By John Sawyer and Michael Sawyer

Buffalo News - 5/5/09 - Another Voice / Energy production

In his recent speech about the economy, President Obama called for “new investments in renewable energy and technology that will create new jobs and new industries.”

Here in Western New York, one example of this environmentally and economically sustainable energy future is in the Town of Shelby.

Opened in 2007, the Western New York Energy plant produces more than 50 million gallons of fuel-grade ethanol a year. In addition, the plant produces three valuable co-products: 160,000 tons of high-quality distillers grains; 1.5 million gallons of crude corn oil, which is used for biodiesel; and 100,000 tons of food-grade carbon dioxide, which is used for beverage carbonation, food processing and other industrial applications. The plant provides more than 40 well-paying jobs, from chemists and engineers to operators and managers, and creates new markets for local grain farmers and a valuable feed product for dairy and cattle farmers.

Throughout the nation, the ethanol industry is making progress economically and environmentally. In 2008, American ethanol producers supplied more than 9.2 billion gallons of clean-burning ethanol, equivalent to 7 percent of the domestic gasoline supply. This record production supported nearly 500,000 jobs. It added $21 billion in tax payments to federal, state and local coffers. It displaced 321 million barrels of imported oil — equal to 10 months of imports from Venezuela.

Between 2001 and 2006, water consumption at U. S. ethanol plants decreased by 27 percent, electricity use dropped by 16 percent and total energy utilization declined by 22 percent. For instance, the Shelby plant uses only about 2.5 gallons of water for each gallon of ethanol that is produced — an even lower rate than the average of three gallons of water for one gallon of ethanol in the entire industry.

Improvements in current ethanol technologies can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 60 percent compared to gasoline. New technologies hold the potential for even greater climate benefits, reducing greenhouse gas emissions. With an abundance of “biomass” — wood wastes, fast-growing trees, corn stalks and other materials that are usually discarded — New York is poised to be a leader in renewable fuel production.

For example, researchers at the State University of New York School of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse are developing technologies to grow, harvest and convert fast-growing poplar trees into renewable fuels. Others are looking at garbage, grasses and other waste materials.

Increasing domestic production of clean-burning and low-cost renewable fuels from a wide array of technologies and feedstocks will reduce our reliance on imported oil and expand economic opportunities, just as is happening in Orleans County today.

John Sawyer is the chief executive officer of Western New York Energy. His son Michael is the executive vice president.

By David Robinson – BUFFALO NEWS BUSINESS REPORTER - 6/11/09

National Grid plans to spend an additional $1 billion over the next five years to upgrade its electricity transmission system in upstate New York, the utility said Wednesday.

The improvements, which are in addition to another five-year $1.5 billion transmission system upgrade project that began in 2006, said Patrick Stella, a National Grid spokesman.

The system upgrade announced Wednesday is expected to create as many as 500 new jobs across upstate New York, from engineers to the workers installing the new power lines and equipment.

Some of that work will be done in Western New York, Stella said. But just how much of that work, and how many of those jobs, will be located in Western New York isn’t known yet because the specific project list and its timetable has not been completed. Work on the first projects is expected to begin within a few weeks.

National Grid has signed a contract with the NorthEast Power Alliance to do part of the upgrade work. The alliance is a joint venture between consulting and engineering services firm AMEC, R. G. Vanderweil Engineers and contractor Michaels Corp. National Grid also will hire additional workers on a per-project basis, Stella said.

National Grid owns more than 8,600 miles of electricity transmission lines and about 1,000 substations across upstate New York and New England. Much of that infrastructure is aging and in need of replacement to improve the system’s reliability. Other portions of the transmission system need upgrades to handle additional electricity demands, Stella said.

National Grid has been fined repeatedly by the state Public Service Commission in the mid- 2000s for having too many power outages that lasted too long.

drobinson@buffnews.com

By Jennifer Liu -  Fox News - May 18, 2009

Scientists at the Mascoma Corporation — a Lebanon, N.H. company founded by two Dartmouth professors — have successfully demonstrated a new and more cost-effective way to produce biofuel from plant matter by reprogramming bacteria and yeast cells to digest the organic material, the company announced earlier this month.

“Mascoma was formed to develop this technology,” Jim Flatt, executive vice president of research, development and operations at the company, said in an interview with The Dartmouth.

The advances make biofuel production more commercially viable, he said.

Mascoma has developed the technique of consolidated bioprocessing, which integrates a multi-step process for producing ethanol into a single step.

The company’s hallmark technology utilizes the metabolic capabilities of microorganisms to convert plant matter into renewable fuel.

A 2005 U.S. Department of Energy research agenda stated that “[Consolidated bioprocessing] is widely considered to be the ultimate low-cost configuration for cellulose hydrolysis and fermentation.”

The Mascoma research team’s next step is to scale up its technology for practical use, Flatt said. Engineers and operators at the company’s plant in Rome, N.Y., will adapt the methods developed in the Lebanon laboratory for use on larger equipment.

Mascoma plans to launch a commercial venture using its technology by the end of next year, Flatt said. Company officials are in the process of identifying a location for a commercial office and securing funding for the project, he said.

“Our principal goal, both technology- and business-wise, is to make renewable second-generation cellulosic feedstocks available for production of transportation fuels and eventually chemical fuels,” he said, referring to the use of non-food plants like switchgrass and wood products to produce alternatives to fossil fuels.

One of the announced advancements involves the bacterium Clostridium thermocellum, which is naturally found in compost, Flatt said.

Unmodified, the bacterium efficiently degrades cellulose to produce a mixture of ethanol and other organic waste products. Scientists at Mascoma have genetically altered the bacteria to produce predominantly ethanol, significantly reducing unwanted waste products and increasing the amount of ethanol that can be produced, Flatt said.

The genetically modified bacteria now produce almost 6-percent weight by volume ethanol from cellulose, an increase of 60 percent in what Mascoma scientists reported last year, according to a Mascoma press release.

Mascoma was also able to genetically alter brewing yeast, enabling it to convert cellulose into ethanol, according to the release.

Mascoma scientists achieved this by introducing genes that code for cellulase — an enzyme that breaks down cellulose — into the yeast genome, Flatt said.

Previous methods for producing biofuels have relied on complex chemical processes that require expensive equipment and produce unusable by-products, Flatt said.

“By integrating those activities in one sort of microbial operating system, we’re able to, in principal, significantly reduce the complexity of the process and of operating and capital costs, which are the current barriers,” he said.

The technology reflects work conducted at Mascoma’s laboratory at the Dartmouth Regional Technology Center in Lebanon as well as at partner research facilities, including VTT Technical Research Centre in Finland and Stellenbosch University in South Africa.

Mascoma collaborates with Thayer School of Engineering professor Lee Lynd, whose research team contributed to the results announced earlier this month, Flatt said. Lynd, one of Mascoma’s co-founders, currently serves as chief scientific officer of the company.

Other biofuel companies use different techniques to produce ethanol that may currently be more commercially viable, Flatt said, though he added he believes Mascoma is still a leader in the field.

“There are only a handful of companies that both have the critical mass and are sufficiently advanced and that have built facilities to prove that,” he said. “Mascoma is in that group.”

This story was filed by UWIRE, which offers reporting from more than 800 colleges and universities worldwide. Read more at www.uwire.com.

David R. Baker, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer - March 12, 2008

The alternative energy business is starting to make real money.

Worldwide sales for companies specializing in biofuels, wind farms, solar panels and fuel cells grew 40 percent in 2007 to reach $77.3 billion, according to an annual report issued Tuesday by Clean Edge, a research firm that studies the green technology industry.

That’s significant revenue for an industry crowded with startups, many of which don’t yet have finished products to sell. But other companies - including major corporations such as General Electric - have waded into the field, selling their wind turbines and solar panels around the globe.

Revenue in the wind power industry alone jumped 68 percent in 2007 to reach $30.1 billion as new wind farms sprouted across the United States and China. Sales of ethanol and biodiesel, together, grew about 24 percent to hit $25.4 billion. Solar photovoltaic sales grew 30 percent, totaling $20.3 billion.

As imposing as those figures might seem, they’re small by the standards of the traditional energy business, especially when individual oil companies report annual sales greater than $100 billion. But for green tech, the increasing revenues suggest that the young industry is gaining traction.

“Clean energy has moved from the margins to the mainstream, and the proof is in these numbers,” said Ron Pernick, co-founder of Clean Edge. The firm, based in San Francisco and Portland, Ore., provides research to businesses and investors looking to profit from the green tech industry.

Alternative energy companies are riding a wave of interest started by the rise in the price of oil, which has more than tripled in five years. Their fortunes also have been buoyed by concern about global warming, which most scientists blame on the carbon dioxide that comes from burning fossil fuels. Investors have been pumping money into alternative energy companies, many of them based in the Bay Area.

With oil setting yet another all-time price record Tuesday - topping $108 per barrel - the report’s authors expect alternative energy’s rapid growth to continue. Clean Edge projects that the industry’s annual, global revenues will hit $254.5 billion by 2017, while the industry will continue to soak up venture capital investments.

“As the price of oil goes up, up and up, that obviously makes investments in clean energy alternatives more attractive to investors of all shapes and sizes,” said Clint Wilder, one of the report’s authors.

And yet, alternative energy revenue remains a small piece of the world’s overall energy market.

For a sense of scale, look no further than the oil industry, which many alternative energy enthusiasts would love to replace. Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest international oil company, reported $404.5 billion in sales last year - more than five times the entire alternative energy industry combined. And that’s just one company.

Alternative energy revenue “is a tiny fraction of what we spend on oil,” said James Sweeney, an energy economist with Stanford University. “And that’s not counting what we spend on natural gas and coal.”

But that disparity is one of the reasons entrepreneurs and investors are delving into alternative energy. They see room to grow.

“People see these market niches available, and they’re still niches, but niches have this wonderful way of growing over time,” Sweeney said.

Just how much they’ll grow is difficult to predict.

A lot will depend on federal policies concerning energy and climate change. The Clean Edge report’s authors warned that if Congress doesn’t renew tax credits used by renewable energy developers, companies that specialize in solar and wind power will be hard hit. The House has approved an extension, but the Senate so far has not.

“If these credits are not extended by the time they expire at the end of this year, we could see the growth of solar and wind come to a standstill in the U.S.,” Pernick said.

All three leading presidential contenders have called for limiting carbon dioxide emissions and letting companies buy and sell credits to emit the gas. That kind of cap-and-trade system would increase the cost of energy derived from fossil fuels and make alternative energy sources more attractive.

“What that will do to the economics of all these companies is it will make them all much more competitive,” said Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund advocacy group and author of a new book on the alternative energy business, “Earth: The Sequel.” Krupp was not involved in the Clean Edge study.

“I would predict that the revenue growth is going to continue to explode,” he said.

The report also included a list of alternative energy trends to watch in 2008:

– Interest in the next generation of electric vehicles will continue to grow, driven in large part by innovations from small companies, not the major automakers.

– Geothermal power, which uses the Earth’s heat to generate electricity, will continue its recent renaissance, particularly in the western United States.

– And foreign companies will become an increasing presence in the American wind power industry, building wind farms and manufacturing plants in the United States.

E-mail David R. Baker at dbaker@sfchronicle.com.

Paul Iskalo, founder and CEO of Iskalo Development Corp., stands on the site of a 82,000-square-foot, multi-tenant office building under construction on North Forest Road in Amherst.

Developer seeks LEED certificationfor Amherst project

By Jonathan D. Epstein -BUFFALO NEWS BUSINESS REPORTER 6/1/2009

Paul B. Iskalo’s new multi-tenant office building on North Forest Road should be ready for occupancy in late fall, even as the Williamsville developer prepares to start a new project at the former Kane Doyle Jeep Eagle dealership in Kenmore.

The 82,000-square-foot, three-story office building at 2410 N. Forest Road is under construction. The $15 million project is located next to the University Ramada Inn, at the intersection with John J. Audubon Parkway, next to the University at Buffalo’s North Campus.

The new building will feature an atrium on the third floor, where law firm HoganWillig will be located, and an on-site fitness center. It also will have an additional underground level for 50 enclosed parking spaces, with a self-service car wash in the basement.

And it will share additional surface parking with the Ramada, since the office building and hotel operate at different peak times of the day and week.

Most significantly, though, Iskalo Development Corp. is seeking to obtain “silver” certification for the building under the guidelines of the U. S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.

That would give it a much-desired, Earth-friendly stamp of approval for its tenants, and make it the area’s first LEED-certified multi-tenant office building, Iskalo said.

It’s “affirmation that we made the right choices,” he said. It “will be of interest to those progressive businesses that understand that their corporate facilities play a critical role in maximizing the productivity of their employees which represent their greatest investment.”

Specifically, the new project will feature underfloor air distribution, with diffusers that allow convection to take the air up and clear away contaminants instead of using forced air through ceiling vents.

Ten-foot ceilings will also be standard throughout the building, with floor-to-ceiling glass to allow natural light to penetrate to the center. Office lights will dim during the day to conserve power, but ambient light sensors will activate them when it gets dark at night or because of storms. And the building comes with full backup power.

“We tried to go after the features and amenities that would show the most benefit for our tenants,” said Jonathan Gill, Iskalo’s marketing manager.

Also, Iskalo hopes to start work this summer on a mixed-use medical office and retail building in the former Kane Doyle dealership on Delaware Avenue, near Kenmore Avenue.

Plans call for putting up a 21,000-square-foot, two-story building at 2780 Delaware Avenue, with the facility and a surrounding L-shaped parking lot occupying the entire block in the Village of Kenmore. The firm is negotiating with several medical practices and prospective retail tenants, but has not lined any up, Iskalo said.

Iskalo also owns three-fourths of the next block, but has no plans yet for that space. “As demand warrants, we’ll put a second building up,” he said.

Finally, he’s still trying to finish leasing space at the recently completed $4.5 million medical office building at 52 South Union Road in Williamsville.

Both the North Forest and South Union projects received tax benefits from the Amherst Industrial Development Agency. So far, the North Forest building’s only signed occupant is HoganWillig, which will move its approximately 80 employees, including 28 attorneys, from directly across the street.

The law firm will expand from its 16,000 square feet now to 28,000 square feet, gaining more room and the ability to grow to 100 employees.

“It’s exciting on a lot of different fronts,” said Diane Tiveron, managing partner. “We need more room, there’s no doubt about it. But we do foresee expansion as well.”

The trio of projects mark the latest development efforts by the 42-year-old Iskalo, a Kenmore native who got his start in real estate while a student at University of Rochester.

Perhaps most visible among his projects is the Electric Tower downtown. Iskalo purchased the 14-story former office of Niagara Mohawk in 2004 and began renovations in 2006 after the utility moved out. It was rededicated, with a restored lobby, in August 2007. The building is 60 percent occupied.

jepstein@buffnews.com

The Swedish company EcoEnergy Scandinavia and the Ukrainian government signed an agreement on June 15 to construct and operate waste incineration plants in the country.

“With state of the art technology, these plants will lead to large environmental advantages as well as a new cost efficient energy source for Ukraine,” the company said in its media release.

EcoEnergy will construct and operate up to 14 local plants for incineration of all sorts of waste to produce electricity, heating/cooling and biogas. The environmentally friendly technology used by the company enables carbon dioxide neutral production and operation.

EcoEnergy said it intended to bring third party investors and partners to speed up the implementation of its ambition plan that requires an investment of up to 20 billion euros. The project for the first two cities is planned to start up in the second half of this year.

“High-tech waste-to-energy plants will give us access to a renewable energy source that will be developed in a larger scale – something that will contribute to an increased independence regarding energy supply and for the country as a whole,” said Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

EcoEnergy is a Swedish supplier of waste-to-energy (WTE) facilities. The company’s engineering team has been involved in the construction of most of the large scale WTE facilities in Sweden during the last decade.

March 19, 2007

SunPower makes the best solar panels in the world and Kaco makes the best inverters in the world and Direct Power and Water makes the best mounting systems in the world, according to new research conducted by ENF among directors of photovoltaic installation companies in 45 different countries.

The directors were asked to name which brands of photovoltaic components they have purchased in the last 12 months, and rate the products for their quality and value for money.  An average of these two scores has been used to find the companies whose customers thought most highly of their products. 

The top ranking companies receiving awards are:

Solar Panels
No.1 in World -? SunPower (USA)
No.2 in World -? Schott Solar (Germany)
No.3 in World -? SolarWorld (Germany)

Best Product Quality -? Sanyo (Japan)

Best Value for Money -? Suntech (China)

Solar Inverters
No.1 in World -? Kaco (Germany)
No.2 in World -? OutBack (USA)
No.3 in World -? Mastervolt (USA)

Best Product Quality -? OutBack (USA)

Best Value for Money -? Kaco (Germany)

Solar Mounting Systems
No.1 in World -? Direct Power and Water (USA)
No.2 in World -? UniRac (USA)
No.3 in World -? SchA?A??A?AA¼co (Germany)

Solar Trackers
No.1 in World -? Zomeworks (USA)

Solar PV Systems
No.1 in World -? Sharp (Japan)

The research found that 49 percent of companies thought the cell brand in a panel was important, and the most commonly named cell brands that installation companies thought were high quality were Sharp, Q-Cells and BP Solar.

Another key finding was that the average price installers paid for their solar panels in 2006 was $4.16 per Watt.  Installers in Europe paid on average 10 percent more for their panels than installers in Asia Pacific.

« Peterbilt, Eaton, Wal-Mart Partner on Heavy-Duty Truck

By Jonathan D. Epstein – BUFFALO NEWS BUSINESS REPORTER 06/30/09

A Williamsville firm will handle most of the work on a $7.5 million contract to install a massive solar panel system at the University at Buffalo, designed to provide “green” energy to student apartments, the New York Power Authority said Monday.

Solar Liberty will work in conjunction with a Canadian firm to set up the system, which officials called the largest solar installation at any college or university in the state, and one of the largest on any U. S. campus.

It’s part of a new emphasis by the Power Authority and the state on renewable energy, and on lessening the state’s dependence on fossil fuels, officials said. And it will lead to the creation of what officials called “green” jobs that can’t be exported overseas.

The proposed contract, which still faces approval by the Power Authority board, calls for the installation of a 1.1-megawatt solar photovoltaic system on UB’s North Campus in Amherst. The project includes about 5,000 solar panels that will generate 1.3 million kilowatt hours of energy annually. That will power 735 apartments at UB’s Flint Village, housing more than 2,000 students. One megawatt typically powers 1,000 homes.

The contract, which was subject to competitive bidding, will technically be awarded to Simcoe, Ont.- based DeCloet Greenhouse Manufacturing. However, 80 percent of the contract, or up to $6 million, will go to Solar Liberty.

Power Authority President and CEO Richard Kessel said Monday that he will ask the authority’s board to approve the contract for Solar Liberty at the board’s regular meeting today, to be held at the Niagara Power Project’s Power Vista in Lewiston. Although the decision is not yet final, Kessel said he had spoken to many of the directors and said they are in favor.

“They think this is exactly what the Power Authority should be doing,” said Kessel. “This is the first of many projects we’ll be doing in Western New York.”

Under the contract, Solar Liberty, headquartered at 6225 Sheridan Drive in the Sheridan Meadows office complex, will purchase the panels and other equipment and provide the local labor to install the ground-mounted system. DeCloet, a greenhouse maker with expertise in laying fields of equipment in the ground, will provide technical expertise and supervision, but the work will be handled by Solar Liberty.

The panels will be installed at four feet off the ground, at a pitched angle facing south, and will occupy six acres near the campus’ chilling plant. Each panel is about 15 square feet. They can generate electricity even through a few inches of snow, but the top surface is glass with no friction so snow will slide off with a little heat.

Construction could start in August and it’s slated for completion by fall 2010, though Kessel said it could be ready sooner.

Solar Liberty, which employs 14, said it expects to hire another 10 to 15 installation workers, who will be paid between $35 and $50 an hour, as well as some more administrative staff to work in its offices.

The UB project is expected to be the largest ground-mounted solar photovoltaic system in the state. It’s part of a $21 million renewable energy program by the Power Authority that officials said will focus on Western New York and the North Country.

Founded by Rizzo, a UB Law School graduate, and his brother Nathan, Solar Liberty is one of the largest solar electric “integrators” and installers in the state. It serves government, nonprofit, education, commercial and residential customers.

In addition to its main office here, it has an office in Syracuse, and installation crews working around the state. It also serves installers nationally through a wholesale division.

jepstein@buffnews.com

Sunworks Pledges to Create 175 Jobs

By James Heaney - BUFFALO NEWS STAFF REPORTER - 7/01/09 

The state Power Authority has awarded a large block of low-cost hydropower to a fledgling California company that plans to build a plant in Western New York to manufacture solar panels.

Sunworks Solar plans to spend $200 million to build a plant that would employ 175. The New York Power Authority on Tuesday agreed to allocate five megawatts of hydropower, which it will sell to the San Francisco-based company for about one-quarter the market rate.

The plant would build large solar panels for utilities. Pay would range from $40,000 to over $100,000 a year, depending on the position.

Company officials said they have not yet selected a site, but that it would be in Western New York. A construction timetable is also up in the air. Work could start as soon as next spring.

The company was founded last year and does not operate a plant, but is in negotiations to build several in differing locales.

Sunworks Solar would be one of the larger buyers of low-cost hydropower from the authority. The five megawatt allocation is the fifth-largest made by the authority since 2006 and is eight-times larger than the typical allocation made by the authority during that period.

The deal would save the company an estimated $1.6 million a year, or $9,352 per job. By contract, the average deal made by the authority since 2006 provides annual savings of $11,833 per job.

The deal also compares favorably in terms of the amount of private investment the power leverages. On average, deals done by NYPA since 2006 produce $11,451 of investment for each kilowatt allocated. The Sunworks deal would generate nearly four times more investment, or $40,000.

The allocation marks the continuation of a trend by the authority to earmark large blocks of power to green manufacturing concerns.

In recent years, the authority has committed 40 megawatts to Globe Metals, which is refurbishing a plant in Niagara Falls to produce metallurgical-grade silicon for use in the manufacture of solar panels, and five megawatts each to ethanol plants proposed for Buffalo and Niagara Falls.

None of those facilities are operating yet, however. Globe is still overhauling its plant and the ethanol plants are still on the drawing board.

In the meantime, the authority is selling the allocated, but unused power at market rates and keeping the proceeds. U. S. Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, is pressing the authority to keep those proceeds in Western New York.

jheaney@buffnews.com

by David Robinson – Buffalo News Business Reporter - 1/31/09

Moog Inc., looking to become a bigger player in the wind energy business, has bought a 70 percent stake in a British company that makes components used in wind turbines, the Elma aerospace company said Friday.

The $16 million deal will expand the line of products that Moog makes for wind turbines, primarily equipment that stops and shuts down the turbines and also regulates their power output.

The newest acquisition, Insensys ltd., makes pitch control and rotor blade monitoring systems. Pitch control systems adjust the angle of the turbine’s blades to improve its efficiency and control its load. Monitoring systems can extend the turbine’s life and reduce maintenance costs.

Insensys had $7.6 million in sales last year.

The deal gives Moog the option to buy the remaining 30 percent of Insensys within the next year. The purchase is not expected to affect Moog’s earnings during the current fiscal year, which ends in October, because of accounting adjustments. Insensys is expected to add about $10.2 million to Moog’s sales during the eight months remaining in Moog’s fiscal year.

Moog executives said earlier this month that they wanted to expand their position in the wind energy industry, which has been growing at about a 20 percent annual rate.

Wind turbines have been steadily getting bigger, now spanning as much as 240-feet in diameter and capable of generating 1.5 megawatts of electricity. That increasing size can create a challenge to control motion on those turbines, Moog executives have said.

“The use of real-time data improves turbine performance and lower’s a wind turbine’s total cost of ownership,” said Steven Huckvale, the president of Moog’s international group.

Moog had about $70 million in energy-related revenues during its previous fiscal year, and the company in June broadened its position in the wind energy industry by acquiring a 40 percent stake in a German company, LTi RE-Energy GmbH, that makes motion control and drive systems used on wind turbines. Moog expects to buy the rest of LTi by summer.

drobinson@buffnews.com