In February of this year, the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released a handy tool called Carbon Tracker. It is a visualization mechanism to see net carbon exchange over time using the mole system. You can see an example of the data, fossil emissions flux on the map below.



An interesting and handy tool to have at our disposal.

From Sweden.se:

Swedes could soon be filling their cars with smuggled alcohol and animal remains. It is all part of a plan by the Swedish government to wean the country off oil within 15 years and thereby become the world’s first oil-free country…

…The one million bottles and cans seized annually by Tullverket are trucked to a warehouse where they are dumped into a crushing machine. The beverages are separated from their containers and blended with water to make the largest and probably worst-tasting cocktail imaginable. This is then taken by tanker to a plant in Linköping, about 200 km south of Stockholm, and turned into biofuel to power public buses, taxis, garbage trucks, private cars – even a train…

…Peter Undén is the marketing boss at SvenskBiogas, which produces, distributes and sells biogas for transportation in eastern Sweden. Each year the company takes 50,000 tons of a stomach-churning mixture of slaughterhouse waste, human waste and seized alcohol and turns it into clean-burning biogas…

Read more…

It’s always interesting to see where policy coupled with a little innovation can produce. One must admire the Swedish government’s goal, 100% oil independence in 15 years. This is certainly a novel approach to the production and use of biofuels.

A report issued this week by the American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE) claims that up to half of our electrical power and 40% of our transportation energy requirements could be met by 2025 with renewable resources with a couple of policy tweaks.

Understandably this information has been published far and wide, but unlike other studies, this seems to have hit the mainstream spawning coverage in venues like CNN/Money. From their article:

“We still have elected officials who believe renewable energy cannot power this country, and I think that is incorrect,” ACORE president Michael Eckhart said on a conference call. “We can deliver huge amounts of energy in an environmentally sustainable way.”

What we have here is a failure to communicate

ACORE’s projections differ sharply with those of the U.S. government and most major oil companies, who say renewables will continue to account for between 5 to 10 percent of the country’s energy use by 2030.

Eckhart noted the government’s forecasts are made considering only current policies and laws, but said ACORE’s study highlights what could be done with laws and policies that encourage renewable energy use.

“Renewable energy doesn’t amount to much unless you change policy,” he said.

Read more…

It’s encouraging to see that this type of message is making it into mainstream media and, I’m encouraged to see a multi-dimensional approach to the challenge using a portfolio of renewables. Nice work ACORE.

The company announced today that it has received a two year permit for one 10MW project in Nevada. A positive step as the company works to develop the many geothermal leases it has acquired over the past few months.

Calpine’s stock has been all over the place this year. Rumors started circulating of a potential private equity buyout at the end of last year and have escalated through mid-April and now things have gone quiet. That could mean that negotiations are ongoing or it could be that negotiations have stopped. In any case, it seems there is some profit taking going on which has sent the issue on a nearly 30% slide since April 25th.

We’ll keep monitoring the situation and will provide updates as they occur.