THURSDAY STUFF

I'll put up Wednesday's stuff if Goog can't put it back up. Was that part of Facebook attack?

320MW hydro plant inaugurated in Turkey. Alstom (FR), Sanko (TK) teamup.

CSIQ results slightly topped estimates. CSIQ is trading down, primarily because of their Euro exposure.

FLEX, MEMC expanding their partnership on making solar panels for Sun Ed.

GM to build .5MW solar PV system at Detroit plant for Volt. DTE E investing $3M in it. Other efficiency projects will save the plant almost $3M/y.

IEA cut crude demand forecast for '12 citing pump prices, weakening growth for industrialized countries. '11 est. trimmed to 89.2mb/d. Down 190k. Still 1.5% higher than '10. Also cited: JP's quakenami effects, mideast unrest. surge in commodity prices, risks from current account balances and possible asset bubbles in large emerging economies (China real estate?). Also a 4% decrease in March demand for heating oil in Europe. And Russia, Brazil, China facing difficulties passing on recent pump price increases to consumers. Finally, it looks like OPEC picked up net of 100kb/d of lost Libyan crude production.

Kroger phasing out BPA in receipts (?!) and cans.

USDA found gene maps to fight pathogens in wheat, barley.

CA Sierra Club asking the Gov to dump cap and trade. China: poor countries will suffer if airlines are included in EU cap and trade.

Plans to build WY water reservoirs for wind power storage.

Solid H ice may explain interstellar glow. Awesome, no?

Hormel Foods reduced water use by 30M gal.

Electron Vault - with former TSLA science director - has tech to quickly, cheaply, comprehensively wire batts together. EV's, grid. Laser welding too expensive. Vault uses parallel rather than series wiring. Plan to license. Discussions with Chinese EV makers, S. African grid operators. He says "think botany ... broadly."

ABB took controlling interest in Validus (CT). DC systems for data centers. $24B market for telecom/data centers. Validus worked w/ IBM, Oracle-Sun, HP. DC center 20% more efficient than standard (not state of art) AC.

Jeff Sachs. Director of Earth Institute at Columbia U. "We're now in a state of (manmade)-induced global crisis." Ocean acidification, biodiversity loss, almost annual 100-yr weather events, rising food prices, continued reliance on fossil fuels, failed institutions, politicians bought and paid for. "It will take policy, science and ethics working together..."

Half the world's adult population unemployed/underemployed. Half. Another 25% in non-essential service work.

Biggest solar roof in world: 5.38MW at Toys R Us distribution center in Flanders NJ. Used ENER solar. Will gen 72% of center's el use.

And the Miss Issippi's flood will probably shut down some if not all of the 11 oil refineries along its banks.

Exxon CEO in Congress: "oil should be $60-70."

Happy motoring, pards.