Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of the Strategic Biomass Solutions newsletter. I hope you have had a chance by now to click on our new, much simpler URL: www.biomass.ms. We are also seeking your feedback on the new look of the newsletter with different color coded blocks, which present information broken out into various themes such as policy, technology and research, business and markets, funding opportunities and upcoming events.  To give us your feedback on the new format for this newsletter, please take a moment and click on the survey to the left.  

This month we bring you an exclusive interview with Britt Herrin, executive director of the Pike County Economic Development District. The southwest region of Mississippi is seeing intense activity in the energy sector ranging from wood pellet plants to shale gas. Please read Britt's interview to gain an insight into developing energy projects based on these natural resources and the key role played by economic development organizations.    

I recently presented at the 2nd Annual Southeast Clean Power Summit in New Orleans, and one of the things I learned was it is time change any preconceived notions about wind energy power generation in the South! Taller towers (100 meters, or about 330 feet) with longer blades (about 50 meters) made of advanced materials are now making it technically and economically feasible to generate wind power even in the southeastern United States. Over 1,800 megawatts of wind capacity is being proposed at locations ranging from Arkansas to North Carolina, representing a huge increase of 6,500 percent from current capacity of the sole 29-megawatt wind farm at  Buffalo Mountain, Tennessee. It was the general consensus that wind data available from National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is not the most current, as it is being updated very rapidly. The NREL website does have a tremendous amount of information, and you can clearly see the difference between the wind potential at 30-meter, 50-meter and 80-meter tower heights. The higher you go in tower elevation, the better the wind capacity with lower turbulence, allowing the system to have higher capacity factors. Check out the story about Clemson University's wind turbine testing facility in the sky-blue technology and research section of the newsletter. A video from Clemson explains how this facility, which is still under construction, is one-of-a-kind.  

A combination of vastly improved technologies and effective policies has led to a greater demand for wind energy by many electric utilities as explained in a story in the rust-colored markets and business section of this newsletter. While the wind energy industry has experienced significant growth and spawned thousands of jobs, it is also dependent on the Production Tax Credits (PTC). See the story in the green colored policy section of the newsletter about how the on-again/off-again PTCs have created a boom-bust cycle for the wind industry.