Click on the headline (link) for the full text.
Many more articles are available through the Energy Bulletin homepage
Corn Farms Prosper, but Subsidies Still Flow
Dan Morgan, Washington Post
RADCLIFFE, Iowa — Corn farmer Jim Handsaker has found a slew of ways to ride the heartland boom in biofuels that is reshaping the economy of rural Iowa.
He sold some of his 2006 crop this year for more than $4 a bushel, the highest price in a decade. His stake in two nearby ethanol plants brought in several thousand dollars more in dividends. Meanwhile, soaring farmland prices have pushed the value of the 400 acres he owns to around $2 million.
Even so, come October he will get a subsidy check from the government, part of a $1.6 billion installment that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will send to corn farmers.
Those annual automatic payments to Handsaker and thousands of other prospering corn growers have long been controversial. But coming at a time when taxpayers are already subsidizing the ethanol industry to the tune of $3 billion a year, the double-barreled support system for those who grow corn and those who turn it into fuel has begun to draw fire in Congress.
(28 September 2007)
Big Potential and Challenges for Biofuels in Africa
Meghan Sapp, IPS
DURBAN – Biofuels offer Africa the chance to supply itself with alternative energy sources, and also to become a major supplier of these sources for developed markets. Yet, challenges — from creating the relevant infrastructure to competition for biofuel crops from food markets — remain.
“There is huge room for exploitation of clean sources of energy at a time when the entire world is confronted with global warming,” said Salvador Namburete, Mozambique’s minister of energy.
He was speaking at the First Annual Africa Biofuels Conference & Expo, held in the South African coastal city of Durban; the event concludes Thursday.
The European Union (EU) has mandated 10 percent biofuel use by motorists and industry within this region by 2020, and its commissioner for agriculture has told the press several times that 20 percent of that use would probably come from imports.
…In the face of these opportunities, however, questions are being raised across Africa about the shortage of infrastructure to cope with biofuel production.
“Lack of infrastructure in African countries weighs down opportunities for biofuel use. You can produce it, but if you can’t get it to the users at a reasonable price there’s no point,” said Vinesh Moodly, refinery and deployment manager for D1 Oils Africa Plc, a Johannesburg-based company.
Brazil, the world’s largest exporter of ethanol, a fuel produced from sugarcane, is also struggling with infrastructure difficulties. These are not only putting pressure on supplies available for export, but also lowering prices — because exporters are forced to sell due to a lack of port facilities.
…Many of Africa’s most viable biofuel producers — in terms of production costs for sugarcane, maize or cassava — are landlocked, however, and don’t have the transportation infrastructure in place to enable export of the fuels, or immediate plans for infrastructure investment like Mozambique.
(27 September 2007)
Jatropha: fuel for thought?
Yolandi Groenewald, Mail & Guardian (Zambia)
A small inedible seed from a Mexican tree is seen by some as the answer to the world’s fuel crisis. But the seed from the jatropha tree, used to make biofuels, is still hugely controversial in South Africa and the government is not at all sure that the plant will solve the country’s biofuel woes.
In the past couple of years bio-fuels, made out of food commodities such as maize and sugar cane, have been pushing up food prices, raising questions about the effects of biofuel production on food security, especially regarding the poor.
But jatropha, a poisonous oilseed that yields an inedible vegetable oil used to make biofuel, does not threaten food security because it is not a food crop.
The agriculture department, however, is sceptical about allowing the plant to flourish in the country. Spokesperson Priscilla Sehoole says that given South African climatic and environmental constraints and limited agricultural production potential, jatropha is not at the moment considered a viable option as a source for biofuels.
Some see the plant’s ability to grow in arid conditions and without much water as one of its benefits, but critics dispute this.
(25 September 2007)
Boeing 747 to fly on bio-fuel
AUTHOR, inthenews.co.uk
Air New Zealand has announced it will carry out the first commercial trial of a bio-fuelled Boeing 747.
The company said the aircraft, which is likely to fly from Auckland late next year/early 2009, will not carry customers and will be conducted under strict safety standards.
One engine will run on a blended biofuel/kerosene mix while the remaining three will be powered by regular aviation fuel.
An announcement on the source and mix of the blended fuel will be made closer to the time of the flight.
Biofuels are increasingly being viewed as a viable alternative to traditional fuel as countries seek to find ways to generate renewable energy in the face of increasing climate change.
Air New Zealand chief executive officer Rob Fyfe said that a year ago there were doubts about the use of biofuels in the aviation industry but it has now become a viable option.
(28 September 2007)
