The UK Green Investment Bank (GIB) has announced that it has committed £35m (€33m) of senior debt to the construction of Wheelabrator Parc Adfer, a new £180m energy-from-waste (EfW) plant at Deeside Industrial Park in Flintshire, North Wales. The lending club also includes Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), Siemens Bank and Natixis, with Barclays providing... [Read More]

The US Energy Information Administration has published the results of a new survey collecting data from manufacturers of densified biomass fuels, primarily wood pellets. The survey began collection in January 2016 with data from about 120 planned and operational densified biomass manufacturing facilities in the US. These facilities have the capacity to produce a total... [Read More]

The British Retail Consortium (BRC), the trade association for the UK retail industry, has published a report exploring the country’s retailers’ actions in the aftermath of the amount of food waste plateauing in 2013. Data from the UK Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) shows that retailed produced about 200,000 tonnes of food waste annually between... [Read More]

China Everbright International has signed a strategic investment and cooperation agreement with the People's Government of Lankao County in Henan Province to push renewable energy and environmental policies. The agreement seeks to develop cooperation in the fields of environmental water, alternative energy, and environmentally friendly new materials, and promote all-round... [Read More]

UPM, a Finnish bio- and forestry company, is researching the recycling of green liquor dregs with the aim to reach a zero solid waste to landfill operational status by 2030. Green liquor dregs – the moist “black ashes” created in the soda recovery boiler while burning dissolved wood material – are one of the most challenging production sidestreams... [Read More]

As part of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan to cut carbon pollution and create clean energy jobs, US Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell has announced new steps with Western states to encourage the development of renewable power, efficiently deliver that electricity to market, and meet growing consumer demands for clean energy.  Under a Memorandum... [Read More]

Blenheim Palace, an Oxfordshire, UK, UNESCO World Heritage Site, has instigated a series of environmental initiatives in a bid both to reduce its reliance on traditional energies and its overall carbon footprint. Among the most significant improvements are a 42% reduction in overall mains water consumption from 2013, the lowest electricity usage figures in five years,... [Read More]

Scania has unveiled the world’s first bi-articulated Euro 6 gas bus with an impressive capacity for 250 passengers.  The 26m long, front-engine bi-articulated F340 HA 8×2 bus was developed in collaboration with the Colombian bus bodybuilder Busscar de Colombia. Scania already has its largest Euro 6 gas bus fleet in the Colombian city of Cartagena, and... [Read More]

Growing demand for bioenergy, driven by renewable energy targets and policies in Europe, is driving an explosion in wood pellet production. According to new data published by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), global production of pellets soared to 28 million tonne in 2015. This represents an 8% increase from the previous year's... [Read More]

Officials in the US state of Maine have approved a $13 million (€12m) taxpayer subsidy to reopen or keep open several biomass electricity generation plants in the state. According to Maine Public.com, earlier this year, lawmakers approved a plan to use surplus state revenues to prop up the biomass industry, and the forest-products workers who depend on it, by supplementing... [Read More]

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has published its response to its consultation on the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) today (14 December, 2016). For biogas and biomethane, the reforms will vastly improve the carbon cost-effectiveness of further support, BEIS said in its statement response. New plants will be required to produce at least... [Read More]

Denmark’s largest power station Avedøre is now producing energy from wood pellets instead of coal. This is a major step towards Copenhagen's goal of being CO2-neutral by 2025. For the past 18 months, Avedøre Power Station has been converting its coal-fired power station unit, and the entire CHP plant is now able to produce electricity and heat based... [Read More]

Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Vinod Khosla, Jack Ma, John Doerr and 15 other high-profile investors have formed a new venture firm, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, that will pour at least $1 billion (€943,000,00m) into cleantech companies over the next 20 years. The firm’s goal, according to its own website will be: “to provide everyone in the world with... [Read More]

Irish agri-tech business BHSL has agreed to sell eight of its manure-to-energy units to UK-based poultry farms. In a statement, the company said that the move has generated €13 million in sales. The firm manufactures manure-to-energy technology which is aimed at transforming the environmental impact of the global poultry industry. The eight new BHSL Energy Centre... [Read More]

Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM) will use a by-product from its corn processing facility in Decatur, US, to produce a renewable natural gas, which will be distributed by Ameren Illinois into the nation’s natural gas infrastructure. “We’re proud to work with Ameren Illinois on this innovative project,” said Colin Graves, project manager for ADM.... [Read More]

The use of gas to cook and for heating will be phased out in the Netherlands under the government’s new energy strategy up to 2050. Instead homes and offices will be heated by surplus heat generated by industry and energy-from-waste plants as well as from geothermal sources. The Energieagenda policy document, published on 7 December, 2016, states that gas firms will... [Read More]