Does Stewart's solar needs match anyone circulated (or peersthey know) may have on their mind to action?

peer cases

1 peter R you mentioned to me yesterday, that solar is one of the 3 socal busin esses you one day want to prioritise through your leading microcredit channel in malawi

2 Lauren I noticed you minibio says you have been active in volunteer work in haiti - so I assume you will know which of your boston peers may be too; johne engle I know you run leading schools circes programs in haiti

3 its my understanding that kevin and jerry see www.barefootpower.com  as one of the most replicable franchises of the various new (to them) ones they are evaluating

4 mostofa, I still feel what we need to say to dipal is why not have one general tour a year of how grameen installs more solar than the whole of usa which youth can be the package tour market maker for with people with big budgets paying the most with a deposit back if they start a trade dipal wants; it would be really good if this idea could be taken nearer "to go" before yunus speaks as ashden later in the month

5 marriah, I dont know if you have a correspondent leader of your 10000 meeting that is editor of green

6 stewart if I were you I would establish contact with april allderdice as she's in the business of forming clean energy markets so has her eye out on places already scaling energy- part 1 of her extraordinary transcript and intent of http://microenergycredits.com is below

chris macrae 301 881 1655 http://microenergysummit.com
Transcript part 1 of 2

April Allderdice, James Daley

Microenergycredits (MEC, Seattle)

solar social business#2 purpose make market for 250 million zero-carbon households

 

Origin  of MEC

 

J: We wanted to do something creative , I’d been interested in climate change and bringing renewable energy to MicroFinanceInstitutes (MFI) and  April had been working in this space and what was driving us forward was let’s do something big –lets do something that’s highly scaleable to bring clean energy to the bottom of the pyramid

 

Int: am interested in how you intend to make carbon finance widely accessible, -I know how complex the systems of clarification and measurement can be so who do you see as your market? what products are you going to offer to people to people who want to tap into carbon financing?

 

A sure  - in terms of our market - currently people in poor regions at the bottom of the pyramid bear the full cost when they make energy investments in renewable or clean  energy technologies. Cap and trade markets like the carbon offset markets are designed to transfer capital from the polluters to the energy savers. The problem is transaction costs so we wanted to find a way to eliminate transaction costs so that billions of people at the bottom of the pyramid could be receiving these subsidies – and have the subsidies go where they are needed.

 

The way we did this was first to put together a board of advisors: beth rhyne at accion, dipal barua who is md of Gramee Shakti 1 2 3 and dep md of grameen bank, Craig Nakagawa at village reach

(Our demonstration program has proven successful in northern Mozambique. Our model is being refined for replication in Malawi and other developing countries. )

which is a nonprofit that provides energy for healthcenters in africa and also Charlie Tomberg http://travel.ctomberg.com/IndiaBangladesh/13.html who was our first investor at the Tomberg family philanthropy . The next thing we did was to build a beta-version of the technology . Note the  purpose of this technology is to automate all the tracking of the carbon credit. –a lot of the transaction costs come in trying to keep track of thousands upon thousands of small energy investments so we realised we needed to use a technology which could massively aggregate all of these credits

 

The next thing we did was to sign on a pilot partner – our first FINCA Uganda – we have already operationalised with them  and sold our first carbon credit from them. The next thing we did was to sign an umbrella carbon finance deal – ithe other place that carbon transaction costs come in is when you are trying to develop all the project documents in carbon finance. So we linked up with carbon giant ecosecurities – they were actually the first carbon firm to do a clean development mechanism project which is a carbon project from the developing world, and they were actually looking for an opportunity to access some of these relative small energy projects compared with what they typically do in the developing world –and all of the projects we are talking about with MFI fall into that category; they were looking for a way to do that and we provided an option for them to massively aggregate using our technology

 

James – another way to talk about this on terms of reducing transaction costs, the analogy would be ebay where you have millions of small entrepreneurs able to make money on this platform and in the same way technology can reduce the transaction costs for connecting billions of dollars in the carbon market to billions of people who would like t have better energy choices. So what we are trying to do is to connect the MFI with the carbon markets via scalable internet  technology, this will enable energy access to the bottom of the pyramid  - so really that’s our market the bottom of the pyramid  its anybody of a customer of MFI who might want to have an improved cookstove or solar panel or biogas digester

 

So you us use technology to take the admin , legal and agglomerating burden off the shoulders of the MOi. If the MFI were to try themselves to access the carbon markets, they might be able to for that but it would take a long time, it would distract management, so we take the burden of that and provide that service – that’s our value to them – without us it might be years before they get to this sort of thing

 part 1 of 15 minute transcript from http://fieldsupportlwa.org/energylinks/microenergycredits

help ensure that community and microenergy experience gets equitable share of voice at 09 world economins forum http://www.forumblog.org/openforum/2007/11/6-climate-chang.html#comment-6a00d8345279f069e20105369432a5970b this link is the pre- & post- blog to meeting on climate with

Speakers

• Christian Mumenthaler, Chief Risk Officer Swiss Re, Zürich
• Luiz Fernando Furlan, Chairman of the Board, GALF Empreendimentos, Brazil
• C.S. Kiang, Chairman, Peking University Environment Fund, Republic of China
• Achim Steiner, Executive Director, The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Nairobi
• Ichiro Kamoshita, Minister of the Environment, Minister in Charge of Global Environmental Problems, Japan

E +CO

SSIN: Across much of the developing world, the dinner hour comes with a billow of smoke. That’s because many of the world’s 2 billion people who live without electricity continue to cook with wood, dung, and charcoal. These solid fuels may seem cheap, but their hidden costs are quite high. Burning them sends carbon into the atmosphere, exacerbating global warming. And the indoor air pollution they cause leads to chronic, even fatal, respiratory disease.“One of the myths is that poor people cannot afford to buy modern energy,” laments Phil LaRocco, cofounder and CEO of E+Co, an energy investment firm headquartered in Bloomfield, N.J. “That’s nonsense! People pay dearly for 19th-century energy.”

For 15 years, E+Co has demonstrated an alternative scenario. The nonprofit organization has grown a portfolio of 200-plus small companies that produce clean energy in developing countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. These enterprises bring modern energy to some 4 million people, off set more than 3 million tons of carbon per year, and generate upwards of $8 million in new income. E+Co has invested $35 million in these companies and mobilized $172 million in co-financing.

The thinking behind E+Co began in 1990, before most of the world was worrying about climate change. LaRocco and Christine Eibs Singer, both previously with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, took on a research question for the Rockefeller Foundation: Where should we intervene to improve the global environment? LaRocco sums up their findings: “If you care about the global environment, then you need to care about energy,” particularly in the developing world. “There’s not enough public sector money in the world” to develop clean energy in emerging markets, he adds.

LaRocco and Singer took their findings and launched E+Co in 1994 with a blend of public and private resources, including foundation grants, government funding, and private investment. From the start, E+Co turned traditional development thinking on its head. Instead of delivering energy through top-down initiatives like large-scale utilities, it looks for small enterprises that can take hold locally. Rather than bringing in Western business experts, E+Co hires regional field staff who recruit and support entrepreneurs in their own communities.

Recognizing the organization’s results, Financial Times named E+Co the Sustainable Investor of the Year for 2008. Judges called the organization’s approach “an inspiration.” Indeed, E+Co’s efforts are inspiring others to see the connections between energy, poverty, and climate change. “We’re linking the three sides of this triangle,” says Singer, E+Co’s deputy executive director.

ENERGIZING ENTREPRENEURS
E+Co’s portfolio of small enterprises—solar, wind, hydro, biogas, and other projects—proves that there’s no shortage of clean energy ideas or entrepreneurs in emerging markets. In Ghana, a company called Toyola sells cookstoves that are 40 percent more efficient than traditional charcoal stoves. Entrepreneurs Suraj Wahab and Ernest Kyei borrowed $70,000 from E+Co to start their business. Now, Toyola creates revenue and jobs all along the supply chain, from scrap-metal collectors to metal fabricators to sales staff who peddle the stoves for $10 apiece. “If there’s a Henry Ford of the cookstove business,” LaRocco says, “his name is Suraj.”

Willing entrepreneurs represent an abundant but largely untapped resource, reports the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) in a recent background paper. The report also notes, however, that technical assistance for small business—so accessible in the United States—is simply not available in many developing markets.

E+Co’s loans fall into what LaRocco calls “the space in between”: bigger than microfinance but smaller than corporate-size deals. This “missing middle” is unfamiliar territory for many public and private investors. “Our goal is to start a movement,” Singer says, so that small and growing enterprises have ready access to capital. Global acceptance of microfinance has taught her the value of aggregating players “to speak with one voice.” Through the Aspen Institute, E+Co has teamed up with allies such as Root Capital to launch ANDE. By developing common metrics and documenting best practices, ANDE aims to grow awareness of and capital for small and growing enterprises. Singer has also reported on E+Co’s ambitious growth plan at the Clinton Global Initiative.

three cheers for www.gshakti.org and http://microenergycredits.com/ and http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy01osti/26188.pdf update jan09 MEC's partnering is now in Mongolia Xacbank as well as Uganda FINCA. Its blog.

Cool links commended by friends of Grameen Shakti

market accelerator: http://microenergycredits.com/aboutus.html (April Allderdice)

podcast

Neville Williams 

At Saturday's Center for Conflict Dialogue in New York, it became evident from speakers that:
1 the global financial meltdown is just beginning
2 we -the people , all peoples united for sustainability of future generations -  need to amplify dialogues capable of shifting global awareness on industry sectors like solar whose innovation has been blocked in recent decades because they could only be developed by opposite models to the ones global financial Wall Street pre-meltdown were given monoploy powers  to rule the world with (which in extreme abuse of English langauge -and the scots who originally mapped transparency at the core of economics -  they actually called free market)

so mapping solar's worldwide development as a community to community economics model matters not just to those concerned about climate but those with any money in banks! it matters not just to ending poevrty but to preventing rich people from losing all; it is a win-win-win that can unite the world's peoples as indeed should the flows of all natural resource economics in our highly networked conneceting globe

let's summarise what is known and unknown about solar

known:
it is abundant, do-able, expoenentially over long-run ten+ times cheaper than other energy if your community has sunshine and clean

unknown:
what's the most relevant scale so that community sustainability thrives - alternative scaling includes:

several thousand people  in a community install individual solar units but all with one common technology that they can cheaply maintain - the Bangladeshi world leading contribution to solar

and plants apparently capable of delivering energy to 3500 people such as http://www.ausra.com/ - we'd love any observers reports on ausra chris.macrae@yahoo.co.uk usa 301 881 1655

other hubs of solar that may be worth clicking through - self DC ;  Green Microfinance PA ;

online discussion archives on microfinance & environment   -microlinks 08

---

energy winners at tech museum 08:
• SKG Sangha (Katherine M. Swanson Equality Award). This nonprofit, headquartered in Kolar, Karnataka, took the award for its unique system that enables rural women to become entrepreneurs using biogas and composting technologies. Women are trained how to convert waste into biogas (which is used for cooking fuel), and the byproduct of the biogas is easily converted into organic fertilizer, which the women sell for profit. “We combine both technologies — energy and agriculture — to provide solutions for rural areas,” SKG Sangha founder Vidya Sagar Devabhaktuni told India-West.

• DESI Power: Decentralised Energy Systems India (Accenture Economic Development Award). Dr. Harendra Nath Sharan’s idea helps poor villages in Bihar build local power plants using biomass gasification; the power generated by the plants can be sold to power water pumps and charge batteries. “Electricity production is not our main goal,” explained Sharan, who spent 10 years developing the program. “We do microenterprise along with it. I used to build large power stations around the world, and I realized that these villages would never get power [otherwise]. DESI Power has a viable, profitable social impact, and it also mitigates the risk of climate change.”

---

Greg O'Neill associate of http://www.microventuresupport.org/ writes (actual inlog 13 dec 08)
http://whitetiger511.tripod.com/, as it will give you an overview of my doings, and the direc-tion I'm heading in. -- For many years I've been data mining to learn about new technologies, systems, and materials, with an eye towards bringing these diverse elements together in a wholistic fashion, a dynamic synergy.  Nestled amidst a biodiverse, agroforestry project, on the surface, going deeper we will use new systems ---  1) to desalinate seawater for freshwater 2) tap atmospheric moisture from the air for freshwater 3) use offshore power generation systems - tidal wave, ocean current, and surface wave methods 4) use low voltage, run through electrified wire mesh in seawater, using ElectroAccretion to produce BioRock material, an ultra high performance cementitious material, superior to conventional cement, for construction of inexpensive housing 5) use basalt rock dust to enhance soil fertility 6) use seawater mineral derived soil amendments to stimulate plant growth, and enhance nutrient values 7) use vertical hydroponics, aeroponics, and aquaponics, as well as setup vertical farming in urban areas --- and much more, in a showcase example of what will be replicated, fractal-style, in many countries, given the support to do it. ------ I find it tragic that proven systems exist that answer many area and global problems, those causing conflicts and mindless wars to control finite resources, at the behest of global bankers intent on domination of nations. --- It is my hope to inspire, and educate, people to spearhead adoption, and implementation, of these advanced technologies to forge a resource based, global economy http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/ (Zeitgeist: Addendum) for all people to benefit, and not the elitists. ---- I am familiar with water fuel systems, fuelless power systems, ceramic cements, geopolymers, and am aware of the enormous potential they represent. --- One friend, Steve, a longtime biofuels systems designer, has come up with an enzyme/membrane system, in a trailer mounted, towable, biofuels platform, capable of processing 500 gallons of biofuels per day (ethanol, butanol, and biodiesel), from a wide variety of cellulosic materials (leaves, stems, wood chips, waste fruit, grasses).  He is currently looking for funding to complete his first towable unit.  We are hoping to eventually get assembly plants built, to bring down the cost per unit to around $200K, and to get these towable units out to villages around the world, for farmer co-ops to use in making homegrown biofuels.  Butanol to replace gasoline, and biodiesel to replace diesel.

I find your experience very interesting stewart (not that I have any expertise) chris http://microenergysummit.com Washington DC 301 881 1655

.Interesting to see some Visio output from you guys. We're doing research on business process software that can help us quickly train people on how to implement village scale energy projects. We're quite sure most partners in developing countries can't afford Visio, and at 600Mb, is a hard package to download in non-broadband countries. We have identified Visio-compatible software options, which are also free, that can help solve this issue. Is anyone else in this group interested in similar output to what Jerome sent around, but using free software? If so, let me know, would be great to spread the word and have quite a few people/organizations making process guides for their organizations, as I am sure that some higher level, less detailed task (like marketing to secure a new customer, or quality control testing processes for supply checking) is very similar, and by swapping processes or creating a library, we can help each other. We are creating energy businesses-in-a-box, similar to Jeremy's fish-in-a-box, and I think any effort at micro franchising could benefit from business process software, so if you'd like a summary of what we've learned so far, please contact me. Such a process library may be a very good form of mutual collaboration. Just a quick note on Greg's friends' 500 gallon per day biofuel unit - the villages we work with are generally about 30-100 households, which each would initially benefit from about 30W of CFL lighting and maybe a small TV. This is only 2-3 kW of power, requiring 1 L/hour, or 0.25 gal/hour, maybe 1 gallon per evening for lighting, or 3-6 gallons per day if 12-24 hour is required. A 500 gallon/day fuel unit would therefore need 100 to 2000 villages, or 15,000-400,000 people, to be fully utilized. This is NOT a village fuel unit in the short term, and would require a lot of organizing to get the feedstock coming in. Plus you'd need to distribute the fuel to hundreds of villages. Our partner in PNG (www.psspng.com) manufactures coconut oil mills that make 1-50 gallons/day, 1-10% the size of the current unit. If Greg's friend can make a cost estimate of a unit 1-10% the size he is currently planning, we'd be interested to help find him funding, and to do a field trial, but for now, it is way oversized for real village applications. I live in China, and can help cost the smaller components of what is required, if offshore manufacture is of any interest, but this issue itself might be a showstopper. Best regards, Stewart http://www.barefootpower.com

. Collaboration Games #3 What is MICROSUMMIT? Designing human processes around opportunity to gravitate collaborative networking to the most urgent sustainability goals of our worldwide generation Microsummits can unite peoples worldwide by continuously open sourcing vital community solutions interlocally. Build on good news flowing through annual summits whose measures map replicable actions and webs linked towards sustainability goals' deadlines. Can you help us link the MicroCluetrain of Yes We Can? Examples: · As early as 1984 a leading economist declared that in the first decade of the 21st century worldwide people would come to recognise that the gap in incomes and expectations between rich and poor nations was man's most dangerous problem · All sustainability crises – problems and prototype solutions – begin in local communities · As yet, global media do not give remotely enough share of voice to sustainability challenges and creativity. Imagine what the world could look like if a tenth of your time which global media spends on celebrating sports and fashions was transferred to Collaboration Games of ending poverty and supporting human sustainability everywhere The first microsummit –microcreditsummit http://microcreditsummit.org  – began in 1997. It has emerged as humanity’s most exciting networking and serial worldwide meeting benchmark. It orchestrates such inspiring chords  as: *Declaring the boldest goal and timeline a network had ever committed to – reaching 100 million poor families worldwide in under a decade *Identifying how the microsummit’s goal positively multiplies possibilities of achieving other millennium commitments that were originally announced to unite peoples acrioss borders in this generation’s defining responsibilities *Inviting the globally famous and most trusted locally to join in celebrating news of local grassroots actions and progress *Publishing the plans of every practitioner subnetwork openly before attending the next serial summit. Hosting meetings in every hemisphere in ways that seek to bridge richest and poorest in a commonly productive pursuit. *Open sourcing “learning by doing” methods whose key rules are so simple that 9 year olds can communally debate them as expertly as adults Looking back we can see that microcreditsummit began at about the same time that the internet http://www.cluetrain.com/ exponentially accelerated its popularity as a media.  Note that very few of us are yet teenagers in our experience of participating as inter-networkers and in cross-culturally debating what microsummit designs are vital. Will our generation’s global and local responsibilities to marry real time and virtual time  spin the best of times and not the worst? What can we learn from experienced collaboration participants of the 12 year old microcreditsummit? And can Collaboration Games interconnect 7 sister microsummits so that millennium goals define our generation's time on the planet ? The sort of picture I map when I listen to the collaboration wishes of Dr Yunus as one of the founders of microcreditsummit looks like this. I am sure you can develop this picture into an altogether better flow map, but it may be start to dots that need connecting as earth's most vital space race accelerates

PickensPlan provides a conversation starter on how to make USA energy independent within 10 years. If it understood solar that could be nearer 5- still well worth looking at for its views on wind

A 2005 Stanford University study found that there is enough wind power worldwide to satisfy global demand 7 times over — even if only 20% of wind power could be captured.

Building wind facilities in the corridor that stretches from the Texas panhandle to North Dakota could produce 20% of the electricity for the United States at a cost of $1 trillion. It would take another $200 billion to build the capacity to transmit that energy to cities and towns.

That's a lot of money, but it's a one-time cost. And compared to the $700 billion we spend on foreign oil every year, it's a bargain.

An economic revival for rural America.

Developing wind power is an investment in rural America.

To witness the economic promise of wind energy, look no further than Sweetwater, Texas.

Sweetwater was typical of many small towns in middle-America. With a shortage of good jobs, the youth of Sweetwater were leaving in search of greater opportunities. And the town's population dropped from 12,000 to under 10,000.

When a large wind power facility was built outside of town, Sweetwater experienced a revival. New economic opportunity brought the town back to life and the population has grown back up to 12,000.

In the Texas panhandle, just north of Sweetwater, is the town of Pampa, where T. Boone Pickens' Mesa Power is currently building the largest wind farm in the world.

In addition to creating new construction and maintenance jobs, thousands of Americans will be employed to manufacture the turbines and blades. These are high skill jobs that pay on a scale comparable to aerospace jobs.

Plus, wind turbines don't interfere with farming and grazing, so they don't threaten food production or existing local economies.

---------------------------------------------------
A friend Irina's research lists these green funds:

Name	Target Industries
Acuity Clean Environment Equity Fund (1)	Alternative energy & power solutions incl.: Wind Solar Biofuel Energy efficiency Waste management & pollution control Water & waste solutions incl.: Water purification Waste water treatment Desalination Environment Health & Safety incl.: Development of drugs and vaccines Health services Sanitation technologies
Calvert Global Alternative Energy Fund (2)	Wind Solar Biomass Geothermal Fuel cells Energy efficiency Utilities
Green Effects Fund (3)	Wind Solar Waste Management Energy Efficiency
Guinness Atkinson Alternative Energy Fund (4)	Solar Wind Geothermal Hydro Energy Efficiency Biomass & biofuels
Impax Environmental Leaders Fund (5)	Alternative Energy & Energy Efficiency, incl.: Wind turbine manufacturers Solar manufacturers and integrators Renewable energy developers and independent power producers Biofuels Meters and demand side management Industrial, building & transport energy efficiency Waste Treatment & Pollution Control Waste Technologies & Resource Management
New Alternatives Fund (6)	Wind Solar Geothermal Biomass Hydro Fuel cells Ocean energy Energy conservation
Winslow Green Growth Fund (7)	Clean Energy Green Building Environmental Services Resource Efficiency Water Management Green Transport

resources commended by usa national green jobs conference

Manufacturing Climate Solutions

A report by Duke researchers says U.S. manufacturing is poised to grow in a low-carbon economy. The report, "Manufacturing Climate Solutions," provides a detailed look at the manufacturing jobs that already exist and would be created when the U.S. takes action to limit global-warming pollution.

Current and Potential Green Jobs in the U.S. Economy

A report released by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Mayors Climate Protection Center says the U.S. economy currently generates more than 750,000 green jobs — a number that is projected to grow five-fold to more than 4.2 million jobs over the next three decades.

Green Jobs: Towards decent work in a sustainable, low-carbon world

A new report from the United Nations Environment Programme says changing patterns of employment and investment resulting from efforts to reduce climate change are generating new jobs in many sectors and economies and could create millions more in developed and developing countries.

Green Recovery: A Program to Create Good Jobs and Start Building a Low-Carbon Economy

In September, the Center for American Progress and PERI at the University of Massachusetts released a report showing investing $100 billion in energy efficiency and renewable energy will create 2 million jobs in two years. For more information, or for state-by-state numbers, visit www.americanprogress.org.

The New Apollo Program

The Apollo Alliance released in September a comprehensive economic investment strategy to build America's 21st century clean energy economy and dramatically cut energy bills for families and businesses. The New Apollo Program will generate and invest $500 billion over the next ten years and create five million high quality green-collar jobs and transform America into the global leader of the new green economy.

Job Opportunities for the Green Economy: A State-by-State Picture of Occupations that Gain from Green Investments

This June report by PERI examined 12 states and the people employed in occupations affected by six green economic strategies and found that millions of U.S. workers would benefit from transforming the U.S. into a green economy.

Greener Pathways: Job and Workforce Development in the Clean Energy Economy

Greener Pathways outlines a plan of action for states, helping policy-makers and advocates craft clean energy agendas that simultaneously meet emerging industry demand, train and support workers, and create good, family-supporting jobs. Produced by the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, The Workforce Alliance and Apollo Alliance, Greener Pathways explores high-road economic and workforce development opportunities in three key industries: energy efficiency, wind, and biofuels.

The Road to Energy Independence

A November 2007 report by the Blue Green Alliance and The Renewable Energy Policy Project documenting the potential of a national Renewable Electricity Standard to create thousands of jobs making parts for wind turbines, solar panels and other clean energy technologies.

I'd love to know: do the group exploring materials that have hi fluorescence and phosphorescence live in a to patent or not to patent world?

 

MOON RACES - & NETWORK ECONOMICS ADVANTAGES- WERE NEVER WON BY HI-PATENT NATIONS. NOR WILL SOLAR RACES

 

The father of computing John Von Neumann argued vigorously for a 21st century where most patents only lasted 90 days. His view was that if you had a 90 day lead and cared about application of something then in a connected age the network advantage of 90 days was sufficient enough to keep innovators more than prosperous. Those who box in patents end up delaying their innovation from benefiting humanity by a generation if indeed it ever comes out of the scientific box. In practice, there is very little emerging knowledge I can think of that has value multiplying wins for humanity on its own. It’s the interfaces between knowledges that :

1) patents have blocked

2) the networking age could reveal hundreds of solutions to humanity's most vital needs

 

Whilst no expert in any of the solar sciences, my maps of where solar is already generating thriving carbon negative economies show that communities are uniting around very low tech but open technologies http://www.erworld.tv/id72.html whose after-service any villager can be taught in a month's workshops to serve. This is incredibly good news for the local economy in terms of creating new green jobs.

 

Of course, if anyone's maps of places where large scale solar application of a different kind  happening, do tell us where they are.

 

Incidentally the Von Neumann story may come back to haunt North West hemispheres or other nations driven by hi-patent culture. My father wrote the pre-eminent biography of Von-Neumann. For many years its publication was delayed in China as one chapter was regarded as politically incorrect by authorities even in my father's trademark joking but seriously curious language used as The Economist for 40 years. The Chinese have relented. The book is due out at the end of the year. It cold be the best time for China to declare a 21st Theory & Practice of Wealth Nations 2.0 -where the tyrannies of patents and lawyers are minimised instead of maximized at least so far as the critical sustainability challenges that banking on a fallible globalisation has spent 25 years crashing into every community. 

chris macrae http://microenergysummit.com

PREVIOUSLY

http://www.kciinvesting.com/articles/9608/1/A-Lesson-in-Solar-Breakthroughs/Page1.html

New Solar Cell Material Achieves Almost 100% Efficiency, Could Solve World-wide Energy Problems
Trendwatch
By Rick C. Hodgin  
Monday, October 20, 2008

Columbus (OH) -- Researchers at Ohio State University have accidentally discovered a new solar cell material capable of absorbing all of the sun's visible light energy. The material is comprised of a hybrid of plastics, molybdenum and titanium. The team discovered it not only fluoresces (as most solar cells do), but also phosphoresces. Electrons in a phosphorescent state remain at a place where they can be "siphoned off" as electricity over 7 million times longer than those generated in a fluorescent state. This combination of materials also utilizes the entire visible spectrum of light energy, translating into a theoretical potential of almost 100% efficiency.

From Clinton GI September 24 Transcript:

Clinton & Gore:

Clinton: One of the things nobody’s

talked about is when we started over-investing in

risky things and housing, it was in 2001 when the

high-tech market went down. There was a still a

lot of money in the economy and the only available

attractive investments in America were in housing,

so too much money went into the sector in ever

more risky ways.If he had been the leader of the band andwe had a serious energy policy and we were going o other alternative things, a lot of this

investment money could have been redirected and I

do believe that for green energy

Gore:

Concentrating

geothermal power is competitive today. Wind is

competitive, though intermittent, today.

Geothermal is competitive today. We need, in this

country, a unified, national transmission grid, a

smart grid with long-distance, low-loss

transmission capacity to take the energy from the

places where the sun falls and the wind blows to

the places where the people live. And we need it

globally in Europe, in Africa, Northern Africa

particularly.Let’s start with Darfur. Darfur has moresunlight falling on it reliably than almost any

other place. There’s a belt across that part of

Africa into the Middle East. We ought to build

solar, electric plants there and connect them with

a super grid that goes across the straits of

Gibraltar and up through the Balkans and across

the Mediterranean and replaces coal and oil.... we have a responsibility to those

who come after us and to those who are suffering

today to knit together a global commitment to

solve this climate crisis and use it as a way to

stimulate the economy in the right fashion, to

create jobs building these solar panels and

building these windmills and insulating the homes.

And we need to have an alliance between the groups

that are trying to lead the effort to fight the

climate crisis and the groups who are leading the

effort to fight extreme poverty and disease

because as Martin Luther King said 40 years ago,

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice

everywhere.” today, the

U.S. Congress is dealing with energy as well.

They are without debate and without a single

hearing, preparing to lift the moratorium on the

development of oil shale, which would vastly

multiply the amount of CO2 from every gallon of

gasoline. This is utter insanity and it

demonstrates that the wealth and power and

influence of the entrenched carbon lobby to twist

policy and to put out illusory impressions about

this is overwhelming free debate. So, we need to

stop this and each year we have a great discussion

here and there’s progress made, but it’s not

enough. It’s not enough. We, the human species,

have to solve this crisis.

 

I’ve called it the

Electronet. We need to have a national initiative

to unify Texas, the Eastern Grid and the Western

Grid. We’ve got three big grids now. Currently,

American business has cost over 120 billion

2008 Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting

Clinton Global Initiative

9/24/08

1

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81

dollars a year just because of the failures of the

current grid. It’s overwhelmed, the cascading

failures, the outages. It needs to be replaced

anyway.

We need to put in the features that are

called a smart grid because that can help

homeowners and small business people find exactly

where to make the savings from efficiency and

conservation, which are the biggest solutions

involved here, but you got to have the information

that empowers people to do that. And there’s a

new technology. You can bury these lines.

They’re not unsightly and doesn’t cost anymore,

really, if you do it the right way to bury them.

High voltage, AC and DC from the production

centers of sun and wind and geothermal to the

places where it’s used.

So, at the same time, by the way, we could

use that same initiative to lay down a much more

robust broadband network so the United States is

 

no longer way down the list of countries that are

connected to high-capacity internet services. So,

this should be the number one infrastructure

project of this decade, whoever is elected

President.

BILL CLINTON: And how long would it take

to do [applause]? Well, just generally, do you

think we could do it in two years?

AL GORE: Well, I have a session at the

Kennedy School in Harvard with the leading experts

in the country next month. I’d be better able to

answer that question then. Two years sounds like

it’s not long enough. But, within ten years, we

could and I believe we should make a commitment to

get 100-percent of our electricity from renewable

and carbon-free sources, hold nuclear about where

it is, get a big chunk from conservation and

efficiency, let concentrating solar thermal

compete with photovoltaics, which will soon

intersect that technology, put wind in there and

let that play a big role in geothermal.

If we make a decision, there is absolutely

no reason why we couldn’t do it and then put the

burden on the coal guys. If they really can

capture and sequester safely, let them do and then

let them participate, but the single most

important thing we could do is to put a price on

the CO2 in our economy today. I believe

that for a carbon company to spend money

convincing the stock-buying public that the risk

from the global climate crisis is not that great

represents a form of stock fraud because

[applause] they are misrepresenting a material

fact.

If you’re a carbon company and you’re

going out there telling people that you’re trying

to convince to buy your stock that the climate

crisis is not that big a deal and you’re

surreptitiously giving money to these phony think

tanks that go out and try to gen-up phony

arguments when the entire global scientific

community has put out five unanimous reports over

the last 20 years practically screaming from the

rooftops to solve this, if you’re a carbon company

doing those things, in my opinion, you’re guilty

of a form of stock and I hope these state attorney

general’s around the country will take some action

on that.

 

Queen Rania: in Abu Dhabi, their

Mubazollah is investing its gas and oil reserves

in exploring renewable energy. They’re recreating

a city that’s going to have zero emissions.

They’re partnering with MIT University to

establish university there that’s going to be just

dedicated to renewable sources of energy

 

BONO:

BONO: Just picking up on what Her Majesty

was saying, and says so incredibly eloquently, the

three extremes come together on your continent.

Extreme climate crisis, extreme poverty and

extreme ideology. And you see it in a place like

Darfur, which we don’t like to characterize as

being a problem of extreme poverty, but there’s

nothing there. There’s dirt, dry dirt. There’s

tribal difficulties because of water management

and livestock. You see in the horn of Africa is

now a stated priority of Al Qaida and what we need

from the next president of the United States,

whoever that is, is someone to weave together

these three strands into a cohesive way for the

United States to meet the future, dealing with

extreme ideology, dealing with the climate crisis,

dealing with that.I actually don’t think it’ll happen

without putting the three together. I think it’s

a whole rethink, a whole re-imagining of the

American enterprise is necessary and it will

happen.

info@worldcitizen.tv invites citizens to nominate their top 10 ER of decade 2

suggestions from the post-Wall Street USA

top 2

#1 Obama promises ending malaria by 2015 if he's elected

#2 Clinton says wall street and america messed up by assuming for thye last 6 years that housing was the only growth market in the world - as counter example Denmark assumed that clean energy is a big investment market and is now wind energy's leading exporter

both obama and mccain make a bilateral promise - when they get in the whitehouse clean energy will be seen as a big investment and one that can create hundreds of thousands of youth jobs

mccain specifically maps a wind corridor and a solar corridor across the usa - the 2 silicon valleys of the next deacde - great news for non-big city americans

#2 Clinton says wall street and america messed up by assuming for thye last 6 years that housing was the only growth market in the world - as counter example Denmark assumed that clean energy is a big investment market and is now wind energy's leading exporter

both obama and mccain make a bilateral promise - when they get in the whitehouse clean energy will be seen as a big investment and one that can create hundreds of thousands of youth jobs

mccain specifically maps a wind corridor and a solar corridor across the usa - the 2 silicon valleys of the next deacde - great news for non-big city americans

suggestions from the post-Wall Street USA

top 2

#1 Obama promises ending malaria by 2015 if he's elected

#2 Clinton says wall street and america messed up by assuming for thye last 6 years that housing was the only growth market in the world - as counter example Denmark assumed that clean energy is a big investment market and is now wind energy's leading exporter

both obama and mccain make a bilateral promise - when they get in the whitehouse clean energy will be seen as a big investment and one that can create hundreds of thousands of youth jobs

mccain specifically maps a wind corridor and a solar corridor across the usa - the 2 silicon valleys of the next deacde - great news for non-big city americans

#2 Clinton says wall street and america messed up by assuming for thye last 6 years that housing was the only growth market in the world - as counter example Denmark assumed that clean energy is a big investment market and is now wind energy's leading exporter

both obama and mccain make a bilateral promise - when they get in the whitehouse clean energy will be seen as a big investment and one that can create hundreds of thousands of youth jobs

mccain specifically maps a wind corridor and a solar corridor across the usa - the 2 silicon valleys of the next deacde - great news for non-big city americans

suggestions from the post-Wall Street USA

top 2

#1 Obama promises ending malaria by 2015 if he's elected

#2 Clinton says wall street and america messed up by assuming for thye last 6 years that housing was the only growth market in the world - as counter example Denmark assumed that clean energy is a big investment market and is now wind energy's leading exporter

both obama and mccain make a bilateral promise - when they get in the whitehouse clean energy will be seen as a big investment and one that can create hundreds of thousands of youth jobs

mccain specifically maps a wind corridor and a solar corridor across the usa - the 2 silicon valleys of the next deacde - great news for non-big city americans

#2 Clinton says wall street and america messed up by assuming for thye last 6 years that housing was the only growth market in the world - as counter example Denmark assumed that clean energy is a big investment market and is now wind energy's leading exporter

both obama and mccain make a bilateral promise - when they get in the whitehouse clean energy will be seen as a big investment and one that can create hundreds of thousands of youth jobs

mccain specifically maps a wind corridor and a solar corridor across the usa - the 2 silicon valleys of the next deacde - great news for non-big city americans

#2 Clinton says wall street and america messed up by assuming for thye last 6 years that housing was the only growth market in the world - as counter example Denmark assumed that clean energy is a big investment market and is now wind energy's leading exporter

both obama and mccain make a bilateral promise - when they get in the whitehouse clean energy will be seen as a big investment and one that can create hundreds of thousands of youth jobs

mccain specifically maps a wind corridor and a solar corridor across the usa - the 2 silicon valleys of the next deacde - great news for non-big city americans
======================================
From  http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/445/index.html

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