According to a report in Renewable Energy World, the Chinese central government has established policies boosting biomass energy development. These favorable policies may foster an era of accelerated growth for alternatives to fossil fuels.

Biomass energy has been increasingly favored by a number of energy firms for its clean, efficient, safe and sustainable features. Some multinational energy companies, including BP, American International Petroleum, BASF and DuPont, as well as the major Chinese players (CNPC, Sinopec and CNOOC) are expanding their presence into the biomass energy sector through direct investments.

On March 4, the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) entered into a cooperation framework agreement with the government of Shandong province to establish a fuel ethanol and biodiesel production facility. Following this agreement, Sinopec formed a cooperation agreement with China’s largest food processing manufacturer and trader, COFCO. Both companies will jointly build a fuel ethanol manufacturing facility that over the next five years will have an annual capacity of 100,000 tons.

China’s National Development and Reform Commission has reinforced agreements like these, issuing guidelines concerning structural changes within the industry that encourage the development and application of technologies for producing non-grain biomass fuels, including ethanol from cellulosic biomass and bio-diesel.

According to China’s five-year plan for renewable energy during the 2011-2015 period, the country plans to increase the annual usage of ethanol fuel to three million tons by 2015. As reported in April by Renewable Energy World, a renewable energy development strategy report from the Chinese Academy of Engineering states that biomass energy capacity in China is twice that of hydropower and 3.5 times that of wind power.

Tsinghai University’s chemical engineering professor Xing Xinhui said, “while China has built a number of biomass energy projects since the beginning of the last five-year period (spanning 2006-2010), the country still lags far behind other countries in terms of biomass energy investments and has not yet made any breakthrough in biomass energy technology. As a result, it behooves the central government to provide additional support for the industry by increasing its investment in research and development of biomass energy technologies, so as to speed up the development of the industry.”

China has substantial biomass resources, including and residues and leftover waste from the country’s agricultural and forestry. Biomass development is also an appealing economic proposition where non-grain plants can be grown on marginal land and converted to energy.

Presently, China produces 5 million tons of grain annually, generating some 700 million tons of straw that can be used as the main source of biomass energy. Additionally, organic materials like poultry manure, fallen leaves and industrial waste, can be added to the supply mix and converted to biomass energy. The country has announced it will build large biomass production plants in southwest and northwest regions.

This all looks promising as a means for China to move away from dependence on coal energy.

Source: Clean Technica

PHOTO: Inverter-China.com http://www.inverter-china.com/blog/articles/green-energy/biomass-power-in-china.html

In making this announcement, Vestas states; “Lowering the cost of energy in relation to offshore wind is essential for the industry. Some of the major stepping stones in achieving this are size and subsequent increased energy capture, which means a need for much bigger turbines that are specifically designed for the challenging offshore environment.”

The wind turbine rotor will measure 164 meters (538 feet), surpassing Spain’s current 420-foot rotor.

In the announcement, Vestas CEO Ditlev Engel said he is pleased to serve the market and show a commitment to the offshore wind industry by introducing the V164-7.0 MW. “Seeing the positive indications from governments worldwide, and especially from the UK, to increase the utilization of wind energy is indeed very promising.” He can be seen on this video discussing the development of this machine.

According to Anders Søe-Jensen, president of Vestas Offshore, the offshore wind market will expand over the coming years, especially in regions like the Northern part of Europe, where the conditions at sea are particularly rough.

The most outstanding feature of the new turbine is its size and resulting increased energy capture. The turbine will function with a medium-speed drive-train solution.

“We actually kept all options open from the start, running two separate parallel R&D development tracks: one focusing on direct drive and one on a geared solution. It soon became clear that if we wanted to meet the customers’ expectations about lowest possible cost of energy and high business case certainty we needed a perfect combination of innovation and proven technology and so the choice could only be to go for a medium-speed drive-train solution,” said Finn Strøm Madsen, President of Vestas Technology R&D.

Vestas, a pioneer of the industry, has installed 580 offshore turbines, or equaling 43 percent of the world’s offshore turbines.

Production of the 7 MW turbine is expected to begin in 2015.

We applaud the development of alternative energies but add this caveat for all supporters: it will be an extraordinary feat if the percentage of alternative energy powering the world’s grid comes anywere close to reaching five percent of supply in the next 20 years.

That brings us to the subject of power plants. Here are some power plant facts, according to the PowerPlantCCS website: 

“There are over 50,000 power plants in the world. These power plants constitute the single largest emitting industry for CO₂ emissions.”

One solution for solving this problem: carbon capture and sequestration, one of the reasons the PowerPlantCCS website was launched. The site provides a report, starting with CO2:

“Carbon dioxide is the most common greenhouse gas after water vapor. Burning fossil fuels, land clearing and other activities of modern industrial society have caused the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to climb from about 280 parts per million to 380 parts per million, causing warming and other climate changes.

“From 1991 to 2000, CO₂ accounted for 82% of total U.S. GHG emissions in terms of its global warming potential. About 96% of these carbon emissions resulted from the combustion of fossil fuels for energy. With the increased emphasis on GHG abatement, it is imperative that these power plants undertake serious efforts to cut down their CO₂ emitted and sequester it.”

Now comes an argument for carbon capture:

“Energy efficiency improvements and switching from fossil fuels toward less carbon intensive energy sources were once seen as the only realistic means of reducing carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. In recent years, however, analysts and policymakers have begun to recognize the potential for a third option—the development of “end-of-pipe” technologies that would allow for the continued utilization of fossil fuel energy sources while significantly reducing carbon emissions. “

Whether pro or con, there are numerous developments in this field — some that appear to provide plausible solutions that may help abate global warming. To help with the development of technologies like these, one of the best tyools available will be active involvement from a population that understand far more about global warming than it presently does.