STUFF

TOP STUFF


Oyster Creek nuke plant on NJ coast had to declare low-level emergency. Rising water threatened pumps that bring in cooling water. All turned out well. Only nuke of 34 in Sandy's path from FL to Neast that got close to problematic.

Surface temps in W Atlantic were remarkably high ahead of Sandy. In places, 5 degrees F above normal. Part of ocean was warmer than normal Sept temps when heat tends to peak. If that's not global warming, I don't know what is.

Sandy's costs up to $30B and counting.

Israel defense chief says Iran postponed nuke weapon ambitions based on their conversion of some enriched U into fuel rods for power gen. Wishful thinking? Or are sanctions really having effect?

California Lithium Battery announced 3x increase in lith-ion batt energy density, 4x increase in specific anode capacity. GEN3 anode a silicon graphene composite material engineered with Argonne Lab. Used with advanced cathode and electrolyte materials. Est. 70% reduction in batt lifetime cost. CLB fast-tracking commercialization. 2 years away. Will cost compete with gasoline/diesel powered vehicles.

Abound Solar under criminal investigation by Colo DA for possible securities fraud, consumer fraud and financial misrepresentation. Abound filed bankruptcy in June and announced permanent shutdown. $70M was drawn on $400M DOE loan guarantee.

Novozymes launched new "game changing" enzyme that improves efficiency, profitability of corn ethanol production. 2.5% more eth out of corn. Typical US eth plant uses ~900K tons of corn per year to make 100M gal of eth, 300K tons of animal feed, 8,500 tons of corn oil. Enzyme saves > 22K tons of corn. If all US plants use it, 3M tons corn saved/yr. US corn eth production expected to reach 13.3B gal this year.

Hitachi signed 700M Pound deal to buy Horizon Nuke Power. Gives them ability to build next gen of nuke power plants in UK.

Securum Equity agreement with Serbia to build 1Gw solar farm for $1.66B. Best price I've ever seen for solar. MX Group (Italy) panels. Power to be exported to Europe. April construction start, '16 completion. Serbia to provide 3K hectares for free. I think that's why costs are so low. Est. maintenance/ops costs < $2M/y over expected 25-year life.


OTHER STUFF


~ $100M/y/well for deepwater drilling. US' next sale in late Nov offering 21M acres in GOM. March sale to offer 38M acres. $145B spent globally/y on deepwater tech/infra.

Georgia Power completed 3rd and final 840Mw NG combined-cycle power plant unit.

Pelamis Wave Power in talks on partnership to expand. Preparing for influx of orders next few years. A 10Mw array weighs 60-70M pounds and costs $96-113M. Compares with nuke, maybe, at top of cost chart. Maybe geotherm up there as well.

Uganda planning 2 more hydropower plants in west Nile region.

Algae to power, shade zero-energy building in Germany. Facade made up of glass panels to grow algae inside. Captures solar thermal heat and grows algae to be harvested for energy.

SG Biofuels expanded jatropha platform to 15 prototype sites, adding 8 in Guatemala, Brazil, India. Confirmed costs of $99/bl or less.

Bunge plans to idle 55M gal eth plant in Miss before end of Nov. Bloomberg est. producers losing 30 cents/gal based on Dec corn, eth futures.

Triton Chem (Brazil) tech can increase corn eth production 2%.

Neste Oil opened 1st Euro pilot plant to produce microbial oil from waste. $10.3M invested in Finland facility and in research since '07.

Army Research Lab testing thermoelectric tech on M1 tank. TE uses temp differences to create el current. Works on atomic level between adjacent materials. GM has been working on it to apply to car exhausts and helping. Also General Dynamics, Research Triangle Inst. 80w prototype getting upgraded to full-size unit.

Morocco, Desertec Foundation (Germany-based) expected to accel development of 2Gw N Africa solar project to power N Af and S Europe. Agreement to share their expertise and develop strong policy framework. Construction already started on 500Mw CSP plant in Morocco. 1 of largest in world. '15 completion. Siemens recently quit the consortium after deciding to sell their solar biz.

Honeywell announced > $80M energy efficiency project for Tinker AFB. AF's largest domestic energy retrofit funded through guaranteed savings to date. Should remove Tinker from atop list of most energy-intensive AFB's. Est. $6.4M savings in 1st year after work complete, > $170M over 20 years. Trims NG use almost 27%, fresh water use ~20M gal/yr. CO2 decrease > 60M lbs/yr.

Global VC funding in wind energy comps tripled to $57M in Q3 over Q2. Mergers, acquisitions fell 43% to $53M. Grid connect probs in China, Europe; tax creds in US on chopping block; accelerated depreciation in India expired in April.

CONSOL to idle coal surface mining ops at WV facility. Underground mining to continue. 1.55M tons so far this year from site, 83% from surface. Idling blamed on enviro (clean water act) permit delays.