Anecdotes and Implications
1) First Solar has increased its view of 2010 solar PV installations from 7.5 to 9.9 Gigawatts, worldwide.
2) Several investment banks are working on structured products (private or public) to serve institutional or public investors seeking lower risk opportunities in renewable power projects. While direct placement of larger projects are already available, one format would include a package of smaller (25 MW) projects, bundled into a mortgage REIT of sorts.
3) Developers of a proposed coal fired power plant in Texas have reached agreement with one (but not all) opponents by agreeing to capture and sequester 85% of the CO2 from the plant. CO2 has real value in the southwest, for the production of crude oil that remains after primary recovery operations. Studies conclude that there is significant oil recovery potential from CO2 injection (a billion barrels from the largest top 100 of nearly 5000 oil pools). The capital/megawatt metrics suggest this plant will be over twice (possibly 4x) the cost of a similar plant without CO2 capture.
4) Shades of oil and gas problems in Utah, as wind power proposals are facing similar permitting problems. Opponents are concerned about the effect of wind power on sage grouse. There are no projects in the queue, yet, but wildlife concerns are building in a number of states.
5) Desertec Underway? The pie in the sky ($500 billion over 40 years) project otherwise known as Desertec (http://www.desertec.org/), whose goal is to develop enough solar PV in Northern Africa to supply 15% of Europe’s long term electricity needs, starts with baby steps. Germany has signed an agreement to develop solar thermal plants in Algeria, primarily to produce electricity for desalination. Prospective solar PV costs of the 200 MW facility are around 6 cents/khw by 2015-2020, to provide water for 50,000 consumers. Solar-gas hybrid pilot plants are already in service, and the two countries are developing a transmission line from Algeria to Germany, designed to carry additional power from hybrid (solar-gas) sources.