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