ACE Conference 2026

New Poll Shows Iowans Support RFS

Joanna Schroeder

“We wanted a poll to tell us the truth about where caucus voters stand. This isn’t a Republican thing or a Democrat thing. This is an American thing. This represents the future,” said Eric Branstad the Iowa State Director of America’s Renewable Future (ARF) during a press call to release the results of a new poll.

Dupont_ARF_Infographic_FinalThe results find that a majority of caucus-goers from both political parties would be more likely to vote for a presidential candidate who supports the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and biofuels, specifically ethanol. The poll also found that 61 percent of Republicans and 76 percent of Democrats would be more likely to support a candidate who supports progress in these areas. The poll was commissioned by ARF and DuPont and conducted by Selzer & Company who is best known for their Iowa Poll on behalf of the Des Moines Register.

“The idea behind this poll was to get clean reads on what people are thinking in this space very generally and then unpack the rationale behind some of the feelings they have,” said Anne Selzer, president of Selzer & Company when discussing the poll methodology.

In addition to Selzer and Branstad, comments were also made from Brooke Coleman, founder and executive director of the Advanced Biofuels Business Council and Jan Koninckx, global business director, biofuels for DuPont.

Listen to the press conference here: Iowa Caucus Voters RFS Poll Press Conference

After being asked their views on the RFS without introducing any information about the policy, the poll delved in a bit more as a means to understand how caucus goers viewed renewable fuels and the RFS specifically. Results show several reasons why voters believe the RFS should continue:Read More

advanced biofuels, Audio, Cellulosic, Ethanol, Opinion, politics, RFS

Energy Companies Sign On to Climate Pledge

Joanna Schroeder

Energy company across the U.S. have signed on to support the American Business Act on Climate Pledge, a program the White House announced in July 2015. The 81 companies are part of the third round of pledges and have committed to reduce their impact on Earth. Abengoa Bioenergy US, Aemetis, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Biogen, Novozymes, Pacific Ethanol and Tri-Global Energy are just a few of the energy companies who have signed on to increase low-carbon investments, deploy more clean energy and take other actions to build more sustainable businesses.

White house logoSome examples of actions taken by Pacific Ethanol include: by 2025, produce a minimum of 50 million gallons per year of ultra-low carbon ethanol that will reduce GHG emissions by 90% on a relative basis (g/MJ) compared to gasoline. They also pledged to reduce their process carbon emissions by 40% by 2025, “as part of an effort to develop long-term business plans that align with the deep decarbonization necessary to keep global average temperatures from rising less than 2C”.

Other examples include commitments to add more wind and solar energy from Tri-Global Energy while Abengoa has pledged to require contractors and suppliers to calculate and report their GHG emissions in order to accurately and affirmatively achieve further incremental emissions reductions in the supply chain; and continue to improve energy efficiencies and emissions controls in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 10%, compared to a 2005 baseline, by 2025.

The measures taken by these hundreds of companies helped President Obama set an ambitious but achievable goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions economy-wide by 26-28 percent. To date, 150 countries representing more than 85% of global carbon emissions have reported post-2020 climate policies to the United Nations. To read the American Business Act on Climate Pledge as well as to read the 81 companies’ pledges, click here.

advanced biofuels, Carbon, Clean Energy, Climate Change, Environment, Renewable Energy

BioEnergy Bytes

Joanna Schroeder

  • BioEnergyBytesDF1The Western Union Company is looking forward to lighting up many homes in remote villages of India. The aim is to make electricity available to those in the villages who have never seen or experienced a light in their homes. The company will contribute up to INR 100 for each remittance received from designated countries during the period October 15, 2015 to November 30, 2015 through Western Union services will contribute towards the lighting up of a village in rural India.
  • Consumers Energy has announced that customers are now able to enroll in the energy provider’s community solar program, allowing them to play a part in developing new renewable energy sources in Michigan. Participants in the Solar Gardens program can subscribe to SolarBlocks equaling a half -kilowatt each. They will receive a credit on monthly bills based on electricity that’s generated at Solar Gardens locations for the life of the projects – about 25 years.
  • Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) has announced that it will offer a $20,000 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) education college scholarship to a student from throughout the company’s service area.
  • Alterra Power Corp. has announced it has agreed to acquire the water rights for four hydroelectric development projects from Sigma Engineering (the Chusan, Powell, Eldred North and Eldred South projects). The projects are located approximately 20-30 kilometers from Alterra’s existing Toba Montrose and Jimmie Creek projects, and are situated along the Toba Montrose transmission line. Each project is expected to have between 10-15 MW of generation capacity, and could be eligible for power purchase agreements under BC Hydro’s Standing Offer Program. The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of 2015 and is subject to satisfaction of customary conditions precedent.
Bioenergy Bytes

American Ethanol Race Car Hits Top Speeds

Joanna Schroeder

The American Ethanol No. 3 car hit tops speeds this weekend during the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway. The E15 fueled race car was recorded as the fastest on the track.

E15 NASCAR“We has a really fast American Ethanol Chevrolet. I was catching everybody in front of us,” said Austin Dillon, American Ethanol driver.

While speed was on Austin’s side, it was not enough to take him across the finish line first. After holding on to the fifth position for 20 laps, Dillon cut a right front tire and destroyed his race car on Lap 155. Yet despite how the race ended Greg Krissek, CEO of the Kansas Corn Growers Association said that the performance of NASCAR’s fuel Sunoco Green E15 continues to demonstrate its benefits on the track.

Krissek told race fans during his interview with Motor Racing Network’s Jeff Striegle, Joe Moore and Rusty Wallace that the NASCAR partnership has provided a great example for consumers to see E15 in action. He encouraged consumers to look for E15 at gas stations near them. Earlier this year new NASCAR-focused ethanol labels were unveiled making it easier for consumers to identify the fuel that NASCAR uses. Krissek added if they don’t see E15, ask the retailer to look into offering the ethanol blend. For interested retailers across the country, there are programs available to help cover some of the infrastructure costs of adding mid-level and higher blends of ethanol.

American Ethanol, biofuels, Ethanol, NASCAR

Young Scientists Can Apply for Biodiesel Scholarship

John Davis

next_gen_scientists_logoCollege science students are being invited to apply for scholarships to attend the National Biodiesel Conference & Expo, Jan. 25 – 28 in Tampa, Florida. The National Biodiesel Board, the United Soybean Board and the National Biodiesel Foundation are offering a $500 travel scholarship with the application deadline of Nov. 12.

Next Generation Scientists for Biodiesel is an NBB program intended to foster professional relationships between budding and established scientists, share accurate information and increase collaboration with academia and the biodiesel industry.

Student opportunities include a poster session and breakout session to present their research, a preconference biodiesel educational overview and a mentoring lunch with prominent biodiesel scientists.

Last year, more than 30 students attended the event from schools like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Colorado – Boulder, the University of California – Davis and Appalachian State University, among others.

Many of the students, who came from a wide range of disciplines, noted the intellectual impact the event made on them.

“By communicating with people directly involved in the biodiesel industry, I learned more about biodiesel than I ever would from reading an article or watching a video,” said Courtney Swink, an undergraduate marine science major at the University of South Carolina. “I had no idea that the biodiesel industry was so huge and rapidly expanding, from the farmers producing feedstock to the engineers selling pumps to the owners of production plants and the transportation of fuel.”

Biodiesel, NBB

Pittsburgh Expands Optimus Tech’s Biodiesel Solution

John Davis

optimustechThe City of Pittsburgh is expanding its use of Optimus Technologies’ solution that will allow the city to use more biodiesel in the city’s vehicles. This news release from Optimus says its EPA‐approved technology will be put in 20 public works trucks, as well as deploying an Optimus-designed, 5,000-gallon storage/refilling station at the city’s main garage that supports over 100 trucks.

Through Optimus’ solution, which reduces lifecycle emissions over 80% and fuel costs up to 25%, the city will reduce their overall emissions as required in its Pittsburgh Climate Action Plan version 2.0. The plan targets to reduce overall greenhouse gases generated by the city by 20 percent between 2003 and 2023.

The city tested Optimus’ Vector biofuel conversion system for an extensive 18 month evaluation on five of its International trucks. The trucks were used for road maintenance and snow‐removal operations. The vehicles ran more than three-quarters of the time, even on the coldest of days, on pure biodiesel. After a trouble‐free field trial, the city decided to take the next step.

“The city has a significant goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the next eight years,” said GrantErvin, sustainability manager for the city. “Since Optimus’ solution significantly reduces our emissions footprint ‐‐ while also reducing our fuel costs with their new, sustainable biofuel ‐‐ it was an easy decision to increase the number of trucks we wanted to convert.”

Ervin’s team conducted an inventory of the city’s truck fleet and prioritized the vehicles, in part, by the amount of emissions they generate. They found garbage and recycling trucks are the biggest emission contributors due to their fuel consumption and their low gas mileage – both impacted by the trucks’ many stops, idling, and restarts throughout each work day.

“Our garbage and recycling trucks are driven hard every day and any solution has to be very rugged,” said Mike Gable, Director of Public Works for the city. “We are pleased to see a purpose‐built solution for medium‐ and heavy‐duty trucks that, relative to other alternative fuel solutions, is easy to add to our trucks, minimizes changes to our maintenance operations, and minimizes any changes our fueling infrastructure.”

Biodiesel

U.S. Census Fun Fact: Wind

Joanna Schroeder

Did you know that the first practical wind turbine generator dates back 74 years to 1941? It was then that Palmer Putnamof Vermont demonstrated his device. His 1.5 MW wind turbine had blades 66 feet in length, and in 700 hours of operation, produced nearly 300,000 kilowatt hours.

Innovators were working on wind turbines between the World Wars, mostly for rural areas in Canada and America where people had difficulty getting power. However, it was Putnam who realized that to generate more power, more efficiently, location and high wind speeds were vital. When searching for his ideal location, Putnam looked for wind speeds in excess of 30 mph. He also wanted to be able to supply alternating current to the grid without the losses incurred by converting direct current to alternative current.

According to his patent, he found his “advantageously exposed” location in that of Grandpa’s Knob, a 1976 foot high forested summit with a rocky base. During the winter of 1940-1941, workers built the 120 foot (36 meter) tower and turbine. The wind turbine featured just two steel blades, each weighing 7.5 tons each and were 66 feet (20 meters) long —bigger than the wings of all but a handful of bombers flying at the time. The turbine was designed to operate in wind velocities between 30 and 60 miles per hour and to withstand gusts stronger than 140 mph.

Today, there are more than 2,700 electric power generating facilities (i.e. wind farms) producing 4.1 million megawatt hours. Wind power now provides 4.5 percent of the U.S. electricity production. Siemens is building the world’s longest blade that is 74 meters long, nearly 243 feet, the length of an A-380 Airbus airplane,

Clean Energy, Electricity, Renewable Energy, Video, Wind

RE-VOLT Helps Haitians with Energy Needs

Joanna Schroeder

A new start-up company, RE-VOLT, is helping to bring reliable and affordable electricity to families in rural Haiti and has launched a crowdfunding campaign to help fund a service expansion. The system is a combination of a solar panel, control/power storage unit, lights and a phone charger. Founded by Digicel Haiti chairman, Maarten Boute, the RE-VOLT campaign hopes to raise the working capital necessary to grow its customer base on La Gonave to 2,000 households or 10,000 people by January 2016.

Photo Credit: RE-VOLT

Photo Credit: RE-VOLT

Customers are charged a low monthly fee of 250 Haitian Gourdes (about USD $5) and pay for the service through Digicel’s Mon Cash mobile banking platform. The units themselves contain a cellular antenna allowing RE-VOLT to manage payments and maintenance remotely. An on-ground team handles basic maintenance and troubleshooting on installed systems.

“To their tremendous credit, Digicel Group chairman Denis O’Brien and the Digicel board decided to commit even more capital to Haiti after the earthquake,” said Boute. “Others might have walked away at that point, but they decided to double down instead.”

The idea for RE-VOLT’s business model came to Boute over five years ago in the aftermath of Haiti’s devastating 2010 earthquake. At the time, he was two months into his tenure as CEO of Digicel Haiti, having previously served as the company’s chief operating officer.

According to Boute, “At the start of that period of expansion, Digicel already had a strong subscriber base in cities like Port-au-Prince. The biggest opportunity to grow the business was in rural areas, and, as we expanded our network there, we began to realize how much of a problem energy-poverty was. It became very clear to us that there was a huge business opportunity to provide affordable, reliable energy to these people – as well as it being a morally compelling thing to do as well.”

Clean Energy, Electricity, International, Solar

BioEnergy Bytes

Joanna Schroeder

  • BioEnergyBytesDF1Ormat Technologies and Toshiba Corporation have announced that the two companies have signed a strategic collaboration agreement to develop strategic opportunities for collaboration in the areas of geothermal power generation systems and related equipment. Under the terms of the agreement, the parties will explore and develop strategic opportunities that will enable them to offer potential customers a more competitive solution for comprehensive supplies and services related to geothermal developments, from resource assessment, field development, power plant engineering, procurement and construction to power plant operation.
  • A new U.S. Department of Energy report, “Climate Change and the U.S. Energy Sector: Regional Vulnerabilities and Resilience Solutions,” examines the expected regional energy sector vulnerabilities to climate change. Some key findings include: Hydropower is vulnerable to reduced snowpack, earlier melting, and changes to precipitation and runoff patterns, mainly in western regions; Bioenergy crops in the Midwest and Northern Great Plains may be harmed by higher temperatures and more frequent droughts and floods; and Thermoelectric power generation is vulnerable to increasing temperatures and reduced water availability in most regions, particularly in the Midwest, Great Plains, and southern regions.
  • The geothermal heating and cooling system at the Missouri University of Science and Technology is reaching the end of its first year of operation. The system has reduced energy use by 57% and lowered the carbon footprint by 25,000 tons per year, exceeding expectations. “The results confirm that the system works as designed and will pay for itself over time from budgeted savings,” says James Packard, director of facilities operations.
  • Solar combined with energy storage systems (solar+storage) can help protect vulnerable populations during power outages in multifamily affordable housing and provide an economic return to building owners, according to a new report by Clean Energy Group, a national nonprofit organization working to increase the deployment of clean energy technologies. The analysis of how solar+storage could benefit low-income communities, “Resilience for Free: How Solar+Storage Could Protect Multifamily Affordable Housing from Power Outages at Little or No Net Cost,” stresses the need to make vulnerable populations – including seniors, disabled people, and low-income families – more power resilient in the face of natural disasters.
Bioenergy Bytes

RFA Shuns New Anti-RFS Campaign

Joanna Schroeder

The publicly anti-ethanol organization Smarter Fuel Future has launched a campaign calling on Congress and the administration to repeal the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). The coalition is backed by Big Oil along with various food, environmental and anti-hunger organizations.

rfalogo1In response to the campaign, Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) President and CEO Bob Dinneen said: “The oil industry thinks it’s being slick by engaging in a consistent and relentless misinformation campaign that is based on false assumptions, straw dogs, and half-truths. There is nothing that Big Oil is spouting with this latest wave of scare tactics that we haven’t seen before. Once again the petroleum industry is making patently false assumptions about the relationship between food and fuel. In 2014, a record corn crop sent prices to four-year lows, and more grain was available globally for food and feed use than ever before. In fact, less than 3 percent of the global grain supply that year was used for ethanol.

“The Big Oil misinformation campaign also makes spurious claims about ethanol’s impact on the environment. Lifecycle analyses by the Department of Energy and others, including the University of Illinois, the International Energy Agency, and Life Cycle Associates have shown that, since the final RFS rule was implemented, grain ethanol produced today reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent compared to fossil fuels — even when hypothetical land use emissions are taken into account. Ethanol production from last year reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 40 million metric tons — the equivalent of removing 8.4 million cars from the road. These facts show that investment in biofuels in general and ethanol in particular is critical if we are serious as a nation about creating a future where our energy is cleaner, more secure, and more affordable.”

Dinneen, on behalf of ethanol supporters is calling on Congress and the administration to ignore the latest “smoke and mirrors” campaign from Big Oil. “Instead of repealing the RFA, Dinneen stressed, “the administration, through the Environmental Protection Agency, needs to break down the supposed ‘blend wall’ and implement the RFS the way Congress intended.”

Environment, Ethanol, Ethanol News, food and fuel, Indirect Land Use, RFA, RFS