GLOBAL SOLAR CAPACITY TO NEAR TRIPLE NEXT 5 YEARS: RESEARCH .... In Chile, solar costs ~20% less than coal, ~40% less than natgas .... China set higher solar target .... Medvedev amended power law to boost clean/renewable powgen. Expects solar to benefit most. Grids will have to buy clean/ren despite tariffs 3.5x higher than fossil. 70% local content rule .... Sierra Nevada snowpack 2nd lowest on record .... Cal water supply won't last over a year without drought relief: NASA scientist .... Sauds, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar have upped oil rig counts avg 14% in recent months .... US oil production to peak in May .... Paris lowered speed limits to lower pollution .... German court banned Uber (?) .... Vivent solar (VSLR) to offer loans by yearend to customers who want to buy their systems .... US natgas inventories above 5-yr avg .... Elevator shafts lose much of building heat/cooling in NYC: Urban Green Council. $500-$15K retrofits in 4K NYC buildings would save $11M in power costs, 30K metric tons CO2/yr. NYC has 1M buildings. At least. Near 3/4 NYC CO2 emissions from buildings .... EPA clean power plan could spur $1.5-2.5B power line investment next 5 yrs .... FERC denied Cal request for waiver on real-time power market rules .... N Carolina opened door to fracking .... Sauds luring recent unemployed US oil/gas shale workers .... Nevada had 3rd most new solar installs in US in '14. 1st in southwest .... Mass 4th most new solar in US in '14. 1st in northeast .... Qatar comp bought 40% of AES stake in Jordan 241Mw power plant that can burn NG, heavy oil, diesel. Supplies up to 20% of Jordan power demand. Mitsui has other stake .... World's 1st lagoon power plant may get UK subsidies .... Dominion building 2.45Mw solar in Virginia. Land leased from Phillip Morris. Dominion plans to build 400Mw solar in VA .... UK water comp to invest up to $279M on clean power next 5 yrs to protect from power price volatility. Mostly solar, anaerobic digestion. Already operating food waste to power plant .... Demand Energy to install 10 batt systems to store 1Mw for 9 NYC luxury apt buildings. $500K/system. $5/w I calculate. Online by July. EnerSys lead-acid batts. Up to 44Mw power storage in NYC area by mid-'16. Lithium-ion batts can't be used in NYC for storage. US energy storage market estimated to triple this year .... Sun Edison (SUNE) plans 150Mw more solar in Texas .... Georgia PSC OK'd 100Mw solar program .... Fort Collins OK'd 20% clean power by '20, 80% by '30 .... "Defective" graphene makes super efficient fuel.