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Plus: New grants, projects, and the new master plan for reversing climate change.
Need power in California? Got green waste? Contact us APL is now expanding into project development in California––operating its own equipment for on-site power and heat generation, focusing initially on sites that can net meter with the utility grid and have green waste onsite they’re paying to dispose of.
As we’ve mentioned previously, California is in the midst of a solid waste crisis, driven by the twin drivers of closing biomass plants and a forest health crisis that’s killed hundreds of millions of trees. We can help you lower your electricity bills and waste disposal costs at the same time. To contact us to discuss your project, email info@allpowerlabs.com or call toll-free +1 888-252-5324.
APL wins new grants from the California Energy Commission The State of California has long been a leader on environmental issues, and has historically invested early in promising technologies. That’s certainly true with biomass-to-energy projects: in the last several months, APL has been awarded $3 million in competitive grants from the CEC, and is shortlisted for $3 million more. The first $1.5 million […]
Flexible clean energy that helps solve climate change?
That’s what the LA Times calls biomass gasification from All Power Labs– “one of the most promising technologies” to help solve the forest health crisis in California. Last week the Los Angeles Times, California’s largest newspaper, published an editorial exploring solutions for one of the toughest problems facing the Golden State: how to preserve our leadership on climate change while dealing with a crippling multi-year drought that has left more than 100 million trees dead. The solution is to convert all that dead biomass into on-demand energy, and along the way do something impactful to address climate change. Click The Image Below For Link To Article
The piece sums up the climate potential well: “Aside from their main output, electricity (which can be fed into the grid), the units generate a key byproduct, biochar, a charcoal-like substance that is almost pure carbon. When applied to soil, biochar stimulates plant growth and reduces water consumption, which makes it a valuable commodity in water-stressed California fields. In essence, biochar is carbon that would otherwise have been released into the atmosphere, which makes All Power’s gasification process not just carbon neutral but carbon negative.” […]
Fall in the United States is known for the colors in New England, as trees turn to the warm shades of autumn before dropping their leaves. That sort of change historically wasn’t common here California, where our forests are mostly evergreen pine trees. At least, that used to be true–but not anymore.
Thanks to drought and climate change, there are now 66 million dead trees in California, a number that may triple by year’s end. That’s almost one million linear miles of dead biomass, enough to stretch to the moon and back twice. But, when combined with a forward thinking energy policy, this crisis is also creating an unique opportunity to solve the twin challenges of affordable renewable energy and climate change at the same time. APL’s Tom Price just published this Medium post that outlines what’s at risk, and how APL’s gasification solution could save not only California, but the whole planet.
If after reading this piece you’re interested in seeing the new 150kW Powertainer in person, please see below for an upcoming event at our Berkeley factory.
More APL news: National Science Foundation awards All Power Labs $225,000 grant to develop next-generation reactor. […]
Two years in the field and counting — APL technology passes key new product milestone
As world leaders gather in New York this week to celebrate Earth Day, and to sign the COP21 Paris Climate Accords, here at APL we’ve been doing some celebrating of our own.
If you have been in the renewable energy field for a while, you know that new technologies don’t come along that often, and rarer still are the ones that pass two years of service in the field.
That is why we’re so pleased to announce that our v5 Power Pallets have just done exactly that. For two years now, even through the Ebola crisis, the BWI Renewable Energy Center in Kakata, Liberia has been making free energy for their school from biomass (in their case using expired rubber tree chips as fuel) via three of our Power Pallets.
To celebrate this key product validation milestone, last month we held an Open House at BWI. Our local staff showed off their work to local dignitaries, NGOs, and business leaders, and as a result of their successes negotiations are now underway to expand the project.
This project was originally sponsored by […]
APL events all summer long
At APL we love talking about how biomass gasification can address the twin challenges of energy access and climate change, while providing a meaningful solution to solid waste problems. So we regularly host events, like this recent tour for local science and technology students.
But even by our outgoing standards, the next months have an exceptionally heavy schedule. In addition to the events below, we’re also going to be commissioning projects in Ghana, Benin, Liberia, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and many more, as we continue our work to make on demand, renewable, carbon negative energy available everywhere. We hope to see you (somewhere) soon.
Thursday, May 12th 6:30pm — Movie release and technology display, Berkeley Come see the powerful new film about climate change and citizen activism “How to let go of the world and love all the things climate can’t change,” by Josh Fox, Emmy award winning director of “Gasland.” Time: 6:30pm Location: La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Avenue. RSVP for free tickets here. APL’s Power Pallet is featured in the film, and we’ll have one outside after to show off to the audience.
Friday, May 13th 5-7pm — Monthly Open House […]
Gasification has been famously described as “all variables, all the time,” and wrangling those variables into a tractable form has been our work at All Power Labs since starting out with the GEK kit back in 2OO8. Since then, we’ve released five complete generations of our gasification systems, and today Power Pallets are at work in more than 3O countries on six continents, and are supporting research at dozens of universities.
They deliver high-quality energy for productive use by turning waste biomass into on-demand, renewable, carbon-negative energy for far less than the cost of solar or diesel. (A recent video from the Huffington Post highlights the Power Pallet’s potential impact on rural electrification.)
However, our technology can always be made better, and we are constantly making changes to improve its performance and ease of use. The purpose of today’s note then is to highlight the most significant changes that have been implemented over the last several months. We’ve made a strong value proposition even stronger. Take a look:
Pyroreactor
As of today, all Power Pallets now include the new 5.02 version of our pyroreactor (shown here on the left being manufactured this week in our shop in […]
We got a great climate deal at COP21–now what?
We should all be rightly happy about the outcome of the COP21 climate accords. Now comes the hard and exciting work–how do we reach these climate targets? The answers are sobering, and one take away is absolutely clear: solar and wind alone won’t do it. We’ll need carbon negative energy, and on a massive scale.
APL brought a big team to COP21 to share a simple message: affordable, renewable, carbon negative energy from biomass is here, and ready to help solve the twin challenges of energy access and climate change.
Paris was a fantastic time to discuss climate friendly energy with so many committed players all in one location, such as Andrew Herscowitz (top), the head of the Power Africa program, California’s Senate leader and renewable energy champion Kevin de Leon (bottom), and many more.
The importance of carbon negative energy bears repeating; as our friend Noah Deich at the UC Berkeley Center for Carbon Removal points out, almost every single scenario to get us to below +2 Celsius warming has to include large scale deployments of carbon removal technology. (Click here to read an early draft of […]
The first week is finished at COP21, with less than a week to go until the deal is (hopefully) done. APL is attending these climate accord meetings to raise awareness about the potential of biomass gasification + biochar to make carbon negative energy. Gasification + biochar is a rare solution that can offset and replace fossil fuel emissions for contemporary power generation, as well as capture and and sequester additional carbon against previous fossil emissions. It is both fossil offsetting generation and atmospheric carbon drawdown together. The result is quite a few “a ha’s” at our booth with consequential folk, so we’re happy with the outcome and our ability to contribute to the exchange of ideas so far.
There are tens of thousands of delegates, activists, and business leaders here, all working to find common ground on which they can hammer out a binding agreement on limiting climate change. It is a rare gathering of the world working with seriousness to solve the ultimate problem of the commons. The main thing that has struck all the APL staff here is the seriousness of the project, and the willingness of various interest to promote solutions that are beyond their immediate self […]
Carbon negative renewable energy : a solution for climate, energy access, and human dignity
Or, why we’re going to Paris, and you should be, too (even if just in spirit)
Next week, the COP21 finale to two decades of climate talks will be starting in Paris. The goal is to finally wrangle the long and messy debate over the Earth commons into a binding accord and roadmap to avert disaster on our small blue dot.
APL will be in attendance at COP21, showing our machinery for carbon negative power generation in the La Galerie Des Solutions, just outside the Blue Zone at Le Bourget. The “Gasification + Biochar” = Carbon Negative Energy” solution for generating power while simultaneously drawing down atmospheric CO2 levels has not received adequate attention on the global policy stage. We hope to change this a bit with our presence in Paris next week. You are invited to join us if you can. We have free passes to give out for access to the main expo area. Write us at info@allpowerlabs.com if you would like one, or to set up an appointment time to talk. Also, if your organization is holding an […]
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