ACE Conference 2026

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

EPA Set for Action

Joanna Schroeder

During the Fuel Ethanol Workshop (FEW), Executive Vice President for the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) Brian Jennings sat on a panel with other ethanol industry leaders to discuss key policy issues in Washington, D.C. However, in a follow-up to the discussion, Jennings said the real action is taking place on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

EPA is set to release the final 2013 RFS volumes. And this is important, said Jennings, to make sure the cellulose numbers are high enough to incent some of the production. At FEW13-ace-jenningsvirtually the same time, the EPA will propose the 2014 RFS volumes, or numbers.

“What’s really important here, is that in the past EPA has reduced cellulose but have assumed that other advanced biofuels, sugarcane ethanol from Brazil, domestic advanced, biodiesel, can make up the difference when they reduce cellulose.” Next year the cellulose number is so high, 1.75 billion, that they’re going to have to reduce it such that there probably isn’t sufficient advanced biofuels to make up the difference, explained Jennings.

“So we could be looking for the very first time in 2014 with changes across the board of the RFS from EPA not Congress.” Jennings added that ACE is trying to get their arms around how they want to tackle this with EPA.

Jennings also discussed the farm bill and the Energy and Commence Committee Renewable Fuel Standard (RFA) white papers. He believes hearings may take place in July but is not sure if ACE or any other association will be invited to participate in the hearings. But, he stressed, ACE will be active in the debate.

Listen to my interview with Brian here: EPA Set for Action

Visit the 2013 FEW Photo Album.

ACE, Audio, Ethanol, FEW, RFS

Motorcycles & E15

Joanna Schroeder

The American Motorcycle Association (AMA) is hosting an event for motorcycle riders to come to Washington, D.C. and lobby on Capitol Hill. They want to stop E15 from being sold until testing has been done on motorcycles to see if harm or damage will occur.

sturgis Photo RussBrown.comIn response, the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) held a press call to discuss motorcycles and E15. On the call were Robert White director of market development for RFA and Harley Davidson owner, as well as engine experts Bobby Likis and Bryan O’Neill.

All the participants stressed during the call that since the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved E15, it has never been approved for motorcycles – only E10 has been approved for motorcycles. The message back to AMA and all motorcycle riders, said White, “…is to not use the fuel. In fact, it would be illegal, and will remain illegal no matter what any testing would confirm.”

The big question – Why E15? “I think we need to look not further then the event sponsor, the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, known as our nation’s oil refiners,” said White. He also noted that the RFA has taken concerns of AMA and others seriously when it comes to E15.

In addition to the call, RFA also released a fact sheet specifically for motorcycle owners answering common questions about E15 (85 percent gasoline/15 percent ethanol) and motorcycle engines. The document entitled “E15 and the Motorcycle Industry” makes it clear that E15 is illegal to put into a motorcycle engine, but E10 is approved for use.

Listen to the full press call here: Motorcycles & E15

Audio, biofuels, E15, Ethanol, RFA

New Mexico Students Learn with Solar

Joanna Schroeder

Thousands of students in Rio Rancho, New Mexico will now be learning with solar power. Conergy is currently installing two solar power plants on the campuses of V. Sue Cleveland and Rio Rancho High Schools. The solar Conergy reference project_Boron High School California USAinstallations will total 1.2 megawatts (MW). The public schools will be using the power produced by the sun, via a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Washington Gas Energy Systems.

“We are very proud that our two high schools will be supplied with renewable power and that we will be making a valuable contribution to sustainability in our community,” said Al Sena, responsible for building management at the Rio Rancho public schools. “This will allow our students to experience the benefits of clean power generation, first hand. With the solar installations, we cover about 80% of our total annual power requirements while cutting our electricity costs at the same time – without major upfront investment.”

The power plants consists of more than 8,200 solar modules installed on 4.7 kilometers of Conergy SolarLinea mounting systems. They will produce nearly 4.3 million kilowatt hours of energy each year. This is the same amount of energy as needed by 43,000 laptops running 8 hours a day for one year.

Anthony Fotopoulos, Managing Director of Conergy USA added. “In many regions of the USA, grid parity has been achieved for end consumers, and solar power is already considerably cheaper today than power from the grid. Local consumption via power purchase agreements is the future of the American electricity market.

“With this electricity market model, end consumers benefit from considerable electricity cost savings from the green power – without substantial upfront costs. In the sunshine state of California, for instance, around 70% of all solar plants on private homes are already financed by third parties today; in the case of commercial power plants, the figure is over 40% – and the trend is upwards,” Fotopoulos concluded.

Electricity, Energy, Renewable Energy, Solar