STUFF

Indonesia elgen market moving away from monopolized fossil fuel base to more competitive structure with increasing share of clean/renew E.

Connecticut Dept of E and Enviro Protect issued draft permit for PSEG's coal- and oil-fired plant. Triggers 45-day EPA review. Plant built in '61. Last remaining coal burner in state. Operated only 24 days this year. 529Mw. $150M spent in recent years to make it "among cleanest of its type".

Progress Energy retiring 872Mw of coal-based power next 2 weeks. > 1/2 of total planned elim by '13 - ~1/3 of total coal fleet. Now NC has to decommission ash pits. Not covered by state's policies for lagoons, wastewater ponds. But Progress announced these closures in '09. 3 new replacement plants to burn NG. By '14, 27% of PE's elgen will be coal, down from 41%, 43% NG. 4 oil-fired units to shut down Oct 1.

Oregon coal-export project delayed year or more over permitting. Start-up now mid-'14.

Sea surface temps along east coast NC to Maine hottest ever recorded in 1H12: NOAA. Above avg temps surface to bottom and out beyond Gulf Stream.

In '10, 12 US agencies decided on $21/ton of carbon as social cost of > 7B tons/y emitted in US. New study suggests cost 2-12x that, considering impact of clime change on future generations.

BMW hedging bets on EVs, trying new ways to get more out of gas, diesel motors. Fiat doing well with NG, propane cars.

US airlines going to UN to fight EU carbon caps. Wah.

Sea level rise destroying mangroves in El Salvador. I've seen the mangrove destruction personally around Marco I, FL about 6 years ago. Now we know why.

German utility to close 2 highly polluting coal plants in UK.

FERC says tighter communications needed between NG suppliers and utilities burning it. Possible shortages with extreme winter wx. My guess is heating would take pref over elgen. Hopefully, enough plants can burn both NG or coal. Besides more clean E contrib (do wind turbine blades have de-icing or anti-icing? And how are solar panels de-iced? Or after the snow is brushed off, maybe ice concentrates sunlight.). Thinking out loud, I guess. Let me know if too much.

Experts say oil comps need to team up to prepare for cyber attacks.

Azerbaijan, Turkey moving ahead with NG pipeline plans.

Siemens to elim 615 jobs at US wind turbine factories as new orders dry up from Congress inaction. > 1/3 of workforce. Siemens invested $100M in those plants in last 5 years.

LDK's latest financials showing meltdown. Revs down 1/2, $254M loss. Word they hired Morgan Stanley to find buyer among China's state-owned comps.

China announced official protest with WTO over US' tariffs on China comps. India launching their own probe into Chinese solar dumping. EU's also ongoing, of course.

NYC 1st US city to make public (on city website) how well (or poorly) each large private bldg in city performs on E and water use. > 2K large comm properties, ~530M sq ft. Part of mayor's goal of 30% redux of CO2 emiss by '30. >2.6K muni bldgs already reporting.

General Biofuels Georgia to build $60M wood pellet plant. Opens in '14. 440K tons/y. Target Euro utilites.

USDA looking at 117 genotypes of sweet sorghum for biofuel feedstock in south US. Drought tolerance, low fertilizer requirement sought.

Up to 3.5B hectares worldwide not suitable for food crop production. But potential for biofuels feedstock.
Or we could make some of those hectares more suitable for food. How? Pumping seawater through reverse osmosis plants and piping it out to where needed. Look at projected population growth. Oops, thinking outloud again. Tell me when.

General Atomics (Cal). Developing "E Multiplier Module". EM2. "Fast/breeder reactor." Helium cools reactor and drives turbine with gas heated to 856C ( > 2x light water nuke tech) @ 6-12K RPM for 30 yrs before maintenance/refuel (today's reactors shut down ev 18 months.) Also unique fuel clad in silicon carbide. Uranium starting fuel, enriched to 12%. Then burns nuke waste or depleted U. Multiplies power from U 262x. Also gens enough radioactive "seed" during ops to refuel another reactor. Largest prob: lack of enthuse from utilities. $4B to build demo. Come on DOE. 71Mw version to come first. Then 240Mw. Cost of elgen would be 1/2 of current reactors. Gen Atomics same comp that gave us Predator drone, rail gun, mag-lev cargo pallets and elmag launch system on USS Gerald Ford. Come on. What's $4B these days? Great export product too.

Gazprom plans to invest > $14B in far east including offshore production, LNG.

But we can't come up with $4B for fast/breeder demo. Or is that the one going up in India? Come on America. Get smart.

Compressed NG cars would be cheaper because catalytic converters wouldn't be needed. They would pollute less. They would be cheaper to run than gasoline engines. (Until NG prices rise, of course.) Maybe govt should also subsidize them and the needed infra. "All of the above" policy.

Falkland Oil & Gas found NG-bearing rock offshore.

Plans in Australia to create 9 mega coal mines would release 705M tons CO2/yr. Could contrib heavily to 6F temp rise that IEA calls "catastrophic".

China set to double '15 solar target to > 40Gw. '12 expected to be 7Gw. May also double '20 target to 100Gw.

Hawaii El relaxing rules for smaller PV system installs.

Comm property owners in Ventura County, Cal can obtain loans for projects that reduce E and water use in new program.

Financing completed for 758Mw NG combined-cycle power plant in Sherman, TX.

LS Power completed financing for 170Mw PV solar plant in Cal.

99 Cents Stores added 40 NG trucks to fleet, 1 of largest NG private fleets in S Cal.

Romney launching "Obama's war on coal" ads. Well, NG elgen is now cheaper or same. Less polluting. Most important, no mercury. And less cause of global warming and climate change. So, Mitt, you may gain coal miners, coal comps, railroads, barge lines and utilities. But they all vote Republican anyway. Oy.

FERC commisioner offered "middle ground" option in wind tax cred debate. Can't wait to see it.

US fish catch hit 17-yr high in '11. And Mitt says they're getting hurt by high fuel costs. And how do fishers vote? Enough politics.

San Fran approved muni E program.

OECD: govt support for farmers at "historic lows". Huh. We should look into that.

Clean/ren comps fighting Bulgaria's regulations for new fees.

India villagers protesting new nuke plant opening. The fast breeder?