RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.Anaerobic digestion at Nestlé factory turns rejected chocolate into renewable energy
By Victoria White, New Food Magazine.
A new anaerobic digestion system at Nestlé’s factory in Fawdon is turning chocolate and sugar confectionery waste from the site’s manufacturing processes into renewable energy and clean water.
Rejected chocolates and sweets which are not suitable for sale or reprocessing, along with waste residues such as starch and sugar are broken down in to small pieces. This mixture is then partially dissolved using the waste liquids from the site’s cleaning processes to create a ‘chocolate soup’. This ‘chocolate soup’ is then fed into an airtight tank where anaerobic digestion occurs. Anaerobic digestion is the natural process of bacteria breaking down biodegradable material, such as food, without oxygen, and converting it into useful by-products. These by-products are used to meet part of the site’s energy needs.
Bill would allow PUD to sell landfill energy
By the Goldendale Sentinel.
Over the past few months a new bill introduced by Rep. Norm Johnson (R-Yakima) has been making its way through Olympia, one that could help the Klickitat PUD help the environment. The process would originate in Roosevelt, home of the third largest landfill in the U.S. The landfill is currently producing enough methane gas to re-fuel Washington’s economy—literally.
“We’re making what is termed in the industry as renewable energy,” says Jim Smith, Klickitat PUD’s general manager. “The reason that it’s renewable is because all of the municipal solid waste goes into the landfill, and it breaks down into methane gas, which is 25 times worse than carbon dioxide...
Department of Agriculture and Energy Department Announce Up to $8.7 Million through the Interagency Biomass Research and Development Initiative
By Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy.
The U.S. Department Agriculture in collaboration with the Energy Department announced that up to $8.7 million in funding will be made available through the Biomass Research and Development Initiative (BRDI) to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil by supporting the development of bioenergy feedstocks, biofuels, and biobased products.
The projects funded through BRDI—a joint program through the Department of Agriculture and the Energy Department—will help develop economically and environmentally sustainable sources of renewable biomass and increase the availability of renewable fuels and biobased products that can help reduce the need for gasoline and diesel fuels and diversify our energy portfolio.
RMI’s NCAA March Madness Bracket, Ranked By Renewable Energy
By Matt Lehrman and James Sherwood for RMI.
This year Americans filled out an estimated 70 million brackets for the NCAA’s men’s college basketball tournament. And every year, family, friends and work colleagues look for the secret formula to completing the winning bracket. The President of the United States likes to weigh-in, and last year Warren Buffett even offered $1 billion to the person who completed a perfect bracket. (Just one day into the tournament, a full 99 percent of CBS and ESPN brackets were already busted…) Although no one has ever picked a perfect bracket, there is no shortage of strategies (such as those here, here, here, and here) that could help gain an edge. And we here at RMI have a strategy, too: going all in on renewable energy.
Montana energy policy needs to look forward
By Ron Cooper, Independent Record.
Montana should continue its forward progress on renewable energy by diversifying its economy with the growing clean-tech sector. Unfortunately the Legislature passed Senate Bill 114 in a closely divided vote last week that takes a backwards-looking approach to energy in Montana.
In 2005, Montana adopted a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) requiring that electric utilities get 15 percent of their energy from renewable sources. It’s a smart, forward-looking energy policy that is working well to deliver the benefits of renewable energy, including saving consumers money by reducing their exposure to fuel price volatility.
SB114 would reverse course and count hydroelectric power built long before the RPS became law in 2005 towards the state’s renewable energy goal.
New Mexico House votes to roll back renewable energy standard
By Penn Energy.
A measure reducing the amount of renewable energy sources utilities would have to tap to provide electricity for their customers by 2020 has narrowly passed the New Mexico House.
The measure sponsored by Rep. Larry Scott, R-Hobbs, cleared the chamber on a 33-32 vote late Thursday. It now heads to the Senate as the Legislature enters the final stretch of its 60-day session.
From New Mexico to New York, utilities are facing higher renewable-energy standards this year as numerous states and the federal government push for a reduction in the use of fossil fuels for generating electricity.
New Mexico's standard increased from 10 to 15 percent at the start of the year. It's required to hit 20 percent in 2020.
Bluesphere highlights 2014, 2015 biogas project development
By Katie Fletcher, Biomass Magazine.
Bluesphere Corporation recently issued a letter to shareholders discussing results from 2014 and the first few months in 2015, focusing on the development of its projects in the waste-to-energy (WTE) sector. The company set out two critical missions in 2014, to first bring its North Carolina and Rhode Island biogas projects to full financing, in order to be shovel ready in 2014, and to second develop a pipeline of more lucrative projects in the WTE sector.
In 2014, the company increased its number of projects in the U.S., and initiated efforts in Europe and Israel. Highlights of the year include the execution of a binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) on a new anaerobic digestion (AD) project in the Boston area in June. This was followed in December with commencement of construction on both the North Carolina and Rhode Island biogas plants.
Oil Giant BP Drops Membership With ALEC
By Dustin Volz, National Journal.
Major oil-and-gas corporation BP announced Monday it is parting ways with the American Legislative Exchange Council, marking just the latest—and likely most significant—departure of a blue-chip company from the conservative group in recent months, National Journal has learned.
A BP spokesman confirmed that the company had chosen to not renew its membership in ALEC, a controversial coalition of corporations and state legislators that actively opposes environmental regulations, at the end of last year.
Aria Energy starts up Florida landfill-gas-to-energy project
By REW Staff, Renewable Energy from Waste.
Aria Energy, a provider of baseload renewable energy based in Novi, Michigan, has announced the beginning of commercial operations and renewable energy production at Sarasota County's Central County Solid Waste Disposal Complex in Nokomis, Florida.
The Sarasota County Project is a 4.8 megawatt (MW) landfill gas-to-energy facility that produces energy by capturing and processing the methane gas generated at the landfill through organic decomposition. Aria Energy designed, built, owns and operates the facility, and sells the electricity to Jacksonville, Florida-based power provider JEA under a power purchase agreement. The amount of renewable energy produced at the facility is the equivalent of the electricity needed to supply more than 2,800 homes, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates.
Obama Orders Federal Agencies to Cut Fleet Emissions
By NGT News.
President Barack Obama has issued an executive order requiring the federal government to reduce its direct greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions by at least 40% over the next decade. Although the comprehensive order calls for federal agencies to use more renewable energy, become more energy efficient, and reduce water intensity, it also mandates that their fleets cut per-mile GHG emissions by 30% by fiscal year (FY) 2025 and incorporate more zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs).
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