New Biodiesel Board Chair Elected

John Davis

The National Biodiesel Board recently elected new officers for 2016.

* Chairman – Ron Marr, Minnesota Soybean Processors
* Vice-Chair – Jennifer Case, New Leaf Biofuel
* Treasurer – Greg Anderson, Nebraska Soybean Board
* Secretary – Kent Engelbrecht, ADM

Marr said the officers’ job now is to make sure the green fuel has all the necessary tools to remain competitive.

nbb-marr“America’s advanced biofuel continues to make a significant impact to reduce carbon and support local jobs from Coast to Coast,” said NBB’s newly elected chair Ron Marr. “Right now our focus is on securing a long term producers incentive to support much needed competition in the distillate fuel market. Advocating for a strong and growing biodiesel market remains the National Biodiesel Board’s top priority, and I look forward to working with our board and members to expand biodiesel’s energy, environment and economic benefits even further.”

Biodiesel, NBB

UN Climate Deal May Spur European Wind Growth

Joanna Schroeder

EWEA_vertical_01Ambitious climate plans are being unveiled in Paris during COP21 and some of these could spark an export boom for European wind industry according to European Wind Energy Association (EWEA). China, India, Morocco, Brazil and Turkey are just a few of the countries that have made post-2020 national pledges on the deployment of wind energy in the coming years. In all 70 countries have identified wind as a key climate mitigation technology.

Giles Dickson, CEO of EWEA, said, “The pledges from emerging markets in Asia, Africa and Latin America should read like an investment brochure for the wind industry in Europe. The EU’s export potential for wind and renewable technologies is vast. There could be a real opportunity here for Europe to cement its place as the number one manufacturer and supplier of wind power technology globally.”

Europe is home to three of the world’s five largest wind turbine makers with installed wind capacity able to meet over 10 percent of electricity consumption across the continent. More broadly, says EWEA, renewable energy contributes EUR130 billion each year to the European economy with EUR35 billion coming from export revenues to countries outside the EU.

Dickson says, however, that despite the clear economic benefits, the lack of ambition from EU countries on renewables post-2020 puts a big question mark over whether Europe will realize its huge export opportunities.

“The hard truth is that we go to Paris with long-term renewable energy pledges from India, China and Turkey, who have come forward with ambitious targets, while the UK, Poland, Spain and others have yet to outline their own plans beyond the next five years,” said Dickson. “Europe should be a torchbearer on climate and renewable energy ambition. The EU’s leadership in renewables must not be sacrificed due to a lack of ambitious policies from Member States. The wind industry alone supports 262,000 jobs across Europe. Political impetus could see those numbers grow over the next 15 years but a new renewables law is needed to underpin a vibrant home market.”

Clean Energy, Climate Change, Electricity, Wind

African Renewable Electricity Program Debuts @COP21

Joanna Schroeder

Africa launched an ambitious Africa Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI) during the Conference of Parties (COP21) taking place in Paris, France. The program’s goal is to produce 300 gigawatts (GW) of electricity for the continent by 2030 as a demonstration of Africa’s leadership in the UN climate negotiations. AREI is an outcome of African leadership in Workstream II of the Durban Platform including their May 2014 proposal for a global renewable energy support programme.

Screen Shot 2015-12-04 at 9.35.04 AMThe project aims to help African countries leapfrog towards renewable energy systems that support their low-carbon development strategies while enhancing economic and energy security. The initiative is expected to deliver 10 GW of new and additional electrical installed capacity by 2020 and 300 GW by 2030.

Speaking during the launch of the project at the Africa Pavillion in Paris, Akinwumi Adesina, the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), one of the major sponsors of the initiative, said the institution has tripled its financing to climate change initiatives.

“We are aware that Africa needs massive financing for climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts. That is why we are dedicating 40 per cent of our resources to such efforts,” Adesina said. He regretted that Africa is often referred to as a dark continent because majority of the residents have no access to electricity.

“Africa has 640 million of its people who don’t have access to electricity. A total of 7 million Africans have no access to clean energy and majority use charcoal and kerosene. This always leads to deaths. We must stop this,” Adesina continued. “The initiative is a game-changer as Africa loses 4 per cent of its GDP due to lack of clean energy. Let us use our abundant sunshine to light our homes and our water to generate clean energy. This investment must bring electricity to our people. ”

The AfDB also launched $300 million which will be given as loans for women to engage in smart environmental businesses as a way of empowering them.

Clean Energy, Climate Change, Electricity, Renewable Energy

BioEnergy Bytes

Joanna Schroeder

  • BioEnergyBytesDF1Fengate Capital Management has finalized the purchase of two solar parks for C$110 million, its first investment in the United Kingdom. The two solar parks were co-developed by Kinetica Solar and WElink Energy and are the 39 MW Raventhorpe site in North Lincolnshire, England and the 7 MW Roanhead site in Cumbria, England. Raventhorpe is the UK’s sixth largest solar park and the largest solar park in the Fengate portfolio.
  • Not all air pollution is the same when it comes to human mortality risk – some sources produce far more toxic particles than others, according to a study led by researchers from NYU Langone Medical Center and published online today in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. Sources of fossil fuel emissions, including coal-fired power plants and diesel vehicles, were found to generate the most toxic particles of the sources examined in the first nationwide study of its kind, which included nearly 450,000 participants in 100 U.S. cities.
  • On the heels of news announced in Paris that a record number of institutions have made divestment commitments—a new investment vehicle launched stateside is the first publicly-traded index fund that invests in S&P 500 companies that do not own reserves of coal, gas or oil. State Street Global Advisors investment firm created the SPDR S&P 500 Fossil Fuel Free Exchange Traded Fund (SPYX) with the support of NRDC. It is designed to meet the needs of climate conscious investors seeking to eliminate fossil fuel reserves from their portfolio while maintaining exposure to the core of the S&P 500 Index.
  • NuPower Renewables, one of India’s leading IPPs (Independent Power Producer) in the renewable energy sector, has commissioned another 30 MW wind power project in Vaspeth village of Sangli district in Maharashtra. This wind power project is built from end to end on a self-development basis with 2.05 MW wind turbines manufactured by NuPower with advanced German technology from Wind-to-Energy (W2E), GmbH.
Bioenergy Bytes

Call for Renewable Fuel Marketing Award Nominations

Joanna Schroeder

It’s time to nominate an Iowa fuel retailer for their support of renewable fuels. Iowa Ag Secretary Bill Northey is encouraging Iowa fuel retailers and gas stations to submit nominations for the Secretary’s Renewable Fuels Marketing Awards. These recognize fuel retailers that have gone above and beyond in their efforts to sell renewable fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel with awards presented for both.

Renewable Fuel pump featuring biodiesel and ethanol. Photo Credit: Joanna Schroeder

Renewable Fuel pump featuring biodiesel and ethanol. Photo Credit: Joanna Schroeder

“Fuel retailers continue to take steps to make ethanol and biodiesel more available to Iowa customers and this award is an opportunity to recognize those who have shown leadership in promoting these renewable fuels and making them more available to customers,” Northey said.

Qualifying entities will be those that market the renewable fuels they have available through creative means including, but not limited to: hosting special events highlighting their renewable fuels, development of creative signage, initiation of new advertisements or marketing efforts, and efforts that dramatically increase renewable fuel availability.

Nominations forms can be found on the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship’s website at www.IowaAgriculture.gov. Completed nominations can be submitted via email at Dustin.VandeHoef@iowaagriculture.gov or mail at Henry A. Wallace Building, Attn: Dustin Vande Hoef, 502 East 9th Street, Des Moines IA 50319. Nominations must be submitted by Dec. 31, 2015.

Also this week, Iowa Ag Secretary Bill Northey announced funds available for retailers to install blender pumps.

Biodiesel, biofuels, Ethanol

Biodiesel Industry to Congress: Renew Tax Incentive

John Davis

uscapitolThe biodiesel industry is calling on Congress to quickly pass a measure that would renew the biodiesel tax credit. The new legislation, sponsored by Sens. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), and Reps. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.) and Bill Pascrell (D-N.J), includes a key reform restructuring the incentive from a blender’s credit to a producer’s credit focused on domestic production. It eliminates the existing blender’s structure, which is allowing foreign producers take advantage of the incentive. The National Biodiesel Board points out that not only will the new legislation encourage domestic production, it will save about $90 million in tax dollars. NBB wants action on it soon.

“The biodiesel industry cannot grow and support good-paying jobs without some level of predictability on tax policy, and the legislative clock is winding down,” said Anne Steckel, NBB’s vice president of federal affairs. “This tax incentive has strong bipartisan support, as demonstrated by the bills introduced today. It’s good for the economy, it’s good for the environment and it’s good for consumers. And importantly the reforms included in today’s bills will appropriately focus the incentive on U.S. production”

“We want to thank Reps. Noem and Pascrell and Sens. Grassley and Cantwell again for their leadership on this issue,” she added. “This bill, when passed into law, will go a long way toward creating biodiesel jobs across the country and reducing our dependence on foreign oil.”

Grassley’s home state Iowa Biodiesel Board and Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA) added their encouragement to pass the measure, as well as their thanks to the lawmakers involved.Read More

Biodiesel, Iowa RFA, Legislation, NBB

Biodico to Cut Ribbon on Calif. Biodiesel Plant

John Davis

Biodiesel maker Biodico will hold an official ribbon cutting ceremony today at 11:30 a.m. PST for its 20 million gallon per year biodiesel production facility in Five Points, California. The company says the refinery will produce the green fuel from all fats and oils available and will specialize in producing low carbon intensity fuels under California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard.

biodicoribboncutting1Biodico provides heat and power for the operation through the renewable processing of production byproducts. Crude glycerin is reformed into GBX, a proprietary formulation that is anaerobically digested. Solid biomass byproducts from feedstocks and from surrounding agriculture are gasified. A 20 kW solar cogeneration array adds additional heat and power to the project. In addition to a state of the art laboratory for biodiesel quality control under existing ASTM standards, the project is equipped to be able to test the biodiesel production in real time by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and liquid phase impedance EMF feedback.

The ribbon cutting is a celebration not just for Biodico Westside, but for the many project partners who have helped to make the project possible. Biodico’s long standing Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the Navy, R&D support from the California Energy Commission, and joint projects with academia (West Hills College, Cal Poly, UC Davis, etc.) have all provided valuable technologies and resources that are incorporated into the project. Biodico Westside is a partnership between Biodico and Red Rock Ranch. Red Rock Ranch is a multi-generational farming operation covering thousands of acres and growing over 40 crops that has had a strong commitment to R&D over many decades.

Biodiesel

Cruz Asks ARF to Pull Down Ads

Joanna Schroeder

This week America’s Renewable Future (ARF) launched an ad campaign targeted at presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz, who they say is against the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). The #RFS has been under fire for several years and on Monday, after reviewing more than 270,000 public comments, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the final volumes for 2014, 2015 and 2016. While the numbers were higher than in the proposed rule, clean energy advocates are calling for the #EPA to raise the volumes of renewable fuel blended to statutory levels. Cruz, it would seem, is not one of those calling for strengthening the RFS.

The ad criticizes Cruz’s hypocritical position on oil subsidies and after airing for less than a week, the Cruz campaign has called on ARF to stop airing the ads. However, says ARF, the letter provides further example of his efforts to deceive Iowans about his support of oil subsidies. (Side note: ethanol does no longer receives subsidies and hasn’t for several years while the oil industry has been raking in the subsidies for more than 100 years.)

Ted Cruz Official PortraitCruz is claiming that subsidies exclusive to the oil industry, like intangible drilling costs, “are analogous to ordinary business expensing that every other industry gets”. He is calling subsidies by another name and hoping Iowans don’t catch on, says ARF. And now that he’s been caught, he’s claiming that he wants to get rid of oil subsidies, but he’s repeatedly told Iowa farmers and plant managers that those subsidies don’t exist. Cruz, ARF continues, is trying to have it both ways, acting like a typical politician, and it’s Iowa farmers who will suffer.

The speech in which Cruz mentions his support of ending “enhanced oil recovery credits for producing oil and gas from marginal wells” is meaningless considering that those provisions are inconsequential and taxpayers would see “no revenue effect” from them according to the Joint Committee on Taxation
“This attempt is yet another example of Cruz lying to Iowans, only this time he’s been caught,” said ARF State Director, Eric Branstad, “He has personally introduced legislation to repeal the RFS, but none to repeal the billions in subsidies to the oil industry. In fact, he’s voted repeatedly against measures to close tax loopholes for oil and gas.”

ARF says Cruz has close to a million dollars personally invested in oil companies, which is roughly equivalent to the over $1 million in campaign contributions he has received from the oil industry. The Super PACS propping up his campaign have received over $25 million from oil interests.

“Cruz is in the pocket of the oil industry and he’s doing its dirty work by trying to kill Iowa’s farm economy to line his own pockets,” Branstad added, “He’s oil’s attack dog and it’s time that Cruz came clean. We stand by our ad and so do the facts.”

biofuels, Ethanol, politics, RFS

BioEnergy Bytes

Joanna Schroeder

  • BioEnergyBytesDF1Global cumulative installed capacity of small wind turbines will increase more than fivefold from 912.6 MW in 2014 to 4.8 GW by 2025, at an impressive Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 16.4%, according to research and consulting firm GlobalData. The company’s latest report* states that small wind power capacity, which refers to wind turbines with capacities lower than 100 kilowatts, is expected to grow in European countries including Germany, Spain, Poland, Sweden, and Ukraine, while India and Japan will lead growth in Asia.
  • The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has launched a six-figure digital and newspaper ad campaign to thank three key Senate Democrats, including Michael Bennet of Colorado, for voting last month to defend the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan against Republican attack. The other two senators are Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Mark Warner of Virginia.
  • The United States just experienced its largest quarter for energy storage deployments since the fourth quarter of 2012. According to GTM Research and the Energy Storage Association’s (ESA) U.S. Energy Storage Monitor, the U.S. deployed 60.3 megawatts of energy storage capacity in the third quarter of the year. This represents 53.1 megawatt-hours.
  • ConEdison Solutions and Volvo Group North America have announced completion of a 5,000-panel parking-lot solar canopy at Volvo Group’s Hagerstown, Maryland powertrain manufacturing facility. The canopy – which will generate clean, renewable electricity at the facility – is among the largest solar carport installations on the East Coast.
Bioenergy Bytes

Clean Energy Victory Bonds for a Clean Climate

Joanna Schroeder

A new bill was introduced in the U.S. this week in conjunction with COP21: the Clean Energy Victory Bonds Act of 2015. If passed, it would help the U.S. meet its climate goals. Introduced by Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Doris Matsui (D-CA), the Act would also create more than 1 million jobs. The Clean Energy Victory Bonds would begin as low as $25 and the funds raised would be invested in clean energy. The bill is endorsed by Green America and the American Sustainable Business Council who have been touting clean energy bonds for several years. A similar act was introduced in 2012 but failed to gain momentum.

clean energy victory bondsTodd Larsen, executive co-director of Green America, said of the bill, “This bond fills a real need for individual and institutional investors, offering them a low risk opportunity to invest in clean energy sectors such as solar, wind, second generation biofuels, electric vehicles, and residential and commercial energy efficiency programs. It will also provide the incentives companies need in the clean energy sector to maintain the United States’ leadership and create over 1 million jobs in the U.S.”

The groups say the Clean Energy Victory Bonds will create major benefits:

  • Leverage $50 billion investment to provide up to $150 billion in public and private financing to fund the production of innovative energy technologies, at a time when the U.S. is falling behind other countries in clean energy manufacture and installation.
  • Help create at least one million competitively-paying jobs in the U.S.
  • Support America’s clean energy sector, helping to ensure that the U.S. remains a world leader in this increasingly crucial and competitive industry.
  • Reduce U.S. dependence on foreign sources of energy, enhance national security, and limit price increases and fluctuations.
  • Provide a secure, competitive, government-backed investment vehicle for average Americans and investment institutions alike seeking a safe place for their money.
  • Offer flexible redemption options at interest rates superior to most bank accounts.
  • Help all Americans to invest in the future of their country and benefit from their investments.
  • Promote a cleaner environment through the financing of clean energy technologies.
  • Protect the health and safety of Americans by reducing local air and water pollution throughout the country.

The groups note that tax incentives for renewable energy come and go, often without predictability, leaving investors and industry scrambling. The Clean Energy Victory Bond, they say, would extend vital tax credits for a decade, giving emerging industries the support they need to develop and become increasingly competitive.

“From a business perspective, the Clean Energy Victory Bond makes great sense,” added Richard Eidlin, co-founder & VP of policy for the American Sustainable Business Council. “The market is speaking, and it’s speaking in favor of clean energy. As the world comes together in Paris to address climate change, it is more important than ever for renewable energy industries to have a new source of investment capital to build the market momentum.”

Clean Energy, Climate Change, Environment, Legislation