Have you heard the wind go
“Yo-o-o-o”?
‘Tis a pitiful sound to hear
Eugene
Field, The Night Wind
In the blissful paradise that is
San Francisco, the worries of the Third World are often far away. Innovation is
still nascent in Silicon Valley, now showing signs of hope with the recent
declaration by Senator Barack Obama, President of the United States of America,
who is now getting into the groove of things.
The Obama Administration is throwing
their full support behind Silicon Valley by investing some of the Government of
the United States of America’s “Venture Capital” money in Solar Power
Technology, if you will, in the Green Energy Sector as stated in the article “Obama commits
billions to solar firms”, published July 4, 2010 11:34 AM PDT by Reuters, CNET News - Green Tech.
This addresses a long standing
problem plaguing the Research and Development field in the USA, that being a
lack of Venture Capital funding to do research in Alternative Energy
Technologies. Especially as the United States of America lags behind the
People’s Republic of China in terms of its investment in Alternative Energy
Research as stated in the article “America's
Green Innovation Problem”, published May 3, 2010, 4:41PM EST By Rob
Atkinson and Devon Swezey, BusinessWeek
- VIEWPOINT.
The ultimate aim is clear: Wean the
US off a dependence of Foreign Oil and produce energy by alternative or
otherwise deemed “natural” power sources and create a couple thousand jobs in
the process to boot. This news could not come at better time, given the
challenges facing the Green Tech field, from a shortage of manpower as stated
in the article “People
power in short supply for green tech”, published March 26, 2010 8:29 AM PDT
by Martin LaMonica, CNET News - Green Tech.
Rare Earth minerals needed to
produce photovoltaic and Wind Turbines as stated in the article “Rare-earth metal
recycling needed to power green tech”, published May 17, 2010 7:31 AM PDT
by Martin LaMonica, CNET News - Green Tech.
There is also a general lack of standardized certification, which CompTIA is trying to address with its Green Energy
Certification as stated in the article “CompTIA offering
Green IT exam”, published March 25, 2010 10:34 AM PDT by Lance Whitney, CNET News - Green Tech.
Whether the Americans wish to
acknowledge these problems or not, one thing is for certain: Silicon Valley in
the not-so-sexy Green Energy Race, long the stepchild of Silicon Valley, is
very far behind People’s Republic of China in terms of Research and
Development. But what of any investment in Wind Energy? Will there by
Government of the United States of America backed VC money for Wind Energy
Development?
Currently the USA lags behind the
People’s Republic of China specifically in terms of its investment in Wind
Energy as stated in the article “U.S. wind power
growing fast but still lags”, published March 19, 2010 6:28 AM PDT by
Reuters, CNET News - Green Tech. It has
long been recommended that any investment in Wind Energy be made in the
construction of Offshore Wind Turbines.
Notoriously hard to build and very
risky propositions for Venture Capitalists, like terrestrial power stations,
can reap great benefit if connected together in a massive Power Ring based on
research done by the University of Delaware and Stony Brook University as
stated in the article “Offshore wind grid is
the answer, study says”, published April 7, 2010 9:44 AM PDT by Candace
Lombardi, CNET News - Planetary Gear.
The Government of United States of
America therefore needs to invest heavily in Wind Power in much the same way it
is throwing billions into Solar Power investments, thus making International
and Local lending agencies i.e. Banks, Venture Capital Funds more amenable to investors
wishing to plunk down the billions required to build out such large
installations as is the case in the European Union.
The EU is surging ahead, with large
Wind Turbine installations expected to exceed 18.8 Megawatts by 2015 based on
estimates by research group Frost and Sullivan, due to the increasing ease of
securing Venture Capital money from the Governments of Great Britain and the
Government of Germany for such potentially risky projects as stated in the
article “Bankers
warming up to offshore wind”, published January 21, 2010 9:52 AM PST by
Candace Lombardi, CNET News - Green Tech simply
put.
But it is easy to see why, despite
the now imposed six (6) month moratorium on Offshore Oil Exploration and
Drilling in defiance of the Supreme Court Judge’s Orders as stated in the
article “Judge
blocks Gulf offshore drilling moratorium”, published Tuesday June 22, 2010
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press Writer, Yahoo! News and confirmed by the article
“Big Oil
Strikes Back, slams Obama’s drilling plan”, published June 22 2010 by JANE
WARDELL and JENNIFER QUINN, Associated Press Writers, Yahoo! News.
Senator Barack Obama, President of the United
States of America is reluctant to invest in Offshore Wind. LNG (Liquid Natural
Gas) is plentiful in terms of domestic supply.
According to Ernest Moniz, Director
of the prestigious engineering institute, the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) recently in Time
Magazine, a prestigious USA publication, accounts for 24% of the Electricity
Generation within the USA as stated in the article “Fuel of the
future?”, published Sunday July 4 2010 by Dwight Bellanfante, Gleaner
Writer The Sunday Gleaner.
Additionally, Middle East and Far
East interests, hoping to maintain the USA’s drug addict’s dependence on their
supply of Cheap Energy, have begun to sequester the Government of United States
of America with their abundant supplies. Supplies so plentiful and cheap that
it is not only successfully competing with the People’s Republic of Trinidad
and Tobago contractually guaranteed supply of LNG to the USA as stated in the
article “Rivalry
sends Trinidad in search of new LNG markets”, published Saturday, July 4,
2009, The Saturday Gleaner, by Linda Hutchinson-Jafar, Business Writer, The Sunday Gleaner.
This is challenging
the very investment in Wind and Solar Energy with LNG supplies so cheap, that
it can compete with the LNG extracted from within the USA on the basis of
pricing alone, even with USA extracted LNG having ten-year lows as stated in
the article “Solar,
Wind feel the heat from low natural-gas prices”, published January 29, 2010
12:43 PM PST by Martin LaMonica, CNET
News - Green Tech.
John
Public does not know much about Senator Barack Obama, President of the
United States of America or his advisors, but given the dubious nature of trade
with the People’s Republic of China, John Public is very suspicious as to the
nature of pricing of these LNG supplies and the way it coincides with the
billions that the People’s Republic of China is pumping into its investment in Renewable
Energy Research both Solar and Wind.
Could it be that the People’s
Republic of China are in effect trying to lull the USA into a state of
complacency by giving them a cheap supply to satisfy American “punch drunk”
love affair with cheap energy, thereby earning more US dollars to subsidize
their own research into this lucrative Green Energy Sector, and eventually
becoming the dominant supplier of Green Energy technology to the rest of the
Developing World, a kind of Chinese Green Energy Silicon Valley in the future?
Sounds like the plot of a movie………..HollyWood,
how mi sound?………..but this is real life, and Governments usually do conspire to
gain leverage in any way they can and this is the most obvious way, especially
in the lucrative Energy Sector, worth billions of dollars.
Investment in Onshore Wind
Installations is still being led by investors in the farming belts of Iowa and
other areas such as Texas. In Texas, large swathes of land are now empty due to
stiff competition from imported beef and wheat from People’s Republic of China and
a drastic cut in US Government Farming subsidies.
These farm land owners have been
giving up access to their land to have investors plant these engineering
monstrosities on their land on a rental basis, thereby making money from otherwise
idle lands by hosting these gigantic wind turbines. Effectively a state subsidy
as ironically most of these installations are US Government approved as stated
in the article “Wind
could be the next great farming subsidy”, published May 19, 2010 12:37 PM
PDT by Candace Lombardi, CNET News - Green
Tech.
Somewhat similar to here in the
Caribbean, where landowners lease land access to Telecom Providers, albeit some
are less tardy than others in their payment of said lease money, such as
Telecom Provider CLARO, for whom John Public had to negotiate many a settlement
with landowners to get them their money on time.
On the flip side of the coin, small
wind turbines, now, are all the rage in Pakistan……….well sort of………..based on
the article “Pakistan
island sees light, puts wind power to work”, published Thursday July 30, 3:30 am ET, by Hasan
Mansoor, Yahoo! News bringing
electricity and hope of a better life for the people on the island of
Kharochhan, albeit the wind turbines are the work of charity volunteers from
the Pakistani charity Action for Humanitarian Development.
This installation, thought, is even
better than the life of those living in the cities with frequent power cuts,
for albeit poor people, the Wind Turbines have change their lives in terms of
their use of mangrove swamp wood for fuel and gave them a nightlife.
Possibly to the delight of the
local mongrel dogs, now having less of a reason to bark at anyone who they
cannot recognize, as darkness is no longer an excuse not to be out and about at
night. Here in Jamaica, Solar/Wind installation is accelerating islandwide with
proven benefits as stated in the article “Gone with
the wind - Electricity bills cut 90% as windmills blow into Portmore”, published
Monday March 16, 2009 by Andrew Wildes, Gleaner Writer, The Jamaica Gleaner.
In the USA, small wind turbines or
personal wind turbine installations at small businesses and homes adds
immensely to the alleviation of the strain on the power grid as stated in the
article “Small
wind turbines add megawatts to U.S. Grid”, published May 25, 2010 9:50 AM
PDT, by Martin LaMonica, CNET News - Green
Tech.
The hope is that the same level of
interest can be shown for Offshore Wind Energy eventually in the USA as for
Onshore Wind Energy installations, otherwise the USA will be facing a
Technology War and not a Trade War with the People’s Republic of China.
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