Global Atlas for Renewable Resources

Global Atlas 2.0 
IRENA, CENER (Spain), DLR (Germany), Masdar Institute (UAE), NREL (USA) and MINES ParisTech (France) are very pleased to announce the release of Global Atlas 2.0. This new version features maps for solar, wind, geothermal, biofuel and marine energy, and includes new functions and tools such as:
- Map gallery: Search maps by keyword, location or source
- Infopicker: Access data, tools and country profiles from REsource – IRENA’s Knowledge Gateway
- Catalog search: Search for more data by name, location, keyword or data quality (beta)
- Universal data viewer: Solar and wind graphs and charts in one click. Data can be downloaded
- User feedback: report your user experience to IRENA
- Share: share maps and values with your network
The Global Atlas initiative is coordinated by IRENA with support from 67 countries and an international consortium of data and expertise providers.
All existing user profiles and maps in the current platform will remain active in the new application.

Array of IEM^© Integrated Energy Modules by Ascent Systems Technologies equipped with irradiation and other sensors collecting real-time environment data will provide pinpoint accurate solar, wind and other resource information complementing or directly contributing to the Global Atlas.    

QUEST 2014

Back from Vancouver where attended QUEST 2014 Conference and Trade Show. I will share more when process all the information which was a lot. Here are some of the impressions from the conference.  

Is there a future for Biofuels? Part 2

It appears there is after all ... and for the power generated with biofuel.

Green Energy Project in Merritt, British Columbia
- State of the art biomass facility to generate 40 MW of clean electricity
- Will help support local forest industry and mills and create new jobs
- Merritt is the second BC biomass plant project by Dalkia and Fengate, bringing their investment in the province to $470 million.

While not the "greenest" of all still a much better alternative to fracking and mega-pipelines...

Is there a future for Biofuels?

I must admit I have been always skeptical about bio-fuels. Growing corn or sugar cane to make fuel ? It may be "renewable", but it takes the land and resources out of agriculture in the world where hundreds of millions of people are starving. And is it any better than greenhouse gas emitting fossil fuels from oil and gas? 

United Nations Energy Future Coalition says cellulosic ethanol is cleaner and does not drive food prices up because it is produced from wood waste or other non-food plants.

A Canadian company, Iogen Corporation, which specializes in industrial enzyme production, is operating a pilot plant in Ottawa and is planning to build a commercial plant in Idaho. Brazil has started construction of a commercial biomass-to-ethanol facility using Iogen's cellulosic bio-fuel technology.

And of course processing waste into bio-fuel works two ways - reducing amount of refuse disposal while providing a relatively inexpensive and less polluting source of energy...