RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.Apple's New Headquarters Will Run on Solar Energy and Biogas Fuel Cells: Exclusive Photos
By Ruth Reader, Tech.Mic.
Apple is doubling down on alternative energy at its new headquarters. In a updated environmental report, the company says the site will run entirely on solar energy and biogas fuel cells.
Where is all that energy coming from? The new campus will get 16 megawatts of power from rooftop solar panels, some of which will be affixed to the top of its two on-campus parking structures.
Parking structures on Apple's new campus. The one on the right features the solar panels.
In addition to solar power, the new headquarters will be powered by 4 megawatts of energy from biogas fuel cells, which turn hydrogen and oxygen into electricity. Between the onsite solar panels and the fuel cells, it should be able to generate approximately 75% of the energy it needs during peak day time hours to run its campus, according to an Apple representative. The company will get its remaining power from First Solar, a California solar farm. In 2015, Apple struck a $848 million deal with First Solar for 130 megawatts of power, Bloomberg reported.
This controversial carbon proposal could be the key to success for the world’s new climate agreement
By Chelsea Harvey, The Washington Post.
As people around the world gather to celebrate Earth Day, world leaders have convened New York this morning to sign a landmark agreementaimed at slashing greenhouse gas emissions and keeping global climate change in check. And as discussions intensify around the agreement’s likelihood of success, a growing number of experts are arguing that carbon pricing — a controversial economic method intended to cut down on emissions — may be the key.
On Thursday, a group of world leaders came forward with an ambitious new vision statement calling for the world to double the extent of global emissions covered under carbon pricing schemes by the year 2020 — and quadruple it within the next decade.
Oregon Makes $6 Million Available for Alt-Fuel Fleet Projects
By NGT Staff.
The Oregon Department of Energy is making available up to $6 million of tax credits to fund alternative fuel vehicle fleet projects and vehicles. The tax credits can be applied to fleets replacing or converting at least two vehicles to alternative fuels, as well as alternative fuel infrastructure projects, such as electric vehicle (EV) charging stations and compressed natural gas (CNG) stations.
Ontario likely to miss 2030 emissions target by half, report says
By Adrian Morrow, The Globe and Mail.
Ontario’s upcoming cap-and-trade system will likely cut greenhouse gas emissions by less than half of the province’s 2030 target, a new economic analysis has found.
The report, by ICF International for the Ontario Energy Association, suggests the government will have to introduce significantly more greenhouse gas-fighting measures if it hopes to reach its planned reductions.
Ontario emissions currently sit about 6 per cent below 1990 levels, and the government has promised to slash those to 15 per cent by 2020, 37 per cent by 2030 and 80 per cent by 2050.
Top Republican takes aim at EPA rules at budget hearing
By Devin Henry, The Hill.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) criticized several Environmental Protection Agency rules during a Wednesday hearing, indicating lawmakers may consider targeting them in spending bills for the agency this year.
During a hearing of a Senate subcommittee overseeing EPA funding, panel chairwoman Murkowski took aim the agency’s clean water rule, a proposed methane regulation and a funding request for implementing a climate change rule, all of which are major EPA priorities.
"There is a concern that rather than focusing on its core mission of attending to and cleaning up the environment, the agency is pumping out rule after rule that are based on questionable legal authority," Murkowski said Wednesday at a hearing with EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy.
Ontario government to invoke closure on cap-and-trade bill after PC filibuster
By Keith Leslie, The Canadian Press.
TORONTO -- Environment Minister Glen Murray warns Ontario industries could be hurt by the Progressive Conservatives' efforts to delay legislation that would create a cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The government decided to invoke closure to wrap up committee hearings by May 2 on the bill designed to combat climate change, "the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced," said Murray.
The Tories asked for 20-minute breaks twice an hour and used other tactics to slow the committee's work to a crawl, but the government needs the bill passed this spring so it can start selling carbon credits to companies in January.
DeKalb unveils public natural gas fueling station
By Dionne Kinch, Atlanta Journal Constitution.
DeKalb County officials in partnership with Atlanta Gas Light recently commemorate the opening of the second county-owned compressed natural gas public fueling station located at the DeKalb County Sanitation Division, Central Transfer Station, 3720 Leroy Scott Dr.
“The new station serves both the public and the county’s growing CNG sanitation fleet, and it uses landfill gas from the county’s own facility as a supply source. Using landfill gas reduces the carbon footprint of the refuse vehicles by 90 percent, and it completes a circle of converting trash to energy that is then used to fuel the same trucks that haul refuse to the landfill,” said Bryan Batson, president of Atlanta Gas Light.
The station comprises two fueling lanes, with three standard capacity and one high capacity fuel dispensers, and is open 6 a.m. – 10 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Read more...
California Port City Runs on Renewable NatGas Muni Vehicles
By Richard Nemec, NGI's Daily Gas Price Index.
Soon to host an annual national alternative transportation fuels meeting, the City of Long Beach, CA is expanding its use of renewable fuels -- liquefied natural gas (LNG) and diesel -- for powering 393 of its 2,185-vehicle municipal fleet.
The city is getting renewable natural gas (RNG) from Applied LNG, and the clean diesel from locally based Merrimac Energy, which buys it from Neste Oil's Singapore refinery.
Renewable LNG is being used by the city's street sweepers, which have been fueling with LNG since 2003. It was the first city in the nation to do so. It became bio-based LNG last October, city officials said.
Air Liquide accelerates its development in biogas purification
From Biomass Magazine.
Air Liquide announces the commissioning of 12 biogas purification units in the last 12 months in Europe. With these new units, Air Liquide triples its biogas purification capacity on the European continent. Overall, Air Liquide has designed and deployed worldwide 50 biogas purification units in order to transform biogas into biomethane and inject it into the natural gas networks.
The 12 new biogas purification units commissioned by Air Liquide are located in France, in the United Kingdom, in Hungary and in Denmark. Five of these units, representing a total investment of 12 million euros ($13.63 million), are operated by Air Liquide. They generate long-term contracts for the production of biomethane for Europe’s natural gas grids, which supply notably the transportation fleets that run on bio-natural gas for vehicles (bio-NGV).
World leader in the supply of biogas purification technologies with an installed capacity of 160,000 cubic meters per hour, Air Liquide has developed technologies and expertise that span the entire biomethane value chain: purification of biogas into biomethane, injection into the natural gas network, liquefaction, distribution for clean transportation fleets.
Proposed 2017 RVO rule at OMB for review
By Erin Voegele, Biodiesel Magazine.
The U.S. EPA delivered the proposed rule for the 2017 renewable fuel standard (RFS) to the White House Office of Management and Budget April 15. The proposed rule contains 2017 renewable volume obligations (RVOs) for renewable fuel, advanced biofuel and cellulosic biofuel. It also contains the 2018 RVO for biomass-based diesel. The 2017 standard for biomass-based diesel was finalized in a previous RFS rulemaking.
OMB review marks a final step before the proposed rule is published in the Federal Register and opened for public comment.
Delivery of the proposed rule to the OMB seems to indicate the EPA is on track to finalize the final rule for 2017 RVOs in line with the Nov. 30 statutory deadline. In February, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy testified during a congressional hearing that the agency has taken steps to improve implementation of the RFS intends to keep on track with future RFS rulemakings.
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