STUFF

New Zealand energy industry cut GHG's 1.9% last year. Decreased coal and NG use; increased wind, geothermal. They delayed measures, tho, that would have raised carbon costs for emitters. Australia intro'd a price 2x that of New Zea's. New Zea got 74% of its el from clean energy in '10. Should I repeat that sentence? Or are we cool? Yay New Zealand!

Kenya comp (M-KOPA) extending credit to low income earners to buy solar power systems. Sold 1K units since June start. Target tens of thousands in year. ~80% of Kenyan households rely on kerosene for el, not linked to grid. Also, a Brit comp plans to install 4K of pay-as-you-go solar units in Kenya. M-KOPA's unit made by US-based comp. Project funders include Gray Ghost Ventures of Atlanta, Shell Foundation and Brit Dept of Intl Development.

US ethanol production averaged 785Kb/d this week, down 24K from last week. Lowest since tracking began June '10. Annual rate of 12.43B gal. Stock 18.8M bls.

GEVO awarded patent to enhance isobutanol production rate.

Wisconsin Energy Institute team demo'd PEM fuel cell that converts acetone to isoproponol. Paves way for glucose to hexanes (gasoline).

Research Institute of Industrial Sci and Tech in S Korea dev'd process to convert sewage sludge into biodiesel. Reduces extraction cost for lipids to 3 cents/liter. Heat-based process v. catalysis. Overcomes probs of impurities that create lower yields.

Alberta Canada agency helping to fund hub for bioecon investments.

CSU's Engines and E Conversion Lab secured $18.5M of private donations to build expansion. Research in grid improvements, biofuel production, improved cook stoves in developing countries (we used to call them 3rd world). Former Colo guvna to direct.

Pakistan pushing ahead on underground gasification of vast coal deposits in Thar Desert. Synthetic diesel. Fischer-Tropsch. WW2 Germany. $10M from govt agency. Cost ~ $40/bl. Cost $25 in S Africa, $28 in China. Paks import diesel @ up to $120/bl.

EIA: US coal exports hit record high 66.2M tons in 1H12. Up 24%. Over 1/2 went to Europe because of their high NG prices.

Alaska NG pipeline could cost $65B. Governor set deadline in Jan. Comps, tho, say "enviro, regs, engineering, financial work still remains."

Sauds may increase crude oil price of oil exported to Asia. Winter demand, several Japan refineries back online.

Sauds to build $640M solar plant in Makkah. 100Mw. That's a little expensive. Could save city up to $587M/y on el bill. Project bids in '13.

Vestas increasing new wind turbine to 8Mw. Tech developments. 1st install may be in '14. 80 meter blades.

Innergex Renewable Energy opened Ontario solar farm. Their 1st. 33Mw for $142M. 59Mw of projects in pipe.

Dead River expanded into el supply biz in Maine. Rates lower than "standard offer" from utilities. Discounted off-peak el that can be used for el thermal storage units. Equiv to $2.90/gal heating oil v. $3.68.

ISEG Solar Service 25Mw farm began ops in AZ. 148 acres. Single-axis tracking. Math, pards. Math.

Cargill, Huntsman, UNIPEC pledged to stop using E-inefficient ships. 350M tons/y, ~ 8% of world cargo shipments. Branson website judges ships. Bad ships 10-15% of fleet. Cargill spends ~$2B/y on ship fuel.

Bloomberg's initiative to plant trees in NYC past halfway. Tree givies in Oct, Nov. Non profit founded by Bette Midler. God bless her, huh? Saw her on stage at Sloppy Joe's on Key West 1980 New Years. Those were days. God bless you Bette. 1.4K trees this year. The species well thought out.

Rapid adoption of single-weed killer for vast majority of US crops has gived rise to superweeds and superbugs. Greater pesticide, herbicide use. Glyphosate. Monsanto. Go figure this up. I sprayed the hard red winter wheat in Colorado to eradicate the Russian wheat aphids. I wanted to end the Cold War so my kid didn't have to deal with it. And that happened. Now we have the dam war against Muslim terrorism. I want to end that too. For my grandchildren. So. Another pesticide/herbicide campaign?

Happy weekend motoring pards.