STUFF

Canada Q1 GDP up 3.9%.

Russia lifting grain export ban as drought, floods ruin Europe, US crops.

Belarus devalued its ruble 36% overnight last week.

Dominion Virginia began ops at new 580MW combined-cycle NG plant. $619M. 24 permanent jobs. Combined-cycle uses exhaust from combustion turbines to generate steam to drive another turbine. VA 2nd only to CA in amount of imported el from other states.

Gamesa to launch 4.5MW wind turbine in China around turn of year. 4 mnfctrg plants now in China, 3 more planned.

GE/Cisco partnered up to provide windfarm-wide wireless connectivity for phase 1 - 30 GE turbines - of First Wind's UT farm.

Duke Power buying 20MW WI windfarm. Gives them >1GW of gen cap at 10 US windfarms. They've invested $1.5B in wind, solar power. Also plan to build a 168MW windfarm in KS, start in fall.

CA E Commission approved $16M for cleaner trans projects, leveraging another $9.6M in private match funds. Projects include hybrid trucks and buses, lith-ion batt module production line, algae-to-oil pilot plant and reducing buyer costs of new alt-fuel vehicles.

KY Utilities wants $1.1B rate increase to pay for upgrades to 2 coal plants to control particulates, mercury. Louisville G&E asking for $1.4B. Both owned by PPL Corp.

1st 4 months '11, US consumer price index up 9.7% annualized. PPI up 12.8%. Import prices up 26.7%. Last 4 yrs, inflation has wiped out all growth of weekly earnings. Or, to put it the other way, weekly earnings have kept up with inflation. No rises for social security last 2 yrs tho, which is legally obligated to keep up.

KPMG report says India's solar power gen will reach 68GW - or 7% of total gen then - by '22, triple the govt target. Also says solar cost will be on par with conventional thermal by '20, partly because they project coal, NG prices to rise 4-5%/y. India's solar currently 40MW. Total elgen cap ~179GW.

Thailand going with 3 800-MW NG-fired power plants, putting off plans for 9 coal-fired plants and 5 nukes. But they say new coal tech as clean as NG!

GE unveiled latest wind turbine - the 1.6-100. 630MW ordered already. Their most efficient turbine to date. Blades over 100 meters. 47% increase in swept area, 19% incr in annual el prod w/ 7.5 meters/second wind (<2mph by my crude math).

Well, let's end war on Earth for good, huh? That's the first step. Step 2 is terrorists. But the two pretty much comingle, don't they? Onward and upward pards.