Just a week after the American Wind Energy Association released its initial installation numbers for North America, with the startling finding that more than 9 and half Gigawatts of new wind capacity was added in 2009, Europe has actually done even better. The European Wind Energy Association announced that the continent had more than 10 Gigawatts of installations last year. This vindicates IDC Energy Insights' bullish position on wind last year (but even we were too timid--predicting 7 GW in North America).

IDC Energy Insights' forecast for Worldwide Oil and Gas Industry IT spending has just been released. Compared with the previous forecast from IDC, overall IT spending in the oil and gas industry for software, hardware and services is expected to rise 4.7% from 2009 for a total global spend of $38.354 billion in 2010.

Boulder's local newspaper, the Boulder Daily Camera, recently reported that the Colorado Public Utilities Commission has decided to take a larger role in regulating Xcel Energy's SmartGridCity project in the same manner that it regulates other large capital investments like power plants.  This will increase the transparency of the project and is primarily a reaction to rising costs.  In March 2008, Xcel Energy projected that capital expenditures for SmartGridCity would be about $15.3 million.  The company now believes the total cost will reach $42.1 million, not including the costs of operating and maintaining the new grid.  It's widely believed that the all-in cost will be around the $100 million mark. 

In December, the Public Utilities Commission approved Xcel Energy's request to raise customers' rates 6.5 percent. The majority of the increase will be used to pay for Comanche 3, Xcel's new coal-fired unit at its power plant outside of Pueblo.  But $11 million from the rate increase - which went into effect Jan. 1 - is earmarked to cover costs associated with SmartGridCity, including capital investment, taxes and operation and maintenance fees for 2009 and 2010.

I've just wrapped up my participation in the Next Generation Utilities Summit APAC in Singapore – attended by approximately 70 utility executives and vendor representatives from across the region.  To say this was a multi-cultural event is an understatement.  As an example, last night at dinner I sat at a table with delegates from New Zealand, Australia, China, Vietnam, Canada and India and listened to strolling Philippino musicians playing Bob Marley cover tunes.  But I digress.  From a business perspective, the top issues discussed at the event had a lot in common with the rest of the world – the smart grid and renewable energy.