China, which imports nearly half of its oil needs, consumed 7.16 million barrels a day last year and its demand will exceed that of the United States soon after 2010.

The race for energy by rising powers China and India will intensify in 2008 as they scour the world for fuel to feed their booming economies, and Beijing has taken a big early lead, analysts say.
According to AFP, everywhere, China--with its deep pockets and energetic diplomacy--has been beating lumbering, bureaucratic India to the punch in the quest to lock in long-term supplies in Asia, Africa and Latin America, analysts say.
“The Chinese have stolen a march on the Indians. Whether it’s in Myanmar or Sudan or Indonesia, the Chinese are way ahead,“ said Rahul Bedi, India analyst for Jane’s Defence Weekly. “But India is stepping up its pace.“
In early December, China pipped India to be chosen as preferred bidder for natural gas from South Korea’s Daewoo International’s Myanmar project, after Beijing said it aimed to spend $1.1 billion on a gas pipeline.
“The Chinese go after their targets more aggressively and faster,“ Victor Shum, analyst at Singapore-based oil consultancy Purvin and Gertz, said.
China’s voracious assertiveness is dictated by its massive industrial base which guzzles fuel to make everything from fertilizers to mobile phones.
China produces “a lot of goods for the world and needs a lot of energy to do this,“ said He Jun, analyst at Beijing energy consultancy Anbound Consulting. “This is an unstoppable trend.“
China, which imports nearly half of its oil needs, consumed 7.16 million barrels a day last year and its demand will exceed that of the United States soon after 2010, says the International Energy Agency.
India’s energy needs are also growing fast but remain far below China’s due to its more service-driven economy. India, which imports 70 percent of its oil, consumes 2.45 million barrels a day.
China’s thirst is partly responsible for the oil price surge to nearly 100 dollars a barrel.
“Since 2002, Chinese oil demand has risen by five to 10 percent a year and China is one-third to blame for the price rise... (while) India is a casualty, not a driving force,“ said Dave Ernsberger, Platts Asia Oil Director.
India’s democratic--and hence more cumbersome--political system makes it tougher for state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) to pursue investments than for Chinese firms.
“Indian decision-making is a little slower, China has a command economy so it’s more efficient, they’re not accountable to parliament... they just do it,“ said Bedi.
Protests by communist allies of India’s Congress-led coalition have stalled a landmark pact with the United States to bring New Delhi into the global civilian nuclear marketplace.
Meanwhile, Washington has discouraged plans by New Delhi to take part in an ambitious pipeline that would see Iranian gas sent to India via Pakistan.
That project has also been delayed by technical and pricing wrangles.
China is also outspending India. State-owned CNPC, China’s main oil producer, invested $45 billion in new energy sources while ONGC spent a paltry $3.5 billion in a five-year period to 2005.
India declared in 2005 that it hoped to turn its rivalry with China into an alliance to take on western energy majors but its efforts fizzled against a backdrop of mutual suspicion between the historically hostile giants.
China has shored up its presence in Central Asia and targeted resource-rich Russia, India’s old Cold War ally.
India, which has a 20 percent stake in Russia’s Sakhalin-1 oilfield, has said new deals between India and Russian oil and gas majors could be “firmed up by February.“ But New Delhi’s warmer ties with Washington have cast a cloud over its previously cosy links with Moscow.
Lately too, India has taken a leaf from China’s book, scaling up ties with African states and handing out credit and boosting trade and defence links.
In return, ONGC has won exploration rights in Sudan and Nigeria besides Libya, Algeria and Egypt since 2004. In October, Manmohan Singh made the first visit by an Indian premier in 45 years to Africa’s top oil exporter Nigeria.
But China already has a commanding presence in Africa, building roads, railways and petrochemical installations--when President Hu Jintao visited Africa in early 2007, it was his third trip in less than three years.
“The Chinese have gone after the African market big-time, pumping in huge amounts,“ said Bedi. “India just doesn’t have that combination of flamboyance and aggression.“

A small three-kilowatt solar energy unit typically used in an 1,800-square foot house can supplement anywhere from 20-to-40 percent of a householdÕs daily energy needs.

When Wayne Robertson bought a piece of land in rural northern California in 1980, the only way to get power to his house--located 12 miles away from the closest town--was by using a generator.
Roberston opted instead to go with something simpler: a car battery.
Over the next nine months, Robertson and his wife used a Honda car battery to power everything from the television to the lamps in their house, Herald-zeitung.com reported.
“That’s where it started,“ Robertson said.
Since the day Robertson moved into his house in Mendecino County, he says he has never paid an electricity bill. The reason: Robertson ditched the car battery long ago and now produces enough electricity to sustain every function in his 1,800-square-foot home through 32 solar panels attached to pole top trackers.
It took about five years, he said, to gather enough solar panels before he felt comfortable generating electricity for his house. But for the past 20 years, Robertson and his family have been living completely “off the grid,“ relying only on the 1,600-watt solar array he compiled panel by panel.
“I would consider it punishment if I had to move into a neighborhood and pay a utility bill again,“ said Robertson, who began a career as a solar electric sales industry distributor more than a decade ago.
Nowadays, Robertson is still pushing solar energy units, but on a much larger scale as the sales manager for what he says is the largest distributor of renewable energy supplies in the nation.
The company Robertson works for--Sunwize Technologies--now is trying to preach the gospel of solar energy to Texans by expanding their operation to the Lone Star state. About four months ago, a New Braunfels-based electrical contracting company secured a deal with Sunwize to become the solar energy’s official dealer of solar units in Central Texas.
Premier CIRE Systems, a commercial electrical company headquartered off Loop 337, is the only licensed entity to deal and install Sunwize systems for residential and commercial uses in Central Texas.
A handful of companies sell and install solar units in Central Texas. In Austin, at least nine companies sell or install solar units. Premier CIRE Systems is the first to bring the technology to New Braunfels.
And although Premier CIRE Systems has not sold or installed a single unit in Comal County since getting licensed four months ago, the company’s president, James Hoss Boyd, said there has been expressed interest in solar energy in the area. The upfront dollar amount needed to buy and install even a small system tends to dissuade a lot of would-be solar users, he said.
“Nobody wants to be first,“ Boyd, 57, said. “We have to prove it makes economic sense.“
A small three-kilowatt solar energy unit typically used in an 1,800-square- foot house can supplement anywhere from 20-to-40 percent of a household’s daily energy needs and cost about $20,000 to $30,000. A large unit used for a commercial or retail space can cost upwards of $1 million.
In many cases, the up-front costs appear to outweigh the benefits, making potential solar users weary, Boyd said. Depending on the equipment and size of a system, the typical payback period for a solar energy system can range from seven to 25 years.
The solar energy units consist of panels made from computer quality silicon that can endure winds up to 100 mph and a 60 mile per hour hail storm, Boyd said. The panels are combined together to form an “array,“ which is then situated on top of a roof or on a pole tracker, depending on the individual setup. The array is connected to a box, which feeds the power to a convertor that makes transforms the sun’s rays into energy for everyday household use.
“Whenever the sun is shining you’re producing electricity,“ Boyd said.
A typical solar unit, Boyd said, can not only help save up to a third off the base rate of an electric bill, but can also add value to a house. In some cases, solar energy that isn’t used by a customer can be stored and sold back to the utility company at a market rate.
Solar energy users also are eligible for a number of national and local rebates. Boyd said any residence that buys or installs a solar unit is eligible for a national rebate capped at $2,000. And commercial property owners can get reimbursed for up to 30 percent of the total investment, he said.

South Africa’s Dept. of Science & Technology (DST) is instrumental in charting the future course of development. Of late, it has been busy finalizing a national Hydrogen-Fuel Cell Strategy that aims to take advantage of some of the natural advantages South Africa’s rich mineral resource base confers.
News broke nationwide end of November that South Africa’s Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) was joining with North West University to establish a hydrogen-fuel cell “Center of Competence“.
The news, however, was “a bit premature,“ according to a DST executive, ENN.com reported.
Two other hydgrogen research centers have already been established but have not been officially announced publicly. The CSIR-North West center represents the third leg of a national strategy that entails undertaking applied research in the areas of hydrogen and fuel cell production, distribution and applications in industrial, commercial and consumer sectors of the economy.
The premature news release pre-empted in part the DST minister’s plans to announce the national Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Strategy in January. DST plans to officially announce and provide additional information about its overarching national strategy early next year.
The plan has been approved by the national cabinet and allocated a 60 million South African rand budget for its first year; capital resources that may eventually expand to 300 million South African rand over three years, according to the DST executive.
South Africa is particularly well suited as a candidate for developing a vertically integrated hydrogen-fuel cell economy. It is the world’s leading producer of platinum, the essential key catalyst in fuel cell and hydrogen production processes. Assisting the development of such an industry would not only create jobs and value-added industrial and commercial opportunities in South Africa, it would also likely leave the country well-positioned to export hydrogen, fuel cells and associated products and technology, the DST official noted.
“South Africa is facing a number of energy challenges“.
This is a strategy that positions South Africa to serve the international, global hydrogen economy, one that relies on platinum, of which South Africa is the world’s leading producer...It’s an industrial strategy that addresses the world obsession with energy security and the environmental impact of energy
production.“
Emerging alternative fuels and power sources such as hydrogen and fuel cells will have a tough time in countries such as South Africa, or any country, without government incentives that provide leadership and the political will to see them through to fruition, as well as active support by companies in existing, established economic sectors that could participate and/or benefit from such development, however.
Fuel cells are already increasingly being used, mostly to supply high-quality uninterrupted power for industrial and commercial facilities, the official noted, but the costs remain prohibitive for wider spread adoption.
Whereas coal and nuclear are both subsidized and the country’s main power and fuel producers owned by the government, there are no incentives for producing hydrgogen or fuel cells.
The costs associated with continuing to develop technology and process improvements, much less build out infrastructure and products for the industrial, commercial and consumer sectors,that can make them more competitive are high.