ACE Honors Ethanol Advocates

Joanna Schroeder

ACE13-unite-and-ignite-jenningsDuring the 26th Annual Ethanol Conference in Des Moines, Iowa, the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) honored several ethanol advocates. The first award was given by ACE President Ron Alverson, who each year has the opportunity to give the President’s Award to someone who goes above and beyond the industry. This year, Alverson distilled the honor on Brian Jennings, ACE executive vice president, for his tireless work on behalf of the industry to not only promote the benefits of the ethanol industry, but also help promote the people of the industry and the work they do.

The most prestigious award presented by ACE, the Merle Anderson Award is presented annually to recognize an individual who has made distinguished and significant contributions to the advancement of the U.S. ethanol industry. This year the award was bestowed on Tom Vilsack, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary.

ACE13-unite-and-ignite-chuckThe strength of ACE is found within the collective grassroots, devoted individuals who often perform behind the scenes to advance the cause of ethanol. These “unsung heroes” of the U.S. ethanol industry and agriculture are recognized with the ACE Grassroots Award. This year’s winner is Chuck DeGrote with Chippewa Valley Ethanol Company (CVEC).

The Policy & Legislative Leadership Award is presented to a policymaker at the state or federal level for introducing or championing public policies that promote the U.S. ethanol industry and strengthen rural America. This year’s honoree is Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA).

ACE13-vollan-pauldanaawardThe Paul Dana Marketing Vision Award (formerly Fields to Fuel Marketing Award) an award to recognize individuals or companies in the U.S. who exhibit leadership in marketing ethanol. The award winner this year is Bruce Vollan with Vollan Oil.

ACE13-unite-and-ignite-claytonThe ACE Media Excellence Award goes to those in the media who demonstrate excellence in covering news and issues important to the U.S. ethanol industry. This year Chris Clayton with DTN won the honor.

*Those not pictured were unable to accept their award in person.

Visit the ACE 26th Annual Ethanol Conference photo album.

ACE, ACE Ethanol Conference, biofuels, Ethanol

New Clean Projects Equals New Clean Jobs

Joanna Schroeder

Clean Energy Works for UsAccording to a report released by Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2) there were 58 clean energy and clean transportation projects announced during the second quarter of 2013. These projects could create as many as 38,600 new jobs. A new website has been launched – Clean Energy Works for US – keeps track of jobs in the solar, wind, biofuel, energy efficiency and transportation sectors.

Cleanenergyworksforus.org includes more than 500 clean energy and clean transportation job announcements taken from company announcements, media reports and other sources that E2 has tracked since September 2011. The site also includes more than 50 stories, 20 videos and state-specific statistics that put a face on clean energy job growth in America.

“With Labor Day upon us and the country focused on jobs and the economy, clean energy and clean transportation projects continue to create jobs and drive economic growth from one end of the country to the other,” said E2 Executive Director Judith Albert.

The Q2 2013 clean jobs total number is slightly higher than the 37,400 jobs that E2 tracked in the comparable quarter in 2012. For the first time, both Hawaii and Alaska ranked in the top 10 states to announce clean energy projects in the second quarter of 2013.

Two newcomers were among the top five states for clean energy jobs announcements in the second quarter. Hawaii ranked second in total clean energy and clean transportation jobs announced, while Maryland came in third place with the announcement of a $2.6 billion, 20-station, and 14-mile expansion to the Baltimore light-rail system’s Red Line. The project will reduce carbon pollution as well as traffic, and will require more than 4,200 construction workers to lay new tracks and build new stations by 2021.

2nd quarter E2 job reportIn another first for a quarterly E2 report, Kansas and Missouri each made the Top 10 list of states to announce clean energy projects. Leading the way, Clean Line Energy Partners LLC announced the “Grain Belt Express Clean Line” transmission line upgrade project that will transmit more than 3,500 megawatts of wind energy from Kansas and Missouri to other states. The $2 billion project is scheduled for completion by 2018 and is expected to create 5,500 jobs to plan, construct and manage the new line.

California again ranked No.1 in total job announcements. The state led the way with 12 clean energy and clean transportation projects that could cumulatively create more than 9,000 jobs.

“Clean energy jobs are alive, well and growing,” Albert said. “Smart policies like renewable energy standards at the state level, coupled with federal policies like President Obama’s climate change initiative, promise to keep that growth going.”

Clean Energy, Renewable Energy

ACE Tries to Outgun the Big Bucks of Big Oil

John Davis

Steve Petersen3Members of the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) have been in Des Moines, Iowa this week to “Unite and Ignite” for their 26th annual conference. But even before they got together, they knew their message of the good ethanol does for the entire country was coming up against some pretty deep pockets of their opponents.

“We don’t have the resources that some of our opponents have in terms of dollars, in terms of personnel, to get our message to the people who make the decisions and make the policy,” Steve Petersen, a small livestock producer from Chelsea, Iowa and an advocate for ethanol, told Joanna during last March’s Biofuels Beltway event when about 70 ethanol backers gathered in Washington, D.C. to tell ethanol’s story to lawmakers. But he’s not deterred, because many congressional staffers told him they wanted to hear from people actively involved in agriculture. “We did a lot of education.”

Steve admitted that it can be a bit disconcerting that so many of those who vote on the policies that affect ethanol don’t understand the process. But he said ethanol advocates just need to work a bit harder to get that message out, and he believes if they can show these lawmakers the impacts on rural areas, they’ll win them over.

“We had a great pictorial this time of walking through the process of ethanol. I’d like to have some actual pictures from Iowa, from Wisconsin, from all of the plants around it, and all of the impact it has on jobs and the tangible benefits it has brought to our communities in the Midwest: the additional tax base, the additional jobs that a lot of these communities haven’t seen for 25 years. Ethanol and biofuels have been a tremendous boon to the Midwest … and all of our country,” he said.

Listen to Joanna’s interview with Steve here: Steve Petersen

Visit the ACE 26th Annual Ethanol Conference photo album.

ACE, ACE Ethanol Conference, Audio, Biofuels Beltway, Cellulosic, Ethanol, Government

BioEnergy Bytes

Joanna Schroeder

  • BioEnergyBytesDFCleanEdison, is company focused on clean energy education, is offering solar energy training. Classes offered include BPI certification courses and LEED Green Associate preparation. The variety of courses and educational and professional training provides individuals with the necessary skills to secure a position in the growing clean workforce.
  • The 24th Annual SRI Conference is offering a new resource and a fresh take on clean tech investing. A new session moderated by Dan Adler, managing director of the Clean Energy Angel Fund and CalCEF, and including Dan Rosen, CEO, Solar Mosaic, will explore the clean tech landscape and the newest products and strategies for sustainable and responsible investors. “Investing in Clean Tech: Expanding Opportunities for ESG/SRI Investors,” will focus on recent developments in crowdsourcing, green bonds, clean energy victory bonds, PACE financing, MLPs, and REIT eligibility. Click here for more information on the SRI Conference taking place October 28-20, 2013 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
  • Sol Systems has secured an investor for a 500 kW North Carolina project. The system, located in Clayton, North Carolina, was funded through a larger multi-megawatt portfolio.
  • RGS Energy, the commercial and utility division of Real Goods Solar, has been selected by Ironhouse Sanitary District (ISD) to deploy a 1.1 megawatt (MW) solar power system at its water recycling facility and administration building in Oakley, California. RGS Energy will design, install, monitor and maintain the solar power system at the water recycling facility and the administration building. The installation will be comprised of a 1 MW single-axis tracking system and 60 kilowatt carport system, which will generate more than 2.3 million kilowatt hours of solar electricity per year to power the facilities. Construction is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2013 and be completed in the first quarter of 2014.
Bioenergy Bytes

Brazil Sugarcane Harvest Strong

Joanna Schroeder

Brazilian sugarcane harvestThe volume of cane sugar produced by mills in the South-Central region of Brazil reached 46.34 million tons in the first 15 days of August, up 4.72 percent compared to value recorded in the same half of the previous year (44.25 million tons). Since the harvest began, crushing has totaled 315.10 million tons, an increase of 20.68 percent compared to the same period in 2012. However, this amount remains below the 338.08 million tons recorded in the same period of 2010/2011 season – at which plants located in the Center-South processed 556.95 million tons at the end of that season.

According to the Technical Director of the Union of Industry Cana-de-Açúcar (UNICA), Antonio de Padua Rodrigues, “The number of days lost in this first half of August was very low, a fact that allowed the production units operating near capacity production of this crop.”

In relation to agricultural productivity, according to data compiled by the Center for Sugarcane Technology (CTC), this totaled 86.50 tons of cane sugar per hectare in the first half of August. Of the total amount of cane sugar ground in the first half of August, 47.76 percent has been allocated to the production of sugar.

“The recent change in the exchange rate promoted a recovery in sugar prices in reais and changed the attractiveness of the product compared to ethanol,” said Rodrigues who noted this has not caused a drastic change in product mix in favor of sugar. “This is because the flexibility of production facilities is limited in this harvest period characterized by more grinding and ATR, ie, when industries work closely with its manufacturing capacity,”

Ethanol production reached 1.95 billion liters in the first 15 days of August, with 1.10 billion liters of hydrous and 858.23 million liters of anhydrous ethanol. The manufacture of sugar, in turn, totaled 2.91 million tonnes against 3.03 million tonnes registered in the same half of 2012.Read More

Brazil, Ethanol, International

Clay County, Iowa Hosting Iowa Wind Day

Joanna Schroeder

The Clay County Fair in Clay County, Iowa is hosting an Iowa Wind Energy Day on Sunday September 8, 2013. The Iowa Wind Energy Association along with 14 co-sponsors will provide educational and interactive exhibits for fair-goers to learn about the state’s robust wind industry.

Wind turbine near Galva IowaIowa was the first state in the U.S. to exceed 24 percent of all electrical generation from wind. In addition the state is first in the number of wind related jobs and wind manufacturing businesses, and third in installed capacity. Landowners in Iowa are paid an annual lease payment for each turbine on their land and receive a combined $16 million annually. Property tax assessed value in counties with wind turbines has increased by almost $3 billion dollars and provides increased tax revenues to county and school district budgets annually.

In the next four-to-five years, recently announced wind farm developments and transmission projects will create an estimated $10 billion dollars in capital investment in Northwest Iowa. The wind farm projects will include nearly 2,500 additional wind turbines within 100 miles of O’Brien County. Landowner lease payments for these turbines will range between $6,000 – $10,000 per turbine, per year for 20 years or more. This is approximately $20 million dollars that will be paid to landowners each year. Within six years these turbines will add an estimated $2.25 billion in property tax assessed value in Northwest Iowa, and provide an estimated 400 – 500 new jobs with an annual estimated payroll of $20 million.

The wind energy booth will be located just south of the events center and between the midway and grandstand. Visitors can sign up for door prizes, receive free wind energy promotional items, view an actual turbine operation, see high voltage protective equipment, talk to wind farm developers, operation and maintenance workers and educators about opportunities in the wind energy industry. Iowa Wind Energy Association staff will also be giving short seminars on topics such as buying a small wind turbine; what to expect if contacted by wind farm developers; and the economic impact of Iowa’s wind energy industry.

Electricity, Renewable Energy, Wind

UK Restaurants Encouraged to Make Biodiesel

John Davis

Diesel prices in the United Kingdom are as expensive as ever. And when you consider the costs of getting waste cooking grease are not getting any less, restaurant owners in the U.K. are being encouraged to make their own biodiesel from that waste. In Biodiesel Magazine, Green Fuels Ltd., a biodiesel production equipment maker, suggests some of its products as a way for small businesses to stay in the black by going green:

fuelpod2The Green Fuels FuelPod 2 is a nifty way to turn a waste product into energy. It produces clean-burning biodiesel and is a safe, user-friendly and reliable small-scale biodiesel processing system.

Larger biofuel plants sometimes fail because they cannot secure a reliable supply of waste cooking oil to convert to biofuels. However, community-scale biofuel production enables any enterprise with a canteen (and therefore a supply of waste cooking oil) to start produce biodiesel. The first 2,500 liters are tax free (in the U.K.) as well as producing an offsetting of 7 tons of carbon (CO2), and with a cost of 30p a liter, that makes for a very significant saving on energy bills.

Green Fuels points out several benefits to its FuelPod 2:

-The capacity to produce 100 liters of biodiesel every day from waste or new oil
-Timed controls make it easy to use
-Unique safety features ensure safe production of biodiesel
-Fuel dispensing system with regulation filter makes it safe and easy to fill your car
-Low maintenance
-Odor free
-Robust design
-Integrated ion-exchange resin fuel purification system to guarantee the highest quality biodiesel

The company also points to several local success stories to show their equipment delivers quality biodiesel.

Biodiesel, International

Fast Stop’s E85 Sales Soar

Joanna Schroeder

Today some retail stations are offering E85 (for use in flex fuel vehicle only) at more than $1.00 per gallon less than regular unleaded and these retail stations are seeing E85 sales soar. One reason these stations are able to sell the fuel at such a competitive price is because some of suppliers are passing along RIN values.

Fast Stop in Cresco, Iowa has reported that in the first two weeks of August, E85 sales have made up 45 percent of its total gasoline sales. With strong E85 and E30 sales, pure ethanol accounted for an amazing 42 percent of Fast Stop’s total liquid gallons sold over the two week period. The level is more than four times the so-called E10 blend wall.

Dave Sovereign“Finding a supply of E85 that reflected the RIN savings was the key – that’s when E85 sales just took off,” said Dave Sovereign, part owner of the station. “We tried to get other retailers in our area to offer higher ethanol blends. When they wouldn’t, a group of us decided to build our own station and put in a blender pump. It’s been a great investment – not just for us, but for motorists as well.”

“Fast Stop has become a magnet for flexible fuel vehicle owners in the area,” continued Sovereign. “Consumers are ready and willing to purchase higher ethanol blends; retailers just need to make them available and price them right.”

Fast Stop dispenses fuel using a blender pump, which allows the station to offer E0 (no ethanol), E10, E15, E20, E30, and E85. The station blends E85 and regular unleaded to offer consumers the choice between a variety of ethanol blended fuels; therefore, the lower E85 prices have benefited all ethanol blend levels. When sales of all fuels are averaged, ethanol accounts for 42% of the volume.

RINs, or renewable identification numbers, are credits attached to each gallon of ethanol in order to track compliance with the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). The ethanol blender can sell the RIN to refiners that choose not to blend enough ethanol on their own.

“When you see what Fast Stop in Cresco has done there’s only one question – what blend wall?” said IRFA Executive Director Monte Shaw. “Fast Stop’s real world sales data confirms the federal RFS is working as intended. Despite Big Oil’s rhetoric, there is no blend wall and retailers like Fast Stop are proving it. Given a chance, consumers will choose lower priced, cleaner burning ethanol. Big Oil is attacking the RFS not because it is broken, but because the RFS is working.”

E85, Ethanol, Iowa RFA, RFS, RINS

Frontier Coop To Offer E15

Joanna Schroeder

Frontier Coop will begin offering E15 at four locations beginning September 20, 2013. Frontier Coop will offer E15 as a fuel choice for consumers in Weston, Brainard, Ceresco, and Dwight.

“E15 seemed like the logical fuel to offer to support our local economies,” said Jeff Ingalls, energy department manager for Frontier Coop. “We want to give consumers fuel choice and what better than to offer a locally homegrown and produced fuel?”

Ceresco Manager Kyle SteinE15 can be used in all vehicles 2001 or newer. All the necessary steps to offer E15 were followed by Frontier Coop including being registered for the fuel survey, adopting the misfueling mitigation plan created by the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), and the pumps will be labeled properly for selling E15.

“It is a great feat for the ethanol industry to see E15 sold in multiple states, and we are pleased that Nebraska is expanding the number of locations offering E15 for 2001 and newer vehicles,” said Robert White, director of market development for RFA.

Due to a lack of a one pound reed vapor pressure waiver for E15, retailers must change their labels in the summer months and offer E15 to flex fuel vehicles only. Beginning September 15, 2013 retailers can resume offering E15 to 2001 and newer vehicles.

“It has been 30 years since a new fuel has been introduced, and just after a year, E15 is starting to gain traction, and will be sold in nine states starting September 15,” said White.

Don Hutchens, executive director of the Nebraska Corn Board, added, “It is great to see our rural communities supporting their local corn farmers. There are so many benefits of ethanol fuel and moving to E15 adds to the benefits.”

E15, Ethanol, RFA

EPA Indicates Biodiesel on Way to Billion Gallons

John Davis

nbb-logoThe latest numbers from the Environmental Protection Agency shows 132 million gallons of biodiesel was produced in the U.S. during July. Our friends at the National Biodiesel Board (NBB) say that puts year-to-date volumes at more than 768 million gallons, on pace to go over a billion gallons this year:

The production volumes are reported under the Biomass-based Diesel category under the [Renewable Fuels Standard]. To view the figures, visit the EPA’s website here. The latest numbers show a total of more than 166 million gallons of Biomass-based Diesel in July, but that total also includes production of renewable diesel. The biodiesel portion of the total was 132 million gallons.

Biodiesel has surpassed RFS targets for two consecutive years and is on pace to do so again this year.

Biodiesel, NBB