Tucson Water Department and Trico Electric Dedicate 1-Megawatt SunPower Solar Power System

The City of Tucson, Ariz., Tucson Water Department, Trico Electric and SunPower Corp. today dedicated a 1-megawatt, ground-mounted solar power system, which doubles the solar power system capacity hosted by the city. The system was designed and built by SunPower on city-owned, former agricultural land located within Tucson Water Department's underground water storage and recovery facility, approximately 20 miles west of downtown Tucson.

"With these systems, Tucson is reinforcing its commitment to energy conservation, waste reduction and environmental protection. SunPower's technology will ensure that the system delivers energy in a cost effective manner that benefits the community," stated Interim Director of Tucson Water Andrew Quigley.

The City of Tucson financed the system through a power purchase agreement with SunPower. Under the terms of the agreement, Wells Fargo owns the system that SunPower designed, built, operates, and maintains. Trico Electric, the utility serving the site, provided additional funding via its SunWatts renewable energy incentive program. The city is hosting the system and buying the electricity produced by it. Trico Electric Cooperative will purchase the renewable energy credits (RECs) associated with the system. The city's cost for the energy will be competitive with its current bulk retail rate, with no initial capital investment.

"This system will reliably produce clean energy for years to come," said Jim Pape, president of SunPower's residential and commercial business group. "Tucson is leading the way in Arizona by seizing this opportunity to help meet the state's growing energy demand and renewable energy goals."

On the 10-acre site, SunPower installed a SunPower Tracker® system. The Tracker positions solar panels to follow the sun's movement during the day, increasing sunlight capture by up to 25 percent over conventional fixed-tilt systems, while significantly reducing land use requirements.

The project site is part of the city's Central Avra Valley Storage and Recovery Project (CAVSARP), a short and long-term water storage and recovery operation, utilizing water from the Central Arizona Project aqueduct and providing city residents with a renewable source of potable water.

IEA Report Concludes Biofuels Can Provide Up To 27% Of World Transportation Fuel By 2050

A new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) says that the widespread deployment of biofuels can play an important role in reducing CO2 emissions in the transport sector and enhancing energy security, when produced sustainably.

With the transportation sector growing considerably, and demand for transport fuels rising globally, the IEA assesses biofuels – liquid and gaseous fuels derived from biomass (organic material derived from plants and animals) – as one of the key technologies to reduce CO2 emissions and reduce dependency on liquid transport fuels. The report shows how global biofuel consumption can increase in a sustainable way – one in which production of biofuels brings significant life cycle environmental benefits and does not compromise food security – from 55 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe) today to 750 Mtoe in 2050; this would mean that the global share of biofuel in total transport fuel would grow from 2% today to 27% in 2050.

“While vehicle efficiency will be the most important and most cost-efficient way to reduce transport-emissions, biofuels will still be needed to provide low-carbon fuel alternatives for planes, marine vessels and other heavy transport modes, and will eventually provide one fifth (2.1 gigatonnes of CO2) of emission reductions in the transport sector,” Bo Diczfalusy, the IEA’s Director of Sustainable Energy Policy and Technology, said at the launch of the report today in Washington.

The IEA prepared the Technology Roadmap Biofuels for Transport in consultation with representatives of government, industry, academia and non-governmental organizations. The roadmap provides an overview of the current status of different conventional and advanced biofuel technologies and the latest research on sustainability issues related to biofuel production. It also charts a course for expanding the production and use of biofuels to 2050, in a sustainable way.

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GM’s Voltec Technology Wins Edmunds.com’s 2011 Green Car Breakthrough Award

General Motors’ Voltec technology, the plug-in system at the core of the company’s new Chevy Volt, will be awarded Edmunds.com’s 2011 Green Car Breakthrough Award this week at the New York International Auto Show.

Voltec is a rechargeable hybrid technology that represents a major achievement in the evolution of electric cars. The system allows for a vehicle to drive 20 to 40 miles on an electric charge at which point an internal combustion engine kicks in to keep providing power. While not entirely emissions-free, the technology is a big step toward helping the U.S. slash greenhouse gas emissions from the passenger vehicle segment.

“Voltec is a game changer for the electric vehicle community and it offers a blueprint for commercial manufacturers to build upon as these types of vehicles continue to develop,” said John O’Dell, senior editor at Edmunds.com. “Applied to a broader base of vehicles, Voltec and other automakers' versions of the extended-range plug-in hybrid technology can have a tremendous impact on U.S. fuel consumption.”

GM’s latest foray into the plug-in market has proven to be a success. A total of 1,200 Chevy Volts have been delivered since they debuted on the market in December, with half of those deliveries coming in the month of March as production has ramped up. GM says that its dealers have sufficient unfilled orders on hand to take care of the first year's production.

The Edmunds.com Green Car Breakthrough Award is provided annually to a vehicle, technology or program that sets new standards in fuel efficiency, emissions reduction and/or sustainability, or that stands out for promoting public use and acceptance of such a vehicle or technology.

AE Biofuels Subsidiary Receives $1.88 Million Advanced Biofuels Grant From California Energy Commission

AE Biofuels, Inc. today announced its wholly-owned advanced ethanol subsidiary AE Advanced Fuels Keyes, Inc. (AE Keyes), has been awarded a $1.88 million matching grant from the California Energy Commission (CEC) to accelerate the commercial implementation of its patent-pending, enzyme based, cellulosic ethanol production technology. The integrated cellulose/starch pre-development facility will be located near the 55 million gallon per year commercial ethanol facility the company plans to restart and operate in Keyes, California in late April 2011.

The pre-development facility will further optimize the company’s enzyme technology utilizing multiple agri-waste feedstocks in conjunction with traditional corn inputs in order to ready the integrated process for commercial implementation. When fully incorporated into an operating ethanol facility, the company anticipates that the integrated cellulose/starch technology could replace up to 25% of traditional corn inputs with non-edible agricultural waste feedstocks, thus reducing fossil fuel consumption and overall green house gas (GHG) emissions. The CEC grant will enable the company to build upon prior enzyme optimization work conducted at its Butte, Montana cellulose/starch demonstration facility, and help the State of California achieve the goals of the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS).

“We believe that our integrated cellulose/starch approach is the most cost efficient process to rapidly accelerate the commercialization and adoption of next-generation biofuels in the marketplace,” said Eric McAfee, chairman and CEO of AE Biofuels, Inc.

“By combining the existing ethanol infrastructure with next-generation technology and non-edible agricultural feedstocks, AE Keyes will help drive the industry’s goal of large-volume production of advanced transportation fuels,” said Andy Foster, president of AE Advanced Fuels Keyes, Inc.

AE Keyes was awarded the grant through the Biofuel Production Plants PON-09-604 solicitation, under the Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program created by the California Legislature in AB 118, and will be administered by the CEC. The company will meet with the CEC over the coming weeks and months to refine the project’s scope, budget, regulatory compliance requirements, and timeline.

Cobalt Technologies and American Process Partner to Build Cellulosic Biobutanol Refinery

Cobalt Technologies and American Process Inc. (API) today announced an agreement to build the world's first industrial-scale cellulosic biorefinery to produce biobutanol. Additionally, the companies agreed to jointly market a GreenPower+™ Biobutanol solution to biomass power facilities and other customers worldwide.

GreenPower+™  Biobutanol technology selectively converts part of  a boiler cellulosic biomass feedstock into renewable biobutanol, a valuable industrial chemical, widely used in paints and other coatings and a platform for production of renewable jet fuel and other valuable compounds.

Under the agreement, Cobalt Technologies and American Process will integrate Cobalt's patent pending continuous fermentation and distillation technology into American Process's Alpena Biorefinery, currently under construction in Alpena, Michigan. Slated to begin ethanol production in early 2012 with a switch to biobutanol in mid 2012, the API Alpena Biorefinery will produce 470,000 gallons of biobutanol annually, which will be pre-sold to chemical industry partners.

"We are excited to be partnering with American Process to commercialize our technology," said Rick Wilson, Ph.D., and CEO of Cobalt Technologies. "The American Process Alpena Biorefinery plant gives us a great opportunity to demonstrate our technology at a commercial scale and provides an excellent model for how GreenPower+ Biobutanol technology can add value to biomass power facilities.  We expect to move quickly from running the Alpena plant to building multi-million gallon facilities."