Over 700 renewable energy professionals are gathering this week in New York City at the Renewable Energy Finance Forum to discuss the future of electricity. According to this blog, today’s keynote address was giving by Michael Webber, the President/CEO of American Electric Power, and he stated that “by 2035, this industry will be fundamentally different. I think you’ll be dealing with a much more distributed infrastructure, interfacing with the customer in a new and interesting way.” He went on to declare “this is an industry that is ready to move forward.” It is encouraging to hear CEO’s of large and influential utility companies making statements to encourage the development of renewable energy. There is still a lot of work to be done, but with support from these key players in the energy industry, our nation can head down a path towards more clean, renewable sources of energy including biogas from anaerobic digestion, and away from our dependence on fossil fuels.
A USDA report released on June 23 by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack outlined the current state of renewable transportation fuels efforts and the plan to move forward and increase production and distribution of biofuels. Not only would an increase in biofuels production result in greater energy independence for the United States and a reduction in greenhouse gases, but it would also create more jobs in the country as well. It’s estimated that every 100-million gallon ethanol facility would create 40 direct jobs and a number of indirect jobs. The report calls for “further investments in research and development of feedstock, sustainable production and management systems, efficient conversion technologies and high-value bioproducts, and decision support and policy analysis tools.”
Click here to read the article, which includes a link to the full USDA report.
Sungevity has launched an internet movement to spread the word about their campaign to install solar panels on the White House. Their website includes a petition to urge Obama (or GLOBAMA as they playfully refer to the President) to accept free solar panels for the White House, and includes a fun interactive game in which players can attain different status levels from “Solar Maven” all the way up to “Globamanator.” This campaign aims to spread the word to encourage home installation of solar panels, and hopefully generate buzz for renewable energy in general. Who knows, maybe “Biogas Barack” is up next? Read the Renewable Energy World article here.
According to a blog on Renewable Energy World.com, a group of states that makes up the Rocky Mountain Energy Producers (Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming, specifically) are making news with their growing New Energy economies. These states have been taking great strides in the development and implementation of policies that add to energy efficiency and green energy. To give a comparison, the 1995-to-2007 overall national job growth was 10%, with a growth of 18% in green jobs nationally. Among the Rocky Mountain Energy Producers states, however, overall job growth was 19% and growth in “core green economies” was 30%. Although each of the five states seems to go about New Energy policy in a different way, they all have one thing in common: a commitment to New Energy. We should all take our cue from them, and make a commitment to renewable energy too.
To read the full blog, click here.
In light of President Obama’s recent comments on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the pressing need to end America’s fossil fuel addiction, the American Biogas Council along with the Biomass Thermal Energy Council issued an announcement published here. BIOFerm is a founding member of the American Biogas Council and supports this statement, along with over 120 other companies involved in these two organizations. The statement is as follows:
“If we want to reduce oil consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in our country, we must ensure that sustainable, renewable biomass is a part of this solution. Technologies that employ renewable biomass provide clean, efficient, and affordable alternatives to heating oil, natural gas, and other fossil fuels.
In many states, oil is used to generate thermal energy for water and space heating. If biomass boilers, furnaces, and stoves are used instead, we reduce the need for foreign and domestic oil by substituting it with resources like wood chips and pellets, agricultural residues, and energy crops. Likewise, current technology can produce natural gas renewably through anaerobic digestion. This biogas can utilize a variety of resources, from cow manure to sewage and yard waste – and they are shovel ready. Currently, these energy rich products are considered waste.
Efficient bioenergy technologies are key pathways to use domestic resources to answer the President’s call to end our addiction to fossil fuels. If Congress and the Administration decide to act, we can substitute fossil fuels with existing renewable resources to provide clean, sustainable energy and new jobs, lower customer’s energy bills, and create a new revenue source in our communities.
Right now, America is losing the clean energy race to other countries around the world. We need a positive environment for investment. There are existing resources and technologies to change that status quo and meet energy and environmental challenges at the same time. America cannot continue to wait.”
A recent article by Robert Lahey points out that while the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act designated $36.7 billion to the Department of Energy, only $4.5 billion has been spent thus far, and the majority has not gone to clean technology companies. A loan guarantee program with $3.9 billion in funding remains 99% unawarded, and can be leveraged to support $34 billion in loans to equipment manufacturers, technology providers, and project developers. The potential exists for progress to be made with these funds, but many factors are contributing to long delays, from drawn out environmental studies to lobbyist restrictions to rigorous credit requirements. Progress is slow, but the long-term impact has the potential to be a game changer for renewable energy development.
The American Energy Innovation Council launched this month to promote the development of clean energy technologies in the US. Headed by Microsoft’s Bill Gates and other top corporate leaders, their mission is “to foster strong economic growth, create jobs in new industries, and reestablish America’s energy technology leadership through robust, public investments in the development of world-changing energy technologies.” The Council has laid out five specific recommendations to achieve these goals.
- Create an independent national Energy Strategy Board
- Invest $16 billion per year in clean energy innovation
- Create Centers of Excellence with strong domain expertise
- Fund ARPA-E at $1 billion per year
- Establish and fund a New Energy Challenge Program to build large-scale pilot projects
To read more about the AEIC, click here.
The US EPA came out with a study this week showing the financial feasibility of transitioning to renewable energy sources for the average American family. According to the analysis cited in Renewable Energy World, a small investment of between $79 to $146 annually per household can meet the clean energy development goals of the American Power Act (sponsored by Senators John Kerry and Joe Lieberman). Furthermore, the energy efficiency improvements resulting from these changes should lead to lower energy bills over the next two decades. Additional benefits include a reduction in our dependence on foreign oil, job creation for the clean energy economy, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
A recent article in Renewable Energy World explores the notion of biogas as the Cinderella of renewable energy. It cleverly points out the image of biogas being overshadowed by the glitzy and glamorous technologies of solar and wind. However, with the right combination of legislation, the initiation of source separated organics programs, and incentives, biogas from anaerobic digestion could be ready to step into the spotlight. As President Obama pointed out, “the nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy.” Hopefully as time goes on, biogas from anaerobic digestion will be an integral part of our nation’s path toward energy independence from fossil fuels. To read the full article, please click here.
The explosion and consequent oil spill of the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico has the potential to become a “massive and potentially unprecedented environmental disaster” according to President Obama. In spite of this incident’s vast and devastating environmental impact, our nation has an opportunity to achieve a positive result from the situation – increased support for efforts on the renewable energy front. As a recent article in Daily Finance points out, “the worse-case scenario for deep-sea oil drilling makes renewable alternatives look that much better by comparison.” Governors in coastal states, such as Florida Governor Charlie Crist and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, have withdrawn support for additional offshore drilling, which could lead to more opportunities for emerging renewable technologies including biogas from anaerobic digestion. Only time will tell how this spill will impact the future of energy generation in our country, but as Ron Pernick of research firm Clean Edge says, “it has the potential to be a symbolic turning point.”
