News

An African renewable energy company has secured $5 million (€3.8 million) in fundraising to develop its first biomass energy project on the continent. Takoradi Renewable Energy, a subsidiary of Africa Renewables and a biomass producer and trader, received the funding from Standard Chartered Bank in Ghana. The money will be used to double the company’s biomass exports to Europe by 2016,…
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A Californian county has decided to produce 100% renewable energy for county facilities. Sonoma County has signed a year-long agreement with 3 Phases Renewables to produce all of its electricity from renewable sources, generating 15% of it from biomass. Seven county facilities in Santa Rosa and Petaluma will be powered from biomass throughout this year, with the rest being powered by wind…
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A new plant in Plymouth, UK is to open, converting 40,000 tonnes of wood waste into renewable heat and electricity annually, which should reduce CO₂ emissions by around 16,500 tonnes a year. Three companies, MITIE's Asset Management, O-Gen UK and the Una Group are working together on the development, under the name of O-Gen Plymtrek. During construction, about 50 jobs are expected to be created…
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The Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) has provided bioenergy company Vaskiluodon Voima Oy with €18 million to build a gasification plant in Vaasa, Finland. The total project cost is expected to be about €40 million. The facility will produce 140MW and is to be connected to a power plant that is already established, allowing for the coal from the old plant to be substituted by domestic…
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Construction has begun on the Hairy Hill biorefinery in Canada which is to turn farmers’ grain into ethanol whilst at the same time producing power for the grid. The construction marks the second phase of the development, which already features a biogas plant that produces 1MW for the power grid from manure and other waste. That facility is expected to cost about $50 million (€38…
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True Green Energy says it is going to produce pellets as part of its rubbish to energy production process. At the moment it turns municipal solid waste (MSW) into electricity over a number of stages, first taking the paper, plastic, food, wood, and agricultural materials and drying and shredding them. The metals and glass are put aside to be recycled at a further date. Now this rubbish will be…
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DSM and POET have joined forces to convert  a facility into its first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant in the US, which will be based in Emmetsburg, Iowa. The POET-DSM Advanced Biofuels joint venture will produce 20 million gallons of ethanol in the first year, growing to about 25 million gallons the year following. The plant is due to come online in the second half of 2013 and will…
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Italy plans to cut incentives for renewable energy, including biomass, in a new measure which might prevent it from reaching its 2020 targets. The decree is due to be finalised by the end of February and will see the amount spent on renewable energy capped at €5-5.5 billion, a reduction from €6-7 billion. In 2011, the total spend on renewable power generation was €8 billion, which…
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The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has formed a $25 million (€19 million) partnership with Fiberight, money which will be put towards building a new biofuels plant in Blairstown, Iowa. The facility will convert waste into biofuels, producing six million gallons a year when the plant comes online in the first half of next year. Fiberight is spending $20 million into the plant, combined…
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A brewery based in Cornwall, UK, is expanding its facility to install an anaerobic digestion system which includes an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket which will convert the brewery’s waste liquid into heat and power. The technology, which is costing £1 million (€1.2 million), works by a three stage treatment process, which is being installed by Truro-based H2OK Water and Energy.…
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The founder of Bioenergy Solutions has filed for bankruptcy which means hundreds of people will lose their jobs. David Albers’ business went into the red and means the dairy farm in Fresno County, California, will close. The gas produced from the 5,000 cows used for cheese production at this factory was put through an anaerobic digester, producing enough electricity to power 1,200 homes.…
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Green Biologics Limited (GBL), a UK-based industrial biotechnology company has merged with butylfuel, a US-based renewable chemicals and biofuels company. The new company will operate under the Green Biologics name and continue to be head-quartered in Abingdon, UK with a strong operational presence and commercial focus in the US contributed by butylfuel, which will become Green Biologics. The…
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The province of Manitoba in Canada has introduced a new programme that will give $400,000 (€308,000) in grants to coal companies that switch to biomass energy projects. The Manitoba Biomass Energy Support Program (MBESP) is aimed at supporting the growth of biomass within the energy production industry, and the agriculture, food and rural minister, Ron Kostyshyn says the biomass will be…
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Cool Planet BioFuels has been granted approval from the California Air Resources Board to test its negative carbon petrol. The technology converts biomass, including grass and woodchips, into biodiesel. Through the process, a byproduct is created, which can be used as a fertiliser. The first part of the testing will involve blending of the negative carbon fuel with E10 petrol to try and hit the…
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