Scaling Solar

Focus on renewables has been enormously popular lately, both with the media at large and popular opinion, but now things are getting serious.

Seriously large, at least.

One of the primary concerns of solar naysayers are those who wonder what type of economies of scale are actually necessary to make the (relatively) expensive photovoltaic panels worthy of an investment. At 1,300 MW, the latest solar project from SoCal Edison may just show us what that number might be.

For your reference, a comparison of average capacities by type of fuel (click for larger view):

Note the ludicrously large difference between the average solar project and SoCal Edison's proposal. They haven't disclosed financing details, but I promise I'll be all over them to give you the scoop once something leaks out...

Kennedy v. New Yorker

Apparently Kennedy Research has put out a new piece stating that Management Consulting isn't going to have as hard a time as the previous downturn in 2001:

"While slowing demand for consulting services is effectively impeding utilization rates and compensation growth rates, many North American firms concede that the need to retain top talent outweighs profitability pressures. Currently, firms continue to hire aggressively especially for senior-level positions..."

At the same time, The New Yorker seems to have a different point of view:


Given some personal experiences in the last few weeks, I would have to side with The New Yorker. *Sigh*

And Now for Something Completely Different...

...apparently the global financial crisis we find ourselves in has not been all gloom-and-doom; it has also inspired some music. Whether this makes anyone feel better about things is questionable. Enjoy anyway:

It's the Data, Stupid!

Many thanks to TheCrankyFlier for his insightful post on Virgin America's newly-released financial information.  The deeply-entrenched financial analyst in me loves a good set of finances to pore over, particularly when it comes with spreadsheet attached!

Despite a deep respect for Sir Richard Branson (and Virgin's extremely spiffy club areas) I have to agree that things look grim.  Essentially, VA's strategy is to cushion itself on some extra capital and hope that consumer confidence remains high enough so that money keeps pouring in to keep it afloat.

Treading water--in my opinion--is never an ideal strategy.  Just make sure that if you guys want to take a flight on Virgin America make it sooner rather than later.

And for those masochists that want to look at the excruciating cash burn (from bNet; cash levels in thousands):

-------------------------
Q3 2007: $104,166

Q4 2007: $69,311

Q1 2008: $30,272

Q2 2008: $11,068

Q3 2008: $25,382
-------------------------

Free Can Cost, Too

Inauguration Day

This is the inaugural post of "3F" (or "fCubed", or "three-F"; whatever you like), a blog about things I'm interested in.  If you're interested in them too, please feel free to come into my warm, bloggy home and sit a spell.  I've got a very nice virtual love seat.  Promise! We can chat a bit about the things that make our world interesting.

My humble plan is that most of these posts fall more or less into one of the three groups above.  I won't guarantee this because I don't want to set a precedent that I can't keep, and my mind works in mysterious and mostly non-linear ways.  If this bothers you, please stop reading here.

All I can guarantee is (hopefully) a dose of good, topical news that pulls in some of these topics that affect each of us on a personal level--from heads of state down to regular Joe Six Packs (or Joe the Plumber; again, whatever you like). 

And maybe the odd recipe.
And possibly some stuff about Houston (current home!).
Or something about management consulting (current job!).
And a little economics.
Maybe politics.
...
...
...