28-Apr-04 10:25 MCEL Millennium Cell selected for DoE funding (2.77 +0.35) -- Update -- Co has been chosen to receive a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under the Hydrogen Storage Grand Challenge. Announced yesterday by Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham, as part of President Bush's Hydrogen Research Initiative, Millennium Cell will participate with Los Alamos National Lab, Pacific Northwest National Lab, and other industry and academic partners to advance the research on chemical hydrides as a fuel for fuel cells. Funding in this effort is anticipated at up to $ 30 million, to be split among the participating organizations over the 5-year period.
If Bush is behind it you can be sure it will maintain the status quo by only looking at "oily" hydrogen sources. Am I wrong?
No but ESLR is one of the bigger players. They can't exactly compete on a scale basis to Sharp and BP. But the for the smaller companies, they are the top right now. AstroPower went out of business, which used to be one of their competitors. They cannot get profitable due to lack of supply of materials. Solar panels are in very high demand now but the supply is limited. Also, Alternative energy is still subsidized by the state government for the most part. However, the solar panel costs have come down drastically without the government support. I have a very good friend who is in the solar panel instalation business so I get a goo dinsight from a B2B perspective. What I see is that alternative energy is just a matter of time. I picked Evergreen because it's most solid and also because it is rare when you find a company that has so much demand that it has problems fulfilling it.
The whole "hydrogen initiative" seems little more than a misdirection. Smoke and mirrors with minimal funding to give the appearance of looking at alternatives to conventional systems and fuels. Wide spread use of hydrogen cars are both logistically impractical (the needed infrastructural changes are estimated taking over a decade and potentially hundreds of billions of dollars) and their environmental impact is still an open issue (e.g., water vapor is the most prevalent "green house gas" and how would millions of cars pumping out huge quantities of water vapor into the atmosphere change weather patterns). If they were really interested in reducing dependence on oil, they'd be drastically upping vehicle fuel efficiency requirements (instead of allowing Detroit to slack to 40 year lows), close the loopholes that allow big honking SUVs and trucks to avoid even the minimalist efficiency requirements, and accelerate development of ultra-high efficiency hybrid technology. You don't have to be one of the fringe whacko greenies to recognize that decades of technological advancement in vehicle propulsion systems has been wasted by the US because the auto and oil industries want to delay change as long as possible and they're able to buy support in Washington (neither party can claim the high ground here - scratch a Rep or a Dem and you'll find a greedy bastard more than happy to sell out in order to keep their cushy jobs).
The whole "hydrogen initiative" seems little more than a misdirection. Smoke and mirrors with minimal funding to give the appearance of looking at alternatives to conventional systems and fuels. I ALSO HAVE THAT CONSPIRACY IN THE BACK OF MY HEAD. AFTER ALL, IF BUSH IS WILLING TO RISK HIS RE-ELECTION OVER OIL WARS, HE SURE ISN'T GOING TO PUT MONEY TOWARDS A TECH THAT COULD DESTROY HIS OIL INTERESTS. JUST LIKE HIS PRESERVATION OF WETLANDS TO LOOK GOOD FOR THOSE REPUBS THAT ARE GREEN CONSCIOUS. Wide spread use of hydrogen cars are both logistically impractical (the needed infrastructural changes are estimated taking over a decade and potentially hundreds of billions of dollars) and their environmental impact is still an open issue (e.g., water vapor is the most prevalent "green house gas" and how would millions of cars pumping out huge quantities of water vapor into the atmosphere change weather patterns). SO I'VE HEARD. If they were really interested in reducing dependence on oil, they'd be drastically upping vehicle fuel efficiency requirements (instead of allowing Detroit to slack to 40 year lows), close the loopholes that allow big honking SUVs and trucks to avoid even the minimalist efficiency requirements, and accelerate development of ultra-high efficiency hybrid technology. YES. You don't have to be one of the fringe whacko greenies to recognize that decades of technological advancement in vehicle propulsion systems has been wasted by the US because the auto and oil industries want to delay change as long as possible and they're able to buy support in Washington (neither party can claim the high ground here - scratch a Rep or a Dem and you'll find a greedy bastard more than happy to sell out in order to keep their cushy jobs). WELL SAID, THE FUTURE OF THE ENVIRONMENT IS IN THE INTEREST OF EVERY LIVING CREATURE. ONE DOESN'T HAVE TO BE A TREE HUGGER OR AN OIL MOGUL TO REALIZE THAT INVESTING IN EFFICIENT USE OF THE EARTH IS GOOD FOR BUSINESS AND EXISTENCE. TO REALIZE THIS YOU JUST HAVE TO HAVE AN IQ OVER 100. I'M INTERESTED IN ALTERNATIVES TO FOSSIL FUELS, SUCH AS CORN OIL OR SOME OTHER TYPE OF OIL USED IN conjunction WITH AN ELECTRICAL SYSTEM: hybrid ENGINES.
Here is an informative website on renewable energy stocks. http://www.renewableenergystocks.com/Companies/RenewableEnergy/ECONRenewableEnergy.asp
Check out QTWW. It looks like they have some valid research going on with the State of California. This is informative only, not a recommendation to buy. Louie
I do not know the exact specifics since I do not have the tons of books and files that my friend does. But the bottom line is that the raw material demand to make solar panels has skyrocketed in the last few years. It was unexpected by both ESLR, BP, Sharp as well as the raw material suppliers. Solar panels are high end high tech products. You cannot just pump them out like cheap little toys and the core parts are somewhat rare. Originally, solar power was viewed as a hippy fad for the Southwest. However, with government subsidies and rising energy costs, more and more people are getting solar panels. Just look at San Diego and California. In Arizona, there are self sufficient houses already. A year or two ago, NJ passed a 50% rebate program for the solar installations for homes and businesses. The demand was absurd. My friend cannot get enough supply to meet the demand. Meanwhile, companies like ESLR who could barely meet the previous demand, cannot hand this new influx. They get to pick and choose their clients since they cannot supply them all. Clients are upbidding the prices for the panels. If you want more info, research solar panels themselves and also read through some of the ESLR news reports. They constantly refer to the inventory issue as being a major hinderance. Regarding a big wholesome alternative energy players, I would look no further than British Petroleum. But it's too overpriced IMHO. I already did an options play with that company. Long term investment hold, BP makes sense unless they start screwing up.
does anyone really think that OPEC will let alternate energy take market share from them? OPEC can bury the Hydrogen and solar economy with one turn of the crank..... The true suckers are the taxpayers that subsidize this stuff and the government that doles out millions in research grants. Hydrogen production is primarily from the steam reformation of natural gas (currently in shortage) and is very thermodynamically unfavorable in that about 30% of the energy is heat loss in the production process. but who cares, it gets people elected to office.