STUFF

EPA expected to rule soon on last coal-fired steamship operating in US waters (Great Lakes).

Shell buying Repsol's LNG business for $6.7B.

DOA to focus aggressively on climate change following last year's (continuing) drought. To ramp up weather forecasting, encourage more sustainable farming practices.

Denali (Alaska) study sets baseline for climate change.

TSLA to cut repay time for $465M DOE loan.

Canada tackling heavy-duty truck emissions.

Series of infrastructure investments over next year will begin to unlock access to liquids-rich NG deposits in OH's Utica shale play.

Germany agrees on draft reg to allow fracking.

Frost & Sullivan report estimates VC funding for clean/renewable energy to triple by '20. Positive reg policies, public support for lower carbon, tech innovation. New investment in clean/ren fell 11% in '12 to $268B.

EIA: non-hydro clean/ren energy (includes biomass) elgen increased 12.8% in US last year v. '11. Provided 5.4% of elgen. (Makes no sense to me to not include hydro and nuke as clean and not taking biomass out - wood and plants burning make emissions. Just me, I guess.) Solar up 138%, wind up 16%, geothermal up 9%, biomass up 1.6%. Total elgen dropped 1.1%. Petrol coke, liquids down 24%, coal down 12%, nuke down 2.6%. Hydropower down 13.4% (drought). NG up 21%. Adding hydropower and nuke to true clean sources was some 31% of total elgen.

Geothermal Energy Assoc says US geothermal power growth up 5% in '12. Added 147Mw. Total now ~3.4Gw. 13Gw of wind installed, 7Gw solar in '12. 185 geo projects currently in development for over 5Gw. ~2.5Gw likely to get built next 10 yrs.

Brazil's 334Mw hydropower reservoir getting filled. $1.3B project. Power on in April. 1 of smallest reservoir to output ratios in world. 30-mile system of canals, tunnels, dams, reservoirs to help prevent flooding of nearby urban, arable areas.

VDE and Fraunhofer think they have new way to ensure performance, reliability, "tech bankability" of solar PV plants. System-level certification spanning 300 test points for quality, safety, performance of plant as whole and components. (Needs checks and balances so they can't play faves and take money on side.)

EIA: emissions of NOx, SO2 from US power plants lowest in 20 yrs.

Key Repub senators offering funds for energy R&D from subsidies, drilling revs. (Sounds like that can get done.)

Scientists seeding reefs to spark Caribbean coral comeback.

Wind power elgen surpassed nuclear by 2% in China in '12. Since '07, nuke elgen rose 10%/y, wind rose 80%/y. Both near 100TWh. In Oct, authorities lifted nuke moratorium since Fukushima.

Michigan State U engineering plant with oily leaves. Could increase biofuel production, improve animal feed. Used algae gene that stores lipids in leaves, stems.

Brazil launched Bioplanet project to produce 25M liters of biodiesel for '14 World Cup.

US House Science Committee examining E15 ethanol blend increase.

BP making play for Tanzanian NG assets. Total, Statoil there. Recent offshore discoveries of some 33TCF. Tanzania has NG processing plant with 70MCF/d cap. Planning LNG terminal. Signed $1.2B loan agree with China for 532 km pipeline.

Dem Congressman claims over 100 oil/gas producers - including majors - benefiting from bungled leases awarded by feds. Enabled free or near-free drilling. Chevron avoided est. $1.5B of $2.6B royalties they should have paid.

EU plans to rollout smart meters to 80% of 500M population by '20 not going as hoped. Early adopting countries did well. Then Dutch govt threatened prison for non-comply of install. They backed off, but damage done.

EON (Germany) plans to build at least 100Mw of wind power in Romania by '15. Possible up to 300Mw if Romania maintains incentives. Romania wants to attract ~$6.6B of energy investment through '20. They have ~1.6Gw installed wind cap.

UK awarded $30M to tidal power projects backed by Siemens, Morgan Stanley. Online in '16.

Vestas says Japan needs to improve access to grid.

Ukraine's largest solar developer (Austria comp) switching on solar modules @ 29Mw farm.