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.