The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has drummed up $20M in funding for seven geothermal projects that will focus on technical and economic feasibility of unconventional geothermal energy technologies. The seven companies awarded funding include Energent Corporation, GreenFire Energy, Modoc Contracting, Oski Energy, ElectraTherm, Louisiana Geothermal, and NRG Energy. Each of these companies will be focused on one of three …
Friends of the Earth: Africa up for Grabs
Friends of the Earth International (FOE) has released a report about Africa’s move to produce biofuels to help meet the global needs of renewable energy. “Africa, up for grabs: the scale and impact of land grabbing for agrofuels” looked at 11 African countries and found that five million hectares of land, or an area the size of Denmark, is being …
2010 Fuel Scorecard Released
The Truman National Security Project has released its 2010 Fuel Scorecard and ethanol scores near the top of the list as viable fuel options for the future. Based on several factors that affect America’s security including instability of supplier country, opposition to American values, climate disruption, possibility of threat to supply chain, and cost spike volatility, ethanol scores as the …
Propel Sends Out a Thank You to Its Customers
Propel is taking a leadership role in California and Washington in bringing biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel to drivers. Earlier this month, Propel opened a new E85 station in Oakland, California, just one of nearly two dozen planned for the Bay area. Also this summer, Propel received an $11 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy and the …
Didion Ethanol Hosts Energy Expo
Didion Ethanol hosted a successful Green Energy Expo last week with more than 800 attendees from around the country in attendance. The participants were treated to a plant tour and one of the biggest draws was the plants new zero water discharge system that was installed this past Spring. According to Didion’s plant manager, Adam Lemmenes, the new water system …
Is Iowa Putting the Cart Before the Horse?
Is the Iowa Environmental Protection Commission (EPC) putting the cart before the horse in their proposition to add greenhouse gas emission amendments to the Iowa Administrative Code? The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) and Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA) think so. The two organizations have joined forces to urge the EPC to delay consideration on decisions that would increase the regulatory …
Algae Assoc. Conference to Focus on Commercial Scale
The National Algae Association (NAA) will be holding its national conference next week, and the focus of the gathering will be on commercial scale production of the green microbes. NAA officials say at the Sept. 23-24 conference at the Sheraton North Houston near George Bush Intercontinental Airport, they will be working on the premise that algae will be delivering on …
Solazyme Inks Deal to Provide Algal Biofuel to Navy
Our friends at Solazyme, Inc. have inked a new deal with the U.S. Navy to provide 150,000 gallons of advanced biofuels made from algae. This post on BrighterEnergy.org says the San Francisco supplier of the green fuel has already delivered more than 20,000 gallons of its biodiesel to the Navy from its 2009 contract: The company hailed the achievement as …
Biodiesel Incentive Shot Down Again; Dem Calls it “Stunt”
The federal $1-a-gallon biodiesel tax credit failed to move forward yet again today, as one of the top Democrats in the U.S. Senate dismissed the effort as a “stunt.” The Senate defeated Sen. Charles Grassley’s (R-IA, pictured on right) attempt to retroactively revive the credit as part of a small business bill by a vote of 41-58… far short of …
Ethanol Report on Export Exchange
This edition of “The Ethanol Report” features comments from Renewable Fuels Association (RA) President and CEO Bob Dinneen and U.S. Grains Council (USGC) CEO and president Tom Dorr about promoting exports of the ethanol co-product distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS). The two organizations are working together on the upcoming “Export Exchange” conference that will focus on increasing U.S. exports …