Asia Report: U.S., India Strike $125 Million Investment Deal

Renewable Energy World Editors
April 30, 2012 | 7 Comments

Days after the United States Department of Energy announced a partnership with the U.K. on offshore wind, the DOE moved toward a $125 million partnership with India that could boost international biofuels production and further development of solar technology and energy efficiency.

Researchers from the University of Florida will focus on biofuels derived from non-food source plants. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory will work on solar technology and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will tackle energy efficiency. Indian institutions include the Indian Institute of Science-Bangalore, the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology-Hyderabad and CEPT University-Ahmedabad.

IN THE NEWS

Solar Beaming, Wind Deflated in Japan: Japan's proposed incentives to boost renewable energies will probably see growth in the solar and geothermal power industries, but have disappointed operators in the wind energy sector, lobby groups said.

China’s Guangdong Province Pushes EV Development: China has become the world's largest producer and consumer of vehicles. At the end of 2011, there were more than 100 million cars on the country's roads, and the figure is expected to reach 150 million units by 2020. The requirements for energy efficiency and emission reduction have made it essential to achieve progress for electric vehicles.

China-Iceland Geothermal Deal: China's largest oil refiner, Sinopec Group, announced Monday it has signed a framework agreement with Icelandic geothermal developer Orka Energy Ltd to expand cooperation in developing geothermal resources.

A Big Bet On Wind Energy: India has not yet thrown up a wind power utility firm of any scale. Yet serial entrepreneur Ravi Kailas believes he can build 5,000 MW of capacity in five years.

Suit Filed Over Geothermal Energy in Philippines: A civil case was filed against Energy Secretary Jose Almendras and executives of power companies for not acting on calls to allocate 25 percent of the output of the two geothermal power plants to surrounding cities and towns.

A DEEPER LOOK

‘Black Ships’ Arrive at Japan’s PV Market: Threat or Opportunity?: Some Japanese PV observers have adopted the phrase ‘Black Ships’ to describe the entrance of foreign PV companies — module, inverter makers and project developers — into the Japanese market, which, for a long time, had been represented solely by domestic suppliers including Sharp, Kyocera, Panasonic (Sanyo) and Mitsubishi Electric.

China Seeks to Develop Biofuels Industry: China seeks to promote the development of its biofuels industry through a series of supportive measures despite mass production difficulties. A spokesperson for the National Energy Bureau said that the Chinese government has set a goal of utilizing five million tons of ethanol fuel during the "12th Five-Year" period spanning 2011 to 2015, nearly double that set for the prior period (2006-2010).

What’s Profit Got To Do, Got To Do With It?: As the losses add up for leading PV industry manufacturers, and as manufacturing capacities are idled, it is important to remember that the current correction taking place the PV industry could not necessarily have been avoided. But the severity of the current climate may have been mitigated and the landing made softer if new entrants and participants had paid attention to, and learned from, PV industry history. Manufacturers in China, currently dominating industry demand at 46 percent, might have been more circumspect with capacity growth had they understood that incentives are temporary.

How India Is Creating the Next Big Solar Energy Market: With nations around the world vying for clean energy leadership, India has taken a bold step toward becoming a leader in solar development. In only two years under India’s ambitious national solar policies, prices for solar energy in India have dropped dramatically, approaching the price of traditional energy from fossil fuels.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

The Solar Slump

“Investors and analysts are trying to determine who are going to be the survivors in the industry in the long term. The manufacturing numbers out of China are apparently panicking people and downgrades don’t help either.
Michael Obuchowski, chief investment officer at First Empire Asset Management

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

7 Comments

Gary Richardson
May 3, 2012

More of the same of what I found earlier

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camelina_sativa

Also, the links to the oregonstate general info was very helpful to my curiosity.

Obviously various strains of Camelina will need to be tested in various regions across India's arid climate.

Furthermore, Camelina Sativa does becon a high demand from the unusual percentage of Omega 3 content plus harmless entry as a passive crop.

Fred Linn
May 3, 2012

(cont.)

Here are a couple of general information intros you might find interesting:

Camelina---http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/pdf/em/em8953-e.pdf

Canola-----http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/pdf/em/em8955-e.pdf

Fred Linn
May 3, 2012

Hello Gary, thanks for the comment.

Camelina and Canola are not the same plant---but they are very close relatives, both members of the Mustard family.

Canola is an already established domesticated oil plant in commercial production here. It therefore benefits from greater familiarity and selective breeding.

Camelina has a long history of cultivation in Eastern Europe going back thousands of years to the Bronze Age.

The Canola has higher yields, but the Camelina is hardier and and better adapted to harsher conditions.

I would foresee a commercialization of a combination of the two. Rather like a farmer will choose between several different strains of grain to select the strain best suited to the conditions in the area he's planning to plant. Yield is highly sensitive to climate and conditions, and economics. Lower yield per acre does not necessarily equate to less profit---depending on the input. If you are planting X crop on land that costs $2,000/acre----and Y crop on land that costs $1,000/acre, obviously, you don't have to grow as much Y crop to start getting into a profitable part of the graph.

I hope that makes sense.

To generate the type of numbers you are asking about, we can do several things. Inference---since Camelina and Canola are so closely related it could be possible to find similarity between the two as fodder mix blends.(fodder is usually a mix of several different plant types)

Experimental data generation---of coarse, the familiar purpose set study or experimental type of information to answer specific questions. A university study, for instance. Where the questions are broken down into basic component parts and one specific variable is compared to a control.

Or practical application----where the variables are all considered as a whole, and empirical(overall) results are compared as a whole using variations on previous standard practice. You just look for what works best.

Gary Richardson
May 2, 2012

@Fred-Linn

Very compelling!
Your statements back up what I have found on my own.
I'm interested to see how much yield per acre/year in both camelina and it's rotation crops.
Also crop rotation data and goat production yields based on different diets.

Fred Linn
May 2, 2012

Dr. Nellore----

Camelina Sativa grows on marginal soils, and is also drought, disease, and pest resistant naturally. It is a species that is native to Eastern Europe and Western Asia.(I don't know if its original natural range extended down as far as India, but I suspect that it might have.) Camelina Sativa produces rape seed oil(also called cannola).

Camelina oil is a superior diesel fuel, and diesel engines do not require modification to use camelina/petroleum blends or straight camelina oil. It is also edible for humans.

Camelina could provide biofuel, human food, and livestock fodder, and is an excellent soil remediation and conditioner which makes it a good rotation crop to enrich and improve soil quality for food crops, reducing the need for artificial fertilizers and pesticides. It has low water requirements which adapts it well to semi-arid conditions, and long, hot, dry summers.

Camelina makes good fodder, and the mash left over after the oil has been pressed out of the seeds makes a very good high protein feed supplement.

Goats are well known and established domesticated species. They are much smaller than cattle, hardy, and can survive and thrive on a small fraction of the feed and water requirements of cattle. They adapt well to a wide range of climate and geographic conditions, and can pasture well in mountainous and rugged conditions cattle could never get into. They can also do well in dry terrains. And goats can provide meat, high quality leather, and dairy products on a much lower input level of feed, water and space than cattle. Goats can even be raised successfully in urban conditions.

I think a combination of Camelina cultivation/goat husbandry might be an area of investigation for India that might have far reaching implications, especially dairy goats.

Fred Linn
May 2, 2012

The key to getting biofuels into use is to produce vehicles that are capable of using them.

Flex fuel vehicles cost no more than conventional gasoline only vehicles and can run on as little as 15% of the petroleum gasoline as conventional vehicles(US type). There are certain Brazilian models that can run on no petroleum at all.

The Fiat Siena Tetrafuel can run on gasoline, gasoline and ethanol mixtures, pure hydrous ethanol(unblended, straight from the still)and/or either natural gas(fossil)/biomethane(biogas), or any % mixture of the two.

Requiring that all new vehicles sold have this technology would give consumers the choice of what fuel they want to use.

Anumakonda Jagadeesh
May 1, 2012

One area which has tremendous potential in India is Biofuel from Agave. Research to adopt this to ;local conditions can be carried out under this program.
Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore(AP),India
E-mail: anumakonda.jagadeesh@gmail.com

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