Tuesday, July 31, 2012

TUESDAY CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

Market down 64/6/5. Volume a little heavy. Oil somewhere.

VSPC up 60. CSOL up 45 on 2.5K shs. URRE up 26 on 7M shs. ECOS up 22 on 1.9M shs. CSKH up 17. XDSL up 14. AMEL up 10. FSLR, AMRS up 9.

CWET down 34. VLNCQ down 23. VNDB down 14. XSNX down 8. I would buy it. AONE down 7. NTCXF down  6. NENE down 5.

STUFF

Most oil comps used to just pull 10-20% of posted oil reserves out of the ground. The rest was too difficult or too expensive. But the new tech has changed all that.

Progress Energy Carolinas announced accelerated coal plant closings.

Brit and Australia research team: wind, eddies, currents together create CO2-sucking funnels that carry carbon down into southern ocean and hold it there. But process may be threatened by climate change. ~1/4 of earth's CO2 stored in oceans, some 40% of that in southern ocean around Antarctica. 5 1K km-wide funnels found in southern ocean. Another carbon-capture process. CO2-producing micro organisms living near surface sink to sea floor and stay there when they die.

Suntech may have been victim of $686M fraud from solar project partner. German govt bonds collateral may never have existed.

Fuel tanks not pulled out before NY reservoir was filled in '55. Oil residue in water. Supplies ~25% of drinking water for 9M folks.

BP reported $1.4B loss for Q2. Writedowns on refineries, shale gas US assets and long-delayed AK project.

Fed judge struck down enviros claim against admin coal leasing Powder River Basin program.

Solar power projected to make up avg. 11% of power sold by 3 top Calif utilities by '20.

Walmart installed 100th rooftop solar array on San Diego store. 150 total solar projects to date. Beating Ikea and Apple. >90MW installed by yearend. Expected to have 1K solar installs out of 4.5K stores by '20 in US.

Last Friday leak of 50K gallons of light crude in Wisc keeping Enbridge on hot seat. They export more crude into US than Sauds or Mexico. Comes on heels of NTSB report blasting Mich spill of '10 - the most expensive US onshore oil disaster. Ever.

Av biofuels a $100B+ biz opportunity.

Researchers at U of Wisc-Madison awarded $7M grant (with partners) to make ethanol from manure byproduct at 4K-cow dairy farm. Manure broken down to bedding, fertilizer pellets and biofuels.

Argentine biodiesel exports to Germany on the rise. Analysts expecting German comps to later supply Spain with the biodiesel to override Spanish policy against Argentina for the grab of YPF.?

Pakistan comp - partnering with regional govt - developing $3B, 100MW (by '16) underground coal gasification project. Produces CO, CO2, H and methane. 1.4B tons of low-grade coal reserves. Overall area reserves 175B tons. Pakistan has 50% less elgen capacity than demand. 5GW shortfall. And they want to spend $3B for 100MW. Really. How's the wind in Pakistan?

NREL: US has near 153K GW of rural utility-scale solar PV potential. TX has 14% of that. Also 38K GW of concentrated solar potential, 4.2K GW of offshore wind potential and 4K GW of geothermal potential. PV panels in urban locations have 1.2K GW potential, rooftop solar 664GW. Total near 200K GW solar potential. And that's just the United States.

Researchers at U of Southampton (England) have developed virtual power plant to efficiently combine power generated in small-scale clean/renewable E projects to create simple, stable power source. Intelligent, multi-agent software controls variable power stabilized for grid.

Senator Inofe (R-OK): 9x cost for biofuels too much, but 29x OK for NG-based synth fuels (SYNM). When does this shit stop? Inofe an investor in BlackRock, largest shareholder in SYNM.

GreenShift (GERS) new corn oil extraction system a 62% improvement. .8lbs of oil/bushel of corn now up to 1.3lbs. But GERS at end of March reported <$1M cash. And they need $.5M /Q.

"A lot of confusion right now" over new GHG regs on coal mines. Some mines release more methane than large conventional emitters.

Report showed emissions decrease as power sector shifted to NG elgen.

Melting of Greenland ice clears way for natural resources boom. Check that out.

Ecologists hope to thwart growth of cheatgrass. Check that too. Need a spray pilot?

Appeals court ruled for EPA over TX power plant pollution.

MD to fund mapping of seafloor under proposed fed lease of their ocean floor.

San Onofre (Calif) nuke plant could restart by yearend.

Reid pushing NV utility to buy into solar project.

EPA assessing 30 alternatives to toxic flame retardant.

Research: "probable link" between C8 and diseases.

Fokushima owner -TEP - to get $12.8B bailout.

India town above coal fires has been burning for decades.

Will the US PTC for clean E expire?

TUESDAY OPEN

(stock #'s in %)

Market flat and mixed. Volume normal. Oil down under $89. Waiting on Fed now until tomorrow afternoon.

2nd grid fail in 2 days in India. Today it's affecting 670M folks.

US consumer confidence up in July after 4 months down.

US home prices up for 2nd month in row in May, but down .7% for year through May.

AMLM up 73. VSPC up 50. CSOL up 45. QTMM up 42. ECOS up 33 more. Up 6x this month. XDSL up 21. AMRS up 18. Getting $30M from Total for further development of biodiesel and bio jetfuels. Jump off 50-day lines. FSLR up 6. ASTI up 3. WTWO up 2. NENE, GWBU up 1.

PPRW down 40. BLDW down 20. CWET, CABN down 10. XSNX down 5. Check their chart. Looks to me they're ready to go back up. NTCXF down 2.

Monday, July 30, 2012

MONDAY CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

Market down 2/12/0. Volume light. Oil down under $90. US corn crop rated 24% good to excellent, down from 26% week ago.

ONYX up 150 on a $60 buy. NGBF up 57 on $30? WNDEF up 50. Selling comp, avoiding proxy battle. And other stuff. At least a couple thousand dollars. If I did the math right. VNDB up 48. Pretty strong volume. ECOS up 47. Signed agreement with GFE Biofuels to distribute in Central Am. Really. Really. And that's volume. CRCL up 30. NGLPF up 21. Who doesn't like geothermal even though another Obama bankruptcy story. MMMW, QTWW up 14. QTWW actually has volume. LTBR up 12. ENZR, ZAAP up 11. ASTI, ULBI up 10. XSNX up 9. NTCXF up 1.

BFRE down 28. HOKU down 19. ENSL down 18 on a couple dollars. AVRW down 17 on also a couple dollars. Talk about insanity. AEHI, CERP down 16. Also insanity. Though I think CERP might have product. ZNNMF down 14. CSIQ down 13. Fallover from EU tariffs against Chinese solars. VLNCQ down 13. Well, bankruptcy. Duh. WTWO down 12. Plant goes online Aug 1. QTMM also down 12 on $60. TRKP, AMEL down 11. XDSL, GWBU down 6. NENE down 4.

STUFF

N India power grid crash took 370M folks offline for hours. Now back on.

EIA: US utilities expected to shut down 27GW of coal-fired elgen over next 5 years.

India, China, Brazil block move to cut "super GHG's".

Italy govt rolled out new solar plan.

NRDC: state disclosure rules for fracking falling short.

Groundbreaking for NG pipeline met with protests in Jersey City.

Insurance problems tie up Iranian crude imports in India.

Wave and tidal energy has potential to bring $4.7B/y to UK's econ: Carbon Trust. The industry could also create near $10B of exports, 26K new jobs. Current wave E costs ~$484/MWh, tidal ~$440. Coal-fired generation $82.UK's Renewable Obligation Certification program now giving wave and tidal 5 certificates/MWh, up from 2. Five ROCs = ~210 Lbs Sterling.

WilderHill global index of clean E stocks hit 9-year low as industry faces oversupply, falling prices, uncertain govt support.

6 years is the longevity of a Bakken oil well before it's down to 10-15bls/d from peak of 400b/d. Production in Montana Bakken fields surpassed 100Kb/d through '06, today @ 60K.

Ecuadoran court says Chevron must pay $19B for enviro damages to Amazon region, up $1B from last assessment.

Argentina to require oil comps operating in country to submit annual investment plan for official approval. Wanting to reverse years of declining output, investment.

TransCanada received last of permits needed to move on US leg of Keystone XL pipeline. But border crossing still needs authorization.

Canada approved Enbridge's flow reversal of oil pipeline to Ontario so refinery can get cheaper western crude.

Russia court ordered BP pay its Russian JV $3.1B for failed Rosneft deal.

China power gen sector used 917M metric tons of coal in 1H12, up 1.5% over last year.

US coal production ~19.7M tons last week, based on railcar shipments. Down 2% from previous week, 4.2% below year ago.

Ford working on pickup truck with largely aluminum body to help them meet tougher fed fuel econ targets.

OECD Nuke E Agency and IAEA: uranium resources and production on rise, security of supply ensured for long term.

India rainfall this year 23% less than avg. Food prices soaring. Govt says they can't maintain ag production growth of last 2 years with so little rain.

AutoMD.com poll: 78% of folks not going to buy cars every 2-3 years anymore, now thinking at least 10 years. Unscientific online poll of 4K.

Worst year in over 10 for Euro carmakers. Overstaffed, underused factories sapping profits.

It will take 3-6 months before China can realistically honor sanctions on Iran oil. Many Chinese refineries designed to only process Iran oil.

Colombian oil supplies disrupted after FARC rebels blew up section of 220Kb/d oil pipeline. Oil poured into river. Spill will likely cause major shortages of fish, enviro devastation.

Eqypt NG pipeline to Israel, Jordan sabotaged for 15th time since early '11 uprising.

Bangladesh comp installing 1K solar home systems a day in rural areas. 1M installs by yearend. Planning 5M by '15.

Global advanced biofuels and renewable chems capacity to reach 5.89B gallons by '17. ~1.15B gal this year.

Irish report predicts S American biofuels market of $83B by '16. $42.5B in '11.

Growth Energy has retrofit kit for flex fuel pumps to accomodate 25% ethanol blends. Certified by UL.

Manitoba truckers balking at govt consideration of increasing biodiesel mandate to 5%. Volvo only diesel engine maker that will accept biodiesel over 5%.

Methes Energies Canada to begin production of est. 50M liters/y of biodiesel at plant that closed in '05. Intend to sell into US.

Shell now planning just 2 exploratory wells in Arctic seas, down from 5.

Parched midwest helping shrink Gulf of Mex dead zone from Mississippi River drainage.

Livestock groups urging EPA to waive ethanol mandate.



MONDAY OPEN

(stock #'s in %)

Market up 30/0/2. Volume light. Oil steady around $90.

VNDB up 57. Back over all lines. No explanation. WNDEF up 46. From bottom to over all lines. Poof. NGLPF up 21. MMMW up 18. XSNX up 13. Starting back up. MGLT up 11. CWET, PEIX up 9. ASTI up 8. BIOF up 7. XDSL up 6. NTCXF up 2.

BFRE down 32 on 500 shs. SLMU down 22. HOKU down 20. ZNNMF down 13. CSIQ down 8 more. LSCG, WTWO down 6. VLNCQ down 5.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

GRAPHENE REPORT

Graphene Labs has graphene foam materials with high surface area. Potential applications in energy storage, chem sensing.

Korea Research Institute of Chem Tech and a Seoul university have discovered graphene-based photocatalyst that significantly improves efficiency of artificial photosynthesis systems. Graphene coupled to a porphyrin enzyme converts sunlight and CO2 into formic acid.

mPhase Tech (XDSL) and Stevens Institute of Tech to jointly design, build new batt combining XDSL's nanobatt tech and Stevens' graphene-based inkjet printing method for printing electrodes and el circuits.

U of Arkansas researchers have studied and controlled the transition - normally random - from graphite to graphene. Technique called electrostatic manipulation scanning tunneling microscopy, uses moving surface.

Stanford U researchers have increased charge/discharge rate of nickel-iron batt by nearly 1K times by adding graphene to nickel-iron mix. Full charge in 2 min, discharge in <30 sec.

Saturday, July 28, 2012

STUFF

Spain unemployment at depression level. 25%. 50% for youth.

NG spot prices in US up 70% since April. NG rig count 518 last week, down 42% from last year. Demand up. Production up. 69BCF/d in June. Up >3BCF from year ago.

BoA/Merrill Lynch: businesses, consumers saving $556M/d from cheap NG (v. global prices). The $16/bl diff in WTI and Brent oil worth $56M/d. Fossil fuel exports acount for ~ $100M/d. Add in increased oil/NG production and energy sector delivering ~$1B/d stimulus to econ. Not to metion all the new clean/renewable energy being built and used.

Phoenix Econ Council filed protest to Dept of Commerce, ITC against tariffs on Chinese solar products. A dozen Chinese solar comps have ID'd Phoenix as potential plant location.

Global venture capital for wind power fell to $17M in 2Q12 from $240M in 1Q12. 3 deals v. 12. Q2 deals from wind turbine makers. Large-scale Q2 project funding $5.4B. 23 deals. $4B onshore, $1.4B offshore. 2Q mergers and acquisitions for wind $93M in 5 deals v. $872M in Q1 in 11 deals.

Georgia (the country) trying to get Japan, business interested in new hydropower plant. S Korea, Turkey comps turned down financing. Japan Bank for Intl Development financed hydro plant in '05-'06.

FNVRF's sale was 77MW wind farm for $22M. I came up with <29 cents/w.

Ormat announced new 30MW geotherm plant that met commercial requirements. 10% improvement in brine use efficiency.

PA businesses can apply for State's Dept of Enviro Protection Small Biz Advantage Grant. 50% matching funds up to $9.5K to adopt/acquire E efficient or pollution-preventative equipment or procedures. 100 or fewer employees. In-PA facility must be owned by applicant and plan must save at least 25% plus $750/y in E or pollution-related expenses. G, can it get more simple?

New research raising concerns that extreme storms, unusually high level  of water vapor in atmos - partly driven by climate change - threatening ozone layer in new parts of Earth.

I think already reported: Army Corps of Engineers granted final permits for 400-mile portion of Keystone XL pipeline to run from OK depots to TX refineries.

Commerce Dept increased fees - set tariffs as high as 73% - on China wind turbine makers after finding Chinese and Vietnamese wind tower makers selling product below costs. Up to 60% on Vietnam towers. Probably why BWEN was up Friday.

Chevron's profits slipped on weaker oil prices. Down 13% at Shell.

Greenest Olympic games ever.

Iran building "Aframax" oil tankers. 700K bls. Tanker ordered by Venezuela.

Exxon's 2Q 49% increase in profit over year ago mostly from $7.5B sale of stake in Japan refining/chem comp. Oil/gas output down 5.6% to 4.15MB/d. Operating profits were down.

New EPA rules could force western world's largest coal power plant (in Montana) to shutdown by '17.

Happy motoring.

FRIDAY CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

Market up 187/64/25. Volume heavy. Oil around $90.

PRHL up 45. Finally, a rebound from the implosion. CWET up 36. Rebound off 50-day lines. WTWO up 33, back in 50-day lines. HOKU, AMTX up 21. AMTX back above all lines. SLMU up 20, off bottom (200-day) line up to top (50-day) lines. Tender offer from DSTI. IFXY up 16. AQNM up 15. JUHL up 14. BWEN up 13, back in 50-day lines. AMEL up 12. AMBT up 11, off triple bottom up to bottom (200-day) line. ALTI up 8. FSYS up 6 off top 50-day line. MXWL up 4 more, back near bottom (50) line. NENE flat.

AONE, QTMM down 21. AONE volume big enough to maybe be the capitulation. Of course, they may be bankrupt soon, too. ECOS down 15. Bounced off top (200) line down to bottom 200. PEIX down 13. AMLM down 12. EVSI, ZAAP down 10. EVSi backed off bottom (50) lines. XSNX down 8, all the way back from their early July surge. NFEC, XDSL down 6. NFEC heading back to bottom it climbed from beginning in Feb. Crazy low P/B, P/S numbers. NPWZ down 5, back under 50-days. PWER down 5 on volume after reporting good numbers. Came back under top (200) line. CSIQ, NTCXF down 2. CSIQ back below bottom line.

Friday, July 27, 2012

STUFF

Solar expected to be 40% of PG&E's renewable portfolio by '20.

Pike Research: 410K plug-in V's will be sold in US  from '11 to '15. 1M mark maybe in '18. 722 in '10. >34.5K LEAFs sold to date. Prius sales >3M, 1/2 in US. Nissan to launch 8 EV models by '14. Goal of 1.5M vehicles by '16. 21K Chevy Volts sold to date. Owners visit gas stations 1x/mo. 900 miles between fillups.

$30M, 18MW wind farm planned in MN.

>$7B of windfarm projects expected to be completed in 3Q12 in N Am.

Wisc's 1st community wind farm, 5MW, up and running.

7 nations - Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, Paraguay, Nepal, Rwanda, Solomon Islands, Syria - lack national laws regulating wildlife trade or failing to report.

PA court rejected ban on local fracking limits.

Fuel efficiency of vehicles purchased in 1H12 in US reached 23.8MPG, up 1.1MPG from 1H11.

Drought raising Mississippi-Ohio Rivers shipping costs.

Drought-tolerant corn trials showing positive early results.

LEED reached 2B square feet of certified commercial space.

DOE awarded $7M to C cap/storage projects.

Southern Comp to close coal plants, citing new pollution standards.

Army Corps approved final permit for Keystone XL southern leg.

Schumer calling on admin to stop Chinese comp's purchase of Canadian comp. I'm sorry, but I didn't know the US is now GOD. Schumer's a little nuts there.

Russian court ordered BP to pay $3.1B in damages for leaving JV.

Researchers linked ozone loss to climate change.

Shell scaling back Alaska drilling plans.

NRC found safety probs @ NC reactor.

DOT rolling out $17B loan program authorization for new highway bill.

NJ Guvnah veto'd GHG initiative bid.

DOE: east coast refining crisis has been averted.

Portugal utility plans to export solar E to Germany.

Gamesa planning restructuring.

Philippines intro'd new FIT.

Advanced biofuels/chems capac to reach 5.88B gal by '17.

GEVO/BIOF signed agreement to explore large scale biobutanols.

Algae light absorption evolving: NAS.

Exxon's 49% increase in profits less than predicted. Oil/gas output down 5.6% as oil prices fell 8.8%. What the ...

NOONY

(stock #'s in %)

Market up 120/42/16. Volume normal. Oil around $90. 2Q US GDP up 1.5%.

CRGE up 40. CWET up 25. Bounce off top 50-day line after 50 per cent pullback off runup. WTWO up 11. Coming out of double bottom on 10-day chart. They have a plant coming on line next month. NEXS up 9. Might be at bottom if not bankrupt or going. DSTI up 8 on nominal volume. FNVRF up another 7. Over 50-day lines. Sold that wind farm. FSYS up 6. Over 50-days. BIOF up 5. HOKU, GWBU up 2.

AONE down 18 more. Probably going bankrupt. Wait for real implosion with crazy volume. AMLM down 16. Pure speculation. CABN down 14. NFEC, VNDB down 11. Both probably forming double bottoms. ECOS, EVSI down 10. ECOS already coming off double bottom. EVSI keeps going down, but they have some business. XSNX, PEIX down 9. XSNX all the way back from early July zoom. So. Another double bottom. A lot of double bottoms going around. PEIX also on double bottom - from October. Corn prices may be coming down. Can they make money? Are they going cellulosic? Are they growing? Obviously I don't have those answers. There are better techs to invest in, though. NTXCF, NENE, XSNX, etc. But, bottom line is what stock is going to go up. Faster than others. (Again, I don't short any stock). NPWZ down 5. Still coming back from their June jump. I still like fuel cell power. NTCXF down 1.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

THURSDAY CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

Market up 211/39/22. Volume a little heavy. Oil stayed under $90. But earnings seen falling in Q3, 1st time in 3 yrs. And Greek exit from Euro in '13 90% probable.

BFRE up 35 on 12K shs. FNVRF up 32 on that project sale. VLNCQ up 24. ECOS up 20. Ended on top (200-day) line. BOPO up 19 on 10K. NTCXF up 18. I guess either a lot of traction in this range or a big new push up. PSPW up 17. INIS, VNDB up 12. EVSI, ZAAP up 11. CLNT up 10. HOKU, LEDS up 9. NENE up 1.

WWPW down 44 on 25K. IFXY down 25. WTWO down 20. Looking for double bottom. BIOF down 15. CWET, NEXS down 13. AONE down 9, new low. Bankrupt? ASTI down 8. Getting back closer to lines. NPWZ, XSNX, GWBU down 6. XDSL down 5.

STUFF

Toyota has regained top automaker title.

TSLA 2Q loss widened to $1/sh. Finances "worse than thought".

Buses with solar panels rolling off China production line.

Chinese firm looking to invest $200M in Jordanian solar E.

Community Energy Solar closed finance to begin construction of 6MW farm in PA.

Scientists for 1st time finding tropical, subtropical species of protozoa in Arctic Ocean. Pulsing currents could become more common as climate change causes shifts in long distance currents.

German utility postponing offshore wind project, citing liability concerns.

20-plus Euro solar manufacturers filed trade complaint with EU over Chinese solar manufacturers' dumping.

American Petroleum Institute refiled lawsuit against EPA mandates for biofuels that don't exist. Govt fining refineries for not using fuels that don't exist yet. Isn't that a non-brainer? Cellulosic biofuels just now being OK'd by EPA. It's all just a little maddening.

IEA: wind power will be 2nd largest contributor (after hydro) to global "renewable" elgen by '17, increasing >40% to almost 6,400TWh (~1.5x current elgen in US). Renewable elgen will expand by 1,840TWh '11-'17. Almost 60% above '05-'11 growth. Wind growth will be avg 100TWh/y '11-'17. Onshore wind will be 90% of that. China should add 104GW, US 27GW, India 17GW, Brazil 8GW, UK 7GW. EWEA: 523MW of wind was connected to grid in Europe in 1H12, 50% over 1H11.

Global Data: global hydropower capacity expected to grow to 1,443GW by '20. Increasing govt emphasis. Small hydro becoming more attractive. China was 55% - 59GW - of '11 small hydro growth. India 9%. US 6.9%. Small hydro capacity to grow from current 106.7GW to 137.8GW by '20.

UK granted $776M of tax relief to NG drillers, cut renewable E subsidies and signalled further cuts in months ahead. Offshore wind cut 10%, less finance support for biomass and solar may be cut further.

Tetra-carboxylate-indium complex possible new solution for C capture. Interlinked framework of organic, metallic crystal structures create honeycomb-like pores that selectively trap CO2.

Of UK's 85GW elgen capacity, 1/3 scheduled for shut down by '16. 24GW of coal elgen because it can't meet emission standards and 5GW of nuke because of reaching end of life cycle. Of course, in US, we just extend nuke plant lives another 20 years. What the heck.

Consumer Energy Report: global biofuel production now at <1.2Mb/d oil equivalent. Took off in '02 from .2M. US prod <.6M now. US, Brazil, EU account for 87% of total. Global solar PV capac @ 70GW from 10GW in '07. EU >50GW of that. US ~5GW. Global wind power capac <250GW. EU <100GW of that. China @ 60GW. US <50GW.

GPRE reported higher revs but net loss in 2Q.

USDA, DOE investing $41M in 13 projects of basic science for development of higher yields from biofuels feedstocks and diversification. 60 active biofuel feedstocks under development.

Corn futures prices receding. Recent rains beginning to ease Midwest drought conditions.

Manitoba planning to boost biodiesel blend to 5% from current 2%.

3 Japanese comps to build pilot OTEC plant. Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion. Uses temp difference between warm surf water and cold deepwater.

Tanzania looking to UAE for investment in their NG fields.

Calif carbon 2x as expensive as European C. $19.50/metric ton for Cal's C Allowance Dec futures. Cal's spot market for C due to begin next year.

Study: waiving biofuels mandates would have scant effect on corn prices. Yea? Really?

 Tritium detected near 3 Mile Island poses no threat: utility.

Amazon tribe captured dam engineers in protest.

Castro willing to talk with USA.

Happy motoring, pards.

THURSDAY OPEN

(stock #'s in %)

Market up 173/32/16 on ECB chief's remarks on keeping Eurozone from collapse. Volume a little heavy. Oil up near $90. US durable goods orders up on aircraft demand.

VLNCQ up 32. PSPW up 20. FNVRF up 19 on wind project sale. EVSI up 16 on news. Over 50-day lines. ECOS up 15. Up to top (200-day) line. CLNT up 10. May be start of run up. VECO up 9. Back to top (50-day) line. AIXG up 8 despite missing on bottom and top lines. Trading around double bottom. NTCXF up 3.

CCGI down 21. CABN down 17. BFRE down 14. CWET down 11. Back to top 50-day line. GWBU down 9. XDSL down 5. NPWZ down 4. Back on top (50-day) line. XSNX down 3. NENE down 2.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

WEDNESDAY CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

Dow up 58. Naz down 8. S&P flat. Volume a little heavy. Oil steady around $89. Toyota regained top automaker title. Moody changing mood on 17 German bank groups to negative.

BIOF up 40. WHY? BLDW up 28. They're building turbines I guess why. Rise over 50-day lines. PEIX up 22. Yea, after BIOF took off. Covering their gap. The real ethanol producers - with profits - GPRE down 10, REGI down 5. Huh? Corn crop? CERP up 20. Hanging out over 50-days. OOIL up 12. More sails. ENZR up 9 on news. Got up to top line. Graphite. MXWL up 8. Have they bottomed?! GEVO up 6. Well, definitely at bottom of chart. XSNX up 3. On real volume. Check it out. I would buy if I had any money. They have a solar thingy. Newgen stuff. NENE up 2. They have newgen solar too.

NTCXF down 1. Newgen solar stuff too. AONE down 2. On the bottom. TSLA (2Q loss widened to $1/sh), KNDI, KIOR, ASTI, DSTI down 3. BWEN down 4. Should be bottom. REGI down 5, already mentioned. NPWZ, ZAAP down 9. GPRE down 10, already mentioned. WTWO down 10. Opening up plant with $3M/y revs. SATC down 13. Going bankrupt, the prediction. GWBU, CWET down 20.

STUFF

Study: US solar investment tax credit pays for itself plus delivers 10% annual rate of return to taxpayers on govt's initial investment. It was expanded by E policy Act of '05 and modified as grant program under '09 stimulus.

New NJ solar development law will require utilities to buy more solar E. Utilities can meet mandate by buying E credits from project developers. A 4-year speed-up for solar targets and lower price ceilings for credits to help utilities.

NASA: Greenland ice sheet melt this month not seen in 30 years of sat observation.

Interior Dept ID'd 17 sites on 285K acres of public land across 6 Swest states as prime spots for solar E development. Govt will fast-track large scale solar there. Further ID'd 19M acres of public lands as potential locations for fast-track solar projects. But "fenced off" 78M acres because of less solar potential, no transmission lines near enough, threat to archeological or cultural sites, endangered species, scarce water or other enviro issues.

Retired admirals warn Repub proposals to bar Navy from biofuels research could jeopardize national security.

Brit Columbia premier says enviro costs of Northern Gateway pipeline project would outstrip any econ benefits.

Melting of permafrost for 1st time along parts of Alaska Canada Military Highway. Melting permafrost releases methane - worse than CO2 in global warming.

Study: compact fluorescent lamps may damage skin. So, switch to LEDs.

UK govt to fund low-carbon vehicles.

NG up lately over $3. I think it's headed to $6.

Former Rep Inglis says subsidy phaseout, C tax the future of conservative E narrative. I think that's fine, as long as it's all E subsidies.

UCLA researchers have developed a transparent film attachable to glass, other surfaces for solar elgen. Polymer cells convert IR light to el using silver nanowires and TiO2 nanoparticles as electrodes. Converts at ~4% efficiency.

1st US tidal power project launched in Cobscook Bay, Maine. Ocean Renewable Power Comp. FERC license and PPA. DOE invested $10M from water power program. Tidal power potential 250TWh/y in US.

Nexolon America, subsid of Korea's Nexolon, to build $100M solar modules, trackers, inverters manufacturing plant in San Antonio to help serve 400MW TX solar project by OCI Solar Power in consortium with San Anton's muni utility. $1B in projected construction investment. 1st 50MW online in San Anton by '13. The rest over next 4 years.

PA largest state without tax on NG production.

Nationwide Mutual 1st insurance comp to decline coverage for fracking claims.

Farm Econ study: corn's use in US ethanol production rose 300% '05-'11. Led to corn price jump to $6/bu in '11 from $2 in '05.

NREL has new database - Transparent Cost Database. Collects cost and performance estimates for E efficiency and clean/renewable E techs.

iDiverse (Calif) discovered yeast gene that when inserted into yeast and modulated can increase ethanol production yield by up to 34%.

Maple Energy's $280M ethanol plant now online in Peru. Will also produce 37MW of el per year.

Lufthansa sees av biofuels with 5% of avfuel market in next 5-7 years.

Capital investment in clean tech was off 14% in 2Q12 v. 1Q12 ($1.88B) and off 25% from 2Q11 ($2.15B). 155 deals in 2Q12 v. 197 in 1Q12.

EPA rejected beekeepers' call to ban a pesticide chemical. Kind of concerning considering the bee population declines.

India planning 1st shale gas auction.

Virus shut down Iran nuke plant computers.

WEDNESDAY OPEN

(stock #'s in %)

Dow up 50, Naz down 13, S&P down 2. Volume a little heavy. Oil flat under $89. 3M unfilled jobs in US because of lack of skills. That's terrible.

BIOF up 32. Another short covering? APWR up 18. No reason. CERP up 14 on news. Staying above 50-day lines. CWET up 13. Bounce back from yesterday. PEIX up 12. Something's up with corn ethanol comps. Enough rain lately to help corn crop? SENY up 11. OOIL up 10 on sales news. VRNM up 8. EPA OK'd them to market next-gen enzyme breaker for fracking. Over all their lines. MXWL up 5 off bottom.

GWBU down 27. XDSL down 16. WTWO down 10. NTCXF down 4. XSNX, AMEL down 3. ASTI down 1.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

TUESDAY CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

Market down 104/27/12. Dow and Naz hit top 200-day line and came back. Volume a little heavy. Oil under $89.

AVRW up 80. Go figure. BLDW up 51. Bounce over 50-day lines. AEHI up 33. WWPW up 23. KIOR up 13. They received registration from EPA for renewable gasoline. Bounce up to 50-day lines. NEXS up 12. PSPW up 11. CSGH up 9.

PRHL down 31. ENSL down 28. VLNCQ, MMMW down 23. XSNX down 22, back to bottom (50-day) line. AMEL, CSKH down 21. CWET down 19. AMLM down 16. GWBU down 13, back almost 80 from day's bottom. ASTI down 12. The run up looks broken. NTCXF, DSTI down 11. NTCXF may be coming back. DSTI back in 50-day lines. ZAAP, WTWO, CBEH down 10. XDSL, SPWR, MXWL down 5. SPWR, MXWL new lows. NPWZ down 2. NENE flat. Expecting a turn up.

STUFF

China ready to build 4 new nuke plants, 7 reactors. Will be operated by CNNC Nuke Power and CGNPG.

PANL bought Fujifilms worldwide OLED patent portfolio for $105M.

GM to trial wireless EV charging.

CNOOC to buy Nexen (Canada) for $15.1B.

Alaska sueing to block enforcement of fed rules to limit pollution from large ships, citing they will hurt state's econ.

Smithsonian scientists freezing eggs, sperm of world's corals.

EPA sued by enviros to force designating northeast Utah's heavily-drilled Uinta Basin as out of compliance with ground-level ozone standards.

NRG Energy to buy GenOn Energy in $1.7B stock deal. Will give NRG 47GW of capacity and make it largest unregulated el generator in US.

Calif homes certified E-efficient added avg 9% to sale value from '07-'12.

NJ gov signed solar subsidy bill.

Bacteria outbreak in N Europe linked to climate change: study.

Military moves escalating friction over crude-rich S China Sea.

RRB Energy, Vestas' former JV partner in India, restarted production of 225KW wind turbines, discontinued in '05, targeting emerging markets led by Africa. RRB also plans to intro 3MW turbine in next 2 yrs.

Clariant (Germany) opened Germany's biggest pilot plant for cellulosic ethanol from ag waste. Up to 1K tons of cell eth from ~4.5K tons of wheat straw. ~$34M invested.

Spain researchers @ U of Murcia producing biodiesel in single step using biocatalysts and green solvents like ionic liquids. Making fuel from veg oil, CO2 and methanol. They say it's a cheaper method than current tech.

Iranian naval commander says closing Hormuz wouldn't make common sense.

Putin announced South Stream NG pipeline project will start in Dec. JV between Gazprom and Italy's Eni. Est. $18B cost. Will supply southern Europe with 63B cubic meters of NG as early as '15.

EPA delaying finalizing new rules for cooling water intakes until '13.

WTO set up panel to consider US and allies' concerns over rare earths markets.

Biomass power plants facing pollution violations.

Global CO2 emissions have gone from 12B metric tons in '65 to ~34B in '11. Growth speeding up since '02. Asia-Pacific region gone from <2B in '65 to >15B in '11. US was ~4B in '65, 6B in '11. Europe has flat-lined @ around 4B. But US per capita emissions was way ahead of Europe and rest of world. Avg. amount of CO2 emiss that causes atmos increase of 1 PPM is 14.1B metric tons.

TUESDAY OPEN

(stock #'s in %)

Market down 75/8/7. Indeces down around bottom 50-day lines. Volume a little light. Oil around $88.

CSKH up 52. AVRW up 50. ALTI up 12. NEXS up 10. CWET up another 2. KNDI, NPWZ up 1.

GWBU down another 46, another new low. PRHL down 28 more. AMEL down 19. NGLPF down 13. XDSL, HOKU, VLNCQ down 10. ASTI down 5. XSNX down 2. NTCXF down 1.

Monday, July 23, 2012

MONDAY CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

Market down 101/35/12. Volume normal. Oil down under $90.

HOKU up 51. AMLM up 20. VLNCQ up 14. KNDI up 9. NPWZ, LEOM up 6. XDSL up 5. ASTI up 4, 10 off day bottom. LIME up 3, over 10 from day bottom. NENE up 2.

WTWO down 28. GWBU down 23. AMEL, PRHL down 18. ECOS down 17. NEXS down 16. AMTX down 10. SPWR down 8, new low. SPWR. XSNX down 7. Up ~20 off day bottom. CWET down 6 on patent news. PANL down 4, up ~7 off bottom. NTCXF down 3.

STUFF

Marathon Oil got exploration deal in Kenya.

World corn prices up 55% in last 6 weeks to new record ~$8/bu. US capacity to distill corn ethanol now approaching the 15B gal/y Congress mandate. Eth currently provides ~10% of US "gas" supply.

S Korea's top grain importer asking US to cut corn supply for biofuels because of drought. US supplies over 80% of S Korea's corn. They need their corn.

Morocco officials likely to form partnership with Saud's Intl Comp for Water & Power to develop 160MW solar project for ~$500M.

Fisherman's Energy got final permit needed to start bldg wind farm offshore Atlantic City.

American manufacturers importing workers. Shortage of skilled American workers. Where's the job training? Trade school grads in hot demand for manufacturing jobs.

UK Treasury not willing to back contracts (using country's AAA rating) to spur clean E. Energy minister resigned.

US rounded up 20 countries to take part in mine sweeping exercise in Straits of Hormuz.

Abu Dhabi started exporting its first crude from pipeline that bypasses Hormuz. Shipping oil from neighbor Fujairah to Pakistan.

Venezuela says Chevron plans to invest $2B to boost petrol production of Venezuela oil field.

France's new energy minister says govt will stick to its opposition to fracking, banned by previous admin last year.

Israel navy looking to spend $756M on 4 new warships to bolster protection of E Mediterranean NG bonanza.

Motor vehicles in China up 3.7% over last year. Over 233M, near half motorcycles.

India will need to import 185M tons of coal per year by '17.

Brazil agency said it will fine Chevron $25M for Nov oil spill.

Poet and Royal DSM joint venture finalized $250M finance for cellulosic ethanol plant in Iowa. Expected ready for '13 harvest.

SAT (Brazil) to build plant to produce biofuels from seaweed at industrial scale. Online by late '13. Will produce 1.2M liters/y of algae-based fuel. Will use CO2 emissions from nearby sugarcane ethanol production as 2nd feedstock.

EIA forecasts oil under $100 through '13.

EC report: global GHG emissions up 3% in '11 to all-time high 34B tons. China the most - 29% of total, up from 9% in '10. US 2nd at 16%, a 2% decrease from '10.

BP: Turkmenistan's proven NG reserves increased to 24.3T cubic meters, almost double the '10 estimate. Almost 12% of global reserves, matching Qatar.

From '80 to '08, SO2 and NO emissions from US industry was cut 57%. From power plants 40%, even though el use was up 85% in same period and use of coal tripled. EPA estimates $9.6B cost to comply now with new mercury emission standards can be justified by estimated $90B/y savings in healthcare costs.

MONDAY OPEN

(stock #'s in %)

Market down 158/57/19 on new Euro worries. Indeces back into 50-day lines. Volume around avg. Oil down under $89. Spain, Italy banned short selling. Deeper slowdown seen in China.

WWPW up 33 on 3K shs. HOKU up 21. BLDW up 14. OOIL up 6. KNDI up 5 on more contract news. Rally started mid-June. XDSL up 5. NENE up 2. NTCXF, NPWZ, XSNX flat.

BFRE down 24. ECOS down 17. WTWO down 16. SLMU down 13 on news. HSOL down 10. AMEL down 7. PANL down another 6. Under bottom (50-day) line. VLNCQ down 5.



Sunday, July 22, 2012

STUFF

Putin signed Russia into WTO.

Study found US west coast could receive 10x more radiation from Fukushima than coastal Japan.

90% of all US oil/gas wells need some form of fracture. By '35, EIA expects shale gas production to more than double to 13.6TCF/y. Some estimates over 20TCF/y.

Worldwide, 25M NG vehicles expected to be on roads in next 7 years.

US hydro plant profits drying up due to drought.

Rich individuals, families have $21-32T of financial assets in offshore tax havens. Up to $280B in lost tax income for many govts. And it doesn't include non-financial assets like real estate, gold, yachts, airplanes, racehorses, art, etc.

Happy trails, pards.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

STUFF

Polysilicon avg spot price at decade low $22/kg. Down 56% yoy.

Light Tech Institute in Germany starting 4 years research program on organic (plastic) solar cells. Want 10% efficiency. Euro 4.25M from German ministry of ed and research. Low-cost printing/coating processes. Gravure printing, screen printing, slot-die coating, spray coating in roll-to-roll process.

5 of biggest wind turbine makers shut out of Brazil's market after failing to meet local content requirements of at least 40% of parts from Brazil. Their wind installs may near triple this year over '11 to 1.7GW. 5th largest global wind market now. Local content requirement rises to 60% later.

Coskata switching from biomass to NG, to raise $100M in NG-oriented private placement.

US, Australia signed naval advanced biofuels tech co-op agreement.

US to provide AVAV drones for Kenya.

EPA to review new standards for mercury, soot, other emiss for handful of proposed new coal power plants.

This year's April-to-June water flow into Lake Powell, upper Colorado R. was <1/4 of last year and 1/3 of '08, '09 and '10. And those were dry years.

Indonesia substantially raised its geothermal FITs, govt calling it a "crash" program. Seeking many GWs of geotherm and other clean E. In past decade, Indo has become net importer of oil. Geo FITs to range 10-20 cents/KWh. Current "renewables" supply 5-6% of E mix now. Existing target 17% by '25, will probably go to 25%. Currently 1.2GW of geo, 3rd in world behind Calif (3.1GW) and Philippines (1.9GW). They want to add 3-4GW by '14 (but expect only 375MW), and want to see 10GW by '25. Other targets: 2GW solar PV by '14, 300MW wind by '14, 1.3GW of new hydro by '15 and 400MW of new biomass by '15.

Former FSLR CTO instrumental in FSLR's ramp up now with Pelion Tech. They want to supplant lithium batt mart with magnesium-based tech born at MIT. Launched with DOE support. Magnesium-ion batts potentially 3x power of lith-ion. Mag mining, not surprisingly, dominated by China. 2nd is Russia. But it's 4th most common element in earth and prevalent in most regions. Comp may first tap into consumer devices. Let's get some American magnesium mines going.

Near-drought conditions impacting Marcellus drilling. Susquehenna (sp?) water rights suspended.

Branson wants to meet with Chu, Obama on integral fast reactor tech. GE-Hitachi has it. IFRs use plutonium and uranium waste in traditional reactors. I don't know what the hell is the holdup.

Abengoa (Spain) to invest $120M in JV project with Silvernet (Canada) to build 2 steel dust recycling plants in Turkey. Combined 200 ton capac. 110K tons/y conversion of steel dust into 80K tons of Washed Waelz Oxide, rich in zinc. Online 2H14.

Sun-reflecting chems to be sprayed into air above NM in geoengineering experiment.

Italian PM proposing relaxing offshore oil ban to raise potentially $18B.

Siemens deal with DONG for 300 6MW offshore wind turbs to be installed in UK waters '14-'17.

Celanese deal to advance devel of synthetic fuel ethanol products with Indonesia state-owned E comp. Ethanol from coal @ $1.50-2.00.

Kandi (KNDI) bagged largest single EV order to date. 20K EVs for Hangzhou's EV leasing program. Local utility to fund charging and batt-swap network and will pay for batts, financed by customer charges. Batts will aid in grid stabilization. August start, fully operational by end of '13. KNDI will get ~$6,800 per vehicle and expect 70 cents/sh more gross profit - '13 to double '12. China govt goals 500K EVs by '15, 5M by '20.

WNDEF got their $78M cash grant for 120MW wind farm completed last year. But $12M less than applied for.

FRIDAY CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

Market down 120/40/13. Volume heavy - options Friday. Oil near $92. Focus on earnings instead of Europe.

WTWO up 36 more. Over 50-day lines. Might want to get on board. VSPC up 25. ECOS up 23, knocking around between 50- and 200-day lines . SENY up 20. AMPD up 19 on 1K shs. SLMU up 17. Jump off bottom 200 up to 50's. NGLPF up 16. MMMW up 14. CWET up 13 more. Day 5 of runup. XDSL up 12. Their run started late June. AXPW up 10. AONE up 9 on that energy storage China contract news. 2nd contract in 2 days. NTCXF up 2. Get on board. NPWZ up 1.

CGYV down 37 on 1K shs. ENSL down 32. GWBU down 31, new low. AQNM down 25. Double bottom? APWR down 19, new low. Are they even in business? HOKU down 17. CRGE down 13. PANL, VLNCQ down 10. PANL couldn't punch through 200-days, now back to a 50. OOIL down 9, back below 50's. BIOF down 5 more, just about all the way back from that pop. Corn prices. ASTI down 4. Might be some comeback here. LIME down 4 more, the lawsuits piling up. NENE, XSNX down 2. XSNX back in their lines. 

Friday, July 20, 2012

STUFF

AQNM subsid expanding into vertical axis windpower.

New software in testing that adjusts blade positions on wind turbines to reduce noise.

Detroit Public Light Dept 1 of 3 Mich utilities not expected to meet 10% clean E by '15.

A citizens assoc charging Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line Comp /affiliates failing to comply with PSC of WV order to submit plan for reconductoring/upgrading existing transmission lines once the transmission project was completed.

Trina Solar (China) set to invest $200M in Jordan solar project. Jordan passed Renewable E law in May.

Damage to food chain after BP oil spill in GOM, unusually cold water in '10 (that healthy dolphins could tolerate) and unusually cold freshwater from January '11 snow runoff probable causes for deaths of hundreds of dolphins in GOM.

China will investigate US, S Korean polysilicon imports for dumping. LDK Solar one of complaintants.

TX last of 48 contiguous US states in elgen reliability. And they have their own grid.

Livestock industry study: ethanol mandates have increased prices of food, feed and fuel and should be revised to reflect facts that advanced biofuels have not yet reached commercial scale in US.

EPA announced $950K in grants to help 17 communities deploy engineered natural features like rain gardens and roof gardens to manage rainfall and elim polluted stormwater from aging sewers.

Even Wisconsin declaring drought emergency with 18.7% of state in drought.

China's per-capita C footprint increasing. G, that's a surprise.

US hospitals use >836T BTU of E /year and emit ~2.5X the CO2 of comm office bldgs. NREL working with ASHRAE and bldgs industry ro reduce E intensity of hospitals, schools and retail stores by 50%. US hospitals spend >$5B/y on E. ~3% of budget. Bldg codes baseline is for least E-effic bldg. But you can always go for more effic. Geothermal HVAC one item. Digging basement anyway. US adds 2%/y in new bldgs, tears down 1%/y.

FRIDAY OPEN

(stock #'s in %)

Market down 87/19/9. Volume humongous (options Friday). Oil down near $91.

WTWO up 31 more. Day 3 near triple. Opening their plant next month. AONE up 21 on news of 2MW energy storage contract. ECOS up 14. PEIX up 8 on news of more ownership of their plants. But the price of corn . . .
NTCXF up another 6. And the climb continues. Get on board. NPWZ up 3.

GWBU down 23. New low. Up almost 20 off day's bottom. DSTI down 9. Back to 50-day lines. XDSL down 6. VLNCQ down 5. LIME down 3 more. NENE down 1. Looking for the turn up.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

THURSDAY CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

Market up 34/23/3. Volume a little above avg. Oil up over $92.

CWET up 38. 4-day double off the bottom, over 50-day lines. WWPW up 34 on 4K. A push off 50-days. TRKP up 29. OOIL up 23 on their news. A jump back over 50-days. PTOS up 21. VLNCQ,WTWO up 16. TMEN up 15. PALAF, VNDB up 14. PALAF a jump over 50's. VNDB a double from day low to day top. CCGI up 10. 5-day 50 run up through 50's. EFOI up 9. Back to bottom 50. NTCXF up 2. NENE up 1.

SENY, BFRE down 13. BOPO, BLDW down 12. XSNX, SLMU down 10. XSNX back to top (200-day) line. SATC down 9 after reverse split. GWBU down 7. XDSL down 5.

STUFF

Average annual home el consumption in Germany 3,100KWh. In US, 11,500KWh.

Oil industry warning folks not to buy E15 at that Kansas gas station because it will ruin your engine. Ethanol industry says they may as well say don't buy anything, whatever that means. EPA says E15 OK for vehicles from '01 and onward. E15 sales at the station ~20% of sales. But, selling for $1.50/gal.

Neb EPA seeking list of data, including chem mix to dilute oil sands, from Transcanada in effort to review proposed Keystone XL pipeline.

American importers of China solar panels facing ~$100M in retro tariffs.

Paris bike-share service was profitable last year. '07 start. 138M users, 225K subscribers.

American oil/NG services comps seeking foothold in China through local partners before country opens 2nd round of bidding on shale gas reserves.

After 8 years, breakthrough in understanding algae/iron interaction to sequester atmos carbon in deep ocean. Scientists add iron to ocean, inducing algae bloom. Most then dies and sinks to ocean floor, carrying sequestered carbon with it.

Chevron made oil exploration deal in Iraq's Kurdistan. Joined Exxon.

Kremlin reportedly allowing Novatek to begin exporting NG to Germany. May break Gazprom's long control of NG exports to Europe.

Panel of presidential advisors: US E policy should focus on E efficiency, new oil/NG development, speed development of "renewable" E and transition to low-C econ. I'm sorry, esteemed advisors, but my granddaughters can come up with that.

UK approved project for storing C below seafloor.

Free shipping on any purchase of LDK solar panels. They're fighting implosion.

Amonix closed Las Vegas 150MW high concentrating PV solar plant, open just over a year. Got near $6M in fed tax credits to build the $18M plant and got $15M DOE grant in '07. CEO killed in Dec plane crash, no perm replacement. Plant idle since May 1. High rate of module performance issues. 16 projects in operation - 12 in US, 4 in Spain. 7 more in US pre-op. Comp will probably restructure.

Semprius, Greenvolts still working in HCPV with financial backing. Soitec (France) ramping up HCPV plant in San Diego, in part backed by $25M from DOE. SunCore positioning to capture Chinese HCPV market, 6MW installed to date. 200MW prod capac, expects ~50MW of installs this year.

UK E secretary ruling out 25% subsidy cut for onshore wind. Working on a smaller number.

Solar PV farm acquisitions $10.8B in '11, more than 2X '10. Developers selling to long-term investors happy with 5-15% returns. 3.9GW changed hands, up 122% over '10. Valuations down ~44% from '08 peak, $8M/MW down to ~$5M in '11.

Indonesia state-owned plantation comp investing $48.8M in 30M liter/y ethanol plant in Java. Online next March. $16.6M grant from Japan in form of equipment - fermentation, dehyd machines. $28M loan.

W2 Energy (WTWO) plans to open biodiesel plant Aug 1. 650K gal/y capac, close to $3M/y revs. Almost $5/gal?

Admin announced upgrades to 5 major ports to kick off infrastructure push.

Nation's largest wood-fired power plant opened in E TX. What are they thinking?

TX woman pulled gun on smart meter installer.

Southern backing away from DOE loan guarantee for nuke plant.

Belarus deal with Russia for $10B nuke plant.



THURSDAY OPEN

(stock #'s in %)

Market up 9/17/1. Volume a tweak above average. Oil up over $91. US leading indicators down more than forecast.

CRGE up 27. Starting a run? OOIL up 24 on news. Jump off bottom to over 50-day lines. CWET up 20. Day 3 of run off bottom to over 50-days. HOKU up 19. TMEN up 10. XDSL up 5. AONE up 4 on contract news. ASTI, NPWZ up 3. LIME, VLNCQ up 2. NENE, NTCXF, XSNX, DSTI flat.

IFXY down 38. BFRE down 13. SLMU down 10. GWBU, NFEC down 7. SATC down around 10 after reverse split.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

WEDNESDAY CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

Market up 103/32/9. Volume over average. Oil up near $90.

BFRE up 43. VLNCQ up 29. PRHL up 23. GWBU up 20. SENY up 19. BLDW up 14. CBAK up 13. HOKU up 7. NTCXF up 4. ASTI up 3. XSNX up 2.

MGLT down 33. TRKP down 21. AMLM down 16. BOPO down 14. APWR down 13. VNDB down 12. LIME down 11. CABN down 10. AONE down 9 more, new low. AMEL down 9. NENE, NPWZ down 1.

STUFF

ENTECCO proposing solar PV or concentrated solar (CSP) project of up to 2GW in upstate New York.

Islamic Development Bank to finance $380M for 2 power projects in Bangladesh. $200M for power station effic improvement project and $180M for 225MW combined-cycle NG power plant.

IL nuke plant had to get special OK to continue ops last week because cooling water pond temp rose to 102F. When opened 26 years ago, temp limit was 98F. In '00, raised to 100F. Exelon says prob is water's not cooling at night. Another plant had to shut down because water intake pipes were above water level.

Earthworks report: lax inspections of NY fracking wells. '01-'10, annual inspections of oil/gas wells fell >1K while # of wells was up ~1K. >75% of active wells go uninspected each year. Also inadequate oversight in Colo, NM.

Peabody selected Houston, New Orleans to export Colo, Powder River and IL Basins coal. Pacific NW terminal plans stalled.

Cost of dismantling German nuke plants could reach $37B.

Sockeye Salmon population falling because of higher coastal ocean temps. Tropical butterfly found in Montreal.

Chevron may soon resume Brazil oil prod.

TEP began removing Fukushima fuel rods.

UAE approved 1st nuke plant construction.

China investing $900M in 300MW solar farm as part of broader trade agreement with Chile. Chile wants to add ~8GW to 17GW now on grid. By 1Q13, Chile expects to have >1GW of renewable capac. ~41% biomass, 30% hydropower, 28% wind.

BP testing 2 advanced biofuels that could be commercially available by '14. They're planting grasses for 36M gal/y cellulosic eth plant in FL. They have a demo biobutanol plant open in England and a bio-ethanol plant should be online at same location by yearend. Comp says biofuels could provide 9% of global transportation fuels by '30. 3% now. Targeting cost/bl of $60-80 by '24 from $140-150 now.

Long Island Power Auth accepting aps for limited, short-term 22 cents/KWh FIT for commercial solar PV. Goal of 50MW in 2 years, whichever comes first. Minimum 50KW systems.

Former EIA official: decline in production of oil and substitutes will occur sometime between '15 and '20.

Navy to deliver 900K gal of 50-50 fuel blends to strike group in Hawaii. 700K gal of hydro-treated renewable diesel (HRD76) and 200K gal of hydro-treated renewable av fuel (HRJ5). The biofuel a mix of waste cooking oil and algae oil.

WEDNESDAY OPEN

(stock #'s in %)

Market up 59/25/7. Volume a little heavy. Oil over $89. June US housing starts near 4-yr high. Temp hiring up.

HOKU up 25. SENY up 15. AMRS up 10 more. Climbing out from 50-day lines. ECTY up 10. AMBT up 8. GWBU up 7. ASTI, CRGE up 4. CSIQ up 2 on upgrade.

CGYV down 52. ECOS down 36. MGLT down 33. AMPD down 22. NFEC down 18. Fell through bottom (200-day) line. AMLM down 16. CABN, LSCG down 13. DSTI down 7, back below the 200 to a 50. LIME down 6 more. XDSL down 5. NPWZ down 4. NENE, NTCXF down 3. PLUG flat on contract (good) news.   

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

TUESDAY CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

Market up 78/13/10. Volume got a little heavy. Oil up over $89. Market up on Bernanke. "Range of options to stimulate growth."

XDSL up 38. FTEK, CRGE up 18. FTEK back to 200-day (top) lines on the contract news. CRGE coming off bottom. CCGI up 13 on news, crossed over 50-days. XSNX, QTMM, AMTX up 12. AMTX climbed over all lines. ECOS up 11 in 3-day jaunt over 50's. NEXS up 10 on 8K shs. At bottom. AMRS up 9. 50's holding for them. NENE, ASTI, DSTI flat.

VLNC was down from yesterday. HOKU closed near 4 cents after hitting 1 cent during day. LIME down 44 on the news. PRHL down 26. SENY down 19. TMEN down 16. VNDB down 11. AONE, LEXG down 9. AONE new low. TSLA down 7. GWBU down 6. BWEN down 4. NTCXF, NPWZ down 1.

STUFF

Drought in US affecting 55% of farmers. Nebraska ordered some to stop irrigating. Mississippi River so low it's unnavigable at Jackson, Miss. Worst drought since '56.

Britain had wettest April to June on record.

Law of Sea treaty on life support. 2 more Republican senators signalled opposition, enough to block 2/3 vote needed. Oil comps, others in E industry say it's vital to expand drilling in Arctic Ocean.

Johns Hopkins researchers have bioengineered a microbe found in mosquito guts to disable malaria parasite up to 98%. That's amazing news.

Poll: just over 20% of Americans 32-52 years old are very concerned with climate change. The generation ("X") with maybe most power to do anything about it.

"Best guess" from modeling - 130 deaths from Fukushima radiation.

"Climate certified" bonds soon available for investors.

Fed appeals court in DC upheld new EPA NO2 standard.

FDA acting to ban BPA plasticizer in infant products.

LDK Solar getting portion of debts paid by China city govt - Xinyu - where comp is based. 4 straight Q losses. Chinese solar module prices 77 cents/w as of July 2, down 47% from year ago.

Declines among S Korea solar comps after reports China investigating sales of Korean polysilicon in China on dumping suspicions.

Offshore wind demo project in Japan will begin producing el by Jan. Mitsubishi 2.4MW turbines. Similar project also scheduled this year. Govt also approved 2 offshore floating turbine projects for deepwater. Est. Japan has 1,600GW offshore wind potential.

Biofuels execs project 3.3% job growth, 7.8% rev growth in '12-'13.

U of Kansas researcher developed method to produce algae for biodiesel prod using waste water laden with nitrogen and phosporous (ag runoff).

S Dakota doling out $960K in blender pump grants.

Corn used for US ethanol prod enough to feed 412M people for a year.

TSLA may run out of cash this Q. Will have to hit the market for more.

TUESDAY OPEN

(stock #'s in %)

Market down 48/18/5. Volume has picked up. Oil over $88. US industrial production up.

XSDL up 38 on more news. They've got a real upline going since late June. Between 50-day lines and 200's. CRGE up 31. Back to 50-days at a penny. FTEK up 16 on contract news. Gap up off 50-days, hitting up against 200's. XSNX up 12 in bounceback. NENE, NTCXF, DSTI, BWEN up 1.

VLNC changed to VLNCQ, down on day. LIME down 55 on financial news like ENOC months ago. ECOS down 31. VNDB down 16 more. Back below bottom line. CWET down 10. CERP down 8. Back on 50's. LSCG down 8. Are they going bankrupt? Or at super 3-year-long double bottom? AONE down 6, new low. GWBU down 6. NPWZ down 5.

Monday, July 16, 2012

MONDAY CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

Market down 49/11/3. Volume light. Oil up over $88. Navy fired a shot at boat in Persian Gulf. NY area manufacturing came in over forecast.

CWET up 56. Surge off the bottom, over 50-day lines. Short covering? ECOS up 18, recent double off bottom. BIOF up 17. PRHL up 16. AMLM up 12. PEIX up 8. AMEL up 5. BWEN up 1, over bottom 50-day.

VLNC down 91, but at least 60 gain off morning bottom when I mentioned it. HOKU, AEHI down 50. LEOM down 20. LEXG, MMMW down 17. VNDB down 16. AMRS down 10. NTCXF down 8. NPWZ down 7. GWBU down 6. XSNX, DSTI down 4. NENE down 3 more. ASTI, LSCG down 1. 

STUFF

German scientists invented new coolant for EVs. Could allow tighter packing of batts, extended batt life, smaller coolant tanks. Mix of water, parrafin, anti-freeze and stabilization agent. Can absorb 3x as much heat as water. As fluid heats, parrafin melts and stores heat, solidifying again with cooling.

African countries to plant 4,300-mile line of trees in hopes of slowing desertification.

Shell's oil drilling vessel in Alaska slipped its mooring and nearly grounded. Shell asking EPA for easier air pollution regs for the rig. Greenpeace activists shut down some UK gas stations over the proposed drilling.

Alaska sueing to block EPA shipping fuel rules.

Shuttered Calif nuke plant reporting many more damaged tubes.

NJ offering $1K for state's oldest refrigerator.

Oil/gas exploration booming in Nebraska. TX petrochem boom, fracking and drought bringing on water worries. Desalination probably coming.

Apple nixing cancellation of solid waste green certification program.

100K folks took to Japan streets to protest nuke power.

UAE gave enviro approval for their 1st nuke plant.

Brazilian rooftop solar cheaper than grid : govt report.

Welspun Energy, India's biggest solar developer, said India set to double its solar target. Welspun in last year signed onto building >1.5GW of solar and wind farms for ~$1.8B. Govt now has goal of 20GW solar by '22. India needs to add ~170GW of new elgen capac over next 5 yrs to maintain 9% GDP growth. GDP up 5.3% in Q1. Central El Auth plans to allow coal plants to import 50% of their coal needs. 30% now.

Cheneire Energy got $3.4B financing to build major LNG export facil in Louisiana.

EIA says if sanctions continue, Iran oil prod will fall to ~2.6mb/d by yearend and lose another 200kb/d in '13. Agency also reported global oil stockpiles are again growing, ~85% of growth in emerging nations. Global oil demand to increase ~800kb/d in '12, ~1mb/d more in '13.

US oil prod (all liquids) in May was 8.7mb/d, up ~720kb/d over last year. Shale oil (tight oil) prod costs $44-68/bl and selling at $10-$20 discount to WTI, so very close to breakeven or loss at latest prices.

Exxon started prod from phase 1 of Angola field, eventually expected to prod 100kb/d.

UK oil refinery shutting down because of Euro refining capac glut.

Kurdistan section of Iraq exporting crude to Turkey by truck, trading it for refined diesel, kerosene. Baghdad may cut billions of dollars from province budget in reatliation.

Apache to drill Kenya's 1st deepwater well next month. Possible 700M bls.

BP not going to do $1.5B offshore Alaska oil project, calling it too expensive for est. 100M bls.

Israel started drilling for est. 1.5B bls ~100 yards from West Bank. Much of field thought under Palestine Territory.

Brit-Russ consortium, TNK-BP, has increased prod of Venezuela's heavy oil crude to 130kb/d.

Shell, Exxon to explore for shale gas in Algeria. ENI, Talisman already onboard.

Ethanol futures at highest price in over a month due to Valero and others taking eth plants offline.

MSU microbiologist found biofuel process with yields 20X current rates. 2nd bacterium used in breakdown process. Removes non-eth materials while generating el. 35-40% E recovery from fermentation process using corn stover.

Thailand biofuels exports expected to double.

New Lithuania LNG terminal will remove their dependence on Russia. Expected to import 11M tons/day. Online '14. Currently import equiv 4M tons/d from Gazprom. May have link-in to supply Poland some of the extra capac by '18.

Toyota working on wireless-charged EV. El track buried under road. El sent to steel belts in tires. Of course, looks econ impractical in this form.

MONDAY OPEN

(stock #'s in %)

Market down 51/7/3. Volume very light. Oil flat under $87. US retail sales down .5% in June.

PPRW up 37 on 1K shs. PTOS up 28 on 55, over 50-day lines. BIOF up 26 off bottom. I haven't seen any news. Or reason. Corn will be pricey from the drought. So I doubt they will make any profit. PEIX also up 16, also off bottom. Probably short covering for both. PRHL up 25. Day 2 of recovery from July plunge. AMEL up 11. 50-day lines might stop them. LSCG up 8. FSLR, XSNX up 4.

VLNC down 95. My guess is compitulation on bankruptcy. Might consider picking up a few shares. HOKU back to trading. Down 70. Also bankruptcy, I presume. LEOM down 15. AMTX down 12, back below bottom line. NTCXF down 12. GWBU down 10. BWEN down 6. Back below 50's. NENE down 3. ASTI, NPWZ flat.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

STUFF

Idaho Power has 500MW of wind power with another 300MW coming online this year. They say, tho, that when it hits 1GW that the cost of integrating the power explodes. It would limit ability to use low-cost hydropower. They pay ~$43/MWh to wind producers. $6.50/MWh goes to integration. 800MW of wind will raise that to $8. 1.2GW takes it to $19. Bonneville Power Admin has been able to integrate a higher % of wind. They can sell power elsewhere through more transmission outlets.

Maine supreme court ruled state PUC failed to resolve health and safety issues of Central Maine Power's install of smart meters and should now do so. But the court didn't agree meters violate constitutional rights of privacy and property. Meter switch was $200M project, half funded from stimulus. And done. Radio freq radiation emitted by wireless meters. Customers can opt out for $12/mo fee.

UK tops 12 top world econs in E efficiency. Germany, Japan, Italy rank high. US 9th under China, France, Australia. Top 12 are 78% of global GDP, 63% of E use, 62% of CO2-equiv emissions. Worse than US - Brazil, Canada, Russia. American Council for E Efficient Economy.

Heilos Solar Works invested $11M in equip to add 3rd shift at Milwaukee solar panel factory.

juwi Wind (Boulder) started on 30MW wind farm in MN. Xcel Energy to buy the power. REPower 2MW turbines. Online Oct. juwi Group in Germany.

TVA's Watts Bar nuke plant completion pushed from this year to '15. Cost inflated from $2.5B to $4.5B.

IAEA still projecting up to 800GW of new nuke plants online globally by '30. 377GW online at end of '10. Most to be built in China, Russia, India.

Construction start on 235MW, $375M wind farm in OK. To send power to Alabama Power. Online by yearend. 1.68MW turbines. Subsid of GE - EFS Chisholm - and Enel Green Power the owners.

First Wind turned on 21MW 2nd phase of 51MW Maui wind farm. Batt storage system. Comp also building  69MW farm on Oahu, adding to 30MW already built.

Brazil expects 10GW of wind farms to come online from '12 through '20 for ~$17B. Most in country's NE region where tradewinds come onshore.

Friday, July 13, 2012

FRIDAY CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

Market up 203/42/22. Really. Volume very light. Oil up around $87.

NGBF up 76. ECOS up 63. MGLT up 50. BOPO up 40. CRGE, AEHI up 33. LEOM up 25 more. VSPC up 20. TRKP up 14. BFRE, MMMW up 13. ASTI, CABN up 12. ADES, SOPW up 11. EMKR, MKTY up 10. NTCXF up 7. Now we have to figure out what was short selling/buying and what was buying. GWBU, AMEL flat.

CSOL down 18. I don't get it. 225 shs. OK, I get it. NGLPF down 17. Supposed to go bankrupt. OPTT down 13 after reporting big losses. What's new. What's new is lock up with Lockheed I guess. XSNX down 12. Could be buy. NPWZ, BIOF, AVRW down 11. Go do the math and 6th senses. LSCG down 3. Check the 3 year chart. NENE, BWEN down 1. Would buy them both. DSTI flat.

STUFF

Areas around Grand Canyon still open to uranium mining. Proposal to expand coal mining near Bryce Canyon. Intro of NG drilling around Bridger-Teton. EPA demanding more aggressive action to clean up haze in national parks/forests. Backlash from some states and industry.

Commercial trapping of crayfish now allowed on Lake Tahoe aimed at improving water clarity.

Ozone rising ... put to "mojo risin'" (the song) (my idea). The Doors? Air alerts from China to US. New website - Asia Society - charts China daily air qual and monthly comparisons to US.

Nationwide 1st major insurer that won't cover fracking damage. Risks belong to landowners, frackers and support contractors.

Oil fracking boom in west TX helping Midland, et al.

E85 pumping @ 2.96/gal, E15 @ 3.28, regular @ 3.30, diesel @ 3.70 @ 1st E15 station in Kansas. Operator owns 8 stations.

US placed 9th in E efficiency ranking of world's 12 top econs, falling below China. 27 metrics. US placed last in transportation. Made "limited or little progress".

Conservatives taking fresh look at deficit-neutral carbon tax. George Shultz preparing to promote carbon tax that returns revs to taxpayers and programs.

Forest Service: forest restoration program in '11 created ~550 jobs, generated commercial timber revs, reduced risk of megafires across 123K acres.

IKEA to install <5MW rooftop solar on 2 east coast distribution centers.

1 effort to kill Calif bullet train died. Another vows "redoubling". Has any political effort ever been "retripled"? Econ Q's, tho, after study of Japan's bullet.

Scientists: pink salmon population has evolved to cope with climate change. Yea, but, there's more change coming, you pink salmons.

Imports of Chinese solar panels down, but up from other Asian nations.

EU offering 1.5B Euros in green competition.

UK generating 5B pounds in renewable energy exports: E secretary.

Battle raging over fed agency that charges up to $995 to read 1 of its industry-developed oil/gas pipeline safety standards. Congress ordering to stop charging. "Incorporation by reference" - inclusion of industry standards into fed laws w/out publishing full text. Will we see another unanimous House vote? Picking the low-hanging fruit.

Brookings: appliance, vehicle standards stifling consumer choices. O come on.

Farm bill proposals boost major conservation initiatives: USDA undersec.

Study: asian carp would thrive in Great Lakes.

Shell seeking air permit change for Alaska drill ship.

Canada launched study on health effects of wind (I assume) turbines.

Despite alliance, GM not likely to share Volt tech with Peugeot.

USDA produce safety program facing chopping block.

Bird, butterfly populations down in Japan after Fuku.

At 20MW CSP plant - 10K mirrors reflecting sunlight onto 10K receiving tubes - operators trying to find tubes with air or H leaks or shattered tubes from flung rocks. Operating, say, 4% under capac may have 400 bad tubes. Check by hand takes months. NREL now has "Thermal Scout". Checks tubes in 2 days by vehicle with GPW on roof, IR cam in back and software to track/analyze realtime. Driver just has to push some buttons. 40 multi-MW CSP plants in world now. 28 more planned by '14.

What if ships were built with turbines beamed out at the bow - and possibly more turbines back at the stern - to capture the power from, what, 15-knot speed? Feed to battery banks to power propellers. No. I don't have a patent. I give my thoughts away. Like putting magnetic generators on any wheel of all vehicles to charge battery bank to propel the vehicle. Let alone micro wind turbines wherever wind could be efficiently collected to help charge the battery bank. Let alone any solar energy capture (like tops of truck trailers). Just pondering. Cogitatin'.

Sodium-sulfur batts closing in on lithium-ion?

USDA cut corn production forecasts by 20 bushels/acre. ~12%. Drought hurts.

World Health Energy Holdings testing new seawater purification tech in New York and India. Algae system to reduce salinity. Seawater has 3% salinity (30K ml/liter). Ag water has .01-.02%. Drinking water typically <.0055%.

NSF awarded SBIR grant to CIT spin-off to engineer cellulase enzymes for biofuels from corn stover.

Oil tanker full of crude stranded off Singapore coast 150 days. Part of Sudan war.

GE/Intl Climbing Machines teamed up on robots to carry out large-scale wind turbine blade inspections.

FRIDAY OPEN

(stock #'s in %)

Market up 157/28/15. Volume very light. Oil up near $87. China growth rate slowed to 7.6%. 3-yr low. Stimulus expectations. US sanctions Iran oil tankers. US deficit $904B thru June.

CRGE up 33. LEOM up 28, day 2 of new climb. MMMW up 13. BOPO  up 12. NTCXF up 7, up 30 from yesterday's low. ASTI, EMKR, HSOL up 6. EMKR a jump off 50-day lines and over a 200. HSOL off 50's. GWBU up 6. May have bottomed. MXWL up 2. LSCG, NPWZ flat.

OPTT down 12 more after reporting. AVRW down 11. PSPW down 8. PRHL down 6, continuing the July implosion. DSTI, XSNX down 4. NENE, BWEN down 1.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

THURSDAY CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

Market down 31/21/6. Volume average. Oil ~$86. US added sanctions on Iran oil trade to target weapons proliferation, oil trade "front" comps. US social security is broke. Bank of Japan didn't choose stimulus. And here we are.

IFXY up 117. 50k shs. Jump over 50-day lines. I'd say look into it. CGYV up 109. Only 4K shs. Railroad tracks back over 50's. Seems like it takes a one-day double anymore to get any attention in the market. LEXG up 26. Well, they've come off their bottom and gotten over their 50's too. CERP up 22 on that news. Over 50's. LEOM up 18. Over all their lines. ECOS up 15. Double bottom? Substantial volume for under 1 cent. NPWZ up 14. They're at a new level. NTCXF up 8, almost 20 percent off day bottom. Looking like buy at bottom tomorrow. Good luck knowing what it is. CERE up 4 after reporting Q. BWEN up 3. 50-days hold. LSCG, NENE flat.

PRHL down 40. Don't ask me. Most of the time I'm just reporting. But you always want to watch implosion. Despite Yahoo numbers on valuation, P/B, P/S, P/E, et al. AVRW down 24. Hit bottom again.7K shs. WWPW down 21 on 6K shs. Back to 50's. CRCL down 20. Also implosion since April. Learned about them from the energy service I paid for last month. Just to see. They do the same pump and dump only you have to pay for it. So it's looking. OPTT down 15 on the profit taking. PEIX down 13 on corn prices and price of oil probably. Well, that looks like a double bottom. AEHI down 14. PTOS down 12. BFRE down 11. ASTI too. ASTI may have peaked for now. Or it was a flaming buy at the close. AMEL down 6. XSNX down 5. GWBU down 4, came back off more. They do have volume. DSTI down 1. Over a 200 but no volume. But who am I to judge.

STUFF

Sun Ed closed deals on 3 PV solar projects totaling ~98MW in Europe in Q2.

IKEA plugged-in <1MW rooftop solar systems on 2 more stores. The one in Mich is state's largest solar array. IKEA now 20 stores in US with solar roofs. 19 more on the way. Eventual total ~38MW. Comp has also installed EV charging stations at 9 US stores to date.

GE signed $16.5M contract to double capac of Vietnam transmission line. Capacitor banks to increase power on 500KV line from 1K amps to 2. Will supply ~800MW to southern area. US export-import bank finance.

S Korea planning 11 more nuke reactors online by '21. 23 now. 34 will make nuke power 60% of elgen. Also plans to export 80 reactors by '30. Already $30B deal for 4 reactors to UAE, building 1 in Jordan.

VLNC filed for bankruptcy.

Global clean E investment up 24% in Q2, primarily wind and solar farms. Up 92% in China.

Licensing delays, soaring construction costs, install glitches driving up costs of nuke reactors planned in GA, TN, SC. The same old story.

Russian oil drilling off Cuba delayed by old embargo requiring machinery to have <10% of parts made in US.

Canadian regulators approved 1st large CO2 control project for oil sands.

Heating, AC industry preparing for 30% efficiency gains.

Ukraine opening markets for wind, solar developers with generous rates, "risky" politics.

China aims to build, sell 5M "E-efficient" vehicles by '20. That may mean electric or hybrid. Or both.

High Prairie Pipelines accusing Enbridge of denying request to directly link proposed 450-mile pipe from Bakken in ND, MT to highway of pipes carrying Canada oil sands crude into US. Aren't they different qualities of oil?

Comps that bought fake renewable credits fault EPA for lack of warning. Sounds like a point to me.

DOE distributing $30M to NG vehicle projects.

OH gov banned drilling in Lake Erie. (I guess OH's share of it.)

Honeywell planning shutdown, upgrades for IL uranium plant.

CT lobsters testing positive for pesticides.

Inter-Am Dev Bank approved $250M for Costa Rica el sector. Near-$98M for hydropower project, rest for state power comp's elgen, transmission, distrib capacity. Comp plans to invest $9B next 12 yrs in new hydro, thermal (fossil) and geothermal elgen. Country now gets 12% - 163MW - of el from geotherm. 1 of few countries that could get all their el from geo.

Hydropower Regulatory Efficiency Act passed US House unanimously. Would increase dev of small hydro, conduit projects by directing FERC to study feasability of 2-yr permitting process.

Over 50 solar PV makers in China have also gone under lately. Global glut to likely persist next few years. 59GW prod expected in '12 to meet 30GW demand. I guess that's just how business is (with govt subsidies, politics, et al.).

Iran announced plans to start building 1st nuke sub. I guess that's just how countries are.

UK has 100-ton stockpile of plutonium nuke waste. They tried converting that to mixed-oxide fuel (Mox) to fuel reactors. But trial plant failed. Another option is fast reactor. UK stockpile enough to power country >500 yrs with that. But it's said decades from commercial viability. Now, GE-Hitachi say their Prism fast reactor available now and competitive. And a Canada firm says it has Candu reactor that can run on Mox fuel. UK's NDA to review and report to govt by yearend. What about thorium reactors my Q.

China wind power group looking to offer $1.7-$2B for Vestas.

THURSDAY OPEN

(stock #'s in %)

Market down 87/42/13. Indeces at or near top 200-day lines, under 50-days. Volume average. Oil down under $85. US jobless claims down. Team USA uniforms made in China.

LEXG up 24. Crossed over 50-day lines. CERP up 18 on news, over 50's. LEOM, CRGE up 14. LEOM back above top line. KNDI up 5 more. NPWZ up 5. ASTI up 3. LSCG flat.

PRHL down 36. Been imploding all month. AVRW down 34. CSGH down 14. OPTT down 13 after yesterday's surge. QTMM down 11. DSTI, AMEL down 6. MXWL down 4, back near bottom. XSNX, NENE, NTCXF, BWEN down 1.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

WEDNESDAY CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

Market down 48/14/0. Volume picked up. Oil up over $86. USDA declared >1K counties in 26 states natural disaster areas from drought, biggest ever such declaration. Fed minutes showed members open to more stimulus.

OPTT up 68 on Australia wave power deal with Lockheed. Went from bottom to over all lines on heavy volume. PTOS up 33, over 50-day lines. AMLM up 30, over 50's. SENY up 26 on rebound from last 2 days. PSPW up 22. AMRS up 19, above 50's. ASTI up 18 more, over double since end of May on the phones deal. NPWZ up 13. Above all lines. KNDI up 11 on order news. A leap off all their lines. QTWW up 11. CERP up 9, back to 50's. DSTI up 8. Up over bottom 200-day and 50's. LSCG up 4. Double bottoming.

CGYV down 49 on 4K shs. PRHL, AVRW down 36. GWBU down another 18. CSOL down 16. CABN down 13, back under 50's. XSNX, AONE down 7. AONE back on bottom. NTCXF, AMEL down 4. AMEL back under 50's. NENE down 3. BWEN down 1. On 50's.

STUFF

CSIQ sees new 700MW solar manufacturing plant in China as likely.

Centrotherm Photovoltaics in Germany filed for bankruptcy.

Iraq crude production now past Iran's.

OPTT and Lockheed to develop 19MW wave energy project in Australia. $65M Aussie grant. OPTT currently trading up over 70% today.

Fed judge dismissed lawsuit seeking to reform govt's coal leasing system in Wyoming's Powder River Basin.

UK to cut onshore wind subsidies.

Obama granting temp health insurance option to wildfire fighters.

Kansas gas station 1st in US to sell E15.

USDA providing $287M in loan guarantees for el transmission, smart grid projects.

Navy unveiled new energy policies for bases. Also awarded $2M grant to U of Wisc researchers to find right alternate fuel for the fleet to replace diesel. Navy sec committed to cutting petrol use in half by '15. Fuels can't be water soluble or readily flammable. Hydrotreated veg oil one candidate.

200MW hydropower plant opened in Manitoba. $1.34B - almost $7/w. 2 of 3 gen units expected to be in by yearend, 1 running now.

Aemetis acquired Cilion, including 55M gal/yr ethanol plant, with $33M.

Australia researchers found "super strain" of native microalgae after 6-year search that could be foundation of local biofuels industry.

Codexis says their pilot-scale demo of carbon capture tech at national center in Ala on Southern's coal power plant shows enzymes have promise to facilitate CO2 capture.

4 Persian Gulf countries in talks with Raytheon to buy US military sensors to track oil spills back to source.

UK currently in position to become global leader in low-carbon products, services. Could add 20B pounds/yr to GDP by '15.

WEDNESDAY OPEN

(stock #'s in %)

Market down 50/9/1. Indeces at or below 50-day lines. Volume a little light. Oil up over $85.

CSOL up 33 on 7K shs. AMLM up 30. LYSDY up 6, off double bottom. QTWW up 5 on contract news. GPRC up 5, coming off double bottom. AMEL up 4 more, over 50's. NTCXF up 2. LSCG up 1. ASTI, NPWZ, XSNX, DSTI, BWEN flat. BWEN's 50's holding.

GWBU down another 13. DYMTF down 10 on 9K shs, back under 50's. NENE down 5. That much closer to buyville.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

STUFF

The new particle found at CERN smells like Higgs. And on it goes.

Avg temp in US lower 48 1st 6 months of '12 hottest on record: NOAA. 4.5 degrees above average, 1.5 degrees over 2nd hottest ('06). Lower 48 experiencing 56% drought. Another report says 66%. Largest area of drought in this century (when drought records began). Colorado mountains had lowest snowpack in 40 years.

Report: long term warming trend contributing to extreme wx events.

S. Russia "in panic" after floods devastated cities. 105 dead.

"Very unusual" storms in US national parks caused visitors deaths and injuries.

Researchers found gases, salt contaminants seeped into shallow PA aquifers through natural process, not fracking. But. NAS study: fluids may have travelled up from fracking to aquifers.

New chairwoman of NRC.

India's breadbasket - the Punjab - may be running out of water. 20% of their wheat, 12% of their rice.

Scientists to march in black in Ottawa to mourn climate research budget cuts. (What they are mourning is job loss).

Compromise Keystone XL pipeline route still crossing sandy hills in Nebraska. Duh. Oil spills go down through sandy hills into aquifer.

Comps racing for deepsea metals, minerals.

Temporary wildfire fighters getting no health insurance.

Washington Monument could stay closed until '14. Remember that quake?

Southern appealing rate hike denial at Miss plant.

GOM BP spill dispersants' impact still uncertain.

Apple pulled green certification.

$33M research looking for 20MW offshore wind. Sweetspot probably less. We're now at 7. GE working on 10-15. Engineers working on 150 meters rotor diams for 10MW. 250 meters needed for 20MW. Vestas has 164 meters for 7MW able to cope with North Sea.

Demand on rise for aftermart wind turb components. BWEN in that mart. That's why I own BWEN.

NREL: clean E can provide at least 80% of our el by '50. IF.

Marcellus production declining. Dry gas. Real action in wet oil-infused gas. Utica. Ohio.

Drilling trucks caused estimated $2B damage to TX roads. "No dedicated revenue source."

Take a neurotic peak-oil-denying, climate change denying industrial society, stress it through a terrible global financial crisis, tell it that economic growth is over. What do you get? Psychosis. Delusion.

Norway oil workers wanted full retirement at 62. IEA was ready to step in. 3-week strike.

Global Bioenergies (France) set up US branch in Iowa. Ames. Isobutene and other light olefins.

Petrobras hopes to stay afloat with ethanol. Est. losses $375M from lack of domestic refining capacity.

US corn yields falling 5 bushels per day. Farming in hell.

Ethiopia ethanol blending saved $20M in last 3 yrs.

Landfills contain precious metal/mineral deposits 40-50X mines. Waste Management, A?




TUESDAY OPEN

(stock #'s in %)

Market flat and mixed. Volume about average. Oil down under $85. Norway ended oil workers strike. UK manufacturing surge. China imports down.

PSPW up 29 on 200 shs. Insane. AMEL up another 23. Up to 50-day lines. CABN up 20 on news. Off bottom. SOPW up 19. Off double bottom. TRKP up 10 on 1K shs. CERP up 7. At 50-days. LSCG up 3. NENE flat.

SENY down 29. Big new low. GWBU down 13 more. Headed back to bottom. AONE down 10 more. Back to their bottom. NTCXF down 8. The ride up temporarily over. BWEN down 6 more. Back on bottom 50-day. Time to buy or get out. NPWZ, XSNX down 3. Both probably will come back more.

Market now down 22/8/2.

Monday, July 9, 2012

MONDAY CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

Market down 36/5/2. Volume summer light as indeces tip-toe back to 50-day lines. Oil going up to $86 on Norway and Libya and all. Spain to create a bad bank for toxic assets and raise core cap to 9%. Alcoa 2Q loss beat estimates on auto buying. Disappointing econ data from Asia, parts of Europe. Fed: consumer cred up $17B in May. Obama jawboning taxes.

And the ups and the downs.

AMLM up 32. Lithium mining. Back to 50-day lines on long bottom from December. 11K shs though. NTCXF up another 31. These guys are the hot ones. Absolute black for solar. Touted on blogs. But upgap this morning. It will come back for buying. Super volume too. Triple since when I first mentioned it to ye in March. MKTY up 29. Back over 50 days in constant downline. 25K shs. Sell price flat. Duh. ASPW up 24 on 6.5K shs. Looks headed down though. INIS up 16. Over the bottom line, but it's a 200. Go figure. Possible double bottom. XSNX, NGLPF up 13. XSNX day 4. Getting back to day 1 top. 2M shs. NGLPF off the bottom. Geothermal probably bankrupt on DOE loan. Bad money. Chu. Great scientist maybe. But not good at biz with political funding. Could be the story Doctor Chu on you. But, long term, I bet Dr. Chu will look OK. Geothermal in Nevada. O yea. And then there's geothermal around Yellowstone. QTWW up 11. Day 3 off 50's. SLMU, ZNNMF up 11. SLMU between 200 days on bottom and 50 days on top. Buy. ZNNMF stayed above bottom 20 after gap. 11K shs. GSFVF up 10. NG fracking services. Been going down all year. AMEL up 8. Crossed over 50's and came back. Volume. VLNC up 7. Climbing over 50's after down all year. Battery tech. ASTI up 2. Climbing over all lines.

CSOL down 60. New low. P/B, P/S crazy numbers according to Yahoo. They must be out of biz. SOPW down 25. Double bottom. Buy on risk. LEOM down 24 on 22K shs. Back to bottom 200. Looks like buy. BOPO down 20. Bottom action. SENY down 19. New low. PSPW down 18 on 9K shs. Give us a break. CERP down 13 on 83K. Climb back to 50's fell off. GWBU, AONE, ZAAP down 12. AONE fell below 50 days. ZAAP at bottom. GWBU who knows. Though they have volume. AMRS down 11. 3-day fallback to 50 days.AMBT, RSOL down 10. AMBT coming back to lines. RSOL double bottom from Dec. NFEC down 9 on 5K shs. JASO down 7. I still think buy. LSCG down 6. What is going on here? Looking like double bottom. For long term. BWEN, NENE down 5. I would buy them both. Enough blogged already. BWEN has volume. NENE has tech.

STUFF

A Bakken fracking rig uses almost 3K gal of diesel per day. A few million gallons a day to extract oil in US. LNG lowers that cost 47% and emits 20-30% less CO2. Encana leading the way.

Brit govt vetoed $2.3B wind farm project near coast because of dangers to a local bird.

Virginia exceeding targets for reducing wastewater pollution into Chesapeake.

75-85% of coral cover has been lost in Caribbean in last 35 years from rising sea temps, overfishing, pollution and acidification from rising atmos CO2. Major conference in Australia this week focusing on the problem.

Motech to shutter US-based polysilicon maker AE Polysilicon.

Japan starting up reactor this week, another at same plant later this month.

2-week-old strike of Norway oil workers has taken ~240Kb/d - 15% of country's production - off the market. Oil comps threatening to halt all prod to force govt to order compulsory arbitration.

US gasoline consumption 4.3% lower than in '11 in last 4 weeks.

NG under $3 is competitive with coal for el generation. But $3 is way under cost of prod.

Tehran losing ~$3B/month in lost oil revs. Running out of storage space, may have to curtail prod soon. Last week, Switzerland and Kenya agreed to curtail their imports.

Shell's offshore Alaska drilling delayed until Aug for ice to clear and to modify spill-response vessel to Coast Guard requirements.

Major Libyan oil terminal shut down by protesters angry over seat allocation in national assembly.

Angola ready to throw open offshore oil exploration rights after major strike by Houston's Cobalt Intl Energy. Country wants to double 1.8Mb/d present prod by '20.

Tullow's Kenya oil discovery even larger than originally thought. Country could have more oil than Uganda, where Tullow's spending $10B to develop some 2.5B bls with China's CNOOC and Total.

New deepwater NG reserves of possibly 1.5-2TCF off Mexico in Gulf: Pemex.

Great Bear Petroleum to test shale oil deposits on Alaska North Slope.

Statoil made significant gas and condensate discovery off Norway coast. Up to 200M bls recoverable oil equiv.

UN: tax billionaires, currency transactions and carbon to improve econ, atmos. Could raise up to $400B/y to aid poor, fight climate change, help meet Millenium Dev goals - $167B short in '11.

Pepco - DC area's utility - has half the linemen they had 15 years ago. Union leader saying it's why area power off so long. And comp hires non-union temp contractors that union workers have to follow to fix mistakes.

GE Aviation committed to buy 5M gal/y of biofuels, start in '15. 10M gal/y of jetfuel now used at testing facility.

Monsanto  facing up to $7.5B in payments to 5M Brazil farmers. Their supreme court decided against the comp last month over penalties placed on farmers for reusing gen mod seeds.

MONDAY OPEN

(stock #'s in %)

Market down 42/6/2. Volume very light. Oil up to $85.

AMEL up 38, over 50-day lines. NGLPF up 30. Off their bottom. NTCXF up another 27. It's got to come back some time. NEXS up 12. QTWW up 10. Day 3 of rise off 50-days, nearing 200's. XSNX up another 9, day 4.

PSPW down 21 on 3.5K shs. AVRW down 18 on 700 shs. New low. MGLT down 17 on 100 shs. GWBU, TRKP down 11. AMBT down 9, coming back to lines. AONE. LSCG down 8. Both back below 50-days, LSCG coming back for double bottom. SATC down 3, announced reverse split. BWEN down 2. NPWZ down 1. NENE flat.

Saturday, July 7, 2012

STUFF

Enel Green Power 150MW wind farm in OK turned on. Power going to Western Farmers El Coop. Pushes the coop's wind portfolio to 366MW, almost 16% of its elgen and purchased power capacity. OK on track to meet '15 goal of 15% clean E by end of this year. Now has 2.3GW of wind cap. Enel's OK farm plus 1 in Kan financed with $340M tax equity partnership agreement with syndicate led by JP Morgan.

Bureau of Ocean E Mgmt published enviro assessment for wind E leasing area offshore Mass, RI.

BLM announced final enviro impact statement for Power Comp of WY's 2-3GW WY wind project.

Foret Plasma Labs planning plant in Cal to build relatively small plasma gasification generators that run on biomass waste. Resultant gas can run a turbine or make biodiesel and charcoal residue good for fertilizer.

11 enviro orgs suing EPA to force better regs of toxic coal ash, citing groundwater contam at 29 sites in 16 states. Present regs >30 yrs old. Arsenic, lead, hex chromiuim ( remember Julia Robert's movie?), mercury just to name the worst ash residue. ~150M tons of ash in US per year. May be world, but I think it's US.

Solarworld (Germany) plans to file anti-dumping case with other EU producers against Chinese solar comps.

June private sector job numbers were good. Not great. Not great at all. But, OK. But total job #'s were not OK. Why? Because govt jobs were lost. And that's actually good news, right? We need to get back to balanced budgets. Is that what Obama meant with "the private sector is doing fine"? Public jobs are 80% of public budgets. Let's be thinking right.

Air pollution from power plants, autos and trux and such and ag changing alpine veg in Rocky Mountain National Park meadows: NPS.

Global food prices, adjusted for inflation, >40% higher now than in '00.

Final turbine of 3 Gorges dam connected to grid. Cost >$50B for the dam. Supplies 11% of China hydropower.

Cal hi-speed rail got legislative thumb up.

Japan inquiry declared Fukushima a man-made disaster with govt-industry collusion.

German state pledged $1.3B toward fighting climate change. Extreme weather sticking EU with Euro15B annual bill.

Coast Guard delays could stall Shell's Arctic offshore drilling plans.

KY coal mine closed after failing to pay overdue fines.

Argentine developer planning Latin Am's biggest windpower project, expecting $3B from China Dev Bank. Argentina blocked from intl bond marts since $95B default in '01-'02. 1.35GW farm. Chinese turbines. 306MW cluster of windfarms in Mexico currently Latin Am's biggest.

UK Trade Ass may take legal action against the govt if wind power subsidies are cut >10%.

Suzlon (India) agreed to build $10M wind rotor blade plant in Brazil after Brazil's State Development Bank this month suspended loans to developers buying >60% of equipment from foreign comps. Suz will do same in S Africa for same reason. Brazil was fastest-growing major wind mart in '11, installed capacity up 63%.

Ex-Exxon advisor to DOE: global oil production on plateau since '04. Expect descent in 1-4 years. Declination rates in fracked wells unexpectedly fast. Americans consume world-high 24bl/y. Each. Average.

Ethanol industry bracing for worst spell since bankruptcy days of '07-'08. US blend wall, corn prices, drought. Etc. We don't like using food for fuel. US eth production fell to 857kb/d. 3 plants shutdown. Margins 20 cents below min viability point. Looks like short ethanol.

3,200 people violently evicted in S. Guatemala to clear lands for sugarcane ethanol: a report.

DOE BioEn Sci Center researchers say heat-loving bacteria could be key to next-gen biofuels.

Navy's paying $26/gal for biofuels.

WNDEF's $90M tax-free 1603 grant from govt overdue. Stock down 25% since due date. May 22. "Most 1603's running late."





FRIDAY CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

Market down 124/38/12. Volume a little light. Oil down near $84.

VSPC up 42. Just rolling dice there. CERP, LEOM up 26. LEOM on 100 shs, back over all lines. CERP up to 50-day lines. ENSL up 20, bottom at 50-day lines. BLQN, PSPW up 19. BLQN back over 50-days. PSPW on 2K shs, back over 50's. XSNX up 17 more. Day 3, jump on. IFXY up 17. AEHI up 16. JUHL up 15, back to 50's.. QTMM, ZNNMF up 14. QTMM over 50's. ZNNMF went over bottom (200-day) line, then came back under. DSTI, XWES up 11. DSTI maintaining slight upline since start of June. XWES back to bottom (50) line. LEXG up 10. ASTI up 9, holding a stronger upline than DSTI, also since start of June and just got through top (200) line and crossing "50's" on 3-year chart. You might consider. AMTX up 8, they have an upline going since May, now up off top (200) line. QTWW up 7, over theri 50's.. NPWZ up 3, day 5 of double. Nice to see these guys get going. NTCXF up 6 more, near triple since March, when I mentioned it several times. VLNC up 6, back to 50's.

CPWY down 39, rejected by 50's. ASPW down 23, re-hit that Jan bottom. CWET down 15, back to bottom (50) line. CBAK down 12, new low. SATC down 11, probably going bankrupt. SLMU, AONE down 10. SLMU hanging in above 200's, below 50's. AONE financial probs, back to 50's. AMEL, NEXS down 7. ACPW down 6, rejected by bottom 200, back under 50's. NENE down 5, still in start-back-up mode. GWBU down 3, starting back up too. BWEN down 2, also in upline, back near 50's. GEVO down 1, told not to ship product pending appeal by Butamax.

Friday, July 6, 2012

FRIDAY OPEN

(stock #'s in %)

Market down 148/41/14. Volume a little light. Oil down under $85. 80K new jobs in June. IMF to cut global growth outlook from April's 3.5%.

IFXY up 41. ENSL up 37. ZNNMF up 24. Jump off triple bottom to bottom (200-day) line. All on 15K shs. BLQN up 19 on 5K. 2-day railroad tracks. CERP up 16. Back close to 50-day lines. Couple-day run up. But they haven't been able to stay above 50's all year. QTMM up 14. Double since mid-June. XSNX up 7 more. Day 3. ASTI, NPWZ up 3. ASTI upline since end of May, over all lines. NPWZ in day 8 of double. ZNNMF now up 31.

MGLT down 17 on 10K shs. Still in climbout, above 50-days, from 4-month bottom. ZAAP down 12 on 24K. AONE down 10 on more financial news. Back on 50-days. GWBU, NTCXF, NENE all down 5. Recent high-flyers taking a break. NENE not so recent, but looking to me of forming new upline, below all their lines. NTCXF I can see coming back to 90 cents maybe, even near 80. GWBU forming upline. Looks to me.

ZNNMF now up 36 on 20K shs.