Nebraska firm wants utilities to burn corn
NEBRASKA - A Nebraska company is trying to persuade utilities to try burning its corn pellets instead of coal to help meet renewable fuel goals.
Next Step Biofuels' Russ Zeeck says the corn pellets his company makes burn like coal, but they are made out of corn stalks, leafs and cobs left behind after harvest.
Zeeck says Next Step is in talks with several utilities about using the corn pellets starting sometime in 2010.
Coal-fired power plants can burn the corn pellets along with coal, and that makes it easier for a utility to use a renewable biomass fuel at its existing plant.
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Japanese utilities buy into vast offshore wind farm in UK
TOKYO - Two of Japan's biggest power companies will buy around 40% of a German-owned developer of offshore wind farms in the U.K., seeking to learn from Britain's lead in this sector and bring the know-how back home.
Tokyo-based Electric Power Development, better known as J-Power, will join Osaka regional utility Kansai Electric Power in investing in a unit of Germany's Innogy.
The deal, estimated to be worth around $900 million, will give J-Power a 25% stake and Kansai Electric a roughly 16% share. It will mark the first investment in an offshore wind project by Japanese power companies.
Innogy plans to start…
