Corn Plus, a 49 million gallon ethanol plant in Winnebago, Minnesota, has been granted an energy efficiency award. Shared-savings programs are offered by Alliant. They include low-cost financing and financial incentives to help purchase new energy efficient equipment.
There were three major projects that Corn Plus has taken on since 2004 that apply toward the shared-savings energy efficiency projects: a fluid bed reactor which has saved the company $24 million over the past four years; the use of variable frequency drives instead of standard motors which cut the company’s energy use by 35 percent and saved about $200,000 in the past four years; and the ethanol plant’s choice of a distillation upgrade which allowed them to grind the same amount of corn and produce more alcohol.
“Through these programs, that’s how we were awarded for energy efficiency,” said Keith Kor, general manager of Corn Plus.
The plant has taken small steps, too, to improve its efficiency: updating its lighting; installing energy-efficient centrifugal fans and compressed air; and adding a palletizing plant and ash plant.
Alliant estimates all those improvements have saved the company 37.5 million kWh of electricity – enough to power 3,906 typical homes for a year.
“We’re looking at another project that will help reduce our natural gas and increase energy savings and another to reduce our water usage,” Kor said. “There will be less evaporation load on our cooling towers. They’re not evaporating as much water – they don’t need to take up as much water in the cooling process.”
The energy efficiency awards were given to five businesses.
In a press statement,
I have written often that the best way for our country to transition to alternative energy is through the community – not through the government. As such, the book, “The Citizen-Powered Energy Handbook Community Solutions to a Global Crisis,” by 
A California company that makes biofuels out of several sources has received a state grant to work on turning the waste from grapes and almonds into biodiesel.
A man who recycles restaurant grease into biodiesel while busting the myths the green fuel’s opponents have been spreading is being recognized by a network dedicated to sustainability issues.
As a representative of the biodiesel industry, Baker said he has been involved in dispelling the “myths” created by certain lobbying groups meant to confuse the public about the benefits and characteristics of biodiesel. “It’s been particularly bad the past two years,” Baker said. “One is that biodiesel production and use is worse for the environment, and takes more energy, than petroleum—and that simply is not true,” he said. “The first 15 years I was involved in this business, I never heard that.” Baker feels his role in education and the promotion of biodiesel led to Tri-State’s selection as an SVN Innovator. “There’s been a lot of negative publicity and I’ve been educating legislators and others about the positives.”
Texas fuel retailers are now selling 10 percent ethanol. Local gas stations have been updating filters, checking tanks and applying green ethanol-blend stickers to put on pumps, but such a change is not without its cost and problems for retailers. The ethanol mixture is the result of 2005 and 2007 federal energy acts requiring specific benchmarks for refineries to produce cleaner-burning fuel.
“We are delighted to work with the Fagen team,” said Fibrowatt CEO Rupert Fraser, “their experience as EPC contractors is very impressive and we are certain that we are moving forward with a contractor that understands the unique characteristics of our technology. This agreement is another step for us in North Carolina – helping the State move forward towards its goal of being a leader in the implementation of home-grown renewable energy.”
“Profitability has returned,” says Joe Victor, who is Vice President of commodity research advisory firm 
“Growth Energy supports a Low Carbon Fuel Standard as long as it is done right, and the Low Carbon Fuel Standard proposed by the California Air Resources Board is not done right,” said Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis. “It relies on a flawed, unproven and unscientific concept that would punish biofuels, despite the opportunity biofuels like ethanol provide as cleaner, greener fuels that are an alternative to dirty foreign oil.”