Visa?

I visited a local TDAmeritrade today. One of the consultants asked me what I was thinking of investing in. 'Visa (V) among other things' I told him. "Visa? Pretty speculative" he quipped. "Have you looked at TDAX its an ETF"? I felt like I was at US Bank all over again with them trying to sell you on their products. I tend to like and dislike these guys all at the same time. Some like to shoo you away faster than others as if you are cutting into their video watching time while others try to make commission by noting that they talked to you on this or that. It depends upon how much money you have in your account and how you've performed with it I think.

Solar did fairly well today as everyone that we track was in the green and five of them in the double digits percentage wise. They were SOLF 20.82%, SOL 16.24%, CSIQ 20.50%, AKNS 20.00%, and STP 11.03%.

There has been a lot of news this month in solar. Much more than I expected to see. One of them that made me bust out laughing was the pittance the U.S. government is going to invest at 11 universities over the next three years.
U.S. Department of Energy selects broad range of PV R&D projects to fund
Monday, March 17, 2008 10:35 AM
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will invest approximately $13.7 million over three years in 11 university-led photovoltaic projects addressing a wide range of technologies related to manufacturing processes and products.

Isn't that a paltry $415,000 per school per year? How fast can we develop anything at that pace? Heck our daily expenditure in Iraq is about $576,000,000 or or more precisely $575.96 million usd. Daily!

Something is better than nothing? Seems like the "Don't say we didn't do anything about alternative energy research" retoric. Uncle Sam has left the building, gone fishing, out to lunch, or do not disturb...in regards to being a world leader in innovation and technology. Have we really given up our technological leadership in favor of violence? How soon till we are no longer the one to watch? Huh? Seems like that time is coming quickly.

The German Federal Association of the Solar Industry reported that there were 1,300,000 solar plants in Germany in 2006. 220,000 new plants were erected in 2006 alone. Read more about the leader in renewable energy.

Photovoltaic in new dimensions
Here the sun is shining again: Europe's largest solar energy installation is located in the middle of a former lignite coal-mining area. The company GEOSOL has built a solar energy power station with an output of 5 MWh on a former sedimentation basin for ashes in Espenhain to the south of Leipzig. Not far away on the grounds of a former lignite power station in Borna there is another 22 hectare “solar field” with an output of almost 4 MWh.

Innovative: solar diesel and bio-ethanol
The company Choren AG from the Saxon city of Freiberg has developed a new process for producing synthetic fuel from biomass which is a world's first. Together with Daimler Chrysler and Volkswagen the „Sun Diesel“ is being made ready to go into production. In the Saxon-Anhalt town of Zeitz the company Südzucker AG has erected Europe's largest bio-ethanol plant. Here 260,000 m³ of bio-ethanol, 260,000 t of fodder which is rich in proteins and 30 million kWh electric current are being produced every year.

Spain Requires New Buildings Use Solar Power As part of the country’s efforts to bring its building rules up to date and curb growing demand for energy.

Until now Spain’s building standards have done little in seeking to improve energy efficiency.“We have to make up the time we have lost,” Environment Minister Cristina Narbona said, inaugurating a seminar on the new technical building code

This means new homes have to be equipped with solar panels to provide between 30 and 70 percent of their hot water, depending on where the building is located and on its expected water usage.

New non-residential buildings, such as shopping centers and hospitals, now have to have photovoltaic panels to generate a proportion of their electricity.

I want someone else to get mad and say we are doing something substantial for renewable energy usage. I want someone to show me. I want to hear it on the news and see it in my town. I want to hear people talking about it like it wasn't some far off future thing.

Solar Cloudy But Clearing

That is my current position on solar investments at this time. Due to a bit of bad news of a polluter along with so much more going on in banking, housing, etc.. investors have turned away from solar for the moment. That is due to change however as we refocus the importance of the latest efforts in solar research and design.

The annual report from The Clean-Tech Market Authority was released this month citing the importance of subsidy support by government. The report shows that out of the total investment of Venture Capital, 10% has been focused on green technologies. (see below) Their forecast for green technologies is seen in the graphic above. (top)



We currently hold two companies: China Sunergy (CSUN) and Solarfun (SOLF) but there are many companies with attractive reasons to invest in them out there. If you've watched the videos from last week, you'll see an Israeli company which is running at full bore. Its technology is being used in the Mohave Desert right now. Germany has shown that much of the country can be sustained by a combination of Solar, Wind, and Biofuels which is managed by a single power station.

Like I said, there are many attractive companies, some of them you can't invest in yet through the markets, still others are available via OTC trading. I caution everyone on OTC trading as it is harder to reliably follow companies trading this way versus via the mainstream stock market. It is very easy to loose your money or see it go into limbo, so we won't trade there.

Perhaps the bottom line for the rapid growth of solar lies with our governments. Greed and corruption are rampant in almost every government including here in the U.S. With this lies the problem of support for what is right vs. where the money is for our leaders. Our men and women in politics seem to have their morals surgically extracted from them when they enter the political arena. They are bought and sold by large corporations who have no interest in what is right and wrong, what is good or bad. The greed of industry giants controls it seems every politician in an office which can do something for them now or in the near future.

We need the full support of government in order to quickly build an infrastructure of clean energy technologies. With the expenditure so far on Iraq and its future capital fallout, we could have provided every household in the U.S. with renewable energy. Or we could have done so on a large scale with alternative energy power stations. However this doesn't happen because there isn't enough money upfront apparently for politicians.

So it will take smaller corporate investment or the leadership of a company such as GE and the voice of the people to pressure politicians to embrace the technologies that can save our planet. It has to be done now, and not delayed in a long protracted plan as is so often used to quasi-table the important issues.

Ultimate Dream

• Beyond your typical job
• More value than money
• Better than sex to some
  or chocolate to others

There is one basic need in all of us. Were it not for the need of food and water, it would be the one thing that each of us craves beyond all else.

The need to feel connected in some way, to another human being.

Life gravitates to life
a life in the present or in the past
real or imaginary

Tonight I was reminded of this through a fantastic soul moving movie of sound.

A fantastic story of love lost, both romantic and parental.

A story of faith, of hope, and love.



A story of how music moves us, drives us, propels us forward.

A quest for the life we know we deserve.

This movie stars:
Freddie Highmore as August Rush
Keri Russell of Felicity, Waitress
Jonathan Rhys Meyers of Bend It Like Beckham, Elvis, The Tudors
Terrance Howard of Hustle & Flow, Crash
Robin Williams
William Sadler of Roswell

You need to see this movie. Because it will give you something back that you've been missing. Its a good investment!