UK Cleantech Sector Gets £18 million

Start-ups and growth companies in the cleantech sector are getting additional investment funds made available through the Carbon Trust. The government has announced an extra £18 million for the Carbon Trust's venture capital arm to make direct equity or equity-related investments in companies helping the UK move towards a lower-carbon economy.

Lord Monckton on Al Gore's 'Green' Business Interests

After rubbishing the AGW theory, Lord Chris then lays in to Al Gore, describing him as a "failed presidential candidate, not a particularly distinguished vice-president... he's an arrogant little so-and-so, he's not a nice man." He follows up with strong words about Gore's London-based Generation Investment Management company and those associated with it.

A must see video!

NB: This is part III of a full hour talk show on Canadian TV hosted by Michael Coren.

Green Fuels Sector - Company Focus - Alkane Energy plc

Operating in the Clean-tech green fuels sector Alkane Energy plc, the owner and operator of ‘gas-to-power’ plants, continues to grow steadily and has honed its strategic focus in recent years.

The group sources its gas from coal mine methane (CMM), which is extracted from abandoned collieries. Alkane gains onshore gas licences and exploits these gas reserves by selling directly to customers or generating electricity which it then sells via the electricity distribution network.

The company posted interim results in September, reporting a 9 per cent rise in interim revenues to £2.85m ($4.69m) for the first half. Pre-tax profits fell from £1m to £420,000, but earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation increased from £1.1m to £1.4m. Disposal of its German operations were expected to net around £6.6m. Projects commissioned and under construction were set to take the company to 31MW of capacity.

More Information:

SADIF Analytics issued a summary due diligence report on Alkane in October 2009 which was mostly negative and called the stocks over-valued.

Investors Chronicle analysed the interim figures in September 2009 saying that the results 'were better than they looked.'

Growth Company Investor reported on Alkane in March 2009, marking it down as a recommended buy.

Technological Fixes for the Environment are Evil!

Brian Micklethwait commenting on an article by Dominic Lawson in the Independent newspaper.

About two decades ago, I gave a talk to an audience that included some devout environmentalists. In one of my answers to one of these persons, I said that if a technological fix could be found for, say, the hole in the ozone layer (a big topic in those days), by e.g. sending a rocket up into the hole and shovelling ozone out into the hole, thereby mending it, that would mean that we could be a little more relaxed about causing the hole to get big in the first place. In general, I argued, technologically fixable problems are less of a worry than technologically unfixable ones.

It was if I had said that, on account of a new kind of metal cleaner recently invented, it had become less of a problem if people broke into churches and pissed on crucifixes. It was, I was told in shocked tones, the very idea that problems could be solved with technology that was at the heart of the evil that humanity was facing.

Read the rest here at Samizdata.

Solar Panels to Power E-book Readers

IDG News Service, via PC World, are reporting on a prototype solar panel extension for e-book readers - in this case attached to a Sony Reader electronic book. It is on show at the International Meeting on Information Display (IMID) running in Seoul.

The panel is 10 centimeters in width and length, less than a millimeter thick and weighs just 20 grams. Exposure to sunlight for four to five hours would provide enough power to run the e-book reader for a day.

The solar panel used in the prototype has an efficiency of 9.6 percent and LG is aiming to increase this to 12 percent next year and 14 percent by 2012 - at which time it should be ready for commercialisation.

Fracking Adds 60 Years to Proven Natural Gas Reserves

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in the Daily Telegraph reports on The World Gas Conference in Buenos Aires last week, noting that:

...advances in technology for extracting gas from shale and methane beds have quickened dramatically, altering the global balance of energy faster than almost anybody expected.

Read all about it here.

Environmentalism or Individualism?

Here we are linking to the ecoNOT.com manifesto published in 2003 and written by Robert James Bidinotto - an award-winning writer who reports on cultural and political issues from the philosophic perspective of principled individualism. During the past fifteen years he has established a reputation as one of the leading opponents and critics of environmentalism.

(...) we don't live in a mythical Eden. We live on a planet where the struggle to survive is an implacable fact of nature. And those of us who do wish to survive--and thrive--can no longer afford to remain on the moral defensive. We can no longer afford to remain agnostic and mute about the philosophical issues at the root of the attacks on our lives and livelihoods. We can't expect to rally public support against the environmentalists if we fail to challenge, openly and unapologetically, the moral assumptions underlying their efforts.

We encourage you to read it all.