Fly ... er ... float like the wind.

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First deployment of a commercial semi-submersible floating platform
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In just 3 human lifetimes.

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Supercar

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Wind Power 1 & 2

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Dr. Steven Chu: Climate Denial bigger than Tobacco Denial

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Honest American citizens would be much better informed, if not well-versed in denial, to listen to dedicated, honest scientists who know what the hell they're talking about:

Energy Secretary Steven Chu discussed the stiff competition the United States faces from China, which is moving quickly to close down inefficient coal plants as well as nurturing its fast-growing wind and solar industries. He is charged with helping implement President Obama's ambitious agenda to invest in alternative and renewable energy, end our addiction to foreign oil, address the global climate crisis and create millions of new jobs.

"One can honestly say that if we don't do this, we will not be economically competitive. The debate for whether smoking causes lung cancer and emphysema was actually in the first decade among scientists, but they muddied the waters for 2½ more decades. Climate change, on a global scale, is a much bigger deal, and people are trying to muddy the waters, particularly people who think they might lose.

"A lot of businesses in Silicon Valley see the opportunity. The push back comes from more traditional businesses, like oil and gas, and energy-intensive businesses. Take agriculture: Rural America can benefit greatly from clean technology. They have land, so they can have wind turbines. They can have carbon offsets from planting trees. They can have biofuel from biowaste. Now you have three different income generators in rural America that could dwarf or at least be comparable to the cash you'd get from growing food crops.

And not from dismantled & unethical, if not fraudulently unmanly, hard-core scoundrels like Tony Watts:

"Anthony: Your use of false claims to accuse NOAA scientists of deliberate deception was not just mistaken, it was unethical. If you have any honor at all, you’ll set the record straight. You owe it to everyone, and especially to NOAA, to admit that you were wrong. And you certainly owe it to NOAA to apologize. You need to make a highly visible, highly public admission of error, and apology, for using falsehoods to accuse others of fraud. Are you man enough?" Tamino's Message to Anthony Watts

Tea bags, no jobs, please.

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re: "Do you simply hate our modern society? Are you feeling guilty about driving to work every day? I seriously don't get it."

Thanks to the Party of No-Way, No-How, & No-Jobs, & their Saudi billionaire foreign oil buddies, the U.S. economy is missing out on the biggest technological revolution since the electrification of America.

How Germany, Spain, and China Are Seizing the Energy Opportunity and Why the United States Risks Getting Left Behind.

Clean energy technology is becoming a $2.3 Trillion [that's capital 'T'] dollar industry in only 10 years.

By 2020, clean energy will be one of the world’s biggest industries, totaling as much as $2.3 trillion. Over the past year, other countries made huge investments to seize the economic opportunity provided by the historic shift from fossil-based energy to renewable, low-waste electricity and fuel. These investments weren’t made out of thin air, but were a result of intentional public policies, which in turn provided a strong stimulus for new public and private investment in new clean-energy markets, infrastructure, and human resources.

China, Germany, & Spain are already out of gates and heading down the stretch, while the obstructionist Republican Party of Tea-Bags-No-Jobs-Please has America still stuck in the stalls.

China, Germany, and Spain are early winners in the next great technological and industrial revolution. Many other countries such as Denmark, Japan, and South Korea that we do not discuss in this report are also forging ahead with ambitious clean energy economic strategies. The United States, which has yet to fully embrace a truly sustainable growth strategy for the low-carbon future, is not.

And so now, American renewable energy companies are relocating to the People's Republic of Communist China.

Less than two years after building a solar manufacturing plant in Devens, Massachusetts, Evergreen Solar—an early U.S. pioneer in solar photovoltaic technology—announced plans to move part of that operation to Wuhan, China.

So let's get the lead out & our horses out on the track & fire up those investors before the race is over & we go home even broker.

The race toward a clean-energy future is underway, and those nations that lead will reap enormous economic benefits. With the right investments and smart policies, the United States can be among them, a top player in the emerging global low-carbon economy.

Out of the Running?
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AWEA on Renewable Energy Standards & American Jobs

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re: "Our economy is at risk, because these jobs are being created overseas."

Utter disinformed tea party palin-beck propagandic nonsense, pilgrim. Our economy is at risk because we haven't yet invested in sufficient manufacturing base necessary to produce the sheer volume of electrical components needed for wind turbine farms here & in foreign markets.

While the Bush/Cheney administration pumped trillions of our taxpayer dollars into foreign oil subsidies & foreign oil wars & foreign EXXOM mega-profits, Europe & China provided the necessary government regulatory infrastructure & stimuli to attract 100s of billions of investment dollars into renewable energy manufacturing capacity & demand.

So again, thanks to the utter stupidity of the Party of No-Way, No-How, No-Jobs criminal malfeasance & disgovernance to line the pockets of EXXOM Rex Tillerson's & Denier-in-Chief James Inhofe's Saudi billionaire buds, we're now relegated to playing catch up.

And catch up we'd better, else trillions more of our taxpayer dollars will flow to Prince Al-Walid & Prez. Chavez & EXXOM boardroom bonuses, instead of building a strong manufacturing base in renewable clean technologies to provide jobs for 100s of thousands of long-unemployed construction & industrial American workers.

"Rather than adopt policies that will kill American jobs, Congress should enact policies that will create jobs by encouraging manufacturers to invest in U.S. plants. That means passing a Renewable Electricity Standard now."

"The Recovery Act has been creating jobs by helping finance new American wind energy projects that have broken ground or been completed since the Act was passed. The proposed moratorium and legislation would kill this effort and destroy the momentum for one of the few industries that has been creating jobs and economic growth."

"It is unfortunate that the proponents of this moratorium and legislation are using a deeply flawed study as the basis for a policy that would destroy tens of thousands of American jobs."

"We support the goal of continuing the rapid expansion of U.S. wind manufacturing. More than half of the value of wind turbines used in U.S. wind projects is domestically produced, and that percentage is increasing every year as more turbine makers build U.S. manufacturing capability. We do not have the capability today to produce 100% of wind turbine components in the U.S., but we can grow our manufacturing base and add 274,000 American jobs if Congress passes a strong Renewable Electricity Standard." AWEA

10,000 nuke plants worth of wind power.

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New NREL studies show that the U.S. could generate 20% of our electric power with 300 GW (300 nuke plants worth) of wind power as early as 2024. And we are blessed with the wind resources to ultimately produce 10,000 GW (10,000 nuke plants worth).

The assessment of onshore wind energy potential found that the U.S. could produce almost 37 million gigawatt-hours yearly. According to the American Wind Energy Association, that’s nine times our current annual electricity consumption.

New Wind Resource Maps and Wind Potential Estimates for the United States

In a single year, the U.S. wind resource potential could produce 364.9 quadrillion btus, the energy equivalent of all proven oil and natural gas reserves in the U.S. as estimated by the Energy Information Administration (EIA). A renewable resource, wind resource will not be depleted and will continue to provide energy year after year.

U.S. WIND RESOURCE EVEN LARGER THAN PREVIOUSLY ESTIMATED

This new analysis confirms that America is blessed with vast wind resources that can energize our economy, create jobs, and avoid carbon for years to come -— if we give ourselves the policy tools to do so, including a strong national Renewable Electricity Standard with aggressive, binding near- and long-term targets. A national Renewable Electricity Standard would not only ensure that we tap our nation’s vast wind resources, but create thousands of new American jobs today, manufacturing the 8,000 component parts that go into a modern wind turbine. The wind resource is there, vast and inexhaustible, waiting for us. Meanwhile, the economy can’t wait, job creation can’t wait, and America can’t wait. We need Congress to act now and pass a comprehensive climate and energy bill that includes a strong national Renewable Electricity Standard.

Jobs, jobs, & jobs! What the hell are we waiting for? For China to take over Texas?
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China corners wind like no tomorrow.

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Awaken, America! China has gobbled up our solar-powered breakfast & is now woofing down our wind-powered lunch, while ExxonMobil continues to fund anti-science denial front-groups to obstruct our overdue transition to a sustainable clean energy economy.

China doubles installed capacity for fifth year running – Global markets up 31%.

China again doubles wind power capacity in one year.

Brussels, 3 February 2010. The Global Wind Energy Council today announced that the world’s wind power capacity grew by 31% in 2009, adding 37.5 GW to bring total installations up to 157.9 GW. A third of these additions were made in China, which experienced yet another year of over 100% growth.

Wind power is already the clean energy technology of choice around the world.

“The continued rapid growth of wind power despite the financial crisis and economic downturn is testament to the inherent attractiveness of the technology, which is clean, reliable and quick to install. Wind power has become the power technology of choice a growing number of countries around the world.”

And already provides ~500,000 jobs & growing fast.

Wind energy is now an important player in the world’s energy markets. The global wind market for turbine installations in 2009 was worth about 45 bn EUR or 63 bn US$. GWEC estimates that around half a million people are now employed by the wind industry around the world.

China added an additional 13,000 MW (equivalent to 13 nuclear power plants) of wind power capacity in 2009 alone, doubling capacity each year for 5 years running now.

China was the world’s largest market in 2009, nearly doubling its wind generation capacity from 12.1 GW in 2008 to 25.1 GW at the end of 2009 with new capacity additions of 13 GW.

Putting China on track for 150,000 MW of wind power capacity in less than 10 years. Holy thermalized neutrons! That's equivalent to 150 new nuclear power plants by 2020.

“The Chinese government is taking very seriously its responsibility to limit CO2 emissions while providing energy for its growing economy. China is putting strong efforts into developing the country’s tremendous wind resource. Given the current growth rates, it can be expected that the even the unofficial target of 150 GW will be met well ahead of 2020.”

Asia is now the biggest wind power market in the world.

Newly added capacity of 1,270 MW in India and some smaller additions in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan make Asia the biggest regional market for wind energy in 2009, with more than 14 GW of new capacity.

Time to wake up, America, before we have to ship even more mega-billions of our taxpayer dollars to the communists in Beijing just to pay the interest on our national debt.

Global wind power boom continues despite economic woes

re: "And the windmill propaganda machine"
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Will America still be competitive in 2020?

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Well, listen up then, to what President Obama is really talking about.

"Meanwhile, China's not waiting to revamp its economy. Germany's not waiting. India's not waiting. These nations aren't standing still. These nations aren't playing for second place. They're putting more emphasis on math and science. They're rebuilding their infrastructure. They are making serious investments in clean energy because they want those jobs."

Damn right they ain't waiting around for us to figure it out.

This month China announced it would build a 2,000 MW solar thermal project, five times bigger than the current largest one, California's Solar Energy Generating System. China is in the midst of building a wind corridor that could grow to a staggering 20,000MW, 25 times the size of Texas' Roscoe Wind Farm. And last fall China announced a plan to build a 2,000 MW solar photovoltaic farm, 33 times bigger than the world's largest today, a 60 MW farm in Spain.

Second place is simply unacceptable, if not un-American.

"They're making serious investments in clean energy because they want those jobs," [President Obama] said of countries like Germany, which have more generous and stable renewable energy subsidies that make projects easier to finance. "Well, I do not accept second place for the United States of America."

Maybe a good time to double down on FSLR and keep an eagle eye out for an early eSolar IPO, ya think?

He may have no choice, but maybe Obama can take heart in the fact that China's two big solar farms will use U.S. technology. The big photovoltaic farm will use panels built by Arizona's First Solar (FSLR) and the solar thermal farm will use technology developed by California's eSolar. The World's Biggest Green Energy Projects

Just picture the world's biggest green energy projects all in China.

SciGuy re: re: "Well, he says lots of things".
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Energy Policy Debate: Joe Romm scores knockout in 1st round.

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And in case anyone missed the Joseph Romm vs David Kreutzer main event on Energy Policy last Thursday, it was a one-two knockout.

Good work, Joe, how many pounds did you have to give away?

And who's your next challenger?
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China's waiting for nobody.

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WARNING: The following program contains images than may cause terminal denial & cardiac arrest among Libertarians, Teabaggers, & Delusional WattsUpItsButters.

"Meanwhile, China's not waiting to revamp its economy. Germany's not waiting. India's not waiting. These nations aren't standing still. These nations aren't playing for second place. They're putting more emphasis on math and science. They're rebuilding their infrastructure. They are making serious investments in clean energy because they want those jobs." ~President Barack H. Obama, State of the Union Address, January 27, 2010

China's Green Rush: Go Far East, young man!

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China is applying every available energy technology to sustain its history-making growth, perhaps, at the expense of climate & health.

China is No. 1 in solar cell manufacturing.

The world's biggest supplier of solar-manufacturing equipment has opened a research and development center in China, and its chief technology officer will relocate from Silicon Valley to that country next month.

One factor in the move by Applied Materials is that China offers manufacturing incentives that aren't available for solar companies in the U.S. The tax credits in the federal stimulus package that passed in February were one of the first such incentives in a long time, says Pinto. But, he adds, "The location of factories of the kind we make isn't driven by cost." He lists the considerations that led to the company's expansion in China: "Where does the product get consumed, what is the cost of shipping, and what incentives does the government offer?" Applied Materials Moves Solar Expertise to China

And soon to be No. 3 in wind power with 20 GWs of installed capacity, equivalent to 20 nukes.

China is set to become the world's third largest wind power producer in 2009 media reported, as the Asian giant seeks various ways to expand energy supply to power its economic boom. The country's installed wind power capacity will reach 20 gigawatts this year.... That will lift China to surpass Spain and become the world's third biggest wind power producer after the United States and Germany. China to be 3rd biggest wind power producer

And China understands how to use stimulus.

The Chinese have used their stimulus in a way that will lead to long-term growth. They are building superhighways and railroads that go 200 miles per hour; aggressively investing in alternative forms of energy like solar and wind power; and forcing heavy industry to adopt clean technologies. China has huge poverty and a long way to go to solve its problems, but the economy is moving ahead strongly. China's making right moves: U.S. investors will benefit from controlling growth

Renewable energy technologies like biomass, wind, & geothermal are already cost competitive. Just shift the subsidies from coal & oil, & put a price on carbon, & bingo, solar thermal & solar PV reach scale & become cost competitive. Like China.

A new gold rush in China is actually a green rush — an urgent drive to develop green technologies. One group of Western companies, the Cleantech Initiative, suggests China's market for renewable energy could eventually be worth as much as $500 billion to $1 trillion a year.

Now, Obama administration officials are warning that the U.S. could risk losing the race in green technologies. "The future of sustainable energy is here." The words are emblazoned on a wall at the world's largest nongovernmental solar research center. It was built by an American company, Applied Materials, in the central Chinese city of Xian.

The cost of solar panels has dropped dramatically — 30 percent in the past year alone. One major reason is the "China price," or the competitive advantages offered by Chinese manufacturing, with its cheap labor and economies of scale. China is now the world's biggest producer of photovoltaic solar panels, making about 40 percent of all panels, according to the China Daily, mostly for export. The Green Rush Is On In China