Green Power Source

U.S. biodiesel production officially topped one billion gallons in 2011, according to final year-end numbers released by the Environmental Protection Agency today.

The total volume of nearly 1.1 billion gallons is by far a record for the industry and easily exceeded the 800 million gallon target required under the EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). The previous record for biodiesel production was about 690 million gallons in 2008.

National Biodiesel Board (NBB) vice president of federal affairs Anne Steckel says the milestone demonstrates that the biodiesel tax incentive and the Renewable Fuel Standard are working just as Congress intended. “Now is not the time to be second-guessing the RFS or eliminating the biodiesel tax incentive,” said Steckel. “We’re proving that the policies work, that American innovation and competitiveness can pull us away from our dangerous dependence on imported fuel. Just as President Obama said in his State of the Union this week, we need to stay the course to continue creating jobs and building America’s energy capacity.”

The biodiesel industry’s success in 2011 comes after Congress reinstated the fuel’s $1-per-gallon tax credit in December 2010 and as the EPA’s RFS program for biodiesel completed its first full year of implementation. Without those policies in place in 2010, production dropped dramatically as dozens of plants shuttered and thousands of people lost jobs.

There is a lot made about tensions between the ethanol and livestock industries but the distillers grains co-product of ethanol production is providing significant benefits for animal producers even as it has helped prop up corn prices.

A great discussion at the 6th Annual Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit featured corn and cattle organizations on the same panel talking about the “Synergies of Livestock and Ethanol.”

Moderator Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey opened the discussion by noting that sales of crops and livestock have risen as ethanol production has increased from $12 billion in 2002 – 6 billion in crop and 6 billion in livestock to $24 billion in 2010 and while final numbers are not in yet for 2011, it is expected to be about $30 billion with at least $13 billion of that for livestock. “$13 billion on the livestock side versus $6 billion nine years ago,” Northey said. “Has ethanol been good for livestock agriculture in Iowa? I think very clearly.”

Listen to a brief interview with Secretary Northey here: Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey

Iowa Cattlemen’s Association Executive Director Matt Deppe says it’s easy to see the benefits that distillers grains (DDGS) have brought to especially cattle feeders. “We look at it as a corn replacement,” Deppe says about DDGS. “It means that they (feedlot operators) have another option that’s cost effective to put into their rations.”

Listen to an interview with Matt Deppe here: Matt Deppe Interview

The livestock industry has traditionally been the most important market for corn, noted Iowa Corn Growers CEO Craig Floss, although use for ethanol has increased significantly in the past decade. “But a third of every one of those bushels that goes into an ethanol plant goes into DDGS,” he said.

The panel also included Randy Ives, director of ethanol services for the commodity management firm Gavilon Group.

Listen to or download the entire panel discussion here: Ethanol and Livestock panel

Photos from 2012 Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit

In a survey conducted in 4Q11, IMS Research asked more than 400 PV installers, distributors, and engineering/procurement/construction (EPC) firms about their purchasing habits for solar inverters: brand and product preference, product features, microinverters and power optimizers, service/warranty, and pricing, and what customers want to see improved in inverter technology. The survey covered several major global markets, with responses parsed by country and customer type.

Among the key findings from the survey results:

• Western inverter suppliers are still clearly favored, and market-leader SMA in particular has great brand affinity. But nearly 30 percent of respondents, with an emphasis on Europe (Italy and the UK in particular), indicated they think Chinese products are of "acceptable quality."

• Survey respondents still see room for improvements. For string inverters, they want more MPPT channels and a wider MPP range; for central inverters it's improved system monitoring and fault detection, noted report co-author Cormac Gilligan.

• Also gleaned from the survey: continued adoption of three-phase string inverters for large PV installations. More than 70 percent of respondents said they would consider using a string inverter in >750kW systems, and 30 percent said they'd use them in megawatt-sized projects.

• System-level monitoring is a hot topic. Nearly 70 percent of respondents said they want monitoring diagnostics down to the string level, and 15 percent want the ability for individual panels. That points to an opportunity for firms in offering panel-level electronics, says IMS Research senior research director Ash Sharma. Only 1 percent of PV installations in 2011 used microinverters, but more than 10 percent of survey respondents "are intending to use microinverters for some of their projects in the next 12-24 months, with an even greater number wanting to use DC-DC power optimizers," he says. Still, more than half of respondents cite higher costs for microinverters and hesitation to adopt what they see as an "unproven" technology.

• Even though inverter pricing is expected to fall by 20 percent or even 30 percent over the next three years, "nearly all" expect inverters to incorporate more and improved features and better quality. (More than half, though, indicated they'd pay a premium for just a 1 percent yield gain.) This sentiment is most likely due to customers determining their preferred inverter price based on their overall system budget. "With module and system prices falling rapidly, this inherently puts more pressure on inverter prices to fall too," Gilligan said.

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In the State of the Union Address and other appearances this week, President Obama is endorsing a proposal that would extend the advanced energy manufacturing tax credit.

The Security in Energy and Manufacturing (SEAM) Act, authored by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), is a job-creating clean energy tax cut, which has delivered nearly $125 million to seven Ohio manufacturers to help create clean energy jobs, provides investment tax credits of 30 percent for facilities that manufacture energy equipment. Currently, 70 percent of clean energy components are manufactured outside of the United States.

“We can’t trade a dependence on foreign oil for a dependence on foreign-made sources of energy,” Brown said. “It’s unacceptable that 70 percent of clean energy components are made outside of the U.S. Extending the Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit will help more American manufacturers create jobs through the production of cutting-edge energy technologies.”

The initial tax credit, which was included in the Recovery Act, supported seven Ohio projects and dozens more eligible projects applied for funding but were denied due to a lack of funds. The Department of Energy (DOE) states that the program was more than three times oversubscribed. Nationwide, DOE deemed 418 projects eligible, which amounts to $5.8 billion in unfunded eligible applications. These manufacturers are waiting in the pipeline, and would be ready to break ground soon after they receive funding.

To be eligible for the tax credit, manufacturers must produce solar, wind, and geothermal energy equipment; fuel cells, microturbines, and batteries; electric cars; electric grids; energy conservation technologies; and equipment that captures and sequesters carbon dioxide or reduces greenhouse gas emissions. The SEAM Act is also cosponsored by Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), and Bob Casey (D-PA).