Domestic Fuel

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.”

As you spend the weekend sprawled on the couch watching football and reading the newspaper, don’t take for granted the light that helps you watch TV and read. In many emerging countries, light is created by burning a kerosene lamp which is equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. Yet without light, people in third world countries without electricity are left in the dark.

Osei Darwka, president of Ghana Telecom University and a fierce advocate of education, wants every household in his country to replace kerosene –– the fuel commonly used in home lighting –– with a healthier, safer, more environmentally friendly alternative that will allow schoolchildren to read and study in the evening.

The solution? A LED reading light that is eight times more efficient than in incandescent light bulb. The reading light was developed by John Bowers and his team at the University of California Santa Barbara and the Institute for Energy Efficiency. The LED light contains a solar cell that is efficient enough that a small area will provide a sufficient charge for the LED. Just two hours of light each day provides one hour of illumination. And operating with a single rechargable battery means the cost is kept low- much lower than the cost of kerosene.

So far, over 20,000 lights have been sent to 43 countries.

This is just one example of how students, professors and alums of the University of California are recreating “The California Dream” and helping to improve the world. This story is the first in University of California’s “Onward California” series. The episodes feature John Bowers and the value he and his team are bringing to society.

A new report released by the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) argues that European Union (EU) electricity market rules must reflect the energy production mix of the future. This will help ensure a flexible power system with a large-scale uptake of wind power and other renewable energy sources.

The report comes as the Single European Act – creating a single market in goods, capital, people and services – turns 25. However, there is still no single market in electricity. EU Heads of State have agreed that Europe should have an internal energy market by 2014, but the EU is not on track to meet that target.

To this end, the report recommends creating a level playing field for renewable energy sources by tackling structural market deficits such as:

• Removing regulated prices and excessive market concentration to enable small-  and medium-sized power generators to enter the market.
• Removing coal, gas and nuclear subsidies before they are removed from mature renewable technologies like onshore wind.
• Creating functioning markets covering larger geographical regions within Europe so as to reduce the need to balance variable renewables like wind and solar.
• Developing intraday and balancing markets at national and cross-border levels.
• Creating new markets for ‘grid support services,’ supporting the functioning of the grid to ensure a secure supply of electricity, instead of introducing market-distorting capacity payments.

“The European wind industry strongly supports the creation of a single market in electricity,” said Paul Wilczek, Senior Regulatory Affairs Advisor, Grids and Internal Electricity Market, at EWEA. “If Europe is serious about decarbonising the power sector in a cost-effective manner, it has to create a market that facilitates this transformation. EWEA’s new report sets out how a single market in electricity could simultaneously create benefits for all producers and consumers and integrate renewable energy sources.”

This October the European Commission is set to publish a communication on the internal energy market which is expected to contain an action plan to take Europe closer to a single energy market.

According to a recent World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report, global farmers will harvest the second largest corn crop on record in 2012. In response to the news, the Global Renewable Fuels Alliance (GRFA) criticized Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Senior Counsellor, Carmel Cahill for making unsubstantiated comments blaming biofuel mandates for increasing the cost of food.

The WASDE report also concluded that despite wide spread drought, the U.S. will harvest its eighth largest crop in history. Output in several countries has increased including Argentinean production more than 30 percent over last year, Mexican production increased 19 percent, South Africa 17 percent, Canada 9 percent, and China 4 percent. Global grain supply is also expected to be the second-largest in history, totaling 2.71 billion metric tons in 2012/2013 with the European Union grain crop to be about average.

“It is irresponsible of policy-makers like Ms. Cahill to make these sweeping, unsubstantiated statements,” said Bliss Baker, spokesperson for GRFA.  ”A wealth of evidence clearly shows that in recent years farmers are producing record crops and that these types of comments are simply not backed up by any evidence whatsoever.”

GRFA cites several significant factors causing a rise in food prices including volatile oil prices, food waste, climate change, financial speculation in commodities markets, trade protection measures such as export bans, fluctuating currency exchange rates, and changing diets in Asia that has led to an increase in global meat demand and ultimately higher demand for animal feed.

Baker continued, “Instead of making ill-informed policy statements about biofuels we should applaud our farmers and their determination to continually produce record corn harvests. Evidence shows that biofuels production is actually beneficial to food production by producing valuable food co-products and providing much needed investment in the agricultural system.”

In other news, the International Energy Agency, that just happens to be an OECD agency, recently released their Technology Roadmap – Biofuels for Transport, that shows biofuels could make up 27 percent of the world’s transport fuels by 2050, eliminate 2.1 gigatonnes of CO2 emissions and not jeopardize food security. The same report also revealed that current global biofuels production utilizes only 2 percent of global arable land, not significant enough to have any impact on food prices.

Several Ministers met earlier this week at an informal Energy Council meeting in Nicosia. In response, the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) warned that their credibility was at risk if they debated future renewable energy policy without considering a new 2030 European Union (EU) Renewable Energy target. The discussion was not on the group’s agenda.

“There is no point debating future renewable energy policy without discussing a 2030 target,” warned Stephane Bourgeois, Head of Regulatory Affairs at EWEA in Brussels. “It makes no sense to ignore the one policy that has worked most successfully up to now. Ministers should recognise the benefits of such a target.”

The European Commission has released information about its Renewable Energy Strategy. The accompanying impact assessment was believed to support a 2030 Renewable energy target. This, the strategy outlined, would create more economic activity, reduce fossil fuel dependence, and create more innovation and competition across the European technology sector.

Bourgeois added, “an EU renewables policy cannot be based only on emission reductions and decarbonisation, as some ministers might wish. Only by enabling investment in renewables can the EU cut the cost of fuel imports and be sure to create European jobs.”

The Chinese solar community is responding to anti-dumping allegations of Chinese solar products. The European Commission is currently reviewing charges by several European companies. Representatives of JinkoSolar, based in Shanghai, said the charges are unfounded and unfair and do not reflect the reality of the highly-competitive global solar industry. They also believe that trade protectionism will only harm fair competition in the market, hinder development of the entire PV industry and also harm consumers.

“JinkoSolar, as one of the leading photovoltaic manufacturers in the industry, will actively cooperate with the European Commission’s investigation. The company will continue expanding into emerging markets, including China, South Africa, India and Australia to alleviate possible impacts that could result from the potential trade friction,” said Xiande Li, JinkoSolar’s Chairman.

Complaints were lodged in July of this year that solar panels and their key components imported from China enter the European market at prices below market value. According to a press statement, in terms of import value affected, this is the most significant anti-dumping complaint the European Commission has received so far.

Dr. Peng Fang, CEO of JA Solar, also based in Shanghai, responded by saying, ”JA Solar believes in fair and open trade. As a public company, we conduct all our business transactions in a transparent manner. The imposition of antidumping tariffs on Chinese solar products would be highly damaging to both the European and global solar markets. Strong and fair competition across the global solar market has been the catalyst for rapid innovation and has allowed millions of consumers in Europe and around the world to access clean and affordable renewable energy. We believe that antidumping tariffs would jeopardize the huge progress the industry has made in recent years.”

The Commission will respond to the charges within the next nine months. During this time, an investigation will be conducted and it will determined if any measures will be taken.

According to the most recent Global Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Indices Report (CAI), China will continue to dominate the global renewable energy market. The country has quadrupled its solar capacity target to 50GW by 2020. At the top of the All Renewable Index (ARI), China will have to overcome some challenges including oversupply of wind turbines and solar panels as well as solve many grid transmission issues to reach its goal.

While China’s score is on the rise, America’s score is going downward. The U.S. dropped 1.5 points to share in second position with Germany. The decline was caused by ongoing uncertainty in U.S.’s long-term energy strategy and a failure to indicate if there will be an extension to the Production Tax Credit for wind projects. The rise in Germany’s score was a result of the government’s approach to addressing barriers to offshore wind development and stability in its solar market.

“While the U.S. and Germany markets are level within the ARI, the contrast between these two markets is evident. The upcoming elections have led to an understandable slowdown in the decision making process in the US, while Germany is pushing ahead with its ambitious renewable energy agenda — including the introduction of a new solar PV tariff and compensation for offshore grid connection delays,” explained Ernst & Young’s Global Cleantech Leader, Gil Forer.

He continued, “Having made positive progress, the challenge now facing Germany is making sure that the necessary infrastructure is in place to ensure the renewable power generated in the north of the country can be shipped to customers in the south. It is important for any country not only to focus on policies that support supply, but also on those that will encourage and simulate demand.”

Next on the leaderboard is India, who fell one point due to recent severe blackouts causing speculation that the country has not attracted enough private investment to modernize its power infrastructure. There are worries that the investments in renewable energy will also suffer due to an unreliable power grid.

Rounding out the top five is the UK who overtook Italy who fell due to worsening economic conditions. However, UK seems to be in the turbulent boat with general consensus that policy and subsidy announcements have fallen short of establishing transparency, certainty and longevity within the market.

Australia-based CBD Energy Ltd. has announced it is getting into the renewable energy businesses in the U.S. The move comes after the company revealed its proposed merger with Westinghouse Solar, Inc., and its technologies and services will be debuted during the upcoming Solar Power International conference, Sept. 10-13, 2012 in Orlando, Florida.

“CBD Energy’s pending merger with Westinghouse Solar offers an ideal platform for the expansion of our renewable energy business into the world’s largest market,” said Gerry McGowan, Managing Director and CEO of CBD Energy Ltd. “In addition to building upon Westinghouse Solar’s business in the U.S., CBD Energy plans for U.S. operations built around its core strengths in design, engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of commercial solar projects; energy efficiency and storage technologies; and energy services.”

“CBD Energy sees tremendous opportunity in the solar market in the U.S., particularly with their EPC expertise combined with Westinghouse Solar’s success in driving down installed system cost by innovating the design and ease of installation of solar panels,” said Margaret Randazzo, Chief Executive Officer of Westinghouse Solar, Inc.

The company’s focus will be on the engineering and building of solar projects, as well as the financing of those ventures. The two companies have already collaborated on a contract to build a 1.4 MW solar project in New Jersey, as well as projects in Italy and Australia.

A new report from an international group promoting biofuels says the forecasted amount of global ethanol production this year will eliminate green house gas (GHG) emissions of 100 million tons in 2012. The Global Renewable Fuels Alliance (GRFA) has released its annual forecast and puts the amount equal to 20.2 million cars being taken off the road.. the total number of vehicles registered in Mexico or the total GHG emissions of all of the Philippines.

“This is all very good news because these figures clearly show that biofuels are continuing to play a critical role in reducing damaging GHG emissions around the world,” stated Bliss Baker, spokesperson for the GRFA.

“In the wake of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, this data confirms that to successfully combat climate change, biofuels must be part of our future energy mix,” added Mr. Baker.

The report comes as the Global Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change is underway in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Canadian company Lallemand, which researches, develops, produces, markets and distributes yeast and bacteria, has acquired Atlanta, Georgia-based North American Bioproducts Corporation (NABC), a provider of yeast and fermentation adjuncts as well as support and education services for the ethanol industry, to form a larger business to make ethanol.

This new Business Unit, yet to be named, will be headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and managed by NABC Founder, Kevin Dailey.

“We are very pleased to have the opportunity to bring together two successful companies” said Bill Nankervis, President of Lallemand’s Specialties Division. “This will increase our market reach and enhance our capability to commercialize new technologies such as the TransFerm yeast. Our customers and our people, as always, will remain top priorities throughout the merger process.”

Lallemand employs about 2,400 employees located in more than 36 countries worldwide.

The world ethanol market is projected to reach 27.7 billion gallons by the end of 2012 according to a new report, “Biofuels – A Global Strategic Business Report,” conducted by Global Industry Analysts. The growth, says the report, is due to skyrocketing crude prices, continued concerns over environmental pollution and the switch to biofuels. In addition, worldwide emission standards, biofuels subsidies and tax incentives have also had a positive impact on growth.

In the U.S., growth is being fostered by the goal of increasing domestic fuel production along with attention on the lowering of carbon emissions. Other aids to growth in the U.S., according to the report, is the increased purchases of flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs) and the approval and sale of E15 for vehicles produce in 2011 or newer.

Today, the U.S. and Brazil (as well as South America) dominate production with 50 percent of world sugarcane produced going into the production of ethanol. Together, South America and the U.S. produced 66.5 percent of total volume sales in 2008 with 90 percent of ethanol demand in South America coming from Brazil. Ethanol consumption in Brazil is expected to reach 7.45 billion gallons by 2015. Sales of ethanol in Canada, one of the fastest growing markets worldwide, are expected to rise by approximately 208.25 million gallons between the period 2008 to 2012. The report predicts that markets to watch are India and China.

Globally, volume consumption of ethanol is estimated to grow by about 7,597 million gallons between the period 2008 to 2012. Asia-Pacific dominates the global food & beverage end-use market with a 64.2% share estimated in the year 2008. The solvent end-use market in the United States is projected to consume over 230 million gallons of ethanol by the year 2015. In Europe, Germany and France collectively account for 35.5% of the regional ethanol market as estimated in 2008.

All the major global ethanol players are featured in the report along with all the major biodiesel players around the world. The report provides a comprehensive review of market trends, driver, issues, and challenges in the biofuels global market. It also discusses climates in key regional markets. Also provided in the report is an enumeration of recent mergers, acquisitions, and other strategic industry activities.

Members of the Global Renewable Fuels Alliance say calls to reduce or even halt production of biofuels in the face of the U.S. drought are “pennywise, but… pound foolish.” The group is responding in particular to International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) Director General Shenggen Fan’s call to stop producing corn-based biofuels through the following statement:

“Calls to curtail biofuel production and use because of one bad growing season in the U.S. is putting the cart before the horse. We don’t yet know how extensive the damage from the drought in the U.S. will be, nor do we know how farmers in the rest of the world will respond to stronger markets for their crops.

Biofuels have proven to be an effective way to help lift rural communities worldwide out of poverty. Stronger grain prices have spurred investments in agricultural production that are yielding more crops from the same acre of land. In turn, this is helping traditionally food and energy poor nations become more self-sufficient. Eliminating the market created by biofuels would be a setback to progress made in these areas and could very well increase poverty rates.”

GRFA went on to point out that investment “in domestic biofuel production is spurring innovation and evolution in the industry” and removing biofuels from the mix would just make the world more dependent on the finite supply of non-renewable petroleum.

Argentina is upping its ethanol game with the announcement that ICM has contracted with ACA Bio Cooperative Limitada (ACA Bio) to design a 40 million gallon per year (MGY) dry-mill corn ethanol plant. The biorefinery will be located on the outskirts of Villa Maria, a city in the central province of Cordoba. Project completion is expected in early 2014.

Last year the Argentinean government announced an ethanol supply quota to ACA Bio of 125 million litres per year. Experts anticipate that in 2013, producers in the country will produce at least 400 million litres, a country record. With a positive outlook on ethanol via governmental support, the biofuels industry continues to grow. Also making it an opportunistic market, the country has a vast supply of feedstocks and existing processing infrastructure.

“We’re thrilled to announce our latest global expansion project into Argentina, and we look forward to continued collaboration with ACA Bio to support the economic growth of the region by providing our process technologies and services to advance renewable energy,” said ICM President Chris Mitchell.

In addition to producing ethanol, the facility will produce several co-products including wet and dry distillers grains, a much needed food product because the country has large dairy and feedlot industries. The plan is to keep the majority of fuel and feed produced for use in the country.

“As the process design and technology company that has provided engineering, construction and operational services for 102 ethanol plants in North America, ICM is excited to expand into South America,” added Kevin Endres, ICM Director of International Business Development. “We value the opportunity to collaborate with ACA Bio, and continue to expand our global business strategy in the Americas and beyond. ACA Bio’s strong farmer cooperative and leadership will promote the use of grains to increase ethanol production capacity in Argentina, and we look forward to supporting biofuels production and sustainable development in this region.”