STUFF

Iberdrola to complete $120M, 48MW wind farm in Groton by yearend.

Cheyenne City Council approved lease agreement of 12K acres 6 miles west of town for 150-turbine wind farm by Cheyenne Wind possibly online in '16.

E.ON (Germany) N Am opened >200MW wind farm in TX. 112 Vestas 1.8MW's. E.ON >2GW online in TX.

EPA has 45 days from decision to file rehear with same 3 judges that struck down cross-state air pollution rule. Or to seek "enbank" by full DC circuit. Gotta love the law. If I got it right.

5 years ago, Solar World (Germany), with hundreds of millions in tax breaks, transformed empty semiconductor plant in OR into solar panel factory. Solar World invested ~$600M. 1.2K jobs. Now "nothing China can't beat". OR taxpayers on hook for >$100M. Chinese comps in '06 shipped $79M worth of solar panels to US. In '11, it was $2.8B.

Pemex struck oil in deepwater Gulf after years of exploring. 8.2K ft below water surface. Up to 400M bls.

NG yesterday ~$2.60 after hitting $3.20 weeks ago. I guess with the heat wave dying, not so much air conditioning needed. MWh of el in OH now wholesales for ~$40. Big new coal plant in IL wholesales at $60.

Germany seeks to prevent China solar dumping case in EC "with talks".

Scotland giving 5 (another report 4) wave and tidal energy developers $12.5M to develop prototypes. "To capture increased share of growing intl marine E market." Comps to compete who can produce most el over 2 yrs. Or something. But why isn't US competing in everything? The debt? The stupidity?

Brazil Supreme Court overturned 2-week-old lower court rule on 11.2GW, $17B dam project. Work to resume. Started in '11. The locals had their opportunity to chime in or whatever. $17B for 11GW. Bigger than China, isn't it?

Iraq-to-Turkey oil pipe closed again by sabotage.

MD set up kitchen grease hauling registration to curb theft. Haulers required to register online with state ag dept. Good luck with that.

Mich State U to lead 5-year, $4.8M project funded by NSF with researchers from Mexico, Argentina, Brazil to determine how to produce sustainable biofuels and what policies are needed to ensure sustainability.

NSF also announced 15 grants. $30M to 26 institutions for 4 yrs. 3 emerging areas. Large-scale use of micro-orgs that use solar energy to produce chems, fuels from CO2. Study of optimization of micro-orgs and growing conditions to produce easily-processed HC chems in large quantities. And exploration of variety of value-added compounds using array of micro-orgs or by combining bio processes with chem catalysis. Each project to pursue efficiency, sustainability in numbers of ways. So. Mark your calendars for 4 years from now.

Gazprom signed with Bulgaria's National Energy Holdings to build Bulgarian section of NG pipeline. Online '15. 63B cubic meters capacity?

Chile court nixed $5B, 2.1GW coal power plant proposed by Brazil comp and E.ON (Germ). Enviro concerns. Maybe even economics. Heck, you can get wind for less than that. And they may have constant wind off Pacific up mountain slopes. Yea, but the wind propellors destroy the view and kill the birds. How about vertical axis wind? And on it goes.

Exelon says no-go on proposed nuke in SE TX. Cited cheap NG.

O yea, Iran boss said they won't make nuke bombs, just nuke energy. Remember trust, but verify?

New solar tech at Research Triangle Institute. Could reduce cost up to 75%. "Colloidal quantum dots." Combines advantages of organic materials with those of inorganic semiconductors. Tunable optic and eltronic properties. Low-cost materials, processing. Light-weight and flexible. Room-temp processing. High IR sensitivity.

Italian court filed criminal charges against investment fund controlled by Suntech Power (STP). Charged they built solar farms to take advantage of subsidies. Duh. $100M of farms could be dismantled?! Could be a planted story. Or Italy is so fracked up that they want to dismantle solar farms. Yea that makes sense. But STP needs finance to cover convertible bonds due in '13. So maybe it's just another oblique corporate raid. Or a non-story. Sure a lot of court cases in energy, though.

Fed judge found TVA negligent in not preventing '08 coal ash dam failure at Kingston. Ash recovery project expected to continue through '15.

Dow Chem intro'd new polyolefin tech for solar. Back encapsulant, backsheet for panels. "ENLIGHT" Excellent insulation, increased resistance to PID (degradation), extended efficiency. Lower costs for c-Si PV.

Specific E of gasoline (measured in KWh/kg) ~400x lead-acid batt, ~200x lith-ion batt. Just something to leave us with.

Happy trailers, pards.