GEA Announces Finalists for GEA Honors

Joanna Schroeder

The Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) has announced the finalists for the GEA Honors, which recognize companies and individuals that have made significant contributions during the past year to advancing technology, spurring economic development and protecting the environment. Now in its third year, GEA also provides special recognition of companies and individuals who have made notable advances and achievements for geothermal energy.

gea_logo“This diverse group of honorees is leading the development, financing and implementation of geothermal energy both within and outside the United States,” said GEA Executive Director Karl Gawell. “It takes a community of stakeholders to develop and operate a renewable, sustainable energy source. We at GEA are pleased to honor these companies and individuals for their contributions to this growing industry.”

GEA has named the finalists for GEA Honors in the following categories: Technological Advancement, Economic Development and Environmental Stewardship. GEA will announce a final winner in each category in December. Additionally, GEA will award the Special Recognition award to GEA or non-member companies or individuals making significant contributions to the geothermal energy industry.

Technological Advancement is awarded to an individual or company that has developed a new, innovative, or pioneering technology to further geothermal development. Finalists include: AltaRock Energy, SPX Heat Transfer LLC, and U.S. Geothermal’s 22 MW Neal Hot Springs Geothermal Power Plant.

Economic Development is awarded to an individual or company that has made a substantial contribution to the development of local, regional or national markets through the development of geothermal systems. Finalists include: GGE Chile and GeothermEx.

Environmental Stewardship is awarded to an individual or company that has fostered outstanding environmental stewardship through the use of geothermal systems. This award will be presented in conjunction with the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI).  Finalist is Dale Merrick with Canby Geothermal.

The Special Recognition Award is open to individuals or companies either within the GEA membership or beyond for outstanding achievement in the geothermal industry. This award will be announced later this year when the winners in the categories above are announced.

Click here for more information about the finalists.

Alternative energy, Company Announcement, Geothermal

BioEnergy Bytes

Joanna Schroeder

  • BioEnergyBytesDFRenewable Energy Systems Americas Inc. (RES Americas), a leader in the development and construction of wind and solar projects in North America, has announced the hiring of two senior executives. Robert Morgan and Glen Davis will join RES in the roles of Chief Development Officer and Chief Commercial Officer, respectively. Morgan and Davis join RES Americas from Agile Energy, a company they co-founded and led for more than nine years. RES Americas plans to acquire Agile Energy¹s key solar development assets.
  • Morrison & Foerster has announced the addition of Julian E. Hammar to the firm’s Energy and Financial Service Regulatory Practices in Washington, D.C. His practice will focus on futures, derivatives and commodities, energy regulatory compliance and enforcement, corporate and securities matters.
  • SunPower Corp. has announced that marketing veteran Erin Mulligan Nelson has been named the company’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer. In this role, she will drive SunPower’s overall global brand and marketing strategies. Nelson has significant executive-level marketing experience with both Fortune 50 and high-growth pre-IPO companies, including chief marketing officer of Dell and Bazaarvoice. Her position is effective immediately and she will be based in the company’s Austin, Texas office.
  • SolarCity Corp. has announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement for SolarCity to acquire Zep Solar, Inc. for approximately $158 million. The purchase price is payable in shares of SolarCity common stock, and is subject to reduction for the amount of net indebtedness of Zep Solar as of the closing. Zep Solar is one of the leading providers of residential photovoltaic module mounting systems in the U.S., and has been one of SolarCity’s primary component suppliers for residential systems in 2013. Upon close of the acquisition, Zep Solar will operate as an independent business unit of SolarCity.
Bioenergy Bytes

Abengo’s Solana Solar Plant Acheives Milestone

Joanna Schroeder

World-wide renewable energy company Abengoa has announced that Solana, the world’s largest parabolic trough plant with a total installed capacity of 280 gross megawatts (MW) and also the first solar plant in the United States with thermal energy storage, has successfully passed commercial operation tests. Abengoa says this milestone marks a major accomplishment for the company and the Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) industry. The solar plant has the ability to provide electricity for nearly 70,000 average sized homes.

Solana is the first solar plant in the U.S. with a thermal energy storage system that is able to generate electricity for six hours without the concurrent use of the solar field. This is a turning point for renewable energy in the U.S., serving as a tangible demonstration that solar energy can be stored and dispatched upon demand.

Solana solar power plantSolana, located near Gila Bend and about 70 miles southwest of Phoenix, Arizona, began construction in 2010 and, on Monday, October 7, successfully fulfilled production forecasts required to-date and testing for commercial operation. These tests included operating at the turbine’s full capacity while charging the thermal storage system, continuing to produce electricity after the sun goes down, and starting up the plant and producing six hours of electricity using only the thermal storage system. These tests successfully demonstrated the various operation modes of the plant’s operation.

Abengoa’s first utility-scale solar plant in the United States employs parabolic trough technology. This technology consists of parabolic shaped mirrors mounted on structures that track the sun and concentrate the sun’s heat, later transforming water into steam and powering a conventional steam turbine. This mature technology has additional value since the heat can also be stored and used to produce clean electricity after the sun goes down or during a transitory period.

This ability to generate electricity when needed, or dispatchability, is one of the unique characteristics of concentrating solar power versus other types of renewable energy sources. The six hours of clean energy generated by Solana’s thermal storage system without the use of the solar field will satisfy Arizona’s peak electricity demands during the summer evenings and early nighttime hours. Dispatchability also eliminates intermittency issues that other renewables, such as wind and photovoltaics, contend with, providing stability to the grid and thus increasing the value of the energy generated by CSP.

Arizona Public Service (APS), the largest utility in Arizona, will purchase all of the electricity produced by the solar plant for 30 years through a power purchase agreement with Abengoa.

Alternative energy, Electricity, Energy Storage, Solar

World’s Largest Advanced Biofuels Plant Opens

Joanna Schroeder

Today marked the official opening of what is believed to be the world’s largest operational, commercial scale advanced biofuels facility. Situated in the fields outside the city of Crescentino, Italy, Beta Renewables, part of the Mossi Ghisolfi Group, along with Novozymes celebrated the first plant to be designed and built to produce bioethanol from agricultural residues and energy crops as commercial scale using enzymatic conversion. The advanced biofuels plant features Beta Renewables’ PROESA™ engineering and production technology alongside Novozymes’ Cellic® enzymes.

“The advanced biofuels market presents transformational economic, environmental and social opportunities, and with the opening, we pave the way for a green revolution in the chemical sector,” said Beta Renewables’ Chairman and CEO, Guido Ghisolfi. “We will continue to commercially expand Beta Renewables’ core technology throughout the world, and we are very confident at this stage given the demand we see around the globe.”

“The opening today presents a leap forward and is truly the beginning of a new era for advanced biofuels,” says Peder Holk Nielsen, CEO of Novozymes. “Here, at this plant, enabled by Novozymes’ enzymatic technology, we will turn agricultural waste into millions of liters of low-emission green fuel, proving that cellulosic ethanol is no longer a distant dream. It is here, it is happening, and it is ready for large-scale commercialization.”

The plant uses wheat straw, rice straw and arundo donax, a high-yielding energy crop grown on marginal land. Lignin, a polymer extracted from biomass during the ethanol production process, is used at an attached power plant, which generates enough power to meet the facility’s energy needs, with any excess green electricity sold to the local grid.

At the inauguration, Guido Ghisolfi and Peder Holk Nielsen were joined on the ground for the celebrations by Italy’s Minister for Economic Development, Flavio Zanonato, and representatives from the European Commission, as well as more than 500 global stakeholders.

During the event, both companies stressed that with the technology ready at commercial scale, it will be vital to create stable and conducive policy conditions worldwide, to harvest better the vast opportunities in cellulosic ethanol and advanced biofuels.Read More

advanced biofuels, bioenergy, Cellulosic, Ethanol, International, Renewable Energy, Video

DC Update Ethanol Report

Cindy Zimmerman

dinneen-capitolThe nation’s capitol is “so quiet you can hear a pin drop” but the American Petroleum Institute (API) is still working to beat the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), and the government shutdown means E15 retailers are unable to get approval.

“EPA right now is not answering the phones so they are not responding to marketers that are looking to offer E15,” says Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) president and CEO Bob Dinneen in this edition of The Ethanol Report. “I would hate to think that the political snit that is occurring in Washington today is going to throw up yet another barrier to expanding E15.”

ethanol-report-adDinneen also talks about the API lawsuit filed this week over the volume requirements of the RFS and the possibility that the government shut down would dely EPA’s release of the 2014 Renewable Volume Obligation (RVO), due out next month. “But this year, EPA took far too long to get those out,” he said, noting the numbers were just released in August – nine months late without a government shut down. “You want those numbers out as early as possible so the marketplace can respond.”

Listen to Bob discuss these topics and optimism in the ethanol industry here: Ethanol Report with RFA's Bob Dinneen

Subscribe to “The Ethanol Report” with this link.

Audio, E15, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Ethanol Report, Government, RFA, RFS

Croatia to Get First Multi-Feedstock Biodiesel Plant

John Davis

BDIcroatia1On the heels of Austrian BDI–BioEnergy International AG announcing deals to build biodiesel plants in the U.S. and UK, the company inked a deal to to build Croatia’s first multi-feedstock biodiesel plant. The agreement was signed in front of Croatian and Austrian economic and political representatives.

The representative of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, Ms. Vesna Trnokop-Tanta has pledged full support for the project and underlined, that this is an important step for Croatia in meeting the EU’s demands regarding the renewable energy directive in the fuel sector.

[Edgar Ahn, PhD (CSO) – Member of the BDI’s Management Board commented]:

“The installed BDI Multi-Feedstock BioDiesel Technology will enable our customer biom d.o.o. to convert many different waste and residual materials into high-quality BioDiesel. Thereby, it does not only make an important contribution to environmental protection in the area of transport, but also helps to safely dispose problematic waste streams or even convert them into useful substances. This confirms, that this BDI BioDiesel project is not only for BDI an important and pioneering project in the growing economies of South-East Europe, but in our opinion, for the State of Croatia this is a landmark project.”

When the plant is up and running at the end of next year, it will produce up to 100,000 tonnes per year.

Biodiesel, International

Companies to Produce Miscanthus for Biodiesel

John Davis

Miscanthus1A bioenergy technology company and a biomaterials processing technology and deployment company are partnering to turn miscanthus into biodiesel. This article from Biodiesel Magazine says the deal combines Algenetix Inc.’s proprietary, trademarked PhotoSeed technology and Alchimia Inc.’s oil extraction and purification technology.

Giant miscanthus has been seen as an alternative to corn for cellulosic ethanol as well as a source of biomass for heat and power generation. The partnership transforms miscanthus into a large-scale, next-generation “seedless oil” crop capable of addressing not only the ethanol and biomass markets, but the sizeable European and U.S. markets for biodiesel, biojet fuel and specialty products.

“The Alchimia partnership allows us to unlock the true value of PhotoSeed as applied to energy grasses,” said Han Chen, CEO of Algenetix. “We can now not only increase oil content in miscanthus biomass, but with Alchimia’s extraction technologies we have a path to market for a range of renewable fuels and high value oil soluble coproducts.”

PhotoSeed is the first technology to successfully produce synthetic seed-like oil bodies in the vegetative material of plants without negatively impacting plant health. Algenetix has been able to increase lipid content to as much as 8 percent of the total biomass. Alchimia’s novel process can unlock the potential values of carbohydrates, proteins and lipids sequestered within biomaterials while segregating and purifying high value microcompounds often overlooked within commodity processing.

A recent study shows that more than 150 million acres of abandoned and degraded cropland in the U.S. could be used for biofuels crops, such as miscanthus, without cutting into food crops and pasture lands.

Biodiesel

API Strikes Again

Joanna Schroeder

The American Petroleum Institute (API) has struck again by filing a lawsuit with the D.C. Circuit Court against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over the volume requirements of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

“This is another frivolous effort by API to abuse the court system in their slavish effort to repeal a public policy that is working for farmers, gasoline marketers, and consumers,” responded Bob Dinneen, President and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association (RFS). “While the 2013 RVOs were issued later than anyone would have liked, the fact is the Don__t_Cry_Over_Spilled_Oil_by_xWHOEVERSHEISxstatute is crystal clear, and all stakeholders have been producing and blending at levels that will unquestionably meet the 2013 requirements. This is a lawsuit in search of a problem.”

According to data from EPA Moderated Transaction System (EMTS), 8.65 billion renewable fuel (D6) RINs were generated through August. This implies at least 13 billion D6 RINs will be generated for calendar year 2013. When combined with the 2.0 billion D6 RINs carried forward from 2012, there will be approximately 15 billion D6 RINs available to comply with a requirement of 13.8 billion. In fact, there is likely to be a surplus of at least 1.2 billion D6 RINs carried in to 2014 – in other words a surplus, not a shortfall as API is claiming.

“This latest move comes as no surprise. Big Oil is doing, and continues to do everything possible to undermine the RFS and prevent competition in the marketplace from higher blends of renewable fuel,” said Tom Buis, CEO of Growth Energy.

In addition to the D6 RINs, 1.6 billion biomass-based diesel (D4) RINs were generated through August, implying an annual total of 2.4 billion D4 RINs. In addition, nearly 290 million surplus D4 RINs generated in 2012 were carried in to 2013. Once again, there will be more than enough D4 RINs to meet the 1.92 billion RIN biodiesel requirement.

In terms of D5 RINS, 408 million advanced biofuel RINs were generated through August, demonsrating the industry is on pace to generate 612 million D5 RINs. When combined with surplus D5 RINs carried forward from 2012, and recognizing that surplus biodiesel (D4) RINs can be used in lieu of D5 RINs, there will be no problem in meeting the 2013 advanced biofuel requirement. It is also important to note that the EPA waived the statutory cellulosic biofuel standard by 99 percent in 2013. Through August, nearly 130,000 cellulosic biofuel RINs had been generated, and RIN generation is expected to accelerate in the remainder of the year.

advanced biofuels, biofuels, Growth Energy, RFA, RFS, RINS

Chicago Midway Airport Flies with Solar

Joanna Schroeder

The Solar Power International 2013 tradeshow is kicking off October 21-24, 2013 and as solar companies gear up to showcase their technologies, Kyocera Solar is showcasing their latest solar project at the Chicago Midway Airport. Twenty-five kilowatts (kW) of Kyocera photovoltaic modules now help power Chicago’s Midway Airport’s new 20130218_105741environmentally friendly consolidated rental car facility. Installed by Green Power Solutions, the PV system is on the roof of the Quick-Turn Around (QTA) facility, where hundreds of rental cars are washed and refueled daily.

As planes taxi and land, passengers now enjoy a view of the rooftop PV system, which supplies about 30 percent of the QTA’s power needs and provides a strong visual reminder of Midway Airport’s green initiatives. The QTA facility includes nine car wash bays, nine fueling islands, 36 fuel pumps and two 20,000 gallon underground fuel tanks. Water used to wash the rental cars is recycled.

“We’re excited to be a part of Midway Airport’s ‘greening,’ and hope this installation serves as a high-profile reminder that solar power is the smart choice for our nation’s future,” said Steve Hill, president, Kyocera Solar Inc. “With 38 years of solar industry experience, Kyocera is committed to providing reliable products that will help our nation’s municipalities leverage the clean, renewable energy of the sun for decades to come.”

MidwayWorking together, Kyocera and Green Power Solutions were able to overcome a structural challenge with the installation, which sits on a split-seam metal roof, by modifying a special clamp on the racking system to secure the system in place. Green Power Solutions also installed nine wind turbines in conjunction with Midway Airport’s green initiative. The Chicago Department of Aviation (CDA) is pursuing LEED certification for the project, which receives three “green airplanes” for design and four green airplanes for construction, as rated by the CDA’s Sustainable Airport Manual.

“We chose Kyocera because of its high-quality, reliable solar modules in addition to the strong engineering support they provided, which helped streamline the installation,” added Steve Arwady of Green Power Solutions. “We received expert, hands-on solutions from Kyocera, which tipped the balance when we compared panel for panel at almost the same price. We chose Kyocera, the company that gave us the best service. We intend to partner with them on future projects.”

In addition to the Midway airport project, Tucson International Airport recently wrapped up the first phase of a 2.5 megawatt (MW) solar canopy installation using Kyocera polycrystalline silicon modules above the main public parking lot. Completed in August, the 1MW section powers about a third of the terminal complex’s power needs.

Alternative energy, Electricity, Solar, Wind

Ormat to Build Geothermal Project in Indonesia

Joanna Schroeder

President Obama’s U.S. Asia Pacific Comprehensive Energy Partnership (USACEP) is encouraging U.S. companies to develop renewable energy in South East Asian countries and Ormat Technologies has heeded the call. The company has signed an agreement for the development of the Hu’u Dompu geothermal project in Indonesia. The agreement was signed in the presence of Penny Pritzker, Secretary of Commerce for the U.S. Department of Commerce.

ormatOrmat will develop the project through the project company Pacific Geo Energy (PAGE). The Hu’u Dompu greenfield geothermal project is located in West Nusa Tenggara Province on Indonesia’s Sumbawa Island, and may be developed for up to 60 megawatts (MW) in three phases over the next six years.

“President Obama has made it very clear that the United States is deeply committed to deepening our commercial and economic ties in the Asia-Pacific. Part of increasing our engagement in the region will be achieved as U.S. and Asian businesses work together on projects that benefit both of our economies,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker. “A joint project like this represents a clear win-win for our bilateral commercial relationship with Indonesia, and demonstrates the opportunities that exist in the world’s fastest-growing region for U.S. companies to not only sell their goods and services but share their expertise and drive development in high-priority areas like clean energy.”

Ormat says the Hu’u Dompu geothermal project will benefit from their phased approach to greenfield development, unique exploration tools developed in the U.S., flexible power plant technology, operational experience and knowledge base provided by the U.S. subsurface industry.

Dita Bronicki, chief executive officer of Ormat added, “As the first greenfield development for Ormat in Indonesia, we are pleased with the opportunity that this project presents. Together with our new local partners and the support from U.S. and international sources, we’re hopeful that this prospect will be a successful source of renewable sustainable and affordable energy to Sumbawa Island.”

Under the terms of the agreement with the initial developers, Ormat will hold a 90 percent stake in the project, while the remaining 10 percent will be held by the current owners of PAGE, PT Trimatra Energy and PT Bima Transindo Persada. PAGE obtained the geothermal license for the project, which entitles it to a power purchase agreement price of CENT9.65/kWh.

Alternative energy, Geothermal, International