Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume II, Issue
51, December 17,
2012
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
A
sold-out, day-long
head-knocking session on
"Community Scale Bioenergy"
filled the Thirty Mile
Conference Room of the
McClellan Wildfire Training
Center this past Friday.
Each of the main rooms of
the Center is named after a
catastrophic fire in
California; the
"Thirtymile" fire of July
10, 2001 took the lives of
four fire fighters. CDF
started the workshop with
the sobering reminder that
this business of biomass
utilization is crucial to
our economy and our
environment, and the
persistent lack of proper
forest health management
thinning comes at a real
and personal cost. A
common irritant in this
conversation has been from
a zealous opposition whose
mantra of "No You Can't,
Not in MY Forest!" remains
irrationally,
embarrassingly
prominent. True to
form, in a room chock full
of veteran fire fighters,
some joker had the gall to
point out the smattering of
"studies" that claim we
shouldn't be thinning, that
a hands-off approach was
somehow better all around.
For whom, pray
tell?
"Community
Scale" biomass conversion
to combined heat and power
(CHP) used to be focused on
finding appropriate
technologies, then on the
cost of interconnection,
and now on the politics and
policies. California has a
New and Improved 2012
Bioenergy Action Plan that
recognizes that the excess
of 36 million bone dry tons
of biomass generated each
year COULD be turned into
more than a billion gallons
of non-food cellulosic
biofuel, while cutting
greenhouse gas emissions by
reducing both the frequency
and severity of wildfires.
Over 900,000 acres end up
destroyed in wildfires each
year, at a dollar cost of
around $1 billion annually.
One ton of slash burnt in
the open generates around
200 times the carbon
emissions of a biomass
gasification facility
converting the same amount
of woody waste to
energy.
The
conference came together at
this time because
California's Governor Jerry
Brown signed Senate Bill
1122, the feed-in tariff
bill that provides a
carve-out for small (3MWe
or smaller) bioenergy
facilities and secures a
new regulatory foundation
for biomass to energy.
We're talking about
tightly-controlled woody
biomass conversion
facilities that use two to
three truck-loads of slash
per day, gathered from
about 30 miles radius
around the plant. These
facilities can use loose
branches and dead-fall, and
trimmings from logging,
stuff that usually gets
piled up and torched in the
forest or left as unwanted
"fuel loading".
We
carefully went through a
vast amount of detail on
the good, bad and downright
horrible Policies and
Regulations everyone
still must wade through to
set up even the simplest
biomass plant. On the
bright side, there were
FOUR community scale
project reps in one panel
at the same time. Yet it
still can take months to
just push the paper, and
some communities have been
struggling to find a legal
way to set up simple
systems for ten years or
more. It is useful to
remember that not one of
those forest fires applied
for a permit, nor would
they have stopped if they'd
been denied permission to
devastate our lives and our
countryside.
Hey
Rube!
Probably the
clearest message: you
absolutely MUST have
overwhelming community buy-in,
with a majority of residents
willing and able to agree on a
Stewardship Plan. A newspaper
from one of the communities
doggedly pushing ahead with
biomass conversion published a
great line: "Since Change is
inevitable, let's Change in the
direction that the Community
wants."
The
Week's News
Oregon
Approves Materials
Management and Clean Fuels
Programs
The Oregon Environmental
Quality Commission (EQC) under
the Department of Environmental
Quality (DEQ) voted on two key
clean tech issues during this
month's meeting, unanimously
approving the Materials
Management for Oregon: 2050
Vision and Framework for Action
upon acceptance of the Staff
Report, and the following day
approved implementation of
Oregon's Clean Fuel Program,
Phase 1.
12/15/2012
MaRS
Cleantech Fund Invests in
Woodland Biofuels for
Biomass to
Ethanol
The MaRS Cleantech Fund of
Toronto, Ontario, Canada has
announced the completion of an
investment of an undisclosed
amount in Mississauga based
Woodland Biofuels, which has a
demonstration plant in the
commissioning phase in Sarnia.
12/15/2012
Oregon BEST
Grant Advances ShelterWorks
Waste Wood Filled Cement
Blocks
Oregon based
green building materials
company
ShelterWorks
owns
rights to formation of
Faswall® waste wood
filled cement
construction block, a
lightweight "green"
building material.
12/14/2012
Cyclone
Power Forming JV with
Precision CNC for Production
Center
Florida based heat driven
engine developer Cyclone Power
has announced signing a Letter
of Understanding with
manufacturing company Precision
CNC to establish a production
center for Cyclone Engines.
12/14/2012
CEC Awards
over $2.5MM for Clean Fuel
Transportation
Projects
The California Energy
Commission (CEC) has announced
release of more than $2.5
million in awards to support
clean transportation projects,
including over $1.2 million for
pre-processing solid food waste
as feedstock for two existing
but underutilized anaerobic
digesters.
12/13/2012
DPS Secures
Global License for Ethos
Pyrolysis Gasification
Technology
United Kingdom UK) based
engineering group DPS Global
has announced acquisition of a
global license from Ethos
Energy for a modular thermal
waste processing technology.
12/13/2012
Sierra
Energy SacPort Project Part
of GO-Biz Investment Forum
in
Beijing
California based Sierra Energy
has announced that its SacPort
waste-to-sustainable fuels
project has been included in
the GO-Biz Investment Forum
kicked off last week in
Beijing, China by US Ambassador
Gary Locke.
12/13/2012
Nova Scotia
Buys Bowater Paper Mill for
Conversion to Biofuels
Center
The Province of Nova Scotia has
announced a partnership with
early stage venture capital
firm Innovacorp, energy
services company Emera, and
advanced cellulosic biofuels
company Cellufuel to advance
cellulosic biomass to energy
and fuels.
12/13/2012
OEC Receives
Patent for MaxDiverter
Advanced Mechanized MRF
Design
Organic Energy Corporation
(OEC) of Sugar Land, Texas has
received a patent for
"Mechanized Separation of Mixed
Solid Waste and Recovery of
Recyclable Products" (US
8,322,639 B2).
12/12/2012
Global Clean
Energy Forms JV with
MicroEnergies for Pyrolysis
Projects
Texas headquartered Global
Clean Energy Inc. (GCEI) has
announced a joint venture with
MicroEnergies, LLC to develop
pyrolysis projects utilizing
thermal technologies and
feedstock agreements acquired
by Nevada based MicroEnergies,
LLC.
12/12/2012
Pond
Biofuels, ETIC, US Steel
Canada Launch Emissions to
Biofuel Pilot
Project
Toronto based Pond Biofuels has
announced launch of its second
pilot project designed to
capture carbon from industrial
emissions in algae grown for
biofuels.
12/12/2012
Methes
Energies Is CRFA New
Producer of the Year for
Renewable
Fuels
Nevada based Methes Energies
International Ltd. has
announced that its wholly-owned
subsidiary, Methes Energies
Canada Inc., has received the
New Producer of the Year award
from The Canadian Renewable
Fuels Association (CRFA).
12/10/2012
US Army
Completes Successful Field
Tests of Hybrid Waste to
Energy
Module
The US Army Research,
Development and Engineering
Command (RDECOM) reports that
an advanced prototype of the
Trash Gasification to Energy
Refinery (TGER) technology has
now been returned to the
manufacturer following
successfully completed field
trials.
12/10/2012
The Week's Action
Items
Due
12/18/2012:Applications for
CEC Community Scale
Renewable Energy
Grant
Update
:
Addendum No. 4 to Program
Opportunity Notice PON-12-502
has been issued that changes
the submittal deadline to
Tuesday, December 18, 2012 at
3:00 p.m, as well as several
other revisions. Applicants who
have already submitted will be
allowed to resubmit.
12/10/2012
Due
12/21/2012: Comments to CEC
on Proposed RE Planning
Grants
The California Energy
Commission (CEC) has released a
Request for Comments toward the
development of a grant
solicitation that would support
County-level renewable energy
(RE) planning efforts.
12/12/2012
Due
01/22/2013: Comments on
Oregon's Conversion
Technology
Standards
The Oregon Department of
Environmental Quality (DEQ) has
announced release for public
review and comment of new
performance standards and solid
waste permit requirements for
certain conversion technology
facilities in Oregon.
12/15/2012
Due
02/05/2013: Proposals to
CEC's Energy Innovation
Small Grants
Program
The California Energy
Commission's (CEC) Public
Interest Energy Research,
Energy Innovations Small Grants
program (PEIR / EISG) released
the last Program Solicitation
Notices for this year.
12/12/2012
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