We desperately need a power source that is clean and renewable. The human race needs to overcome this major hurdle so we can live on and advance our civilization.

The question is, do we want to continue polluting our planet so our children and our children’s children will have to deal with the problem, or do we want to solve it now? We need a “Manhattan Project” type initiative to break our addiction to oil and gas. In the past century, our society has made tremendous advances due to cheap energy from fossil fuels, but the time has come to move on.

So what is the answer? We need a cheap energy source that produces energy without producing greenhouse gas emissions. While wind and solar power are two alternatives, wind is unreliable because wind does not blow all the time, and solar power is still in the infancy stage of development. Wind and solar should be part of the big solution, but we need massive amounts of energy to power our cars and maintain our lifestyle.

The best answer is nuclear power. We have the technology right now to power our planet for millions and millions of years. Nuclear power can produce enough electricity to power all of Earth’s homes and cars.

Another benefit of nuclear energy is that it can be used to turn our oceans’ salt water into fresh water. Humans could have an unlimited amount of clean drinking water. And, the fresh water from the desalination process can be used to farm the desserts and boost our food production.

Okay, I know there are many people out there that hate nuclear energy with a passion. People are scared of all the nuclear waste that is produced and fear a nuclear reactor meltdown. What if I told you about a rapidly developing technology called a “Breeder Reactor” that can actually recycle the nuclear waste into more fuel? Not only would we not have nuclear waste to worry about, but we would have sufficient fuel to power our reactors forever. Nuclear reactor technology has come a long way since the incidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. Today’s new reactors are extremely safe, and the chance of an accident occurring is almost impossible.

Breeder reactors use a mixed plutonium fuel that has “fast” neutrons that prolong the reaction and hold more energy. A coolant like sodium is used to control the internal neutron flux in the breeder reactor. breeder reactors open the door to an infinite amount of fuel for the production of electricity.

Many countries like France, Britain and Japan have already constructed breeder reactors and the technology is quickly improving and reaching its full potential. It is currently more expensive to recycle the fuel than just mining it, but the cost will come down to competitive levels as more breeder reactors come online.

Now that we know nuclear power is safe and produces clean energy, we need to focus on getting away from fossil fuels and start developing this clean energy source. I propose a Herculean effort to start building new nuclear power plants around the globe. We need to get our best scientists onboard to take nuclear power to its full potential. Now is the perfect time to launch this project as switching from fossil fuels to clean energy is a massive project that will create many jobs during this period of global recession.

Imagine a planet with no pollution problems and no energy or water shortages. Picture what mankind can achieve with an inexhaustible and safe supply of cheap electricity derived from nuclear power.

Source: Is Nuclear Power the Answer?

A few months ago, I visited the largest coal-fired power plant in America, Plant Scherer. When Scherer operates at full capacity, it produces 3.5 gigawatts of power. A nuclear reactor produces around one gigawatt of power

Itaipu produces 14 gigawatts of power. In other words, it’s four times the size of America’s largest coal power plant… and 14 times the size of most nukes. Itaipu provides 93% of Paraguay’s power and 25% of Brazil’s power.

I can’t explain in words what a beast this dam is. It stretches four miles across and 65 stories high. The iron and steel used to build it would give you 380 Eiffel Towers. It’s one of the seven modern wonders of the world, alongside the Panama Canal and the Golden Gate Bridge.

According to their joint agreement, Paraguay gets 50% of the electricity from the dam. Brazil gets 50%. But Paraguay is a small country. It has a population of 6 million people… versus 200 million in Brazil. So Paraguay only keeps 5% of Itaipu’s power and sells the rest back to Brazil.

This makes Paraguay the largest exporter of hydroelectric power in the world.

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Here’s the thing: Paraguay sells its electricity to Brazil at $3 per kilowatt-hour. Right now, Brazil can sell the same unit of electricity to its private utilities at $150 per kilowatt-hour. There is an electricity crisis in Latin America right now, especially in Chile, and electricity prices are very high. It’s immediately obvious Brazil is not paying Paraguay the right price for its power. And Paraguay is losing billions of dollars.

Corrupt politicians set this low price in 1973… under a 50-year contract. The Brazilians bribed the Paraguayan government to sell them power at a rate that’s far too low. Now, there are calls to change this rate, but who knows if that’ll happen…

The thing is, Paraguay doesn’t have to sell its power to Brazil. It could consume the power itself. I think it would be a great business to set up an aluminum or zinc smelter here. These businesses are electricity-intensive. The problem is, Paraguay is a poor country and has absolutely no industry. It’s all agriculture here.

According to the people at Itaipu, the energy the dam creates every day is the equivalent to 433,000 barrels of oil. That’s about half of what Canada’s Athabasca oil sands produce each day. Except it’s renewable, it’s clean, and it takes no energy to produce.

This cheap electricity is one of the reasons I like Paraguay as an investment. But it’s hard to get your money into the country…

Paraguay has no stock market… only a small bond market. So to invest in Paraguay, you’ll have to go there yourself and buy assets from the locals. That’s a good thing. It means everything is cheap.

In Paraguay, for example, you can buy companies for book value… that pay 45% dividends, according to one broker I met. You can buy real estate with 10% rental yields. And cattle farms with 18.5% cash yields.

Good investing,

Tom

P.S. The Three Gorges Dam in China will be the largest hydroelectric dam in the world by volume. It will operate at full capacity by 2011. China hopes it’ll produce 18 gigawatts. That’s bigger than Itaipu.

Our tour guide wasn’t convinced Three Gorges would be able to produce that much power. “The Yangtze isn’t as powerful as the Parana,” he said. “We’ll see…”

P.P.S. There is talk of a hydro plant twice the size of Three Gorges in Africa, on the Congo River. But it’ll never happen. For a start, only 10% of Africans have access to the grid… What will they do with all that power? And secondly, it will require cooperation from seven different central African countries… and hundreds of billions of dollars in loans.

Source: The Largest Electricity Exporter

Not only are rich money managers piling in to get a slice of the action in the Democratic Republic of the Congo… the outcome of the work could go a long way to solving the African continent’s energy crisis.

It’s called the Grand Inga Dam project – and its set to become the world’s biggest… capable of generating more energy than China’s Three Gorges Dam… and dwarfing Britain’s entire nuclear power output.

The potential for private investors with an eye for a money-maker is mouth watering.

Let me explain…

“Truly awesome”

Currently the Inga Dams tap the enormous hydroelectric potential of the Congo River to provide much of the country’s electricity supply – but there simply isn’t enough.

Only about 6% of the of the country’s population has access to electricity. Blackouts are an everyday part of life and the lack of regular power is hitting businesses where it hurts.

But better days are ahead…

There are major plans to vastly increase the Congo’s electricity output.

Here in London, African politicians and international financiers met yesterday to discuss plans to build the world’s biggest and most powerful hydroelectric dam – the Grand Inga.

And that’s getting us very excited.

You see, the meeting is being hosted by the World Energy Council (WEC) and what they’re talking about is genuinely mind-blowing.

The project would cost $80 billion (£40 billion) and would generate twice as much power as China’s Three Gorges dam.

In fact, the project could boost Africa’s electricity supply by a THIRD and help some 500 million Africans who don’t have access to electricity right now.

Let me put that in perspective for you…

Each of the dam’s 50 turbines could produce as much power as one British nuclear reactor.

It’s truly awesome.

By hooking it up to a giant new distribution system, power can be transmitted across the continent – to Egypt in the north, Nigeria in the west and South Africa in the south.

That could have a massive impact because those countries are the major poles of Africa’s economic growth. Politicians are even talking about exporting power to Europe!

Of course, at the moment the Grand Inga is still on the drawing board… but the World Energy Council is hoping that construction will start as planned in 2014, and begin operations between 2020 and 2025.

But I believe the investment potential of Africa is right here, right now!

“A shot in the arm for Africa”

You see, the idea for the Grand Inga Dam was first floated in the 1980s, but the political chaos in the Congo made it impossible to proceed. But now the WEC are calling for financing to be settled and a feasibility study completed as soon as possible. And the fact international financiers are really pushing for the project is a sign of how much better things are on the continent these days.

Grand Inga would be a shot in the arm for Africa.

About 35 of sub-Saharan Africa’s 53 countries still suffer from regular power failures and that costs Africa about 2% of their GDP, according to the World Bank.

The loss to businesses has been even worse. Big businesses lose about 6% of their revenue and small ones up to 16% as a result of the blackouts.

So, the knock-on effect from the project could be massive. But it’s also part of the massive growth in interest that we are seeing in Africa as international investors wake up to Africa’s growth story.

The shrewdest investment move of the decade?

Here at Profit Hunter, we’re bullish on the outlook for Africa and we’re constantly looking for new investment opportunities that give us exposure to the developments happening across the continent.

We’ve already got an early start with one pan-African conglomerate that should benefit long-term from this massive Grand Inga Dam project.

It’s a fantastic company we believe is poised to benefit massively from Africa’s economic renaissance… and I’d like to invite you to look into it today.

They are heavily into African infrastructure and best of all it’s gone right under the noses of City analysts who are pre-occupied with trying to manage ailing UK/US-centric portfolios.

This is just one of the many live opportunities open to Profit Hunter subscribers.

To discover just how profitable these opportunities can be, take a look at the following report. It reveals what we believe is the next ‘slingshot’ market that could potentially double your money over the next 12 months.

You’ll be able to access this African on signing up.

Regards,

Manraaj Singh
Editor Profit Hunter