STUFF

BLM to offer over 3K Colo acres for competitive leases next month. 21M tons of coal.

Study: heat-trapping clouds over Greenland helped trigger record thaw.

Report: EPA must address GHG leaks in NG system.

Southern Co to recover clean-coal plant's costs with securitized bonds.

Least developed countries pledge to cut GHG output.

BP getting out of wind power biz. Exited solar last year. They have 2.6Gw wind gen cap in 16 farms in 9 states. Another 2Gw "near shovel ready". Small farm in UK. Sold off India wind biz in '09. Pledged in '05 $8B investment in alt energy over 10 yrs. Through '11, ~$7B spent. Still spending on biofuels development. Invested over $55B last 5 yrs alone in US energy development overall. Their US wind portfolio est. at $4-5B. Pipeline worth $15-200K.

160M Sterling/yr cost to accomodate new giant nuke reactors on UK grid to be borne by all power providers including clean/renewable. Extra standby el needed to stop grid crash if 1 of reactors unexpectedly goes off line.

Algae Intl Group (TX) (AIGI) anticipating $5M investment after merger with Savannah East Africa. Resulting comp will do reverse stock split.

Biodiesel sales in Iowa triple since '10. 23.3M gal sold during '12 from 7.4M in '10. 42% of diesel sales with biodies blend, up from under 10% in '10. Avg blend now 8% biodies, 3% in '10.

Midwest oil refiners getting hit hard with need to buy RINs. They don't have capacity to blend ethanol themselves. Aren't able to make up for those losses by exporting eth-free gas like coastal refiners can.

African Power Initiative (Uganda) ramping up 1st biodiesel facility in country. Several hundred liters/day now. Ramping up to 4K liters. Phase 2 to take it to 60K. Jatropha, castor nut, croton feedstock from 20K hectares.

Iran to build 2nd hydro plant - 240Mw - in Tajikistan.

Stanford researcher says elgen from world's solar PV last year probably surpassed amount of energy used to make the equipment. Energy debt could be paid off as early as '15.

Italian anti-mafia police seized 1.3B Euros from wind power "king".

India looking at covering national highways with solar roofs. 205km would produce ~104Mw. (About 1MW/mile.)

Brazil won't be able to meet light vehicle fuel demand as soon as '17 if recent trends continue: Bloomberg. By '21, demand could outstrip domestic supply by up to 9-12B liters/yr, 20% of demand. Country must either make substantial new investment in sugarcane (or other) ethanol production or in gasoline refining or allow diesel light vehicles. Investment for new ethanol capacity only $256M in '12. Eth use fell to 40% in '12 from 54% in '09. Jan '13 alone, Petrobras imported 700M liters of unblended gas. Total 40B liters may need to be imported through '21.

Commercial, utility scale projects to boost solar installs in Japan to 6-9Gw in '13. Earlier forecast 3-4Gw. Rapid increase in shipments in Q1, project pipeline stronger than expected.

Triodos Investment Management (Holland) plans clean energy fund focused on "more developed" emerging markets. 50M Euro expected fund level with growth to 100M. China biggest clean/renew mart in emerging Asia in '12 with $67B invested. India was $7B. Triodos Renewables bought just under 50% of 10Mw UK wind farm last month.

PG&E canceled plans to buy power from Bright Source Energy's 2 planned 250Mw-each solar thermal plants in Cal. Same day Bright asked regulators to suspend permitting for the $2.7B project. "Uncertainty around timing of transmission upgrades." 2nd time this year Bright announced contract cancels. They still have 500Mw project with Abengoa.

EPA to reconsider '11 cellulosic ethanol target. (Working a little backwards, yea?)

Judge dismissed blowout preventer maker from liability in BP GOM spill trial.

Scientists dub hydrogen from plants a "game changer".

Detroit Electric prepares $135K sports EV.

Brazil indigenous group threatens war over planned Amazon hydropower dam.

Phinergy (Israel) testing its metal-air batts in Citroen C1 as range extender for normal lith-ion pack. Anode made from alum plates. Cathode culls O2 out of atmos, reduces it into electrolyte. Much lighter batt. Phinergy suggests it could extend Citroen range 1K miles! They also wotk with zinc-air batt tech.

Fed Ex added 10 Smith Edison E vans to Hong Kong fleet. Should make 8-hour shift on 1 charge. Over 650 alt energy vans in FE global fleet. 20% efficiency improvement goal reached 7 yrs early. New '20 goal 30%.