Mitsubishi Heavy powers up new solar-panel program

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. plans to enter the solar power market on a major scale, based on a significant advance in its solar-cell technology and a growing demand for renewable energy sources. Mitsubishi researchers developed a thin membrane that can use a broader spectrum in the wavelength of solar light to generate electricity. As a result, the efficiency rate for solar energy conversion was raised to 12% from the current model's 8%. The cost for manufacturing the new solar panels will also be about half that of rival companies.

In 2004, Mitsubishi panels accounted for about 1% of the world's solar power capacity of around 1,200 megawatts. It now aims to supply 5% of the capacity within 10 years. Sharp was the top manufacturer of solar panels in 2004, accounting for an estimated 27% of world capacity - followed by Kyocera with 9%. Japanese companies account for more than 50% of solar power generating capacity installed worldwide.

(2006-01-16 23:57:18 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

Coal : keeping the lights on in America

peakoil.com -> news-record.com :

Coal, its image notwithstanding, is not old-fashioned. It's just that most Americans have the luxury of ignoring it. More than half of America's electricity is supplied by coal. With the price of power sharply higher, the United States is likely to be relying on it for generations to come.

Coal played a vital role in shaping America over the past two centuries. It helped spread the American frontier westward, powering the new nation's railroads. By the early 1900s, the United States was a coal colossus. More than 700,000 men worked in the mines. Coal was the primary fuel for cooking and heating.

America's everyday familiarity with coal began to decline, as consumers and companies shifted to other types of fuel. By the 1990s, even the electricity business was looking beyond coal. The future would be charted with a new type of power plant, clean and cheap, run on natural gas. Between 1998 and 2002, the industry built scores of those plants. Now that the time has come to power up those plants, however, there's not nearly enough natural gas to run them and what there is costs seven times what it used to. Which brings us back to coal.

Today, utilities are planning 130 new coal-fired plants, and another 20 or so plants that rely on coal gasification, which turns solid coal into gas. The new coal-fired plants are cleaner than the old ones. But with debate raging over global warming, building scores of new plants is by no means a settled question. The nation's coal reserves could last 250 years, some experts say. Maybe longer. But given the world's rapidly rising energy needs, the struggle to protect the environment, and the costs of extracting coal, how long can we afford to continue ignoring its place?

(2006-01-16 23:12:01 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

Author offers bleak peek at life after 'peak oil'

peakoil.com -> registerguard.com :

Someday the planet will run out of oil. It may be sooner, it may be later, but that day is coming, say most petroleum geologists. They refer to the point where we've used up half of the planet's fossil fuels as "peak oil" and once we've passed that point, many social scientists predict significant and alarming changes. Scientists continue to debate the status of the world's oil reserves. At a November conference on the topic sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences, researchers were divided into optimists who believe peak oil is at least 30 years away and pessimists who think we'll reach that moment in this decade.

"I personally am convinced by the near-term peakers," author Richard Heinberg said in a telephone interview from his California home. "Oil is either at its all-time peak or will achieve it before the end of the decade. "Most of the super giant fields discovered decades ago are reaching and surpassing their peaks." The Mexico Cantarell field has peaked. The world's second largest - Burgan in Kuwait - is in decline. More importantly, he said, petroleum geologists just aren't discovering those kinds of oil fields anymore, and the smaller ones coming online aren't replacing them.

It's not that the world's collective oil spigot will shut off magically sometime in the future, but that over time less oil will be available, driving up prices, and, eventually, availability. The way Americans live now will change, Heinberg said. Shipping food from hundreds or thousands of miles away will become untenable because of the cost of fuel. Workers will need to be closer to their jobs because they won't be able to afford fuel for long commutes. The longer we wait to wean ourselves from our reliance on cheap and plentiful oil, the more difficult the transition to alternatives will be, he said.

(2006-01-16 22:53:24 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

Move over gas guzzlers, small cars are coming

peakoil.com -> usatoday.com :

Small cars, the boon and bane of the 1980s auto industry, are making a comeback as automakers rediscover how easy it is to sell good fuel economy and low prices. "Small is big in America," declares Mark Fields, Ford Motor's head of American operations. "It's going to be the season of the small car," says Kia U.S. chief Len Hunt.

If economy models zoom as much as automakers think, it'll be a huge about-face for a country in which bigger has been better for years and in which trucks have outsold cars handily. Three-dollar gasoline last fall and an evolving moderation seem to have redirected shoppers toward cars, small ones in particular.

"A more practical, less self-indulgent era may be dawning," consultant KPMG says in a summary of its recent survey of 140 global auto executives. The survey shows that 84% of the executives believe that fuel economy is a top concern of buyers, second only to quality. That presages a push for higher-mileage models the next few years.

(2006-01-16 13:42:26 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

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