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STRATEGIC BIOMASS SOLUTIONS
June 2013
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Quick Links
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Director's Cut
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Summer is officially here and we are past the longest day of the year - the summer equinox. I hope some of you were able to view the largest "supermoon" of the year June 23 that followed the equinox. While the biofuels and biomass industry is not shooting for the moon, there are groups that feel that "utility-scale biomass energy, as it is being promoted today in the United States and the European Union, is not a viable solution." I mentioned the "Our Forests Aren't Fuel" campaign last month, and looking at its website, it urges the utility companies to do their part to address climate change by investing in energy conservation, efficiency and truly renewable and low-carbon energy sources, such as solar and wind - but not biomass. This campaign now has several endorsers from Virginia to Texas and should be on every company's radar screen which uses woody biomass feedstocks as a potential obstacle in securing sustainable, long term feedstock supplies.
I will be delivering a keynote address at the Delta Green Community Forum June 29 and look forward to talking about the barriers and opportunities in building a business in the green space. The overall goal of this forum is to provide Delta farmers, community-based organizations, community leaders and residents insight into the current and on-going development and utilization of green jobs and renewable energy products, practices, policies and renewable energy sources that support the achievement of long-term economic goals. The Delta Green Community Forum is focused primarily on Arkansas' economy. Check out the events section of the newsletter as there are several exciting events coming up in the next two to three months. Also, be sure to read the exclusive interview with Dr. Les Goff, who shares his insights and lessons learned as an entrepreneur and then as an investor.
This month's big policy news is President Obama's speech on climate change that he delivered to the students at Georgetown University June 25. The 48-minutes long video of the speech is available at the White House website that you can access by clicking here. Here is a link to the full transcript of the speech as well. By the president's own admission in this speech, climate change "used to be a bipartisan issue." So the question is, what happened that Democrats and Republicans don't see eye to eye on issues that govern our nation's energy supply from all sources? It is unfortunate that science has been politicized and we have a hard time finding a balance between economic and environmental progress. Neither progress needs to stop, nor are they mutually exclusive, even though they may appear to be if you took a snapshot in time. Here is a thought: move forward with the Keystone XL pipeline, but have a portion of revenues dedicated to a "Pipeline Fund" that enables research, development and deployment (RD&D) to make renewables and energy storage devices even more efficient than the current state of the art.
We are always interested in your feedback, and we want to know what you thought of the president's speech. Please contact me at sarora@innovate.ms or 601-960-3659 with your thoughts and let us know if we can help you in any way.
Sumesh Arora, PhD
Director, Strategic Biomass Solutions
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Exclusive Interview
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This month, Strategic Biomass Solutions staff talked with Dr. Les Goff, president of Goff Consulting, LLC, based in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Dr. Goff has a wealth of experience as an entrepreneur and investor, and has some great advice to share with those interested in the cleantech area.
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Funding Opportunity News
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On June 11, the USDA Rural Business Cooperative Service published a notice of contract proposals in the Federal Register, announcing the availability of $98.6 million for payments under the Advanced Biofuel Payment Program. The projects will use woody material removed from forests during projects such as wildfire prevention and beetle-killed trees, and process woody biomass in bioenergy facilities to produce green energy for heating and electricity. The awardees will use funds from the Woody Biomass Utilization Grant program to further the planning of such facilities by funding the engineering services necessary for final design, permitting and cost analysis. Projects selected for funding will demonstrate, deploy, and validate hydrogen and fuel cell technologies in real-world environments. These efforts aim to reduce the costs of hydrogen and fuel cells industry-wide, expand critical infrastructure and build a solid domestic supplier base. Selected projects will represent a wide variety of applications with potential for widespread commercialization.
The U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, has agreed to invest in India's growing clean energy sector even as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visits the subcontinent for a three-day trip, with climate change high on the agenda. |
Policy News
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The U.S. Supreme Court left Environmental Protection Agency rules intact, allowing higher concentrations of corn-based ethanol in gasoline, turning away appeals from the grocery, auto and oil industries.
In a vote of 66-27, the United States Senate passed its version of a new Farm Bill, leaving the agricultural energy industry satisfied with the inclusion of mandatory funding for energy title programs.
President Obama recently laid out a broad plan to curb climate change, including cutting emissions from coal-fired electric power plans and signaling potential opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline.
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Technology and Research News
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The Energy Department and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) announced the Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) in Golden, Colorado, as the latest Energy Department user facility and the only one in the nation focused on utility-scale clean energy grid integration. The facility's first industry partner - Colorado-based Advanced Energy Industries - has already signed on to start work at ESIF, developing lower cost, better performing solar power inverters. The University of Illinois-Urbana will begin construction this fall on a new bioprocessing laboratory to research biomass-derived biofuels, such as cellulosic ethanol.
California-based BB Commercial Solutions promotes eco-friendly solar shades and screens as a green window treatment because they help lower emissions by creating a more comfortable environment without the use of heating and cooling systems.Suitable for everything from large land-clearing jobs to green-waste recycling, the Vermeer Tier 4i (Stage IIIB) HG6000 and HG6000TX horizontal grinder features a number of features that make it ideal for a wide array of operators.
The three-month expedition, with stops in New York City, Boston, Newfoundland and Iceland, began recently in Miami Beach and will end in Bergen, Norway. It will mostly follow the Gulf Stream, one of the most important regulators of European and North American climates.
Research by David Grewell, associate professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering, and his colleagues Melissa Montalbo-Lomboy and Priyanka Chand, has shown that "pretreating" a wide variety of feedstocks (including switch grass, corn stover and soft wood) with ultrasound consistently enhances the chemical reactions necessary to convert the biomass into high-value fuels and chemicals. Massachusetts Institute of Technology chemical engineers have devised a cheaper way to synthesize a key biofuel component, which could make its industrial production much more cost-effective.
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Market and Business News
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Google Backs First Africa Clean Power and may Invest in More
Google, based in Mountain View, California, put $12 million in the $260 million Jasper solar project in South Africa that will have 96 megawatts of generating capacity, the company said in an e-mailed statement. A group led by SolarReserve LLC, a closely held U.S. developer, is building the plant near Postmasburg in the Northern Cape province.
Danes invests $200M in United States Cape Wind Power Project
Following 12 years' development, financial closing of America's first offshore wind farm, Cape Wind, is now anticipated. The Danish pension company PensionDanmark, via the fund Copenhagen Infrastructure and managed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), is now funding an investment commitment of $200 million in capital for the Cape Wind project (in the form of a mezzanine loan). As a lighthouse project, Cape Wind is crucial to advance the offshore wind industry in the United States.
West Coast cities are the clear leaders in developing and implementing clean technology across a variety of industries, according to the U.S. Clean Tech Leadership Index report, which contains findings from the 2013 editions of Clean Edge's State and Metro Indexes.
Tesla Adding Chargers for US Coast-to-Coast Car Range Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA) is expanding a network of fast-charging stations, letting owners of its luxury electric cars drive coast-to-coast this year with devices able to repower them in 20 to 30 minutes. Ford Motor Company's call with Chief Financial Officer Bob Shanks on the number-two U.S. carmaker's sustainability efforts showed that going green is falling into the laps of those who control purse strings at more of the world's largest companies. The system, mounted on the roof of a metal structure in the backstage area, will generate more than 61,000 kilowatt-hours of energy each year - equal to about 20 percent of Bonnaroo's total annual power needs. While the system will not be visible to patrons, fans will peruse a solar display in "Planet Roo," an area devoted to sustainability. |
Event News
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July 14-16, 2013 Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada September 9-11, 2013 Washington, D.C. September 9, 2013 Washington, D.C. September 17-18, 2013 Tunica, Mississippi September 24-25, 2013 Tampa, Florida Strategic Biomass Solutions is proud to serve as a supporting organization for both RETECH 2013 and the Southern BioProducts and Renewable Energy Conference.
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Please forward this to other interested parties and contact us if you have any questions.Strategic Biomass Solutions is dedicated to connecting entrepreneurs, investors and economic developers in order to drive renewable energy technologies to market. SBS is funded in part by the United States Department of Energy.
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Sumesh Arora, Ph.D.
Director
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Bubba Weir
Innovation Resource Development
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Joseph Linton
Economic Analyst
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Claire Sojourner
Outreach Intern
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134 Marketridge Drive, Ridgeland, MS � 601.960.3610
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