QUICK NEWS, March 31: $100MIL NEW ENERGY LAND GRAB; SIEMENS DOUBLES DOWN ON UK OCEAN WIND W/$264MIL FACTORY; LEBANON RICH WITH GEOTHERMAL

$100MIL NEW ENERGY LAND GRAB Altus and Macquarie to Finance Land for Wind and Solar Power

Justin Doom, March 20, 2014 (Bloomberg News)

“Altus Power America Management LLC, a U.S. renewable-energy investment company, and Macquarie Group Ltd. (MQG) will invest as much as $100 million in a program to buy land that developers will use for large power projects and lease it back to them...Leasing the land will free up more capital for renewable-power systems…Wind and solar projects qualify for federal tax credits that don’t apply to purchases of the land where they’re built…The first land deal may close as early as the second quarter…The nationwide program will target the U.S. West and Southwest…[Altus] started a fund in November to finance commercial solar projects…” click here for more

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SIEMENS DOUBLES DOWN ON UK OCEAN WIND W/$264MIL FACTORY Siemens doubles investment plan for UK wind turbine factory

Karolin Schaps and Jane Baird, March 25, 2014 (Reuters)

“German engineering group Siemens said it had doubled the money it plans to invest in building an offshore wind turbine factory and an installation facility in Britain to 160 million pounds ($263.8 million)…Associated British Ports, its partner in the Green Port Hull installation part of the project, will spend another 150 million pounds…The companies expect the two sites to create jobs for up to 1,000 people…[T]he world's top offshore wind turbine maker will start producing nacelles, the engines that power wind farms, and its largest model of offshore wind turbines at 6 megawatts (MW) each, now made in Demark, [in mid-2016] at a new manufacturing plant…Britain wants to defend its spot at the top of the world's offshore wind ranking by supporting the construction of new wind farms through a guaranteed electricity price mechanism…” click here for more

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LEBANON RICH WITH GEOTHERMAL …Lebanon sitting on extensive geothermal energy

March 25, 2014 (The Daily Star)

“…[T]he geothermal energy available in [Lebanon through soon to be available technology] is 1,000 million megawatt hours, which is 70 fold the amount of energy needed in Lebanon per year [according to Energy and Water Minister Arthur Nazarian…The minister underlined the need begin work…as the extraction process takes a long time…Nazarian said that the ideal scenario would be to meet 0.2 percent of Lebanon’s total energy needs with geothermal sources by 2025…[The first step is] to establish a geothermal atlas for the country and estimate the current overall potential of geothermal heat and power generation, and the ability of geothermal power to assist in the objective of the Lebanese government in meeting 12 percent of its total energy needs from renewable energy sources by 2020…[F]ew countries have implemented serious and complete geothermal assessments…” click here for more

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