Clean Energy Blogger

“Making the Impossible Possible – Finding Alternatives to Fossil Fuels”

October 22, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Speech at the 2009 President’s Conference Jerusalem, 20 October 2009

 Translation from Hebrew

This Conference is an opportunity to think about how to make the impossible possible. How do we transform a dream into reality, a crisis into an opportunity? ……Therefore, tonight I would like to talk to you about one of the more significant matters on the global agenda: eliminating the world’s dependence on fossil fuels, particularly oil. We all know the simple truth: dependence on oil endangers the world. It is a threat to our security, our economy and the environment. Our security, because dependence on fossil fuels strengthens the dark regimes that encourage instability and fund terror with their petrodollars. Our economy, because if we don’t develop alternative energy sources, the demand for fossil fuels will increase and the supply will decrease. This will lead to an increase in prices, which in turn will adversely affect global economic development in countries that import fossil fuels – which is the majority of countries. This will cause serious economic harm. Environmentally, because the pollution from fossil fuels poisons the air that we breathe, the water that we drink and the food that we eat. Our dependence on oil harms us and the earth every day, and has done so for decades. To counteract all this, we must set a goal: we must free ourselves from our dependence on oil. I know it seems impossible, but believe me – it is possible. Sometimes all it takes is one or two inventions to make a breakthrough and change the world. Look at salt during the 19th century. Until the beginning of the 20th century, salt was a luxury item used to preserve food. Caravans of camels carried salt through the Sahara Desert, and the salt was traded for gold. Entire empires became rich trading salt, because of the world’s dependence on salt. But two inventions were made. The first was the canning process and the second was refrigeration, and all at once the world’s huge dependence on salt was eliminated. As a result, the salt empires crashed almost overnight. Is Israel the country that will discover the breakthrough that will free the world of its dependence on fossil fuels? I believe so because Israel has two significant resources that provide us with a good chance of doing so. • We have the minds and the hearts. • The capability, the will. Israel is very advanced in the technological fields – agro-tech, hi-tech, nanotechnology, solar energy, battery technologies and renewable energies. Naturally, we are leading candidates to create a global revolution in the clean energy field because of this capacity. Here is the essence of what I’m saying. It’s possible to change the world. The greatest changes in man’s history occurred when there was not only a technological change, but a conceptual change. For many generations, hundreds of thousands of years, man was a hunter-gather. He went to seek out food. He had to go great distances, chase animals to get the protein he needed, or to look for berries or fruit to gather so he’d have the nutrients that were needed for life. These nomadic hunter-gatherer patterns changed one day, because man realized that the food was right underneath his feet. And that was the day that agriculture was born. We are hunter-gatherers for energy. We go to the depths of the oceans. We seek energy from the bowels of the Earth and distant lands. But the energy is right under our noses. It’s all around us. It’s bountiful. It’s in the sun. It’s in the wind. It’s in the water. We just have to tap it.

I think we have the capacity to develop this. Our Nobel Prize winners were mentioned – yes, we have per capita more Nobel Prize winners than any other country, than any other people. We have the second largest concentration of technological capacity; in terms of venture capital, the highest per capita by far. We have scientific publications and we have patents in abundance. So we have the capacity, including in these areas – the development of energy from hydrogen, from water, the development of solar energy and other energies. We have the brains, but we also have the will. Because think what this will mean for our national security. Think of what it would mean for our future if the world ended its dependence on fossil fuels, and especially on oil. By changing this dependence, we can change the world. I don’t know which technology will triumph. Yesterday, Ray Kurzweil, who hasn’t changed a bit in 35 years – I remember you from MIT, Ray – you gave us a course on entrepreneurship and you proceeded to be an entrepreneur, like Shimon Peres, in your own great scientific capacities. Yesterday you said that the efficiency of solar energy doubles every two years. You said that we live in a very brief generation that will develop the energy of the proximate future. If that’s the case, then we’re in good shape. But I say let’s make it happen faster. If we have placed a man on the moon, surely we can harness the energy of the sun.

 What I propose to do today is to establish a nation commission of scientists, engineers, business and government people to set a goal that within ten years, we’ll have a practical, clean, efficient substitute for oil. I think it’s possible. I think we can make the impossible possible. Ladies and Gentlemen, I have never been accused of being a disciple of government intervention. However, sometimes the private market simply cannot create the critical mass of activities needed to make such a big change. Sometimes it needs a push and support from the government. Finding an alternative to oil is a critical matter for the State of Israel must deal with – with regard to geopolitics, security concerns, environmental concerns, to secure the future and to change the world’s order of priorities. Therefore, I repeat my announcement that I am going to establish a national commission comprised of scientists, manufacturers, engineers, businesspeople and government officials, with the goal of formulating a practical plan for efficient development in technologies and engineering in order to replace fossil fuels within the decade. I ask the minds and talents who are here, and around the world, to help.

It is not in our interest alone. The resources need not be exclusively Israel’s. Most of the world shares this interest. But Israel has a strong and clear interest in achieving this. “For out of Zion will come Torah”: We are commanded to bring a new light to the world. God willing, with your help and the help of many others around the world, we will make the impossible possible. Thank you.

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Incentives for each energy source based on current production costs

August 4, 2009 · Leave a Comment

A very important proposal that would require utilities to buy power from small-scale renewable energy producers was suggested according to the New York Times by two Democrats in the U.S. House:

Reps. Jay Inslee of Washington and Bill Delahunt of Massachusetts are preparing a bill that would require utilities to purchase small-scale renewable energy from developers at rates equal to the cost of production plus a premium. The so-called feed-in tariffs proposal would set European-style guarantees for investors that many credit for a recent boom in solar energy in Germany.

 “We have some brilliant Americans with brilliant business plans with brilliant technologies, but they don’t have financing,” Inslee said at a briefing last week on Capitol Hill. “The charm of the feed-in tariff is solid, take-it-to-the-bank security and confidence for the investing community.”

Proponents say feed-in tariffs can be more effective than renewable-energy standards, such as the one included in the House climate bill by Democrats Henry Waxman of California and Ed Markey of Massachusetts, because they offer staggered rate incentives for each energy source based on current production costs. The initial rate that utilities would pay for solar energy, for example, would be higher than payments for less-expensive wind energy.

Backers of the bill also point to the model in Germany, where, after passing its own Renewable Energy Sources Act in 2000, Germany was able to become the world’s largest market for photovoltaic systems and wind energy and more than doubled its supply of renewable energy between 2000 and 2007.

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Indication of what seem to be important for the DOE at the solar business

August 4, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Partnership that includes DOE, Sandia National Laboratories, industry, utilities, and universities will invest in the 5 following projects that deals with complete grid connected systems:

  • PVPowered of Bend will receive up to $3 million to optimize interconnections across PV module technologies through systems integration,
  • Petra Solar of South Plainfield, NJ, which will get up to $2.9 million to improve reliability and resiliency in eight states so that high levels of PV integration can be adapted,
  • Princeton Power of Princeton, NJ will be awarded up to $2.8 million to lower manufacturing costs through integrated controls for energy storage and develop inverter designs,
  • Apollo Solar of Bethel, CT, will get $1.5 million to create inverters using energy storage and two-way communications between solar electrical systems and utilities,
  • Florida Solar Energy Center/UCF, will get up to $1.3 million to figure out how to include higher PV penetration levels in larger electrical systems.

AS much as all these projects are important – they are Not getting us closer to be free from oil addiction…

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“Is the average consumer willing to pay the upfront costs of a new smart grid and then respond appropriately to price signals?

August 2, 2009 · 1 Comment

 Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said at a recent hearing on smart grid.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu worry about security. “If you want to create mischief one very good way to create a great deal of mischief is to actually bring down a smart grid system. This system has to be incredibly secure,” Chu said.

 On the other hand, Chu says that the current grid stands in the way of increasing the use of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar that “will need a system that can dispatch power here, there and everywhere on a very quick basis.”

According to an article at Associate Press today, the “smart grid” has become the buzz of the electric power industry, at the White House and among members of Congress. President Barack Obama says it’s essential to boost development of wind and solar power, get people to use less energy and to tackle climate change. What smart grid visionaries see coming are home thermostats and appliances that adjust automatically depending on the cost of power; a world where a water heater may get juice from a neighbor’s rooftop solar panel, where on a scorching hot day a plug-in hybrid electric car charges one minute and the next sends electricity back to the grid to help head off a brownout. It is a world where utilities get instant feedback on a transformer outage, shift easily among energy sources, integrating wind and solar energy with electricity from coal-burning power plants, and go into homes and businesses to automatically adjust power use based on prearranged agreements.

However, without development of NEW clean energy technologies to transfer over the smart grid and without and robust technologies to protect the smart system against intrusion and evil shut down – the game is not worth the candle……

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Clean Energy “Apollo project” (40 years to the success of the first Apollo project)

July 19, 2009 · Leave a Comment

We should urgently pursue a project for developing  technologies that can make a difference, to get rid of world dependence on oil, with the same vigor that the U.S. pursued the famous “Apollo project” (tomorrow 40 years anniversary).

Every nation on this planet is at risk.  And just as no one nation is responsible for climate change, no one nation can address it alone.  ….And it is why we have gathered again here today. –President Barack Obama. 

 Al Gore:  There has never been a better time than now for making the change we need in dealing with the climate crisis …  This is truly a new era of hope and opportunity for our cause.

We welcome individuals to contribute their solutions, ideas, words, and images.

Stay alert: Details will come soon….Kick-off is expected in February 2010.

www.energysummit2010.com

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U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue to be held July 27-28, 2009 in Washington, D.C.

July 18, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Two-Day Meeting Co-Hosted by U.S Departments of State and Treasury to Focus on Addressing Mutual Challenges, Opportunities and Promoting U.S.-China Cooperation WASHINGTON – The U.S. Departments of Treasury and State today announced that the first joint meeting of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue will be held in Washington, D.C. from July 27-28, 2009.

The Dialogue will focus on addressing the challenges and opportunities that both countries face on a wide range of bilateral, regional and global areas of immediate and long-term strategic and economic interests. This first meeting of the Dialogue will also set the stage for intensive, ongoing and future bilateral cooperative mechanisms. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner will be joined for the Dialogue by their respective Chinese Co-Chairs, State Councilor Dai Bingguo and Vice Premier Wang Qishan.

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U.S. Sen. Harry Reid planning clean energy summit in August in Vegas

July 6, 2009 · Leave a Comment

The senator says the meeting of policy makers and business leaders will be held at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas on August 10, and will focus on the potential for job creation in the renewable energy industry.

Former Vice President Al Gore and Texas oilman and clean energy advocate T. Boone Pickens are scheduled to attend.

The Center for American Progress also is hosting the event.

 

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CPV Status

July 6, 2009 · Leave a Comment

KATIE HOWELL

As the race to create clean, renewable power heats up, the solar industry is focusing on a technology in hopes of producing utility-scale energy. Concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) solar power — which marries traditional solar photovoltaic technology to large-scale concentrated solar power plants — could ramp up utility-scale solar production, advocates say, especially in niche markets. But as with all developing technologies, the effort faces significant hurdles. CPV technology involves magnifying the sun’s energy hundreds of times via lenses or mirrors and focusing it onto small, extremely efficient photovoltaic cells.

By magnifying the solar energy, the technology can reduce the amount of semiconductor material needed for the photovoltaic cell. “In a lot of ways, it’s merging the advantages of photovoltaic technology with the efficiency and ability to capture more sunlight that you get with concentrated,” said Nancy Hartsoch, vice president of marketing for SolFocus, a California company. “You’re basically focusing 650 suns onto that cell, so you’re able to use a very, very small amount of photovoltaic material to capture a tremendous amount of sunlight and then convert it at very high efficiency.” SolFocus is among a handful of companies working on CPV technology. Its model involves a two-mirrored system that directs sunlight down an optical rod onto a small (1 square centimeter) photovoltaic cell. Several mirrored units are placed together on a panel, which is mounted on a tracking apparatus to follow the sun throughout the day.

Other companies are trying the same concept, albeit with slightly different technology. New Mexico-based Emcore Corp., for one, uses optical lenses to focus the energy of 500 suns onto a tiny, super-efficient photovoltaic cell. And other companies are using various incarnations of mirrors or lenses on pedestals, dishes, troughs or carousels to magnify solar energy on tiny, highly efficient photovoltaic cells. A dozen or so startup companies are wading into the field, tweaking designs that they claim will give the best performance, cost the least and be the most reliable. Even established companies like Sharp Corp., which has been in the solar business for nearly 50 years, are entering the field.

 ”I think there’s a huge space [for CPV technology],” said Brad Collins, director of the American Solar Energy Society. “Solar deployment on a utility scale will explode in the next five years.” CPV’s perks CPV technology reduces the need for large amounts of photovoltaic material, which is often the most expensive part of a solar operation. But traditional photovoltaic companies installing panels on rooftops or in small arrays need not worry about the new kid in town. CPV is, by design, better suited for large utility-scale setups. “It doesn’t compete with traditional PV. The applications are different,” Collins said. “One’s going to be a power plant, and one is a distributed resource. It’s not comparing apples to apples.” The technology, however, will compete with large concentrating solar power plants, Collins said.

Concentrating solar power, or solar thermal, involves using the sun’s energy to create heat that can be turned into electricity. Concentrating solar power and CPV are similar on many fronts. Both involve mirrors or lenses to magnify the sun’s energy, both have the capability to produce utility-scale solar power, and both operate best in sunny areas like the southwestern United States. The primary difference is the method used to convert the sun’s energy into electricity. “There are the big concentrating solar power plants — the solar thermal stuff that’s been around a long time — and they use mirrors as we do in a different way,” said Hartsoch, who is also director of the new trade group, CPV Consortium. And as CPV requires less photovoltaic material than traditional photovoltaic technology, it likewise requires less water than concentrating solar power systems. Hartsoch said SolFocus’ design uses 4 gallons of water per megawatt-hour of electricity produced — most of that to clean the panels — compared with about 850 gallons per megawatt-hour at a solar thermal plant. “I guess you could say it’s a drop in the bucket,” Hartsoch said. The technology has some other perks, as well. When compared with solar thermal approaches, CPV provides a qualitatively different approach, typically with lower water usage, greater flexibility in size of installation and the ability to respond more quickly when the sun returns on a cloudy day,” Sarah Kurtz, a CPV researcher at the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, wrote in a recent paper. Hartsoch said SolFocus’ design is particularly appealing because 97 percent of the materials that go into the arrays are recyclable. The vast majority of materials used to create the company’s mirrored system are glass and aluminum, she said. And a cradle-to-cradle analysis of the company’s design found an energy payback time of six months, she said. SolFocus’ arrays can also be placed in irregular patterns to avoid sensitive areas or maximize land usage. And because the systems track the sun’s path throughout the day, “It’s still possible to have crops grow under the arrays,” she said. “It’s possible to have grazing.”

Needed: federal assistance But it is cost that will likely determine whether CPV technology takes off. Hartsoch said SolFocus’ technology is currently more expensive than traditional photovoltaic or thin-film technologies, in terms of cost per kilowatt-hour, but it is on track to be on par by next year and cheaper by 2011.

A report published this spring by Spanish scientists estimates CPV technology will achieve grid parity between 2011 and 2015 as efficiency increases in cells and optics bring about significant cost reductions. But the costs are not likely to drop without widespread deployment, and widespread deployment is not likely to occur without substantial investment in demonstration-scale projects. Kurtz estimates that cumulative CPV investment currently stands at about $1 billion worldwide, but that investment represents a mere smattering of small-scale projects, mostly in Europe. “The battle for a new technology like this, the challenge it faces, is the reason it’s good,” Hartsoch said. “What it brings is high efficiency, low carbon footprint, all those things. What comes with it is the risk of new technology.” Hartsoch said SolFocus and the CPV Consortium would like to see the federal government invest in the technology. It has already invested in research and development of CPV through its labs and grants to startup companies and academia. The next logical step, she said, is for the government to boost the scale-up process. “You’re now talking about small grants … to develop new technologies and some showcasing, but if you want to take this big-scale, there’s one more hurdle,” Hartsoch said. “What can you do to help us assure that it’s safe to deploy?” She suggested federal loan guarantees or installation of CPV demonstration projects on federal properties. While Hartsoch and her colleagues want to see CPV scaled up in the United States, they are concerned that won’t happen without federal intervention. SolFocus has installed about half a megawatt of CPV in Spain and is currently installing a 10-megawatt project in Greece. But the company only has about 10 kilowatts of CPV technology installed in the United States. “So many of these technologies have originated in the United States, but where they’ve really flourished and been taken to scale has been outside of the United States,” said Anita Balachandra, senior vice president of Washington, D.C., consulting firm TechVision21. “They’ve drawn them, and long term, we lose competitive advantage.”

Financing hurdles SolFocus is not the only company having trouble entering the U.S. market. Brian Gibson, director of business development for Emcore, said worldwide, his company has installed more than 1 megawatt of CPV capacity, but most of that is in Spain. Emcore currently is developing three pilot projects in the United States, but each will have a capacity of 100 kilowatts or less, he said. “We are pursuing larger projects at this point in time, but as with any newer technology, there’s going to be reluctance of the financial institution to take risk,” Gibson said. “It’s difficult to get anything sizable financed. We are looking at some 10- and 20-megawatt projects, but from a practical standpoint, you’ve got to do some 1- to 3-megawatt projects before anyone will finance you.” National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Kurtz remains optimistic, though. “In the last 10 years, the solar industry has mushroomed, and the CPV industry is now growing rapidly,” she wrote. “With the overall PV market growing in the gigawatt range, CPV has an opportunity to enter the market with production of tens or hundreds of megawatts per year.” Kurtz added, “This is significant because CPV is unlikely to achieve low costs when manufacturing at less than tens of megawatts per year.”

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Europe may loose PV leadership

July 1, 2009 · Leave a Comment

The U.S. and China will soon pass Europe as the leading photovoltaics region. The factors determining these market dynamics will be price pressure and, in the case of the USA, political support for renewable energies, market researcher Frost & Sullivan finds.
 
MUNICH, Germany — The U.S. and China will soon pass Europe as the leading photovoltaics region. The factors determining these market dynamics will be price pressure and, in the case of the USA, political support for renewable energies, market researcher Frost & Sullivan finds.China will drive down the price for polysilicon and solar modules — with the effect that it will be able to strengthen its leading position as solar module supplier for global markets, a Frost & Sullivan study finds.

“When it comes to solar cells and modules, the Asian vendors are expanding aggressively,” said Frost & Sullivan Green Energy Research Manager Alina Bakhareva. “Low costs and increasingly technical expertise will help China to gain and increase its foothold in the global solar market. In particular European and Japanese competitors will suffer.”

Competition pressure will grow also from the side of the US which increasingly discover renewable energies as a future market. “The USA hitherto have used only a fraction of its huge potential,” Bakhareva stated. “They have all it takes to develop a strong and well diversified solar market.”

Europe clearly will lose market share, despite its advantages, the researcher said. When the competition heats up, the region can build on three important factors: A solid research landscape, competitive production and public incentives. These incentives however are decreasing, and the economy crisis with difficult access to capital will put smaller market participants such as retailers more under pressure than large projects. This will lead to what Frost & Sullivan calls a healthy slimming process. Nevertheless, the long-term trend towards renewable will remain unbroken, in particular towards solar energy.

In terms of local markets within Europe, Germany is seen to continue to have a strong position. Many large manufacturers currently are in the process of expanding their capacity or build new solar plants.

France, in contrast to Germany, tends to focus only on building-integrated PV applications since their operators are receiving the highest benefits due to the regulation situation. “While France achieved good growth rates over the past five years, we have the impression that the market would have developed better if politics would have treated all types of installations equally”, criticizes the Frost & Sullivan researcher.

While Spain also has become a major player in the solar game, public incentives have been reduced; Bakhareva estimates that the amount of new installations in 2009 will decline in comparison to 2008.

Italy and Greece are “sleeping giants”, the market sesearcher finds. The reason is that these countries have a high potential and attractive feed-in-tariffs. Administrative hurdles however keep the sleeping giants from unfolding their potential
 
 Source:
Christoph Hammerschmidt

Frost & Sullivan

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Secretary Chu describes life in a carbon-constrained world

June 30, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Teresa Hansen, Editor-in-chief Electric Light & Power

Dr. Steven Chu addressed industry executives at the annual Edison Electric Institute (EEI) conference and expo held in San Francisco. The secretary, who speaks like the scientist he is and not the political figures who in past years filled the secretary position, talked primarily about climate change. He thanked EEI for supporting the Waxman-Markey climate change bill, which passed the House of Representatives the following day, and emphasized that the industry’s outlook is not doom and gloom, but instead one of optimism and hope. Chu said that “sooner or later we will be living in a carbon constrained world.”

He listed five things that “we need to do to get where we need to be.”

1. Alignment of financial incentives “We need to break the business as usual model of making more money by selling more energy,” he said. Policies that provide utilities with return-on-investment incentives on things other than energy sales need to be developed. He said the DOE’s goal is to create demand response programs that will lower peak demand by 20 percent. Chu said this goal is one of the reasons the department is allotting $3.9 billion in stimulus funding for smart grid investment. He also said that the minimum grant amount is $200 million per grant and the office has made $615 million available for smart grid demonstration projects.

2. Energy efficiency Chu stressed that energy efficiency is important, announcing that the department was making $90 million available to California for state-wide energy programs. As an example of how effective energy efficiency can be, Chu said that efficiency gains made in household refrigerators has saved more energy than all the energy currently produced by non-hydro renewable energy sources in the United States. “Energy efficiency does matter,” Chu said.

3. Renewable energy Chu said that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is designed to double all non-hydro renewable energy generation in the next three years. He said that 20 percent of U.S. energy can be supplied by wind power. For renewables to meet their full potential, Chu said the nation’s grid must be modernized and the smart grid must be developed. He discussed the need for smart grid standards, saying that the National Institute of Standards and Technology has already identified more than 80 of these standards.

4. Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) and nuclear energy The United States leads the world in coal reserves, so much so that little prospecting for new coal supplies is being done, Chu said. He said an international collaboration in CCS technologies is necessary and it needs to occur right away. “Even if the United States turns its back on coal, and I don’t believe it will, China and India will not,” Chu said. He said there is a worldwide goal to have 20 CCS pilot plants operating, which is one of the reasons the DOE is reviving FutureGen. Chu said it is also important to find technologies to retrofit existing plants with stack capture technology. As for nuclear power, Chu said that it is needed for carbon free baseload generation. He said the nuclear waste issue is solvable both scientifically and politically, but didn’t elaborate on how the DOE plans to handle it.

5. Transformational energy technologies Chu said that the DOE has always funded basic science and it provides an opportunity to enlist “knowledge horsepower” to solve the nation’s and world’s energy problems. Because buildings consume 40 percent of the energy produced in the United States, the department and industry should be looking for new ways to design them. He also said the new energy crops being developed for biofuel have much potential and make more sense than corn-based biofuels.

Chu talked about the DOE’s history of employing some of the world’s smartest scientists and researchers, including 30 Nobel Laureates (including Chu himself). He emphasized that the organization is ready and able to address the energy challenges our nation and world face. He also emphasized the urgency of addressing these challenges. “For the first time in human history, science has shown that human beings are altering the destination of our planet. The consequences of what we are doing today will not be fully realized for at least 100 years from now,” Chu said. “One of the ironies about climate change is that the ones who will be hurt the most are those yet to be born,” he added.

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