STUFF

TOP STUFF

India proposing 292 new hydropower dams in Himalayas. Roughly a dam every 20 miles. If all completed, would double country's hydro capacity, meet ~6% of el demand.

Algae Tec (Australia) planning $200M bond sale in Europe to fund algae-to-biofuel plants - 1 in TX, 1 in Brazil. Comp's tech can trap CO2 from industrial plants to feed algae production.

GraalBio (Brazil) to build 5 more cellulosic plants by '17. Completing 1st $150M 22M gal/yr plant this yr. Brazil to help finance.

Pike Research: higher fuel prices could increase global EV sales to 40%/yr rate for rest of decade. Sees sales of 3.8M/yr by '20.

Shell drillship ungrounded in AK, no reported fuel leaks.

Exxon got green light for $14B drilling project in N Atlantic offshore Canada. Est 700M bls.

Transneft (Russia) opened 2nd and last branch of $25B E Siberia Pacific Ocean pipeline to double capacity to 30M tons. Low-sulfur, light crude. Capacity to increase to 80M tons in future. They hope to compete with WTI, other world blends eventually.

Pesticides raise Parkinson's risk 200%: study.

Wisc utility to install emission controls worth $300M in EPA settlement.

Chinese comp broke ground on 1st new nuke plant since Fukushima.

Workers dropped radioactive Fukushima waste into rivers: investigation.

MD governor issued climate change adaptation order.

Extreme heatwave lighting up wildfires across Australia.

OTHER STUFF

NY Sandy panel recommending turning some industrial shoreline back into oyster beds, hardening the el and NG systems and improving insurance coverage.

Carbon Engineering (Canada) has prototype tech to suck CO2 out of atmos. Started in '09 with $3.5M from Gates, others. Now closed on $3M finance round to build pilot plant by '15. Cost est. $20-$2K/ton of CO2 extracted. They think they can get it to come in at ~$100. Process intended to collect at least 100K tons/yr. Avg. pax car generates ~5 tons/yr. Process uses caustic soda. CO2 could be used for enhanced oil recovery, feeding algae for biofuels or be sequestered.

Energy Technologies Institute, backed by Shell and BP, investing $25M in UK to build world's longest wind turbine blades. Up to 328 ft. for sea turbines. Carbon fiber instead of fiberglass. Late '14 target production.

RePower Systems (Suzlon unit) to supply turbines for 2 UK wind farms, each 8.2Mw. 1 to cost $23M.

Mitsubishi bought 50% of PV solar project in France from EDF. 55Mw. Total projected cost ~$250M.

Study: wind turbines wearing down faster than expected.

El demand in Germany down 17% last year, est 9.2% drop in '13.

Vietnamese 100K tons/yr ethanol plant bankrupt. Opened in '09.

US NG inventories ~12% higher than normal for this time of year.

Miss town leased land for fracking.

Recent pipeline expansion has turned former NG import point at Niagara into export point to Canada.

Up to 40 energy comps expected to bid for offshore NG exploration blocks in Lebanon's sector of E Meditteranean.

Israel, Norway energy comps found significant amount NG offshore Israel.

Ukraine secured loan from China to back program to substitute NG with coal. (Dam.) Gazprom supplies ~60% of NG used by Ukraine.

Iceland opening its waters for energy exploration. Involving Norway in process.

More transport capacity for Canadian oil sands coming online.

Taiwan to explore for oil in disputed waters.

Alaska N Slope oil production down 6.5% in Dec yoy to 582Kb/d.

OPEC production down 110Kb/d in Dec to avg 31.4Mb/d.

Iraq looking to build new pipelines from Basra to Aqaba, Jordan. Target 1Mb/d export capacity to Jordan.

Yemen resumed pumping crude through main export pipe. Repairs made from Nov bombing.