The game may change, but the players stay the same. Spanish utility Iberdrola is said to be considering a bid for Babcock & Brown's wind energy assets. B&B, which holds nearly 3 GW throughout Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, and Germany, is the world's fifth largest wind operator. Other companies expected to bid on B&B's nearly $4 billion in assets are EdF, Suez, Enel and General Electric. Germany's E.On has declined to say whether it will bid for B&B's assets, though a report from Spain's Expansion says they will, citing unnamed sources. Corn prices hit an all-time high at the Chicago Board of Trade on Wednesday. May corn closed the day at $5.9575, retreating slightly from an intraday high of $5.9925. Corn contracts as far out as December 2008 closed high above the $6 mark, a substantial speculation considering these crops aren't even in the ground yet. Prices surged during the week on news from the USDA that acres devoted to corn are expected to drop eight percent in 2008, down from 86 million acres in 2007. 2008's corn crop will hit close to 12.2 billion bushels, the second highest planting on record, though a smaller amount than traders had expected given the strong corn demand and ethanol refining boom. Nearly one third of this year's corn crop will be used for ethanol production. Installation of Marine Current Turbine's SeaGen tidal turbine has begun off the coast of Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland. The 1.2 MW tidal turbine is a commercial-scale prototype for MCT's dual-rotor tidal turbine, and is expected to provide electricity for nearly 1000 homes on the Irish coast. SeaGen was initially pegged for installation in August 2007, though the Jumpin' Jack jack-up barge required to install the turbine's monopile was called away for another project. MCT's next project's include a three turbine installation near Vancouver, BC in 2009 and a seven turbine installation off the coast of Wales slated for completed in 2011.

Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond announced a $20 million prize for commercial-scale ocean power projects today at the National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C. The prize is aimed at building Scotland's ocean power generation capacity by attracting commercially viable technologies to Scottish waters. But how much capacity can $20 million really buy? PelamisWave, a Scottish company, is already at work installing a 4 MW commercial plant at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney at a cost of around $20 million. The EMEC - part commercial plant, part testing center, was established in 2004 to "help the evolution of marine energy devices from the prototype stage into the commercial market place." While details for the project were left, it is almost certain the $20 million will go for another Pelamis project. Pelamis is also at work developing a 2.25 MW plant in Portugal, where it received substantial subsidies and promise of a feed-in tariff. Earlier this year Pelamis business development manager Max Carcas criticized the UK for not doing enough to promote ocean power in his home country. Carcas said "it was not our choice where we put the technology, it was the customer's. The customer has got to get a return which is competitive. The UK talks a good game, but the action to deliver has been lacking." Salmond's plan may likely be a response to this criticism. I tend to agree with Scottish Lib Dem leader Nicol Stephen, who said "Marine renewable technology needs sustained investment, not recycled gimmicks." Smack down!

The 6th Photon Consulting Silicon Conference is happening this week in Munich. While reports from the conference floor have been sporadic, we were able to get a hold of intel from Jeff Osbourne at Thomas Weisel Partners. Jeff reports he has "seen several data points of spot polysilicon pricing in excess of $500/kg"; a price point that is wholly unsustainable given the continually shrinking margins in cell manufacturing. Jeff does think the high spot prices benefit poly produces selling into that market, like MEMC. Tuesday was supply day at the conference. While "no major polysilicon expansion plans [were] announced at the conference" there were many announcements of "projects under 'consideration,'" according to Jeff. Hemlock Semiconductor mentioned they were "considering" an additional expansion beyond 2012, while DC Chemical was "considering" an expansion aimed at deliveries in late 2010. A lack of firm commitments to expand is indicative of the growing concern over a possible oversupply hitting the market sometime between 2009 and 2012 - Jeff sees "an over supply emerging in late 2009 or early 2010," though he also see an "upside from strong demand and pricing trends." Major conference fun was had through a group trashing of metallurgical silicon. Jeff thinks "the product can be used as a blend in the 10-20% range with minimal difficulty; however, the problem appears to lie when it is used over 50% by cell and module companies." Even Dow Chemical - a metallurgical silicon leader - called "metallurgical silicon a blending feed stock rather than a replacement technology." Both Globe Metals and Timmonico presented on the increasing purity of their metallurgical silicon, though Timmonico reps acknowledged "their Phosphorous levels were still too high for wide scale success." The lack of detailed data from Dow Chemical is likely indicative of the company's failure to significantly reduce boron and phosphorous levels.

For those of you who didn't get our little April Fool's joke yesterday - here's $1, go buy a sense of humor. In real news today, the European Biodiesel Board has uncovered a large-scale biodiesel trading scam known as "splash and dash". A "splash and dash" involves shipping biodiesel to from Asia and Europe to the U.S., where it is "splashed" with diesel and "dashed" back to Europe. The diesel addition at U.S. ports qualifies shipments for U.S. biodiesel subsidies - $1 per gallon. The EBB estimates 10 percent of all biodiesel shipped to the E.U. is involved in this trade, costing U.S. taxpayers close to $30 million in 2006 and upwards of $300 million in total. European manufacturers also blame the practice for undercutting prices and forcing them to cut production, close plants, or file for bankruptcy. Not to mention the excess emissions generated from needlessly repeated trips across the Atlantic. SolarCity, a solar installer and retailer, has introduced a consumer-level PPA program aimed at boosting sales and capacity. The program has a small upfront cost of $1,000-$3,000 - much lower than the those of other installers - and lets the homeowner lease panels at a rate correlated to their power usage. SolarCity maintains ownership of the panels, which lets them take advantage of a beneficial commercial tax credit. UK Environment Secretary Hillary Benn will introduce a green homes measure today that mandates energy companies investment $6 billion over the next three years on consumer-level energy efficiency projects. The investment is aimed mostly at low-income individuals and senior citizens, and will focus on basic energy efficiency steps like providing free CFL bulbs, improved insulation, and efficient home appliances. Benn's announcement comes a day after the UK revamped its Carbon Emissions Reduction Target, which doubles the obligations of energy providers and created the Green Homes Service, among other things. And in case you missed it yesterday, BrightSource Energy has signed a monster 900 MW PPA deal with PG&E. The first 500 MW will be divided into three projects, with the first 100 MW expected to come online by 2011 and an additional 400 MW by 2013. The final 400 MW may hit store shelves by 2015. The project is expected to cost between $2 billion and $3 billion, and will supply nearly three percent of PG&E's power.

Project Better Place CEO Shai Agassi announced today the company is ending its partnership with Renault-Nissan. At a press conference in Tel Aviv, Agassi said PBP will begin working with Tesla Motors, citing the EV company's production readiness and high performance compared with Renault's planned 1.6 litre equivalent. The Roadster's comparatively high number of charge cycles also means Agassi will need to deploy fewer than the 500,000 charging stations he planned for initially. That's probably a good thing, since with only $200 million raised so far, Agassi will only be able to afford 2000 Tesla Roadsters. One insider told Greentech Media that the switch was precipitated by Tesla CEO Ze'ev Drori, who was angry over CARB's recent decision to cut back its EV mandate. Drori had long threatened to move his company's operations if the CARB ruling went the wrong way, and it now looks like that threat is becoming a reality. When reached for a comment on this surprise move, Agassi stated "I feel the need. The need for speed." "And falafel," added Drori. After the jump, a video of today's press conference.

The New York City Council has approved Mayer Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan. The plan, which passed by a margin of 30-20, would place an $8 surcharge on cars and a $21 surcharge on trucks entering Manhattan in the congestion zone south of 60th St on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 6. p.m. If approved by the New York State Senate, which many expect it will be, congestion pricing is expected to bring in $491 million in revenue for the City, as well as make it eligible for $354 million in federal grants for mass transit. Bloomberg's plan is model on the congestion pricing scheme introduced in Central London in 2003. EdF Energies Nouvelles will take a $50 million stake in Nanosolar, a leading American thin film company. The French utility also signed an agreement to purchase panels from Nanosolar beginning in 2009 with capacity of at least 100 MW. EdF previously signed deals with U.S. Solar and First Solar, recently expanding is arrangement with the latter from 230 MW to 290 MW. In other EdF news, company president Pierre Gadonneix made some noise yesterday about a possible acquisition of Iberdrola, speaking about the need to build an interconnector between Spain and France. Gadonneix said "there are isolated countries in the current European market, particularly the UK, Spain, and Italy," and an interconnector "responds to all the problems facing us." VeraSun completed its merger with US Bioenergy on Monday, creating the largest ethanol company in the United States. The $707 million merger combines 11 plants currently operational plants with five plants under construction, which, when completed, will let the new company refine nearly 1.6 billion gallons by the end of this year. VeraSun's eleventh plant, a 110 million gallon per year biorefinery, only came online yesterday.