Researchers at a Swiss science and technology university testing out which is the most cost-effective renewable energy source in developing countries have made a surprising discovery.
The team calculated the cost of generating a tenth of the electricity demand for each of six countries using either wind turbines or photovoltaic cells. The countries were: Brazil, Egypt, India, Kenya, Nicaragua and Thailand. Keep reading →
Independent oil and gas firms are attempting to focus on the fundamentals following major allegations against one of the sector’s most colorful figures. The looming dispute over Chesapeake Energy’s chairman comes as companies already contend with a glut of natural gas production amid high prices for oil and liquids production warping traditional price dynamics.
US oil and gas company executives “talked turkey” with Wall Street analysts in New York last week at a high-level investor conference. Every spring, the industry’s exploration and production community convenes to discuss their business models and corporate strategies with the analysts who rate their company’s stock for investors. Keep reading →
Can Chesapeake Energy’s chief executive pull yet another rabbit out of his hat?
To plug what’s been estimated as a $9.2 billion gap between Chesapeake Energy’s Keep reading →
Hydropower supplied 8% of US electricity in 2011, and 62.5% of renewable electricity, according to federal statistics, and hydro advocates say it could provide twice as much if upgrades were made to aging power plants and new technology utilized in rivers and tidal estuaries.
But with the continuing depressed price of natural gas and looming expiration of hydro’s clean energy tax credits, prospects for taking better advantage of US water power are shrinking, financial experts told the National Hydropower Association conference in Washington DC this week. Keep reading →
The upcoming World Energy Leadership Summit in Istanbul will be a good forum to “test the waters” on how global markets view competition in the energy sector, according to CME Group Chief Economist Blu Putnam.
Turkey is a good crossroads to discuss the future of cheaper, cleaner and more efficient energy development in the developing world even as growth challenges and policy limit the expansion of energy infrastructure in many developed countries, Putnam said in a recent interview with Breaking Energy. Keep reading →
It all started earlier this year when presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich promised voters that if elected to the White House, he would make sure gas prices dropped to $2.50 a gallon. OK, so maybe it happened before the former speaker of the House made his bold promise. In fact, it happens every year around this time: speculators — both illegal and legal — get blamed for rising oil prices, which are then passed onto consumers at the gas pump. Speculators, either single individuals or companies, are looking to gain from price fluctuations in commodities markets without an intent to actually purchase a physical product. Buying and selling by these market participants, critics say, has exacerbated volatility in the commodities markets. “The traditional role of speculators has been to allow a transfer of risk to those who want to get rid of the financial risk to those who will accept it,” explained Branko Terzic, executive director of Deloitte Center for Energy Solutions. “They need to do that because the producers in the market — whether a farmer or oil company — have to make large capital investments, and they like the certainty of the price where they can lock in the price today for a future sell.” He added that speculators accept that price risk to facilitate the producers being able to fund their operations and their continuing developments. Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2012/04/05/higher-gas-prices-blame-speculators/#ixzz1rY0Wa5Pu
For the tens of millions of Americans who own dividend-paying stocks – either directly, or indirectly through mutual funds, pension funds, life insurance policies, and 401(k) plans – it’s time to take notice of an important tax law that’s set to expire at the end of this year. Unless Congress acts, the maximum tax rate on dividend income is set to skyrocket from 15 percent to as high as 43.4 percent – a nearly 190 – percent increase. The top tax rate on capital gains, meanwhile, will rise from 15 percent to a maximum of 23.8 percent.
Keeping tax rates on dividend income low and on par with the tax rates on capital gains is important for all Americans. With time quickly running out on today’s tax rates, we encourage you to join a national grassroots advocacy campaign dedicated to stopping a dividend tax hike-Defend My Dividend (www.DefendMyDividend.org). The campaign is sponsored by Edison Electric Institute and a wide variety of associations, organizations, and companies who have a stake in this issue, along with the support of their members, employees, retirees, and shareholders. Keep reading →
What’s bad for the environment is also bad for the bottom line. That’s what Warren Buffett is arguing in the latest sustainability report from Johns Manville, a building-materials manufacturer owned by Buffett’s company Berkshire Hathaway. In a short note toward the beginning of the report, Buffett writes that “taking shortcuts is not the pathway to achieving sustainable competitive advantage, nor is it an avenue toward satisfying customers” — evidently a reference to the importance of keeping a business green-friendly and compliant with rules. Buffett — investor, philanthropist, tax-the-rich cheerleader and occasional Obama whisperer — seems to put great stock in the idea that environmental prudence goes hand-in-hand with profit.
Consumer electronics could be the winners in the quest for energy storage – cleantech’s holy grail – rather than electric vehicles or the integration of renewables.
Dan Adler, president of the influential California Clean Energy Fund (CalCEF), told last week’s Cleantech Forum in San Francisco: “It is the holy grail and that’s why we continue to focus on this notion that there’s some piece missing.” Keep reading →
