Energy Secretary Chu stresses need to combat climate change

Ethanol Producer Magazine | July 2009
By Erin Voegele
Report posted July 2, 2009, at 8:44 a.m. CST

U.S. DOE Secretary of Energy Steven Chu traveled to North Dakota July 1 to announce a local power plant has been selected to receive up to $100 million in Stimulus Package funding to incorporate advanced carbon capture and sequestration technologies.

At the press event, which took place at Bismarck State College’s National Energy Center for Excellence, Chu used the opportunity to provide attendees with an update on climate change and the DOE’s programs that are designed to combat it.

“We have an extraordinary energy challenge before us,” Chu said. “It affects many things.” He said he believes the nation’s economic prosperity is going to be intimately tied to the development of sustainable energy sources and how efficiently we use the energy we produce.

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St. Louis researchers launch algae research

checkbiotech.org
Friday, June 26, 2009
By Susanne Retka Schill

Researchers at two centers in St. Louis are gearing up to launch five-year research programs on algae, backed by U.S. DOE grants. The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center received $15 million and Washington University $20 million from the DOE’s fund for Energy Frontier Research Centers. A total of 46 centers were funded from a pool of some 260 applications.

Danforth’s Center for Advanced Biofuels Systems will be led by Richard Sayre, who also serves as director of the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Institute for Renewable Fuels. Sayre said the new team of researchers will be studying the conversion of energy captured from photosynthesis in the single cell algae and how it is channeled into oil. With algae oil production ranging from 5 percent to 70 percent lipids, the researchers will be working to identify ways to increase oil production. “We’ll take apart the system step by step and develop mechanisms to work around the bottlenecks,” he explained. The researchers hope to identify catalysts and enzymes that could be engineered into the organism to improve oil yields.

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BioEnergy Program Starts at UNBC

Opinion250.com
By 250 News
Tuesday, June 30, 2009 02:31 PM

Prince George, B.C.- A research project aimed at showing the world the benefits of bio energy, has officially started at UNBC.

With half a million dollars from the Federal Government, and a year’s worth of pellets, the project will be the primary heat source for the I.K. Barber Enhanced Forestry Lab.

Currently, the lab pays about 36 thousand dollars a year to heat the building with natural gas. Part of the research will look at the cost savings.

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EPA grants California emissions waiver, clears route for tougher auto standards

Biofuels Digest

In Washington, reaction poured in over the decision of the EPA to grant an emissions waiver request from California, enabling the state to enforce its unique and tougher greenhouse gas emissions standards for new motor vehicles.

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Projected Food, Energy Demands Seen to Outpace Production

University of Wisconsin - Madison
Released: Thu 25-Jun-2009, 15:15 ET

Newswise — With the caloric needs of the planet expected to soar by 50 percent in the next 40 years, planning and investment in global agriculture will become critically important, according a new report released today (June 25).

The report, produced by Deutsche Bank, one of the world's leading global investment banks, in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, provides a framework for investing in sustainable agriculture against a backdrop of massive population growth and escalating demands for food, fiber and fuel.

“We are at a crossroads in terms of our investments in agriculture and what we will need to do to feed the world population by 2050,” says David Zaks, a co-author of the report and a researcher at the Nelson Institute’s Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment.

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Residents React to Ethanol Plant's Controversial CO2 Plan

WHIO Local News
By Mike Ivcic @ June 30, 2009 1:32 PM

GREENVILLE, Ohio - The battle has begun between an area business and its surrounding community over a controversial carbon dioxide proposal.

Residents of Greenville and surrounding towns in Darke County gathered Monday night at the All Seasons Place to protest a proposal from an ethanol plant to inject carbon dioxide waste 3,500 feet below the surface. The plant is located within the Greenville Industrial Park.

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Central Illinoisan spreading the ethanol gospel

Peoria Journal Star
By Steve Tarter of the Journal Star
Posted Jun 29, 2009 @ 11:00 PM

Heyworth woman works with trade group on standards, transport

PEORIA — Kristy Moore is a resident of Heyworth, just south of Bloomington, who travels the country spreading the word about ethanol - behind the scenes, that is.

As director of technical services for the Washington, D.C.-based Renewable Fuels Association, Moore works to make sure ethanol meets exacting specifications as larger quantities of the renewable fuel reach out to new U.S. markets.

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Plenty of Corn for Ethanol

DomesticFuel.com
Posted by Cindy Zimmerman – June 30th, 2009

Many are surprised by the USDA’s planted acreage report out this morning that estimates the second largest corn crop since 1946 at 87.0 million acres, up 1 percent from last year.

USDA grains analyst Jerry Norton says the number was much higher than the trade was expecting. “It’s a big number,” Norton says, especially considering the planting delays in Illinois and Indiana due to wet weather. But, that caused higher prices through May and into early June, “So, even though it was getting late to plant corn it was a strong incentive to plant for producers who could still get it into the ground.”

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Lawmakers visit NREL for clean energy solutions

Environmental-Expert.com
Source: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
Jun. 29, 2009

More than half of the states in the U.S. have embraced renewable energy portfolio standards (RPS). Now comes the hard part — complying with those aggressive mandates and building clean energy economies during the deepest national recession in 70 years.

Two dozen lawmakers and legislative staffers from Maryland to Washington state visited NREL for three days to learn about clean energy technologies and market incentives. They are members of a special non-partisan Advisory Council on Energy for the National Conference of State Legislators.

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A Bright Future For The Renewable Electricity Generation

RedOrbit
Posted on: Monday, 29 June 2009, 09:25 CDT

The Renewable Energy Snapshots are produced by the JRC's Institute for Energy (IE). They provide a concise summary of key trends in renewable electricity for decision makers in industry and government who are currently formulating National Action Plans (NAPs) on renewable energy sources. Member States are to submit these Action Plans by 31 March 2010. The NAPs will incorporate binding targets for renewable electricity generation endorsed by the European Council in March 2007 and included in the EU Climate Change Package, which was backed by the European Parliament on 17 December 2008.

The use of hydropower is not expected to increase beyond its 2005 figure (310 TWh), as the majority of large hydro resources are already utilised in Europe. Furthermore, increasing demand for water, partly due to changing weather patterns, may reduce the amount available for electricity generation in the future.

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