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COMPOSTING FLEXIBILITY

twice weekly thereafter with a Wildcat turner. Three buckets were partially filled with equal masses of compost, based on the water absorbency of the compost used to generate the tea, and filled to a 30 cm depth with water. Contents from the buckets were then filtered through grain sacks and a strainer. Note the authors: "Practical application of custom designed compost teas would apparently require at least 60 days of lead time based upon results, but will require further study. Nevertheless, there does appear to be promise with this method to dramatically reduce air pollution by not burning and potentially improve water or soil quality as well." To get the latest issue of CS&U along with a full year's subscription for $99, call (610) 967-4135 ext. 21, or e-mail biocycle@igpress.com with your subscription order.

AERATION AND FEEDSTOCKS IN COMPOST TEAS EXAMINED BY CANADIAN RESEARCHERS


In another paper on compost tea in the Winter 2006 issue of Compost Science & Utilization, staff at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in British Columbia examined residual pathogenic strains of E. coli in compost teas. They explained that "since microbial density in teas is assumed to reflect tea quality, teas are supplemented with additional nutrients to promote growth of compost microbes." However, they concluded, these nutrients are not selective and are also accessible to undesirable microorganisms that may be present in the compost due to inadequate composting or improper handling. They also note that "addition of carrot juice to teas significantly reduce growth of . coli under aerobic and anaerobic conditions." Researchers at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada are Tissa Kannangara, Tom Forge and Betty Dang.

MAJOR FINANCIAL INVESTORS AND BIG COMPANIES SEE PROFITS IN RENEWABLE ENERGY
For General Electric's Energy Financial Services, renewable energy projects already account for $1 billion of the unit's $11 billion portfolio and are its fastest growing niche. "I hope it will account for 20 or 30 percent of our investments in five years," says the unit's president J. Alex Urquhart. Lorraine Bolsinger who directs G.E.'s Ecomagination program is running "financial projects through the scorecard process" to see which ones should be included in G.E.'s list of green products. Writes Claudia Deutsch of The New York Times (2/15/06) in an article, "Investors Are Tilting Toward Windmills": "General Electric's Energy Financial Services division recently bought a wind farm in Germany and is installing new turbines there at a rapid pace. It has invested in solar energy farms in California and is in the end stage of negotiations for a large solar project in Europe." GE Energy Financial Services has been taking tentative steps toward biomass generation. It has a small in-

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vestment in plants that burn woodchips for fuel. It is also seeking advice about potential biofuel investments from Jenbacher. an Austrian company that G.E. bought in 2003 that makes generators that run on methane gas emitted from landfills. And G.E. is also checking in Washington about what kind of rulemaking is "evolving around the biofuei idea." According to Deutsch, other financial institutions are investing in the U.S. renewable energy industry which for 2005 had $250 million targeting biofuels (like ethanol), biomass at $100 million, solar thermal-electric at $100 million, and wind power at $200 million. In November, Goldman Sachs committed to investing $1 billion in renewable energy; J.P. Morgan Chase will invest more than $250 million in wind energy projects. Overall, predicts the president of the nonprofit American Council on Renewable Energy, the $7 billion invested in renewable energy projects last year should increase by 25 percent a year over the next few years.

STANDARDIZING EVALUATIONS OF SYSTEMS PERFORMANCE USED FOR BIOGAS UTILIZATION


A new consortium has heen launched to standardize evaluations of system performance used hy livestock producers for biogas production and utilization. The information was provided hy Joseph Visalli, Director of Energy Resources, Environmental Research and Renewable Portfolio Standard at the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority based in Albany. Each of the state organizations that are cofunding the evaluation project New York, California, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, North Carolina, Mississippi, Washington and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District are members of ASERTTI the Association of State Energy Research and Technology Transfer Institutions. Each of the states has contracted with ASERTTI for cofunding purposes. U.S. EPA is a cofounder and USDA will participate. "We

are also talking to Quebec about joining the consortium," adds Visalli. Many livestock producers are reluctant to invest in anaerobic digesters due to uncertainty about process performance and recovering the capital invested. The primary source of uncertainty appears to be conflicting data about process performance due to lack of generally accepted methodology... Anecdotal information suggests that commercial lending institutions are also reluctant, so the potential for renewable energy is heing unnecessarily constrained. ASERTTI members agreed that a generally accepted protocol for performance is a critical need. With the establishment of standard methods for quantifying performance of manurial biogas systems, questions ahout the validity of data in a national database would be addressed. The first project task was preparation hy Hall Associates of performance assessments, with new design strategies. The second focused on assessing system performance stability and reli-

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