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.