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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, November 28, 2006

Indonesian state-owned bank to grant $440 million in loans to small biofuel producers

As part of Indonesia's efforts to implement its bioenergy crash program (earlier post), state-owned Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) announced it is ready to extend up to 4 trillion rupiah (€333million/US$439 million) in loans to the agricultural sector, including for the development of biofuel plantations and downstream activities by small and medium enterprises.

According to BRI president Sofyan Basyir, the bank has so far received applications from 24 potential large borrowers who manage a total of some 120,000 hectares of sugarcane and oil-palm plantations. But focus is on small to medium sized companies as well. "The total amount of loans will be around Rp 3 trillion to 4 trillion. BRI plans to participate in the government's plan to revitalize the agricultural sector," he told reporters Monday on the sidelines of a workshop on loans for rural alternative energy development, organized jointly with the Asia-Pacific Rural Agricultural Credit Association (APRACA), Bank Indonesia and Bukopin.

No charity or subsidies
Indonesia's biofuel crash program, which will see investments worth around €17billion (US$ 22 billion), is estimated to bring around 2.5 million jobs in three years time. As such it is presented as a major opportunity to alleviate poverty and strengthen the livelihoods of rural communities (earlier post).

However, BI Governor Burhanuddin Abdullah cautioned against providing subsidized loans as part of the effort to encourage a massive expansion of the alternative energy sector: "Such a temptation could become even greater when rural development and poverty reduction schemes are included in the equation," he said.

"But cross-country experience has shown that subsidized credit schemes are actually the worst strategy for developing pro-poor enterprises. Such schemes create disincentives, hamper market development and tend to breed collusive rent-seeking activities." Burhanuddin, therefore, said it would be better to develop alternative market-based credit schemes to ensure financing for rural small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that were actually venturing into biofuel production:
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Given recent oil-price volatility, Indonesia has decided to develop alternative energy sources in the form of biofuels, counting on its huge potential for sugarcane, cassava, oil palm and jatropha cultivation, feedstocks which can be used to produce biodiesel and ethanol. The government plans to allocate up to 6.5 million hectares of idle land for biofuel plantation development in an effort to produce enough biofuel to replace 10 percent of the country's total oil-based fuel consumption - which reached 70 million kiloliters last year - by 2010 (earlier post).

For this purpose, it also plans to set aside 13 trillion rupiah in budgetary funding to improve agricultural infrastructure (road, rail, ports), and subsidize the cost of procuring seedlings and paying interest on loans. Financial support for the country's venture into biofuels is also expected to come from the banking sector, with lenders ready to extend up to 20 trillion rupiah in biofuel-related loans.

In a separate statement, Bayu Krisnamurti, a deputy to the coordinating minister for the economy, said the export potential of biofuels to Europe could reach 1.5 million tons by 2010. Investments in the biofuel sector had reached some Rp 12.4 trillion this year alone, the Investment Coordinating Board had earlier said.(06)

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