November 15, 2009

A $19 million biomass fuel production plant will rise near Marquette, as the board of directors of Cleveland-based Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLF) approved the construction for its RenewaFuel LLC subsidiary.

The plant will be built at the Telkite Technology Park, which is located at Sawyer Airport near Marquette.

RenewaFuel intends to move forward with a lease agreement for the use of two large aircraft hangars, which formerly housed B-52 aircraft when the facility was part of K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base. RenewaFuel's lease of the hangars is subject to the final approval of the Marquette County Board of Commissioners and the Federal Aviation Administration. Once begun, construction and renovation is expected to take about nine months.

November 16, 2009

It's a revolution that began in South Africa and which has spread to China. Now, it's come to the United States where coal-rich states are trying to find new markets for their product and namely in the transportation sector.

Coal liquefaction has the potential to replace some oil imports. But the technologies to perform that transformation are expensive. Some enterprises have sputtered. Others, though, are getting their legs. Despite the struggles, the ideas are valid ones and are winning respect.

November 13, 2009

Recession is over and recovery is here. And while there's an economic lag, it isn't expected to permanently weigh down the utility industry.

In recent years, power companies have paid increasingly higher building costs that have been largely predicated on volatile fuel prices as well as escalating raw material and skilled labor costs. Bleaker economic times, however, have blunted the trauma and led to a relative decline in construction-related expenses.

November 11, 2009

It's not the ideal way to curb electricity usage. But the preponderance of energy sources saved in the last year is because of the economic recession. The rest is because of conservation and demand response.

That's just part of what the North American Electric Reliability Corporation shared with reporters during its annual assessment of the electricity sector. While projections are not as rosy as they were a year ago, the group that oversees reliability of the bulk power system in the United States and Canada, is forecasting future growth at about 1.5 percent a year -- down from the 2 percent acceleration it predicted four years ago.

November 06, 2009

Liquefied natural gas has lost some luster. But its shine may soon return. While deflated natural gas prices are now making expensive investments in the super-cooled fuel less appealing, the demand for energy will eventually resume and therefore put pressure on national governments to find alternatives to coal.

The major oil companies along with some utilities remain bullish in the long-term on LNG. It's especially true in this county where national energy regulators have been friendly to development and where federal lawmakers are trying to enact legislation to curb the level of greenhouse gas emissions.