Renewable Manufacturing America Program

State of Current Federal Policy: Renewable energy is manufactured energy. Wind turbines and photovoltaic modules are assembled from a series of component parts. According to early surveys by REPP, roughly 70% of the lifetime labor required to manufacture, install, and operate these projects comes from the manufacturing phase. Any program to capture the full potential of renewable energy to provide jobs and a renewed domestic manufacturing sector has to support renewable manufacturing. Such a program does not as yet exist.

News Of Renewable Manufacturing

News Of Renewable Manufacturing

More Than 80% of Americans Favor Federal Tax Incentives For Renewables and Renewable Manufacturing

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In a recent poll conducted by Stanford and funded by the National Science Foundation, an overwhelming majority of respondents said they believed the earth was warming, that human activity was to blame, and that the federal government should do something about it.

Biomass Projects Now Eligible for Colo Renewable Energy Standard

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Governor Bill Ritter recently signed Senate Bill 177, "extended the Standard’s definition of renewable sources to include woody biomass, along with municipal waste and sewage treatment plant residues. It also cuts property tax for forestry industry equipment used to produce wood fuel."

House Democrats Propose Tax Break For Renewable Energy Component Manufacturers

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The House bill would provide up to $6.6 billion in tax credits for manufacturers of solar equipment and advanced batteries. It would also extend tax credits for offshore wind and geothermal installations until 2016, and would extend subsidies created under the stimulus bill for wind and solar facilities.

Visit Nasdaq.com for the full story.
US House Democrats Propose Green Energy Tax Breaks-Martin Vaughan, Dow Jones Newswires, 28 July, 2010.

New Solar Energy Manufacturing Jobs For San Diego

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Sanyo Electric group and Kyocera, two of the worlds leading solar energy systems manufacturers have announced plans to pursue research and manufacturing in San Diego.

Bill Gates Leaves Out Key to American Leadership in the "Green Economy"

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Bill Gates, Jeff Immelt, and Chad Holliday, as part of the recently launched American Energy Innovation Council, urged Congress to increase funding for clean energy research, development, and deployment (RD&D). While increasing funding for RD&D is important, simply increasing funding for clean energy RD&D without supporting commercialization of subsequent innovations will result in few benefits to the U.S. economy and renewable manufacturing sector.

Visit The New York Times to read about the American Energy Innovation Council.

USDA Releases Biofuels Roadmap

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This week the USDA released its report "A USDA Regional Roadmap to Meeting the Biofuels Goals
of the Renewable Fuels Standard by 2022."

Click here to read the full report.

Ohio offshore wind: Making the future

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A broad coalition in Northeast Ohio has been working for more than three years to put offshore wind projects in Lake Erie near Cleveland. This group is so far from "the usual suspects" you would expect to find pushing renewable energy that it has actually been led by Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason.

But here is the critical point: The coalition is not doing this just to put turbines in the water; it is doing it primarily to enable Ohio industries and workers to supply the billions of dollars in component parts that will make up those offshore turbines. Coalition members are also doing it because they recognize that offshore wind will require substantial innovations if it is to be competitive. Innovations can be developed and introduced by Ohio industries.

A ‘HOOVER DAM’ FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

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At the beginning of the 21st century, Nevada and many of the once flourishing economies of southwestern states are locked in deep economic depressions. In the 1930’s this region attacked a similar challenge in part by constructing large public works projects.

Perhaps none of these projects succeeded like the Hoover Dam. At the time, Hoover Dam was the largest hydroelectric dam and the largest concrete structure in the world. It provided employment and valuable flood control, irrigation, and electrical power. Perhaps most importantly it dramatically took on and solved problems that seemed intractable.

If we wanted to build a ‘Hoover Dam’ for the 21st century, what would it look like and do we as a country even have the capacity to undertake big, game changing projects anymore? Of course a ‘Hoover Dam’ for the 21st century would not be a dam and it is doubtful it would a ‘traditional’ public works project.

Chu, Salazar, Reid Announce Solar Demonstration Zone for Nevada Test Site

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Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada recently announced that the the Nevada Test Site will be the future home of a Solar Demonstration Zone, where cutting-edge solar energy technologies can be demonstrated. It is hoped that the effort will provide a critical link between “advanced technology development and full-scale commercialization efforts.”

Secretary Chu stated that the intent of the project is to, “demonstrate technologies that will lower the cost of solar energy, accelerate the pace of innovation, and help build a clean energy economy." Large-scale development projects, like the proposed Solar Demonstration Zone, should serve as incentives for breakthrough technologies and provide a pathway for the commercialization of mega projects. In fact, the opportunity for incentivizing commercialization of solar technology breakthroughs at the Test Site and in Nevada is great and could be accomplished with the right policies.
Click here to read the Full REPP Proposal: “A ‘HOOVER DAM’ FOR THE 21ST CENTURY”

Cellulosic Ethanol Production Too Low: EPA Lowers 2011 Target

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Under the U.S. Renewable Fuels Standards (RFS2), established by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, the U.S. economy will use 36 billion gallons of renewable transportation fuels by 2022. Of this number 21 billion gallons are set aside for advanced biofuels, 16 billion of which to come from advanced cellulosic biofuel. However, because of insufficient production of cellulosic biofuel, the EPA has recently lowered the 2011 target from 200 million gallons to a range between 5-17.1 million gallons, illustrating the need for policies that move technologies from the R&D stage to commercialization in order to meet the 2022 advanced biofuel targets.

Visit Brighter Energy to read more about the recent EPA decision.
EPA lowers next year’s target for cellulosic biofuels-James Cartledge, Brighter Energy, 13 July, 2010.

Stories From The Gulf:

Economic Renewal Of The Gulf

The Third Challenge: Creating a Coastal States 21st Century Energy Sector

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The Gulf Coast offshore oil drilling catastrophe raises three challenges for the affected states, the federal government and of course British Petroleum. Stop the leak. Clean up the spill. Reverse the economic damage.

Of these three, the first two pose enormous engineering challenges but the challenges have at least been accepted. The last challenge – finding some way to reverse the long-term economic damage to the region – has not been fully tackled.

Recent responses and proposals for dealing with the economic damage include:
REPP
Center for American Progress
Green For All

Stopping the Leak

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USGS Reports 12,000-19,000 Barrels a Day Leaking From BP Oil Well:
The National Incident Command’s Flow Rate Technical Group, made up of federal scientists, independent experts, and representatives from universities around the country, has found that between 12,000 to 19,000 barrels a day currently leaking from the BP oil well. As of 17 May, approximately 130,000 to 270,000 barrels of oil were on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, with a similar volume of oil having already been "burned, skimmed or dispersed by responders."
Visit the Department of the Interior for more information and updates from the Flow Rate Technical Group. Flow Rate Group Provides Preliminary Best Estimate Of Oil Flowing from BP Oil Well -Department of the Interior, 7 June, 2010.

Gulf Clean Up

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Clean Up
Long Run Oil Clean-up efforts Needed, With Current Efforts Under Criticism
Admiral Thad Allen, the National Incident Commander of the U.S. Coast Guard says oil clean-up efforts along the Gulf Coast could last for months, while local and state officials are unsatisfied with the current federal response to clean-up along their coasts.
Visit NPR for the full story.
Allen Says Gulf Clean-Up Could Last Months -Debbie Elliott, NPR, 7 June, 2010.

As Immediate Costs of the Gulf Spill Become Apparent, Long Term Economic Costs Remain Unknown

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As Immediate Costs of the Gulf Spill Become Apparent, Long Term Economic Costs Remain Unknown The Gulf of Mexico, were it a country, would be the 29th largest economy in the world, with oil, tourism, fishing, and shipping as the largest industries, accounting for around $234 billion in annual economic activity. The long term economic costs of the spill are uncertain due to the amount of oil that will wash ashore and how long oil will continue to flow from the blown-out well.

Oil-Drilling Moratorium Compounds Job Loss From the Gulf Oil Spill

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The initial economic consequences of the Deepwater Horizon to the Gulf Coast economies were confined to the fishing industry. However, additional sectors of the economy have also been seriously affected, including the tourism industry, which has recently been followed by local economies heavily dependent on off-shore drilling.

Estimates of Gulf Spill Double Original Figures

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Following the deadly April blast of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, British Petroleum representatives estimated the daily flow to be 1,000 to 5,000 barrels. The initial figures were accepted by citizeens and the government. However, U.S. USGS Director Marcia McNutt now estimates that between 20,000 and 40,000 barrels of oil are flowing into the Gulf daily.
The San Francisco Chronicle - Friday, June 11, 2010 reports:
The new numbers are based on week-old data, McNutt said, representing the rate before underwater robots cut a bent pipe that once connected the Macondo well, a mile deep below the gulf's surface, with the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. That procedure temporarily increased the total amount of flow, but BP now is catching more than 15,000 barrels a day through another pipe attached to the severed pipe.

The Impact Of The Gulf Oil Spill On The Biofuel Industry: Interview

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In a recent interview on E&ETV, OnPoint host Monica Trauzzi speaks with Matt Carr, managing director of policy at BIO, about the impact of the Gulf oil spill on the biofuel industry as well as incentives for commercializing advanced biofuel technologies.

Visit E&ETV to watch the interview.

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