Old Rocks
Diamond Member
Dirty energy is last century's energy.
Tell that to the Russians and Chinese. Putin went so far as to drop ALL green initiatives saying "Russia will not pursue ANY energy that is not carbon or nuclear based. The chinese just built the Three Gorges Dam that has flooded hundreds of square miles of land and destroyed many dozen villages.
Nitol: Russia's Emerging Solar Power Star - BusinessWeek
Dmitry Kotenko admits that when he and a group of friends decided to found their own business in 1998, they had no idea what exactly the new business would do. They knew only that they wanted their business to be New, Innovative, and Technological. Hence the name: Nitol.
Ten years later, Nitol has not only a techie-sounding name but also a dynamic business to match. Now called Nitol Solar, the company is Russia's largest producer of polysilicon, the basic raw material used to make solar panels that turn sunlight into electricity. Nitol stands out as an all-too-rare commodity in Russia: a technologically savvy company that has grown in the space of a few years from tiny startup to billion-dollar success story. It's a model that Russia's leaders say they are eager to promote as the country casts around for new ways to achieve economic competitiveness in the 21st century.
Lately, nothing seems to have captured the imagination of politicians more forcefully than alternative energy. In an interview with CNBC host and BusinessWeek columnist Maria Bartiromo on June 4, President Dmitry Medvedev emphasized the importance for Russia of "cutting-edge technologies," especially in "green economy, energy saving, and energy efficiency." It's a theme both he and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin increasingly have emphasized in recent months.