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ARPA-E piloting crowdsourced energy challenge in biofuels

« Bosch sponsoring Driverless Car Experience at CES | Main Print this post ARPA-E piloting crowdsourced energy challenge in biofuels The US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) is piloting a crowdsourced energy challenge , focused on ARPA-E’s PETRO (Plants Engineered To Replace Oil) program, which aims to increase the viability of biofuels by investing in research to double the energy-capture-per-unit area from that of corn ethanol. ( Earlier post .) The challenge asks “solvers” to present a detailed description and scientific rationale for a simple, rapid, and minimally invasive method to determine the energy content of plant material. Winners could receive up to $30,000. The goal of the PETRO program is to engineer new crops to produce fuels that can be extracted from the plant itself, in contrast to traditional research in the area that focuses on breeding larger plants. To do this […]

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Utilities Feeling Rooftop Solar Heat Start Fighting Back

If you wonder why America’s utilities are rattled by the explosive growth in rooftop solar – – and are pushing back — William Walker has a story for you. A flip-flop wearing Walker stands in his driveway pointing to a ubiquitous neighborhood feature – solar panels on the roofs of five of six houses nearby. He lives in Ewa Beach, a development on the sultry leeward coast of the Hawaiian island of Oahu built on land cleared of sugar cane fields. Shade is scarce and residents here call their homes “hot boxes,” requiring almost round-the-clock air conditioning. Hawaii , which imports pricey oil to power its electricity grid, has the highest utility rates in the nation — at 37 cents a kilowatt-hour, they’re more than double California and triple the national average. With bills for 1,600 square foot houses like these running as high as $400 a month, solar […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Jet Fuel by the Acre

In an unmarked greenhouse, leafy bushes carpet an acre of land here tucked into the suburban sprawl of Southern California. The seeds of the inedible, drought-resistant plants, called jatropha, produce a prize: high-quality oil that can be refined into low-carbon jet fuel or diesel fuel. The mere existence of the bushes is an achievement. Hailed about six years ago as the next big thing in biofuels, jatropha attracted hundreds of millions of dollars in investments, only to fall from favor as the recession set in and as growers discovered that the wild bush yielded too few seeds to produce enough petroleum to be profitable. But SGB, the biofuels company that planted the bushes, pressed on. Thanks to advances in molecular genetics and DNA sequencing technology, the San Diego start-up has, in a few years, succeeded in domesticating jatropha, a process that once took decades. SGB is […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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KiOR expects to produce 920K gallons of cellulosic biofuels by year end; short-term focus on economics

&KiOR expects to produce 920K gallons of cellulosic biofuels by year end; short-term focus on economics Cellulosic gasoline and diesel company KiOR, Inc. expects that, given current and anticipated operations through the remainder of the year, its Columbus, Mississippi facility will produce approximately 410,000 gallons of renewable fuel during the fourth quarter of 2013, bringing full year production total from the facility to approximately 920,000 gallons. ( Earlier post .) The ratio between gasoline, diesel and fuel oil expected to be produced during the year is approximately 35% gasoline, 40% diesel, and 25% fuel oil. In August, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized the 2013 percentage standards for four […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Wind Farms in Maine Stir a Power Struggle

This state’s tree-filled hinterlands, long known for producing forest products and potatoes, are also suited for an export that has churned up debate: wind power. The recent appetite for wind power comes largely from Massachusetts and Connecticut, where laws require use of more renewable power. The two states combined have 70% of New England’s population but little open space to build wind farms. Developers have turned to Maine, where they say land is expansive and strong winds plentiful. Maine already leads the region with more than 400 megawatts of wind power installed, according to the American Wind Energy Association, which said 1 megawatt of wind power can cover about 290 homes. Recently signed long-term contracts with utilities in Massachusetts and Connecticut could more than double that output in the next few years. Many locals welcome the development, helped by financial rewards tied to the projects, and the […]

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German biofuel consumption plunges 8.9% in year to October: BAFA

Biofuel consumption in Germany was 2.9 million mt in the calendar year to October, down 8.9% compared with the first 10 months in 2012, according to the most recent data released by the country’s federal economics agency BAFA. The drop came despite a 0.5% tick upwards in total road fuel consumption to 43.75 million mt during the same period, and blending rates were lower for all biofuel types, the data released Friday showed. One positive indicator for biofuel was a 9.5% increase in biodiesel consumption to 189,978 mt. ETBE usage also jumped 26.7% to 33,121 mt in the month of October, bringing the total for the year to 266,945 mt, a 2.6% rise. The total amount of biodiesel consumed in the year was 1.79 million mt, down 10.6%. Meanwhile, ethanol consumption in October was 90,438 mt, down 9.7%, and in the year to October, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Australia to reduce renewable energy target?

Australia’s renewable energy target appears to be on the table following Prime Minister Tony Abbott ‘s decision to review the country’s energy policy. Abbott announced Wednesday he will head an energy policy task force that will be "looking at new options to reduce the costs of energy." The review is expected to be completed in June. Australia’s Renewable Energy Target scheme, enacted in 2009, requires energy retailers and large customers to source a proportion of their energy from renewable sources. It calls for 20 percent of the country’s power generation to come from renewable sources by 2020. Abbott said "we support sensible use of renewable energy," but said circumstances had changed. "We have to accept that in the changed circumstances of today, the renewable energy target is causing pretty significant price pressure in the system and we ought to be an affordable energy […]

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EPA to Invalidate 30 Million Fuel Credits After Fraud

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it has invalidated 33.5 million renewable-fuel credits sold by an Indiana company for biofuel it didn’t produce, the fourth time the agency has alleged fraud in the program. The filing today follows fraud charges filed against the former owners of the Indiana-based E-Biofuels LLC in September. The U.S. Justice Department accused them of falsely claiming its products qualified under government incentives for renewable fuels. The EPA move, which was posted on its website, may further roil the market for credits used by refiners such as Valero Corp. (VLO) and Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) to meet government renewable-fuel requirements. Before today’s action, the agency had said three companies produced a total of 140 million fraudulent Renewable Identification Numbers, or RINs. The basic credit for ethanol last sold for 28 cents. At today’s value of about 40 cents each for biodiesel, the RINs affected by […]

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Area off the coast of Maryland set for wind energy sale

The U.S. Interior Department said it planned to auction off nearly 80,000 acres off the coast of Maryland next year for wind energy development. The U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management worked with state, local and federal authorities in identifying acreage about 10 miles off the coast for wind energy development. BOEM said it plans to auction off the acreage in two tranches next year. The bureau said the offshore areas could support the commercial development of more than 850 megawatts of wind energy. "The wind energy potential offshore Maryland is significant," BOEM Director Tommy Beaudreau said in a statement Tuesday. More than 100,000 acres off the coast of Virginia were auctioned for $1.6 million for wind energy development in September. A summer lease sale for 164,750 acres off the coast of Rhode Island and Massachusetts secured $3.8 million in bids for […]

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Wind Power Rivals Coal With $1 Billion Order From Buffett

The decision by Warren Buffett ’s utility company to order about $1 billion of wind turbines for projects in Iowa shows how a drop in equipment costs is making renewable energy more competitive with power from fossil fuels. Turbine prices have fallen 26 percent worldwide since the first half of 2009, bringing wind power within 5.5 percent of the cost of electricity from coal, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., a unit of Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., yesterday announced an order for 1,050 megawatts of Siemens AG wind turbines in the industry’s largest order to date for land-based gear. Wind is the cheapest source of power in Iowa, and the deal indicates that turbines are becoming profitable without subsidies, according to Tom Kiernan , chief executive officer of the American Wind Energy Association trade group. That’s a boost for suppliers including Siemens, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple