IEA will acknowledge coming of age of renewable #energy sector with annual report which analyzes market http://bit.ly/zS4eRk IEA
Biomass
IEA will acknowledge coming of age of #renewable #energy sector with annual report which analyses market http://bit.ly/zS4eRk
By Peter GardettSign up and get Breaking Energy news in your inbox.
We will never sell or share your information without your consent. See our privacy policy.
The cellulosic ethanol and advanced biofuels industry is on the cusp of a major increase in scale that will prove critics of the effort to increase biofuels production in the US wrong, this rousing defense of the industry from the Advanced Biofuels Association claims.
“We know we have a technology,” says BP Biofuels North America President Sue Ellerbusch in this video, claiming the business is “right on the cusp of ‘told you so.’ Keep reading →
After 30 years of government largesse that would have made even Nancy Pelosi blush, Congress in December let expire the roughly $6 billion annual subsidy for corn ethanol. That’s bad news for the big refiners that were paid 45¢ for each gallon of corn ethanol they blended into gasoline supplies. But it’s good news for those worried about the “food-fuel dilemma” when the demand for corn to make ethanol has been raising the price of some foods. Not so fast. It turns out that while the subsidies are gone, U.S. law still requires oil refiners to blend corn ethanol into fuel — some 12.5 billion gallons this year and at least 15 billion gallons by 2015. That’s still a small portion compared with the 133 billion gallons of gasoline that the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates Americans will burn this year, but nonetheless enough to keep upward pressure on corn prices. That law needs to change, argues Jeremy Grantham — who oversees nearly $100 billion at his Boston investment firm, is known for calling both the dotcom and housing bubbles and is an environmentalist to boot. “It [U.S. ethanol policy] is truly diabolical,” he says.
The federal government is a major player in the renewable energy space through tax credits and other subsidies, but even as those fade it has a vital role to play through the scale of its fuel and energy purchases.
As the advanced biofuels industry prepares for an era of widespread commercialization matched by shrinking subsidies, leading executives from companies like Amyris and Gevo are laying out their priorities and plans for the coming year and beyond. Keep reading →
Commercially viable cellulosic ethanol has held revolutionary promise as a fuel source for years, and now life and materials sciences giant Royal DSM and ethanol producer POET LLC are joining up to demonstrate and license “the next step in the development of biofuels.”
The new joint venture, called POET-DSM Advanced Biofuels, is scheduled to start production in the second half of 2013 at a facility called Project Liberty. The facility is currently under construction adjacent to POET’s existing corn ethanol facility in Emmetsburg, Iowa and will produce 20 million gallons of fuel in its first year before hitting an anticipated pace of 25 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol each year. Keep reading →
“Companies that don’t get this really risk becoming irrelevant,” says GE Ecoimagination VP Mark Vachon in this highlight video reel from the Ceres investor summit held at the UN’s headquarters in New York City last week.
The consensus among the speakers featured in the video is that investing with climate change in mind can mean investing in renewable energy projects with “bond-like” stable returns. It also means considering climate change risks like erosion and crop impacts. Keep reading →
A flagship Enova biomass power project in the Northeastern US has cleared a string of financial hurdles following an agreement between private equity giant The Carlyle Group and SAIC.
The 37.5MW Plainfield, Connecticut project will cost $225 million and will consume recycled wood materials, removing it from an industry debate over the use of fresh-cut biomass for power generation. Keep reading →
NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), plus the State Department, NIKE, Inc. and other private-sector partners, have been collaborating on a unique venture that identifies and provides support for innovative ideas and technologies dealing with such global challenges as water resources, clean air, health care and energy. Led by Diane Powell of NASA, the program known as LAUNCH brings scientists, entrepreneurs and inventors to the Kennedy Space Center for intensive two-to-three-day forums to focus attention on their innovations and to help them accelerate the adoption of their breakthrough ideas.
International chemical firm and major energy customer BASF has invested $30 million in biomass technology firm Renmatix as companies around the world continue to ramp up research and development of alternative bio-based fuels and chemicals for industrial purposes.
Renmatix’ technology allows for the production of industrial sugar from wood, cane trash or straw, the American firm said in announcing the new investment. The privately-held firm already operates a facility in Georgia, where it has the capacity to turn three tons of cellulosic biomass into sugar daily. The BASF investment will allow Renmatix to boost production to industrial scale and become more efficient, Renmatix CEO Mike Hamilton said. Keep reading →
A biomass generation plant serving a giant Department of Energy installation has been delivered under the largest Energy Savings Performance Contract to date.
The 20 MW biomass power facility will provide roughly 30% of the 310 square mile Savannah River Site‘s power needs once it becomes fully operational in 2012. During six weeks of performance tests the biomass facility produced more than 3 million kilowatt hours of power. Keep reading →
