For those following the progress of Brampton, Ontario-based SunOpta with its cellulosic ethanol strategy, the company put out a press release describing some of the projects it is currently working on. Some of them we’ve heard about before, but here’s the breakdown:

China Resources Alcohol Corporation — CRAC has announced their intention to construct sufficient cellulosic ethanol facilities to generate 330 million gallons of ethanol by 2012. SunOpta provided its patented systems and technology to CRAC in September 2006 and the plant began production of ethanol from local corn stover in October 2006. This facility is reported to be the first cellulosic ethanol production facility operational in the People’s Republic of China. The SunOpta system is currently operating on a continuous basis and steps are currently being taken to scale the SunOpta process up to full commercial levels for use in future plants in China. China has committed $5 billion to cellulosic ethanol production and recently announced that they would allow no further increase in ethanol production from starch (corn), due to the needs for starch as food. China’s announcement illustrates the “Food vs. Fuel” issue, which continues to be a key driver for cellulosic ethanol worldwide, together with concerns regarding the impact of the world’s “addiction to oil” on the environment and energy security.

Abengoa Bioenergy R&D Inc. — Key components of SunOpta’s patented equipment and technology have recently been shipped to Spain for the start up of the Abengoa wheat straw to ethanol facility located in Salamanca, Spain. This project is expected to start up in the summer of 2007 and will be the first commercial production facility in the world producing cellulosic ethanol from wheat straw. Abengoa is the largest producer of ethanol in Europe.

Celunol Inc. — SunOpta’s patented equipment and technology will be used in a new Celunol facility being built in Jennings, Louisiana, to produce ethanol from sugarcane bagasse and wood. This will be the first commercial production of cellulosic ethanol plant in the United States and is scheduled to start up in the summer of 2007.

GreenField Ethanol Inc. — SunOpta has recently announced the formation of a Joint Venture with GreenField Ethanol Inc., Canada’s largest producer of ethanol. The purpose of this Joint Venture is to design, build and jointly own and operate plants producing ethanol from wood chips. The first plant is planned to produce 10 million gallons of ethanol per year, which achieves the widely-accepted threshold for commercial scale cellulosic ethanol production and will demonstrate the immediate commercial viability of cellulosic ethanol.

These are great projects. I’m particularly interested in the Chinese projects, given the country’s concern over the use of corn for ethanol production. Let’s also keep in mind that a country such as China, which is vulnerable to water scarcity (even more so with climate-change events), wants to minimize its use of irrigation on crops devoted to fuel. This could potentially be a huge market for SunOpta. Notice also that SunOpta has these projects spread out in key market representing North America, Europe and China.

This just in on the wire. EEStor Inc. says the automated production line built for its new energy storage system “has been proven to meet the requirements for precise chemical delivery, purity control, parameter control and stability.”

The company continues by saying it has completed the initial milestone of certifying the purification, concentration and stability of its key production chemicals, “notably the attainment of 99.9994 per cent purity of its barium nitrate powder.”

The company said the independent third-party testing and analysis was done by Southwest Research Institute Inc. in San Antonio, Texas. It said that with these milestones completed it can now move on to producing its barium titanate powders (on its production line) and powder certification.

Here’s the kicker: The first commercial application of the EESU is intended to be used in electric vehicles under a technology agreement with ZENN Motors Company. EEStor, Inc. remains on track to begin shipping production 15 kilowatt-hour Electrical Energy Storage Units (EESU) to ZENN Motor Company in 2007 for use in their electric vehicles. The production EESU for ZENN Motor Company will function to specification in operating environments as sever as negative 20 to plus 65 degrees Celsius, will weigh less than 100 pounds, and will have ability to be recharged in a matter of minutes.

Perhaps most impressive with the release is that EEStor is now out of the closest and talking about its technology. This is important, because it means it is confident enough to publicly defend the nature and performance of its breakthrough. Hopefully we’ll get more updates like this as the year progresses. It seems as though ZENN Motor Co. (formerly Feel Good Cars) will serve as the initial test market for the real-life performance of these systems.

My big question is, wouldn’t these systems have to go through some kind of major safety review and certification before being installed in commercially available vehicles? Either way, an important step that we’ll all be watching very closely and with great hope and expectations.

As I suspected the Harper government is throwing a bit more money at cleantech R&D and demonstration, with a focus on “key priorities that include carbon dioxide sequestration, clean coal, clean oil sands production and renewable energy.” Notice how renewable energy is the last one mentioned.

The commitment? A not so whopping $230 million invested over four years in a program called the ecoEnergy Technology Initiative. What’s not clear is whether this will be part of Sustainable Development Technology Canada (created by the Liberals), how the money will be invested, and whether the money is actually new or part of SDTC’s existing budget.

SDTC, which began allocating funds in April 2002, began with a budget of $550 million. So far it has funded nine rounds and allocated $241 million. The rest will be allocated by 2010, working out to an average of $61 million a year. Of interest is that SDTC funds projects on a 1:2 basis, meaning for every dollar SDTC invests $2 must come from the private sector/industry.

What the Conservatives announced today equals $57.5 million a year. So, if it is merely announcing money that SDTC already has, then, this is a pathetic announcement. If it’s new money, then that would amount to a doubling of clean investment over the next four years — not bad, but not necessarily enough.

So either way, I find this announcement underwhelming.

UPDATE: The Conservatives say they won’t provide details of how this $230 million will be allocated until April (likely after an election, surprise, surprise). They have hinted it will likely be invested as part of some public-private partnerships, which is the approach SDTC is taking. That said, a source at SDTC told me their budget remains in tact and completely separate from this announcement, so the $230 million appears so far to be *new* money. But again, we won’t know details until April.

Great article in New Scientist magazine this month that looks at the potential of flow batteries as an energy-storage system for intermittent renewables such as wind. Near the end of the piece there is discussion of B.C.-based VRB Power, which is nice to see. Worth a read. (You need a subscription to access the link, so if you don’t try this alternative.)

So, we read in the National Post today that the Harper government is going to set near-term emissions targets and announce a bunch of other environmental initiatives over the next few weeks, including a relaunching/repackaging of some Liberal programs (ironically, programs the Conservatives killed!). And also today, the press is notified of an event Wednesday where Environment Minister John Baird and Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn will announce “new funding for the development of clean-energy technologies in Canada.”

Of interest is that Vicky Sharpe, CEO of Sustainable Development Technology Canada, will be part of this announcement. I’m not surprised. Sources tell me that the Harper government is quite fond of SDTC because investment in clean technologies is one area they have talked very enthusiastically about — i.e. turning global warming and environmental degradation into an economic opportunity by developing exportable technologies. SDTC has done a good job so far, so I imagine the feds are going to throw more money at them. I also have a hunch that any new money will be earmarked for investment in “clean” coal, carbon capture and sequestration, and other technologies that will make oil sands development and the burning of fossil fuels more acceptable to Canadians.

I’m not going to argue with the need to invest in these areas, but we also need to stop dwelling on research and development and start deploying existing technologies that can have a dramatic impact today.

Anyone care to speculate on the possible details of this announcement? Anyone have insight into this?