Communicating Renewables Webinar Series Launched

Joanna Schroeder

communicating renewables webinar seriesThere are many opportunities and challenges facing the renewable energy industry. To achieve long-term success, one of the greatest hurdles the industry must overcome is garnering consumer support and product adoption. This has been tough for the corn-ethanol industry in part, due to media hostility and biased reporting.

So what is the most effective way to communicate your message to ensure your technology survives in a crowded marketplace? 

This question and more will be answered in the Communicating Renewables Webinar Series. This program is designed for those involved in or seeking information about the alternative energy arena. The webinar series is designed specifically to help arm communications professionals with the tools they will need to approach, head on, the challenging task of getting the positive message about renewable energy, technologies and research out to consumers, stakeholders, policy leaders, and the media.

Topics include:

  • » Web 2.0: how to harness the newest online tools to ensure your message reaches your target audience
  • » Strength in numbers: building coalitions with unlikely partners to add legitimacy to your messages
  • » Pit Bull Media Relations: how to pitch reporters who don’t support your product
  • » Grant Writing and Fundraising 101: how to bring additional funding to your organization
  • » Pitching Energy Reporters: the do’s and dont’s to securing coverage
  • » Developing Effective Media Relationships: how to work with overburdened and time-starved reporters

Don’t miss this ground breaking and affordable webinar series. Most sessions are only $49. The first session is June 2, 2009. To learn more and to register go to www.CommunicatingRenewables.com.

communications, Company Announcement

Duke Energy Enters the Wind Industry

Joanna Schroeder

duke-logo-color1Duke Energy continues to expand its renewable energy portfolio with the acquisition of a 70-magawatt wind power project in Pennsylvania known as the North Allegheny Windpower Project. Gamesa Energy USA was the original wind turbine manufacturer and project developer. 

This marks the first wind energy project for Duke Energy in the Eastern US; however, they have other wind projects including selling wind power to WalMart stores in Texas. The North Allegheny project consists of 35 Gamesa wind turbines, each  capable of producing two megawatts (MW) of electricity. This purchase will give the company more than 700 MW of wind-powered generation by the of 2009. 

Wouter van Kempen, president of Duke Energy Generation Services (DEGS), which is a business unit of Duke Energy that owns and develops renewable power assets, said in a company statement today, “The purchase of the North Allegheny Windpower Project in Pennsylvania marks a milestone for Duke Energy and its renewables business. This acquisition immediately expands our wind  power portfolio beyond the western U.S., where we have half a dozen projects already in operation or under construction.”

Once the project is complete, Duke energy will sell all the energy generated from the wind turbines to FirstEnergy. The wind farm is expected to be online by the end of this year.

Company Announcement, Wind

Ethanol Industry Testifies on Carbon Fuel Standards

Cindy Zimmerman

Representatives from ethanol organizations and companies testified before the House Agriculture Committee this morning on proposed low carbon fuel standards.

ACE Brian JenningsThe heads of three ethanol trade associations all presented basically the same message when it comes to using indirect land use changes (ILUC) to evaluate the greenhouse gas emissions of renewable fuels – it is unproven theory that should not be used.

“The architect of the ILUC theory is Mr. Tim Searchinger,” said American Coalition for Ethanol executive director Brian Jennings. “Mr. Searchinger is not a scientist or an economist. He is an attorney, who for most of his career worked at the environmental organization Environmental Defense, consistently attacking American farmers and ranchers and the public policies that ensure our stable supply of food, fiber and fuel.”

Growth Energy Tom BuisTom Buis, CEO of Growth Energy, said they would support ILUC if it were done correctly. “First, it should apply equally to all transportation fuels. Second, it should be based on universally accepted science and economic modeling. Third, the international land use requirement should be eliminated,” Buis said. “The low carbon fuel standard proposals at the state and federal level that we have reviewed do not meet these two requirements. Oddly, science and parity have not been part of the equation – which makes us seriously question the motivation.”

RFA Bob DinneenRenewable Fuels Association president and CEO Bob Dinneen says the modeling being used to determine indirect land use is simply not good science. “The tremendous uncertainty and inherent lack of transparency associated with analysis of international indirect land use changes makes it extremely difficult for regulators to legitimately use these results to assign penalties for international indirect effects to the carbon score of various biofuels,” Dinneen said. “Models should be seen as learning tools, not truth machines.”

Dinneen also said they believe the EPA’s lifecycle greenhouse gas analysis of ethanol is not what Congress intended in the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) which specifically limited such consideration of indirect emissions to those “related to the full fuel lifecycle, including all stages of fuel and feedstock production and distribution” – not food production.

Carlos Riva VereniumTestimony also centered on the impact ILUC calculations could have on the future development of advance biofuels. “In my view, there are not, and will not be, any “significant” indirect impacts from advanced biofuels production – the literal test required by the terms of EISA,” said Verenium president and CEO Carlos Riva. “Because there is zero commercial-scale production of such fuels today, and there are only trivial quantities of advanced biofuels production in prospect in the immediate 3-5 year time horizon. We have the time to get this right, and we must get it right.” He encouraged the panel to recommend modifications to EPA’s proposed rule.

ACE, Cellulosic, Government, Growth Energy, RFA

Sunoco Wins Bid for NY Ethanol Plant

sunoco2On June 15, Sunoco Inc. is scheduled to be the owner of a former Miller brewery near Syracuse, NY. Northeast Biofuels L.P. filed bankruptcy in January this year and is now being purchased by Sunoco for $8.5 million.

Construction of Northeast Biofuels began in 2006, but it was never completed, though some production occurred last year. Northeast owes creditors $172 million, according to bankruptcy documents. The purchase price is only a fraction of the $200 million cost to build the plant.

nebiofuels_plantSunoco spokesman Thomas Golembeski said that this aquisition would supply 25 percent of the ethanol Sunoco needs to blend into gasoline to meet renewable-fuels standards. He noted that Sunoco was attracted to the Northeast Biofuels plant in Volney, NY because it was close to Sunoco’s main operations in the Northeast. Golembeski also said the company hoped to save some money in the shipment of ethanol from the Midwest, where most of the nation’s ethanol is made and where corn production is concentrated.

“We think this is a good value. We also view this as a first step into an area of possible growth for the company,” Golembeski said.

Ethanol

Biodiesel Could Benefit from Higher CAFE Standards

John Davis

President Barack Obama has proposed that vehicle fuel economy standards be substantially increased to 35.5 miles per gallon by the year 2016… and biodiesel could be a big benefactor of that change.

This article from Biodiesel Magazine says auto industry folks, such as Dave Barthmuss, group manager for General Motors Environment and Energy Communications North America, believe the new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) requirements would make diesel engines more attractive… and thus, make the green fuel to put in those vehicles more attractive:

“Because diesel engines have greater fuel efficiency and can operate with biodiesel—which is a low-carbon fuel—expanding this area will be considered, but our plan is to achieve the reductions with our current portfolio.”

Along with compression engines and biodiesel utilization, corporate fleets will use flex-fuel, hybrid, plug-in and other alternative fuel vehicles to cut back on their petroleum usage and comply with the more stringent CAFE program.

Because diesel engines can offer fleet operators savings on CAFE requirements, it has been speculated in the short time since the new CAFE overview was published that the sector could see more business. This could be a boon for biodiesel. “There definitely has been more of a push from the current administration to implement programs that help the biofuels industries,” said Robert Dascal of New Energy Fuels in Waller, Texas. “Increased diesel fuel utilization obviously opens up more of a market for us.”

GM officials believe having one consistent fuel economy standard… instead of the hodge-podge of individual states’ regulations… will provide a more consistent platform for manufacturers to shoot for.

Biodiesel, Car Makers, Energy, Government, Indy Racing

Renewable Energy Part of Next Farm Foundation Forum

John Davis

farmfoundationforum3Get your reservation in for the next free Farm Foundation Forum, as the topic of discussion will turn to the subject of greenhouse gases and the options for agriculture.

Entitled “Carbon Policy Options and Implications for Agriculture,” the forum will be held on Tuesday, June 2:

Presenters confirmed for this Forum are Iowa farmer Varel Bailey, and Jon Scholl of American Farmland Trust. Invitations have been extended to the energy industry, the livestock industry and greenhouse gas researchers.

As usual, the National Press Club at 529 14th Street NW, Washington D.C. will be the venue for the two-hour event starting at 9 a.m. (get your coffee at 8:30 a.m.).

Make sure you RSVP to our friend Mary Thompson, Farm Foundation Director of Communication at mary@farmfoundation.org, by Friday May 29th. There is no charge to participate.

Farm Foundation

Making Ethanol from Solid Waste

John Davis

enerkemCanadian waste-to-biofuels technology company Enerkem has received North America’s first unconditional commercial permit to produce advanced biofuels, in particular, ethanol, from sorted municipal solid waste.

This company press release says Enerkem GreenField Alberta Biofuels (EGAB) received the pemit to make the ethanol at a facility in Edmonton, Alberta:

“This unprecedented project is set to change the dynamics of the waste and fuel industries by making waste – that would otherwise be landfilled – a resource for transportation fuels,” said Vincent Chornet, President and Chief Executive Officer of Enerkem. “The City of Edmonton is a leader in waste management and is now pioneering this solution which is to become a model for cities around the globe.“

In 2008, EGAB entered into a 25-year agreement with the City of Edmonton to build and operate a waste-to-biofuels facility on municipal land and to receive the City’s sorted municipal solid waste as feedstock. The City of Edmonton will supply 100,000 tonnes of sorted municipal solid waste per year. The sorted municipal solid waste to be used is the end-waste after recycling and composting. These residues would otherwise be landfilled.

Enerkem is expected to start building the $61.5 million facility by the end of this year. It will turn out about 9.5 million gallons of ethanol a year, taking 6 million tons of carbon dioxide over the next 25 years out of the environment… roughly equal to taking 12,000 cars off the road annually.

Ethanol, News

Watermelons Could Source Ethanol

watermelonLook out corn and sugar, an untapped source for ethanol could be on its way — watermelon. According to the USDA, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in Oklahoma has been testing ways to make the simple sugars found in watermelons into ethanol, and the USDA is now reporting some success on that front.

nwaThe National Watermelon Association began working with the USDA in 2006 to see if the 700-800 million pounds of blemished melons (and late-season melons that are not worth it for big farms to harvest) could find another life as ethanol instead of being plowed back into the ground.

ARS researcher Wayne Fish has found a way to get about 7/10ths of a pound of ethanol from a 20 pound watermelon. While that sounds like a pretty tiny amount, remember that these melons aren’t being grown as a biofuel crop; it’s just a way to get some oil independence out of leftover melons.

Ethanol

Making Algae Commercially Viable Workshop Coming Up

John Davis

naalogoAlgae is being seen as the next great feedstock for biodiesel… if the industry can grow the algae and extract the oil in a commercially-viable way. To that end, our friends from the National Algae Association`s Mid-South Chapter are hosting a one-day workshop on algae commercialization on June 12, 2009 at the Doubletree Castle Hotel in Orlando, Florida.

According to the group’s Web site, the workshop, entitled “Algae: The Race for New Oil,” will feature several presentations including an update on algae production in the region. There are some deadlines coming up soon if you want to submit white papers and business plans for review during the workshop:

* White papers for algae-related growth systems and support products, as well as R&D overviews must be submitted also by May 26, 2009 for review by the executive committee for potential inclusion in the workshop.

* Three business plans will be picked to present to the National Algae Association. Business plans must be submitted by May 26, 2009 for review by the executive committee for potential commercialization production of algae.

“We have seen amazing developments in algae commercialization during this past year. NAA conferences and workshops have played an important role in bringing together the history-makers who are turning `algae for biofuels` into a household phrase,” says [Tamra Fakhoorian, President of the NAA Mid-South Chapter].

Organizers expect producers, equipment manufacturers, researchers, engineers, along with members of the legal, investment and financial communities to attend. More information is available on the NAA Mid-South Chapter Web site: www.NationalAlgaeAssociation.com.

algae, Biodiesel

World Ag Congress Discusses Biofuels

Cindy Zimmerman

Biofuels from the perspective of India and East Africa, as well as Europe and the United States, were part of the discussion at the World Ag Congress in St. Louis on Tuesday.

World Ag ForumHenk Joos with London-based D1 Oils moderated the panel focusing on an integrated approach to biofuels. He stressed that the purpose of the panel was to find solutions. “We can decide to go again in an immense debate on food versus fuel,” he said. “I would like to take a different approach. I would like with my fellow panelists to identify responsible ways to make food and fuel at the same time.”

Joos noted, as did several others on the panel, that biofuels alone were not the cause of last year’s dramatic increase in food prices. “Food production per capita in the world has never been higher than it is today,” he said. “It’s not necessarily about the total production of food, it’s really food distribution, getting it to the people who need it.” Not only that, he added, a great deal of food continues to be wasted around the world.

He also pointed out the food and fuel example of Brazil, which has developed a very successful sugarcane ethanol industry using only 0.3% of total acreage to produce sugarcane. “That is a perfect example of how this production can go hand in hand,” he said.

The panelists included former Secretary of Agriculture for India Radha Singh, Lee Broughton with Enterprise, Bill Horan with 25x’25, and professor Nuhu Hatibu, CEO of Kilimo Trust, East Africa. All agreed that there are ways the world can produce fuel from various feedstocks – including non-food like jatropha and algae for biodiesel – and still feed a growing population.

You can listen to the opening remarks of the panelists here: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/world-ag-forum/waf-09-biofuels.MP3]

Agribusiness, algae, Audio, Biodiesel, Ethanol, International