QUICK NEWS, August 22: UTIL CEO WANTS NEW ENERGY; SUN POWER PLANT TO PV; CHINA WIND CO BOON FROM SHARE BUY-BACK; HALF A BIL FED $$ TO BIOFUELS

UTIL CEO WANTS NEW ENERGY
Rising from meter-reader to CEO, Xcel's Dick Kelly has sound perspective on environment
Don Shelby, August 16, 2011 (Minnesota Post)

"Dick Kelly will… retire as the CEO of Xcel Energy…[after] working in electricity generation most of his life…[and ending as] CEO of one of the most respected electric utility companies…Coal is the fuel from which most of America's electricity is generated. Kelly has been about the business of driving Xcel to switch coal plants to natural gas, and he's made Xcel the No. 1 provider of wind-produced electricity in the country…"

[Kelly:] "…We've got to get off fossil fuels…The quicker the better...We have a problem with CO2…The science is done. It is clear that CO2 is not good."

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"…Getting into wind in a big way was not a difficult decision for Kelly…[and if] he could stick around another 10 or 20 years, he'd likely put Xcel at the top in electricity production from the sun… Kelly has driven Xcel to exceed the state's mandate on renewable energy…"

[Kelly:] "…I think one of the misconceptions is that many people believe that wind is just outrageously expensive. Truth is, wind power competes very well with natural gas. The technology is getting better. We are getting a lot more kilowatts out of our windmills now. Even solar has come down 50 percent in the last two years…I'd be OK if there were never any more coal."


SUN POWER PLANT TO PV
Another giant solar plant ditches thermal tech for panels
Ucilia Wang, August 18, 2011 (GigaOm)

"Yet another massive solar thermal farm in the California desert is ditching the thermal part and opting for solar panels. Solar Trust of America, which has been developing a 1 GW solar farm in California…will use photovoltaic panels (PV) instead of solar thermal technology for the first 500 MW of the project.

"The change of technology means the company is foregoing the [$2.1 billion federal] loan guarantee and will look for private cash and loans for the project…PV technology offers some advantages that solar thermal doesn’t have in terms of project size and land use choices, which in turn affect a project’s development cost. Solar panel prices…have fallen by more than half in the past two years, making them a more attractive choice for developers…[P]rivate financing for PV projects is readily available."

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"Developers of several solar farms in California have already announced plans to switch from solar thermal to PV, including the Calico Solar Project and the Imperial Valley Solar Project. NRG, which has invested in a solar thermal power plant by BrightSource Energy, replaced two solar thermal power plant projects in favor of using solar panels.

"Solar Trust will ask the federal Bureau of Land Management to amend its permit…[and] keep doing some site preparation work for Blythe, but full-scale construction won’t start until the third quarter of next year…If it had chosen to use solar panels [from the start], then it wouldn’t have had to be under [a costly permitting] review by the energy commission, which oversees solar thermal power plants that are 50 MW or larger…[T]hat task belongs to the counties or cities in which the projects reside…"


CHINA WIND CO BOON FROM SHARE BUY-BACK
China Ming Yang Wind Power To Buy Back Up $50 Mln Of ADSs
August 15, 2011 (RTT News)

"China Ming Yang Wind Power Ltd….[said] its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program, effective immediately, authorizing the company to repurchase up to US$50 million worth of its issued and outstanding American Depositary Shares…The share repurchase program will be funded by the company's available working capital…of about US$265.6 million."

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[Chuanwei Zhang, Chairman/CEO, Ming Yang:] "This program reaffirms our confidence in the long-term growth of the Company…We believe our ADSs are currently undervalued, and the share repurchase program not only represents a good investment for our company, but also demonstrates our commitment to increase shareholder value."


HALF A BIL FED $$ TO BIOFUELS
Federal Agencies Commit $510M to Biofuels; The Navy wants biofuels, and it wants them now
Katherine Tweed, August 16, 2011 (Greentech Media)

"…The U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Energy have teamed up with the Navy to spend up to $510 million over the next three years to advance drop-in biofuels for aviation and marine applications to power the military.

"…[L]ast week, the U.S. Army announced the creation of an Energy Initiatives Office to help the agency centrally plan and deploy renewable energy projects. The Army is looking to get 25 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2025."

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"The Navy also announced a partnership with the DOE’s research arm, ARPA-E to develop grid-level energy storage. The Navy has set some ambitious clean energy goals for the coming years, including having half of the energy used by the department coming from alternative fuel or alternative sources by 2020...

"The funding for drop-in biofuels is more than the entire funding that ARPA-E received in 2009, which was about $400 million. The focus on biofuels will certainly reignite the fuel vs. food debate, as there have yet to be commercially competitive fuels from other sources, such as algae…[though the navy] has a deal to get hundreds of thousands gallons of algae fuel from Solazyme…"