What do oil, beer and cars have in common? Cellulosic ethanol, according to a research consortium of Japanese companies including Toyota, Nippon Oil Corp., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Sapporo Breweries. The group plans to team up to make low-cost fuel from non-food feedstocks, according to Reuters. They've set a goal of producing 1.6 million barrels of ethanol by 2014, and selling it for about $70 a barrel — or $1.67 a gallon — by 2015. That's a higher price than many U.S.-based developers of cellulosic ethanol are promising, but then, none have hit full-scale commercial production yet (see Verenium Plans Cellulosic Ethanol Plant in Florida). As it does with oil, Japan imports almost all of its ethanol, four-fifths of it from Brazil, which has a thriving sugarcane-to-ethanol industry. Japan's government wants to replace 0.6 percent of the crude oil it uses for gasoline with biofuels by 2010. As for cellulosic ethanol, Bioethanol Japan started up a plant in 2007 that makes the fuel from wood construction waste, Green Car Congress reported. (Sapporo Breweries was a partner on that project too.) Three plants aimed at making ethanol from "non-food rice" are also underway, with the first expected to start production of about 220,000 gallons a year by next month, Reuters reports.

It’s official: It wasn’t a UFO that caused a wind turbine blade to come loose on a farm in the United Kingdom.

The 65-foot blade fell off because the bolts that fixed it to the hub no longer worked, according to a preliminary assessment by the manufacturer Enercon, reported the Daily Telegraph Wednesday. Enercon said “material fatigue� was the cause.

Some nearby residents said they had seen a flying saucer with “tentacles� on the night the blade came undone last month (check out this YouTube video). Dale Vince, a co-founder of Ecotricity, which operates the wind project, said he wasn’t surprised that aliens weren’t to blame.

“But there was part of me that did hope it was a UFO as it was a lovely story,� Vince said. “My favourite theory was that some alien race was trying to steal our turbine technology. They crossed galaxies to get here and when they arrive all they want is our wind technology. Wind power may be the holy grail of energy on Earth but not for stellar space travel.�

The UFO theory has garnered a lot of press for Ecotricity, which created a Web page called “ 'UFO' damage mystery roundup.�

Sierra Solar Power, a quiet thin-film solar startup in Fremont, Calif., has reportedly raised $40 million, said VentureBeat, which didn't cite sources. Sierra Power declined to comment on the story.

Sierra Solar Power previously raised $7.1 million for Series A from GSR Ventures and Mayfield China for developing silicon thin films (see Green Light post).

The solar cells being developed by Sierra Solar Power could convert 16 percent to 17 percent of the sunlight that hits the cells into electricity, according to VentureBeat. That would make Solar Solar Power’s cells more efficient than those being developed by many competing thin-film companies.

VentureBeat seems to have confused another company with Sierra Solar Power. Its story also referred to a company called Sierra Solar Systems, in Grass Valley, Calif., that sells solar panels, solar hot water heaters, solar ovens and batteries.