STUFF

Fed appeals court rejected TX, industry challenge to EPA's GHG power plant emissions implementation rule.

Price Waterhouse Coopers: price of EV batts expected to drop by half in less than 10 years. EVs with 100-mile range will be cheapest cars to drive.

Swede utility returning to hydropower after getting burned in coal business.

Report: insurance costs for renewables to triple to $2.8B by '20 as projects become more complex, risky. (And insurance industry can tag along on clean energy surge.)

Rockies Express Pipeline built to deliver CO, WY natgas to as far away as OH. Now Marcellus, Utica feeding natgas to local region. Pipeline owners want to ship it back toward west but Rockies suppliers protesting to FERC.

Gas flow stopped in blown out well in Gulf. Crew moving to cap it.

Sao Paulo (largest state in Brazil) plans to generate near 70% of its el from clean/renewable energy by '20. 55% now. Looking at bioenergy from sugar, alcohol. $12B of private investment to be pumped into developing bioE by '20. 4.8Gw now clean/ren E in SP. Est. 13Gw by '20. Also wind, solar.

Operating NG wells in US up 90% from '90 to over .5M in '10. Well productivity down 38% since '90 to avg. 145Mcf/d. (Check that out.)

KY switchgrass trials successful. But still more expensive than coal.

Dry weather in Brazil has boosted sugarcane crush. Surge in sugar production over ethanol.

Halliburton pled guilty of destruction of evidence in '10 BP Gulf oil spill disaster. (Um, how much was that damage to the Gulf environment that BP was on hook for? Destruction of evidence. Do good companies do that? Good executives? Executives who make 10s of milions of dollars a year? Or become vice presidents of USA? Who's paying attention? Hell, that was years ago.)

Bonneville Power raising wholesale power 9%. Ouch. (But, has it been a long time? If so, it should have been going up gradually. Here comes inflation.)

Ciris Energy (US) raised $15M from Asia Pcific Capital (Hong Kong) to commercialize coal-to-NG tech. They inject nutrients into coal seams underground to stimulate natural microorganisms that convert coal into methane, industrial chems. Also developing process that works above ground. Ciris also backed by Conoco, many others.

ReneSola selling 29Mw of PV to Chilean developer of S Am's biggest solar project. Plans to spend $67M to expand its 1.4Mw project to over 30Mw by April '14. Saferay (Germany) also seeking permits for $300M PV solar plant in Atacama desert. Central and S Am has 114Mw solar cap now online.

Ballard Power (BLDP) to provide 220 fuel cell systems to Azure  for China telecom networks' backup power. 120 direct hydrogen systems. 100 fueled by methanol. Deliveries by yearend. BLDP already developing FC buses with Azure.

Brazil's state development bank approved $11.7M for developer's 2 wind farms. 60Mw. 216M Reals.

VC comp Scottish Equity Partners may invest up to $108M in UK clean energy businesses. Interest in energy efficiency, low power lighting, smart grid.

Geothermal drilling surveys started in Japan.

Canadian Solar (CSIQ) completed 30Mw of rooftop solar in China.

Ibereolica in talks for partnership on 760Mw of CSP in Chile.

Xcel Energy buying 600Mw of wind energy from 2 planned farms in MN, ND, taking ownership of another being built in MN. Online in '15. Xcel gets energy from 50 wind farms  in MN. Total 1.8Gw. MN spending $1B to upgrade its grid this year as part of $2.2B overhaul enabling a lot more wind power to connect to grid. "Wind power the cheapest resource available right now." Xcel also to buy 700Mw from 3 new wind farms in OK, TX, NM, Plans also to expand to CO.

DOI greenlighted 500Mw wind farm in AZ. BP Wind to build. 243 turbines. DOI surpassed 10Gw of clean energy on public lands in '12. Focus now on 10Gw more by '20.

Power REIT (NYSE:PW) closed on dealio to buy 100 acres leased to owners of over 20Mw of solar projects near Fresno. Increases share of revs from solar to 21%. Rest from railroad property leases.

Deal struck for slashing emissions at western US's largest coal power plant.

Scientists trying "mood lighting", Barry White tunes to entice Abalone (endangered species) to mate. (I see it, I report it.)

Tearing down Maine dam could bolster salmon, herring populations. (How about mood lighting and Barry White tunes first?)