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.