Oil nears Fla. beaches as BP tries risky cap move Wednesday, 02 june 2010
PORT FOURCHON, La. – The BP oil slick drifted close to the Florida Panhandle's white sand beaches for the first time as submersible robots a mile below the Gulf of Mexico made the latest risky attempt to control the seafloor gusher.
Even if it works, the current mission to cut a major pipe and cap it would only reduce the flow, not stop it. If it fails, it could make the largest oil spill in U.S. history even worse. The best hope for sealing the leak, until a permanent fix is possible in August, failed Saturday, when engineers were unable to plug it with heavy mud in a maneuver called a top kill.
Investors ran from BP's stock for a second day Wednesday, reacting to the top kill failure and the Justice Department's announcement that it was looking at criminal and civil probes into the spill, although the department did not name specific targets for prosecution.
Shares in British-based BP PLC were down 3 percent Wednesday morning in London trading after a 13 percent fall the day before. BP has lost $75 billion in market value since the spill started with an April 20 oil rig explosion and analysts expect damage claims to total billions more.
In Florida, officials confirmed an oil sheen Tuesday about nine miles from Pensacola beach, where the summer tourism season was just getting started.
Winds were forecast to blow from the south and west, pushing the slick closer to western Panhandle beaches.
Solar Industry Poised To Create 200,000 Jobs With Key Tax Policies Monday, 03 May 2010
The Solar Energy Industries Association, joined by Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and industry leaders, has released an independent study projecting the positive economic impact of the Deparent of Treasury Grant Program and the Solar Manufacturing Invesent Tax Credit.
The study found that extending the TGP by two years and including solar manufacturing in the industry's existing tax credit would add 200,000 new domestic jobs to the solar workforce and supporting industries in the U.S. Additionally, it would result in 10 gigawatts (GW) of new solar installations by 2016 - enough to power 2 million homes.
"Extension of the Treasury Grant program is essential to continuing our nascent economic recovery and moving to a cleaner, more distributed 21st Century energy system," said Senator Cantwell. "Tens of thousands of jobs hinge on continuing this successful program, including thousands of new solar jobs in Washington State in the next two years."
"Unemployment across the country remains near 10 percent, while the construction industry is suffering at nearly 22 percent unemployment," said Rhone Resch, President and CEO of SEIA.
"But last year, the solar industry was one of the bright spots in our economy with the creation of 17,000 new jobs."
New solar jobs by State include: California (60,000); Michigan (24,000); Ohio, Oregon and Texas (13,000+ each); Arizona, Colorado, and Florida (10,000 each); Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Washington (about 5,000 each); Nevada, New Jersey, and Tennessee (3,000+ each); and Connecticut and Hawaii (1,500+ each).
Green Jobs In South Florida Monday, 29 March 2010
ON THE GULF OF MEXICO
Black Hawk helicopters peppered Louisiana's barrier islands with 1-ton sacks of sand Monday to bolster the state's crucial wetlands against the epic Gulf of Mexico oil spill -- 4 million gallons and growing.
At the site of the ruptured well a mile underwater, a remote-controlled submarine shot chemicals into the maw of the massive leak to dilute the flow, further evidence that BP expects the gusher to keep erupting into the Gulf for weeks or more.
Crews using the deep-sea robot attempted to thin the oil -- which is rushing up from the seabed at a pace of about 210,000 gallons per day -- after getting approval from the Environmental Protection Agency, BP PLC officials said.
Two previous tests were done to determine the potential impact on the environment, and the third round of spraying was to last into early Tuesday.
The EPA said the effects of the chemicals were still widely unknown.
BP engineers were casting about after an icelike buildup thwarted their plan to siphon off most of the leak using a 100-ton containment box. They pushed ahead with other potential short-term solutions, including using a smaller box and injecting the leak with junk such as golf balls and pieces of tire to plug it. If it works, the well will be filled with mud and cement and abandoned.
"This is the largest, most comprehensive spill response mounted in the history of the United States and the oil and gas industry," BP chief executive Tony Hayward said in Houston.
None of those methods has been attempted so deep. Workers were simultaneously drilling a relief well, the solution considered most permanent, but that was expected to take up to three months.
Roy Foster, founder of Faith Love Hope, located at 3175 South Congress Avenue, Palm Springs, FL 33461, along with supporters and constituents of the great cause to aid, house, train, and create jobs for Veterans, has entered into a joint venture with GoSunSolutions, a West Palm Beach based solar consulting firm founded by Steve Berg, and OBI Financial LLC, founded by Richard L. Kanter. “The group”, has created an alliance with Brilliant Harvest LLC, founded by William Johnson, to create “green jobs” via training, certification, and placement for over one thousand war Veterans expected to return home to Palm Beach County by December 2010.
Details of the project include, but are not limited to, housing solutions, food, shelter, licensing, insurance, counseling, and permanent job placement for soldiers as they return from defending our freedom. In addition, while providing alternative energy solutions, lowering carbon emissions as well as dependency on foreign oil, and becoming a “greener” energy independent Nation, the project hopes to expand throughout the state of Florida by 2012.
The group believes this is precisely the strategy needed to conquer the goal set forth by Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice requiring 20 percent of the state’s energy production to be in the form of renewable resources by 2022.
More Efficient Solar Cells Mostly Plastic Monday, 03 May 2010
PORTLAND, Ore. — By growing arrays of silicon wires in a polymer substrate, researchers have demonstrated what they say are flexible solar cells that absorb up to 96 percent of incident light.
California Institute of Technology (Caltech) researchers said the wires are made up of 98 percent plastic, potentially lowering the cost of photovoltaics by using just 1/50th the amount of semiconductor material used today. In tests, the experimental solar cells demonstrated over 90 percent quantum efficiency.
"By developing light-trapping techniques for relatively sparse wire arrays, not only did we achieve suitable absorption, but we also demonstrated effective optical concentration," claimed Harry Atwater, director of Caltech's Resnick Institute.
The silicon wires measure just 1 micron in diameter, but can be as long as 100 microns and can be embedded in a transparent polymer. Light is converted into electricity only inside the wires, but light not immediately absorbed bounces around inside the matrix until it enters another wire. The result, researchers said, is both high concentration and high efficiency in the material.
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