STUFF

I know. I'm watching March Madness too. And cooking dinner. And doing laundry. And did fed tax. Man's work is never done.

Insecticide-coated corn seed may be cause of honeybee colony collapse disorder (mass die-off). Huh. Monsanto?

Energy Source put their 50MW Salton Sea geothermal plant onto grid. $400M ($8/w matches nuclear - 24/7 clean). Salton Sea resource now has 326MW geotherm with 10 plants. 1.4GW potential.

Mitsubishi will scrap plans to build $100M Arkansas wind power nacelle plant if no PTC. Plant was scheduled to open early this year. PTC provides wind developers with 2.2cents/kwh in tax benefits. Possibly 37k jobs on the line if PTC doesn't pass before end of year.

Global target of 1,300 biorefineries online by '25. Avg size 50m gal/y capacity. 600 already operating. Many, though, demo and pilot plants. 207 in development.

BWEN diversifying customer base. Preparing for decline in new wind farms. Revs up in '11 mostly from rise in steel costs. $161M backlog. Still $20M loss on year.

Chinese wind power comp (MY) opened R&D center in NC.

Study says 1 offshore substation platform with 2 230KV lines is good for every 500-700MW of wind el gen off VA coast.

US wind gen was up 27% in '11: EIA.

Combined US states' corrections spending $53B/y ('09 last year reported). $8B in '85. But what hasn't gone up that much just on inflation? But there is $53B/yr. I bet we could save $5B/y just serving them the pink slime. Tho I guess we do already.

Idaho Power wants contracts for renewable energy stopped. Huh.

Twin Creeks Tech emerged from stealth with taking out almost all starting material for silicon PV and up-front process costs slash. Talking 60cent/w. "Kerf" - material lost as dust. $93M raised privately, another $50M from Mississippi. $30M drawn for factory. Proton-induced exfiliation. 1st noticed decades ago in Soviet nuke reactors. Inner walls peeling, accum of protons just under surf. So now they shoot H atoms into thick silicon at high current and voltage. Wala ... 20-micron silcon with 0 kerf loss. 90% redux in silicon. "we can make <40 cent/w solar cells today." Rooftop solar payback in 1 month. And on it goes...

Airports opting out of TSA. Didn't know they could do that.