Oil at $32

OPEC's holiday gift to us: Oil at $36 a barrel Los Angeles Times

The question is for how long?

Positives:

• Form of economic aid that will shorten the recession by putting more money into consumers pockets. This is huge! When Oil was near $150 a barrel there were riots in poorer countries because of increases in the price of gas and cooking oil.
  
• Makes the world a nicer places and helps countries that are not oil producers (majority of the world, including the poor such as in India and Pakistan).
• May help the Big 3 by increasing truck sales.
  

Negatives:

• Hurts Oil Producers such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and Russia.
• May decrease interest in Hybrids and Electric Vehicles
• May reduce investment in alternate energy R&D.
• May increase use of oil
• May reduce projects to increase oil efficiency.
  

Is Solar Cheaper than Coal? Examiner.com

Is Solar Cheaper than Coal? Examiner.com

Very positive piece. What is interesting is the article mentions that by 2012 their should be grid parity in many areas of the US. Of course what is meant by grid parity? Wholesale or Retail? With the ability to sell back to the utility, and if so, at what price?

Guerilla Lead Testing

Wow! I knew about the guns that can tell the types of metals, they are around $25,000 each. My former work was thinking about buying one since when you are buying scrap, it's often hard to tell what you are buying to it's too late. Now, some consumer watch dog organizations have bought these guns and are using them to test for lead.

Guerrilla Toy Testers Take Aim at Lead from the WSJ

LED Cost vs incandescent

LED bulbs save money, hassle from a local paper in Kentucky. Basically a $40 LED bulb will last forever and save energy and has color like daylight.

But how many people are going $40 on a bulb, when they can get a CFL for under $5 and an incandescent bulb for under a dollar.

I look forward to more cost reductions so the LED option makes more sense. For an application where you need to get on a ladder, such as my parents house outside light on the 2nd story, it makes sense (that light always burned out). For an easily accessible light, probably not at this time.

More businesses see holiday savings from LEDs

More businesses see holiday savings from LEDs from the SF Chronicle is about Christmas Lights, and how you can save over the 6 week Holiday Season $70 for a string of 300 bulbs.

Global PV Market's Center of Gravity Shifting to North America

This is exciting news, if true. My guess is the tax changes for alternative energy along with all the R&D in the US are creating this. Global PV Market's Center of Gravity Shifting to North America MarketWatch

An example, that surprised me, is Dow Corning Takes A Shine To Solar in partnership will invest up to $3 Billion. This is significant in the poor credit market, that Dow is moving ahead in the Solar area.

Solar Issues - Visual

Some neighbors may have visual issues with a solar project, an example: Solar panel project irks Novato homeowners. It would be replacing a beautiful view of some rolling hills.

It will be nice when solar can just replace existing roofs. Or even be a spray on coating. The problem of replacing an existing roof is the maintenance cost, where an installation on the ground is easier to install and maintain.