Anti-RFS Bill Re-Introduced

Cindy Zimmerman February 4, 2015

Representatives Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), Jim Costa (D-CA), Steve Womack (R-AR) and Peter Welch (D-VT), today re-introduced legislation called the RFS Reform Act “to reform the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) to help ease concerns created by the ethanol mandate and protect consumers, livestock producers, food manufacturers, retailers, and the U.S. economy.”

Livestock and poultry producer organizations are among those supporting the bill, but general farm groups and corn growers say the RFS is working fine just the way it is.

“The elimination of the corn-based ethanol mandate and blend cap will gut the nation’s biofuel production, strand existing investment in second generation biofuel production and hurt family farmers, ranchers and rural communities that have experienced much-needed reinvestment from this policy,” said National Farmers Union president Roger Johnson. “This is not only a bad step for agriculture, but also is a major setback to the environment and our nation’s attempts to manage its carbon emissions.”

National Corn Growers Association president Chip Bowling notes that “the price of corn today is lower than the cost of production, and less than when the RFS was passed” and that “repealing the RFS would increase the cost of farm programs, hurt rural communities, and make America more dependent on foreign oil.”

Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Bob Dinneen called the legislation a “reckless paean to Big Oil” and said it was “a slap in the face to corn farmers across the country who responded to the RFS with increased production and yields.”

Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis says the bill is also a gift to Big Food “in their effort to extend their record profitability by blaming ethanol for food price increases” even as corn prices have been declining. “This has provided an economic boon to the integrated U.S. livestock and chain restaurant industries that tout their profitability to their stakeholders while consumer food prices, led by the meat sector, continue to escalate,” said Buis.

According to the sponsors, the RFS Reform Act “eliminates the corn-based ethanol requirement, caps the amount of ethanol that can be blended into conventional gasoline at 10 percent, and requires the EPA to set cellulosic biofuels levels at production levels.” There are currently 34 co-sponsors for the bill.

corn, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Farming, Government, Growth Energy, NCGA, NFU, RFA, RFS

RMI Launches Business Renewables Center

Joanna Schroeder February 4, 2015

The Business Renewables Center (BRC) has been launched with more than 25 founding members, including major corporations, renewables project developers and transaction service providers, by Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI). The BRC is a collaborative platform designed to accelerate renewable energy procurement. The Center’s goal is to add another 60 GW of wind and solar by 2025, which will nearly double installed U.S. capacity.

Nearly two-thirds of Fortune 100 and nearly half of Fortune 500 companies have commitments to shift to renewables. However, most have not taken action due to the high transaction cost and complexity of large-scale renewables transactions. The BRC will remove the main obstacles preventing corporations from building renewables into their energy profiles.

“Corporations can be a powerful lever for expanding renewable energy in the United States and beyond. They can lock in long-term affordable prices for clean energy that supports the bottom line, reduce their carbon footprint, and fulfill their corporate sustainability commitments,” said RMI Managing Director Hervé Touati.

The BRC founding transaction service providers include Altenex, Climate Friendly, Customer First Renewables, Origin Climate, Renewable Choice Energy, Renewable Power Direct and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. The BRC founding project developers include Apex Clean Energy, E.ON-Climate and Renewables North America, FirstSolar, Invenergy, NextEra Energy Resources, NRG Energy, OneEnergy Renewables, OwnEnergy and SunEdison.

Quayle Hodek, CEO of Renewable Choice Energy a founding member, noted, “The next decade will be a watershed for U.S. renewables. The establishment of the BRC is a testament to explosive industry growth and to the increasing appetite of corporations for easily adoptable, clean power solutions. Through collaborative efforts, the BRC is an exciting resource for everyone in the industry and for our clients.”

Renewable Energy, Solar, Wind

Gigawatt Global Grid Connects Solar Project

Joanna Schroeder February 4, 2015

The Rwanda field, a $23.7 million, 8,5 MW solar energy plant has been connected to the power grid. Developed by Gigawatt Global, this is the first utility-scale project to reach financial close and come online under the Africa Clean Energy Finance (ACEF) program that is part of the Power Africa Initiative. The Rwanda field – constructed in the shape of the African continent – brought together an international consortium of financing partners.

Rwanda’s Minister of Infrastructure, Hon. James Musoni, and the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Government’s Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), John Morton, led a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village (ASYV) near where the solar plant is located.

“Top quality developers like Gigawatt Global are the keys to success for President Obama’s Power Africa Initiative,” said Elizabeth Littlefield, president and CEO of OPIC. “After OPIC provided critical early-stage support through the ACEF program, Gigawatt smoothly and swiftly brought the project online to give Rwanda enough grid-connected power to supply 15,000 homes. Gigawatt Global in Rwanda is a clear demonstration that solar will be a key part of Africa’s energy solution.” The project was completed in one year.

Chaim Motzen, Gigawatt Global Co-Founder and Managing Director, and the main force behind the development of the project, noted, “Our project proves the viability of financing and building large-scale solar fields in sub-Saharan Africa, and we hope that this solar field serves as a catalyst for many more sustainable energy projects in the region. The speed with which this project was completed is a tribute to the strength of the Rwandan government’s institutions and their laser-focus on increasing Rwanda’s generation capacity as well as to the nimbleness of our team and partners which spanned eight countries.”

The Rwandan project is built on land owned by the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village, whose mission is to care for Rwanda’s most vulnerable children orphaned before and after the Rwandan genocide. The Village is leasing land to house the solar facility, the fees from which will help pay for a portion of the Village’s charitable expenses. Gigawatt Global will also be providing training on solar power to students of the Liquidnet High School on the grounds of the Youth Village.

“This utility-scale solar field at the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village is a symbol of hope for sub-Saharan Africa’s tens of millions of orphans and 600 million people without power, ushering in a new era of impact investing that we will hopefully be replicating throughout Africa,” added Yosef Abramowitz, president of Gigawatt Global. “We want to thank President Obama and Secretary Kerry, along with our other financial partners, for the opportunity to celebrate this landmark electricity-generating project under Power Africa.”

Education, Electricity, International, Renewable Energy, Solar

Green Charge Networks & Flextronics Partner

Joanna Schroeder February 4, 2015

Green Charge Networks has partnered with Flextronics to provide “on-demand” manufacturing of Green Charge’s GreenStation intelligent energy storage system at its customer innovation center in Milpitas, California. The company says California’s investor-owned utilities are seeking to deploy energy storage solutions at an accelerated rate. This includes energy storage capacity installed “behind the meter” on-site at commercial and industrial companies, a mid-tier market sector that Green Charge is pioneering with its GreenStation intelligent energy storage solution.

“Flextronics is proud to be Green Charge’s manufacturing partner, helping them to better meet the demands of their growing customer base,” said Scott Graybeal, vice president, energy at Flextronics. “Energy storage technology is rapidly evolving and we are thrilled to help companies like Green Charge with our advanced innovative solutions and platform offerings that increase their competitiveness and decrease their time to market.”

Vic Shao, CEO and Founder at Green Charge Networks added, “Green Charge has developed a leading-edge intelligent energy storage solution that not only benefits our customers, but helps pave the way towards a sustainable electric grid infrastructure of the future. Partnering with Flextronics, we’re thrilled to contribute to the revitalization of manufacturing in the U.S.”

Energy Storage, Utilities

NRDC Launches Airline Scorecard

Joanna Schroeder February 4, 2015

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has launched a first-of-its-kind scorecard that rates airlines’ use of integrating sustainable biofuels into their fleets. Air travel emits more than 650 million metric tons of carbon pollution each year – nearly the amount emitted of 136 million cars. The leader of the pack is Air France/KLM.

“It’s great to see certain airlines becoming leaders in the use of sustainable biofuels,” said Debbie Hammel, senior resource specialist with NRDC’s Land & Wildlife Program and author of the scorecard. “As the world rises to the challenge of curbing climate change and cutting carbon pollution, addressing air travel pollution has to be part of the mix. The aviation sector has been pretty proactive about this issue, and an industry-wide increase in the use of sustainably produced biofuels is definitely on the horizon.”

NRDC’s Aviation Biofuel Sustainability Scorecards evaluated airlines’ adoption of biofuels, focusing on the use of leading sustainability certification standards, participation in industry initiatives to promote sustainability certification, public commitments to sustainability certification in sourcing, and the monitoring and disclosure of important sustainability metrics. The leading sustainable carrier is Air France-KLM, followed by British Airways, United Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Cathay Pacific and Alaska Airlines.

NRDC has found that the airline industry has made great strides in recent years. During the past five years, 40 commercial airlines around the world have flown nearly 600,000 miles powered by biofuels. Low-carbon fuels will play a key role in the industry’s efforts to hold its carbon emissions steady after 2020 and cut net carbon emissions to half of the 2005 level by 2050 according to NRDC. To meet these goals, a new market has emerged to provide biofuels for the aviation sector. But, said NRDC, the adoption of credible, third-party sustainability certification systems are necessary to ensure that the emerging aviation biofuels market is providing fuels that are sourced sustainably.

The scorecard and issue brief encourages airlines to send clear market signals notifying suppliers of the importance of sustainability certification – ideally using the certification framework created by the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB) – and make a public commitment to source 100 percent certified-sustainable biofuels.

“How airlines move forward is still up in the air,” Hammel added. “While some in the industry have made real progress in implementing sustainability commitments this past year, there’s more to do. The industry must commit to robust standards for sourcing these fuels to ensure that they’re truly sustainable in the long-term.”

advanced biofuels, aviation biofuels

BioEnergy Bytes

Joanna Schroeder February 4, 2015

The Will Steger Foundation is launching Climate Minnesota: Local Stories, Community Solutions to communicate about climate change through local science, stories, and solutions that encompass the broad range of impacts that Minnesotans are seeing now. Join them for a local convening and share your own climate stories.
Pattern Energy Group Inc. has announced the pricing of an underwritten public offering of US$351.00 million, or 12,000,000 shares, of its Class A common stock at a public offering price of US$29.25 per share. The Company is selling US$204.75 million, or 7,000,000 shares, of Class A common stock and the selling shareholder, Pattern Energy Group LP, is selling US$146.25 million, or 5,000,000 shares, of Class A common stock. The underwriters of the offering have a 30-day option, exercisable until March 5, 2015, to purchase up to an additional US$52.65 million, or 1,800,000 shares, of Class A common stock from the Selling Shareholder. The offering is scheduled to close on February 9, 2015, subject to customary closing conditions.
Atlantic Wind & Solar, Inc. has connected its newest utility scale solar plant in Ontario Canada to the grid. The solar power plant was developed by its Canadian subsidiary Atlantic Solar Inc. The photovoltaic plant consists of a 111.585 KW AC/ 132.345 KW DC fixed array of 255W poly-crystalline modules. The power will be sold to the Ontario Power Authority for 20 years at a rate of 71.3 ¢/kWh.
Dominion Voltage, Inc. (DVI), a grid optimization subsidiary of Dominion Resources, Inc. has announced their participation in an innovative Volt/VAR optimization pilot program at Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E). The pilot project will enable the utility to evaluate the benefits of optimizing their distribution system voltage for the purposes of energy efficiency, Volt/VAR optimization, and voltage stabilization. DVI’s EDGE Volt/VAR optimization solution leverages Silver Spring’s AMI network and UtilityIQ Power Monitor to optimize voltage as part of PG&E’s Smart Grid Deployment Plan. The technology doesn’t require any behavioral changes or purchases by utility customers, which is common among more traditional forms of energy efficiency.

Bioenergy Bytes

Greenergy Buys Harvest Biodiesel Assets

John Davis February 4, 2015

Greenergy has bought the assets of a major biodiesel maker in the United Kingdom. The company acquired Harvest Biofuels’ biodiesel manufacturing facility at Seal Sands on Teesside, England, giving Greenergy additional biodiesel production capacity to meet its own biofuel blending obligations in the UK.

As part of the agreement reached with Harvest:

Greenergy has taken on Harvest Biofuels’ biodiesel storage contract at Dordrecht in the Netherlands.
Harvest Energy will become an ex-rack customer of Greenergy for petrol and diesel for its customers in the South East of England, Teesside and in Scotland.

Andrew Owens, Greenergy Chief Executive, said:

“The acquisition of the Harvest biodiesel plant will help bring our own production and blend requirements into balance. Most of the biodiesel that we blend into diesel in the UK will now be manufactured and quality assured in our own facilities.

“There are great opportunities to improve further the performance of both manufacturing sites by making best use of feedstock, through technology transfer and the sharing of best practice.”

Greenergy already has a waste-based biodiesel in England, but that plant doesn’t produce enough biodiesel to meet the company’s biodiesel blending. This deal allows Greenergy to stop importing biodiesel to meet those requirements.

Biodiesel, International

ASTM Ups FAME Tolerance, Helps Biodiesel for Jets

John Davis February 4, 2015

A change in the amount of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) allowed in jet fuel will open the door for more biodiesel to be used in aviation. This news release from ASTM, a group that sets quality standards for a number of items including fuels, says that revising the safety standard of the allowable cross-contamination of FAME in jet fuel from 5.0 parts per million to 50 parts per million under the Aviation Turbine Fuel Standard (ASTM D1655) will help get more biodiesel into aviation fuels without compromising safety.

“The jet fuel specification keeps the aviation industry safe while adapting to the expanded presence of biofuels,” says ASTM member David J. Abdallah, Exxon Mobil Research and Engineering. “In fact, no discernible negative impact on jet fuel product quality was observed with up to 400 ppm of biodiesel.” Abdallah noted that a potential future revision could further increase the standard to allow 100 parts per million.

ASTM D1655 was developed by ASTM Subcommittee D02.J0 on Aviation Fuels and D02.J0.01 on Jet Fuel Specifications, part of Committee D02 on Petroleum Products, Liquid Fuels and Lubricants.

ASTM used information from the EI-JIP Report, Joint Industry Project: Seeking original equipment manufacturer (OEM) approvals for 100 mg/kg fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) in aviation turbine fuel as the basis for the change.

aviation biofuels, Biodiesel

Harworth Opens Wind Turbine Project

Joanna Schroeder February 3, 2015

UK-based Harworth Estates has completed the installation of a 500 kW wind turbine located at the former Arkwright surface mine, near Chesterfield, Derbyshire. The project was completed in partnership with Energy Prospects Co-operative. The site forms part of the former Arkwright open cast mining operation, which has been reclaimed and restored to agricultural land. Energy Prospects Co-operative raised money to fund the development of the turbine through a public share offer, giving priority to those who live locally.

Harworth Estates’ installation of a 500KW wind turbine at the former Arkwright surface mine, close to the village of Duckmanton. The site forms part of the former Arkwright open cast mining operation, which has been reclaimed and restored to agricultural land. Photo: Harworth Estates

According to Harworth Estates, the operating wind turbine generates sufficient energy to power around 1,000 local homes. Energy is fed into the National Grid, utilizing the grid connection adjacent to the turbine site.

Harworth is also working with Energy Prospects Co-operative to develop a second 500 kW turbine at the former Shafton Two Gates colliery site in Barnsley, South Yorkshire. Work have already begun and the turbine is expected to be operating by summer of 2015. Harworth Estates and Energy Prospects Co-operative are also currently working on planning applications for two further single turbine projects. One is near Edlington, Doncaster, and another near Selby, North Yorkshire.

Hannah Moxon, assistant management surveyor, of Harworth Estates’ Natural Resources division, said, “These two projects demonstrate our expertise at transforming previously-developed land to support low-carbon energy projects. Funding through the share offer created a lot of local interest and support for the project. These wind turbines are an important part of Harworth’s commitment to the community and the environment. We also look forward to continuing to work with Energy Prospects on single turbine schemes on our other sites.”

Electricity, International, Renewable Energy, Wind

Pioneering Solar-Powered H2O Desalination Plant

Joanna Schroeder February 3, 2015

Abengoa has been selected by Advanced Water Technology (AWT) to jointly develop a large-scale desalination plant powered by solar energy. The plant will be located in Saudi Arabia and the according to AWT, when complete will the first and largest of its kind in the world. It will produce 60,000 m3 of water each day to supply Al Khafji City in North Eastern Saudi Arabia, ensuring a constant water supply throughout the year.

According to Abengoa, the photovoltaic plant will be capable of supplying the power required by the desalination process, significantly reducing the operational costs. It will also have a system to optimize power consumption and a pre-treatment phase to reduce the high level of salinity and the oils and fats that are present in the region’s seawater.

The Al Khafji desalination plant will ensure the stable supply of drinking water, contributing to the country’s socio-economic development. As in other cities in Saudi Arabia, water is a scarce resource. Abengoa and AWT will supply the local population with water needs in a sustainable and reliable way.

International, Solar, water

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