This evening I attended a dinner organized by the UK Trade & Investment, in conjunction with CleanTECH San Diego and Global CONNECT.  The UK Trade & Investment is the business development arm of the British government.  The evening’s theme was clean technology and renewable energy in the UK, in particular wind energy, biomass and marine energy.

Many of the story threads of the clean technology take on proportions that are almost beyond comprehension.  The UK’s role in wind energy has a plethora of gee-whiz facts. 

Airtricity, a division of Scottish and Southern Energy is developing two of the world’s larger wind farms.  One is off the Suffolk coast of England (540MW).  An onshore wind farm is located in the Upper Clyde Valley in Scotland (456MW).  Last week the British government announced grants for the construction of the largest wind turbine blades ever built.  Designed for offshore towers 574 high, each blade will be 230 feet long.  With a combined maximum sweep height of over 800 feet the wind turbines will be 300 higher than the tallest building in San Diego.  Each blade will weigh about 67,000 pounds which is equivalent to 22 Toyota Prius hatchbacks or a couple of Rolls Royce Phantoms.

Yesterday I met with the founders of a stealth-mode biomass energy company.  They are local, but their venture is focused on those states in which there is an abundance of lumber and pulp wood. Sawdust, chips, brush and tree parts are feedstock for a variety of carbon neutral energy processes including gasification, pyrolysis and wood pellets.  In our discussion they voiced their concern about the exclusionary nature of the definition of Renewable Fuel Standard. I think the point they raise has merit particularly when you consider that 30% of the land area of the U.S. is owned by the Federal government. I’ve reprinted a portion of their e-mail to me below.

We believe the definition of renewable biomass within the Energy Independence & Security Act of 2007 should be changed to remove the term “non-federal” from Section 201 (1) (I) (ii) and (iv).  The current definition prevents almost all federal land biomass – such as trees, wood, brush, thinnings, chips and slash (more…)