Geothermal energy is potentially the largest—and presently the most misunderstood—source of energy in the United States and the world today,” writes Al Gore in his new book, “Our Choice, A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis.” According to the most recent draft of the National Geothermal Action Plan, geothermal resources could account for 100,000 MWe of base load electric generating …
US Wind Industry Breaks Installation Record in ’09
The U.S. wind industry has broken all records with the announcement that nearly 10,000 megawatts (MW) of new generating capacity was installed in 2009–enough to serve more than 2.4 million homes for one year. This according to the Q4 report released by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). However, not all the news was good as the U.S. still lags …
IDED Approves $5.25 Million Project LIBERTY Grant
The Iowa Department of Economic Development (IDED) has approved an agreement for the final $5.25 million in financial assistance for Project LIBERTY, Poet’s cellulosic pilot project that will convert corn cobs to ethanol. The announcement ups the total of Iowa’s financial contributions to the project to $20 million. Poet and IDED has been in talks since 2008. “The state has …
Government Paper Waste Fuels Truck in DC
The Washington Auto Show is in full swing and for the first time ever, a car is being fueled on government paper waste. The two companies behind this feat are Novozymes and Fiberight. Novozymes has been a partner on many cutting edge biofuels projects so I reached out to both companies to learn a bit more about creating ethanol from …
Waste Management & Harvest Power to Partner
Waste Management continues to build its reputation in the development of alternative energy with the announcement that they have partnered with Harvest Power to expand next generation organics recycling facilities across the United States and Canada. Waste Management now joins founding investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Munich Venture Partners, as investors in the project. The largest food and …
Winter & Double Crops Increase Biofuels Opportunities
I recently wrote about the potential of energy crops for biofuels, but there are many more opportunities including the biofuels value of planting winter crops or double crops. Last week during the AG CONNECT Expo, I spoke with Dr. Tom Richard, associate professor with Pennsylvania State University, who discussed the opportunities for biofuels and agriculture through the planting and harvesting …
How to Create Effective Biofuels Public Policy
One of the biggest challenges for our country lies in the issue of how to create effective public policies that will grow the biofuels industry and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Dr. Antonio Bento, associate professor in the Applied Economics and Management Program at Cornell University, has been researching exactly how to do this and he shared his results …
Novozymes: Strong Outlook for 2010
This morning Novozymes held is annual 2009 4th quarter sales call and earning report and overall it was favorable. While 2009 began with a rocky start for Novozymes and the majority of the ethanol industry, with effective management the company was able to finish off the year on a positive note. Steen Riisgaard, President and CEO, noted, “After a shaky …
Book Review – Climate Cover-Up
This week we’re back to climate change, and the author James Hoggan, lays out the “crusade to deny global warming in “Climate Cover-Up.” For those of you familiar with the online green space, you may have come across the blog DeSmogBlog, which is co-founded by Hoggan. This site is dedicated to “out” those companies, experts and scientists who are (or …
Joule Biotechnologies Secures Solar Fuel Site
Joule Biotechnologies announced today that they have signed a lease agreement to build its first pilot plant to be located in Leander, Texas. The plant will be the testing ground to further develop and test its transformative system for the production of renewable solar fuels and is expected to be online within the first half of 2010. The site was …