STUFF

Clean/renewable "advanced energy" products, services generated $1.1T in global econ activity in '11. Larger than pharma industry.

US solar industry installed record est. 3.2Gw in '12.

UK Green Bank plans to allocate all of $4.8B provided by govt by as early as '15. Prioritizing offshore wind, waste treatment, recycling, energy from waste and energy efficiency.

Brit Crown (owner of UK seabed) plans to offer 20M Pounds ($32M) for wave, tidal energy projects, each over 3Mw.

DOE sued for $675M by XP Vehicles and Limnia over abuses in $25B Advanced Tech Vehicle Manufacturing loan program. "DOE steered money to political cronies." DOE made 5 loans under program. None since Solyndra bankruptcy. $16B remains undistributed.

Hong Kong to offer subsidies to get rid of older vehicles. (Cash for Clunkers lives.)

LA Dept of Water and Power FIT (feed-in tariff) is for 100Mw at 17 cents/Kwh. 20Mw tranches every 6 months. 50Mw expansion look-see in March.

Study: net metering (customer-owned solar) in Calif a financial benefit, not burden, to ratepayers. Savings ~$92M/yr across 3 large utility territories in state. Solar owners only getting ~4 cents/Kwh for surplus generation. Utilities still attacking net metering. 43 states have net metering policies. Calif participation doubled in each of last 2 yrs. Installed capacity over 1.4Gw at end of '12.

If 5% of US households would invest in 3Kw share of community solar systems (typical rooftop install), we'd have over 17Gw more solar capacity. Community systems less costly because of econ scale.

Sungevity (Cal) raised $85M in round plus $40M from VC round to finance solar installs and expand presence in 9 states. Also planning energy services (possibly batt storage systems like Solar City).

Canadian consortium signed PPA for 50Mw solar PV plant in Ecuador.

SunPower (SPWR) installed 7.5Mw of solar at Phoenix water treatment plant. To save city $4M over 20 yrs. Wells Fargo owns system. Provides 70% of plant's el use.

Conergy (Germany) developing 1st solar plant in Romania. 2.2Mw.

Cosmo Oil, Showa Shell, Development Bank of Japan to form JV to build, op solar plants in Japan. Plans 8 farms for 26Mw. Solar Frontier panels.

GM to begin production of Caddy EV (ELR) later this year. Nissan to offer a Leaf EV $6K cheaper than current model. GM sold 23K Volts last yr. Nissan sold 9.8K Leafs. Still $7.5K fed tax cred for EV purchase, some state creds. GM likely to build 2-3K ELR's/yr.

Global warming effects of black carbon (soot) 2x as potent as previously thought.

EPA finalized new emission standards for backup generators.

Calif, Australia talking linking their emissions trading.

Google increasing lobbying, giving to promote clean energy.

Study: chems in plastic threaten marine life. (Let alone ours.)

Group of US oil pipeline operators headed by Plain All American Pipeline planning $1B spending on rail depot projects to transport crude from oil fields to coastal refineries. Railroads investing too in oil cars, depots.

Repsol (Spain) to sell 4.5B Euro of assets by '16 to salvage debt rating. Now selling LNG assets for est. 2B Euro. Buyer could be GDF Suez (France).

EPA reversed TX well contamination order after fracking driller protested. Not explaining why. (I know. What the hell is that?)

Pipeline leak shut down up to 27 UK oil fields.

Iraq cabinet agreed to replace Turkey's TPAO with Kuwait Energy for oil exploration bloc in Basra. (What was that war called?) Worsening relations between Iraq, Turkey over Iraq vice president being hunted for allegedly running death squads hiding in Turkey.

Enviro groups filed suit to block discharge permit renewal for Dominion's '50's-era Yorktown coal plant in VA. State failed to eval enviro impact, required under Clean Water Act. Permits renewed every 5 yrs. Arsenic, mercury, other metals not tested for.