STUFF

DOI granted Shell permission to begin prep work on Chukchi Sea well. Shell's spent $4B so far on Arctic development. They have to stop drilling Sept 24 but asking for extension.

Gazprom doubts on econ viability of Barents Sea NG development. Phase I "paused". Alliance with Total (FR) and Statoil (NOR) made in '07. Statoil's already writ off $336M. Est. 140TCF reserves. Enough to supply world for a year. Field 340 miles above Arctic Circle.

SolSystems closed on $18M financing for 5MW Solar Vision OH project. Online by yearend.

FSLR halted panel delivery, work on world's largest PV solar farm - $1.8B - in AZ. Ahead of sked, contractual obligations. To resume in Jan. Scheduled completion end of '13. Already 85% built - 247MW. ~6 mo work left. $967M DOE loan guarantee. Owned by NRG Energy, MidAm Energy Holdings.

Italy's solar elgen surpassed their wind elgen for 1st time in '11. Solar gen near 10.7TWh - >3% of total mix. Wind 10.1TWh. Total clean (not including nuke, I presume) power near 25% of '11 elgen. ~2.5GW solar installed 1H12, 15GW total. 97% under 200kw per site.

US geothermal power potential 100GW in next 50 yrs: MIT report. That's France's total peak power use. US now has 3.2GW, more than any other country.

Filasa Intl (France) planning $1.8B investment in 10 more Romanian wind farms. Currently developing 9 farms, totaling 897MW. Another 516MW farm for 1B Euros. They want to develop 300MW of solar also there.

Wind has "significantly" reduced avg C intensity of fossil fuel power plants. In Midwest (US) grid, avg C savings 831kg/MWh. On TX grid, 474.

US solar PV market grew 120% 1H12 to 1.7GW installed, set to top 4.3GW by yearend. Global installs 1H12 >13GW.

German researchers finding locally produced rapeseed biodiesel not showing 35% GHG savings promised. Under 30%. EU emissions target increases to 50% in 5 years.

Origin Oil's (OOIL) Japanese research partners got Japan govt grant for algae project. To build 1-acre sites to prove biofuels production and remediation of radioactive materials. Potential expansion to 100 sites and beyond.

EIA: US ethanol production has stabilized @ avg 34.4Mgal/d. ~820Kb/d.

US prohibiting business with ADT Petroservicious (Mex), US assets frozen, over link to drug trafficking cartel.

Saudi Aramco recovered from computer virus attack from "Cutting Sword of Justice". In mid-Aug. Image of burning Am flag replaced data.

U of Oregon research team funded by DOE finding refrigerating coal plant emissions reduces CO2 emissions >90% at cost of 25% efficiency (presumably added to bills). CO2 captured as solid, warmed and compressed into gas that could be moved by pipe to storage (algae production?). SO2, some NOX and Hg also condensed, safely removed.

Coal-powered energy sold @ ~5.6 cents/KWh in US: '06 CBO est. Est. health costs of coal burning in US $150-380B/y.

Retired CEO of Exelon: Nuke power no longer economically viable source of new energy in US. And won't be for foreseeable future. After 50 years of subsidies. (So why is Iran developing nuke power?)

India's National Council for El Mobility has new plan calling for 6-7M EV's by '20. US 1M EV's by '15 target may not be reached until '17: Pike Research. India's grid a problem. And vehicle safety standards. But looks like India going to pony up a few billion for research and charging infrastructure.

UK Tech Strategy Board launched $36M demo project ($15M from Dept For Transport) to have fleet operators test low-C-emission vehicle tech, refueling infra. Some to improve aerodynamics, replace diesel with bio-methane for 70% reductions. 1st large-scale LNG and biogas refueling station installed. And used cooking oil. And NG.

Germany and Italy opposed to release of EU crude reserves, saying world marts amply supplied even without Iran crude.