Power Line to Convert to Wind Energy Carrier

John Davis

minnpowerA high voltage power line that runs from near Duluth, Minnesota to just outside of Bismarck, North Dakota will soon convert to carrying clean wind energy power.

This story from Minnesota Public Radio says Duluth-based Minnesota Power bought the 250-kilovolt power line from the Square Butte Electric Cooperative:

“We’ll be phasing out coal-based electricity that is currently carried via the D.C. line, and that will be replaced entirely by wind energy over the next several years,” [Minnesota Power Spokeswoman Amy Rutledge] said. “It will afford us access to some of the best wind resources in the country, and provide us with the means to deliver more renewable energy to our customers.”

Rutledge said the purchase will save Minnesota Power the cost of permitting and building a new power line. Minnesota Power is planning a 75-MW wind farm to generate power near New Salem, North Dakota.

The wind energy carried on the line is expected to help Minnesota Power meet a state mandate of 25 percent renewable energy by 2025.

Wind

Cellulosic Ethanol Demo Plant for Georgia

Cindy Zimmerman

valerorenewables_logoA Valero Energy Corporation subsidiary is joining forces with an Atlanta engineering firm to build a cellulosic ethanol demonstration plant in west central Georgia.

Sonny PerdueGeorgia Governor Sonny Perdue announced that the new plant is a partnership between Diamond Alternative Energy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Valero Energy Corporation, and American Process, Inc..

“Georgia is striving to be a world leader in biofuels,” said Governor Perdue. “Our plentiful supply of raw materials to manufacture biofuels enables private industry to develop alternative energy technologies and create jobs. By opening their biorefinery plant, Diamond Alternative Energy and API will further cement Georgia’s leadership position in the alternative energy industry.”

The plant is expected to open in the first quarter of 2010.

Cellulosic, Ethanol News

New Year Brings Idling of Biodiesel Plants

John Davis

RBF_Port_Neches1The new year has brought some bad news for the biodiesel industry. As expected, the $1-per-gallon federal tax incentive expired at the end of December 2009. And, as expected, some biodiesel makers have had to idle their plants after losing the tax credit.

One of the biggest to “idle in the new year” is the 180-million gallon Renewable Biofuels plant in Port Neches, Texas, just a year after it had opened. The Houston Chronicle reports says it’s a trend that we could see more of:

The entire biodiesel industry is in a similar holding pattern, though it’s unclear how many companies idled plants Thursday. Producers still hope the credit will be renewed and applied retroactively when Congress reconvenes later this month.

But even a temporary loss of the credit could be enough to ruin some companies, many of them already weakened by a string of recent economic and policy setbacks.

“As a result of the tax credit lapse, we expect that industry-wide pay will be cut, jobs will be lost and infrastructure and plant investments will waste away,” said Daniel J. Oh, president of Ames, Iowa-based Renewable Energy Group, one of the nation’s largest biodiesel producers.

All of the company’s nine plants — including one in Seabrook on Galveston Bay — “are expected to be negatively affected” by the loss of the credit, he said in an e-mailed statement without elaborating.

The article goes on to say that 23,000 jobs in the biodiesel industry could be lost, coming on the heels of a 29,000-job loss in 2009. But there is a bright spot as some of those jobs could come back on line if Congress re-authorizes the tax credit.

Biodiesel

Tennessee Misses Biofuels Goal

A Tennessee state audit found that the state agencies missed their goal of reducing their use of petroleum products by 20 percent. Legislation enacted in 2007 gave state agencies, universities and community colleges until January 1, 2010 to meet this goal.

tdot“The 20 percent reduction was a challenging goal,” said Alan Jones, manager of the environmental policy office at TDOT. The problem, he noted, is that there aren’t enough E85 and biodiesel stations to serve all the state vehicles. According to TDOT, there are just 33 pumps across the state selling B20 and only 27 pumps provide E85.

About 9 million cars on the roads today are flexible fuel vehicles and nearly 139,000 located in the state of Tennessee. “A lot of those vehicle owners continue to use 100 percent unleaded and in fact, surveys have shown that a lot of those vehicle owners don’t even realize they can use E85,” he said.

Biodiesel, E85, Ethanol, Ethanol News, News

Rolling Ethanol Fireplace

Cindy Zimmerman

ethanolWith much of the United States experiencing record cold and snow right now, this decorative yet practical German-engineered ethanol fireplace could be just the ticket for a little extra warmth from room to room.

According to the Google English translation of the Conmoto Online Shop that offers the product, “ROLL FIRE balances its stainless steel tank at the ball rolls out confidently. Its glass panels mounted on both sides provide full insight. Held by magnets, the glass is removed for filling the tank with bioethanol summarily.”

The price is a mere 2.490,00 EUR – or about $3,570.00.

Ethanol, Miscellaneous

Ethanol By-Product Feeds Egyptian Water Buffalo

Cindy Zimmerman

A by-product of ethanol production in the United States is feeding water buffalo in Egypt.

Corn MissionIn fact, corn growers on a recent U.S. Grains Council mission found that DDGS (dried distiller’s grains with solubles) have become quite popular as livestock rations in that part of the world. “We found several farms that have incorporated distillers grains into their rations and are making good use of them,” said Missouri corn grower and mission participant Jim Stuever.

USGC director for Egypt Dr. Hussein Soliman says they introduced DDGS to producers in 2006. “We introduced 6,000 metric tons in 2006 to start, now we’ve reached 80,000 metric tons, and in two years that will be 200,000 metric tons,” he said.

The corn grower mission met with Dr. Saad Alhayani, who owns and operates a very new open water buffalo feedlot and dairy near Cairo and is also chairman of the Egyptian Buffalo Producer’s Association. “We started two years ago putting five percent and now sometimes we put 25 percent (DDGS) in our diet and it brings very good results,” Alhayani said.

Watch a video clip of Dr. Alhayani’s water buffalo operation here:

USGC Corn Mission In Egypt Photo Album

Distillers Grains, Ethanol

DF Cast: Green Limo Offers Rides in Style on Biodiesel

John Davis

df-logoIt’s New Year’s Eve, and many people will be stepping out on the town, riding in style in a limousine. But some folks will be able go green while they go swanky, thanks to Seattle’s first eco-friendly limo service, Seattle GreenLimo.

SeattleGreenLimoDuring this edition of the Domestic Fuel Cast, we talk to company president Kevin Williams, who has four limos running on the green fuel, cutting CO2 emissions by 80 percent or more. Williams credits at least two ladies, Sharon, who made her own biodiesel for her Jetta, and Zoe, who is the kind of person who volunteered to rescue dogs after Hurricane Katrina, for inspiring him to continue in the green venture, despite some roadblocks put up by the State of Washington … which tries to sell itself as being an eco-friendly state.

KevinWilliamsIt’s a pretty cool conversation, and you can hear more of it here: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/domesticfuel/DFCast-12-31-09.mp3]

You can also subscribe to the DomesticFuel Cast here.

Audio, Biodiesel, Domestic Fuel Cast

The Ethanol Decade

Cindy Zimmerman

The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) is calling the decade of the 2000’s “the era when biofuels came of age.” The ethanol advocacy organization reflects on the last ten years:

Renewable Fuels Association LogoAs we prepare to begin a new decade, the Renewable Fuels Association is taking just a moment to look back at the decade that saw ethanol emerge as the leading renewable fuel alternative to our dependence on foreign oil.

No matter what the calendar says, the decade of the 2000 aughts began on September 11, 2001. That tragic day ushered in a new consciousness of America’s vulnerability, to terrorist attack most assuredly, but also to the very high price we pay for our dependence on imported oil. When President Bush announced a few months later that we would break our addiction to oil, Americans knew well why it was necessary – national security was now linked to energy security and the consequence of inaction was now tangible. By decade’s end, concerns about climate change provided additional momentum to the effort to wean the world from oil and develop sustainable, secure alternatives to oil.

Thus it was that the past decade truly was the era when biofuels such as ethanol came of age. From just 1.4 billion gallons of production in 1999, the U.S. ethanol industry last year produced an astonishing 10.6 billion gallons. Ethanol is now, truly, a ubiquitous component of the U.S. motor fuel market, with ethanol blended in more than 80% of every gallon of fuel, and ethanol blends sold virtually coast to coast and border to border.

As ethanol production has increased, so have the industry’s contributions to the American economy. As recently as January, 2000, there were only 54 ethanol plants in the U.S. Nine years later, there were more than 200 plants in 26 states, with even more under construction.Read More

Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFA

Iberdola Completes 149-mw North Dakota Wind Farm

John Davis

Iberdrola2Construction is complete on a 149-megawatt wind farm in North Dakota.

This post on RenewableEnergyWorld.com says the $300 million Iberdrola Renewables Rugby Wind Power Project near Rugby, North Dakota with 71 turbines created more than 250 construction jobs and will support 29 more jobs while in operation:

Missouri River Energy Services (MRES) purchases 40 MW of output from the Rugby project. MRES, based in Sioux Falls, is an organization of 60 member communities in the State.

Iberdrola Renewables Inc. now operates more than 3,500 MW of wind power in the U.S. It is part of Iberdrola Renovables, the largest provider of wind power in the world according to New Energy Finance, with more than 10,000 MW in operation in 23 countries.

The power purchased by Missouri River Energy Services will meet the energy demands of 11,000 subscribers.

Wind

Biodiesel Makers Could Get New Hedging Tool

John Davis

CMEBiodiesel producers could get a new trading instrument that will help them hedge against fluctuations in the price of feedstocks and the actual fuel.

Biodiesel Magazine reports that if a new trading instrument proposed by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange gets approved by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, green fuel makers could hedge both feedstocks and biodiesel production in a more liquid market with a single swap contract that ties a soybean oil futures contract with a heating oil futures contract:

John Stotts, director of agricultural trading for Infinium Capital Management LLC, explained that while a biodiesel swap does exist, “the volume and open interest are next to nothing. It looks like the ethanol market did five or six years ago.” Infinium has become more active in the ethanol markets in the last few months, he added, and is closely watching the development of the new tools for biodiesel.

With biodiesel futures nonexistent and the available swaps thinly traded, many producers have turned to hedging their biodiesel production through the heating oil market, which is used globally as a proxy for biodiesel because of the very high correlation in the two markets. While not quite as large as the soybean or corn markets, the heating oil futures market is more liquid than soybean oil futures. “You have a lot of participants in the heating oil market,” Stotts explained. “From the crude side, there are distillers and big oil that have a lot of participation—it’s definitely more robust in open interest and traded volume.”

Swaps give producers a cleaner hedge because they tie soybean oil futures contracts to heating oil futures contracts. In addition, swap contracts are listed monthly, as opposed to eight contracts for soybean oil or seven months listed for soybeans.

Biodiesel