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    Spanish company Ferry Group is to invest €42/US$55.2 million in a project for the production of biomass fuel pellets in Bulgaria. The 3-year project consists of establishing plantations of paulownia trees near the city of Tran. Paulownia is a fast-growing tree used for the commercial production of fuel pellets. Dnevnik - Feb. 20, 2007.

    Hungary's BHD Hõerõmû Zrt. is to build a 35 billion Forint (€138/US$182 million) commercial biomass-fired power plant with a maximum output of 49.9 MW in Szerencs (northeast Hungary). Portfolio.hu - Feb. 20, 2007.

    Tonight at 9pm, BBC Two will be showing a program on geo-engineering techniques to 'save' the planet from global warming. Five of the world's top scientists propose five radical scientific inventions which could stop climate change dead in its tracks. The ideas include: a giant sunshade in space to filter out the sun's rays and help cool us down; forests of artificial trees that would breath in carbon dioxide and stop the green house effect and a fleet futuristic yachts that will shoot salt water into the clouds thickening them and cooling the planet. BBC News - Feb. 19, 2007.

    Archer Daniels Midland, the largest U.S. ethanol producer, is planning to open a biodiesel plant in Indonesia with Wilmar International Ltd. this year and a wholly owned biodiesel plant in Brazil before July, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The Brazil plant is expected to be the nation's largest, the paper said. Worldwide, the company projects a fourfold rise in biodiesel production over the next five years. ADM was not immediately available to comment. Reuters - Feb. 16, 2007.

    Finnish engineering firm Pöyry Oyj has been awarded contracts by San Carlos Bioenergy Inc. to provide services for the first bioethanol plant in the Philippines. The aggregate contract value is EUR 10 million. The plant is to be build in the Province of San Carlos on the north-eastern tip of Negros Island. The plant is expected to deliver 120,000 liters/day of bioethanol and 4 MW of excess power to the grid. Kauppalehti Online - Feb. 15, 2007.

    In order to reduce fuel costs, a Mukono-based flower farm which exports to Europe, is building its own biodiesel plant, based on using Jatropha curcas seeds. It estimates the fuel will cut production costs by up to 20%. New Vision (Kampala, Uganda) - Feb. 12, 2007.

    The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has decided to use 10% biodiesel in its fleet of public buses. The world's largest city is served by the Toei Bus System, which is used by some 570,000 people daily. Digital World Tokyo - Feb. 12, 2007.

    Fearing lack of electricity supply in South Africa and a price tag on CO2, WSP Group SA is investing in a biomass power plant that will replace coal in the Letaba Citrus juicing plant which is located in Tzaneen. Mining Weekly - Feb. 8, 2007.

    In what it calls an important addition to its global R&D capabilities, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) is to build a new bioenergy research center in Hamburg, Germany. World Grain - Feb. 5, 2007.

    EthaBlog's Henrique Oliveira interviews leading Brazilian biofuels consultant Marcelo Coelho who offers insights into the (foreign) investment dynamics in the sector, the history of Brazilian ethanol and the relationship between oil price trends and biofuels. EthaBlog - Feb. 2, 2007.

    The government of Taiwan has announced its renewable energy target: 12% of all energy should come from renewables by 2020. The plan is expected to revitalise Taiwan's agricultural sector and to boost its nascent biomass industry. China Post - Feb. 2, 2007.

    Production at Cantarell, the world's second biggest oil field, declined by 500,000 barrels or 25% last year. This virtual collapse is unfolding much faster than projections from Mexico's state-run oil giant Petroleos Mexicanos. Wall Street Journal - Jan. 30, 2007.

    Dubai-based and AIM listed Teejori Ltd. has entered into an agreement to invest €6 million to acquire a 16.7% interest in Bekon, which developed two proprietary technologies enabling dry-fermentation of biomass. Both technologies allow it to design, establish and operate biogas plants in a highly efficient way. Dry-Fermentation offers significant advantages to the existing widely used wet fermentation process of converting biomass to biogas. Ame Info - Jan. 22, 2007.

    Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited is to build a biofuel production plant in the tribal belt of Banswara, Rajasthan, India. The petroleum company has acquired 20,000 hectares of low value land in the district, which it plans to commit to growing jatropha and other biofuel crops. The company's chairman said HPCL was also looking for similar wasteland in the state of Chhattisgarh. Zee News - Jan. 15, 2007.

    The Zimbabwean national police begins planting jatropha for a pilot project that must result in a daily production of 1000 liters of biodiesel. The Herald (Harare), Via AllAfrica - Jan. 12, 2007.

    In order to meet its Kyoto obligations and to cut dependence on oil, Japan has started importing biofuels from Brazil and elsewhere. And even though the country has limited local bioenergy potential, its Agriculture Ministry will begin a search for natural resources, including farm products and their residues, that can be used to make biofuels in Japan. To this end, studies will be conducted at 900 locations nationwide over a three-year period. The Japan Times - Jan. 12, 2007.

    Chrysler's chief economist Van Jolissaint has launched an arrogant attack on "quasi-hysterical Europeans" and their attitudes to global warming, calling the Stern Review 'dubious'. The remarks illustrate the yawning gap between opinions on climate change among Europeans and Americans, but they also strengthen the view that announcements by US car makers and legislators about the development of green vehicles are nothing more than window dressing. Today, the EU announced its comprehensive energy policy for the 21st century, with climate change at the center of it. BBC News - Jan. 10, 2007.

    The new Canadian government is investing $840,000 into BioMatera Inc. a biotech company that develops industrial biopolymers (such as PHA) that have wide-scale applications in the plastics, farmaceutical and cosmetics industries. Plant-based biopolymers such as PHA are biodegradable and renewable. Government of Canada - Jan. 9, 2007.


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Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Indonesia announces biofuels budget for 2007

We have been reporting regularly on Indonesia's biofuels and bioenergy crash program, with a series of 'big numbers' being thrown around as estimates about funds, hectarages and jobs that would be created. Today, the country's green energy plan, one of the world's most ambitious, became more concrete as the Indonesian government announced its biofuels budget for the year 2007.

The numbers look as follows:
  • The total budget for biofuels research and development and production in 2007 amounts to 13 trillion rupiah (€1.1/US$1.4 billion)
  • This package adds 12 trillion rupiah (€1/US$1.3 billion) to the 1 trillion rupiah (€85/US$108 million) already allocated under the 2007 budget to subsidize the interest payments on loans taken out for biofuel-related ventures
  • The budget is divided as follows: (1) 10 trillion rupiah (€854 million/US$1 billion) for the development of infrastructures - such as pipelines, irrigation systems and access roads - in areas earmarked for biofuel plantations (2) with the remaining 2 trillion rupiah (€170/US$216 million) for the procurement of seedlings.
  • A first land allocation takes place whereby 500,000 hectares are set aside for the biofuels industry in 2007, out of a total of 6 million hectares over the course of the program that runs from 2007 until 2010
  • This land is divided over several crops, as follows: 3 million hectares are to be earmarked for oil palm (biodiesel), 1.5 million hectares for cassava (ethanol), 1.5 million hectares for jatropha (biodiesel) and 500,000 hectares for sugarcane (ethanol); the 500,00 hectares for 2007 are distributed along the lines of that same ratio
The head of the Indonesian government's biofuel development committee, Alhilal Hamdi, said during a hearing with the House Commission on Energy that additional financial support for biofuel development will come from the banking sector. The country's private financial institutions were prepared to channel up to 20 trillion rupiah (€1.7/US$2.2 billion) in loans to the industry.

Among the largest biofuel planters will be PT AGB, which plans to cultivate 300,000 hectares in North Maluku province, PT Wilmar Bioenergy (150,000 hectares in Riau and East Kalimantan provinces), and PT Bakrie and Rekayasa Industri (25,500 hectares in Jambi).

The government itself will plant 2,000 hectares, as part of pilot and research projects, including 140 hectares under the Agriculture Ministry and 650 hectares by the Research and Technology Ministry's Technology Assessment and Application Agency (BPPT).

Following the surge in oil prices and the resulting strain on the budget, as well as burgeoning domestic fuel consumption and social tensions over rising fuel prices, the Indonesian government rolled out a national alternative energy program. It wants to see biofuels account for 10 percent of the country's total fuel consumption, which reached 70 million kiloliters last year, by 2010. The program is part of a massive anti-poverty policy, with the biofuels industry estimated to bring 2.5 million jobs to the rural poor [entry ends here].
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posted by Biopact team at 6:40 PM  

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