In recent news there has been a lot of discussion of various announcements coming out of the World Future Energy Summit being held in Abu Dhabi this week. The primary sponsor of this event happens to be Masdar which is owned by Mubadala Investments. Mubadala also happens to be a prime investor in several other “companies” that have dubious ties in the world of global finance and power. The very interesting thing about these announcements is not the number of projects that are being planned but the shear size of the budgets that are being forecast.

There is talk of plans for 48 sq km facilities in Dubai by 2030 generating 1GW of electricity, plans are underway to do similar large scale projects in Oman and Saudi and of course the same companies want to go all the way and install large Photo Voltaic and Concentrated Solar Power installations across the entire MENA (Middle East North Africa) region. These plans are fantastic and forward thinking except for one small problem. The costs for these projects are phenomenally out of bounds. The timescale of the projects are way over what is considered necessary to setup and install a large facility. Considering what has already been spent by these same companies on very mediocre attempts at Solar energy supply there is a serious disconnect between what is required to make industrial scale Solar and what is required to pay for the opportunity of bringing a facility online.

The answer to this mystery appears to be related to the financial crisis and the worlds Fossil Fuel addiction. If Solar energy is priced at the real market value. The true cost of building industrial scale facilities and connecting them to the grid and not the price that is current being forced on the market by the entrenched Oil industry we would see that Solar power is phenomenally cheaper than any of the competing energy sources. In other words the only reason the Solar has not already reached price parity is because the Elite are holding the industry to ransom to prop up the price of the other fuel sources for as long as possible.

The real reason for companies like Solyndra to be going bankrupt is because they were never intended to actually succeed. The entire industry knows full well this dirty little secret. The price of Solar when done correctly and at utility scale is ridiculously low compared to any of the other energy sources. Concentrated Solar power has the potential when combined with Solar Thermal to provide all the energy required for any of the cities that have a regular supply of sunlight. Therefore the entrenched players in the energy industry are quietly but assuredly doing their best to disrupt and stall the transition to the Solar economy for as long as possible.

By keeping the “true cost” of utility scale Solar energy artificially high through the use of excessive budgets on projects where they are essentially paying themselves excessively large sums of money to build pitifully low yield Solar installations Companies like Masdar are manipulating the cost of Solar energy on the world market thereby pushing up the price of oil as the markets continue to bid up the price of the dwindling reserves and keeping the other players like coal and gas satisfied with the status quo while they continue to rake in the profits received from sales of their product to the global market.

In other words, Utility scale solar is massively over priced. The big players know this full well and are controlling the market to keep things that way. In much the same way that they control the production of electric cars to ensure we all rely on petrol they are also drip feeding the world Solar energy to keep their profit margins high. The end result is wasted time, opportunity and resources.

The sad truth is that the word could already have an abundant supply of fresh drinking water and electricity simply by using relatively modest resources to build Concentrated Solar Thermal Desalinisation and Electricity production plants for every major city in the sunny parts of the world. This would free up remaining resources for the countries which are not as sundrenched and lower the price of energy and the global carbon footprint. Now that would just be rational and logical which as we already know is not possible while the Elite of the world remain in charge.

Either that or they really are just idiots over there at Mubadala and have no idea how bad they are getting ripped off.

Just flip a coin to decide…

Tags: Elite, Government, Media, Solar by sparky
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With the forthcoming decision by the US govt to increase the money supply by another 1.2 Trillion dollars for the coming year the inevitability of Weimar Hyperinflation on the Global Economy is rapidly approaching.

Due to the cost of everything rapidly rising because of the crushing force of inflationary expansion we are now at the point where we will see a rapid acceleration in the cost of living over the coming months. When it happens we will all be left with the tide out and our pants down. So get used to the idea of everyone else knowing if the carpet matches the drapes.

Tags: Elite, Food, Government by sparky
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Dubai has thrown it’s hat into the ring with a massive 48 square kilometer commitment to solar energy launched today in the UAE capital. The project seeks to have a first phase development completed by 2013 with a target of 1 Giga Watt capacity by 2030. With the excess of low cost solar panels now on the market thanks to massive Chinese production this looks like it will be a serious infrastructure achievement once completed.

The reasoning behind this is given below:

The President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, spelt out the country’s goals in tapping alternative sources of energy. ‘‘The UAE is striving to develop and boost its rich resources and expertise in the international energy markets and enhance its leading role as a world centre for renewable energy research and development,” he said.

This can be translated as “we have realised that we can make more money by selling the remaining reserves of oil to foreign powers and we would be stupid if we continued to use it as our primary energy source. The cost in energy of taking remaining oil out of the ground means we are consuming more energy every day in order to keep our power supply steady. Transitioning to a Solar Economy makes perfect sense as we receive some of the most powerful rays from the Sun everyday that make it to the earths surface. Continuing to burn our precious resources when we can sell them tom someone else instead is fiscally irresponsible and damaging to our future wealth potential.”

Given the proximity to the ocean it is highly likely that they will add on a Solar Thermal Water desalinisation plant so they can provide the region with a constant supply of fresh water. Watch for the French to get involved directly in that stage now that Areva have shown their hand with the recent completion and connection to the grid of the Gemasolar project in Spain.

Tags: Construction, Government, Solar by sparky
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There is a strange anomaly in the reporting of space journalists in regards to the affects that Cosmic Radiation and Cosmic Rays have on the human body. Particularly the eyes where it is well understood that they cause blinding flashes of light even with the eyes closed.

According to wikipedia

Cosmic rays compose a part of natural background radiation on Earth, averaging about 10-15% of it. However, persons living at higher altitude can obtain several times more cosmic radation than at sea level, and long distance airline crews can double their yearly ionizing radiation exposure due to this source. Since the intensity of cosmic rays is much larger outside the Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field, it is expected to have a major impact on the design of spacecraft that can safely transport humans in interplanetary space.

Cosmic rays can have energies of over 1020 eV, far higher than the 1012 to 1013 eV that Terrestrial particle accelerators can produce. In the history of particle physics, cosmic rays were the source of the discovery of the positron, muon, and pi meson.

Where the disconnect occurs is when space journos discuss the possibility of sending humans to the moon or even further out into the galaxy like for instance to colonise Mars. The problem is that they rarely take into account the massive amounts of shielding that will be required to protect human space travellers from the extremely detrimental affects of constant exposure to the Cosmic Background Radiation. We can get an idea of what kind of level of shielding we would need by simply looking at the Large Hadron Collider which is buried under the Swiss Alps and completely surrounded by concrete.

As we are all well aware it would require a very large rocket to power it’s way through the atmosphere with a payload of hundreds of tonnes of concrete shielding onboard so it sure seems strange that nearly every news article these days conveniently leaves out the fact that we have not yet found a way to transport that much shielding into space let alone the vehicle, supplies and people to go inside the shielding.

It’s bad enough that the astronauts on the Space Station suffer from cataracts caused by the Cosmic Rays they are exposed to inside our magnetosphere. What would be the result of a couple of hours/days/weeks/months of constant exposure to the depths of space without the kind of shielding that they have surrounding the LHC?

The near universal ignorance of this issue by space journalists offers only tow possibilities. Either they are completely clueless and should not be reporting or they are purposefully ignoring the issue because the can of worms that it signifies is just too big to open and the pay packet they receive by carefully ignoring the issue is worth more to them than their integrity.

Tags: e=mc2, Space by sparky
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The XCore suborbital reusable horizontal launch rocket is a new contender for the space tourism crown. Taking off from a normal airstrip and being able to launch 4 times a day for 10 days before requiring servicing. They are pitching to sell the vehicles throughout the world. The idea looks like a neat toy for a wealthy Adrenaline junkie. It would also be a very quick way to get around for globe trotting adventurists who could effectively island hop their way around the globe in a matter of hours by launching themselves into sub orbit and letting the earths rotation do the hard work. Add on a couple of extra pounds of fuels and they can increase the burn time to make the distance covered longer and the over all trips shorter.

In a way it is surprising that the US have decided that it is time to allow this technology to be exported off their shores. But given the decline of the US dollar and economy it makes perfect sense that one of the ways they expect to work their way out of the global recession is by selling expensive toys to wealthy consumers.

The only thing missing from this technology is a way to stop the Blinding flashes of light caused by cosmic rays that plague humans as soon as they get outside of the Earths magnetosphere. Once that has been solved we should be able to fly anywhere we want in the solar system. Holidays in moon craters may well become a viable tourism destination.

One interesting aspect of this venture is the way the industry has been designed. The scientists at NASA seem to have found a way to take their knowledge and commercialise it without having to depend on Elite Politicians for their funding. Now that they have split NASA into several commercial ventures and the best minds have made their bets on the direction they want to travel the Banksters will be less able to control them through their lobbying efforts. This by itself bodes well for the future as it will become fashionable to become intelligent, well read and educated. Hopefully that will translate into a more open minded and rational society where decisions are made based on logic and science rather than wishful thinking and passing the buck.

Tags: Construction, e=mc2, Space, Transport by sparky
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