STUFF

China's Rene Sola (SOL) got order for 4.6MW of modules from Solar Planet Power. They plan to order up to 15MW more within 6 months. Shooting for ~$200M in solar projects next 2 years. They have contracts for installs @ >30 major school districts, >20 muni sites, hospitals, airports, universities in Ohio. Plans to expand later to other US geomarkets and abroad.

Mauritius closed their FIT program after reaching target, expanded from 2MW last year to 3. 1.3M residents. Their elgen portfolio ('11): 40% coal, 39% oil, 18% bagasse, 2% hydro, .1% wind. Total gen 2.7TWh, total gen cap 367MW. Abundant solar, wind resources. Price of imported coal for them has more than doubled since '02. And we know oil prices.

Surana Ventures, India solar panel maker, planning to double production to 30MW this year. Investing $4.5M in solar cell plant. India wants to help triple their solar manufacturing capacity to 5GW by '20. Sarana sales slid 29% last fiscal year (March), looking for 38% rise this fiscal. India solar target 20GW by '22 - 20x from now. Welspun Energy, country's biggest solar manufacturer, says country will surpass that by 2x. India soon to release 3GW capacity plan for next 4 years and will have domestic content requirement.

4 small hydro plants - total ~3.4MW - to be built in India's Uttar Pradesh.

Global clean E (not including nuclear) industry $260B in '11.

Annual investment in E storage now ~$2.6B: Pike Research. Set to grow to $9.2B in '15, $25B in '21. May grow to $5B in 5 years in US alone. Worldwide, 150GW now being stored, half in Asia (I presume hydro). GE working on sodium nickel batt.

Sapphire Energy says its 1st phase of their commercial demo algae-to-oil facility in NM now operational. When all phases complete, Green Crude Farm will produce 1.5M gallons/y of oil with 300 acres of algae ponds and processing facilities.

Industrial Development Corp (S Africa)  jumping back into biofuels investment with $606M for production of 300M liters/yr beginning in '16. Feedstock concerns.

Queen's U (Can) and Weizmann Institute (Israel) researchers studying cellulosome - natural multi-enzyme complex. Could lead to cost reductions for breaking down feedstocks.

Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa - joint initiative of Denmark and Energy, Environment and Climate Change Dept of Africa Development Bank - approved 1st grant. $825K for concept phase of vehicles for investing in private sector driven "green" tech projects.

Bunge (Brazil) says if Brazil raises its ethanol blend back to 25% it will, again, have to increase US imports. Brazil's mills don't have capacity this year for any increase.

Nebraska's Corn Board says retail sales of E15 could begin as early as next month. States held back from E15 because of EPA clean air regs related to summer blends.

Predictions that desalination equipment industry will triple next 5 years, becoming $17B/y market. $5B in '11, est. $8.9B this year. Recent tech breakthroughs.

California has cut its petrol use 13% since '03. Reducing petrol use in fleets. If they can do it ....