Biofuels to British Columbia, Airbus, FAA

British Columbia has announced its new biofuels strategy--aiming to make BC electricity self-sufficient using biomass, among other plans.

The BC Bioenergy Strategy includes:

1. * Establishment of $25 million in funding for a provincial Bioenergy Network for greater investment and innovation in B.C. bioenergy projects and technologies
2. * A target for B.C biofuel production to meet 50 per cent or more of the province’s renewable fuel requirements by 2020, which supports the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from transportation
3. * The establishment of funding to advance provincial biodiesel production with up to $10 million over three years
4. * Development of at least 10 community energy projects that convert local biomass into energy by 2020
5. * Issuing a two-part Bioenergy Call for Power – the first part will be issued shortly, the second part by July 1, 2008 – focusing on existing biomass inventory in the forest industry and offering opportunities for smaller energy producers with projects that are immediately viable
6. * Establishment one of Canada’s most comprehensive provincial biomass inventories that creates waste to energy opportunities
7. * Support for methane capture from the province's largest landfills
8. * Incentives to utilize waste wood from phased-out beehive burners to produce clean energy
9. * Support for wood gasification research, development and commercialization____Source
   

Even more interesting, both the US Federal Aviation Administration, and Airbus are looking into the use of "alternative fuels" for aviation. The high cost of fuels may soon cause massive changes in the aviation industry unless changes are made.

With Airbus' test flight today and its announcement that it too will research next-generation biofuels, all major aircraft manufacturers (Airbus, Boeing, Embraer and others) now have initiated programs to research renewable biofuels for aviation.___Source

Airbus begins its flight testing of alternative fuels with "gas-to-liquids" fuel, and will progress to biofuels.

The US Department of Transportation is initiating research to find alternative aviation fuels, and may soon offer a prize similar to the "Ansari X Prize," for developing economical alternative fuels for aircraft.

Peak oil prophets and seers have for decades predicted a massive collapse of western civilisation, when the oil runs out (or becomes too expensive to pump and burn). It is amusing to visit peak oil sites and observe the quickly lengthening list of "peak oil disclaimers:" tar sands don't count, coal to liquids doesn't count, biofuels don't count, gas to liquids don't count, nuclear power doesn't count, electric vehicles don't count, . . . and so on. Now that most doomseekers of peak oil are beginning to see that the "peak" will be a decades long plateau, and probably has not occurred yet, some of the discussions on the PO sites are becoming more interesting and quasi-rational. We can only hope that trend continues.