Farmer reaps rewards growing energy crops

In 2006 Farmer Chris Bradley decided to move into energy crops, as his land was struggling to grow wheat so he started to grow miscanthus and planted it on a hundred acres of his land. Blow-away sand that wouldn’t grow wheat and struggled to deliver seven tons a hectare of any cereal has produced an average 14 t/ha of miscanthus for the past two years meaning just short of £750/ha from Drax power station for a harvesting and baling cost of about £200 a hectare.

“Our older crops have filled in quite well over the years,” he said. “In fact we’ve seen clumps growing out by a good four inches a year. But the establishment deficiencies remain for all to see in gappy, uneven crops. The key thing we have all learnt is that you have to establish right. You’re putting it in for 20 years, so it’s worth doing the job properly, especially since patching doesn’t really work after the first year. Unless you replant a whole area, the original crop shades out the new plants, leaving you little better off.” Read more ...

Jordon to have wind farm in three years

The Kingdom of Jordon is only three years away from getting its first wind farm, as the interest of renewable energy gather momentum in the country's emerging renewable energy sector. Officials expect the wind farm in Fujeij, the first large scale renewable energy project is expected to be operational by 2014 according to Ziyad Jibril, head of the Ministry of Energy’s renewable energy department. “We have some of the biggest names from the US, South America and Europe and we will be working with them soon to develop renewable energy in Jordan,” said Mr Jibril. Read more ...

Heifer International pilot biogas project in Cameroon

Heifer International, an international integrated animal-agriculture development organisation is to pilot a biogas production project in Cameroon. The project will be run in the South West and Littoral regions due to there being large concentrations of pig farmers there. "Producing biogas using pig manure is quite challenging because you need much of it to supply biogas digesters. It has worked well with poultry and dairy cow manure, and we now want to try pig manure," said the Heifer International Cameroon boss. Read more ...

Nigeria reiterated its commitment to renewable energy

Nigeria's federal government has reiterated its commitment to enhance the country's power situation with increased input from renewable energy sources. Repeating this undertaking in a Renewable Energy Day address here, environment minister Hadiza Ibrahim Mailafia said: “Nigeria is a fossil fuel based economy and the need to deploy sustainable means of powering the nation cannot be over-emphasised," "Nigeria is very mindful of the need to turn to the abundant available renewable sources of energy technologies to meet the local needs of our increasing population,” Ms Mailafia added. Read more ...

Supermarket aims for zero waste landfill

Sainsbury's supermarket chain will become the first supermarket to send all its food waste for anaerobic digestion the process that decomposes food waste to release biogas which can then be used to produce electricity. Most other supermarkets are doing this as well, Asda is already sending 25,000 tons of food waste for anaerobic digestion. The benefit of this is that landfill food waste produces methane gas that is 21 times worse for global warming than carbon dioxide. South Korea and Japan recognised the value of this technology and developed state of the arts facilities to utilise food waste.  Read more ...

A symbiotic relationship to revitalise idle biomass plant

Two companies have joined forces to restart a biomass plant that has been idle for 10 years. Kiara Solar Inc, of San Francisco Bay and Siskiyou Forest Products. Kiara purchased the biomass plant off Siskiyou about two years ago for US$1.6 million (€1.182 million), now working with Siskiyou Forest Products the two companies intend to get the plant running and will be using waste wood that will provide steam for their dry kilns. The plant will employ 12 to 15 people who will start at US$15 to US$17 (€11 to 12 ) an hour, said Bob Chaudhuri, vice president of business development for San Ramon-based Kiara Solar. The biomass operation will run 24 hours, seven days a week. Read more ...

USDA to fund series of biomass projects

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) through its Rural Energy for America program (REAP) is to fund a number of biomass projects to convert biomass to energy. Among those to receive funding is NC-CHP Owner 1, LLC, a business management consultancy company, which received project financing of US$5 million (€3.694 million) for constructing CHP project serving a poultry producer in Montgomery County, Maryland. Wood chips will be used as a feed stock for generating electricity. Read more ...

Kuala Lumpur biomass industry has potential

In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the local biomass industry has potential to become a major industry by 2020 and could create 70,000 new jobs in the field of high value-related industries, the Prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak said. The sectors that have been identified for this growth is the development of biomass generated electricity, bio-based chemicals and bioplastics production. “Biomass has the potential to deliver up to RM30 billion (€6.965 billion) in new income for Malaysia by 2020,” said Najib, who is also finance minister, during a joint opening of the Ninth BioMalaysia 2011 conference and Sixth Pacific Rim Summit on Industrial and Bio Energy yesterday. Read more ...