RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.WA Governor Jay Inslee wants rule by next summer to cap carbon emissions
By The Associated Press (The Seattle Times) -
Gov. Jay Inslee is asking the director of Ecology to do “everything possible” to come up with a binding cap on greenhouse gas emissions by next summer.
After failing to get legislation on his cap-and-trade program, Inslee announced last month he would use his executive authority to develop a cap under the state’s Clean Air Act.
In a letter Thursday to Ecology Director Maia Bellon, the governor said he hopes she will start the rule-making process in late September and have a proposed rule out for public review by January. He said he believes a rule could be adopted by summer 2016.
Big power company Constellation to finance Bloom Energy's fuel cells
By Katie Fehrenbacher, Fortune.
One of the largest power companies in the U.S. is doubling down on funding the deployment of fuel cells by Silicon Valley startup Bloom Energy. Fuel cells are large devices that generate electricity through a chemical reaction and are usually installed close to a building that uses the energy.
Constellation, which is owned by Fortune 500 company Exelon EXC 0.18% , plans to provide equity financing to deploy 40 megawatts worth of fuel cells made by Bloom Energy. The forty megawatts would come from 170 fuel cell projects and is enough energy to power 32,000 average homes per year.
Last year Exelon itself entered into an agreement to fund the deployment of 21 megawatts worth of Bloom Energy fuel cells. Now Exelon’s subsidiary is entering into this deal for double that amount.
Hog wild about biogas
By Angie Maier, Renewable Energy from Waste.
In terms of sustainable business practices, the reduction or reuse of waste to generate savings—or in some cases, generate new sources of funding or energy—is impacting more and more businesses. In fact, entire teams are tasked with the measurement of operations to find ways to reduce usage and recycle resources.
As a natural extension within the agriculture industry, the use of animal waste to capture and generate renewable energy addresses two issues at once: additional utilization of animal waste (most farmers already use manure as fertilizer), and secondly, creating new opportunities via a sustainable, renewable domestic energy supply.
State exec says LNG needs to support Hawaii's renewable energy goal
By Duane Shimogawa, Pacific Business News
Liquefied natural gas bulk shipments to Hawaii deserves consideration, but only if it supports the state’s renewable energy agenda, the head of the state’s Energy Office told PBN this week in an exclusive interview.
“We’ve said we are open to a consideration of LNG as a bridge only,” Mark Glick, administrator for the state Energy Office, told PBN, pointing out that it has to be limited. “It would only be [used] to displace oil and only to support higher rates of [integrating] renewables and reduce costs.”
Glick reiterated the state’s stance this week on LNG, bulk shipments of which are being proposed for the Islands as a replacement for oil by both Hawaii Gas, the state's only regulated gas utility, and Hawaiian Electric Co.
New NREL report assesses energy decision making in U.S. Cities
By Alexandra Aznar, Megan Day, Elizabeth Doris, and Shivani Mathur (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) and Paul Donohoo-Vallett (U.S. Department of Energy)
The Cities-LEAP technical report, City-Level Energy Decision Making: Data Use in Energy Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation in U.S. Cities, explores how a sample of cities incorporates data into making energy-related decisions.
This report provides the foundation for forthcoming components of the Cities-LEAP project that will help cities improve energy decision making by mapping specific city energy or climate policies and actions to measurable impacts and results.
Garbage to Gas: Washington Monthly highlights potential of RNG Industry
By Anne Kim - Republic 3.0, Washington Monthly
What was once the I-95 landfill near Lorton, Virginia, is now dozens of acres of rolling green fields - dotted by more than 200 metal pipes emerging from the grass.
The pipes are wellheads for natural gas, and they are collecting the methane generated by more than 10 million tons of decomposing garbage dumped by Washington, D.C.-area residents over the course of 30 years.
A vacuum pump draws the gas from underground, through the wellheads, and connects it to roughly 14 miles of pipeline that run throughout the landfill. Under each wellhead, says Mike Malfitano, an environmental technical specialist for Fairfax County, “there’s a three-foot bore hole that goes 110 feet down into the waste mass.”
Methane-powered tractor could cut farmers' costs, emissions
By Colleen Barry, Associated Press
VENARIA REALE, Italy — Luca Remmert's dream of running a self-sustainable farm is within sight. He produces energy from corn and grain near the northern Italian city of Turin and hopes in the not too distant future to run all of his eight tractors on methane generated at the farm.
Remmert's 450-hectare (1,100-acre) La Bellotta farm has been testing a second-generation prototype of what will be the first tractor to run on methane, the T6 by New Holland Agriculture.
Methane would be 30 percent cheaper than diesel. And for farms that produce their own bio-methane, the costs of fuel would drop to nothing. Bio-methane is a type of gas that is produced by the processing of organic waste — something farms have a lot of.
California Energy Commission kicks off new NGV incentive program
By Richard Nemec, NGI's Daily Gas Price Index
August 10, 2015 - Public and private non-transit fleet operators now can compete for more than $10 million in state funding for the purchase of natural gas vehicles (NGV) under a program funded by the California Energy Commission (CEC).
The CEC's new NGV Incentive Project (NGVIP) is being administered by the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Irvine. It will be providing funding to help operators reduce the cost of new on-road NGVs. There is $10.18 million in funding from the CEC available.
In establishing NGVIP, the CEC officials have said their intent is to "expand the use of a domestically produced non-petroleum fuel that is a low-cost alternative to gasoline and diesel and has lower carbon emissions characteristics." Incentives are available "on a first-come, first-served basis and at varying levels depending on the gross vehicle weight."
BART gets go-ahead to buy clean energy directly
By Melody Gutierrez, SF Gate.
Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill Friday that allows BART to purchase renewable energy directly from wholesale suppliers as the rail system looks to further reduce its carbon footprint.
SB502 by state Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, eliminates a barrier the BART Board of Directors face when purchasing electricity, which is currently limited to a short list of approved suppliers, according to bill supporters.
Under the new law, BART officials would no longer have to go through a third party to buy renewable energy on their behalf and instead could purchase directly from facilities covered under California’s Renewables Portfolio Standard.
Nylon pipe collects methane landfill gas
By Frank Esposito, Plastic News.
A nylon 6/11 resin made by Arkema Inc. is helping a Nebraska community draw energy from a decommissioned landfill.
A piping system using Arkema’s Rilsan-brand nylon 6/11 was installed earlier this year and started operating in June at the site in Douglas County, near Omaha. Rilsan is used throughout the system, including in pipes, fitting and joining systems, Arkema oil and gas market manager Brandon Babe said in a recent phone interview.
The Rilsan-based system is less expensive than a similar steel system, providing capital expenditure savings of $95,000 per mile and maintenance savings of $6,300 per mile. The system collects methane landfill gas from the State Street Landfill, which closed in 1989 and has been flaring the gas since 1995. The system then cleans the gas before conveying it to local utilities, Babe said.
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