Ag Under Secretary Hosts SD Mtg on Renewable Energy Funding

Post from USDA blog:

Posted by Tammi Schone, USDA South Dakota Public Information Officer, on February 16, 2012 at 2:46 PM

This afternoon, USDA Rural Development in South Dakota convened a Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) meeting in Sioux Falls.  Rural Development Under Secretary Dallas Tonsager addressed the group of 25 stakeholders.  Tonsager shared with the group that over the next couple of months, USDA Rural Development will be convening a total of 47 energy roundtables with stakeholders across the country to talk about energy opportunities.

“Our country is moving more and more toward renewable energy sources,” stated Tonsager. “Those of us at USDA want to stand up that renewable energy industry in America’s rural backyard, and we want to work with all of you to make it happen.”

South Dakota has shown its strength in the renewable energy arena with hydro and wind power.  These projects create a win-win situation.  They’re good for the environment; they reduce our reliance on foreign oil; and they’re good for the economy.

The group also heard from past REAP recipient and Senior Vice President of American Coalition for Ethanol Ron V. Lamberty.   The American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) is the grassroots voice of the U.S. ethanol industry, the nation’s largest association dedicated to the production and use of ethanol.

ACE is a non-profit, membership-based organization of more than 1,500 members nationwide, including: ethanol producers, farmers, investors, the agriculture community, industry suppliers, rural electric cooperatives, and others supportive of the increased production and use of ethanol across America.

In conjunction with the meeting, Under Secretary Tonsager and South Dakota State Director Elsie Meeks awarded Jackson Winery and Vineyards, L.L.C. dba Belle Joli’ Winery with a business assistance grant funded through the Value Added Producer Grant program.  Co-owner Matthew Jackson and his wife Choi were on-site for the presentation.  The working capital grant will allow the business to expand and tap into new markets for its products and services.

On Saturday, February 18, Tonsager will participate in the South Dakota Farmer’s Union Convention held in Huron.  He will provide an update on the work Rural Development is doing to ensure that our rural communities are strong and sustainable now and well into the future.  USDA remains committed to rebuilding and revitalizing rural America.

$45,000 in Sustainability Grants

News release from PSEG:

February 2, 2012

PSEG Foundation & ANJEE Offer $45,000 in Sustainability Grants

Partnership bolsters environmental education

(February 2, 2012 - Newark, NJ) – Do you have a creative idea for a partnership between non-formal environmental education providers and K-5 pre-service or practicing teachers?  The PSEG Foundation and the Alliance for New Jersey Environmental Education (ANJEE) will be awarding a total of $45,000 in competitive grants to help increase the sustainability of New Jersey communities, through the “PSEG-ANJEE Learners in Sustainability (PALS)” grant program.

“We are pleased to be entering the second year of our grant partnership with PSEG,” said ANJEE President Dale Rosselet. “This is an excellent opportunity for educators to work collaboratively to enhance science instruction and environmental literacy in the Garden State.”

The goal of the PALS grant program is to create partnerships between non-formal environmental education providers and K-5 pre-service or practicing teachers. Successful partnerships will provide teachers with the knowledge, skills, and curricular materials to implement high-quality environmental education in their teaching year, using the 2009 NJ Core Curriculum Content Standards (NJCCCS) in Science and authentic assessment methods.

Eligible applicants can include public, private and charter elementary schools; colleges and universities with teacher education programs; informal education facilities and institutions, such as museums, zoos, nature centers and parks; after-school and early childhood education programs; and consultants, businesses and corporations.

Examples of projects that could be funded are: teacher institutes sponsored by a nature center or museum; programs introducing pre-service teachers to sustainability and environmental education and high quality science education; or partnerships between non-formal institutions and after-school programs, environmental or science clubs, or other school-affiliated programs. Recipients of the 2011 PALS grants included Tenafly Public Schools, Princeton Regional Schools and the Educational Information & Resource Center in Gloucester County.

Grants of $5,000-$15,000 are available in each of three New Jersey regions. The request for proposals and application form are posted at www.anjee.net/PALS. Deadline for applications is March 15, 2012.

Austin Using Green Innovation to Beat the Utility Blues

U.S. Dept of Energy blog post:

Austin Using Green Innovation to Beat the Utility Blues

January 17, 2012 - 1:03pm

An aerial view of the Hornsby Bend Biosolids Management Plant in Austin, Texas. | Photo courtesy of Austin Water.

Todd Allen

Project Officer, Golden Field Office

What does this project do?

• New biogas generators harness the methane produced during the production of a soil conditioner called "Dillo Dirt" to power the entire production plant.

Sewage treatment has always been a dirty business, dating back to the frontier days when "waste management" meant the guy who followed after the horses with a bucket and shovel.

However, thanks to modern technology, there are ways to turn some of the treatment processes into clean energy that can power public infrastructure facilities.

The Hornsby Bend Biosolids Management Plant in Austin, Texas, located on 1,200 acres of land along the Colorado River, is a national model for innovative approaches to improve the environment, such as reducing waste, producing compost, and protecting ecosystems.

Each year, thousands of tons of biosolids, the nutrient-rich organic materials resulting from the treatment of sewage sludge, are anaerobically digested and composted with Austin's yard trimmings into an EPA-certified soil conditioner called "Dillo Dirt" (as in armadillo). This popular product is sold to commercial vendors for sale and use in public landscaping projects across the city. Demand for "Dillo Dirt" often exceeds available supply.

During the 1980s, an initial effort to improve energy efficiency at the plant started when two 400 kW converted diesel generators were installed. The generators were fueled by a mixture of digester biogas from the site and diesel fuel. This worked fairly well, but after 20+ years the old generators are no longer serviceable or repairable, and in recent years the gas has had to be flared.

Austin decided to use $1.2 million of its Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to replace the old equipment with modern "biogas rated" generation equipment.

The new generator equipment will generate clean electricity by utilizing digester methane from the sludge treatment process without the use of fossil fuels. In short, the same anerobic digesting process used to create the Dillo Dirt will also make the biogas used to power the generators. The result will demonstrate distributed clean power generation, reduce the facility's operating costs, and offset on-peak operation of the plant, thereby contributing to Austin's effort to avoid building new conventional power generation plants.

The new equipment is on order and the city intends for the project to be fully operational by the middle of next year. This single generator should generate more energy than the entire Hornsby Bend facility uses, thereby offsetting the plant's total energy use and generating a credit to the water utility.

(Archived Article) Wind-Power Experiment Planned on Brooklyn Plot

The following was gleaned from an article with the above title published on November 19 and 20, 2010 by the New York Times.

Wind-Power Experiment Planned on Brooklyn Plot

Debra Salomon was on her way to the new Fairway market in Red Hook, Brooklyn, when she took a wrong turn and found herself on a windblown pier that had two 90-foot Eiffel-like towers rising into the sky for no apparent purpose.

Ms. Salomon quickly saw a purpose. She is a designer and teaches design at the City University of New York, and she has been interested in finding ways to economically adapt wind energy to individual buildings. So her mind took a turn of its own.

“That looks like it should have a wind turbine on top of it,” she remembers telling herself.

The towers were located on property owned by Greg O’Connell, who, among other things, is curious about harnessing the power of wind. He was willing to let Ms. Salomon borrow the towers for her brainstorm.

The towers, were so situated that the gusts blowing off Upper New York Bay were striking them at an average of 13.5 miles per hour, double the city’s average wind speed and fit to spin the contoured blades of a small turbine consistently. The surrounding buildings were low, posing no obstructions to the wind.

Now Ms. Salomon, with a $12,500 grant from the city’s Economic Development Corporation and the collaboration of a couple of start-up entrepreneurs, wants to build an experimental 15-foot-tall, butterfly-shaped turbine atop those towers. It would produce three kilowatts of electricity to power a charging station for electric cars.

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