?

Many companies are rushing to claim Green credentials,often on the thinnest of grounds. This practice is called greenwashing, and will eventually backfire on companies caught up in it,as the public sees through the bull. An example would bee recent ads for Vauxhall in which they bragged about having reduced energy use at one of their UK plants by a whopping 33%. Sounds good,even virtuous, doesn't it? But what they don't tell you is that they closed down one of the three daily shifts and laid the workers off. If they had reduced the workforce by closing down one of the remaining shifts, they would presumably have claimed a 66% saving! Spinning job losses into good green news is a new one on me. However some large caps are genuinely green. As many investors tend to head for the perceived safety of Top 100 companies at times of volatility, let me suggest GE for a green investment. This behemoth and American icon we used know as General Electric but it involved in much more than kitchen appliances,making everthing from wind turbines,desalination plants, and trains to energy-efficient lighting such as CFLs and LEDs. They built the wind turbine farm on the Arklow bank for Airtricity,the first offshore wind farm in Europe,and have a film of it on their website.http://ge.ecomagination.com/site/index.html The Appliance Division is to be sold off and this should benefit stockholders.If this should happen somewhere between 5 and 8 Billion dollars would be realised,according to the Wall Street Journal. GE also pays a dividend 4 times a year, and yields a useful 3.87%. The stock price is down 12% y-o-y, and should recover over the medium term. And when the dollar eventually recovers we may see we got these cheaply. BBC NEWS | Business | GE strikes $2bn wind turbine deal

Virtualise Profits and Cash In.

As money gets tighter so firms spend only on essentials. And with electricity prices due to hit record highs due to oil and gas prices having just gone through the roof, companies are buying only the minimum they can get away with. The message we've been receiving from the IT world is clear: Corporations are spending on the essential hardware and software, but they are being very careful when it comes everything that falls below that threshold. In a depressed business spending environment, virtualisation is one of the only software spaces showing an increase in corporate purchasing allowed for. The prime reason virtualisation remains a high priority in IT planning is because it's a means of delivering efficiency and cost savings to the data centres,where there are loads of servers... VMware (VMW)claim that for every server virtualised, customers can save about 7,000 kilowatt hours (kWh), or four tons of CO2 emissions, every year. VMware has virtualized more than 6 million server workloads since 1998, resulting in an estimated energy savings of nearly 39 billion kWh -- or about $4.4 billion -- roughly equivalent to the total energy consumption of Denmark for one year! What is virtualisation, you may wonder. Well, that's much easier to ask than it is to answer. Without getting too techie, I'll try to explain as best I can. Wikipedi's definition leaves a lot to be desired. Basically it is a technology allowing us to maximise our efficient use of the technology. Damn, I understand the concept but explaining it is something I will have to return to when I work out how best to explain it. Meantime those of you sufficiently interested can go look it up yourselves. VMWare is an offshoot of EMC,the data storage firm which had a presence here in Ireland,at the wonderfully-named Ovens,County Cork. They spun VMWare off and the stock had a stellar performance after its IPO, and has now dropped into price levels which will bring joy to investors. Way below the radar of the analylsts who have been scarred by the dot.com bubble,this is what I see as the wave of the future. And with a world reliant on energy to drive the computers we use in order to communicate and trade,squeezing as much as we can use from decreasing supply is vital. Remember the Green Capitalist aims to maximise efficient use of energy. And make money from it. EMC still own a large chunk of VMW,and may well prove a good bet too, Because just as we need to eat,so companies need to store more info And

Geothermal Power Information for Investors

The Green Capitalist tries to show background information to help readers understand the issues. There is a Green Bubble abuilding,and with oil and gas at unprecedented prices there are many snake-oil salesmen out there. I hope that my readers won't get caught up in the coming rush to the latest energy solution and I will try to point you to resources which will educate,and even entertain. I'll do my best to use plain English,because I agree with Warren Buffett. If you don't understand how a business works or makes its money stay away. Dreamdust can be very expensive,as many discovered in the dotcom boom,and as many property investors now discover to their chagrin, markets really do go down and not always relentlessly upwards. The best tool the smart investor has is knowledge. Armed with a bodyguard of knowledge the astute can combat the conmen and chancers seeking to fleece them. So it is that I post this link in order to offer some knowledge which you can use,perhaps as a jumping-off point. Google can be your friend here. Don't get stung, get informed. Hands On - The Earth Report from TVE.org

Geothermal - An Overlooked Power Source Set to Generate Profits?

Years ago when I was house-hunting in Tuscany, an over-enthusiastic estate agent proudly showed us a pile of rubble,described as suitable for renovation (!). Apart entirely from the ruinous state of the place,which would neatly describe how our finances would've been had we bought the place, what really killed any deal that day was the smell of the place. It reeked of sulphur. Or sulphur dioxide,the rotten-eggs smell. We mentioned this to the ambitious young man. He assured us that soon we would get so used to the smell! On the way to this abandoned ruin near Lardarello we had driven up into the Alta Maremma,a place quite different from the Tuscany of Chiantishire.Snaking across the landscape were pipelines apparently clad in aluminium foil,looking as though left over from a Sci-Fi film. All these tubes led to the Lardarello Geothermal Power plant,which was the world's first,electricity having first been produced there in 1904. Used since Etruscan times for baths,nowadays power sufficient for 1 million homes is produced by injecting cold water into the hot granite below ground. (Yes, you did read that right; one million homes.)The steam produced is collected at 200 C,and used to power turbines. The 1973 Oil Shock led to some interest in this technology in the USA,which has many areas suitable for the development of geothermal power. However the return of cheap oil meant the world simply forgot about it until lately. There are lots of small cap American companies leasing increasing amounts of land with known potential in the western United States,many of which will become multi-baggers,many of which will not. But just as in the Gold Rush,when some prospectors got rich,the majority didn't,whilst the store-owners who sold shovels,pick-axes tools and supplies prospered mightily,so The Green Capitalist seeks to be the store-owner. This led me to thinking about what these companies will need to exploit this natural source of free energy,as I'd rather be the guy selling the shovels than the guy sweating in a hole. Ormat Technologies,Inc(NYSE:ORA) not only build and supply the kit geothermal developers need,having a large chunk of that market,but also operate sites themselves.The company designs, develops, owns and operates geothermal and recovered energy-based power plants around the world. Additionally, the company designs, manufactures and sells geothermal and recovered energy power units and other power-generating equipment, and provides related services. Ormat Technologies has more than four decades of experience in the development of environmentally-sound power, primarily in geothermal and recovered-energy generation. The share price is up 35% year-on-year,and even after a huge drop in January has recovered to be up 20% over the last 3 months. with pressure for clean energy sourcing being mandated by increasing numbers of US States I think this is one share I would love to stick a couple of thousand dollars in before the dollar climbs back. It also pays a dividend,though not one to get too excited about. There seems to be constant good news reported for this stock,and with California demanding that renewables must provide a hugely increased share of power utilities sell. And that will further drive the market. Do bear in mind that I am not authorised or qualified to offer advice on investing,and I assume you are adult enough to make your own mistakes and decisions.

Time for the AC/DC House

Every tool or gadget I acquire these days seems to come with another transformer.I suspect I won't be alone in being unable to say how many of the machines I possess are plugged in and consuming power even when the device is absent and the transformers still carry on eating power. From where I sit I can count 30 occupied sockets,and I'm sure many should have been unplugged months ago. So why not deal with this demand by running a parallel DC supply into homes and business consumers? If Utilities were to put an a smart transformer at the point of supply,there are many start ups aching to supply the kit. This measure alone would save on the energy wasted when we convert AC in to DC using all those transformers. Now, let's go one step further.and put solar PV panels on your roof. One of the biggest costs of photovoltaics is for the inverter used to turn the electricity generated by the roof from DC into AC. So what if we took a feed from the roof-generated supply to feed our devices? We would save the energy used converting the energy from DC to AC before turning it back into DC and this can eat up to 40% of the energy. The renewable locally-generated power will be used most efficiently this way, and the balance can be sold on. Perhaps the next generation of homes will have dual DC and AC circuits with smart tech organising power supply according to needs? Just an idea.

Personal Transport and Possible Pneumatic Profits.

Transport accounts for much more energy use than than all the power we consume in our homes. Many miserable commuters spend more and more of their time alone in their cars,commuting from homes bought further and from jobs, homes bought in a desperate attempt to get a claw hold on the very bottom rung on the housing ladder, crawling along on severely congested roads. And now with petrol,oil, gas and electricity bills all rising, their misery is increasing. All Greens denounce all these single occupant cars, and more should be done for car pooling and public transport. This is all well and good, but offers little hope for the depressed commuter. During our fat years billions were spent on our road network, and not nearly enough on public transport. And we managed to demonstrate another proof of the theory that roads soon fill with traffic. But let's face some reality here: we won't get commuters out of their cars until we offer a decent and comfortable alternative.Certainly, many would prefer to have an extra hour in bed and be able to catch a fast,comfortable and guaranteed train, on which they can doze, work,or whatever they wish, in a comfortable seat.With one carriage for anyone wanting to use their mobile phones. Building new railways takes an absurd amount of time in this country, but if we can put a motorway through Tara then we can build railways anywhere we want too,or so I would imagine.And the Rail Procurement Agency must by now have built up a level of expertise,and this would help a lot in contract negotiations. And even if we manage to get our public transport infrastructure to line up with where we live, and build fast links to where we work we will only have solved part of the problem. The sense of private personal space we get from our car-ownership,too, is an important issue, and not one that I can do justice to here.However all transport policies seem to forget about country people,who rely on their cars,and who feel unfairly hit by policies designed to encourage/punish urban motorists out of cars. The cost of transport is considerably more than the cost of the electricity we use in this country. And with oil prices rising for the the foreseeable future we need a solution. A solution offering all that the car offers, but at a lower cost. What have we got? We have hybrids and electric vehicles emerging and I will write about them again. We have battery companies getting huge backing to develop better batteries. But their is one technology which seems to have been overlooked. Air power. Or being more accurate, compressed air piston engines. And like buses, at least two engines have been developed to a stage where the private small investor might get a look-in at an IPO. There's a bunch of video of these these two companies showing off real working vehicles on YouTube . Since these vehicles can fill up anywhere there is a compressor refuelling will not be a problem. And they certainly qualify as low emission vehicles,as they only emit air. Even allowing for the fuel used by the compressor.

I understand that Motor Development International (MDI) the Company behind the Air Car has done deals with a number of major firms such as Tata, the Indian family-controlled conglomerate also in the news because of having bought Jaguar and Land Rover. Two British icons being bought by a company from a country which used be a British colony seems a delicious irony. I apologise to any readers still with me down here for the length of this post. Fear not,there's more to come. But in the next post. I also think the Australian air-powered engine is a beautiful piece of sculpture worthy of a place in any gallery.

Oil Tar Sands: A Dead Financial Duck?

Oil Tar Sands have many enemies already because of the high amount of energy and water used in their extraction. But if opponents of wind turbines can cite bird kills as a justification for the refusal of planning applications for wind farms, what will this story about the killing of at least 500 migrating ducks by the toxic effluent contained in the tailings lagoons do for investor and public sentiment? I wouldn't expect anyone reading this to have invested in stocks associated with this technology although many of them have done well in the market. I would be willing to bet that these dead ducks will hit a nerve in a public unmoved or unaware of any environmental costs. It will also enrage hunters, who prefer their ducks to be killed by themselves, and who are often wrongly thought to be anti-environment. This isn't true of all hunters though. I lived in Tuscany for some years, and legal hunting opening sounds like an outbreak of war.The best laugh I have had lately was reading where a group opposing wind power projects planned for southern Italy, claiming that the proposed turbines would kill migrating birds. Why was I laughing? Because southern Italian hunters and poachers are notorious for welcoming incoming migrating birds with raised barrels and trapping nets, that's why. AFP: Toxic ponds kill ducks in Canada

Environmental Capital - WSJ.com : Biofuels Backlash: Asian Palm-Oil Producers Shut Plants

The rush to biofuels has suffered badly from a justified bad press, as some of the processes actually damage the environment. Biofuel producers in Europe have been undermined by US subsidies. This is an interesting article from a source I have perhaps always assumed to be less dispassionate,perhaps unfairly. Environmental Capital - WSJ.com : Biofuels Backlash: Asian Palm-Oil Producers Shut Plants

How the Media Abandoned the Environment | EcoTech Daily

This raises many interesting points which should concern all parents. And anyone else with any concept of the role of a free press in a democracy How the Media Abandoned the Environment | EcoTech Daily

Wii shall overcome.

First, allow me to thank those of you who emailed in response to publication of this blog. And so I'll see about putting in a comments section. However, I worry about seeing abusive posts from the types who seem to take science as a personal affront; you may already have seen their output elsewhere.Since these people are often impervious to rational argument,reason and normal discourse,it is pointless arguing with them. A wise man once advised me thus: "Never argue with idiots. First they drag you down to their level. Then they beat you due to their experience" I will always be willing to engage with anyone who wishes to have serious discussion, but pointless shouting matches won't be entertained. Why Wii in a Green Blog? Well,this is about making money and there's no doubt that Nintendo is good at that. Latest figures show the motion-sensing handset game platform is selling 90 units a minute. This beats X-Box and SP3 hollow. Partly because Nintendo took the brave decision to marry motion sensor technology with cheap off-the shelf commodity components they got a ferocious slagging from hard-core gaming reviewers and other media besotted with bigger,louder,faster and ever-increasingly dear shoot-em-ups. Thing is that as Microsoft and Sony squared up to each other,seeking to top each other, the delivery of the promise became more and more expensive. Parents and gamers out there may think X-Box or PS3 as expensive, yet the manufacturers actually subsidise their consoles. No, it isn't an outbreak of corporate generosity; they intend to screw their profit out of their customer on the games.Both companies have thrown shed-loads of shareholders money concentrating on a wrong model, both seeking to dominate the market. The existing market. As was. The big breakthrough for Nintendo was when some genius there decided to focus on growing the market for gaming. Reinventing gaming, their revolutionary concept was make games for people who don't play games, people like me, who suspect that teenage boys are going blind in their bedrooms in an entirely different way than ones in my day when we used quill and ink. To record our experiences I hasten to add. In a diary or whatever. Though the geeks may have sneered, when Nintendo launched the Wii, and let's face it, it is a silly name, I saw a game that allow my nephews to play computer games with my mother,a device offering easily understood games such as tennis without some monster trying to kill her! I knew they were onto a winner. I even wanted one! I started saving towards buying shares in Nintendo, hoping to buy before the analysts noticed. I also spent an awful lot of hours late last year looking to buy a couple as Christmas presents. (Relations should ignore last sentence) And as Nintendo actually make a nice big fat profit on every console sold and the DS is zipping along nicely, too. For the investor this stock has held its price pretty well through the current mess, Have a look at NTDOY Now gentle and patient reader you may be still wondering why I consider a piece of electronic kit green.Briefly, it reuses old technology, it gets gamers moving and has caught on with seniors, allowing them play and interact with others such as their grandkids rather than to feel frozen out.Which a has a benefit to us all. My take on tech is do more with less. More nest time

The Dollar and the Euro

Wise Green Capitalists with €s to invest should consider the current weakness of the almighty Dollar as an opportunity to take advantage,and get their hands on stocks quoted in $$. The dollar will not just keep declining,and has been firming up a bit lately,and if you fancied putting some cash in a $ share,well,right now $2000 costs a whole lot fewer Euros than a few months back. I am a small investor and $2000 is real money to me. Just saving that amount to put into my own future is not without pain. First to go were the dancing girls... Getting the money together was always going to be too tough for an impulsive and disorganised creature like me.(Mind you, I preferred to think of it as being "Creative", rather than more time in the pub) The Irish Government had a brilliant idea some years ago at a time when it was worried about the economy overheating. It wanted to encourage a saving habit. Special Saving Investor Accounts allowed the public the public sign up to a 5 year saving schemes,in which the Government would top up by 25% the money you paid in. After 5 years Equities beat all "safer" investments. This scheme was inspired, because who could resist free money from the State? It is something which is rare. And the conditions and entry level allowed people on welfare find a safe haven for small savings and a decent return. At first there was real pain in saving as SSIAs were Direct Debits,but it didn't take long to adjust. It is so much easier when the money is taken away before you have the chance to spend it and soon it was just another monthly outgoing. The Celtic Tiger raised the Minimum Wage from about €5.65 in 2001 to €8.65,and the low paid were mostly taken out of the tax net. So saving became painless, and when the 5 years were up about 20-25% of the population collected lump sums of €16-23000. And financial houses and banks etcetera all fell over themselves to snare that painless saving habit. Wow. That is a long digression! What I hope to explain is how important it is to save, and then invest in something that pays a better return. Why am I talking about this? Because if you are like me and you are a virgin investor you make your choice of stock,call a broker and buy. I was,perhaps, lucky in my choice. I had done my research and watched this firm before buying the shares for a while as they kept going up. I may have been lucky but my choice was influenced by the use of common sense; I could see more and more iPods around and I keep adding to Apple shares when I can. So if you want to invest for more than 5 years in American shares do it now.You will be able to buy more shares for the same amount of Euros, and the dollar will recover.

Wind Generates Investment and Profit.

I have written about NTR before. Last year NTR sold off their Airtricity subsidiary in two tranches. Having got a huge chunk of cash many investors hoped or even expected that they could look forward to receiving fat dividends. It looked a bit like the company was abandoning wind power. And now comes the good news: they are back in the game. Before I paste the link I should declare again I own shares in this company,but I don't think my miniscule holding will change anything the company should choose to do,no matter how I bitch. And they keep their cards very close to their chest. Now comes the news they are back in the back in in the wind business with this $150M investment. 150 Turbines and 200MW of wind power apparently contracted for. Now that's serious money. And I weome them back because it will allow them to develop more sites http://www.rte.ie/business/2008/0424/ntr.html Anyone reading can make their own minds up,but I think this company has much to offer. With oil hitting record prices,we need to recover as much energy as we can from from stuff we normally chuck out. Hippie fantasies are beginning to come true,especially the ones which involve recycling goods,and making appliances more energy efficient,so as to reduce personal wastage. It does seem sensible and profitable to get as much energy and so on, as possible from waste. http://www.rte.ie/business/2008/0424/ntr.html http://www.ntr.ie/default.asp

Earth Day 2008

Earth Day 2008

The Green Capitalist notes that the hoo-ha for Earth Day seems to caused very little media coverage over here; perhaps the media feel they did the right thing last month covering the turn your lights off for an hour event,after or with short notice. Nonetheless anything done to raise awareness of Green issues is to the advantage of the Green Capitalist,who will be able to fund a comfortable and sustainable retirement. And since the climate change deniers have had their lines delivered to them,pretty much. It is a campaign which originated with a certain Frank Luntz. We know who this guy is,as he has run focus groups for RTÉ,prior to our elections last year,and these were shown on television. And I doubt many people in this country have realised just what this man has been responsible for. If,in times to come we have Global Warming Courts,like we have War Crimes Courts at present, then this man will have,like Eichman, have a lot to answer for. Read Luntz Memo here. It is always useful to have an insight into opposition thinking and strategy. But I remain puzzled by the stance conservatives have taken on environmental issues. Traditional and original conservative loved the land,and being rich, took a dim view of industrialists despoiling the land. I believe that the political landscape will change over time as more and more conservatives who have retained the ability to think realise how they have been both manipulated and conned. And when they wake up to this,there will be hell to pay What I really don't understand is how these people, the spin-meisters and their employers, can be so blind. Don't they have grandchildren? On a more cheerful note,there is increasing activity in the Green and Clean Tech areas,and with oil at $117 today, there will be more money coming our way. Now the thing is that simple fact is that higher prices for oil means that more and more technologies will become economically viable. Some will fail commercially,but those of us who invest early in carefully selected and rigorously researched firms will multiply their investment many times over. And no words of mine should be taken as investment advice; I'm not qualified to tell you what to do with your money. An Irish firm has just invested $63M in thermal solar technology in the US. NTR or National Tool Roads. You can read the story here and rwst assured that this company not only has a good record but has been enormously profitable foe shareholders who got in early when it launched Airtricity,their wind subsidiary recently sold at enormous profit. NTR invest €63M ($100M) in Solar Thermal. The future is either Green and growing,or Brown and dying.

Darwen drives for growth.

It has been a long time since I did my duty by my blog. So I apologise to my reader. Sorry, Mammy. Since my last posting a lot, has happened in the markets,and most of it has been bad. But for those involved in investing in Green ventures it has not been bad. In fact,it has been pretty good. Solar PV has romped ahead, huge amounts of money have been poured into Alternative Energy start-ups and into existing companies. I wrote about Tanfield before,and I hold a small amount of shares in the company. Some would have taken profit when it hit the heights,but I didn't, as I prefer to buy and hold. So now I have come across another venture run by the entrepreneur who built up Tanfield. The new company is Darwen,and it makes buses and coaches. It also has Roy Stanley as owner of half the shares. He's the man credited with building the success story of Tanfield,the zero-emissions vehicles builder which has achieved such success already. Tanfield have developed vans and light trucks running on electricity and which are ideally suited for City deliveries. These vehicles have a decent range,with 200km between charges,and 80 kmh top speed. Now this man has bought an ailing bus and coach-builder which has a long history and culture. East Lancashire Coachbuilders was also going bust. He has added other elements to the business ,including LPD. See for yourself at http://www.darwengroup.com/products.html The Green Capitalist wasn't able to buy these shares when I first came across them last week, when they were around 38p. They have jumped to 48p in the last few days on the back of announcing a new £5m 38 bus order. What is a bus-builder doing in this blog? Well,it is simple really. The more people can be encouraged to use public transport the better. And the British Government is investing in public transport which is good for Darwen. Not only this:as concern about climate change grows,so will demand for buses. Add to this the commitment to develop hybrid buses together with the experience of electric vehicle drive-trains brought from Tanfield. Now, many companies are looking a hybrid solution,but few have the resources to put the entire package together. So I reckon these are worth watching. I'm not qualified to give financial advice but if I could risk €1000 or so, I'd certainly buy Darwen.

Why I've been failing to update and apology.

First we have innate laziness. Also lack of discipline,as my father would have called it. To go slightly off-topic for a moment, my late father was a veterinary surgeon in the Ireland of the 50s, through good times and bad. He also had a sharp and dry wit. Once,as I was trying to demolish a wall on a hot day,he came to inspect progress. I made the mistake of mentioning the fact that I was sweating profusely. To which came the response: 'A pint of your sweat would cure all known diseases!'. This amused everybody around for a while. And though it looks cruel,it isn't.(At the time,people like me got shuffled into University, because someone knows someone,and we were the right sort of people,just) My father was a man of wit and wisdom.