STUFF

TOP STUFF

First Solar (FSLR) bought Solar Chile, giving it 1.5Gw of projects.

Chile approved over 3.1Gw of solar PV in '12 through Nov. 908Mw more waiting approval. All clean/ren projects approved came to 6.7Gw, 3.8Gw more wait approval. ~1.27Gw - 10 projects - added in Nov, up 530Mw from Oct.

NJ plan to put PV solar atop 175K power poles for $200M drawing flak. What if wind blows hard? And they would need cleaning. A little grafty?

Google invested $200M into TX wind farm.

EDF announced 150Mw TX wind farm went online Dec 26. GE 1.5Mw turbines, over 12K acres.

GA Power expected to ask approval to retire 15 coal- and oil-fired gen units. Total 2Gw. Switch to NG at some units. 1 maybe to biomass. GA Power ops 11.3Gw of coal gen at 10 plants. Overall 18.6Gw. Largest sub of Southern Comp.

Australia recorded highest ever temp - over 104F - Tuesday.

Risk experts see climate change as 1 of world's biggest business threats. Twin threats of econ upheaval, accelerating climate change could collide over next decade, delaying crucial adaptation efforts while exposing nations to unpredictable financial losses from disasters.

Study: no pause in Himalayan glaciers melt.

UN report: mercury concentrations in top layer of oceans have doubled (didn't say since when).

EU carbon permits surplus may push prices down further.

TransCanada  to build $5B oil pipeline in BC.

Alt energy mutual funds grew avg 9% in '12. Top 2 up 20% - AWTAX, PGRNX. GAAEX, ALTEX performed best in past month.

World food prices down 7% in '12: UN. (Have you seen that at the stores?) Most decline in sugars, oils, dairy. Grains down 2.4%. (Well, someone's making money then.)

OTHER STUFF

NY Gov wants to raise regional carbon emissions cap. Also proposing "Green Bank" to spur private investment in clean/ren energy. Also called for major expansion of NY-Sun Initiative. Original program last year called for doubling solar installs in '12, quadrupling '11 level in '13. Now wants to expand to 10-yr, $150M/yr.

NREL, Stanford teaming up on "peel-and-stick" solar cells. Also called water-assisted transfer printing. Now using thin-film soalr cells.

Japanese refining unit of Shell, Development Bank of Japan setting up venture to finance utility-scale solar plants in Japan. Up to $454M/yr, 100Mw/yr target. Solar Frontier, unit of Showa Shell, to supply thin-film CIGS solar panels.

Lightsource Ren E (UK) got $87M loan from RBS/NBIC Bank to refinance 6 UK solar farms. Total cap 23Mw.

Duke completed 12.5Mw solar farm in NC. Their largest in east US.

BP Wind's $250M PA wind farm now online. PA's largest. 88 turbines, 9K acres. Sempra partnered. 10-15 permanent jobs. Power to be sold to VA, MD co-ops.

Estonia to keep annual cap on wind energy development eligible for subsidies. Retracted last year's pledge to clean/ren energy lobby to remove it in exchange for cutting size of support.

Brit branch of Domino's Pizza added 2 EV's to delivery fleet. Renault Twizys ~7K Euros ea. 60-mile range on 3.5-hr charge.

Scientists in EU reverse engineering lightning bugs to improve LED efficiency.

ISO says Brazil ethanol exports hit 3B liters in '12. 3-yr high.

Indiana railyard to boost ethanol transport capacity. Pipeline operator Buckeye Partners restarting yard ops. 4 new sets of tracks.

Noble Energy planning NV's 1st fracking ops. Public and private land. Large scale.

Colorado prelim OK on rule to move drilling rigs farther from homes, schools.

USGS: no contamination from fracking early in Ark ops.

EIA: US NG output hit record 2TCF in Oct.

OH moving to dereg NG prices.

US crude production climbed to 7Mb/d last week. EIA forecasting avg. 7.3M in '13, 7.9M in '14. Mastercard: US gasoline use down to 7.8Mb/d last week, lowest since records started in '04. Dropping steadily since Mar '11. US crude imports in '12 avg 8.65Mb/d. Lowest since '97, down 2.9% yoy.

Seaway Pipeline to begin moving 400Kb/d from Cushing, OK to Houston this week. Up from 150K. Cushing inventory hit record 50M bls last week.

Phillips 66 making 5-yr commitment to ship Bakken crude by rail.

Court ruled BP must inform public about toxics released in Gulf spill.

BLM proposing to lease over 600 acres public land in NM for coal mining.

Mexico's most feared drug cartel - los Zetas - now in coal mining biz.