Intrepid Commences Major Expansion at Alternative Fuel Plant
Intrepid Technology and Resources, Inc. (IESV) announced that it has ordered the additional eight digester tanks and has begun the excavation work to accommodate the five-fold expansion of their operating Whitesides Biogas Production Plant near Rupert, Idaho. This expansion will take Intrepid's annualized gas production to as high as 95,000 mcf annually, a quantity sufficient to heat 1,000 homes in the Boise, Idaho area.
Kerry’s High-Wattage Energy Plan
BusinessWeek.com discusses John Kerry's plan to increase alternative energy usage for the country. John Kerry's blueprint for energy independence doesn't suffer from lack of ambition. In early August, he'll unveil an energy plan that he says can break America's addiction to foreign oil, revitalize the U.S. auto industry, help farmers and coal miners, fight global warming, and create jobs all for just $2 billion per year. "We can live in an America that is energy independent," Kerry promises.
Campaign for renewable energy begins
Colorado House Speaker Lola Spradley, R-Beulah. and U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, D-Eldorado Springs, co-chairs of Amendment 37—the Renewable Energy Initiative—kicked-off their statewide campaign Thursday with stops throughout Colorado. Amendment 37 would require 10 percent of Colorado's electricity be generated from renewable energy by 2015. The program is scaled beginning with a 3 percent requirement by 2007, 6 percent by 2011, and 10 percent by 2015.
Green Energy Resources Announces New Supply Contracts
Green Energy Resources, Inc. (NYIL) announced today that it has signed a new supply contract with Texas Energy Resource Management. Texas Energy has three locations in Eastern Texas including a chip mill facility in Crockett, a recycling facility in Buna and a recycling facility in Houston. This contract will supply approximately 500,000 tons annually of whole tree wood chips. The chips are exclusively for export to other NYIL customers throughout the EU.
ENER1 to Turn Florida’s Tourism Waste and Citrus Peel Waste into Renewable Energy
ENER1 INC (ENEI) announced that it had received an award of $550,000 from the Florida Hydrogen Initiative to develop a renewable energy source that will power a rest area on an interstate highway. ENER1's 10 Kilowatt (KW) fuel-cell based energy source uses methanol created from Florida's two largest industries food waste from theme parks and orange peels from citrus processing. The project, known as the HyTech Rest Area, is an example of Florida's commitment to developing its hydrogen infrastructure. To be completed in 18 months, it will provide not only a demonstration and test-bed for the technology,...
Vagrants on the Earth: Implications of Topsoil Loss
“When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you; you will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth.” -Genesis 4:12*
In 1970, an agronomist named Norman Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He advocated hybridization of grains for higher crop yields, ushering in a new era of industrialized agriculture. The Nobel Committee recognized Borlaug’s work as instrumental in saving a billion people from starvation. Unfortunately, intensive farming that is part and parcel of the industry may be fostering an acceleration of another big problem. Unsolved it could leave humanity wandering like vagrants on the earth…with very empty bellies.
Topsoil...
China and Green Energy Resources Open Renewable Energy Talks
Green Energy Resources, Inc. (GRGR) announced it has met with Chinese government ministers to discuss Renewable Energy. Negotiations were led by Mr. Andrew Tong of Green Energy Resources China office. China enacted a new Renewable Energy law in March, and signed the international Kyoto Treaty. Discussions center on a 10 year, 250 million ton deal to deliver wood biomass for Co-firing to China. Green Energy Resources would buy 10 woodchip ships built and manufactured in China valued around $350 million dollars, and provide shipping lease back options to the Chinese government in the future.
Casella Waste Systems: Cheap Enough to Recycle?
by Debra Fiakas CFA Solid waste has been one of the business types that has a natural hedge against macroeconomic distress. No matter how bad things get, as long as our neighbors draw breath there will be trash to handle. Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (CWST: Nasdaq) sits in the shadow of larger waste handlers such as Waste Management (WM: NYSE) and Republic Services (RSG: NYSE). Consequently, it is often passed over by investors despite a significantly better profit margin. One of the reasons investors might not take Casella seriously is its history of net losses. However, the...
Capstone Introduces a New Generation of MicroTurbine Energy Systems
Capstone Turbine Corp (CPTC) announced that next month the company will begin shipping an enhanced line of 65-kilowatt microturbine models that will replace its popular C60 series of power and heat generators. The new natural gas fueled C65 and C65-ICHP (with factory-integrated heat recovery) will deliver higher electrical and thermal output without any change to the product's weight and dimensions, which are much lighter and more compact than similar capacity generators. This reduces footprint requirements and enables greater flexibility in indoor, outdoor and rooftop setting. Capstone also released news that the new C65 model will also...
Investing In Wood Pellets, Part I
Last week, I mentioned that I had attended a conference focused on opportunities in the biomass and bioenergy sectors. One of the article ideas I got from this conference was on the emerging market for wood pellets (tightly packed sawdust and other wood shavings) for heat and electricity. How interesting that, over the weekend, the magazine Science published an article suggesting that the US should ramp up its use of wood for small-scale heat and electricity production (the article is not available free of charge but you can find a summary here). The Wood (Pellet) Advantage It...
RCAI Signs New Exclusive Distributorship Agreement with Topia Energy for Biodiesel
Reclamation Consulting and Applications Inc (RCAA) announced that it has signed a new Exclusive Distributorship Agreement with Topia Energy, Inc. for the sale and distribution of biodiesel. Ottawa-based Topia Energy, Inc. is Canada's largest commercial producer and supplier of biodiesel fuel oils with production capabilities throughout North America. Biodiesel is the only fuel to be classified as entirely non-toxic; it biodegrades faster than sugar, is ten times less toxic than table salt and produces exhaust that some say smell like popcorn or French fries.
The Great Algae Flour Fight: Solazyme Wins Again
Jim Lane
After the bizarre attempted heist detailed in The Great Algae Robbery, Roquette tries the US courts but comes up short, in its quest to get a hold of Solazyme’s (SZYM) algae tech.
On a slow news day just before Christmas, those of us on the industrial biotechnology beat have no need to stop by the firehouse to ask if there is a breaking story to report, because we always have the lively docket of Judge Sue Robinson, Federal District Judge for the District of Delaware.
This Christmas she did not fail us, for in our Christmas news stocking is a...
New Hampshire Begins Coal Switch to Biomass
After its official groundbreaking, the Northern Wood Power Project, New Hampshire's first non-hydro, commercial-scale renewable energy project, is now underway at the Schiller Station in Portsmouth. The US$75 million project, developed by Public Service of New Hampshire (PSNH), will replace a 50 MW coal-fired boiler with a new boiler of equal size that will burn wood chips and other clean wood products. In addition to creating a market for woodchips from the state's many logging operations, the facility will become a major regional contributor of renewable energy.
With Oil Price Drop, Ceres Looks To Food
by Debra Fiakas CFA Last week Brazilian agriculture technology developer Ceres (CERE: Nasdaq) made formal plans to shift its focus to seed traits and the food and feed markets and away from energy. Ceres is not abandoning biofuels as such, but with oil prices at historic low levels, it is not economic enough to justify working capital not to mention new investments. The company is restructuring operations and reducing personnel in both its U.S. and Brazilian operations. Ceres management estimates the changes will save between $6 million and $8 million next year. The question investors need to...
Environmental Power Corporation’s Subsidiary Signs Joint Business Development Agreement with Applied LNG Technologies
Environmental Power Corp (EPG) announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Microgy, Inc. has entered into agreement with Applied LNG Technologies USA, Inc. , for the development of biogas-supplied LNG projects in California. The Agreement provides that Microgy and ALT (http://www.altlngusa.com) will cooperate to identify, evaluate and develop projects, principally in California, that combine Microgy's anaerobic digestion technology, which extracts methane-rich biogas from animal waste, and ALT's LNG transport and distribution technology.
Intrepid Technology Installs First of A Kind Alternative Energy System
Intrepid Technology and Resources, Inc. (IESV) has begun the final stages of construction on ITR's methane gas refinery located near Rupert, Idaho with the arrival today of the twin 35,000 gallon steel digester tanks. ITR notes that the system, a first of its kind, has generated considerable interest within the dairy and livestock industry nationwide. This reinforces the belief that demand for the proprietary anaerobic digester systems will remain robust; especially as abundant and reliable new energy sources are needed globally.
