[Top News] from [REUTERS]
[Green Business]
European companies ahead of U.S. on carbon disclosure
Mon Sep 21, 2009 1:11am EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters) - European companies outnumbered North American companies on a list of how well global corporations were disclosing their emissions of greenhouse gasses and plans to guard themselves against financial risks associated with climate change, a survey showed on Monday.
European companies had seven companies in the Carbon Disclosure Project's (CDP) list of top 12 global climate performers. Oil company Royal Dutch Shell, the reinsurer group Swiss Re, and phone maker Nokia Group were some of the seven on the list.
North American companies had five on the list, including jet maker Boeing Co, power utility Consolidated Edison, and top U.S. network equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc.
"European countries do score highly. Of course, they are subject to a lot more regulation on greenhouse gases so they are more advanced than other places in terms of being able to report complete data," Zoe Riddell, who produces the annual CDP report, said ahead of its release.
The European Union has had mandatory greenhouse emissions caps since 2005, while the United States, the world's second biggest greenhouse gas polluter after China, has no federal limits on the gases blamed for warming the planet.
The CDP asks 500 global companies on behalf of institutional investors to measure and report their emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for warming the planet. It also asks them to assess how climate change would affect their future financial health.
The global response rose this year to 82 percent up from 77 percent last year. The CDP also surveys 500 of the top companies traded in the United States. Of those, 66 percent responded to the 2009 survey, a gain of 2 percentage points from last year.
The U.S. House passed a climate bill in June and Democratic leaders in the Senate hope to pass their version of the legislation later this year. The future of that bill is uncertain.
Companies were listed alphabetically and not in order of finish.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by David Gregorio)
[Green Business]
Silicon Valley reinvents the lowly brick
Mon Sep 21, 2009 3:07pm EDT
By David Lawsky
NEWARK, California (Reuters) - Forget microchips.
Silicon Valley sees a profitable future in the humble brick thanks to a low-energy production process that illustrates the greening of the U.S. technology capital.
Brick maker Calstar Products is heavy on PhDs and backed by venture capitalists whose vision is to create buildings less expensively and in a way that saves energy.
"We think it is time for a second industrial revolution," said Paul Holland, a partner at Foundation Capital, which invested $7 million in Calstar. EnerTech Capital led another round that raised $8 million for the business.
"We and dozens of others are trying to create green alternatives for all the things that happen in the building industry," Holland said.
Currently about 40 percent of U.S. energy use goes toward the heating, cooling and general operation of buildings.
Silicon Valley is finding high-tech ways to make age-old materials, pursuing carbon dioxide-eating concrete, windows that insulate better than walls, and wood substitutes.
The field is still new. Venture investments in green buildings have waxed and waned with the recession, but involved 45 deals worth about $350 million the past year, according to Cleantech Group LLC.
3,000-YEAR WAIT
Bricks have been made pretty much the same way for 3,000 years, until Calstar's scientists came up with their new technique, said Chief Executive Michael Kane.
Ordinary bricks are fired for 24 hours at 2,000 degrees F (1,093 C) as part of a process that can last a week, while Calstar bricks are baked at temperatures below 212 F (100 C) and take only 10 hours from start to finish, Kane said.
The recipe incorporates large amounts of fly ash -- a fluffy, powdery residue of burned coal at electric plants, that can otherwise wind up as a troublesome pollutant.
"Ours is a precise product" that relies on getting the chemistry right, said Amitabha Kumar, Calstar's director of research and development.
The process of making the bricks, which look and feel like any other brick, requires 80 to 90 percent less energy and emits 85 percent less greenhouse gas than ordinary bricks, according to Calstar.
Lower energy costs mean higher profit, allowing the company to pay for its research and compete against large companies that have economies of scale. The new bricks -- which the Brick Industry Association says are not actually bricks -- will sell for the same price as traditional clay-based ones. The Brick Industry Association says there is also no proof that products using fly ash will last as well as traditional brick.
BRICKS FOR CHINA?
The low-carbon footprint in the production process also gives the bricks a strong environmental cachet, and Calstar is targeting the "green materials" market with the goal of competing against traditional clay brick makers like Glen-Gery of Pennsylvania and Endicott of Nebraska.
The company's headquarters and research facility is based in a warehouse on the shores of San Francisco Bay but its first plant is under construction in Caledonia, Wisconsin, the heartland of brick-using country. It is near a Wisconsin Energy Corp plant that can supply calcium-rich fly ash.
The plant is to be running before year's end. At first, the company will make only "facing brick," used on the outside of buildings, a $2 billion annual U.S. market. It plans to branch out into paving stones, roofing tile and other brick markets.
The company has signed 16 distributors to sell 12 million or more bricks the first year, and plans to make 100 million bricks for sale throughout the Midwest and South, Kane said.
After that, fast-growing markets like China beckon.
(Reporting by David Lawsky, editing by Matthew Lewis)
[Green Business]
Applied Materials sees solar unit profit in 2010
Mon Sep 21, 2009 3:24pm EDT
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Applied Materials Inc said on Monday it plans to improve efficiency to cut the cost of producing solar panels below $1 per watt in three years and is on track to post profits at its environmental unit next year.
The world's largest producer of chipmaking gear also said it is seeing "substantial progress in the global industrialization of the solar industry."
"We continue to make progress in every aspect of the SunFab lines and are well on our way to delivering 10 percent efficient SunFab panels and $1 per watt production costs in 2010," said Mark Pinto, chief technology officer and general manager of Applied's Energy and Environmental Solutions group, which includes solar.
Pinto, whose remarks at an industry conference in Germany were released to the media, also laid out plans for SunFab panels with 12 percent conversion efficiency and module costs below 70 cents per watt by 2012.
Conversion efficiency is the amount of sunlight that can be turned into electricity.
Applied Materials is relying on its solar equipment arm to bolster sales and growth as its traditional chip business falters.
Applied Materials's SunFab line of equipment anchors the thin-film photovoltaic portion of its business. Thin-film equipment, a crucial segment of the burgeoning solar equipment market, has been walloped by tightening credit and cutbacks in some government subsidies.
Thin-film panels are less efficient than crystalline at converting sunlight into electricity but are typically cheaper to manufacture because they use less silicon.
In an update on its overall solar and environmental services unit, Applied Materials said it expects the business to lead to increasing revenue and profitability as the global economy recovers and governments around the world look to technologies like photovoltaic solar panels and energy-efficient glass to help produce and conserve energy.
The company said its crystalline silicon business is already generating positive returns and the Energy and Environmental Solutions segment is on track to operating profitability in 2010, excluding charges.
Applied Materials, which has registered three consecutive quarters of losses, posted sharply narrower losses for its third fiscal quarter.
Last week Applied Materials shuffled several senior management positions, including naming Pinto to head its solar unit while he remains the company's chief technology officer.
J.P. Morgan analyst Christopher Blansett said in a note to clients that the changes in management are not likely to affect the company's semiconductor equipment business in the short term.
"What we are concerned about in general is what appears to be a continuing change in the leadership of AMAT's solar business," Blansett wrote.
"This division has undergone a number of changes over the past few years, which is generally not a good environment for fostering stability," the analyst added.
Applied Materials shares were down 33 cents or 2.5 percent at $12.70 in afternoon Nasdaq trading.
(Reporting by Poornima Gupta, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)
[Green Business]
European companies ahead of U.S. on carbon disclosure
Mon Sep 21, 2009 1:11am EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters) - European companies outnumbered North American companies on a list of how well global corporations were disclosing their emissions of greenhouse gasses and plans to guard themselves against financial risks associated with climate change, a survey showed on Monday.
European companies had seven companies in the Carbon Disclosure Project's (CDP) list of top 12 global climate performers. Oil company Royal Dutch Shell, the reinsurer group Swiss Re, and phone maker Nokia Group were some of the seven on the list.
North American companies had five on the list, including jet maker Boeing Co, power utility Consolidated Edison, and top U.S. network equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc.
"European countries do score highly. Of course, they are subject to a lot more regulation on greenhouse gases so they are more advanced than other places in terms of being able to report complete data," Zoe Riddell, who produces the annual CDP report, said ahead of its release.
The European Union has had mandatory greenhouse emissions caps since 2005, while the United States, the world's second biggest greenhouse gas polluter after China, has no federal limits on the gases blamed for warming the planet.
The CDP asks 500 global companies on behalf of institutional investors to measure and report their emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for warming the planet. It also asks them to assess how climate change would affect their future financial health.
The global response rose this year to 82 percent up from 77 percent last year. The CDP also surveys 500 of the top companies traded in the United States. Of those, 66 percent responded to the 2009 survey, a gain of 2 percentage points from last year.
The U.S. House passed a climate bill in June and Democratic leaders in the Senate hope to pass their version of the legislation later this year. The future of that bill is uncertain.
Companies were listed alphabetically and not in order of finish.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by David Gregorio)
[Green Business]
Silicon Valley reinvents the lowly brick
Mon Sep 21, 2009 3:07pm EDT
By David Lawsky
NEWARK, California (Reuters) - Forget microchips.
Silicon Valley sees a profitable future in the humble brick thanks to a low-energy production process that illustrates the greening of the U.S. technology capital.
Brick maker Calstar Products is heavy on PhDs and backed by venture capitalists whose vision is to create buildings less expensively and in a way that saves energy.
"We think it is time for a second industrial revolution," said Paul Holland, a partner at Foundation Capital, which invested $7 million in Calstar. EnerTech Capital led another round that raised $8 million for the business.
"We and dozens of others are trying to create green alternatives for all the things that happen in the building industry," Holland said.
Currently about 40 percent of U.S. energy use goes toward the heating, cooling and general operation of buildings.
Silicon Valley is finding high-tech ways to make age-old materials, pursuing carbon dioxide-eating concrete, windows that insulate better than walls, and wood substitutes.
The field is still new. Venture investments in green buildings have waxed and waned with the recession, but involved 45 deals worth about $350 million the past year, according to Cleantech Group LLC.
3,000-YEAR WAIT
Bricks have been made pretty much the same way for 3,000 years, until Calstar's scientists came up with their new technique, said Chief Executive Michael Kane.
Ordinary bricks are fired for 24 hours at 2,000 degrees F (1,093 C) as part of a process that can last a week, while Calstar bricks are baked at temperatures below 212 F (100 C) and take only 10 hours from start to finish, Kane said.
The recipe incorporates large amounts of fly ash -- a fluffy, powdery residue of burned coal at electric plants, that can otherwise wind up as a troublesome pollutant.
"Ours is a precise product" that relies on getting the chemistry right, said Amitabha Kumar, Calstar's director of research and development.
The process of making the bricks, which look and feel like any other brick, requires 80 to 90 percent less energy and emits 85 percent less greenhouse gas than ordinary bricks, according to Calstar.
Lower energy costs mean higher profit, allowing the company to pay for its research and compete against large companies that have economies of scale. The new bricks -- which the Brick Industry Association says are not actually bricks -- will sell for the same price as traditional clay-based ones. The Brick Industry Association says there is also no proof that products using fly ash will last as well as traditional brick.
BRICKS FOR CHINA?
The low-carbon footprint in the production process also gives the bricks a strong environmental cachet, and Calstar is targeting the "green materials" market with the goal of competing against traditional clay brick makers like Glen-Gery of Pennsylvania and Endicott of Nebraska.
The company's headquarters and research facility is based in a warehouse on the shores of San Francisco Bay but its first plant is under construction in Caledonia, Wisconsin, the heartland of brick-using country. It is near a Wisconsin Energy Corp plant that can supply calcium-rich fly ash.
The plant is to be running before year's end. At first, the company will make only "facing brick," used on the outside of buildings, a $2 billion annual U.S. market. It plans to branch out into paving stones, roofing tile and other brick markets.
The company has signed 16 distributors to sell 12 million or more bricks the first year, and plans to make 100 million bricks for sale throughout the Midwest and South, Kane said.
After that, fast-growing markets like China beckon.
(Reporting by David Lawsky, editing by Matthew Lewis)
[Green Business]
Applied Materials sees solar unit profit in 2010
Mon Sep 21, 2009 3:24pm EDT
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Applied Materials Inc said on Monday it plans to improve efficiency to cut the cost of producing solar panels below $1 per watt in three years and is on track to post profits at its environmental unit next year.
The world's largest producer of chipmaking gear also said it is seeing "substantial progress in the global industrialization of the solar industry."
"We continue to make progress in every aspect of the SunFab lines and are well on our way to delivering 10 percent efficient SunFab panels and $1 per watt production costs in 2010," said Mark Pinto, chief technology officer and general manager of Applied's Energy and Environmental Solutions group, which includes solar.
Pinto, whose remarks at an industry conference in Germany were released to the media, also laid out plans for SunFab panels with 12 percent conversion efficiency and module costs below 70 cents per watt by 2012.
Conversion efficiency is the amount of sunlight that can be turned into electricity.
Applied Materials is relying on its solar equipment arm to bolster sales and growth as its traditional chip business falters.
Applied Materials's SunFab line of equipment anchors the thin-film photovoltaic portion of its business. Thin-film equipment, a crucial segment of the burgeoning solar equipment market, has been walloped by tightening credit and cutbacks in some government subsidies.
Thin-film panels are less efficient than crystalline at converting sunlight into electricity but are typically cheaper to manufacture because they use less silicon.
In an update on its overall solar and environmental services unit, Applied Materials said it expects the business to lead to increasing revenue and profitability as the global economy recovers and governments around the world look to technologies like photovoltaic solar panels and energy-efficient glass to help produce and conserve energy.
The company said its crystalline silicon business is already generating positive returns and the Energy and Environmental Solutions segment is on track to operating profitability in 2010, excluding charges.
Applied Materials, which has registered three consecutive quarters of losses, posted sharply narrower losses for its third fiscal quarter.
Last week Applied Materials shuffled several senior management positions, including naming Pinto to head its solar unit while he remains the company's chief technology officer.
J.P. Morgan analyst Christopher Blansett said in a note to clients that the changes in management are not likely to affect the company's semiconductor equipment business in the short term.
"What we are concerned about in general is what appears to be a continuing change in the leadership of AMAT's solar business," Blansett wrote.
"This division has undergone a number of changes over the past few years, which is generally not a good environment for fostering stability," the analyst added.
Applied Materials shares were down 33 cents or 2.5 percent at $12.70 in afternoon Nasdaq trading.
(Reporting by Poornima Gupta, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)
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