Another reason why Lio is one of my favorite comic strips:

The answer is blowing in the wind and biofuel.

True, at least for a part of the renewable energy solution. A Reuters report is saying that the U.S. wind industry is counting heavily on legislation that calls for the generation of 25 percent of the nation’s electricity to be generated from renewable sources by 2025.

Before you ask why so long? Consider that a paltry 7 percent currently of our juice comes from all types renewables. Pretty woeful and we’re way behind but the start has to begin somewhere. Keep the rally caps on.

The wind power industry has posted strong growth for several years but that has hinged mainly on uncertainties around the on-again, off-again production tax credit.

Investment in new wind power capacity grew from $3 billion in 2005 to $17 billion in 2008, but was projected to fall to $13 billion this year, due to lost financing, low prices for natural gas and political uncertainty, Reuters reported.

The fallout for the U.S. wind industry, the world’s largest producer of wind power at 28,000 megawatts (MW), could result in industry consolidation.

However, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) recently reported that more than 2,800 megawatts of wind energy industry was installed in the United States over the of the first quarter of 2009. New projects in 15 states now bring total wind power generating capacity in the U.S. to 28,206 MW.

Attendees at the Windpower 2009 conference called on U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to lobby for congressional passage of legislation to create a national renewable energy standard.

“At no time in our history has the need for a new energy policy been so urgent,” Salazar was quoted as telling members of AWEA at conference. Salazar said that if the U.S. fully pursues its potential for wind energy on land and offshore, it can generate as much as 20 percent of U.S. domestic electricity by 2030 and create a 250,000 jobs.

Supporters of a national standard, including AWEA, say it would provide a target and boost demand for the energy credits that wind farms and other renewable projects create.

With the Bush crowd gone a solid renewable energy standard looks more and more like it might actually happen and happen soon – good news for wind, solar and biofuel sourcers.

Biofuels got a major boost in that regard May 5 from the White House.

In response to recommendations from the Governors’ Biofuels Coalition, President Obama officially directed members of his administration to shepherd the development of the U.S. biofuels industry.

His directive creates the nation’s first comprehensive biofuels market development program; coordinates infrastructure policies; and identifies policy options to improve the sustainability of biofuels feedstock production.

The coalition says the president’s action came in response to a letter from Govs. John Hoeven of North Dakota and Chet Culver of Iowa – the chair and vice chair of the Governors’ Biofuels Coalition respectively – that proposed a number of initiatives to accelerate U.S. development and use of renewable, sustainable, low-carbon fuels produced domestically.

“With this directive, a national strategic vision for the role of biofuels in America’s future has been established,” said Gov. Hoeven.

The May 5, 2009, presidential directive was distributed to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Energy Stephen Chu, and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson. It creates a Biofuels Interagency Working Group led by these three officials.

The White House said the working group will:

• Develop the nation’s first comprehensive biofuel market development program, which shall use existing authorities and identify new policies to support the development of next-generation biofuels, increase flexible fuel vehicle use, and assist in retail marketing efforts;
• Coordinate infrastructure policies impacting the supply, secure transport, and distribution of biofuels; and
• Identify new policy options to promote the environmental sustainability of biofuels feedstock production, taking into consideration land use, habitat conservation, crop management practices, water efficiency and water quality, as well as lifecycle assessments of greenhouse gas emissions.

In his directive, the President called on Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to:

• Immediately begin restructuring existing investments in renewable fuels as needed to preserve industry employment; and
• Develop a comprehensive approach to accelerating the investment in and production of American biofuels and reducing our dependence on fossil fuels.

“Expanding our biofuels infrastructure provides a unique opportunity to spur rural economic development while reducing our dependence on foreign oil – one of the great challenges of the 21st century,” said Vilsack.

The President also announced that $786.5 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will be provided to accelerate advanced biofuels research and development and expand commercialization by providing additional funding for commercial biorefineries.  These efforts will be overseen by the Department of Energy.

The DOE biomass program will leverage DOE’s national laboratories, universities, and the private sector to help improve biofuels reliability and overcome key technical challenges, with the goal of create advanced biofuels like green gasoline, diesel, and jet fuels.

The $786.5 million in Recovery Act funding is a mix of new funding opportunities and additional funding for existing projects. It will be allocated across four main areas:

• $480 million solicitation for integrated pilot- and demonstration-scale biorefineries;
• $176.5 million for commercial-scale biorefinery projects;
• $110 million for fundamental research in key program areas; and
• $20 million for ethanol research

“Developing the next generation of biofuels is key to our effort to end our dependence on foriegn oil and address the climate crisis — while creating millions of new jobs that can’t be outsourced,” Secretary of Energy Steven Chu said.

he President also announced the Environmental Protection Agency’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the Renewable Fuel Standard.  This proposal outlines the EPA’s strategy for increasing the supply of renewable fuels, poised to reach 36 billion gallons by 2022, as mandated by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.

Increasing renewable fuels will reduce dependence of foreign oil by more than 297 million barrels a year and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 160 million tons a year when fully phased in by 2022.  EISA will establish four categories of renewable fuels..

The new categories include:

• Cellulosic biofuels;
• Biomass-based diesel;
• Advanced biofuels; and
• Total renewable fuel.

In 2022, the proposal would require 36 billion gallons annually of renewable fuels, of which 16 billion gallons must be cellulosic biofuels; and 1 billion gallons must be of biomass-based diesel.  At most 15 billion gallons of the renewable fuel mandate can be met with conventional biofuels, including corn-based ethanol.

For the first time, some renewable fuels must achieve greenhouse gas emission reductions compared to the gasoline and diesel fuels they displace. Refiners must meet the requirements to receive credit toward meeting the new standards.

This might be the best news direct from the top for the biofuels industry since, well, ever.

There’s the Eastern Garbage Dump, an assemblage of trash the size of Texas floating in the Pacific Ocean and there’s “ghost fishing” yet another assault on the our water planet’s oceans.

Large amounts of fishing gear lost at sea or abandoned by fishers are damaging the marine environment, impacting fish stocks through what is known as ghost fishing and posing a hazard to ships, according to a report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and UN Environment Program (UNEP).

“There are many ‘ghosts in the marine environment machine’ from over-fishing and acidification linked with greenhouse gases to the rise in de-oxygenated ‘dead zones’ as a result of run off and land-based source of pollution,” says Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director. “Abandoned and lost fishing is part of this suite of challenges that must be urgently addressed collectively if the productivity of our oceans and seas is to be maintained for this and future generations.”

This problem is getting worse because of the increased scale of global fishing operations and the introduction of highly durable fishing gear made of long-lasting synthetic materials.

The 139-page report estimates that abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear in the oceans makes up around 10 percent (640,000 tons) of all marine litter. Merchant shipping is the primary source on the open sea, land-based sources are the predominate cause of marine debris in coastal areas.

Most fishing gear is not deliberately discarded, the report says, but is lost in storms or strong currents or results from “gear conflicts,” for example, fishing with nets in areas where bottom-traps that can entangle them are already deployed.

The main impacts of abandoned or lost fishing gear are:

• continued catches of fish – or ghost fishing – and other animals such as turtles, seabirds, and marine mammals, who are trapped and die;
• alterations of the sea-floor environment; and
• the creation of navigation hazards that can cause accidents at sea and damage vessels.

Gill nets, fishing pots and traps are most likely to ghost fish, while longlines are more likely to ensnare other marine organisms and trawls are the most likely to damage sub-sea habitats.

In the past, poorly operated drift nets were the prime ghost fishing culprits, but a 1992 ban on their use in many areas has reduced their contribution to ghost fishing.

Today, bottom set gill nets are more often cited as a problem. The bottom edge of these nets is anchored to the sea floor and floats are attached to their top, so that they form a vertical undersea wall of netting that can run anywhere from 600 to 10,000 meters in length. If a gillnet is abandoned or lost, it can continue to fish on its own for months – and sometimes years – indiscriminately killing fish and other animals.

Traps and pots are another major ghost fisher. In the Chesapeake Bay, an estimated 150,000 crab traps are lost each year out of an estimated 500,000 total deployed. On just the single Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, about 20.000 of all traps set each year are lost each hurricane season – a loss rate of 50 percent. Like gill nets, these traps can continue to fish on their own for long periods of time.

The total input of marine litter into the oceans per year has been estimated at approximately 6.4 million tons annually, of which nearly 5.6 million tons, or 88 percent, comes from merchant shipping.

About 8 million items of marine litter are thought to enter the oceans and seas every day, with about 5 million (63 percent) comprising solid waste thrown overboard or lost from ships.

It’s been estimated that  more than 13,000 pieces of plastic litter are floating on every square kilometer of ocean. In 2002, 6 kg of plastic was found for every kilogram of plankton near the surface of a gyre point in the central Pacific, the Eastern Garbage Dump, where debris collects.

Mass concentrations of marine debris in high seas accumulation areas, such as the equatorial convergence zone, are of particular concern, the UN says. In some such areas, rafts of assorted debris, including various plastics; ropes; fishing nets; and cargo-associated wastes such as dunnage, pallets, wires and plastic covers, drums and shipping containers, along with accumulated slicks of various oils, often extend for many kilometers.

“The amount of fishing gear remaining in the marine environment will continue to accumulate and the impacts on marine ecosystems will continue to get worse if the international community doesn’t take effective steps to deal with the problem of marine debris as a whole,” says Ichiro Nomura, FAO Assistant Director-General for Fisheries and Aquaculture. “Strategies for addressing the problem must occur on multiple fronts, including prevention, mitigation, and curative measures.”

Solving this problem seems difficult to impossible. It’s tough to monitor and regulate what happens in the middle of the ocean, but the report takes a stab by recommending:

Financial incentives. Economic incentives could encourage fishers to report lost gear or bring to port old and damaged gear, as well as any ghost nets they might recover accidentally while fishing.

Marking gear. Not all trash gear is deliberately dumped, so marking should not be used to “identify offenders” but rather better understand the reasons for gear loss and identify appropriate, fishery-specific preventative measures.

New technologies. New technologies offer new possibilities for reducing the probability of ghost fishing. Sea-bed imaging can be used to avoid undersea snags and obstacles. Fishing equipment can be expensive, and many fishers often go to great lengths to retrieve lost gear. Using GPS, vessels can mark locations where gear has been lost, facilitating retrieval, and transponders can be fitted to gear in order to do the same.

Also, just as new synthetic and other materials used in fishing gears have contributed to the ADLFG problem, they can also help solve it. Work is underway to speed up the commercial adoption of durable gear components that incorporate bio-degradable elements.

Improving collection, disposal and recycling schemes. It is necessary to facilitate proper disposal of all old, damaged and retrieved fishing gears, according to the report. Most ports do not have facilities on-site that allow for this.

Better reporting of lost gear. A key recommendation of the report is that vessels should be required to log gear losses as a matter of course. A “no-blame” approach should be followed with respect to liability for losses, their impacts, and any recovery efforts, it says. The goal should be not to punish but to improve awareness of potential hazards and increase the opportunity for gear recovery.

The FAO/UNEP report is a likely topic as nations prepare to gather in for the World Oceans Conference in Manado, Indonesia next week (May 11-15).

The ocean is big and a little trash and debris, or even a lot, won’t hurt much because it’s a self-cleaning system, right? Guess again, slappy.

Size and distance matters a great deal when it comes to solidifying Pacific Northwest ports’ status as the “Green Gateway” for cargoes moving out of Asia.

It seems inherently obvious that the larger the cargo vessel and the shorter the route that its cargo has to travel, greenhouse gas emissions will lessen. What the Puget Sound ports of Seattle and Tacoma have done, for the first time it appears, is actually quantify this carbon footprint conclusion.

They did so in a study released Monday that estimates the GHG emissions from the delivery of cargo containers from the four most common-sized container ships in use – 4,500 TEUs, 6,500 TEUs, 8,500 TEUs, and 12,500 TEUs. The TEU, or 20-foot container equivalent unit, is the standard measure of all those ubiquitous boxes that are stacked on ships, rolling behind trucks or double-stacked on trains.

Their conclusion: The lowest emission route to ship cargo from Asia to the U.S. Midwest is through the Puget Sound – what they call the “Green Gateway” for trade.

“The carbon study results are good news, and a great boost to our efforts to measure and reduce our environmental impact,” said Port of Seattle CEO Tay Yoshitani. “Our ongoing sustainability initiatives have created a Green Gateway that is good for our environment and our customers.”

It also adds environmental street-cred in the continuing competitive commercial battle between intermodal rail and all-water container services by taking aim from a carbon footprint perspective on the advantages of rail services from West Coast ports over all-water services to the Gulf and East coasts.

The study confirms “what we’ve known for a long time,” says Port of Tacoma Executive Director Tim Farrell. “This region has been a truly green gateway for a long time, and our customers are helping us demonstrate that businesses can do well by doing good.”

The study analyzes the carbon footprints of trade routes between Singapore, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, and the U.S. distribution hubs of Chicago, Columbus and Memphis, as well as routes that use US East and Gulf Coast ports via the Panama and Suez canals. It was commissioned by the Port of Seattle and conducted by Herbert Engineering, a ship design, engineering and transportation consulting firm based in California.

A study comparison of the emissions of ocean-going containerships and domestic rail service finds that marine transportation emits about 1.5 to 2.25 less carbon dioxide equivalent emissions per TEU-mile than rail transportation. “This relationship favors shipping over rail transportation when travel distances are comparable,” the study continues. But the ocean distance from Asian ports to the West Coast ports and in particular the ports of Prince Rupert in British Columbia and Seattle “are so much shorter than the (all-water) distances to the East Coast ports that this more than offsets the detrimental impact of the longer rail distances from the West Coast ports.”

The report also finds that shipping though Seattle provides the lowest overall carbon emissions from the three Asian departure ports used in the study, when the cargo continues on to inland container terminals at Chicago and Columbus.

Prince Rupert, emerging as major rival to Seattle and Tacoma in intermodal rail services to the Midwest, has a similar emissions footprint. When shipping to Memphis, the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland have the lowest emissions.

The carbon footprint advantages from West Coast ports “can be quite significant,” the study says.  For example, “carbon emissions expressed in terms of emissions per TEU moves are approximately 41% lower when moving a container between Shanghai and Chicago via the port of Seattle on a 8,500 TEU containership, as opposed to moving the same container between Shanghai and Chicago via the Panama Canal and the port of New York/New Jersey on a 4,500 TEU containership. The latter-sized vessel is the largest that can currently fit through the canal.

View the study, “Carbon Footprint Study for the Asia to North America Intermodal Trade,” here.

I was reading about David de Rothschild and his Plastiki Expedition yesterday in a New Yorker article. He’s building an entirely recyclable boat out of plastic water bottles and aims to sail it to the Eastern Garbage Patch sometime this year.

His website, Adventure Ecology is well worth exploring and check this for a video from that site on the boat and the expedition.

Solar towers in Spain

Some good news about solar – in Europe. Abengoa Solar began commercial operation of the huge PS20 solar power tower located at the Solucar Platform, near Seville.

It is the world’s largest solar power tower, with a generating capacity of 20 megawatts; it will produce enough solar energy to supply 10,000 homes.

During a three-day production and operational testing period last week, the PS20 surpassed the predicted power output, further validating the high potential of power tower technology, the company said in a statement.

“Generating more power during production testing than the design output is indeed a significant milestone,” said Santiago Seage, CEO of Abengoa Solar.

The world’s second power tower plant in commercial use, PS20 features a number of technological improvements over PS10, Abengoa’s and the world’s first commercial power tower.

The power capacity of the PS20 is double that of the earlier power tower, and Abengoa Solar has put in a higher-efficiency receiver, improvements in the control and operational systems, and a better thermal energy storage system.

PS20 consists of a solar field made up of 1,255 mirrored heliostats. Each heliostat, with a surface area of 1,291 square feet, reflects the solar radiation it receives onto the receiver, located on the top of a 531 feet-high tower.

The concentrated heat produces steam, which is converted into electricity generation by a turbine.

Abengoa Solar says operation of PS20 will avoid the emission of approximately 12,000 tons of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that a fossil fuel-burning power plant would have produced.

The Solucar platform generates 300 megawatts from a variety of solar sources – 50 MW from tower technology, 250 MW from troughs, 1.2 MW produced by photovoltaic technology, and 80 MW from Stirling dish technology.

Located in Sanlucar la Mayor, the platform will have 300 MW of installed capacity when it is completed in 2013. At that point the company says it is expected to produce enough energy to supply 153,000 households, and will prevent the emission of 185,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year.

During the lifespan of the platform, the company says, it will reduce an estimated four million tons of carbon emissions.

The platform covers a land area of 800 hectares and will create 300 permanent jobs for a total investment of 1.2 billion euros ($1.6 billion).

Besides the Solucar Platform, Abengoa Solar is building commercial solar power plants in Spain, Algeria, Morocco and the United States.

Abengoa’s U.S. headquarters in Lakewood, CO last October was awarded two research and development projects in the field of concentrating solar power that total more than $14 million by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Under the first award, Abengoa aims to develop technology that will reduce the cost of thermal energy storage for parabolic trough-based concentrating solar power systems by 20 to 25 percent. Three other Energy Department contracts awarded to Abengoa in December 2007 are focused on developing more efficient parabolic trough technology. Under the second 2008 contract Abengoa will investigate new technologies for integrating thermal energy storage with power tower systems.

SunPower, Vestas raise funds

SunPower Corp.  (Nasdaq: SPWRA; SPWRB), the provider of solar cells, solar panels, and solar systems, has completed a successful public share offer that will raise more than $417 million.

On Thursday the San Jose company said underwriters of its public offerings exercised overallotment options to purchase an additional 1.35 million shares of class A common stock and $30.0 million aggregate principal amount of 4.75% senior convertible debentures due 2014.

The options were granted in connection with the company’s previously announced public offerings of 9,000,000 shares of class A common stock at $22.00 per share and $200 million aggregate principal amount of senior convertible debentures.

Including the exercise of the overallotment options, the aggregate net proceeds of the offerings are expected to be approximately $417.6 million, after deducting the underwriters’ discounts, commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by the company.

SunPower says intends to use the net proceeds for “general corporate purposes,” including working capital and capital expenditures. From time to time, it will “evaluate potential acquisitions and strategic transactions of business, technologies, or products, and may use a portion of the net proceeds for such acquisitions or transactions. Currently, however, the company does not have any agreements with respect to any such material acquisitions or strategic transactions.”

The senior convertible debentures will bear interest at a rate of 4.75% per year, payable on April 15 and October 15 of each year, beginning on October 15, 2009. The debentures will mature on April 15, 2014.

Closing of the public offerings of shares and debentures, including the exercise of the overallotment options, is expected to occur on May 4, 2009.

Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. are serving as joint book-running managers for the offerings. Lazard Capital Markets, Barclays Capital Inc., Piper Jaffray & Co., Wachovia Capital Markets, LLC, and SL Hare Capital, Inc. are serving as co-managers.

Vestas Wind Systems, meanwhile said its private offer of 18.5 million shares was fully subscribed in less than one day. It will raise about $1 billion for the company.

The shares were offered April 28 to institutional and professional investors in Denmark and to international investors. The offer represents about 10% of the company’s share capital. Payment and settlement will take place on May 4, Vestas said.

While that was occurring the wind-turbine manufacturer said it would slash 1,900 jobs, mainly in the UK and in Denmark – about 9% of its workforce – due to “market oversupply.” The layoff announcement also came as the company reported a net profit of 56m euros ($73 million) for the first three months of 2009, up from 33m euros for the same period last year.