Gay & Robinson Inc. and Pacific West Energy LLC have formed a partnership to develop the first fuel ethanol plant in America to create renewable power and clean-burning ethanol fuel from sugarcane. The new 12-million-gallon-per-annum plant will use sugar juice and molasses as feedstock.
According to a news release, “the newly created partnership, Gay & Robinson Ag-Energy LLC, will also ensure the continuation of the Gay & Robinson agricultural enterprise, one of the oldest in Hawaii. Approximately 230 jobs will be preserved, and a large area of West Kauai will be maintained in sustainable agriculture.”
The initial $80 million phase of capital investment will include installation of a new biomass boiler and turbine generator to efficiently produce renewable electricity. Design and engineering work has begun, and an air permit for the ethanol plant has been secured. Future business plans call for additional stages of energy production, including biodiesel production, a methane recovery system, the processing of municipal solid waste, hydro power, the conversion of biomass into liquid fuels and solar energy production.
The Minnesota Governor’s Ethanol Challenge is happening this week at four Wissota dirt tracks– July 10 in Alexandria, July 11 in Madison, July 12 in Willmar and July 13 in Montevideo.
San Francisco-based Cleantech America, LLC says it will build a solar power farm possibly a square mile in size… making it seven times bigger than the world’s largest and 17 times bigger than anything else of its kind in America.
Federal Agriculture Department officials are warning that the rising demand for biodiesel is pushing up the demand, and the price, for the feedstocks that go into biodiesel… and that is cutting into already thin margins biodiesel are working under.
“As we look out over the coming year, we still think we’re going to have adequate supplies of soybeans, but the price for soybean meal and soybean oil is going up, and biodiesel, made from soybean oil has already been on a very thin margin over the past year.”
Tonight’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game will be seen by millions of fans across the country… thanks, in part, to biodiesel. And it’s just the start for the green fuel’s part on America’s sports stage.
Fox Sports will be powering all of its generators, satellite trucks, and other diesel equipment at its television compound in San Francisco with 20 percent biodiesel, B20. 
According to a 
Hybrid and alternative fueled vehicles were in the spotlight July 6 at the 
The Department of Defense has signed a contract with Syntroleum Corp. to buy 500 gallons of biofuel made from animal fats. The feedstock for Syntroleum’s fuel would come from Tyson Foods.
“This contract with the U.S. Department of Defense is another significant milestone for Syntroleum,” said Jack Holmes, CEO of Syntroleum. “When the contract is completed, we would be the first company to provide both renewable synthetic aviation fuel and FT aviation fuel to the Department of Defense for its certification and weapon system testing program. This acceptance of our alternative synthetic fuels once again validates the quality and integrity of our product, and the successful completion of this program will provide Syntroleum with an opportunity for other long-term supply contracts with the Department of Defense.”
The U.S. House Agriculture Committee is considering a measure that would allow U.S. growers to sell cane and beet sugar for making ethanol. It’s part of an 111-page proposal updating U.S. agriculture subsidies.
California-based Green Star Products, Inc. announced today that it has completed the second phase of testing its facility that turns algae into biodiesel.