STUFF

FERC report says clean/renewable energy accounted for 49% of all new US elgen capacity installed in '12. Almost 13Gw. 25% came online in Dec. alone. Wind led with 10.6Gw. Solar 1.4Gw. Biomass 543Mw. Geothermal 149Gw. Nuclear 125Mw (they don't include in clean/ren for some reason). Hydro 99Mw. Fossil was led by NG's 8.7Gw. Coal 4.5Gw. Oil 49Mw. 8.5Gw clean/ren added in '11. Total C/R now 15% of US elgen capacity. Nuke 9% (again, not included, so true C/R is 24% as I see it). Hydro 8.5%. Wind 5%. Biomass 1.3%. Solar and geothermal each .3%.

Pew Charitable Trust says developers, financiers to invest $1.9T in clean energy worldwide next 5 yrs. Est. $327B investment in '18 from $200B in '12. (Bloomberg says $268B invested in '12. And to get $1.9T in 5 yrs near $400B/yr must be invested. So how accurate is Pew?)

Mitsubishi investing $765M in German offshore wind projects. Help with grid connections. Taking 49% stake in 4 projects. Total investment 2.9B Euros. 2.8Gw to be connected to onshore grid.

UK expects UAE, other Gulf countries to be major investors in Britain's $321B clean/ren energy plans.

Japan planning 1Gw wind farm offshore Fukushima. Current largest offshore wind farm in world 504Mw offshore Britain.

Bechtel hired to build NJ phase of Atlantic Grid Development's offshore transmission spine.

Electrobras (Brazil) to boost Brazil wind capacity 30% in '13. 535Mw addition to current 1.8Gw.

Planta Solar (Chile) to build $105M 30Mw PV solar plant in Chile.

Japan plans to open nuke fuel reprocessing plant this year. They would join France as only countries to do so.

China investing $350M to start up thorium-powered nuke project. Far less toxic waste, can't blow up.

Experts okayed restart of 2 Belgian nuke plants despite signs of micro cracks in reactors.

UN: African clean/renewable eneergy projects stagnating due to investment risk. ~$4.3B invested in '12 out of (Bloomberg's figure of) $268B worldwide.

Court found European countries squandered EU's 5B Euro in energy efficiency investments.

Sweetwater Energy, Front Range Energy in $100M cellulosic biofuels deal. Up to 3.6M gal/yr production.

Aemetis (AMTX) idled ethanol production at Cal plant, citing corn prices. Seeking restart as "advanced biofuel producer" using sorghum with biogas tech.

Study: marginal farmland a potential boon for ethanol crops, CO2 reduction.

Report: 3 pesticides threaten honeybees.

Biogen (UK) planning 4-5 foodwaste-to-energy plants this year. Rising landfill taxes increasing costs of burying waste. Plans to raise 30M Pounds.

US senators angry at EPA for 8-month delay investigating groundwater contamination from fracking in Wyoming.

Initial productivity of newly-drilled Bakken (ND) wells has been dropping. Indicates best sites already drilled. Rate of production increases may start to slow.

Shell 1 step close to $10B deal to develop Ukraine shale gas reserves, Europe's 3rd largest after France, Norway. Ukraine pays $430/thousand cubic meters for NG. US power comps pay ~$172.

CNPC (China) to install 5 3.34Mw NG-fired GE cogen systems to power new data center.

Chevron inked deal for oil exploration in S China Sea.

In past 22 yrs, half of all oil ever burned was. Also in every calorie of food eaten, 10 calories of fossil fuels used in food chain from fields to tables.