A UK-based renewable energy developer’s plans for a £70m energy centre in Nottinghamshire have taken a further step forward having been approved by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Greg Clark MP. Significant investment will see a new facility developed at Peel Environmental’s Bilsthorpe site. The new facility will export up... [Read More]

Enviva Partners, a US-headquartered wood pellet producer, announced the execution of a new take-or-pay off-take contract to supply wood pellets to Lynemouth Power, a subsidiary of Energetický a průmyslový holding (EPH). Lynemouth Power plans to convert its 420 megawatt coal facility in the UK to wood pellet fuel by the end of 2017. Deliveries under... [Read More]

Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), a New York-based university, and Synergy Biogas, an anaerobic digestion specialist, are exploring the environmental benefits of microalgae to clean agricultural wastewater and make biofuels. Jeff Lodge, associate professor in RIT’s Thomas Gosnell School of Life Sciences, is running a three-month pilot program at Synergy Biogas,... [Read More]

Wood-burning stoves could account for 10% of the UK Government’s carbon reduction targets by 2020, according to a UK-based trade body. The Stove Industry Alliance (SIA) said that wood-burning stoves also have the potential to produce 25% of the government’s domestic renewable heat energy target by 2020. According to the trade body, wood-burning stoves have... [Read More]

Pinnacle Renewable Energy, a Canadian wood pellet producer, said it will curtail operations at its British Colombia pellet plant with immediate effect. According to media reports, there are a number of factors that have gone into the decision to stop production at its Quesnel mill. Key among them are that the plant, first opened in 1988, was designed to process a diet... [Read More]

More countries around the world are investing in renewable energy and last year spent more than green sources than on new coal and gas-fired power plants, according to a new report. The report is entitled Renewables 2016 Global Status and was published by REN 21, an international body backed by the UN. An estimated 147 gigawatts (GW) of new renewable power generation... [Read More]

Construction work will soon commence on a new green energy facility in Wrexham Industrial Estate, north Wales, after developers secured a commitment of £25m ($36m) from UK Green Investment Bank plc (GIB) and Equitix. The 5.4MW biomass plant, the second to be developed by Liverpool-based Green Plan Energy, will generate around 34GWh of green electricity per annum... [Read More]

Veolia, the global leader in optimised resource management, has now become the first operator in the UK to achieve the high efficiency, R1, standard for all of its Energy Recovery Facilities (ERF). By generating energy from municipal waste the plants have demonstrated a high level of energy efficiency according to EU regulations, and have increased the UK’s landfill... [Read More]

US gas and electricity provider Duke Energy said it has finalised a second deal in 2016 to buy captured methane gas derived from swine waste. The planned project will use the anaerobic digestion process and be located at farms in Kenansville, North Carolina. The system will use captured methane gas to generate carbon-neutral renewable electricity at two power stations. Optima... [Read More]

Enviva Holdings, a US wood pellet producer, has announced the recipients of its 2016 forest conversation grants. The firm runs the Enviva Forest Conservation Fund - a $5 million, 10-year program designed to protect tens of thousands of acres of bottomland forests in northeast North Carolina and southeast Virginia. “We are very pleased to be working with our friends... [Read More]

The UK Government has proposed severe cuts to incentives for new anaerobic digestion (AD) plants from January 2017. The Renewable Energy Association, a UK-based trade body, said this measure is likely to end many new AD projects planned in the UK. The Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) plans to cut the feed-in tariffs (FiT) for large plants over 500kW... [Read More]

Researchers from the Agro-Energy Group at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) have used geographic information systems to assess the potential use of the residual biomass of bananas produced in the province of El Oro, based in the south east of Ecuador, for bioenergy applications. According to the academics, results show that the use of this... [Read More]

Over the past few months, tense debates on the sustainability of biomass used for energy production have arisen. Most stakeholders seem to agree on one point: an EU policy to ensure the sustainability of biomass is required. It is needed to secure investments, to set a level playing field among Member States and to provide answers to questions and concerns from society... [Read More]

Sustainable Biomass Partnership (SBP) has announced that PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC), Canada has become the third ‘SBP-approved’ certification body. The SBP is a certification scheme designed for woody biomass, mostly in the form of wood pellets and wood chips, used in industrial, large-scale energy production. PwC has provided evidence that it meets the... [Read More]

The University of Montana received $1.4 million (€1.24m) from the US Department of Agriculture and US Department of Energy’s Biomass Research and Development Initiative. Researchers will use the grant to identify and overcome the barriers to using biomass from fuels-reduction and forest-restoration treatments. University of Montana forestry Professor Beth... [Read More]

Florida-based technology company MagneGas has narrowed its first quarter loss for the period ended 31 March, 2016, to $1.6 million (€1.4 million), compared to a net loss of $2.1 million a year earlier.     The firm’s quarterly revenue for the period was $665,663, compared to $545,648 for the same period last year.  Revenue from the industrial... [Read More]