Prifitability to the new energy business is a matter for the government to ensure, assuming that the government wants such a development, of course. In Sweden. Italy and UK (I think) there is a system of green certificates for power generation. These systems oblige the power distributors to buy a min quote of green certificates, allowing of certain amount of the power will be green. As for the biodiesel or even ethanol, the authorities will have to enforce the production and consumption of these, with grants or by quotas. But there is another factor to take into consideration as well: Big systems are sensitive to terrorst attacks, technical malfunctions etc. That in itself is a reason to encourage "small" scale energy production. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Miller" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <sustainablelorgbiofuel@sustainablelists.org> Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2007 6:14 AM Subject: Re: [Biofuel] new topic
> On 9/19/07, Jan Warnqvist <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >> Hello all, >> my time here in Ageratec has provided me with some observations which I >> would like the list members to share with me: >> We are in the business of producing energy from sources which originally >> are meant for food purposes or food waste. It is obvious that this new >> energy sector has very few of the traditional energy suppliers, rather >> new >> actors in this field of green energy. > > > I don't think the renewable energy industry is nearly as profitable as the > existing oil industry. The investments in renewables by big oil is only to > comply with mandatory state and federal requirements. If renewables ever > take off and actually threaten their profits the oil giants will have tens > of billions of dollars available to buyout everyone, and in the end they > own > it all again. > > It is happening with ethanol production. What started as cooperatively > owned > ethanol plants financed by groups of local farmers has grown into highly > capitalized publicly owned corporations not owned by farmers at all. > Non-farm investors are buy up ethanol production plants and farmers are > back > to growing a commodity crop and suffering the whims of the market and > speculators. > > > Here in Sweden the farmers are buying wind mills, selling the power to the >> power distributors, the paper and pulp industry is burning the black >> liqueur >> residue and producing power from it, both for own consumption and for >> sales. >> Some farmers are growing canola, producing biodiesel from it for own >> consumption and for sales. The ethanol industry has begun to shift from >> approaching ethanol as a solvent to treating it as fuel. There is a new >> combinative proposing that wood should be used for producing methanol for >> energy purposes. >> None of these areas have mineral oil companies, nuclear, coal or hydro >> power companies or any other traditional suppliers of energy involved in >> their business. This teaches us that the new energy will be dominated by >> new >> actors, which means that there is a great need for knowledge and know-how >> both for the energy products as such, and also for the energy business >> itself. This demand exsists not only within the actors, but also within >> the >> authorities, the traditional actors and the industry used to produce food >> etc. >> The same development will no doubt strike the lubricant industry. The new >> green lubricants will no doubt be forced out into the market by new >> actors. >> So we are actually into a process which will change the power balance, >> intensely stalled by the traditional actors and anybody who gains from >> their >> power. This may be a long hard struggle, be the outcome is given on >> forehand: >> If we want to consume energy it has to be renewable. We may have to >> decrease our consumption, but that does not mean that our welfare or >> independence will suffer. On the contrary, this is a major stimulation >> for >> new technology, new solutions and - for new actors. So - hang in there, >> even >> to your nails. >> >> Jan Warnqvist >> -------------- next part -------------- >> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... >> URL: /pipermail/attachments/20070919/625bf774/attachment.html >> _______________________________________________ >> Biofuel mailing list >> Biofuel@sustainablelists.org >> http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel >> >> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: >> http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html >> >> Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 >> messages): >> http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ >> > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: /pipermail/attachments/20070919/0261f1f1/attachment.html > _______________________________________________ > Biofuel mailing list > Biofuel@sustainablelists.org > http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel > > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: > http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > > Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 > messages): > http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ > > _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
