GE Completes Alstom Power Acquisition

General Electric Co. on Monday said it had wrapped up its long-running acquisition of Alstom SA’s power business, following months of tough negotiations with European regulators and marking one of GE’s biggest deals.

GE, which has been shifting back to an industrial base and is in the process of shedding its banking business, first offered to buy Alstom in April 2014 for about $13.5 billion. The value of the transaction has since fallen to $9.5 billion on account of joint energy ventures announced last year, changes in the deal structure, price adjustments for the remedies and net cash at close.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/ge-completes-alstom-power-acquisition-1446477255

Japan Committed to Nuclear Power Despite Fukushima Fiasco

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/08/11/world/asia/ap-as-japans-nuclear-dilemma.html?_r=1

Obama plan has no role for nuclear power

That’s right. We’re talking about our nation’s largest source of zero-carbon electricity, supplying more than 60 percent of our emission-free power.

Imagine the adverse effect on energy security if we lose nearly 4,000 megawatts of nuclear-generated electricity from Michigan’s four nuclear plants — Cook 1 & 2, Fermi 2, and Palisades. These power plants generate 27 percent of the state’s electricity while protecting air quality and the environment. In all likelihood, electric utilities would need to increase the use of fossil fuels, mainly coal, to keep our economy from collapsing.

https://www.aei.org/publication/obama-plan-has-no-role-for-nuclear-power/

POWER STRUGGLE IN TALIBAN AFTER MULLAH OMAR DEATH

Mullah Abdul Manan, the brother of the late Mullah Mohammad Omar, told The Associated Press that new Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor was “selected” by a small clique of his own supporters. That comes after Mullah Omar’s son, Yacoub, also warned Mansoor didn’t have the support of the wider Taliban.

http://www.infowars.com/power-struggle-in-taliban-after-mullah-omar-death/

Candle power to charge smartphones

A power outage – it’s an experience all are familiar with and everyone dreads. The lights go out, the TV goes black, the computers shut down as their batteries drain. And worst of all – your smartphone dies.

This scenario was one of the inspirations for Andrew Burns of California startup Stower to develop the candle charger. Its simplistic design is based on the principles of therm-oelectrics, which have been around since the early 1800’s.

Light a candle, fill the device with water, and you have a charger.

“So the way thermo-electric generators work is you have a hot plate and a cold plate and you smash these generators together and it’s that temperature difference, it creates a diffusion of energy from the hot side to the cold side,” said Burns, co-founder of the company.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/28/us-usa-candle-charger-idUSKCN0Q229Q20150728