Friday, November 30, 2012

STUFF

TOP STUFF

China fast-tracking their shale gas industry. Enviro rules not even existant yet.

Ice sheets in Greenland, Antarctica shrinking 3x faster than in '90's: report by world's top ice experts. (You know, if kids will ever listen to me, I tell them to become a world expert. On ANYthing.)

AAA urging regulators to halt sale of E15. "Damages engines."

ARPA-E awarding $130M to 66 projects. Transforming, breakthrough techs that show fundamental promise but too early for private sector investment. Total projects now 285 for $770M of awards. I'll go through winners this weekend (hopefully will get time).

Senate voted 54-41 (Dems) to clear Navy's path to affordable advanced biofuels capacity. (Sounds like a shuttle launch, huh. What's a shuttle, dad?)

OTHER STUFF

DOE establishing research hub for batts/E storage at Argonne Lab (IL). $120M over next 5 yrs. Chu has sought 8 "innovation hubs". Congress has given him 5. 3 now operating: E efficient bldg designs (Philly), artificial photosynthesis at Berkeley and CIT, improving light-water nuke reactors at Oak Ridge. It's only been 4 years, for goshshakes.

TSLA raising base price of S Model 4.35%.

Brain number: Grand Canyon formed by earlier river flowing in opposite direction, not Colorado. 70M years ago, not 5-6M. Catabol, anyone?

Sierra Club suing TVA over partial response on power plant plans.

BLM targeting Cal desert for new solar zone, geothermal expansion.

Duke CEO Rogers forced out.

DuPont broke ground on 30M gal/yr $200M cellulosic biorefinery in Nevada Iowa. Mid-'14 completion. Corn stover feedstock - 375K tons/yr. Adjacent Lincolnway Energy refinery of 100M gal/yr cap. Stover $50-60/ton.

14th E85 location opened in metro Atlanta.

DOE issued request for info to researchers in industry, academia, other biofuels stakeholders to ID key tech barriers in converting biomass via thermochem direct liquification pathways to trans fuels. Pathways include fast pyrolysis, in-situ and ex-situ catalytic pyrolysis, hydropyrolysis, hydrotherm (or solvent) liquification, followed by various combos of bio-oil stabilization and upgrading processes.

Egypt awarded 1st oil concessions since revolution to Shell, RWE, TransGlobe. $3B in arrears owed to foreign oil comps apparently not an issue. 11 of 15 blocks got bids. 18.3B bls proven reserves.

Libyan civil war vets shut down country's largest refinery. 120Kb/d. 2nd time this month refinery closed by protests.

Oil insiders predicting strong production growth in '13. Not stated if US or world. At least US.

Tax big oil like other industry: execs.

UK now has floating houses on Thames. Um. Water coming up?

Fort Worth generating $5.9M annual cost savings from E efficiency improvements in buildings since joining admin's "Better Buildings Challenge" in May. City expects to make goal of 20% more efficiency by '20.

EU carbon allowances for Dec down 5.8% to lowest close since '05 start. Member states opted not to cut supply through '15.

UK plans to build carbon capture/storage plants missed out on 1st phase of EC $2B program. Failed to secure govt funding guarantees. 1st phase $600M.

India's 3rd largest wind turbine maker - ReGen Powertech - investing $34M to start making turbine blades at plant that makes all the other parts.

Demand for Indian ren/en credits down 41% in Nov from Oct. Regulators failed to enforce clean E targets. Comps abstained from trading.

Onward and upward pards. Happy weekend, woo hoo.

FRIDAY OPEN

(stock #'s in %)

Market flat. Volume a little light. Oil up over $88.

AEHI up 100 on 6K shares. WTWO up 27. EVSI up 21 on news. GERS up 13 on 400. GRPH up 3.

IFXY down 48 on 200. VNDB down 25. PSPW down 24. CRGE down 15 on 2K. XSNX down 5. ORYN down 4. NTCXF down 3. NENE down 1.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

THURSDAY CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

Market up 36/20/6. Volume normal. Oil came back under $88. US 3Q consumer spending less than forecast.

CBWP up 81. NGLPF up 50. RNWEF up 36. CWET up 31. BOPO up 25. PSPW up 23. TMEN up 20. CCGI up 19. GWBU, CRGE up 18. CBAK up 15. RSOL, JUHL up 13. XSNX up 9. GRPH up 2. NTCXF up 1.

PPRW down 70. AQNM down 38. AEHI down 33. MGLT down 32. VLNCQ down 25. AMPD down 23. VNDB down 20. WEST down 16. NPWZ down 13. XDSL, ORYN, HOKU down 12. AONEQ, GERS down 11. NENE down 1.

STUFF

TOP STUFF

~20M acres in Gulf of Mex were due to be auctioned yesterday by US govt for fossil fuels exploration. All I know about that.

NY Gov to file 90-day extension on fracking rules. 4 years studying it already.

Senate voted 62-37 to back military av biofuels plans.

US Chamber CEO: make energy production part of deficit fix.

Poll: majority of US voters support tighter soot standards.

Area of Arctic sea ice that melted this summer was larger than US.

Study found UK media strongly biased against clean/ren energy. Wonder why. Who owns the media?

Brazil's BNDES approved $10.8B loan for build of 11.2Gw hydro plant on Xingu River. Overall cost $17B. World's 3rd largest when done. Construction began earlier this year. $1.54B of loan for social, enviro issues over the dam. Online '15-'19.

Amazon deforestation down 27% year ended July 31. Lowest level in nearly 25 years.

Sun Ed closed on $314M funding for 58Mw of solar projects (2) in S Africa.

Irish utility got $200M loan from EU Investment Bank to finance 141Mw of 6 onshore wind farms. Total investment ~$400M.

Denmark to invite bidding to build 450Mw of offshore wind farms @ 6 sites. Country seeking to replace coal-fired power plants.

India started anti-dumping investigation of solar imports (PV and thin-film) from US, China, Taiwan, Malaysia.

India launches E5 Dec 1.

$1.1B deal Ukraine was about to sign Monday with Spain's Gas Natural Fenosa turned out to be faked by an interloper supposedly repping Gas Natural. Would have secured investment to build Ukraine's 1st LNG terminal (on Black Sea) and pipeline connecting country's NG pipe network to terminal. Also would've enabled Ukraine to import up to 10BCM/yr of Euro NG at 20% cheaper than Gazprom.

Russia/Gazprom starting construction of 16B Euro NG pipeline Dec 7. To serve SE, Central, East Europe. Initial 15.75BCM flow by '15. 63BCM by '19. Russia just signed 30-year supply agreement with Turkey.

Eyes on Algeria's 321TCF (IEA est.) recoverable shale gas. ~$2.6T worth at current UK NG prices. Offering tax breaks (parliament still to approve). Pipelines already connect to Spain and Italy. Exxon interested. Eni, Shell, Talisman already signed on. Algeria wants to get fracking tech too. Could export up to 110BCM by '30.

OTHER STUFF

Babcock & Wilcox has lined up Lehigh Heavy Forge (PA) to make metal shells of mPower modular nuke reactors. 180Mw design. Intended to run 4 yrs without refuel, current reactors go 18 months. No US steel maker can produce vessels (no weld) for only model reactor now being built in states - Westinghouse AP1000. Congress has appropriated $67M for the modular nuke project. DOE asking for $65M more for this fiscal year.

Japan PM promising end to nuke power.

Mitsubishi partnered with Scot utility for energy storage demo. 2 40-ft cargo containers full of ~2K each of lithion-ion batts. To store up to 800Kwh, max power output 2Mw. 3rd container houses equip to convert DC to AC. Install on Orkney Island, power transmission to/from mainland via seabed cable. Online early '13.

Quebec plans to surpass Ontario in wind E.

Delhi, Shanghai aiming to reduce plastic trash. Delhi banned plastic bags, sheets, films, other. 250K tons plastic waste per year. Shanghai fining manufacturers up to $8K that use "excessive" packaging. (I'm all in on that. I hate opening a new package that's half-filled.)

Canada top crude oil exporter to US so far this year.

National Corn-to-Ethanol Center (IL) needs $2.5M to get add-on tech to commercial scale. Last R&D steps for extracting ethanol from fibrous portion of kernel. Add-on tech for any existing corn eth plant.

Chinese comp wants to build sweet potato-to-ethanol plant on Barbados. They say cost only $600K.

U Cal San Diego proving salt water as viable as fresh for algae production.

Maple Energy in Peru has crushed 468K metric tons of sugarcane for new ethanol plant. Will produce 11.5M gallons of eth by yearend. 20% of product for local mart, Mitsui exports the rest.

Kathmandu govt undermining efforts to promote EV's. Cancelled subsidies, imposed taxes on EV parts, doubled price of el for charging stations.They also have 10 EV buses, but won't put them into ops.

Fisker Karma EV production held up by A123 bankruptcy.

NRG Energy completed solar projects at 20 schools, a fish farm and drip irrigation system in Haiti. $1M from NRG through Clinton Global, $500K from Clinton Bush Haiti Fund.

THURSDAY OPEN

(stock #'s in %)

Market up 25/15/4. All indeces above 200-day lines, Naz and S&P over 1st 50-day. Volume normal. Oil jump back over $88. 3Q US GDP revised up to 2.7%. Pending sales of US existing homes up 5.2%.

CBWP up 81. CWET up 52. RSOL up 35. WTWO up 18. XSNX, CBAK up 16. GRPH up 1. ORYN flat.

PPRW down 70 on 2K shares. NGLPF down 36 on 2.7K. VNDB down 20. CREG down 10. XDSL down 4. NENE down 2. NTCXF down 1.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

WEDNESDAY CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

Market up 106/23/10. Volume a tweak heavy. Oil stayed under $87. Fiscal cliff hope. Really. $16T debt. Cliff notes.

MGLT up 110 on 12K shares. AEHI up 50 on 10K. VLNCQ up 34. NGLPF, IFXY up 33. CWET up 31. CGYV up 25. LMRMF up 18. JUHL up 17 on 900 shares. Giveth us a break wall street. ECOS up 13. CSIQ up 12. That's big. CSUN, EWRL up 11. LEXG up 10. ORYN up 4. NTCXF up 2. NENE, GRPH up 1.

CSOL down 60. CRGE down 45. WTWO down 26. Double bottom. XSNX down 22. Buy it. WWPW down 20 on 6K shares. SOPW, MKTY down 17. PPRW down 16. ENSL down 14. RNWEF down 12. NFEC, TMEN, GWBU down 11. XDSL down 7.

STUFF

Sorry so late. More emails, phone calls than normal.

TOP STUFF

EPA temporarily suspended BP from govt contracts after oil spill deal. "Lack of biz integrity."

Canada imposing new GHG standards on cars.

MIT: fracking accounted for 3.6% of 6K gigagrams of methane emitted overall into atmos by NG ops in '10.

Floating LNG export terminal got DOE green light. Murkowski: "don't believe rumors about deal on Alaskan LNG exports."

OTHER STUFF

Almost 40% of Mex budget from oil revs. 1st 8 months of '12 Mex oil exports to US just above 1Mb/d. Last May, it fell below that, 1st time in 27 years. Mex probable net importer in 10 yrs. They import almost half of petrol products need. Pemex spent $26B in '11 buying US petrol products, $24B improving their refining infra spread over next 10 yrs.

Chinese mining firms investing $7.4B in S Am mining. Peru.

Washington State moving to protect shellfish from ocean acidification.

Obama signed law blocking EU av emissions directive.

Fed oil shale research emerging as a top GOP E plan.

Report: expanded use of enhanced oil recovery could help lead US to E independence.

Solar City (rooftop PV solar) - chaired by Musk - seeking up to $150M in IPO. Plan to sell 10M shares, Dec 11 as SCTY. Started biz in '06. Solar panel prices were 472% higher than now. They will have > 71M shares outstanding. Float will be 14%. Market value ~ $1B.

Hydro Tasmania wants to build 600Mw wind farm to transmit power via high-volt DC underwater cable to Australia. $2B project. Would be > 5% of Aussie '20 clean/ren target. 1 of best wind resources in world. If approved, '17 start, '19 finish. (AGL Energy's 420Mw wind farm in Victoria expected to be largest in S hemisphere in early '13.)

Clean/ren E aid from rich countries to poor hit $8B last year. $100B/yr promised by '20. Of $280B invested in clean/ren E last year, $165B was asset financing. > 2/3 came from local investing. ~$44B invested across borders. Of $192B invested in China since '04, $7.5B came from outside.

Hackers attacked UN nuclear agency's servers.

US drought boosting demand for ethanol tankers from Brazil to US east coast.

Lawrence Berkeley Lab leading intl team on pentose research. Danes, Thai researchers enjoined to ID plants high in lignin, hemicellulose - lignocellulosic biomass. They contain high levels of pentose sugars that can't easily ferment into fuels compared to plants with hexose sugars. Engineering plants with smaller quantities of xylon (the major non-cellulosic polysaccharide in secondary cell walls). Looking for contrib to biofuels production.

Resolute Forest Products (Can) planning wood pellet plant. '14 completion. To supply Ontario Power Gen with 45K metric tons/yr.

In Netherlands, 3 comps teaming up on biogas from sugarbeet factory project.

Total (FR) sold 20% stake in Nigerian offshore oil field to Sinopec for $2.5B. Total plans to dump up to $20B of assets through '14. Rough year for Total. North Sea gas leak, Yemen pipeline sabotage, Syria, flooding in Nigeria. Their eye on Angola, Uganda, Azerbaijan.

BP sold North Sea stake to Abu Dhabi National Energy for $1.1B. Brings BP's total asset disposal since '10 spill to $37B.

China calling for ramp up of fracking and pumping 6.5B cubic meters of NG out of shale by '15.

Qatar's solar industry hampered by dust, sand.

Sandy proved NY's oil supply infra needs overhaul.

POW-MIA flag flies over Bright Source E's solar plant under construction in Mojave. Project's super was Vietnam Marine.

A PA transit authority's plan to pioneer 1st-of-kind el buses ran into roadblock. Smith El Vehicles of KC pulled out. BARTA wants to test wireless charging system.

Post Sandy: utilities must improve communications during storms.

WEDNESDAY OPEN

(stock #'s in %)

Market down 2/6/2. Volume normal. Oil down under $86. Oct new home sales US down .3%.

AEHI up 75 on 5K shares. LMRMF, VLNCQ up 36. NGLPF up 33 after reporting. MGLT up 20. CWET up 13. XDSL up 3. NTCXF, GRPH up 1. XSNX, WTWO flat.

CSOL down 60 on 10K. CRGE down 37. CPWY down 30. VNDB, EWRL down 20. SOPW down 17. VSPC down 15 on 600. CBAK down 11. GWBU down 6. ORYN down 4. NENE down 1.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

TUESDAY CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

Market down 89/8/7. Dow back under 200-day lines. Volume normal. Oil down further toward $87. OECD slashed global growth estimates. Little progress in fiscal cliff talks.

MMMW up 42. VNDB up 25. CSKH up 23. BLQN up 17. BWEN, CDTI up 12. AXPW up 11. VSPC up 4. GRPH up 1. NENE, NTCXF, XSNX flat.

ONYX down 97. Yep. CBWP down 94. Uh huh. AEHI down 50. WTWO down 37. EWRL down 33. PRHL down 27. CWET down 24. LEXG down 22. CGYV down 20. LMRMF down 18. BLDW, CBAK, DSTI, EFOI, FNVRF down 10. ORYN down 8. XDSL down 6.

STUFF

TOP STUFF

Sandy price tag now $71B.

UN warning science doesn't have adequate handle on melting Arctic permafrost that releases CO2, methane. Calling for new monitoring efforts, formal assessment of feedback loop.

EU hedging on whether it will renew climate funding that runs out at end of year. Weekend of torrential rains in SW Brit caused devastating flooding.

US solar industry may soon face shortage of skilled labor. NREL forecasts 75% of US solar market will attain grid parity by '15. '09-'12 DOE and DOL invested $60M in workforce development. Funds running out.

Norway comp to start burning thorium fuel in govt conventional test reactor. Help from Westinghouse. Thor Energy to deploy mix of solid thorium and plutonium. Experts believe thorium advantages most pronounced in molten salt or pebble bed reactors, not conventional. This reactor cooled by "heavy water". Probably 5 years to see results.

New techs to change world. 1: waste thermal energy-to-el using "rectenna". IR thermal radiation collected, converted into el. U of S FL. Combo of high freq antenna and tunnel diode. Can even take IR directly from sun (over 50% of all sun's energy). 2: also from USF, new nanophosphor-based electroluminescence that creates light with wavelength exactly matching wavelength required by photosynth to grow crops indoors.

UK to unveil plan to spend billions on new NG power plants. And UK utilities got license for 1st nuke plant in 20 years.

Ming Yang Wind Power (MY) to team with China Development Bank and Reliance Power (India) to raise up to $3B finance for new projects in India.

OTHER STUFF

MO appeals court upheld PSC's clean/ren E rules. Reversed lower court. Concerns impact of clean/ren power mandate on el rates. MO voters approved state's RES by 2-to-1 in '08. Requires for-profit utilities to reach 15% clean/ren power by '22. But el rates can't rise > 1% from what they would be otherwise.

Vancouver combining asphalt and plastic to create "recycled" sidewalks. City's pledged to become world's greenest by '20.

Study: heavy-duty trucking sector could pay off efficiency upgrades in 18 months.

Walter LNG Services plan to fill barges with LNG to ferry around US coast, Caribbean. Waiting on DOE approval.

Canada report: shifting subsidies from oil sands to clean E would generate more jobs.

Installs of small wind turbines growing fast in Italy since '08 intro of FITs. End of '11, total small wind elgen 13Mw, 2% of 6.7Gw total wind gen cap. Small wind installs doubled each year '08-'11. Up to 10Mw may be installed in '12. > 90% < 80Kw. 70% installed in south. Installing > 2x as much small wind as US (relative to population). In N Am, only Nova Scotia, Vermont have effective FITs for small wind. Small wind in Italy now near 50% more expensive than most expensive solar PV per Kwh.

Mass regulators approved Cape Wind power contract.

Ceres, Syngenta signed major deal to stimulate sweet sorghum biofuel feedstock adoption for Brazil's 400+ ethanol mills. Collab on small-scale trials and larger demo-scale field evals this season. Sorghum can extend eth production season up to 2 months. Can be grown on fallow sugarcane land, processed with same equipment, requires less water.

U of Toledo researchers looking at ways to make algae biofuel production econ viable. Saying it's ~3 yrs away. Using wastewater streams, farm run-off.

Shell-Cosan JV in Brazil to begin production of commercial-scale cellulosic eth in '14. $90M investment for 10.6M gal/yr cap.

Petrobras expects to begin eth production in Mozambique as soon as '14. Construction of $20M distillery set to begin early '13. 20M liter/yr cap. Molasses feedstock.

Vietnam cassava-based eth plants cut production on falling demand. Even though E5 cheaper than 92 octane gas at pump. 90% of E5 now exported. Cassava market price now half of previous prices. Farmers devastated.

India govt boosting eth price 22% to 59 cents/liter from current mandated price. Price based on landed price for eth imports. No current domestic benchmark price.

Global synthetic and bio-based biodegradable plastics market $2.3B in '11. Est. $7.8B in '18.

Mideast witnessing $32.7B of fresh investment in clean/ren E in '12. 97 projects.

Russia proposing to develop nuke power in Kyrgzstan, Tajikistan. They lack fossil fuels. Plenty of hydro, but when they use it in winter, downstream countries are flooded.

Sauds to begin work on 1st-ever major solar project after start of year. Part of $109B plan for 41Gw by '32. Also plans of $100B for 17 nuke plants next 20 yrs.

Pemex found new oil deposit onshore. Potential 500M bls. Production starts within month.

1st-ever anaerobic digestion biomethane-to-grid plant in UK installed in SW England.40K tons of biomass/yr. Maize, grass, potato waste.

MSFT, Fuel Cell Energy to debut sewage-powered data center.

Growth from bacteria, fungus killing coral reefs in a Hawaiian bay.

Pine beetle infestations not only causing tree deaths in Canada forests, also causing temps to rise.

ESA's $2.6B budget cut could end plans for mission to pinpoint nature, structure of carbon sinks that slow rise of GHG's in atmos.

Bipartisan group urging Obama to form energy council.

TUESDAY OPEN

(stock #'s in %)

Market down 54/8/5. Volume normal. Oil steady under $88. US home prices biggest rise in over 2 yrs in Q3. US core capital goods orders up 1.7%. China manufacturers up 1st time in 13 months. Greek aid accord.

MMMW up 42 on 1K shares. BLQN up 17 on 2.5K. CDTI up 13. BWEN up 7 on $14M of orders. GRPH up 1. NTCXF, NENE, ORYN flat.

ENSL down 44. EWRL down 30. VNDB down 25. CWET, MKTY down 23. PRHL down 22. LEXG down 20. ZAAP down 17. GERS, AMLM down 14. CERP, WTWO down 12. XDSL, SPIR down 10. XSNX down 5. GWBU down 4.

Monday, November 26, 2012

MONDAY CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

Market mixed. Dow down 42, Naz up 10, S&P down 2. Volume normal. Oil stayed below $88.

CSKH up 142. ENSL up 80. CBAK up 62. BLQN up 33. NFEC, ONYX up 25. BLDW up 20. WNDEF up 18. GERS up 16. CERE up 15. EFOI, AEHI up 14. AMLM, DSTI, SATCQ up 12. PLUG, GPRC up 11. WTWO up 9 more. NTCXF up 4. NENE flat.

NGLPF down 25. MGLT down 21. AMEL, BHWX, MMMW down 20. INIS down 17. XSNX, JUHL down 16. Buy XSNX. CERP down 14. GWBU down 13. XDSL, ORYN, ALGXY down 10.

STUFF

TOP STUFF

Annual UN climate talks this week in Qatar.

China says they will resist an emissions cap.

US says it has given 25% of climate aid to poor countries. Well, US almost 25% of world econ.

Britain proposing energy regulation to encourage development of clean E, including nuke, while ensuring el demand met. Charges to consumers and biz to quadruple to near $16B in '20-'21 to help support low-carbon elgen. Est. to add 7% to avg household el bill. Govt hopes to attract 110B Pounds in E investment thru '20. The new regs to be in next year's energy bill. Est. clean E would increase to 30% of elgen by '20. 11% now.

UN est. $215B of investments through clean development mechanism by end of '12. CDM created by Kyoto to reduce GHG emissions. Germany, US, Denmark, Japan, China the top 5 to date.

China started probe to determine if suppliers from US, S Korea, EU dumping polysilicon and if retro duties should be imposed. Tit for tat. To also investigate if US, EU subsidizing polysi makers.

New tax break to encourage shale oil boom in Russia. USGS est. 80-140B bls in W Siberia. Current conventional reserves ~67B bls. Exxon JV with Rosneft to start testing for shale oil.

OTHER STUFF

Nordic countries taking 1st step toward 1T Euro European supergrid.

As drought expands, US winter wheat growers losing hope.

China installed 3x the wind turbines as did US in '11. Was 59% of global market. Est. China grid-connected wind power capacity to exceed 60Gw by end of this year.

Wind installs "falling off cliff" in India from policy vacuum. May install as little as 1.5Gw by yearend March 31. ~1/2 of last year.

World's 1st skyscraper with wind turbines built into core design going up in London. 3 turbines will gen up to 8% of bldg's power needs.

MIT engineers proposing funneling solar E. Takes advantage of materials under elastic strain. Electrons and holes - split off from atoms by photonic E - driven to center of structure by electronic forces. Potential for capturing wider spectrum of solar E.

OPEC currently pumping at close to near-term and historic highs of 31.2Mb/d.

Conoco Phillips sellling Caspian Sea claim for $5B.

Syria crude oil production down to 200Kb/d, half of prewar level. Damascus has asked Russia for a loan to offset rev losses. Govt may be forced to print money to pay security forces.

China appears to have stopped filling its strategic petrol reserve. Their imports of Iran oil down ~1/5 this year.

Japan's oil imports fell sharply in Oct year on year.

2 US comps plan to build 400-mile pipeline in TX to move 300Kb/d to Gulf Coast.

700Mw $650M NG power plant to be built in S TX. Edinburg Power. 3-year build.

Turkey taking majority stake with Brit partner in Kurdish Iraq block with est. 10TCF of NG.

China's NG imports up > 26% year on year to 4.44BCF/d in Oct.

Thailand expects to buy 20Gw more power from Laos, Myanmar combined to diversify their NG power production of 70%.

LNG tanker attempting 1st Arctic crossing.

IL carbon capture plant sequestering CO2 from ADM ethanol facility. Injecting 1K metric tons/day into reservoir. 317K tons so far. Project to demo site won't experience adverse effects.

Chicago Biofuels looking into sunflower oil as feedstock. Now uses used cooking oil. Wants to plant sunflowers on city vacant lots which would also remove lead from soil.

Primus Green Energy (New Zealand) looking to improve syngas-to-gasoline process. Wants to make syngas from wood, then convert to methanol, then gasoline. Demo plant completion by 2Q13.

N Carolina AT&T State U launched 5-year syngas research project. Focus on syngas from gasification, nanocatalysts for syngas-to-ethanol. $5M grant from NSF.

Vivergo wheat ethanol plant on track to open in UK by yearend. In market already to buy wheat for delivery next week. Demand putting pressure on UK grain supplies already running thin.

Qatar U scaling their av biofuels  up to 25K-liter tanks. Want to build pilot plant with 1.5M-liter tanks. They've isolated cyanobacteria and microalgae unique to Qatar waters.

China has scaled back ethanol production, ended incentives for corn processing to stretch dwindling corn supply.

Algal Scientific won $500K 1st prize in Mich innovation competition. They remove nutrient pollutants - including nitrogen, phosphorous - from muni, industrial wastewater while producing algal biomass.

Upcoming Ferrari flywheel hybrid car may be 20% lighter than Enzo, 40% less emissions.

PSEG has returned transmission facilities knocked out by Sandy to service. Restarted ~25% of NJ power plants knocked offline. 13 switching stations, 49 high-volt lines and 3.8Gw of elgen damaged. But temp fixes got almost everyone's power back on.

MONDAY OPEN

(stock #'s in %)

Market down 67/5/6. Volume normal. Oil down under $88.

CSKH up 157. EWRL up 100 on huge volume, above 50-day lines. ENSL up 80. CBAK up 33. SOPW up 17. WNDEF up 16. NTCXF up 7. NENE, XSNX, ORYN, GRPH flat.

ONYX down 75 on 4.5K shares. CSOL down 70 on 460 shares. GERS down 30. NGLPF down 25. HOKU down 24. ZAAP down 18. AMEL, ECOS down 17. CERP down 15. WTWO down 13. CCTC down 9. XDSL down 6. VSPC down 4.

Sunday, November 25, 2012

GRAPHENE REPORT

Graphene a 1-atom-thick sheet of carbon in hexagonic crsytal lattice. 200x stronger than steel. Tougher than diamond. World's thinnest material. Flexible, transparent, conducts el and heat very well. 1st made in '04. Stocks: AIXG, CVV, FCSMF, NGPHF, GTI, CHGI, PKX

Rice U researchers created Bernal-stacked bi-layer graphene sheets. Small band gap. Every other carbon atom in hex rings of top layer sits over middle of space created by hex rings on bottom. Copper substrates. Pressure-tuned CVD chambers. Constant pressure ratio of H to methane. Higher pressure thickens the graphene film.

iTrix Corp (Japan), a graphene materials supplier, spun off new comp - Graphene Platform - for worldwide sales. 2 4" thermal CVD systems, 1 6". Also CVD-grown graphene, single layer on copper and multilayer on nickel. And graphene on PET, glass and SiO2 (single and multilayer). Multipoint Raman spectra data included with all samples.

S Korean researchers developed gold-doped graphene-based transparent and current-spreading electrode for UV LEDs. ~20% more emission over ITO LED. UV LEDs useful in germicidal instrumentation, biological agent ID, chem sensing, fluorescence excitation, optical data storage. Also emit white light through phosporescence.

Graphene Labs expanding product line. Now 2-D graphene-like materials. Also liquid suspensions of atomically-thin MoS2 and WS2 - both transition metal dichalcogenides - and BN.

Purdue researchers a while ago discovered silver nanowires dramatically increase graphene's conductivity. The nanowires bridge defects and crystal boundaries. Now U of TX researchers demo'd how it works. They grew graphene on copper using CVD. The sheet had resistance of > 1K ohms. Adding film of silver nanowires lowered R to 64 ohms. The sheet retained 94% transparency. A bi-layer graphene silver nano sheet had R of 24 ohms with 91% transparency.

Max Planck Society researching how graphene nanowire conducts el. Discovered electrons tunnel through wire by quantum mechanical process. Conductance depends on length of carbon strip and energy of electrons. But graphene wires not very useful for nano el aps. Yet.

Saturday, November 24, 2012

STUFF

Maricopa County, AZ approved Solar Reserve's 215Mw solar project. 150 Mw of SR's concentrated solar tech (molten salt heat storage), 65Mw PV solar. Still need power purchase agreement. Plan to send power to Cal.

LA Council approved Dept of Water and Power buying up to 250Mw from K Road Power's solar farm on tribal lands north of Vegas. Project completion 2H15. DWP has option to buy the plant.

Sun Ed (Cal) building 25Mw solar plant outside Tucson, online by month end. $100M cost. Another 34Mw farm nearby also online this month. Tucson El Power now has 6 solar plants in operation, total 22Mw. 5 projects in construction for 73Mw, another 64Mw to be built be end of '13.

US PV installs 1Q12 83% higher than 1Q11. 2Q12 115% higher than 2Q11.

FERC fined another comp - Gila River Power - for trying to manipulate Cal power market. $911K fine agreed to by Gila. 1st time anyone has admitted violating FERC's anti-manipulation rules. Gila sells power into S Cal from plant near Phoenix. Used manipulative bids to get higher prices for power.

Small modular nukes ~1/3 size of power plant reactors. Tech already implemented by US Navy. Units ~ $250M each v. reactors up to $9B each. (If that ain't game change, what is?)

~$17B of Canada oil sands assets up for sale. (US comps trying to get out.)

Est. recoverable shale gas reserves in Europe: 5T cubic meters (CM) in France; up to 2.3TCM in Germany; 1.18TCM in Ukraine; 538BCM in Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary; 346-768BCM in Poland; 150BCM in UK, up to 1,000TCF more offshore; 120BCM in Lithuania. France has banned fracking. Temp bans, moratoriums in UK, Romania, Bulgaria.

Friday, November 23, 2012

STUFF

Over past decade, EPA allegedly has paid hundreds of folks $12/hr to expose them to high levels of air pollutants @ UNC's School of Med (paid > $33M since '04). Fed lawsuit filed over it. Subjects allegedly weren't apprised of risks. Congress passed National Research Act in '74, aimed at protecting human test subjects.

Lone Pine Resources - Del comp HQ'd in Calgary - using NAFTA argument to protest Quebec's fracking ban. Notice of intent to sue Canada, seeking $250M in damages. NAFTA Chap 11 allows US, Mex comps to sue Canada (or vice versa) if they have been abused by govt policy.

NG industry attacking scientists after research found 3x normal levels of ambient methane at Australia coal seem gas fields. Queensland govt already approved > $60B of CSG projects. Comps converting CSG to LNG. 10-40% of wells to undergo fracking.

Shell Australia opened biodiesel plant in Sydney, hoping to be 1st to sell B20 there to fleets.

SEE Algae Tech (Austria) building 2.5 acre factory on Brazil sugar plantation. Will use gen mod algae that eats CO2 from sugar. Add urea, nutrients, remove water and ethanol is excreted.

Japan signed rare earths dealio with India. Japan to import ~4K tons/yr from India. Spring start. Japan used to rely 100% on China until their imbroglio over an island. India will provide ~10% of Japan demand. Japan also planning imports from Australia and Kazakhstan.

Petrobras to hit $8B loss this year. Brazil forcing them to sell gasoline 8% below cost. What the hell.

S Korean consortium bought 40% stake in Abu Dhabi oil fields. $2B. Consortium 1/3 controlled by state-controlled Korea National Oil.

Frost & Sullivan est. VC funding for clean/ren E to triple by '20 from positive regulatory policies, support for lower C footprints, innovation in clean/ren tech.

FRIDAY CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

Market up 172/40/18. Volume less than half normal. What the hay. Thanksgiving Friday. Oil stayed over $88. Didn't check Brent. German consumer confidence jump up. EU budget summit ends w/out deal, retry in '13. VW to invest $60B to shoot for top automaker. WalMart India suspended CFO, others in bribery probe. Canada, EU to conclude free trade deal soon.

BHWX up 100 on 150 shares. SLMU up 61 on 15K. LMRMF up 33 on 10K. AMEL up 31 on 400K. WTWO up 29 more on 4M. WWPW up 25 on 15K. CCTC up 20 on 6M. Huge volume for them. ZAAP up 20 on 7K. RNWEF up 18 on 666 shares. Seriously. CRCL up 16 on 25K. PSPW up 14 on 49K. INIS up 13 on 81K. CHGI up 13 on 29K. LYSDY up 11 on 90K. QTWW up 10 on 210K. AMBT up 10 on 15K. SPIR up 10 on 500. XDSL up 7, 12M shs. XSNX up 4 on 322K. NTCXF up 4 on 2K. GRPH up 1. GWBU, ORYN, VSPC, NENE flat.

EWRL down 42 on 11K. VNDB down 40 on 18M. BLQn down 40 on 2K. CSKH down 22 on 2.6M. AMLM down 22 on 6K. GERS down 18 on 99K. EFOI down 16 on 400. TMEN down 15 on 21K. CSGH down 12 on 208K. AEHI down 12 on 650. RSOL down 10 on 500.

FRIDAY OPEN

(stock #'s in %)

Market up 108/29/11. Volume very light, obviously. Market closes at 1. Naz and Dow back to bottom 200-day lines. S&P above their 200's. Oil up over $88. Greece loan not resolved.

SLMU up 61. AMEL, PSPW up 31. CRCL up 16. CERP up 8. XDSL up 7. NTCXF up 4. ORYN up 2. GRPH up 1. NENE flat.

AMLM down 22. VNDB down 20. CSGH down 15. LEXG down 10. GWBU down 9. VSPC down 4. XSNX down 3.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

THANKSGIVING STUFF

We may be off work in USA. But the rest of the world is not. When is everyone's thanksgiving?

TOP STUFF

Lions 14, Texans 7.

Acting CEO/COO of Long I Power resigned. Some in Rockaways and on island may be without power til Christmas. Or later. LIPA is Gov Cuomo's father's creation. Gov makes 9 of 15 trustee appoints. Built-up debt hid from public. In '14, another bureau to be added - Pub Svc Enterprise Grp. "They didn't trim trees enough, service maps outdated, antiquated wiring," and on and on. $7B debt. Took FEMA 10 days to show up at Rockaway. Oy.

EU rejected ban of new fracking. Each state has right to decide for itself.

May be a "lot" more NG offshore than onshore in UK. Maybe 5x. >1TCF. Woo. US uses >20TCF/yr.

Of peer-reviewed lit - gold standard of science - near 14K articles don't reject global warming. 24 articles do. Now, can we establish the cause?

NG over $4. Winter in N Hemi a coming.

Scottish Enterprise - govt arm for econ development - agreement with Areva (FR) for wind turbine nacelle, blade factory in Scotland. For projects offshore Scotland and N England. Scot goal 100% clean/ren elgen, 200% total elgen cap by '20. 35% clean/ren last year, 50% goal by '15.

Brazil, India, US, China, EU point toward 60B gal/yr biofuels market by '22. Can capacity be built? Can mandates survive pressure? Can feedstock meet capacity? Do enough souls care to keep it right? Bulk of mandates from EU-27, 10% renew content  by '20. 13 countries in Americas have mandates or targets. 12 in Asia-Pac. 8 in Africa.

OTHER STUFF

Lions 21. Texans 14.

Sweden won't boost wind E targets. "Unplanned, rash changes would undermine cred for renewable energy certificates system. Avg. price for REC's over past year $29.40/MWh.

U of KY leading project to develop on-farm biomass processing into intermediate liquids to later be picked up and processed at biofuels refinery.

US Renewable Fuels Ass wants Brazil to remove trade-distorting policies. Seeking admin's help. Brazil plans to reduce eth blend to 18% from 25%. And Sao Paulo has imports tariff.

A*STAR Institute for Chem, Eng Sci (Singapore) created combo of acids that could feasibly hydrolyze empty fruit bunches after palm oil extracted.

Brazil research group says producing white sugar 29% more profitable than making anhydrous ethanol, 36% more profitable than hydrous eth. And domestic sugar mart more profitable than exports. Ut oh.

Novozymes CEO says Europe risks falling behind China, Brazil, US in advanced biofuels mart.

Exeter, Tel Aviv U mathmeticians, engineers have developed software to predict height of oncoming waves 10-30 seconds before they hit wave turbines. Could double E extraction.

Brent looks to set to replace WTI as intl benchmark for oil price. Follows more closely movements of global risk to oil. Sauds have dumped WTI, as have refiners, consumers, hedge funds. I'll follow both. Brent today >$110.

Happy Thanksgiving, pards. Turkey up.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

WEDNESDAY CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

Market closed tomorrow, pretty sure. Yea, I'm sure. Halfday on Friday I think. Yea, halfday Friday.

Market up 48/9/3. Israel/Gaza truce. Volume about half normal. Holiday. Oil coming down I bet.

ONYX up 300 on 10K shares. EWRL up 75 on 12K. INIS up 36 on 20K. CSKH up 28. AMLM, ENSL up 25. MKTY up 24. CERP, SPIR up 22. WTWO up 21. SATCQ, VLNCQ up 20. GERS up 19. TMEN up 18. VSPC up 14. FNVRF up 12. RSOL up 11. XSNX up 8. NENE, GRPH flat.

SLMU down 22. NGLPF down 20. HOKU down 18. CRGE down 17. MMMW down 15 on 1K. CLNT, BLQN down 10. ORYN down 7. NTCXF down 3.

STUFF

TOP STUFF

DOE chose consortium of Babcock & Wilcox, Bechtel and TVA to develop small modular nuke reactor that can be factory-built, cheaply installed. Dollar-for-dollar financing match to create prototype. May be $500M DOE finance over 5 yrs for 2 projects. Westinghouse and Ameren in wings. Reactors could be installed on 50's-era coal plant sites. Small reactors easier to cool. Good export potential to countries with weak grids that can't handle large nukes.

UN estimates that, should countries follow through on most stringent intl pledges to reduce GHG emissions, world will still emit 8 gigatons above '20 limit scientists say needed to prevent runaway global warming. Happy new years, kids.

CO2 output continues at same pace as last decade: UN.

Asian Dev Bank, India agreed on $315M loan to help fund 450Mw hydro plant in Pradesh. 4th tranche of $800M plan for 856Mw hydro. A German dev bank providing $192M in separate loan. Pradesh $235M.

Rice U scientists unveiled tech using nanoparticles to convert solar E directly into steam. Expected 1st use in sanitation, water purification. ~2.5x more efficient than current tech. Could be used to sterilize med waste, surgical instruments, prepare food. Overall efficiency 24%. Nanoparticles interact with widest possible spectrum. And more.

Cal's shale formation 4x Bakken: IEA. 15.4B bls recoverable crude.

OTHER STUFF

Cal carbon allowances went for $10/metric ton (floor). 23M allowances sold covering '13 emissions. Don't have to cover until Nov '14.

1,199 new coal plants in planning worldwide, most in China, India: World Resources Institute.

Honeywell, 23 other comps, to pay $78M in clean up of NJ superfund site that was coal tar facility in 1880's.

Low Mississippi River water level threatening barge traffic again.

83 comps made 152 bids last month for rights to search for NG in previously unexplored shale blocks in China.

Midland TX mayor and CEO of drilling comp says city govt piled on so many regs it's pointless to drill in city limits. Adds a couple hundred thou/well, ~10-20%. And he helped write the regs. Does he know something the frackers aren't telling us?

Big Utica landowner demanded safety protections from shale gas driller. And got them.

Cal regulators pledging stricter oversight of oil/NG injection wells.

Shell put Australia LNG venture on hold until '14. Exec also said: Europe needs 'clear position' on NG/LNG to claim supplies.

BP doubled est. of giant offshore field in Caribbean.

Iran accusing Sauds of oil exploration in prohibited border region. Iran to export el to Lebanon soon.

China, US contending for Africa oil. NE Africa hottest current play.

FTC: US ethanol market unconcentrated. 154 comps producing now or in next 12-18 months. O, right, no ADM, Cargill.

Biodiesel blends to be offered year-round at retail outlets in US north midwest rather than just in summer. Heated tank at Sioux Falls blend plant at Harms Oil.

Scots set up $2.5M fund - from Euro Region Dev Fund - for 5 universities to use research to commercialize biofuels, conduct feasibility studies.

Bahamas Waste has produced 100K gal of B50. ~75% of its fleet running on it. Commercial scale production late '13/early '14.

Bioenergy (Columbia) to invest $240M in ethanol plant and plant 14K hectares with sugarcane. State-owned Ecopetrol funding 91%.

Palm oil futures up to $803/met ton in Malay on mideast turmoil.

Oct biodiesel blending fell by half in Argentina. Exports fell 67% to 66K met tons from govt's sliding-scale export duty system implemented 2 months ago. Ongoing anti-dumping investigation by EU.

Google bought $75M equity stake in Iowa wind farm. Goog's total investment now in clean E > $990M. Now testing new biofuels processing system.

Judge ordered mediation in TVA ash spill.

Fed regulators fined FL comp $2.5M for trying to manipulate Cal power market. Um, Enron echoes.

WEDNESDAY OPEN

(stock #'s in %)

Market flat and mixed. Volume very light (pre-holiday). Oil up over $87 (no Gaza ceasefire). BOE halting bond buying. "Not effective."

CSKH up 28. GERS up 19. CRGE, LIME up 16. VSPC up 14. ZAAP up 10. XDSL up 7. NENE up 3. GRPH, GWBU flat.

AQNM down 20. MMMW down 15 on 1K shares. RVLT down 13 (new). BLQN down 10 on 125 shares. CLNT down 11 after yesterday's jump. XSNX, NTCXF, ORYN down 5.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

TUESDAY CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

Market flat and mixed. Volume very light. Holiday trading already. Oil back down to near $87 on hopeful Israel-Hamas drawdown.

CBWP up 1,850 on several thou shares. Don't ask me. CPWY up 61 on 300 shares. NGLPF up 42. CSOL up 31. AMEL up 28. SOPW up 27. CLNT up 25, back over top (200-day) line. CRCL up 23. CWET up 20. BSRC up 19. ECTY, TMEN, WWPW up 14. LEXG, AMPD up 13. XDSL up 11. GRPH flat.

ENSL down 51. MKTY down 30. PSPW, LMRMF down 26. EWRL down 25. GERS down 22. INIS down 20. SPIR down 18. AQNM, VLNCQ down 16. NTCXF down 3. NENE, XSNX down 1.

STUFF

TOP STUFF

Cal carbon auction raised $289M. All of '13 allowances snapped up. Most bids around floor price.

WTO reportedly backed EU, Japan complaints against Canada over Ontario subsidies to clean E producers that use up to 60% of domestic parts/tech. But didn't call it illegal subsidy.

DOI set to authorize 1,250 sq. mi. of public land for leasing in CO, UT, WY for oil shale, tar sands development. ~1/3 of what Bush admin planned to offer. Taking wilderness-quality lands off table.

DOA announced $15.7M to 189 comps to support production, expand advanced biofuels.

DOE awarded Plug Power (PLUG) $2.5M to modify airport tugs to function with H fuel cells. 15 tugs to 3 FedEx hubs.

GE buying 2K Ford plug-in hybrids.

Nissan upgraded, lowered price on Leaf EV.

In Boston, many other aging Neast cities, underground low-pressure NG pipelines riddled with leaks. > 3.3K ID'd in Boston alone, some > 15x global background methane level. Methane > 20x global warming potential of CO2.

Warming effect of GHG emissions up 30% from '90 to '11: World Meteorological Org.

PA's EPA says they test water wells near Marcellus Shale ops just as other states do. Other states' regulators say no they don't.

U of Buffalo shut down fracking institute faulted for its research and members' ties to NG industry.

Recycled fracking water so far only clean enough to reuse to frack.

S Sudan oil transport slated to restart this week. To pay $9-11/bl to use N Sudan pipeline system and 1-time $3B fee to N Sudan.

OTHER STUFF

Homeland Security financing engineering testing of huge inflatable plug to prevent flooding of transit tunnels.

Proposed NM to AZ 530-mile transmission line won't get built w/out formal commitments from wind, solar developers to use it.

Hawaii utilities worried rise in rooftop solar installs could cause power fluxes or sporadic blackouts.

First Wind turned on 69Mw Oahu wind project. Potential to meet 5-10% of island's el demand. Replacing ~300K bls of oil/yr. Siemens turbines.

Juhl Wind (JUHL) formed JV to buy existing wind farms in US, Canada. Looking for farms < 100Mw. Est. > 6Gw of farms in N Am < 50Mw.

SolFocus (NH), concentrating PV tech, up for sale. Restructuring. Produces CPV cells, develops projects. > 15Mw deployed in 13 countries last 2 yrs. Growth up last 6 Q's. Total investment in comp > $200M. Can't sell their products for profit, but "not far off".

Mich PSC approved DTE Energy's plan to expand Solar Currents customer-owned program for solar rooftop. 2 more Mw over next 2 years. 1st phase produced 600 projects for 5Mw.

ET Solar Group (China) to build total 50Mw solar PV in Romania. 20Mw already in construction, online 1Q13. Other 30Mw to start by yearend.

Despite 3 dry holes, Cuba reportedly continuing quest for oil.

EIA: cost to ship coal by rail to power plants up ~50% '01-'10. (Oil prices, cost of fuel.) Rail ships ~70% of coal to plants. ~40% of cost of coal delivered in '10. Rates up from $11.83/ton in '01 to $17.25/ton in '10.

TUESDAY OPEN

(stock #'s in %)

Market down 24/2/0. Volume light. Oil back under $89. Moody's downgraded France. US housing starts 4- year high.

TMEN up 28. XDSL up 19. ECTY up 13. XSNX up 6. NTCXF up 2. NENE, GRPH flat.

CSOL down 48 on 1K shares. AQNM down 41 on 100. LMRMF down 26. VNDB down 20. RNWEF down 16. GWBU down 9. ORYN down 3.

Monday, November 19, 2012

MONDAY CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

Market up 207/62/27. Budget deal optimism. And market was oversold. Volume normal. Oil stayed up around $89. Mideast war worry. US existing home sales up unexpectedly. And that Goldman GDP report (reported in today's OPEN).

AQNM up 87. PTOS up 53. MMMW up 31. CERP up 18. NGPHF, INIS up 15. LYSDY up 14. LSCG, PRHL up 11. KIOR, AMRS up 9. NTCXF up 5. ORYN up 3. GRPH up 2.

WTWO, WWPW down 30. CWET down 25. NGLPF, SATCQ down 22. AMEL, AEHI, EWRL down 20. CHGI, MGLT down 16. GWBU down 14. PLUG, VSPC down 11. AMTX, CCGI, WEST down 10. XSNX down 6. NENE down 1.

STUFF

TOP STUFF

Cal cap and trade system kick off today with auction.

EPA approved revised mercury/toxics proposal for new power plants.

DOE building factory in SC to turn plutonium from bombs into fuel for reactors. NRC looking at ways to relax security rules on plutonium in fuel form.

Gulf coast states may seek $20B or more in civil pollution penalties for BP spill.

Patriot Coal has decided to phase out Appalachian mountain top removal mining.

Long Island Power facing > $800M in Sandy damages. Unclear how they will pay for it. 1.1M customers.

Global CO2 emissions rose 2.5% in '11 to 34B tons, a new record.

OTHER STUFF

Iran postponed planned start-up of research reactor until '14. Experts say it could potentially offer 2nd route to produce bomb material. They are also ready to double output at underground enrichment facility: UN. IAEA says 2,784 centrifuges at Fordo, 700 operating.

Flooding, theft, corruption dropping Nigerian crude production. July deliveries down ~500K bls over year ago. Exxon's Nigeria spill spreading.

Shell moving NG supply again to Nigeria LNG. But their oil exports still on hold.

Norway might not meet oil/NG  production targets for year. "Technical problems" @ several offshore fields.

Chesapeake Energy's  prospects of getting oil out of east Ohio have dimmed.

Iraq govt considers deals between Gazprom, Kurd govt to be illegal.

BP won $1B bid to explore offshore Nova Scotia.

China el demand up 6.1% in Oct over year ago.

TX getting 26% of power from wind, set record.

Iceland signed on with World Bank to play role in major geothermal project in 13 east Africa countries.

South TX institutions got $1.3M for workforce training for oil/NG industry.

Uganda plundering its forests.

GEVO defeated Butamax appeals over patent infringement.

NSF granted $19M to U of Mass Lowell to find ways to recycle wind turbine parts. Worn-out parts now ending up burned or in landfills.

CIA shut down its Center on Climate Change and National Security earlier this year. Staff, analyses continuing under other auspices.

A123 received grant payout same day they filed for bankruptcy. (Shouldn't that get looked at?)

Delhi, India banned plastic bags.

Areva plans to build new wind turbine factory in Scotland.

Knoxville announced $10M available for E efficiency loans.

Ameresco (AMRC) Q3 revs down 28%, income down 35%. Helps institutions, mostly govt entities, improve their E infra, reduce E use w/out cap outlay or increased E budget.

World fish catch fell to 90M tons in '12 so far.

MONDAY OPEN

(stock #'s in %)

Market up 164/44/21. Volume a little above average. Oil jump to $89, probably on Israel/Gaza. US GDP up ~2.9% in Q3: Goldman/Barclays. Q4 may be 1.7%. Sandy may trim .5%.

MMMW up 31. AMRS, XDSL up 12. LSCG up 5. GRPH up 4. ORYN up 3. NTCXF up 1. NENE flat.

RNWEF down 23. VNDB down 20. EWRL down 19. ECOS down 18. WTWO down 15 after big gain last week. SATCQ, MGLT down 15. CHGI down 14. CCGI, SOPW down 11. XSNX down 7. Buyville. GWBU down 6.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

STUFF

IEA projects clean/renewable govt subsidies will go from $88B in '11 globally to $240B by '35. Remember, subsidies to fossil fuels industry was $523B in '11.

> 80% of Africans have no access to el.

GT Advanced Tech (GTAT) bought Twin Creek Tech for $10M. Ultra-thin silicon wafer tech. Will help reduce costs, expect to market by '15. Twin Creeks had raised $93M from investors.

Solar City to install 13.2Mw rooftop solar at Ft Bliss, TX and White Sands Range in NM. Jan start.

Mid American (Buffett) bought 300Mw of Cal wind farms.

First Wind completed 34Mw wind farm in Maine. 1.8Mw Vestas turbines. NSTAR to buy the power. First operates 875Mw of wind power around US, 105Mw more under construction.

Gamesa Energy laying off > 1/2 of work force at PA plant, 92 of 154 workers.

Siemens finalized contract with Pattern Energy for 265Mw Cal wind project. Under construction, most online in '12. Siemens 2.3Mw turbines, majority made in US. And 115Mw Chile wind project will get nacelles, hubs from Kan plant, blades, other components from Iowa plant.

juwi Wind got financing for 30Mw MN wind farm, online by yearend. Xcel Energy buying the power. REpower turbines.

25Mw DC (19Mw AC) solar plant dedicated in AZ.

GA leads US in power from outdated coal power plants. Recent conference shined light on GA's solar potential.

Saturday, November 17, 2012

FRIDAY CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

Market up 46/16/6. Volume heavy (options Friday). Oil up over $86.

AEHI up 66. ECOS up 46. WTWO up 33, double off recent bottom. GERS up 26. XDSL, CHGI up 19. LEXG, RNWEF up 18. NFEC up 16. QTMM up 13. EWRL up 11. VSPC up 10. GWBU up 9. PEIX up 8. NTCXF up 5. GRPH up 1. NENE flat.

AQNM down 20. HOKU, JUHL down 18. AMPD, MMMW down 17. BHWX, SRWRF down 16. TMEN down 15. VLNCQ down 13. CWET down 12. JASO down 10, new low. XSNX down 4. ORYN down 3.

Friday, November 16, 2012

STUFF

TOP STUFF

2 reports of oil rig explosion off Louisiana coast. Nothing more to report yet. I hope not.

EPA rejected governors' requests to waive fed corn ethanol mandates.

National Flood Insurance Program ~$18B in debt. Likely to exceed debt limit with Sandy bills.

NAACP, other civil rights groups calling for phaseout of dozens of coal power plants around US.

Germany's green energy surcharge to remain at current level.

8minutenergy Renewables (Cal) got $636M 1st phase finance for planned 800Mw solar farm with partner AES Solar. 266Mw phase breaks ground this month. Online early '14.

Solar Reserve (US), Kensani Capital, Intiken Energy consortium got $586M green light for 2 75Mw S Africa solar projects.

2 solar projects in Peru totaling 40Mw got $200M funding from Conduit Capital and CAF, Development Bank of Latin Am. Conduit's $185M made possible by OPIC, development finance arm of US.

India expects 1/2 of $1.4B solar thermal projects to be delayed or scrapped. US supplies stalled and dust clouds diffusing required solar radiation. 500Mw due online in 1H13. But only 1/3 maybe really on time. Blows to GE, Siemens, Areva. 320Mw delayed. Unable to get heat transfer liquid for solar therm plant from 2 only US suppliers. Areva has already scrapped 250Mw solar therm plant in Australia after govt failed to fund.

Canada predicting to double its oil production by '20. Needs tens of thousands more workers, 115K short by '21, 1 estimate.

OTHER STUFF

Biologists assembling register of sea life say a third of world's marine species still unknown to science.

15 solar-powered cars began 2nd annual Solar Challenge in Chile desert. 800-mile race.

Germany, Ireland, Switzerland supporting Palau, which is leading coalition of vulnerable nations in campaign to make climate change a matter of intl law. Coalition fears US, China, etc cutting off aid.

Study: wind could supply up to 12% of global elgen by '20.

S Korea to test its carbon trading system next year.

Marcellus Shale industry data says ~11% of injected fluids return to surface. No one knows what happens to the rest that stays underground. Geologists' consensus now emerging that it stays sequestered in the formations.

Clean Tech Global Forum:
Winner was HVET (Chicago). Won $250K in funds and services to manufacture patented switched reluctance motors. High performance alternative to induction, permanent magnet motors/generators. Increased reliability, big cost benefits.

Runner-up Rentricity (NY) converts water pressure into el. Reverse-pump generators instead of pressure relief valves. Already 4 demo's working. 23K potential sites, $2.4B market in US. Install ~4 cents/Kwh.

Finalist Malachite Tech has sputtering deposition tech to place 1 micron thick layer of GaAs over Si chip to raise solar efficiency to 33% (from ~20% now). Needs proof of concept data.

Finalist Pike Energy (Maine) has new residential wind turbine tech. Injection molded blades can be mass produced. Mechanical safety brake. Inverter to combine with rooftop solar.

Sun Edge (Del) solar concentrator housed in water-filled enclosed polycarbonate tube. Yields up to 4x more power with adding 25% more PV material. 10Mw demo plant scheduled for completion this year in Dover.

Elemental Energy Tech (Sydney) has tidal energy unit. 1Mw pilot array by end of '13. Arrays with shared cabling cost 10-12 cents/Kwh.

Energy Intelligence (Mass) highway motion elgen system. Weight of tires activates plate. Cost 5.5-7 cents/Kwh.

                 - End of CTGE. Common sense, folks ... imagination, creativity, knowledge -

Kenya El Gen Co - KenGen - country's largest utility - to reduce hydropower share of output to < 1/2 in 2 years as geothermal projects come online. Hydro now 60% of elgen. 280Mw geo plant online by '14. Country had to ration power last year. Worst regional drought in 60 years. 212Mw of geo now installed. 560Mw plant proposed. Total elgen capacity now 1.6Gw. Also plans for 1st solar plants begin next year. Up to 150Mw for $300M. PV and CSP. Wind power also. Comp has $817M of loans.

Poll: Californians overwhelmingly support cap & trade.

Cracks found at SC nuke.

Chrysler prepping its 1st EV.

Majority of DOE computers missing key security patches: IG

Iran crude production fell 200Kb/d in Oct to 2.65Mb/d. IEA reported, though, exports up 300Kb/d.

US ethanol demand fell to 9.25% of gasoline demand last week. Down 3Kb/d. 12.5B gal/yr. US net imported 21K bls of eth in Aug, 1st time deficit since wash in Dec '09. The drought.

New Energy Corp filed Chapter 11. Indiana's oldest biofuel plant.

EU investigations show Argentina, Indonesia may be dumping biodiesel.

Biogenic Reagants (MN) started up 300K tons/yr, $30M plant in Mich. Biomass into carbon products. Initially activated carbon for air/water purification, control of mercury, other power plant emissions. Costs less than coal process with significantly less ash, other contaminants.

Construction start on ITC Great Plains 122-mile, 345Kv transmission line linking grid in OK, NE, Kan. Online end of '14.

Did you know China changes their leadership every 10 years? I did not. Hadn't noticed. More names now to remember.

Johnson Controls opened energy efficiency cloud-based marketplace. Targeting commercial buildings. Owners pay for aps, vendors pay to connect. Customers agree to provide data to JC.

FRIDAY OPEN

(stock #'s in %)

Market down 20/6/3. Volume almost double (options Friday). Oil up over $86, probably on Israel/Gaza. US industrial production down .4%, much of that from Sandy. Fed ordering 30 largest banks to test against deep US recession.

US expected to grow 1.6% in 4Q, down from Oct's 1.8%. 1Q estimates were cut to 1.5% growth from 1.6%. 2% overall growth expected for '13. "If not for fiscal cliff, we'd probably be looking for 3 to 3.5% growth."

NFEC up another 60. Day 3 triple, zoom past 200-day lines. AMLM up 58. ECOS up 38. WTWO up another 20. XDSL up 19. EWRL up 16. LEXG, CHGI up 10. GWBU up 9. GRPH up 1. NENE, NTCXF flat.

ENSL down 54. VLNCQ down 26. SLMU down 25. BHWX, CCGI down 16. ABAT down 13. LIME down 11. JASO down 10. Upping their ADS ratio 5x. XSNX down 8. ORYN down 3.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

THURSDAY CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

Market down 28/9/2. Volume a little above normal. Oil down under $86. Fed ordering 30 major banks to test against deep US recession. South Europe in riots and deep recession. Israel-Gaza battling. Syria. What a world. A lot of big moves today. Some on news or fundamentals or technicals or all. Some not. And tomorrow is options Friday.

CLNT up 46. Up to top (200-day) line on volume. CSOL up 45. NFEC up 43. Almost back to top (200-day) lines. VLNCQ up 42. WTWO up 36 on more news with volume. BHWX up 31. TMEN up 27. AQNM up 25. HOKU up 19. SOPW up 17. CSGH up 14. CCGI up 12. SZYM up 10 on deals. Day 1 of jump off bottom. Check them out. XSNX up 8 on their news. GRPH up 2.

AVRW down 65. 1 of craziest stocks in watch. CHGI down 30. AEHI down 25. SLMU down 20. GWBU down 16. CSIQ down 13 on outlook. AMPD down 13. CABN down 12. FCSMF, AMEL down 11. LSCG, LYSDY, EWRL down 10. VSPC, NTCXF down 9. ASTI down 8. NENE, XDSL down 4.

STUFF

TOP STUFF

BP to pay $4B to resolve criminal claims from Gulf spill. Pleading guilty of charges including 11 counts of felony manslaughter.

Exxon says tax on CO2 emissions may be good idea after all. Could raise est. $100B in 1st year @ $20/ton for carbon. But they want tax cuts in other areas to offset the $100B. (Who cares about the deficit, A? Let alone the debt.)

House passed bill ordering admin to prohibit US airlines from taking part in EU emissions program. Goes to President.

Sea barriers to protect NYC, parts of NJ shore could run as high as $23B. (You know costs always overrun. Of course, Sandy alone cost over $50B.)

IEA report: had we neglected energy efficiency from '80 to '10, world energy use would be 35% higher, ~ energy use of US, China combined. By '35, we can save equivalent of near 20% of '10's global demand. We can halve growth in primary energy worldwide just by using existing cost-effective tech. Staying with planned policies, energy efficiency will account for 68% of global CO2 savings. 80% of  potential untapped so far in buildings, ~1/2 in industry. World would need ~$12T in E efficiency installs. That would save ~$24T.

IEA also says global energy demand to grow 1/3 by '35. China, India, Mideast 60% of increase.

OTHER STUFF

Japan's domestic shipments of solar cells/modules up 80% in Q3 over last year to 627Mw. Imports up 3x to 203Mw. Exports down 57% to 153Mw. Solar power now sold to utilities for 52 cents/Kwh for 20 years, ~3x what industrial users paid in year ended March.

NAS report: terrorist attack on power grid could black out large segments of US for weeks to months. US has 4 major grids. Considering connecting them up in NM.

GM aims to build 500K EV's/year within 5 years.

Brit Columbia scientists argue proposed tidal energy project could imperil already-threatened whales.

Pollutants from Alberta oil sands operations traveling up to 60 miles.

ACORE published state-by-state survey of clean/renewable energy resources. Will be regularly updated, new work added, policies section.

Hard-hit US high plains finally got some drought relief.

FERC halted JP Morgan's trading in energy markets for misleading commission.

Solazyme (SZYM) expanding Bunge JV production capacity at Brazil plant from 100K metric tons to 300K by '16. ADM deal for expansion of 20K metric tons by '14 to 100K in later years.

Biofuels (BIOF) reported 29% drop in revenues in "another challenging Q".

Researchers from DOE's Joint BioEnergy Inst ID'd gene in rice plants whose suppression improves both extraction of xylan and overall release of the sugars needed to make biofuels.

VIASPACE (VSPC) growing Giant King Grass on Virgin Islands (US). 1K acres to supply 6Mw power plant.

Betz Law caps amount of kinetic energy that a turbine can harvest at 59.3% of wind's total energy. Saphon Energy (Tunisia) claim their turbine exceeds Betz. Blades and rotor replaced with concave disk. Wind kinetic E 1st converted to mech E via pistons, then to hydraulic E, then to el. Results show 2.3x more efficiency than bladed turbine. Quiter than turbines, no threat to birds. Costs expected to be 30-45% below turbines. (If they can just prove those costs, it's a big winner.)

Nanosolar completed 10.6Mw solar PV install in Spain. Comp's largest project to date. Nano uses thin-film CIGS tech - inked onto aluminum foil.

THURSDAY OPEN

(stock #'s in %)

Market down 23/8/1. Volume normal. Oil down near $86. Philly manufacturing index fell hard, NY area index down 4th month in row. Eurozone back in recession in Q3.

BHWX up 53. XDSL up 22. SZYM up 19 on new partnerships, including ADM. XSNX up 16 on progress news, demo's close. GERS up 10. WTWO up 9. GRPH up 3.

CSKH down 30. VNDB down 20. RSOL down 18. ORYN down 16. LSCG down 15. CHGI down 14. AMEL, VSPC down 11. FCSMF down 10 on new graphite discovery. NTCXF down 5. NENE flat.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

WEDNESDAY CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

Market down 185/37/19. Volume heavy. Oil up over $86. Fed Operation Twist over, looking at new stimulus.

BLQN up 70. NGLPF up 57. WWPW up 42. CSKH up 25. NFEC up 23. TMEN up 22 after reporting. GERS up 20. JUHL up 19. CERP up 18. AMPD up 15. MKTY up 13. INIS up 11. WTWO up 10. XSNX up 5. NENE up 1. NTCXF flat.

PPRW down 40 on 200 shares. AMLM down 34. ASIUF down 25. SATCQ down 19. MMMW down 16. GPRC down 14. BIOF down 13. QTMM, SENY down 12. GWBU, EWRL down 10. ORYN down 6. GRPH down 3.

STUFF

TOP STUFF

Cal Chamber of Commerce suing to stop cap and trade in state, calling it illegal tax.

S Korea mandating domestic emissions cuts, limiting global offsets.

Global GHG emissions up 2.5% in '11: German institute.

Industry execs: US will never be oil self-sufficient. Despite IEA's latest forecast. (We don't need to be. There's biofuels, EV's, HFCV's, FCV's, NGV's, efficiency improvements to get free of imported oil.)

EC to delay auction of some 900M carbon emission allowances in attempt to rescue collapsing carbon market - down 80% since '08. Oversupply in market est. in area of 2B tons.

Using LNG would cost ~$1.50 less/gallon than gasoline. Clean Energy (CLNE) - T. Bone Pickens - in process of doubling their 75 current LNG fueling stations. Also buying 2 LNG plants from GE, GE financing ~$200M. Online by '15. Will supply 250K gal/d. Next year, 4 major manufacturers to intro 12-liter LNG engines for 18-wheelers. Fed Ex, UPS already using CNG (compressed gas) in their fleets.

Fossil fuel comps have 5x more oil, NG, coal in known reserves than climate scientists think is safe to burn.

DOD advanced biofuels initiatives could generate $10B+ of econ activity, 14K jobs.

OTHER STUFF

US budget deficit $120B in Oct.

Bosch pulling out of Desertec - initiative to build solar plant network across N Africa. Siemens already out. And Spain delaying agreement that would have allowed construction of Morocco solar plant.

Iceland's state-owned power comp proposing to pipe el from volcanic geothermal energy to Britain through what would be world's longest seabed power cable.

IEA cut its forecast for oil demand for 4Q12. Weak Euro econ, Sandy's impact.

Anadarko to drill 1st wells offshore Kenya. Discovered oil off Mozambique earlier this year.

Louisiana university opened energy law center.

Gazprom signed deal for Euro NG project.

Canada's $500M Next Gen Biofuels Fund 5 years after formation close to making 1st investments just as Canada leaders consider pulling the plug.

Petrobras completed B20 biodiesel motor testing. Now they tear down the engines to analyze effects.

McLaren will produce engines, transmissions, etc. for Formula E electric racers.

Iran unveiled 3 new missile and artillery systems.

Ormat Tech (ORA) subsid buying late stage development 35Mw geothermal project in Honduras, the country's 1st geo project.

Some utilities after Sandy partnering with IBM to better predict storms' impacts and boost grid stability.

WEDNESDAY OPEN

(stock #'s in %)

Market down 84/12/8. S&P the final index to pass through 200-day lines. Volume a little heavy. Oil up near $86. Strikes in Spain, Italy, Portugal. And Greece may be bankrupt by end of week. As USA walks the edge of the cliff.

BLQN up 70. TMEN up 47. CERP up 21. GERS, CSGH up 20. FNVRF up 17. ECOS up 16. MKTY up 13. KIOR up 7. XSNX, XDSL, AONEQ up 4. GRPH up 1. NENE, ORYN flat.

AMLM down 39 on 1K shares. VNDB down 20. RNWEF down 18. MMMW down 16 on 2K. BIOF, SATCQ down 13. GPRC down 10. NTCXF down 1.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

TUESDAY CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

Market down 58/20/5. Volume a tweak heavy. Oil (Brent) down to near $108. US Oct budget deficit $120B. Abbey selling 2 Cal homes for $78M. Each. Hong Kong topping NYC as most expensive retail location. Google reports surging govt requests to purge content. I guess that could be here. So read up, rockheads.

AMLM up 57. CRGE up 25. CRCL up 16. AMTX up 15. CLNT, RNWEF up 14. CLNE, NPWZ up 12. JUHL up 11. ABAT up 7.

BLQN down 42. GERS down 37. TMEN, VLNCQ down 35. CERP down 24. NFEC down 22. ECTY, NPWZ down 18. ORYN, ECOS down 17. VNDB, BLDW down 16. CDTI down 15. CCGI, GPRC down 13. FNVRF down 11. SYNM, AXAS down 10. GRPH, GWBU down 5. XSNX down 4. Buy it. VSPC down 3. NENE, NTCXF down 2. Buy them both.

STUFF

TOP STUFF

VA taking steps to get oil/NG lease sales offshore. Cancelled in '10 after BP GOM spill. Not reinstated in latest 5-year plan. BOEM est. 3.3B bls oil, 31TCF NG. Initial est. for GOM was 5B bls. 20B produced so far, est. 48B more. Oil seeps all long east coast. 7 comps have applied for seismic tests offshore from NJ to FL. Last Atlantic surveys 30 years ago.

House passed bill ordered lease sales off VA, SC. Senate clammed it up. Congress imposed moratorium on offshore Pacific, Atlantic drilling after Cal spill in '81. Bush exec order in '90 backed it up. W lifted that in '08. Congress ended moratorium 3 months after. Navy's Norfolk base wants say. Folks concerned for whales from seismic testing. Done for years all over world. (Though we have seen beached whales.)

LIPA, National Grid hit with class action suit over Sandy response.

Salty compound levels persist in rivers near Marcellus Shale region.

EPA issued 1st permits for 2 wastewater injection wells in PA.

IEA: US shale production will "redraw global energy map" within 25 years. (Not good news for global warming.)

IEA's estimate for increased unconventional oil production in US greater than those from industry experts. Maybe 20% off. Increase to 3Mb/d shale oil production will reduce imported crude to 7Mb/d - 32% - though.

U of Wisc Madison researchers streamlined process to produce chems, biofuels from cellulosic feedstocks. Eliminates costly - up to 30% - pretreatment steps.

UK Dept of Energy and Climate Change unveiled 1st-ever national E effic strategy. Sees 11% less E use by '20. Hear here. Tip top. Cheerio.

OTHER STUFF

Propel Fuels, Solazyme (SZYM) bringing algae biodiesel to San Fran retail pumps. Month-long pilot program. Fuel compatible with existing diesel engines. Sold at same price as petrodiesel. NREL says 20% blend reduces overall emissions 10%.

CARB says E15 won't appear in Cal for several years.

Osram Sylvania now selling bulb-shaped omnidirectional 100-watt equiv LED for $50. Saves $220 over life v. incandescent.

Changing flicker rate of light bulbs could yield huge savings. (What the hay is flicker rate?)

Climate change good news: the more intense rainfall expected in many parts of world may help replenish aquifers.

Global warming could be serious or catastrophic. Answer seems to be in clouds. Scientists haven't yet resolved clouds' response to warming.

$20/ton US carbon tax would raise est. $120B/y. (What would 1 cent rise in gasoline tax raise? US has to cut that deficit.)

API launching ad campaign to protect industry tax breaks.

UCS report: 6% of US coal power plants "ripe for retirement." 59Gw. Hundreds of units. Most in deep south.

Ethiopia forging ahead with mega-dam plans.

China, Taiwan together account for > 70% of global solar cell manufacturing. China's solar industry $20B.

Beijing announced new plan to stimulate EV market. Focus on big customers - city govts, taxi fleets, etc. Taking square aim on pricing. China EV/hybrid sales just over 8K last year of 18.5M overall vehicle sales.

Areva (FR)-led consortium pulled plug on $1.2B, 250Mw concentrated solar thermal project in Australia. Queensland govt pulled A$75M funding after consortium missed finance deadline.

Nigeria signed MOU's  for 2 new hydropower projects. 3Gw and 700Mw. China comp to build. China Ex-Im Bank putting up 85% of $3.2B project. (That's the difference between a US $16T in debt and a China $2T to the good. Besides the politics.)

Global biofuel enzyme demand to reach $1.65B by '18. $1B in '11. N Am largest market. Asia promising. Not very impressive growth. Somethin's wrong somewhere.

Shrinking supplies of used cooking oil in UK. Main feedstock for their biodiesel. 1Q12 UCO was 45% of feedstock. 15% in 3Q. Large scale collectors down to 20 from 31 last year. Somethin goin on there, huh?

New Zealand could lose $147M/yr in taxes with planned ethanol blend. Eth receives 49 cent/liter tax exemption. 1 company expects to save (make) $49M/y by switch to eth blends.

Soy biodiesel to benefit from $15M Australia bailout for 25 comps.

Japan's only currently operating nuke plant - they turned that on quietly - said built on active fault line. Active = tectonic movement in last 130K years. (Wake up the nuke peeps.)

NJ man used his Prius to power his house during week-long blackout. Attached an inverter.

Portland General El 600Mw coal power plant in east OR experimenting with converting to world's largest biomass plant. Built in '70's. Rankine cycle boiler very inefficient for NG. Torrefaction looked at. Roasts biomass sans oxygen. "Green coal." Long-term consistent biomass supply a prob. Needs 4M tons. (They didn't say per day or per year or per nothin. I'm thinking per year. But may just be for test burn.) Test burn slated for '14.

U of Washington testing arundo donax. Perennial grass that grows as fast as switchgrass and yield 10K BTU's/lb. Acre can yield 25-30 tons.

Oklahoma City added 2 EV's to fleet. Woo hoo. You go, OK City. And thank you. Every city should have added 2 EV's today. At least. And our great states.

Iran to privatize 27 more power plants by March. 17 already.

Mainstream Renewable Power (Ireland) to develop 238Mw of wind, solar in S Africa. > 500M Euro. Online '14. 138Mw wind, 100Mw solar.

China built 1.5Mw solar thermal power station outside Beijing.

juwi Wind got finance for 30Mw wind farm under construction in MN, online by yearend.

TUESDAY OPEN

(stock #'s in %)

Market up 69/0/7. Volume normal. Oil down under $86. Greece gets 2-year extension to reach deficit targets.

AMLM up 46. CLNE up 10 on supply deal. QTMM up 9.

VLNCQ down 35. CWET down 18. ORYN down 15. CDTI down 14 after reporting. ZAAP down 14. GWBU, JUHL down 11. WTWO, LYSDY down 10. GEVO down 9. XDSL down 4. VSPC down 3. NENE down 2. NTCXF down 1.

Monday, November 12, 2012

MONDAY CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

Market 0/0/0. Volume way light. Veterans Day Holiday. Oil down under $86.

VLNCQ up 100. BLDW up 50. INIS up 42. LMRMF up 19. BSRC up 12. SLMU up 11. ABAT, XDSL up 9. PEIX up 5 after report. FSLR up 3. Over $25. GRPH flat.

WTWO down 28. RNWEF, WWPW down 22. EWRL down 19. SOPW down 18. FCSMF, CPWY, QTMM  down 14. XIDE, ASIUF down 13. AMBT, TMEN down 12. MKTY down 11. AXAS, GEVO, CABN down 10. NFEC down 8. AMSC down under $3. Superconduction, for God's sakes. GWBU, VSPC also down 7. XSNX down 4. NENE down 3. NTCXF, ORYN down 2.

STUFF

TOP STUFF

IEA: US oil production to top Sauds by '20. US energy independence by '30. (Well, we didn't know it would take 60 years.)

EU suspending enforcement of rule requiring airlines to pay for emissions generated on flights in and out of Europe. But will reinstate if intl org fails to deliver a global accord.

Chinese solar giants likely to get state bailouts.

Australia white paper says clean/renewable energy could expand to 40% of country's energy mix by '35. 85% by '50. And virtually eliminate coal-fired plants.

Global Wind Energy Council says installed wind turbines to > double to 493Gw globally by '16 from '11. Euro PV Industry Assoc forecasting solar installs to triple to 208Mw by '16 from < 70Mw last year. (I think they just mean Europe).

Potential developers of $880M tidal power project submitted ap to build on Welsh coast. 6-mile, 35-foot high semi-circular sea wall, turbines dotting the wall. 250-350Mw 16 hours/day. Could be online in '17.

China econ likely to overtake Eurozone this year. India jumping over Japan.

Orders for offshore wind turbines have come to abrupt halt in UK. (They have grid connect problem. And offshore is expensive, even though near 24/7 power.)

4 years after dike break, TVA says it will allow natural river processes to finish cleaning up coal ash. (Um, can we review that?)

OTHER STUFF

Shell shut 25Kb/d oil pipe in Nigeria due to theft damage.

Exxon LNG project cost ballooning to $19B.

Total still hopes to restart UK NG field production this year.

Natural undersea gas leaks discovered off Israel coast.

Rising CO2 levels at edge of space apparently reducing pull of Earth atmos on satellites, space junk. In highest atmos CO2 has cooling effect that contracts atmos, so less drag on sats, junk.

Cal PUC approved new pilot program to help finance energy efficiency upgrades for commercial buildings. Owners can pay through regular installments on utility bill instead of up front. E cost savings pay for loan payments on property's account, not owners'. 12 states offer similar programs.

Global coal demand expected to grow from 7.9B tons this year to 8.9B by '16. 700M tons of that growth from China. Peabody Energy study. China expected to add 240Gw of coal-fired plants. India to add 70Gw. Coking coal demand also expected to > double in China to ~1.7B metric tons. World coal use expected to increase 50% by '35. Within year or 2, coal to surpass oil as planet's primary fuel. (Can I just say, that's the wrong way, folks. Not just the global warming, but the mercury, lead, etc. pollution. But what can we do?)

IEA says clean energy set to rival coal as main generator of el by '35. They predict global clean/ren E subsidies to rise to $240B in '35 from $88B in '11. $523B subsidies paid fossil fuels industry last year. They further said $11.8T invested in existing E-efficiency techs could be offset by reduced need for fuels spending, and could help boost cumulative global econ by $18T over the period.

The 1 deepwater rig able to work Cuban waters to be removed within weeks after 3 dry holes. Rig built in China to get around US trade embargo.

India developers building more productive wind farms. Ditched biz model set up by Suzlon, Vestas that handed completed farms to investors seeking tax relief, not energy. India ended that policy in March. Suzlon, India's largest turbine maker, had 35% share of market last year, down from 50% 2 years earlier. Vestas was 5th biggest supplier, was 3rd 2 years before. GE, others gaining market share. World's 3rd largest wind power market.

Ukraine's state-owned NG comp secured deal with RWE (Germ) that may weaken Gazprom's grip.

Chevron Cal refinery that burned earlier this year to return to full production 1Q13.

Chevron subsid got UK OK to drill deepwater west of Shetlands.

Iraq finalized deal with Bashneft (Russ)-led consortium for oil development in the south. Exxon told Iraq it wants to leave huge oil field redevelopment project. Looks like the punishment for dealing directly with Kurds.

New Turkish state oil/gas comp negotiating with Iraq's Kurdistan to take stakes in several exploration blocks.

Libya now producing 1.6Mb/d of crude, hopes for 1.7M by end of 1Q13.

Energy comps cooperating with Greek Cypriots' offshore drilling plans will be banned from Turkey projects.

S Korea shut down 2 nuke plants over counterfeit parts problem. Another shut down over cracks in control rod tunnels.

Berkeley lab upgrading metabolic pathways for creating transportation fuels at close to theoretical yields - up to gal of fuel from 16 lbs of sugars from lignocellulosic biomass. Uses fermentation process that made cordite for WWI bullets, shells.

EU investigating biodiesel dumping allegations against Argentina, Indonesia. Those countries subsidize their biodiesel comps.

$113M that Exelon promised for innovative projects as condition for Constellation purchase going to groups planning to help low income customers, small biz lower their bills.

OK created energy czar.

Climate change expected to decimate bamboo grasses in region of China home to 270 giant pandas.

MONDAY OPEN

(stock #'s in %)

Market up 4/5/1. Volume very light. Quasi-holiday. Oil up over $86. Japan falling into recession. Spain urgently needs bailout.

AMLM up 114 on 20K shares. Really. BLDW up 42 on 1K. VLNCQ up 25. LMRMF up 19. CPWY up 16. XSNX up 15. BSRC up 12. WEST up 10. XDSL up 9. GRPH up 3. NENE up 2. NTCXF flat.

CSGH, WTWO down 21. EWRL down 20. RNWEF down 16. ORYN down 9.

Market now down 16/3/1.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

GRAPHENE REPORT

Graphene a 1-atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms in hexagonic crystal lattice. 200x stronger than steel. Tougher than diamond. World's thinnest material. Flexible, transparent. Conducts el and heat very well. Stocks: AIXG, CVV, FCSMF, NGPHF, GTI, CHGI, PKX.


Graphenea launched online store for graphene materials. CVD graphene films, graphene oxide, reduced graphene oxide. Also building distribution network. 50K cm2/y pilot production line, plan to expand that in '13. Customers include Nokia, Corning, Philips.

Stanford has total carbon solar cell. Entire panel can be built with coating process, can be made flexible. Electrodes made from graphene and single-walled carbon nanotubes. Active layer made from buckyballs (which can also create graphene quantum dots).

XG Sciences and ORNL developing titanium-graphene composite using advanced powder metallurgy. Graphene raises titanium's low thermal conductivity. Collaboration gives XG capability to mass-produce graphene nanoplatelets in high volume.

Sharif U of Tech producing graphene-based materials (CeO2-TiO2) nanoparticles that absorb pollutants in water. Prepared in room temp ionic liquid on graphene nanosheets.

California Lithium Battery to commercialize its si-graphene (GEN3) anode material. When used with advanced cathode and electrolyte, increases energy density by 3x, specific anode capacity by 4x over existing lith-ion batts. Working with Argonne Lab.

Oxford U researchers developed high-precision approach to engineer graphene's atomic structure using electron microscope. Defects in graphene can make it stronger, more suitable as battery anode material, even help it transfer data.

Korea researchers showed single-layer graphene is excellent high-performance electromagnetic interference shield. Using CVD-synthesized graphene, 7x greater EMI shielding than gold film.

Vorbeck Materials completed 1st expansion in MD plant. VOR-ink capacity now over 40 tons/yr. On track for new MD plant - online late '13. Their volume pricing now 5x lower than silver inks, challenging graphite, amorphous carbon inks. 10x conductivity over competition, extreme flexibility.

MIT, ORNL developing graphene-based membrane to filter microscopic contaminants from water or for drug delivery. Tunability. Graphene sheet using CVD. But salts can flow through.

Brown U researchers designed world's best non-platinum catalyst based on cobalt-graphene. More durable, less expensive.

STUFF

Tasmania state-owned comp developing $47.5M wind, solar, diesel (to use biodiesel), giant batt project to power small island. Replacing diesel power. Batt made by Australia sub of PA-based comp. 3Mw cap. Advanced hybrid lead-acid batt.

228% increase in EV sales in '12 over '11.

TX went from producing just over 1Mb/d crude in '09 to ~2M now.

Exxon shut pipeline after oil leak offshore Nigeria. Exxon's overall oil production dropping by 5.9%, NG production dropping 9.3%.

Calpine bought 800Mw NG-fired, combined-cycle power plant in TX for $432M from Bosque Power. Plant went online in '00-'01.

Duke gave 1st half of $2M contribution to Palmetto Clean Energy, a SC non-profit for clean energy projects.

Lincoln Renewable Energy got power purchase agreements for 37.5Mw of PV solar farms - 25Mw and 12.5Mw - in Cal to be built next year. LRE developing > 30 solar and wind projects in 11 states.

Innergex Renewable Energy began commercial operation of phase II of 212Mw wind farm in Canada, Can's largest.

Campbell Soup, CH4 Biogas to build OH's 1st commercial biogas power plant. Campbell to divert 35-50% of its factory waste to plant, other waste from area food processors, waste recyclers and dairy farms. Will replace ~ 25% of factory's el use while improving its recycling rate to ~95% and reducing GHG emissions ~16K metric tons/yr (3K cars). Plant will process ~450 tons of waste/d. Online mid-'13. Partly financed by Danish export credit agency. Adjacent 9.8Mw solar farm now provides 15% of Campbell's power use at factory. Buy some soup.

~120K solar jobs now in US, 13% over '11.

Saturday, November 10, 2012

FRIDAY CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

Market up 4/9/2. Volume slightly heavy for a Friday. Oil up around $86. Obama says over 95% of small business is under $250K, Boehner says < 50% over. Probably with different definitions of small biz. Can they at least agree on the facts.

IFXY up 48. AEHI up 33. BHWX up 30. BOPO up 20 on 100 shares. Really. INIS up 18. AONEQ up 17, up over 30 from day's bottom. BFRE up 16. SOPW, ZIP up 15. CABN up 14. MMMW up 13. GWBU, CCGI, SLMU, VSPC up 12. ORYN up 11. BYDDF up 10. WPRT up 9. WTWO up 7. XSNX up 4. GRPH up 3. NENE flat.  

BLQN down 25. BLDW down 16. WEST down 15. CERE down 14. GSFVF down 11. AMTX down 10. XDSL down 8. NTCXF down 3.

Friday, November 9, 2012

STUFF

TOP STUFF

Australia ready to join Europe in renewed, binding pledge to reduce GHG emissions under Kyoto treaty. Also prepared to raise '20 emissions target from 5% cut to as much as 15 or 25 should other countries take similar steps.They began pricing carbon in July.

New Zealand said it won't renew its pledge to Kyoto agreement.

KiOR (KIOR) started up wood chips-to-biofuels plant in Miss on schedule, on budget. 13M gal/yr production of fuels at full capacity (next year). To use 500 tons/day of wood. Makes biocrude, then biofuels from normal refinery tech. Another plant 3x larger in plans. With scale up, total cost per gallon drops to $5.95 in '13, $3.73 in '14, $2.62 in '15. Next gen tech estimated to produce 72 gallons of biocrude per ton of wood biomass.

US shale gas supplies will only last 5 to 7 years: expert.

OTHER STUFF

Global sea level has increased 3 millimeters per year for the last 2 decades. 60 millimeters. Easy math. Go mark your seawalls. Remember tides.

Science mag: climate change may come faster than predictions made by most computer models.

Caribbean sardine collapse linked to climate change.

UN climate chief urging Obama to play key role in climate change.

US Great Lakes levels made record Oct lows. Levels have been falling all year.

NREL: non-hardware costs make up 41-50% of expenses of selling, installing solar PV system in '10. 5Kw residential system's "soft" costs were $3.72/w. Commercial system < 250Kw $2.64/w, > 250Kw $2.16/w. Hardware costs came down significantly from $4/w in '05 to $1.14 this year.

DOI issued final enviro review of shale plan for Rocky Mountains.

BP ordered to pay Alaska $255M for lost royalties.

Company offering insurance for wind industry tax credit lapse.

UK shale gas production will take up to 5 years to start.

Ceres (Cal) landed $3.5M USAID grant to develop rice traits for Asia next 4 years.

White Biotech (Taiwan) to produce ethanol using steel mill waste gases. Initial $5M investment for demo plant.

IHI (Japan) opened algae biofuels pilot plant. Plans commercial scale by '20. Current production costs > $47/gal. Hope to reduce that 10x.

S Sudan split up 1 of Total's (FR) massive concession blocks to give (or lease) away to other comps (possibly Exxon). Largely unexplored block split into 3 parts. Total gets 1. Much reb activity. Situation getting dire for S Sudan. Govt gets 100% of revs from oil and none moving.

UK energy infra needs 330B Pound upgrade by '30.

Gulf Keystone (UK) announced more oil discovered in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Murray Energy laid off 156 from OH-based coal ops. They employ ~3K, produce ~30M tons/yr.

Panda Power broke ground on 758Mw NG combined-cycle power plant in TX.

FRIDAY OPEN

(stock #'s in %)

Market up 18/16/5. Volume a little hevy. Oil steady around $85.

WWPW up 31. BHWX up 30. ZIP up 20. INIS up 17. XSNX up 13. SLMU, VSPC up 12. ORYN, ASIUF up 11. WTWO up 7. GRPH up 4.

BLQN down 25. EWRL down 24. EFOI down 20. QTMM, LTBR down 11. AONEQ, AMTX, GWBU down 10. NTCXF down 3. NENE flat.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

THURSDAY CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

Market down 121/41/17. Going to be rebound or rout. Volume a little above avg. Oil stayed around $85. US said Iran fired on US drone over Gulf. Um, remember when US Navy ship shot down Iranian airliner? Let's not get crazy, huh.

SLMU up 66. 11K shares. BLDW up 60. 45K shares. NGLPF up 42. 500K shares. CRGE up 40. WEST up 30. EWRL up 28. VNDB, ENSL up 20. EFOI up 19. GWBU up 15. LYDYS, NEXS, XWES up 14. ADES up 11. XSNX up 4. GRPH up 2.

CSOL down 59. Maybe on US, EC judgements on tariffs, et al. AONEQ down 35. Despite Chinese bailout. INIS down 27. LEOM down 19. PANL, CRCL down 17. AMRC down 16. BFRE, TMEN down 14. FSYS down 12. A big boy. LTBR, SOPW down 11. ALTI, ECOS down 10. WTWO down 7. ORYN down 5. NENE, QTMM down 4.

STUFF

TOP STUFF

EC has accused Chinese govt of unfairly subsidizing their solar panel makers a day after US ITC affirmed tariffs. Launched probe.

Argentina embargoed Chevron assets over Ecuador case.

Iraq severed deals with Exxon, Turk oil operator. I'm presuming over dealing with Kurds.

Warren Buffet's California Energy teaming up with Poland state-owned oil refiner to explore Baltic Sea NG. I bet that's why Gazprom lowered NG prices for Poland (reported yesterday). 4B cubic meters of NG reserves in Baltic, just under 1/3 of Poland's yearly use. DOE est. Poland's shale gas reserves @ 171TCF. But Poland putting it at 24.8TCF. And Exxon pulled out of shale gas projects there.

TEPCO doubled their est. for Fukushima clean up to $125B.

OTHER STUFF

Oil, coal lobby and groups backed by Koch brothers spent $270M in final weeks of election on TV ads attacking Obama, Dems. Pretty wasted money. How many jobs would that have created?

Est. Iran crude production fell another 200Kb/d in Oct to 2.65Mb/d.

Unexpected Dem super majority in Cal legislature.

Drought conditions worse in hard-hit US regions.

FERC approved Transco NG pipeline extension through NJ.

Mich nuke plant back online after shutdown.

Chevron to upgrade pipes @ fire-struck Cal refinery.

LSU Ag Center exploring switchgrass as biofuel feedstock. Native grass of Cajun prairie. Co-plantings with eastern cottonwood that may also be good feedstock.

Cargill closed 120K metric tons per year biodiesel plant in Germany from low demand.

Jatropha-based B20 biodiesel blend more expensive than fossil diesel, but Mexican bus comps staying with it despite govt not allowing higher passenger fees to offset.

Thailand rolled out B5 mandate Nov 1. Palm oil-based biodiesel. Up from B4. 200K more liters per day.

Wisconsin's el providers have all met '11 clean/ren energy goals. Most have met '15 requirements already. In '11, 9.54% of el clean/ren, up from 7.37% in '10. 10% required by '15.

EPA approved TVA's final clean up phase of '08 Kingston coal ash spill. To mix, scour, bury remaining materials. 30 years annual monitoring. $10M total cost.

THURSDAY OPEN

(stock #'s in %)

Market down 17/2/1. Volume average. Oil up around $85. Record US exports. Greece approved austerity program, unemploy at record high. ECB held rates steady, bond-buy program in reserve. BOE also kept rates steady, pulled back on bond buys.

CRGE up 40. VNDB up 20. XSNX up 19. SLMU up 14. LYSDY up 12. MGLT up 10. WTWO up 7. GWBU up 6. GRPH up 2.

AONEQ down 31. AMRC down 16 after reporting. PANL down 15 after reporting. LEOM down 15. WEST down 13. INIS down 10. XDSL down 8. NENE down 4. ORYN down 2.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

WEDNESDAY CLOSE

(stock #'s in %)

Market down 312/74/33. Ow. Volume heavy. Oil down under $85.

AEHI up 50 on 12K shares. CPWY up 37 on 15K. SOPW up 32. LEOM up 18. AMTX up 12. EFOI up 10. GRPH up 3.

PANL down 41. GWBU down 33. NGLPF down 22. CWET, SLMU down 20. RBCN, ADES down 19. VNDB, IFXY down 16. QTMM down 15. AMEL down 13. XSNX down 12. Buyville. VSPC, XDSL, BWEN, CDXS, ENZR down 11. ORYN down 7. WTWO down 6. NTCXF down 3. NENE down 2.

STUFF

TOP STUFF

Elections:
Colorado city passed fracking ban.
Ohio city voted to block wastewater injection wells.
Cal voters OK'd tax hike to spare enviro programs.
Mich voters rejected renewables standard.

US Intl Trade Commission unanimously affirmed tariffs on Chinese solars. 24-36% tariffs.

Kinder Morgan NJ terminal leaked 10K gallons of biodiesel after hit by Sandy. Coast Guard built containment barrier, collecting the oil-water.

NYC followed PA in temp suspension thru early Dec of 2% biodiesel blend for heating oil after Sandy.

Kuwait National Petrol Comp to invest $32B by '19. LNG importing facility to increase import cap from 500MCF/d now to 3B. Crude oil refining cap from 936Kb/d to 1.4Mb/d. Also to invest $100B in major projects including 3 Far East refineries. And Kuwait Oil Comp planning $40B investment over next 6 years.

OTHER STUFF

Connecticut's last coal plant got 5-year extension.

PA citizens group seeking to determine baseline methane levels.

Poland secured lower NG prices from Gazprom. A kinder, gentler Gasprom?

Chinese comp moving forward with WY clean coal project.

Vestas seeking to sell up to 20% stake, cutting 3K more jobs. 3Q loss $225M.

Ghana looking for $1B investment to develop 500Mw of clean/renewable energy resources over next 8 years. They've had 3 months of el cuts since a ship damaged an NG pipeline off Togo coast. Their $39B economy forecast to slow to 7.8% growth in '13 from 8.2% this year. Currently 2.4Gw elgen cap reaches 72% of pop. Pipeline damage shut off ~300Mw. 400Mw hydro plant coming online in 1Q13. They get 1.2Gw from 2 other hydro dams. Also developing NG reserves for 150MCF/d for elgen.

Cambodia gave go-ahead for $781M 400Mw hydro project. To be built by Chinese-Vietnamese JV.

Study: farm runoff caused massive coral death in Great Barrier Reef.

Canada, India finalized nuke deal.

FERC approval paving way for Cal EV charging stations.

India PM meeting enviro, tribal resistance over infrastructure building surge.

Global installed solar now ~70Gw, geothermal ~11Gw, wind ~240Gw. Iowa farmer can get $1K worth of ethanol per year from growing corn on an acre or $300K worth of elgen/year from a wind turbine on that same acre. Farmers, ranchers can get $3-10K/yr in royalties per turbine.

Praj (Germany) to build 10M liter demo commercial cellulosic ethanol plant in India. $25-30M.

Xavier U in Philippines got $80K DOE grant to research improving cassava varieties for ethanol feedstock and develop pilot plant. $80K from DOE to Philippines. Just making sure I got that. We couldn't research that in US?

Microbiogen (Australia) has new way to produce cellulosic ethanol from corn stover, sugarcane bagasse. And yeast byproduct is high protein animal feed.

85Mw wind farm in Scot Highlands approved despite objections from hikers.

Some NG pipelines in US may be converted to carry crude oil. Old NG lines don't run near new NG fields. Gets around permission battles to build new oil pipeline. Kinder Morgan may convert Pony Express pipe in Dakota.

Abengoa began construction on 2 CSP plants awarded by S Africa. 50Mw and 100Mw.