Prices for the agricultural commodities that traditional biofuels are made from have soared to historic levels in recent months on global demand for both fuels and food.

The quest by executives and venture capitalists to build a next-generation biofuels industry has made strides this year as oil reached $100 a barrel and the world’s largest energy consumer laid down ambitious new mandates for alternative fuels.
Prices for the agricultural commodities that traditional biofuels are made from have soared to historic levels in recent months on global demand for both fuels and food, driving up all grain prices and hurting customers ranging from Mexican peasants to US beer makers, Enn.com reported.
The price of corn, the traditional US feedstock for ethanol, has hit an 11-year high, while soy, the country’s main ingredient in biodiesel, set a record this week, adding further incentives to kick-start non-food sources for alternative fuels.
Cellulosic ethanol, a fuel that can be made from grasses and wood pulp, holds promise, but the first trickle of that fuel into the ocean of global motor fuel is not expected for at least four years.
“I think cellulosic ethanol will come. The question is how high will the price of food crops have to go before it becomes profitable to use new materials to make new fuels,“ said Lester Brown, the president of the Earth Policy Institute, who had predicted last year that corn prices would spike.
The Reuters Global Agriculture and Biofuels Summit, held in the Americas, Asia, and Europe on January 14 and 15, explored these issues and more, including production wars between the world’s biggest ethanol producers, and the struggles for profits between them and oil refiners.
The chief executive of the No. 1 US ethanol company, Poet, and an executive from Archer Daniels Midland are scheduled to give their outlooks at the summit.
Versun Energy Corp, which is merging with US BioEnergy Corp to become the country’s largest ethanol company, is also lined up to participate, along with Brazil’s state oil company, Petrobras.
The new US energy law signed by President George W. Bush late last month calls for output of ethanol made from corn to peak in 2015 and for new advanced biofuels to begin growing in overdrive that year.
By 2022, production of US biofuels made from new sources- even garbage that contains carbon--is mandated to overtake output of corn ethanol, and the law calls for the country to boost overall blending of biofuels five-fold to 36 billion gallons per year.
Studies have found that switchgrass, expected to be a leading fuel source for cellulosic ethanol, could cut greenhouse gas emissions much more than gasoline and fuels made from corn and sugar. But the price of cellulosic ethanol is currently about double the price of corn-based ethanol. Whether companies can cut the costs is uncertain.
“Corn is still going to be grown to make ethanol. Whether (cellulosic) ever takes a chunk of crop land away from corn is all going to come down to economics,“ said Ken Vogel, a researcher for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Nagging questions linger about the wisdom of pushing the land harder over the next few years to fuel more vehicles, whether with industrial corn in the United States or palm oil in Asia.
And other countries, such as Argentina, Colombia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, are beginning to take part in the boom.
The sky high grain prices threaten a recovery in profit margins this year for making corn ethanol. The smaller biodiesel industry may see new bankruptcies and closures.
But is cellulosic ethanol the answer?
Touted as ideal to grow on marginal lands where food crops can’t be grown, it has received criticism from ecologists who say growing crops on such lands will lead to massive soil erosion.

Today, with an installed capacity of 7,660 MW of wind energy, India stands fourth in the world after Germany, Spain, and the USA.

India’s wind energy sector--estimated to have a potential of over 45,000 MW-- has seen significant investments from foreign companies who are attracted by the development potential, availability of wind farm equipment at competitive prices and conducive government policies.
Foreign players that have forayed into India’s wind energy sector include Roaring 40s (an equal joint venture between China Light & Power (CLP) and Hydro Tasmania), which is setting up a 50-Mw wind farm in Maharashtra. Hong Kong-based CLP is setting up 100 MW and 82 MW wind farms in Gujarat and Karnataka respectively, business-standard.com reported.
Epuron Energy, a subsidiary of Coenergy of Germany, is planning to set up 550-MW wind farms in the next 3-4 years. Other multinational renewable energy companies such as Westwind of Australia and Axiona of Spain are also planning to invest in wind farms.
BP Energy India Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of the multinational BP, is planning a 40-Mw wind farm.
“The wind energy sector in India is booming and growing at a rate of about 50 percent on a year-on-year basis. With price of oil touching $100 per barrel, the world has to look at other cheaper and safe options,“ said Venkat Sundaram, general secretary, Indian Wind Power Association.
Less than a fifth of the wind energy potential of the country (7,660 Mw) is realized so far. It takes an investment of Rs 3-6 crore to set up 1 Mw of wind power capacity compared to about Rs 4 crore for a thermal plant.
“It is still a new concept in India, which will gradually pick up,“ said Rajiv Mishra, managing director of CLP India, who expects renewable energy to have a 10-15 per cent share in the grid-connected electricity in 10-15 years. CLP group wants to have an installed wind power capacity of about 1,000 Mw in the country.
Currently, about 7 percent of the country’s installed generation capacity is accounted for by wind power, which has seen rapid growth in the 10th Five-Year Plan with over 5,000 MW capacity being added against the few hundred megawatts in the previous Plan periods.
Today, with an installed capacity of 7,660 MW of wind energy, the country stands fourth in the world after Germany, Spain, and the USA. By 2012, this capacity would further increase to 10,500 MW.
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is keen to ensure that energy from renewables equals that from conventional sources over a period of time. “There is a need to have a balanced grid,“ said a senior official of the ministry.
Foreign companies are keen to set up wind farms in the country to earn green points (and carbon credits), though they do have some concerns like the strength of the electricity grid.
“The grid should be more flexible in taking power from wind farms, because wind power is infirm power unlike thermal power that can be predicted,“ said an industry expert.
Critics of wind power say that while money has been invested in setting up wind farms, very little power is actually being generated. The government is likely to soon link incentives to actual power generated rather than money invested.

Clean water with free energy is the goal of German scientists who are using the sun’s rays to power small water treatment plants for developing countries. The system is designed for arid areas of Africa and Asia where a lack of electricity makes it impossible to use large industrial plants for the desalination of seawater, like those in the Middle East, Arthtimes.org reported.
“The regions have a very poor infrastructure. Quite often there is no electricity grid, so conventional desalination plants are out of the question,“ says Joachim Koschikowski.
The engineer and his team at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) have developed small decentralized units with their own solar power supplies that can transform salt water or brackish water into pure drinking water.
“Our plants work on the principle of membrane distillation,“ says Koschikowski, comparing the technology to that used in breathable, waterproof fabrics, where the membrane prevents rainwater from penetrating through to the skin, while allowing water vapour to pass through to the outside.
“In our plant, the salty water is heated up and guided along a micro-porous, water-repellent membrane. Cold drinking water flows along the other side of the membrane,“ he says.
The steam pressure gradient resulting from the temperature difference causes part of the salt water to evaporate and pass through the membrane.
“The salt is left behind, and the water vapor condenses as it cools on the other side. It leaves us with clean, germ-free water,“ says Koschikowski.
The German researchers have so far built two different systems, both with their own energy supply.
“Our compact system for about 120 liters of fresh water per day consists of six square meters of thermal solar collectors, a small photovoltaic module to power a pump, and the desalination module itself,“ says Koschikowski.
In the dual-circuit system, on the other hand, several desalination modules are connected in parallel, enabling several cubic meters of water to be treated every day.
One cubic meter of drinking water, the equivalent of 1,000 liters, will cost about 10 euros (14.50 dollars).
“When you think how much the inhabitants currently have to pay for the same amount of bottled water or soft drinks, the plant will pay off very quickly,“ says Koschikowski.
His institute has been successfully operating pilot projects on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria and in Jordan.
The researchers are planning to market the plants through a spin-off company known as SolarSpring from the middle of 2008.

Technology to help Americans reduce electricity use when the grid is stressed could help utilities save $120 billion on spending for new power plants and transmission lines, government officials and researchers said after a study in the Pacific Northwest.
A year-long “smart grid“ study showed consumers saved 10 percent on power bills and cut power use 15 percent during key peak hours, the US Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory announced, ENN.com reported.
The small-scale GridWise Demonstration Project involved 112 homeowners on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington. Ron Ambrosio of IBM, which participated in the study, said nationwide use of the method could save $120 billion in power plants and transmission lines that won’t have to be built.
“This research is vital because decreasing power consumption during the busiest times on the power grid improves efficiency and reliability and reduces the need to build additional infrastructure,“ said Washington Democratic Senator Patty Murray.
The 112 homeowners were given new electric meters to receive signals from the local utility when power prices are high, and thermostats and computer software that curtail power use at these times. They could set preferences by computer and remotely change preferences while away from home.
A companion study called the Grid Friendly appliance project fitted 150 homes in Oregon and Washington with “smart“ dryers and water heaters equipped with circuit boards to detect when the power grid is stressed. When that happens, the appliances curtail power use for a minute or two.
“Grid friendly“ circuit boards could be put in refrigerators, and other big appliances--Ambrosio said they will be routinely installed in major household appliances by 2020 or so. If every big household appliance in the country were so fitted, the US could cut electricity use by 20 percent, claims the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
In five years, the type of smart system used in the GridWise study will be available in 10 to 15 percent of US homes, Ambrosio predicted, and in 10 to 15 years in half the country.
Rob Pratt, Pacific Northwest program manager, said the Pacific Northwest study was different from past studies because it offered near real-time responses to stresses on the power grid based on preset presences by consumers.
“We were able to engage electric customers in the moment-by-moment operation of the power grid,“ said Pratt.
When the study began in 2006, Pratt said that once the cost of installing such systems at homes dips to $200, it will become almost universal. Ambrosio estimated that the cost is now $500, and falling.
Power prices are highest during peak demand periods. If congestion on power lines of regional grids occurs or a key power plant fails during peak demand, prices can spike.
Utilities have long had demand-response programs that cut power use by big industrial and commercial users, but the real-time response based on consumer choice is the future of power use in America, Pratt said.
Smart grid techniques are a “shock absorber“ to the power grid and power plants, giving utilities a chance to “catch a breath“ during emergencies, said Pratt.
Most of the technology needed for the smart grid is on hand now, but it will take a decade or so before its use is widespread enough to notice major savings, said Pratt and Ambrosio.