STUFF

Of course, we're all glued to our TV's and radio's for resolution of the debt ceiling debacle. Yea.

Anyway, Pfizer is building a biomass boiler that will burn wood chips at their NC plant. More cost effective than NG or fuel oil. $7.9M project to be online early '12.

Edison Mission Group, sub of EIX, built a 30MW wind farm in MN for $58M. $3M in DOA grants. 20-yr PPA with Northern States Power (Xcel E). Clipper Wind turbines. EMG operates nearly 2GW of wind power cap at 29 projects, potentially another 3.6GW in pipeline.

Vermont Yankee ordered $50M worth of U fuel even though its license expires in March and state is blocking the permit to run beyond that. Entergy betting its fed suit against the state will go their way. I'd like to see the money going to the judges on this one. Yes, maybe I'm cynical. Or a realist. $50M covers 1/3 of the fuel bundles the plant uses. And it will cost $92M to shutdown for 30 days and refuel.

DuPont bought Innovalight, maker of silicon ink that enables solar cell makers to get more el out of their cells. Price not disclosed. Innovalight customers part of the prize - Yingli, JASO, Motech. DOE has funded the R&D: $3M in '09, $3.4M earlier this yr.

FSLR announced 17.3% efficient CdTe solar cell. Exceeds record set by NREL in '01. In Q1, FSLR produced panels with 11.7% efficiency @ 75 cents/W. They expect to reach 13.5-14.5% by end of '14.

Silicon panel prices are down 15% in the last 6 wks, reaching below $1.40/W. And Innovalight ink can boost efficiencies by .8% or more.

The 1st Fisker Karma EV has been delivered. Another $100k EV sports car.

SPWRA warned of wider 2Q losses from Germany, Italy cutbacks. Gross margins 12-13% v. expected 15-17%.

Think - the Norwegian EV maker - announced a Russian investor (mentioned in War and Peace?) bought the assets out of bankruptcy. Valmet and HEV will help the comeback.