with massive oil and gas finds currently under development, the future looks distinctly choppy for the host of renewable and cleantech companies that have emerged in response to high prices and supply-side shocks like the Arab Spring. ... the potential for falling prices and huge expansions in availability from Brazil, Iraq and smaller players as well as shale gas development was the subject of this panel at the US Association for Energy Economics Summit ... the wide-ranging discussion, ... covered evaluations of energy policy impacts, shale gas supply and demand, supply scalability and new energy technologies like hydrogen fuel cells.
"The biggest Brazilian investor in Africa - and one of the biggest investors in the continent from anywhere - is Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, which is usually known as Vale. It is one of the three biggest mining companies in the world and is the world's biggest iron ore miner, controlling about 27% of the global market. It also produces coal, nickel, copper, bauxite, alumina, aluminium and a wide range of other commodities. As a result of the needs of its mining operations, it also invests heavily in power plants, railways and port infrastructure. Vale currently has investments totalling $7.7bn in nine African countries and plans to invest more than $18bn in Africa over the next five years but much will depend on the direction of global markets over that time." "The firm's biggest investment, however, is its Moatize coal mining project in the Moatize Basin of Tete Province in northwestern Mozambique."