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The University of Georgiaannounced this week that two of its researchers were awarded grants of $2.5million to research and develop biofuels production from switch grass andsunflowers.
AE Biofuels (OTCBB: AEBF)announced the grand opening of its 9,000 square foot demo plant next Monday forintegrating cellulose and starch ethanol, processing feed stocks includinggrass, wheat straw, corn, corn stover and bagasse. Hopefully it will be able toavoid some of the problems Pacific Ethanol (Nasdaq: PEIX) has had. This lastweek the company had to attend a City Council meeting in Burley City, Idaho, toaddress concerns amongst its citizens that the plan stinks. Pacific Ethanol'snew manager Ken Wilson said that
"The odor andintensity of the odor is not consistent with a normal ethanol plant,"Wilson said, "So, to be honest, we've got some work to do." Thecompany has even consulted with an "odor-issue expert", according to Wilson.
Oregon's Snake River Ethanolannounced plans to construct a 130 million gallon per year corn and sugar beetethanol plant at Nyssa. The company plans to use a fractionation technology toseparate brans and oils to processing, selling them as separate co-products.
CSR announced plans thisweek for an $18 million upgrade to its biofuels plant in central Queensland. Andthis week, Almoiz Industries announced that the first biomass electricity generationsystem in Pakistan converting waste to energy is expected to begin, generating27MW and consuming 1,777 tonnes of biomass/solid waste per day. Almoiz hasconcluded a 10-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Peshawar ElectricSupply Company.
Malaysia's commoditiesminister said this week that it and Indonesia are collaborating on a biofueldevelopment program. The two countries account for more than 80% of the world'scrude palm oil output.
India's biofuel policy ishaving a tough time with oil companies reportedly unwilling to buy ethanol atthe floor price of Rs 21.50 a liter. The government's initial goal was for oilcompanies to begin 5% optional blending, and this is far short of the 10%longer term goal.
At the annual American SugarAlliance meeting this week, Gareth Forber, of LMC International opined on sugarcane as an ideal feedstock to manufacture ethanol, with Brazil, Australia,Thailand, Columbia and Guatemala being the prime countries for production.
Brazil - Cosan (NYSE: CZZ)Under Government Scrutiny on Working Conditions While ADM and Toyota Expectedto Tap The Market
The Brazilian LaborMinistry's Special Mobile Inspection Unit is critical on Cosan's laborpractices, saying that "the worst work conditions registered in sugarcane productionin 2008 were in the Piracicaba zone (in Sao Paulo) where the COSAN groupworks." COSAN has 16 refineries, 2 sugarcane refineries and 2 port terminals inBrazil.
With the U.S. ethanolmarkets in a glut, ADM has confirmed plans recently to move into sugar-basedethanol production, with chief executive, Patricia Woertz telling the FinancialTimes this week that "We have been interested and continue to stay interestedin an investment in sugar and ethanol processing in Brazil and we have talkedwith several potential partners."
And Toyota this week said itis conducting a feasibility study with Brazil's state-run Petrobras into thepossibility of building an ethanol plant near the west-center state of Goias.
Earnings
· Archer Daniels Midland (NYSE: ADM) reported a61% decline in Q2 profit to $372 million, or $0.58 per share, on revenue of$21.78 billion, up from $12.21 billion on a Y/Y basis.
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The Andersons (Nasdaq: ANDE) reported Q2 net income of $45.6 million, or $2.48 million per diluted share on revenues of $1.1billion, up from $634 million in revenues for the same period last year.Management had previously revised fully year EPS guidance to $5 - $5.40 per diluted share.
CarbonCapture and Markets
The Carbon Markets Association (CMA) and International Carbon Investors and Services (INCIS) announced that they are merging to form the Carbon Markets and Investors Association (CMIA) this week, which incorporates 60 organizations accounting for about three quarters of the transaction value in the $64 billion global carbon market.
The Australian Securities Exchange said this week that it is going to introduce futures contracts for renewable energy credits, natural gas and coal in advance of starting carbon futures trading in the Q3 of 2009.
The China Beijing Environment Exchange was established this week, and will work under the direction of the NDRC, Ministry of Environmental Protection of the PRC and Beijing Municipal People's Government. The exchange will engage in the exchange of clean technologies, energy conservation and pollution emission reduction.
Also in China, the CSIRO post-combustion capture (PCC) pilot plant at the Huaneng Beijing Co-Generation Power Plant was officially launched this week. The plant is designed to capture3000 tonnes per year of CO2.
Poland said on Wednesday that it is trying to find support from other EU members to block Brussel's curbs on CO2 emissions, claiming that they are hurting economic growth. Poland is looking for a quota around 284.6 million tonnes per year, as opposed to the208.5 million tonnes that Brussels has designated. 96% of Poland's electricity is generated by coal.
The EU and the UN have agreed this week to begin swapping carbon trading permits in October, which will allow European companies to get permits to pollute, if they invest in projects that cut emissions elsewhere in the world, which can range from tree-planting to replacing coal-fired plants with clean, or cleaner technologies.
Book Plug
Steven Stoft has made available transcripts of his book "Carbonomics - How to Fix the Climate and Charge it toOPEC" available for not charge at his website. The work is provocative, insightful and definitely worth a read. We highly recommend it,and again, it downloadable at no charge.
Energy Management
The Bank of Queensland is going to trial a new EDS (NYSE: EDS) service to help companies calculate energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions generated by their IT infrastructures.EDS says the service will enable businesses to reduce IT-related emissions by up to 40% and the total cost of ownership by up to 30%. Just about two weeks ago,SAP (NYSE:SAP) revealed a solution for energy management for businesses.
Earnings
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EnerNOC (Nasdaq: ENOC) reported a Q2 net loss of $10.4 million, or $(0.54) per share, on revenue of $23.6 million, an increase of 97% on a Y/Y basis. The company raised guidance for FY 2008 to a range of $101 million to $107 million, up from previously stated guidance of$99 million to $105 million.
Orion Energy (Nasdaq: OESX) reported Q1 net income of $0.03 million on revenue of $16.1 million, as compared to $16.7million Y/Y. Management reiterated its FY 2009 guidance of 25% to 28% Y/Y revenue growth, between $101 and $103 million. EPS guidance for FY 2009 is$0.16 to $0.19 per diluted share.
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Power Secure (Nasdaq: POWR) reported Q2 income of $4.9 million, or $0.29 per diluted share, on revenue of $41.9 million, up 85%on a Y/Y basis. Management reported that backlog grew to $112 million, with$101 million expected to be recognized after June 30, 2008. The stock traded up to $9 in after hours on the news from the close of $6.07.
Energy Storage and Fuel Cells
Condolencesgo out to the family and friends of Geoffrey Ballard, founder of Ballard PowerSystems, who has died this week at the age of 76.
Hydrogenics (Nasdaq: HYGS)reported that it has been selected by Powertech Labs to provide an electrolyzer for a community hydrogen-diesel system in British Columbia, that will enable its Bella Coola project to increase the proportion of electricity derived from their run-of-the-river hydro-electric power generation system.
Spanish researchers unveiled a super lattice electrolyte this week that would have greater conductivity(almost 100 million times) and efficiency for fuel cells while cutting downcosts, compared to the conventional solid-oxide fuel cells.
And two technologies developed under the DOE's Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance (SECA) fuel cell program have passed proof-of-concept tests at the U.S. Navy's Undersea Warfare Division. The technologies revolve around solid oxide fuel cell-based power systems and would bode well for spin-off applications. It should beinteresting to learn what the impact of the Spanish superlattice electrolytetechnology revealed this week will have on these results.
Earnings
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EnerSys (NYSE: ENS) reported Q1, 2009 earnings of $25.5 million, or $0.50 per diluted share, on revenue of $529.1 million, up from $429.9 million last year. Expectations for Q2 diluted earnings per share are between $0.49 and $0.53 per share - excluding a charge of $1.2 million from the restructuring actions in Europe.
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Greatbatch (NYSE: GB) reported Q2 earnings of$5.8 million, or $0.26 per share, up from a loss of $1.9 million (loss of $0.15per share) Y/Y on revenue of $141.6 million, an increase of 80% over the $78.4million reported last year.
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Maxwell Technologies (Nasdaq: MXWL) reported aQ2 loss of $5.0 million or $(0.24) per share, compared with a net loss of $7.9million last year. Revenues were $19.6 million, up from $13.6 million Y/Y. Ultracapacitor sales for hybrid and electric vehicles are the primary catalysts for growth.
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Valence Technology (Nasdaq: VLNC) reported a loss for Q1, 2009, of 5.5 million, or $0.05 per share, on revenues of $10.9million, up 165% on a Y/Y basis.
Geothermal
Federal land managers sold a record $28.2 million in geothermal leases in Nevada this week.
Raser Technologies (NYSE: RZ)announced completion of an analysis of a well field in Utah for its Thermo project, which indicated 3.6MW net at the well depth level that Raser intends to produce, and that "ample resources are available in the immediate vicinity"to support a 10MW plant. The report also stated that Raser's field can likely sustain 238MW gross with a 90% probability of sustaining 138MW of geothermalenergy.
TRU energy announced a staged investment of AUS$57 million in Petratherm's Paralanga geothermal project in South Australia. TRU energy will take up to a 30% stake in the project overtime, initially investing $6 million (10% stake) for drilling first and second wells later this year. Then it will invest $7 million (for 5% more) toward th edevelopment of a 7.5MW pilot plant expected to be operational by mid-2010.Finally it will invest $44 million for a 30MW demo plant. It will also provide its share of the project costs at each stage.
Earnings
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Ormat (NYSE: ORA) reported Q2 earnings of$12.1 million, or $0.28 per share, on revenues of $80.2 million, compared to$94.1 million for the Q2 last year. The company also announced a backlog which increased $144 million to $186 million.
Hybridand PHEV
Tesla Motors added to its brain-trust this week with a hire of Ford Executive Deepak Ahuja as its CFO.Ahuja formerly served as controller to Ford's small cars product development program.
Nissan Motors
revealed electric and hybrid electric prototype vehicles that are powered by advanced lithium-ion batteries sourced from the Nissan-NEC joint venture. It plans to introduce an all-electric vehicle in 2010 and mass market by 2012.
Mitsubishi Motors said it is going to partner with Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electricto test its zero-emission car, the i MiEV, for use in the U.S. The i MiEV uses a lithium-ion battery that Mitsubishi Motors developed in coordination with GSYuasa Corp.
Solar
Frost & Sullivan reported this week that North America-based solar cell equipment manufacturers will see sales exceed $1.2 billion by 2014, up from $260.2 million in 2007. The increase in thin-film manufacturers is expected to be a key catalyst in the growth, with thin-film substrates helping to bring prices down to $1.3/W by2012, from the current cost of $1.75 to $5.
Hoku (Nasdaq: HOKU) announced another major agreement this week, this time a $284 million supply agreement over 10 years to Tianwei New Energy Holdings. Shipments will commence in the first half of 2010 and the remainder over a 10-year period at set prices that will decline throughout the term of the agreement. Hoku will get a deposit of$15 million this month, and Tianwei will make additional deposits of $15million in November, $10 million in January, 2009 and $5 million upon the firstshipment.
More bad news for MEMC(NYSE: WFR) this week, which reported on Tuesday that the Tropical Storm Edourd passing through Pasadena, Texas, will have a two day effect on polysilicon production. Remember its Q2 results suffered as a result of a failed heat-exchanger at its Merano, Italy facility and a loose pipe fitting at the Pasadena facility.
Concentrated PV cellproducer EMCORE (Nasdaq: EMKR) announced two supply agreements for solar cells and receivers valued at more than $40 million in total. The produce will be developed for commercial rooftop installations as well as utility-scale solar farms. Production has started and about $1 million of product will be shipped this quarter.
GWS Technologies(OTCBB: GWSI) announced additions to its micro generation product line, including portable solar chargers and solar backpacks. The company is targeting the solar-powered personal electronics market as well as wind turbines for point-of-use energy generation. And Spire(Nasdaq: SPIR) announced a new contract for expansion at Tianwei's factory as it automates key manufacturing steps to boost production.
Suniva announced a $500million supply agreement with Solon AG through 2012 to deliver high-efficiency monocrystalline cells to Solon.
Neo Solar Power said its thin-film task force will begin production of its first production line in the second half of 2009, targeting between 30MW and 60MW initial capacity. Its FAB2 facility is scheduled to complete four additional production lines this month, which will add 120MW, bringing total capacity to 210MW. It intends toadd 300MW of capacity in 2009, and its goal for 2010 is to reach 660MWcapacity. And Sanyo has opened its PV module assembly plant, with an initial capacity of 40MW per year. The company has a stated goal to invest about $650million in solar over the next three
years.
The $65 million10.6MWPennsylvania Solar Park is slated for construction by Green Energy Capital Partners. The project is being financed through private investment, federal andstate incentives and tax credits. Construction should commence by March, 2009and will be fully operational within about four months after groundbreaking.The only solar farm in the U.S. that will be bigger than the PA project is a15MW field in at Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas.
Earnings
EMCORE reported preliminaryQ3 results this week, with a net loss of $7.7 million, or $(0.10) per share on revenue of $75.5 million, which was up 70% on a Y/Y basis, and up 34%sequentially.
Legal
GT Solar's (Nasdaq: SOLR)woes continue, with more class action lawsuits stacking up. So far this week Abraham, Fruchter & Twersky LP, Brower Piven and Shapiro Haber & Urmy are the latest to pile on. We hope these get tossed out as spurious, but the opportunism from these legal eagles and their investors doesn't surprise.
WaterTreatment
Aquatech International won a pretreatment contract for the 900MW Sandy Creek Energy Station coal-fired plant in Texas. It will supply two lime softening clarifiers and the treated water from the system will be used as make up to cooling tower and for process use within the plant.
Officials broke ground on the Randleman Water Treatment Plant in Pennsylvania this week, which is the final phase in the Randleman Dam Project and will be capable of treating 50million gallons of water. It should be operational by 2010.
China Everbright International announced an agreement with Jinan's government for a wastewater treatment plant which will be able to treat 100,000 tons of wastewater per day.And Global Water Engineering (GWE) has won a contract for a 5-stage treatment plant for the Siam Cement Group in Thailand.
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