Monday, January 31, 2011

STUFF

Eqypt produces 670kbpd oil. Suez/Sumed pipeline moves ~3mbpd. So far no slowdown. Spare Saud capacity being brought into production. 8.2mbpd to 8.4 this year. Beijing's refinering may increase 7.5% this year. Sauds already said 10% more flow to China.

Ocean water flowing into Arctic Ocean from N Atlantic warmer today than in 2k years. Fram Strait 3-5F warmer in last 100 years.

NYC proposing phasing out dirtiest heating oils by '15. 1% of city buildings emit >85% of soot. Could prevent 200 deaths/yr.

PWER gone from 9th to 2nd (11%) in inverter market share in 2 years. SMA tops at 40%. $5.3B global mart in '10. Ribbon cut this morn at PWER's AZ plant. 350 jobs. 1GW capac by midyear.

Tyco getting into LEDs. Bridgelux to supply.

In Australia, some comm carriers experimenting with bundling utility services into cell, cable packs. TX, UK consumers already buying power from retailers. But who will repair the lines after a storm?

Brit Columbia Hydro about to roll out 1.8M smart meters. Speculation ITRI picks up the contract. IFXY then? $930M plan. Install to start this summer.

Armegeddon Solar. 5 employees. Designing lightweight hexagonal solar panel for simpler install, lower cost. Funds from Tyco, DuPont. 18% efficient cells come from Suniva. Cells encased in Teflon (DuPont). $6.50/W installed, $3.50-$4 after incentives, depending on state. 1kw increments. AC systems. About to begin UL testing.

Shell cutting 10 advanced fuel techs to 5 this year. Previous exit from Fischer-Tropsch. Now exiting Cellena algae demo in HI. While in Brazil, they're going 50-50 with Cosan into eth and sugar. Also working with login E in Canada for eth from straw/enzymes. And joint program with CDXS to develop enzymes for eth. CDXS last year raised $78M in IPO, market cap $500M.

In Wichita we have thieves stealing waste grease from Burger King.

And I am out of juice. Catch it up in the morn.

CLOSE

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Dow up 68. NAZ back to 2,700. S&P up 9. Volume light, though, in my opine. So, I think there's more down. And we still have to remember how the '29 market came back. Initially. Though we have larned since then. We should hope.

NPWZ, EVCA up 45. FEWP up 25. LEOM up 21. RNNM up 20. SSHO up 15. PSPW up 12. ALTI, WPNV up 11. FSLR raged back with up 4. PWER up 2.

WBRE down 33. SOPV down 20. HRTE down 18. NENE down 16. SLTZ down 11. EFOI down 9. I would say buy. ZAAP down 8. I'd say look at it. IFXY down 7. BWEN down 4. SSOL down 1.

OPEN

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Market rebounding slowly, volume light. Feels like a wait-see on Egypt.

PSPW up another 50. Back up to 50-day lines. NPWZ up 45. ALTI up 19 on news. SSOL up another 6 on news.

SOPV down 29. New low. AEBF down 28. A drop off their top 200-day to fall through 50-days. NENE down another 10 to $1.50. 200-day lines ~$1.00-1.25. ZAAP down another 9. EFOI down 8, back to $1. Buyable territory. ESLRD down another 7, looks headed for $2.

STUFF

VC funding for clean E rose from $2.1B in '09 to $3.7B in '10.

In '10, US utilities made >$80B of capital expenditures on gen, transmission, distribution. Was double that spent in '04. As much as 20% of coal fleet to be retired in next decade.

China invested $51B in clean E in '10.

India now has ~5MW solar installed. Working toward 1GW by '13, 20GW by '22. They require, though, that cells, modules be made there. But no such limitation on any other E source. Odd.

Cincinnati Zoo installing 1.56MW solar system for $11M. Panels mounted on canopy above parking lot. Will provide 20% of zoo's el needs.

Lebanon can get up to 6GW, ~ 75% of its el use, from onshore wind. They now have target of 12% clean E by '20. Maybe a stable government should come first. They suffered under severe power shortages last summer, among everything else. As much as 96% of their E needs are imported. World Bank estimates the gencap has to double over next 5 years. Spain now playing major role in transferring expertise. Grid el theft, low bill collection levels and graft other probs.

Aide Solar broke ground on 1M sq.ft. expansion of existing 1M s.f. China factory to get to 2GW/yr module capacity by yearend. US HQ in AZ.

Global solar PV demand forecast to be 20GW in '11: Solarbuzz. Latest estimate for '10 is 16GW, 117% over '09. So, looks like demand to fall from 117% increase to 25%.

Iberdrola (of Spain) filed ap for 300MW wind project near Elizabeth City, NC. US HQ in OR. They've installed >12GW around world, >4.6GW in US.

A German person's C footprint is 10 tons/yr. Same as what a large wind turbine eliminates in one day.

Portland Gen El Comp to comply now with state's new mercury emissions regs to take effect in '12.

Mitsubishi Americas got Virginia El & Power (Dominion subsid) order for gas and steam turbines for new power plant near Front Royal. Combined-cycle 1.3GW plant to go online '14-'15. Dominion portfolio >27GW, 12k miles NG transmission, gathering and storage pipeline, and 6k miles of el trans lines.

Friday, January 28, 2011

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Well, that was a day. Not the 3rd Friday of the month. So it wasn't options expirations. What was it? Combo of Egypt and GDP? Or just needing a selloff. I like selloffs. It brings things back into perspective. Like valuations. And fundamentals.

NAZ and S&P down more relatively than Dow. Volume way up, especially for a Friday.

PSPW up 14. SSOL up 13. CBWP up 10. FDEI up 2. LSCG ended up 1.

RNNM down 28. SOPV down 24. NPWZ down 21. SNRY down 12. NENE, ZAAP down 6. EFOI down 5. ZOLT down 4. And FSLR down another 2 after Goldman touted it to get a new high to short. I think we all know this by now. Never trust Goldman. Ever. Except to do the opposite of what they say. Though they switch it up occasionally to keep ahead of the herd.

STUFF

National Fuel Cell Bus Program of FTA awarding $6.4M to Center For Trans and Enviro in Atlanta and $10M to CalStart in Pasadena for 8 projects to advance FC buses.

Detroit Ed to purchase 3.2MW landfill gas-to-el project. Septic tank junk applied to landfill to speed decomp. To meet MI clean E goal (10% by '15 the nearest), Detroit Ed to add ~1.2GW clean E, most to be wind.

Livermore Calif landfill to provide 4.3MW el. Ameresco has 20-yr PPA for the $13M project. Online late '12. Landfill gas ~50% methane.

1.85GW solar PV installed in Italy in '10. They have a feed-in-tariff. 711MW in '09. Data still out, final total cumulative installed could be 3GW. 150k systems. 4GW in pipe. '20 target 8GW. In US, 8-900MW installed in '10. 3GW ~1% Italy elgen.

Central America wind power gen grew 125% last 2 yrs.

Conoco Phillips, NRG Energy and GE Capital formed a $300M joint venture to accel emerging E tech. Plan to distribute it over next 4 yrs to 30 startups. Already investments. Alta Devices improving production economics of advanced materials for high efficiency, low-cost solar. Cool Planet Biofuels has a processer to turn woodchips, algae and crop waste into biofuels. They can ship the processer to where the feed stock is. Each machine can produce up to 1M gal/yr. And Ciris Energy - developing tech to biochemically convert coal to methane at large scale, low cost.

Dow Chem launched effort to measure/track biz value of ecosystems services. 5-yr partners with Nature Conservancy. $10M commitment. "Ecosystems services": $33T or so worth of free delivery of a healthy planet, clean water and air, pollination, habitat, soil creation, pest control, good clime, wetlands, forests, etc etc.

Sauds reportedly have 4mbpd spare production capacity and Iraq may be able to get to 3mbpd by yearend from current 2.4 with the Kurd oil. But, of course, with Egypt now in chaos oil has jumped back to $89. No we can't get a break. That would be wrong.

Drought in N. China "worst in 60 years". Threatens their wheat crop. Beijing has had no precip in last 90 days. And with that pollution. Oy.

Agave (Tequila) being looked at for biofuel. Thrives in semi-arid land. Africa, Australia, Mexico.

Spain got 3% of its elgen from solar in '10. Their wind supply bigger than hydro and coal. Clean E altogether there 34%. Wind and solar 19%. California similar in climate, latitudes and population. Wind and solar there 2%. Spain wins.

Australia cut its solar program's $500M fund to help pay for the flood damage. Didn't cut fossil subsidies, though. What's that, mates? We all feel anguish for your plight there from the flood. But what's that from your government? If the extraordinary weather is a result of the GHGs buildup in the atmos, isn't it perverse to cut funding for the solution? And even more perverse to not cut it for the problem.

And I am out. Good weekend to ye pards.

STUFF

OPEN

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Market down, volume up a little. GDP 4Q 3.2%. I guess more was expected. As mentioned yesterday or day before here, though, the market was looking tired after this 5-month rally. And now January is in and up, so the old axiom - as Jan goes, so goes the year - points to another year up. We might have a month of retrenchment in the averages. Some good news, last I saw oil it was $85, down from $93 at start of month.

So. Clean E. PSPW back up 21. CBWP up another 20. SSOL up 18 on more contract news. HRTE up 12. FDEI up another 2.

SOPV down 30. New low. SNRY down 25. New low. FEWP down 15. NPWZ down 14. LSCG down 7. ZAAP down 6. EFOI down 3.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

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Dow was up 4. Naz 14. S&P 3.

CBWP didn't budge from up 66. SLTZ up 63. Looks like insider buying. OOGI up 53. Just reporting. PSUD up 33. Woo hoo. ECOS up 13. GSPI up 10. PLUG up 9. VLNC, ENOC up 7. BCON up 6. IFXY up 4. ALTI up 3. FDEI up 2.

PSPW down 39. SLPO down 22. HRTE down 18. NGBF down 17. WBRE 14, WWEI 10. ZAAP, LSCG down 5. And ESLRD has gone from $3.60 to $2.50 as expected. Maybe their bottom IF. IF they can pull out. But there are so many others.

Out, pards.

STUFF

Gamesa looks to invest 50M Euro into offshore wind tech in Scotland and 150ME by '14 into offshore in UK. And won contract for 10MW in AZ. April install in Kingman. Also have 2 manufacturing plants in PA, cap over 1GW/y. 800 jobs that could have been in Spain. Alrighty then.

Europe installed 308 offshore turbines in '10. 51% increase yr on yr. 883MW. 2.6B Euros. 9 farms in 5 countries. 2.9GW now installed.

USAF - #1 gov buyer of clean E - to quadruple solar PV use in 4 yrs. DOD spent over $24B on fuel, power in '10. Order out for 25% clean by '25.

Southern Co. (biggest US utility by market value) to invest $17B next 3 yrs to build 2 nuke reactors, a somewhat clean coal plant, NG plants and O, some clean E too. Hooweeyoowee. Expected EPA rules could cost them $700M to $3B through '13. '10 earnings $2B on $17B revs. 42GW gen cap.

CREE intro'd their 60W-equiv household LED bulb. 800 lumen. Uses 10W. A decade of use predicted. Announced same day 131 years ago Edison got his patent for the lightbulb. No price or marketing plan announced yet. Expecting $30-20. LSCG sells 40w-equiv now for $20 and has 60W @ 850 lumes. Plenty of bigboy competition.

Envia Systems has cathode tech (they say) that can more than double capac of li-ion batts. Raised $17M, $7M from GM. China even more receptive to newtech. They're into Innovalight, that can increase solar panel efficiency. And Tigo Energy for solar panel DC optimizers. Other startups also taking a component approach. Polyplus has solid electrolyte, other tech to possibly mass manufacture lith-air batts to hold 10x power of today's batts and have lith-Sulfur tech to license. Porous Power Tech has a way to coat electrodes in batts with a spray-on separator for li-ion batts. Can increase capac, cut manufacture costs, increase reliability. And Zeptor. Former Intel engineers experimenting with cathodes made of C nanotubes. Finally, Atiero - software to monitor/control batt cells.

USDA: >500 biorefineries need to be built by '22 in US to meet added requirements for advanced biofuels. Cost ~$8/gal capacity. Total about $150B. Dudes. That's only 10% of this year's budget deficit! Globally double it. Um, when did we start on 11-year goals? $10T replaces oil. There's a go.

Duke E, Sun Ed announced final phase of 17MW solar farm in NC.

TVA signed 1st Renewable Standard Offer Contract with Waste Management Renewable Energy. 20-yr contract for 4.8MW landfill gas facility.

Exxon, Russia's Rosneft to explore Black Sea. Oil India's giving up 2 blocks in Libya. Exxon says NG to supply >1/4 world E needs by '30. And their wells came up dry near Brazil.

Happy trails to us one and all.

NOON

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Mart up slightly. Volume light (snowstorm). S&P downgraded Japan.

CBWP up 66 on 5k shares. Going through 50-day lines. SLTZ up 35. PLUG up 6.

PSPW down 30 after yesterday's 200+ gain. WWEI down 23, back to bottom. SLPO down 22. MDTL down 16. NGBF down 15. EFOI, ZAAP, SSOL down 5.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

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AQNM down 25. BCON down 6. CABN down 13. CBWP up 36. NCEN thing (see "OPEN"). CCGI down 11. CCTC up 10. CPTC up 9. ECOS up 15. EVSI up 11. MDTL up 31. NCEN up 10. NPWZ up 16. OOGI up 30. OOIL up 14. PSPW up 254. Yep. 254 (also mentioned in "OPEN"). PSUD down 25. PWSV down 10. SNRY up 26. SSOL down 16. TMEN down 37. URRE up 14. WWEI up 30.

STUFF

A joule is a metric unit for E expended by a force of 1 Newton for 1 meter = 1W/sec. Exa is 10 to the 18. I came up with ~5o quadrillion watts hitting dry ground every second on Earth. Bottom line of the thing, though, is we the world are now capturing 1/100th of 1% of the available solar energy hitting dryland. If that's close to reality, I would like a woo hoo.

FSLR has been granted an investment license in Vietnam for a $1B manufacturing plant to be operational by midyear. 4 lines to produce 238MW/y. FSLR also to build another plant in US.

In case you missed the President, he proposed 80% clean power by '35, a $4B cut in fossil subsidies for clean E research. And wants 1M EV's on roads by '15. I guess that's the middle road. This year's deficit projected to be another $1.5T. We'll be Japan before morning in America if we don't get up earlier.

Startup Optiwind aiming at customers who spend $40-200k/yr on el. Towers are 180 ft, using hydraulic system, instead of crane, to raise. 5-bladed fans mounted around a cylinder instead of big blades. Cylinder accelerates the wind, keeps the noise down. No gearbox, pitch control or other stuff of the big turbines. Cost now ~$2.50/W, goal of $2, which would be 8-10 cents/kW. Fan blades injection molded, further reducing cost. Needs only class 2 wind. Placed first unit on New England dairy farm. 4 more sites permitted. Comp going for 2nd finance round.

France on Tuseday invited interested parties to bid on 10 billion Euro offshore wind projects. Going for 3GW.

After Tunisia turmoil, now we have Egypt. A 30 year president.

'10 home sales lowest in 47 years. 47 from 10 is...
... when we didn't have nearly as many homes and, O yea, JFK was assassinated.

7 years of start stop. Future Gen 2 in IL "back on track". What state was our President a Senator from? Partners: DOE, Future Gen Alliance and American Energy Resources. In '03 it was a $2.4B power plant. Then it was scaled back to $1.4B for all of 200MW with the US putting up $1B. Now, Babcock & Wilcox and Air Liquide want in. For 125 permanent jobs. What's back on track?

Baltimore G&E says 200k customers prefer clean E suppliers.

Sorry if you had to get through the last draft.

OPEN

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Dow broke through 12k, NAZ 2,700. Fed wait.

PSPW up 69 on merger news. NPWZ up 33. OOIL up 25 on yesterday's news of first sale. SESI up 16. NCEN up 14 on news of their stake into CBWP. ECOS up 12. ZAAP up 5 more.

TMEN down 34. SSOL, CABN, WWPW down 10. NENE down another 5, passed through 50-day lines. JASO down 5 on downgrade. Knocking on their 200-days. EFOI down 3.

Since I started this post, Dow fell back below 12k. I have a feeling we're due for some correction. Straight up, practically, since Sept (20%).

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

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Flat mixed mart. Volume picked up.

RNNM up 44. SLPO up 23. Missed them both? Me too. NPWZ up 9. ZAAP up 8.

WWEI down 29. Gutcheck again. PSPW down 27. SNRY down 25. SSHO, SLTZ down 20. CYBL down 18. SSOL down 7. ACPW down 5. FSLR hit a new high and now down 4. Did I mention Goldman yesterday? How much money did they make on that little upgrade by shorting the peak? You must understand as it took me years to that they are the bastardos that manipulate the market for their own gain. As are the others. And so we pluck on. To happy motoring land.

STUFF

Spain's solar sector to sue their gov for the drastic reductions in FITs retroactively. New tariff regime will cut payouts for ground-mounted solar by 45% this year. I guess that's what happens when your gov is getting bailed out by the EU. 25% redux for large roof-mounted systems. 30k jobs lost already.

Lloyds and Chatham House: oil supply crunch appears likely ~'13. $200/bl not "infeasible". DOD ('10) report: By '12, surplus oil prod capac could "disappear". As early as '15, shortfall could reach 10mbpd. IEA ('09): world's heading for catastophic E crunch because most of major oil fields in world have passed peak production. Bell ringers?

Meester Obama to call for a 5-yr spending freeze tonight. I assume on fed spending. Wow. Has change come huh?

Every year 1.3M exajoules of solar E hits dry ground on Earth. As soon as I find out what an exajoule is, I will let you know. Anyway, we now use 487 exajoules. That's a little easier math. But don't ask me to do it. Not right now.

Research funded by USAF has discovered a batt tech that can power a laptop for 30 years w/out a recharge. GE has sodium batt tech for locomotives.

Biofuels Digest: global advanced biofuels (no food) capacity to reach 4B gal by '15 based on 13 comps' announcements (some I've herd of). Major projects to come online in '11: Enerkem (in stuff yesterday I think), Ineos' 8M gal/y bio waste to eth in FL, 10M gal renewable diesel from LS9 in FL, Neste Oil's renewable diesel project in Rotterdam and 5M gal US Biofuels project in Calif.

Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) systems. Capturing waste heat. In Australia, heat capture from timber plant to power kilns to dry the lumber. ORC systems use thermal oil or silicon-based oil that powers turbines @ lower temps needed for steam. Stacks - or pipes - at coal or nuke plants can recover waste heat. We can go from 30% efficiency to 80%. If we just try. This should be in gov incentives, subsidies as much as fossil fuels. You think?

Biomass Crop Assistance Program began June '09. Ever herd of it? Me neither. Offers matching pay for producers of eligible biomass crops who sell to qualified biomass conversion facillities. Reality was wood waste was redirected from wood products (4X8 wallboard and cheap furniture I'm guessing). Revised BCAP announced in Oct'10. And I can't even report what the heck they revised it to because I just don't have that much governmenteeze in me to interpret it.

And, by the by, looks like Lebanon will be in the hands of Hezbollah. Happy motoring.

OPEN

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Market down. Volume light. Consumer confidence up, some Q reports a little short.

SSOL shot up at open, now down 16. PSPW down 32. CYBL down 24. WWPW down 15. GSPI down 12. NENE down 7, broke below $2, dealing with their 50-day lines.

LMCO up 20 on news. Another punch through 50-days. NPWZ up 18. VUOC up 10. ZAAP up another 7.

Monday, January 24, 2011

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Dow up another 100. Volume kinda light. And clean E stayed pretty much under the radar.

SSOL up 74 though. OOIL up 10. FSLR, TSLA up 6.

RNNM down 35. HLXW down 22. CCGI down 12. And ZAAP. Could have made 25% in an afternoon. I thought about publishing "buy them" at noon. But I don't think any of you would have. I didn't switch out meself. We have to be more aggressive. Money is something we want more of. Pretty sure we all agree there.

STUFF

Well, truth is, I'm a little steamed because I saw ZAAP at $1 at noon and didn't buy it and now it's $1.20. Let alone everything else.

Western Mass El planning their 2nd solar facility. 4.2MW.

A group of Northwestern U. scientists have come up with a new nano material that enables 14% of waste heat to be converted to el. Rock salt and lead telluride. Finland already gets 1/3 of its el from waste heat from heavy industry with state financial incentives. Here in US, some states or local utilities have such incentives.

EPA said '01 and onward cars and light trucks can safely use 15% ethanol blend. 62% of total vehicles (of that class, I presume). But stations will have to put in the pumps.

Crude prices in Asia and Africa hit $100 Friday. We're down again to $88 they tell us. And now talk of Saud production increase.

Chief economist @ IEA says we're headed for 3.5C degree rise by '20, not the 2 degrees needed to stem self-generating warming. Or something like that. Because governments aren't keeping up with their own rhetoric. "Almost all the E infrastructure we'll be using in '20 is either in place or in final investment stage." Really?

Davos week in lovely Switzerland. Happy skiing. Worldwatch's State of the World soiree in DC. State of the Onion address on the morrow. And what came out of China week?

Traffic congestion cost ('09 dollars) up from $24B in '82 (nadir of that recession) to $115B in '09 (probable nadir of this recession in terms of employment). Wasted fuel in '09 ~4B gal = ~130 days flow through Alaska pipe. We can do better. Right? Change work shifts, decentralize cities, work from home? Local coordination? Jeeze leweeze. Sure we get up in the morning and go to work and come back after 8 hours. Come on.

Last week the US gov committed to $571M of loan guarantees or grants to 3 biofuel comps. $250M USDA loan guarantee to Loskata to make ethanol from wood at a 55M gal/yr plant they say for $1/gal. $80M USDA loan guarantee to Enerkem to make 10M gal/yr of eth from muni solid waste. Already got $50M DOE grant. $241M DOE loan guarantee to Diamond Green Diesel, a joint venture between Valero and Darling (yep, they sure needed the money) for a 137M gal/yr of biofuel from animal fats and used cooking oil. USDA to announce rules soon to make more loan guarantee money available that originates from the '08 farm bill.

NY regulators OK'd NRG's replacement power plant in Queens. 600MW installed in '69 to be 1GW. $1.4B. Will exhaust 12% of the pollution. 1st phase online by '13, rest by '15. Jobs. Con Ed and other retail utilities buy el from comps like NRG. I never knew we had wholesale el producers. You?

Pepsi wants to be fossil free by '23. Do I detect an ad theme here?

XTreme Power has batt-based E storage for wind, solar farms that also gives grid balancing services. Networked Grid Conference also somewhere this week. Could add revs to farms of half cent to 2 cents/kwh. Competing with NG plants. Latest deal in HI. HI wants to shift from getting most of its power from diesel generators (can you believe that?!~) to 40% from wind, solar. Ever been to HI? Wind and solar they got. Key to their batts is almost no el resistance (superconduction). Originally the early 90's EV tech. Man, you want to talk about energy policy in this frackin country? And the old batts can be recycled. Problem is the cost of production. Here in the beginning.

Honeywell and Haier Group, China's largest home appliance comp, are joining up to develop high E-efficient stuff for homes to mass trans.

US sales for small wind (100k or less) in '09 up 15% to $82M, almost 10k units.

Me out.

OPEN

Market up. Volume a little off.

OOGI up 73. Passed through 200-day lines. SSOL up another 47. More contract news. WWEI up 30. NPWZ up 18. TRKP up 11. HRTE up 10. FSLR up 3 on Goldman upgrade. Be careful, Goldman might be setting it up for shorts. At new high area. BCON up another 3. Their commercial operation begun in NY. Over their 200's.

CCGI, PSPW down 27. EVOMY down 19. SLTZ down 17. ZAAP down 9. BYDDF down another 3, on their "200" lines on 3-year chart.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

STUFF

2 more years before NG prices rise. 3 reasons. Production hasn't fallen off despite price fall 2 years ago. Consumption won't increase much despite econ rebound. And producers are building a backlog of wells drilled, yet not in production.

Venezuala now claiming more oil than any country on earth. 297B bls. '09 exports decreased 6%.

2 Italian scientists say they have cold fusion. Nickel+H->Cu+E. To start shipping units next 3 months, mass production by end of year. M hm. El gen under 1 cent. Okeydokey. No nuke waste. I guess we shall see.

100% clean E power gen for world possible in 20 years says a study. Would only take 4M 5kw wind turbines, 1.7B 3kw solar roofs and 90k 300MW solar power plants. What's the prob, folks? Plus some wave, tidal and geotherm. O yea, and a 5-fold increase in rare earth supplies, especially neodymium (for the turbines). They left out nuke. Rare earths not needed for solar. Yet. But tech might eliminate the need. OK. That gives us clean air. But my think is first priority is eliminating the need for oil. Vehicles. We need non-food-based biofuels and EV's first. The price of oil is our first problem. But the cleaner our el, the cleaner our EV's. Let's go git it.

Net flow into muni bond funds - and prices - in steep dive since Nov (when I warned me brother). Now negative $3M/week. Yep, you might think that's insignificant. We'll see.

Last 2 years commodities have gone up 45% even with NG falling. Inflation is coming. Once it gets started it is a hell on wheels. Um, anyone remember 1980? Official v. unofficial inflation. Food. Gasoline. You know the drill. Hedge funds have increased their leverage to w/in 10% of the '08 peak. Since Lehman surrendered, up 43%.

Greenspan, the great Alan: "we've had an extraordinary rise in profit margins." G, with putting all the ex-employed on unemployment, who could see that rise? "This is coming to an end" Sir Alan added. Probably because they can't squeeze anymore out of that plan. Meester Greenspan said more, when asked about interest rates: "we are in the position we were in '79". Ut oh. Official was 14% in '80, 30% in Japan. And, o, by the way, GW Bush never vetoed a spending measure. In fact, when was the last veto we've ever seen?

Projected oil demand 89mbpd in '11. Supply fell to 88 last month. What do you think?

Friday, January 21, 2011

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Volume tamed down. Usual Friday. Dow up 50, NAZ down 14. Is that right? Is that really right?

NPWZ, WWEI down 18. Don't think I've ever seen WWEI this low. But 21k shares?! Nonsense if they're really in business. And NPWZ. They were supposed to be one of the big stars last year. Just shows to go ya. GSPI down 15. ALTI down 11. Back on 3 of their lines. ZAAP down 10. Could be short-term double bottom. EFOI back 5. Back on their 50-days. FDEI down 4. All the way back down to where they started the new year after a 50% gain the first few days. You just have to learn how to love this market. Somehow. OK, I'll go out on the limb again and call it a buy. Of the year. $1B in the pipeline valued at what, just over $3M?

PLUG was up 9. FCEL up 7. PSPW was up 6. LSCG up 5. VLNC up 4.

Stuff.

STUFF

As in imagining Dylan singing "stuff" in G. The lilt, intonation and affectations in the voice. Whatever. Friday. What can I say. Babes in the bars tonight. Woo hoo. Stuff.

In '10, China spent $51B on clean E investment, $10B more than last year (25%, not the 30% reported previously).

China comps now have half the global $45B/yr wind power market. India wants to get to 20GW of solar by '20. Japan was once #1 PV solar maker. They want to get back to that, they say. Still ahead of US with 2.6GW installed v. US' 1.6. Japan removed solar subsidies 3 yrs ago. In '10, China and Taiwan made 49% of solar cells in world, Japan 14%, N. America 6%.

28 solar-powered street lights were turned on in Kabul Dec 29.

Russia to lend Belarus money to build their first nuke plant.

Emission permits (EU) theft estimated at $37M. Company employees involved in system among suspects.

Dallas council deferred on a drilling permit (fracking) for Exxon subsid XTO Energy. Dallas.

Bloom E raised another $100M. They now make ~ 1 fuelcell/day. Prior to subsidies (which can get as high as $8.25/W in Calif - program can run out of money), their "box" sells for $12.50/W. $10 for the box, $2.50 for the warranty.

Operation & maintenance of wind farms will be $10B biz by '16: Lucintel. End of this year, $40B of wind projects come out of warranty, requiring inspections and 3rd-party ops & maint (O&M) going forward. 3MW turbines 15% less costly to op and maintain than 1MW turbine.

NuScale Power, a startup developing small modular nuke plants, has suspended ops due to cash crunch. $35M previously raised. 45MW modules grouped together could reduce construction costs by 1/3. Babcock & Wilcox and Sandia have their own modular reactors in devel. Who wins that game?

An undergrad's thesis at Purdue found 1/3 to 1/2 of utilities' call centers have no clue how to answer questions on smart grid. Someone hire that undergrad.

NRG announced their 290MW Agua Caliente (Yuma County, AZ) solar PV project (to be largest in world) received an offer of conditional commitment for a DOE loan guarantee of up to $967M. NRG bought the project from FSLR last month, if we remember. It has a 25-yr PPA with PG&E. '14 completion projected. Fault ride-through, dynamic volt reg new techs to be included.

Dylan singing "stuff". OK. It's Friday. Happy trails all.

OPEN

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Market up. Volume up.

Not many large moves yet. PLUG and SSOL up 10. HOKU, FCEL up 7. LSCG up 4.

GSPI down 22. EFOI down 5. BCON down 4. ENOC back to $23, down 3.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

CLOSE

Dow down 2. Naz down 21. What the ferc is that?

HRTE down 30. SOPV, CCGI down 19. TSPG down 18. WPNV down 14. XSNX down 12. WWEI, ECOS, BIOF down 11. PLUG, KNDI down 9. KNDI at some juncture maybe. Like day lines. CSKH down 8 on volume. Who knows but Goldman and Sachs. VLNC down 5. EFOI down 4. ENOC down 3. FDEI down 2. ELON down 1.

SLRE up 77. 5k shares. CYBL up 17. Substantially coming back it looks. LEDs. LSCG up 14. LEDs. SNRY up 13. NPWZ up 12. SSOL up 7.

STUFF

$243B spent on world cleantech investment in '10, China increase 30%. $186B in '09. Up 33. Est. $500B/yr needed for '20 peak of C emissions. I guess we're gittin thare. But not thare yet.

Scientific Conservation (private corp) raised another $15M. Software that figures out what's wrong with a building by looksees at thermostats, AC, CO sensors, etc. and sends out commands. Algorithms from space shuttle development. Comp wants 10-fold growth this year. Who doesn't. ENOC, COMV, others have similar product.

Wholesale el prices in US fell by as much as 50% in '09. Did bills drop? Hay, did the bills drop and I didn't know about it? That's according to our FERC head. :) I know, fercheads. He also says that E storage doesn't fit neatly into distribution or transmission pegholes, which is how utilities parse out their rate bases. Pacific NW could be the game changer on that with all their new wind power. FERC accepting "storage as generation" proposals.

GE announced round 2 of Ecomagination. $100M up for grabs. "Powering your home". Soliciting best ideas in E efficiency, integrating clean E in residences.

Growing realization that the E industry has to use plain English in rolling out smart grid. "Peak rates", "Shoulder rates", "Off-peak" rates, "Tiered rate pricing", "Dynamic Pricing", "Critical peak pricing", et al. should be "high, medium, low", "real-time pricing", etc. Comprehensible for the lowest common denominator standardization the idea. Duh.

Russia building 15 of 60 nukes now in construction in world. Russia has 31 nukes of their own, plans to increase that to 59 in near future.

EC halted trading in GHG permits after theft of permits in online attacks.

Solar firms frustrated to heck with permitting process that varies municipality to municipality. Adds avg $2,500 per install. ~80k US households have installed. DOE working the problem.

Germany to cut solar subsidies 6 months earlier than planned. Rates to be lowered 3-15% for new installs. Expect 15%.

Bloom E starting to market as an el provider. Instead of $750k investment for 100kw box, customer costs drop 5-20%. Their fuel cells convert NG to el through ceramic plates coated with zirconium oxide inks. SOFC- solid oxide fuel cells. But what if NG prices go up? We're pretty sure that will happen, right? But Calif's at 14 cents/kwh. National avg 10.5.

Lemnis Lighting (founder a grandson of founder of Phillips) expects their LED bulb to be under $10 in 18-24 months. Lasts 20 years. Private comp., of course.

Bill Gates was in $60M round for Neos Geo Solutions - sensors, software to see where to drill for oil/NG or mine for rock. Goldman in too.

Well, that's the look see pards. Happy trailerings.

OPEN

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Market down. Volume up. Brazil rate hike, China grew 10% in '10, our leading indicators up 1% in Dec, jobless claims lower than expected.

SNRY up 30. LSCG bounced back, up 11. EFOI up another 6, pushing past last 200-day line. BCON up 5 more, same story.

HRTE down 22. Knew that was coming. TSPG down 15. PLUG down 6.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

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I have stuff. But has to wait. For this.

SSOL up 97. Their day to be sure. Jeeze Leweeze Johnson. Over 100M shares traded. Holy comeoleee. PWSV up 49. Hay, that's not too bad either. RVBF up 30. Not a bad day. LMCO up 22. NTCXF up 21. HRTE up 20. CYBL up 16. EFOI up 15. WWEI and BCON up 12. XSNX up 11.

LSCG down 24, Buy it. SESI down 18. CREE down 14. Wait out the bottom. Or buy now. NPWZ down 14. If they are for real, buy them now there. BFRE down 13. CCGI, ECOS down 12. PSPW down 11 after a big morning gain. PLUG, GSPI down 10. FCEL down 8. CSUN, BWEN down 5. And COMV possibly making a stand.

OPEN

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Market down. Volume normal. China week.

SSOL up 32. Up to 50-day lines. LMCO up 22. 50-day lines. SOPV up 18. Near 50-days. NTCXF up 18. Jump up to last 200-day line. Same with EFOI, up 14. LEDs. WPNV up 9. BCON up 8 more. Also up against 200-days.

CREE down 13. Missed analysts projections and lowered guidance with Asian inventory backlog. PLUG jumped up at the open, now down 6.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

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Market definitely up. Strong volume. All that overseas investment coming back home? I think we shall see.

SSOL ended up 39 on 51M shares. That's the cat's pajamas, huh? OOGI up 36. OK. ECOS up 35. WNEA up 26. Cutoff was at least volume in 10's of thousands. PLUG, HRTE up 25. Um, of the 2, I must say I would go with PLUG on any comeback. Oops, BLQN also up 25. VUOC, RVBF up 18. Follow VUOC.

GSPI up 17. VSPC up 16. WEST up 14. CYBL up 13. UBRG up 12. SSHO up 11. SESI, XDSL up 10. CSIQ up 9. Watch or buy that. JASO, HYGS up 8. BCON up 7. LSCG up 6. FSLR up 5.

CCGI down 27. XPGH down 12. XSNX down 11. PSPW down 10. SOPW down 9. ZAAP down 8.

STUFF

Iran crude reserves up 9% to 150 billion barrels. At current production of 4.2mbpd, they're good for at least 98 years. And they took over OPEC presidency this year. Well, so much for the counter revolution, huh? Yea, I bet the people are happy.

Alaska pipeline restarted. 275 barrels mopped up. Only talking 6-7kbpd.

FSLR cleared the last regulatory hurdle to build a 230MW plant in LA County. Construction starts Q3, completion by end of '13. 400 jobs in build. 2,100 acres.

Intematix simplified LED manufacturing, separating LED chips into phosphors and chips. May IPO next year. More economical. LED chips emit blue light. Phospors convert it into white light.

US wind industry now 85k domestic jobs. And now the AWEA (Am Wind E Assoc) has approved the 1st 3 wind tech training programs. Iowa Lakes Community College, Columbia Gorge and Texas State Tech in Sweetwater, home of most wind turbines in the whole wide world.

New study: after 4 yares of college, 36% learn almost nothing. Students 50% less likely to study today than in previous decades. Professors spend too much time on research. Most employers consider college degree a prereq. Digest all that, uh? All I gotta say is yup.

Ener1 (HEV) scored their China deal and fuel cell stocks are taking off. Go infiltrate Goldman Sachs, me college students.

More subsidy cuts coming from Germany to the solar industry.

VNDB up today. Developing cellulosic-based power for auto/av/(probably boats). Paper batt tech - cellulose-infused aligned nanotube electrodes. Or something like that. Cool.

OPEN

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Dow up 40, volume way up. Naz pulled down on Apple I think.

OOGI up 81. SSOL up 45 on a small install contract. PLUG up another 18. I didn't figure on that much push. Double already this month. HRTE up 16. BCON up 12, big volume. Up near their 200-day lines. ECOS up 11. VUOC up 10. HYGS up 9, bust through last 200-day. LSCG up another 4.

PSUD down 26. CCGI down 24. SSHO down 19. PSPW down 10.

Monday, January 17, 2011

STUFF

To further compete with coal and NG, wind turbines now have optical sensing tech to report machine's ongoing health, adjust blades, etc. ~$30k/turbine. National Instruments, Micron Optics some of the comps.

EnviroMission (EVOMY) got $30M debt/equity for design/engineering of solar tower in AZ, with a PPA commitment from SoCal Public Power Authority. Utility-scale tower needs to be 3k feet high to use temp differential to drive turbines at the bottom of the "tube" with a flanged base over a mile in diameter. Pretty neat. 200MW unit might cost $700M to build. A lot of steel-reinforced concrete to calculate into overall GHG reductions, though. But pretty neat tech.

Lebanon, Tunisia governments in chaos, Sadr back in Iraq and now Baby Doc back in Haiti. Oy. Australia under water, Brazil mudslides, birds fall from the sky, fish dead in water, crabs swept up on beach. Wonders never cease. Just working on a song.

Thermal coal (utility grade) now $140/ton, up 40% last 12 months. That's where we get most of our electric. If your bills haven't gone up, they probably will. Which makes clean E even more competetive. Silver linings.

In 1904 a bushel of wheat (60 lbs) cost ~ a $20 gold piece, which had an oz of gold. I love history. That was the typical price until the mid-60's (v. gold). Today, wheat at $7.75/bu., an oz of gold can buy ~187 bushels. Lb of wheat today ~13 cents. A lb of wheat makes a loaf of bread (with other ingredients, o' course). Cheapest bread I know of is at the day-old bread store for under a buck. (Not worth eating). Just a little story from a guy who helped produce 18M pounds of hard red winter wheat in 3 years. And busted the ice in the water tanks for the cattle in 40-below wind chills and took down fence in a blizzard and put up fence on hot summer days. Pards, if the experience ever presents itself to ya, take it. O yea, sprayed the hell, too, out of those Russian wheat aphids attacking our crop in the late '80's. The highest historical price for wheat was during WWI. Though maybe it was higher during Joseph's days in Eqypt. Anyway, we were glad to get $3 wheat in the late '80's. But, alas, all this nothing to do with clean E except that it takes E to make wheat and bread and mine, glean, and smelter gold. It also takes E to put this stuff up onto this blog and store it forever. So I really should be cutting it short. I just want to say you gotta need the dough to make the bread.

Non-OPEC crude production increase was just over 1mbpd (million barrels per day) in '10. Projection for '11 is 200k and flat in '12. EIA expects OPEC to pick up the slack (for world recovery demand) and oil to avg $93 in '11. Kuwait says world econ can take $100. Sure, they would say that.

We Energies' 2nd Oak Creek coal unit now online in Wisconsin. Over $2B, 5 yrs in construction. "Among 5 most efficient coal plants in country". I would hope so. The utility also had to commit to a biomass plant, so they're putting all of $255M toward that, which now is on state regulators' plate.

Solo Power, a Calif maker of thin-film solar cells and modules, to locate another plant in Oregon. Initial phase 75MW. 170 jobs. 300MW eventually. $340M cost (I'm thinking just the 1st phase. Not sure, though. May be the whole 300MW.) A little rusty on that. Up to $40M could come from Oregon (loans, tax credits). And possible DOE loan guarantee.

Maine local groups got state legislators to submit bills to slow down wind turbine placements on their mountains.

If you want to give high school kids an idea: Ecotech Institute, outside of Denver, just opened up - 1st and only, so far, college solely focused on clean E trades/industry.

Sempra Generation plans to build another $46M solar PV plant in Boulder, CO. Construction in late '12. Comp also opened a 48MW plant in Boulder in Dec.

Texas lost the 3rd-round in their legal fight to halt Fed regulation of GHG's. Every other state is going along.

ICF Intl, a leading E consultant, projects 20% of US coal fleet could be retired over next 10 yrs in response to new regs.

Hawaii's new FIT for solar PV not having big impact. Yet. Think about it. They're laid back, pards. I'm tellin ya. Ben there.

Icahn has agreed to take independent power producer Dynegy private for $665M cash, $4B debt assumption. He already owns 10%, options on 5%. Expects NG prices to "recover". Could sell off plants. 12GW in production on east, west coasts and IL. Utilities lately have been going private. Hm. Regulated monopolies going private. Hm.

Arch Coal bought a stake in a controversial (dredging, legacy) west coast terminal to ship its Powder River Basin coal to Asia. Terminal on former Alcoa aluminum smelter site with 5M ton/yr capacity. Arch could also ship from CO, UT mines, plus a MT mine in development. They also said 4Q profit fell short because of mining and rail problems in central Appalachia. 2nd largest US coal producer.

Sask Power (Saskatchewan) added a peak-load 138MW NG station in Dec for $250M. (Oil sands territory). Increases total gencap to ~4GW. 3 GE turbines operated through sat remote control from Regina. Helps out the wind on the grid. Wind goes down. 261MW station in construction.

Turk Power (TRKP) signed their 1st project - a consulting contract for a 40MW wind plant in Turkey.

ENOC got a $10M contract with a MA-based grain processor.

WI Gov Walker proposing new restrictions on wind development. How close can wind projects be to residences? Bona fide issue.

Salem's Doyle Sailmakers working on harnessing ocean currents for power.

Maine's supreme court hearing arguments on 2 proposed wind farms.

DOI's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (formerly Mineral Mngmt Services) has asked wind E comps for notices of interest on fishing waters south of Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket. Well, there was once a girl from Nantucket...

Range Fuels' cellulosic ethanol plant in Georgia "temporarily" shutting down. "Lack of investment capital". Burns wood chips, some other biomass maybe. Ever hear of Georgia Pacific?
So far a small quantity eth produced. They received the 1st-ever loan guarantee for a commercial-scale cellulosic-eth plant from USDA 2 yrs ago plus grant from DOE. Got $300M in funds since groundbreak in '07. But not enough now to expand to commercial production. Also plant "technical problems". Hm. Just a hm. If you're going to rip off the gov do it big. Just a what the hay. And the rest of the story may come later.

LA Metro retired their last diesel bus. Is that beautiful? Now ~2.2k buses run on NG, 1 on el, 6 on gas-el hybrid power. Eliminates 300k lb GHG's/day from the sky. 10-15% higher operating costs. A cost to cleaner air and healthier lives. Duh. At least we know about how much it is.

GE to acquire Lineage Power for $520M ($450M revs in '10) to get into datacenter energy solutions.

Remember and thank Martin Luther King. He was one of our greats. Ever. And he could have still been alive. With John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and the other martyrs we still have to learn about. Medgar Evers one.

Happy trailers pards.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

FRIDAY CLOSE

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NANO up 28 on huge volume. New 12-month high. Not sure what the news was, if any. AEGY up 26. AWNE down 24. BLQN up 27. 2-day 50% jump, over all their lines. ECOS up 10. Maybe coming out of the basement. EFOI broke through their 50-day lines, up 7. EVSO up 14.

GSPI up 17. HYEG up 28. LSCG up 14. 4-day 50% rise. MGLT up 59. PLUG up 17. Made new 12-month high. PSPW up 25. PWSV down 34. RGUS up 36. RNNM up 30. RVBF down 15. SESI down 15. SOPV up 11. SSHO, SSOL up 18. UBRG down 15. WPNV up 12. WWEI down 11.

Friday, January 14, 2011

STUFF

Valero (refineries) agreed to use all cellulosic eth from proposed Mascoma $350M plant in Mich. Valero will invest $50M. GM also investing. Mascoma asking for DOE guarantees. Plans to use paper, wood waste to make cellulosic ethanol. Could be 1st commercial scale plant, online by '13. Jeeze Leweeze, can't we go any faster than that?

2/3rds of fed oil/gas drill permits sat idle in '10. Less than half the avg wells/year on public lands in past decade. Low NG prices a factor. Aps for permits good for 2 yrs.

Hu-Obama summit in DC next week. MLK Monday. What's the haps there going to be, huh?

U of Tennessee has genetically modified tobacco to give off phosphorescent "glow" when plants under stress. We hope that can be transferred to plants WE CAN EAT. Though, we might be cautious there.

EPA revoked Clean Water Act permit for Spruce No.1 coal mine in W.Va. Mountain top strip mine wanted to dump the waste into the river. Mine would have been largest in history. Hope still alive for local residents.

Day after ITT split in 3, Marathon split into refining and explore/produce. They refine 1.1mbpd. 5th in US. Spinoff from US Steel in '02, if we remember.

EPA granted 3-yr GHG exemption for facilities that burn wood chips, other biomasss to gen el. Takes effect in July. Members of Congress put pressure on EPA to "ease up". "Tree scraps, if not burned, decay and emit methane". "Biomass emits more GHGs than coal". The issues are challenging ("me").

Solaria (builds crsytal Si panels) CTO: "aside from (FSLR), no bankable thin film." Solaria's panels 14% efficient using 2x lensing (already working on 3x). Photovoltaics replaced by optics. 20-30% more efficient with trackers.

2:30P

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Martin Luther King weekend. Market closed on Monday. What stocks would Martin Luther King buy today? Or sell?

Dow's up 60. Naz up 14. PSPW up 25. WPNV up 20. As is SSOL. On 34M shares I must say. PLUG up 19. BLQN up 15. New high I think. LSCG up 13. EVSO up 12. BSRC up 10. ZAAP up 7. DSTI up 5. EFOI up 4. Breaking out there. With LSCG.

I don't think Martin Luther King was into stocks. Even clean energy stocks. Though if he had been into stocks they might have been clean energy stocks. We will never know. Unless his close compatriots tell us. Those still alive.

WWEI now down 16. GSPI down 11. NPWZ down 11. I think that's their bottom. Just thinkin. CCTC down 6. XSNX back 3.

We just must keep thinking on goodness. And happier trails. And better stuff. And better lives for our kids. And what the hay joy sometimes. More than not. I guess I'm sayin that. The dudes live and abide. Forever. As long as we live anyway.

OPEN

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Markets up slightly, volume normal.

MGLT up 59. No news. Nano thin film solar developer. Just more of a springback from recent losses. AEGY up 26. HRTE up 17. PLUG up 15 more. Matching 12-month highs. I expect some pullback next week. RGUS up 16. WPNV up 12 on contract news. ZAAP up another 10. EVSO up 10.

PWSV down 28. AWNE down 24. AXTG down 15.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

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Ended down. Volume off.

Same ole story. Double digits. Shenanigans.

CBWP down 53 on 500 shares. LEDS down 34. 6M shares. Woo. CYBL down 27. 10M shares. Um, different price. But LEDs. ICPR stayed down 26. I did say when?, yesterday?, (or day before?), I also see PR when I see it. What do they do? What money are they keeping for profit? Who cares about stockholders? Do dah.

RNNM down 23. SLPO down 21. GSPI, PSPW down 20. AEGY down 19. EVCA down 17. SSHO down 12. HRTE down 10.

And here's what counts. WWEI up 25. BLQN up 23. These guys look for real. PLUG up another 18. I know these guys are real. 4M shares real. AWNE up 17. XPGH up another 13. Still looks like a scam to me. KNDI up 12. They're real deal. XSNX up another 10. Like a trading range. Now near the top. EFOI up 8. LEDs.

And that's the come and the go pards.

STUFF

NOAA: I'm sure you saw this in the paper. '10 tied with '05 for warmest on record. 34th year in row global temps abv 20th century avg. 9 of 10 warmest yares in last decade. In US, only the 23rd hottest.

I know we've been over and over this, but energy subsidies are now ~$20B/year. ~70% goes to oil/NG/coal. 15% to ethanol. 10% to large hydro. And 8% of Americans prefer these choices. Tho hydro's fine.

Solar PV continues to reduce its installed costs faster than concentrated solar (CSP). 170 CSP projects in global pipeline. But will probably succumb to PV within 3-5 years.

A report that Lawrenceville Plasma Physics has achieved bilion-degree plasma confinement. "Focus fusion". H + Boron -> He + E w/out radioactive waste. Ah, but neglected by DOE. With funding, maybe 4 years from market @ 30 cents/W installed. Comp has kept funding coming, even from NASA.

Philly Eagles refitting stadium with helix wind turbines, solar panels and biodiesel power (NG backup). Beer cups made of corn-based plastic for composting. 80% of trash recycled. Utilities the 2nd largest cost after payroll. $30M invested. Equiv 41k cars taken off road. And there's much more to the story. Go Eagles.

Poland now @ 108MW of wind power. Cape Wind got final EPA OK to go ahead. Vestas said its N Am orders reached a record 871 turbines, 1.88GW in '10. Well, there we are. Still buying foreign energy. When the heck do we stand up on our own again? O, but global trade. Global trade. What do we ever get back lately from global trade? O. Better to give than receive. So its said.

Happy trails pards.

OPEN

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Mixed market, normal volume. Lebanon may explode.

Tell you what, pards. There's hardly ever a day the shenanigans don't show up in double-digit moves. Today's rather pregnant, I must say.

LEDS, a Taiwan LED maker, down 33 on not-so-good projection for next Q. But it's a new issue. LEDs aren't going away. Their news also affected CREE, LSCG and others. ICPR down 26 more. RNNM down 23 on 400 shares. Really. BFRE down 13. SSHO down 12.

WWEI up 25. XPGH up another 20. I wonder where these guys get off the rocket. RGUS up 17. KNDI up 10. PLUG up another 9.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

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Seems like new highs. But volume not spectacular. Course, there was the snow.

Joke of the day: GTLL.

GSPI up 43. PWSV up 39. XPGH up 36. Yea, big break over 200-day lines. Giveth us thou a break. AEBF up 30. Barely over 200's. KEPI up 22. HRTE, SESI up 18. LSCG up 17. Check them out. XSNX up 16. Ditto. ACPW up 15. Ditto too. Looks like a new high to me. PSUD up 11. PLUG up 8. AONE, a peek over the last 200-day. EMKR up 5 more. ASYS, SOLR up 3 more for newer highs.

PSPW down 33. RGUS down 31. ECOS down 14. HLXW dropping out of the pic. VUOC down 11.

Happy trailers pards.

STUFF

China produced ~3.2B metric tons coal in '10, up 10% from '09. And how many lives? ~15B bls oil equivalent or 1/2 world oil production. Beijing saying that growth rate to end this or next year. And a 300M ton coal gap will have to be filled. Wyoming? Australia (presently under water)?

CNPV of Luxembourg handed over their 1st utility-scale 7MW solar project in China for $25M.

GE E Financial, Bankers Commercial Corp bought 150MW Alta wind farm at Tehachapi in a leaseback. 3GW planned. First 1.5GW contracted to SCalEd.

Vestas to supply 38MW wind project in Germany. '11 delivery.

Xinjiang Goldwind got contract for 51MW of turbines for Ethiopia.

Milwaukee considering lakefront wind turbines after Toronto, Cleveland lead.

GE contract for 45MW windfarm in France. 580MW already installed in Champagne-Ardennes region.

DOE to fund $50M+ in test/demo initiatives for solar. Focus on concentrating solar thermal v. concentrating PV. DOE w/ DOI proposing solar E zones.

ESLR(D) shutting down Mass plant. $350M writedown next 2 Q's. 800 employees. The plant in China reportedly up and running. ESLR's shipments ~47MW in Q4, avg. sell price (ASP) 1.90/W. They're continuing the hitemp filament plant in Mich. In discussions to expand the wafer plant in China. O yea, got $58M from State of Mass. in '08 for that plant they are shutting down.

PetroChina and UK's INEOS announced plans for trading/refining joint venture in Europe (2 sites). Petro to provide capital (well, they do have a lot of our money now) for 50% share. Fuel demand in China growing ~8%/yr. Last year their oil/NG acquisitions totaled $24B, up from '09's $17B.

DC-powered datacenters 10% more efficient than state-of-art AC units. Purchase/install costs 30-35% less. Further redux by putting center's air conditioning on DC. Need 25-40% less floor space because UPS, other components, heavy wire not needed.

The US does not have the infrastructure to meet the fed mandates for renewable fuels with eth. But could with significant increases in cellulosic, next-gen biofuels: Purdue study. Not enough flex-fuel vehicles - 7.3M vehicles of 240M fleet (3M owners not even aware they can use E85 or don't want to because of lower mileage or possible engine damage) - or E85 pumps (2k installed over 20 years). Even going to 15% blend hits the "blending wall" again in 4 years. Sounds political, huh? Poowee on ethanol.

US spends $300B/yr on foreign oil. 60% of trade deficit.

DOE announced $30M over next 3-4 years for up to 5 projects for next-gen biofuels R&D. Boy, that's serious money, huh?

OPEN

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Market up, volume a little light (snowstorm).

GSPI up 33. Bounce back from yesterday. XPGH up 27. A punch through 200-day lines. WWPW up 11. Bottom end of its trading range. BFRE up 9. APWR up 8 on contract news. Break through 50-days. ACPW up 7, continuing the rally, triple since July. QTWW up 6, also break through 50-days. LSCG, BCON up 5 more.

ICPR down 26 after yesterday's jolt up. EVSI down 12, another fallback from yesterday. UBRG down 8.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

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(stock #'s in %) (day-lines based on 12 month charts)

Well, we ended up. Hoowah.

HYDB up 81. Okeydokey. ICPR up 50. I usually see PR. Hell, I used to create it. BCON up 21. Broke through 50-day lines with mucho gusto. ZAAP, UBRG up 20. SSOL up 18 on that miniscule contract. OOIL up 17. EMKR up 16 on another satellite contract. XPGH up another 15. I guess because they can. ASYS up 9. LSCG up 6. Catch 'm. ASTI up 3. Same ditto.

GSPI down 36. ECOS down 17. IFXY, WWEI down 11. TSLA down 5.

And so much more.

STUFF

In '97, >2,500 economists, 8 Nobel winners, called for a carbon tax and reducing or eliminating other taxes with the revs. In '08, British Columbia implemented a C tax. By '12, it should reach $30/ton of CO2. That equals ~30 cents/gal of gas, 3 cents/kwh of coal power, half that for NG power. And revenues being returned to taxpayers. Now, the state of Washington may have a similar plan on the '11 ballot.

Minnesota's legislature has intro'd bils to lift the 2-decade moratorium on building nuke plants.

Illinois' senate last week rejected a bill to advance a next-gen clean coal plant that could potentially kill the $3.5B project. Higher power bills are not good for people or business the logic. Costs won't come down until the tech is proven in plants. The catch 22. El produced would cost 3x current cost, 2x wind and more than nuke.

LMCO to bring 2 EV models to market this year.

2nd half of '10, no cellulosic ethanol was commercially blended into gas. Our Fed-mandated renewable fuel standard from a few years ago called for 5M gal of cellulosic in '10 (lowered from 100M gal). The RFS caps corn eth by '22 to 15B gals. And gives us a mandate of 36B of "renewable" fuels for that year. Gotta love US energy policy, A?

5NPlus (TSX:VNP) was target of FSLR to secure tellurium supply (cadmium telluride cells at FSLR). But FSLR recently bought a tracker startup (1-axis?!). Now, VNP just bought majority of Sylarus, producer of germanium substrates for triple-junction cells for CPV (concentrating photovoltaics). VNP had $19M revs latest Q - 70% from FSLR - and produces many high-purity metals and compounds. Also plans to recycle PV panels. Tellerium supply still looms over FSLR.

2P

(stock #'s in %)

LSCG up 8. I think a new 12-month high. ASYS up 7, new high on prelim 1Q report. SSOL up 13 on a little solar contract. BCON up 6 on big volume. ASTI up 2 now, but I think breaking out. IFXY down 10. Maybe buying op. FDEI finally broke to the upside.

There are more. But my ISP seems slow. Sites start disappearing around noon. Maybe me own puter, also over 6 years old. Oy. It's dam work. That's why it got named work. I guess.

OPEN

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Market up, volume light.

HRTE up 25. They announced on the 5th they're developing their first wind farm in Texas. No other details. I doubt it will be very large. A new issue. Market cap ~$50M. CYBL up 20. NACF up 17. OOIL up another 13. Double since early Nov. WPNV up 12. ZAAP came back 11. ASYS up 7, a new high, on prelim 1Q report. ECTY up another 7.

PWSV down 25 on 1,100 shares. PSPW down 14. WWEI down 11.

Monday, January 10, 2011

CLOSE

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Quite the day. Shall just report the double digits.

FDEI down 20. AFPW down 18. AWNE up 23. BFRE up 28. CYBL up 25. ECOS down 17. ECTY up 17. HLXW down 18. LEOM up 20. MGLT down 35. MKTY up 11. MVTG up 22. NACF down 12. OOGI up 30. OOIL up 10. PSPW up 75. PSRU up 57. PSUD up 14. PWSV up 37. Well, a day for the P's, huh?

RGUS up 29. SLPO down 12. SLRE up 20. SLTZ down 12. SSHO down 13. TSPG up 20. VVIT down 50. WWEI down 15. XPGH up 18. ZAAP down 27.

Get the picture yet? Me neither.

STUFF

33% of Ireland's el now from wind. 1.4GW capacity. Last year private investment reached ~400M Euro.

Western Wind - WNDEF - has $300M of projects in construction. 165MW. Plus another 130MW due online this year, 40MW more to begin construction this year and ~250MW to start construction in '12.

Denny's Restaurants buying CREE LED lighting. One operator reports >$3k, 6kwh saved/month/store.

The House version of a military authorization bill contained a "buy American" provision for solar panel purchases. Senate version did not. Final bill may not. May just be bargaining chip in China clean E trade disagreements.

China reportedly is moving toward carbon emissions trading to improve E efficiency and competiveness.

Solar Junction, a privately-owned concentrating PV (CPV) solar startup, is soon to announce NREL-verified efficiency of >40% for triple-junction cells. And it's off their production lines, not a lab. Stanford U. tech. Company's aiming for 50%. Estimated CPV '10 shipments 12-15MW. ~8MW installed to date. Projected 100MW shipments in '11, '15 installs estimated ~750MW, to be ~2.5% total PV market. EMKR, SPIR, JDSU also in this market, among others.

2P

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Market's turned mixed with NAZ up 1.

PSPW took off after the open report, now up 62. OOIL now up 14. ECTY up 16. Busting out of a slump, jumping over 50-day lines. They got $10M backing. JASO, CSUN up on a major Chinese solar's favorable news. PLUG up 8. XPGH up 25, double in last 5 days. Biofuels, getting into solar they say. ZAAP down 28 now.

OPEN

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Market down supposedly on Alcoa report on year, Portugal debt problem and China exports report (much lower than expected). Maybe also from Tucson tragedy and coming snowstorm to East coast.

FDEI down 22 on very little volume. Good buying opportunity. MGLT down 21. ZAAP down 19. No news. Probably just reflecting how fast it climbed recently. WWEI back 15 after Friday's jump. PSPW down another 12.

BFRE up 31 on an update release and technicals probably. SPWRA up 6. They signed 3 power purchase agreements with S. Cal Ed for 711MW. But plants are 4-5 years from generating power for some reason. OOIL up 5. Resumes their rally.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

STUFF

Japan debt 200% of their GDP. 60% of revs go for interest on it. Considering raising their 5% sales tax. California facing a $19B shortfall this year. NJ's public pension system $100B in the hole. NY's may be $200B. IL spending a trillion more than it gets in revs. And we finally made it to our debt equal to our GDP - $14T. Way to go leaders. Add in debt of households, state and local govs it's $55B. Add in corp debt and obligations of social security and medicaid and now mediWHAT?! and it goes tripdigit. Pretty awesome, A? Mindmelding. Moneyboggling.

O yea, $14.29B is $100 bills stacked 9,721 miles high. Interest paid on our debt $413B in '10.

China expected to be largest car market in '11. 15% growth. Brazil has passed Germany. Russia the fastest growing car market in Europe. And China plans to grow stretegic petro reserve 100M bls to 500M over next few yrs.

Mongolian currency was best in '10. The Tugrik.

Duke E nearing agreement to buy NC-based Progress E ($13B). Would form largest utility. Progress has >22GW power gen cap. Duke ~ 35GW. If it flies, Duke would be 7M customers, $64B enterprise value. Atlanta's Southern Co. now largest.

Alaska pipeline shut down by leak. Carries ~15% of US crude output. Began ops in '77, >16B bls shipped. Prudhoe now producing ~400kbpd (400 thousand barrels per day).

Get 'cher bird umbrellas right 'chere, folks. Bird umbrellas heah. Just $14.29.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

FRIDAY CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

ADES was up 18, another jump in their rally from early December, now almost a triple. Couple of news items this week.

BFRE was down 12. Working off the jump it took last fall after announcement of the cellulosic plant to be constructed. Nearing their bottom 200-day line.

DSTI fell back 9. No way of telling if they get it going this year or not. Thin-film solar. They announced this week that they erased $5M of debt by selling more shares and that they may back into a merger or be acquired. Feels like that jump on Thursday was a set up for shorting. We shall see.

ECOS down 23. Several interesting techs still in development, they will have phase reports later this Q. Hovering above 50-day lines.

EVSO up 14 on triple normal volume. Week-long rally. Two years ago these guys were "Auto Club Marketing". Baffles me why their market cap is over $6M vs. say, O, FDEI at under $5M with $1B in the pipeline. FDEI was down 7 Friday. Buy some now, friends.

IFXY fell 21. Two-day up and down shuffle on a couple news items. Back to 50-day lines. They are working with ITRI, though, on smart grid stuff.

KEPI up 25. NPWZ up 7 on some volume. PSPW down 18. SNRY up 20. SOLR up 5, another new high. TSPG up 20. WWEI up 19.

XPGH up 45. I only mention it because it was up 45. A jump off their 50-days.

And that was the come and the go, pards.

Friday, January 7, 2011

And final stuff

A 70-year-old grandmother in Venice Florida saw an orange alligator. Okeydokey.

And our beloved Republicans of our great House of Representatives decided to disband the Select Committee for energy independence and global warming. Well, that's the way it goes. The stimulus bill had $90B in it for E efficiency and other clean E. But the Republicans want us to keep using more foreign oil and forget about climate change it looks like here on this move. But maybe there was redundancy and they are just saving some money. Can always hope.

Mo STUFF

Our North American grid runs @ 60 cycles. Electrons change direction in the wires 60 times/sec. Does it awe you or what? It still awes me. If E supply/demand doesn't match up every instant, our system can get out of sync. Does Aug '03 come to mind? So. On New Year's Eve AES Energy Storage, a subsid of a DC area company, opened up their Johnson City NY plant that sells frequency regulation. It absorbs/delivers E @ 5 second intervals ordered by a computer at the NY ISO (Independent System Operator) which runs the state grid. With thousands of lithium ion batteries built by AONE. BCON is working on an Albany plant to do the same thing with flywheels. Flywheels lose 15% of the E, the batts 10%. The AES project had a fed loan guarantee of $17M, ~ 80% of cost. The project could eventually absorb/deliver 20MW for >15 min. AES eventually to use 800k batts - each ~ size of a D battery - installed in 53-foot shipping containers.

A new study suggests that the level of the hydroxyl radical - formed in the atmos when UV light from sun reacts with gases causing an atom of O to link with an atom of H - is much steadier than previously believed. It's like an atmos detergent. May mean future pollution levels can be predicted with more confidence. Those newly formed compounds are so chemically reactive that they disappear in less than a second. THAT's what I've been seeing in the sky! They combine with other compounds - often a pollutant, initiating the breakdown of the pollutant into less dangerous chemicals. Bottom line: Mother Nature seems to be suppplying a steady dose of detergent to clean up some of the human mess. Bad news is that CO2 is not among those pollutants broken down. And NOx and S are rising in fast-growing countries.

"Normal weather" will become "new normals" this year. Temps, rain, snow. The 70's - relatively cool - will be replaced by the '00's, the hottest decade on record. XcelE went to 20-year normals 20 years ago. The new normals will be released in June, then revised at year-end.

1:06P

Looks like traction to me. FDEI at .0112. Asking .0111.

Otherwise, the averages got pretty much right back to where we started this week. And what are the answers for energy and the price of oil? EVs, nuke, solar, wind, hydro, geotherm, fuel cells, and maybe something we never knew about before. Let's have some awe.

OPEN

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Market up slightly on 100k+ jobs added. Volume lower than last few days.

Some of the usual characters come out on Fridays. For attention. PSUD up 100. KEPI up 25. TSPG up 20. XPGH up 18. MDTL up 17. WWEI up 13.

SOLR up 5 with some more news today. New high. SLTZ up 5.

MMMW down 21. FDEI down 12. Just bought. WPNV down 11. IFXY, DSTI down 7. SOPW down 4.

STUFF

Marin County, Calif criminalized the install of "smart" el meters, citing alleged health effects from EM waves. Also concern of info collection of residents' activities. Um, sounds like a large community of paranoid indoor marijuana growers. But I judge not. PG&E said it will go forward despite the ordinance.

TSLA roadster got 347 miles on one charge in a test.

Verdant Power filed ap to FERC to build country's first tidal power plant. Pilot project of 30 turbines in East River NYC. Earlier project generated 70MWh for grid. No adverse effect on fish. I was in contact with these guys in '03. Discussed feasibility for Ohio River.

Petrobras (Brazil) talking with Italy's ENI to buy out their 33% interests in a Portuguese oil firm operating off Brazil. CNOOC (China oil & gas) to spend $150B thru '15 on offshore, overseas production.

2 American Wind Alliance (T. Boone Pickens) farm projects - 265MW total - received priority ranking for transmission along Lake Huron shoreline in Ontario FIT (feed-in tariff) program. Step closer to getting 20-yr PPA (power production authority). 300MW more AWA projects in 2nd-round aps.

U of W Oshkosh to use food/yard waste to make el and heat for campus. Anaerobic bio-digester converts waste to biogas. 3GWh/yr plus heat for buildings. Will be 1st dry anaerobic digester plant in US (though I think we have some operating on farms already).

Vestas won 49MW wind turbine order in China. 2Q '11 delivery.

WPNV to open full-service facility in Oregon for largest wind turbines. Next location to be in Texas, NM area.

WNDT got $1.5M state, local incentives for proposed expansion near Rochester.

RES got approval from Scotland for 99MW wind farm. In pipe for 6 years.

Beautiful Earth Group began building solar plant in Calif's Antelope Valley. Each of 2 19MW PV plants to generate >16GWh/yr (10k homes). 187 acres. Adjacent to S Cal Edison substation.

Bloomington IN has solar-powered trash compactors around downtown. Lessen trash pickup frequency. $4k each. From stimulus money.

GM, DOE signed license agreement aimed at lowering costs, improving efficiency of advanced batts. GM now gets tech from Korea, but better tech may stay in US.

AMSC got $10M+ contract from Korea's Doosan for wind turbine el control systems (superconduction). 2H '11-1H '12 shipments.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

CLOSE

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Market ended mixed. What's to be said.

GCHK up 33. SOPW up 29. IFXY up 25. FDEI up 20, made it over 3 lines. ECOS up 18. DSTI, LEOM up 17. ZAAP up 16. WNDT up 13. EVSO up 10.

AWNE down 38. GWSO down 26. KEPI down 20.

OPEN

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Mixed mart. Was 3 green.

IFXY up 70. They had news yesterday. Buying a broadband comp for $8M. Getting into smartgrid work. GCHK up 44. SOPW up 27 on news of 70% buyout by LDK Solar. NCEN up 14. DSTI up 13. Up to 50-day lines. CSUN, PWER up 3.

AWNE back down 42. PSPW down 10. NPWZ down 7. CCTC down 6. SLTZ down 5.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

CLOSE

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Well, pretty strong day I guess. Dow up 31. Naz up 20. Long live the recovery.

AWNE up 116. Nothing new. Happens. Just a jump back after a couple days. FEWP up 14. Breaking through 50-day lines. ZAAP up another 12 for another new high. 50 cents in Nov. $1.50 now. Do dah. LMCO up 11 on an update. FDEI up 11 cuz it should be at 5 cents. But. Up against 3 lines at 1 cent. Ask tonight already 30% higher. So, if they punch through on the morrow, I say buy as soon as you can after. ECOS, WNDT both up 10. WNDT up to their 200-days and looking overbought. PANL up 9. A $1B comp moving 9. But P/B and P/S numbers you would think they were bankrupt. At least according to Yahoo. But they've been going up from $10 in March to $34. WEST up 8. A bounce off of 50's. HYGS up 6. In between 200 days. Looks like maybe a rally starting. SOLR up to 10 bucks. SATC up 4, another new high I believe. ASTI also up 4. Breaking through their last line. ECNG up 3 on their news. Breaking through one of their 200's. Had that U Cal news today (stuff). BYDDF up 1.

PSPW down 50. Picking up traction maybe. AFPW down 20. Can't bust through their 50's. PBEC down 18. Same story. HLXW down 16. Back to go. AEBF down 13. Pushback by last 200 day. SLTZ down 10. Gathering force? CCTC down 8. That's one dead stock. Almost like CSUN. VLNC down 7. Still a double since Sept. SSOL also down 7. Sun Valley Solar. Looking for biz. In their veritable valley. And NPWZ down 5. When when O when do they get it going?

STUFF

FSLR with Chinese partner going forward with 2GW solar farm in Mongolia. Phase 1 30MW. Chinese get FSLR tech, expertise.

Duke Energy has teamed with panel maker ENN to build solar parks in China, US. Many expect demand response experts also to move to China. Johnson Controls just got certified to work on bldg efficiencies. Experts. Exports.

Plutonic Power buying 50MW of FSLR panels for Ontario project. GE Financial lending. Samsung trying to get into Ontario mart.

IKEA stopped selling incandescents in US.

HVAC (heating/ventilation/AC) dominated by old, somewhat insular distribution/sales channel. Ice Energy makes thermal mass AC. Announced strategic relationship with Trane.

Ineos Bio wants to produce eth and el from veg waste. $75M loan from USDA to build a facility near Vero Beach (nice) to produce 8M gal, 6MW/yr (4MW to run plant).

Xtreme Power makes E storage arrays for solar, wind farms. Got 4th contract in HI for 10MW storage for 21MW farm on Oahu. They use "powercell" - fiberglass batt designed in '90's by Corning/British and Ford Aerospace.

AQT, a VC-funded solar startup, has joined those who have shipped CIGS product. CIGS - Copper, Indium, Gallium, Selenide. While Solyndra, Nanosolar and other CIGS pioneers spent like drunken sailors, AQT reached commercial production in 3 years on ~$20M. 15MW production line now. 50MW of orders due in '11 with 50 more in orders. Could scale to 60 in year. Low-cost drop-in replacements for silicon cells. 50% gross margins.

Standard cars, hybrids use ~125 hub bearings, joints. EV's use about half that. Differential gears, driveshafts not needed with in-wheel motors now being developed. Game changers for many old tech comps. Ratio of mech to el parts in cars now ~7:3. Could end up 3:7.

Stion, another CIGS developer, will build facilities in MS with help from $75M in loans, incentives from state. 1st phase a 100MW production line (online in '12). Last June, Taiwan's TSMC invested $50M in Stion for a license to the tech.

ECNG awarded a contract to provide services to Cal State U. 23 campuses. $130M utility budget.

Alta, after NREL funding, reportedly leased a facility in Calif to start producing thin film solar up to 30% efficient @ below 50 cents/watt. 23 patents. 11 PhD's.

OPEN

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Mixed mart, not much movement. Good hiring last month (for Christmas?).

PSPW down 50, back to 10 cents. NPWZ down another 17. SLTZ down 10. PLUG down 4.

ECOS up 20. ASTI up 5, broke through last line.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

STUFF

DC Circuit Court ordered EPA to wait on taking over Texas GHG permitting. Fed regs on CO2 took effect Monday.

Chicago Climate Exchange closed US's first cap/trade GHG system Dec 31. Euro Climate Exchange, Chicago Climate Futures Exchange continuing on. Calif's recent move toward mandatory emissions trading should help the mart.

DOE-supported (8 years) coal cleaning tech succeeding in AL commercial demo. Air pressure and centrifuge. Not that high of tech right? Successfully reduced moisture in coal slurry. Can reuse the coal waste. Est. 2B tons coal waste in US (per year?). This is good news, A?

The gov opened up deepwater drilling to 13 companies on Monday. Those 13 are small independents and majors that had billions tied up in idled projects. Brock's not an idiot.

2nd year in a row no new coal plants built in US. Cough cough less less. Tho, you know what pards? I'll now take coal plants powering EVs to keep oil price falling. Yes, even with the pollution. Because cleaner coal is a coming. Who has the oil. Who controls the oil price. And that's pumped gas. And that's money out of our pockets.

And that's the veritable that as I see the that. Happy trails pards.

CLOSE

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Market ended mixed. The Dow catching up. Volume strong. Do dah.

PSPW up 100. Back to where I bought it. PSRU up 71. Let's have a look see. 100k shares @ .001. OOGI up 38. A-OOGI. SLTZ up 32 on that news thing. PBEC up 28 on 8k shares. Come on. Jeeze Leweeze. AFPW up 25. Back to a penny. Well, heck, has FDEI got back to a penny? PLUG got plugged in for 17. Them and FCEL. Go figure. SLPO up 15. 190k shares at .003. Just saying. CCTC up 12. 1.5M shares at .03. NENE up 9 on their news. FDEI, NCEN up 8. EFOI up 6. Back over a buck. Eye out and on. LSCG's CEO/Chairman has passed on. Check that. O, back up. PEIX up 32 on high volume. Restarted Stockton plant. O wow. Gas over $3. Go figure. But pooey on corn eth. Sorry corn growers. It's bad. Yea like it's kept gas prices down. And food prices up. And makes more environmental damage. Fund a mental.

BYDDF up 5. A comeback coming? SATC, ZAAP up 4.PWER up 3. ENOC up 1.

ECOS down 23. NPWZ down 17. SSOL down 11. 15M shares. SOPV down 10. Valued at $144M. $14k revs reported in March. And Yahoo still has SOLR high at $8.65. What the F. How bout a site where we can get real numbers. For real. Insted of sitetryingtofarkus. com? And BYDDF P/B .43, P/S .17 and $1.3B val. But a PINK?! That's Buffet I guess. Not Jimmy tho. Tho he may be an honorary son.

SPWRA up 4. .89 P/B, .7 P/S, 9 PE.

OPEN

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Mixed mart. Dow up. Volume getting stronger. Good manufacturing report.

SLPO up 53. OOGI up 40. SLTZ up 19 on news. PLUG up 11 on report of year shipments. Going through 50-day lines. NENE up 8 on tech progress. FDEI up 8. PWER up 5. A jump off 50-day lines. BYDDF up 4. ZOLT, SATC up 2 for new highs.

PSPW down 20. NPWZ down 16.

Monday, January 3, 2011

CLOSE

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CBWP up 140 on 21k shares. Okeydokey. OOGI up 66. OK. SESI up 25 on 8k shares. Uh huh. LMCO up 23. SOPW, SOPV, ECNG up 17. And so much conviction. FTEK, NPWZ up 11. ECTY up 7. EVCA up 6. BWEN, SATC, VLNC up 5. There's the enchilada. ACPW up 4. APWR too. AONE, FDEI, AMSC up 3.

AFPW down 36. CYBL down 33. PSRU down 30. As if they have business. PWAZ down 22. Ditto. AEGY down 21. IAUS down 14. SLTZ down 13. FCEL down 8.

STUFF

Construction is over 60% of China GDP. Exports 5%.

NG $12 in Japan, just over $4 here.

Last 110 workers laid off from closed Suzlon wind turbine blade maker in Pipestone, PA. Employment up 100 since Obama's April visit to Siemens' wind equip plant in Iowa. MFG builds for GE wind, needs 40 more workers in SD plant. GE outsold Suzlon 2-1 in US in '10. Siemens got 3 projects in Iowa, over 500MW total. Suzlon had '09 loss of over $200M and $276M more 1st 3 Q's of '10. Their blades have developed cracks. They're "developing new blade tech."

It would take an estimated 68k sq km of algae production to replace the 80B gallons of avfuel the US uses every year. (6% of total world use of 1.3T gallons). Camelina and Jatropha also being considered as fuel stocks.

India and Iran trying to keep $11B in oil and gas trade intact. India's central bank declared that a clearinghouse could no longer be used to settle such transactions.

BP Gulf spill cost likely to stay below $60B. That's one hell of a mistake. But well within company's ability to pay. O so happy they can get their lives back.

Oil at $92. Just saying. We need alternatives, folks. And it doesn't happen overnight. What's wrong with building out faster on electric cars and cleaner central power from nuke to solar and wind and Apollo Project on algae or fuel cell power? The budget. The budget's the problem. Oy.

OPEN

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Market jump up. Volume about normal. Usually several days before volume picks up in new year. NAZ, S&P up more pct-wise.

EVSO up 33. SESI up 25. SOPW up 18. ECOS up 15. 3-day rally off double bottom, going back a year. EVCA, NPWZ up 12. NENE up 10. VLNC up 7 more. Another new high. Ditto ZOLT, up 5. ENOC, JASO up 2.

AFPW down 46. PSPW down 10.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

FRIDAY'S CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

AFPW was up 50 and crossed over 50-day lines. AEGY was up 29. Recently got $8M financing. Solar thermal systems for commercial/industrial mart. ALTI up almost 40 last 3 days. Probably a buy on a comeback. Nano lith-titanate batts. Revs have been picking up last 2 Q's. AMLM up 12. Lithium mining startup. AWNE down 46.

BWEN up 8. Building momentum above the 50-days. If wind installs come back from a bad year in US the story. This one was even hawked early in '10 or was it '09 by what's his name the crazy guy with bells and whistles on his cable show. Guess he shorted it?

CSKH down 11. $3M revs in Q3, $3M loss. Solar installers don't do too well except for RSOL. But maybe rounding out on a bottom if they don't get bought up before going under. Pretty hard goings for decades for clean energy. Except for some. And CSUN I don't get. Sure it's Chinese. And we want to invest here at home. But P/B of .88 and P/S .41, P/E 4?! O, now I see it. Revs fell in '09 and we don't get Q's. And losing money for last 3 years. I wonder if those P/B etc. numbers are right. The stock's been dead for years. It's going to break one way or the other sooner or later. I think I remember correctly, though, seeing their Q's showing good growth lately.

Is DSTI going to get it going this year? EFOI? ENER? ENOC? ESLR? FCEL? FDEI? FDEI has got it going. Exporting solar from USA. $1B worth in the pipe. The Chinese factory built. Yes, we export jobs. Product going out the door. Yet it's valuation does not yet reflect that. In my umble opinion.

GSPI or BFRE. $1M val v. $13M respectively. 2G biofuels or 3G? Watch these guys. And OOIL.

HLXW. I love the concept of vertical axis wind power, though the newgen is direct drive turbines besides, O yea - AMSC ("too much one customer - Sinovel of China") - superconductivity.

IAUS up 29 Friday. Are they ever going to get it going? And they are valued more than FDEI. JASO. Yea. They should have a good year. LSCG I would think. MGLT on their low, $10M val. Again, about twice v. FDEI. Compare valuations v. fundamentals and add in the charts the biggest key, me pards. Avast the treasure of late-awakened investors. Or something like that.

NCEN down 8. They don't give room for it on Ameritrade charts to go down further. No revs. Trying to get a wind biz going in '10. But repaid an Iroquois convertible note the latest news.

NENE. We are waiting, NENE. We are waiting. NPWZ was down 15 Friday. And we wait and wait there too.

PLUG was down 5 more. In '05 I thought they were the future. Still valued at $48M. About book.

PSPW up 42 Friday. Back to 10 cents. Glad I sold it at 18 quickly after buying recently. Sorry I missed the real bottom. But still. Valuation more than FDEI. The market is low on common sense from time to time.

PSRU up 42 too. .001 cent. They have some kind of new fluorescent tech while the world is going to LEDs. They and AXTG.

PWAZ ended up at $3M val. RGUS was up 13 Friday. New cleaner burning engines.

SATC should keep going up. $2.50 to $4.50 since June. E converters for new installs.

SESI was down 11 Friday. 3Q revs 4x 2Q. With $1M profit. Watch this one. Rounding out a bottom like so many. A Swiss company. Probably runs like a watch.

SLPO was up 50 on the dot Friday. Superlattice Power. $1M val. SLTZ up 8. Well, possibly could end up higher by '12. Again, valued higher than FDEI. SOPW was down 14 Friday. Revs going up year on year but no profit. Installer.

SSOL down 2 Friday on big volume. TSPG up 25. Maybe a player this year.

VLNC should be a player this year. WEST too. Westinghouse brand solar installer.

WWEI up 17 Friday. Whatev. WWPW up 12. What, 7x WWEI valuation?

XDSL could have a break out year. XPGH was up 38. XSNX came back to 7 cents. If they get their solar windows to market before the others.... And ZOLT. Carbon composite maker.

Well, pards. GOOD NEW YEAR to ye! Bring on goodness, wonderment and smart investing.