STUFF

Tritium found in leak at SC nuke plant. Duke says no problem.

Total, BP won offshore bids in Brazil.

Radioactive fracking waste stirring landfill worries in PA town.

Sunpower (SPWR) to launch solar leases overseas, push distributed generation. Focus on France, Japan, Germany, Australia, Spain, Italy. SPWR still posting Q losses but could earn up to 20 cents/share for FY.

UK postponed smart power meter rollout a year as suppliers struggle with design glitches. Testing delayed. 50M meters for homes, businesses planned. Now late '15 start. 4-5 yr deploy.

SMA (Germany) cutting workforce amid ~50% Q1 sales slide. PV solar inverter giant. (Solar comps imbedding their own inverters.) Swing to loss in Q1 yoy. They see 19% sales decline in '13 v. '12. Up to 1K workers to go.

Former $200M Cascade Grain ethanol plant in OR - in part paid for by $36M in subsidies, tax credits - now storing, shipping ND fracked crude to west coast refineries.

DOE has spent $2.5B on algae research. To date nothing commercialized. Congressional mandate to spend on research only. (What the hell?!)

Spain opened up biodiesel imports to all countries of origin. Also grace period for demonstrating sustainability.

Argentina made official complaint against EU at WTO. Complaining over specific biofuels trade policies in Belgium, Spain, Poland, France, Italy.

Report: US power gen rose, emissions fell in '11.

Greenpeace lambasting UK support for importing oil from Canada oil sands. Studies have found tar sand oil produces 20% more GHGs than conventional crude.

Canadian Solar's (CSIQ) African partner Romano got contract for 360Kw PV solar system at Eskom Johannesburg HQ. Eskom Africa's largest power producer.

Broadway Electrical secured $120M finance for 37Mw of solar projects on Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard. Rockland Capital, Deutsche Bank, Key Bank financing. Starts expected this year, completions next year.

Owens Corning chose Constellation to develop 2.6Mw solar project for NY facility. Completion later this year. Will supply over 6% of plant's power needs.

Japan Asian Group plans for 500Mw of solar projects in Japan moving ahead. 110Mw planned for this FY. ~190Mw FY14. 200Mw FY 15.

UK govt task force says carbon capture able to be cost competitive with clean energy techs by '20's. (I bet if they really can do it by then it will be too late.)

Next Era Energy to buy Smart Energy Capital for entry into commercial, industrial distributed solar market.

Lanza Tech NZ - transport fuels, chems from waste gases - plans to raise $60-80M from VC, investors this year to develop tech. Developing projects with China comps to use steel mill emissions to make ethanol. China has 60% of world steel industry. A 30M gal/yr plant to convert gases from steel mills into ethanol costs ~$80M. Virgin Atlantic Airways probably will be 1st user of Lanza Tech biofuel. Lanza raised ~$60M in '12 from Petronas (Malaysia).

US Senate panel voted 10-8 to confirm McCarthy at EPA.

Conoco chief linked global warming to humans.

US ethanol trade groups challenging EU anti-dumping duty heads.

TSLA (Tesla) raised cash to repay fed loans. (Good move.)

10 economic risks of fossil fuels:
1. Fossil fuels have capacity to threaten basic systems. (Global warming, pollution, spills, etc.)
2. Fossil fuel assets have abandonment risk. (Reserves may not be pumped out. Potential $6T loss.)
3. Clean/renewable energy becoming too competitive. (Clean/ren prices continue to fall, fossils on upward trajectory.)
4. Fossil fuel firms beginning to have to pay for externalities. (Pollution, warming, health effects, contaminated water and farmland, etc.)
5. Fossil fuels likely to face carbon taxes.
6. Fossil fuels will soon face diminishing govt subsidies, benefits.
7. Growing global institutional belief that transition to clean/renewable energy solves climate and economic questions. (IMF calculated between directly lowered prices, tax breaks, failure to properly price carbon, the world subsidized fossil fuel use by over $1.9T in '11. US led with $502B.)
8. Fossil fuels completely consumed upon 1st use, so more primary source extraction required.
9. Distributed clean/renewable energy grid more secure than traditional hub/spoke systems, even those powered by domestic fossil fuels.
10. Clean/renewable energy will counter fossil fuels' endless boom/bust econ cycles.

(All dat deja view for me.)

Bloomberg: 70% of new power gen added '12-'30 will be clean/ren.

IFC agrees to invest up to $1.5B in Masdar clean energy projects.

CCEMC to provide $50M in grants for fossil fuel emissions reductions.

Gehrlicher Solar secured EUR85M finance from Bayern.

ReneSola Q1 revs up 34%. Losses stayed steady, however.

Solar City (SCTY) scored over $500M from Goldman Sachs for ~110Mw of rooftop solar leasing. Completion this year.