Domestic Fuel

A biodiesel-fueled boat that set the world record for circumnavigating the globe (see my post from June 27, 2008) has been sunk by a vessel accompanying Japanese whaling ships.

According to WCJB World News, the Earthrace (now owned by the environmental organization Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and renamed the Ady Gil), a 79-foot “batmobile-looking” trimaran, was sunk by Japanese sailors providing security to whalers during a confrontation in Australia’s territorial Antarctic waters:

The six men who on board were unhurt and have been rescued, said founder of the environmental organisation Sea Shepherd captain Paul Watson.

He said that this incident has the consequence of seriously escalating the situation between the Japanese whaling industry and environmentalists.

You can view the video below and decide for yourself who is at fault. But one thing that is not in dispute is that a great biodiesel boat now is at the bottom of the ocean.

Ben Franklin said, “Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.” That saying could apply to the latest dispute between some of the media and the National Biodiesel Board and biodiesel production levels for 2009.

While some major news outlets ran a story that put the number at 350 million gallons for the past year (a lot lower than the NBB or the Energy Information Administration estimates) and attributes the number to the NBB, the Board’s communications director Jessica Robinson tells Biodiesel Magazine that the number is quite a bit higher:

“The latest information we have (through the end of October) has put our estimates for the year at around 475 million gallons.”

What’s not in dispute is that 2009 was a bad year for biodiesel, with production levels dropping to pre-2007 levels. Let’s see if Congress can get the $1-a-gallon tax credit renewed and the new RFS2 done, and maybe that will get the green fuel back on track.

Biodiesel has a rough go of it lately, with tough economic conditions and then the inaction by Congress to renew the $1 per gallon biodiesel blenders tax credit taking its toll on the green fuel. It might be down, but it’s certainly not out, and the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA) has launched a media campaign within its home state designed to highlight the importance of biodiesel for Iowa’s economy and Iowa’s future.

This IRFA press release says the ads remind Iowans that committing to biodiesel will preserve today’s good jobs, spurring new jobs and investments in the future – all while cutting the country’s dependence on foreign oil:

“As it has been a tough time economically and legislatively for biodiesel producers, now is the time to rally support for biodiesel here in Iowa,” said IRFA Executive Director Monte Shaw. “Iowa’s biodiesel producers are on the cutting edge of technology that will revolutionize the biodiesel industry. We need to build consumer demand and to create a policy framework that gives biodiesel producers more certainty. By doing so, Iowans can make sure that the biorefinery jobs and innovations of the future will be right here in Iowa.”

In light of the loss of jobs because so many Iowa biodiesel plants have had to be idled with the loss of the tax incentive, the IRFA hopes the campaign will rally support for biodiesel at the state and federal level. With 15 biodiesel plants producing 322 million gallons of biodiesel a year and 39 ethanol refineries capable of producing nearly 3.3 billion gallons annually, Iowa is the leader in renewable fuels production.

You can hear the IRFA’s radio spot here.

During the Copenhagen Climate Conference, President Obama announced findings from the Environmental Protection Agency that the six major groups of greenhouse gas emissions are “an endangerment” to public health and welfare. This could lead to stricter emission regulations for vehicles, manufacturing and power plant emissions.

This also shines an even brighter light on low CO2 emitting technologies such as solar energy. Opportunities are ripe for policy makers to “get out of their own way” and help the industry grow by reducing the difficulties for projects including increased funding and smoother, reduced time for acquiring permits – especially now that the media are reporting that the “recession” has hit the solar industry.

Permit acquisition is one of the largest barriers to seeing solar utility projects come to fruition. Mike Nedd, Assistant Director – Minerals and Realty Management with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) notes that the BLM has received a large amount of proposed applications for renewable energy projects and have set in motion ways to respond to the applications in a timely manner.

“We have responded by partnering with the Department of Energy on the Solar PEIS, by working through the Federal budget cycle to fund Renewable Energy Coordination Offices and renewable energy related positions, and by developing a coordinated, focused effort to move projects through the environmental review and permitting process more quickly but without taking shortcuts,” said Nedd who will be a presenter at the upcoming Solar Power Generation USA conference in Las Vegas on January 20-21, 2010.

While the move to streamline the permitting process is needed, it shouldn’t happen to the detriment of the environment. Therefore, the solar industry and environmental organizations will need to forge stronger relationships to ensure solar energy sees the light of day.

The Alabama Clean Fuels Coalition, in cooperation with the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affaires – Energy Division will be holding an alternative fuels workshop to deliver factual information and outline the incentive opportunities available for propane, compressed natural gas and E85. The workshop will be held in Dothan, Alabama on March 17.

The Dothan Biofuels Workshop will offer insights from industry experts and leaders throughout the biofuels and alternative fuel industry. Hear discussions on timely topics such as: State & National and perspectives on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), Propane, biodiesel and ethanol; Alabama’s current and potential biofuel feed-stocks; Marketplace experiences from folks producing, selling and using biofuels and alternative fuels; Importance of fuel quality; Potential incentives & financial benefits available; The Facts vs. Myths about alternative fuels and more.

Fleet Managers, City and County Government representatives, Fuel Producers & Distributors, Fuel Retailers, Government Agencies, Colleges/Universities, School District Personnel, Consumers and others interested in becoming informed leaders in the emerging biofuels marketplace in Alabama are welcome to attend the workshop.

To register for the workshop, click here.

A water company in Nevada is proposing to build a solar farm that could be one of the biggest in the country.

The Reno Gazette-Journal reports that Vidler Water Co. wants to to build a 100-megawatt solar farm at its Fish Springs Ranch about 40 miles from Reno. Construction could start next year:

In Europe, a 1.8 million-megawatt farm is planned in the Czech Republic, using solar photovoltaic modules that concentrate the sun’s energy on a thin film surrounded by glass. Those panels are produced by Signet Solar of Meno Park, Calif.

Last summer, Pattalock said he showed Signet Solar officials possible sites for another manufacturing plant in the Stead area. “We have a lot of water to put to work, and we thought we can do something to jump-start industry,” he said.

Vidler bought the land about 10 years ago with hopes of developing it. However, the housing crash stalled those plans.

A leader in large-scale community wind project development is making the case that wind turbines on farmland would only take up 1 percent of the land but could double a farmer’s profitability.

In a piece e-mailed to Domestic Fuel, National Wind’s co-founder and co-chair Patrick Pelstring says wind energy doesn’t take up as much room as some people might think and would provide a steady second income without a lot of effort on the part of the landowner:

A rule of thumb regarding wind farm land use is that, while each turbine generally needs a plot of about 100 acres separating it from other turbines, the actual footprint of each turbine is less than one acre. This footprint includes the area surrounding the turbine and all access roads. Therefore, each turbine occupies less than 1% of the open land required by a wind farm, leaving the other 99% of the property available as farmland or pasture.

Now, imagine that John has five turbines on his farm, occupying five of his cropping acres, leaving him with 495 acres of corn. His farming conditions are the same, so from those acres he’ll make $29,764 in profit, based on the 10 year average profit of $60.13 per acre. But add in the revenue from the turbines–$35,000 total assuming $7,000 per turbine (on the low end of what National Wind pays)–and his total profits increase to $64,764 per year. This would be almost double his profits from growing only corn without turbines. Under National Wind’s community model, the profit structure may be even better if landowners take an ownership stake in a project company and share in the actual profits generated.

Pelstring goes on to make the case that wind turbines can be a good hedge against natural disasters, such as floods in farmland.

I thought it would be apropos to tie this week’s book review into a common New Year’s resolution -weight loss. Enter “The End of Energy Obesity,” by Peter Tertzakian. While this book has the same theme as most energy books these days, breaking America’s energy addiction, it varied from the most common used parallels and likened our country’s energy addiction to our country’s food addiction. It is an effective analogy.

Tertzakian writes, “Over the last decade, specifically in North America, our energy appetite has soared to such an extent that we are now energy obese.”

Throughout the book, Tertzakian outlines how America became energy obese as well as the way our country can curb its energy appetite as this will need to be done, in part, through a new energy diet that is compelling. He explains that energy sources, both renewable and nonrenewable will need to meet nine energy attributes. The higher the score, the better chance the energy source has of being successfully incorporated into our energy diet. The nine attributes include: versatility, scalability, storability and transportability, deliverability, energy density, power density, constancy, environmental sensitivity, and energy security.  Ultimately, Tertzakian feels that renewable energy has limited potential and his winning solution is increasing the use of natural gas.

For the most part, he stays the course with his metapor through the first two parts but he begins to wander off topic in part three as he delves into conservation, dissolving distance and the development of communication technologies. I also disagree with him in the sense that relying on an increase in natural gas is not the best way to go. Natural gas is a limited resource that fluctuates heavily in terms of pricing. An increase in the use of this energy source could cause our energy prices to become even more volitale. Yes, energy prices will increase as we ramp up the integration of alternative energy sources but over the long-term, prices will become more stable than they are now.

Ultimately the book presents some interesting ideas to mull over but if you’re short of time, just focus on the first half of the book. To read this book or any book I review, click here.

Not since the guy from Keokuk said “Hey, I’ll bring the pig to the luau,” has there been such a perfect partnership between the Hawkeye and Aloha States. Pacific Business News says Hawaiian Electric Co. (HECO) will buy 3 million to 7 million gallons of biodiesel annually for two years from Ames, Iowa-based Renewable Energy Group for the utility’s new power plant on Oahu:

REG won an earlier bid in October to supply 400,000 gallons of biodiesel for testing at the 110-megawatt plant.

The contract has been submitted to the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission for review, and delivery of the biodiesel could begin within four months of PUC approval, HECO said.

HECO has committed to using only green fuels to run the plant.

According to an article in the Palm Beach Post, Dyadic International, based in Jupiter, Florida, made a huge comeback in 2009 when investors saw their stake increase by 1,253 percent during 2009. Dyadic was featured in the newspaper’s best and worst performers of 2009 for companies based in Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties Florida. In the biofuels space, Dyadic is best known for its enzymes that are used to convert biomass to glucose.

Last year, the company announced a licensing agreement with Abengoa Bioenergy to sell its patented C1 Technology Platform for the large-scale production of enzymes for use in manufacturing biofuels. They also announced a multi-million licensing agreement with Codexis, Inc in November.

Dyadic Founder and CEO Mark Emalfarb. Photo from TCPalm.com.

However, these recent successes did not come without hardship. As reported by the news media, in 2007 company founder, chief executive and largest shareholder, Mark Emalfarb, was forced out. Emalfarb once again took the company helm in 2008, although the outlook was much starker. During his absence, the stock price nearly dissapated and the shares were dropped from the American Stock Exhange and relegated to the Pink Sheets. But akin to the American success story, Emalfarb turned his company around with several big deals in 2009 and now they are poised as a leader going into 2010.

“With all the clouds lifted, people are seeing the sky very clearly — and it’s blue,” Emalfarb said in the Palm Beach Post. “Shareholders recognize the incredible, miraculous recovery we’ve made, and they’re rewarding us. We obviously are drinking our Kool-Aid.”

According to the latest figures from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), U.S. ethanol production hit a record high in October 2009 of 740,000 barrels per day, up 93,000 barrels from October 2008.

Ethanol demand also reached an all time high in October, according to the Renewable Fuels Association. The organization calculates that demand totaled 767,000 barrels per day in October, an increase of 75,000 barrels over a year earlier.

There has been quite a bit of activity in Brazil during the last few months of 2009 and it looks like it will continue. Bunge Limited announced today that it will become the 100 percent owner of Usina Moema Participacoes S.A. Moema Par is a holding company that owns one sugarcane mill and has ownership in five others. Together the six mills, known as the Moema Group, have the capacity to crush 15.4 metric tons. This agreement, which is structured as a share exchange worth approximately $896 million, gives Bunge 60 percent effective share of the total capacity.

“This transaction fulfills Bunge’s strategic goal of building a large-scale, fully integrated business in sugar and bioenergy,” stated Alberto Weisser, Chairman and CEO of Bunge Limited. “It adds significant scale to our current milling operations and enables us to vary production among multiple sugar and ethanol products, according to market conditions. The Moema Group cluster is also strategically located near large domestic markets in Brazil and has excellent access to export logistics systems. All of these strengths make it a perfect fit with our global trading and marketing operations.”

The Moema Group cluster is located on the border of São Paulo and Minas Gerais states, the two largest domestic ethanol markets in Brazil. According to Bunge, the mills benefit from cost savings due to their cluster configuration, and have favorable road and rail access to three of Brazil’s largest export ports (Santos, Paranagua and Vitoria). The mills can produce both raw and crystal sugar, as well as hydrous and anhydrous ethanol. In addition, the mills have co-generation facilities, are self-sustaining in terms of energy requirements and sell excess power to the grid. The majority of the cluster’s sugarcane is harvested mechanically, which is now law in São Paulo.

According to Bunge, they may enter into agreements to secure some of all of the remaining interests in the mills that comprise the Moema Group in the next few weeks.

The new AG CONNECT Expo debuting next week in Orlando has something for everyone in every area of agriculture, including renewable energy, thanks to the sponsorship of 25x’25.

Breakout sessions on renewable energy scheduled for the expo next week include Renewable Fuels Revolutionizing Agriculture, The Role of Agriculture and Forestry in a Reduced Carbon Economy, Harvesting the Wind, and Bioenergy Feedstocks.

AG CONNECT Expo will be held January 13-15 at the Orange County Convention Center and on-line registration is still available.

A high voltage power line that runs from near Duluth, Minnesota to just outside of Bismarck, North Dakota will soon convert to carrying clean wind energy power.

This story from Minnesota Public Radio says Duluth-based Minnesota Power bought the 250-kilovolt power line from the Square Butte Electric Cooperative:

“We’ll be phasing out coal-based electricity that is currently carried via the D.C. line, and that will be replaced entirely by wind energy over the next several years,” [Minnesota Power Spokeswoman Amy Rutledge] said. “It will afford us access to some of the best wind resources in the country, and provide us with the means to deliver more renewable energy to our customers.”

Rutledge said the purchase will save Minnesota Power the cost of permitting and building a new power line. Minnesota Power is planning a 75-MW wind farm to generate power near New Salem, North Dakota.

The wind energy carried on the line is expected to help Minnesota Power meet a state mandate of 25 percent renewable energy by 2025.

A Valero Energy Corporation subsidiary is joining forces with an Atlanta engineering firm to build a cellulosic ethanol demonstration plant in west central Georgia.

Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue announced that the new plant is a partnership between Diamond Alternative Energy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Valero Energy Corporation, and American Process, Inc..

“Georgia is striving to be a world leader in biofuels,” said Governor Perdue. “Our plentiful supply of raw materials to manufacture biofuels enables private industry to develop alternative energy technologies and create jobs. By opening their biorefinery plant, Diamond Alternative Energy and API will further cement Georgia’s leadership position in the alternative energy industry.”

The plant is expected to open in the first quarter of 2010.