aquaculture

Applied Materials: Can They Make it in Solar?

Chinese banks are not cash strapped at all. And they changed course.......

Lithium-ion Batteries: 9 Years of Price Stagnation

From a pure technological standpoint, when you evaluate all the various gov. stimulus packages, loans and perks, one can clearly see the footprints of opponents to renewable energy at work. They are very clever in disguising this!
But the underlying strategy is as simple as it is effective: divide et impera....

Lithium-ion Batteries: 9 Years of Price Stagnation

Speaking of temperatures, (in)external heat is an inherent problem for for Li-ion packs. The cooling system alone adds ~$500 cost to a car. Then it drains about 100-200 kwh annual depending on what climate you live in.
If it fails on a hot parking lot: you come back to a car with a battery that is lost. An insurance company would cover the risk, but at a cost.......

Oil As Money and the Decline of Energy Earnings

Also Dow does not reflect higher eroei of alternatives, eg if Vestas Wind Systems etc would be in Dow, chart would look a lot better.

Oil As Money and the Decline of Energy Earnings

A few minor points.
Oil has been the primary energy source, supporting the pyramid and will be untill the end of this technology cycle. Your 12:1 eroei for oil average cannot be correct. 12:1 is the average for all energy sources (eg. Windpower has 20:1)
With all the water pumped up in S. Arabia eroei there is ~10:1.
Average oil eroei now about 3:1. Tar sands about 1:1. or even less.
Now these are all using a standardized metric.
By your definition we have to include eg. protecting the shipping lanes and war effort in oil eroei equation. Then oil eroi has been negative over your charts history. Hence the decline.

Cook's scheme would be a very sophisticated form of bartertrade.

Lithium-ion Batteries: 9 Years of Price Stagnation

The price stagnation is easy to understand. Before 2k real wages had increased and historically energy storage per dollar had been doubling every ten years -for the past 150 years or so.
But there is every reason to believe that there may not be any improvement in this for the next 20 years:
-U.S gov. debt causing inflation.
-globalisation and overpopulation -devaluing people.
-technological acceleration, keeping wages further down.

Therefore Americans -except for select elite- will simply not be able to afford Li-ion powered cars, even if mass production of lithiumcarbonate would be possible/desirable, which it is not:

-not environmentally sound. It would cause futher irreparible ecological damage to ecosystem.
-world demand from portable electr, light ev (bikes) will absorp much of planned production increases.
-realistic achievable production will be sufficient for only a small fraction of transportation needs.
-most lithiumcarbonate reserves in geographical areas hostile to U.S. politics, possibility of new conflicts of interest.

I think gov. loans to A123 etc. are very elitist. How does that help the American people?

Could the Dow Sink Another 50% by 2012?

So until there is a 'cleantech revolution' (see eg. the Merryll report), no long term appreciation of most asset classes can be expected.
Of course this also creates enormous opportunities for new wealth creation.

Could the Dow Sink Another 50% by 2012?

Good points.
At the end of THIS tech cycle, the weakest fundament of the DOW is a primary energy source (upon which all others are based) who's EROI -energetic return on investment- has become negative, if you define it smartly.
We remember the "America is addicted to oil" phrase.
Time is energy and the clock is running backwards.
50% off could very well be, if current trends continue.

Five Top Solar Power Stocks

Yes solar is a growth industry. But this article is full of misrepresentation, halftruths, contradictions and mistakes.

Cleantech, Optimism Squared and the Battery Industry

Also, but that is just my opinion, one has to realise that investors (here and elsewhere) have poured many millions of dollars in cleantech, batteries etc., so we -investment community- kind of like to keep track of current technology and its limits, if you know what i mean.

Cleantech, Optimism Squared and the Battery Industry

Sorry, wrong. Can be found in the white papers here:
strategicpolymers.com

And BT is not a polymer.

And no not off-topic. Cleantech, batteries and (Optimism)^........

Solar's Dead Cat Bounce May Be Over

This just came to me:
source: Sankei Shimbun Japan daily:

'Japan to include 2 trillion yen -20 billion $- in spending to mount solar panels on public buildings as part of a stimulus package to be announced in april.'

Cleantech, Optimism Squared and the Battery Industry

Dave k

Above you gave link and said: (quote) "replaced with a material having dielectric constant about 6000"
Highest known polymer dielectric is a little over 50.
No 100 x energy density in that either...

Solar's Dead Cat Bounce May Be Over

Actually, due to matching dollars for cells at half price, he is off by about a factor of 2000.

When Hedge Funds Embrace Regulation

Half the hedgefunds are off-shore already. A good umbrella -not!