Teru Talk - 2011 Newsletter V-I-13

A colleague kindly told me he was enjoying our website, and really liked our "pithiness". Humm.

Now, don't get me wrong, I like pithiness as much as the next guy, but I try hard not to be too pithy. I suppose it is unavoidable, though, that sooner or later I'll pith on someone.

It is too easy in these tense times to look for the Bad Guy and then aim all our angst against the Enemy. Yep, we're fractious bunch all right, but there just is too little time and not enough planet to constantly be looking for the fall-guy. Big Oil? We've lived off the black gold all our lives; much of this country's Brain Trust resides in that sector, an industry now happily absorbing Conversion Technology (CT) left and right (ask KiOR). Big Waste Management? Have you been watching WM's Organic Growth lately? Is it the Politicians? We do keep electing 'em, after all. And I've already posted my Rant about the Environmental Community.

Teru sees every CT, every project we report as someone's attempt to implement a Solution, and we offer these gems in the hope they'll help somebody else find their own Solution. Enjoy the Newsletter; Use the News.

In the category of "What should we be looking at Today?" we suggest spending time with the US Forest Service Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI). We've posted Early News of their impending RFP, with a link to their Project Website. 300,000 acres of Biomass Management designated a "small business set-aside". Longer term contract templates. Project parameters developed to encourage Conversion, and not just to Timber. Be kind to Mr. Biomass, my friend Jerry Payne; he's been trying to get this opened, staged and up for small business biomass utilization for close to a decade.

UK Runcorn Combined Heat and Power Plant Receives Environmental Permit Viridor and partners INEOS ChlorVinyls, Viridor Liang Greater Manchester (VLGM), and the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority (GMWDA) have announced that they have received approval of the environmental permit for operation of the Runcorn Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant in Cheshire, United Kingdom (UK). 05/20/2011

Ag Waste to Biofuel Can Supply over 50% of India's Transport Fuel by 2020 Converting agricultural waste into biofuel could create up to one million jobs in India over the next decade, and radically improve India’s energy efficiency by meeting up to 59% of the demand for transport gasoline through greener fuels by 2020. 05/20/2011

CEC PIER Program Schedules Venture Capital Forum for Clean Tech Energy The California Energy Commission's (CEC) Public Interest Energy Research program (PIER) has scheduled a Venture Capital Forum, intended to bring together venture capitalists and researchers from the clean technology energy sector. 05/19/2011

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) researchers have unveiled one millimeter square cantilevered pyroelectric energy harvester structures that turns waste heat into electricity. 05/19/2011

Colorado-based ZeaChem, Inc has secured a long-term feedstock supply from Greenwood Tree Farm Fund (GTFF), who will provide wood from three nearby Poplar plantations for ZeaChem's first commercial biorefinery in Boardman, Oregon. 05/18/2011

US Dept of Commerce Offers Clean Tech Assistance for the German Market Munich, Germany will host one of the world's largest environmental trade fairs a year from now, May 7-11, 2012. The IFAT ENTSORGA last year drew over 110,000 visitors from 185 countries to exhibit technologies for water, sewage, waste, and raw materials management. 05/18/2011

Rentech Wins Ontario, Canada's Largest Eer Feedstock Supply Contract Los Angeles based biomass to liquid fuels company Rentech, Inc has won a 1.3 million ton per year forest wood waste contract in competitive bidding to Canada's Ontario Ministry of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry, the largest feedstock supply single contract yet written by the agency. 05/17/2011

The Kashmir Valley of the Jammu and Kashmir State (J&K State) in India is receiving anaerobic digestion system design, construction and operational training to provide clean, low cost, renewable energy for the region. 05/17/2011

Texas-based biofuels company KiOR has signed a ground fuel supply agreement with FedEx Corporate Services, Inc. 05/17/2011

Waste Management, Inc (WM) has added another Conversion Technology to their ever-growing list of strategic investments, with the addition of Agnion Energy's gasification technology. 05/16/2011

Cupertino, California based AE Biofuels' subsidiary AE Advanced Fuels Keyes, Inc. (AE Keyes) has completed retrofitting and restarted operations at the 55 million gallon per year ethanol production facility in Keyes, California. 05/16/2011

Southern California Edison (SCE) has released a Request for Proposals and detailed proposal instructions for renewable energy products from eligible energy generation facilities per California's Renewable Portfolio Standard Guidebooks, which include policies for conversion of waste and biomass to energy. 05/16/2011

The USDA Forest Service has issued a Pre-Solicitation Notice for Phase 1 of the long-awaited Four Forests Restoration Initiative (4FRI) Stewardship Project, a large landscape scale, multiyear forest restoration effort in central Arizona. 05/19/2011

Teru Talk Newsletter