This year has seen China make a significant impact on the world’s nuclear power industry, having brought three new reactors online with a total capacity of 3.2 Gigawatts (GW), according to an analyst with research and consulting firm GlobalData. China currently has 20 active nuclear reactors, with a further 28 under construction. Another 10 reactors are expected to begin commercial operation between 2017 and 2025, with a total capacity of 9.56 GW.- Wetzel Engineering Inc. (WEI), a specialized systems engineering company serving the international wind energy industry, announced that industry veteran Gary Kanaby has joined the company as director of marketing and sales. Kanaby will be responsible for business capture activities including growing marketshare among wind farm owners and operators.
- According to a recent report, “Microgrids in Asia Pacific” from Navigant Research, cumulative investment in microgrids across the region will total $30.8 billion from 2014 to 2023. Demand for electricity and generation capacity from renewable energy sources is growing at an unprecedented rate in the Asia Pacific region. As a result, the number of microgrid projects deployed in Asia Pacific, both for electrification purposes and as experimental test beds, is also rising.
- DTE Energy selected 84 new solar energy projects for inclusion in Phase 2 of DTE’s SolarCurrents customer-owned pilot program. A total of 74 residential projects, representing 616 kilowatts (kW) and ranging in size from 1 to 20 kW, will be offered incentives as part of Phase 2. These projects will be built in 10 counties in Southeastern Michigan. An additional 10 non-residential projects, representing 157 kW, will be built in six counties in Southeastern Michigan. These projects range in size from 5 to 20 kW. All applications for non-residential projects were accepted into the program.
Renewable Energy Continues to Gain
Renewable energy continues to gain as for the month of July all new U.S. electrical generating capacity put into service was from renewable sources according to the latest “Energy Infrastructure Update“. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Office of Energy Project’s report fond that there was 379 MW of wind installed, 21 MW of solar and 5 MW of hydropower.
For the first seven months of 2014, renewable energy has accounted for more than half (53.8%) of the 4,758 MW of new U.S. electrical capacity that has come on line with solar (25.8%) and wind (25.1%) each accounting for more than a quarter of the total. In addition, biomass provided 1.8 percent, geothermal 0.7 percent, and hydropower 0.4 percent. As for the balance, natural gas accounted for 45.9 percent while a small fraction (0.3 percent) came from oil and “other” combined. There has been no new electrical generating capacity from either coal or nuclear thus far in 2014.
Renewable energy sources now account for 16.3 percent of total installed operating generating capacity in the U.S.:
- Water – 8.57%
- Wind – 5.26%
- Biomass – 1.37%
- Solar – 0.75%
- Geothermal steam – 0.33%
“This is not the first time in recent years that all new electrical generating capacity for a given month has come from renewable energy sources,” noted Ken Bossong, Executive Director of the SUN DAY Campaign. “And it is likely to become an ever more frequent occurrence in the months and years ahead.”
Preaching Conservation with Biodiesel and Ice Cream
Three recent college grads have been spending their summer winding across the country handing out free ice cream from a truck running on biodiesel. Caleb Kruse, Cameron Kruse and Jordan Fatke have been trekking through what will be 33 states by the end of the Ice Cream Expedition, an effort funded by National Geographic, designed to show conservation from a child’s point of view and share free scoops of Magnolia Tropical Ice Cream as a conversation starter.
They will also encourage children to sign a pledge to explore and protect a place that is meaningful to them, such as a local pond or a backyard garden. Magnolia will be donating all of the ice cream for the trip, and the available tropical flavors will be avocado, mango, guava and a mix of purple yam and coconut…
“I’ve always wanted to drive across the country, and a friend once jokingly suggested I do it in an ice cream truck, and the idea took hold,” said Caleb. “The ice cream truck holds a unique position in a community and can be used as a platform to start talking to people, especially kids — and that’s who we’re trying to inspire.”
“National Geographic Kids is proud to be supporting these Young Explorers in their expedition across the United States,” said Rachel Buchholz, editor and vice president of National Geographic Kids and a committee member of the Young Explorers Grants program. “Through their work, they’re inspiring kids to explore their world as well as protect it. And who doesn’t love free ice cream!”
Along with the love of ice cream, maybe these guys will foster a little love for one of our favorite fuels, biodiesel.
By the way, they’ll be at the Atlanta Botanical Garden today, handing out free ice cream and talking conservation from 11 a.m. – Noon.
Leaf-Cutter Ants Could Hold Key for Biomass
A fungus from leaf-cutter ant gardens could be key in how biomass gets broken down into bioenergy sources. This article from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory says researchers working with colleagues at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center are using metabolomic and metaproteomic techniques to examine the dynamics of nutrient turnover in the gardens of leaf-cutter ants to discover how sugars, key in biofuels production, can be released.
The team found that numerous free amino acids and sugars are depleted throughout the process of biomass degradation, indicating that easily accessible nutrients from plant material are readily consumed by microbes in these ecosystems. Accumulation of cellobiose and lignin derivatives near the end of the degradation process supports the research team’s previous characterization of lignocellulases produced by the fungal cultivar of the ants.
Their results also suggest that derivatives of urea may be an important source of nitrogen in fungus gardens, especially during nitrogen-limiting conditions. No protein-free arginine (“free” arginine) was detected in the team’s metabolomic experiments, despite evidence that the host ants cannot produce this amino acid, which is a key nutrient for the ants. This suggests that biosynthesis of this metabolite may be tightly regulated in fungus gardens. These results provide new insights into microbial community-level processes that underlie this important ant-fungus symbiosis.
The article goes on to point out that the study yields important information on how metabolomics can help us understand how microbes can break down plant material to release the raw materials needed to make biofuels.
Dutch Researchers Develop Catalyst to Get Oil from Biomass
Researchers in The Netherlands have developed a catalyst that helps get more energy from biomass to more closely match more conventional sources of oil-based energy. This article from the University of Twente says the new, simple catalyst improves the quality of this oil before it is even transported to the refinery and was selected as part of the follow-up technology from CATCHBIO, the national research program looking to make sure Europe acheives 20 percent of its fuel from renewable sources by 2020.
The oil in current-generation biofuel does not come from fruit or seed, such as palm or rape seed oil but, for example, from plant residues, pruning waste and wood chips. As a result, there is no longer any undesirable competition with the food supply. Converting plant residues, which take up a lot of space, into oil simplifies transport considerably and the product can go directly to a refinery. Blending with crude oil is already possible. However, the quality of this oil does not yet equal that of crude oil. It has a lower energy content per litre, is acid and still contains too much water. The catalyst developed by Prof. Leon Lefferts and Prof. Kulathuiyer Seshan’s group Catalytic Processes and Materials (MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology/Green Energy Initiative) significantly improves the quality and energy content of the oil.
This is realized by heating the oil in nitrogen to 500 degrees Celsius and by applying a simple catalyst: sodium carbonate on a layer of alumina. By using this method, the energy content of the oil can be boosted from 20 to 33-37 megajoule per kilogram, which is better than crude oil and approximates the quality of diesel. The technology, recently defended by PhD candidate Masoud Zabeti, is already being tested by KIOR in Texas, USA, on a small industrial scale, with a production of 4,500 barrels of oil per day. The quality of the oil can be improved even more by adding the material caesium, as well as sodium carbonate. “By doing so, we can, for instance, also reduce the aromatics, which are harmful when inhaled”, says Prof. Seshan.
The technology is being studied in cooperation with several other European universities and research institutes.
ADOMANI EV Bus Approved in California
You may soon begin to see children in California heading to school in an all electric bus (EV). The California Highway Patrol has approved the ADOMANI all-electric Blue Bird school bus for use. The bus was developed through a partnership between the Gilroy Unified School District and ADOMANI and the result is a solar fueled EV 50 passenger type-D school bus. The converted school bus will debut this fall.
The Gilroy Unified School District provided ADOMANI with a 2007 Blue Bird All American diesel school bus, and by replacing the engine with their patented electric conversion kit, ADOMANI returned a plug-in electric. The bus has an overall range of 40 miles in between charges, tailored to meet the district’s need of a 22 mile route. ADOMANI can supply a school or commercial bus with enough battery power to travel 100 miles.
ADOMANI chose to utilize the same plug as the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf, making its buses adaptable to universal charging stations. The Gilroy Unified School District’s charging station has been supplemented with solar panels, making the bus a zero emission vehicle.
Verbal approval of ADOMANI’s converted school bus came one day after initial inspection. Recent ADOMANI board member addition and school bus industry expert Jim Reynolds said, “That is by far the fastest I have seen approval come in. I was anticipating a few months of processing.”
This is ADOMANI’s second converted Blue Bird school bus. ADOMANI has created a conversion kit specialized for the All American Blue Bird school bus that can be installed in a couple weeks. Ninety percent of the OEM parts are retained, allowing mechanics to remain familiar with parts like the transmission, compressor, radiator, alternator, etc. With the quick success of the project, the company plans to move their headquarters from Florida to California.
“After the conversion for Gilroy, moving to California seemed like the right fit, though we plan to retrofit vehicles throughout the country,” said Edward Monfort, the founder and CTO of ADOMANI. “I am thrilled to be working with school buses and to have an opportunity to enter a market that can improve lives and the environment.”
Economist Still Opposes RFS Despite Livestock Recovery
Despite the fact that livestock margins have made a dramatic recovery in the past few years as availability of feed has increased and prices have decreased, a leading livestock economist still opposes the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).
“We’ve thrown billions of dollars at this industry already and it ought to have to stand on its own,” said Steve Meyer, Paragon Economics, during an interview last week at an event for pork producers. “It has a place in the fuel business as an oxygenate and as an octane enhancer, it’s not going away from there.”
Meyer, who has always been an outspoken critic of U.S. energy policy, says his beef with the RFS is that it caused ethanol production to increase too much too quickly. “The trend yield on corn is up about two bushels per year. If you had grown the ethanol business at a rate equivalent to that, I wouldn’t have been able to gripe too much about it,” he said. “But it was far faster than that …. and the economic impact of that was very negative for (livestock) producers.”
However, the tide has turned dramatically to the point where demand and prices for livestock and poultry are riding high and there is almost record high feed availability with manageable prices. “We’re not going back to $2 corn and $180 bean meal but we’re at the lowest levels on costs in five years,” said Meyer. “We’re not increasing corn usage for ethanol every year like we were, it’s pretty much flat. It’ll grow a little bit but not much and we can probably keep up with that with trend yield growth on corn.”
Despite that, Meyer thinks the RFS needs to go away. “I don’t hate ethanol,” he says he tells corn producers. “I just don’t like subsidized, mandated ethanol when I’m the alternative user of the input.”
Interview with Steve Meyer, Paragon EconomicsBioEnergy Bytes
- The Provo Office of the Bureau of Reclamation completed a ground mount, 96 panel solar energy system in a former unused grassy area on the south side of their building located at 302 East 1860 South in Provo this summer. Local company, TRA Snow and Sun, Inc. of American Fork, Utah, manufacturer of solar mounting systems and snow retention systems, supplied the ground mounting for the panels and Intermountain Wind and Solar was the integrator.
- Solectria Renewables, LLC, a leading U.S. PV inverter manufacturer, announced today that it will supply 69 SGI 500XTM’s to Entropy Solar Integrators for seven projects in North Carolina. These projects are part of a portfolio being built by Entropy Solar Integrators and financed through affiliates of Entropy Investment Management.
- Starwood Energy Group Global, LLC, a leading private investment firm focused on energy infrastructure, has announced that an affiliate has completed agreements to finance and construct its second wind farm, a 165 Megawatt (MW) project 45 miles south of Lubbock, Texas. The Stephens Ranch II project, which represents the second of two phases that will total 377 MW, will use GE 1.7-100 turbines and be built by Wanzek Construction, with completion scheduled for mid-2015.
- MENA Clean Energy Forum will be take place in Dubai on December 9, 2014. The MENA Clean Energy Forum will bring together stakeholders interested in investing, financing, developing and operating clean energy projects in the regions. The summit will provide a platform for networking, knowledge transfer and new business development with decision makers within the clean energy Industry.
Biogas Opportunities Roadmap Published
The U.S. Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Energy (DOE) along with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have published a new report that outlines new federal initiatives to support growth in the private biogas/waste-to-energy sector. The Biogas Opportunities Roadmap concluded that developing a viable biogas industry in the U.S. can boost the economy as well as provide a reliable, distributed source of renewable energy while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The report found that today there are 2,000 biogas sites operating and with opportunity for another 11,000 additional biogas systems to covert waste to energy and co-products. However, to make way for these additional biogas systems, there must be support from federal agencies, significantly more investment, increased research and development and expanded markets for biogas, according to the report.
In the Biogas Opportunities Roadmap, the federal agencies identify programs that will promote biogas utilization and help the private sector take advantage of the full potential of biogas system without legislation. These programs include:
- Using existing agency programs to leverage over $10 million in research funding.
- Fostering investments in biogas systems including reviewing government procurement programs for products of biogas systems.
- Strengthening markets for biogas systems and system products including by modernizing existing Federal incentives.
- Improving communication and coordination by establishing a Biogas Opportunities Roadmap Working Group that will include participation from DOE and EPA, as well as the dairy and biogas industries.
“The potential for biogas to increase renewable energy production, reduce landfill waste, benefit the environment, and spur economic growth in the U.S. is significant. We are very pleased to see the U.S. government publish a report that outlines these benefits and opportunities,” said Shlomi Palas, CEO of Blue Sphere Corporation, a company specializing in biogas technology. “Bluesphere is actively working in several U.S. states to develop biogas facilities. We have brought our global expertise in building and operating waste-to-energy facilities to the U.S. market and we’re finding very strong interest in the value proposition we have to offer. We are eager to expand our operations in the U.S. in conjunction with some major partners and to capitalize on biogas opportunities.”
Bluesphere has begun design and engineering work, and is scheduled to break ground in 2014 on a 5.2 MW waste-to-energy anaerobic digester in Charlotte, North Carolina. The company is also developing in a 3.2 MW waste-to-energy project in Rhode Island and has a Memorandum of Understanding to develop a 5.2 MW waste-to-energy project in Massachusetts.
Empower Energies Completes Mass Solar Project
Empower Engeries has completed and commissioned a 3.3 MWDC solar project in Shirley, Massachusetts. The ground mounted installation features 13,047 6.5′ by 3′ PV solar panels and is located on 27 acres of Shirley Water District land. The project was co-developed with Washington, DC-based EPG Solar. It will deliver over 4.9 million kWh of electricity annually to the contiguous Devens Utilities Department.
Jim Moore of the Devens Utilities Department said that Mass Development was originally looking to add renewable energy into their portfolio with facilities built behind their meter, but ultimately opened the bidding up to power supply coming in from outside Devens, ‘if someone could work out the details’.
Empower Energies Manager of Business Development Micah Stanley credited the ingenuity of Robert Babcock, a Managing Partner with EPG Solar, and his team, for initiating the project. “His inventiveness enabled us, essentially, to put two separate and distinct projects together, and then enabled us to cross utility grid lines,” Stanley said.
“From the beginning, this project has been a model of perseverance and creativity for all of the parties involved,” Babcock added. “We worked diligently in cooperation with all of the constituencies – the Town of Shirley Energy Committee, the Water District, and the Devens Utilities Department – to best represent the interests of the people they serve.”
Len Jornlin, CEO of Empower Energies, added “It is exciting and humbling to ‘flip the switch’ after so many moving parts have come together. Projects like this one are characterized by a complex set of transactions, and the collaboration of so many stakeholders. We were thrilled to serve as the hub of all this effort. It enabled us to connect the dots, and help our co-developer, EPG Solar, to get the project over the finish line for Green States Energy and the Town of Shirley.”
Empower Energies and EPG Solar selected Green States Energy, Inc., to be the investor/owner of the solar system.