STUFF

Europe offshore wind power installs up 33% - 1.1Gw - in '12. May increase 20% more this year. Siemens had 74% of installs. Suzlon's REpower 19%. Total installed cap now just under 5Gw. 8-nation goal was 5.82 through '12. 14 projects - 3.3Gw - in development. Avg farm size rose 36% to 271Mw in '12. EWEA forecasting 1.4Gw this year, 1.9Gw next.

Juhl Wind (JUHL) to install, own, op 2 wind turbines at OH Honda plant. 2Mw turbs. Project cost $8M. To provide ~10% of plant's power needs.

Ormat Nevada, JPM Capital in $44.4M tax equity partnership involving 8 geotherm plants in Cal, NV.

Trina Solar predicts UK solar installs may be over 2x this year over last. Up to 2Gw new cap. Bloomberg predicts 1.1Gw this year, up from 830Mw in '12.

Atlantic Wind & Solar approved to build 2 PV solar plants in Ecuador. Total 58.4Mw for ~$150M.

Mitsubishi plans 3 solar plants in Japan. 95Mw total gen. 77Mw unit est. to cost over $220M.

India has 30-40% food spoilage from lack of el, refrig. U of Cincinnati biz students, engineers created small solar-powered refrigerated shed. (Little things that change people's lives for the better.)

V3 Solar, new start-up, says their "spin cell" tech can gen 5x more el than conventional solar. El would cost 8 cents/Kwh v. 10-15 cents. Specialized lensing, rotating conical shape. (I assume "rotating"  means sun-following. Though it says "spin cell". What would rotation do? Beware flim flam.)

Lawrence Berkeley Lab developed new tech that enables microorganisms suitable for biofuel processing using ionic liquid pretreatment. May also enable fermentation under septic conditions.

Brit official said their oil/NG reserves able to meet 70% of country's energy needs to '40. (Good news for clime change?) Est. 20B bls+ still to be drawn from N Sea. Govt to approve 28 new oil/NG offshore projects in '13. 29 approved in '12. $17.3B spent on that.

1st decline in 5 years of foreign investment in Venezuela oil industry since Chavez absent. China, Russia, India withholding credit lines/investments. Private sector investors eager to buy in, speculating on post-Chavez.

Saud oil production down to 9.3Mb/d in Dec. Iraq exports slipping. Syria, Sudan, Yemen not exporting currently. Yemen main oil pipeline blown up again. Iran down to 1Mb/d. Libya production 1.1M, not 1.4-1.6 as generally thought. Beijing seemingly stepped up imports. Deutsche says China could increase demand up to 5% this year - 468Kb/d.

BP began delivery of LNG to Israel (Egypt NG pipeline can't be counted on). Israel begins drilling their own NG offshore this year.

Australia comp says they discovered potentially huge shale oil deposit in S Austral.

16 comps awarded exploration rights for shale gas reserves in China.

Irish comp announced 530M bl oil discovery off N Ireland. Close enough to coast for onshore drilling.

Con Ed asking for $400M rate hike for '14 to help pay for $1B infra upgrades to storm-harden the system.

Med facilities in ND sinking under flood of uninsured laborers working dangerous oil production jobs.

Study: waste heat from cities a factor in weather, climate change. That's science. A lot validating the obvious.

EC wants to fine UK over energy non comply.

Origin Oil (OOIL) says algae can ease fracking chem concerns.

Williams Partners, Cabot Oil & Gas filed for route approval to build NG pipeline from PA to New England.

White House considering feasibility of multiple Arctic drilling projects.

Dow Chem ditched TX LNG export project it co-owns. They like the cheap gas.