U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer will be the keynote speaker at the Oct. 15-16 conference, Transition to a Bioeconomy: Environmental and Rural Development Impacts. Secretary Schafer will address public policy challenges for the bioeconomy. Also featured on the program will be Under Secretary for Rural Development Thomas Dorr.
The conference is is a collaboration of Farm Foundation, and USDA’s Office of Energy Policy and New Uses, Rural Development, Economic Research Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the U.S. Forest Service.
“Building a biofuels industry puts demands on natural, human and community resources, while at the same time generating potential returns for investors, workers and communities where the industry operates,” says Farm Foundation President Neil Conklin. “This conference is designed to build understanding of the short-and long-term impacts of those demands and potential returns, identify issues that must be addressed and options for the future.”
The “Transition to a Bioeconomy” conference series is designed to inventory current knowledge of key issues of the bioeconomy, identify options for the future, and determine information and research needs. The conferences provide government, industry, academic and community leaders with objective information and analysis on key issues of the evolving bioeconomy.
More information about the conference can be found here on the Farm Foundation website.
New Jersey-based Energy Storage and Power says it is investing $20 million over the next three years to develop an underground compressed-air storage system for wind turbines and other power sources.
With Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES), air is pumped into underground formations, such as depleted natural gas wells or salt caverns, using a natural gas-powered machine. The pressured air is released later to drive a turbine to make electricity.
St. Louis-based Enterprise Rent-A-Car has named Dr. Richard Sayre, a leading biofuels researcher, to head its Institute for Renewable Fuels at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis.
Larkspur, Calif.-based Greenline Industries, a manufacturer of biodiesel production equipment, as listed seventh on Inc.’s overall list and was the No. 1 energy company for 2008. The company was also at the top of the 100 businesses in the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, Calif., list. According to Inc. Magazine, Greenline has experienced a 10,000 percent growth rate since it was founded in 2002. In 2004, the company had $318,000 in revenue; in 2007, Greenline reported $35.1 million in revenue.
The only biodiesel producer to make the list was Golden, Co.-based Blue Sun Biodiesel. Of the 23 energy companies to make the top 500, Blue Sun ranked tenth. Overall, the company was ranked 242 on the top 500 list.
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Right now, the U.S. gets just one percent of its energy needs from wind power, but experts say that could be increased 20-fold in a short time.
If you’ve been watching any of the Democratic Convention you’ve been seeing plenty of windy people talking up a storm (hey, they’re politicians… Republicans will spew plenty of hot air next week!). But wind energy (the kind that turns turbines), along with solar and biodiesel, is helping behind the scenes.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China signed an agreement to collaborate on biofuels research during the International Conference on Sorghum for Biofuel in Houston.
“I think that if we are going to achieve sustainable energy security in this country we have to consider all opportunities and sorghum is one of those that I think can make a contribution.” Buchanan said. He added that sorghum has potential because of its drought tolerance and ability to produce high yields on marginal lands.