Greece debt 143% of GDP. Forecast of 158% by yr end, 166% in '12. Deficit 10.5% of GDP in '10. EU has "strict" limit of 3%. Portugal debt to reach 101% of GDP this yr. The Irish north of 112%. Greek bonds paying over 17%. Any takers?
Japan, S. Korea 53% of current LNG to NG cap. Gorgon project in Australia - Exxon/Chevron/Shell - $50B to develop. India, China already paying $60B. '14 start. Up against Qatar. GTLS a consideration. LNG equipment.
Every 50 cent jump in gas prices takes $70B/y out of US economy. ~.5% GDP.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
DaSTUFF
Swiss Federal Labs got new record 18.7% efficiency with flexible CIGS solar cells (copper, indium, gallium, deselenide). Beat their 17.6% last year.
NY to sue US for failing to study fracking impacts.
GM canceled plans for plug-in Caddy. Yes, the rich are too rich to help us off oil or clean the air.
3 Gorges Dam could be to blame for Chinese drought. Drought in Yangtze basin worst in 50 yrs. The river sustains 2/3 of China's rice fields. Rainfall 40-60% blw avg. 85% of China elgen from thermal. Coal prod up 11% 1st 4 months this year. But talk of 40GW power shortage this summer. Industrial output slowing from the shortage.
Cairn Energy to spend $600M to drill 4 wells offshore W. Greenland. Up to 3.2B bls in reservoirs.
57% of US Americans say they won't buy an EV no matter the price of gas: USA Today poll. What the hell is up with that?! Yea, most of us are too stupid to get off oil or clean the air?!
GE global research director: solar may be cheaper than fossil, nuke in 3-5 yrs.
MIT working on semi-solid lithium flow cells for E densities an order of magnitude greater than aqueous flow batts.
Pemex discovered 400-600BCF of new NG offshore in Gulf.
Brazil Libra field reserves est. reduced to 5B bls from 15B. And Petrobras must triple the number of ships and deepwater drilling rigs by '20 to double oil/gas prod. 1st grid-connected solar project in Brazil switched on this week.
Drought in Germany expected to hit rapeseed harvest hard, reducing biodiesel production significantly. 4 weeks in on the dry wx.
Australia to plant 30k kulpa plants in Queensland this yr for biodiesel from the seed oil, el from the waste.
Global C output has spiked to a record high. And Canada admitted to leaving oil sands emissions out of UN report.
E85 sales in Iowa - in Iowa - up 27% in 1Q11 over 4Q10, 64% over 1Q10. Cheaper than gas there, but when you figure in mileage ...
Russia restricting oil exploration to protect seriously endangered grey whales. Da.
IEA: intermittent wind, solar not a problem. It can be managed.
Last summer was Japan's hottest ever.
Libya's rebs have used up their stock of crude. The small refinery at Tobruk, near Egypt border, shut down last week. What do we do now.
Canadian utility Fortis buying Central VT Pub Svc for ~$470M.
US has 3 GW of geothermal plants in prod. 38-40GW known reserves. "100MW of geo power is like 300MW of solar." But capital costs of $3.5-6/W before incentives. And if your drill is off by 200', the hot water can be missed. 1 in 10 make it. 300 degrees in west US v. 600 in Iceland. Some wells only 15 yrs of production, tho water injection proving out. Single well can cost $5-8M to drill. And utilites pay them ~1/3 less than solar per kwh. MIT: enhanced geo tech, deep drilling could garner 100GW @ 4 cents/kwh.
And that was May, pards. May June get us to an even better place.
NY to sue US for failing to study fracking impacts.
GM canceled plans for plug-in Caddy. Yes, the rich are too rich to help us off oil or clean the air.
3 Gorges Dam could be to blame for Chinese drought. Drought in Yangtze basin worst in 50 yrs. The river sustains 2/3 of China's rice fields. Rainfall 40-60% blw avg. 85% of China elgen from thermal. Coal prod up 11% 1st 4 months this year. But talk of 40GW power shortage this summer. Industrial output slowing from the shortage.
Cairn Energy to spend $600M to drill 4 wells offshore W. Greenland. Up to 3.2B bls in reservoirs.
57% of US Americans say they won't buy an EV no matter the price of gas: USA Today poll. What the hell is up with that?! Yea, most of us are too stupid to get off oil or clean the air?!
GE global research director: solar may be cheaper than fossil, nuke in 3-5 yrs.
MIT working on semi-solid lithium flow cells for E densities an order of magnitude greater than aqueous flow batts.
Pemex discovered 400-600BCF of new NG offshore in Gulf.
Brazil Libra field reserves est. reduced to 5B bls from 15B. And Petrobras must triple the number of ships and deepwater drilling rigs by '20 to double oil/gas prod. 1st grid-connected solar project in Brazil switched on this week.
Drought in Germany expected to hit rapeseed harvest hard, reducing biodiesel production significantly. 4 weeks in on the dry wx.
Australia to plant 30k kulpa plants in Queensland this yr for biodiesel from the seed oil, el from the waste.
Global C output has spiked to a record high. And Canada admitted to leaving oil sands emissions out of UN report.
E85 sales in Iowa - in Iowa - up 27% in 1Q11 over 4Q10, 64% over 1Q10. Cheaper than gas there, but when you figure in mileage ...
Russia restricting oil exploration to protect seriously endangered grey whales. Da.
IEA: intermittent wind, solar not a problem. It can be managed.
Last summer was Japan's hottest ever.
Libya's rebs have used up their stock of crude. The small refinery at Tobruk, near Egypt border, shut down last week. What do we do now.
Canadian utility Fortis buying Central VT Pub Svc for ~$470M.
US has 3 GW of geothermal plants in prod. 38-40GW known reserves. "100MW of geo power is like 300MW of solar." But capital costs of $3.5-6/W before incentives. And if your drill is off by 200', the hot water can be missed. 1 in 10 make it. 300 degrees in west US v. 600 in Iceland. Some wells only 15 yrs of production, tho water injection proving out. Single well can cost $5-8M to drill. And utilites pay them ~1/3 less than solar per kwh. MIT: enhanced geo tech, deep drilling could garner 100GW @ 4 cents/kwh.
And that was May, pards. May June get us to an even better place.
CLOSE
(stock #'s in %)
Market up 128/38/14. Volume a little heavy, picked up much in afternoon. Oil steadied around $102.
FCEL up 30. Huge volume. Catch them on the comeback, tho they may go up another 10 here. Right at their 50-day lines on a 3-yr chart. PSUD up 29 on no volume. Yep, one of the playas. PVRE up 27, same story. CBWP up 25. Yup. MDTL up 25 too. WTWO up 43. No news. Double in 4 days. HEV up 15. A jump off the bottom on volume. HSOL up 13. Biggest solar gainer. Back to 50-day lines. CCGI up 13 on no volume. ENSL up 12. Doubled in May. I don't get it. CSUN up 11. LTBR up 11, maybe on the Germany nuke news. (Thorium reactor tech). SOLR up 10, heading back to their highs. NTCXF up 10. SZYM up another 8 (IPO Friday).
NACF down 27. BHWX down 24. CSOL down 23. UTOG down 13 after news. Still a triple this year. VNDB down 12. LEOM down 10. ESLR down 4, new low. UBRG, EFOI down 2.
Market up 128/38/14. Volume a little heavy, picked up much in afternoon. Oil steadied around $102.
FCEL up 30. Huge volume. Catch them on the comeback, tho they may go up another 10 here. Right at their 50-day lines on a 3-yr chart. PSUD up 29 on no volume. Yep, one of the playas. PVRE up 27, same story. CBWP up 25. Yup. MDTL up 25 too. WTWO up 43. No news. Double in 4 days. HEV up 15. A jump off the bottom on volume. HSOL up 13. Biggest solar gainer. Back to 50-day lines. CCGI up 13 on no volume. ENSL up 12. Doubled in May. I don't get it. CSUN up 11. LTBR up 11, maybe on the Germany nuke news. (Thorium reactor tech). SOLR up 10, heading back to their highs. NTCXF up 10. SZYM up another 8 (IPO Friday).
NACF down 27. BHWX down 24. CSOL down 23. UTOG down 13 after news. Still a triple this year. VNDB down 12. LEOM down 10. ESLR down 4, new low. UBRG, EFOI down 2.
OPEN
(stock #'s in %)
Market up 61/13/6. Volume a little light, but summer and 1st day back from holiday. Oil up $2 to $102. Help for Greece supposedly why market flew up at the open.
CBWP up 50. FCEL up 23 on contract news. A jump to their 200-day lines. CCGI up 18 on news. WWPW up 14. ECOS up 13. EFOI rebound off bottom, up 9. Solars up on Germany's news of retiring nukes. HSOL, CSUN, JASO up 6. CSIQ up 3 with news.
LEOM down 30. CLNO down 12. ECTY down 10.
Market up 61/13/6. Volume a little light, but summer and 1st day back from holiday. Oil up $2 to $102. Help for Greece supposedly why market flew up at the open.
CBWP up 50. FCEL up 23 on contract news. A jump to their 200-day lines. CCGI up 18 on news. WWPW up 14. ECOS up 13. EFOI rebound off bottom, up 9. Solars up on Germany's news of retiring nukes. HSOL, CSUN, JASO up 6. CSIQ up 3 with news.
LEOM down 30. CLNO down 12. ECTY down 10.
Monday, May 30, 2011
STUFF II
Germany to retire their nuke fleet by '22. 20% of elgen now. Saying wind, solar, etc. will replace it. In '08, coal was 45% elgen. I just don't see the logic. They don't get earthquakes or tsunamis. I think it's a blatant overreaction to Fuku. Nuclear power is clean. No GHG's. Now, in the mix is the age of the plants (how long do we keep our cars running, for gosh sakes?) and the expense of maintaining the nuke plants and building new ones. Maybe wind and solar does beat that. Great. Super duper. But how about those coal plants?
Renewable Energy Corp to scale back PV production 500 workers worth. Weak market demand. To halt production at solar cell plant in Norway. Happened before in 2Q09. ASP's for wafers, modules down 4% 1Q11 from 4Q10. Solar glut coming...
Solazyme IPO Friday. SZYM. Raised >$200M. Gen-mod algae that feeds on sugar. Chevron, Dow, USAF, Unilever among partners/customers. $38M revs in '10, lost $13.7M. Can produce fuel for $3.50/gal. Well, with usual markup, that's $7/gal.
In WI, the Olsens (not sure if the twins or not - a lot of Olsens in WI) have racked up debt of $104M from the family ethanol biz, including bankruptcy at 110M gal eth plant in Jan '09.
Adding NUCL, SZYM to watch list.
UPS began using biodiesel blends at major KY hub. B5 working up to B20. Sunoco launched B2 biodiesel in NJ. Sounds like bingo to me. Biodiesel New Zealand expanding distribution of B20, B100. Malaysia set to launch B5 mandate in June.
Renewable Fuels Assoc: US will save $440M this Memorial Day weekend due to ethanol. At what cost? That's me question. Aw, maybe they have a point. Um. No. No food for fuel. And here we go with soybeans for biodiesel. But we need alternate fuel to oil. I think we need a moonshot program on that.
In France, Thermya announced construction of 3 industrial biocoal production units using their biomass torrefactor process. 1st unit to open this summer in Basque country to produce 20k tons biocoal/y.
Seaweed to eth in India: 5 sqkm farm. Brazil's sugarcane harvest off to a slow start. And Defense Dept to increase biofuels contracts to 15 yrs from 5.
Well, I think we've herd enough taps played for a very long long time. Or ever more. Good ruck with that huh. Happy memorial trails pards.
Renewable Energy Corp to scale back PV production 500 workers worth. Weak market demand. To halt production at solar cell plant in Norway. Happened before in 2Q09. ASP's for wafers, modules down 4% 1Q11 from 4Q10. Solar glut coming...
Solazyme IPO Friday. SZYM. Raised >$200M. Gen-mod algae that feeds on sugar. Chevron, Dow, USAF, Unilever among partners/customers. $38M revs in '10, lost $13.7M. Can produce fuel for $3.50/gal. Well, with usual markup, that's $7/gal.
In WI, the Olsens (not sure if the twins or not - a lot of Olsens in WI) have racked up debt of $104M from the family ethanol biz, including bankruptcy at 110M gal eth plant in Jan '09.
Adding NUCL, SZYM to watch list.
UPS began using biodiesel blends at major KY hub. B5 working up to B20. Sunoco launched B2 biodiesel in NJ. Sounds like bingo to me. Biodiesel New Zealand expanding distribution of B20, B100. Malaysia set to launch B5 mandate in June.
Renewable Fuels Assoc: US will save $440M this Memorial Day weekend due to ethanol. At what cost? That's me question. Aw, maybe they have a point. Um. No. No food for fuel. And here we go with soybeans for biodiesel. But we need alternate fuel to oil. I think we need a moonshot program on that.
In France, Thermya announced construction of 3 industrial biocoal production units using their biomass torrefactor process. 1st unit to open this summer in Basque country to produce 20k tons biocoal/y.
Seaweed to eth in India: 5 sqkm farm. Brazil's sugarcane harvest off to a slow start. And Defense Dept to increase biofuels contracts to 15 yrs from 5.
Well, I think we've herd enough taps played for a very long long time. Or ever more. Good ruck with that huh. Happy memorial trails pards.
STUFF
Canada Q1 GDP up 3.9%.
Russia lifting grain export ban as drought, floods ruin Europe, US crops.
Belarus devalued its ruble 36% overnight last week.
Dominion Virginia began ops at new 580MW combined-cycle NG plant. $619M. 24 permanent jobs. Combined-cycle uses exhaust from combustion turbines to generate steam to drive another turbine. VA 2nd only to CA in amount of imported el from other states.
Gamesa to launch 4.5MW wind turbine in China around turn of year. 4 mnfctrg plants now in China, 3 more planned.
GE/Cisco partnered up to provide windfarm-wide wireless connectivity for phase 1 - 30 GE turbines - of First Wind's UT farm.
Duke Power buying 20MW WI windfarm. Gives them >1GW of gen cap at 10 US windfarms. They've invested $1.5B in wind, solar power. Also plan to build a 168MW windfarm in KS, start in fall.
CA E Commission approved $16M for cleaner trans projects, leveraging another $9.6M in private match funds. Projects include hybrid trucks and buses, lith-ion batt module production line, algae-to-oil pilot plant and reducing buyer costs of new alt-fuel vehicles.
KY Utilities wants $1.1B rate increase to pay for upgrades to 2 coal plants to control particulates, mercury. Louisville G&E asking for $1.4B. Both owned by PPL Corp.
1st 4 months '11, US consumer price index up 9.7% annualized. PPI up 12.8%. Import prices up 26.7%. Last 4 yrs, inflation has wiped out all growth of weekly earnings. Or, to put it the other way, weekly earnings have kept up with inflation. No rises for social security last 2 yrs tho, which is legally obligated to keep up.
KPMG report says India's solar power gen will reach 68GW - or 7% of total gen then - by '22, triple the govt target. Also says solar cost will be on par with conventional thermal by '20, partly because they project coal, NG prices to rise 4-5%/y. India's solar currently 40MW. Total elgen cap ~179GW.
Thailand going with 3 800-MW NG-fired power plants, putting off plans for 9 coal-fired plants and 5 nukes. But they say new coal tech as clean as NG!
GE unveiled latest wind turbine - the 1.6-100. 630MW ordered already. Their most efficient turbine to date. Blades over 100 meters. 47% increase in swept area, 19% incr in annual el prod w/ 7.5 meters/second wind (<2mph by my crude math).
Well, let's end war on Earth for good, huh? That's the first step. Step 2 is terrorists. But the two pretty much comingle, don't they? Onward and upward pards.
Russia lifting grain export ban as drought, floods ruin Europe, US crops.
Belarus devalued its ruble 36% overnight last week.
Dominion Virginia began ops at new 580MW combined-cycle NG plant. $619M. 24 permanent jobs. Combined-cycle uses exhaust from combustion turbines to generate steam to drive another turbine. VA 2nd only to CA in amount of imported el from other states.
Gamesa to launch 4.5MW wind turbine in China around turn of year. 4 mnfctrg plants now in China, 3 more planned.
GE/Cisco partnered up to provide windfarm-wide wireless connectivity for phase 1 - 30 GE turbines - of First Wind's UT farm.
Duke Power buying 20MW WI windfarm. Gives them >1GW of gen cap at 10 US windfarms. They've invested $1.5B in wind, solar power. Also plan to build a 168MW windfarm in KS, start in fall.
CA E Commission approved $16M for cleaner trans projects, leveraging another $9.6M in private match funds. Projects include hybrid trucks and buses, lith-ion batt module production line, algae-to-oil pilot plant and reducing buyer costs of new alt-fuel vehicles.
KY Utilities wants $1.1B rate increase to pay for upgrades to 2 coal plants to control particulates, mercury. Louisville G&E asking for $1.4B. Both owned by PPL Corp.
1st 4 months '11, US consumer price index up 9.7% annualized. PPI up 12.8%. Import prices up 26.7%. Last 4 yrs, inflation has wiped out all growth of weekly earnings. Or, to put it the other way, weekly earnings have kept up with inflation. No rises for social security last 2 yrs tho, which is legally obligated to keep up.
KPMG report says India's solar power gen will reach 68GW - or 7% of total gen then - by '22, triple the govt target. Also says solar cost will be on par with conventional thermal by '20, partly because they project coal, NG prices to rise 4-5%/y. India's solar currently 40MW. Total elgen cap ~179GW.
Thailand going with 3 800-MW NG-fired power plants, putting off plans for 9 coal-fired plants and 5 nukes. But they say new coal tech as clean as NG!
GE unveiled latest wind turbine - the 1.6-100. 630MW ordered already. Their most efficient turbine to date. Blades over 100 meters. 47% increase in swept area, 19% incr in annual el prod w/ 7.5 meters/second wind (<2mph by my crude math).
Well, let's end war on Earth for good, huh? That's the first step. Step 2 is terrorists. But the two pretty much comingle, don't they? Onward and upward pards.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
SATURDAY
Memorial Day weekend. Car races. Baseball. Parades. "Taste of Cincinnati". How we celebrate war after war after war and our warriors. Oy. What's in it for our warriors? Free beers for life?
Heck, I'm just going to write some more energy news. Maybe tomorrow. Crap on TV. Of course, it's free. But such beautiful weather it's a sin to watch TV anyway. But no money to go flying with or even go see the pards at the bar. It's the end of the month. When you get paid at the top of the month, it's rough at the bottom. O, sure, I made 20 something percent on UBRG Friday, but that's not spendin' money.
But, more to our shared concern, how much longer can we afford our "Pax USA"? We police the world. And Bin Laden and comp made that bill what?, more than we could chew? We should examine the whole picture. Even think of ending this empire thing. What if we just started taking care of ourselves like the rest of the world? Well, I don't know. Maybe that's not us. We do like to give. But within reason might apply.
Getting Bin Laden and the rest of the hating arses was something we had to do. And we'll have to continue to do it. Because they ruin life. But it doesn't have to cost what we are spending. And, again, let's consider Ike's last werdz as President: "beware the military-industrial complex". But, for God's sake, let's honor our fellow warriors. How about, first, with great jobs when they come out of service. Too many stories of homelessness and neglect and suicide and police standoffs. Let's take good care of our warriors, yea? And remember and honor all whom ever served in war for what we have today.
Happy Memorial Weekend pards.
Heck, I'm just going to write some more energy news. Maybe tomorrow. Crap on TV. Of course, it's free. But such beautiful weather it's a sin to watch TV anyway. But no money to go flying with or even go see the pards at the bar. It's the end of the month. When you get paid at the top of the month, it's rough at the bottom. O, sure, I made 20 something percent on UBRG Friday, but that's not spendin' money.
But, more to our shared concern, how much longer can we afford our "Pax USA"? We police the world. And Bin Laden and comp made that bill what?, more than we could chew? We should examine the whole picture. Even think of ending this empire thing. What if we just started taking care of ourselves like the rest of the world? Well, I don't know. Maybe that's not us. We do like to give. But within reason might apply.
Getting Bin Laden and the rest of the hating arses was something we had to do. And we'll have to continue to do it. Because they ruin life. But it doesn't have to cost what we are spending. And, again, let's consider Ike's last werdz as President: "beware the military-industrial complex". But, for God's sake, let's honor our fellow warriors. How about, first, with great jobs when they come out of service. Too many stories of homelessness and neglect and suicide and police standoffs. Let's take good care of our warriors, yea? And remember and honor all whom ever served in war for what we have today.
Happy Memorial Weekend pards.
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