The Peace Corps announced late last month that the U.S. Department of State will provide $1 million to fund the program in support of the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA). The money will help Peace Corps efforts that increase rural access to energy, mitigate the effects of climate change, and support the use of renewable energy and energy efficient technologies in Central and South American communities.

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Green living guide Mother Earth News wants to give average consumers some of the tools they need to get the most out renewable energy. That’s why publication is offering the Mother Earth News Fair, Sept. 25-26 at Seven Springs Mountain Resort near Pittsburgh.

Organizers promise more than 15 hands-on demonstrations ranging from beginner’s information for passive solar systems to building your own electric car!

Scheduled renewable energy-related speakers and topics include:

* Dan Chiras – introduction to solar electricity; passive solar electricity; passive solar heating; experts’ panel
* James Dunn – personal experience with a geodesic dome solar greenhouse
* Richard Freudenberger – small-scale alcohol fuel; basic passive solar design; experts’ panel
* John Ivanko – powering your home with renewable energy
* Angus Macdonald – DIY construction of solar and energy-efficient homes and garden structures
* Ben Nelson – building your own electric car, cheap
* Greg Pahl – community-supported energy; experts’ panel
* Darree Sicher – alternative fuel uses for sewage sludge
* Michael R. Wurzbacher – masonry heaters, stoves and ovens
* Brad Yocum – why now is the time to go solar

There will be more than 200 sessions in all. For more information and tickets, check out the Mother Earth News Fair website.

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It was the “Bill and Tom Show” at the 2010 Farm Progress Show on Wednesday as Growth Energy hosted a discussion about ethanol between CEO Tom Buis and Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey held a panel discussion to talk about Growth Energy’s Fueling Freedom Plan, the upcoming energy bill and EPA’s pending decision on the E15 waiver.

Both Buis and Northey said there is a critical need for the EPA to approve E15 and open the market for ethanol in order to revitalize our rural economies, clean our skies and support the continued innovation in the ethanol industry.

“We don’t have a production problem, we have an access to the market problem,” Buis said. “By moving to E15 and eliminating the artificial barriers to the fuel market we can create a market for all ethanol to reduce our dependence on oil, strengthen our economy and improve our environment.”

“It is vital that Congress and the EPA move forward and approve these needed long-term policy proposals,” Northey said. “It is important that we send a signal to the industry and investors that support structures that will remain in place and allow the industry to continue to advance and adopt new technologies including eventually cellulosic ethanol.”

We’ll have audio from the panel to be posted along with commentary from Joanna Schroeder who was at the event.

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Propel Fuels is opening more pumps with 85 percent ethanol for California flex fuel vehicle (FFV) drivers.

The company held a grand opening event in Oakland this week to formally launch a network of renewable fuel stations for the Bay Area, which will include more than 20 stations across the Bay, with up to half opening by the end of this year. The event also announced a $10.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and California Energy Commission (CEC) to build and operate 75 retail renewable fuel stations throughout California over the next two years.

At the grand opening, California Energy Commissioner Anthony Eggert (pictured) said the station development project, known as the Low Carbon Fuel Infrastructure Investment Initiative (LCFI3), will help the state with the development and deployment of low carbon fuels and clean vehicles. “The Energy Commission is proud to team up with Propel Fuels and the partner agencies to bring next generation low carbon biofuels, including cellulosic ethanol, to the nearly half a million flex fuel vehicle customers in California, while creating hundreds of green jobs, and continuing to lead the way in our nation’s battle against climate change,” said Eggert.

Propel will work with community partners CALSTART and East Bay Clean Cities to educate consumers and fleets on the wide spread benefits of low carbon, alternative fuels available today and those next generation fuels coming in the future.

“Presently in California more than one million diesel and Flex Fuel passenger cars are capable of running on renewable fuels, but there hasn’t been a sufficient number of renewable fuel stations,” said John Boesel, President and CEO of CALSTART. “This program takes a major step forward by creating 75 new renewable stations which will give consumers the choice to say ‘no’ to oil dependence, ‘yes’ to the American economy and ‘yes’ to the environment.”

Propel has already begun construction of the station locations in major markets across California, with the network of 75 stations funded by this project to be complete by the end of 2011. Currently there are three locations open in the Bay Area (Fremont, Oakland, South San Jose) with additional sites planned for Downtown San Jose, North San Jose, Berkeley, Palo Alto, Redwood City, Livermore, and Concord in the coming months.

Thanks to Jamie Quick with Propel and Paul Wikoff for the photos from the event.

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All the garbage collected from the city of Edmonton can be used to produce biofuel. Last week, the city officials announced that Enerkem, a company based in Montreal began the construction of a $80 million plant that will be capable to turn the town’s landfill into biofuel.

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We’ve heard many promises about large-scale facilities for cellulosic ethanol and diesel, but so far we haven’t seen many promising results. This week, Honeywell and Rentech said they’ll be working together to build a co-production facility that will produce high amounts of fuel and electricity by 2012.

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Whilst its European neighbours are forging ahead, France is today beginning to realise the potential of this highly versatile and renewable energy form. With its vast and well structured agriculture and agro-alimentary sector, France in reality has an outstanding potential to become a leading European player in biogas.

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Coming on the heels of yesterday’s announcement that California is moving closer to setting grid energy storage mandates for utilities in the state, today Pike Research released a new report that says the grid energy storage market could reach as much as $35 billion by 2020.

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A prototype micro ethanol plant in South Dakota is being auctioned this month by Maas Companies of Rochester, Minn.

Maas Companies is accepting sealed bids on the Genesis Ethanol I, a 2-4 million gallon-per-year micro ethanol plant located outside of Sioux Falls in Parker, South Dakota until Friday, Sept. 24. A winning bid may be awarded at that time or the top five bidders may continue a limited live auction Friday, Oct. 8 at 11 a.m. central daylight time.

Genesis Ethanol I was a prototype micro ethanol plant started in 2008 with several innovative concepts. Genesis purchased corn locally and sold its distiller grain by products locally, thereby greatly reducing transportation costs and delivering a consistent product. In addition, the facility was designed with energy saving components unique to its design in an effort to reduce energy costs. Initially the plant was to be the first in a series of similar plants throughout the region.

More information is available here.

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The Florida Biofuels Association, together with several other organizations and state universities, are holding a meeting this month focused on growing energy feedstocks in the Sunshine State.

“Feedstocks for Florida Biofuels – A Florida Biofuels Association Town Hall Meeting” is scheduled for Friday September 17 at Florida Farm Bureau headquarters in Gainesville. The event will include an open forum to hear from Florida farmers regarding concerns and questions pertaining to energy crops, the ABCs of profitable feedstock farming, and incentives available for the feedstock farmers. Speakers include representatives from the Florida and U.S. Departments of Agriculture and the University of Florida.

The potential for energy crops in the state was one of the topics at the recent Florida Farm to Fuel Summit. One of the presenters was Bill Vasden Jr., Chairman of the Florida Feedstock Growers Association. Vasden was interviewed by Gary Cooper with Southeast Agnet at the summit about the production and distribution of renewable energy from Florida-grown crops. “We’ve been growing feedstock crops like camelina and kenaf here in Florida for four years,” he says. As a cattle and citrus farmer, he started growing energy crops to help cut his on-farm diesel costs. “Later it became apparent that a lot of these crops can be grown here in Florida, with additional revenue streams.” They now have 2500 acres in kenaf, which is a spring biomass crop, then in the fall they rotate into camelina, which is an oilseed crop. “Camelina grown in Florida produces the highest yields in the country and can be grown in fall and winter and is very drought tolerant and cold tolerant,” said Vasden. As a bonus, it is also approved for as a by-product for animal feed.

Vasden says the market demand for these energy crops exceeds demand, so it has been very profitable for his operation. “We look to 2500 acres, without any government subsidy, to gross $2.8 million when farmed with two crops of camelina and one crop of kenaf, and those are pretty impressive figures,” he explained.

Here is a link to Vasden’s powerpoint presentation at Florida Farm to Fuel.

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