News

A partnership between Aberdeen City Council, Aberdeenshire Council and Moray Council has been agreed that will see the three authorities work together on the next steps for the building an energy-from-waste (EfW) facility in the city. The agreement will see the three authorities work together on initial project and procurement development work on the £150 million facility which will help…
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Japan has turned to a German renewable energy firm Entrade Energiesysteme to generate power from timber irradiated by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear meltdowns. According to media reports in Bloomberg, Entrade will sell electricity from 400 of its container-size biomass-to-power machines set up in Fukushima Prefecture, said Julien Uhlig. The devices will generate 20MW of power by next year and…
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Environmental organisations have used social media to try and influence European Commission members involved in the drafting of the post-2020 Renewable Energy Directive (RED). According to environmental group Dogwood Alliance, the messages originated from at least 29 counties across five continents. The messages reached nearly 1.5 million people worldwide. The social media action was part of the…
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US-based PHG Energy (PHGE) has opened its Tennessee gasification facility, according to a report by News Channel 5 Network. The gasification plant will save 16 million pounds of waste every year. The company signed a contract with the city in 2015 to build the plant, which will use scrap wood, tires and sewer sludge from Wilson County, Tennessee, and within a 20-mile area, because…
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Jersey-based investment firm 3i infrastructure has agreed to buy UK-based renewable energy supplier Infinis and its subsidiaries for £185 million (€206m). The investment specialist is expected to acquire all of Infinis's landfill gas assets by the end of November, using all of the capital raised in June this year. Infinis is the largest landfill gas (LFG) electricity…
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IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, issued a first-of-its-kind bond that gives investors the option of getting repaid in either carbon credits or cash, raising $152 million (€138.2m) to support private sector development and prevent deforestation in developing countries.  Each year, 5.5 million hectares of tropical forest area—an area approximately the size of Costa…
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Coal will not end energy poverty and increasing its share in the energy pool will actually increase poverty in poor countries, a new report says. According to a recent position paper by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), a UK think tank on international development, the coal industry is vouching for increased coal use to fight extreme poverty and improving energy access. In the paper ODI…
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US states can achieve better carbon reduction results and improve their use of biomass energy by working together, a new study finds. Under the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan, states soon could be mandated to significantly reduce carbon emissions. Researchers at the University of Missouri have identified the most effective ways for various US…
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The shuttered Aspen Power biomass plant in Texas has been sold to an undisclosed buyer at a price of nearly $5 million (€4.5m). Located in Lufkin, the 57MW plant that was marketed as the first wood waste-based biomass facility in Texas was sold during a court-ordered auction, the Lufkin News reports. The plant opened in 2011, but went silent just a year later in 2012 due to challenging…
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The Paris agreement on climate change has come into force today (4 November, 2016). This marks the first time that governments have agreed legally binding limits to global temperature rises. Under the agreement, all governments that have ratified the accord, which includes the US, China, India and the EU, now carry an obligation to hold global warming to no more than 2C above pre-industrial…
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Statkraft, a European-based renewable energy giant, has said it has become the first international wood chip producer and supplier and trader to be certified under the Sustainable Biomass Partnership (SBP) certification scheme. "Statkraft fully subscribes to the SBP vision to provide economically, environmentally and socially sustainable wood fuel that contributes to a low carbon economy," said…
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Despite the Paris Climate Agreement coming into force today, the world might still be doomed to suffer from rising seas and temperatures, a UN report says. In its annual Emission Gap report, UN Environment says governments must urgently and dramatically increase their ambitions to cut roughly a further quarter off predicted 2030 global greenhouse emissions if they want to have any chance of…
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US state of New Jersey has proposed a bill that will require restaurants, supermarkets, and other large food waste generators to separate and recycle their waste for use in waste-to-energy plants and as compost. The bill S-771, passed by the New Jersey Senate Environment and Energy Committee, would encourage the state to build more waste-to-energy facilities. According to the US Environmental…
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Bioenergy currently contributes to 61% of the total share of renewables, according to the latest European Biomass Association’s (AEBIOM) Statistical Report. Biomass is on the way to become the first European energy source, surpassing coal and has the potential to deliver more, the association says. Often overlooked, the heating and cooling sector accounts for half of the EU-28’s…
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