Thought for the day - 9/29/08

Today alot of cash was pulled out of stocks. Maybe there will be more selling tomorrow.

At some point some, at least, of that money is going to go back into the market. Where is it going to go? Exxon was down 8.3% today, and other "Big Oil" suffered as much or more.

Ok, so LDK was down 15+%, but that's normal for LDK. What happened to Exxon isn't normal. In LDK's case, 5.11 Million Shares traded on average around $32 per Share. So, $163 Million traded hands on LDK, whereas $4.5 Billion traded on Exxon alone. The same kind of ratios apply to other companies in the Solar and Oil Industries.

The conclusion? Yeah, I don't know. The Markets are dangerous right now, but if reality sets in, it's a pretty safe bet that some of that money from the Oil Behemoths will spill onto World Solar. Big Money is simply UNABLE to make significant investment into this little critical industry without sending prices through the roof. We're seeing how long they can hold off, right now.

WSJ - Bill Gates Goes For Algae, Invests in Biofuel Maker Sapphire Energy

Bill Gates is plunging his hands into pond scum.

"Cascades Investments LLC, Mr. Gates’ personal investment vehicle, is backing Sapphire Energy, a start up working towards a commercial-scale facility to produce oil from algae. And by all indications, he is not trying to save the world from its petroaddiction. He’s trying to make some money."

GE Energy - Threatens to Leave America if no Renewable Support.

“If the U.S.government is not going to be reliable and predictable [on clean-energy policy], we’ll go to Germany and China,”

- John Krenecki, head of GE Energy


'The head of GE Energy, the conglomerate’s unit that makes everything from wind turbines to nuclear reactors, flew down to Washington again today to plead with senators to extend tax credits for renewable energy. The credits, still crucial to making clean energy competitive, are set to expire at the end of the year, despite at least eight tries so far to renew them. That threatens to slam the brakes on two gangbuster years for American wind and solar power.'


http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2008/09/12/industry-to-congress-renew-the-expiring-clean-energy-credits/?mod=googlenews_wsj



That's right, GE is threatening to move their fastest growing Division OUT OF THE UNITED STATES, because of the expiration at the END OF THIS YEAR of the existing tax credits for Renewable Energy.


Congressional Democrats have tried EIGHT TIMES to get the credits extended, but the President and Lockstep Republicans have blocked every attempt. Why have they blocked it? Because they Refuse to PAY FOR IT. One of those attempts to extend the Credits was paid for by Deficit Spending, and guess what? It passed the Senated with 80 Votes. In that case, though, Democrats in the House refused to back it, because they are making the hard choice to be fiscally responsible. In another case, a Bill got to the Senate with 59 votes. McCain was in Washington DC and was available to vote, but he did not show up for work, instead he claimed that the issue needed further study. It's outrageous.

Senate Energy "gang" Grows To 20

This is a good compromise, and Obama has already stated that he would support it.

We need this Bill for a host of reasons, from Economic Benefit to National Energy Security Benefits.

It will be interesting to see what McCain says about it as I don't believe he's made any public statements on it.

Credit to Timdo67 of Yahoo for the link!

Biden / Friedman - Meet the Press - Video.

See it Here.


Excellent Interviews.

Biden definately shows his smarts in a way that I hadn't seen before, and Thomas Friedman is a must see if you're looking for the Energy Revolution. He's all over it, and from this interview, he's demonstrating that he's watching the situation carefully. He describes the situation with China well, and is clearly quite inspired.

Nice Wafering Tech - Sharp

Sharp Announces Technique to Halve Wafer Production Costs for Solar Cells

Excelent article on Wafering Basics - Not Solar Specific.

Link.

Spain raises Solar Limit to 450MW for '09 and '10

Spain Raises Cap on Solar Energy in Revision, Confidencial Says

"Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Spain raised the limit on solar energy production to as much 450 megawatts for next year and 2010 in a revision to proposed rules, El Confidencial reported, citing unidentified people in the industry.

Spain's Industry Ministry will cap output at 400 megawatts to 450 megawatts a year, up from a proposal of 300 megawatts, El Confidencial said."


For some Background of the situation in Europe, see this.


Here's a new IBD article on Solar Pricing Estimates


Credit to Hacker4502 and Diaoko of Yahoo for links.

Somewhat depressing article behind the link.

www.ChrisMartenson.com

"The way I see it, our markets are now largely out of the hands of “investors” and are mainly controlled by large trading funds, which use “black box” computers to trade the markets in a very highly-aggressive and rapid fashion. I have it on pretty good authority that there is a single hedge fund (just one) that constitutes 10% of all shares traded on any given day."