Renewable Energy Resources

Ethanol Pump

The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) today announced that the U.S. ethanol industry set annual production records in 2005. During this time, it has produced just under 4 billion gallons (3.904 billion gallons) and averaging nearly 255,000 barrels of ethanol production daily, according to data released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The month of December also set production and demand records. Ethanol production in December rose 5,000 b/d from the previous month to 280,000 b/d. Demand skyrocketed to 310,000 b/d, breaking the old record of 297,000 b/d.

For more information, visit the Renewable Fuels Association website at: www.ethanolRFA.org.

Wind Energy

Wind energy refers to the power that is extracted from the wind via wind turbines or windmills. As the technology in this field evolve, the cost of wind generated electric power continues to fall and the efficiency continue to increase. It has been estimated that the cost to produce energy from wind was nearly five greater in the late 1990s than in 2005. This is linked to more efficient wind turbines couples with larger multi-megawatt turbines that are becoming more mass produced.

Clean Technology

The term "clean tech" generally refers to those technologies that:

- Attempt to produce energy or use raw materiels more efficiently
- while still delivering equal or greater performance,
- and ideally creating less waste or toxicity

Cleantech companies and technolgoy include those related to water purification, air quality nanotechnology, alternative fuels, manufacturing, recycling and renewable energy such as solar, wind and hydrogen.

Increasingly, venture capitalists, as well as traditional financial firms, are looking towards new and emerging technologies for unique investment opportunities. Cleantech provides such an avenue.

Hybrid

A hybrid vehicle or gas-electric hybrid powered vehicle uses a mixture of technologies such as internal combustion engines (ICEs), electric motors, gassoline, and batteries.Today's hybrid cars are driven by electric motors powered by both batteries and an ICE. Please see Gas-Electric Hybrid for further clarification of what the word hybrid is describing with regards to these vehicles.

Ethanol

Ethanol is a clean-burning fuel made from grain alcohol produced from assorted crops usually corn. It is commonly used used in combination with traditional gasoline, usually in a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% unleaded gasoline and called E-85.