The USDA is providing funding to look at the feasibility of renewable energy systems for agriculture producers and rural small businesses. Grants of up to $50,000 each for a total of $3 million will be made available under the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP): “Renewable energy production represents a promising revenue source for America’s producers while meeting the nation’s …
Record Corn Crop and More Ethanol Production
Some weather issues over the past month caused USDA to slightly lower the forecast for this year’s corn crop, but it is still expected to be a record at 13.16 billion bushels. The average yield was lowered due to average 162.5 bushels per acre, down 2.5 bushels from the previous month and 2.2 bushels below last year’s record of 164.7 …
Ethanol Plant Receives Grant to Use Biomass for Power
An ethanol plant in Iowa has received a nearly $2 million federal grant to use renewable biomass to replace the fossil fuels needed to run the biorefinery. The USDA announced that the award comes from the Repowering Assistance Program, part of the 2008 Farm Bill: Lincolnway Energy, LLC, based in Nevada, Iowa, has been selected to receive a $1.9 million …
Federal Ag & Energy Depts. Team Up for Bioenergy
The U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Energy have teamed up to hand out some research awards to designed to improve and accelerate genetics in plants for bioenergy production. This USDA release says the announcement from Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Energy Secretary Steven Chu will make $8.9 million available: “Cost-effective, sustainable biofuels are crucial to building a clean energy economy,” …
USDA Proposes Blending Solar and Wind Power
A USDA scientist believes wind and solar power generating systems could be set up to complement each other. A study by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) agricultural engineer Brian Vick at the agency’s Renewable Energy and Manure Management Research Unit in Bushland, Texas says that by using solar power during doldrum days and wind at night could help offset the two …
Bioenergy and Ethanol Market News from USDA
Producers, consumers and distributors of bioenergy products can access crucial data through the Bioenergy Market News Reports published by the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service. The Ethanol reports include data for six regions – Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota and the Eastern Corn Belt. Each report publishes daily corn bids, daily distiller grain prices and a weekly ethanol price. The …
Biofuels Videos from Obama Administration
The Obama administration and USDA have released a couple of videos highlighting the importance of biofuels to the nation and what the government is doing to get us down the road to advanced renewable fuels. In a short YouTube video, USDA highlights current production and consumption capacities as well as projections to meet the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2) which calls …
USDA Report Disputes Land Use Theory
USDA’s new planted acreage report out Wednesday morning estimates corn acreage planted is two percent higher than last year, but that is down a point from the March report with more acres are going to soybeans. Corn planted area for all purposes in 2010 is estimated at 87.9 million acres, up 2 percent from last year. Acreage is up in …
Biodiesel Has Place in USDA Biofuels Report
While the ethanol industry has been praising the USDA’s report entitled “Roadmap to Meeting the Biofuels Goals of the Renewable Fuels Standard by 2022,″ there’s plenty in there for biodiesel fans to like as well. The feds are optimistic that biodiesel will be able to carry its share of the overall 36 billion gallons of biofuels goal: The U.S biofuels …
Ethanol Industry Pleased With USDA Biofuels Report
USDA’s “Roadmap to Meeting the Biofuels Goals of the Renewable Fuels Standard by 2022” released on Wednesday gives all the right directions as far as the ethanol industry is concerned, now they want to see it actually hit the road and make it to the destination. Releasing the report, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said, “The current ethanol industry provides a …