Cheap solar? Texan house aims low to win contest

HOUSTON (Reuters) – A solar-powered house built by a group of Texas students offers a blueprint for recession-hit U.S. families to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions and their electricity bills without busting their budget.

The Zerow House, built by students at Rice University in Houston, will compete against other solar homes in Washington D.C. in October as part of the Solar Decathlon sponsored by the U.S. Energy Department.

But unlike some of its competitors, which are integrating high-concept, high-price features like tricked-out home entertainment systems and moving solar arrays that track the sun, the Rice team’s aim is affordability.

Adobe to buy Omniture for $1.8 billion

BOSTON/SEATTLE (Reuters) – Adobe Systems Inc plans to pay $1.8 billion for fast-growing business software maker Omniture Inc as the maker of Photoshop and Acrobat looks to turn around declining sales.

Adobe, which announced the deal on Tuesday as it reported lower quarterly sales and profit, has been struggling over the past year as the recession hurt technology spending and customers declined to upgrade older versions of its programs.

The acquisition would give Adobe a new stream of revenue to offset that decline. Omniture charges customers fees based on monthly website traffic, so sales are less sensitive to economic swings than Adobe.

Google plans new mirror for cheaper solar power

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Google Inc is disappointed with the lack of breakthrough investment ideas in the green technology sector but the company is working to develop its own new mirror technology that could reduce the cost of building solar thermal plants by a quarter or more.

“We’ve been looking at very unusual materials for the mirrors both for the reflective surface as well as the substrate that the mirror is mounted on,” the company’s green energy czar Bill Weihl told Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit in San Francisco on Wednesday.

Google, known for its Internet search engine, in late 2007 said it would invest in companies and do research of its own to produce affordable renewable energy within a few years.

Ten Bubbles in the Making

One year after America’s brush with economic catastrophe, there’s plenty of looking back at the bubbles that caused financial chaos.

But what’s next?

There are surely dangerous economic bubbles forming as we speak. As Alan Greenspan warned this week, “They [financial crises] are all different, but they have one fundamental source,” he said. “That is the unquenchable capability of human beings when confronted with long periods of prosperity to presume that it will continue.”

The trick, of course, is spotting them. By definition, most people don’t spot a bubble before they form and burst.

Google Apps a hit in the classroom

Years ago, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) helped secure its niche in the personal computer world by targeting the classroom. Many people who learned on the Apple II are among its most loyal fans today.

Google is making huge inroads following the same path, as its Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Apps Education Edition has been adopted by more and more schools. It now claims that 5 million students are Googling in the classroom. If 5 million young people become accustomed to a gmail account, Google word processing, Google spreadsheets, the ability to create their own free websites, and to share video, this could lay the foundation for a lifetime of profits for the company.

China, U.S. to dominate solar market

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The United States and China are in a head-to-head race to become the world’s top market for solar power, and panel makers are wasting no time making plans to cash in on the growth promise of both markets despite the global recession.

At the Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit this week, Chinese and U.S. solar companies including Suntech Power Holdings Co Ltd, SunPower Corp, Trina Solar Ltd and BrightSource Energy Inc laid out plans to capture their share of what is expected to be explosive demand for solar-generated electricity in the world’s biggest and third biggest economies.

The U.S. and China lag far behind Europe in demand for solar power, but are expected to vault ahead in the next few years as both nation’s work to curb their emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.

Kraft plays down talk of higher Cadbury bid

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Kraft (KFT.N) played down speculation on Tuesday that it would be prepared to raise its offer for Cadbury PLC (CBRY.L), after the British chocolate company rejected its 10.2 billion pound ($16.7 billion) offer.

Cadbury shares have climbed 38 percent in the past two days on talk that the American packaged food company would be prepared to increase its bid for Cadbury, and that there could be a bidding war with rivals such as Hershey Co (HSY.N) or Nestle (NESN.VX).

Seven dividend elites: 100 years of dividends

“While companies have been cutting dividends at an historic pace over the last 24 months, the fact is that there are still quality companies with long histories of paying dividends that represent good long-term investments,” says Chuck Carlson, a specialist in companies offering dividend reinvestment plans.

In his top-notch The DRIP Investor he says, “The seven stocks featured here have each been paying a dividend for over 100 years, have raised their dividend annually for at least the last quarter century and offer direct-purchase plans.

First Solar Sell-Off Is Overdone

Competition – as I used to say to my sales force – has a way of keeping competitors honest. The real beneficiary of a healthy business duel, however, is the customer. Particularly when the competition gets down to price.

Nowhere is that more apparent right now than in the solar energy industry. Over the past few weeks, solar panel and module prices have been dropping through the floor. The reason can be summed up in just one word: China.

Executing a strategy not unlike the Japanese car companies did back in the 1970’s and 1980’s, Chinese solar panel manufacturers are selling solar panels for less than it costs to make them.

No floor in sight for natural gas; prices plunge

NEW YORK (AP) — Natural gas prices tumbled again Thursday, hitting new seven-year lows after the government reported more supplies were put into storage as the entire country pares down on energy usage.

That will mean huge savings for a lot of people this winter when the heating bill arrives.

On Monday, Spokane, Wash.-based utility Avista Corp. said it wants to reduce natural gas prices for its Oregon customers to the lowest levels in five years. And in the Midwest, Alliant Energy Corp. and Wisconsin Public Service Corp. both predicted heating bills would drop around 20 percent.

“Any savings we get, they get,” Alliant spokesman Scott Drzycimski said.