Domestic Fuel

Pacific Gas and Electric Company is embracing wind power with mucho gusto. The electric company has committed to a long-term power purchase agreement with enXco, purchasing 150 megawatts of wind energy through enXco’s Shiloh II project. This latest agreement bumps up PG&E’s contracted and delivered wind energy to 1,061 MW and will deliver about 510 GWh of wind energy to customers in northern and central California each year.

“Wind energy is one of many renewable sources PG&E is seeking as we increase the amount of clean energy provided to our customers,” said Fong Wan, vice president of Energy Procurement for PG&E. “Our 150 MW agreement with enXco is an important step towards PG&E exceeding 20 percent renewable electric power under contract or delivered by 2010.”

Located in Solano County, California, Shiloh II will be developed, constructed and operated by enXco, an affiliate of EdF Energies Nouvelles. Shiloh II will begin delivering renewable energy in December 2008.

Currently, 12 percent of the energy PG&E supplies qualifies as energy from renewable resources under California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) program. The electric company says it’s on track to exceed 20 percent of renewable electric power resources under contract or delivered by 2010.

A new coalition that supports increased use of domestically produced renewable fuels says nearly three out of four Americans want renewable fuels.

According to a new national poll released today by the Renewable Fuels Now Coalition, 74 percent of Americans believe we should increase our use of domestically produced renewable fuels like ethanol.

In addition, 87 percent of Americans maintain the federal government should actively support the development of a renewable fuels industry in this country, and 77 percent think Congress should encourage oil refiners to blend more ethanol into their gasoline products.

Renewable Fuels Now is a coalition representing the ethanol, biodiesel, agriculture and other industries that support increased use of domestically produced renewable fuels as part of a balanced energy policy for America. The Coalition’s members include the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE), the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC), National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), 20/20 Vision, Wisconsin BioIndustry Alliance, Ethanol Producers and Consumers (EPAC), Kansas Association of Ethanol, Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, IndyCar Series, Buckeye Renewable Fuels Association, Ohio Corn Growers Association, Clean Fuels Development Coalition, and Northwest Renewable Fuels Association.

Growers of soybeans are pointing out that the process used to extract oil to make into biodiesel does not change the feed quality of soybean meal.

The Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council is reminding livestock producers they don’t have to cut out soybean meal just because the demand for soybeans has increased:

Crushing soybeans for biodiesel does not change the meal consistency. When soybeans are processed for biofuels, they go through the same extraction process as they do when they’re crushed to extract oil for other purposes. Extracting the oil from a soybean leaves the soybean meal as a high protein feedstock. This soybean meal remains relatively consistent for livestock and poultry producers whose operations consume more than 98 percent of the domestic soybean meal used in the United States.

“As a soybean farmer, the boost in biodiesel production is really exciting,” says Todd Gibson from Norborne, Mo., who serves as chairman of the Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council (MSMC). “The soybean checkoff has been working hard to make biodiesel a viable fuel source. We also realize the concerns of our animal production neighbors about what biofuels may do to the cost and quality of their feed supplies. For us, biodiesel represents a win-win situation. We have a greater demand for soybean oil, and we have a large amount of high-quality, consistent soybean meal to supply to the feed industry, our number one customer of soybean meal.”

Smiling Earth Energy, the company that is proposing to build a 320-million-gallon biodiesel plant along the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, is being sued by an Oregon biodiesel company for failing to provide the promised $310 million in financing for a West Coast biodiesel plant… and then refusing to return a $100,000 deposit to the Oregon company.

This story in the Virginian-Pilot says TerraFuels Inc. is claiming Smiling Earth reneged on an agreement to provide a loan for 85 percent of the capital costs needed to build a plant in Oregon and did not secure an agreement for the palm Oil TerraFuels was suppose to use as the biodiesel feedstock:

Tracy Livingston, TerraFuels’ president, said Thursday he has repeatedly tried to recover the $100,000 given to Smiling Earth, but the company wouldn’t give him the names of the suppliers that were allegedly paid.

“I’m out $100,000,” Livingston said. “That makes me very unhappy. I’d like to get my money back.”

Bernie Mock, Smiling Earth’s top executive, did not return a reporter’s phone call Thursday, but he sent an e-mail about the $100,000 early Friday.

“TerraFuels signed a contract and made a deposit for SE-Energy to build them a plant,” Mock wrote. “The deposit became nonrefundable past a certain date. That date has passed.”

The news comes as the only Smiling Earth official who has experience running a biodiesel plant for an undisclosed reason. The Chesapeake City Council recently voted to let the project go forward, despite some misgivings about Smiling Earth’s background. The latest revelation prompted the mayor to call the lawsuit serious but would not comment until he got more information.

A new poll indicates that Americans are better informed about the various factors affecting food price increases than one might think.

The poll, commissioned by the Renewable Fuels Association, found that 46 percent of Americans believe rising oil prices is the number one cause of increasing food costs, followed by 15 percent citing increasing global demand. By contrast, just 7 percent of respondents believe increased ethanol production is the most important cause.

The poll, which was conducted by The Mellman Group, asked respondents to choose which factor had the greatest and the second greatest impact on food prices from a menu of choices. Among those choices were higher oil prices, increased global demand for food, poor weather conditions affecting crop production, food companies raising prices to increase profits, and increased ethanol production.

Only 16 percent of those polled cited ethanol production as either first or second in order of importance when it came to impacting the price of food. In contrast, an Internet poll released today and sponsored by food processing giant Hormel claims that “when prompted,” 60 percent of Americans blame ethanol for the increase in consumer food prices.

Renewable Fuels Association President Bob Dinneen said, “Considering that 81 percent of every food dollar spent pays for the processing, packaging, transporting and marketing of food items, it’s painfully clear these energy-intensive activities are the root cause of higher food prices.”

The Mellman poll, conducted October 23-25, surveyed 1000 adults with a margin of error of +/- 3.1%.

A heat-loving bacteria discovered in Yellowstone Park has potential for the ethanol industry.

According to an article in the Jackson Hole News, Scientists found the bacteria, called Candidatus Chloracidobacterium termophilum, in Octopus and Mushroom springs and the Green Finger Pool, not far from Old Faithful. The bacterium grows best in temperatures between 120 and 150 degrees Fahrenheit and could help researchers drastically increase production of biofuels, according to Don Bryant, a professor of biotechnology, biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State University.

Since his initial discovery, Bryant has gathered evidence that suggests Chloracidobacterium termophilum is aerobic, or breathes oxygen (another anomaly for a photosynthetic bacteria), and doesn’t take carbon from the atmosphere to increase its cell size and reproduce. Instead, Chloracidobacterium termophilum likely gets its carbon from the waste of other bacteria.

By removing waste products, Chloracidobacterium termophilum probably helps other bacteria grow much faster, a prospect that could lead to practical applications. Scientists are currently growing bacterial mats that they ferment to make ethanol. A bacteria that could double the production of biomass for ethanol production could be commercially valuable, Bryant said.

A note in the Winston-Salem Journal’s “NASCAR Notebook” this week once again brings up the GM push to get ethanol in the race.

Brent Dewar, GM vice president in charge of racing, said “We are guests at this party. But we’re also a partner, and we think this would be the right signal to send to America. We have to reduce our (foreign) dependency.

“We know they have a fuel partner (Sunoco), and we’re respectful of that. We’re hoping that when the time comes for a discussion of the fuel we can talk about that. What we have to do now is show them some of the technical learnings we’ve had with ethanol in other series.”

A second ethanol plant is in the planning stages for Pennsylvania.

According to the Times-Tribune, the Wayne/Pike County Farm Bureau has secured an option on 90 acres in Texas Township for a $161 million ethanol plant.

Still in its formative stages, the locally-based Indian Orchard Energy Corp. would be the facility’s shareholders, likely giving 20 to 30 percent of the shares to the nonprofit Wayne County Farmers’ Foundation, which will be the plant’s board management.

This would be the area’s second ethanol plant. Northeast Ethanol and Renewable Resources Ltd. has proposed a $150 million facility, to be located on a brownfield site on Lackawanna Avenue in Mayfield.

A South Dakota congressional representative supports increasing the Renewable Fuels Standard in the energy bill and fires back at critics of ethanol.

According to an article in the Daily Republic, U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin says opponents of the biofuel industry are using “misguided and inaccurate” claims in an attempt to derail the growth of renewable fuels.

While discussing her hopes for the pending energy bill, Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., this week said “traditional opponents of biofuels have once again set their sights on the renewable fuels industry.”

“… They are using misguided and inaccurate arguments in an attempt to derail aggressive provisions for the future of home-grown renewable fuels like ethanol,” Herseth Sandlin said.

Herseth Sandlin supports raising the RFS to 36 billion gallons by 2022.

The United States and the European Union… at odds over some biodiesel issues… are expected to sign a deal that would set international standards for trading biofuels, which senior U.S.diplomats say will give a boost to jatropha-based biodiesel in the world market.

As you might remember from a previous post of mine on October 24th, the EU is threatening a World Trade Organization complaint over American subsidies on biodiesel ($1-a-gallon biodiesel mixture credit) that the Europeans claim artificially reducing the price of biodiesel sold in Europe by about 60-90 cents a gallon… compared to what European biodiesel goes for. But this article in the UK-based Guardian says now the Americans and Europeans seem to be agreeing on some international standards to be hashed out at the new Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC) in Washington on November 9:

The agreement would be a significant boost to efforts by biodiesel producers such as D1, chaired by former Shell chairman Lord Oxburgh and partnered by BP, to refine thousands of tonnes of oil produced from the seeds of the jatropha curcas grown in poor, dry soil in Africa and the Caribbean as well as India.

Last month D1 cut back its expansion plans, including an increase in refining capacity at a Merseyside plant to 320,000 tonnes by the end of 2008, because of subsidised imports of soya-based biodiesels from the US. The European Biodiesel Board, a trade group of EU producers, has threatened legal action over the $1 a gallon subsidies for biodiesel. US exports to the EU have soared from 90,000 tonnes in 2006 to 700,000 tonnes so far this year. The EU has set a target of 10% use of biofuels by 2020 as part of its campaign to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20%. [C Boyden Gray, US ambassador to the EU] accused the EU in turn of precluding other feedstocks for biofuel in favour of rapeseed oil – prompted, he claimed, by the German farming lobby.

The plan is also seen as a response to environmental concerns of the Europeans using palm oil (which causes deforestation) and the Americans producing ethanol from corn.

Folks in the wind power business, or who want to be in the wind power business, are invited to a tutorial November 28th-30th at the Derek Hotel in Houston, Texas to give them a leg up in an industry that is experiencing a 25 percent annual growth curve.

Put on by Infocast, Inc. (a educational conference organizer), sponsored by several law firms, and featuring speakers from the renewable energy and finance industries, the three-day seminar will talk about how to take advantage of looming environmental regulations and increasing desire for green energy sources, in particular, wind energy. This web site has more information:

What does it really take to bring a wind farm successfully to market? What can the numbers look like, and what kinds of business models and financing vehicles will be best suited to your unique needs?

* Understand business models, RECS, RPS and Production Tax Credits
* Learn the fundamentals that will help you validate and strengthen your wind farm plans
* Learn how pro formas work for a typical 100mw project
* Position projects for long-term success as an owner, and get the maximum valuation of your project in a merger or buyout

The Infocast, Inc. web site has registration information.

Just five stops remain for the National Clean Air Green Tour. Covering over 50,000 miles in five months, the tour has been promoting green practices and has participated in the United Nations Billion Tree Campaign and the Adopt-a-Highway Programs along the way.

The last five stops will be made in Evans, GA on October 30th; Lexington, SC on October 31st; Mount Pleasant, SC on November 2nd; Savannah, GA on November 3rd and Jacksonville, FL on November 4th.

The first-ever International Distillers Grains Conference in Illinois earlier this week attracted nearly 600 participants, including 144 international importers and leaders in agriculture.

The conference, sponsored by theU.S. Grains Council, offered participants the opportunity to acquire information pertaining to U.S. distiller’s dried grains (DDG), including inclusion rates, quality assurance, transportation issues and an introduction to U.S. DDG exporters. At the same time, U.S. DDG exporters and interested parties heard from global DDG buyers regarding personal experiences with the ethanol co-products as well concerns.

“This unique conference was an outstanding opportunity for sellers and buyers to talk face-to-face about feeding and purchasing U.S. distiller’s grains,” said Ken Hobbie, USGC president and CEO. “Questions were answered, concerns were addressed, and export potential was strengthened. The ‘rock star’ sponsors of this event were the Iowa Corn Promotion Board, South Dakota Corn Utilization Council and with additional support from the Nebraska Corn Board. These top ethanol producing states reinforced to farmers there commitment to increasing demand for U.S. feed grains, both domestically and across our borders.”

Alternative energy enthusiasts looking to see some renewable fuels in action can now access a vast array of demonstrations online. GreenEnergyTV.com describes itself as an Online Television Channel that allows millions of viewers worldwide to get plugged in to what’s going on with alternative energy.

Though having been launched only in January 2007, Green Energy TV now has viewers from 104 countries and 6 continents going to www.greenenergytv.com (Source: Google Analytics as of 10/07).

Videos we air include: Solar Energy, Wind Power, Hydro Power, Hydrogen, Fuels, Geothermal, Wave/Tidal Energy, Energy Conservation, Recycling, Hybrid vehicles, Organic, Green Building, Recycling, and more.

When it finally opens, Alliant Energy’s first owned-and-operated wind farm should be quite a sight to see as 41 turbines generate green power on 12-square-mile area of Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin.

According to a company press release, it will produce enough energy to power at least 17,000 homes:

“This is an important day for Alliant Energy and our customers as we continue to strive to meet the increasing demand for “green” energy,” said Bill Harvey, President and Chief Executive Officer for Alliant Energy.

“Today’s groundbreaking is a step forward in Governor Doyle’s efforts to move Wisconsin into a position to be a leader in alternative energy and to get a handle on global climate change,” said Matt Frank, secretary of Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources.

The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2008.