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Leading Chinese solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturers Yingli Green Energy and Trina Solar have emerged as the clear market leaders within the solar PV industry, shipping more than 5.8 gigawatts (GW) of solar PV modules in 2013.
NewEnergyNews: DOMINANT CHINESE SOLAR PV MAKERS EMERGE
India added just over 1 gigawatt of solar energy to its electrical grid last year, a major milestone that nearly doubles the country’s cumulative solar energy capacity to 2.18 gigawatts. After a slow start to the year, solar installation picked up rapidly — a good sign that India will be able to meet its ambitious solar targets going forward. India hopes to install 10 GW of solar by 2017 and 20 GW by 2022
NewEnergyNews: THE SOLAR BOOM IN INDIA
An alternative, Hawkins-like approach to economic development would take massive amounts of data about the world and ask what is likely to succeed next in a country or a city at a given point in time, given what is already present and in light of the experience there and everywhere else. It would be like Amazon’s recommendation system, proposing books you may like based on your and everybody else’s experience.
These reforms, and others – like attempts to protect the environment – will ensure that even as China’s real economic productivity improves, its GDP growth numbers will drop as the reforms are implemented. For now most commentators argue that by increasing productivity, real reform will ensure a soft landing of GDP growth rates of 7-8 percent during the rest of President Xi Jinping’s administration. A growing minority worries, however, that rapidly rising debt will force China into a hard landing.
The impact of reform on growth
we did some digging and found out where things are now for some of the most intriguing battery related projects that we’ve reported on in the last few years.
The battery research that could change your phone, and the world | News | TechRadar
They say that everything is bigger in Texas, but that’s not true when it comes to the newest library built near San Antonio in 2013. The new Bibliotech Bexar County Digital Library is tiny. It’s a lot like a regular library, with meeting rooms, wireless Internet access, special events, and more. But there’s one big exception. This library doesn’t have a single printed book.
The amazing inside story of the Texas library with no books | CITEworld
While the “Fragile Five” – India, Indonesia, Brazil, Turkey and South Africa – have been among the hardest hit amid the turmoil in emerging markets, famed economist Nouriel Roubini says the threat of a full-fledged currency, sovereign-debt and banking crisis remains low.
‘Fragile Five’ face low risk of full-fledged crisis: Roubini
The extent of corruption in Europe is “breathtaking” and it costs the EU economy about 120bn euros (£99bn) annually, the European Commission says.
BBC News – Corruption across EU ‘breathtaking’ – EU Commission
We’ve been saying that it’s time to pay more attention again to the country’s economic troubles. The Ruble has been getting smoked lately, and the country is suffering from many of the same forces that are dragging down other emerging markets.
Russian PMI – Business Insider
The promise of faster, cheaper and more efficient wireless devices has moved a step closer. Researchers at IBM have demonstrated the most advanced integrated circuit made of wafer-scale graphene – often touted as a “wonder material” that could revolutionise electronics.
BBC News – Graphene circuit’s wireless promise
In a year when three dozen governors are up for election, unexpectedly robust revenues from taxes and other sources are filling most state coffers, creating surpluses not seen in years and prompting statehouse battles over what to do with the money.
Battles loom in many states over what to do with surpluses
The EU currently has a target of deriving 20% of its total energy from renewable sources by 2020. Because of slow economic growth and high costs, however, the European Union is considering pushing back that deadline to 2030 while setting a slightly higher target of attaining between 25% and 27% of total energy from renewable sources.
Can a Solar Depression Happen Again?
The start of 2014 has seen the global markets decisively in risk-off mode, with global equities falling, government bonds rallying and many emerging market currencies collapsing. Yet few investors currently believe that the risk-off pattern will continue in the developed markets (DM’s) for the year as a whole. The bullish consensus for developed equities remains firmly intact, for now.
The EM’s ‘fragile 8′ must save themselves | Gavyn Davies
A new study suggests that wind and solar plants are already competing economically with fossil fuel in Europe. Soon, even household rooftop solar PV systems will generate electricity more cheaply than coal.
Rooftop Solar Will Soon Be Cheaper Than Coal in the EU : Greentech Media
When almost all the gains from growth go to the top, as they have for the past 30 years, the vast middle class doesn’t have the purchasing power necessary to keep the economy growing and generate lots of jobs. Once the middle class has exhausted all its coping mechanisms – wives and mothers surging into paid work (as they did in the 1970s and 1980s), longer working hours (which characterized the 1990s) and deep indebtedness (2002 to 2008) – the inevitable result is slower growth and fewer jobs.
Conservatives don’t want to face reality of inequality – SFGate
The next breakthrough smartphone, or maybe the one after that, might not have a traditional battery as its sole source of power. Instead, it could pull energy from the air or power itself through television, cellular or Wi-Fi signals.
Building a Better Battery – NYTimes.com
The global market sell-off continues. And the emerging market continues to take the worst of it. For some context, Oppenheimer’s John Stoltzfus offers this chart of emerging market currency moves relative to the U.S. dollar from a year ago.
Emerging Market Currency Y-O-Y Chart – Business Insider
Many EM countries rely heavily on external financing to balance their accounts. As the Federal Reserve tapers its quantitative easing program and makes steps towards tightening monetary policy, experts fear that capital flows could reverse as interest rates rise. This would cause massive strains in these regions.
EM Crisis Scarier Than Before [CHARTS] – Business Insider
Weakness in emerging markets is not new, and has been on-going for the better part of three years now. Those who claim that the removal of quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve is negative seem to forget that emerging markets never once outperformed U.S. markets on Fed stimulus.
The crisis is reflation, not emerging markets – MarketWatch
The world’s best-selling automaker said on Tuesday it now expects to post 2.4 trillion yen in annual operating profit, up from its previous forecast of 2.2 trillion yen and higher than its pre-Lehman crisis record of 2.27 trillion yen from six years ago.
Toyota says expects record annual profit, maintains outlook
Eating too many sugary drinks, desserts and sweets could increase your risk of having a heart attack, the findings of a large US study suggest.
BBC News – Sweet tooth linked to heart attacks
Here is the settlement. There were two Florida State professors — Gonul Colak, who teaches finance, and Milen Kostov, who teaches engineering1 — who each set up accounts at different brokerage firms and then sold a bunch of options to each other and other people. Then Kostov would exercise a deep-in-the-money call option written by Colak, resulting in Kostov being long the stock and Colak being short it, without Colak ever having arranged to borrow it. Colak’s broker required him to rectify that by borrowing (or buying) and delivering the stock, but instead there’d be a whole ‘nother flurry of option writing and they’d never deliver the stock, leaving Colak, as they say, “naked short”: He’d sold the stock without arranging to borrow it first.2
Florida Professors Experimented With a Little Naked Short Selling – Bloomberg
The federal budget deficit has fallen sharply during the past few years, and it is on a path to decline further this year and next year. CBO estimates that under current law, the deficit will total $514 billion in fiscal year 2014, compared with $1.4 trillion in 2009. At that level, this year’s deficit would equal 3.0 percent of the nation’s economic output
CBO Deficit Report – Business Insider
Wanxiang backs post-bankruptcy push into new megawatt-scale international contracts and new energy-centric systems.
A123’s Path Back to Grid-Scale Battery Business : Greentech Media
The polysilicon market is more dependent on the solar industry than ever—while silicon’s importance to solar dynamics has greatly diminished.
The Shifting Relationship Between Solar and Silicon in Charts : Greentech Media
There are potentially great benefits to government investments in public works at a time like this. The legacy of the Works Progress Administration of the 1930s included half a million miles of highways, 100,000 bridges and as many public buildings. It includes the Dock Street Theater in Charleston, S.C., and the Timberline Lodge on the slopes of Mount Hood in Oregon.
And it would not even be very expensive. With the borrowing costs of the federal government below the rate of inflation, investments would actually help reduce the nation’s debt burden. Lenders are, in effect, paying the government to borrow money.
Confronting Old Problem May Require a New Deal – NYTimes.com
The US is supposed to be the land of opportunity. This column presents evidence that is better thought of as the ‘lands of opportunity’. Economic mobility varies dramatically across US cities. Some have upward-income mobility comparable to the most mobile countries in the world. Others have rates below that of any developed country. These geographical differences are correlated with five factors: segregation, income inequality, local school quality, social capital, and family structure.
Where is the land of opportunity? Intergenerational mobility in the US | vox
Energy minister says those approaching retirement should consider putting some of their savings into solar panels because they would deliver a better financial return than a pension… Prices for solar panels have fallen sharply in recent years. According to the Department of Energy and Climate Change, the typical domestic installation costs around £4,500, compared with £13,000 in 2010.
Solar panels better than a pension, says minister – Telegraph
Emerging markets may be even more vulnerable to an interest rate shock today than they were during the East Asia crisis in 1998, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has warned.
Emerging markets more vulnerable than ever to Fed tightening, warns BIS – Telegraph
Factory orders in the US suffered their steepest fall for 33 years in January and also slowed further in China, raising fresh concerns about the strength of the world’s two biggest economies.
Shocking US factory orders and Chinese bank woes trigger global flight to safety – Telegraph
The growing problems in the Chinese banking system could spill over into a wider financial crisis, one of the most respected analysts of China’s lenders has warned.
Currency crisis at Chinese banks ‘could trigger global meltdown’ – Telegraph
