Hanwha SolarOne has announced they have signed a deal with a leading photovoltaic (PV) developer for the supply of 80 megawatts (MW) of solar PV modules to a project in the Antofagasta Region. The solar installations will be powered by Hanwha SolarOne’s new polycrystalline module generation, the HSL S Series.- China Sunergy has announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, CEEG (Nanjing) Renewable Energy Co., Ltd., has won a 30 MW contract from Enrich Energy Pvt. Ltd, an integrated solar energy solutions provider and a pioneer in India focused on developing large scale private solar parks across India.
- Aquatherm Industries, Inc. congratulates Mr. Reed Wilson in having been elected President of the Florida Solar Energy Industries Association (FlaSEIA). Wilson is owner of Aquatherm’s long-time Florida Distribution Center Aquatherm Solar Supply as well as Fort Myers-based HVAC and solar contracting firm FL Green Team.
- The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has announced the extension of the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Rebate program, which will continue to provide $2,000 rebates for large-battery system plug-in hybrid electric and battery-electric vehicles until June 30, 2015, or until the 500 vehicle benchmark is reached. To date, DEP has more than 150 rebates remaining at this amount. DEP has invested $4.35 million toward the deployment of electric vehicles in Pennsylvania since 2011.
Carolina Biodiesel Producer to Expand Operations
Western North Carolina-based Blue Ridge Biofuels will expand its operations to turn oilseeds and used cooking oil into biodiesel. The company says this year’s expansion will take their capability from about 360,000 gallons of the green fuel a year to a million gallons this year and up to 3 million gallons in the coming years.
Early in 2015, we’re setting up shop at the Catawba County EcoComplex in Newton, NC where we can make a lot more biodiesel. Plus, we can expand into new markets, since we are the first biodiesel producer in the Charlotte area to make fuel from used cooking oil. And we’re still going to be here 100% for our fuel customers and restaurant clients in Western North Carolina. One thing we love about making biodiesel is the way it connects us to the community: from farmers who grow oil crops, to restaurants that recycle their used cooking oil, to our partners in the green economy, to our awesome customers who use biodiesel to heat their homes, run their vehicles, and power their businesses. We’re going to keep our biodiesel distribution hub and a used cooking oil collection hub here in Asheville — so we can keep our local economy and community growing.
Blue Ridge Biofuels has also launched a partnership to sell Bioheat – a biodiesel heating oil mix – and is able to claim its first full year under the BQ-9000 quality standard.
Genetics to Help in Biomass-to-Biofuel Conversion
Researchers might have found a more efficient way to turn biomass into biofuel using plant genetics. This article from Phys.org says plant geneticists Sam Hazen at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Siobhan Brady at the University of California, Davis, have sorted out the gene regulatory networks that would have the biggest impacts on the green fuel production.
The authors say that the most rigid of the polymers, lignin, represents “a major impediment” to extracting sugars from plant biomass that can be used to make biofuels. Their genetic advance is expected to “serve as a foundation for understanding the regulation of a complex, integral plant component” and as a map for how future researchers might manipulate the polymer-forming processes to improve the efficiency of biofuel production.
The three key components, found in plant tissues known as xylem, provide plants with mechanical strength and waterproof cells that transport water. Working in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, Hazen, Brady and colleagues explored how a large number of interconnected transcription factors regulate xylem and cell wall thickening. Results appeared in an early online edition Dec. 24 in Nature.
An invited commentary in the journal on the significance of this discovery points out that “understanding how the relative proportions of these biopolymers are controlled in plant tissue would open up opportunities to redesign plants for biofuel use.” Hazen, Brady and colleagues’ study identified hundreds of new regulators and offers “considerable insight,” the authors say, “into the developmental regulation of xylem cell differentiation.”
The authors of the study were able to find that most of the proteins including regulators of cell cycle and differentiation bind directly to cellulose genes and to other transcription regulators, giving plants a huge number of possible combinations for responding and adapting to environmental stressors.
Ethanol Report Looks at Year Ahead
Unfinished business and much of the same old attacks on the RFS are likely to dominate 2015 for the ethanol industry.
In this edition of “The Ethanol Report,” Renewable Fuels Association president and CEO Bob Dinneen takes a look at what he expects to be some of the big issues for ethanol in the year ahead.
Ethanol Report on Industry Outlook for 20152014 Energy Legislation in Review
As 2015 kicks off the Center for the New Energy Economy (CNEE) has released an Advanced Energy Legislation 2014 Year in Review. During 2014, the report found that 430 advanced energy bills became law. While the total number of enacted bills decreased from 713 in 2013, CNEE found that percentages of energy legislation by policy category remained stable. This leads the company to predict that interest in energy policy should remain somewhat constant over the next year.
Figure 1. 2014 Enacted Legislation by Policy Category (430 bills)
There were several notable pieces of legislation passed last year including energy legislation in California, Hawaii, Nevada, Maine, Minnesota and Rhode Island. In 2014, South Carolina became the latest state to enact a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) focused on distributed generation while Ohio and Indiana suffered setbacks. Other key actions during the year included state responses to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan proposed rule, along with concerns over revenue shortfalls in the federal Highway Trust Fund due to increased fuel economy and new pipeline safety rules.
A few other key wins for renewable energy included Maine’s new solar standard that will grow the state’s use of solar energy from an estimated 40 MW in 2016 to 500 MW n 2030. Massachusetts added a renewable thermal energy storage standard.
The report was based on CNEE’s Advanced Energy Legislation Tracker, a tool for finding and tracking energy legislation by state (and federal). Click here to read.
BioEnergy Bytes
- TerraForm Power has completed its acquisition of 77.6 MW of distributed generation solar power plants from the Capital Dynamics U.S. Solar Energy Fund, L.P. The transaction is expected to provide approximately $21 million in unlevered Cash Available for Distribution (CAFD) in the next year and will be immediately accretive to CAFD per share. The power purchase agreements in the acquired portfolio have a weighted average remaining contract life of 19 years with a weighted average credit rating of A3/A-.
- San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) has announced that more than 1,000 MW of renewable power is being delivered to the San Diego region made possible by the new $1.9 billion Sunrise Powerlink transmission line project. The addition of the 150-MW Solar Gen 2 Imperial Valley solar project now brings to more than 1,000 MW the total amount of solar and wind power being transmitted to SDG&E customers from the Imperial Valley.
- Renewable Energy Systems Americas has announced the completion of a portion of the 267 MW Tucannon River Wind Farm in Washington State. The company served as the Balance of Plant (BOP) construction contractor for the project’s owner, Portland General Electric (PGE). The project consists of 116 2.3 MW Siemens turbines and is expected to produce enough clean, renewable energy to power the homes of approximately 84,000 average residential customers.
- Solar-Tectic LLC has been issued a patent for their technology that allows for the growth of single crystal semiconductor films on inexpensive substrates such as glass, from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The technology was invented by the late Dr. Praveen Chaudhari, winner of the 1995 US Medal of Technology and Innovation, and has applications in various industries in addition to solar, such as displays and LEDs. U.S. patent 8,916,455 titled “Method of Growing Heteroepitaxial Single Crystal of Large Grained Semiconductor Films on Glass Substrates and Devices Thereon” promises to solve a long standing challenge in materials science, namely, the growth of single crystal semiconductor films directly on amorphous substrates, such as glass.
Happy New Year from ZimmComm!
Thanks for a glorious 2014!
We look forward to seeing you down the road in 2015.
Geothermal Energy Outlook 2015
According to the Geothermal Energy Association (GEA), the U.S. and global geothermal markets are expected to grow in 2015. The U.S. market may grow slowly while state and federal policies are adjusted, but with continued pressure to address climate change and a growing recognition of the important values of geothermal power to grid reliability, that is expected to improve. However, global markets are expected to see stronger growth with continued expansion while U.S. is expected to make forward progress.
The forecast for geothermal energy growth comes on the heels of a strong 2014. GEA reports that the world market reached upwards of 12.7 GW of operational geothermal power in 24 countries, reflecting about 700 MW of combined added growth. By 
comparison, the global industry added about 600 MW in 2013. As of the end of 2014, there are also 11.7 GW of capacity additions in development and 1.8 GW of power under construction in 80 countries.
The World Bank is aiding in global growth through its focus on early risk mitigation. In tandem to this work, governments continue to develop and adopt policies to meet electricity demand. GEA forecasts the forward-moving trajectory will continue for at least another decade and globally, geothermal energy production should reach at least 20 GW by 2024.
2014 highlights include:
- This year emerging economies in East Africa, Central America, and the South Pacific experienced the fastest growth, and each of these regions had some notable developments:
- In the East Africa region, a new 280-MW addition at the Olkaria field in Kenya now has the world’s largest flash plant, and Kenya added 300 MW of capacity overall. In Ethiopia, a partnership between the government and the World Bank expects to expand electricity access where it is most needed by adding four million more people to the grid in the next five years. Geothermal would be the second largest source of power supply in East Africa by 2040.
- In Central America, Costa Rica received a $550 million loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency toward planned capacity of three geothermal plants each totaling 55 MW. El Salvador reached the milestone of producing 25% of its electricity from geothermal energy with an aim to achieve 40% in the near future.
- In the South Pacific, Indonesia is leading in developing capacity and could surpass the U.S in installed capacity in the future. Financed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency with equipment from Ormat, construction began in Indonesia on what will be the largest geothermal plant ever built, the 330MW Sarulla project. In the Philippines, the Energy department announced plans to increase installed capacity of geothermal power to 3.3 GW by 2030.
The 2015 geothermal outlook will be discussed in more detail, including the roles global companies and governments will play during the State of the Geothermal Industry Briefing taking place Tuesday, February 24, 2015 Washington, DC.
BioEnergy Bytes
- The history, changes and recent state of solar power systems will be covered by James Earl Jones in an upcoming “In America” segment. The segment will examine how solar power systems are saving people money, creating ‘green’ energy, and how it’s changing the landscape of the energy industry.
- Sunpin Solar Development and Suntuity, a Global Project Developer have begun commercial operation of their 3.97 MWp DC ground mounted distributed generation facility located in Tolland, Massachusetts. The utility scale solar system is interconnected to Western Massachusetts Electric Company’s distribution system powering the municipalities of Agawam and Longmeadow. All electricity produced by the project (net of 1.75% parasitic load) will be sold (50% to the Town of Longmeadow, 50% to the Town of Agawam) through Solar Net Metering Power Purchase Agreements with both townships.
- Pattern Energy Group has acquired the 200 megawatt Logan’s Gap Wind project in Texas, which is currently under construction. Upon completion of the project, the company will have an owned interest of 164 MW and three institutional tax equity investors will acquire the balance. Pattern Energy acquired the Logan’s Gap Wind project for a total cash funding commitment of approximately $113 million.
- Martifer Solar has completed development of a 4.27 MW PV plant in the UK for Smartenergy Renewables AG. The 4.27 MW PV Francis Court solar plant is located near Exeter. Martifer Solar has sold the project rights and will complete the engineering, procurement and construction) and subsequent operation & maintenance services.
Vertimass Secures $2M BioJet Fuel Grant
Vertimass is in negotiations with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to receive a $2 million grant to aid them in commercilizing the conversion of their “green” catalyst technology that converts ethanol into gasoline, diesel and jet fuel blend stocks. The resultant fuel is compatible with current transportation fu
el infrastructure.
The company has a world-wide exclusive license for the technology from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Vertimass hopes to expand the ethanol market and believes that its fuel will be certified under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). According to the company, benefits of their technology include:
- A single step conversion of ethanol into a hydrocarbon blend stock without the addition of hydrogen.
- The ability to process between 5 percent and 100 percent of ethanol concentrations.
- Production of minimal amounts of light gases.
- Operation at relatively low temperature and atmospheric pressure.
- The ability to shift product distributions in response to changing market demands. The technology, which dilutes ethanol streams, will result in higher yields to gasoline, jet fuel and diesel products and is expected to prolong the life of vehicles.
“This green catalyst technology can be rapidly added to an existing ethanol plant with low capital and operating costs while providing fuel flexibility and essentially replacing dehydration operations,” said Charles Wyman, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Vertimass. “With the ability to add operations to existing plants at a rapid pace and low cost, the new product will help meet the goals of Renewable Standard Fuel production and also help the Federal Aviation Administration achieve their target of 1 billion gallons of renewable aviation fuel by 2018.”
The new Vertimass technology has an estimated yearly production potential of 140 billion gallons. The technology would also expand opportunities to use more ethanol from corn in the U.S., sugarcane in Brazil and cellulosic biomass worldwide.