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.

Read more….

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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“I think people are going to catch on. That this thing is real and it going to work,” said Florida Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Charles A. Bronson during an interview about Farm to Fuel. One of Bronson’s long-term goals has been to turn Florida into an alternative energy leader in areas such as biofuels.

This year marked the fifth year of the Farm to Fuel Summit, where academia, growers, investors, distributors and everyone in between came together for three days in Orlando, Florida “cut deals” that will grow the states biofuels industry.

“From the beginning we decided we wanted to include all potential sides of the alternative fuels business,” said Bronson. “Every single meeting we’ve had, a deal has been put into place. Every year we’ve had at least one big deal to come out of these meetings.”

Bronson believes that interest in biofuels has grown, in part, because people have become more informed. He also believes that the alternative energy revolution is going to happen. He stressed that new technologies will be more efficient and said, “We’re going to be growing crops that will be 8-10 times more efficient than corn ethanol production.”

While Bronson is in all the way for biofuels, he is not in for the reason that many may suspect. “I’ve never been a global warming theorist but I do believe in weather patterns,” said Bronson. “And sooner or later, we’ll run out of oil.”

You can listen to Bronson’s interview here with special thanks to Southeast AgNET. Bronson Discusses Success of Farm to Fuel

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A company that breeds better seeds for biofuels has teamed up with a biotech company to sequence the jatropha genome … a plant touted as the possible future of biofuels feedstocks.

Officials at SG Biofuels have announced that they and Life Technologies Corporation have completed sequencing the Jatropha curcas genome to 100x coverage, using the SOLiD™ 4.0 System by Life Technologies:

The sequence significantly accelerates the identification of key traits for the oilseed-producing crop and advances its development as a high yielding, low-cost source for next generation biofuel.

Working in strategic alliance with Life Technologies, SG Biofuels will use the sequence to generate a high quality Jatropha reference genome. The genome will be compared to sequences generated from SG Biofuels’ germplasm library of more than 6,000 unique Jatropha genotypes – the largest and most diverse collection of Jatropha germplasm in the world – to identify molecular markers and trait genes to accelerate development of elite cultivars with vastly superior yields and profitability. This work will also advance the introduction of transgenic plants with further improved traits.

“The value of a Jatropha reference genome is enhanced significantly by having a diverse collection of plant material for comparison,” said Kirk Haney, President and Chief Executive Officer of SG Biofuels. “The sequence adds a powerful new tool to our development platform, allowing us to rapidly unlock the true potential of Jatropha as the most profitable and sustainable biofuel feedstock.”

“Working with SG Biofuels to sequence the Jatropha genome is an important part of our broader synthetic biology strategy to provide technologies for the development of next generation renewable energy,” said Wendy Jozsi, Director of Synthetic Biology at Life Technologies. “There is significant opportunity to use advanced molecular techniques in the optimization of plant-based biofuels, especially Jatropha, for increased yields and a faster development cycle, ultimately leading to new sources of energy.”

The non-edible jatropha is native to Central America and grown on marginal lands, providing a fuel source that does not compete with the food supply or the land to grow that food supply.

Read more….

…and Why Not Invest in Oil Companies?

Tom Konrad CFA

The purpose of this series
on
peak
oil
investments has been to highlight companies outside the
oil sector that are likely to benefit from increasing oil prices. 
This article explains why we should expect oil prices to rise.

What is Peak Oil?

There are many definitions for peak oil.  In its most basic form,
Peak Oil is the moment of highest production.  World oil supplies
are finite, and so we cannot continue to produce oil in increasing
quantities forever.  It’s a mathematical certainty that at some
point
the supply (the annual total production) of oil will stop increasing
and begin declining. 
Theoretically, peak production could be the result of declining oil
demand, or it could arise from declining oil supply.  With rising
economic activity and car ownership in much of the third world, there
is little prospect of declining demand, so nearly all observers focus
on supply. 

If demand continues to follow its current rising trend, even stable oil
supplies will lead to rising oil prices.  How quickly oil prices
rise in response to increasing demand will depend on how responsive oil
supply is to changes in the oil price.

Oil Price Volatility

Historically, increases in volatility in the price of oil has been
associated with disruption of supply. Consider this price chart from
InflationData.com (click for full size image.)  Before 1973, the
oil
price was remarkably stable.  In 1973, 1979, and 1990, we see
sharp
jumps in the price of oil caused by the Arab oil embargoes and the
first Gulf War.  But in addition to the immediate increase in the
price
of oil, we also see that each of these price spikes is also associated
with more volatility in the price of oil (the graph becomes more jagged.

After 2002, the recent rising trend in the oil price has been
accompanied by a further increase in oil price volatility. 
Economics
says that the price adjusts to bring supply and demand
into balance.  We know that demand for oil has been increasing for
most
of this period, and supply has been increasing to keep up.  This
can account for the observed increases in the oil price.  But what
accounts for the increasing oil price volatility?

Is it Speculation?

Many have been quick to point the finger at speculation as the cause of
increasing volatility in the oil price.  Multiple
studies
have
looked for but have not found any
link between oil speculation and oil price volatility [pdf].

In addition to the lack of evidence that speculation increases price
volatility, blaming speculation for increased volatility demonstrates a
naivete about how speculators make money.  As anyone
who has ever traded anything from baseball cards to exotic derivatives
knows that, in order to make money, a speculator needs to buy low and
sell high. When speculators buy oil, they are acting to increase demand
(the aggregate desire to buy), and so are increasing the oil
price.  When speculators sell oil, they are acting to increase
supply (the aggregate desire to sell), and so are decreasing the oil
price.

In order to increase price volatility, a trader would need
to buy when prices are high (raising prices further) and sell when
prices are low (causing them to drop further.)  Any
speculator who consistently buys high and sells low will also
consistently lose money, and will soon stop speculating because of lack
of funds. In contrast, a speculator who buys low and sells high will
not only make money, but will reduce overall volatility.  Selling
when
prices are high will moderate price spikes, while buying when prices
are low will moderate price falls: both have the effect of reducing
price volatility. 

In other words, speculators who increase volatility will soon run out
of money and stop
speculating, while speculators who reduce
volatility will make money and likely continue speculating unless laws
are changed to prevent them from doing so.  Attempts
to
ban
or
limit
oil
speculation are likely to have the perverse
effect of increasing, rather than reducing future oil price volatility.

The End of Easy Oil

If increased volatility is not the result of speculation, it probably
has to do with other changes in the structure of the oil market.

Except for
geopolitical events such as the wars and oil embargoes mentioned above,
the
supply of oil tends not to be volatile.  Demand fluctuates with
changes
in economic activity, and so the demand for oil will be more volatile
when economic activity is more volatile.  Hence, the price
volatility
associated with the large spike in oil prices leading up to 2008, along
with the subsequent rapid decline and recovery may be attributable to
changes in oil demand.  However, the years from 2002 to 2007 were
characterized by remarkably steady economic growth.  Hernce the
high oil price
volatility during 2002-07 must indicate that the
ability of the oil supply to respond to changing demand had decreased
compared to earlier periods.

I conclude that the most likely source for increased oil price
volatility is a reduction in the ability of oil supply to adjust to
changes in price.  This agrees with another formulation of
the Peak Oil thesis:  Peak Oil is not the end of oil, but the end of “easy”
oil. 
We
still
have
an
oil
supply, and it may or may not be declining, but
extracting enough oil to meet demand is becoming increasingly difficult
and expensive.  We pay the increased cost of extracting the
more difficult oil reserves in higher and more volatile prices at
the pump, and in environmental disasters such as the blow-out of BP’s
Macando well.

Implications of the End of Easy Oil

As world oil demand continues to rise, and extracting oil becomes
increasingly expensive and more dangerous, several trends are likely to
continue.

1. Oil prices will rise in order to compensate oil companies for the
   increased costs and risks of finding oil.
2. Oil companies will become less able to quickly adjust supplies to
   changes in the oil price, further increasing price volatility.
3. Increased drilling risks will cause more frequent oil
   spills.  Increased political risks as oil firms increasingly
   search for oil in places controlled by less stable political regimes
   will lead to more frequent expropriation of oil firms’ assets by those
   same unsavory regimes, as we have seen
   in
   Venezuela.
4. Increased oil prices will lead to adjustments in our oil use that
   decrease demand.

Why not Just Invest in Oil Companies?

The increased geological and political risks of oil exploration and
production are why investing in oil companies is probably not the best
way to benefit from increases in the oil price.  BP’s price
decline in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster is a graphic
reminder of the risks of investing in oil companies in the hope of
profiting from rising oil prices.

Investing In Reducing Oil Demand

Not wanting to take on the increased risks inherent in oil companies, I
have focused this series on the companies and technologies that help
reduce demand for oil.  These include substitutes for oil, such as
Biofuels,
Hydrogen,
Electricity, Natural
Gas, Synthetic
Fuels, and Algae. 
I
also
probed
the
barriers
that
limit
adoption
of
alternative
fuels, and the constraints
that
limit
alternative
fuel
deployment
and profitability, which I
brought together in a
comparison of the short and long-term viability of all these
alternative fuels.

Shifting gears a little, I took a look at what
reducing
oil
demand
will
mean for the economy going forward, and
concluded that technologies and strategies for reducing oil use in
transportation have better prospects than most options for replacing
oil.  I looked at increasing vehicle
efficiency, and ways
to
use
IT
to
reduce congestion and driving, including GPS
navigation, and Mass
Transit stocks.  Delving into AltEnergyStocks’ Peak
Oil
Stock
lists, I brought you Ten
EV
and
HEV
stocks, and then Six
More
HEV
and
EV
stocks from reader suggestions.  I also looked
at
four bicycle and moped stocks, as well as four individual stocks
that caught my attention along the way: CVTech
Goup, Telvent
GIT
SA, Shimano,
and Great
Lakes
Dredge
and
Dock.

Coming Up

This is the twenty-second article in a series that has expanded to a
breadth and depth that I never anticipated when I began it in
March.  (You can find a complete
index
here.)  I have a few more individual stocks to write about,
after which I plan to cap the series with a short list of
companies best positioned to profit from a long-term rise in the price
of oil.  I’ve learned a lot in the writing of this series, and my
picks today are not the same as they would have been when I started,
and that is in large part due to your comments and suggestions along
the way.  I hope you all have learned at least as much as I have.

DISCLOSURE: None.

DISCLAIMER: The information and trades
provided here are for informational purposes only and are not a
solicitation to
buy or sell any of these securities. Investing involves substantial
risk and you
should evaluate your own risk levels before you make any investment.
Past
results are not an indication of future performance. Please take the
time to
read the full disclaimer here.

Read more….

Filed under: Ethanol, Racing

As the checkered flag flew on this weekend’s American Le Mans Series race at Road America, cars powered by cellulosic E85 dominated the Michelin Green X Challenge. One of the biggest proponents of biofuels in ALMS has been Lord Paul Drayson, a former UK science and technology minister. Drayson’s co-driver, Jonny Cocker, drove the E85-fueled Lola-Judd to his second straight pole position and then went on to get Drayson Racing’s first ever overall victory. Cocker won with a dramatic late-race surge from fourth to first in the final four laps, passing Klaus Graf with two corners to go. Despite the speed of the Drayson car, it was fuel efficient enough to win the Green Challenge title for the prototype class.

In the GT class, where 10 of the 12 competitors are now running on E85, the Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 GT3 RSR may have been running a bit too lean because it only finished 10th in class on the track; but at least it won the Green Challenge.

[Source: American Le Mans Series]

Continue reading Cellulosic E85-fueled machines win Road America ALMS Green Challenge

Cellulosic E85-fueled machines win Road America ALMS Green Challenge originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 10:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Biodiesel, Emerging Technologies

Melbourne, FL-based PetroAlgae has filed an S-1 document with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the hopes of raising $200 million from an initial public offering. Unfortunately, despite the promise that algae shows as a feedstock for biofuels, PetroAlgae doesn’t appear to have much to offer.

Evidently, PetroAlgae has spent nearly $60 million to develop a process for speeding up the growth of algae that can be used as animal feed or for biofuel production. So far, PetroAlgae has a research facility in Florida but doesn’t plan on actually producing algae for commercial use. Instead, the company wants to license its technology and has agreements with five other companies that will pay royalties to PetroAlgae only if its process is used.

So far, PetroAlgae has no revenues and no near-term prospects for profitability unless oil prices rise dramatically. It appears that investor Laurus Capital Management LLC wants to cash out while still allowing the company to have cash to fund operations for a while. Will it work? We’ll see.

[Source: Florida Today]

Biodiesel algae developer PetroAlgae hoping to go public without a product originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 08:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There were once high hopes for Jatropha as a feedstock for biofuels. But as concerns over the environmental impact of the crop grew, those hopes faded into the background.

Read more….

Just in case you forgot (fat chance of that!), the federal $1-a-gallon biodiesel tax incentive has not been renewed after expiring at the end of 2009. And an estimated 23,000 biodiesel workers (and counting) have been laid off nationwide. The latest victims are workers at a biodiesel plant once touted as the largest in New England.

This Times Argus article says the Swanton, Vermont Biocardel biodiesel refinery has been shuttered because of the lack of the credit … and most likely won’t be coming back:

The state’s economic development authority is now in the process of trying to recover more than a half-million dollars it provided to the facility in low-interest loans, according to officials. State tax credits were also awarded to the company that built the plant, Biocardel, a subsidiary of a Canadian company, although the credits were never used.

The expiration of a federal tax credit for the production of biofuels at the end of 2009 has hammered the industry nationally and the Biocardel facility in Vermont is one casualty. The company does not have plans to reopen the facility.

Jo Bradley of the Vermont Economic Development Authority said that the plant has closed.

“We are trying to negotiate some kind of settlement for the balance of our loan,” she said. “When the federal credits were not renewed it was a blow to the industry as a whole. It made it much more difficult for them to survive.”

Stephen Daigle, who was the general manager of the Vermont plant, said Friday it was frustrating to see the plant just get to the verge of ramping up production last December after nearly two years of preparing and research and development, only to have the tax credits expire and Congress fail to restore them in the months since.

“People tried to help us as much as possible,” Daigle said. “It’s sad because I think Vermont as a green state would have supported it very well.”

The plant was to produce eight million gallons of biodiesel a year.

Read more….

While there’s been lots of talk lately about some of the private investment in algae-biofuels operations, one company official says the feds aren’t doing their part to support the green fuels.

Just recently, Sapphire Energy benefited from $105 million in Department of Energy and Agriculture grants … the largest federal government award for algae ever given. But the Voice of San Diego reports that Tim Zenk, Sapphire’s vice president of corporate affairs, says these grants were really not the rule:

Zenk says recent awards to San Diego researchers are the exception, with government investment in alternative fuels falling woefully short.

“The government’s investment is very inadequate. They need to do a lot more,” says Zenk. “Private investment is another story. Venture capital firms and very large family wealth trusts like you have seen investing in Sapphire Energy are making significant investments and making this technology a reality today.”

[Stephen Mayfield, director of the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology research consortium and a co-founder of Sapphire Energy], who has studied the molecular genetics of green algae for about 25 years, concurs that biofuel research has been historically underfunded. Part of the problem is that algae biofuel is tough to classify. Is it a plant, regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture? Is it a fuel, regulated by the U.S. Department of Energy? If algae could be used to fuel military vehicles, would it fall under the U.S. Department of Defense’s jurisdiction?

Mayfield goes on to say that biofuels are just part of the bigger picture of solar, wind, algae and even corn to replace petroleum.

Read more….