STUFF AND SUCH

Scientist says China pollution killing Japanese island's pine trees.

Miss Power absorbing $333M cost overrun on "clean coal" plant. Latest estimate $3.42B. 42% higher than original cost. 19% higher than Miss PSC cap. Plant to convert lignite coal to gas.

Mich plans to lease more land for drilling.

Driller in UK censured over fracking safety claims.

IRENA: small Pacific island nations expected to account for 17% of all new clean/renewable energy installs next 5 yrs globally. Will get them off imported diesel.

ARGOenvironmental (New Zealand) negotiating PPA for 1Mw wave energy project with Kingdom of Tonga. ARGO hooked up with Voight (Germany). Deal will be in 21cents/Kwh range. In '08, Tonga at a point was paying over $1/Kwh for diesel. Now ~35 cents. UAE has converted $45M of soft loans for clean/ren projects in Pacific islands into grants.

Solar developers have until May 1 to submit proposals for rest of '13 for Vermont SPEED program. Top rate .257cents/Kwh. System limit 2.2Mw. 4.5Mw left to be filled of 5Mw total.

MN retailer 60-day study to determine customers' price point for E85. Offering 80 cent, $1, $1.20/gal discounts to regular gas. $2.85's OK.

Poet reopened 45mg/y MO ethanol plant. Mothballed in Feb from lack of available corn. $14M upgrade added corn oil production capacity, other. Work continues on BPX tech install. No cook process to reduce heat, energy use.

Former MN ethanol plant bought last year by Platinum Partners (hedge fund) reopened last year after over 2-yr mothballing shut down again. Filed chapter 11.

Universal Robina construction start on $35M, 30M liter/yr ethanol plant in Philippines. Online 3/14. Blackstrap molasses feedstock.

China Eastern Airlines completed 85 minute biofuel flight. Sinopec's mix of used cooking oil, palm oil av biofuel. Airbus A320. Blend level not reported. Nor efficiency.

Brazil offering $480M/yr tax, interest cuts to boost ethanol industry. "Falls short to get industry back on feet": UNICA.

Gazprom to start NG production offshore Vietnam in June. How will China react? Reserves est. at 55B cubic meters NG, 25M tons condensates. 189 miles offshore Vietnam. Law of Sea defines exclusive econ zone at 200 nautical miles from coast. EIA est. S China Sea has ~11B bls oil, 190TCF NG of proved, probable reserves. USGS says maybe 28B bls. China says near 200B bls.

In '74, China drove S Vietnam off Paracel Islands (claimed by Beijing, Hanoi, Taiwan). In '79, brief war erupted on China-Viet border after Viet's invasion/occupation of Cambodia that ended China-backed Khmer Rouge.

LEDs had mysterious drop in light produced called "droop" when higher current applied. Limited amount of lumens. Now explained by researchers at UC Santa Barbara sponsored by DOE and collab with French colleagues. It's from Auger recombination. O. O yea. That. Discovery expected to result in new ways to design LEDs. DOE est. widespread replacement of incandescent, fluorescent lights by LEDs in just US can save el equal to 50Gw/yr.

Statoil (Norway) sitting on new N Sea discovery of 40-150M recoverable bls oil equiv. Petoro has 30% stake. "High degree uncertainty" of find. Near Brent reservoir.

Trump's - the Don's - ads against Scot wind farms banned.

Chevron's "Big Foot" deepwater platform arrived in TX last month. Buuilt by Daewoo (S Korea). Prep now at Aransas Pass. Going 225 miles south of New Orleans next year in mile-deep water. Can process 75Kb/d, 25MCF/d. Field est. 20-yr life, over 200M bls recoverable equivalents. $4.1B project. Statoil 27% stake, Marubeni 12%. Plus 1.

Austin Energy canceling discounts on water, el bills for over 2.5K low income customers. Fed poverty line $11,490 for individual, $23,550 for family of 4 (just over 2 individuals living together). Huh. The crock.

GDF Suez Energy Resources NA expanding presence in OH retail el mart.

Hydro O Hawa offering eligible small businesses free energy assessments, up to $1.5K of lighting upgrades and or free touch screen programmable thermostat. (I know, where the heck is that?)

EDF Renewable Energy completed Spinning Spur wind project in TX, launched Spinning Spur 2. Each 161Mw. #1 has 70 Siemens 2.3Mw turbines. PPA with Southwestern Pub Svc Comp (Xcel E subsid). #2 going with 87 1.85Mw GE turbines. Construction start in June. 1 of 1st projects to use new CREZ transmission line connecting panhandle to big cities. (Seen dustbowl documentary on PBS?)

Berkshire East (Mass) world's 1st ski area to be entirely powered by on-site clean energy. 500Kw solar tracker farm added to 900Kw wind turbine installed in '11. 90 dual-axis AllSun trackers. Made in Vermont. 45% more productive than rooftop solar. Sustainable Energy Development (NY) developed project. Trackers use GPS, wireless tech.

Groundbreak of Penn State U's Center for Building Energy Science at old Navy yard.

MO regulators OK'd Ameren's Pure Power Program. (Didn't they do "Amy" in late '60's?) Crit from PS  over lack of transparency. Program already going 6 yrs. Money goes to clean power development. How much to marketing, admin? Customers pay up to 1.5c/Kwh or $15/Mwh. 3 Degrees (Cal) involved.

Orix, NEC, Epco to start Japan batt storage rentals for homes. Cloud data links. NEC batts. Epco ap. Fees $31/mo and up. Target 10K homes by next March, 100K by March '16. Batt storage cap 5.53Kwh.

Honda unit in Brazil to invest ~$50M in wind farm. Online late '14. 27Mw.

Yingli Solar's - and others' - receipt of lifeline from Beijing indicates likely state-sponsored restructuring of solar sector.

Staples, Sun Ed unveiled 685Kw solar install at Mass HQ. Their 37th solar array. Now 14Mw in US.

Earth's core 1K degrees C (~1,800F) hotter than thought. (O, that's where global warming coming from?)

New Zealand opposition parties floating plans for single national el buyer.

George W Bush Library opened in Dallas.

Renovalia Reserve bought 227.5Mw of Mexico wind farms.

Scot govt launched 15M Pound Sterling offshore wind foundations fund.

Subsidy cuts caused Euro clean energy project finance to fall 49% in '12.

Goldwind Q1 sales down 44% to $154M.

Euro clean E project finance activity $30.1B in '12. ~1/2 of '11. 24% decline in # of projects, slump in utility-scale dealios. Pension funds, sizable debt finance to brighten long-term prospects.

DHS developing paper-thin batts for 1st responders.

2 fuel barges exploded in Ala on Mississippi.

TX fertilizer plant explosion cost to exceed $100M. Let alone the lives.

Bill to repeal NC renewable energy mandate failed. After Florida said we don't want RPS business. What's the right side of history here?

TX state senate OK'd bill to give tax boost to utilities.

Japan court denied request to evac children near nuke disaster. Woo.