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.