STUFF

Judge accepted BP's $4B criminal settlement for GOM explosion/spill. Civil trial opens Feb 25.

China burned 2.3B tons of coal in '11. Their coal use approaching half of world's.

Thawing permafrost a prob for massive maze of Russian oil/gas pipelines in Siberia, other far north climes. They can bend some. To a point.

Report: billions needed to safeguard oil/gas facilities from attacks. 7 reported dead in Tanzania pipeline riots.

Report: "paradigm shift" needed in fed, state oversight of oil/gas industry.

Over 450Mw grid-connected PV solar expected to be installed in Latin Am, Carib this year. 100Mw last year. Over 8.6Gw large-scale solar projects announced in past year for region. Annual installs should exceed 5.7Gw by '17. Cumulative grid-solar cap to reach 13Gw by then. Most of '13 installs to be in Mex, Chile. Chile has 6Gw in pipeline. 10.8Mw operating now, 22Mw in construction. Over 2Gw proposed in Brazil.

US Ex-Im Bank backing 500Kw rooftop solar project in Mex. $780K 10-yr loan guarantee. Suniva modules.

Nordex (Germany) to supply 21 turbines for 50Mw wind project in Uruguay.

Jamaica taking bids for 115Mw of clean energy cap.

Brazil bank to lend $734M for wind farms this year.

Plans for BP to begin drilling in Libya on hold after Algeria attack.

White Energy shut down TX ethanol plant because of drought, high corn prices. Restart maybe after corn harvest.

Ford, Renault-Nissan, Daimler to work together to accel development, commercialization of fuel cell vehicles. Intend to launch "afFORDable mass market FCV's by '17. Ford expecting surge in hybrid sales.

Borders and Southern Petrol (Brit) says Falkland reserve of gas condensate commercially, technically viable. Liquid form of gas trades at premium to NG. $1.6-3.8B more needed to appraise drilling before production start probably in '17. (No close market. Surely Argentina wouldn't buy it.)

Dubai, China partnering up to explore opportunities in energy, el, water projects.

"HERO" Solar (FL) signed interconnect agreement with Progress Energy for 70Mw solar farm in FL. Now they need tax equity partner or comp to get it built. County set aside $350K econ dev grant for it.

Salina Kansas to install $3.1M of LED street lights. Johnson Controls lights. Expecting to save at least $3.4M over 30 yrs.

Wind, solar groups dropped out of American Legislative Exchange Council, citing ALEC efforts to wipe out state-level clean energy programs.

Dutch court ruled Shell must pay Nigeria pollution damage. No dollar figure yet. Shell acquitted on 4 of 5 charges.

Study: irrigation may affect Calif weather.

France to require offices, shops to turn off lights at night starting July 1. (Why not July 14?) Christmas season exception.

Alstom (FR) paid under $79M cash to Rolls Royce for Tidal Generation. Less than 1/2 DCNS paid for Open Hydro Group. Alstom gets 1Mw turbine at Euro Marine Energy Center in Scotland. They also bought 40% of AWS Ocean Energy in '11 and working with UK utility SSE to use wave power systems at 200Mw project offshore Scotland.

AEG Power Solutions got 240Mw order for inverters, transformers, monitoring systems from Eastern Europe. 9 PV solar plants to be built this year.

Study: if major oils meet intl climate goals they would lose up to 60% of stock market value. "Unburned reserves", tho, could be used for plastics and other products.

Honeywell, Opower intro'd tech targeting homeowners to join energy efficiency, demand response programs offered by utilities. Cloud-connected thermostat with web-based tools. Trial program with PG&E. Wi-fi connections. Honeywell has 2M connected thermostats in US, Can.

JA Solar (JASO) completed delivery of 9.5Mw of modules to VW plant in Tenn. 33 acre solar park. Largest solar install in TN.

Yingli (YGE) 1st Chinese comp, 1st PV solar maker to join WWF Climate Savers program. Pledged by '16 at least 4% of their el use will be clean. Really. What a stretch.

US beef herd at lowest level in 60 yrs.