STUFF

TOP STUFF

AWEA proposed phase out of fed wind subsidy.

Con Ed evaluating undergrounding entire power distribution network post Sandy. Cost est. $40B.

4 energy developers agreed to sell power from 10 proposed wind farms in Brazil at cheapest rates ever in world. Avg price of $42.16/Mwh, 4.2cents/Kwh. Beats Brazil NG, hydro rates. Proposed farms total 282Mw. '17 completion.

Solazyme (SZYM) completed multiple initial fermentations in 500K-liter fermenters at Iowa facility, achieving commercial scale production of cellulosic biofuel. ~4x scale of fermenters at IL plant. Targeting annual production of 20K metric tons of bio-oil by early '14, expansion to 100K.

Lawsuit calling for DOI to halt deepwater oil/gas leasing plan.

US manufacturers have announced over $90B of capital investments to take advantage of cheap NG.

Bloomberg poll: 66% of Americans want more govt oversight of fracking, up from 56% in Sept.

OTHER STUFF

Coral farming taking off.

Mississippi River levels 20 ft below normal south of St Lou. Corps of Engineers started releasing water from south IL lake to help.

Taxes, energy reform forced closure of Spain's oldest nuke plant.

Businesses asked to phase out diesel vehicles due to health concerns in London.

KCP&L power rates going up 6.7%. Xcel Energy rates going up 9% in MN.

Advances in fullerene tech boosting organic solar cell efficiency. Scientists pinpoint fullerenes' availability of additional electron accepting states. Replication creates new class of "fullerene mimics". Euro Research Council funding.

Wales' National Coal Mining Museum putting up solar panels. Cost ~70K Pounds, will offset ~400K Pounds of power costs over next 25 yrs.

JV between ERG (Italy) and Lukoil (Russ) bought 84Mw wind project in Romania. $178M to build. Online 1H14. Funding hopefully from Euro Bank for Reconstruction, Development.

Greenko Group (India) sees $435M/yr of revs from bldg, buying 1Gw of clean/ren power facilites by '15. Now bldg ~190Mw of hydro, 350Mw of wind.

Repower Systems, German unit of India's Suzlon, to supply Wpd (Germany) with 105Mw of wind turbines for 6 projects in Canada. Suzlon also to open Repower blades factory in Ontario.

USDA announced $10M of research grants to universities to spur development of bio-energy, bio-based products.

DOE announced $12M for 5 R&D projects to improve C and H separation efficiencies in bio-oil production and upgrade process. Aim to boost biofuel yields from non-food biomass.

Johnson Matthey, NREL in 5-yr, $7M effort to develop economically produced drop-in gas, diesel, jet fuel from non-food biomass. Goal to improve vapor phase during pyrolysis. Feedstocks from fast-growing trees to switchgrass, forest and ag residue and muni waste.

German researchers from 5 institutes refuted thesis that organic components of soil are comprised mostly of decomposed plant material. Found 40% comes from dead bacteria.

McDonald's UAE fleet passed 800K miles driven on waste oil biodiesel. Reduced its truck-based CO2 emissions 80% on the fuel.

Owner of biodiesel comp accused of faking credits pled guilty to 79 counts.

InterGen (Mass) completed finance for 2 projects in Mexico. 205Mw NG plant for $217M. CNG station for $118M.

Regulators approved $700M expansion for Tampa El's NG-fired power plant. To add 460Mw by converting 4 simple-cycle units to combined-cycle. Treated wastewater for cooling.

Algeria's state energy comp Sonatrach pushing $80B 5-yr investment program to expand its oil/gas industry.

Oil production from Alaska North Slope expected to fall another 4.5% this fiscal year.

New discoveries, tech advances have increased oil industry's ability to reach global max production of 98Mb/d for longer than initially expected: Total's Chair, CEO.

Rosneft finalized deal for 50% of TNK-BP for $28B, pending approval from Russia and Euro regulators.

Tullow Oil started production off Ghana coast. 1st phase production over 16Kb/d. 5 phases completion by summer.

Another rig arrived in Cuba for offshore oil exploration.

Spilled fuel has spread into NY bird sanctuary.

BP won't release any info on possible Macondo well leaking.

Pemex sued Siemens and S Korea Engineering and Construction for $500M over claims of racketeering violations.