Sustainable Energy and Economic Development

In recent years, governments are becoming increasingly reliant on market forces to allocate material, human, and financial resources for the selection energy sources for electricity generation. Many nations are privatizing formerly government-owned utilities to introduce an element of competition that can lead to greater efficiency, lower electricity rates, and attract private capital.

Governments are moving toward new regulatory frameworks for making rules and monitoring the application of those rules to ensure that markets work efficiently while, at the same time, advancing social causes. There is an increased globalization of corporate activity, flow of information by modern means, and increased awareness of people. With a growing recognition of the failure of bureaucracies to provide the fundamental necessities of society, the world is moving from centralized planning by bureaucratic elites to more regionalized or localized planning. This fundamental change in the decision-making process is reshaping the future world of energy suppliers and providing a major incentive for adopting sustainable energy resources.

For economic development to take place, something has to be done for the one-third of humanity who struggles to survive without electricity, relying primarily on biomass for heating and cooking. For the many developing nations with no domestic sources of oil and, negative trade balances, the days of recycling petrodollars are at an end. In the past, bank deposits by oil producers were lent out to developing nations to but petroleum. This was a good deal for buyers, who used the loan proceeds to purchase petroleum products, and for suppliers, who received cash for their oil.

The cash from these sales was again places on deposit in banks for another round of petrodollar recycling. Having taken a loss with past 'petro-loans', banks presumably will not be overly eager to enter into new ones. Without being able to borrow petrodollars to fund their purchases of oil, what are the many developing nations without domestic oil reserves and with a negative trade balance to do?

Economic development centered on electricity is the only way to alleviate extreme levels of poverty in areas where human efforts are primarily dedicated to collecting dung, wood, and water. Furthermore, electricity, through communications, increases the awareness of people of the world around them and, through education and training, raises the knowledge level and technical skills of the people, making them better able to help themselves. For every hundred new houses built with electricity, there are about ten or more new businesses that will open. Electricity frees up time from performing domestic chores and provides the power for efficient and reliable manufacturing of goods to meet the basic necessities of life.

Sustainable Energy is coming into its own, partly as a result of decentralization, which allows local people to become more involved with the decision-making process. Also, the price of fossil fuels is making people take a hard look at alternatives. Sustainable energy is now being viewed as a means of mitigating the risk of oil supply disruption, fossil fuel price hikes, and the environmental impact of increased carbon dioxide emissions. Thus, the higher cost of sustainable energy can be rationalized as an insurance premium against the risk of economic turmoil stemming from interruptions in oil flows, price hikes, and climatic change.

For environmental sustainability, it is important to reduce consumption, not substitute oil and gas with renewable sources. Encouraging conservation and enhancing energy efficiency is a starting point to a long-term plan, which will hopefully and eventually ease our dependency on oil.

If you are interested in articles about sustainable domestic energy, see Heartland Energy Colorado
For more articles from this author about varying topics, check out Denver SEO.

Peak Oil, Energy Wars and Powering Your Home in the 21st Century

What is peak oil and why worry?

About 20 years ago, a well respected geologist by the name of Hubbert proposed a radical new theory now known as 'peak oil' which basically says that at a certain point in the late 20th or early 21st century or thereabouts, the amount of easily recoverable oil on earth which had been used by humans was greater than 50% of ALL the oil on earth. He theorized that after this so-called 'Hubbert's Peak' the availability of oil would decrease dramatically. Not because there was no oil, but simply because we got all the easy stuff FIRST. What would be left would be the very difficult and expensive to extract deep sea oil, oil derivatives mined from shale and other hither to unprofitable deposits.

Whilst this does not sound too bad think about it like this: If we assume the first motor car appeared around the dawn of the 20th century then we used half the available oil in about 80 years. However, it must be remembered that for the major part of that 80 years, most of the people on earth had little or no access to motor vehicles. China for example was barely a developed nation for most of that time. THE United States uses about 25% of all the oil produced on earth and yet has little reserves of its own. It is almost entirely dependent on imported oil. China's extraordinary growth in the last ten years has seen an explosion of domestic wealth with the demand for motor vehicles increasing at an astonishing rate. With a population of over twice the U.S. there is no way that China has access to 50% of the worlds oil!

Energy Wars

Many eminent petroleum experts have debated Hubbert's theory however, many others agree with him. Some experts say we reached peak oil in 1985, some 2005. However, the debate over whether or not we have reached 'peak oil' rages and is mostly denied by the global oil companies. In any event, the fact is that the price of oil is steadily increasing and along with that so is the price of petroleum and almost every other product we use. Many see the problem as manifesting itself in the fight for the remaining major oil reserves in the Middle East. To the consumer like you and I, it will mean ever increasing prices with the cost of running a motor vehicle being just too high to contemplate. Another major cost for us these days, is the cost of power for your home or business. Imagine a world where the power is only available on certain days or at certain hours. Some poorer nations live with this reality right now. Its not science fiction!

Global Warming In The Age Of Oil

I have read various reports that predict that the age of oil will be a very small blip on the timeline of human history. It may last for 200 years, probably not even that long. However, the debate on the environmental impact of burning fossil fuels rages almost every day in newspapers and on television around the globe. Whilst it seems that for every expert proclaiming the effects of global warming, there is another equally qualified expert who loudly decries the very same effects. It does appear however that most of us now recognize that a century of pumping hydrocarbon emissions into our atmosphere has had some sort of derogatory effect on our natural environment. We cannot continue to spew effluent into the air and hope it will not impact us. This is another reason why alternative sources of energy need to be developed which are renewable and have little or no environmental impact. The most obvious sources of clean green renewable energy are solar and wind power.

Well What Can I Do?

Firstly, the only thing we can do about our dwindling oil supply is to use less of it both as individuals and for the whole human race across the board! The other solution is to find much more efficient means of converting oil to energy for our cars and power stations.

On a personal level, it would be prudent to take some steps to provide your family with some energy 'insurance'. What I mean by this, is think about generating your own power. The basis of solar and wind power generation has been around for many years. There are commercially available solar power systems and wind turbine power systems which work very well, are well designed and will provide years of free green power. For most of us however, the initial cost of commercially manufactured and installed systems will be prohibitive. But that need not put you off. There are lots of do it yourself manuals, guides and videos on the internet which offer a much more cost effective way of insuring your family's energy future. Shop around and if you're keen, you'll find that the solutions are pretty simple. It just needs motivation, a bit of handyman skill and not only can you save yourself some money but you can do your bit for a greener, more energy efficient world.

My name is Col Herbertson and I am an electronics technician working for a mining company in the field of Exploration Geophysics. I am interested in renewable energy generation due to the growing shortage of oil and energy. I believe that the solution to this problem is that we can all take small steps to become energy efficient. If you would like to find out more about renewable energy systems for your home, visit my website at DIY green energy [http://magnetic-ocean.com/].

Copyright Col Herbertson 2009

What We Need To Do In Confronting The Energy Predicament Dilemma

The United States has the most energy resources of any country on the planet. Let me repeat it one more time. The United States possesses more energy resources than any country. Most nations would be tickled pink if they had half of the energy resources that are available to us. America has an abundance of various energy resources spanning from coast to coast.

The power generated from various energy resources is what fuels the modern world. No great country can exist without an abundance of energy. Energy is what provides heating and cooling for our homes, runs our centers of production, moves our transportation systems for the people and products, energy allows hospitals to function, and it also is used to defend our soil by means of making an effective military possible. The United States has coal, wind, geothermal, solar, natural gas, petroleum, and even gigantic rivers. Energy is a tool that allows society to function.

The Hoover Dam [Boulder Dam] is located between Arizona and Nevada in the Colorado River's Black Canyon terrain. The dam is located only a short distance from Las Vegas, Nevada. It is worth seeing if you are ever out that way. The dam produces hydroelectric power for Arizona, Nevada, and much of California. The Hoover Dam has giant turbines that use the free-flowing water from the Colorado River to generate an enormous amount of hydroelectric power. The Hoover Dam has produced energy effectively for over seventy years. The dam has returned the upfront cost of building it many times to the taxpayers.

The southwest section of the United States is ripe for expanding current and future solar technology. The sun supplies an endless source of power and it would be a horrible waste to refuse to utilize this vast supply of energy in areas of the nation that can make the most use of it. Germany countered the Arab embargo of the late 1970's by becoming the greatest innovators of solar power in the world. Germany has continued solar research continuously to this very day. They have no intentions of their nation being dependent on imported petroleum in the coming years.

For over a century the Appalachian Mountains have been mining coal. The Northeast part of the United States has used the Appalachian coal for industrial and residential use for several generations. Coal is abundant, affordable, and research might make coal clean burning over time. All nations should make the maximum use of their natural resources. An abundance of coal is one of our natural resources. Remember the old saying "Waste not want not".

Wind power has existed for hundreds of years. The Vikings were able to cross the Atlantic Ocean using wind power to sail their ships. Scandinavian windmills have produced power for scores of years. Famous paintings depicting Dutch children wearing wooden shoes and playing near windmills still exist. Scandinavian windmills effectively produce electrical power. These same Scandinavian countries are currently the world's leader in windmill technology.

The nuclear age was born at the end of the World War II era. Weapons of mass destruction have been a byproduct of nuclear energy. Many countries now use nuclear energy to power their cities and factories. Nuclear power is clean and reliable. Nuclear power is also very expensive and dangerous to handle. Over a generation has gone by without the construction of one nuclear power plant. This is because the risk related to nuclear power is very high. Nuclear power plants want liability limits in case of a nuclear power plant disaster occurring. The cost of insuring a nuclear power plant mishap is too expensive. That should tell you something. Also, nuclear power plants want a designated area where they can dump the waste [spent nuclear fuel]. The designated area would relieve the owners from any mishaps that might occur. One thing to consider is where on earth can you hide the spent nuclear material from Mother Nature, or a Superior Being [for the religious believers], or both. The lifespan for nuclear material is thousands of years. The thousands of years is not the time we have to solve the disposal dilemma but it is instead the amount of years we would have to contain the nuclear material. The risk is too great without a better understanding of how to properly contain the spent nuclear waste.

We also have an abundance of natural gas. Several millions cars in the world currently run on compressed natural gas but only 150,000 cars exist in this country that are fueled by compressed natural gas. Vehicles running on compressed natural gas run cleaner than vehicles that run on gasoline. Compressed natural gas cost less than gasoline. We would not need to import compressed natural gas from countries that despise us, as we do petroleum from the Middle East. There is no downside to using compressed natural gas to fuel our vehicles. How dumb can we be to buy less clean fuel from terrorist nations at a higher price than our own fuel, at a lesser cost that is cleaner to burn? Let's wise up America!

Petroleum producing states such as Texas, Oklahoma, and Alaska has been a source of fueling cars in this nation for a century. Offshore drilling has produced futile fields of petroleum in the Gulf of Mexico. Offshore drilling off the coast of Florida and the Northwestern States would increase our petroleum output enormously. Our current energy policy is to buy petroleum from Middle Eastern nations that use the profits of their petroleum sales to finance terrorists. The terrorists use the money to finance the destruction of our cities. We then send our military to invade the Middle East. This creates instability in the price of petroleum, which results in us spending more on Middle East petroleum. The terrorists can then receive even more money to finance future terrorist acts. And so on. What kind-of-an energy policy is that?

We need to become energy self-sufficient. Some people believe we, as a nation cannot afford the associated cost of becoming energy sufficient. The fact is that we cannot afford to not become energy sufficient. We have the resources and the technology capacity to become energy sufficient. The only thing that might prevent us from becoming energy sufficient is do we have the will to be self-sufficient. Imagine how much energy can be harnessed for the world if technology can convert to energy the hot air that comes out of Washington D.C. when Congress is in session.

The question confronting us is do we have the will to do whatever it takes to become an energy sufficient nation?

What do you think America? It is something for you to ponder over.

http://fuddlemuckers.com
FuddleMuckers LLC
Tom Watson, Member

Windmills - An Often Overlooked Renewable Energy Source

There was a time when it wasn't uncommon to see large sweeping windmills on many rural farms. They were used to pump water or run the machinery for grinding grain. Just a few decades ago, those days seemed to be nearly over with, but with the renewed interest in going green and trying to find ways to meet energy demands using alternative methods, modern technology is being applied to the simple windmill.

The graceful windmills from our past still work quite well for harnessing the power of the wind, but an even better type of windmill has been introduced across the nation. It is called the wind turbine, or wind generator. Wind turbines are mainly used in wind farms, for the commercial production of electricity. They have 3 blades which are pointed into the wind for maximum efficiency.

Many states in the USA either already have energy producing wind turbines, or are planning to build them in the near future. These states include Texas, Washington, Oregon, California, West Virginia, Wyoming, Minnesota, Georgia, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Maine, Arizona, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Virginia, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio and Massachusetts. The majority of these states have full fledged energy producing wind farms in use, while a small number of them only have a few wind turbines supplying electricity to single buildings.

While the controversy continues over the impact of wind turbines on wildlife, especially birds and bats, it seems the benefits gained by using wind turbines hugely outweigh any negative impact on natural wildlife. Studies show that the number of birds killed by wind turbines is negligible, while bat species do appear to be at risk during certain hours of the day. Since nearly nothing is known about current bat populations, no determination has been able to be made between the loss of bat life and wind farms.

Many wind farms are placed in locations already in use for farming, with cattle and sheep grazing contentedly in the fields beneath them. The animals seem to pay no attention to the towering wind turbines and have not been impacted negatively in any way.

With so much stress on going green, and the abundance of information on solar energy available today, many people have overlooked windmills altogether. They are a viable renewable energy source, whether used for your own home or on a commercial scale. Next time you travel across the landscape, look up. You just might see a windmill or wind turbine standing majestically against the sky.

Kathy enjoys cooking, gardening and unique collectibles. Visit a German Collectibles Haus to see the 2009 Steinbach Nutcrackers

Has a Shift to Green Energy Produced More Jobs?

An evening's research on green energy, government spending, and the job market led me to a solid conclusion: I don't know.

Obviously, renewable green energy would be good for the planet, and money is being spent on it with what some term "abandon." One green energy program at the Department of Energy grew from a budget of $1.7 billion in 2008 to a budget of $18 billion in 2009.

But has it created new jobs?

The wind industry, with about 85,000 people employed in some capacity, seems to have held steady, with jobs merely being shifted from one area to another. In 2009 the construction sector employed an additional 500 workers due to increased installation of new wind turbines. It also employed another 1,000 in operations and management positions. But... 1,500 manufacturing jobs were lost in 2009 due to the credit crisis and the number of turbines produced in 2008.

Since 2007 there have been 100 new, announced or expanded manufacturing facilities that could supply more than 19,000 new wind manufacturing jobs - when the facilities come on line. However, even if all the announced facilities actually do come on line, that isn't going to happen until 2012.

All 50 states do provide some jobs in the wind industry. They range from turbine and turbine component manufacturing to construction, installation and maintenance of wind turbines, legal and marketing services, transportation, and logistics.

Texas leads the nation in total wind capacity and in largest wind farms installed, while Iowa leads in terms of the percentage of electricity from wind power. Iowa gets 14% of its power from the wind. Thirty-four additional states have utility-scale wind projects.

Worldwide, approximately 500,000 people are employed in the wind industry - with only 17% of those jobs being in the U.S.

What about that stimulus money that's supposed to be creating jobs?

The Treasury Department anticipated the distribution of about $3 billion in renewable energy grants by the end of 2010, and that figure was surpassed by April.

Research didn't actually reveal where the bulk of it is going, but I did learn something interesting. While small businesses (those with 500 or fewer employees) have created 64% of the new jobs over the past 15 years, small business received only 23% of the dollars expended toward renewable energy projects. No wonder we aren't seeing an increase in jobs.

We do know that some of it is going to major chemical corporations such as Dow Chemical. There it is being used for research, development, and manufacture of items such as solar shingles and an advanced auto battery built to use clean energy technology. I found no mention of new or additional jobs created to facilitate these projects.

Mistie Fairchild is a staff writer for Pantex Energy. Pantex Energy provides Texas Electricity Service for the entire deregulated area of the State of Texas. Contact us for the lowest commercial electricity rate in Texas.

The Energy Saving House - Sun, Wind and Water Can Produce Nearly 100% of Your Home's Energy

No one has to be reminded of the energy situation that embroils the world today. People are more and more concerned about the choice of an energy saving house.

Parents wonder about their children's future or perhaps tomorrow some third world oil producing nation will get angry with our country and cut off our supply of petroleum resources.

The fact of the matter is that these concerns should have been addressed long ago by all free governments so this situation would not have come to fruition. But alas, as is so often the case the populace needs to take matters into their own hands and demonstrate the way to go.

Forward thinking citizens of the world have always tried to figure out ways to be self sufficient. Using natural, renewable energy sources instead of paying someone else for the privilege of eating away precious energy supplies that will in time be depleted.

Housing has long been the obvious choice in striving to employ energy conservation methods as dwellings are the number one energy guzzlers worldwide.

The energy saving house now utilizes a wide variety of techniques that allows the homeowner to become partially, or totally independent of outside sources of combustion type heating and cooling such as oil and coal provide.

Today's energy saving house makes use of sun, wind and water to produce nearly 100% of a home's energy needs. Solar panels collect the inherent energy that the sun's rays offer the world free for the taking.

Windmills and waterwheels drive turbines that produce power in much the same process that your local electric company charges you an arm and a leg for.

The use of these natural resources also reduces air pollution and greenhouse gases. Energy saving techniques can be incorporated into your home whether it is new construction or retrofit and it will take extensive planning and a large initial monetary outlay but the savings you will realize will recoup your initial costs in just a few short years.

Above all, the rewards will be tremendous in your fight against outrageous energy bills and reducing environmental waste.

Get more information on how to save your home thermal energy [http://www.getenergysavingideas.com/how-to-save-your-home-thermal-energy/]. There's a wealth of information on making your home more energy efficient so you can continue to live a comfortable life style whilst cutting your utility bills.

To receive 12 more energy saving ideas, register now [http://www.getenergysavingideas.com/optin-page.html]

China Produces Energy From Waste

China is creating unprecedented wealth for an unprecedented number of people. At the same time, China is also creating an unprecedented volume of rubbish. The country already produces more rubbish than any other nation, and every year Chinese cities generate one-third of the total amount of rubbish produced in the world. Annually, China throws away some 190 million tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW). Approximately five per cent gets recycled and less than ten per cent is used to produce Energy-from-Waste (EFW) also known as Waste-to-Energy (WTE), while more than 80 per cent of this waste ends up buried in landfills. This is creating a potential crisis that government is working hard to avoid by implementing integrated waste management plans that include EFW facilities.

These efforts reflect a growing global chorus that is calling for additional economic investment in the EFW industry. As noted by the World Economic Forum in its "Green Investing" report issued earlier this year, EFW can be an important contributor to a carbon-neutral infrastructure. Similar sentiments were expressed in 2008 at the Global Roundtable on Climate Change: "... efforts to reduce global emissions of methane from landfills should be expanded, including increased use of waste-to-energy facilities..."

To address China's waste challenge, communities (as part of an integrated waste management system) are being encouraged to reduce, re-use, recycle and rethink their waste disposal options to recover energy from waste. While recycling is a preferred first step in the waste management process, not all waste can be recycled. And, after recycling, there are only two options for disposal: bury waste in a landfill, or burn it. As old landfills expand or new landfills are developed, the amount of open space that is destroyed will increase. In addition, decomposing rubbish creates methane gas - a potent greenhouse gas that is over 20 times more effective in trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide (CO2). Methane has been identified as a significant contributor to global warming. When a landfill is capped, methane can still be released for years, although the land has limited uses. Landfills also release hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) which are contained in landfill gas. Ground water can also become contaminated from landfill leachate.

What Exactly Is Energy-from-Waste?

EFW is a process where MSW (i.e. household rubbish) is combusted at high temperatures in specialised combustion units and reduced to ten per cent of its original volume. The heat generated from these combustion chambers heats up water in steel tubes that form the walls of the combustion chambers. The water is turned to steam and sent through a turbine that continuously generates electricity. EFW facilities use state-of-the-art technology including sophisticated air pollution control systems. Combusting one tonne of waste in an EFW facility prevents the equivalent of one tonne of CO2 from entering the atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels to produce the same amount of electricity, and the decomposition of MSW in landfills. EFW facilities also recycle metal that would have otherwise been dumped. Increasing local metal recycling also offsets greenhouse gases as it reduces the need to mine for virgin metals.

China faces an acute electricity shortage which is likely to persist for the foreseeable future. The construction of additional EFW facilities will only play a relatively small part in China's energy mix, but will be an important component in diversifying the number of energy sources that the country relies upon. In addition, EFW facilities operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, making them the most continuously reliable source of renewable electricity generation. The energy output of these facilities can help replace base-load coal and gas-fired power plants as an energy source. For every tonne of waste processed at an EFW facility, one barrel of oil would not need to be imported, or a quarter-tonne of coal would not have to be mined.

This article was written by Allard Nooy, for the China market news magazine, BusinessForum China. With stories and analysis ranging from China sourcing to China investments, Business Forum China is the source of all business news in China.

How Much Energy Will These Solar Panels Produce Anyway?

The whole idea of this feed-in-tariff business is that you earn money by selling units of energy produced by your solar panels. So much so that after 25 years of operation you've made your money back and have even turned a tidy profit. This means that in order to know whether putting up some solar panels makes any sense, you need to know exactly how much energy they're going to produce over the 25-year guarantee period.

Easy, you might say - the calculation is pretty straightforward. You find out the average annual irradiation (sunnyness level) from your local weather station, and multiply by the efficiency of your solar panels and the number of square metres you have. This will give you a nice number and away we go. The only problem is you might be more than 50% wrong because we've missed out a couple of variables. Variables such as temperature coefficient, tilt angle, diffuse-light fraction, solar cell type, shading losses, inverter losses, cable losses, degradation, module de-rate factor, mismatch losses, anti-reflective coatings, snow and lightning strikes, to name a few.

Of course there are an infinite number of effects that can influence the output of your photovoltaic system (solar eclipse, anyone?). The question is whether you have considered the important ones or not.

Knowledgeable installers use one of a number computer programs designed specifically to take these factors into account. You type in what type of solar panel you're using, how many, where they are, what angle they're tilted at, what direction they're facing and then press 'go'. It then calculates the amount of energy you'll produce each month and even the return on investment if you want it to. Behind these models is actually some physics that describes the behaviour of solar cells under different light intensities and correctly.

The most commonly used model in Europe is called PVSyst, developed at the University of Geneva. This software package contains information on a large number of different solar panel types and is capable of taking into account many of the above listed factors. Installers across Europe use this software package to predict the energy yield of residential solar systems, as do many banks pondering whether to provide multi-million euro loans to super-large PV power projects. Even with this advanced software package however, some of these factors are very complex, and improving these models is an active area of research.

Here, I'll deal with a couple of these complications as examples. When you buy a solar panel, it invariably comes with a power rating. Full size modules are generally around 200W. What does this mean though? In principle, the power rating indicates what you get when the panel is illuminated by full-sunlight. 'Full sunlight' is not very specific, so the international community has defined what is known as Standard Test Conditions (STC), which corresponds to an irradiation of 1000 W/m2 and a cell temperature of 25oC, when the light has a specific spectrum (or colour) known as Air Mass Index 1.5. So the power of your solar panel comes from its performance under exactly these conditions. In general this is measured using special type of lamp called a 'solar simulator' that tries to reproduce the AM1.5 spectrum as closely as possible. Calibrating these lamps precisely is notoriously difficult and there are very few testing centers around the world that are truly trusted. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Colorado, USA uses at least two different lamps and one outdoor measurement to record STC performance, after a long period of calibration.

Because measuring the STC performance is so tricky, the power rating you get has a plus or minus 5 percent error margin. This is hard to include in your simulation. In addition, manufacturers will often deliberately under-rate the power of their solar panels to be sure they don't fall below the warranty. This means you may well get considerably more power than you expect.

Another factor that adds to uncertainty is the degradation factor. When you buy solar panels they are normally guaranteed for 20 years, but only to 80% of the initial power output. This means the manufacturer expects them to degrade 1% per year on average. When calculating performance in the models, people also tend to use a 1% degradation rate per year. This is only a rough estimate however. During the certification process, solar panels are given all sports of nasty treatment to test their reliability to breaking point. This doesn't tell you much about the rate of degradation when the solar panels are outside under normal operation though. The only reliable way to test degradation over 20 years is to wait 20 years, but this is complicated by the fact that technology improves reliability much faster than that. So the degradation of solar panels made in 2008 has only been tested since, well, 2008.

What these issues highlight is that understanding the energy yield output of your solar panels is not as straightforward as it may at first seem. When having your system designed, make sure who-ever you're dealing with has some experience, and if possible, get a second opinion.

The other critical piece of information for understanding the financial viability of a solar installation is how much you will get paid per kWh under the feed-in-tariff. Unfortunately, the UK government has not released the final figures yet, which means no-one in the UK can make a reliable financial plan for getting solar panels, even when the launch date for the feed-in-tariff is just 4 months away.

Hopefully I will be able to update you on this in the near future. For now though, it's better to be more conservative with your numbers than too ambitious....

Kevin Langley is a leading knowledge in the Solar Investment and Renewable Energy world. Having worked with the subject for many years, he is fast becoming an expert on green energy and investments in green stocks.

He writes for many blogs and runs a range of Solar websites. He has a keen interest in green renewable energy and spends most of this writing time focusing on this subject.

http://solarfeedintariff.co.uk/

GM's Lutz Calls For National Renewable Energy Policy

During President George Bush's State of the Union Address in January this year, he pointed out that one of his administration's goals is energy independence for the country. He also promised to earmark a huge amount of funding for the development of alternative fuels which will reduce the United States' dependence on oil-producing countries.

This announcement was followed by the President's visit to the assembly plants of General Motors and Ford. The president also met with chief executive officers from Ford, General Motors and Chrysler as evidence of his dedication to making the United States energy independent. While the "Twenty in Ten" goal announced by the President is supported widely by U.S. car manufacturers, General Motors' Vice Chairman Bob Lutz seems to have taken a step back from the administration-inspired "global climate-change mania".

The journeyman of the auto industry who has worked for BMW, Chrysler and Ford and currently with General Motors pointed out that the administration should enact a national policy concerning the use of alternative fuels. Lutz pointed out that the current energy dependence issue is putting pressure on the auto industry only. He pointed out that the auto industry is already doing its part to reduce fuel dependence but it also needs help from other sectors of the country especially the alternative fuel industry with the support of the U.S. government.

One problem being faced by the auto industry is that there are few refilling stations that are catering to the need for bio-ethanol.

This issue has been raised recently by concerned individuals in the auto industry. The number of flex-fuel vehicles on the road is ever increasing but only one percent of these actually run on E85. This fact shows that the vehicles produced by car manufacturers to reduce fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions are being rendered useless.

While tests have shown that if these vehicles run on E85, which is a combination of conventional gasoline and bio-ethanol, greenhouse gas emissions can be significantly reduced. Add to that the fact that these vehicles are still running on conventional gasoline shows that greenhouse gas emission is not really reduced.

Another problem being faced by the alternative fuel industry is that it cannot produce enough bio-ethanol for the nation's consumption. The Bush administration has already taken steps to support the alternative fuel industry by urging the U.S. Congress to approve the funding for companies developing alternative fuels. Bob Lutz though has suggested that the United States should import bio-ethanol from Brazil. Brazil is currently the fastest growing producer of bio-ethanol. "I'd much rather import from Brazil than from some of the countries that we're getting the oil from today," says Lutz.

In the United States, aside from developing bio-ethanol as an alternative to fossil fuel, biodiesel is also being promoted as a substitute to petroleum diesel.

As far as General Motors financial stability, Lutz said that GM is having a "pretty good year". This is in view of the fact that Toyota has overtaken them for the first quarter of 2007 in terms of global sales. General Motors, while losing billions for the past couple of years or so, has posted a good ending to the year 2006 with a fourth quarter profit of $950 million. Although the Detroit-based auto manufacturer ended 2006 on a high note, they still suffered from a $2 billion loss for the entire year. While Toyota's success may require highly efficient brake pads from EBC Active Brakes Direct to be slowed down, General Motors is already taking steps to take back their position as the top of the sales output list.

As far as the competitiveness in today's auto industry, Lutz has this to say: "This industry is more than 100 years old, and it has definitely seen some dog-eat-dog days, but I'd venture to say that it's never seen a period of more intense, more pressure-packed competition than right now."

Anthony Fontanelle is a 35-year-old automotive.buff who grew up in the Windy City. He does freelance work for an automotive magazine when he is not busy customizing cars in his shop.You can also visit EBC active brakes direct for more information.

Rule Number One: Don't Attack an Alien Race that Has Advanced Energy Weapons

The other day, I was talking to a friend who is designing video games, and he was explaining one where modern day fighter aircraft, and the most advanced weapons that humans currently have would have to go up against an alien race with energy weapons. He explains how some of these weapons worked, and what the limitations were. He has a degree in astrophysics, and did a stint teaching at the local university in their physics department for a good number of years, so he knows his stuff.

After he explained all this to me, I was quite intrigued, and I hope to someday play his game once it comes out, which could be within the next year or so. One of the takeaways from our conversation was that maybe humans need to rethink everything that they saw on Star Trek because rule number one: "don't attack an alien race that has advanced energy weapons, with conventional weaponry."

Now then, I'm sure this makes complete sense to you, and perhaps it's something that does not need to be said. However, I would submit to you in the future that humans will have energy weapons, and certain nations will have better energy weapons than others. The last thing a nation state would wish to do would be to start a war with another nation that had more advanced energy weapons than themselves.

Okay so, consider this using current stealth fighters, we may be able to get close to the alien target, and then once we launch our bunker busters, JDams, EM pulse, or tactical nukes, that same energy could be redirected back towards us, meaning they would convert the energy produced by these weapons to destroy our military assets. Therefore, it wouldn't make much sense to go and attack them in the first place, as it would be just like fighting a black belt in Judo who would use his opponents energy against him.

In this future video game, the alien race is able to manipulate gravity, and all the tanks on the battlefield start floating up in the air, and then they turn the device off and allow all the Army tanks the ball back from 1000 feet in the air to the ground, so much for surface weaponry in the modern net centric battlespace. Another device the aliens have allows them to put up a force field which is like a brick wall, and so our fighter planes end up hitting this and smashing into a million pieces, as they can't even see what they were about to hit. Please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Future Concepts. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net

National Debt, Jobs, And The Coming Energy Revolution

"These are times that try men's souls."

Since 2008, we have spent trillions to jump-start the economy with little or no perceptible results. Meanwhile, in our nation's capital our "leadership"- Congress and the administration- are arguing about the bar bill on the Titanic rather than focusing on the one major opportunity, energy, that can resolve the fiscal mess that they have created over the past 30 years. The country is at the cusp of an energy revolution, which if exploited will spawn a second industrial revolution.

The new exploration and drilling technologies have resulted in the expansion of our domestic oil and natural gas reserves. The recoverable natural gas reserves alone are estimated at 2,170 trillion cubic feet (TCF). These reserves are composed of liquid and natural gas (LNG) which can be processed into propane, benzene, etc. The natural gas reserves alone can make the U.S. the number one producer and exporter of energy for the next hundred years, and solve our fiscal, GDP growth and unemployment problems.

In 18 years, the world's energy requirements are forecast to grow from 87 billion barrels of oil to 99 billion barrels. The energy revolution would add millions of jobs in extraction, infrastructure, support and service activities, and the cheaper energy could result in repatriating some of the manufacturing and service jobs that were ceded to other countries. The economies of the U.S. and the 33 states that contain shale deposits within their borders would flourish. North Dakota, at the forefront of the energy revolution, has an unemployment rate of 3.5%, well below the national average.

To put the energy issue in perspective, the U.S. consumes 7.3 billion barrels of oil a year (20 million a day), of which 4.2 billion are imported (valued at $ 336 trillion). Of that number, approximately 20% (valued at $70 trillion) is imported from the Middle East. A recent Goldman Sacks report predicts that by 2017, America will produce 10.9 million barrels of oil a day, and become the largest oil producer surpassing Russia and Saudi Arabia. The increase will come largely from the shale natural gas and oil deposits that cover most of the country. By 2025, with a common sense energy policy, we could be self-sufficient and net exporters of energy. That would wipe out the $336 trillion that we now pay foreign governments, and we would enjoy a surplus in our balance of payment account. Countries in Europe and Asia currently pay $8 to $12 for a cf of LNG, which is currently selling at the well head for $1 cf. The revenue potential from exporting oil and natural gas is enormous. The only impediments are the number of drilling rigs available, and the dogged determination of the environmentalist to frustrate progress.

Our energy policy should at a minimum encompass the following:

Mandate that by:

- 2018, all new cars and trucks must be hybrids: electric and natural gas or petroleum and natural gas.

- 2030, all cars and trucks be built to operate on clean energy sources-electric or natural gas.

Mandate a minimum 50 MPG performance standard for all new cars and light trucks by 2020.

Mandate that by 2020, all utilities, manufacturing facilities, large malls, and skyscrapers that now use fossil fuels switch to natural gas. All new homes and structures built after 2020 to use clean energy.

Eliminate all subsidies to oil, ethanol and all other energy producers, and consider a program to subsidize the conversion of vehicles and homes to natural gas.

Accelerate permits for drilling and infrastructure requirements-pipe lines, refineries, port facilities, etc.-provided that the producers adhere to a set of rational environmental regulations.

We should continue to pursue the renewable energy initiatives with the realization that:

80% of our energy consumption is used to power vehicles, and there is no viable cost-effective clean energy alternative on the horizon other than natural gas, and electricity (which requires a secondary energy source-natural gas, oil, coal or nuclear power-to generate in the quantities that would be required).

The other forms of renewable energy have limitations, are not likely to be cost-effective in the near term, and are decades away from implementation to make a dent in our energy requirements. We need a transition strategy to bridge the gap until the third industrial revolution-renewable energy-becomes a reality.

To assume leadership as a net exporter of energy, and to meet our clean energy needs, we require a dose of common sense applied to the environmental issues, and the leadership of Congress and the administration to make it a reality. Given the on/off situation with off shore drilling, fracture stimulation, and the Keystone pipeline, the application of common sense to the energy issue does not appear to be the order of the day in the nation's capitol. Instead, the politicos are mired in the cesspool of special interests groups-oil, automotive, alternative energy companies, farmers, ethanol producers, and environmentalist. As long as these special interest groups are willing to fund the coffers of our politicians, we will never have a rational energy policy. The administration has adeptly delayed the Keystone pipeline until after the 2012 elections, a blatant maneuver to curry favor with the special interest groups that are against the pipeline, ostensibly because the pipeline would contaminate the aquifer which supplies water to the region. The facts are that 25 billion barrels of oil have flown through the 25,000 miles of pipeline within the Ogallala aquifer - 2000 of which are located in Nebraska-with no catastrophic effect. The morally corrupt politicians have traded jobs for votes and campaign contributions. Is it any wonder the people are disenchanted with the government?

Energy, jobs, national debt, and our anemic growth rate are today's problems that must be addressed and solved today, if the country is to grow and prosper. The global warming issue is tomorrows' problem, which, if there is actually a problem, will be solved tomorrow. Running the world on cost-effective renewable energy is a dream that should be pursued, but not at the exclusion of other viable clean energy resources. Once or perhaps twice in a century there is a game changing opportunity to raise the country and its people to the next level The energy revolution provides the opportunity to jump start our economy, create jobs, become energy independent, solve our balance of payment imbalance, reduce the national debt, and stop importing oil from the Middle East. We have fought two wars for oil with a cost of trillions of dollars, and the loss of over 6,000 men and women. We are at the cusp of ceding our world leadership role because our so-called leadership is not willing to stand up to special interest groups and implement a rational energy policy that would revitalize the economy.

The special interest groups play a major role in stymieing the development and implementation of a rational energy policy. Our morally corrupt leadership has not risen to the task. Accordingly, the lone recourse left to the people is to demand a constitutional amendment that provides for a one-term limit-the president and Senate, six years, House, four years-with federally funded elections. The country would be better served if the Occupy Wall Street and Tea Party adherents move their protests to the fifty state capitals, and demand that the state legislators call a constitutional convention to propose and implement the 28th amendment- one term limit and federal funded elections. The 28th amendment should be a priority for both groups if we are to sever the symbiotic relations between politicians and the special interest groups that fund their campaigns. Only then will rationality and common sense prevail in the nation's capital.

"Throw the bums out"was the often heard refrain at Ebbets field in the 1930's/40's when the Brooklyn Dodgers fans were not satisfied with the performance of their team, a frequent occurrence in those years. Accordingly, it's appropriate that the performance of our so called "leaders" be treated with the same refrain.

*Title rights reserved

This is the fourth article in the Common Sense Revisited* series. The subject matter deals with the failures of our government-Congress and the several presidents that have guided the country over the past thirty five years. The views expressed are neither liberal nor conservative nor an attempt to impeach either political party. There are enough facts to suggest that all share in the debacle that has led this country to its current state. If there is a bias, it's expressed in these six words-a plague on all their houses!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JOHN CAVI is the author of The President's Ultimatum. The novel revolves around the Israeli Palestinian conflict, and presents a fictional account of what could happen if the United States stepped in with a bold challenge to settle the dispute. It's a thrilling tale of adventure, deception, betrayal, and redemption, interweaved with a poignant love story and political intrigue. It deals with a topic that still populates the headlines of the international news media.

The President's Ultimatum, was awarded the Editors Choice and Rising Star designations by iUniverse which signify excellence in writing. "Cavi delivers a thrilling novel which weaves national security, energy independence, terrorism and political turmoil into a hypothetical projection which hits eerily close to reality."

The prologue and a synopsis of the novel and blogs can be found on his website: http://www.johncavi.com

JOHN CAVI is the pen name of John Cavaiuolo-a retired Citicorp executive. He was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. and served in the U.S. Marine Corp from 1951-53. He is a graduate of St. Johns University, NYU, and the Harvard Business School Executive program. A former resident of Westport, Ct., he lives in Southport, Ct. with his wife, Ellen.

* All title rights reserved