ECC Renewables Awarded Gov Geothermal Contract

Joanna Schroeder

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Engineering and Support Center has awarded five contractors for the development of geothermal energy for a total $7 billion joint total. ECC Renewables LLC was one of the five companies awarded a contract.

Under the 10-year contract, ECC will compete for projects to develop, construct, finance, own, and operate geothermal energy projects on Department of Defense installations US Army Core of Engineers logolocated throughout the U.S. under long-term (20+ year) power purchase agreements using private sector financing. Geothermal technologies utilize the internal heat of the earth as a power source, including ground source heat pump systems and deep well geothermal systems.

“We see an increase in demands and Congressional mandates placed on Federal agencies and all branches of the U.S. military to implement renewable and alternative energy solutions for the future,” said Paul Sabharwal, ECC Chairman of the Board. “ECC is proud to utilize this contract to help the U.S. Army come one step closer to meeting those goals.”

Sabharwal continued, “ECC is ideally suited to pursue these types of contracts. We have the right mix of development, financing, engineering, and construction resources, capabilities, and experience, combined with the passion, leadership, and trusted partnering approach needed to succeed.”

This award marks the first of four renewable and alternative energy technologies being awarded this year under the $7 billion MATOC program.  Awards for solar, wind, and biomass technologies will be awarded through the end of 2013.

Geothermal, Renewable Energy

The Coal vs Clean Energy Show

Joanna Schroeder

The Sierra Club has released a new video series of short, animated sketches that highlight a different health or environmental impact from coal – “The Coal vs Clean Energy Show.” The videos are also accompanied by a web-based game featuring the same characters, which viewers can play as they try to wrack up the highest score. Additional videos in the series will be released in the coming months.

“Just like the coal character in The Coal vs Clean Energy Show, the coal industry continues to turn a blind eye to the dangerous health and environmental effects of mining and burning coal,” said Mary Anne Hitt, director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign. “We hope this series helps to educate viewers on the dangers of coal and the benefits of clean energy, in a fun and engaging way.”

Clean Energy, Climate Change, Environment, Video

Genscape Monitoring Empowers Wind Generators

John Davis

Genscape LogoA company that monitors the output of power plants says its product can also help wind farms optimize their operations. Genscape’s technology of using electro-magnetic frequency monitors allows it to see how much power is flowing through power lines and from plants. The company’s managing director of power intelligence Chris Seiple says they then make that information available to traders and other market participants to give real-time transparency to what is going on within the power market. He says information like that can especially help wind power generation operations because of the wind power’s unpredictability.

“Wind variation, because it’s unpredictable, can have a very big influence on the volatility of the power market that day,” Chris says, adding that once a wind farm is built, the information really comes in handy for those farm owners optimizing their operation. Now, wind farm owners have to decide every day whether they will sell tomorrow’s power at today’s price, but not know the output, or wait until tomorrow and sell at tomorrow’s price, but not know what that price would be. Either choice involves risk, but Chris says their technology offers predictions of wind output levels and pricing. “That can be used to help wind producers make better decisions about how to schedule that power into the market.”

He says bringing more transparency into the market also helps consumers by making wind energy producers more efficient and able to pass that efficiency and reliability to the customer.

And he believes Genscape allows the whole energy sector, including renewables, work together better for the good of all.

“What we do in providing a lot more visibility in what’s happening in the market minute-to-minute and providing that transparency improves the reliability of the system.”

Listen to Joanna’s interview with Chris here: Chris Seiple, Genscape

Audio, Wind

Renewable Energy Roadmap for Central America

Joanna Schroeder

According to a new report, The Way Forward for Renewable Energy in Central America,  authored by the Worldwatch Institute, Central America is far from harvesting its enormous renewable energy resources to their fullest potential. The region is a worldwide leader in hydropower and geothermal and is developing wind energy, yet has room to expand.

Renewable Energy in Central America“Central America is at a crossroads,” said Alexander Ochs, Director of Climate and Energy at Worldwatch and co-author of the study. “As the economies of Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama expand, regional use of fossil fuels is growing quickly while the use of traditional fuel wood, primarily for cooking, remains unsustainably high.”

Ochs continued, “These developments come with significant health, societal and economic costs, including rising greenhouse gas emissions and worsening air and water pollution. Central America has the potential to meet 100 percent of its electricity needs with sustainable renewable energy, but the proper policies and measures need to be put in place now.”

The report assesses the status of renewable energy technologies in Central America and analyzes the conditions for their advancement in the future. It identifies important knowledge and information gaps, evaluates key finance and policy barriers, and makes suggestions for how to overcome both. The study serves as a “roadmap of a roadmap,” scoping the improvements needed to facilitate the transition to a sustainable energy system and establishing the necessary methodology and groundwork for comprehensive regional and national energy strategies.

The reports focuses on four “high-impact” areas for transitioning Central America’s energy systems:Read More

Environment, Geothermal, Hydro, International, Renewable Energy

City of Santa Clara Adds Solar to Energy Mix

Joanna Schroeder

The City of Santa Clara is aiming to become more sustainable and has set a goal of installing 30 megawatts of customer-installed solar power by 2017. With a grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) several projects included solar power including a new solar project at Henry Schmidt Park. Vista Solar, who managed the project, selected SunPower solar panels for the rooftop project.

gI_128741_DSC_9581 copyIn one week, Vista Solar finished the project on-time and on-budget. “Working with Vista Solar went really smoothly. We had great communication from Vista Solar, and we are really happy with our solar system,” said Mary Medeiros McEnroe, Public Benefit Program Manager for the City of Santa Clara.

Henry Schmidt Park’s lighting, internal electric baseboard heating, and other electrical appliances are now being powered by solar energy. The City of Santa Clara is turning to Vista Solar again for a 125 kW solar system at the Jenny Strand Solar Research and Development Park.

Electricity, Energy, Renewable Energy, Solar

BioEnergy Bytes

Joanna Schroeder

  • BioEnergyBytesDFGreen EnviroTech Holdings Corp. has announced the formation of its strategic advisory board and the appointment of Pascal Mahvi to the board. Mahvi will be assisting in the formation and execution of international Joint Ventures and Strategic Alliances.
  • IKEA has announced plans to increase the solar array atop its Denver-area store located in Centennial, CO. Once complete, the project will become the state’s largest rooftop array of any use. The 83,700-square-foot solar addition will consist of a 623-kW system, built with 2,492 panels, and will produce 961,000 kWh of electricity annually for the store. Including the existing system, IKEA Centennial’s total 1,121-kW solar installation of 4,704 panels soon will generate 1,701,000 kWh of clean electricity each year.
  • Jeremy Sainsbury, Director of international renewable energy consultancy Natural Power, is among those who have been recognized in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list. Sainsbury will receive an OBE for services to renewable energy and to the community.
  • Verenium Corporation has announced it has named enzyme industry veteran Brian Carter to the new position of Vice President of Grain Processing.
  • AGRION, a global network for energy, cleantech and sustainability, has launched an Energy Storage Initiative. The program works with utility companies to help accelerate the application and implementation of storage technologies onto the grid.
Bioenergy Bytes

Biodiesel Keeps U.S. Tallow at Home

John Davis

Livestock eating DDGs Photo CHS IncThe world is seeing less of American tallow as biodiesel makers turn more of the animal grease into the green fuel. This article from Bloomberg says U.S. tallow exports are expected to fall nearly 4 percent because the biodiesel market is squeezing the supply and keeping the price up:

Tallow shipments from the U.S. may decline to 680,000 metric tons in 2013 from 706,000 tons last year, the Hamburg-based industry researcher wrote in an e-mailed report. They’ve dropped from a record 1.32 million tons in 1998, Oil World said.

Tallow is a by-product of beef production, meaning supply is not price sensitive, according to the report. Use of the fat to make biodiesel jumped 60 percent in the past two years, requiring demand rationing in chemistry and for edible purposes.

“Virtually stagnating world supplies and the increasing consumption from the biodiesel industry have considerably squeezed supplies available for other consumers,” Oil World said. “We expect this trend to continue in 2014, keeping tallow prices well supported.”

Around the world, biodiesel is credited with helping push up tallow use to 1.6 million tons last year from 1 million tons in 2010.

Biodiesel, International, livestock

Former EPA Official Joins Biodiesel Board DC Office

John Davis

nbb-logoA new face will oversee the National Biodiesel Board’s regulatory affairs in Washington, D.C. The NBB has hired Lindsay Fitzgerald, who comes from the EPA, where she served as a specialist in the Office of Transportation and Air Quality working on the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS):

“We are excited to hire someone of Lindsay’s skills and experience and to be expanding our office to better meet the needs of our growing industry,” said Anne Steckel, NBB’s vice president of federal affairs. “Biodiesel is already a great RFS success story, and adding Lindsay to our team will only build on that success.”

“Her extensive knowledge of the RFS will be a tremendous benefit to our industry and to our members as they navigate the program,” Steckel added. “We look forward to working with EPA to ensure that advanced biofuels and the RFS continue meeting our goals of increasing U.S. energy security, strengthening the economy and reducing emissions.”

Fitzgerald has previous experience as a research analyst and legal assistant and graduated Indiana University in Pennsylvania.

Biodiesel, Government, NBB

A New Twist to an Old Story

Joanna Schroeder

The ethanol industry is no stranger to controversy. As Bob Dinneen, CEO and president of the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) pointed out during a recent panel discussion on policy issues at the Fuel Ethanol Workshop (FEW), the industry has been in a battle for decades.

In a recent conversation I had with Dinneen, he noted that a lot of issues the ethanol industry faces are issues they have faced for decades. “Food versus fuel, nothing new there. We’ve been hearing it for a long time. Energy balance, nothing new. We’ve been hearing it for a long time,” said Dinneen.

FEW13-rfa-dinneen“The one new twist that you have on the Hill is that the RFS (Renewable Fuel Standard) itself is an anachronism today because we’re producing more oil domestically. We’ve found this nirvana in North Dakota where we get all these tight oil supplies. And so since we’re getting all this oil from North Dakota, we should stop producing ethanol from South Dakota. Well, I don’t really think so.”

Dinneen explained that members of Congress are interested in the industry’s arguments about the impact on the consumer because all that North Dakota oil isn’t helping to reduce the price of oil because those facilities, that production is not going to pencil out at ninety dollars a barrel.

“You need a high oil price to encourage those investments to continue,” explained Dinneen. “So the only relief that consumers are going to have is if we continue to add supply with domestic renewable fuels that pencil out a lot lower than that.”

Why the new twist to an old story now? Listen to my interview with Bob here to find out: A New Twist to an Old Story

Visit the 2013 FEW Photo Album.

Audio, Ethanol, FEW, RFA, RFS

Gevo Resumes Isobutanol Production

Joanna Schroeder

Gevo has resumed Isobutanol production at its plant in Luverne, Minnesota with the shipment of a single train mode. The fuel was successfully produced using the its Gevo Integrated Fermentation Technology (GIFT).

“I am pleased to report that we have been successful in operating our full-scale fermentation and our GIFT® separation system that separates the isobutanol from the gevo logofermentation broth. This serves to further validate our technology as we had not previously run the GIFT® system at full scale. I can now say that it runs beautifully,” said Patrick Gruber, Gevo’s Chief Executive Officer.

Gruber continued, “As you may recall, we had some microbial contamination in our plant that we have since learned to control and manage. The fixes included changing the fermentation conditions and related operating parameters, making equipment modifications to improve sanitization, and, most importantly, improving our operating discipline—the procedures we use at the plant.”

“We plan to be producing isobutanol and operating throughout the rest of this year,” Gruber added. “While we are currently operating a single production train, we plan on bringing all of our fermenters and GIFT systems online in the third and fourth quarters, testing run rates, then ramping up production and sales in 2013 and 2014.”

Gevo will sell the isobutanol it produces, to the specialty chemicals market, the specialty oxygenated fuel blendstock market, and as a building block to make jet fuel and chemical products such as paraxylene for PET used in the production of bottles and fibers.

advanced biofuels, biobutanol