GTM Research in partnership with Meister Consultants Group has released a new white paper: Solar PV in the Caribbean: Opportunities and Challenges. The free white paper identifies the opportunities and challenges in the Caribbean solar market. The report features an overview of installed costs, module pricing, equipment brands, customer financing, and policy driving that’s the Caribbean solar market.- Focused Energy LLC changed its name to BayWa r.e. Solar Systems LLC. In so doing, the company adopted the name of the BayWa r.e. renewable energy family of which it has been a part for four years. BayWa r.e. Solar Systems LLC, located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, will continue to be the PV wholesale company representing BayWa r.e. in the US. Apart from solar distribution, the business of BayWa r.e. in the US comprises wind and solar project development, with subsidiaries in San Diego, California (wind business) and Irvine, California (solar project business).
- Speaking of BayWa r.e., the company has successfully brought four solar farms online in England. The plants have a combined output of 85 MW and are located near Northampton, Aylesbury, Oxford and Reading. Construction of all four plants was achieved by BayWa r.e. in just twelve weeks. Commissioning of the solar farms, which took place according to schedule in March, enables the projects to be accredited under the RO (Renewables Obligation) scheme in the UK.
- The Global Wind Energy Council launched its flagship publication the Global Wind Report: Annual Market update today in Istanbul. The report details wind power’s remarkable growth in 2014, as well as updating GWEC’s rolling 5 year market projections, which show continued growth for the rest of the decade.
Group Tells Iowa Campaigners to Stop Picking Oil
A group backing biofuels is telling 2016 candidates coming to Iowa to quit picking oil as the winner in energy policy. America’s Renewable Future (ARF) has taken out radio advertisements and full-page ad in the Des Moines Register, Dubuque Telegraph Herald, and Sioux City Journal warning candidates that oil in U.S. energy policy is a government-subsidized stranglehold supporting foreign oil.
In addition, the political group has deployed a petition urging caucus-goers to “tell candidates to stop supporting hundred-year-old, big government subsidies for the oil industry, and to level the playing field by supporting the RFS. To boost this effort, ARF’s radio ad will run Tuesday through Thursday of this week. The aggressive radio buy includes spots on WHO Radio in Des Moines, WMT in Cedar Rapids/Iowa City, and KSUX in Sioux City, among other stations across the state.
“Some politicians campaigning in our state are not listening to Americans who want a cleaner, more secure U.S. energy policy, and a renewable choice at the pump. We are calling on Iowans to sign our petition atwww.AmericasRenewableFuture.com telling Washington politicians to stop picking Big Oil over homegrown renewable fuel,” said ARF co-chair, Bill Couser, “Our call will be sound across the state via radio and online, urging Iowans to let candidates know where they stand.”
Farm Bureau Offers Ag-Based Energy Info Online
The American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture is offering free, online educational materials on ag-based energy to middle- and high-school educators and volunteers. This news release from the group says the curriculum shows the unique connections between agricultural literacy and alternative energy and align with the Next Generation Science Standards.
The middle-school unit introduces students to energy generation, energy input in food production and distribution, and careers in energy while providing students an opportunity to evaluate a fictional agricultural operation’s energy use. Students use the process of making applesauce throughout the unit to contextualize learning.
The high-school unit introduces energy flow and challenges students to identify energy inputs for agricultural products. Students evaluate renewable energy sources, conduct a biodiesel lab and research farms using renewable energy.
The middle-school unit and eLearning experience are special projects of the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture, made possible by the generous support of Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association. The high-school unit was funded by the Agriculture Department’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture to foster an appreciation for agriculture, reinforce STEM skills and abilities and create an awareness of agriculture-related careers.
More information is available here.
Editorial from Orrie Swayze
Pioneer ethanol advocate Orrie Swayze of South Dakota had the following op-ed published last week in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader:
Like with lead, petroleum’s web of lies continues gaining permission from the masses to poison their children. Author Dresden James explains why: “When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses … the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker, a raving lunatic.”
Too many Americans passively accepted oil industry lies like “lead octane is a gift from God.” And “E30’s octane ruins engines” These lies blocked ethanol’s octane market participation guaranteeing gasoline distributed lead poisoned our children and annually increased our medical costs plus oil industry profits many billions of dollars.
Oil’s lies again block ethanol octane’s meaningful market participation — guaranteeing gasoline distributed benzene octanes’ known human carcinogenic emissions (identical to those in cigarette smoke) daily poison our children: The annual associated billions of dollars in medical costs still make gasoline planet earth’s most subsidized commodity.
Do you own your thoughts or automatically think these truths are preposterous?
1. “Standard autos are flex fuel to auto manufactures’ endorsed premium E30.”
2. “Like E85 marketers historically, E30 marketers can safely use standard gasoline pumps.”
3. “Thousands of standard auto owners daily use blender pump’s cheaper, premium E30 to travel millions of trouble free miles annually without any legitimate warrantee denials.”
4. “They typically report “more power “and “can’t tell any mileage difference.”
5. “Increasing corn ethanol production sequesters carbon, lowers soybean prices, and enables E30’s market penetration to reduce benzene related octane emissions plus billions of dollars of medical costs 50 to 80 percent.”
6. Remarkably, corn/acre produces 450 gallons of ethanol plus the protein/meal/oil food equivalents (pounds) soybeans produce/acre.
Utterly preposterous, shout too many whose intellectual curiosity surrendered to oil’s propaganda long ago: Including too many corn and ethanol advocates, nearly all Americans, EPA officials, politicians, news media wise talking heads, etc. Little wonder oil’s basically gasoline monopoly poisons our children and destroys free enterprise’s role in liquid fuels markets.
Happy April Fuels’ Day!
In honor of April Fuels’ Day, National Corn Growers Association CEO Chris Novak and Renewable Fuels Association CEO Bob Dinneen penned the following letter to Congress about the dangers of America’s growing dependence on renewable fuels from the troubled Midwest region.
Dear Members of Congress:
In recent years, Americans have become increasingly reliant on renewable fuels produced in agricultural states in the Midwest.
Some argue that greater use of renewable fuels like ethanol is a good idea merely because it costs 60-80 cents less per gallon than regular gasoline, offers higher octane and better engine performance, has fewer toxic emissions, and creates hundreds of thousands of American jobs. Sure, but what about the national security implications?
The fact is, the Midwest is a virtual tinderbox of conflicting allegiances.
The region is deeply divided, with factions loyal to the Packers, Bears, Vikings, Lions and Colts frequently at odds with one another. (Some analysts have questioned whether the Vikings are too weak to pose a serious threat to their neighbors, but Teddy Bridgewater had decent numbers last year).
Any resolution to the argument about “Duck, Duck, Goose” has proved elusive, with intransigent Minnesotans continuing to insist upon “Duck, Duck, Gray Duck” – a stance that has isolated the regime against the rest of the country. Tragically, these disputes often divide members of the same family who have lived for many years in a neighboring state … pitting brother against brother, cousin against cousin, Swede against Swede, at many a family picnic. Even the individual states themselves are not unified, including the intractable Cardinals vs. Royals divide and decades old disputes in Wisconsin between the dominant “drinking fountain” faction and the smaller but fervent “bubbler” faction. Then there is the whole “hotdish” vs. “casserole” question.
What would happen if, for example, Minnesota were to invade northern Iowa, seizing key ethanol refineries along the border and demanding the Iowa legislature pass a resolution declaring “Duck, Duck Gray Duck” the official waterfowl game of the Hawkeye State? The nation might have to learn to do without cleaner, less expensive, less toxic, higher performance fuel. Read More
GROWMARK Acquires MO Refined Fuels Terminal
Illinois-based cooperative GROWMARK, Inc. is acquiring the refined fuels terminal near St. Joseph, Missouri from Magellan Pipeline Company with an intent to offer ethanol blends in the future in addition to diesel.
Kevin Carroll, Vice President of GROWMARK’s Energy Division, says the acquisition will help them solidify the cooperative’s commitment to the energy business in northwestern Missouri and northeastern Kansas, expand capacity and facilitate continued growth. “We currently have a reliable supply of refined fuels. However, with the addition of the St. Joseph terminal we will be able to more easily grow with our customers in the region,” he said.
Carroll said Magellan will continue to deliver refined fuels into the St. Joseph terminal via its Midwest pipeline system.
GROWMARK provides energy-related products and services, agriculture-related products and services, and grain marketing in the Midwest and Ontario, Canada.
Farmers Union Concerned Over RFS Omission
The National Farmers Union (NFU) is concerned that Pres. Obama has left the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) out of his plan to cut greenhouse gases. This news release from the group says NFU President Roger Johnson isn’t pleased about the omission in the president’s formal submission of a plan to the United Nations that would cut the United States’ greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution.
“The RFS offers America a cleaner, more environmentally friendly fuel sector with its support for biofuels,” said Johnson. “The president is ignoring agriculture’s great potential to help the country cut GHG emissions and mitigate climate change by excluding the RFS from his plan.”
Johnson noted that climate change poses a great risk to agriculture. Family farmers and ranchers are willing and able to help build climate resiliency.
“America’s family farmers and ranchers are already feeling the impact of increased weather volatility, resulting in fewer workable field days, increased potential for soil erosion, and increased crop insurance claims,” said Johnson. “The RFS provides these farmers and ranchers with a tool to help the country cut GHG emissions and mitigate the climate change that directly impacts their livelihoods.”
Johnson says he is also concerned that the president’s plan did not include any other ways agriculture or rural communities can be involved in reducing GHG emissions.
Mobile Grease-to-Biodiesel Company Raises $1 Mil
A company that uses a mobile truck to go on location and turn waste grease into biodiesel has raised nearly $1 million in funding. This article from the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal says Revolution Fuels, a startup that mounts equipment for converting grease to biofuel on trucks, rounded up the money through the sale of equity and securities.
Revolution plans to dispatch its trucks to food makers and other businesses that produce waste grease, according to its website. Equipment on the vehicles then converts grease into fuel. Customers can keep the fuel or let Revolution sell it.
The company is led by for Cargill vice president Julie Wheeler.
Ethanol-Gas Price Difference Back to Normal
Ethanol and gas have settled back into a more normal price differential after three months of being nearly the same once gas prices started to plummet late last year.
RBOB – Reformulated Blendstock for Oxygen Blending
Dinneen refuted a statement by the Petroleum Marketers Association of America that ethanol was “taking a hit” because of the price parity noting that “since January 1, 2011, daily ethanol prices have been below gasoline prices 91% of the time” averaging about 50 cents per gallon. Since January 30, 2015, ethanol has averaged 26 cents less than gasoline.
Market analyst Randy Martinson with Progressive Ag says there was definitely a concern when ethanol prices were higher than gasoline in December. “But the price of corn has dropped and we’ve gotten ethanol back in line and the profitability is improving for ethanol plants,” said Martinson, who adds that the bigger concern for ethanol declining gasoline use.
Biodiesel Group Files Petition over Argentina Imports
The National Biodiesel Board (NBB) wants a recent decision to streamline Argentinian biodiesel imports to the U.S. put on hold pending public review and comment.
In a petition filed Monday with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy, NBB cited the lack of public comment on the EPA decision and “little transparency regarding the plans Argentinian producers can use to demonstrate compliance” with the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).
“We have serious questions about how Argentinian producers will certify that their product meets the sustainability requirements under this new approach and whether U.S. producers will be operating under more strict regulations,” said NBB Vice President of Federal Affairs Anne Steckel. “The U.S. biodiesel industry is in a state of crisis right now as a result of EPA’s continued delays in finalizing RFS volumes. An influx of Argentinian biodiesel will only exacerbate the domestic industry’s troubles at the worst possible time.”
The EPA approved the application from Argentina’s biofuels association CARBIO at the end of January.
Typically under the RFS, foreign producers must map and track each batch of feedstock used to produce imported renewable fuels to ensure that it was grown on land that was cleared or cultivated prior to Dec. 19, 2007 – when the RFS was established. The EPA’s January decision allows Argentinian biodiesel producers to instead rely on a survey plan being implemented by a third party to show their feedstocks comply with the regulations. The goal of the survey program is to ease the current map and track requirements applicable to planted crops and crop residues grown outside of the United States and Canada, resulting in a program that seems far less stringent and more difficult to verify.
Read more from NBB here.