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 Good morning! Here's what you need to know. ECB decision. The European Central Bank will announce the outcome of its latest policy meeting at 7:45 a.m. Expectations are for no change to rates. "Many believe persistent low inflation will force the ECB to ease further this year, but only three of the 57 economists polled by Bloomberg expect such an announcement to come out of Thursday's meeting," reported BI's Matthew Boesler.
China stimulus. China has unveiled what's being called a "mini-stimulus" to boost consumption. Its scope remains limited. It includes "additional spending on railways, upgraded housing for low-income households and tax relief for struggling small businesses," WSJ says. Euro zone's strong quarter. Theeuro zone's Markit PMI fell slightly to 53.1 from 53.3, but businesses nevertheless logged its busiest quarter in three years. However, they did so mostly by slashing prices, "underscoring fears that deflation may soon afflict the region." Three dead in Ft. Hood shooting. Five years after 13 people were killed at Ft. Hood in Texas in a mass shooting incident, an army specialist opened fire at the same military post, killing three before taking his own life. "The gunman, who served in Iraq for four months in 2011, had been undergoing an assessment before the attack to determine if he had post-traumatic stress disorder," the AP reported. "Cuban Twitter" was U.S. project. The U.S. covertly built a Twitter-like social network in Cuba to help foment unrest, the AP reports. "The project, which lasted more than two years and drew tens of thousands of subscribers, sought to evade Cuba's stranglehold on the Internet with a primitive social media platform. First, the network would build a Cuban audience, mostly young people; then, the plan was to push them toward dissent." Food prices soaring. Global food prices hit their highest level in almost a year in March, climbing 2.3% MOM. The surge was caused by severe weather and geopolitical tensions, the UN said. Markets. Stocks in Asia were mostly higher, led by the Nikkei at 0.8%; while in Europe they were mostly lower. U.S. futures were up. The euro was going nowhere. Bitcoin fell to $440. Jobless claims. Weekly jobless claims hit at 8:30 a.m. Expectations are for a slight uptick from last week's 311,000 figure. Trade. Also at 8:30 a.m. we get U.S. trade data. Expectations are for the trade deficit to narrow to $38.8 billion from $39.1 billion prior. Services and ISM data. At 9:45 a.m. we get PMI services data from Markit. It's expected to be up slightly from the prior reading of 53.3. And at 10 a.m. we get the Institute for Supply Management's survey of non-manufacturing sectors. Expectations are for a gain of nearly 2 points from last month's 51.6 reading. "The ISM non-manufacturing headline index declined in February as the business activity and employment indexes fell," said Nomura economists. "However, the more optimistic reading on business activity in the Northeast Region implied by the New York Fed’s business leaders’ survey suggests that we could see an increase in the ISM non-manufacturing index in March." *** Below is a Q&A with Shayle Kann, senior vice president for research at GreenTechMedia. *** BUSINESS INSIDER: What is the most underreported story in renewables? SHAYLE KANN: Relative to its importance, I think the most underreported story is the drastic recent growth in U.S. solar deployment. In 2013 alone, the U.S. installed 4,751 megawatts of solar PV, up 41% over 2012. Solar was the second-largest source of new electric generating capacity in the country, trailing only natural gas. And the growth continues in 2014. We anticipate that there will be 36 gigawatts of solar operating in the U.S. by the end of 2016, up from just two gigawatts in 2010.
BI: What will utilities look like in 10 years? SK: In ten years, most utilities will look like they do today. Customers will still be buying power from their local utility, and the utility will maintain the lines and wires leading into our homes. What will have changed is that utility business models will have been split by the rapid growth of distributed energy resources (DER) such as solar PV and energy storage. Some utilities will have developed strategies to benefit from this growth, either offering these options directly to their customers or acting as service providers to enable a more distributed grid. Other, less innovative utilities will be scrambling to deal with anemic demand growth and the proliferation of customer-driven distributed energy.
BI: Which state or metro has been a model for how the average state or metro can incorporate renewables? SK: California has long been and remains at the forefront of adoption for renewable energy. With a mandate to source a minimum of 33% of its energy from renewables by 2020 and a good chance of exceeding that goal, California is often looked to as a model for other states to create a vibrant, growing ecosystem of renewable energy companies.
BI: How far away are we away from having more widespread storage adoption? Is it even necessary for the overall PV market to continue growing? SK: We're just now beginning to see energy storage adoption take place at any kind of significant scale, so it's an exciting time to be watching that market. Coming from a small base today, I think the next ten years will be critical in proving out the business case and ability to finance storage deployments. Meanwhile, a plethora of new companies are raising money to commercialize new kinds of storage technologies. In many ways, it looks like the solar industry circa 2005-2007. And with regard to solar, storage will be a fantastic complement to increased penetration of solar, but we're a long way from having so much solar deployed that storage becomes a necessity for further PV growth.
BI: At this point, what should the government's role be in encouraging renewables? SK: The government has many roles to play in encouraging renewables, but I'll mention three in particular. First, the government has a huge role in investment in early-stage research, development and deployment of innovative renewable technologies. The Department of Energy's SunShot initiative is a great example of this role. Second, the government can help when it comes time to finance the first wave of deployment through mechanisms like the DOE Loan Guarantee program and a Green Bank. Finally, the government can create and maintain policy certainty for companies operating in the space so that long-term decision-making reigns throughout the sector. | 
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