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Annual EU Report Projects Increased Pellet, Biogas Consumption
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Building A New Biofuels Industry
Volume 91 Issue 4 | pp. 20-22 Issue Date: January 28, 2013 Building A New Biofuels Industry After years of delays, the first commercial-scale cellulosic fuel facilities are nearing completion By Melody M. Bomgardner Poet-DSM Advanced Biofuels, KiOR , Beta Renewables , and other firms will validate the technologies, confirm financial returns, and draw additional investment. “If you look at these projects, they show that the industry has come a long way,” says Jim Lane, editor and publisher of Biofuels Digest, an online newsletter covering biofuels. He’s not dwelling on past proclamations. “Sure, we could rerun the tape, but there were many things the companies were not in control of. The good news is they are here.” Cellulosic fuels are intended to be an alternative to petroleum-derived fuels and first-generation biofuels made from corn. The barriers to commercial success have been technology, the ability to scale up, and project financing. By 2008, after five years of laboratory work and pilot successes, several biofuels firms thought their technology was ready to go. But when the recession hit, the capital markets dried up, and the industry spun its wheels. “What we view as the dominant factor behind the slow scale-up is constrained availability of capital,” asserts Pavel Molchanov, research analyst for investment bank Raymond James in a note to investors. “Second-generation commercialization is a highly capital-intensive undertaking—much more so than the prior decade’s build-out of corn ethanol plants.” [+]Enlarge Molchanov says facilities based on technology that uses dense but cheap cellulosic feedstock such as timberland wastes or municipal waste come with the highest price tag. KiOR’s $222 million plant will make 13 million gal per year of its biocrude from forestry residuals. That works out to a capital cost of $17 per gal. Cellulosic ethanol plants that run on corn-farming leftovers, like the facility run by a joint venture of Poet and DSM, will carry capital costs of $10 per gal and up. In contrast, modern ethanol plants that run on corn sugar are built for close to $2.00 per gal. However, corn ethanol producers face high and volatile feedstock costs, and that is why cellulosic fuel producers are confident that their more expensive plants will still be profitable. “We wouldn’t be making the investment if we didn’t think it was an opportunity to generate good business for the joint venture,” says Wade Robey, a member of the Poet-DSM board. Robey says he is “very bullish” about Project Liberty, the venture’s first facility, located in Iowa, as well as plans to expand to other Poet locations that currently make corn ethanol. Expanding may bring new hardships, however. For companies that use agricultural waste, Lane points out, each new facility will be increasingly difficult to site because of what he calls the “biomass radius problem.” A typical facility consumes 285,000 tons of biomass per year, requiring a reach of 40 to 50 miles of cropland. The next plant must find its own untouched radius of land. All the more reason why it’s good to be first. Access to capital is the key reason why Beta Renewables’ plant, in Crescentino, Italy, will likely be the first to start commercial production. Beta’s parent company, Mossi & Ghisolfi, the world’s second-largest producer of polyester resin for bottles, has heavily invested in cellulosic ethanol research and development. Beta’s sister company, Chemtex, M&G’s engineering division, built the plant. “It was a gutsy decision to invest hundreds of millions of M&G’s own money to be first—to put their money where their mouth is and slash through the chicken-and-egg problem,” says Kevin Gray, vice president of biobased chemicals for Chemtex. Although the Italian plant will be built without any government assistance, Beta’s first U.S. facility, in Sampson County, N.C., will benefit from a $99 million loan guarantee and a $4 million biomass crop assistance grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Other projects have been similarly blessed. Abengoa can take advantage of a $133 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy for its cellulosic ethanol plant near Hugoton, Kan. Ineos Bio has been awarded a $50 million DOE grant, a $75 million USDA loan guarantee, and a $2.5 million grant from the state of Florida. The more important government assistance, however, comes from the Environmental Protection Agency’s RFS, which requires fuel blenders to use cellulosic fuels in their product or pay a fine. By guaranteeing that all production will be bought, RFS drives investment in new capacity. Petroleum and fuel blenders are pressuring EPA to waive the requirement or even do away with it. “Congress foresaw that the aggressive renewable fuel standards might be unattainable and established several waiver provisions in the Clean Air Act, including for inadequate domestic supply,” Charles T. Drevna, president of the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, recently said. “If zero production doesn’t meet the definition of inadequate, then it is time for Congress to reexamine the entire RFS and its failure to produce their desired results.” So far, challenges to RFS have hit a brick wall at EPA. The agency has not yet set the amount of cellulosic biofuel that blenders must use in 2013, but the Energy Information Administration has told EPA that it expects 9.6 million gal to be produced this year. In 2014–15, capacity will expand again as the first facilities from BlueFire Renewables, DuPont, Fulcrum BioEnergy, LanzaTech, Mascoma, and ZeaChem come on-line. Not every company is likely to succeed, but the scattershot approach will uncover technologies that work, Lane predicts. “You don’t need more than three if they work,” he says. “If you have a growing technology and you take the corn ethanol boom as an example, there is no reason you can’t build 100 or 200 of these plants a year.” Chemical & Engineering News Continue reading
Rise In Global Clean Energy Investment
12 July 2013 Global investment in clean energy in Q2 was up 22% from Q1, due to upturn in the financing of wind and solar projects and a 170% surge in equity funding for specialist companies on public markets. The investment rose to US$53.1 bn, led by the US, which saw investment jump 155% compared to a weak first quarter, to reach US$9.5 bn, and China (up 63% at US$13.8 bn) and South Africa (up from almost nothing in Q1 to US$2.8 bn in Q2). China was the largest investor in clean energy in Q2, followed by the US. Third on the list was Japan, down 5% at US$7.6 bn followed by South Africa and Australia, up nearly sixfold at US$2.3 bn. Among European countries, Germany led the way with US$1.9 bn, but this was down from US$6.3 bn in Q1. The UK was second with US$1.7 bn, down from$2.8 bn, with France at US$1.2 bn, up from $919 m, and Italy, also at US$1.2 bn, down from $1.3 bn. Europe saw investment fall 44% compared to Q1, reaching just US$9.5 bn – its slowest quarter total for more than six years. The downturn in Europe helped ensure that global investment in clean energy in Q2 2013 ended up 16% below the figure for the second quarter of last year, of US$63.1 bn. “These figures are a mixture of sweet and sour. On the sour side, 2013 globally is still running below 2012, which was itself down on the 2011 investment record. And European investment is clearly being hit by cuts in support for renewable energy and by policy uncertainty, notably ahead of the German election in September,” said Michael Liebreich, chief executive of Bloomberg New Energy Finance . “On the sweet side, the US is back in business following the hiatus that resulted from fears about the possible expiry of the Production Tax Credit for wind at the end of 2012. And the 50% rally in clean energy share prices since their lows last summer, with rises of 200% or more for Tesla Motors and a clutch of major wind and solar manufacturers, is rekindling – at least for the moment – the appetite of stockmarket investors for equity raisings.” The biggest category of investment between April and June 2013 was asset finance of utility-scale projects such as wind farms and solar parks. This was US$31.9 bn, up 39% on the first quarter but down 21% year-on-year. Among the projects financed were Mid American Renewables ’ 681MW Solar Star photovoltaic project in California, at US$2.5 bn, and EDF ’s Blackspring Ridge wind farm phase one, at 299MW and US$588 m, in Alberta, Canada. Investment in small-scale PV projects of less than 1MW continued to be another busy area of activity, accounting for US$17 bn of outlays in the second quarter, in line with Q1, but down 15% year-on-year, largely because of reductions in the cost of PV panels. Public markets’ investment in clean energy companies totalled US$3.8 bn in Q2, up from US$1.4bn in Q1 and the highest quarterly figure for two years. The biggest deal was a US$1.4 bn initial public offering by New Zealand-based geothermal developer Mighty River Power , followed by a US$660 m convertible issue by US electric carmaker Tesla Motors . Tesla also raised US$360m via an issue of ordinary shares. During the second quarter, clean energy shares rose nearly 14%. The Wilder Hill New Energy Global Innovation Index, or NEX, which tracks the performance of 98 clean energy stocks worldwide, was at 151.32 on Tuesday this week, up from a nine-year low of 102.20 reached in July last year. The final major category of investment in clean energy – funding of unquoted companies by venture capital and private equity players – had a quiet Q2, its total of US$1.3bn being down 48% from a relatively strong first quarter and also 20% lower than in the second quarter of 2012. The largest VC/PE transactions of April-to-June were a US$130 m expansion capital round by US fuel cell company Bloom Energy Corporation and an US$84 m bridge-funding round by Irish wind specialist Gaelectric Developments . Asset finance of energy smart technologies amounted to US$14.2 bn in 2012, taking the research company’s overall figure for investment in clean energy last year to US$281.1 bn, compared to 2011’srecord US$317.2 bn. Of the US$148.5 bn invested in asset finance of renewable power and fuels in 2012, over two thirds – or US$102.7 bn – came from local sources in the country concerned, while US$40.3 bn was deployed across borders. The proportion of cross border investment from developed to developing countries reached a new peak in 2012, at 27%, with US$10.8 bn deployed – compared to 17% in 2011 with a revised ‘North-South’ figure of US$9.8 bn. In 2013 so far, asset finance is continuing to show an approximate 70:30 split between domestic and cross-border investment. Continue reading