STUFF

Japan may cut solar feed-in tariff 12% as install costs continue to drop. Could fall to 37 yen/Kwh. Avg system costs down to 280K yen/Kwh, down 14% since Oct. Solar panel prices down to 80 cents/w from 99 cents last Jan.

Admin approved AZ plan establishing new solar energy zone. ID's thousands of acres of public land already disturbed or with low natural resource values as suitable for large-scale solar or wind development.

IRS ruling imminent on classifying solar farms as REITs. Would reduce solar development costs, reduce need for subsidies.

Belgium plans to build island to store excess offshore wind power with pumped hydro system. Belgium had over 1Gw of wind cap as of '11. ~3% of el use. Want 2.3Gw from N Sea farms alone. Their nuke power was over 1/2 of elgen as of '11. Plan to retire fleet by '25.

DCNS, French marine engineering comp, spending $173M to raise stake in Open Hydro, Irish tidal turbine maker, to 60% from 11%. Open Hydro working with EDF (France) in projects off Brittany coast.

Global LED lighting market projected to grow 32% by '20.

Study: warming could prevent soils from holding carbon.

Greenpeace warning of "climate change cliff".

Study: oil field equipment significant smog source in Colo.

Beijing proposing rules to raise fines for vehicle emissions, force more factories to shut down when smog reaches dangerous levels.

Fed appeals court sided with Sierra Club in challenge to EPA exempting some new facilities from air monitoring, emissions requirements.

Supreme Court declined to hear challenge to SO2 rule. Court of appeals ruled EPA didn't act unlawfully in new SO2 standard of 75 ppb avg'd over an hour.

Neb gov approved new Keystone XL route.

Sen Boxer: admin already has tools needed to fight global warming.

5% of Kabul homes connect to sewage systems. Most household waste flows straight into open roadside drains. (All the money US spent there, surely some could have been spent on sewage system.)

Scientists report willow trees cultivated as feedstock can yield up to 5x more biofuel if they grow diagonally or in windy conditions.

MarketsandMarkets: global biofertilizer market to be worth $10.2B by '17. '11 was ~$5B.

Brazil development bank taking 15% stake - $294M - in Graal Bio cellulosic ethanol venture and added $137M in financing. Plant online early '14. 21M gal/yr. Enzyme partnership with Novozymes. Initially, sugarcane bagasse, straw the feedstock.

Moldova Energy and Biomass Project - $19.4M program to heat public bldgs - extended to cover all of country. '15 completion. UN funds, EU provided most funds.

Oil workers around Algeria evac'd.

Global grain stocks dangerously low. '12 consumption exceeded production. 2.24T tons produced, down 75M tons - 3% - from '11. Drought in US, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Australia. Nearly half of global grains grown in China, US, India. US '12 harvest down 8%. Global stocks down to 60 days of consumption.