Woodstock energy entrepreneur Danny Williams says the biodiesel industry is undergoing a
re-emergence after years of waning interest and investment.
Increased consumer demand and greater financial feasibility for the use of biofuels has kept Danny and his Melbourne-based sustainable energy company ProGreen Biofuels very busy, and he says he expects business to keep booming.
“[Our business] is growing so fast we can’t keep up with it. Everyone is starting to see that oil prices are heading north and they are looking at the environmental
benefits and the value difference between biofuel and a mineral based fuel. The ethics and the finances are now pointing towards biofuels,” Mr Williams said.
“There was a real run on biofules earlier this decade where there were a number of biodiesel refineries built throughout the country.
“Then the investment died off with the price of oil dropping and because the biofuels industry was waiting for the government to make some decisions on better incentives for customers to look at a biofuel option,” he said.
“The lack of an ETS or clear
carbon management plan from this current government hasn’t helped anyone so investment died off and mandates hadn’t come into place where the biofuels industry had based their initial business cases.
“In Europe biofuels has been very strongly supported by
governments and the industry in Europe is massive,” Mr Williams said.
“Australia hasn’t enjoyed the same support – the government are too busy fighting amongst
themselves and can’t make a
decision, which is costing our country.”
The ProGreen biodiesel is
biofuels made from recycled
cooking vegetable oil or animal fat (tallow) and converted to transport fuels or energy through the use of generators. Biodiesel exhaust
emissions are substantially cleaner than emissions generated by diesel and gasoline powered engines. When compared to diesel engines, biodiesel produces a 78% reduction in C02 emissions. Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are believed to contribute to climate change.
Danny’s business began as a biodiesel generator hire company but has since grown to take
advantage of niche markets looking to reduce their carbon footprint.
ProGreen Biofuel generators have been powering some
conferences, music festivals and wine festivals and supplied all the power at the recent Seymour Alternative Farming Expo.
The business is also raising funds to build their own biodiesel refinery to produce biodiesel to on-sell directly to customers.
Danny’s company is also being considered to play a key role in
powering the Race Dental project at Woodstock.
Danny says local and state
governments have embraced
biofuels; the carbon neutral energy source fits in-line with local
government’s environmental
policies, and this has been
influenced by proposed federal ETS policy and future carbon reduction targets.
However, biofuels as an energy source can never replace the
plentiful and cheap supply of coal for electricity supply.
Smaller or remote towns like Woodstock which suffer from sporadic power supply are usually located on the ends of power grids.
Danny says these towns may find great benefit from the use of biodiesel generators.
“Biofuels as a base-load power source is not financially viable.
“At the moment it can’t be used as a base load station head to head against coal-fired power,” Mr Williams said.
“We are going to find that there’s going to be opportunities for small biofuel powered base load stations [to be used] in areas that have
transmission line problems or are at the end of the power grid.
“These small power stations will boost that line where it is needed.
“Negotiations have been in progress with the likes of Country Energy and other power suppliers to embrace the biodiesel base load generator option and Woodstock has been touted as a working model but this has yet to be supported by Country Energy,” he said.
Email a friend
Favourites
Del.icio.us
Facebook
Digg
StumbleUpon
MySpace
Reddit
Newsvine
LinkedIn
Kwoff
Twitter