According to fresh data released by the Environmental Protection Agency, a record 1.1 billion gallons were produced in 2011, a milestone for the biodiesel industry in the U.S. The target required by the agency’s Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) was 800 million gallons.

The National Biodiesel Board said the industry’s success is the result of an incentive policy. The $1-per-gallon tax credit reinstated by Congress in December 2010 gave the industry a boost. Without the credit, production dropped dramatically in 2010.

The industry now is urging Congress to continue with the incentive that expired on Dec. 31, 2011. It wants to see an increase to 1.28 billion gallons in 2013 under the RFS.

“We’ve been seeing a lot of stories about setbacks in the renewable energy sector recently, and I think our success in 2011 reflects the bigger picture reality, which is that strong energy policy is working to stimulate production of clean, American-made energy,” said Anne Steckel, vice president of federal affairs for the National Biodiesel Board (NBB).

Biodiesel is a commercial-scale fuel used across the U.S. to meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s definition as an Advanced Biofuel. It is a renewable, clean-burning diesel replacement that can be used in existing diesel engines and meets ASTM’s fuel specification. It can be made from various resources such as agricultural oils and recycled cooking oil, and can be produced in nearly every state in the country.

A recent economic study commissioned by NBB found that biodiesel production of 1 billion gallons supports 39,027 jobs across the country and more than $2.1 billion in household income. It said an additional 11,698 jobs could be added between 2012 and 2013 alone under continued growth in the RFS and with an extension of the biodiesel tax incentive.

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Planet Solar’s Turanor, the world’s largest solar-powered boat, is nearly finished with its mission to complete its loop around the Earth.

The adventure started in 2010 and the vessel has travelled on solar power all the way, although backup diesel generators were required for insurance purposes. But they have never been used, said Atissun.

The Swiss ship was sponsored by watchmaker Candino and features 700 solar panels that have been generating more than enough power to set the vessel in motion.

Turanor is not exactly a research project on how to power boats with solar energy, but rather a marketing coup for the solar power industry. It should be docking in Monaco, France in three months’ time.

All in all, it’s been plain sailing for the crew, who stopped at international ports such as Miami and Hong Kong, as well as more exotic locations such as Galapagos, where bird droppings were an issue for a while, but it only took some cleaning to wipe the problem away.

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Opposition against the construction of the Belo Monte dam on Xingu River in the Amazon has reached a new high as protesters have invaded the building site this week. Forbes magazine has deemed the project “the most hated government project in the world.”

On Wednesday a group of fisherman and indigenous people from the Xingu Vivo movement disrupted the initial works on ‘coffer dams’ (temporary dams), displaying banners that said: Belo Monte: crime of the Federal Government. They managed to disrupt the works for two hours.

Yesterday the office buildings of the Belo Monte consortium in Altamira, the town where the project is headquartered, woke up with graffiti expressing opposition to the project. Other buildings related to the project were also targeted, as well as banks and several public and commercial offices. The slogans said “Death Energy”, “Belo Monster”, “Belo Death” and “Wounded Xingu”.

Opposition to the project is widespread both in Brazil and abroad. The anti-Belo Monte activists have attracted support from celebrities such as Avatar director James Cameron and film star Sigourney Weaver, to name but a few.

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The UN has declared 2012 the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All. Using his platform as a keynote speaker at the World Future Energy Summit, the project’s global launch which kicked off yesterday in Abu Dhabi, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on governments, the private sector, and civil society to make significant commitments to action in support of UN’s drive to promote alternative energy.

“This is the right time for this Initiative,” said the Secretary-General. “Across the world we see momentum building for concrete action that reduces energy poverty, catalyzes sustainable economic growth, and mitigates the risks of climate change. Achieving sustainable energy for all is both feasible and necessary. My Initiative will help us meet these objectives simultaneously. It can be a triple win for all.”

Ban Ki-Monn has made sustainable development one his top priorities for his next term, which lasts five years. The energy issue is central to that. One fifth of the world’s population lacks access to modern electricity and two thirds rely on dirty, rudimentary energy such as wood, coal, and animal waste for cooking and heating. Meanwhile, the developed world wastes energy.

The UN wants to ensure universal access to modern energy services. It also wants energy to be more efficient and it wants to double the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix. The Secretary-General has appointed a High-level Group of global leaders from business, finance, government and civil society to push the alternative energy agenda across governments and corporate boardrooms.

At the Abu Dhabi meeting, the Group met and produced a Framework for an Action Agenda, which proposes several actions at the national and international level, including action to expand energy access, promotion of efficiency standards and policies, and strengthening of investment in renewables.

The plan is to launch the Action Agenda, publicizing the commitments made by all stakeholders to the Initiative, towards the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in June.

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Lord Turner, Chair of the Committee on Climate Change

Bills are projected to increase by around £110 (US$170) over the next decade, the committee said, with £10 (US$15.50) going into energy efficiency in homes. The organization said that if further energy efficiency improvements are implemented, such as insulation, better heating controls and replacement with more efficient lighting, then energy bills in 2020 could be the same as 2010 levels.

However, to encourage energy efficiency improvements, the Committee said there is need for new policies with strengthened incentives.

“We were keen to provide a dispassionate analysis of household bill impacts in what has become a politically controversial area. We found that bills have increased primarily in response to increased wholesale gas costs and not due to environmental policies. Over the next decade, we anticipate a rise of around £100 (US$170) in the average bill as a result of investment in low-carbon power capacity, which will benefit the UK in the long run. And if we introduce new polices to stimulate energy efficiency improvement then bills in 2020 could broadly be contained at current levels,” said Lord Adair Turner, Chair of the Committee on Climate Change.

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Technorati Tags: Committee on Climate Change, UK energy, utility prices UK

Via Clean Technica

Recent figures indicate that in December 2011 alone Germany installed 2.1 GW, meaning the total for the year was 7.5 GW, or 0.1 GW more than 2010.

One of the reasons for the record number is that government introduced a 15 percent cut in support for photovoltaic installations on January 1st and another 15 percent cut will be introduced on July 1st.

Despite the figures, industry representatives are not all sunny optimism regarding the future. “Despite the stable and growing demand in Germany and in some other international markets, turnover and profits for 2011 remain below the expectations of many companies”, GSIA said. “The industry hopes for improvement through a significant upswing in international markets in the coming years. For Germany, the industry expects declining demand due to the statutory cuts in support for 2012, which will total approximately 30 percent.”

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Photo: Nokia Solar Charging Blog

The testers went to the Baltic Sea, camping in a Swedish forest and were in Kenya in Africa to test the technology in wildly different setting. The technology was named Lokki, especially developed small solar charging panels that were integrated to Nokia C1-02 devices.

Later on Nokia wrote a blog post saying that performance really depends on lifestyle. For instance, the security guard in Kenya collected more solar energy than anybody else because of the stationary nature of his work. He placed his phone on a pillar next to the gate where he was working and the Kenyan sun did the rest.

Elsewhere, Aino, a scout in Sweden, gained 15 percent battery life during the ten-day camp. Because she was on the move all the time, exposing the device to the sun was more complicated.

The Baltic sea tester, Pettery, had little time to use his phone and so he could fully power it from the sun during his expedition. He could even top up his battery. Also the phone was always facing the sun from the deck of the boat.

Nokia’s conclusion: “Our test users proved beyond doubt that a low power mobile phone can stay functioning for long periods of time on solar energy. However, they also proved that your lifestyle and how you use a solar powered phone is as important as the environment, the weather and the time of year.”

The question is: when will we see commercial mobile phones that are powered with solar energy, if ever? Well, for now it seems solar power is only feasible for basic mobile phones whose power consumption is low and after an extended period of exposure to the sun – so power-hungry smartphone users will have to wait longer. You’ll need a good harvesting day to get an hour of talk (which is not bad, really). On cloudy days, the phone may need to be shut down in order to maintain some charge. Therefore, solar mobile phones may be better suited for regions in the world where sunshine is constant and where the grid is not available. It may not provide a 24-hour connection but it could provide a communication solution for those living in remote regions.

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Wind turbines

The average price per MWh was R$102.18 (approx. US$ 55 per MWh), which included an average discount of 8.77 percent. According to Brazil’s Energy Research Company (EPE), the auction fully met the demand of energy distribution companies.

New wind energy plants will be installed in different regions of the country: in the northeast (Bahia, Ceará, Maranhão and Rio Grande do Norte), in the heartland (Goiás), in the south (Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina) and southeast (São Paulo). The total projected investment is R$4.3 billion (approx. US$2.3 billion).

Apart from wind, the San Roque hydroelectric power plant (135 MW) was allocated to the state of Santa Catarina at the price per MWh of R$91.20 (approx. US$49.1 per MWh), which was a 25.85 percent discount to the original price, with expected investments of R$652 million (approx. US$351.1 million).

According to EPE, Brazil’s wind energy potential is estimated to be 143,000 MW, with the ability to reach 300,000 MW with the use of modern generators. Between 2009 and 2010, the country’s wind power generation increased by 50.5 percent; and currently accounts for 0.4 percent of the total electricity produced in Brazil.

Renewable energy accounts for 87.1 of Brazil’s electricity matrix, mainly from hydropower. But there’s pressure in the country for government to bring online wind and solar projects as the hydropower industry eyes the Amazon region for future projects, such as the controversial Belo Monte dam.

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Photo: Philips

Experts believe Africa will continue to invest in alternative energy and reach $57 billion by 2020. Wind, solar and geothermal energy will be the main alternative energy types in the region, according to a Frost & Sullivan report on economic trends in the continent.

The report says Africa could benefit from the fact that it is not locked into the “inefficient, oft-polluting infrastructure of many Western countries”; therefore, it could build a fresh, renewable energy network.

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Photo: Wikipedia

An agreement signed on December 26 will bring solar power to the island in 2012, thanks to a new partnership between Grupo Neoenergia and utility company Companhia Energética de Pernambuco (Celpe), under the supervision f the Brazilian Navy. The agreement will see the installation of solar panels to generate grid-connected photovoltaic energy. The project’s budget is US$2.7 million.

“We would like to stimulate the development and application of this new technology on the island and contribute to the preservation of its environment”, said Neoenergia’s president Marcelo Corrêa. When finished, the solar energy system will be able to supply 60 percent of the island’s energy demands, or 600 MWh per year.

Industry specialists will be monitoring the energy generation process closely during the first year in order to identify possible shortcomings that may require improvements. The PV solar panels will occupy an area of around 20,000 square feet on land that belongs to the Brazilian Navy.

Until now there has been only solar thermal energy on the island, providing hot water for inns and a dolphin research center.

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