Philips to set up LED plant in Singapore

Dutch electronics giant Philips says it will set up a hi-tech light emitting diode, or LED, production plant in Singapore. This will be its first LED manufacturing facility in Asia. Philips expects the new plant to create 900 new jobs and help double its total LED output by 2007.

Philips is keen to consolidate its leadership position in the global LED market which is worth US$5 billion in annual sales and growing at an average rate of 25% per annum. It has revealed plans to take over a vacant Maxtor plant in Singapore and has already scheduled production to begin by early 2007.

business-times.asia1.com.sg :

Philips announced that it would hire 900 people for a new production facility to make power LEDs (light emitting diodes) in Singapore. Philips said it is taking over the existing Maxtor premises in Yishun for the factory. The Maxtor plant has 450,000 square feet of built-up area with scope for further expansion. A Philips spokesman told BT that initial production, starting in January next year, would be 2,000 wafers a month. The LED chips are cut out of these wafers.

Mourad Mankarios, Philips Singapore chairman and CEO, said that the LED unit will be the second such facility for the company after its first unit in San Jose, California, set up a few years ago. 'The plant will be a high volume production facility for the Luxeon range of LEDs, employing about 900 people at full capacity ... the LEDs are used in city beautification lighting, LCD displays, camera flash for mobile phones, automotive applications and various other applications,' he added.

- So now we know what they are going to do with the Maxtor factory. And it's a good step. Lighting contributes a significant chunk of energy usage. LED lighting will help to improve on energy efficiency.

Why the survivalists have got it wrong

energybulletin.net -> transitionculture.org :

I have very little time for the survivalist response to peak oil, and on the back of a new article about it, Preparing for a Crash: Nuts and Bolts by Zachary Nowak, posted recently on the ever indispensible Energy Bulletin, perhaps it is time to deconstruct the whole survivalist argument, which is still a strong theme in the peak oil movement.

I deeply question the morality of responding to a crisis by running in the opposite direction and leaving everyone else to stew. For me, peak oil and climate change, and the challenge that they present, are a call to return to society, to rebuild society, and to engage society in a process that can offer an oil free world as a step forward and an improved quality of life.

It is of course a natural human reaction to panic when faced with a potentially disastrous near future, and to want to preserve oneself above all others. Yet for me, it is an unethical position. There is no certainty about peak oil and climate change and how they will play out. Deffeyes may be right and we've already peaked, Skrebowski might be right that we have another 4 years, perhaps the 2015-2020 folks have got it right. We don't know how it will play out ... will it be a gradual decline of recession, revival, recession, revival, will it be a sudden complete crash, will it be a gentle descent? We have no idea, but to me the survivalist creed is a distinctly antisocial and irresponsible one.

Undoubtedly we have big choices to make, but the survivalists miss the point. If a society collapses there is really no place to hide. One family can't do everything, especially a family who didn't grow up doing these things. I lived in rural Ireland for years with one other family, grew food, chopped firewood, had a compost loo, built my house and so on, and when I became aware of peak oil, it actually drew me back to communities of people, rather than even further away.

(2006-09-07 12:32:34 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

Synthetic molecules capture solar energy

peakoil.com -> newbuilder.co.uk :

A leaf is a highly efficient solar cell and researchers in Sydney have created molecules that mimic those in plants. Like the cells in plants, they harvest light and create power. According to the research team, led by Dr Deanna D'Alessandro, the best leaves can harvest 30-40% of the light falling on them. The latest state of the art solar cells are only 15-20% efficient, and expensive to make. But the researchers say they have recreated some of the key systems that plants use in photosynthesis.

Since they are so efficient at storing energy, D'Alessandro believes they could also be used as batteries - replacing the metal-based batteries that high technology devices depend on. The team say their preliminary results are very promising, although they are still in the early stages of building practical solar energy devices using the molecules.

Now they've made the molecules, the team along with their Japanese collaborators at Osaka University are working to combine them in the equivalent of a plant cell. Over the next five years they will attempt to scale the technology up to commercial scale solar panels.

(2006-09-07 12:22:12 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

World's biggest solar electric plant opens in Germany

peakoil.com -> news.monstersandcritics.com :

A solar electric power plant, billed by its operators as the world's biggest, went into service in the southern German state of Bavaria. More than 1,400 movable solar modules will collect the sun's rays and harness them into energy for around 3,500 households, according to operators Solon AG. The company has invested 70 million euros (90 million dollars) in the project, which took 15 months to complete and will have an output of 12 megawatts when fully operational.

The plant is located in the same state as a solar park in Pocking which held the previous record as the world's biggest, providing 10 megawatts of electricity to 3,300 homes. Solar energy accounts for less than 1% of the country's energy needs, but the figure is expected to grow to more than 5% by 2020, according to the German Solar Energy Association BSW.

- The bunch of "largest solar power plants" announced so far are maxing out below 20MW - 12MW in Germany, 11MW in Portugal, and another upcoming 18MW in Nevada, USA. Quite some distance from a typical 500MW gas- or oil-driven power plant. Maybe a distributed "Electric Internet" approach might be better? But that would require a move to a "smart power grid" which can cope with varying power surges as intermittent sources come online and go offline.

Russian oil production reached all-time high in August

peakoil.com -> mosnews.com :

Russian crude oil production edged up 0.9% in August to register a new all-time high of 9.759 million barrels per day. The increase was largely a result of the Exxon-led Sakhalin-1 field coming on stream. Sakhalin-1 aims to be pumping 250,000 barrels per day by the end of the year, so the output record could be overtaken again within months if production is ramped up further.

MosNews reported in August that the recent ramp-up in production has made Russia the world's biggest oil producer, surpassing even Saudi Arabia. Still it should be noted that Russia has taken the top spot only by pumping at full tilt while Saudi Arabia takes a relative breather, with several million barrels of production capacity in reserve.

- Yeah right, Saudi's oft-touted reserve capacity is heavy sour crude which sells at a steep discount to the light crude price because it's much harder to refine.

- Maybe I should go long on Russia. "Tum ta tum" - so plays the theme from Red October.