Reports Blame Speculators for Higher Prices

Cindy Zimmerman

Two reports released earlier this week concluded that commodity market speculation is largely to blame for increasing prices of food and energy. The reports were issued in advance of the October 18 meeting of the Commodities Futures and Trading Commission (CFTC) which placed limits on speculation in a variety of commodities including oil, corn, gold and natural gas.

One report came from the non-profit organization Better Markets, which concluded, “Research analyzing commodity markets for the last 27 years shows that Wall Street’s speculative trading through commodity index funds is causing market disruptions, interfering with price discovery, increasing the costs for businesses to hedge, and needlessly pushing prices higher for all Americans.”

A second report from economic analysis firm Cardno Entrix had similar findings, concluding that commodity prices are “likely higher than justified purely by fundamentals and the commodity markets have become more volatile as the volume of trading by index funds and other non-commercial traders has increased sharply.”

In examining the activity of speculators in the corn futures market in the context of supply and demand fundamentals, the Cardno Entrix report found that “speculation is a major factor behind the recent sharp increase in both the level and volatility of corn prices.”

At this week’s CFTC meeting, federal regulators decided to cap the volume of futures trading for 28 different agricultural commodities, energy and metals in the hopes of limiting the impact of speculative trading on consumer prices.

corn, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Food prices, Oil

USDA Plans to Cancel Ethanol Co-Product Report

Cindy Zimmerman

In a cost-cutting measure, USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is planning to cancel the Distiller Co-Products for Feed Survey announced in March slated to be done in January 2012. The report, which was designed to better calculate the use of the ethanol co-product known as DDGS in livestock feed, is one of several that USDA plans to eliminate or reduce in light of funding reductions for the current fiscal year and expected reductions in FY 2012.

“We were very disappointed to hear the survey is being cancelled,” said Geoff Cooper with the Renewable Fuels Association. “NASS staff had prepared an excellent survey that was set to go out to thousands of livestock and poultry feeders in January 2012. Pulling the plug on this survey means many of the questions about how co-products are actually being used in the real world will remain unanswered. The feed industry, ethanol producers, and regulators alike desperately need the type of information this survey would have provided.”

NASS conducted a limited survey of DDGS use in 2007, funded by the Nebraska Corn Board, this report was anticipated to be much more comprehensive in scope. A Federal Register notice regarding the NASS program changes is expected to be published soon.

Distillers Grains, Ethanol, Ethanol News, USDA

Solar Executives Discuss Industry Issues

Cindy Zimmerman

Solar Power International 2011 (SPI 2011) is taking place this week in Dallas and six of the country’s leading solar executives and innovators held a press call this morning from the conference to talk about issues of interest to the industry.

Lyndon Rive, CEO of SolarCity, says there is tremendous momentum in the solar industry despite backlash from the Solyndra affair. “If you look at the companies here, everyone is doing extremely well, they’re hiring,” he said. “The notion of no job growth in the solar industry is totally fake.”

Recurrent Energy CEO Arno Harris discussed impending trade action against China’s solar industry. “Notices are going out this morning that Solar World is joining a petition to the Trade Commission and the Department of Commerce alleging that China is unfairly subsidizing its solar manufacturers and dumping solar modules on the global market,” said Harris.

Julie Blunden with SunPower says it is a very dynamic time for the solar industry. “One of the things we are pleased to see is the continued interest in evolving technology for lower costs and better performance,” she said, noting that her company was unveiling two product advancements in that area at the show this week.

SunRun president Lynn Jurich focused on the residential solar sector, which is about 30% of the industry. “About four years ago, my company pioneered solar leasing for consumers,” she said, explaining that this business model allows home owners to have a solar system installed and they just pay for electricity from it at a fixed cost. “This model has become the dominant way consumers are adopting solar.”

Danny Kennedy, founder of Sungevity, talked about the importance of the industry in creating jobs. “The solar industry grew 7% in employment over 12 months from August 2010 to August 2011,” he said. “That compares to .7% job growth in the general economy.”

Solaria CEO Dan Shugar concluded opening comments by noting the expanding opportunities for solar in utilities. “Solar is competing head to head with conventional, polluting power generation resources. Today, solar is less expensive than power from a new nuclear power plant, and obviously much lower risk,” he said.

Listen to comments and questions from the media here: Solar Power Executives

Solar

Electric Vehicle Sharing Incentive Announced

Cindy Zimmerman

Xatori Inc., the electric vehicle software company behind the PlugShare app suite, and peer-to-peer car sharing service Getaround have partnered to reward PlugShare members in select communities $50 for sharing their vehicles on Getaround’s car rental marketplace.

PlugShare and Getaround announced the financial incentive in honor of National Plug In Day on Sunday, October 16. Eligible communities include the San Francisco Bay Area and the San Diego metropolitan area.

“One of Getaround’s founding principles is to help protect the environment by enabling people to share resources, taking unneeded cars off the road and reducing auto emissions by changing driving behavior,” said Sam Zaid, CEO of Getaround. “This partnership is in line with our commitment to protect the environment primarily because it encourages PlugShare users to list their cars on Getaround to increase exposure and adoption of EVs. A shared EV saves everyone money, reduces emissions and accelerates adoption.”

PlugShare also recently announced the expansion of its network to the web and mobile platforms, allowing anyone with an Internet connection to access the largest and most complete database of EV charging sites in the world. This new service helps Getaround users charge their EV rental at a community member’s house or public charging station, thereby advancing the growth of the EV community.

“There is a growing segment of society that wants to see zero emission, advanced driving machines become the norm, and these are the people on PlugShare and Getaround, sharing resources with each other in the name of a common goal,” said Forrest North, CEO of Xatori, Inc. “You don’t have to spend a lot of money on a new car to be part of the solution. All you need is an outlet and an Internet connection and you can be a part of the EV revolution.”

Electric Vehicles

RFS2 Working As Intended

Chuck Zimmerman

Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “Should the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2) be changed?” A majority at 53% said, No, it’s working as intended; 32% said Get rid of it entirely and 15% said Yes, change to adapt to corn stocks. What do you think? Feel free to comment.

Our new ZimmPoll is now live. We’re asking the question, “Are Farm Show Smartphone Apps Useful?” What do you think? Take our poll and feel free to comment. Thank you.

ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.

ZimmPoll

ZeaChem Makes Cleantech 100 List

Cindy Zimmerman

Cellulosic ethanol developer ZeaChem has been named one of the 2011 Global Cleantech 100 companies. The annual list is produced by Cleantech Group in collaboration with UK’s Guardian News, focusing on companies they believe are likely to make the most significant impact over the next 5-10 years.

Zeachem“ZeaChem is building a portfolio of advanced biofuels and bio-based chemicals derived from cellulosic biomass,” said Jim Imbler, CEO of ZeaChem. “As our 250,000 gallon demonstration plant nears completion in Boardman, Ore. and we develop our first commercial scale biorefinery, we are honored to be named in the 2011 Global Cleantech 100.”

Another advanced biofuels company that made the list for the second year was LanzaTech, a New Zealand-based firm working on the conversion of a nonfood feed stocks into bioethanol. LanzaTech was also named “Company of the Year Asia Pacific” for 2011.

A number of solar companies also made the list, including SolarCity and eSolar of California.

advanced biofuels, biofuels, Cellulosic, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Solar

Bill Would Require New Analysis of 15% Ethanol Blend

Cindy Zimmerman

A bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives would mean additional testing for the use of 15% ethanol in regular gasoline.

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) introduced the legislation to require the Environmental Protection Agency to seek independent scientific analysis on the effects of 15 percent blend ethanol gasoline.

Sensenbrenner says he has “serious concerns that the EPA used only one Department of Energy test and rushed E15’s introduction into the market place. This test was limited in scope and ignored a plethora of evidence— albeit inconvenient evidence for the EPA— that shows E15 gasoline has a negative effect on engines. I introduced this legislation to ensure a decision of this magnitude will be vetted by independent scientific research, rather than political expediency.”

EPA announced its decision in January to allow the use of E15 gasoline blend in newer vehicles manufactured since 2001, but the ruling has yet to be implemented.

Ethanol, Ethanol News, Government

Cellulosic Ethanol Demo Plant Marks Milestone

Cindy Zimmerman

CoskataBiofuel tech company Coskata marked two years of successful operations at a cellulosic ethanol semi-commercial facility in Madison, Pennsylvania this month.

According to company officials, the facility has completed over 15,000 run hours of operation and successfully converted wood biomass and municipal solid waste into fuel-grade ethanol.

“The data and operating experience cultivated at this pre-commercial scale facility has conclusively demonstrated that the Coskata technology is ready for commercial production today,” said Coskata President and Chief Executive Officer Bill Roe. “With an industry leading yield of more than 100 gallons of ethanol coming from a dry ton of wood biomass, we look forward to working with industry partners to rapidly deploy this leading conversion technology and help the country meet the Renewable Fuels Standard.”

The technology at the Pennsylvania facility will be used at the company’s first commercial-scale facility in Alabama, for which Coskata recently received a conditional loan guarantee from USDA.

advanced biofuels, Cellulosic, Ethanol, Ethanol News

Joule Wins Wall Street Journal Award

Cindy Zimmerman

Joule Unlimited Technologies has received the 2011 Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Award in the Energy category and was also named the Silver award winner across all of the competition’s 16 categories, from more than 600 entries around the globe.

joule“We are honored to be the Wall Street Journal’s choice for the most innovative energy company, and to be recognized even beyond our industry as one of the world’s top innovators overall,” said Bill Sims, President and CEO of Joule.

“We started with a big idea – the direct conversion of sunlight to fuel without raw material feedstocks – and four years later we’ve proven the process, optimized the technology, built a strong patent portfolio and laid the groundwork for commercial production to begin in 2013. We will bring much-needed scalability and infrastructure-readiness to the renewable fuels space, with a platform that can yield multiple products, including valuable, fungible diesel fuel vs. a blendstock like biodiesel. We appreciate this recognition of our company’s efforts to successfully innovate outside of today’s common ‘biofuel’ definition,” said Sims.

As stated in the Journal’s report by Kenny Tang, one of the independent judges and founder & CEO of Oxbridge Weather Capital, “In bypassing the limitations of expensive processes in conventional biofuel production, Joule’s technology has the exciting potential to significantly transform the economics of the biofuel industry. If translated into wider use, it is a potential game changer—it could become a cost-effective replacement to petroleum on a much wider scale than previously possible, especially with its non-reliance on biomass.”

Using sunlight and waste CO2 from industrial emitters or pipelines, Joule anticipates commercial production of up to 15,000 gallons of diesel and 25,000 gallons of ethanol per acre annually, at stable costs as low as $20/bble and $0.60/gallon respectively, including subsidies. The company has been conducting pilot operations and expects to begin construction of its first demonstration-scale plant this quarter.

Biodiesel, biofuels, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Solar

Chicago Vertical Farm Gets Grant for Renewable Energy System

Cindy Zimmerman

An innovative sustainable food production project in the Windy City has received a grant for a renewable energy system that uses waste materials.

The project called “The Plant” was recently awarded a total of $1.5 million in grant funds from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) to support a comprehensive renewable energy system that will accept up to 12,000 tons of food scraps annually. Most of the material will be spent grain from an onsite craft brewery, New Chicago Brewing Company, and from other breweries around Chicago – material that is currently sent to landfills.

By installing an anaerobic digester and combined heat and power system, The Plant will create about 380 kilowatts of electricity and 2.1 million BTU of heat – enough to meet the full energy needs of the 93,500 square-foot facility. The digester will allow The Plant to become independent of the grid and produce power and heat at between one-quarter and one-third of current utility costs to its tenants. In addition to the craft brewery, The Plant has plans for a bakery and aquaponics growing systems.

The total project costs are approximately $3 million and will be completed by June 2013.

Waste-to-Energy