Three reasons to build green

Found a great article on a LEED home -


Our family recently built a new home on the edge of Downtown. I had known from the beginning that I wanted to pursue LEED Certification. LEED is an acronym for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a rating system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council to define and measure “green” buildings. LEED for Homes is a national, voluntary certification system that promotes the design and construction of high-performance green homes and encourages the adoption of sustainable practices by the homebuilding industry.

Personally, I had been researching healthy building materials, appliances and fixtures, and was well-versed in energy efficiency and renewable energy from my work with a solar energy company.  I didn’t need to hire a consultant to help me wade through all these decisions; I wanted to figure it all out for myself. We were going to have a green home. But pursuing LEED Certification, I quickly discovered, requires a little more effort. So why, many would ask me, would I want to incur that extra time and expense? My answer is threefold.  

First, the LEED rating system helped tremendously to guide us along the path toward building a sustainable home. Its 342-page reference manual provides green building strategies in five key categories: sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality. The rating system itself is a gold mine for any builder or remodeler to learn more about building high-quality, durable homes.

Second, LEED certification requires third party verification. This means that we needed a “Green Rater,” who came to the site, twice: first, to inspect the insulation (pre-dry wall, post-insulation); second, to test the leakage of the entire building envelope, duct system and air flow. These tests were inexpensive relative to the entire cost of the building, and it was more than worth it to have the peace of mind that the house was actually built to specification (our builder agreed to pay for the tests, since they get the credit for building a LEED-certified home). 

Third, and most importantly, we get to continue to benefit from living in this home. The way I look at it, there are only three reasons to go green: to save money, to improve our health and to feel good about doing the right thing. How did these three things play out? So far, so good.


Saving green 

Our green rater had predicted our energy consumption to be 35 percent of the “standard” reference home, a similar-sized home built to code. That means our utility bills would be 65 percent less than if we had not built a LEED home. (An Energy Star-rated Home, for which we also qualify, typically saves 15–20 percent.) Since we moved into our new home in February 2009, we now have almost two year’s worth of utility bills to compare against the planned design. And they are coming in right on target — actually slightly lower than predicted!  

Our water bills are lower, too. We have dual flush toilets, our landscaping is irrigated with ground water (which is plentiful on our property) and we applied for and received a storm-water credit on our water/sewer bill for diverting most of the rainwater away from the storm water sewage system. 


Improving health 

Clean water and air are truly the necessities of life. Many building products and materials — such as paints, finishes, sealants and adhesives — off-gas for a period of time, causing respiratory illnesses and headaches for the people installing them as well as for the homeowners. LEED for Homes addresses the issue of indoor air quality by giving credit to products with no added urea formaldehyde and products with no or low volatile organic compounds (VOCs). It also requires that the home has adequate air ventilation, filters and fresh air circulation — so as we live in the house, we continue to breathe clean air. (The EPA estimates that indoor air quality is two to five times worse than outdoor air quality, and people spend 90 percent of their time indoors!) We added to this “healthy home” concept by adding a whole-house water filtration system to remove all the contaminants. Now I can breathe easier, knowing that my daughters are not absorbing chlorine into their skin every time they take a bath. Since our drinking water is R.O. (reverse osmosis) filtered, we never buy bottled water — helping to reduce that waste stream. And since we cook with and drink water every day, I viewed this as one of the primary components of a healthy home.


Feeling good 

Let’s face it — building a new home is not the most environmentally-friendly thing a person can do.  There is construction waste, harvesting or mining and manufacturing of natural resources, transportation for all the construction workers to and from the site, the list goes on. At the same time, we are all trying to do the best we can. What can we do, as individuals, to help save the planet?  Trying to live sustainably in our culture today is hard. It is inconvenient and often costs more money. But if we start with the intention to become more sustainable, each of us can make a difference.  And we need to feel like we are part of the solution, not part of the problem. So to me,  building a LEED-certified home is a good start. And it does feel good.
Source

Read more »

Veolia earns LEED certification

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has awarded LEED certification to Veolia Environmental Services Solid Waste for a new building at its Veolia Evergreen Landfill, Inc. in Valdosta, Ga. The LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System^TM is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings. This is the first LEED-certified building constructed in Valdosta, Ga.

“As part of our commitment to developing sustainable, environmentally friendly solutions for the city of Valdosta and Lowndes County, we intentionally pursued LEED certification standards in the development of our new building,” said AJ Rodgers, area manager for Veolia ES Solid Waste Southeast, Inc. “As a result, we expect to see lower operating costs, increased efficiencies, and a healthier work environment for our employees.”

The Veolia building was designed to achieve LEED certification for energy use, lighting, water, and material use, and also incorporated a variety of other sustainable strategies. Certification was based on a number of green design and construction features, including:

• Being 28 percent more energy efficient than a similar non-LEED design building.
• Operating with 35 percent more water efficiency than a similar non-LEED design building.
• Diverting 75 percent of all waste and construction scrap generated by construction to a recycling facility for re-manufacturing or re-use.
• Using 10 percent of building material that contains post and pre-consumer recycled content.
• Utilizing 44 percent of all building materials that were extracted and manufactured locally.

“Buildings are a prime example of how human systems integrate with natural systems,” said Denise Grabowkski, chair of USGBC's Georgia Chapter. “The Veolia project efficiently uses our natural resources and makes an immediate, positive impact on our planet, which will tremendously benefit future generations to come.”

Veolia’s new building will be used as a scale house for weighing all waste streams entering the Evergreen Landfill, and as an on-site administrative office.

LEED certification is an important element of Veolia’s own sustainability strategy. The company recently celebrated the LEED certification of its North American headquarters office in downtown Chicago’s Aon Building. That project was awarded Gold Level LEED certification in June 2010.

Veolia ES Solid Waste, Inc. operates 72 collection facilities and 29 solid waste sanitary landfill facilities in North America.

Source: 

Read more »

Taking the LEED

In the latest effort to encourage construction of high-density, environmentally sustainable, affordable rental housing, the Asheville City Council approved a new “transformation development” incentives policy March 8 on a 6-1 vote.

The policy implements a points system: 10 points exempts the developer from a year’s worth of property taxes and grants a 10 percent reduction in permit and fee charges. One way to score points is via Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification: LEED Bronze would be good for 10 points, each higher level would score an additional 10 points, with a maximum of 40 for Platinum. (The U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED program rates buildings based on specific performance criteria.)

Developers can also score 10 points for every 10 percent of a project’s units whose rents are considered affordable for someone earning up to 80 percent of the median household income for the area, with a maximum of 40 points for 40 percent affordable housing.

And creating work-force rental housing (affordable to someone earning up to 120 percent of the median household income) can be worth as much as 15 points (for a project featuring 75 percent work-force units).

Council members approved a similar policy back in November but delayed implementation while staff sought information from the Sustainability Advisory Committee on Energy and the Environment and presented the plan to groups including the Council of Independent Business Owners, the Downtown Commission and the Coalition of Asheville Neighborhoods. According to staff, both CIBO and the Downtown Commission urged a less restrictive policy, while CAN wanted it to be more restrictive and more attuned to Council’s goal of promoting environmentally sustainable, affordable housing.

Making a motion to approve the measure, Vice Mayor Brownie Newman said it would clarify the kind of development Council members would like to see, calling the language in the November ordinance “pretty subjective and sort of hard to measure.”

Council member Bill Russell cast the lone opposing vote, declaring, “There is no transformational new aspect” to the policy. Council, he asserted, was simply responding to environmental interests. Council member Jan Davis voiced a similar concern, observing, “There’s some tail wagging the dog here.” Davis ultimately supported the motion, however, on the condition that Council revisit the policy in a year to assess its effectiveness.

Pawns in their game

Also on the agenda was an ordinance that would require pawnbrokers and other dealers in secondhand goods to electronically report all purchases from customers to local law enforcement within 48 hours of the transaction. Currently, pawnbrokers must submit such information daily, and law enforcement picks up the paper records each workday. The new ordinance would also apply to businesses such as antique stores and used-record shops. Garage sales, flea markets and nonprofit thrift stores that accept donations would not be affected.

Some local business owners expressed various concerns. Many said they don’t have a computer or Internet access, which would be required to submit the information electronically. A number of antique dealers said they rarely buy anything from people coming into the store, acquiring most of their goods from estate and garage sales. Others wondered how consignments would be handled.

Several pawnbrokers spoke in favor of the measure, however, saying it would close a loophole that enables criminals to unload stolen property by selling it to secondhand stores, which the current ordinance doesn’t regulate.

Council members postponed a vote until April 26 to allow time for gathering more feedback from business owners and fine-tuning the ordinance.

Do the right-of-way thing

Council also delayed action (until its April 12 meeting) on a proposed right-of-way closure related to the Montford Commons development after Dana Parker expressed concern about losing access to her 0.15 acre parcel. The city can’t legally remove access to a property without ensuring that other access is available. Staff said there is another right of way, but several Council members worried that it might be inferior to the access Parker has now and, lacking that information, were reluctant to proceed.

No fiber for Asheville

In other business, City Council:
• Approved a resolution opposing proposed state legislation that would prohibit local governments from providing subsidies for broadband Internet access. The bill would rule out any public/private partnerships involving broadband — taking Asheville out of the running for the Google Fiber experimental broadband project. Cities nationwide are competing to be chosen as Google’s partner in bringing residents Internet access exceeding 1 gigabit per second — about 100 times as fast as most Americans’ broadband connections.
• Postponed a decision on the number of early voting sites for this year’s city elections. A motion by Russell to reduce the number of early voting sites from five to one was defeated 3-4, with Mayor Terry Bellamy and Davis joining Russell on the short end. Council will revisit the measure April 12 after determining the cost of such sites.
• Received its second-quarter budget update. The city’s tax base grew by only 0.7 percent, the slowest growth rate in a decade. For this fiscal year, revenues are projected to fall short by $1.2 million, due mostly to poor performance by the city’s investment portfolio.
• Heard an update from James Baudoin, executive director/project manager for the Asheville Area Center for the Performing Arts, on the facility proposed for The Block, the historically African-American business district adjacent to City/County Plaza. Tentative plans call for a 2,000-seat theater, a multipurpose rehearsal room and a 200-seat black-box theater. The target date for starting construction is sometime in 2013.

Source

City Power and Gas

Read more »

Procter & Gamble commits to LEED certification for new plants

P&G says that it will strive to certify all new production facilities according to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certifcation standards.

P&G executives performed a ground breaking ceremony to start the construction process in Taicang last week, and the company says that all other future production facilities worldwide will also be constructed according to the standard.

“Pursuing LEED certification for all new sites including offices, innovation center and our manufacturing and distribution centers is the next evolution in our facility eco-design process that will ensure excellence in sustainable design,”said Keith Harrison, P&G global product suppler officer.

LEED was established by the US Green Building Council, which is based in Washington D.C., and has gained significant momentum in recent years, particularly as major corporations such as P&G make increasingly significant commitments to CSR programs and sustainability issues.

LEED focuses on eco-friendly construction

LEED runs an internationally recognized certification program that aims to improve aspects future building projects such as energy use and water consumption, as well as reducing C02 emissions and incorporating design that minimizes the environmental impact.

In line with these principles P&G is aiming to incorporate the certification process into the design of future production facilities in an effort to focus on water, energy and waste management processes that are integral to all of its manufacturing.

These efforts will see future production facilities designed to incorporate the re-use of water while minimizing water consumption through strategies such as recovering stream condensate for domestic water and reusing rainwater to replenish landscaping water.

Minimizing waste as well as water and energy use

Energy saving measures will include a solar-powered exterior lighting system and high efficiency mechanical systems, while the company says that waste enhancement will be focused on recycling efforts aimed at achieving zero landfill disposal.

P&G says that all new production facilities in the US will continue to be built according to national construction standards while meeting the LEED certification requirements.

Meanwhile, international construction projects will follow the same certification process, while respecting the construction standards specific to those countries.

Source

City Power & Gas

Read more »

IBM Buys Tririga for Smarter Building Software

IBM will use Tririga for its smarter buildings initiatives, and IBM said in a release that it estimates its Smarter Planets project — which includes its Smarter Buildings products — will generate $10 billion in revenue by 2015. Buildings consume 40 percent of the energy in the U.S., and estimates indicate up to half is wasted in one form or another. The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy predicts efficiency upgrades in commercial and industrial buildings could represent a $250 billion market over the next decade.

Smarter building software is a crowded market filled with large players including, Honeywell, Johnson Controls, Siemens, Schneider Electric and even Cisco, as well as innovative startups including Scientific Conservation, Building IQ, Incenergy, Advanced Telemetry, Cimetrics and Retroficiency.

IBM’s software-centric approach differs from that of, say, Cisco, which has rolled out a Building Mediator product to interface with multiple building management systems and tie them together using Internet protocol (IP). IBM’s Smarter Building Solution software product is “essentially a smart building in a box,” as Rich Lechner, IBM’s VP of energy and environment, explained to us last year, brought together in an enterprise-wide platform through its so-called Maximo energy optimization offering.

IBM has been working on beefing up its smarter building tools for a while through partnerships, too. Back in late 2010, IBM announced a new partnership with building automation vendor Schneider Electric, similar to its partnerships with Johnson Controls and Honeywell. An example of a project from IBM’s work with Schneider is the Bryant University campus in Rhode Island, where IBM and Schneider started on a data center efficiency project, but then expanded it to the entire campus, yielding an overall 15-percent drop in power use.

Tririga is an 11-year-old company that says it has 700 customers, including Nokia, GE, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Gap

Source

City Power and Gas

Read more »

Oil Hovers Above $102

Oil prices hovered above $102 a barrel Tuesday as traders mulled how long Libyan oil exports will remain shut down after a third night of allied attacks on forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi.

By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for April delivery was down 16 cents to $102.17 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The April contract, which expires Tuesday, rose $1.26 to settle at $102.33 on Monday.

Fierce fighting during the last month has halted most of Libya's 1.6 million barrels a day of crude production, and investors are concerned coalition military intervention on the side of rebels could prolong the shutdown of oil output from the OPEC nation.In London, Brent crude for May delivery was down 25 cents at $114.71 a barrel on the ICE futures exchange.

Goldman Sachs estimates that about $10 has been added to the price of oil from speculation that political unrest in the Middle East could spread to other countries and disrupt oil supplies

"These developments suggest that the $10 a barrel risk premium may prove too modest," Goldman Sachs said in a report.

Over the medium term, high oil prices could slow economic growth which in turn would reduce demand for oil, lowering the price, the bank said.

Other analysts, however, said the loss of Libyan oil output was already included in the current price range and, coupled with expectations of softer demand from Japan, could see prices slip.

"Short-term, we suspect that the crude oil market is somewhat overextended here, as the fighting in Libya will lose its ability to spark the market higher," said Edward Meir at MF Global in New York. "For all practical purposes, investors have reconciled themselves with the fact not much oil will be flowing out of Libya anytime soon."

Elsewhere, three senior Yemeni army commanders defected and joined a pro-democracy movement that wants the U.S.-backed president to step down while protesters in Syria clashed with riot police.

"Oil markets will likely not be that fazed by developments there, as Yemen is a relatively small producer, with production of about 300,000 barrels per day," Meir said.

The American Petroleum Institute will release its report on oil stocks later Tuesday, while the report from the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration — the market benchmark — will be out on Wednesday.Markets are also on the watch for fresh figures on U.S. oil stockpiles.

Data for the week ending March 18 is expected to show a build of 2 million barrels in crude oil stocks and a draw of 2 million barrels in gasoline stocks, according to a survey of analysts by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

In other Nymex trading for April contracts, heating oil fell 0.22 cent to $3.0503 a gallon and gasoline slid 0.68 cent to $2.9906 a gallon. Natural gas gained 3.9 cent to $4.20 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Source

City Power and Gas

Read more »

A conversation with the CEO

I just got off the phone with  a customer who had been solicited by numerous ESCO’s over the past few months  and she wanted more information on just what exactly the Retail Choice, Power your way, Power Move, ESCO program and the many other names our industry goes by. To be honest I have this same conversation with someone at least every few days and I always give the same response.

Think of it like this, you go into Nordstrom’s to buy a jacket, you find the one you want and the price tag is $500. You come to terms with paying that much for a jacket and bring it up to the cashier. The cashier then asks you “Would you like to pay the retail price $500 or the sale price $450”? Now being the jaded New Yorker that you are you ask “What do I do to get the sale price” and the person responds “Nothing, just tell me and I will give you the sale price”.

This is a perfect example of the core of what ESCO’s do, we give you the exact same product for less. Obviously they are other services and price plans that we offer but the nuts and bolts of our industry are just as simple as that. Either pay the Utility price or the discount price.

Later I will blog about another great question I get on a regular basis. “How does my gas know how to get to my house”?

Read more »

ESCO's NYC

This afternoon we will be publishing a blog on the importance of having ESCO's here in NYC and why you should choose one.

Read more »

Seeking Wind Power Innovation: Europe's Largest Wind Turbine Test Facility Now Open

Early last month, an innovative new wind turbine prototype testing and certification site, the largest of its kind anywhere in Europe, opened its doors for business.

Located on the leafy campus of Wageningen University and Research Centre in the Netherlands, Test Site Lelystad is scheduled to start testing the next generation of wind turbines later this month.

Day-to-day management of the purpose-built 3,000-acre site is contracted out to Dutch company Ecofys, which has created a new company called Ecofys Wind Turbine Testing Services (WTTS) especially for the purpose.  Lelystad has already entered into agreements with several wind energy companies eager to make use of its services.  So eager, in fact, that the site is already fully booked for the next seven years.

“The first turbine is expected to be operational by the end of March 2011.  Another seven turbines are expected to follow during the course of 2011, while the last four turbines will be erected in 2012,” says Michiel Müller, Managing Director of Ecofys WTTS and Site Manager at Lelystad.

“In addition several meteorological masts will be erected on the site,” he adds.

The first operational turbine to be tested will come from locally-based outfit STX Windpower, followed by a further batch of turbines from Lagerwey, EWT, Suzlon andLeitwind.

“Finally, some turbines are currently in the last phase of tendering and arrangement.  [These include] turbines from Eneco, Zeshoek and Wageningen UR.  These latter turbines are used for long-term research programs, mainly focused on operation and maintenance strategies,” says Müller.

Testing and Certification

For manufacturers, a key attraction of the site is its ability to offer comprehensive turbine certification and accreditation services.  Earlier this year, Ecofys WTTS inked a collaboration agreement with the German measurement and testing institute windtest grevenbroich gmbh, which enables it to provide the full portfolio of accredited measurement services required for IEC and MEASNET compliance certification.

Before it can make use of the Lelystad facility, each turbine manufacturer must sign a seven-year contract with both Ecofys WTTS and windtest grevenbroich and agree to subject its technology to an extensive testing and measurement program.  

After that, companies may renew the contract and agree to a further testing and measurement program, or leave the site, leaving it open for another company to be contracted.  According to Müller, while some companies focus on type certification - with two or more prototypes being measured - others are interested in more extensive research programmes focusing, for example, on the improvement of blade performance or the investigation of generator modifications.

“In practice, the manufacturers define their own measurement and test programme.  Specific measurement contracts are signed between the turbine manufacturer, Ecofys WTTS and windtest grevenbroich gmbh,” explains Müller.

“According to this contract, met mast(s) are erected, measurement equipment installed and campaigns executed,” he adds.

Technology

Test Site Lelystad can service turbines at any one of twelve different ‘positions,’ six of which can manage prototypes up to a maximum tip height of 200 metres and a further six that can test turbines up to maximum tip height of 150 metres - with an overall combined installed capacity of up to 30 MW. 

Lelystad offers the full range of measurement services required by the IEC for the certification of wind turbine prototypes including wind measurements, site calibration, power performance, power quality, mechanical load and sound emissions testing and grid code certification.  The results of each measurement exercise are subsequently verified by one of the main certification bodies for type certification.

A full site assessment, including the wind regime and the sectors for which certification measurement campaigns are applicable is also available.  The assessment results have been verified using the production of data at wind farms close to the site – where the mean wind speed at a height of 80 metres is assessed at 6.6 m/s.

History

The development of Test Site Lelystad is one of the results of a broader initiative of Wageningen UR and Ecofys parent company Eneco to develop innovations in renewable energy systems, including wind, solar and biomass, at the grounds of Wageningen UR.  This initiative was started some five years ago and was warmly received by the City of Lelystad and the Province of Flevoland.  In the following years the regions ‘zoning plan’ was adjusted to enable the development of such projects.

In early 2011, Eneco asked Ecofys to take over the development of the test site, since it no longer considered developments of this kind to fit within its strategic core.  

“Ecofys has a long history in wind measurements, resource assessments and long lasting relationships with many parties in the wind industry,” says Müller.

“Ecofys founded [the] WTTS [company] to operate and coordinate the site, arrange for all contracts and to provide all required management and measurement services to the turbine manufacturers,” he adds.

On 14 October 2010, all the final financial agreements were reached and the relevant contract was signed, paving the way for construction to begin on the first turbine and access roads.  

“During 2011, road access construction works to all turbine sites will be completed and a glass fibre network will be installed,” says Müller.

Sustainable Energy Systems

For Ecofys, sites like these are a crucial step on the long road to a fully sustainable and renewable global energy system.  According to a recently published Energy Report co-authored by Ecofys and WWF, wind energy will undoubtedly be a main factor in achieving such an energy system by 2050 across the globe.

“We can do this by improving the technologies that are already at hand,” says Manon Janssen, CEO of Ecofys.

For Müller, sites like Lelystad are very important simply because in order to drive wind energy development further and meet increasingly ambitious targets, turbine technology must undergo continual improvement and innovation.

“I think a test site like this is essential for the development of the wind energy sector and consequently for working towards a fully sustainable energy supply,” he says.

Source

City Power and Gas

Read more »

The Brew Barons: Masters of Advanced Fermentation, Driving the Redefinition of Biofuels

They are the new Brew Barons. In an earlier age, they might have been content to make White Lightning, or craft brews. Today their targets are jet fuel, renewable gasoline, renewable diesel, ethanol, a boatload of renewable chemicals, plus feed grains, food oils, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, and more.

One thing is for sure. Based on the advances they are making, anyone who begins a sentence with “biofuels are…” isn’t up on the science. They are too turbulent to be characterized – too fast-moving to be catalogued or pigeon-holed. The nature, potential, and value of biofuels are changing nearly as rapidly as feedstocks in a fermenter.

Who are they? Let’s look at some of the best and the brightest.

LanzaTech

The LanzaTech process increases industrial energy efficiency by capturing waste gases (CO, CO2) and converting them to valuable fuels and chemicals. LanzaTech provides an opportunity to produce large volumes of low carbon fuel and chemicals at low costs using a countries own resources, reducing dependence on foreign imports and GHG footprint.  Simply utilizing the available steel mill waste gases, LanzaTech could produce more than 30 billion gallons of ethanol per year.  This would have a significant impact on the global energy landscape.

Two weeks ago, LanzaTech signed a memorandum of understanding with Posco, a Korean conglomerate with interests in steel, power, energy, engineering and construction, to convert the steel maker’s flue gases to ethanol and other value added products. LanzaTech uses its gas fermentation technology to produce ethanol and also 2,3-Butanediol (2,3-BD), a key building block used to make polymers, plastics and hydrocarbon fuels. It has investment from K1W1 (New Zealand), Khosla Ventures (US) and Qiming Venures (China) as well as funding from the New Zealand and US governments.

LanzaTech CEO Jennifer Holmgren commented, “This means that LanzaTech is now working with 2 of the top 5 global steel manufacturers (some would say the #2/3). From my perspective this shows the traction that the LanzaTech technology is receiving in the market place and the potential impact that our technology is likely to have in the coming years.  We are creating a nice pipeline of commercial projects so that as we get to scale – we don’t do it one commercial production facility at a time but multiple commercial production facilities in parallel with a variety of partners globally.”

In January,  IndianOil and LanzaTech signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on a demonstration of LanzaTech’s proprietary gas fermentation technology collaboration in a technology demonstration at one of the India Oil refineries. that will enable IndianOil to produce fuel grade ethanol.

LS9

The cryptically-named LS9 uses a e.coli-based fermentation to convert of renewable plant biomass into advanced biofuels that are drop-in compatible with the existing infrastructure.  The same technology platform enables the production of a diversity of high-value chemicals.

Last month, LS9 announced the initiation of a second development and commercialization partnership with Procter & Gamble.  This additional partnership draws on LS9’s unique technology to broaden the portfolio of renewable chemicals to be used in P&G’s consumer products. It followed a $30M series D financing round led by BlackRock that came just as the company reached #4 in this year’s 50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy.

In 2010, LS9 announced a major scientific breakthrough that will significantly lower the cost of producing “drop?in” hydrocarbon fuels that are low?carbon, sustainable and compatible with the existing fuel distribution infrastructure. This breakthrough has allowed LS9 to accelerate its technology and demonstrate alkane production at pilot scale.
In the article “Microbial Biosynthesis of Alkanes” published in Science magazine, a team of LS9 scientists announce the discovery of novel genes that, when expressed in E.coli, produce alkanes, the primary hydrocarbon components of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. This discovery is the first description of the genes responsible for alkane biosynthesis and the first example of a single step conversion of sugar to fuel?grade alkanes by an engineered microorganism.

We profile LS9 most recently in “LS9 raises $30M, adds BlackRock – what does it mean?”

Mascoma

The unique technology developed by Mascoma Corporation uses yeast and bacteria that are engineered to produce large quantities of the enzymes necessary to break down the cellulose and ferment the resulting sugars into ethanol.  Combining these two steps (enzymatic digestion and fermentation) significantly reduces costs by eliminating the need for enzyme produced in a separate refinery.  This process, called Consolidated Bioprocessing or “CBP”, will ultimately enable the conversion of the solar energy contained in plants to ethanol in just a few days.

In January, Mascoma announced that Valero Energy  has joined as an investor in the company. Further, Mascoma, Valero, and Mascoma’s operating subsidiary, Frontier Renewable Resources, (jointly owned with J.M. Longyear) have signed a non-binding letter of intent to support the construction of Mascoma’s 40 million gallon cellulosic ethanol plant in Kinross, Michigan.  Groundbreaking on the project is slated for later this year.

Under the terms of the letter of intent, Valero would potentially invest up to $50 million of the equity required to finance the project through Frontier Kinross LLC, a subsidiary of Frontier, and would enter into an off-take agreement for the project’s ethanol production. As further support of the project, Valero will provide project development and construction oversight services.

Frontier will use hardwood pulpwood, which is selectively harvested, naturally regenerated, and is an underutilized, abundant resource in the area surrounding the Kinross biorefinery. Mascoma’s 200,000 gallons of cellulosic ethanol per year demonstration facility in Rome, New York, has demonstrated the viability of the technology over the past two years and sets the stage for the commercial facility.

Mascoma recently announced the acquisition of SunOpta BioProcess Inc. (SBI), a world-leading fiber preparation and pretreatment company, creating a company with comprehensive capabilities for converting non-food cellulose (wood chips, energy crops and organic solid waste) into ethanol and high value co-products. With the addition of SBI and Valero, Mascoma has now covered the entire process of commercializing cellulosic ethanol, from raw materials supply, to pre-processing, through Mascoma’s CBP process and into final distribution.

Novozymes

Novozymes’ core technology for the biofuels industry is enzymes that break down different types of feedstock into fermentable sugars for conversion into ethanol.  Within this area, Novozymes develops solutions for two distinct types of ethanol technology: cellulosic ethanol and starch-based ethanol.

Novozymes cellulosic ethanol work is the largest endeavor the company has ever undertaken, with over 150 scientists dedicated to the effort.  Not only is Novozymes’ developing and offering the leading enzyme solutions for cellulosic ethanol technology, but we have also expanded our research focus into optimizing the pretreatment, hydrolysis and fermentation process steps.

In 2010 Novozymes launched the first commercially viable enzyme for the cellulosic ethanol industry, Cellic® Ctec2.  The 1.8X average performance improvement over a variety of feedstocks is enabling our partners to reach a commercially viable enzyme cost window and overall production costs.  We have also worked with many of our partners to help optimize their process technology in order to lower enzyme use cost and find the right balance in process tradeoffs to lower capital and operating costs.

As the world leader in bioinnovation, Novozymes produces enzymes that optimize the conversion of grains such as corn, barley, wheat and other starch raw materials into ethanol. Unrivalled in their performance and ease of use, our enzymes enable higher yields, faster throughput and lower processing costs. Our tailored solutions – including custom enzyme blends – match the specific needs of our customers’ processes for liquefaction, saccharification, fermentation enhancement, and viscosity reduction.

Novozymes’ enzyme solutions provide robust performance on a wide variety of feedstocks. Cellulosic ethanol employs biomass feedstocks such as corn stover, wheat straw, sugarcane bagasse, woody residues, switchgrass, etc. For starch-based ethanol, the primary feedstocks are corn, barley, wheat, sugarcane, etc.

OPX Biotechnologies

OPXBIO is a Colorado-based company using biotechnology to convert renewable raw materials into biochemicals and biofuels. Applying its proprietary EDGE™ (Efficiency Directed Genome Engineering) technology, it will manufacture bio-based products that are more economical and sustainable than petroleum-based alternatives.

OPXBIO’s first product will be bioacrylic, which will be the chemical equivalent of petroleum-based acrylic, which is currently an $8 billion market that is growing at 4% per year. OPXBIO intends to produce bioacrylic at a lower cost ($0.50/lb) than petroleum-based ($0.65 – 0.75/lb today) and will commercialize bioacrylic through a joint venture with the first plant being operational in 2014.

OPXBIO’s second product is biodiesel, which it is working on through a $6 million grant from the U.S. DOE ARPA-E program. The company is partnered with the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) and Johnson Matthey to biologically produce biodiesel through fermentation from carbon dioxide and renewable hydrogen.

OPXBIO’s EDGE technology allows it to optimize the microbe and bioprocess 1,000 to 5,000 times faster than traditional genome or microbial engineering, and it is extremely robust allowing OPXBIO to work on multiple products and utilize numerous feed stocks.

POET

POET doesn’t get enough attention for its market-leading efforts in deploying enzyme-based cellulosic ethanol. Its 25 Mgy Project LIBERTY complex, which is now scheduled to commence construction in early 2012, awaits the outcome of a loan guarantee application from the DOE. But POET has been a leader in pushing the limits of fermentation technology in first-generation ethanol as well. It can produce up to 3.0 gallons of ethanol per bushel of corn with its proprietary BPX technology. BPX also reduces energy needs for fermentation by 8 to 15 percent compared to other ethanol production processes.

Last month, POET reported that farmers are now allowed to deliver bales of biomass to the company’s storage site in Emmetsburg that will supply the company’s future cellulosic ethanol plant. When operational, the facility will accept 300,000 tons of biomass but for now, area farmers harvested 56,000 tons of corn cobs, leaves, husks and some stalk this fall.

Farmers had been waiting to deliver the biomass to POET while guidelines for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) were finalized. Farmers on last week began completing the application process, and they started delivering bales soon after.

Last August, POET commenced construction of a new 22-acre biomass storage facility that will house up to 23,000 tons of biomass bales. The facility will form part of the Project LIBERTY complex. Meanwhile, potential suppliers of biomass to the plant have received  $100,000 in incentive payments towards establishment of their own harvesting systems. Farmers associated with the POET project will start the collection of a 56,000 ton harvest of corn cobs and light stover, which will be used as feedstock for the Project LIBERTY facility.

The facility will eventually consume 300,000 tons or more of biomass, which according to POET’s released figures could be sustainably harvested from a 468 square-mile area. By contrast, a 100 Mgy corn ethanol plant can be sustained by a 325 square-mile area using POET’s process.

Qteros

Qteros’ CBP platform is based on its broadly protected, feedstock-agnostic micro-organism, the Q Microbe.  Qteros’ near-term feedstock strategy includes corn stover, wet distiller grains (WDGs) and bagasse processed at cellulosic ethanol facilities that are co-located with existing corn and sugarcane ethanol plants. Longer term, Qteros plans to focus its strategy on greenfield facilities processing energy crops (e.g., sorghum and energy cane) which represent the greatest opportunity for global commercial scale production of cellulosic ethanol.

The Q Microbe is one of Qteros’ key competitive advantage as the organism possesses the native ability to hydrolyze a broad array of biomass and efficiently ferment all sugars into ethanol.  As such, Qteros is optimizing a micro-organism with native biological capabilities versus attempting to engineer one from scratch. Specific ethanol-producing attributes of the Q Microbe include: The preferential digestion of oligomeric versus monomeric sugars which significantly reduces pretreatment severity; the natural production all enzymes required to digest biomass; and a natural ability to simultaneously co-ferment all C5 and C6 sugars, thereby streamlining unit operations and reducing costs. Additionally, the Q Microbe is an anaerobic organism which minimizes production-related contamination risks associated with aerobic production processes.

In January, Qteros and Praj Industries announced  a strategic partnership to accelerate commercialization efforts for industrial-scale cellulosic ethanol production.

Under the agreement, Qteros and Praj will collaborate on a highly focused, multi-year development program with the objective of rapidly developing and commercializing Process Design Packages (PDPs) that enable cellulosic ethanol production using Qteros’ Q Microbe-enabled CBP platform and Praj’s technology and expertise in the conversion of biomass to ethanol. This unique licensing model serves to provide both a highly efficient and low-cost solution to the market, while also allowing Qteros and Praj to deploy their capital in an efficient and leveraged manner. Importantly, the companies plan to retrofit Praj’s existing pilot plant in Pune, India with Qteros’ technology platform, which will then become the foundation for accelerated production scaling as part of its commercial planning.

At the same time, Qteros announced that it closed the initial $22 million tranche in its Series C financing, with an undisclosed group of new and existing investors. The completion of this $22M financing is expected to provide sufficient funding to accelerate the Company’s development and commercialization plans.

Solazyme

The company generally shies away from promoting itself as an algal biofuels company, because it focuses its messaging around its products rather than its process – same, by the way, as Budweiser.

Biggest news lately – a partnership with Qantas to develop renewable jet fuels, and the widely-circulated expectation that Solazyme will file its S-1 registration form for an IPO by the end of March.

The Qantas deal? Solazyme announced that it has begun a collaboration with Qantas, to pursue the potential for commercial production of Solazyme’s microbial derived aviation fuel, Solajet, in Australia. This represents the first collaboration in the Asia-Pacific region to explore the use of Solajet in commercial aviation.  There is currently a six billion liter a year demand for aviation fuel in Australia.

Qantas is also working with another US company, Solena, to determine the feasibility of using MSW for production of biojet fuel.

Solazyme’s unique renewable oil production process uses microalgae to convert biomass directly into oil and other biomaterials, a process that takes a matter of days and can be performed in standard commercial fermentation facilities cleanly, quickly, and at low cost and large scale. Its renewable oil and bioproducts technology has manufactured tens of thousands of gallons of oil -  in fact in 2010 alone we will produce approximately 100,000 gallons of oil.  Solazyme’s latest technology breakthrough on tailoring the oil by carbon chain length and saturation offers a distinct advantage to its partners in the fuels and chemicals industry.  The oils that Solazyme produces can act as replacements for fossil petroleum and plant oils and compounds in a diverse range of products from renewable chemicals to cosmetics and food ingredients.

Solazyme made the decision several years ago to grow heterotrophic algae in the dark and harvest renewable oils – and have become the unquestioned leader in the quest to make an integrated biorefinery commercially successful in the production of renewable oils for fuels, foods and other bio-based products. Along the ways they’ve racked up an impressive array of partners, and won contracts to supply biofuels to the US Department of Defense. More importantly, in every way, they have personified throughout their organization what it means to be an advanced bio-based company – in the ways that they have triumphed, and in the ways they have faced adversity.”

Terrabon

The company’s technology is called MixAlco – an advanced bio-refining technology used by Terrabon’s experienced staff of chemical engineers to convert low-cost, readily available, non-food, non-sterile biomass into valuable chemical precursors such as organic acids, ketones and secondary alcohols that can be processed into renewable hydrocarbon fuels.

The biomass used as feedstock includes biogenic municipal solid waste (MSW), sewage sludge, forest product residues such as wood chips, wood molasses and other wood waste, and non-edible energy crops such as sorghum.

Terrabon can produce mixed secondary alcohols (a mix of isopropanol, 2-butanol, 3-pentanol, 2-pentanol, etc), green gasoline, green diesel and green jet fuel.  At the moment Terrabon is focusing on producing green gasoline and jet fuel.

In January, Terrabon revealed that it has exceeded its goal of producing 70 gallons of renewable gasoline per ton of MSW using its patented acid fermentation technology, MixAlco, paired with CRI/Criterion’s renewable fuel catalyst technologies. The company’s demonstration plant in Bryan used cafeteria waste and paper shreddings from Texas A&M University for the trial.

Verdezyne

Verdezyne is a privately held company developing and commercializing novel genetically engineered microorganisms for use as “factories” to manufacture chemicals and fuels, using renewable feedstocks. Verdezyne’s unique microorganisms permit greener, cleaner and more cost effective production of chemicals and fuels as compared with traditional methods. The Company is commercializing its technology through partnerships with leading chemical and fuel manufacturers.

Verdezyne is a product-focused company that is leveraging its technology platform to optimize the metabolic pathways, microorganisms and fermentation processes that enable economical production of renewable fuels and chemicals, focusing in this stage of development on biobased adipic acid (a platform chemical), and bioethanol, made from C6 sugars, C5 sugars (biomass, cellulosic sugars), plant-based oils, by-products from plant-based oil processing, paraffins

ZeaChem

ZeaChem combines the best of biochemical fermentation and thermochemical processes into a hybrid process that achieves 40% higher yield than other cellulosic processes. ZeaChem’s patented biorefining process uses an acetogen – a naturally occurring species of bacteria adapted to digest the tough carbon chains of cellulose – to extract the maximum amount of energy available from the feedstock. ZeaChem offers the highest yield, lowest production cost and lowest carbon emissions profile of any known biorefining process

ZeaChem’s patented process offers the highest yield, at the lowest cost, with the lowest fossil carbon footprint of any known biorefining method. Incorporated in 2002, ZeaChem is headquartered in Lakewood, Colorado and operates a research and development facility in Menlo Park, California.

ZeaChem’s 250,000 gallon per year demonstration scale cellulosic biorefinery is currently under construction in Boardman, Oregon.

In December, ZeaChem obtained a guaranteed maximum price, under the Engineering, Procurement and Construction agreements with engineering firm Burns & McDonnell, for construction of its demonstration cellulosic ethyl acetate and ethanol plant in Boardman. The company also announced that it has secured full construction funding for the core facility. The $25 million grant from the U.S. DOE will be used to fund the independent front and back-end cellulosic process components, enabling ZeaChem to produce fuel grade ethanol as well as intermediate chemicals from non-food related biomass.

The core unit of the biorefinery is currently under construction at the site location in Boardman and foundations are being poured, and the company will begin producing 250,000 gallons (annually) of cellulosic ethanol in 2011.
Source
City Power and Gas

Read more »

Big Challenges Remain for U.S. Offshore Wind

The U.S. could see as many as 10 GW of offshore wind capacity installed by 2020. But it won't be easy, say industry experts.

"There are some 5 GW in planning right now, but who knows how much of this can be realized," says Dirk Matthys, the North American chief executive of Spanish turbine maker Gamesa. He says that growth will hinge on how fast the government can streamline a new program to approve projects.

Other hurdles such as local opposition and the need for a new transmission network could also hinder progress, says Matthys.

Nevertheless, he believes it is possible to develop 5-10 GW in the U.S. within the next decade.

Washington's incentive programs must also be increased for longer-term planning, observers add.

"There is a big lack of long-term incentives which you need for project planning purposes," says Mark Rodgers, communications director at Cape Wind, the companytrying to develop the country's first offshore wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts.

According to Rodgers, the government has a project loan program and tax credit scheme in place for this year. But it's uncertain if these programs will be extended into 2012 and beyond.

Cape Wind, which has secured power purchase agreements for the first half of the facility's future output, hopes to begin building the 130 turbine wind farm late this year. However, the developer is still trying to find another buyer for the other half of the power.

Getting Smart from the Start

In an effort to help the industry out, the Department of the Interior launched the "Smart from the Start" scheme last year to hasten project review and approval times to 1-3 years from the more typical seven-year time frame.

The program created an "accelerated leasing process" to encourage more offshore wind development along the Atlantic seaboard.

Charlie Natale, a consultant with ESS Group, says Smart from the Start is substantially speeding up project approvals, helping early offshore projects gain traction in the U.S.

The program has enabled a string of projects from Maine to North Carolina to more quickly move into advanced stages of planning and permitting, with projects in Road Island, Delaware and New Jersey furthest along.

However, accelerated project approvals won't have a major impact if the transmission infrastructure isn't able to handle the wind farms. According to ESS's Natale, the lack of transmission is the sector's greatest challenge.

"The existing electricity transmission system doesn't have the capacity to handle the additional and pulsating energy that will come from the offshore projects," he explains, adding that costly electromechanical equipment will be needed to convert fluctuating voltage flows so the landline system can absorb the electricity.

Natale expects the first offshore farms will be hooked inland through a "zonal” approach in which different facilities will connect through so-called collector platforms. This is not an immediate solution yet as platforms like these are stil being tested in Europe.

"Right now the collector platforms are being deployed by Siemens and ABB in the North Sea so they will need to succeed there before they can be used in the U.S.," he notes.

There are also plans for an Atlantic Wind Connection (AWC) mega project that will provide a high-voltage backbone from the Carolinas to New England. The network will be connected to the sea bed and jump off at two or three locations to feed into New England, New Jersey, New York and Virginia. When finished, it will have the capacity to deliver 6,000 MW of wind power to the mid-Atlantic states.

But, as Natale points out, this initiative will be "very expensive and complicated" and is seen as a long-term solution to the sector's transmission woes.

Improving Technology

Transmission and incentives aren't the only factors that need to improve; there is still plenty of room to advance the technology as well.

According to Gamesa's Matthys, the industry can still do a lot to improve the efficiency and reliability of turbines. Specifically, he says, generation costs must come down to the Department of Energy's recommended 12-13 cents per kWh in the near term, down from 20 cents today. Beyond that, developers must hit 10 cents per kWh in the next decade.

Gamesa recently teamed with Northtrop Grumman to build an offshore wind technology center and develop next-generation wind systems. Under the alliance, Gamesa will launch its first G11X-5 MW offshore prototype in the U.S. in the fourth quarter of 2012. The Madrid-based firm also intends to work on a 7 MW prototype, Matthys says.

Matthys boasts that Gamesa's latest offshore turbines are more reliable and can last up to 30 years instead of 20 years like rival machines.

"The generation costs of offshore projects needs to be lower and the way to do this is to have a more reliable project. Our turbines help meet this requirement," he explains.

If generation costs can be cut, offshore wind will start to gain market share in the U.S., even with transmission constraints. As Matthys explains, in some cases the transmission problem isn't as big as it is for onshore projects.

"The big advantage of offshore is that it will be very close to the main energy consumption markets [in the East coast] like New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore etc," he Matthys says. "The big onshore resources are in the mid west and you would need to build big transmission lines to meet these markets' demand and this will also be expensive and challenging."

However, even with some of this positive movement, it will take many years for offshore wind to catch up to the pace of onshore development in the U.S.

Source

City Power and Gas

Read more »

Nova Scotia Joins Surge on Tidal Power

To date much of the focus on tidal power has been on the Eastern side of the Atlantic with demonstration projects in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Over on the Western side however, the Canadian Province of Nova Scotia looks set to give the old country a firm run for its money.

The latest step forward came in February 2011 with the announcement that Atlantis Energy had won the fourth and final test bed in Nova Scotia's demonstration facility – part of the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy (FORCE).

Officially founded in 2009, FORCE aims to take advantage of the enormous tidal potential available in the region.

Sandra Farwell of the Nova Scotia Department of Energy said that the project is “well underway.”

“The Province has provided funding towards the projects, CAN$7 million in total, and the Central Government has provided CAN$20 million,” she said.

“We’ve put the funding towards the common infrastructure for the site, and the players can come in and demonstrate devices. We want to be a centre of excellence where people can learn and develop devices, so they can find out what works in such a harsh environment,” she explained.

Every day more than 100 billion tons of seawater flows into the Bay of Fundy – more than all the world's freshwater rivers combined. Early estimates suggest that the Minas Passage may be able to usably harness 300 MW of electricity, while the Bay of Fundy as a whole could provide up to 8,000 MW of installed capacity.

Recognizing this huge potential that the Bay could provide, the Provincial Government has embarked on the FORCE program in 2008 to encourage developers to test new tidal energy devices. In 2008 it declared its commitment to developing a test centre and in 2009, after a call for proposals, the first three developers were chosen. Following a survey and impact assessment, the Minas Passage area was selected for the FORCE test beds.

“We know there is more than enough [energy] to fulfill Nova Scotia’s needs, so there could be an export opportunity,” commented Farwell.

While Nova Scotia already has one 20 MW tidal barrage system, which was constructed in 1984 at Annapolis, the current emphasis is on the development of in-stream tidal power devices that do not block or disrupt the flow of water in the bay.

The first device to begin testing in Fundy was another 1 MW undersea turbine developed by Irish company OpenHydro and deployed by Nova Scotia Power. The 400-tonne device was maneuvered into place on a specially constructed barge and secured to the seabed with an underwater gravity base. (See Openhydro image, above.)

The most recent company to be awarded a site at the test bed – Atlantis Resources Corp. – will prototype a 1 MW  turbine that is fixed to the seabed. Each of these resembles a wind turbine, with the exception that there are two sets of three blades, each mounted back to back to harness the tides as they ebb and flow.

Atlantis, which will work with Lockheed Martin and Irving Shipbuilding in Nova Scotia to further develop its AK-1000 device has already successfully prototyped smaller machines in Australia, and is also part of the MayGen consortium looking to exploit the tides of the Pentland Firth in Northern Scotland.

UK-based Marine Current Turbines (MCT), working in conjunction with Minas Basin Pulp and Power Co. is seeking to deploy one of its SeaGen devices (see image, below). With two demonstration projects currently operational and supplying power to the grid in Devon and Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom, the company is probably one of the best known tidal devices.

Sources close to the project however have indicated that the new MCT device in Nova Scotia will be different to those currently in use elsewhere. Unlike previous devices that extended above the surface, the SeaGen ‘U’ at Nova Scotia will be fully submersed. Importantly though it should be capable of surfacing itself without the need for a salvage operation every time it needs maintenance, and will be larger than previous MCT devices, at around 2 MW.

Finally, French engineering giant Alstom is planning to trial Clean Current Power Systems underwater turbine technology. Along with the MCT turbine, this is due to be installed in 2012. (See lead image for Clean Current device.)

While many of these systems have been tested at various sites before, the marine environment can be a harsh and challenging one. According to one report, during the summer of 2010 the Open Hydro turbine has had to be pulled out of the water a year early after all of its blades broke off in the water.

Speaking at the time, Mark Savory of Nova Scotia Power said: “What comes with the world's biggest tides is a very aggressive environment. So I guess we're not terribly surprised that it is a tough place to work.”

Farwell was also upbeat, saying: “The Open Hydro device, we don’t see that as a failure ­ it's just part of the process of demonstrating. It’s really about how to get these machines to work in this environment. This is a challenge for everyone.”

Despite difficulties, the prize for successfully harnessing tidal power could be great. According to the International Energy Agency the potential for the tidal power is large, theoretically providing up to 2200 TWh of power worldwide, of which the agency estimates around 100 TWh could be economically tapped. While this is not enough to solve the world's energy problems, in certain key areas it could play an important role in providing baseload renewable energy generation, in much the same way that concentrating solar thermal and geothermal power might do in other places. 

The government of Nova Scotia seems to have recognized the potential to be an early mover in the industry, and the jobs and investment that this could bring. In 2010 the Province announced a 40% target for renewable electricity and declared that it would be introducing a feed-in tariff for tidal energy.

Latest indications are that the level of the feed-in tariff will be set in Spring 2011 for devices under 500 kW, with a more comprehensive package of policies introduced in the fall of 2011.

“We are working on a clear regulatory environment. We’re developing legislation specific to marine renewables, something we don’t think exists anywhere else in the world. It’s kind of unique. It will give industry a clear sense of what they have to do to get a project in the water and how to go to commercial development,” explained Sandra Farwell. 

Source

City Power and Gas

Read more »