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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RetiredNow who wrote (355218)	10/17/2007 7:54:14 PM
From: longnshort	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1575119

YAWN

To: RetiredNow who wrote (355218)	10/18/2007 10:49:13 AM
From: Road Walker	Respond to of 1575119

Solar energy hopes to shine with less silicon By Steve Gelsi, MarketWatch NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Solar energy specialists are forecasting a bright future by focusing on technology that uses less silicon as they move toward cost-per-kilowatt hour parity with traditional power generating firms. Meeting with about 150 prospective investors at the Cowen and Company's Clean Tech Conference at the Le Parker Meridian Hotel, solar players said Thursday their business also depends on success in the U.S. after rapid European adoption, as well as continued tax credits to encourage investment in the technology. Two types of cutting-edge solar technology are taking center stage as the industry moves beyond the traditional crystalline silicon solar cells popularized in the 1960s and 70s: thin film solar, which contains lower amounts of expensive silicon, as well as solar concentrators, which use an array of lenses or mirrors to magnify the sun's power to boost electrical output and efficiency. Jens Meyerhoff, chief financial officer of First Solar Inc. (FSLR), said the thin film industry will be driven by offering the lowest cost per watt in the solar sector. "Demand in the near term is not a big concern," Meyerhoff said. However, with subsidized European markets approaching saturation, the U.S. remains a key growth area for First Solar, which went public less than one year ago and followed up with a $618 million stock offering on Aug. 13. While he praised solar subsidies in New Jersey and California, Meyerhoff said the industry would benefit from a more favorable environment, including the extension of investment tax credits for solar energy. With a new plant under construction in Malaysia, First Solar is on track to bring costs down to about 8 cents to 10 cents per kilowatt hour in the future, with cost parity with traditional electrical power firms expected by 2012. Charles Gay, general manager of the solar business group at Applied Materials (AMAT), said via a conference call from the solar energy conference in Milan that the equipment making firm sees a growing business for thin film solar. "There are some really big players coming into the space," he said. With financing of solar projects depending heavily on reliable performance over many years, Gay said Applied Materials has tested 30-year-old crystalline solar panels and 20-year-old thin film panels with no deterioration in performance. "Thin film will be as reliable as crystalline silicon," he said. Hong Hue, chief operating officer of Emcore (EMKR), said his company will see a greater percentage of its revenue coming from solar energy products, which were originally developed for use on satellites in outer space. Emcore's earthbound solar power modules use magnification optics to concentrate the strength of light onto its high-efficiency solar chips in order to bring down the cost per kilowatt. Ty Jaggerson, vice president of corporate development for SolFocus, said his company specializes in weaving in low-cost reflective materials to enhance the power of light. The company has raised about $84 million in venture financing and will soon close another round of financing as it bears down on "sunny, high intensity markets" in Spain, Portugal, Africa and the southwestern U.S. SolFocus' also weaves in mechanical technology that track the sun's movement across the sky in order to boost output. First Solar's Meyeroff said the size of the solar market could grow to six to eight gigawatts by 2010, up from about two gigawatts now. Thin film's share of that could be as high as 20%, he said. Both Meyerhoff and Gay were optimistic that investment tax credits for solar energy will be extended as the U.S. market plays a key role in achieving their growth goals. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steve Gelsi is a reporter for MarketWatch in New York.

To: RetiredNow who wrote (355218)	10/19/2007 7:49:03 AM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1575119

If he came out firmly against the war, this is a Republican I might be able to vote for. Also don't like that he plays the religion card so much... From the Back of the Pack By DAVID BROOKS Rindge, N.H. The first thing you notice about Mike Huckabee is that he has a Mayberry name and a Jim Nabors face. But it’s quickly clear that Huckabee is as good a campaigner as anybody running for president this year. And before too long it becomes easy to come up with reasons why he might have a realistic shot at winning the Republican nomination: First, Republican voters here and in Iowa are restless. That means that there will be sharp movements during the last 30 days toward whoever seems fresh and hot. Second, each of the top-tier candidates makes certain parts of the party uncomfortable. Huckabee is the one candidate acceptable to all factions. Third, Huckabee is the most normal person running for president (a trait that might come in handy in a race against Hillary Clinton). He is funny and engaging — almost impossible not to like. He has no history of flip-flopping in order to be electable. He doesn’t seem to be visibly calculating every gesture. Far from being narcissistic, he is, if anything, too neighborly to seem presidential. Fourth, he is part of the new generation of evangelical leaders. Huckabee was a Baptist minister. But unlike the first generation of politically engaged Christian conservatives, Huckabee is not at war with mainstream America. As a teenager, he loved Jimi Hendrix, and he’s now the bass player in a rock band that has opened for Willie Nelson and Grand Funk Railroad. Fifth, though you wouldn’t know it from the past few years, the white working class is the backbone of the G.O.P. Huckabee is most in tune with these voters. He was the first male in his family’s history to graduate from high school. He paid his way through college by working 40 hours a week and getting a degree in two and half years. He tells audiences that the only soap his family could afford was the rough Lava soap, and that he was in college before he realized showering didn’t have to hurt. “There are people paying $150 for an exfoliation,” he jokes. “I could just hand them a bar of Lava soap.” His policies reflect that background. At the recent Republican economic debate, he was the candidate who most vociferously argued that the current economy is not working for the middle class. As the others spoke, he thought to himself: “You guys don’t get out much. You should meet somebody who’s not handing you a $2,300 check.” He condemns “immoral” C.E.O. salaries, and on global trade he sounds like a Democrat: “There’s no free trade without fair trade.” (Polls suggest most Republican voters are, sadly, with him on this). Sixth, he’s a former governor. He talks about issues in a down-to-earth way that other candidates can’t match. For example, he’s got a riff on childhood obesity that rivets the attention of his audiences. He asks them to compare their own third-grade class photos with the photos of third graders today. Then he goes down the list of the diseases that afflict preteens who get Type 2 diabetes. “The greatest challenge in health care is not universal coverage,” he argues while introducing his health care plan. “It’s universal health. A healthy country would be less expensive to cover.” Seventh, he’s a collaborative conservative. Republicans have tended to nominate heroic candidates in the Reagan mold. Huckabee is more of an interactive leader. His Legislature in Arkansas was 90 percent Democratic, but he got enough done to be named among the nation’s top five governors by Time. He endorses programs that are ideologically incorrect for conservatives, like his passion for arts education. He can’t understand how the argument over the size of the S-chip funding increase became an all-or-nothing holy war. He also criticizes the Bush administration for its arrogance. “There was a time when people looked up to the U.S. Now they resent us, not because we’re a superpower but because we act like one.” Huckabee has some significant flaws as a candidate. His foreign policy thinking is thin. Some of his policy ideas seem to come off the top of his head (he vows, absurdly, to make the U.S. energy independent within eight years). But Huckabee is something that the party needs. He is a solid conservative who is both temperamentally and substantively different from the conservatives who have led the country over the past few years. He’s rising in the polls, especially in Iowa. His popularity with the press corps suggests he could catch a free media wave that would put him in the top tier. He deserves to be there.