Global Climate Change Summit Brings Questions of America’s Role in Reversing Carbon Trends

Those who have read the recent reports by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the United Nations and World Bank on the state of global warming may be feeling a little grinchy this holiday season and it isn’t because of the fruitcake. The latest round of global climate talks among roughly 200 nations were held in Doha, Qatar last week and that got us thinking at the Better BTU: what should America’s role in the climate change crisis be?

While the situation may not be as dire as doomsayers who predict the end of the world based on an Aztec calendar, the picture painted by reputable sources is bleak, nonetheless. PwC’s report shows that the global community’s efforts to improve carbon emissions by 5.1% each year in order to avoid a two degree Celsius increase in global temperature has fallen drastically short. The improvement in 2011 was just 0.7% despite a global economic slowdown. Since it is highly unlikely that the international community could jump to the target 5.1% improvement rate in just one or two years, the decarbonization percentage needed to stop permanent damage will only continue to rise along with water levels.

The state of global carbon emissions was one of the topics of the most recent round of climate talks in Doha, Qatar last week. Also on the table was the Green Climate Fund, which exists to assist poorer countries adapt to the changing climate.

Earlier reports that wealthier countries like the United States had nearly reached its $30 billion pledge are now being adjusted as individual entities Oxfam and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) show that very little of the aid has been in the form of cash but has come in the form of loans or diverted funds from existing aid budgets.

The European Union is currently the only governing body that has said it will sign another binding agreement like the Kyoto Protocol and unfortunately, it only accounts for about 14% of the world’s carbon emissions. Unless the larger carbon emitters like China, India and the U.S. get on board, a new agreement isn’t likely to produce results.

At Better BTU, we support the idea of assisting smaller countries, especially those in the Pacific region who will be swallowed up by a rise in water levels, but wonder if the Green Climate Fund is the best way America can contribute.

The documentary film The Island President shows how a rise in two degrees Celsius will completely wipe out countries like The Maldives. But what exactly are these funds doing to help these countries adapt?

The United States has built its reputation in the global community as a pioneer in technology. We are the nation that introduced the telephone, the airplane and the computer to the world. And so it might make sense that our path to contributing to the global climate crisis should go through technology.

Several companies in the U.S. have made significant advancements in gasification technology, in addition to being the leader in wind energy and among the top nations in solar energy. Americans have built upon the contributions made by European countries but the industry remains stalled due to an economic recession and a public that has not yet embraced the technology.

At one time the idea of putting a man on the moon seemed beyond ridiculous. President Kennedy stood in front of millions to declare that his administration would achieve that feat and a space race between nations was born. Now it’s time for Americans to re-engage with that same energy not for exploring new worlds, but for saving our own.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/blog/pwc-climate-change-reduction-business-investments

http://news.yahoo.com/global-warming-means-culture-change-180108826.html

http://news.yahoo.com/un-launch-round-talks-global-warming-155142684--finance.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/nov/26/climate-change-adaptation-poor-countries

China and U.S. Waste Strategy: More Similar Than You Think

Most of our readers are already familiar with the state of waste management in China, where officials are literally digging the country out from under a pile of trash. The waste management system has been unable to keep pace with the booming economic development and urban growth that has resulted in The Middle Kingdom’s current problem.

China produced 221 million tons of MSW in 2010, more than 35% of which is untreated and left on street corners or dumped in unsanctioned landfills. The lack of foresight on China’s part means that one of the fastest-growing nations in the world now has to overspend in order to play catch up. The Chinese government has pledged to spend $42 billion over a five-year period on waste management. While it has set aside a goal of doubling its meager 3 percent recycling rate and will also invest in food source separation, the majority of the money will go to building waste-to-energy plants.

Garbage landfill in Changchun, China. Courtesy: MSNBC.

China hopes to increase its waste-to-energy capacity to 35% of all discarded materials by 2015. The country has added 66 incinerators in the last two years and plans to have a total of 600 by 2020.

The United States has always been ahead of the curve in terms of waste management and have been able to avoid many of the problems our fellow superpower is experiencing. Here’s how the U.S. and China’s history of waste management and philosophy differ:

1. Historically, the U.S. developed its consumer-driven culture at a slower pace, allowing our waste management infrastructure to grow along with it.

2. China has previously ignored the waste hierarchy and has effectively been without any sort of established recycling program in place. It has historically been left to poor citizens who rely on salvaging recyclables from the garbage and selling it back to facilities as way of earning a meager living.

By contrast, Baltimore first began curbside recycling in 1874. By 1965, Congress had passed the Solid Waste Disposal Act, which was billed as a national research and development program to assist state and local governments with its disposal programs. Recycling is not mandatory in most of the U.S. and so the state and local governments oversee recycling and waste disposal efforts.

3. The size and quality of landfills vary widely in China. While the best ones are equipped with the technology to control emissions, hundreds more are unsanctioned dumping sites that have sprung up outside of cities and throughout the countryside as a result of economic growth. Without the proper number of public facilities, people began dumping trash anywhere without regard or understanding of the environmental and health consequences.

The U.S. solved this problem with the Federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, which mandated tighter monitoring of landfills and established a hazardous waste management program.

But before Americans pat themselves on the back, they should consider how their current philosophy of choosing the cheapest method of trash disposal affects them long term.  There has been progress in the development of clean waste-to-energy technologies but landfilling remains the most popular option because of its economical nature. The U.S. has over 1,900 active MSW landfills in the nation, down from nearly 3,000 a decade ago. As these landfills reach maximum capacity, tipping fees rise exponentially, which is why states in the Northeast and California are on the forefront of exploration into alternative methods. Despite these advances, a tough economy and difficult permitting has stalled the implementation of new technologies and municipalities continue to return to standard practices of landfilling – relieving the short term cost burden but heightening the long term damage.

Similarly, China has opted to go with a solution that serves short term needs best. The country settled on mass burn incinerators because it contends that it is the best temporary solution to reducing the massive amounts of trash lying across the landscape and to generating energy to meet its rapidly growing needs. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that after building almost 500 new WTE facilities, China is going to be willing to invest in newer, cleaner technology once it gets ahead of its current problem.

As two of the largest countries in the world in terms of people and economic influence, it is imperative that China and the United States put the good of the environment ahead of the almighty dollar to avoid finding us in a mess similar to the one China is dealing with now somewhere down the road. 

Myths About Recycling and WTE: Why Towns Shouldn’t Fear WTE Will Hurt Recycling

As more communities consider waste-to-energy projects as an alternative to landfilling, we at the Better BTU have noticed a pattern. Frequently, early on in the process, a local news outlet reports council members fearing that the proposed project will hurt local recycling efforts. Usually these council members are later educated as to how recycling and waste-to-energy plants work together, but since it seems to be a recurring theme, we’d like to devote some time to clearing up the myths about recycling and waste-to-energy facilities, particularly those using some form of gasification.

Myth: Residents will lose enthusiasm for recycling if we have a WTE facility.

This was a reported concern of Councilmember Diane Holmes of Ottawa, who felt the facility would send the wrong message to residents since it converts trash to a syngas that can be used to produce electricity and/or heat. She said she feared recycling would seem “redundant”.

Recycling is close to the top of the environmental hierarchy of solid waste management. Experts across the spectrum agree that recycling is the best form of waste management since it takes less energy to manufacture something from recycled material than virgin materials. For example, it takes 95% less energy to make a can from 41% recycled aluminum than it does to create one from virgin bauxite ore.  Educating the public on the importance of recycling, regardless of where the rest of the trash goes, should be a goal of all communities. 

Myth: Our city/county/state already does a good job recycling so there is no need for a WTE facility.

While the amount of recycled materials has grown steadily since 1990, the U.S. recycling rate remains consistent at 27-33% of waste. The EPA reports 55% of all trash still winds up in a landfill and David Steiner, CEO of Waste Management, estimates close to $20 billion in valuable resources get buried in landfills every year.

Individual communities have set impressive goals and made great progress in diverting trash from landfills. We chronicled San Jose’s efforts to achieve zero landfill status (San Jose Sets the Emerald Standard for Green Cities) and the city reports that it is currently diverting 71% of its trash away from landfills. As a whole, the state of California diverts 58% of its trash from landfills, while Minnesota has reach 40% and South Carolina sits at a 28% diversion rate. Unfortunately, for every San Jose, there are dozens of major metropolitan areas reporting single-digit diversion rates and 11 states still fall below 10% in recycling.

A waste-to-energy facility is able to take material that normally would sit in a landfill and convert it to a renewable gas. Several large landfills are slated to reach capacity in the next 20 years and a WTE facility can prolong the life while also creating a renewable energy source.

Myth: Waste-to-Energy companies don’t care about recycling.

Too many people conjure up images of the old mass incinerators that ate everything in its path and emitted clouds of black smoke into the sky. Today’s developers are interested in sorting the recyclables from the trash for the same reason large companies are – it’s a moneymaker. Commodity prices are too high to let recyclables stay in the waste stream. Unlike larger incinerators and gasifiers (think Covanta or Thermoselect), the majority of gasifiers coming to market need to have the trash shredded in order to process it. Since developers are already having to invest in front-end processing, they might as well pull out the recyclables while they are at it.

Workers pick out the recyclables in San Jose, Calif.
(Courtesy: KGO-TV San Francisco.)

There are several studies that suggest that recycling rates might actually increase in cities with waste-to-energy facilities since the plant will catch materials that might have otherwise ended up in the landfill.

Myth: WTE facilities will end up having to process recyclables because of the large volume needed to keep the plant operational.

As mentioned above, today’s gasifiers are not the large mass incinerators of old. Advancements in technology have made smaller facilities more economical and the trend is to have a larger number of smaller plants rather than one large facility that handles an entire region’s trash.

Smaller facilities help the environment in several ways. First, it reduces the amount of trucking needed for the trash, saving money and reducing greenhouse gases. Secondly, smaller plants don’t require the same high volumes of trash to keep it economical and operational.  Additionally, companies take into account a certain amount of recyclables being pulled when calculating how much trash a town can provide.

Better BTU Take: Waste-to-energy and recycling are a match. Although the almighty buck does have a lot of say, at the end of the day many developers in the business have more progressive views than traditional waste companies. They recognize the value of recycling and don’t want to see it compromised by their technology. If larger, traditionally conservative companies like Covanta and Waste Management have come around on recycling, you can bet the little guys support it as well.

Recommended Reading:

Councillor Fears Plasco Will Curb Recycling – By Jon Willing, Ottawa Sun (Dec. 15, 2011). 

All-Of-The-Above: One Policy, Two Different Takes on Threat of Global Warming

Once the grandstands have been taken down in Charlotte and Tampa and we’ve heard from candidates and celebrities alike, it’s time to examine the platforms of each political candidate under a microscope. While both candidates subscribe to the All-of-the-Above Energy Policy, they plan to execute them in traditionally partisan ways.  Deciding which candidate to support ultimately comes down to one question: how big an issue is global warming?

Romney supports renewable energy but doesn't view it
as being at a critical juncture yet. He feels it is important
to keep the cost of electricity down in this economy by
continuing to drill for oil and natural gas. (Courtesy: NPR). 

As one would expect from a business titan who built his fortune in the free market, Romney plans to approach energy policy with a more hands-off approach. At the beginning of his chapter on America’s Natural Resources he declares that under his administration the government “will not pick winners and losers in the energy marketplace. Instead, we will let the free market and the public’s preferences determine the industry outcomes.”

Republicans love to point to the half-million loan guarantee now-bankrupt Solyndra received from the current administration as an example of mismanaged government funds. He says that his party “encourages the cost-effective development of renewable energy, but the taxpayers should not serve as venture capitalists for risky endeavors.” Instead of grants and incentives for new technologies, Romney says that he will focus government spending on research and development through organizations like the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy, a subset of the Department of Energy.

What this means is that loan guarantees and grants like the Renewable Energy Grant 1603, which expired late last year, will continue to disappear. This could be bad news for technologies that are not capable of being economical without government subsidies, such as the majority of solar and wind projects. Although this will deal a heavy blow to the biomass industry as well, it may actually help the field in the long run. With solar and wind spending down, biomass projects which are more economical, may have a better chance of getting funding.

Romney also plans to rely on coal and natural gas more heavily than Obama has by encouraging the Keystone XL Pipeline and allowing states to regulate the use of hydraulic fracturing. At a time when unemployment has hit eight percent for 42 months in a row, the U.S. should be not shutting down the coal industry, eliminating thousands of jobs and raise the price of energy, according to Romney. Images of Europe, who is well ahead of the U.S. in renewable energy but is paying almost twice the amount for electricity during a deep recession, comes to mind.

The Republican platform signifies a party that acknowledges the issue of global warming, but is not yet sure it is necessary to radically change policy. Democrats, on the other hand, see climate change as an issue in need of decisive action now. Democrats acknowledge the financial risk in supporting emerging technologies but feel that if one technology can succeed on a large scale, it will be well worth the investment. Erin Voegele of Biomass Magazine says that like venture capital firms, the government has budgeted for some projects to fail and claims that “agencies that offer loan guarantee programs have often experience lower-than-expected failure rates for projects. She takes this as a sign that the government could in fact take MORE risks in these programs.

President Obama sees global warming as an
imminent threat, requiring immediate
action. (Courtesy: White House)

Obama claims to have created more than 225, 000 green jobs through governmental incentives and tax credits. His position is that if the government gives tax breaks and subsidies to the oil industry, it should at least offer them to an industry that is trying to save the planet. Obama feels that continued investment in alternative energy practices as well as regulations such as fuel economy standards are necessary to reach his goal of having 80% of America’s electricity come from clean energy by 2035. 

For the average voter this all boils down to how big an issue you believe global warming is right now. During World War II, the U.S. misspent millions as it fought a two-front war. No one would have dared grumble about the way tax dollars were spent at the time because it was absolutely necessary; bickering over the best way to spend military dollars while Nazis and Communists crept closer to our borders just wasn’t an option. Today voters are asked to gauge the threat of climate change and the effect the U.S. can have on an international problem.

The Renewable Energy Components of the Democratic and Republican Platforms – By Erin Voegele, Biomass Magazine (Sept. 7, 2012)

Energy Innovation Under Romney and Obama – By Kevin Bullis, MIT Technology Review (Sept. 6, 2012)

2012 WE Believe In America – Republican Platform

Moving America Forward – 2012 Democratic National Platform 

The Bias Within: How Confirmation Bias Affects WTE

Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal ran a three-part series on confirmation bias by Matt Ridley. The final installment, entitled “How Bias Heats Up the Warming Debate” discusses announcements of two preliminary new papers on climate by opposing schools of thought and how each uses confirmation bias to support its findings.

Courtesy: The Wall Street Journal. 

Confirmation bias is the art of “if-then modeling”- using data and models to prove what you already believe to be true. This is used in every facet of life, sometimes unknowingly. Not only does this affect our ability to accurately predict the future of global warming, but it colors our view of the present facts as well. Ridley points out that oftentimes unusually warm and wet summers in the U.S. and U.K. are interpreted as proof of a rise in global warming while overly cold winters are written off as “weather.”

Protesting a proposed wood-burning plant in Michigan.
Photo by Earth Melzer. 

Just as biases exist on both sides of the climate change issue, they are also present in arguments for and against waste-to-energy technology. The tendency among certain environmental organizations to use vocal and aggressive campaigns against prospective WTE projects is common and sometimes the speed at which these are put together begs the question of whether time has been given to adequately research the new technology and consider it with an open mind.

Representatives from the other side can be just as guilty of confirmation bias in their efforts to promote the benefits of WTE technology. While radical environmentalists like to zero in on the failures of past attempts by different technologies, proponents of WTE prefer to sweep them under the rug, assuring residents that something like that could never happen with newer technologies. While these proponents may be correct and have ample information to back their claims, it is still a form of confirmation bias.

Supporters of Biomass Projects. Courtesy: MassLive.com

Forbes contributor Larry Bell acknowledges his bias as an opinion writer and notes that these biases have a place in pushing discourse of controversial topics forward. He also remarks that while opinion pieces aren’t subject to the same peer review processes as research papers, “accountability for factual accuracy is a paramount priority.” In today’s world where readers are invited to share opinions through comment sections online and in print, reporting inaccuracies will be quickly and – as he notes, frequently impolitely – pointed out.

While we at the Better BTU strive to be as objective as possible when presenting arguments, we can’t ignore that we too are guilty of a confirmation bias. As steadfast believers in the biomass WTE movement, articles we pick and topics we present are often designed to illustrate our thoughts on the benefits of WTE technology as well as to create debate on highly controversial topics. We try to account for bias by also reporting on projects that don’t always have happy endings, such as the cancelled plans for a plant in Missoula, Mont. or the chaos that has ensued in Ada County as Dynamis tries to install its first commercial plant stateside.

Bias is inherent in all of us, but recognizing the bias and having multiple centers for scientific research to avoid a monopoly are the best ways to deal with it.

Further Reading:

How Bias Heats Up the Warming Debate – By Matt Ridley, The Wall Street Journal (Aug. 3, 2012).

Confirmation Bias: Why Both Sides of the Global Warming Debate are Nearly Always Right – By Larry Bell, Forbes (Aug. 14, 2012).

State Sovereignty: Mass. Banks on Sun and Wind over Biomass

Last month we discussed New Hampshire’s bold move to grant biomass projects the same incentives as other sources of renewable energy. This month we look at a neighboring state moving in the opposite direction.

Governor Patrick signs Senate Bill 2395. Courtesy: Eric
Haynes/Governor's Office. 

On Aug. 3^rd, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick signed Senate Bill 2395, enacting new energy legislation that has been in the works for nine months. The new law increases incentives for developing wind, solar and hydro projects and “includes provisions that aim to manage some of the drivers of energy cost increases.” (Mintz)

Utility companies will now be required to purchase seven percent of its power supply from renewable sources, up from three percent previously. Additionally, the law mandates long-term contracts of at least 10 years, which will help with project financing for renewable technologies. 

The move comes after the Bay State suspended consideration of all biomass energy applications on Dec. 3, 2011. Biomass had been a sizeable portion of the state’s renewable energy supply, reaching 49% in 2007. Massachusetts announced plans to begin its “RPS solar carve-out on Jan. 1” and many felt the Aug. 3^rd signing into law was long overdue. The new legislation also establishes a clearinghouse auction for surplus SRECs until the state meets its 400 MW solar target. Massachussetts’ goal is to have 15% of its energy supply come from renewable sources by 2015, with two GW of it coming from wind.

Biomass escaped having some limiting regulations that were proposed by the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) included in the final text, but the message is clear: biomass project developers should move over state lines to New Hampshire.

We can certainly understand Massachusetts legislators’ thought process: solar and wind produces zero emissions; it’s clearly the greenest way to go. So why not spend our money on the cleanest technology out there?

Courtesy: The Wall Street Journal, Associated Press. 

We support wind and solar as viable alternatives to landfilling but believe it is only part of the solution. Both solar and wind are intermittent power sources while biomass is a baseload power source. Additionally, wind and solar are still more expensive than biomass (excluding subsidies) and the cost of transmission lines from the oftentimes remote locations to more urban areas is not usually factored in. The proposed Cape Cod wind farm, which would consist of a series of turbines in a 25-square mile area in the shallow part of the sound, comes with a $2 billion price tag. While producing 468 MW of energy would be an impressive feat for the country’s first wind farm, it would only provide approximately 3.5% of the 13,300 MW used in Massachusetts.

We support the growth of other renewable source industries but hate to see it come at the price of excluding biomass projects. As the world continues to work to find the right combination of renewable sources to keep the light on, we think any legislation that excludes an entire section of industry does a great disservice.

The good news for Bay State biomass developers? New Hampshire is right next door.

Further Reading:

United States: New Massachusetts Law Boosts Wind and Solar Energy – By David L. O’Connor, Jeffrey J. McCourt, Amarynth Sichel and James Sasso, Power Engineering (Aug. 6, 2012).

Renewable Power & Energy Efficiency Market: Renewable Portfolio Standards – By Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (May 3, 2011).

Cape Cod Wind Farm Tiptoes Ahead – By Jennifer Levitz, The Wall Street Journal (Aug. 11, 2012). 

Industry Spotlight: John May

When we think of leaders of the renewable energy field we frequently picture engineers and scientists tinkering with machines or lobbyists fighting for emissions controls and government programs that foster green energy development. But there is another element, behind the scenes, that must develop in order to make the rest possible: the financial element.

John M. May, Managing Director
Courtesy: Stern Brothers & Co. 

It is for that reason that Managing Director of Stern Brothers & Co. John May is considered a pioneer in the movement, a leader in the financial frontier. May heads up the firm’s renewable energy practice and has built a reputation as one of the top environmental bankers, focusing primarily on biofuels and biomass.

May’s most significant contribution has been navigating the use of bonds as a form of financing for alternative energy projects. With the economy in a fragile state, banks and other traditional sources of capital have become even more hesitant to take risks - a bad sign for the entire renewable energy market. May points out that even experienced European banks, which have financed alternative energy projects in the past, are shrinking its involvement in the arena.

“A key advantage the bond market provides developers is a broader and deeper pool of available capital,” said May in an article he co-authored for the April issue of Renewable Energy from Waste. “Bond buyers include insurance companies, pension funds, mutual funds, hedge funds, private equity funds, and other strategic investors. Bonds can be the sole source of debt for projects or can provide a complement to bank debt.”

May underwrote the country’s first tax-exempt bond issue to fund a landfill gas-to-electricity project in 2003. Since that time he has developed one of the first tax-exempt bond structures sold to major U.S. institutional investors to fund ethanol projects. He secured a $15 million full faith and credit guarantee from the state of Illinois for a biodiesel project in 2006. He also created the bond finance structure adopted by the USDA in its Bio-Refinery Loan Guarantee Program, resulting in the agency’s adoption of a new Interim Final Rule for the program in 2011.

Developing an industry takes contributions from competent professionals in a variety of capacities. In addition to entrepreneurs, the field needs project developers, attorneys specializing in utility and environmental law as well as savvy investment bankers and financial analysts.

May’s specialties have helped finance large-scale projects and Stern Brothers & Co. is one of the most recognized firms in the financing of biofuels of U.S. The firm represents companies we’ve written about in our technology blog, including ICM and Rentech.

Financing continues to be a hurdle for smaller-scale biomass projects. We can only hope for a “John May” to come along with similarly innovative approaches to help get projects financed and push the industry forward.

For More on John May:

John May, Managing Director - Stern Brothers & Co.

Healthy Support - An Investment Outlook by John May, James Dack and Adam Pierce, Renewable Energy from Waste (Apr. 23, 2012)

Alternative Energy Financing  - Brochure by Stern Brothers & Co. 

Who Turned Out the Lights on the Power Grid?

If you are one of the millions on the East Coast who has lost power as a result of storms, you know how fragile the electric grid can be. An aging transmission system and increasingly bad weather means that lots of Americans have gone without air conditioning in triple-digit temperatures.

U.S. Power Grid Lines. Image courtesy of US Infrastructure.

As many question what can be done to limit the number and duration of power outages, it’s worth noting that as grid reliability is going down, the reliability of self-generated electricity is on the rise. The U.S. military is examining distributed generation (DG) as a possible safety net against terrorist attacks and programs like the Automated Demand Response for emergency generators provide an early example of how DG can help reliability.

Currently, waste-to-energy projects are struggling to match the low cost of grid-supplied electricity. While the gap in price between the two is closing, there is still a measured distance between them. The issue of reliability has been largely absent from discussions of the benefits smaller scale WTE projects and Better BTU thinks that now, amid the power outages, would be a good time to bring it up.

When a large factory or industrial site loses power for an extended period of time, the cost can be catastrophic. While a backup generator may protect the most critical portions of the plant, the company still faces a huge loss. Therefore, companies should factor in peace of mind and continuity when contemplating WTE projects, especially as grid reliability continues to deteriorate.   

As the reliability of the traditional power grid sinks,
newer, self-generated technologies are on the rise. 

Carnegie Mellon University researchers Anu Narayanan and M. Granger Morgan recently published a report in July’s issue of Risk Analysis discussing their solution to the increasing power outages. They propose incorporating a combination of distributed automation as well as smart meters to direct electricity to “critical” social services such as grocery stores, gas stations and schools. (hospitals and such should still be on backup generators they suggest). In response to an article in the Washington Post on the pair’s report, Scott Sklar, adjunct professor at American University and George Washington University points out that when Hurricane Katrina hit the gulf, Louisiana and Mississippi had plenty of diesel fuel to power the backup engines but couldn’t pump it out of the ground or power trucks to transport it because the electric grid was destroyed.

While we think that mass incorporation of smart meters is at least a decade away, we do agree with Narayanan and Morgan that smaller scale WTE plants could be used to provide electricity when the grid goes down. Unfortunately, state laws in more than half the country prohibit private operators from supplying even small amounts of power to anyone other than the pubic utility. Since large utilities view smaller WTE projects as competition, it is unlikely these companies will support such changes in legislature.

It is laws like these that have prevented the wider adoption of DG that you see in other countries such as Germany and Japan. But with an aging grid and increased frequency in power outages, we think it’s something that should really be looked at.

Further Reading:

Small, Local Energy Technologies to Help Sustain Vital Services During Blackouts – Homeland Security News Wire

The Next Outage Doesn't Have to Be This Bad – The Washington Post, July 6, 2012

Easy Fix Eludes Power Outage Problems in U.S. – WPVI-TV Philadelphia, Pa., July 3, 2012

State Sovereignty: New Hampshire’s Bold RPS Move

Better BTU is launching a series of blog posts that will appear over the next few months to examine RPS standards in some of the 29 states that have them and how it helps or hurts the development of the biomass industry as a whole. We’ll also examine the pros and cons of establishing a national RPS and invite you to contribute your own thoughts to this discussion.

New Hampshire has received a lot of press in the past two weeks after Governor John Lynch and state government passed legislation that adds thermal renewable energy to the state’s renewable portfolio standard. By granting the same incentives to biomass, solar thermal and geothermal projects that have been available to renewable electricity projects, the Granite State becomes the first state to fully incorporate renewable thermal energy into its RPS program.

“This is an important step forward in efforts to gain equal consideration for thermal energy,” Biomass Thermal Energy Council Director Joseph Seymour said as he pointed out that thermal energy makes up more than one-third of all energy consumed in the U.S. 

This is a bold move for New Hampshire. Only eight other states have thermal provisions in their RPS programs and they are often limited, such as the rule that a facility must provide combined heat and power in order to qualify for RECs in North Carolina.  The eligibility of thermal projects will likely drive the price of RECs down, as more projects are able to qualify for the credit. The benefit is that thermal technologies that might have been on the edge of economic viability before will now be viable as a result of the extra funds it will receive from selling RECs.

Former US Congressman and current New Hampshire Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley was the brainchild behind the addition of thermal energy to the RPS standard. He probably noted the same thing Better BTU has – that steam only projects weren’t getting financed in the North because of the low price of natural gas. The change means that beginning on Jan. 1, 2013, approved thermal energy projects will receive renewable energy certificates that will be worth up to $29 per Mh of useful thermal energy. The program has been authorized through 2025.

What we will likely see in New Hampshire is a shift from electricity to thermal energy projects over the next few years until the state can fill its RPS quota. We think this could be a great move for the present but could have potential side effects in the long run for the program.

Before the state changes its official motto to “Live Free and Make Thermal Energy” we’d like to hear from you. Do you think this move poses New Hampshire as a leader in RPS standards? Do you see this as a good move and how will it affect the development of the industry?

For Further Reading:

NH Adopts Full Thermal Incentive for Renewable Portfolio Standard –Biomass Thermal Energy Council; June 27, 2012

Celebrating America's WTE Efforts with a New Magazine

Americans are extremely proud of our accomplishments and contributions to the international community since becoming our own country in 1776. But our contributions to the environmental problem as one of the largest producers of waste have left a black mark on our record.  The vast size of our country has allowed us to put off dealing with our trash problem for decades, preferring to watch as Western European countries toil and take the lead in the renewable energy industry.

As our American brethren prepare to celebrate the 236^th anniversary of our independence from England with fireworks and frankfurters, we’d like to give you something else to celebrate.  Yankee Doodle dandies in the waste-to-energy and biomass industries will enjoy browsing the pages of the first issue of Renewable Energy From Waste, a magazine serving fuel and energy producers in America.

While the magazine isn’t exclusively for those that sing the Star Spangled Banner, it does appear to be targeted towards an American audience.  Highlights from the quarterly-publication’s first issue include:

A Working Model – an article about Greenwood Energy producing market-friendly fuel pellets from waste in America’s heartland

Tools For the Job – an article on maximizing RDF systems

Healthy Support – an article on financial sources for WTE

The subject of our Jan. 29^th blog, Harvey Gershman, even wrote a column on The Growing Role of WTE (see: Industry Influence Spotlight: Harvey Gershman).

Renewable Energy from Waste certainly isn’t the first American publication focused on renewable energy but we are excited to find an outlet that celebrates the efforts and advancements people from the good ol’ U.S.A. are making to solve our own waste problems.

We love our friends across the pond and have received valuable insight from the UK about what an incredible opportunity we have to derive energy from waste. Differences in infrastructure, economy, and environmental regulations, however, prevent us from implementing the same strategies and yielding the exact same results. Americans pride themselves on independence and just as they wanted to be in charge of their own fate in the late 1700s, we would like to solve our own waste problem today.

And we promise not to throw any tea overboard this time.

Click Here for a Digital Version of the Spring 2012 issue

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words: Waste's State of the Union

Benefits of Expanding WTE Deployment

April’s issue of POWER Magazine featured an excerpt of Stan Rosinski’s white paper entitled Waste-to-Energy Technology: Opportunities for Expanding Renewable Generation & Reducing Carbon Emissions. This paper serves as a relatively up-to-date overview of the state of the WTE industry in Europe, Asia and the U.S.

Seeing this paper again reminded us of how many people are approaching this industry from a variety of backgrounds. Although Rosinski’s text can be a little dense for newcomers, he provides an excellent foundation for understanding the various technologies in advanced thermal conversion, resource management, processing methods and feedstocks.

We find the graphics to be especially helpful in communicating the maturation rate of different technologies, MSW management by region and the environmental hierarchy for solid waste management.

Rosinski points out that the two largest barriers to development in the industry in the United States come from misconceptions about the environmental performance that foster negative opinions and the high cost and risk that keeps projects from being funded.

Since the best way to combat the first problem is through education, we’d highly recommend this paper for anyone interested in breaking into the industry or better understanding the difference between development in the U.S. and overseas.

Waste-to-Energy Technology Options Increase but Remain Underutilized – POWER Magazine, April 2012

To Read the Full White Paper:
Waste-to-Energy Technology: Opportunities for Expanding Renewable Generation & Reducing Carbon Emissions – by Stan Rosinski , Electric Power Research Institute

From Refuse to Electrons 

Education, My Dear Watson

Here at Better BTU, we’ve said that instead of carrying the financial burden of jumpstarting the clean energy industry, one of the best things the U.S. government can do is promote the benefits of the waste-to-energy process through education. And it looks like our friends across the pond are trying to relay the same message.

BPF Director General Peter Davis

Director General of British Plastics Federation Peter Davis called on the government to “get off the fence” in a published letter to The Times on Apr. 11. His message came in response to an article by John Simpson two days earlier that claimed “millionaires and local activists have joined forces across Britan to fight proposals for scores of huge incinerators.”

The fundamental catalyst for change is education and we think it’s an excellent starting point for the British and U.S. governments. Just as Sherlock Holmes would boil things down to the most elementary level to solve his cases, educating the public on the basic facts of our environmental situation and the waste-to-energy process will stop the frenzied protests that often break out at the word ‘incinerator.’

 As we discussed in an earlier blog post, San Jose has taken on an ambitious initiative to radically reduce its carbon footprint. While the city’s success in diverting trash from landfills and creating green jobs is impressive, perhaps more important is the success it has had in educating the public on WHY the changes are necessary, resulting in an active and supportive community. (See: San Jose Sets the Emerald Standard for Green Cities).

Statue of Sherlock Holmes

Davis reinforces this point when he calls on the local councils to “consult in depth on proposals so as to ensure the whole community understands the benefits, rather than just engage with head-in-the-sand local groups.”

Waste-to-energy (or energy for waste as it is referred to in the UK) technology has made substantial progress over the past 30 years.  Studies by both government and independent entities have proved that today’s processes, whether incineration, gasification or anaerobic digestion, are clean and effective without releasing harmful emissions or endangering the health of the surrounding communities. Davis even uses Denmark an example to show that “higher recycling rates are not negatively affected by increased energy from waste.”

Of course there will always be a small percent of people who will never be convinced, no matter how much factual evidence is presented (hey, we still have folks that think the lunar landing was staged!) But by educating the greater community with updated information on waste-to-energy processes, it will reduce the effect of radicals showing decades-old images of incinerators spewing black smoke from its stacks.  Our advice to government: get off the fence and get in the game!

Further Reading:

BPF Slams Government Over Lack of Support For 'Energy From Waste' – Plastics & Rubber Weekly, Apr. 11, 2012

Consulted and Ignored: Council Takes Legal Action Over Incinerator – The Times, Apr. 9, 2012

EFW Hindered by Lack of Incentives – Packaging News, Apr. 24, 2012