Subscribe[S]pray a sheet of glass with a mixture of dyes combined with a substance called tris(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminium. In combination, the dyes and the glass act as the waveguide, preventing light from escaping. Meanwhile, the interaction between the different dye molecules and those of the tris(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminium allows a quantum-mechanical phenomenon, called Förster energy transfer, to come into play. This eliminates the reabsorption loss by ensuring that light is re-emitted at a frequency which the dye molecules cannot then reabsorb.cheers!
On top of this—literally—Dr Currie and Dr Mapel have come up with another trick: placing a second sandwich of dye and glass over the first. The upper layer of dye intercepts high-energy light, such as ultraviolet. The lower one captures longer wavelengths that have passed unperturbed through the upper, and also any lower-energy light that has been re-emitted within the top layer and somehow escaped. The upshot is a device that, even as a prototype, converts ten times more of the incident light into electricity than a conventional solar cell. [and btw]
From California to Arizona, demand for sites for solar power projects has ignited a land grab. No one has been as quick to move into the Mojave -- or as tightlipped about it -- as Solar Investments.- New Financial and Economic Challenges for a New American President (video)
That entity, it turns out, is Goldman Sachs' solar subsidiary. The investment bank's designs on the desert are a topic of intense interest and speculation. Goldman declined to comment. But here's what we know:
Solar Investments filed its first land claim in December 2006 and within a month had applied for more than 125,000 acres for power plants that would produce ten gigawatts of electricity. Many of the sites lie close to the transmission lines that connect the desert to coastal cities. (Goldman has also staked claims on 40,000 acres of the Nevada desert.)
Nobody expects Goldman to begin operating solar plants. It will probably either partner with another developer or sell its limited-liability company (and its leases) outright. The firm has been making the rounds of solar developers....
"I view Goldman as a very interesting indicator of things to come," says Brian McDonald, PG&E's director of renewable-resource development.
First, America’s dependence on foreign capital has grown rapidly due to:cheers!
1) The collapse in US domestic savings.
2) The widening of the nation’s trade deficit, driven in significant part by rising oil imports, and
3) The enormous increase in borrowing by American consumers, the federal government, and indeed virtually all segments of the US economy...
A growing portion of US debt is owed to overseas private investors and government institutions. In 2001, they together held 30% of outstanding Treasury securities; now they hold 45%...
Second, trade now accounts for a larger portion of US economic activity than in 2001. In 2001, US exports amounted to just over 9% of GDP; today they amount to 12%. Imports have risen from 14% to 17% of GDP... More and more US jobs depend on exports. At the same time, a growing portion of the US economy, including services, is subject to international competition...
Third, the dollar must now contend with a world-class challenger – the Euro. In 2001, the Euro accounted for less than 20% of world reserves (based on IMF data), the dollar accounted for 72%. Today dollar reserves are down to 64%, and that share is declining; reserves held in Euro, on the other hand, are approaching 27% and its share rising, as central banks – including the vast majority of those in Asia – diversify their foreign exchange holdings. An increasing number of international transactions, some oil included, are invoiced in Euros; very few were a decade ago.
Fourth, the US share of world GDP has fallen from 34% in 2001 to 28% today, while that of Brazil, Russia, India and China (the BRIC countries) has doubled, from 8% to 16%...
Lastly, in 2001, oil cost $26 per barrel; now it costs five times that. Half of the oil consumed in the US a decade ago was imported; now around 60% is imported. During this period, world energy consumers have transferred $3 trillion to oil producers, enabling many of them to accumulate enormous financial strength in a very short period of time... Among other things, this shift means that the influence of Washington – through the Treasury and the IMF – has diminished...
In light of these striking transformations, the incoming US administration will need to make important policy changes ...no small measure of humility is in order now; relative financial power has shifted...
First, America’s political leadership must recognize that unless recent improvements in the US trade balance can be sustained, and accelerated, and domestic savings rise sharply, the US will remain heavily dependent on foreign capital... Foreigners have a wide range of choices about where to invest... Frequent financial crises, large trade imbalances, a series of outsized budget deficits, and failure to put Social Security and Medicare on a sounder financial footing could undermine investor confidence... If US policymakers want to reduce dependence on foreign capital, they will need to find ways to increase domestic savings, shrink the federal deficit, reduce the heavy reliance of American consumers on credit and curb oil imports...
Second, with foreign competition intensifying, rapid growth taking place in many other parts of the world, and large numbers of American jobs and corporate profits dependent on expanding exports, the new administration will need to take measures to boost US competitiveness... American policymakers can neither deny the intensity of the dislocations and job insecurity resulting from foreign competition, nor ignore the enormous global market opportunities... this country cannot, without a huge cost, insulate itself from these new and powerful forces or abandon its longstanding leadership in the quest for a more open, rules-based trading system. Turning inward in an era when exports are critical to a prosperous American economy would be deeply counterproductive... But it would be equally counterproductive to ignore the measures needed at home to enable greater numbers of Americans to benefit from trade and to boost the nation’s overall growth – as well as to reverse the growing income gap in this country.
A robust response to these concerns requires vastly improved training and education, especially in math, engineering, physics and science. And more than ever this must benefit minorities and immigrants, who constitute the fastest-growing portion of the American work-force. Education has been the “great equalizer” in the US for many decades; if it falters, then the wealth gap and the discontent gap in American society will grow. Public support for open trade will be only one of many casualties...
Critical also is acceleration of government and private-sector investment in research and development... Washington also needs to invest, and incentivize the private sector to invest, in physical infrastructure (which emerging countries are doing on a massive scale to boost their competitiveness). And it must provide more reliable wage/pension/health-care security for individuals displaced from their jobs by imports as well as other causes.
If large numbers of Americans remain insecure about their jobs, health-care coverage and pension benefits, and if workers cannot change jobs without losing important benefits, and low-income households cannot participate in the overall prosperity of the economy, restoring a consensus in support of a more open trading policy will be extremely difficult.
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spiritresponse, search for solutions and leadership (in conjunction w/ calls for public assistance ;) that people like andrew grove, t.boone pickens and vinod khosla are putting on display. energy (efficiency) seems like it might be the key not just to the climate and other geopolitical security problems, but for the economy as well...posted by kliuless at 7:04 PM on July 15, 2008