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Google has invested US$10 million in BrightSource as part of the Internet firms’s RE>C initiative. According to news.com and ValleyWag, BrightSource builds solar thermal facilities and sells the generated electricity to commercial customers and electricity. The generation system is cost-effective during peak periods of the day.

Google’s data center use large quantities of electricity, so Google.org has been awarding grants to suppliers of renewable energy technologies such as solar, thermal and wind.

Google also announced today that it is hiring a Head of Renewable Energy to supervise the company’s research & development programs. The company already invested in eSolar and Makani Power - see this Google web page more details and links.

This New York Times article describes a software project called Viewfinder. The goal is to help Internet users post pictures of buildings and landmarks directly into an application like Google Maps, or into a web mashup application. I discussed mashups in two billso.com articles in 2007:

• 12 February 2008: More web mashups
• 8 February 2008: Web mashups

The usability issues in mashup design can be tricky, as programmers are taking data and applications that might be related but aren’t directly compatible. An app like Viewfinder has to deal with location data, the map images, the user’s image, and a variety of visual issues including perspective and orientation.

See the official web site at the University of Southern California for more details. Here’s a video demo from the site.

From the Honolulu Advertiser and the Honolulu Star-Bulletin: Aloha Airlines shut down its air cargo unit yesterday. Aloha carried 85 percent of the state’s air cargo. I mentioned that this might happen in my billso.com articles of 2 April 2008 and 8 April 2008. Aloha’s passenger business shut down last month, as I discussed in this billso.com article on 30 March 2008.

Hawaii consumers will start felling the pinch shortly, especially on the neighbor islands. Love’s Bakery had to ship 22,000 pounds of bread and other products to Kauai and the island of Hawaii through Los Angeles. Perhaps their Maui shipments used the Superferry, which can handle cargo? Kauai residents who helped stop the Superferry last August may come to regret their decision in the next few days.

Other shippers were turned away at Aloha offices when they tried to drop off fruit and leis. That’s very bad news, as Lei Day is coming on 1 May, and neighbor island businesses planned to ship several thousand leis to Oahu for the event. One large florist had already made contingency plans to ship with United Airlines, but other businesses hadn’t thought ahead.

The value chain

Aloha’s cargo shutdown forces many time-sensitive shippers to find alternate means of supporting their value chain. Newspapers, auto parts and prescription drug shipments to the neighbor islands will also be affected. This Honolulu Advertiser article has more details.

The US Postal Service has made arrangements with Corporate Air to ship interisland mail, but there may be delays.

The Advertiser’s lead article describes how Saltchuk Resources, the Seattle-based holding company that owns Young Brothers/Hawaiian Tug & Barge had signed a letter of intent to purchase Aloha’s air cargo business for $13 million on 27 March. Another company, bid Jupiter Holdings Group bid $13.65 million.

Now the auction process may have to start again, and 400 Aloha employees have been laid off.

James Wagner, Jupiter’s attorney, said the company was prepared to go through with its purchase as recently as yesterday afternoon. But GMAC unexpectedly upped the price to $15 million and required a higher deposit, he said

Saltchuk, meanwhile, pulled its bid last week after Aloha and GMAC changed the terms of the bidding.

“This all has to do with other parties changing the deal without any warning,” Wagner said. “I’ve been in practice over 30 years and I’ve never seen a case end like this.

Related articles on billso.com

• 30 April 2008: Will Aloha Airlines’ contract services unit shut down?

Tomorrow, the Honolulu city council resumes its discussion of the rapid mass transit project. The city council has to make its decision: rail, bus or maglev. Bobbie Slater in the Hawaii Reporter has a good overview of what the meeting might be like.

Despite Todd Apo’s last-minute amendment, magnetic levitation may be eliminated. The German government canceled a major maglev train project in Munich last week, according to Wired. One of the lead contractors in the proposed project, ThyseenKrupp, may sell its maglev business unit to a Chinese company, according to Deutsche Welle. This Reuters article describes the controversy as German politicians and executives scurry to escape blame.

Nothing has been set in stone, of course. The location of the transit stations may shift for many reasons. This article in revealed that the UH-Weat Oahu train stop has been moved 1000 feet away from campus to accommodate existing roads and a planned housing development. Some Salt Lake residents are concerned with noise from the proposed train system. Councilman Romy Cachola managed to divert the system through his district, in exchange for his vote last year.

No Aloha

Mazie Hirono has already spoken to Jim Oberstar about Aloha Airlines. Dan Inouye may hold his own Senate hearing on Aloha. See today’s Advertiser for details.

The state cannot afford to build mass transit or highway systems on its own. Transportation is a public utility, much like the water, electric and telephone systems. As the state’s tax revenues dip, other companies like Hawaiian Telcom are struggling to preserve their revenues.

Federal money is the key

Jim Oberstar is chair of a powerful Congressional transportation committee, and he’s promised US$900M in Federal money for the Honolulu rapid mass transit project. He does like to use his power. It’s part of a long tradition of upper Midwestern congressmen like Walter Mondale, Hubert Humphrey, Jim Sensenbrenner and others.

Currying favor with Oberstar is smart lobbying. Without Federal funds, Honolulu can’t keep up with its traffic problem. The state cannot afford any sort of solution on its own.

I still prefer the big buses to trains. The lone dissenter on the technology panel, Panos Prevedouros, has an article in yesterday’s Hawaii Reporter about the panel’s abbreviated decision-making process.

The UH professor also notes that San Francisco’s BART system faces a US$11 billion bill to refurbish its trains and tracks. Honolulu would face a similar bill after 20 or 30 years of rail service, especially if the tracks start rusting like Aloha Stadium did.

Dksopedia’s article on Honolulu fixed rail has been updated recently, and it has a nice reference list and timeline.

Related articles

• 30 March 2008:Aloha Airlines shuts down
• 20 March 2008: Like a fifth wheel
• 21 February 2008: Delhi catches monorail fever: Is Honolulu next?
• 6 February 2008: Hawaii has highest car ownership costs in the USA
• 5 February 2008: HawTel replaces CEO with turnaround specialist
• 21 June 2007: Mayor: state could pay for airport mass transit line
• 19 June 2007: City council, planners still arguing over mass transit routes, modes

From the New York Times: US universities are partnering with international schools to add global reach to existing executive MBA (EMBA) programs. UCLA awards EMBA degree to students from National University of Singapore, after the students complete residency programs in Los Angeles, Bangalore, Shanghai and Singapore.

HPU’s EMBA program is conducted entirely in Honolulu. Surely there are universities around the world that would send their EMBA students to Hawaii for a few weeks. The University of North Florida is located in Jacksonville, and according to this article, students are willing to attend UNF’s Global MBA program.

The EMBA degree is expensive, but there are alternatives. Henry Mintzberg picks apart MBA programs in his book, Managers Not MBAs. He makes some excellent points. The MBA is not a cure-all or a golden ticket. I earned my MBA in 1988 with limited work experience. I spent a few years in the late 1990s in industry, and I consult on Oahu. My life is like an never-ending post-doctorate in management.