Investors Love Our Solar Power Projects

Things are looking up for First Solar, at least for now, as the company announced Wednesday a big jump in sales and profits for the second quarter and touted itself as a sought-after power project developer.Features useful information about glassmosaic tiles,

“We have more investors seeking to buy projects than we have to sell them,” said James Hughes,Bliss Glass and stonemosaic. who became First Solar’s CEO earlier this year, during a conference call with analysts. “We have more than 10 bidders dying to purchase the Campo Verde project.” The company announced the 139 MW Campos Verde project in California only shortly before it released its earnings.

Hughes’ positive note was accompanied by good financial results: First Solar posted $957 million in sales for the second quarter, nearly doubling the $532.8 million in sales from the year-ago period. First Solar posted about $111 million in net income, or $1.27 per share, for the second quarter, compared with $61.1 million in net income, or $0.70 per share from the same quarter in 2011.

The company’s shares shot up nearly 20 percent to $17.65 per share during after-market trading.

The good news from First Solar reflected the company’s shift to focus more on its power plant development business and less on selling solar panels to distributors and other buyers. The company explained this new focus back in May, when its executives unveiled a 5-year plan that the company hopes will set itself apart from its rivals and generate fatter profits.

First Solar has struggled along with just about every solar panel manufacturer in the world to survive a market with a serious imbalance of supply and demand for the past year and a half. Many companies have filed for bankruptcies or at least shut down factories. Worldwide, solar panel makers are set to deliver 59 MW of their products in 2012 when demand will more likely be about 30 GW, GTM Research said in June.

As a solar bellwether, First Solar’s performance and strategy provide a good view of industry trends. The company was strictly a solar panel maker for years before it bought a project development business in late 2007. The idea was to build solar projects in order to increase the sales of its solar panels, for which it has built a reputation as a leading low-cost manufacturer.Alfa plast mould is plasticmoulds Manufacturer and plastics Mould Exporters Since then,And a lack of a standout indoortracking Systems (IPS) technology. First Solar has become one of the largest solar project developers in North America. It’s in the midst of building several large solar farms, including two projects of 550 MW each in California and another 230 MW in the same state. Overall, it’s currently building about 2 GW of projects in North America and Australia.

But the solar manufacturing business has become super competitive, especially with the rise of giant Chinese solar panel makers that often receive hefty financial and other support from their government. Plus, the global solar market has been growing largely as a result of generous government subsidies, particularly in Europe, and those subsidies are declining.

Over the past year, First Solar executives have often talked about their plans to enter new markets that can grow without the need of big government subsidies. The Middle East appears to be one of the destinations because oil-rich countries now prefer to sell their oil for good profits instead of burning it for electricity generation at home. Building new markets takes time, however, and Hughes said Wednesday that the company’s efforts to conquer those new territories are still “nascent.”

The company isn’t abandoning subsidized markets though. India is one of them. First Solar has been selling solar panels to Indian project developers, but it wants to build projects there as well. The company is working on joint venture deals in India and other countries, Hughes said but declined to divulge more details.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change is also planning to bring in rolling cuts in returns, with the average reduction of 3.5 per cent every three months.

This is dependent on the take-up of panels, if it is high then the returns will fall faster and if they are low then the cuts could be delayed.If you are looking to buymosaic art,

At the rates quoted above on a 7,000 panel installation homeowners would get an annual return from payments and energy saving of 8.8 per cent on their investment tax-free and inflation linked for 20 years.

The returns are still a far cry from the 10 per cent plus returns rate which some homeowners who had more expensive panels in the past installed are getting - and these come over 25 years.

The government first cut the FIT rate in late 2011 by hacking back the amount householders got paid for generating electricity from 43.4 per unit down to 21p – cutting the rewards in half.

Iran could be bluffing in the strait of Hormuz

Tehran's vow to stop US warships crossing international waters in the strait of Hormuz, following 10 days of provocative Iranian missile tests and naval exercises, is seen in Washington as evidence that ramped-up western sanctions are finally beginning to bite.

While this conclusion may be correct, there is always the danger of a disastrous miscalculation. Iran could be merely sabre rattling, as American analysts suggest. But what if it is not?

Seen from Tehran, the most serious threat to the survival of the regime led by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei comes from within, not without – a consideration not sufficiently understood in the west. The political establishment is riven by deep divisions, principally between economic reformers loyal to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and clerical arch-conservatives backed by the Revolutionary Guards and a wealthy, corrupt merchant class that has grown fat on the 1979 revolution.

Khamenei appears to be trying to hold the line between the two factions. What worries him more than the movements of the USS John C Stennis aircraft carrier group in the Gulf, or even US and EU oil sanctions, is the thought that crucial parliamentary elections due in March could produce a permanent rupture within the Islamic Republic. Such a split could open the way to a second Iranian revolution.

Memories of the mass demonstrations that shook Tehran and other cities in 2009 after rigged presidential elections have not faded. The Green movement's leaders are dispersed, in jail or under house arrest. But their demands for transparent democracy, freedom of expression and an end to misrule by mullahs have not been forgotten. Millions of young Iranians have been watching the Arab spring unfold and they believe Iran's turn will come.

Khamenei is running scared. As Yasmin Alem noted in a recent commentary, the supreme leader views the coming election as a potential "security challenge". The minister of intelligence, Heydar Moslehi, says the polls will be the "most sensitive elections in the history of the Islamic Republic".

Alem continued: "The regime is now in a quandary. While it has traditionally boasted about high voter participation as the symbol of its legitimacy, Tehran is increasingly concerned that an election boycott or turmoil could adversely affect its standing. In the wake of the Arab uprisings the clerical regime is seeking to project an image of its power and popularity. If the election becomes a dismal affair, however, it will have the reverse effect."

There can be little doubt that new US sanctions penalising dealings with Iran's central bank, announced by Barack Obama last month, and a prospective EU ban on Iranian oil, are adding to the internal pressures – even if habitual Iranian customers such as Japan and Turkey succeed in obtaining waivers.

Food prices are soaring, dollars are being hoarded, and Iran's currency, the rial, has fallen in value by 40% in recent weeks. The prospect of sharp falls in oil export earnings – the oil industry accounts for 60% of Iran's economy – is a dire one. Khamenei and other leaders have indicated that such an outcome would amount to a casus belli.

And this is the point that should worry the west's sanctioneers, fixated by Iran's nuclear programme to the exclusion of other considerations. At the moment the regime's deep internal contradictions could be leading towards a revolutionary climax, the US and its allies are giving Khamenei a possible way out by allowing him to externalise the problem and claim that the Iranian nation is under attack from hostile foreign forces, rather than definitively changing from within.

This is the overlooked domestic backdrop to the strait of Hormuz shenanigans and other provocations, such as the alleged plot against the Saudi ambassador in Washington. Iran, for all its aggressive rhetoric over the past few years, has studiously avoided military confrontation. In fact, it has studiously eschewed an open conflict that it would probably lose, relying instead on time-consuming diplomacy and occasional publicity stunts. But with the regime's back to the wall at home, that may be changing.

"The latest warning by Iran that a US aircraft carrier that recently transited through the strait of Hormuz should not do so again is a sign to the west that should be well-observed. It tells us the regime in Tehran is ready for a fight," warned Vali Nasr of Tufts University. "It wasn't preordained that Iran would opt for battle. For much of the past year its leaders have debated how best to deal with Western pressure … [but] subsequent events seem to have settled the policy debate in Tehran. They included the accusations by the US in the Washington plot; a UN report critical of Iran's record on human rights; the IAEA report articulating 'serious concerns' about a possible Iranian nuclear-weapons programme; and the ensuing fresh sanctions."

In other words, confident statements by the White House and state department that Iran is buckling under sanctions pressure appear to blithely ignore the possibility that the regime is being pushed into a corner from which it will come out punching, not negotiating. One result may be an acceleration of its nuclear activities – the opposite of what Obama wants. And then there is the unpredictable Gulf tinderbox. Fearing fatal insurrection at home and with their oil exports blocked, Khamenei and the mullahs, egged on by trigger-happy Revolutionary Guards, may choose to export chaos instead.

Science can't design away tornadoes' deadly threat

Storm science has greatly improved tornado warnings in recent years. But if that's led anyone into a sense of security, that feeling has taken a beating in recent weeks.

Super Outbreak 2011, on April 25-28, killed more than 300 people in the South and Midwest. Less than a month later, a devastating tornado took more than 120 lives around Joplin, Mo. This now could be the deadliest year for tornadoes since 1950, based on an assessment of National Weather Service figures.

This despite warnings of as much as 20 minutes, thanks to improved weather radar installed across the country in the 1990s. Before that, tornado warnings often weren't issued until a twister was sighted on the ground.

Scientists see a variety of factors that helped make this year's twisters deadlier — from La Nina to public complacency, from global warming to urban sprawl.

"We thought for the longest time physical science could get us by ... that we could design out of disaster," said meteorology professor Walker Ashley of Northern Illinois University. Now scientists are finding they need to take human nature into account.

What is clear is that certain factors add to the risk of death. The most vulnerable folks are those living in mobile homes and houses without basements. For a variety of reasons, a lot of homes don't have basements.

Twisters occurring on weekends — like the Joplin tornado — and at night tend to be greater killers because they catch people at home. At night, twisters are harder to see and sleeping people may not hear a warning.

Those less likely to be killed in a storm tend to be more educated and to have a plan in place beforehand.

In Sedalia, Mo., 30-year-old Sean McCabe had the right idea when the tornado struck, heading to the basement. He said the storm shoved him down the final flight of steps. He had scrapes and cuts on his hands, wrists, back and feet. Blood was visible in the house, and much of the roof of the house was gone.

"I saw little debris and then I saw big debris, and I'm like OK, let's go," said McCabe.

Having a plan was a lifesaver for Tuscaloosa's LaRocca Nursing Home in Alabama. As the storm howled, four dozen residents massed in the hallways as trees crashed down and a cloud of dust rained upon them. When the dust settled, the staff realized their drills had paid off. Not one patient was killed, and the worst injury among them was a bruise.

Hundreds have not been so lucky. The death toll reported Saturday by the city of Joplin stands at 139, which if correct puts this year's tornado death toll at 520 — exceeding the previous highest recorded death toll in a single year of 519 in 1953. But Missouri state officials counted 126 dead, a discrepancy that left unclear whether 2011 has yet set the modern record for tornado fatalities.

There were deadlier storms before 1950, but those counts were based on estimates and not on precise figures

The National Weather Service said 58 tornadoes touched down in Alabama on April 27, killing 238 people in that state alone and injuring thousands. Scores died in other states from twisters spawned by the same storm system. Put together, emergency management officials say the twisters left a path of destruction 10 miles wide and 610 miles long, or about as far as a drive from Birmingham to Columbus, Ohio.

Statewide, Alabama officials estimate there was enough debris to stack a football field a mile high with rubble.

Contributing to the massive loss of life is the growth of urban areas, suggested Marshall Shepherd, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Georgia.

"Historically, the central business districts of cities have not been hit that frequently," he explained. But as you increase the land area covered by homes and businesses, he said, "you're increasing the size of the dartboard."

An expanding population does increase exposure to the danger, agreed Ashley, who fears deaths could begin to rise in the future as a result of sprawl and more people living in vulnerable residences such as mobile homes.

If the Tuscaloosa and Joplin tornadoes had each been a few miles to the south, on farmland, little would be heard about them, Ashley said, but when extremely violent tornadoes mingle with urban sprawl "you're going to have a disaster."

"I hope this will be an outlier year, very much like Katrina was to hurricanes," he said in a telephone interview from a field trip to chase tornadoes.

But no one can guarantee that, and weather experts are becoming increasingly concerned about how people respond to tornado warnings.

"A lot of it is complacency," Ashley said. "The population seems to be becoming desensitized to nature. I don't know why."

Studies have shown that 15 to 20 minutes is the most effective amount of warning time, and longer warning times can increase deaths. Weather experts aren't sure why, but worry that people think that if a twister hasn't appeared in a certain amount of time, it must have been a false alarm.

Yet a long-track tornado can be on the ground for 30 miles.

"If you have a basement, you don't need 20 minutes warning, but if you are in a mobile home park you may need more than 20 minutes to find a shelter," commented Alan W. Black, a University of Georgia doctoral student and co-author with Ashley of a recent study of tornado and wind fatalities.

Jerry Brotzge, a research scientist at the Center for Analysis & Prediction of Storms, University of Oklahoma, said many people who hear warnings will look outside to see if they can see the tornado — "they need some kind of confirmation, they want to see it."

But the Joplin tornado was at least partly rain-wrapped, meaning that a powerful rainstorm obscured it from some directions and "they wouldn't have seen it coming."

"Even when people are sheltered in their homes, if they are not underground they can die," Brotzge added.

But asking people to evacuate an area is also a difficult decision, he said, "what if you have a traffic jam and the tornado hits that."

Ashley concluded: "The take-home is, people have to take personal responsibility for their lives."

Why there have been so many tornado threats this year is harder to say.

Viewing pictures of the tornado aftermath it's hard to overestimate the power of such storms, and records bear out how strong they can be.

"You see pictures of World War II, the devastation and all that with the bombing. That's really what it looked like," said Kerry Sachetta, the principal of a flattened Joplin High School. "I couldn't even make out the side of the building. It was total devastation in my view. I just couldn't believe what I saw."

And that movie image a few years ago was no joke: A cow was transported 10 miles by a twister in Iowa in 1878 and a tornado in Minnesota moved a headstone three miles in 1886.

One Joplin resident said a picture that was sucked off his house's wall was found in Springfield, 70 miles away. An insurance policy was found more than 40 miles from its original residence in Oklahoma in 1957 and a 210-mile trip was taken by a canceled check in Nebraska in 1915, according to a study several years ago by researchers at the University of Oklahoma and St. Louis University.

Typically, tornadoes spawn in the clash between warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico and cooler, dry air from the north and west — conditions that mark Tornado Alley in the Midwest and South, the most common breeding grounds for twisters.

Factors in this year's excess may include La Nina, a periodic cooling of the tropical Pacific Ocean which can affect weather worldwide. In a La Nina year there tend to be more tornadoes than average. If that is a factor, the good news is that La Nina is weakening and is expected to end in a month or so.

The meandering jet stream high in the atmosphere that directs the movements of weather also has been in a pattern that encourages warm Gulf air to move in and clash with drier air masses.

While studies of global warming have suggested it could cause more and stronger storms, National Weather Service Director Jack Hayes isn't ready to blame climate change — at least not yet — saying it's too soon to link individual events with the ongoing warming.

Tornado researcher Howard B. Bluestein of the University of Oklahoma says his best guess is this unusual outburst of twisters is due to natural variability of the weather.

"Sometimes you get a weather pattern in which the ingredients for a tornado are there over a wide area and persist for a long time. That's what we're having this year," he said.

"If we see this happen next year and the following year and the following year," then maybe climate change could be to blame, he said.

Whatever the reasons it's an extraordinary year for tornadoes and the worst may not be over. May is usually the peak month, but June traditionally gets lots of twisters, and they can occur in any month.

"You can never completely breathe easy," concluded Russell Schneider, director of the government's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla.