Biomass

Two weeks ago, I wrote about the emerging wood pellets industry and how this form of biomass was experiencing rapid growth as a coal substitute in power generation, mostly in Europe as a result of renewable energy and climate regulations. In the time since I wrote that article, I have been looking for ways to invest in the global wood pellets sector. Unfortunately, my search came up mostly empty (except for 1 stock discussed below). In response to my previous post, a reader pointed me to an article Joe Romm at Climate Progress had recently written...

Last week, I mentioned that I had attended a conference focused on opportunities in the biomass and bioenergy sectors. One of the article ideas I got from this conference was on the emerging market for wood pellets (tightly packed sawdust and other wood shavings) for heat and electricity. How interesting that, over the weekend, the magazine Science published an article suggesting that the US should ramp up its use of wood for small-scale heat and electricity production (the article is not available free of charge but you can find a summary here). The Wood (Pellet) Advantage It...

Last week, Tom brought you a piece on the Algonquin Power Income Fund (AGQNF.PK), in which he opined that shift in investor attention away from capital gains toward yield might eventually provide a catalyst for the prices of yield-focused securities such as income trusts to rise. So-called utility trusts, or income trusts where the underlying corporation is engaged in utility activities such as power generation, are a common feature of the Canadian income trust sector (the mother of all income trust sectors). A sub-set of utility trusts is the clean power utility trust, where the power generation...

Romm v. Kholsa In a persuasive series of articles, entitled "Pragmatists vs. Environmentalists" (Parts I, II, and III) on Gristmill, Vinod Khosla provides the reasoning behind his "dissing" of plug-in hybrids, which drew the ire of Joeseph Romm.  Neither seems to think the argument is settled, and Joeseph Romm returns fire here. As someone who knows as much about investing as Joe Romm and has written as much about Climate Change and Energy Policy as Vinod Khosla, I feel the need to jump into the debate and settle the matter.  (Will either of them will notice?)...

Renewable energy is still very much in its infancy, which means that companies in the space are either profitless or high-multiple startups, or divisions of much larger companies (GE Wind (NYSE:GE), or utilities such as FPL Group (NYSE:FPL) and Xcel (NYSE:XEL) which get much of their power from conventional generation.) This presents a dilemma for investors who understand the compelling drivers for the sector, but whose risk tolerance or financial needs indicate an income-based investing strategy. Canadian Income Trusts in Renewable Energy A few Canadian Income Trusts have historically gone some way towards filling this niche....

Intrepid Technology and Resources, Inc. (IESV) has received the gas conditioning equipment slated for use in creating pipeline quality gas from its Whitesides Biogas facility. The two semi loads of proprietary equipment will be installed over the next several weeks and brought into operation. The equipment is unique in that it can process a smaller gas stream from the existing two digester array, as well as the full ten digester array that is currently under construction. The cost of this gas conditioning equipment is equivalent to the entire book value of the existing plant, effectively doubling the...

Intrepid Technology and Resources, Inc. (IESV) announced that it has ordered the additional eight digester tanks and has begun the excavation work to accommodate the five-fold expansion of their operating Whitesides Biogas Production Plant near Rupert, Idaho. This expansion will take Intrepid's annualized gas production to as high as 95,000 mcf annually, a quantity sufficient to heat 1,000 homes in the Boise, Idaho area.

Veridium Corp. (VRDM.OB) announced its execution of an amended license agreement with Ohio University ("Ohio") for its patented bioreactor process for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from fossil-fuelled combustion processes. Veridium's original license with Ohio provided for non-exclusive rights to the technology for the purpose of processing exhaust gas streams from electrical utility power generation facilities, and exclusive rights to the technology for applications involving all other sources. The amended license agreement increases the scope of Veridium's license to provide for exclusivity in all applications, including electrical utility power generation facilities.

Veridium Corp. (VRDM.OB) announced its receipt of an order from a Wisconsin based ethanol producer for the second stage of Veridium's patent-pending Corn Oil Extraction Systems(TM). Veridium's proprietary new Corn Oil Extraction Systems(TM) extract high grade corn oil from an ethanol by-product called distillers dried grain ("DDG"). Currently, the majority of ethanol production is based on a dry milling technique that utilizes more than 1 billion bushels of corn to produce 3 billion gallons per year of ethanol. The dry mill process converts the starch from the kernel of corn into sugar and then the sugar into ethanol....

NanoLogix Inc. (NNLX.PK) announced today that the Company has completed the construction of its first commercial hydrogen bioreactor facility at a Welch's Food plant in North East, Pennsylvania. The company also announced that the facility will begin hydrogen generation from Welch's waste organic matter on or about the first of April 2006. The technology behind the hydrogen bioreactor, developed and patented by NanoLogix in coordination with the Gannon University Department of Environmental Science & Engineering, allows for the limitless production of hydrogen from organic containing waste waters and any waste organic materials, such as sewer water, ground up...

Syntroleum Corp (SYNM) announced today that they have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding that provides for exclusive joint business development of projects that will integrate Sustec's FUTURE ENERGY GSP® gasification technology with Syntroleum's Fischer-Tropsch (FT) and Synfining® technology. The joint venture is aimed at converting coal and other carbonaceous materials such as petroleum-coke, residual fuel oil and biomass into ultra-clean fuels. Each company will own 50 percent of the joint venture.

DynaMotive Energy Systems Corp. (DYMTF) announced that it has granted a master license to Rika Ltd., a company that has extensive operations in Latvia and Ukraine. Under the Agreement, Rika has agreed to market DynaMotive's technology as well as develop and operate facilities in the territories. Two projects are initially targeted for development. Rika Ltd. and DynaMotive have further agreed to scope the feasibility of bio energy crops in Ukraine, where Rika has leased 25,000 hectares of farm land. The companies are considering the allocation of 10,000 hectares for growth of biomass for BioOil production. Once in production,...

Environmental Power Corp (EPG) announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Microgy, Inc. has entered into agreement with Applied LNG Technologies USA, Inc. , for the development of biogas-supplied LNG projects in California. The Agreement provides that Microgy and ALT (http://www.altlngusa.com) will cooperate to identify, evaluate and develop projects, principally in California, that combine Microgy's anaerobic digestion technology, which extracts methane-rich biogas from animal waste, and ALT's LNG transport and distribution technology.

Thermoenergy Corp. (TMEN.OB) announced the start of a $310,000 federally funded project to develop compact zero air emission power plants for medium to heavy industry. Commonly referred to as Combined Heat & Power (CHP) plants, these systems would allow main-stream industries to switch from natural gas to lower priced alternative fuels to supply their energy needs. Switching fuel sources could allow many companies to save hundreds of millions of dollars in energy costs, reduce air pollution, keep their US based plants operating, and lessen dependence on imported energy resources.

DynaMotive Energy Systems Corp. (DYMTF) announced today that the Company and Mitsubishi Canada Ltd., have entered into a wide-ranging Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU") which expresses their mutual intentions to develop definitive agreements for marketing and distribution of DynaMotive's patented technology in Canada and internationally. Clean Break has more to say about this agreement as well. This is the second MOU announcement they have made in the last month and it looks like something is happening here. This stock has been moving strong this last month and it has piqued my interest. I will have to...

The Podfather (ex-MTV VJ) Adam Curry gives details about his new Bio-Diesel Benz on his most recent podcast. If your not familar with podcasting, you don't know what your missing. Here are some links for you here, here, and here. There is also a great podcast produced by The Watt that provides updates on Alternative Energy and Cleantech.