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It almost sounds
too good to be true, but according to Professor Dr. Peter Heck, one of
Germany's leading experts in the field of renewable energies, the combined
power of biomass, solar, wind, geothermal and water energies could
completely replace the increasingly expensive conventional fossil energies.
During a November
10-11 Biomass-Conference at the Birkenfeld Campus of the University of
Applied Sciences in Trier, Germany, Prof. Heck pointed out that the biomass
market not only creates new companies and new jobs but also opens completely
new markets for the farming industry. The price for biomass energy would be
in the long run less expensive and more stable than that of conventional
energies. The university will start running its own gas station for staff in
January 2006, selling biofuel which will cost about Euro 0.40 less per liter
than conventional fuel. This price difference will quickly make up for the
conversion of the cars, which runs around Euro 1,500", Prof. Heck said,
according to a dpa-article of November 10, 2005.
Prof. Heck is
initiator, co-founder and Managing Director of the Institute for Applied
Material Flow Management (IfaS) at the University of Applied Sciences in
Trier. The Institute was founded in 2001 and is involved in alternative
energy projects in Germany and around the world. Two months ago, Heck
received the prestigious German B.A.U.M. Environment Prize 2005, in
recognition of his pioneering work for IfaS. Last month, the IfaS was
awarded the German Solar Prize for the Zero-Emission-Village Weilerbach"
project, for its efforts to convert the energy distribution for the village
completely to renewable energies. For further information visit
www.fh-trier.de and www.ifas.umwelt-campus.de.
According to a
recent newsletter of the German American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest,
the biofuel market in Germany is one of the largest in the world. The sale
of biodiesel at 1,900 gas stations in Germany has doubled to 100 million
gallons in just two years. This amount is sufficient to meet the average
yearly consumption of well over 300,000 passenger cars. In the United States
600 gas stations currently offer biodiesel. The National Biodiesel Board (NBB)
in the U.S. anticipates 75 million gallons of biodiesel production in 2005,
three times the amount produced last year. A current NBB newsletter cites
the president and founder of Seattle Biodiesel, John Plaza, saying his plant
is producing biodiesel at full capacity and his customers snap it up as soon
as it is made. A lot of Americans like the patriotic aspect of biodiesel',
Plaza said. The environmental benefits add value, but creating a stronger
America through energy security is many people's true motivation including
my own."
This article is
part of our series about alternative energies in conjunction with the
upcoming conference in Detroit BIOFUELS 2005 - TRANSPORTING RENEWABLES INTO
THE FUTURE", to be held at the Detroit Athletic Club on Tuesday, November
29th, 2005, 9:00am-4:00pm. The conference is organized by the German
American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest in association with the German
Energy Agency (DENA) and the Federal Ministry of Economics and Labor (BMWA).
For further
information and registration please contact the initiator and coordinator of
the conference, H. Juergen Hess at the Chicago office of the German American
Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest:
hess@gaccom.org
or (312) 644-2662
You can also
register online through the website of the Chamber:
www.gaccom.org
Interested
professionals who would like to contribute an article about alternative
energies may contact the organizer and coordinator of this series, Reinhard
H. Lemke, Esq. at reinhardhlemke@cs.com or (248) 214 8370. |
