Solar Energy International is training a workforce and enabling them to increase universal access to electricity through renewable energy development in Central America. La Academia de Profesionales Solares de las Américas (APSA) will train 50 people representing countries, communities, and organizations throughout Central America and Mexico to design, install, and maintain solar PV systems and to successfully launch and administer businesses in this critically important industry.- Intermountain Wind and Solar is offering a guide covering the benefits of wind and solar power in Utah and the impact they have on wallets and the environment.
- National Fleet Hybrids has partnered with Lightening Hybrids to sell, install and distribute Lightning’s hydraulic hybrid retrofit systems. The partnership brings together two companies focused on providing fuel-efficient technologies to fleets of shuttle buses and other medium-duty vehicles.
- U.S. Energy Initiatives Corporation has received a patent assignment of a proprietary biofuel patent entitled GREEN RECYCLED DERIVED BIOFUEL (RDBF). This patented fuel was designed for automotive, aviation and stationary electrical power applications.
- To mark the 5th Annual Global Wind Day, held on June 15 th, the Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) launched the second annual Power of Wind Blog Contest with bursary prizes for students entering post-secondary education. Students from across Canada can submit a 300 word blog on the subject of Building a clean energy future. Students should use their creativity and write about how they are or can become part of a renewable energy future.
Closer Look at EPA Biodiesel Winner
Recently we told you about how students at Loyola University had won the EPA’s P3 Award (People, Prosperity and the Planet) for their greener way, through a wetland and a distillation process, to treat and reuse byproducts of biodiesel. Our friend Ron Kotrba at Biodiesel Magazine looked a little deeper into what their innovation actually was:
I reached out to Zach Waikman, the biodiesel lab manager at Loyola, who provided some clarity to the project behind the P3 Award…
Loyola undergraduate and graduate students and faculty mentors will design, test, and implement an innovative, cost-effective sustainable system for treating contaminated wash-waters resulting from our student-led Biodiesel Program. This project is original in its approach to treating wastewater on-site with environmentally benign living technologies. It will be the first known attempt to use living machine technology to solve the biodiesel wastewater problem. Our technologies will be transferable and scalable.
Expected results: The primary long-term results of our P3 project will be a) designing and building an environmentally and economically sustainable biological waste-water treatment system capable of cleaning, detoxifying, and recycling 100 percent of the waste-water produced in the LUC Biodiesel Lab and b) disseminating the design and complementary materials to other sustainable biodiesel producers throughout the U.S. and the world in order to prevent unnecessary environmental pollution and increase economic solvency.
Some other things we’re able to find out from this article is that the concept of the machine is in line with an anaerobic digester, although they’re not using that biological process in their plans. The researchers believe there will lots of possibilities with the program.
Enogen Corn to Present ‘American Ethanol 200’
Syngenta and its Enogen brand will be the presenting sponsor for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at the Newton track on Saturday, July 13, 2013. The American Ethanol 200 presented by Enogen is a 200 lap, 175-mile event over Iowa Speedway’s 7/8 tri-oval featuring 36 NASCAR drivers racing with to win fueled by E15.
“We are thrilled to welcome Syngenta as the newest member of our family of promotional 
partners,” said Chuck Spicer, Iowa Speedway Vice President of Sales & Marketing. “We are especially proud that, given Enogen’s initial success in the ethanol production marketplace, Syngenta has chosen our ‘American Ethanol’ event to promote their unique brand of seed corn.”
Enogen corn features a corn output trait bio-engineered specifically for ethanol production. Syngenta says this technology helps drive dramatic process improvements in dry grind ethanol production and is delivered through a high-value grain system that has the potential to greatly benefit growers, local communities and the renewable fuels industry.
“Syngenta is excited about this opportunity to come together with key partners and show our support of American Ethanol,” said David Witherspoon, head of renewable fuels at Syngenta. “We understand the significant role ethanol plays in driving economic growth and creating value for our nation and in our rural communities. We are truly honored to be a part of this race and are committed to the long-term success of the ethanol industry.”
Genera: Feedstocks, Start Early & Think Big
When it comes to biomass feedstocks for biofuels, you need to think ahead.
“Start early and think big,” was the advice Bob Randle, VP Sales and Marketing for Genera Energy gave attendees of the recent Fuel Ethanol Workshop (FEW) in St. Louis, Mo. “Because there’s a lot of moving parts in providing 250,000 to 700,000 tons of material annually, on a 24-7 basis, particularly if you’re dealing with a perennial crop since it takes two to three years to establish.”
Bob says Genera, a relatively new company out of Tennessee, focuses its efforts on the front end of the biofuels chain, developing and delivering energy crop and biomass feedstock solutions, starting with switchgrass and now branching into other stocks as well. They work with farmers to develop long-term supply contracts, to grow, harvest, store and finally deliver the crops to the plants that convert it into biofuels.
“We’re the middleman on the feedstock supply side,” Bob said, adding they partner with the seed companies specializing in energy crops. He also said they try to look to the long term.
“That’s been one of the big revelations in the industry in the last year or so, is that as these technologies developed, the companies didn’t think about where massive quantities of feedstock would come from.” His company finds the solutions that bridge that gap between what was a concept for a biofuel to what is needed to produce it at commercial scale. Plus, Bob said they are focused on U.S. operations.
Listen to more of Joanna’s interview with Bob here: Bob Randle, VP Sales and Marketing for Genera Energy
POET-DSM Cellulosic Ethanol Plant Ready in ’14
The POET-DSM Advanced Biofuels’ first commercial cellulosic ethanol plant is on track to start in 2014. The announcement for the plant was made at the recent Fuel Ethanol Workshop (FEW) in St. Louis, Mo., where Wade Roby from POET took part in a panel discussion.
Steve Hartig, General Manager for POET-DSM, talked with Joanna and said Project LIBERTY, currently under construction and co-located with POET’s grain ethanol plant in Emmetsburg, Iowa, will turn bales of corn cobs, leaves, husks and some stalk into 20 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol each year, with plans to move that amount up to 25 million gallons.
“We’re in the middle of construction, so we have a lot of the concrete done, the large biomass building, a lot of the tanks for the fermentation are up and running, and basically we’re on schedule to start up end of first quarter, second quarter next year,” Steve said.
He said they’ve been working with the local farmers over the past five years on how to collect and bring in the corn stover biomass, bringing in 70,000 tons last year and expecting to bring in 120,000 tons this year and up to 250,000 tons next year. Steve points out that the biomass can be stored out in the weather for at least a year, and he defends against criticisms that they are taking valuable nutrients off the field.
“The fields with the high productivity, high-yield corn crops, you have about five tons of stover per acre that’s left on the field after the harvest. We’re taking about one ton of that,” and citing their work with Iowa State University, he said that taking some stover off the field is actually good for it. “If we can take a bit more we will, but we’ll do it slow, steady and in a conservative way, working closely with the farmers and local universities.”
Steve said they’re building this plant together with DSM, and that’s the model they’re carrying forward – taking the technology to other companies and partnering with existing facilities, especially corn ethanol plants, and he believes they could even take the technology internationally.
Finally, he concluded that they have learned a lot building this plant and look forward to their next project going up next year. And they’re sticking with cellulosic ethanol.
“Cellulosic ethanol is real. It’s been called the ‘fictional fuel,’ [but] big companies like ours are putting a lot of commitment to it.”
Listen to more of Joanna’s interview with Steve here: Steve Hartig, General Manager for POET-DSM
We Need to Act Now
“Americans are already paying the price of inaction,” said President Obama today during his speech on climate change at Georgetown University. After using the “facts of science” 
to prove that climate change is real, he asked, “So the question now is will we have the courage to act now before it’s too late. We need to act. “I refuse to condemn your generation and future generations to a planet that’s beyond fixable. And that’s why today I’m announcing a new national climate action plan and I’m here to enlist your generation’s help.”
In anticipation of his plan, groups from around the country reacted to his new climate plan. Graham Richard, CEO of Advanced Energy Economy (AEE) said, “As a business voice for technology-driven energy progress, AEE believes that President Obama’s plan moves the United States toward a smarter energy future, for economic as well as environmental benefits.”
“Energy efficiency standards will save money as well as energy,” Richard continued. “Utilizing public lands for their solar and wind resources follows in the footsteps of mineral resources and forestry products and should be pursued in the interest of national prosperity. New regulations on emissions will accelerate the replacement of outmoded power plants with high efficiency and low emitting technologies. All of these steps will make the U.S. more of a leader in advanced energy, which is a $1 trillion global market opportunity for American companies and American workers.”Read More
DuPont Exec Talks Food and Fuel
Food security was the topic for an address last week to the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association (IFAMA) World Forum by DuPont Executive Vice President Jim Borel.
“We need a new generation of food visionaries who can see the tremendous opportunity made possible by the simple fact that people have to eat,” Borel told the group of more than 450 attendees during his address.
The DuPont executive talked about the need for local solutions, information transfer, sustainability in a broad sense, and collaboration. His best quote was about technology. “There’s more technology in a kernel of seed corn than there is in an iPhone,” and even more than that, there’s more hope to feed the world.
After his talk, I had a chance to interview Mr. Borel and I asked him about one issue that he did not touch on during his address – how agriculture can produce both food and fuel and how biofuels have been blamed for food shortages in the world. “This is an important debate,” he said. “First of all, food security and energy security and sustainability are both important issues and each country and government need to come up with the policies and approaches that work best for them.”
Borel believes that at this point, grain-based ethanol production has pretty much reached a peak in the United States. “I think the growth in biofuels production is largely going to be coming from cellulosic sources,” he said. “Our activity in DuPont through our industrial biosciences business is we’re working on enzymes that can help the grain ethanol producers be even more efficient at getting more ethanol out of every bushel of corn.”
He adds that they are working on the next generation of biofuels. “We just broke ground last fall on a commercial scale demonstration facility in Iowa … to take corn stover and convert is to ethanol,” said Borel. “It’s using an agricultural waste to produce something of real value.”
Interview with DuPont Exec Jim BorelWindMade Launches New Product Label
WindMade has launched the first global consumer label for products made with wind energy. This label completes the WindMade label portfolio. In tandem with the launch, the organization is calling on consumers to show their support for wind power by participating in the ‘Show You Care‘ campaign. The goal of the campaign is to demonstrate to leading brands that consumers around the world favor products that are manufactured with renewable energy.
In a 2012 global consumer study sponsored by Vestas, 73 percent of consumers globally would have a more positive perception of a brand if it used wind power as their primary energy source.
“The WindMade product label provides consumers with the transparency they demand, and with a credible and intuitive tool to make informed purchasing decisions,” said Henrik Kuffner, WindMade’s CEO. “And in addition, it gives companies an instrument to tap into this large pool of environmentally conscious consumers.”
The WindMade Product Label can be applied to all products using a minimum share of 75 percent of renewable energy in their total electricity consumption, with wind power representing the largest share. A cradle-to-gate approach was adopted, which means that the label will cover the entire power consumption for all product components, from the extraction of the raw materials all the way to the product leaving the factory gate.
“Now it is time for consumers to speak out. We know that they care, and we know that they want to see more companies using wind power. With our campaign, we invite them to actively show their support, and to put pressure on their favourite brands to use this clean, emissions-free energy source for manufacturing our most beloved products,” added Angelika Pullen, WindMade’s Communications Director, who is managing the campaign.
Hanery Releases Global Energy Report
Hanery Holding Group, a thin-film PV company, has issued its first annual Global Renewable Energy Report. The report provides a comprehensive overview of the renewable energy landscape, outlining patterns and trends in the industry and exploring effective measures to cope with climate change.
Hanery says the report clearly demonstrates the increasing role that new energy is playing within the world’s energy structure, with global investment in renewables reaching an impressive $268.7 billion in 2012. In spite of the global downturn in economic growth since 2008, investment in renewable energy increased at a compound annual growth rate of 19 percent between 2006 and 2012.
“Our research is showing that renewable energy, far from being a supplementary option, is already starting to become a genuine replacement for more traditional forms of energy across the globe, “said Hejun Li, chairman and CEO of Hanergy. “We estimate that by 2035, half the world’s energy will be generated from renewable sources.”
China was a clear leader in investments in 2012 totaling $67.7 billion, equal to 25 percent of total global investment. A large portion of China’s investment went to the photovoltaic (PV) industry where, in spite of EU and U.S. anti-dumping measures, companies with core technologies continued to prosper.
Elsewhere, developed economies continued to commit to investment to renewable energy resources. German, Italy and Japan have pledged to phase-out nuclear energy, and Japan invested 75 percent more in renewables in 2012 than in the 2011. Overall, Hanery says the report demonstrates that while huge challenges remain, a future with renewable energy at its core is well within sight.
RIN Amounts Indicate Positive Trend for Biodiesel
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) figures for Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) shows in 2.5 billion 2012 RINs across the biodiesel (D4), advanced (D5), and renewable (D6) categories. Of this total, just over 2 billion D6 RINs were available. This analysis from Nick Paulson with the University of Illinois says it could indicate a trend that is good news for the biodiesel industry:
Current levels of available 2012 RIN stocks have not changed significantly over the past few months. However, 2013 RIN generation across the D4, D5, and D6 categories implies that these stock levels could be significantly reduced in 2013. This will provide lower RIN carryover into 2014 when mandate levels continue to rise and physical blending constraints tighten further due to the E10 blend wall. This will force increased blending of biodiesel (see here for more info), which does not face the blend wall, or increased use of higher ethanol blend rates such as E15 or E85 (see here for more info).
The analysis goes on to point out that an expected 12.3 billion D6 RINs will be generated in 2013, falling 1.5 billion gallons short of the renewable component of the RFS mandate for 2013 (13.8 billion gallons). And that’s the point the article makes in that biodiesel has an easier job making up those RIN shortages.