Domestic Fuel

The Izmir airport in Turkey has gone solar with the completion of a solar park. The photovoltaic project is comprised of a ground-mounted installation of 450 kW and 90 kW off-grid system on several radar stations. Combined, the projects are now the largest of its kind in Turkey. It is also the first solar project completed under the new Turkish legislation (YEK), that eliminated licensing requirements, to foster renewable energy plants under 500 kW. In the pipeline are several projects totaling 40-50 mW.

The solar panels used in the project were CS6P-P solar modules manufactured by Canadian Solar. This is the second project that Canadian Solar has worked on in collaboration with Gehrlickher Merk Solar, an EPC contractor based in Turkey. The two companies also completed a 95 kW governmental PV project in September 2012.

“The project in Izmir is a very significant achievement for us. Therefore, we relied again on the solar modules of Canadian Solar, as from past experience we could count on a trusted partnership and the high quality of the implemented products; characteristics which helped make this project a success for all parties involved,” said Omer Cihan Karahan, CEO of Gehrlicher Merk Solar.

Dr. Shawn Qu, chairman and CEO of Canadian Solar, added, “We are proud to contribute our modules to this milestone project for the Turkish solar energy sector and for us as a company in this emerging renewable energy market. The new YEK will have a great impact on business development in this industry and we are delighted to be a part of that. With this project as a reference, we believe we will continue this success in other national and international airport projects in the future.”

How do you keep an expected world population of 9 billion people by the year 2050 fed AND meet the world’s energy needs? Our friends at Farm Foundation are taking on those challenging questions, hopefully with some good answers through their new blog, AgChallenge2050.org.

“It’s an opportunity for more people to be involved in the conversation,” said Mary Thompson, Farm Foundation’s Vice President, Communications, adding there are four key areas of consideration: role of science and technology in agriculture, farm and food policy, adaptability resistance, and human capital needs in agriculture and the food system. “We have contributors who will be twice a week posting new ideas and new perspectives in those four areas, and we will encourage all types of stakeholders to come in and be part of the conversation.”

And don’t forget, Farm Foundation has another one of their forums coming up this Wednesday, November 14th looking at what the recently completed election means to agriculture, food and rural policies. It will be held at the National Press Club in Washington, DC and webcast. Click here for more information.

Listen to Cindy’s interview with Mary here: Mary Thompson, Farm Foundation

2012 NAFB Convention Photo Album

Praj Industries, who has been working on developing second generation technologies for the production of biofuels, is scaling up its demonstration research and development plant program, “Lignocellulose to Ethanol”. For the past four years, the company has been operating a pilot plant to produce ethanol from feedstocks such as bagasse, corn stover and more and is now ready to move closer to commercial scale production.

“The successful demonstration of various parameters at the demo-commercial plant will put Praj at the forefront of the biobased economy and in the race for commercial scale second generation biofuels,” said Pramod Chaudhari, Praj’s Executive Chairman during a welcome address at the recent FO Licht, World Ethanol Conference at Munich. “While this plant size is appropriate for emerging markets, with our past experience of quick scale up, it will be well within Praj’s capability to scale the capacity even up to 10 times. I am pleased to say that Praj will be the first Company in the tropics to set up such an integrated facility.”

Praj is taking steps to set up a 10 million litre demonstration commercial plant in India. This plant will seek to demonstrate technical and commercial viability as well optimization of water and energy integration and develop other areas of the value chain including feed products. To date, the company’s engineering package is ready for deployment and they are seeking investors and partners.

The demonstration plant is expected to be operational in early 2013 and cost around $25 to $30 million U.S. dollars to complete.

The Windmade label has been awarded to Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD) a global medical technology company, for using wind power to energize its global operations. The label, which is backed by the UN Global Compact and conservation group WWF, requires participating companies to obtain at least 25 percent of their electricity from wind power. BD uses as much as 35 percent of its total electricity consumption from wind power.

“Using a clean source of electricity such as wind power is well aligned with our company purpose of helping all people live healthy lives, and helps us reduce our greenhouse gas emissions,” said Glenn Barbi, BD’s Vice President of Global Sustainability. “Receiving the WindMade label is an important achievement that helps us communicate to our customers and other stakeholders about BD’s commitment to reducing our environmental footprint.”

The WindMade label was created to allow companies to demonstrate their commitment to renewable energy. BD has supported the development of WindMade in numerous ways since joining the Pioneer Program in 2011. As part of this cooperation, Glenn Barbi joined the WindMade Board of Directors as a member in June 2012. In addition, BD’s Director of Sustainable Innovation & Stakeholder Relations, Ellen Kondracki, is a member of WindMade’s technical committee, and has been instrumental in developing a WindMade label for products that is expected to launch shortly.

Henrik Kuffner, CEO of WindMade, added, ”BD has been one of WindMade’s Pioneer Companies, and its management’s vision and relentless commitment to sustainability issues have been truly inspiring. We are proud and privileged to be granting the WindMade label to a company where environmental and social values are deeply engrained in the corporate culture.”

A group of 17 farmers from Canada, Honduras, India, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines, South Africa, Swaziland, United Kingdom, Uruguay, US, Zambia, and Zimbabwe had the chance to visit a livestock operation with an ethanol plant next door.

The annual Global Farmer Roundtable, organized by Truth About Trade & Technology (TATT), makes Couser Cattle Company a regular stop for the international farmers each year. TATT Chairman Emeritus Dean Kleckner, former president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, is a big supporter of ethanol himself. “I’m a believer in ethanol from corn,” said Kleckner during an interview at World Food Prize, where the roundtable is held each year. “The corn that is used for ethanol, a lot of that comes back to farmers in the form of distillers grains.”

Couser Cattle Company owner Bill Couser was instrumental in starting the farmer-owned Lincolnway Energy ethanol plant in Nevada, Iowa, which is located next to his operation so he can take full advantage of using distillers grains as feed for his livestock.

During the recent 2012 Export Exchange a few key leaders in the international market took the stage in a panel to share their perception on United States competitiveness in grain production.

Adel Yusupov, Southeast Asia Regional Director for US Grains Council, served as the moderator for the panel.

Panelists consisted of:
Willis Wu-Yeh Cheng, Chairman, Charoen Pokphand (Taiwan)
Mousa Wakila, General Manager, National Poultry Al Ahlieh (Jordan)
Jamie Rueda, General Manager, Escala (Colombia)
Dennis Inman, Vice President & Commercial Lead, Cargill, Inc.

The panelists were asked to share their candid thoughts on how the United States ranks in grain production and what attributes are most important to them when buying grain. Prices were at the top of all their lists, but they also want reliable market research and stressed that logistics were always a concern. Other items on the list included: consistency, a strong relationship and predictability.

Listen to the International Panel’s presentation here: International Panel at Export Exchange

You can find photos from this years Export Exchange here: 2012 Export Exchange

The Townsville RSL Stadium in North Queensland, Australia is now the site of the largest photovoltaic (PV) installation. The solar modules for the 500 megawatt hours system were supplied by Kyocera Solar. With the completion of the renewable energy project, featuring 1,800 solar modules, nearly two-thirds of the stadium’s energy needs will be met by solar energy. Ergon Energy installed the solar system and it is estimated to generate nearly 1,400 kilowatt hours each day, enough to fulfill the energy needs of 75 average sized North Queensland homes.

Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Mark Dreyfus, opened the Townsville RSL Stadium solar array. “These measures make the most of Australia’s natural resources and help us make the gradual shift to a modern, clean energy economy,” he said during his remarks.

The solar-powered stadium is a key component of the federally funded Townsville Solar City Program, which is already responsible for installing more than 1MW of solar energy in the city. The goal of the program is to help achieve objectives to better manage rising electricity demand in Northern Queensland using environment-friendly resources.

“Kyocera is proud to support Ergon, the leader of the Townsville Solar City Program, to help create renewable solar energy that will power the North Queensland region for decades to come,” added Steve Hill, president of Kyocera Solar, Inc. “Citizens attending basketball games and other events at Townsville RSL Stadium may enjoy themselves even more knowing that the stadium’s commitment to environmentally friendly renewable energy helps to protect Australia’s natural beauty.”

After a year, The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) has released its final findings regarding the Countervailing Duty and Anti-Dumping rules regarding the imports of billions of dollars of solar cells from China.

DOC ruled that there will be no change of scope with the exception that small consumer goods are now excluded. In addition, the effective rate on Suntech has gone up a few percentage points, down four percent for Yingli and Canadian Solar with Trina down 12 percentage points from the preliminary numbers. The DOC also recommended anti-subsidy duty percentages of 14.78 percent for imports made by Suntech, 15.97 percent Trina Solar and 15.24 percent for all other Chinese manufacturers. Lastly, critical circumstances are in effect save for Suntech’s anti-dumping tariffs.
Jigar Shah, the president of The Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy (CASE) responded by saying, “We are gratified that the scope of today’s decision is limited only to solar cells made in China and that the Department did not significantly increase the tariff from its preliminary decision in May. We are hopeful that continued innovations in technology, a competitive global marketplace, and demand-generated pressure for lower prices will take precedence moving forward. At the same time, we remain concerned about the growing global trade war, which will only hurt American solar industry jobs, growth and consumers.

He added that CASE believes global competition is good for American solar consumers and companies and that the tariffs will not stop the development of solar energy.

In its final decision, the DOC determined that crystalline silicon photovoltaic (“PV”) cells produced in China, whether or not assembled into modules, would be subject to antidumping and countervailing duties. Under the ruling, solar modules assembled in China from cells produced in third countries do not fall within the scope of the duties. Based on this, PV cells produced in China by JA Solar will be subject to an antidumping duty of 25.96 percent and countervailing duty of 15.24 percent.

Jonathan Pickering, president of JA Solar USA, commented, “We are pleased that the dispute is coming to a close and that the scope of the investigation was not expanded. JA Solar cooperated fully with the DOC during its investigation, and we continue to state our case to the International Trade Commission (ITC).” The ITC will make its final ruling on or before November 23, 2012.

Pickering added, “We remain focused on addressing our customers’ need for high-quality, high-performance products, and we’re determined to play an active role in the rapid growth of the U.S. market.”

Platts, a division of McGraw-Hill, is in the process of acquiring Kingsman, SA, a Switzerland-based provider of price information and analytics for the global sugar and biofuels markets. If all goes as planned, the acquisition will become official on November 1, 2012. Platts focuses on delivering news to the agricultural and energy sectors.

“Kingsman is widely recognized as the leading global brand for sugar market data and analytics,” said Larry Neal, president of Platts. “Our acquisition of Kingsman deepens Platts’ capabilities in biofuels and gives us a springboard for growth in the global agricultural markets.  It also reinforces our commitment to becoming a leader in market analytics as well as news and price information.”

Neal said the deal was a good fit for the company because it will allow the company to develop benchmarks that support market evolution and enhance price transparency. Kingsman has analysts, researchers and report writers in key markets including London Montreal, New Delhi and  Sao Paulo and the company offers a variety of subscription publications covering sugar, ethanol and biodiesel.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is currently reviewing whether to allow biofuels produced from palm oil as an allowable renewable fuel under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2). The palm oil industry and the Indonesian and Malaysian governments are applying pressure to the EPA to reverse its finding that the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from palm oil production are too high to quality as a biofuel under RFS2.

In a new study published in Nature Climate Change, by researchers from Yale and Stanford, expanding the use of palm oil in the Indonesian part of Borneo would significantly increase emissions. The area was the focus on the study because of its current use of palm oil, that includes conversion into biofuels. The study finds that if the use of palm oil is expanded:

• Palm oil expansion is projected to release more than 558 million metric tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere in 2020, more than all of Canada’s fossil fuel emissions.
• Palm oil expansion in Borneo alone is projected to contribute 18 percent to 22 percent of Indonesia’s 2020 C02- equivalent emissions.
• Full lease development would convert an additional 93,844 square kilometers of land in Borneo to oil palm plantations, including 41 percent intact forest. This is in addition to the three fold increase in land converted to palm plantations between 1990-2012, 90% of which was rainforest.

The study also links an increase in deforestation resulting from palm oil production in addition to palm oil production being a major source of greenhouse gas emissions.

Reuters is reporting that the European Union is no longer investigating allegations that the United States illegally subsidized and dumped ethanol on the European Market. The European Commission, which is the executive body of the European Union, conducted an 11-month investigation. During that time, the Commission says it found no evidence that such action had been taken by the U.S.

In a document on the anti-subsidy proceedings that Reuters is said to have seen, the charges were dropped because the U.S. had stopped the main subsidy scheme and the Commission felt that retaliatory measures were unnecessary. The Commission also is to have said in the document that ”No more measures shall be imposed if the subsidy or subsidies have been withdrawn or it has been demonstrated that the subsidies no longer confer any benefit on the exporters concerned.”

However, a Reuters source said that if the U.S. reintroduces the ethanol blender’s tax credit over the next six months, then the investigation would be re-opened. If not, then the case is closed. The ethanol excise tax credit or 45 cents per gallon expired at the end of 2011.

A new Virginia Tech research center is set to open in Tamil Nadu in southeast India with the hope of refining and adapting windmills and solar panels for use in rural India households. With more than a billion people worldwide living in rural communities in extreme poverty, how energy production proceeds will have global impact. Windmills are being designed to work in areas of low and variable wind speed and the solar panels are being designed to work well in low-light conditions.

“The goal is to improve life for 400 million Indians not connected to the grid,” said Guru Ghosh, vice president for international affairs. “There are still some refinements to be made on this amazing technology developed at Virginia Tech. We’re aiming for the point where the solar panels and small windmills can be mass produced, tested in India’s rural communities, and then be deployed to create low-cost, renewable energy worldwide.”

Two years ago Virginia Tech announced an agreement with private-sector partner MARG Swarnabhoomi to establish the Virginia Tech, India campus. MARG Swarnabhoomi has committed $1.8 million for laboratory build-out, which will equal or exceed facilities at the Blacksburg-based Center for Energy Harvesting Materials and Systems, directed by Shashank Priya of the College of Engineering. Virginia Tech is underwriting staff and operations with an initial outlay of $350,000.

Virginia Tech hopes that the technology can help to solve some of the world’s most pressing energy problems. The research center is called VT, India Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science Innovation Center and is currently recruiting graduate students to work on the project.

Two large scale power plants are being connected to the grid south of the Iberian Peninsula in Spain. Coenergy was selected for the installation. The first power plant will have a total capacity of 1.8 KWp and is located in Jerez de la Frontera on an industrial rooftop spanning 24,000 square meters. The second solar power plant will have a total capacity of 320 KWp and has been installed in a 8,000 square meter area in the village of Segura de la Sierra in Jaén Province.

Combined, the two solar power plants use more than 9,000 Coenergy PowerPlus modules and the plants have the ability to produce nearly 3,000 megawatt hours of solar power each year. The solar energy will feed into the Andalusian electrical grid through nine Conergy IPG C central inverters and the sites will be monitored with Coenergy VisionBoxes.

“Sun-blessed Andalusia is a very attractive location for solar power plants and well on its way to achieving grid parity,” said Luis Jimenez Gutierrez, Managing Director of Conergy Spain. “These two projects are another step down this path where product quality, know-how and services become more and more important. Conergy stands for quality and many years’ experience – with large-scale free-field plants as well as industrial and private rooftop plants. This expertise makes us a reliable partner for all solar projects, on whom our customers can count.”

Wind power in the European Union (EU) has surpassed 100 gigawatts according to the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA). This is enough electricity generated per year to meet the total needs of 57 million households. The installation of wind power is accelerating: it took 20 years to install the first 10 gigawatts; 13 years to add another 90 gigawatts.

“It would require burning 72 million tonnes of coal annually in coal fired power plants to match Europe’s annual wind energy production,” said Christian Kjaer, CEO of EWEA. “Loading that amount of coal on trains would require 750,000 wagons with a combined length of 11,500 kilometres – the distance from Brussels to Buenos Aires, Argentina.”

Kjaer continued, “Despite only utilising a tiny fraction of Europe’s vast domestic wind energy resources, wind power is having a substantial impact on Europe’s energy security and environment, and benefits us hugely in creating green jobs and technology exports.”

Recent wind turbine installations contributing to the 100 GW milestone include:

• Anholt offshore wind farm, 400 MW developed by DONG off the coast of Denmark;
• Linowo, 48 MW developed by EDF Energies Nouvelles Polska in Poland;
• Ausumgaard, 12 MW developed by a private landowner in Denmark (west Jutland); and
• Akoumia, 7.2 MW developed by Greek power company PPCR on the island of Crete.

A few other stats: 100 gigawatts of wind power can produce the same amount of electricity over a year as 62 coal power plants, 39 nuclear power plants or 52 gas power plants. To produce the same amount of electricity it would requiring the mining, transporting and burning of 72 million tonnes of coal, at a cost of € 4,983 million, and emit 219.5 Mt of CO2, or would requiring extracting, transporting and burning 42.4 million cubic meters of gas, at a cost of € 7,537 million, and emit 97.8 Mt of CO2.

A new study, Global Biofuels Outlook to 2025, authored by Hart Energy, finds a disconnect between mandates established in the U.S. Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) and Renewable Energy Directive in the European Union, and actual market demand. While many have speculated this to be the case, it has not been highly discussed.

The study, focused mostly on biodiesel and ethanol, analyzes local and global drivers, public and fiscal policy developments, production capacity, feedstocks, and supply and demand projections through 2015, 2020 and 2025. Both first generation biofuels, as well as advanced biofuels along with ethyl tertiary butyl ether (ETBE) were included in the analysis.

The study focused on four key regions:

• North America: the United States, Canada, and California (U.S. state)
• EU-27: Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom
• Latin America: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Peru
• Asia Pacific: China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand

Biofuel demand in all regions combined is estimated to be 5.4 percent by energy content by 2025 (110 million toe). Total ethanol demand is projected to reach over 35 billion gallons and biodiesel over 14 billion gallons. In terms of energy, market demand is estimated to increase by 23 percent from 2015 to 2020 and another 16 percent from 2020 to 2025. The projections, however, may not be met if supply is not available, and supply will depend on feedstock and capital availability.

“The U.S. vehicle market simply cannot accept more ethanol,” said Tammy Klein, assistant vice president of Hart Energy. ”It’s not a matter of lack of supply or lack of commercial development of cellulosic ethanol.”

Maelle Soares Pinto, director of Hart Energy’s Global Biofuels Center, said the situation in Europe is similar. “The vehicle pool cannot use the amount of ethanol or biodiesel necessary to meet the Renewable Energy Directive. The European Union’s sustainability criteria also constrain the type of biofuels that can be used to meet the mandates and the situation could get worse if the EC’s proposal for ILUC factors is approved in its current form.”