DOE Allocates $4B in Loan Guarantees

Joanna Schroeder

The Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a loan guarantee solicitation making as much as $4 billion in loan guarantees available for innovative renewable energy and energy efficiency projects located in the U.S. that avoid, reduce, or sequester greenhouse gases.

DOE_logo1“As the President emphasized in his Climate Action Plan, it is critical that we take an all-of-the above approach to energy in order to cut carbon pollution, help address the effects of climate change and protect our children’s future,” said Secretary Ernest Moniz. “Investments in clean, low-carbon energy also provide an economic opportunity. Through previous loan guarantees and other investments, the Department is already helping launch or jumpstart entire industries in the U.S., from utility-scale wind and solar to nuclear and lower-carbon fossil energy. Today’s announcement will help build on and accelerate that success.”

The Renewable Energy and Efficient Energy Projects Loan Guarantee Solicitation is intended to support technologies that are catalytic, replicable, and market-ready. Within the solicitation, the Department has included a sample list illustrative of potential technologies for consideration. While any project that meets the appropriate requirements is eligible to apply, the Department has identified five key technology areas of interest: advanced grid integration and storage; drop-in biofuels; waste-to-energy; enhancement of existing facilities including micro-hydro or hydro updates to existing non-powered dams; and efficiency improvements.

advanced biofuels, energy efficiency, Hydro, Microgrid, Waste-to-Energy

BioEnergy Bytes

Joanna Schroeder

  • BioEnergyBytesDFThe Maryland Energy Administration is accepting applications for its Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Grant Program (EVIP). EVIP funds will facilitate the installation of Direct-Current (DC) Fast Charging Networks in Maryland. DC fast charging stations allow for speedy charging of electric cars, adding sixty to eighty miles of electric driving range in nearly twenty minutes. The program is intended to promote energy independence in the State by facilitating greater investment in clean fuel automobiles which can be produced in the United States. Widespread adoption of electric vehicles is also a critical tenet of Maryland Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Council, which seeks to have 60,000 electric vehicles in Maryland by 2020.
  • On July 2, 2014 the EPA finalized the quality assurance program (QAP) rule for verifying the validity of Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program. To assist the renewable fuels community in navigating this final ruling, Genscape will host a free educational webinar, “The QAP Final Rule Frontier,” to explore the content of the newly finalized QAP rule at 2 p.m. ET on Thursday, July 17, 2014.
  • SeaRoc Group has successfully completed the first major maintenance visit to Forewind’s Dogger Bank meteorological (met) masts in the North Sea at the beginning of June. The East (DB-MME) and West (DB-MMW) masts have been installed for 15 and 8 months respectively and scheduled structural inspection, instrumentation and cleaning tasks were undertaken. The met masts are collecting valuable wind, wave, atmospheric and marine traffic data for the proposed wind farms on Dogger Bank. The data will be used to help assess the technical options and economic viability of the projects in the zone.
  • PSEG Solar Source announced today that it will acquire a 13 megawatt (MWdc) solar energy facility near El Paso, TX from juwi solar (JSI). The project was originally developed by JSI and has a 30-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with El Paso Electric Company. The plant, to be called the PSEG El Paso Solar Energy Center is located 14 miles north of El Paso, adjacent to the existing El Paso Electric Newman Generating Station. The $22 million acquisition will increase PSEG’s Solar Source’s portfolio capacity to 106 MWdc.
Bioenergy Bytes

Many Still in the Heat of Hay

Jamie Johansen

New Holland ZimmPollOur latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “Where are you in #hay14?”

It looks like farmers across the United States are all at different stages with this year’s hay crop. On our farm we started out with a bang. But were soon falling behind due to rain. No one is complaining about the rain though. I think I can easily speak for all involved in agriculture that we are very glad to be getting these early summer showers. Good luck to all those still in the heat of #hay14.

Our poll results:

  • Done – 25%
  • Right on schedule – 12.5%
  • Behind due to rain – 62.5%
  • Behind due to equipment – 0%

Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “What will be on your Independence Day grill?”

The 4th of July typically equals family and friends gathering for a barbecue and barbecue’s equals meat. The choices for your grill are limitless. Will you be having the traditional meal of hamburgers and hot dogs? Or will you be showing off your culinary genius and serving Venison Osso Buco, Beer Grilled Chops or Thai Grilled Shrimp?

ZimmPoll

EPA Establishes Quality Assurance for RINS

Cindy Zimmerman

epaIn addition to the final rule approving crop residue as a cellulosic feedstock, the Environmental Protection Agency yesterday established a “voluntary quality assurance program” for renewable identification numbers, or RINs.

The program is designed to maintain liquidity in the market for RINs under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) providing a means for ensuring that RINs are properly gener­ated through audits of renewable fuel production conducted by independent third-parties using quality assurance plans (QAPs). According to EPA, the QAP is intended to improve RIN market liquidity and ef­ficiency and improve the ability of smaller renewable fuel producers to sell their RINs.

Other provisions in the final rule regarding RINs include modifications to the exporter provisions of the RFS program to help ensure that an appropriate number and type of RINs are retired whenever
renewable fuel is exported.

Read the entire rule from EPA here.

EPA, Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFS, RINS

Ethanol Report on Energy Independence

Cindy Zimmerman

ethanol-report-adAs we prepare to celebrate our nation’s Independence Day, many of us will be out on the roads driving to see family, friends and fireworks. But, thanks to upheaval in a little country halfway across the world, gas prices are up again so we are going to be paying more at the pump, a stark reminder that we are not so independent when it comes to our energy sources.

dinneen-capitolIn this Independence Day Ethanol Report, Renewable Fuels Association president and CEO Bob Dinneen reminds us that ethanol saves Americans money at the pump, stretches the fuel supply and is the perfect remedy for skyrocketing gas prices.

Dinneen talks about the new milestone reached this week in cellulosic ethanol production and why the government needs to be expanding the use of biofuels rather than contemplating scaling back our nation’s renewable energy policy and striking a blow for American energy independence.

Ethanol Report on Energy Independence

Subscribe to “The Ethanol Report” with this link.

Audio, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Ethanol Report, RFA, RFS

Minnesota “Spills Beans About Biodiesel”

John Davis

saintsbaseballWhat could be more All-American this time of year than baseball… and biodiesel! This article from the Minnesota Farm Guide says the folks at the Minnesota Soybean Research & Promotion Council (MSR&PC) are combining the two truly patriotic loves during their “Spilling the Beans About Biodiesel” night at the St. Paul, Minnesota Saints baseball game at Midway Stadium on Tuesday, July 8.

Fans at tailgating can receive a free biodiesel t-shirt when they post a photo of themselves with the Saints’ cow mascots on social media, using the hashtag #BreatheBetterMN. Other events at tailgating include additional giveaways, a super hybrid Metro Transit bus that runs on biodiesel and more consumer-friendly information about biodiesel.

Prior to the Saints game on July 8, Minnesota Soybean will promote a coupon on their social media sites that could get game-goers a free $10 gas gift card. The first 50 people to bring the biodiesel coupon to their tailgating booth will receive a gas card.

Local media are being welcomed to the event with a chance to meet with and interview Minnesota soybean farmers who grow the feedstock for biodiesel. Contact Abby Bastian at abastian@wideopenthinking.com or 507-766-1038 for more information.

Biodiesel, Soybeans

Springboard Biodiesel Offers Restaurants Incentive

John Davis

springboardbiodiesel2Small biodiesel processor maker Springboard Biodiesel wants more restaurants to get into the act of brewing up their own biodiesel from their used cooking oil and grease. The company has declared July “Green Restaurant Month” and is offering $1,000 cash back to any restaurant in the U.S. that recycles the waste into biodiesel using one of their BioPro™ appliances.

Springboard Biodiesel’s CEO Mark Roberts explains, “Making biodiesel out of used cooking oil is not only profitable, it is possibly the single ‘greenest’ step a restaurant can take to improve air quality and reduce CO2 output.”

“We make an automated appliance that enables any business that cooks for large groups of people to convert their used cooking oil into premium grade fuel for 95 cents per gallon. Currently, the National average price of diesel hovers around $4.00 per gallon and will go higher. The fuel made in a BioPro™ runs in any diesel engine and costs one-quarter of the price.”

Over the last 6 years, Springboard Biodiesel has built a strong reputation within the green dining movement and is endorsed by the Green Restaurant Association, a national non-profit organization that assists member restaurants to become more environmentally responsible. The company also earned a prestigious “Kitchen Innovations” award from the National Restaurant Association in May of 2012 for the release of it’s BioPro™ EX.

Springboard Biodiesel has put nearly 1,000 of its biodiesel brewers in restaurants and breweries all across the U.S. and about two dozen other countries. Not only do the restaurant owners and brewers save the environment, but they also save the cost of paying someone else to pick up their old cooking oil, as well as having a great fuel source of their own to run in vehicles, such as delivery trucks.

Biodiesel

RINs Around the Rosy

Cindy Zimmerman

Renewable Identification Numbers, better known in the renewable energy world as RINs, are serious business, but there’s actually an app on the market to make them a bit more fun.

rins-appThe Energy Policy Research Foundation, Inc. (EPRINC) introduced the RFS compliance calculator earlier this year as a free download on Apple’s App Store, allowing you to “model various RFS and refined product market scenarios until your thumbs fall off.”

RINs Around the Rosy enables you to take on a variety of roles, from EPA Administrator to gasoline blender, in an attempt to guide the refined products market through the Renewable Fuels Standard whilst avoiding a crash into the blendwall. Think of it as an RFS compliance calculator.

This app serves as a model of the RFS and refined products (gasoline and diesel) market. It gives you control over nearly two dozen variables, enabling you to set an infinite number of volumetric mandates and product demand forecasts, measure RIN carryover, test various gasoline and diesel blending options, and examine the impact of custom waiver scenarios. RINs Around the Rosy will track your inputs and assumptions and let you know if you have met the mandate you set or if and how you fell short.

To download the app, just search in the app store for RINS Around the Rosy.

corn, Ethanol, Ethanol News, RINS

Corn Fiber Approved as Cellulosic Feedstock

Cindy Zimmerman

epaThe Environmental Protection Agency issued final rules Wednesday to qualify additional fuel pathways for the production of cellulosic biofuel, including crop residue such as corn fiber.

EPA has now determined that crop residue does meet the lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction requirements for cellulosic biofuel under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) provided that “producers include in their registration specific information about the types of residues which will be used, and record and report to EPA the quantities and specific types of residues used.”

corn-cobsThe final rule comes just as the first gallons of cellulosic ethanol are being produced this week from corn fiber in Galva, Iowa. “As demonstrated by Quad County Corn Processors—which produced its first commercial gallon of cellulosic ethanol from corn fiber just yesterday—this feedstock holds tremendous potential to contribute meaningful volumes toward compliance with the RFS cellulosic biofuels standard,” said Renewable Fuels Association president Bob Dinneen.

Dinneen says EPA should be commended for using a straightforward approach to accounting for the cellulosic content of biofuel feedstocks. “The ‘cellulosic content threshold’ method finalized in today’s rule is a common sense approach that minimizes administrative and accounting burdens for commercial producers, but upholds the spirit and intent of the RFS,” Dinneen said.

The EPA also finalized some minor amendments related to survey requirements associated with the ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) program and misfueling mitigation regulations for 15 volume percent
ethanol blends (E15) in announcements made on Wednesday.

corn, EPA, Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFA, RFS

Georgia State Fleet Looking to Ramp Up With Ethanol

Joanna Schroeder

The Georgia Alternative Fuel Road Rally has ended after two weeks of crisscrossing the state to promote alternative fuels. According to the FlexFuel Awareness Campaign, the success of the rally could increase the use of ethanol in FFVs.

Todd Sneller talks ethanolTodd Sneller, administrator of the Nebraska Ethanol Board and a board member of the FlexFuel Awareness Campaign, spoke with government officials and fleet managers throughout the state and visited four cities last week. “Over the course of two weeks our team met with nearly three hundred fleet management personnel and local municipalities to provide them with information on the ethanol option,” said Sneller. “I am pleased to report that the Georgia state Government is preparing to energize the E85 initiative at the state level. The state has nearly five thousand FFVs in service but they need to facilitate more efficient fuel supply logistics. Several large county fleets are also moving toward E85 since we explained the potential cost savings.”

The Clean Fuels Development Coalition and the Clean Fuels Foundation, Growth Energy, the Kansas and Nebraska Corn Growers, and a number of agriculture and ethanol supporters were among the sponsors of the tour which is designed to increase consumer and fleet operator awareness for alternative fuels. The FlexFuel Awareness Campaign is focusing on the FFvmessage that high level ethanol blends and FFVs are an option for private and government fleets and that they can be very competitive among the family of legally defined alternative fuels.

Sneller noted that fleet managers are looking to use cleaner fuels within the tight budgets they are facing. Ethanol continues to offer attractive pricing but an inefficient fuel delivery system is subverting the potential price advantage to fleet managers and consumers. In addition, there is a great need for consumer awareness and to work with retail outlets that serve both fleets and individual consumers.

“As part of an ‘all of the above’ approach, this Road Show showcases all the alternative fuels, and they all have their strengths and advantages in a given situation. We are pleased to be part of this successful effort and make sure biofuels like ethanol are in the mix,” Sneller concluded.

Alternative Vehicles, biofuels, E85, Ethanol, Flex Fuel Vehicles