STUFF

Real US inflation ~9%. Housing is 42% of Fed CPI. Then they add in the "adjustments".

DOE awarded 3M $4.4M from "Sun Shot" funds to accel development/commercialization of their Ultra Barrier solar film.

SPWRA to build a 5MW PV farm on Oahu. 20-year PPA from Hawaiin El. 5-month build on 40 acres.

Solectria Renewables, leading US PV inverter maker, opened their 800MW capacity expansion at the Lawrence, MA plant.

First Energy sub Penn Power contracted 20K of solar renewable energy credits. Will give them 2.2GWh/yr over next 9. Avg cost $200/SREC.

St. Paul unveiled their $2M 1MW thermal solar install for hot water and air. DOE put in $1M from stimulus. Extra not needed at River Centre to flow into loop that heats water/air for 80% of downtown bldgs. $385K spent last year at the Centre for the heat.

NRC gave 20-year extension to Entergy's 40-year-old Yankee nuke plant in VT. The plant's had a cooling tower collapse and leaks of tritium into groundwater.

US now importing ~295kbpd of crude from Brazil out of total 11mbpd imported. Still 41% from OPEC.

Novinda has a chem absorbent that captures fluegas Mercury and puts it into the ash waste and the flyash can still be used as cement additive.

Accelergy has a way to make economical, relatively clean aviation fuel from liquified coal. Exxon pioneered the research in '70's/'80's.

292GWh of windpower was curtailed by the Midwest transmission system operator in '09. 824GWh in '10 - roughly loss of >$57M of elgen. Transmission development hasn't kept pace. Impacting new investment.

China Feb oil demand up 10% on year to 9.6mbpd (calculated from analysis, not given out by China).

Iraq oil minister says prices won't go over $120 near term, a price OPEC says "won't harm global growth". Think they're right?

A Brit oil comp found oil/NG off the Falklands. Let's hope Argentina can live with that.

At end of '09, Russia had 13MW of wind and negligible solar capacity. Their total elgen base was 220GW.

Global wind installed in '10 was 35.8GW, total capacity 194GW (22% increase over '09). Cost $65B. China almost half @ 16.5GW '10 installs, now 42GW total. India added 2GW. But wind's annual expansion rate was down 7% from '09's 38.6GW (first fall in 20 years).