Posts Tagged by biofuels
Ending Subsidies for Nuclear Power
| April 14, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Nuclear |
We speak often about ending the subsidies for Big Oil, in an effort to create a level playing field for renewable energy, and simply to stop transferring wealth from the U.S. tax-payer to the captains of the most profitable industry on Earth. And the discussion is heating up even further, now that America is $15 trillion in debt.
Here’s an article that points out that the federal government has spent more than $95 billion (in 2011 dollars) on nuclear energy research and development (R&D). That is more than four times the amount spent on solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, biofuels, and hydropower combined.
Its authors note:
Many in Congress talk of getting big government off the back of private industry. Here’s an industry we’d like to get off the backs of the taxpayers. …..One thing we strongly agree on is the need to end wasteful subsidies that prop up the nuclear industry. After 60 years, this industry should not require continued and massive corporate welfare. It is time for the nuclear power industry to stand on its own two feet.
Is Renewable Energy Growing Stronger? It Depends on How You Look At It
| April 9, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
EVWorld has a wonderfully encouraging article on renewables that begins:
Pop quiz time. The fastest growing energy sector in terms of percentage of growth in the United States between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2011 was: A) natural gas, B) nuclear power, C) renewable energy?
The answer is C, renewable energy (RE) by a huge margin. According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA), RE grew by 27.12%. That includes biofuels, biomass, geothermal, solar, water, and wind. By comparison, natural gas production increased 13.66%, while crude oil grew 14.27%. Nuclear power, in contrast, shrunk 1.99% and coal dropped 7.16%.
All true, but one can find different facts that would support a different conclusion. E.g., under 5% of the U.S. grid mix is renewable energy (if you don’t count hydroelectric dams), so talking about percent growth of this small number may not be the most relevant stat.
Windfuels — A Real Approach to the World Energy Picture
| March 28, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Biofuels |
I’m proud to call Dr. David Doty a friend; he’s a man with a great heart, as well as an even greater intellect — and I eagerly learn like a sponge when I’m around him. But I also try to supply advice where I think I can add value, which is on the business side.
Windfuels, Dr. Doty’s concept of synthesizing high-quality gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel from off-peak wind energy, is his primary focus at this point in his career. This is an enterprise for which he’ll need investors to come on board to support the construction of pilot plants of increasing sizes, along the way to scaling Windfuels to massive proportions. But what sort of people should these investors be? Read More
From Guest Blogger Brian McGowan: Biofuel Tax Credit
| March 28, 2012 | Posted by Brian McGowan under Biofuels |
Today I got my taxes done and for the first time since I have started experimenting with and doing projects with alternate/renewable energy and energy efficiency I was finally able to take a tax credit for something I was doing.
I got laid off a year ago in February. At the end of July I started doing contract programming of AV control systems out of my house. This involved travelling to locations to install and test the code to see that it was working properly. For about 4 years now I have been driving a diesel Mercedes on 100% biodiesel, which I purchase out of a pump at a station a short distance from my house. I used this car for all the travel I did last year for this business. I joked with the tax person as to whether or not I was qualified for any kind of credit for this. I know there is a producers credit and I thought I had heard about a business user’s credit and sure enough he found it. By the time I calculated it down I had used 90 gallons of biodiesel for my business travels. The federal credit was $1.00/gallon so I got a credit of $90.00. For all of the experiments and projects I do I was very happy to finally be able to take any kind of tax benefit for something I was doing. It was small but it is something.
I have an all or nothing feeling about tax credits for biofuels and renewables in general. Either renewables should enjoy an equal dollar amount of benefits as non-renewables or there should be no tax benefits for any kind of energy. However, since this is here, I am taking it. That $90.00 will buy what I need to build another solar air heater.
Brian McGowan
http://home.comcast.net/~bigvid
Doty Windfuels at the American Chemical Society Conference
| March 24, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Biofuels |
Tomorrow I’m renting a car and heading south, through Los Angeles on my way to San Diego, for my work Monday and Tuesday with Doty Windfuels at the American Chemical Society Conference. I mention Los Angeles, as I plan to stop for dinner near the airport with my colleague Marc Rappaport of biofuels fame. Though we’ve spoken on the phone dozens of times about several different projects in the space, this will be the first time I’ll have the pleasure of meeting Marc in person.
Ironically, the core driver of this trip, promoting Doty WindFuels, is rooted in Dr. Doty’s conviction that the entire biofuel industry is flawed, and that synthetic fuels (manufactured with off-peak wind power, water, and CO2) offer the most feasible solution to carbon-neutral energy.
I guess we’ll see how this shakes out.
2GreenEnergy at the 2012 Cleantech Forum
| March 16, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
I plan to attend the last day (Wednesday, March 28th) of the 10th Cleantech Forum, to be held in San Francisco. The show does a great job in pulling together cleantech innovators, investors, corporate leaders and policy-makers from around the world. It’s always great to meet new people at the top of the field, and learn about the technologies that are shaping our future.
As the name suggests, there’s more to this than clean energy per se: energy efficiency, water, biofuels, electric vehicles, smart grid, etc.
If you happen to be in the Bay Area that day, please let me know, and let’s meet for a cup of coffee.
Video: The Pros and Cons of Biomass
| March 7, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Biomass |
Here’s another part of our series for newcomers to the subject of renewable energy — this one on biomass. I provide a few thoughts on how it offers the potential to provide carbon-neutral renewable energy and biofuels.
From Guest-Blogger Joshua Okomo: Fuel Farming Is a Global Reality
| February 5, 2012 | Posted by okomo under Biomass |
Farming energy is a global reality. While biomass fuel wood is still the energy of peasants, used by nearly 2 billion people living on the planet earth, biological fuel is rapidly becoming popular in the developed countries. Modern agriculture is for food, industrial raw materials for manufacturing consumer goods, biological fuel feed stock and biomass for cogeneration. Read More
We Hail from a Long Line of Alternative Fueled Vehicles
| November 28, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
A quick reminder that we come from a long line of alternative fueled vehicles: It’s the 116th anniversary of the first automobile race in the United States. 89 had entered, but only six actually started, of which half were electric cars. And, as noted in the biofuels section of our History of Renewables piece, Henry Ford built the Model T to run on ethanol.
Arundo Donax – One of the Diverse Feedstocks Used To Create Biofuels
| November 7, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Biomass |
A reader wrote in with a question about his plans to get in the ethanol business, using a certain feedstock in which he’s an expert. Indeed, one of the most interesting things about biofuels is the enormous diversity of feedstocks.
The plant pictured here, Arundo donax, a type of cane that is highly prized for its growth rate, and the diversity of soils and climates in which it grows. But the energy density of all terrestrial plants is at least 30 times less than algae, which is the main reason for the interest in the latter.
