QUICK NEWS, January 23: THAT WACKY NAT GAS PRICE; A SOLUTION FOR BATS IN THE WIND; FIRST SOLAR’S BETTER CDTE EFFICIENCY

THAT WACKY NAT GAS PRICE
End to low natural gas prices 'inevitable'
David Parkinson, January 17, 2012 (Globe and Mail)

"After three years of deeply depressed natural gas prices (NG-FT) and facing another to come, Canada’s biggest natural gas producer is losing its stomach for the commodity...Encana Corp., (ECA-T)...[will] steer its multibillion-dollar capital spending program for 2012 toward oil and natural-gas-liquids drilling, and away from the “dry” gas deposits…With natural gas prices mired below $3 (U.S.) per million British thermal units – the first time in a decade that gas has been this cheap in the winter heating season – and with bloated inventories and unseasonably warm weather pointing to little relief in sight, drilling for gas is a money-losing proposition…"

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"…The North American industry faces the prospect of losing billions of dollars just to replace the natural depletion of existing wells and maintain production at 2011 levels…And while many experts think the oversupplied market could keep prices depressed for much of this year, they say this growing reluctance to invest in gas production is bound to eventually take a big bite out of supplies, and finally turn prices around…[though] for more than a year many people have been saying that low prices were going to slow exploration and production, and boost prices – yet prices are even lower now than they were at the start of 2011…

"One factor is that as producers have shifted their focus toward liquids-heavy gas properties, they have continued to unlock dry gas in the process – and they have been able to use the ample cash generated by liquids production to justify bringing otherwise uneconomic gas on stream…Hedging programs – under which producers agree to sell future production at fixed prices – have also helped sustain gas production…[Though] the Nymex natural gas futures contract for delivery one year from now is priced at a mere $3.67… shrewder hedgers have still been able to lock in comfortable prices for 2012…"

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"…[Abundant] shale wells not only cost ‘three to four times’ as much to develop as conventional gas wells, their rate of depletion – the amount production declines over time, a natural phenomenon with all wells –….has risen from about 23 per cent five years ago to more than 32 per cent now…[C]ombined with the 20-per-cent surge in North American gas production in the past five years, (which makes for more and more depletions to replace each year), has meant it now costs the industry about $22-billion each quarter just to replace the annual depletions and maintain current volume levels. Yet those producers are seeing only about $12-billion a quarter in cash flow…The capital gap is now…40-billion a year…"


A SOLUTION FOR BATS IN THE WIND
Avoiding Bat Fatalities On Wind Farms: New Research Shows Promise
17 January 2012 (North American Windpower)

"…[R]esearchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Forest Service have developed a new technology to help wind farm operators tackle [the issue of bat fatalities]. The interactive tool, created by ecologist Ted Weller and statistician Jim Baldwin from the USDA Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Research Station, is designed to help wind energy project operators make informed decisions on efficient ways to reduce wind farms' impacts on migratory bats.

"The tool allows users to visualize how changes in date and weather conditions affect the probability of bat presence…Weller and his research team used devices that detected the bats’ echolocation calls, and then linked the presence of bats to the weather conditions measured on-site on a given night…"

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"…They found that echolocation detectors placed at 22 meters and 52 meters above ground were more effective…than those located closer to the ground…[and] multiple echolocation detectors were required to accurately characterize bat activity…The researchers then built models to predict the presence of bats based on date and weather variables…

"The researchers conducted the study at a wind energy facility in the San Gorgonio Pass Wind Resource Area near Palm Springs, Calif., and was a collaborative effort among government, industry and a nongovernmental organization…[including] PSW, Iberdrola Renewables, and the Bats and Wind Energy Cooperative. The primary funding was provided by the California Energy Commission Public Interest Energy Research program…"


FIRST SOLAR’S BETTER CDTE EFFICIENCY
First Solar Sets New CdTe Efficiency Record
17 January 2012 (Solar Industry)

"First Solar, Inc., claims it has set a new world record for cadmium telluride (CdTe) photovoltaic solar module efficiency, achieving 14.4% total area efficiency. The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) confirmed the record, which eclipsed [First Solar’s prior record-setting] 13.4%..."

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"The record-setting product was constructed using commercial-scale manufacturing equipment and materials at the company's Perrysburg, Ohio, factory. First Solar…updated its module efficiency road map in December 2011 to the increased goal of 14.5% to 15% average efficiency for its production modules by the end of 2015, and the process improvements developed for the record-setting cell and module continue to be implemented…"