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Solix Biofuels Inc. said Thursday it has started the production of oil made from algae at its Coyote Gulch Demonstration Facility, with full-scale commercial operation set for late summer.

Solix, a Colorado State University startup company based in Fort Collins, has been working on techniques to produce renewable, biologically based fuels from microscopic algae organisms.

“We are ready to prove to the world the viability of algae as an alternative to petroleum-based fuels,” Solix COO Rich Schoonover said in a statement.

Coyote Gulch is located on a two-acre site in the Durango area on land provided by the Southern Ute tribe....

Oil prices dipped after a government report showed U.S. fuel supplies are growing, with American consumers buying less gas even at a huge discounts to last year.

Benchmark crude for September delivery dropped 21 cents to settle at $65.40 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after falling as low as $63.76. In London, Brent prices rose 32 cents to $67.19 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Energy prices got a boost this past week as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the economy was improving and companies reported strong second-quarter earnings.

But Wednesday, traders focused on a report by the Energy Information Administration's that showed bulging supplies of motor gasoline and distillate fuel....

For centuries, Mediterranean countries have found countless ways to disagree -- over religion, ethnicity, colonialism and trade. But there are signs the region might yet unite in pursuit of a common goal: renewable energy.

European government and industry have been eyeing tracts of sun-drenched, vacant land in North Africa and the Middle East for some time. And now, officials and business executives are beginning to sweat out the details that could see renewable power sprouting in the desert.

Their vision is ambitious. By 2050, massive solar thermal plants, which concentrate the sun's energy using mirrors to heat steam-generating media, would sprawl across the Sahara and Middle East, feeding most of their power to their host nations. Leftover energy, meanwhile, would travel north on a new €45 billion grid to meet 15 percent of Europe's electricity needs....

At first glance, it might look like oil companies are pulling out of renewables. At the end of June, BP closed its alternative-energy headquarters. The oil company also has cut its alternative-energy budget and closed several solar factories in Spain. And that's after Shell sold off most of its solar business at the end of 2007. But while solar might not have been the best fit for the petroleum industry, analysts say that oil companies might be better-positioned in renewable fuels - and are seeing some obvious signs of movement into the area.

One of the biggest is ExxonMobil's announcement last week that it will invest more than $600 million in algae-based biofuels, with more than $300 million going to Synthetic Genomics....

Seeking to rein in its emissions of greenhouse gases, China is on an ambitious spending spree in wind power. The government is working on plans to shell out 1 trillion yuan ($146 billion) to build seven massive wind farms with a combined capacity of more than 120 gigawatts, roughly equal to the world's total installed wind power plants last year.

The world's largest producer of carbon emissions has been doubling its wind power capacity every year since 2006; it was the world's second-largest buyer of wind turbines in 2008. Yet, about 30% of its wind power assets are not in use--much of that not even connected to the transmission grid--a result of Chinese power companies turning to wind as the cheapest, easiest way to satisfy on paper government requirements to boost renewable energy capacity....

Tuvalu, the fourth smallest nation on the planet, has announced it aims to be totally powered by renewable energy sources by 2020.
The football stadium roof in Tuvalu's capital, Funafuti, is covered in solar panels.

Located between Hawaii and Australia, the tiny Pacific nation is one of the world's climate change hotspots and many believe it is already seeing the negative affects of rising sea levels.

The highest elevation on the island is just 4.5 meters (14.8 feet), and king tides have become increasingly damaging over the past 10 years, threatening the homes and livelihoods of its 12,000 inhabitants....

Oil rose a dollar to above $64 a barrel on Monday, reaching its highest level in almost two weeks, as equities firmed and the dollar fell
on expectations of a global economic recovery.

The market jumped 6.1 percent last week -- its first weekly gain in a month -- thanks to a series of positive economic data and a rally in equities due to better-than-expected U.S. corporate earnings.

U.S. crude oil for August delivery rose $1.10 to $64.66 a barrel by 1143 GMT. Prices climbed as high as $64.90, the highest since July 7. Brent crude for September added $1.00 to $66.38.

"The macro inputs should continue to dominate this week and it will be hard for crude oil to fight the combined strength of equities and weakness of the dollar," said Olivier Jakob, oil analyst at Petromatrix....

Could the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm become obsolete before it is even built?

Aesthetic concerns have stalled the Cape Wind project, which would erect 130 turbines 5 to 13 miles from Cape Cod and Nantucket. But technological advances in recent years are allowing developers elsewhere to consider building wind turbines farther from shore, where they would be less visible.

Last month, the US Department of the Interior granted the nation’s first ocean leases for exploring the feasibility of large wind farms, with most of the sites 12 to 18 miles off New Jersey and Delaware. New York power companies are exploring the possibility of a vast wind farm 13 miles off the Rockaways. And a 120-turbine farm has been proposed 48 miles off New Bedford....

Is Big Oil warming at last to the notion of an alternative-energy future?

So say some analysts who are pondering Exxon Mobil Corp.'s recent moves. Breaking from years of steadfast commitment to fossil fuels, the behemoth has announced big investments in electric cars, unconventional natural gas and algae-based biofuels (Greenwire, July 14).

"I think they see changes to the energy system coming over the next decades," said Michael Webber, an energy expert and engineering professor at the University of Texas. "It's pretty transparent that the energy field will be different 30 years from now. They're an energy company, so they had better be prepared than to wait."...

The Department of Energy is starting a new partnership with the nation's six largest wind turbine manufacturers, in an effort to promote research, development and building of new wind farms. The ultimate goal is to provide 20% of the nation's energy from wind by 2030, a goal the DOE says is within reach.

The companies partnering with the government are GE Energy, Siemens Power Generation, Vestas Wind Systems, Clipper Turbine Works, Suzlon Energy, and Gamesa Corporation.

The goal embodies a strategy more often associated with Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, who often talk about enacting new wind energy investments to scale up the industry, creating new jobs and reducing the demand for fossil fuel energy in the process. This policy comes courtesy of the Bush Administration, though....