The economy lost 2.6 million jobs in 2008, government figures showed...Nearly two million of those losses were in the last four months alone...Nonfarm payrolls, which are calculated by a survey of establishments, tumbled 524,000 in December, the U.S. Labor Department said Friday, the 12th-straight decline and in line with the 525,000 drop Wall Street economists in a Dow Jones Newswires survey expected. November was revised to show an even steeper decline of 584,000, the most since 1974... ...the unemployment rate...jumped 0.4 percentage point to 7.2%, the highest since January 1993 online.wsj.com
AU Optronics Corp. (AUO), one of the world's largest LCD panel makers, is diving into the thin-film solar world with a plan to set up a pilot production line this year...Taiwan's government-owned utility, Taiwan Power, said last week it would expand its solar energy production to reach 10 megawatts per year by 2011... seekingalpha.com
(Many oil sands projects are being cancelled, and some wind projects. Solar seems to be holding up better.)
In response to written questions from The Wall Street Journal, an Obama transition aide said the president-elect would seek to double the amount of wind, solar, and geothermal generating capacity in the U.S. (in the next 3 years) through a combination of mandates and subsidies...."The United States currently produces roughly 24,000 MW [megawatts] of wind, solar, and geothermal power. Before the financial crisis brought the renewable industry to a halt, the wind industry publicly announced the expectation to install at least 7500 MW in 2008," the Obama transition aide said in an email. "By providing significant loan guarantees and ultimately later down the road a national [renewable portfolio standard], we are confident we will get the wind industry back on track. In addition to the 20,000+ MW of wind, we are confident that with the same combination of support and renewable standards, the geothermal and solar industries can install 4,000 MW of new power." online.wsj.com
(Pres. Carter said similar things 30 years ago, and accomplished nothing. Can Obama do it? If this is real, and the government is going to guarantee a doubling of capacity in 3 years, with "mandates and subsidies", no matter what the price of oil is, then this is an investment no-brainer. Notice that they expect 5 times as much new wind capacity than combined solar/geothermal: 20,000 MW vs. 4,000 MW)
Wind is now a mainstream option for new power generation, second only to natural gas plants in new capacity built from 2005 through 2007, and probably again in 2008, pending year-end figures. Measured by market share, wind provided 35% of all new generation added in the U.S. in 2007. And with 7,500 MW of new capacity expected when 2008 figures are released, wind is likely to contribute at least 35% of new capacity added (in 2008)... money.aol.com
(With the sharp fall in fossil fuel prices in 2H08, it will be interesting to see if wind can maintain that 35% share of new capacity in 2009).
Paying dividends with borrowed money:
From the fourth quarter of 2004 through the third quarter of 2008, the companies in the S.& P. 500...reported net earnings of $2.4 trillion. They paid $900 billion in dividends, but they also repurchased $1.7 trillion in shares. As a group, shareholders were paid about $200 billion more than their companies earned over that four-year period. nytimes.com
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