STUFF

Midnight Saturday we added a second to time. 25th time since '72. Earth rotation slowing. Day has not been 24 hours since 1820. ?! When dinosaurs roamed, day was 23 hours. Go figure.

Los Alamos constructed solar cell that can absorb light of specific wavelength in such a way that 1 photon can energize >1 electron. Then, as soon as the electron absorbed the photon, it disappeared for a short moment into the quantum field where, being in virtual static el, the electron can borrow E from the vacuum and therefore appear in reality. And then the electron can energize 7 electrons. So they say.

Invenergy closed on $444M finance for IL wind farm.

AES Solar closed on 77M Euro for 27MW solar PV 10-plant portfolio in Italy. AES has global portfolio of 232MW in Bulgaria, France, Greece, India, Italy and Spain and has 24MW under construction in US.

In '10, total budget for el utility customers' E efficiency programs was $4.6B, up from $1.1B ten years ago. Far cheaper (~2/3) to reduce demand than add generation. That's big numbers.

Energy Development (Nashville) completed expansion of landfillgass-to-E plant in GA. 4MW to 8. Largest such plant in GA. EDI now has 90MW of this elgen online in US.

EDF EN Canada finished 80MW $200M wind project in Quebec. Comp to build 1GW in the province next 4 yrs. RE Power 2MW turbs. Online Sept.

ConEd labor contract expired, talks broke down. 5K managers took over 8K labor jobs. Services curtailed.

Thousands protesting nuke restart in Japan.

US, Europe, Japan escalated rare earths dispute with China. Asking for dispute settlement panel after WTC failure.

Enviro regulators in NY adopted CO2 emiss limits from power plants even stricter than fed standards. Could make it near impossible to build new coal plants.

As oceans warm, become more acidic, fish species moving north, giving Brit fishers more exotic catches while formerly domninant species buggered out toward the Arctic.

CBO: $6.9B fed investment in C capture may not be enough to launch it. What is that about govt picking tech winners?

Big biz won all 3 Supreme Court enviro cases this session. Ruled unanimously that property owners facing potential Clean Water Act enforcement actions may seek judicial review first. Held that a power comp didn't have to pay riverbed rent for a hydropower plant. And threw out NG distribution comp's criminal fine for illegally storing mercury. Surprising?

Battle over "negawatt" pricing heading to court.

Senate confirmed new NRC chairWOMAN.

Sri Lanka ship traffic killing endangered blue whales.

Honda offering free insurance as EV perk.

Rain monitoring stations shutting down around world. Least in US.

Toronto banned plastic bags.

Wind power ops&maint market to grow from $3B/y in '12 to $6B in '25. Not quick growth at all.

Chicago Transit Auth placed 1st order for 2 of NFYEF's recently-launched EV bus. $1.1M each. Traction drive, components from Siemens. '13 delivery.

KNDI to provide most of 20K EV's for Hangzhou's rental program. "Active" in July and August. Monthly fee ~$126 includes free charging and batt exchange. KNDI's mini-EV prices $7.5-8K. Next cheapest EV competition rents for $380/mo without free charging.

China quadrupled '15 solar target to 21GW. Help to absorb excess supply, support prices. Includes 1GW of solar thermal. They expect installs to exceed 30GW. Sol module prices down ~42% last 12 months to ~87 cents/w. Think about this story. I was going to put it first. JASO, CSIQ, HSOL, CSUN. And the Chinese solars on the NYSE.

Rule that limits distributed energy to 15% of power that goes to homes, biz is getting pushed in Calif. Arbitrary %. But there is the repair crew zappability factor. Advanced electronics, inverters, tho, can stem "islanding" (utility grid failure). Could get 3x increase in rule.

Replacing silver with copper a promising route to cheaper large-scale prod in PV modules. Copper lifetime killer for si-based cells. Diffuses into the si. Forms trap for charge carriers. Diffusion barrier required. Copper oxidises into porous compound when exposed to air. Extra protection needed on electrode contact. Copper will increase complexity/costs of manufacturing process. Stay tuned.

Iran declaring "inalienable right" to enrich U for peaceful purposes. Yea, sure, they're a peaceful govt.

US: China and Singapore have "significantly reduced" purchases of Iran oil. 20 nations have gone along with sanctions.

Iran's oil supertanker fleet re-emerged in past month with fresh paint, new names, new flags, new homeports. "Lipstick on a pig."

UAE new oil pipeline ready to pump around Hormuz. Sauds plan to re-open long-disused pipe to Red Sea.

Iran oil exports down 20-30%.

S Korea will stop importing Iran oil because of EU tanker insurance ban.

Iran's oil minister: China National Petrol needs to start work on parts of S Pars NG field (in Persian Gulf) by next March. Sharing with Qatar. ~8% of world NG reserves. "Frustrated with delays."

Malay's state-owned oil/NG comp buying PRG for $4.8B Canadian cash to advance LNG plan.

Italy overturned ban on offshore oil/NG development enacted after BP GOM spill. Back to 5-12 miles offshore.

Salazar: oil producing nations should establish global incident database for oil/NG offshore exploration/prod.

BP set to invest in 2 pipeline projects to carry Caspian NG to Europe. And selling $1.2B of US, N Sea assets.

Iraq crude output >3mb/d in May. Seeking to dub by '15.

DOE EIA: CO2 emiss from US E consumption should remain @ <'05 level thru '35, even without new policies to mitigate GHG's.

Eni signed deal for offshore explore in Gulf of Tonkin. Well, they lost the war first.

Columbia Pacific Bio-Refinery delayed opening of 120M gal eth plant originally to be back online in Feb after 3-yr bankruptcy shutdown. Maybe fall.

16-yr-old Egyptian student in UK developed novel catalyst to produce methane, propane and ethane by breaking down waste plastic.

Cyprus took over EU presidency on the 1st. Does that make sense?

Venezuela signed deal to explore for oil in deepwater off Cuba.

Plans approved for UK's largest ever solar farm. 8MW.

Petronas made $4.7B bid for Progress Energy Resources, its venture partner in BC and Alberta reserves.