Barry Moody

The phrase “catching a few rays” might conjure up images of lying on a sunny beach.

But Germany’s Renewable Energy Act has given that phrase a whole new meaning. I’ve discovered that you can get paid for capturing the sun's energy on your roof, converting it into CO2-free electricity with the help of special equipment, and feeding it into the grid -- and watch the investment yield handsome long-term returns.

The German feed-in tariff system is as simple as it is successful – which is probably why Germany produces as much solar power as the rest of the world combined. German utilities are obliged under the Renewable Energy Act to pay above-market feed-in tariffs to producers of photovoltaic or wind energy for a period of 20 years. Germany will add up to 3 gigawatt of PV electricity this year. 

Here’s how the system works. 

Two years ago, after writing this feature  on why Germany leads the world in photovoltaic electricity production despite being covered by clouds half the time, I decided to crack open my piggy bank and borrow some money to invest in a modest 6.8 KWp solar power system for my roof (below). I added a carport (right) so that I could put up more solar panels. 

The system cost a total of 30,000 euros and it produces about 5,000 kilowatts of electricity each year. More important, that saves about 2,700 kg of CO2 emissions. The 5,000 kw is about 500 kw a year more than we use. The local utility is required to buy those 5,000 kw of CO2-free electricity that spin through a meter and into the grid from me at 49 cents per kilowatt for a fixed 20-year period. I buy about 4,500 kw back each year at the current rate of about 18 cents per kw. That amounts to about 2,400 euros of revenue per year, with monthly payments from the utility peaking at about 500 euros in June. (I pay a separate 70 euros per month to the utility for the electricity we use).

I got such a buzz from watching the meter spin green energy off the roof and into the grid that I asked myself: Why stop there? I started looking for another roof.

The national feed-in tariff the utility pays for each kw of green electricity I pump into their grid fell from 49 to 46 cents in 2008 but the price of solar panels fell even further.

So I borrowed 40,000 euros from a bank and rented the roof of a local kindergarten (below) in late 2008 to build an even larger PV system – 10 KWp that produces about 9,000 kw per year (saving nearly 5,000 kg of CO2). That brings in about 3,900 euros per year that will pay off the bank loan over about 12 years. 

After that, I asked myself again: Why stop now? The feed-in tariff fell to 43 cents per kw in 2009 but the price of solar panels fell even further. So I borrowed an additional 80,000 euros and rented the roof of a local school’s gymnasium (below) – 20 KWp producing about 19,000 kw per year (cutting 10,000 kg CO2) and yielding some 8,200 euros. My revenues from the utility also go directly to the bank to repay the loan.

I was hoping to rent another school roof in Berlin this summer but there were all sorts of bureaucratic snags and the project was scrapped. But in 2010 – even though the feed-in tariff will fall to 39 cents for the 20 years to 2030 – I’m hoping to find another roof for an even larger system.

There's no getting rich quick using this "business model", but it is eliminating a few tonnes of CO2 each year and the loans will have been paid off in little more than a decade.

The feed-in tariff for new systems will probably fall by about 10 percent each year and the price of solar panels will probably keep falling at a similar rate. By about 2015, it's quite possible that the feed-in tariff utilities pay will have fallen to the same level as cost of conventional electricity -- the magic "grid parity" point.

We were wondering earlier today how much longer it would take until customers shopping for Black Friday deals got rowdy. We told you about one shoving match in Centennial, Colorado, that involved dropping a little old lady. Now we have a "disturbance" at a Walmart store in Upland, California, near Rancho Cucamonga in Southern California's Inland Empire. What motivates some of these attacks? Toy hamsters! (See our earlier entry on this phenomenon. Also, look toward the bottom of this blog entry.)

The San Bernardino Sun reported details:

"Upland police officers received reports of the disturbance about 2:45 a.m. Friday and sent about four officers to the store at 1540 W. Foothill Boulevard, Lt. Jim Etchason said. 'A manager at the store called it in to the police department,' Etchason said. '(The manager) said numerous customers were causing a disturbance with each other.'"

The cops told managers to close the store while they cleared out shoppers and made them wait in the parking lot. A few hours later, they were allowed to go back inside, the Sun reported. There were no reports of injuries or damage, the paper said on its website.

A company spokesman confirmed the incident, but said the store was cleared out and closed for 45 minutes.

"We're hearing positive feedback from customers and associates in our stores across the country today. Our store plans are helping our customers have a safe and enjoyable shopping experience at Walmart," the spokesman also said.

As long as it's positive feedback.

Other incidents of retail aggression also surfaced on Friday in Brandon (over GPS systems) and Seminole, Florida -- also at Walmart stores. Here's Florida Today:

"People were gathered at the items they wanted to buy. The customers claim the person at the GPS location started selling the devices before 5 a.m. and they started a brawl. In Seminole County, another fight at a Walmart ended with three law enforcement agencies responding. According to WKMG Local 6, the Seminole County Sheriff’s office, Lake Mary Police Department and the Sanford Police Department were all called out to the Walmart about 5 a.m. Officers secured that store before shoppers were told things were safe again."

One big cause of aggression in Colorado and, apparently, the Indianapolis region is the Zhu Zhu -- fuzzy, electronically operated hamsters (The real ones never seem to spark this much annoyance). The Indianapolis Star reports:

"Despite the lines, several shoppers at the Northeastside Toys “R” Us and the Downtown Mass Ave Toys said this afternoon they’d never even heard of the hamster robots. But when the Toys "R" Us opened its doors at midnight Thursday, a huge line backed up into two adjacent parking lots. People tried to cut the line, not listening or cooperating; and there were reports of people fighting at the back of the line. Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department was called after a report of a fight, and dispatched at least three squad cars to the scene, said IMPD Sgt. Paul Thompson. The scuffle was over by the time police arrived, but IMPD stayed in the parking lot for an hour as a precaution."

(Photo: Reuters)

Watching a movie like “De Dana Dan” in a single screen theatre where people are hooting and clapping at crass humour on screen may give you an insight into Indian audiences.

This audience doesn’t really mind that Archana Puran Singh uses foul language or that people randomly slap their husbands and wives or that there is really no logic to speak of. They found all of the above hilarious.

I am not judging that audience. After all, we all have our own tastes. I guess this is what they mean about Hindi movies that you have to “leave your brain behind and then watch”.

Akshay Kumar plays Nitin, a down and out young man who works as a servant with a rich woman in order to pay off his father’s debt to her. He is in love with Anjali (Katrina Kaif) but doesn’t have the money to marry her. He meets Ram (Suniel Shetty), a courier deliveryman who also needs money to marry his rich girlfriend (Sameera Reddy).

They decide to kidnap Nitin’s mistress’s dog, which she holds very dear. However, the plan goes awry and that is the start of the “confusion” in the film. One mistaken identity leads to the other and yet another, until the plot becomes so convoluted that you lose track.

I am writing this an hour after watching the film and if you ask me for the rest of the plot, I will be unable to tell you. It baffles me as to how the scriptwriter remembered all the twists and turns.

For all the confusion however, the end is so lame you feel the entire team was so tired of the film they just put their hands up at one point and said, “That’s it, this is where we end it”.

There are no performances to speak of -- in fact none are required. The “Hera Pheri” team of Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty, Paresh Rawal and Priyadarshan don’t reproduce even half of the magic on screen.

This is entertainment at its lowest level. Take your chance though. To each his own.

In the run-up to the annual Reuters Media Summit, taking place in New York and London next week, we have been asking experts and executives how they think media companies should reinvent themselves for the 21st Century.

Will the big need to get bigger? See Comcast's bid for a controlling stake in NBC Universal.

Or will it be a question of being slimmer and more focused? Like Time Warner,  which is now essentially a pure content company after spinning off Time Warner Cable in March and AOL next week.

All these businesses are heavily impacted by the Web as a distribution tool and they are doing various things to counter that. But it won't be easy, say analysts in our Summit preview. While content will continue to be extremely valuable, content owners will need to figure out how to make money from the Web and other new platforms of distribution.

Stephen Prough, of Salem Partners, a boutique investment bank that has backed several Hollywood deals, said the models are still not clear:

I think it's great that people are experimenting with content for the Web. In theory, that's a great concept. Right now, I haven't seen a business model that works for original content for the Web. The experience of companies that repurpose content for the web is they're generating per viewer.

Over at IAC/InterActiveCorp, Ricky Van Veen, founder of Collegehumor.com and CEO of Notional productions, thinks that developing original content that moves seamlessly between the Web, TV, and wireless devices will be key for the modern media company.

The crucial parts are the advertiser's brand, the content creator and the consumers. What if it was the brand getting the content to the consumer rather than a cable company? With the Internet, you don’t really need a lot TV networks, film studios and cable operators. In the future you have a great idea they’re going to be able to get the content to consumers on their own or with the help of a brand. That’s what’s interesting to me.

Bargain shoppers turned out en masse across the land on Friday morning to observe Black Friday rituals, while retail temples from Target to Macy's to Saks slashed prices to get people to do one simple thing: buy more stuff.

But upscale stores -- and some their shoppers -- seemed to think the Black Friday extravaganza beneath them.

I got a sense of this while I was interviewing people outside Saks's flagship store on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue this morning. I asked a customer exiting with a Saks bag full of merchandise what she thought of the sales. She sniffed:"I'm not here for Black Friday. All the stuff I bought was full price!"

While Saks discounts many items by 40 percent between 8 a.m. and noon on Friday, other upscale rivals seemed to the think holiday discounts were déclassé. At 9 a.m. on Friday, while Saks and Tiffany were open, other upscale stores that line Fifth Avenue, such as Cartier, Versace, Prada, Piaget and even Bergdorf Goodman, were closed.

(Photo: Reuters)

Tiger Woods has been reported hurt in a car accident on Friday, with the latest reports saying the world number one golfer has been released from hospital after receiving treatment for facial injuries.

Windermere Mayor Gary Bruhn said he believed Woods had been released. "Basically it was facial lacerations, and as I'm understanding it, nothing that serious," Bruhn told CNN.

The Orlando Sentinel, citing the Florida Highway Patrol, said Woods' car struck a fire hydrant and a tree in Florida's Isleworth community, near Orlando.

More news as we get it.

FILE PHOTO: Tiger Woods tees off on the 12th hole in the final round of the Australian Masters in Melbourne November 15, 2009. REUTERS/Mick Tsikas

Here's a Black Friday report from our colleague Joe Rauch:

In Charlotte, North Carolina, the banking capital of the New South, Black Friday's traditional retail flood was a relative trickle, thanks to residue from the recession. Several Black Friday shoppers said the economic downturn and the plight of the local banks would play a major role in how the city's residents spent during the holidays.

"We're spending very differently than we ever have, and I don't see that changing for a long time," said Rob Seidman, 39, a Charlotte resident and a banker. He declined to say which bank he worked for, only to say it "employed thousands here."

The signs of the downturn were most evident in hallways of the South Park Mall in the city's tony neighborhood of the same name, home to more than a few of Charlotte's bankers. The mall opened at 8 a.m., just like last year and three hours later than it did in 2007. Few shoppers were there to bolt inside. Many shoppers who arrived later said they had spent the morning's earliest hours fighting lines and crowds at discount retailers, like Target and Walmart, noting those stores were busier than they had ever seen them as shoppers sought bargains.

Charlotte resident Don Smith, 49,  came to the mall to buy some running shoes on sale, along with a few other items with his wife and two young daughters.

"This is the second time I've been out on Black Friday," he said. "I hate to shop this way, but there's no crowds this morning. It's a great day if you ask me."

A spokeswoman said the mall expected 200,000 visitors on today, a significant chunk of the 12million to 13 million who visit each year.

Several shoppers interviewed by Reuters said they were merely window shopping. Mall patrons walking around laden with bags were dwarfed by those walking around empty-handed. Seidman, sitting near one of the few hubs of activity -- the Apple Store -- said he was out shopping primarily to replace a broken family computer. While his wife was doing more holiday shopping, he was done for the day.

He said he and his family scrapped holiday vacation plans this year, were spending less on gifts for kids and adults and more closely adhering to a pre-determined budget. While he's still employed, the downturn has changed his spending habits forever, he said, as he's seen friends lose their jobs and in some cases their homes.

He's aggressively saving for retirement and squirreling away cash, rather than spending more as he did in the past, "because I've seen how some people in my neighborhood and who I work with lose it all so fast."

"Mine thankfully is an issue of psychology rather than an issue of need," he added, noting layoffs in the sector made him fear the worst and curb much of his spending. "I feel like I need more of a cushion in case something happens."

(Photo: Shadows gather over Charlotte, North Carolina. Reuters)

The banking index dropped 1.4 pct on Friday, dragged down by heavyweights ICICI Bank and SBI after Dubai said two of its flagship firms planned to delay repayment on billions of dollar of debt.

The move raised investor fears that debt defaults could hit other parts of the globe, and rattled global markets sending banking shares down.

Sensex heavyweight ICICI Bank tumbled over 4 percent in intra-day trade before closing 1.6 percent lower at 851.25 rupees.

Bank of Baroda, which has a total exposure in the UAE of around 100 billion rupees ($2.1 billion), saw its shares plunge about 7 percent before closing 4.6 percent lower at 521.40 rupees.

Other stocks in the banking index which felt the heat were Axis Bank (down 3 percent), Kotak Mahidra Bank (down 2.9 percent), Bank of India (down 3.6 percent) and SBI (down 0.4 percent)

Do you think this sector will see more erosion over the Dubai debt repayment crisis?

In Fort Worth, Texas, employees at the massive Cabela's -- a retailer that caters to the hunting, fishing and outdoor crowd -- said this Black Friday seemed quiet compared to last year's.

Early shoppers browsed for guns, fishing rods and camping gear beneath row upon row of stuffed animal heads. New York-listed Cabela's claims to be the world's foremost outfitter for hunting and fishing gear and specials included a pink (for the ladies) Ruger .22 rifle with a 10-round magazine at $259.99, a $30 savings. Various handguns were going for as much as a $120 off.

Business appeared brisk, though there were no long lines at the cash registers and store employees said Black Friday last year was busier. Several shoppers said they were loosening their wallets and buying more this year. Almost all of them said they were using cash or debit cards.

Shawn Scott, 48, has his own company training corporate jet pilots. He said his business had picked up this year after faltering during the depths of the recession. He still has an office in Fort Worth, but his family had moved to a remote part of Colorado and he was stocking up on ammunition that he said was hard to get in smaller towns these days.

"We are in a remote area and so we are stocking up," he said, noting that he was uncertain about the economy and so it was good to be prepared. "We're not survivalists but self-suffiency is important, given the distribution system in the United States today," he said.

Several shoppers came from other parts of north Texas and as far away as Oklahoma City -- 190 miles (300 kilometers) to the north. Walter Overtown, a 59-year-old who said he was in the aquaculture business, came from the town of Bowie in north Texas, about 100 miles (160 km) away. He said he was buying more this year "because my stocks are up." He had a big gun case in his shopping cart.

One middle-aged woman who just gave her name as "Mary" was browsing for sweaters and said she was "buying about the same but I wasn't hurt by the recession. My husband didn't lose his job and he even got a raise."

Amber Pletcher, 29, and her husband Brad, have their own business contracting out to a major tire company and came from Ardmore in Oklahoma, two hours' drive north, with their preacher's teenage daughter. They had also been to outlet stores in the Fort Worth area from midnight and were completing their Christmas shopping. "I think I'm shopping more this year because we are blessed," Amber said as she pushed a shopping cart filling up with outdoor clothing and outdoor-themed toys.

Debbie Braudaway, a 47-year-old school administrator, said she and her husband probably would buy no more or less this year as they both had steady jobs and incomes. She was disappointed that they had not found the knife their son wanted and so they planned to go to another store.

(Photo: A customer enquires about a weapon in the firearms section of a Cabela's store on the shopping day dubbed "Black Friday" in Fort Worth. Reuters/Jessica Rinaldi)

This week, both the Reuters Pictures wire and the submissions to Your View were dominated by pictures of the Muslim festival of sacrifice, Eid al-Adha. This photo from Saad Shahriar in Bangladesh clearly captures the desperation some people feel to get home to celebrate the festival with friends and family. Saad used a slow shutter speed to add a hurried sense to the chaotic scene.

View this week's Your View showcase here.