The best thing about shale and coal seam gas is that it is typically domestically produced.
This has two advantages for the domestic producer : 1) you're not funding a government that might have a different idealogical bent to your own and 2) higher shipping costs mean that it becomes advantageous to locate production closer to the gas source (or pipelines). Costs for Natural Gas vary widely across the world, depending on supply.
A fundamental lowering of energy costs is the best way to get an economy on track because it increases productivity quickly.
A fascinating bit of technology that is popping up around the place is microturbines. These take natural gas as a raw feed, and produce power and heat on-site. They are effectively low-maintenance electricity generators with heat re-use (either for heating or cooling). This can isolate a building/factory/whatever from the grid, and provide a very high reduction in energy costs, making the investment decision pretty easy.
Capstone Turbine is an emerging player in this market - their website is well worth a peruse:
http://www.capstoneturbine.com/
Note: I have nothing to do with them, I just find the tech interesting.
I teach English to a guy who sells these in Japan. Massive boom after the 3/11 quake because distributed power sources are much more resilient to the single point of failure of one. It power plant. He's learning English to make inroads into China.. And it looks to be going very well.
This has two advantages for the domestic producer : 1) you're not funding a government that might have a different idealogical bent to your own and 2) higher shipping costs mean that it becomes advantageous to locate production closer to the gas source (or pipelines). Costs for Natural Gas vary widely across the world, depending on supply.
A fundamental lowering of energy costs is the best way to get an economy on track because it increases productivity quickly.
A fascinating bit of technology that is popping up around the place is microturbines. These take natural gas as a raw feed, and produce power and heat on-site. They are effectively low-maintenance electricity generators with heat re-use (either for heating or cooling). This can isolate a building/factory/whatever from the grid, and provide a very high reduction in energy costs, making the investment decision pretty easy.
Capstone Turbine is an emerging player in this market - their website is well worth a peruse: http://www.capstoneturbine.com/
Note: I have nothing to do with them, I just find the tech interesting.