“It is not unusual for the wind to fall off in the morning at the same time as the morning load picks up,” says the IESO.

At present, the IESO can’t control the flow of wind and solar onto the system in the same way it can control the output of other generators. It all flows onto the grid, and is paid a fixed price.

When there’s more power than the system can handle, the IESO sells it to neighbouring provinces and states — sometimes at a loss, and sometimes actually paying them to take it.

"We’re looking at this as an energy crop," Ford said. His company, which is planning to build energy plants to process biofuels, has looked at sweet sorghum but doesn’t think the yield would be profitable enough. Instead, he has turned to hybrid sugar beets, which will give him sugars that can be turned into ethanol, plastics and flavorings.

But the advantages from hemp would be exponentially greater, Ford said, because hemp oil from seeds could be used for aviation fuel and biodiesel. Other parts of the plant — such as the "hurds" from the woody middle of the stalk — could be used for cellulosic ethanol.

[…]

All the technology exists, said Katherine Andrews, a biochemist who is consulting with Ford on his project.

The renewable-fuel standards — including a push by the Navy for a "green fleet" with at least half of its fuel from non-petroleum sources by 2020 — give Kentucky a window of opportunity to get into biofuels, she said.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/02/26/2532443/hemp-has-untapped-market-in-biofuels.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/02/26/2532443/hemp-has-untapped-market-in-biofuels.html#storylink=cpy

At the Greener Skies Conference in Hong Kong yesterday, Tony Tyler, IATA’s director-general and chief executive officer, specifically cited the need for greater attention to be focused on the commercialisation of sustainable biofuels and improvements in air-traffic management.At the Greener Skies Conference in Hong Kong yesterday, Tony Tyler, IATA’s director-general and chief executive officer, specifically cited the need for greater attention to be focused on the commercialisation of sustainable biofuels and improvements in air-traffic management.

Since 2011, more than 1,500 commercial biofuel flights have been completed, but the cost is too high and the supply too limited, he said. – See more at: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/IATA-calls-for-biofuel-sustainability-better-air-30200785.html#sthash.9VfXG122.dpuf

Since 2011, more than 1,500 commercial biofuel flights have been completed, but the cost is too high and the supply too limited, he said. – See more at: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/IATA-calls-for-biofuel-sustainability-better-air-30200785.html#sthash.9VfXG122.dpuf

Michigan State University is engineering plants to store lipids in leaves and stems for use as bio-fuel feedstock.

[…] PACE loans remove the substantial upfront costs of energy efficiency projects and enable owners to upgrade and enhance the value of existing structures, save on energy costs, and create local jobs during the deployment phases of those projects.  By some industry estimates, the market for commercial PACE projects could exceed $180B.

My soil is so well flocculated that it is like a thatched roof. It allows a clump of my silver-tipped bluestem grass to have as much as 25 miles of root system, and for every 25 miles of root system, it probably has 50 miles of mycelia or fungi that bring nutrients to that grass. I feed the microorganisms compost tea, which I learned how to make when I studied with Elaine Ingham from the University of Oregon, and now scientific director at Rodale Institute. She built on the work of Sir Albert Howard, the father of organic farming, from the U.K. I have two 250-gallon tanks in a special barn called the Tea Barn. I pull out the protozoa and the fungi, all of the biology out of the compost into a solution, just like making tea, then spray that all over my pasture. I did that four times a year for seven years, believing that was the way to a healthy farm, and it was. Now we only have to spray compost tea every other year.

Numerous incentives have encouraged the ploughing of grasslands. The federal system of financial payments to grain farmers has long encouraged conversion of grasslands to farms, but in recent years new subsidies for corn ethanol and other biofuel production have significantly stepped up this inducement.

The resulting increase in crop prices encourages the owners of livestock to plough prairieland in order to grow crops in favour of using that land for grazing. This has lead to the growth of industrial farms and industrial confinement methods for meat production, while genetically modified seeds now allow corn and soy production in semiarid regions that before were suitable only for ranching.

UPS’s initial venture into solar power development dates back to 2004 in Palm Springs, California, where solar panels were installed and are still generating approximately 110 kilowatts of sustainable energy. Since 2010, at UPS’s European regional air hub in Cologne, Germany, the company has operated a rooftop solar farm that was commissioned by the airport and is producing 1.2 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year. In 2011, UPS completed the installation of a 250 kilowatt system on the roof of its Lakewood, NJ distribution facility.

According to Joseph Rich, leader of the USDA Bioproducts and Biocatalysis Research Unit in Peoria, Ill., "Industry is awaiting the microorganism that can produce high levels of ethanol in large-scale fermentation containing the hydrolysate consisting of both pentose and hexose sugars released by mechanical, enzymatic and chemical treatment of lignocellulosic feedstocks."

[…]

Enzyme Requirements for Lignocellulosic Feedstocks
Although S. cerevisiae is a proven industrial ethanol producer in traditional starch-based processes, it will be no easy task to provide this microorganism with the ability to convert lignocellulosic biomass to ethanol. The carbohydrate components of lignocellulose (cellulose and hemicellulose) are tightly bound to lignin, making the sugars largely inaccessible to enzymes. "Before enzymatic hydrolysis, pretreatment with acid or alkali is generally needed to fully maximize the release of sugars from any lignocellulosic biomass," says Badal

[…]

Developing New Biocatalysts
Producing a yeast strain with optimized sets of cellulases and hemicellulases requires screening thousands of combinations of these biomass-degrading enzymes for enzyme activity. Automation is essential in carrying out these operations. A team of scientists at the NCAUR laboratory has been successful in designing a robotic platform and creating the automated molecular biology routines necessary to screen for the most effective set of enzymes.