Where to Grow Alternative Energy

John Davis

The world faces a daunting task in replacing what’s known as the “cubic mile of oil” consumed worldwide each year. But like any gargantuan task, it all starts with small steps.

To help those small steps grow into sustainable replacements for our dependence on petroleum, this article from Forbes has some suggestions where the most fertile ground in the U.S. would be for alternative energy:

In Texas, for instance, that means wind…
The mountain passes and ridge tops of the Trans Pecos have the highest average wind speeds in Texas. The mountains in the state’s northwest region roll off the southern tip of the Rocky Mountains, and a maze of mountains and valleys funnel the wind into extreme speeds by the time they pass over ridge crests and mountain tops of the Guadalupe and Davis mountains…

Although solar energy varies less from season to season than wind energy, it still depends heavily on local environmental conditions. The town of Inyokern in southern California has the best environmental conditions in the country. Ensconced on the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Inyokern covers 11 square miles of Kern County in the dust-choked Mojave Desert. Those 11 square miles receive more solar insolation annually than any other comparably sized locale in North America…

For current commercial processes, the highest concentration of biomass is in the Corn Belt states of Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota. But the long-term prospects for biomass are best with non-food based feedstocks such as switchgrass, wood chips and forest residues.

In addition, Alaska and Hawaii have great potentials for geothermal energy.

As you can see, there’s no one silver bullet for replacing oil. But if we use the places best equipped for each area’s strengths, maybe can get kick that greasy addiction.

Biodiesel, Ethanol, Solar, Wind

Rocket Scientists Seek New Wind Energy Sources

John Davis

Scientists with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are using nearly 10 years of satellite information to figure out where is the best place on the oceans to put up wind energy turbines.

This UPI story says they’re using NASA’s QuikSCAT satellite to search for homes for offshore wind farms:

QuikSCAT, launched in 1999, continuously tracks the speed, direction and power of winds near the ocean surface to predict storms and enhance weather forecast accuracy.

Ideally, offshore wind farms should be located in areas where winds blow continuously at high speeds and NASA said the new research identifies such areas. An example of one such high-wind area is off the coast of Northern California near Cape Mendocino.

“The protruding land mass of the cape deflects northerly winds along the California coast, creating a local wind jet that blows year-round,” NASA said.

Other good places around the world include Tasmania, New Zealand and Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America.

Wind

Algae-Biodiesel Nears Commercial-Scale in New Mexico

John Davis

Researchers at a facility in New Mexico have reached a significant milestone in their hopes of producing biodiesel from algae.

This story from the Carlsbad (NM) Current Argus has details:

The Center of Excellence for Hazardous Materials Management recently harvested commercial-scale quantities of algae from its test salt water ponds located at New Mexico State University Agriculture Science Center in north Eddy County, according to Wren Prather-Stroud, spokeswoman for the nonprofit organization based in Carlsbad.

She said the produced oil appears to have all the right profiles for making high quality biodiesel fuel.
The algae are harvested from the ponds and pressed into a green paste, from which the oil is extracted.

Since 2006, the center has been conducting applied research in growing, harvesting and extracting oil from algae to find the most productive species to provide a biofuel.

The center hopes to produce enough algae oil to feed a commercial-sized biodiesel plant in the next 18-24 months.

Biodiesel

Ethanol Pumps Must be Labeled in Oklahoma

Oklahoma Corporation CommissionThe deadline has now passed for fuel station owners in the state of Oklahoma to have signage regarding ethanol at their faclities. They must now label their pumps indicating ethanol additives. This law will be in accordance with what was passed this last legislative sesssion.

The Oklahoma Corporation Commission will be inspecting pumps to be sure that the dispensers are labeled. Violators will face a $500 fine and will be shut down.

“They need to fix it immediately,” Commission spokesman Matt Skinner said, before adding, “We’re in a transition phase. We’re giving a little leeway.” The leeway indicates a short-term tolerance involving stations that right now “may” meet the spirit of the law if not the letter. And may is the operative word.

A fueling station’s sticker, for instance, could say the “fuel contains up to 10 percent ethanol.” Outside another station, however, the wording may say the gasoline “may” contain up to 10 percent ethanol.” Skinner noted that some businesses were having sticker issues and would eventually need to get more precise wording about their gasoline content.

It’s been reported that part of the incentive to sell ethanol blended fuel at a 10 percent blend is that it is significantly cheaper than regular gasoline. Ethanol costs less than $3 per gallon wholesale, while regular gasoline is selling at about $4 per gallon nationally.

Commission inspectors performed more than 18,000 tests at pumps last year and they indicated any stations violating the law now will be shut down.

Ethanol, Legislation, News

G8 Leaders Support Non-Edible Biofuels Development

Cindy Zimmerman

G8 leaders meeting in Japan this week pledged to promote clean energy and carbon trading to curb greenhouse gas emissions and recognized the importance of sustainable biofuel production.

G8-2008The heads of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the U.K., and the U.S. said they will work to develop science-based benchmarks and indicators for biofuel production and use. The leaders also said they are committed to “continuing research and development of second generation biofuels made from non-food plant materials and inedible biomass.”

Renewable Fuels Association president Bob Dinneen was pleased with the position taken by the world leaders. “The leaders of the G8 nations clearly understand the need of world’s nations and peoples to develop, produce and use renewable fuels like ethanol,” Dinneen said in a statement. “On behalf of America’s burgeoning ethanol industry and the farmers upon which it relies, we welcome the challenge to increase the sustainable production and use of biofuels. The G8 statement clearly recognizes the goal of biofuels policy which is to build upon the existing industry while moving aggressively to second generation production from wood chips, switchgrass, garbage and other cellulosic materials.”

Biodiesel, Energy, Ethanol, International, News

From Ethanol Plants to Potted Plants

Cindy Zimmerman

A team of Agriculture Department researchers may have found a new use for a by-product of ethanol production – controlling weeds in potted plants.

potted plantsRick Boydston and his team with USDA’s Agriculture Research Service recently completed a study on the use of dried distillers grains, or DDGS, as a weed deterrent in container-grown ornamentals. The study was published in the February 2008 issue of HortScience.

According to Dr. Boydston, they found that when applied to the soil surface, “Weed control was not perfect, but could reduce the amount of hand-weeding typically required.”

When mixed into the potting media, however, dried distillers grains were toxic to transplanted rose, coreopsis, and phlox plants. The researchers concluded that DDGS may be useful for reducing weed emergence and growth in container-grown ornamentals when applied to the soil surface at transplanting.

Dr. Boydston sees the results of this and similar ARS studies as a win/win for ethanol producers and the agriculture industry, noting, “identifying new uses for byproducts likes distillers grains could increase the profitability of ethanol production”.

Distillers Grains, Ethanol, News, Research

USDA Not Horning in on Livestock Feed

John Davis

A federal ag department researcher says the U.S. Department of Agriculture is not trying to take the by-products of biofuels out of the livestock feed system… just trying to find more uses for what’s leftover after biodiesel and ethanol are produced.

This story from redOrbit.com says Kurt Rosentrater wants to assure livestock producers that his studies on using dried distillers’ grains (DDGs) to make plastics are not intended to divert feed from the livestock industry… something he has been doing at the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service North Central Agricultural Research Laboratory in Brookings, S.D., since 2004:

“The thing that was on everyone’s mind back then was the 10 million-ton question: What are we going to do with all this distiller’s grain?” he says. “This was back when it was 5 (million) or 6 million tons a year production. And now it’s 16 (million), 17 (million), 18 million tons, so people are asking me, ‘Why are you taking this valuable feed and putting it in plastic?’ ”

Rosentrater says he’s not. He wants to take the remains after the feed components are extracted and use that for bio-plastics.

“We’ve only taken a couple steps down that path right now, but that’s ultimately where I’d like to see this go,” he says. “So can you provide the animals their livestock feed and biodiesel, if you pulled the oil out, and other things, and then what can you do with what’s left?”

DDG production this year reached 17 million tons, the vast majority of which went to animal feeds in the cattle, swine and poultry industries.

Because of this, Rosentrater does not see a need right now to find new things to do with DDGs.

“But five years from now, 10 years from now, when we have the large-scale bio-refineries working on corn, ligno-cellulosic materials and other biofuels, there will be a need potentially at some point to say, ‘What can we do with this if it has no animal feed value?’ ” he says.

A key point of Rosentrater’s research is to find something better than oil for products we use every day… a point that ethanol and biodiesel producers are also trying to do.

Biodiesel, Ethanol, Government, News

Pickens Picks Wind for US Energy Plan

John Davis

Billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens is choosing a decidely non-petroleum source as the solution for America’s energy woes: wind power.

As you might remember from my post on May 20th, Pickens has invested $2 billion in a 667 turbine wind farm in Texas. Now, he wants to translate that passion for wind to the rest of the country. This story from CNN says he held a press conference today to unveil “The Pickens Plan,” which calls for investing in domestic renewable resources such as wind:

In a news conference outlining his proposal, Pickens said his impetus for the plan is the country’s dangerous reliance on foreign oil.

“Our dependence on imported oil is killing our economy. It is the single biggest problem facing America today,” he said. Video Watch Pickens discuss plan for wind power »

“Wind power is … clean, it’s renewable. It’s everything you want. And it’s a stable supply of energy,” Pickens told CNN in May. “It’s unbelievable that we have not done more with wind.”

Pickens says a wind corridor, stretching from Texas to Canada across the breezy Great Plains, could be filled with thousands of wind power generators, providing 20 percent or more of the nation’s energy needs. He adds the plan could be implemented withing 10 years and promises to work with whoever becomes president:

“We are going to have to do something different in America,” Pickens told CNN. “You can’t keep paying out $600 billion a year for oil.”

Wind

World Bank Report Not Secret, Not Anti-Biofuels

John Davis

An article that ran in the British newspaper, the Guardian, claimed that the World Bank had kept secret a report that said biofuels were responsible for 75 percent of the rise in food prices. But now it turns out that the report was not secret and the number was not nearly that high.

This story in the Wall Street Journal says the World Bank is making it known that the Guardian just didn’t get it right:

Bob Davis of the WSJ spoke with Donald Mitchell, the author of the draft report—which wasn’t secret at all, but a working paper. And like all working papers, it doesn’t reflect the official position of the World Bank.

The report was meant to contribute to a World Bank position paper on rising food prices, which was released at the Bank’s spring meeting in mid-April.

The final April report didn’t include his specific calculation. But, Mr. Mitchell says, “I never saw that as political.” Instead, he says he believes the changes were made because of “editing.” He said that he has been encouraged by World Bank management to explore the issue of biofuels and the overall rise in food prices. “I had input” into the final report that was released at the spring meeting, he said.

Now, because of the misinformation put out by the Guardian, the World Bank is trying to finish up the report by the end of this week to set the record straight. A draft of that report indicates that higher energy prices are the real culprit for any rise… something that biofuels backers, such as National Biodiesel Board CEO Joe Jobe, has been saying all along and reiterated that point today:

“The U.S. Secretaries of Agriculture and Energy say that biofuels-related feedstock demand plays only a small role in global food supply and pricing. Worldwide, the estimated increase in the price of soybeans and soybean oil would increase the global food commodity price index by 1-2 percent. In the U.S., according to the Department of Energy and USDA, food prices have increased by about 4.8 percent. Of that increase, ethanol and biodiesel consumption accounted for only 4 or 5 percent while other factors accounted for 95-96 percent of the increase.

Biodiesel, Ethanol, News

Iowa Reaches 85 Corn Based E85 Stations

Iowa CornThe Iowa Corn Growers Association recently announced that the number of E85 stations in Iowa has grown to 85 facilites. This number is growing to meet the demand of over 81,000 flexible fuel vehicles in the state.

“Iowa Corn has been promoting ethanol for 30 years, starting with the first E85 pumps in the early 1990s. Today, we’re working with partners like the Clean Air Choice Coalition to build the market for E85 in Iowa,” says Shannon Textor, market development director for Iowa Corn. “With rising regular fuel prices you may have noticed a considerable price advantage to filling up with E85 made right here in Iowa. Ultimately, it is better for our economy, our environment, and reduces our dependence on foreign oil.”

Iowa Corn states many E85 and ethanol facts relevant to the state:

Sixty cents of every dollar spent on E85 stays in Iowa.

Ethanol-blended fuel is actually saving an average of 45 cents per gallon at the pump.

Corn use for ethanol has little (literally pennies) to do with the rising cost of food prices.

The 85th E85 station in the state of Iowa is Cenex Pum 24 at 306 Highway 69 North in Forest City.

corn, E85, Ethanol, Facilities, Flex Fuel Vehicles, News