While the waters along those world-famous Hawaiian beaches will still be picture-perfect blue, some folks in the Aloha State are banking on some murky-green H2O for power.
This story from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin says three companies will team up to develop the world’s first commercial microalgae facility on Maui that will produce oil for biodiesel and and animal feed.
Alexander & Baldwin Inc., HR BioPetroleum Inc. and Hawaiian Electric Industries subsidiaries Hawaiian Electric Co. and Maui Electric Co. said yesterday they have signed a tentative agreement to build an algae plant on up to 1,000 acres of agricultural land owned by A&B next to HECO’s Maalaea power plant starting in 2011.
It would be one of the first commercial plants of its kind in the world, according to Ed Shonsey, HR BioPetroleum chief executive officer, and adds to several major isle biodiesel projects announced in the past two years.
“It’s a very new area in the field of biofuels and alternative energy,” Shonsey said. “There are approximately 20 companies in the world that are investigating this approach and of those 20 there are only approximately two that actually have pilot facilities and have demonstrated the ability to do it outside the lab and scale it up, and we are one of those.”
The plant is expected to be profitable in its first year of operation.
Sarah Steelman, who is also the State Treasurer, has now switched her position to opposing Missouri’s mandate that requires that practically every gallon of gasoline sold in the state must contain at least 10 percent ethanol. Just earlier this year, she had backed the mandate, but now has sided with Big Oil’s contention that it is raising food and fuel prices… a contention her opponent in Missouri’s August 5th Republican Primary, Congressman Kenny Hulshof refutes with plenty of facts from ag and non-agricultural sources in this article from the 
Even with all of that growth there is one place where the wind industry is falling short. “Man power, there is a shortage of man power to man the wind turbines that are being operated across the country and that is where our program comes in,” Zeits said.
“They are definitely growing [in popularity],” says Ron Stimmel of the AWEA, the national trade association for the wind energy industry. Sales of turbines that generate 2 kilowatts to 10 kilowatts of electricity, the smallest category of turbine and the ones most likely to be in residential use, have been rising nearly 25% annually, he said.
A 100-year-old paper mill in Northern Wisconsin is being converted to make biodiesel.
Officials with a Maryland biodiesel plant, where a man was killed while working on bringing the idled refinery back on line in May, say they will continue to work to get the facility back in to production.
An Illinois biodiesel company has bought a biodiesel refinery that had been mothballed. Blackhawk Biofuels, LLC, with $19.8 million in financial backing from the state of Illinois, has bought the 45-million-gallon-a-year biodiesel plant at Danville, Illinois.
“As a business, we have always done everything we can to positively impact our customers and our economy,” stated Chris Barstow, president of Favorite Foods. “Now, we are taking steps to positively impact our environment. By investing in initiatives like a Biodiesel program, energy efficiencies in our new warehouse, and an expanded recycling program that will allow us to reduce waste exponentially, Favorite Foods can give back in a whole new way.”