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.

A quest for low-emission energy sources and looming first-ever U.S. regulations on carbon dioxide emissions have sparked renewed interest in solar power, which until recent years has been in an extended infancy in the United States since it was invented in 1954 by Bell Labs.

“This competition is for showing the public that solar energy is here now and applicable to housing,” said Roque Sanchez, a Rice graduate student. “We’re taking a house that any family could live in and any family could afford and adding solar to it.”

In fact, Rice plans to donate the home to a low-income Houston family after the competition.

The house, about the size of a New York-style efficiency apartment, is a case study in frugality, and could easily be built in Houston for about $100,000, Sanchez said.

Its exterior has a no-nonsense, low-maintenance metal skin meant to bear up against the Gulf Coast region’s hurricane-force winds, and a lattice of vines hangs off the front to shield it from the brutal Texas sun.

Inside, it sports off-the-shelf, affordable appliances and cabinetry from stores like Ikea and Home Depot.

TEXAS VS. GERMANY

Thanks to strong government incentives, Germany is the world’s biggest solar market and is expected to remain so until 2013, when the United States will become its equal. China will be slightly behind, according to research firm Lux Research.

The growing market will be a boon for companies like Suntech Power Holdings Co Ltd and SunPower Corp, that make solar panels. The U.S. solar market could triple in 2010 from about 350 megawatts this year, Suntech said.

Rice’s entry is in contrast to other entries, like Team Germany from Technische Universitat Darmstadt whose aim is to “push the envelope with as many new technologies as possible,” according to the contest’s website.

Team Germany, which won top honors in the last contest in 2007, is fielding a modernistic, two-story cube covered with solar cells that can generate 11.1 kilowatts of power — nearly three times the capacity of the Rice house.

But Sanchez said such high-tech houses miss the goal of making solar technology affordable to Main Street because they cost roughly five times as much as the Rice design.

“We’ve seen teams with half a million-euro houses,” he said. “For something that’s 500 square feet that’s absolutely ridiculous.”

That’s not to say that Rice’s home is low-tech.

Its interior is lit by light-emitting diode strips that collectively use less energy than two standard 100-watt bulbs, and its “smart meter” technology enables residents to sell spare energy from its solar cells back to the local utility, and monitor their energy usage on the Internet.

http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE58F45520090916?sp=true

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.

“There is no way Adobe can grow organically. This is a smart move,” said Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry.

Advertising agencies and companies use Omniture’s software to analyze how consumers use websites. It is the biggest provider of such services, competing with Google Inc and other smaller players. The vast majority of all professional websites are built with Adobe’s Creative Suite line of design software.

Janney Montgomery Scott analyst Sasa Zorovic said Adobe’s customers will not necessarily choose to subscribe to Omniture’s services simply because its technology is embedded into Creative Suite.

“It will require some selling, but I think the opportunity is there,” he said.

Adobe, whose software competes with products from Microsoft Corp and Apple Inc, agreed to pay $21.50 per share in cash for Omniture, a 24 percent premium over Omniture’s closing price on Tuesday.

Omniture shares soared 25 percent to $21.74 in after-hours trading, while Adobe shares slid 4.5 percent to $34.06.

The deal would be Adobe’s second-largest acquisition after its $3.4 billion purchase of Macromedia in December 2005.

Omniture would become a unit of Adobe, headed by its current chief executive, Josh James. Adobe said the deal should close in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 and would add to Adobe’s per-share earnings in fiscal 2010.

Adobe said it would be paid a fee of $64 million by Omniture if the deal is terminated, according to a regulatory filing.

Adobe also reported on Tuesday that fiscal third-quarter earnings, excluding items, fell to 35 cents per share from 50 cents per share a year ago. That beat Wall Street’s average forecast by a penny, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Second-quarter sales fell 21 percent to $697.5 million, but beat analysts’ average forecast of $686.2 million. For the fiscal fourth quarter, not counting any effect of the Omniture deal, Adobe forecast revenue and earnings, excluding items broadly in line with analysts’ estimates.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE58E78320090915

“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.

The company’s engineers have been focused on solar thermal technology, in which the sun’s energy is used to heat up a substance that produces steam to turn a turbine. Mirrors focus the sun’s rays on the heated substance.

Weihl said Google is looking to cut the cost of making heliostats, the fields of mirrors that have to track the sun, by at least a factor of two, “ideally a factor of three or four.”

“Typically what we’re seeing is $2.50 to $4 a watt (for) capital cost,” Weihl said. “So a 250 megawatt installation would be $600 million to a $1 billion. It’s a lot of money.”

That works out to 12 to 18 cents a kilowatt hour.

Google hopes to have a viable technology to show internally in a couple of months, Weihl said. It will need to do accelerated testing to show the impact of decades of wear on the new mirrors in desert conditions.

“We’re not there yet,” he said. “I’m very hopeful we will have mirrors that are cheaper than what companies in the space are using…”

Another technology that Google is working on is gas turbines that would run on solar power rather than natural gas, an idea that has the potential of further cutting the cost of electricity, Weihl said.

“In two to three years we could be demonstrating a significant scale pilot system that would generate a lot of power and would be clearly mass manufacturable at a cost that would give us a levelized cost of electricity that would be in the 5 cents or sub 5 cents a kilowatt hour range,” Weihl said.

Google is invested in two solar thermal companies, eSolar and BrightSource, but is not working with these companies in developing the cheaper mirrors or turbines.

In wide-ranging remarks, Weihl also said the United States needs to raise government-backed research significantly, particularly in the very initial stages to encourage breakthrough ideas in the sector.

The company has pushed ahead in addressing climate change issues as a philanthropic effort through its Google.org arm. Weihl said there is a lack of companies that have ideas that would be considered breakthroughs in the green technology sector. After announcing its plans to create renewable energy at a price lower than power from coal, it has invested less than $50 million in other companies.

Weihl said Google had not intended to invest much more in early years, but that there was little to buy.

“I would say it’s reasonable to be a little bit discouraged there and from my point of view, it’s not right to be seriously discouraged,” he said. “There isn’t enough investment going into the early stages of investment pipeline before the venture funds come into the play.”

The U.S. government needs to provide more funds to develop ideas at the laboratory stage, he said.

“I’d like to see $20 billion or $30 billion for 10 years (for the sector),” Weihl said. “That would be fabulous. It’s pretty clear what we have seen isn’t enough.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE58867I20090911?sp=true

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.

Here’s 10 for which you should be on alert:

1. China bubble: Despite the weak global economy, the Chinese stock market has soared like crazy this year. But many believe the rally has been driven purely by government-supplied liquidity, rather than fundamentals. The fear is that companies are flush with cash, but have little “real” to do with the cash, so they’re parking it in the stock market casino. The Chinese real estate market appears to be on a similar trajectory.

2. Green bubble: Green has been everywhere. With observers saying the “Age of Cleantech and Biotech” will be the next major economic revolution, and Washington pouring billions of dollars into alternative energy projects, you’d think a bubble would have already formed. But, as we noted this spring, it did not, at least from an investment perspective.

Still, as the economic recovery takes shape, alternative energy could see excess investment on hopes of big future returns. There’s plenty of hype left, and if investors regain the cash to get in the game, could green become the next internet or housing bubble?

3. Gold bubble: Gold prices just keep going up. They’ve risen for seven straight years, recently breaking $1,000 per ounce.

Is it a bubble? Right now, it doesn’t look too bad. Gold is good in both inflationary and deflationary periods, as it holds wealth tangibly. And, as the Telegraph notes, there’s real demand, especially from China.

But with some predicting a doubling of prices to $2,000 an ounce, too many people could jump in and spike the real value of the precious metal. The “rise forever” mentality usually means trouble.

4. Federal Reserve bubble: Is the Fed saving the financial system or creating another dangerous credit bubble by snapping up mortgage-backed securities?

At first glance, the Fed’s effort to clean up mortgage-backed securities is a winner. But, as Heidi Moore wrote for Slate’s The Big Money, the Fed is actually creating a bubble similar to the one it’s trying to do damage control on. By eagerly trying to save banks and stabilize the housing market, Washington is taking on too much: $1.25 trillion of mortgaged-backed securities, including both the original toxic assets and products of foreclosures to come. So who would bail the Fed out? You.

Click here to view the 10 bubbles in the make slide show.

5. Trash stock bubble: There’s a rush to trash going on. Stocks like Fannie Mae (FNM), Freddie Mac (FRE), AIG (AIG) and even GM made big runs in August — trading in trash financials made up nearly one-third of NYSE’s August volume.

So why are people buying junk? Charlie Gasparino says shares of junk financials — companies like Fannie, Freddie, AIG, Citi and Bank of America — are being pushed up by a short squeeze. The Wall Street Journal suspects its high frequency traders. And others say its retail speculation and day traders getting their way while Wall Street went on vacation.

6. Education bubble: More people are going back to college and taking on huge debt to do it, despite questions about what the degree is really worth.

Last year, the amount borrowed by students and received by schools grew some 25% over the previous year, to $75.1 billion. That’s a huge amount, especially with weak, low-paying job prospects for graduates in this economy.

As we’ve noted, all this student loan debt is crazy. Despite the desire to see more subsidization of college, we suspect there will be a collapse in student loan debt availability and desire to take on new debt.

Short of telling kids not to go to college, something’s going to give.

The pop may be starting already. As Bloomberg reports, as many as one-third of all private colleges surveyed said they expected enrollment to drop in the next academic year. And almost 40 percent of those colleges said some of their students dropped out due to personal economic reasons and a quarter said full-time attendees switched to part time. Half said families had to cut back their expected contributions as the value of college savings plans dropped 21 percent last year.

7. Subprime bubble, 2.0: What are banks doing with all those subprime mortgages? They’re repackaging with a higher rating — “re-securitization of real estate mortgage investment conduits” — and selling them.

As we’ve noted, it’s a plan nearly identical to the complicated investment packages of the financial crisis a year ago. That being said, the problem was not strictly securitization, but the underlying housing bubble. So the return of complicated products isn’t necessarily the end of the world.

8. Life insurance securitization bubble: In its search for new profits, Wall Street is planning on securitizing “life settlements” — policies that the sick and elderly can sell for cash while they’re alive — much like it did subprime mortgages. The New York Times warns that we could be looking at subprime all over again.

Maybe. As we’ve noted, it wasn’t securitization that caused the financial meltdown. It was the bursting of the housing bubble. Yes, there was a feedback loop, whereby securitization allowed more money to flow towards housing, but it seems unlikely that “life settlements” would get big enough to infect all portions of the financial world.

9. Commercial real estate bubble: This bubble is already hissing, if not popping outright.

While the economy is improving and some home sales are slowly coming back, the commercial real estate market could get far worse.

As The New York Times reports, “Even though industry lobbyists were able to persuade Congress to extend a loan program aimed at prodding the stalled securitization market back to life, several analysts said it was unlikely to head off a spate of defaults, foreclosures and bankruptcies that could surpass the devastating real estate crash of the early 1990s.”

As UPI notes, commercial mortgage defaults could reach 4.1 percent by the end of the year, up from 2.25 percent in the first quarter, and Real Capital Analytics estimates commercial property loans worth $83 billion have been involved in default, foreclosure or bankruptcy in 2009.

Badly hit will likely be malls. “The next financial tsunami to hit will be the widespread failure of shopping center mortgages,” says Peter Monroe, co-chair of REOMAC, a not for profit trade association to CNBC. “Half a trillion dollars of commercial loans financed on historically low rates, are due for refinancing in the next three years,” says Monroe. “The negative impact of these shopping center mortgages is enormous.”

10. Emerging market bubble: It’s not just China. Risk-tolerant investors are bidding up emerging market shares to valuations not seen in 9 years. With an average PE of 20x, they’re not in bubble territory just yet, but watch for things to get out of hand.

http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/325783/Ten-Bubbles-in-the-Making?tickers=^gspc,^dji,xlf

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.

It’s hard to criticize schools for taking Google up on the offer. Google Apps are likely to be well received by parents and students who are familiar with other products of the company. It relieves school systems of the cost of IT support for PC-resident software and files, taps into Google’s enormous storage capacity, provides sophisticated security, and takes advantage of its constant innovation and wide-ranging product line. And it’s free for grades K-12 as well as higher education institutions (private universities, public ones, and other educational orgs).

It also provides Google a huge benefit, the ability to track the usage that young people make of it to infer tastes and preferences that can improve its ad sales business.

As we transition to a cloud computing environment, training students to use Google’s tools in school is bound to give it a huge leg up over competitors such as Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Zoho, a lead that could translate into a lot of business and profit.

http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2009/09/10/google-apps-a-hit-in-the-classroom/

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.

This year, Washington and Beijing have both rolled out programs aimed at stimulating their fledgling solar power industries and boosting growth in their economies. Together, they are expected to drive the building of at least 5 gigawatts (GW) of solar installations between 2009 and 2011, according to a recent report by investment firm CLSA.

Thanks to strong government incentives, Germany is the world’s biggest solar market and is expected to remain so until 2013, when the United States will become its equal. China will be slightly behind, according to research firm Lux Research.

In China, recently-enacted subsidies for utility-scale solar power projects has prompted a host of plans for solar power plants, including the announcement this week of the first major foray by a U.S. company into the Chinese solar sector by Tempe, Arizona-based First Solar Inc.

That announcement, said several U.S. companies, opens the door for other non-Chinese companies to compete in that nation’s solar market.

“It clearly makes us more bullish on China,” said Tom Werner, chief executive of San Jose, California-based SunPower, which already produces some of its high-efficiency solar panels in China. “We hope that that will result in us being able to penetrate that market as well.”

BrightSource Energy Chief Executive Officer John Woolard also said the First Solar deal showed the Chinese were serious about solar, adding that his company was moving “slowly and deliberately” to find a partner in China. It expects to announce a Chinese partner, and one in India, in about a year, Woolard said.

NO MASSIVE THREAT

First Solar’s announcement also could quell complaints from some European solar companies that Beijing’s support for its solar manufacturers was giving Chinese companies an unfair trade advantage over European and U.S. companies vying for market share in the global sector.

“If you announce that we have such a huge need for solar panels that we are even going to put First Solar panels into China, all of a sudden we’ve gone from this massive threat to maybe we saw it the wrong way around,” said Stephan Dolezalek, managing director of Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm VantagePoint Venture Partners.

“Maybe we should see the size of the Chinese market as this enormous upside potential, and maybe all of solar should be seeing it much more positively.”

In the United States, economic stimulus funds aimed at filling the funding gap left by the financial crisis have been slow to materialize this year.

Nevertheless, companies like Suntech and SunPower expect government funds to boost the market next year, with Suntech saying the U.S. solar market could triple in 2010 from about 350 megawatts this year.

“We do think the U.S. could be a very very strong market,” Suntech Chief Strategy Officer Steven Chan told the Summit, adding that the Obama administration’s loan guarantees and grants for solar “set the stage for a great 2010.”

China’s top solar company, Suntech, is setting up its first manufacturing plant in the United States and has narrowed the potential locations to Phoenix and various cities in Texas, said Chief Strategy Officer Steven Chan. It plans to start production at the 50 MW plant in the second half of 2010.

SunPower, also said it would start producing solar panels in its home country next year to be closer to major solar markets like California.

“In terms of megawatts it will represent a meaningful amount of our panel production, say up to a quarter of our total panel production,” Werner said.

Even smaller Chinese companies are wading their way into the U.S. market.

Trina Solar, a solar panel maker based in Changzhou, China, is actively seeking partnerships with project developers in the United States so it can take part in what is already a competitive race to rack up contracts for big solar projects.

“Honestly, we lag behind,” Trina Chief Financial Officer Terry Wang said.

“First Solar and SunPower got a good start because they are located in the U.S. We are not bidding (on projects) yet. We would like to do it.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE58A0BL20090911?sp=true

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).

Kraft’s Chief Executive Irene Rosenfeld told analysts on Tuesday the company has been “and will continue to be disciplined” in its attempt to acquire Cadbury.

Another Kraft executive, Michael Osanloo, said in a statement, “Cadbury is worth what someone is willing to pay for it — nothing more.”

While a number of analysts expect Kraft to raise its bid to get the deal done, the company does not have that much room to maneuver without threatening its balance sheet or risking its investment grade credit rating.

It is already testing the limits of credit rating agencies with its current bid, under which Kraft would pay more than $6.7 billion in cash and the remainder in stock.

Craig Hutson, senior investment grade analyst at Gimme Credit, said a $7 billion loan would bring Kraft’s debt to more than 4 times its projected EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortization).

“That’s really pushing the envelope in terms of investment grade rating,” he said. Still, he noted that Kraft could have some leeway with ratings agencies because of its large, well-known brand.

Moody’s Investors Service said on Tuesday that it may cut Kraft’s debt rating, but that any downgrade would likely be limited to one notch, which would keep Kraft in investment-grade territory.

PUSHING LIMITS ON RETURNS

Some analysts wondered if Kraft’s offer was already sweet enough.

“The price that it may take to seal the deal will limit the financial return for Kraft shareholders for some time, even at the very first offer price,” said Edward Jones analyst Matt Arnold. “Every time you increase that price you are pushing out when this becomes a profitable deal, and you’re increasing the risk of failing to ever really get a decent return on your investment.”

This was underscored by a decline in Kraft’s shares by almost 6 percent to $26.45, and an increase in the cost of insuring Kraft’s debt.

Spreads on Kraft’s 6.125 percent notes due in 2018 widened by 25 basis points to 165 basis points over Treasuries, according to MarketAxess.

With the decline in Kraft’s share price, the deal would currently be valued at about 9.77 billion pounds ($16.12 billion).

There is also a chance of counterbidders, most likely Hershey Co (HSY.N) and Switzerland’s Nestle AG (NESN.VX). Some analysts said they could make a joint offer for Cadbury, then split the business to get around any anti-trust concerns.

Hershey is being advised by U.S. bank JPMorgan (JPM.N) on a possible strategy regarding Cadbury, a source familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.

In a joint-bid scenario, Nestle is seen as taking Cadbury’s gum while Hershey would take the chocolate. Such an acquisition would expand the U.S.-focused company internationally.

Hershey and JPMorgan declined comment.

Absent a counterbid, the pressure may end up squarely on Cadbury’s management to get a deal done.

“We expect Cadbury’s management to mount an aggressive defense, but confess to seeing few options on the table as a standalone company that would get the share price to 745p, let alone if there were a higher offer,” said Warren Ackerman at Evolution Securities.

The company’s advisors are playing a waiting game to see if someone else will bid, said Evan Stewart, an antitrust expert with Zuckerman Spaeder LLP.

“The problem with this is it sort of puts (Cadbury) at low tide on a beach, like a whale,” Stewart said. “Either somebody is going to help it back in the water or the natives are going to carve it up.”

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Study-unemployed-feel-apf-3841813062.html?x=0

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.

“Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) has a strong position among this group of dividend elites. The company has paid a dividend continuously since 1893. The firm has lifted its dividend annually for the last 47 years.

“The firm will continue to face challenges in some of its beverage markets. But Coca-Cola’s continued expansion outside the soda market should help results.

“Also, its strong overseas business should get a lift from the weak dollar and presence in emerging markets. The yield of well over 3% enhances total-return appeal. The stock should at least match the market over the next 12 months and should outperform during market weakness.

“Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL) takes a back seat to no company when it comes to consistency and growth of its dividend. The firm has been paying a dividend since 1895, with the dividend increased annually for the last 46 years.

“Colgate-Palmolive has been an excellent stock over the last 18 months. These shares are trading near their all-time high; that is quite a feat compared to the major price declines experienced by most stocks over the same time period. A weak dollar should help profits.

“While I don’t expect Colgate-Palmolive to be at the top of the leader board going forward — the stock is not cheap at 15 times 2010 earnings — I would expect these shares to put up decent total returns over the near and long term.

“Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) usually appears on everyone’s list of dividend elites, for good reason. The firm has been paying a dividend since 1882 and has increased the dividend annually for the last 26 years. Strong cash flows should continue to fund a rising dividend stream; it currently yields 2.3%.

“The stock has been trading in a sideways range for about seven months. It is usually not among the leaders in the energy sector when the group is hot, but hold up quite well during down periods for oil stocks. I own the stock and appreciate its steady, consistent performance.

“Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) has paid its dividend since 1885. Dividends have increased annually for more than 40 years. Pharmaceutical stocks have been crimped by a number of factors, including uncertainties surrounding health-care reform, generic drug competition, and weak new-product pipelines.

“Lilly stock is trading at a substantial discount to its 2007 high of $61. Lilly recently pulled the plug on its osteoporosis drug candidate arzoxifene due to disappointing clinical trial results.

“Still, the stock appears to be discounting a lot of bad news. These shares trade at only seven times 2010 consensus earnings estimate of $4.54 per share. The stock’s current yield is 5.9%.

“PPG Industries (NYSE: PPG) is a global supplier of paints, coatings, optical products, specialty materials, chemicals, glass, and fiber glass.

“Given that the firm has exposure to a variety of industrial markets that have been under pressure as a result of the economic slowdown, it’s not surprising that per-share profits will likely fall at least 40% this year. An earnings recovery is expected in 2010.

“The company has paid a dividend annually since 1899 and has boosted its dividend every year for 37 years. The stock’s current yield is 3.9%.

“Investors have bid these shares significantly higher from their March lows, and there is some downside risk should an earnings recovery be delayed. The stock has special appeal in the $40s.

“Stanley Works (NYSE: SWK) may surprise some people with its stellar long-term dividend record. The company, best known for its tools, has paid a dividend since 1877 and has boosted that dividend in each of the last 42 years.

“That is pretty impressive for any company, especially one exposed to economically sensitive markets, such as housing. That exposure is a reason per-share profits will decline at least 30% this year.

“Still, the 2009 consensus earnings estimate of $2.36 per share is more than adequate to cover the stock’s current indicated annual dividend of $1.32 per share.

“Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) is also a member of this exclusive club. P&G has paid a dividend every year since 1891 and has boosted its dividend annually for more than 50 years.

“A board member purchased 3,800 shares of Procter & Gamble in August at just under $54 per share. It appears that this insider is taking advantage of the rather sluggish price action to pick up shares.

“True, corporate insiders are often early in their buying, and this insider will have to be patient given what is likely lackluster price action in the near term.

“Procter & Gamble is fighting the headwinds of restrained consumer spending. While things should loosen up a bit in 2010, profits over the next few quarters will be crimped. Still, I like the company’s brands, management, and long-term potential and regard it as a quality holding in a portfolio.”

http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2009/09/02/seven-dividend-elites-100-years-of-dividends/

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.

Suntech Power Holdings (NYSE: STP) and Yingli Green Energy Holding Company, Ltd. (NYSE:YGE) are doing it for two reasons: to gain market share and – more importantly – drive demand.

And in another page taken from the Japanese, Suntech is planning to build a module manufacturing plant here, primarily to avoid growing anti-China solar protectionism.

You see, the Obama administration wants to help American solar companies like First Solar, Inc. (Nasdaq: FSLR), but it doesn’t necessarily want to help the Chinese makers at the same time.

So the Chinese are quietly fighting back, offering inexpensive government-backed loans in support of their own solar module manufacturers.

The module makers themselves are weaving their way into solar industry trade groups to soften any would-be support for future protectionist legislation. This was done by the Japanese car companies, too.

In the end, it will be good news for homeowners and industrial customers of solar modules, as prices will continue to drop, both here and abroad. Low prices will continue to be the catalyst that drives solar installations, and should actually eliminate any subsidies faster than originally anticipated.

While solar is currently more expensive to generate electricity from than other conventional fossil fuel sources, in the next several years it will be the lowest-cost power available.

What about the huge drop in solar shares? Analysts seem to be divided, but my opinion is the sell-off is a little overdone, particularly when it comes to First Solar.

The reason is that First Solar’s panels are a different breed. It uses thin-film semiconductor technology that has a much lower cost than polysilicon-based panels – which is what most of the Chinese competitors are using.

As a result, First Solar’s cost structure continues to drop as fast as the prices of the modules themselves. The stock is off nearly $64 a share in the last two months, and seems to be firming.

Investors with an eye towards the long term – and who want to be in the solar sector — might want to consider this level as a place to pick up a few shares of First Solar as a buy-and-hold strategy.

I would avoid the Chinese panel makers for the present, until a clearer picture emerges regarding government-pricing policies towards the Chinese panel makers.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/158398-first-solar-sell-off-is-overdone

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.

Natural gas for October delivery gave up 19 cents to $2.525 per 1,000 cubic feet on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices dropped as low as $2.50 per 1,000 cubic feet — the lowest since March 2002 — after the government reported that U.S. natural gas supplies grew again last week and are now nearly 18 percent above the five-year average.

Natural gas, a key energy source for power plants, has plummeted to less than a third the price it fetched last summer, and its contract on the Nymex gave up nearly 23 percent in the past six trading days.

The United States Natural Gas fund, an exchange-traded fund that tracks natural gas prices, has fallen steadily this year, giving up 76 percent of its value and it hit a 52-week low of $8.94 a share on Thursday.

Meanwhile, oil prices were tugged higher by a rise in equities markets and a weak dollar.

Benchmark crude for October delivery added 12 cents to $68.17 a barrel on the Nymex. In London, Brent crude gave up 30 cents at $67.36 on the ICE Futures exchange.

Besides the weak dollar, energy prices may have gotten a boost from a report by the Institute for Supply Management. While the index showed that said the service sector shrank in August, hospitals, retailers, financial services companies and other industries covered by its index posted their best reading in 11 months.

For those who price oil and fuel into the future, there was a glimmer of increased demand for energy.

The Paris-based OECD, which said that the world economy is headed for an earlier recovery than previously forecast, although the pace of the rebound will likely remain modest for some time to come.

The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development also said that the economies of Japan and the euro zone countries will contract by less than previously forecast while the outlook for the U.S. is stable.

At the pump, retail gas prices fell less than a penny to $2.596 a gallon, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. A gallon of regular unleaded is 3.5 cents more expensive than a month ago and $1.085 cheaper than last year.

In other Nymex trading, gasoline for October delivery added less than a penny to $1.8088 a gallon and heating oil fell by less than a penny to $1.7414 a gallon.

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