Nevada Water Company Proposes 100-mw Solar Farm

John Davis

VidlerA water company in Nevada is proposing to build a solar farm that could be one of the biggest in the country.

The Reno Gazette-Journal reports that Vidler Water Co. wants to to build a 100-megawatt solar farm at its Fish Springs Ranch about 40 miles from Reno. Construction could start next year:

In Europe, a 1.8 million-megawatt farm is planned in the Czech Republic, using solar photovoltaic modules that concentrate the sun’s energy on a thin film surrounded by glass. Those panels are produced by Signet Solar of Meno Park, Calif.

Signet Solar also will manufacture the solar panels to be used at Fish Springs Ranch, said Donald Pattalock, Vidler vice president for obtaining permits.

Signet Solar has a factory near Dresden, Germany, and announced plans a year ago to open its first American manufacturing plant in Belen, N.M.

Last summer, Pattalock said he showed Signet Solar officials possible sites for another manufacturing plant in the Stead area. “We have a lot of water to put to work, and we thought we can do something to jump-start industry,” he said.

Vidler bought the land about 10 years ago with hopes of developing it. However, the housing crash stalled those plans.

Solar

Group Calls Wind “Easiest Crop to Harvest”

John Davis

PelstringA leader in large-scale community wind project development is making the case that wind turbines on farmland would only take up 1 percent of the land but could double a farmer’s profitability.

In a piece e-mailed to Domestic Fuel, National Wind’s co-founder and co-chair Patrick Pelstring says wind energy doesn’t take up as much room as some people might think and would provide a steady second income without a lot of effort on the part of the landowner:

A rule of thumb regarding wind farm land use is that, while each turbine generally needs a plot of about 100 acres separating it from other turbines, the actual footprint of each turbine is less than one acre. This footprint includes the area surrounding the turbine and all access roads. Therefore, each turbine occupies less than 1% of the open land required by a wind farm, leaving the other 99% of the property available as farmland or pasture.

To examine the impact wind energy can make on a small amount of land, let’s envision a hypothetical farmer, John, who grows corn on 500 acres of land. According to the 2008 Riverland Community College Farm Business Management Annual Report for Southeast Minnesota, the average return per acre of corn from 1999-2008 was $60.13 per acre. A total of 500 acres of corn at $60.13 profit equals $30,065 per year. This is the farmer’s return on labor and management after investing capital, labor, management and taking commodity and weather risks.

windvscornprofitNow, imagine that John has five turbines on his farm, occupying five of his cropping acres, leaving him with 495 acres of corn. His farming conditions are the same, so from those acres he’ll make $29,764 in profit, based on the 10 year average profit of $60.13 per acre. But add in the revenue from the turbines–$35,000 total assuming $7,000 per turbine (on the low end of what National Wind pays)–and his total profits increase to $64,764 per year. This would be almost double his profits from growing only corn without turbines. Under National Wind’s community model, the profit structure may be even better if landowners take an ownership stake in a project company and share in the actual profits generated.

Pelstring goes on to make the case that wind turbines can be a good hedge against natural disasters, such as floods in farmland.

Opinion, Wind

Book Review – The End of Energy Obesity

Joanna Schroeder

TheEndofEnergyObesityI thought it would be apropos to tie this week’s book review into a common New Year’s resolution -weight loss. Enter “The End of Energy Obesity,” by Peter Tertzakian. While this book has the same theme as most energy books these days, breaking America’s energy addiction, it varied from the most common used parallels and likened our country’s energy addiction to our country’s food addiction. It is an effective analogy.

Tertzakian writes, “Over the last decade, specifically in North America, our energy appetite has soared to such an extent that we are now energy obese.”

Throughout the book, Tertzakian outlines how America became energy obese as well as the way our country can curb its energy appetite as this will need to be done, in part, through a new energy diet that is compelling. He explains that energy sources, both renewable and nonrenewable will need to meet nine energy attributes. The higher the score, the better chance the energy source has of being successfully incorporated into our energy diet. The nine attributes include: versatility, scalability, storability and transportability, deliverability, energy density, power density, constancy, environmental sensitivity, and energy security.  Ultimately, Tertzakian feels that renewable energy has limited potential and his winning solution is increasing the use of natural gas.

For the most part, he stays the course with his metapor through the first two parts but he begins to wander off topic in part three as he delves into conservation, dissolving distance and the development of communication technologies. I also disagree with him in the sense that relying on an increase in natural gas is not the best way to go. Natural gas is a limited resource that fluctuates heavily in terms of pricing. An increase in the use of this energy source could cause our energy prices to become even more volitale. Yes, energy prices will increase as we ramp up the integration of alternative energy sources but over the long-term, prices will become more stable than they are now.

Ultimately the book presents some interesting ideas to mull over but if you’re short of time, just focus on the first half of the book. To read this book or any book I review, click here.

book reviews

REG to Supply Biodiesel for Hawaiian Utility

John Davis

HECONot since the guy from Keokuk said “Hey, I’ll bring the pig to the luau,” has there been such a perfect partnership between the Hawkeye and Aloha States. Pacific Business News says Hawaiian Electric Co. (HECO) will buy 3 million to 7 million gallons of biodiesel annually for two years from Ames, Iowa-based Renewable Energy Group for the utility’s new power plant on Oahu:

REGlogo2REG won an earlier bid in October to supply 400,000 gallons of biodiesel for testing at the 110-megawatt plant.

The company was the winning bidder among eight companies seeking to supply the biodiesel, which will be processed from used cooking oil and waste animal fat.

REG operates nine biodiesel production plants on the Mainland with the capacity to produce more than 300 million gallons of biodiesel per year, and has two others under construction.

The contract has been submitted to the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission for review, and delivery of the biodiesel could begin within four months of PUC approval, HECO said.

HECO has committed to using only green fuels to run the plant.

Biodiesel

Dyadic International’s Investors Win Big in ’09

Joanna Schroeder

According to an article in the Palm Beach Post, Dyadic International, based in Jupiter, Florida, made a huge comeback in 2009 when investors saw their stake increase by 1,253 percent during 2009. Dyadic was featured in the newspaper’s best and worst performers of 2009 for companies based in Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties Florida. In the biofuels space, Dyadic is best known for its enzymes that are used to convert biomass to glucose.

Last year, the company announced a licensing agreement with Abengoa Bioenergy to sell its patented C1 Technology Platform for the large-scale production of enzymes for use in manufacturing biofuels. They also announced a multi-million licensing agreement with Codexis, Inc in November.

Dyadic Founder and CEO Mark Emalfarb. Photo from TCPalm.com.

Dyadic Founder and CEO Mark Emalfarb. Photo from TCPalm.com.

However, these recent successes did not come without hardship. As reported by the news media, in 2007 company founder, chief executive and largest shareholder, Mark Emalfarb, was forced out. Emalfarb once again took the company helm in 2008, although the outlook was much starker. During his absence, the stock price nearly dissapated and the shares were dropped from the American Stock Exhange and relegated to the Pink Sheets. But akin to the American success story, Emalfarb turned his company around with several big deals in 2009 and now they are poised as a leader going into 2010.

“With all the clouds lifted, people are seeing the sky very clearly — and it’s blue,” Emalfarb said in the Palm Beach Post. “Shareholders recognize the incredible, miraculous recovery we’ve made, and they’re rewarding us. We obviously are drinking our Kool-Aid.”

biofuels, Biotech, Cellulosic, News

Record Ethanol Production in October

Cindy Zimmerman

According to the latest figures from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), U.S. ethanol production hit a record high in October 2009 of 740,000 barrels per day, up 93,000 barrels from October 2008.

Ethanol demand also reached an all time high in October, according to the Renewable Fuels Association. The organization calculates that demand totaled 767,000 barrels per day in October, an increase of 75,000 barrels over a year earlier.

Ethanol, Ethanol News

Bunge to Expand Sugar Business in Brazil

Joanna Schroeder

BrazilianSugarcane1There has been quite a bit of activity in Brazil during the last few months of 2009 and it looks like it will continue. Bunge Limited announced today that it will become the 100 percent owner of Usina Moema Participacoes S.A. Moema Par is a holding company that owns one sugarcane mill and has ownership in five others. Together the six mills, known as the Moema Group, have the capacity to crush 15.4 metric tons. This agreement, which is structured as a share exchange worth approximately $896 million, gives Bunge 60 percent effective share of the total capacity.

“This transaction fulfills Bunge’s strategic goal of building a large-scale, fully integrated business in sugar and bioenergy,” stated Alberto Weisser, Chairman and CEO of Bunge Limited. “It adds significant scale to our current milling operations and enables us to vary production among multiple sugar and ethanol products, according to market conditions. The Moema Group cluster is also strategically located near large domestic markets in Brazil and has excellent access to export logistics systems. All of these strengths make it a perfect fit with our global trading and marketing operations.”

The Moema Group cluster is located on the border of São Paulo and Minas Gerais states, the two largest domestic ethanol markets in Brazil. According to Bunge, the mills benefit from cost savings due to their cluster configuration, and have favorable road and rail access to three of Brazil’s largest export ports (Santos, Paranagua and Vitoria). The mills can produce both raw and crystal sugar, as well as hydrous and anhydrous ethanol. In addition, the mills have co-generation facilities, are self-sustaining in terms of energy requirements and sell excess power to the grid. The majority of the cluster’s sugarcane is harvested mechanically, which is now law in São Paulo.

According to Bunge, they may enter into agreements to secure some of all of the remaining interests in the mills that comprise the Moema Group in the next few weeks.

Ethanol, Ethanol News, International

AG CONNECT Expo to Highlight Renewable Energy

Cindy Zimmerman

Ag Connect ExpoThe new AG CONNECT Expo debuting next week in Orlando has something for everyone in every area of agriculture, including renewable energy, thanks to the sponsorship of 25x’25.

Breakout sessions on renewable energy scheduled for the expo next week include Renewable Fuels Revolutionizing Agriculture, The Role of Agriculture and Forestry in a Reduced Carbon Economy, Harvesting the Wind, and Bioenergy Feedstocks.

AG CONNECT Expo will be held January 13-15 at the Orange County Convention Center and on-line registration is still available.

conferences

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