News

European energy giant RWE has claimed it will be cutting 2,400 jobs across the continent amid a drop in profits registered by its UK arm nPower. RWE nPower’s first-half profits fell by just over 9% to £251 million ($317.5 million) compared to the same time last year, this despite the company raising its 6.5 million British electricity and gas customer energy bills by more than 10%. It…
Read More »

Algae-based green crude oil producers Sapphire Energy’s first phase of its Green Crude Farm, which it claims is the world’s first commercial demonstration algae-to-energy facility, is now operational. The construction of this first phase began on 1 June last year and was completed on time and on budget. The  facility aims to produce 1.5 million gallons per year of crude oil and…
Read More »

The total amount of dry bulk handled in the Port of Rotterdam fell by 8.7% to 39.4 million tonnes in the first half of 2012. Agribulk (grains, seeds, animal feed ingredients) throughput was down by a tenth to 4.1 million tonnes. The port puts these numbers down to an increase in the price of products on the world market and also that a few packages won from Amsterdam last year were lost…
Read More »

Developer of second generation biofuels technology TMO Renewables has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the authorities of Heilongjiang, China. The MoU will see TMO provide long-term large volume biomass feedstock supply for future biofuel production facilities from Heilongjiang State Farm, the largest state owned farming corporation in China. The MoU is also the first step towards…
Read More »

Energy company Centrica has come out and clarified the potential output of a proposed biomass power station. There was confusion over the plant’s potential capacity as Cumbria County and Barrow Borough Councils believed it to be 90MW, whereas a letter to the Planning Inspectorate had it penned at 80MW. ‘We have made it very clear in our Preliminary Environmental Information that the…
Read More »

The third quarter of 2015 saw a significant 31% increase in renewables generation from the same period in 2014, overtaking coal as the third largest contributor to the UK's electricity generation, after gas and nuclear power. Figures included in the Q3 GB Electricity Market Summary, from energy data specialist EnAppSys, showed that during the July-September period, renewables provided 14.3TWh of…
Read More »

The Weltec Group has acquired two biomethane refineries in Hesse and Saxony-Anhalt in Germany. One of the plants is located in Ebsdorfergrund, Hesse, and has been acquired within the framework of an asset deal. Nordmethan Produktion Ebsdorfergrund, an affiliate of Weltec, is now responsible for the operation as the new owner, and for this purpose all employees have been taken over. The new…
Read More »

Greenlane Biogas has signed a distribution agreement with Sysadvance, a Portuguese company specialising in advanced gas separation systems that utilise pressure swing adsorption (PSA) technology. The agreement will allow Greenlane to distribute Sysadvance products in Canada, the US and Mexico, and will see the two companies work together to integrate their systems to offer leading biogas…
Read More »

Second generation ethanol producer Fulcrum BioEnergy has been awarded a $105 million (€85 million) loan guarantee from the US Department of Agriculture. The finalisation of the loan guarantee, which was awarded to the company's Sierra BioFuels Plant to be built in Storey County in Nevada, US, means Fulcrum will secure bank financing. This, combined with Fulcrum's private equity capital, will…
Read More »

ENCE has awarded engineering and technology group SENER a turnkey contract for the construction of its biomass power plant in Mérida, Spain. The new facility will consist of a renewable energy generation facility, producing 20MW of power from energy plantation trees, including poplar and eucalyptus crops. The contract includes the design, procurement, construction and commissioning of the…
Read More »

BMW South Africa's Rosslyn plant in Pretoria — where the car manufacturer’s 3 Series is built — has made a partial switch to renewable energy produced by the South African biogas company Bio2Watt. The two companies signed a power purchasing agreement in 2014, which set the ground for the first project of this kind in South Africa. According to the German automaker, 25-30% of the…
Read More »

Greenko Energy Holdings, an affiliate of Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, has proposed acquisition of Indian renewable energy company Greenko Group’s majority interest in its Mauritius-based holding firm, Greenko Mauritius, for about £162.8 million (€222.7 million). Greenko is a mainstream participant in the growing Indian renewable energy industry and a market…
Read More »

In the US, Rollcast Energy – a developer of clean, renewable bioenergy projects – has received a $250,000 (€202,000) grant as part of the US Forest Service Woody Biomass Utilization Grant Program. The funds have been awarded to the company's LaGrange, Georgia-based Greenway Renewable Power project, construction on which will start next year before start-up in 2015. The money from…
Read More »

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has granted Parts 79 and 80 registration to Ineos New Planet BioEnergy (INPB), a joint venture between Ineos Bio and New Planet BioEnergy, for the production and sale of bioethanol from non-food waste materials. This notice of registration comes as building of the Indian River BioEnergy Center has finished and is going through the commissioning phase.…
Read More »