Vehicles – Vegetable oil
Clean Energy Car Show, June 20-22, Custer, WI
From the just-released program for The Energy Fair in Custer, Wisconsin (just outside of Stevens Point), June 20-22:
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Clean Energy Car Show
A popular part of the Energy Fair, the Clean Energy Car Show will be back for its fourth year. The Car Show, sponsored by Toyota, will feature sustainable transportation options though exhibits, workshops and demonstration vehicles. Example workshops include Sustainable Transportation Technologies, Biofuels 101, and Reacquaint Yourself with Your Bike.
State to start issuing energy grants, loans
From an article by Rick Barrett in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Businesses and researchers may soon apply for state grants and loans aimed at developing renewable energy, Gov. Jim Doyle said Tuesday.The state expects to award about $15 million per year for 10 years from the newly created Wisconsin Energy Independence Fund, Doyle said at a news conference at Johnson Controls Inc.The money will be used to support research and development of renewable fuels and encourage businesses to adopt new technologies that save energy and use renewable energy.
Typical grants are expected to range from $100,000 to $500,000. Matching funds of at least 50% of total project costs must come from other sources, according to the state Department of Commerce.
Doyle laid out a long-term strategy that he hopes will make Wisconsin a leader in renewable energy. He repeated his call for the state to generate 25% of its electricity and motor fuels from renewable resources by 2025.
Midwest Ag Energy Network Summit, February 5-6, 2008
From the Midwest Ag Energy Network:
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Next Generation Ag Energy: Policies to Advance Regional Growth
Monona Terrace Community and
Convention Center
Madison, WIJoin other Midwestern ag leaders at the 2nd Annual Midwest Ag Energy Network Summit to learn how to maximize the ability of agricultural producers and local communities to retain the wealth generated by the convergence of renewable energy and agriculture.
Next Generation Ag Energy: Policies to Advance Regional Growth is an opportunity to network and become aware of how farm policy and various Midwest regional networks are propelling Midwest agriculture forward as the prime driver in the next generation of ag energy.
For additional information, call Amanda Bilek at 651-645-6159, x5.
Office issues biofuels construction guide
From the new Wisconsin Office of Energy Independence:
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )APRIL 24, 2007 – MADISON – Judy Ziewacz, Director of the Office of Energy Independence, announced the publication of the state’s first biofuels production guide. The Wisconsin Guide to Building Biofuels Facilities outlines the regulations, permits, and contacts necessary to produce biofuels in Wisconsin.
“If we want renewable fuels in the marketplace, we have to produce the fuel here in Wisconsin. If an oilfield in Mideast is competing against a farm field from the Midwest, that’s a very good thing for the environment, for our economy, and for the state,” Governor Jim Doyle said.
The Office of Energy Independence was created to advance Governor Doyle’s vision on energy policy and to promote the state’s bioindustry.
Governor Doyle’s Declaration of Energy Independence challenges the state to utilize 25 percent electricity and 25 percent transportation fuel from renewable sources by 2025. The Office of Energy Independence is leading Wisconsin toward the goal: Achieving 25 x 25.
The Wisconsin Guide to Building Biofuels Facilities is a tool for prospective producers and is available on line at:
http://power.wisconsin.gov/biofuels.html It provides information on permits, regulations, and agency contacts that are critical for construction and operation of a biofuels facility.
A dissenting point of view on tax credits for flex-fuel vehicles
John Baily, an energy analyst for the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, offers his personal views on Senate Bill 90:
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )I’m writing with a comment on your recent bill introduction SB90 relating to tax credits for flexible fueled vehicles (FFVs) and certain hybrids. I’ve read over the bill quickly and while I support the expansion of hybrids and vehicles that use alternative fuels like E-85 (85 percent ethanol), I don’t think that this bill is the right approach. I assume that your ultimate goal is to expand the use of alternative fuels like E-85, right? Therefore, if you’re going to give a tax credit it needs to be tied to vehicles that actually use E-85 rather than those that are simply CAPABLE of using E-85.
According to the National Ethanol Vehicle Association, there are 68 E-85 pumps in Wisconsin. I’d say that fact makes it fairly difficult for E-85 to be used all the time by these vehicles that would be given a tax credit. In the United States, there are about 5-6 million FFVs capable of using E-85 on the road. The Environmental Protection Agency says that “in 2004, the latest year for which sales information is available, around 34 million gallons of E85 were sold. In comparison, an average of about 200 billion gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel is sold in the U.S. each year.” That’s about 6-7 gallons of E-85 per FFV per year. A large part of the problem is the lack of large numbers of E-85 refueling stations.
I think that your proposal could simply amount to a corporate giveaway with no impact on increasing alternative fuel use unless the tax credit is tied to these vehicles actually demonstrating that they are using alternative fuels.
Energy in the State of the State
From Bush’s State of the State speech:
It is in our vital interest to diversify America’s energy supply — and the way forward is through technology. We must continue changing the way America generates electric power — by even greater use of clean coal technology … solar and wind energy … and clean, safe nuclear power. We need to press on with battery research for plug-in and hybrid vehicles, and expand the use of clean diesel vehicles and biodiesel fuel. We must continue investing in new methods of producing ethanol — using everything from wood chips, to grasses, to agricultural wastes.
We have made a lot of progress, thanks to good policies in Washington and the strong response of the market. Now even more dramatic advances are within reach. Tonight, I ask Congress to join me in pursuing a great goal. Let us build on the work we have done and reduce gasoline usage in the United States by 20 percent in the next ten years — thereby cutting our total imports by the equivalent of three-quarters of all the oil we now import from the Middle East.
To reach this goal, we must increase the supply of alternative fuels, by setting a mandatory Fuels Standard to require 35 billion gallons of renewable and alternative fuels in 2017 — this is nearly five times the current target. At the same time, we need to reform and modernize fuel economy standards for cars the way we did for light trucks — and conserve up to eight and a half billion more gallons of gasoline by 2017.
Achieving these ambitious goals will dramatically reduce our dependence on foreign oil, but will not eliminate it. So as we continue to diversify our fuel supply, we must also step up domestic oil production in environmentally sensitive ways. And to further protect America against severe disruptions to our oil supply, I ask Congress to double the current capacity of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
America is on the verge of technological breakthroughs that will enable us to live our lives less dependent on oil. These technologies will help us become better stewards of the environment — and they will help us to confront the serious challenge of global climate change.
The White House also posted substantially more details on Bush’s plans.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Feedlot, biofuel plant delayed
Nathan Leaf reports in the Wisconsin State Journal on developments with the Belmont project:
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )A large feedlot and biofuel plant planned for northwest Lafayette County has been scaled back and delayed due to environmental concerns from local residents. But Belmont BioAg officials are still confident the project will be a success and are hoping for it to be operational by late next year.
When the project was announced in late 2005, it called for a facility with room for 20,000 cattle. Belmont BioAg president Bob Brodbeck said Monday the initial cost of the project would have been more than $200 million. But now, after considering a recommendation from a citizen advisory committee formed by the company to evaluate the plan, the cost has been reduced to $120 million and the initial herd size will be 2,500 housed in one barn. Brodbeck believes the changes, which includes swapping out an expensive waste incinerator for a lower-cost kiln, will improve the plant’s return on investment.
Former CIA director touts biofuels
RENEW Wisconsin and other renewable energy advocates often stress the importance of developing our own sources of energy. A former CIA director agrees, according to a story by Heidi Clausen in The Country Today:
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )ST. PAUL, MINN. – The figure is startling: The United States borrows $320 billion a year – almost $1 billion a day – to finance its addiction to foreign oil.
Homegrown, renewable fuels are a great way to keep more of that money at home, “so we profit instead of the suicide bombers,” said R. James Woolsey, former Central Intelligence Agency director.
Net farm income in the United States last year was $80 billion, he said.
“If we can replace only one-fourth of our imports of oil at today’s prices with domestically-created fuels … that’s $80 billion. We effectively double net farm income or come close to it,” he said.
Mr. Woolsey discussed energy security Dec. 12 at the first Midwest Agriculture Energy Network Summit in St. Paul. The theme was “Midwest Energy Independence: Taking Ownership.”
Make Wisconsin a biofuels leader
The Wisconsin State Journal ran the following editorial on September 29, 2006:
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )The Legislature’s failure to require most gasoline in Wisconsin to contain 10 percent ethanol remains a glaring void in an otherwise flourishing effort to develop a homegrown biofuels industry.
Lawmakers should correct their mistake next year.Boosting biofuels benefits not only Wisconsin’s energy independence but also its economy and environment.
Valders company expected to propel alternative fuel industry
The a story by Kristopher Wenn in the Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter, September 7, 2006:
Plant expansion will drive bio-diesel production in state
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )VALDERS – A $97,500 state grant given to Quality Roasting Inc., on Wednesday is expected to help the company more than double its capacity to produce soybean oil, a raw material used to produce an alternative fuel.
Quality Roasting sells its soybean oil to refiners that produce bio-diesel, a fuel made from vegetable oils or animal fats. Bio-diesel is often blended with regular diesel fuel and can be used to run farm machinery and diesel-fueled cars and trucks.
State Agriculture Secretary Rod Nilsestuen said the state hopes expansion of the plant would increase the state’s renewable energy sources. Nilsestuen presented the grant during a visit to the plant Wednesday.
« Previous Entries
renewenergyblog.wordpress.com 