Biofuels

Report: $100 billion would foster 2 million green jobs

Unemployment would plummet along with the reliance on and cost of foreign oil, if the U.S. government invested $100 billion to create 2 million green jobs, according to a report from progressive groups.

The report, released Tuesday and backed by the Center for American Progress, projected that it would take two years to cultivate 2 million new jobs in six areas related to clean technologies.

Positions paying at least $16 per hour would include installing solar panels and wind turbines, expanding mass transit, renovating buildings, developing smart electrical grids, and brewing better biofuels.

The authors compared the cost as … Read more

Green news harvest: Toyota handicaps alt fuels, Pickens Plan skeptics

AltaRock & Weyerhaeuser Sign Engineered Geothermal Exploration Deal - RenewableEnergyWorld.comAltaRock, funded by Google and Kleiner Perkins, is an enhanced geothermal systems company drilling deep into stone to get renewable energy. Toyota Plugs Lithium Ion Batteries, Reluctantly - Greentech MediaA presentation from Toyota exec handicaps the different transportation technologies, including plug-in hybrids, liquid fuels, and hydrogen. Not mentioned is Toyota's rumored plans to use zinc air batteries for plug-ins.

Toyota Releases Sustainability Report 2008, Looks to Liquid Peak - Green Car CongressMore on Toyota's plans to use alternative fuels, as part of its corporate sustainability … Read more

Green news harvest: Fuel-cell gadget charger, liquor-powered iPod

A sampling of green-tech news with quick commentary. Investor support of climate action grows--CBS News Big polluters feel the, uh, heat from shareholders. Resolutions related to climate change more than doubled over the past five years, according to Ceres. Masdar breaks ground on photovoltaic factory in Germany--press releaseAbu Dhabi-based fund invests big in solar, diversifying from oil. This is also a major shot in the arm for thin-film solar cells, upping competition with silicon. Coskata due diligence--R-Squared Energy BlogBlogger Robert Rapier gives a hot ethanol start-up a rigorous screening and leaves with some questions. The key on all … Read more

Solazyme targets algae fuel in three years

In the race to make sustainably grown biofuels, algae is the great green hope.

Growing algae is not hard. But making enough to be competitive with fossil fuel prices has eluded the many companies and researchers betting on algae as a biofuel feedstock.

Solazyme CEO Jonathan Wolfson on Wednesday said that his company will be able to produce millions of gallons of algae-derived biodiesel in three years.

The reason Solazyme is on a faster track than many others is because it is taking a very different technology path, he said in a conference call with biofuels writers. The biotechnology company … Read more

Poet to make ethanol from corn cobs next year

Fuel producer Poet said on Wednesday that it will open an ethanol plant next year that will use corn cobs and fiber from kernels as a feedstock.

Construction on the $4 million pilot facility in Scotland, S.D., will begin by the end of the year and produce 20,000 gallons of ethanol per year.

Next year, it intends to begin work on a larger, commercial-scale plant using this same process that would begin operating in 2011. It is part of a $200 million Department of Energy cellulosic ethanol research effort called Project Liberty, the company said.

There are hundreds … Read more

T. Boone Pickens invests in natural gas-fueled taxis

Betting on his new energy plan, oil mogul T. Boone Pickens has helped invest $160 million in a company that makes taxi cab fleets that run on natural gas, a cleaner burning fuel.

Pickens, along with lead investor Perseus, a private equity bank, invested this week in Troy, Michigan-based Vehicle Production Group (VPG). VPG makes natural gas-fueled taxi cabs and consumer cars that are wheelchair accessible. Clean Energy Fuels Corp., which was founded by Pickens, is also an investor in VPG. The company said it plans to use the funds to further production of vehicles for release by early 2010.… Read more

NASA awards $100,000 in aviation contest

SONOMA COUNTY, Calif.--When it comes to flying, being green isn't easy.

Here at NASA's second annual General Aviation Challenge this weekend, one of the main prizes was the so-called "green prize," which challenged two-seater planes to fly a 400-mile-long course logging at least 30 miles to the gallon. None of the four planes entered won the $50,000 prize; the best attempt achieved 28.8 miles per gallon. (NASA's ultimate goal is to get the green prize to at least 100 miles per hour and the equivalent of 100 miles per gallon.

The shoe-in … Read more

Energy crops key to biofuels growth

After a rash of negative publicity, biofuels backers say that advanced technologies will reshape the industry, making ethanol from sustainably grown sources cost-effective within a few years.

General Motors on Friday convened a panel of experts from cutting-edge ethanol companies that described different technologies--acid hydrolysis, specialty microbes, and genetically engineered energy crops--which they say will bring back biofuels' faded luster.

The key technology transition, already under way, is shifting from corn to other feedstocks for making ethanol from plant cellulose. With the right technologies and policies in place, the U.S. could meet one-third of its transportation fuel needs by … Read more

In the tall grass, researchers find energy alternative

A perennial grass that grows as tall as 13 feet, requires little to no fertilizer, and can be stored away in bales almost indefinitely could be the next hope for efficient ethanol production.

At least that's the thinking of researchers from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who have been field testing a sterile grass known as Miscanthus giganteus, a distant cousin of switchgrass. In a report released Wednesday, the researchers said that the biofuel crop proved in field tests to be significantly more productive than other crops like corn in producing biomass for ethanol--an alternative to gas.

"By … Read more