New large oil strike in Kenya. Africa Oil Corp (Can) - AOI.V (Toronto Venture Exchange). Comp also has assets in Ethiopia, Mali, Somalia. Tullow Oil (Brit) (TLW.L) also announced discovery in Kenya. East Africa opening up.
Generally, US east coast oil refineries can only process light, sweet crude. Midwest refineries process heavier crudes. More expensive to build, but heavy crude running ~$33 less/bl than light sweet (WTI). Also, utilization rates for midwest refineries 90-95% v. 60-80% for east coast. So. Pump prices different around the country. Also, ~ 3 month lag in crude to pump prices.
Forecasts for US wind installs ~ 9.5GW for '12, close to '11's. But some talking 500MW in '13, expecting expiration of tax credits at year end or not. US has >13GW of final turbine assembly capacity. Wind industry near 40% of biz for one assembler.
World investment in clean/renewable E reached cumulative total of $1T in 4Q11.
China implemented FIT for clean/renewable E last summer. Their domestic market for PV inverters quintupled last year to >2.4GW installed.
Cal-based Silevo building 32MW hybrid solar cell production line in China. May startup of line. Cost est. 98 cents/W. 500MW/y prod cap should lower it to 61 cents. Silicon prices have lowered costs. Hybrid solar - silicon wafers mix of mono- and polycrystalline structures. They're planning much thinner mono wafers. They also add "tunneling oxide layer" and amorphous silicon layers so cells don't lose performance as quickly in hot weather. Sandia verified 21.2% efficiency. $55M in venture funding.
Global PV solar industry expected to more than double by '14 from here.
Piepline comps have new plan to route oil from Can through IL to OK to Gulf by increasing existing pipe cap, adding new pipes. Would use existing pipe cap across border, getting around State Dept. Keystone moot.
U Cal SF researchers found new layer of genetic code using ribosome profiling. Enables measurement of gene activity inside living cells, including speed proteins made at. Speed change caused by info in "redundant codons" - small pieces of DNA. 50-year news for biology.
Scientists say they've found a way to clone American elm trees that have survived repeated Dutch elm disease epidemics.
Total weighing relief well for that offshore well leaking in N Sea. Would take months.
Happy Fools Day.
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