Private Sector Initiatives

• Following close on the heels of California's recently announced Solar Initiative (CSI - see below), two southern California apparel companies began plans to integrate solar production into their businesses. Patagonia installed a 66kw Sharp Solar PV carport, and American Apparel hired LA-based Permacity Solar to install 465 Schott 315-watt ASE PV Modules and a SatCon 135 inverter on the roof of its main production facility in downtown LA, a system that will total to 146 kw of capacity.

• Whole Foods announced that it will purchase sufficient wind energy credits to power all its stores. The plan, which will result in the purchase of 458,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) of wind credits annually from Boulder, Colorado-based Renewable Choice Energy, is the largest ever corporate purchase of renewable energy credits in the US. Via Knowledge Problem, where Lynne Kiesling adds value with worthy questions and a discussion about whether subsidies for wind power are still necessary.

• The Whole Foods wind power plan makes it second only to the US Air Force's 1 million MWh of renewable energy on the Environmental Protection Agency's recently-released list of top 25 partners in its Green Power Partnership. As Jamais Cascio at Worldchanging notes, the group of firms considered for the list, all of which have agreed to purchase green power (including biomass, biogas, geothermal, micro-hydro, solar, and wind power) preferentially, consumed over 4 million megawatt-hours of renewable energy in 2005 - nearly a 100% increase over 2004 consumption.

• The Walgreens chain of pharmacy stores will work with Denver-based ImagineIt, Inc to install rooftop solar PV systems on 112 of Walgreens' 2,080 stores. The project will allow each store to generate 20-50% of its overall electricity requirements onsite, and is expected to generate 13.8 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year in total.

• The US Green Building Council has certified buildings at over 110 campuses nationwide as meeting its standards for increased energy efficiency. Their announcement includes anecdotes from a variety of interesting projects, including a 'living roof' at Carnegie Mellon in (Super Bowl XL champs!) Pittsburgh.

• Pittsburgh partisan Lynne Kiesling has an interesting post up on the potential for distributed monitoring and sensing technologies to improve the efficiency of our transportation and electric power systems - and whether or not there's a role for government in facilitating the deployment of these technologies.

Investment and Mergers

• China National Off-Shore Oil Company (CNOOC) will pay $2.3 billion to buy a 45% stake in deepwater oil and gas field Nigerian Oil Mining License (OML) from South Atlantic Petroleum Limited. The territory involved with the purchase, which covers the substantial Akpo oil field, will come onstream in the second half of 2008, contributing another 19% in daily oil production over CNOOC's 2005 rate of 410,000 barrels per day. The move follows CNOOC's failed $18.5 billion bid for Unocal, which it lost to Chevron last summer; this post by Geoff Styles discusses why the acquisition of Nigerian OML makes better strategic sense.

• Toshiba won its bidding war with GE for Pittsburgh-based nuclear reactor vendor Westinghouse, paying $5 billion to purchase the company from the UK state-owned nuclear group BNFL. Toshiba's purchase includes Westinghouse's forthcoming AP1000 pressurized water reactor, as well as BNFL's 22.5% stake in the South Africa pebble bed modular reactor (PBMR) project. Nuclear professional Rod Adams, who called the impending sale a nuclear referendum in the market back in July, was particularly pleased to note that the winning bid was nearly 3x the government's original estimate.

• The Cleantech Capital Group has partnered with the American Stock exchange to begin publishing the Cleantech Index, a stock index comprised of 75 companies that derive at least half of their revenue from 'cleantech' products and services. They define 'cleantech' as 'any knowledge-based product or service that improves operational performance, productivity or efficiency while reducing costs, inputs, energy consumption, waste or pollution.' The index's combined market capitalization is in excess of $100 billion, and the possibility is being discussed that a related financial product be created, such as an exchange-traded fund that would track the index.

• As a run-up to the recently-begun trial of ex-Enron executives Jeff Skilling and Ken Lay, this New York Times article neatly summarizes the current state of energy trading, much of which has settled in hedge funds and investment banks post-Enron. At least 450 hedge funds, with an estimated $60 billion in total assets, currently focus on energy- and environment-related trading. Via Geoff Styles, who adds some personal thoughts based on his experience as an energy trader.

Domestic Policies

• As noted last Thursday, President Bush outlined his Advanced Energy Initiative (AEI) during this year's State of the Union Address. While the president has featured calls for 'energy independence' in all of his SotUs, and while the real follow-through from the speech remains to be proven via congressional approval, the White House has included some concrete fiscal committments in the 2007 budget, including $289 million for hydrogen fuel cell research, $281 million toward clean coal development, and $150 million toward biofuel research.

• President Bush also proposed the Solar America Initiative, which includes $65 million for public-private sector solar research partnerships, including the Thin Film Partnership and the Crystalline Silicon Initiative.

• Though it wasn't mentioned in the State of the Union, the White House is also planning a Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, which would facilitate the provision of nuclear reactors and 'cradle to grave fuel cycle services' for developing countries. The initiative would revive nuclear fuel reprocessing in the US and include $250 million in funding for research on 'proliferation resistant' reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. Nuclear fuel reprocessing has been banned in the US since 1979 due to security concerns, and the new proliferation-blog Nuclear Fuel Cycle doubts that the proposal will pass due in large part to the persistence of these concerns (via NEI Nuclear Notes).

• The California Public Utility Commission voted 3-1 in favor of passing the California Solar Initiative (CSI), the largest solar initiative in the world in terms of investment. Allocating $3.1 billion in solar incentives over the next 10 years, the CSI replaces a patchwork of short-term incentive-based renewable initiatives while allowing immediate market stimulation with $300 million in stop-gap funding for solar projects currently on hold. This jubilant post by Arno Harris at Clean Energy Future provides an excellent, in-depth review of the initiative.

• The Environmental Economics blog notes that the EPA has proposed new methods for calculating fuel-efficiency standards for cars, SUVs and pick-up trucks starting in model year 2008 (cars that are expected to be available in fall of 2007) - the first such change since 1985. Under the new methods, which take into account high speed and rapid acceleration, use of air conditioning and cold weather operation, existing mile per gallon estimates would drop 10-20% for city driving, and 5-15% for highway driving. The EPA is also proposing a universal adjustment to better account for other conditions that can affect fuel economy but aren't included in efficiency tests, such as road grade, wind, tire pressure, load, and the effects of different fuel properties.

• In a distinctly Chinese approach to improving energy efficiency, Beijing has announced the creation of a team of 20 "energy police" to monitor excessive use of heat and lighting in large public spaces like office buildings and shopping malls.

International Affairs

• A group of Nigerian rebels calling themselves the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta attacked Royal Dutch Shell locations in the region and held four foreign oil workers hostage for 19 days (they have since been safely released). The group - which is demanding $1.5 billion from Shell (as 'compensation for pollution'), more control over the region's oil wealth, and the release of two imprisoned ethnic Ijaw leaders - caused Shell to withdraw 330 workers from the delta, resulting in a hefty reduction in Nigeria's overall oil production – 10% of the nation's 2.4 million barrels a day by one estimate (via Knowledge Problem) . The group has vowed more attacks and says it aims to cut Nigerian oil exports by 30 percent in February, and Global Guerillas' John Robb sees networked potential for big mayhem and big bucks.

• Russia continues to find itself accused by its Eastern European neighbors of abusing the power it holds over local natural gas markets. After last month's pricing dispute between Russian and Ukraine, Georgia is now accusing Russia of waging an energy blockage by cutting off its supply of natural gas in retaliation against the nation's pro-US policies. The supply disruption came as the result of pipeline sabotage (noted and discussed by John Robb here), the repair of which Georgia claims Russia purposefully prolonged. Georgia signed 30-day supply contracts with Azerbaijan and Iran while pipeline repairs were being completed, and is hoping to secure gas from Azerbaijan on a longer term basis and reduce its dependence on Russian gas in the future.

• At its inaugural meeting in Sydney, the US-Australia-India-Japan-China-South-Korea Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate announced the creation of a new fund to promote the development and use of clean energy technologies. In addition, the APP (aka the AP6) formed eight industry-specific working groups to develop projects for the fund, each of which will include executives focused in the mining, renewable energy, aluminium, cement, distributed energy, power generation, building and appliance efficiency and transportation sectors. While the US has yet to announce the exact amount it plans to contribute, Australia is expected to chip in $75m USD.