Sumitomo Corp.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) said Monday that Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) and two Japanese partners -- Sumitomo Corporation and Itochu Corporation -- will pay about $500 million for a majority equity stake in the world's largest wind farm, under construction near Arlington, Oregon. Google’s share will be about $100 million. 

Directors, executive officers and other insiders of Molycorp, Inc., (NYSE: MCP) get their first opportunity tomorrow to sell their shares in the company since its initial public offering (IPO) in late July. 

Molycorp is the cornerstone of the U.S. effort to gain a foothold in the production of rare earth elements (REEs), critical ingredients in wind turbines, electric vehicles, thin-film photovoltaic (PV) solar system and high-efficiency lighting. 

It is pretty clear that the economic viability of wind and solar energy and the extent to which they will contribute significant power to the grid depends on being able to generate electricity intermittently -- when the sun shines and the wind blows -- and store it for use when it needed and/or when the sun is not shining nor the wind blowing.

According to a report by Japan's quasi-government New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), the Japanese wind power industry accounts for only 1.6% of the world's wind power market.