STUFF

LED exec: "LED's will be 10% today's cost in 3 yrs".

Fluorine batteries coming before end of this year. 2-3x the power of lithium, more power on demand.

Toll Bros. opens 1st home w/ installed solar in Calif. Sun Run leases, maintains, insures the systems, owner pays ~$40/mo, saves $50-100.

Green Plains (GPRE) is trying algae production from their co2 emissions.

World's oil production has been effectively flat since '04. And world biofuel supply not much better - 1.8M bls/day equivalent in '10 going to 2.4M in '15.

Nuke el generation - world - is 7.6% of total, not the 14% I reported recently. 370GW.

Congress now is allowing geothermal producers the same energy credit as solar - 10% goes to 30% thru '16. Why they didn't in the first place beyond me.

Looks like the Cape Cod wind development will be coming in at better than $5/W.

TVA plans more nuke, less coal. I guess there's no more room for dams.

A $2B power plant proposed in Calif will use dirty coal and petroleum coke (hard leftovers from refineries) to produce 250MW and hydrogen. More NOX emissions than a NatGas plant. 90% CO2 sequestration possible as liquid injected into nearby empty oil reservoirs. BP a partner. State permit last hurdle.

A doctors' organization joined an environmental group in Texas to advocate for tougher EPA rules on coal ash. And a new coal plant is the first in Tex in 30 yrs "because of NG prices". Um. NG is still under $4 and talk is the shale gas and other new gas finds will keep it low. Let alone a solar plant for the area (San Antonio). Nothing about sequestration there. Finally, Texas' AG is back to court to block Fed GHG limits - "yet to prove that curbing emissions is in the public interest". Give us a break.

Solar in or on buildings (BIPV & BAPV) is estimated to grow over 10x by '16. ~2.4GW and $4B/yr then, global. 215MW in '09.

A bipartisan bill intro'd in Senate to require utilities to produce at least 15% of el from "renewables" (biomass included) by '21. A majority of states already have equal or better standards. Biomass can include a lot of stuff. O well, it's hard to lead elephants to water if they don't want to go.

Texas spending $5B to expand its grid to allow wind from the panhandle to double to 18GW by '13. The "Southern Cross" line to be direct current 400 miles to Mississippi, then up to 3 500kV AC lines to utilities serving 10 states. Pattern Energy Group. Now THAT's more like Texas.