• Google, KKR invest in California solar project (AP)

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    January 6, 2012 /  hey there

    NEW YORK ? Online search and advertising giant Google is teaming with investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. to develop four solar energy farms serving the Sacramento Municipal Utility District in California.

    Google said Tuesday on its Green Blog that it will spend $94 million on the projects. They also will receive equity from SunTap Energy RE LLC, a venture formed by KKR to invest in U.S. solar projects.

    The projects are expected to provide enough energy to power more than 13,000 average U.S. homes. Energy produced by three of the projects is contracted for 20 years with the utility district, Google said.

    Construction on three of the four projects will be complete early next year, with the fourth coming on line later in the year.

    KKR said SunTap represents its first U.S. renewable energy investment. It also has invested in a French wind park operator and a Spanish solar energy company.

    Google said it has invested more than $915 million in clean energy projects, including $800 million this year. The Sacramento deal represents its first U.S. investment in a large-scale solar project that generates energy for a grid, rather than individual rooftops.

    The investment comes as the solar industry wraps up a difficult year in which it has been hit hard by slower economic growth around the world, including the U.S., where government funding for alternative energy projects has been squeezed.

    First Solar, the nation’s largest solar company, has cut earnings and revenue estimates for 2011. The company, based in Tempe, Ariz., expects to report charges of 85 cents per share related to a series of cost-cutting moves this year, including layoffs of about 100 people.

    In September, California solar panel maker Solyndra LLC, which received a $528 million federal loan and was touted by the Obama administration as a “green jobs” creator, filed for bankruptcy court protection. A Massachusetts company, Beacon Power, has since blamed its bankruptcy filing on the political fallout from Solyndra’s failure.

    Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/energy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111220/ap_on_bi_ge/us_google_solar_investment

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  • Mexico City closes vast trash dump (AP)

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    December 23, 2011 /  hey there

    MEXICO CITY ? Mexico City will close one of the world’s largest dumps by Dec. 31 and will instead turn the garbage from millions of people into reusable materials and energy, Mayor Marcelo Ebrard announced Monday.

    Some 700 trucks that carry garbage to the Bordo Poniente will no longer be admitted as of Monday and all operations will cease by the end of the year, Ebrard said.

    Trucks will still enter the recycling separation plant and a composting plant already on the premises.

    The city that once dumped 12,700 tons of garbage daily already has cut the amount in half this year through recycling and composting, said government undersecretary Juan Jose Garcia Ochoa.

    The concrete giant Cemex SAB has agree to buy 3,000 tons daily to turn into energy, Garcia said. The city is seeking other locations to dump the remaining garbage in smaller amounts while it institutes a new recycling program in the new year.

    Built on a dry lake bed partly to handle the rubble from the devastating 1985 earthquake, Bordo Poniente has taken in more than 76 million tons of trash.

    Ebrard said the city is implementing strict measures to stop illegal dumping at the site and to process materials into compost.

    He also said the city plans to open a new plant next year to recycle construction waste into building material.

    The capital of Mexico itself has about 8.8 million residents but its metropolitan area holds more than 20 million.

    Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/latam/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111219/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_landfill_closing

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  • Don’t take Braun’s MVP award

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    December 15, 2011 /  hey there

    You figured someone would say this. That someone is Fox?s Jon Paul Morosi, who makes the argument that the BBWAA should be allowed to re-vote the NL MVP award if Ryan Braun?s positive test for testosterone is upheld on appeal.

    At the outset, it?s worth noting that the BBWAA has no intention whatsoever of doing this. It?s not the official position of the organization. It?s simply Morosi?s personal view. So let?s take a look at that view.

    The leading premise ? really the only premise ? of the argument is that he doesn?t want the sports writers to feel like schmucks:

    The BBWAA awards ? MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year and Manager of the Year ? are the most significant individual honors in North American professional sports. They have more permanence, and inspire greater debates, than similar honors in the NFL, NBA and NHL. And the voters should be able to say their process was just.?Ultimately, it is up to us ? the writers. They are?our?awards. We vote on them. We present them to the players. We have license to determine the procedure by which winners are determined.

    He basically says ?oh those poor sportswriters who didn?t know Braun may have been taking banned substances deserve another chance.? ?But he acknowledges that the positive test allegedly came after the season was over and the voting was all done, so how exactly were the writers hoodwinked?

    Morosi goes on to note that the BBWAA didn?t go back and change the votes for when Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Alex Rodriguez and others won postseason awards. The distinction: that was a long time ago and the voting for Braun was recent. It?s unclear what the cutoff is supposed to be. A year? Three years? When the writers stop feeling hurt? I think that might be it, actually.

    Morosi is allowed to feel however he feels about this. But it?s pretty clear that this is about just that ? feeling ? and not about some objective idea of justice and propriety when it comes to postseason awards. This is about throwing out all of the presents your boyfriend bought you two days after the breakup.

    And because of that it?s just the latest reason why I?m coming around to the idea that the sportswriters shouldn?t be in the business of handing out these awards in the first place. There?s too much narrative and emotion read into it. And it really doesn?t have a place.

    Ryan Braun was the NL MVP. It happened and it?s history and if it came at a time when he was using banned substances, then that?s part of the history too. The sports writers should then do what they do best: place that history in context and tell the stories to readers. ?Not act like this has anything to do with them.

    Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/12/12/no-you-dont-re-vote-the-mvp-award-in-light-of-ryan-brauns-positive-test/related/

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