energy.agwired.com

Security has been really tight here for the Renewable Energy Conference, especially for speakers and media. They won’t let anyone through this restricted area unless they have a media badge and only staff are permitted to escort any other attendees to the media room for interviews. There were about 100 media registered for the conference itself, and several more local and national reporters are coming in today just for the president. This has gotten amazing coverage.

The registration fee for this event was pretty high – about $500 per person – but I can tell you it has been very well done. Not overdone, just well done. Okay, maybe the press security is a bit overdone, and the head-banging heavy metal transition music between speakers is annoying – but I have heard nothing but positive comments about the value of this conference to both attendees and the media. As several people noted, even a year ago an event like this would have barely gotten half the attendance and coverage it has recieved. And the main reason for the increased interest will be here today to repeat the line that set this industry on fire less than ten months ago – “America is addicted to oil.” I guess you could call this event group therapy to cure that addiction.

The line was long to go through security at the Advancing Renewable Energy Conference in St. Louis. President Bush is scheduled to address the crowd of more than 1500 about lunchtime. We have been informed that we will all be in “lock down” here at the convention center between 11:00 am and 1:30 pm – no one in or out.

Meanwhile, the city was also preparing for the president’s arrival this morning, setting up gates and barriers around the convention center to shut down roads for the presidential motorcade. Fun stuff.

First up on the program this morning is former CIA Director James Woolsey, talking about the importance of renewable energy for the nation’s security.

Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns mentioned this mighty machine in his remarks to the Advancing Renewable Energy Conference on Wednesday.

It’s called the BioMax and it is a prototype combined heat and power system developed through the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and USDA Forest Products Laboratory. The machine is “transportable, fully automated, and environmentally friendly” suitable for small businesses, rural homes and schools.

The process gasifies wood chips, or other biomass, and produces 15 kW of electricity.

Despite the government’s best efforts to be all-inclusive with the Advancing Renewable Energy Conference, it’s all too obvious that liquid fuels are the main attraction. That was evidenced by the attendance at the afternoon break-out sessions – one on heat and electricity and one on liquid fuels. The liquid fuels session was SRO, probably around 600-700 people, if not more. I’m not good at judging that stuff – I just know it was full – and they were actually scanning our name badges at the doors to get an accurate count, so I should know that at some point.

Anyway, point being, the heat and electricity session was half empty, as you can see by the picture. The room was also laid out differently, with tables and chairs, instead of just chairs – so I would estimate the attendance was maybe a quarter of what the fuels session was, at the most. Not that there are not exciting things going on with renewables in heat and electricity – just that the big money and interest is obviously in the fuel field.