Advanced Energy Perspectives

This week several advanced energy companies across many technologies had major announcements. Biofuels company Sapphire Energy announced a deal with Tesoro Refining and Manufacturing. Tesoro is planning to purchase Sapphire’s Green Crude, a drop-in biofuel made from wet algae manufactured at the company’s Columbus, New Mexico, plant. The plant, which recently reached a milestone of continuous cultivation and crude oil production, is featured in an AEE Case Study. 

According to Greentech Media, 22 out of the 29 states with Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) are facing legislative challenges to them. We covered several of them in Tom Plant’s State Policy Update on AEE’s new blog. Those challenging existing standards are up against economic counter-arguments—advanced energy is a more than $1 trillion global industry—and public opinion. Opponents of Arizona’s RPS failed in their efforts to gut the policy, in part because of popular support for solar energy. In a recent survey, six out of 10 Arizona residents named solar their top energy choice. Natural gas was a distant second, with just 9 percent of Arizonans naming it as their top energy source.