STUFF

World's largest IR space telescope shut down for good. (Sequester a good thing? Or was it just time?)

BP to finance $340M for 2 Gulf of Mex restoration projects. Part of $1B promised after disaster.

Sandy resulted in release of 11B gal of sewage into nearby rivers, bays.

S Am's precip increase mainly from GHG emissions, ozone hole.

Eliminating carbon footprint from Lat Am's power sector by '50 would take $66B /yr. Spending on clean/renewable energy would be half of that. "Biz as usual" would require $464B/yr by '50 just to meet region's projected rise in energy demand.

Gamesa landed 150Mw wind farm project in Brazil. 75 2Mw turbines at 5 30Mw farms. Begin 2H14, online 1H15.

Vestas got 110Mw deal in Chile. 57 1.8Mw and 2Mw turbines. 3Q13 start, online 3Q14.

Enel Green Power deal for 130Mw wind farm in Chile.

Brazil gave go-ahead to start up 18.9Mw hydropower plant.

Honda to install 27Mw wind power at Brazil plant.

Renovalia, First Reserve JV have 137.5Mw wind farm in construction. Online early '14.

Saferay (Germany) applied for permits for $300M, 135Mw solar PV plant in Chile. Expected ground break late this fall.

Germany development bank to loan 39MEuro for 14Mw solar PV plant in El Salvador. Online next year. 2 other development banks also to invest.

Alstom Renewable Power won $130M deal to supply electromech equip for 220Mw hydropower plant in Brazil. Online in '17.

Sun Ed, Petrobras pledged to build 1.1Mw solar PV plant in Brazil. Expected online this year.

Braziil pledged $1.5B in grants, loans through '16 for clean/renewable energy projects.

Brazil utility plans to increase hydropower investment ~9% to $3.3B. 4 projects.

Former chief exec of Codexis (CDXS) says economically impossible to turn cropwaste, wood, plants into fuel. He decided future is with NG. ~$3B invested in cellulosic biofuel processes since '08. Takes ~ 6 tons of raw material for 1 ton of ethanol.

DOE announced up to $13M to advance ocean power techs. To select up to 10 projects. DOE est. wave, tidal resources could gen 1/3 of total US el usage. (Add offshore wind.)

Tidal Energy (UK) got $2.5M grant from Wales to test ocean current power device. 400Kw prototype. Scale to 1.2Mw unit in '15 planned. Also developing 10Mw array for 40M Pounds.

Alternate energy mutual funds outpaced alt energy ETFs over past year. 11 alt E funds up avg 11.7% past 12 months. Avg returns for 17 alt energy ETFs basically flat.

Verizon plans to spend $100M on solar, fuel cell power at 19 US facilities in 7 states. Completion next year. Goal to reduce carbon intensity in half by '20. Sunpower solar panels, CleanEdge Power fuel cells.

Canergy (Cal) chose Chemtex, Beta Renewables for development of 25M gal/yr cellulosic ethanol facility for Imperial Valley. Construction start 1Q14. Online '16. Sugarcane feedstock. Valley can grow it year around.

AMRS reported Q1 revs $7.9M, $32.6M loss v. $94.5M loss yoy ... GEVO reported revs of $3.5M, loss $18.4M v. $19.3M yoy ... GPRE $2.6M income v. $12.7M loss yoy. Revs down $10M to $765M.

Spain researchers at Canary Islands Tech Inst using banana waste to produce gas then converted into 2G biofuel. Early stage development.

Fitch Ratings says new Brazil policies won't help domestic ethanol industry much.

Clarient (Switzerland) getting ready to go head-to-head with Novozymes, other 2G biofuels techs with their waste-to-fuel tech. Looking for partners to help fund demo plant. Several years restructuring after $2.5B buy of Sued-Chemie in '11 (catalyst maker).

'12-'13 anhydrous ethanol prices in Brazil down avg 16.3% yoy to avg 64 cents/liter.

Stockholm Enviro Inst says Europe's "fiddling" with its 10% biofuels targets endangers equity, development while supporting oil.

EU standards group proposes 26 product categories for long-term bio-based fuels R&D program.

Tullow Oil (UK) stuck at 19-month low over Ethiopia delay. Will be country's 1st crude production. Delay till late May. Had to drill 2nd well bore for hole stability. Partner Africa Oil down near 10% last 2 weeks on the skepticism. Marathon also there.

Giant concrete spheres looked at for offshore wind farm power storage. Seawater out with power gen, back in with low winds, passing through turbines. MIT says could store 6Mw of power. A few hundred would produce as much power as nuke does in an hour. $12M/sphere.

Offshore drill rigs threatened by computer viruses ... More solar workers in US than coal miners.

Argentine billionaire hopes to beat Chevron. Developing oil field with YPF. $700M stake of $1.3B fortune. Est. 23B bls reserves. Largest field in Lat Am. Vaca Muerta. $37B plan to develop. With Corporacion America, Eurnekians op 49 airports around world, produce wine, grain, oil seed, constructing $3B tunnel through Andes between Argentina, Peru.

Programmable thermostats. Think about 'm.

We Energies asking Wisc PSC to OK conversion of coal plant to NG by late '15. Last coal-burner in S East Wisc without modern pollution controls. Scrubbers, etc would cost at least $540M. $80M to convert to NG, $7M to expand local NG line. Plant provides steam heat to 450 Milwaukee bizzes. If plant retired, transmission system serving downtown area would need $132M refurb.

Clean Line Energy replacing Goldman Sachs group as codeveloper of proposed $400M, 200-mile DC transmission line intended to carry NM clean energy to western marts. Acquiring Power Network NM.

AARP pushing for utility oversight by NY.

Alliant Energy (Wisc) plans for new 600Mw NG-fired power plant in Iowa moved forward. Combined-cycle plant price up to $750M. Coal fire plan scrapped in '09.

Gevo's idled MN plant to resume commercial production in 2H13. Corn to isobutanol. System also works with crop waste, other plant matter.

Suntech (China), in bankruptcy, revs dropped 48% last year to $1.63B (prelim).

Light Source Renewable Energy (UK) may invest up to $623M this year in UK solar facilities. Wants to install up to 300Mw this year, 40 projects. Working on ~140Mw now. Each project 5-15Mw, 9-month buildout. Lightsource built 5Mw rooftop solar for Bentley.

Energy makes up 1/2 of desalination plant costs. On avg, 15Mwh of power needed per 1M gal of fresh water produced. Wastewater draws up to 8.3Mwh of power. Importing same amount into S Cal takes 14Mwh. 17 desal plants proposed in Cal, 2 in Mex. 25% increase in energy expenses would raise cost of producing water 9-15% at reverse osmosis, thermal desal plants. El prices in Cal est. to rise ~27% '08-'20 inflation adjusted.

Con Ed to test grid batt with Eos Energy Storage in NYC. Zinc-air batts with 36Kwh storage. Eos plans to sell its grid-scale systems for $160/Kwh. Competitive with NG peaking plants, copper wire for transmission, distribution upgrades. (What about superconducting wires?) "Batts get interesting at $300/Kwh." $500K project. $250K NYRDA grant. NYRDA also awarded $1.15M to 5 more comps developing energy storage systems.

Greens slammed departing Duke CEO for more talk than action on clean energy.

Architects, enviros fight attempt to repeal energy efficiency law for green bldgs.

NRC rejected TX reactor plan because of foreign ownership. To increase oversight at 3 Mile Island.

EV maker Coda declared bankruptcy.

Is this the world we want? The future we want? Onward and upward, pards.