Conference Agenda:
Pre-Conference Workshop: Monday, April 21st/ 8:30am-4:30pm
General Session: Tuesday April 22nd/ 9:00 - 11:30 am
Manufacturer Sessions:
Tuesday, April 22nd/ 11:30am-4:30pm
Wednesday, April 23rd/ 11:30am-4:30pm
Thursday, April 24th/ 11:30am-1:30pm
Track Classes:
Wednesday, April 23rd/ 9am-2pm
Thursday, April 24th/ 9am-2pm
Monday April 21, 2008
Pre-Conference Workshop: Ballroom B
Addressing The National Energy Plan, The National Fire Plan and The Healthy Forests Initiative Through Woody Biomass Utilization.
Click on the link above to read more about the Pre-Conference Workshop.
Pre-Conference Workshop Agenda
8:00am-8:45am- Registration, Coffee, Networking
8:50am-9:00am- Welcome and Introductions
9:00am-9:40am- Jerry Payne, Biomass Specialist, USDA/Forest Service
"USDA Forest Service and Biomass"
9:45am-10:30am- Ken Smith, Director, New Mexico Forest and Watershed Restoration Institute
“Build It And Wood Will Come: The Weak Link In Biomass Energy”
There are many good reasons to promote biomass energy in the Southwestern US and one of the best is to find a profitable use for the small diameter wood that is costly to remove in large-scale forest restoration. Unfortunately, many of the biomass energy projects proposed in New Mexico focus on issues related to energy policy and the technology of the biomass energy system, and they largely ignore the complex issues related to the wood supply chain. Learn about accurate assessments of accessible wood volumes, transport distances and costs, the reliability and availability of the work force in the woods, tree harvesting and wood processing techniques and costs, and wood storage on site are every bit as important as the details related to the design of the energy producing plant.
10:30am-10:45am- Break, Network
10:45am-11:25am- Joanna Prukop, Cabinet Secretary, Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, State of New Mexico
" New Mexico and the Energy, Minerals & Natural Resources Department Working Together On Biomass Initiatives”
Learn how NM and especially EMNRD are interpreting and implementing the National Fire Plan in conjunction with The National Energy Plan and what NM is doing of its own initiative.
11:30am-12:15pm- Fred Mondragon, Cabinet Secretary, New Mexico Economic Development Department
“Biomass Utilization And The Potential Impact On New Mexico’s Economy”
12:15pm-1:15pm- Lunch
1:15pm-1:55pm- Mark Sardella, Executive Director, Local Energy
“Policies For Stimulating Rural Economies With Biomass”
Learn how forest thinning projects can benefit and stimulate rural economies through the utilization of biomass as a renewable energy.
2:00pm-2:45pm- John Waconda, Regional Forester, Bureau of Indian Affairs
"A New Look at Wood as an Energy Source on Tribal Lands"
After centuries of utilizing natural resources for the sustenance of Native American tribes and culture, tribes who are endowed with wood resources are afforded a new twist to the reliance of wood as an energy source, much different than the traditional cooking and heating methods. This presentation will highlight opportunities and ideas utilizing tribal resources in the development of woody biomass energy projects.
2:45pm-3:00pm- Break, Network
3:00pm-3:45pm- JD Lindeberg, P.E., RRS Principal and Chief Financial Officer
“Ascertaining Adequate Feedstock for Biomass Facility Development”
During the acquisition or development of biomass power plants, fuel supply often presents the biggest unknown. Unlike traditional fuel power plants there are no forward contracts, fancy derivatives or useful long-term agreements that can match the financing terms. Many times fuel suppliers have little in the way of certainty that they can provide beyond the security of handshake agreements and a few depreciated pieces of equipment.
But deals are still getting done. So, how are the debt and equity financial partners getting comfortable width='100%' with pricing and availability of fuel supply? There are a variety of tools that provide insight into the fuel marketplace that are available to developers and acquirers of biomass plants. They include:
- Fuel availability and characterization
- Fuel pricing and sensitivity to shifts in demand and supply
- Avoid carbon credits
- Financial transportation and processing models
- Wasteshed cost of disposal models
- Competitor analyses projecting future fuel demand and pricing
3:50pm-4:30pm- Q and A
4:30pm-5:00pm- Closing Remarks
6:00pm- 8:00pm- Southwestern Society of American Foresters Spring 2008 Meeting
Tuesday April 22, 2008
General Session:
8:00am -9:00am- Registration, Coffee, Network
9:00am- Welcome, Introductions
9:05am-9:35am- Opening Presenter: Albuquerque Mayor, Martin Chavez
Recently, Mayor Martin Chavez and the City of Albuquerque were awarded the United States Conference of Mayors, Climate Protection Award, for outstanding and innovative practices in increasing energy efficiency and championing the fight on global warming.
Albuquerque received top honors in the Large City Category by beating out over 100 other large cities across the nation including Minneapolis, New York and Chicago.
9:45am-11:30am- Featured Presentation:
Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth Slide Show
Presented By:
The Climate Project
The Climate Project provides volunteer speakers from around the country who have been trained to present a version of the slide show on which the Academy Award- winning film, An Inconvenient Truth, is based.
Manufacturer Sessions
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Isleta
11:30am-4:30pm—Rebecca Thistlethwaite, Director of Programs, Agriculture & Land- Based Training Association (ALBA)
Sponsored by the New Mexico Forest Industry Association (NMFIA)
“Shaking The Federal Money Tree: Accessing Federal Funds For Your Innovative Farm, Forest, and Fuel Projects”
There are literally hundreds of federal grant, loan, and cost-share programs that fund farm, forest, fuel, renewable energy, and rural development projects. Do you want to know about them? Do you have an idea that might be worthy of funding? Learn what funders look for in a grant application to promote the success of your proposal. Speaker Rebecca Thistlethwaite is the Western Region Coordinator for the Michael Fields Agriculture Institute Grant Writing Assistance Project, providing grant-writing training and proposal assistance to limited-resource and socially-disadvantaged producers. She works for the Agriculture and Land-based Training Assoc., in Salinas, CA. She has co-authored many successful grant proposals and managed numerous grant-funded projects.
11:30am-1:30pm Grant-Writing 101 and Review of Federal Programs
1:30-2pm Break
2-4:30pm Small group and individual assistance on organizing your grant proposal. Bring laptops or pen and paper and be prepared to work on flushing out your ideas.
Laguna
2:30-4:30pm—David Blume, International Institute for Ecological Agriculture and author of Alcohol Can Be A Gas!
Profitable Small Scale Alcohol: Valuable Co-products, Marketing and Retail Distribution
Alcohol is a commodity and a cheap one at that. The keys to profitability in a well run small scale alcohol operation are getting good margins and produce value added by-products. These co-products are actually worth much more than the alcohol and provide income stability when alcohol or feedstock prices become volatile. Learn unique, valuable insight into designing your small-scale alcohol business.
Apache
2:30-4:30pm—Peggy Korth
Sponsored by Sustainable Technology Systems
How to Implement a Community Feasibility Study and Data Collection Basics
Small commercial biofuels systems target farmer and community needs. Feasibility establishes production parameters, growth projections, and financial support information. Realistic planning considers feedstock availability, production capabilities, automation benefits, distribution, and value-added co-products. Data collection addresses permitting, compliance, safety, metering verification, and cost control’s monitoring. Learn the basics for personal business plan development assuring success for establishing your biofuels production plant.
Jemez
2:30-4:30pm—Michael Martin Meléndrez, Soil Secrets
Native Trees, and the Nuts and Bolts of Making Healthy Soils
Green Building , Carbon Neutral Footprints and Sustainability are all hot topics in today's business world. With this, there's a lot of Green Washing and pseudo science that needs to be waded through. An often neglected part of building a green building is the outdoor space including the landscape and all plants grown in planters - indoors and out. With water such a huge issue in all western urban areas, we must learn how to build sustainable and minimum water landscapes that are really green. Green is critical as that is where all the action is for sequestering atmospheric carbon into the soil, the largest carbon bank on earth. It's the simplest part of a building and a part that most of us have some degree of control over, giving us a personal method to reduce our carbon footprint
Michael wears many hats in his professional life and has been working in the venue of tree production and soil remediation for over 30 years. He's the owner of New Mexico's only tree production facility that focuses on the propagation and growing of the Chihuahuan Desert native trees, Trees That Please! He's also owns the only business entity in the Southwest or Rocky Mountain region, that can commercially produce the mutualistic mycorrhizae fungi most plants need, Soil Secrets LLC. Finally, Michael is the only professional scientist on staff with the USDA ARS Woody Plant Germplasm Committee where he represents the entire Southwest.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Isleta
11:30am-4:30pm—Rebecca Thistlethwaite, Director of Programs, Agriculture & Land- Based Training Association (ALBA)
Sponsored by the New Mexico Forest Industry Association (NMFIA)
“Shaking The Federal Money Tree: Accessing Federal Funds For Your Innovative Farm, Forest, and Fuel Projects”
There are literally hundreds of federal grant, loan, and cost-share programs that fund farm, forest, fuel, renewable energy, and rural development projects. Do you want to know about them? Do you have an idea that might be worthy of funding? Learn what funders look for in a grant application to promote the success of your proposal. Speaker Rebecca Thistlethwaite is the Western Region Coordinator for the Michael Fields Agriculture Institute Grant Writing Assistance Project, providing grant-writing training and proposal assistance to limited-resource and socially-disadvantaged producers. She works for the Agriculture and Land-based Training Assoc., in Salinas, CA. She has co-authored many successful grant proposals and managed numerous grant-funded projects.
11:30am-1:30pm Grant-Writing 101 and Review of Federal Programs
1:30-2pm Break
2-4:30pm Small group and individual assistance on organizing your grant proposal. Bring laptops or pen and paper and be prepared to work on flushing out your ideas.
Laguna
2:30-4:30pm—David Blume, International Institute for Ecological Agriculture and author of Alcohol Can Be A Gas!
You Can Run WHAT On Alcohol? Converting Gas or Diesel Vehicles, Plus Heating, Cooling and Cooking With Alcohol.
The alcohol fuel vehicle of tomorrow is what you are driving right now. Learn about how your car, truck, tractor or other equipment, even your chainsaw can be easily converted to run on inexpensive alcohol. Many of these techniques only cost between $50-300. Also learn how alcohol is superior to fossil fuels in almost every way from octane levels to pollution and engine wear.
Thursday April 24, 2008
Jemez
11:30am-1:30pm—Michael Martin Meléndrez, Soil Secrets
Native Trees, and the Nuts and Bolts of Making Healthy Soils
Green Building , Carbon Neutral Footprints and Sustainability are all hot topics in today's business world. With this, there's a lot of Green Washing and pseudo science that needs to be waded through. An often neglected part of building a green building is the outdoor space including the landscape and all plants grown in planters - indoors and out. With water such a huge issue in all western urban areas, we must learn how to build sustainable and minimum water landscapes that are really green. Green is critical as that is where all the action is for sequestering atmospheric carbon into the soil, the largest carbon bank on earth. It's the simplest part of a building and a part that most of us have some degree of control over, giving us a personal method to reduce our carbon footprint
Track Classes:
Wednesday April 23, 2008
8am-8:45am-Registration
9-9:15am--Welcome and Introductions
9:15-10:30am—Peggy Korth, Sustainable Technology Systems
“Small Scale Energy and Fuel Production for Farmers”
Grassroots biofuels production supports a tremendous opportunity for self-sustaining practices by farmers and communities merging cooperative interests for production networks, rural economic development, and community well-being. Access to processing basic energy requirements frees fundamental providers from political and economic restraints revolving around energy availability. Well designed, cost effective biofuels facilities are available to address looming energy deficits. Learn how here.
10:30-10:45am—Break
10:45-12noon—Tim Maker, BERC, Biomass Energy Resource Center
“ New Community-Scale Uses and Markets for Low-Grade Wood”
This presentation will be of interest to companies and individuals, including foresters, who are looking for new markets for low-grade wood as well as to state and federal agency decision-makers involved in energy and forestry issues. New market demands for low-grade wood will be discussed, including: community-scale heat and combined heat and power (CHP) systems (for schools, college campuses, and other public and institutional uses); pellet plants; cellulosic ethanol and integrated bio-refineries; bio-oil production; and new wood-fired power plants. The scale, demand on the wood resource, and efficiency of these various technologies will be compared. The role of increasing crude oil prices as a driver for developing new markets for low-grade wood will be explored. Finally, the concept of “Local Energy” – where renewable energy, climate change, sustainable forestry, and local economic development intersect – will be discussed, with many examples of community-scale uses of wood energy.
12noon-12:45pm--Lunch
12:45-2pm—Eric Vigil, USDA/Rural Development
“USDA Rural Development Energy Program”
2-2:30pm—Q & A with Peggy Korth, Tim Maker and Eric Vigil
Thursday April 24, 2008
8am-8:45am--Registration
9-9:15am--Welcome and Introductions
9:15-10:30am—Peggy Korth, Sustainable Technology Systems
“Alternate Energy Crop Efficiencies for On-Farm Funding”
Expand your vision for practical energy crop potential. Serious studies qualify for on-farm grants in regional locations. Learn to address essential elements of on-farm grant application as applied to your potential. Develop a reasonable plan combined with additional benefits such as remediation in a cattail/ ethanol and clean-water project. With or without funding support, a plan is important to foresigh
10:30-10:45am—Break
10:45-12noon—Dave Blume, International Institute of Ecological Agriculture
“Weird Alcohol Feedstocks, High Profit, High Yield, Ecological Alternatives To Corn”
If you read the papers you would think that only corn and cellulose in giant plants are the choices for alcohol fuel production. Come learn about a wide array of crops that can flourish in deserts, marshes, marginal farmland, or rotate with other crops on prime soil. Also learn about waste products that can be used and even how to get alcohol from ocean products.
12noon-12:45pm--Lunch
12:45-2pm—Jim Brooks, Soilutions and Krista Bonfantine, Arid Land Innovations
“The Value Of Improving Watershed Health With Woody Biomass”
Forest residuals are increasingly utilized in erosion control and storm-water management applications. The increased utilization is creating new markets and opportunities for historically un-merchantable material. Biomass-based, value-added products include compost, landscaping mulch, and wattles or filter socks.
Our presentation will highlight the benefits of using forest residuals to improve watershed functionality. We will describe specific techniques for using slash to enhance water quality and water quantity on the landscape. Plus project planning, biomass volume, transportation and site considerations and relationships between urban watershed management and the role of litter in forest ecology and hydrology will also be discussed.
2-2:30pm—Q & A with Peggy Korth, Dave Blume, Jim Brooks and Krista Bonfantine
Featured Educators:
Peggy Korth- Sustainable Technology Systems, Water Assurance Technology Energy Resources
Timothy M. Maker- Biomass Energy Resource Center
Eric Vigil - USDA/ Rural Development
David Blume- International Institute of Ecological Agriculture
James Brooks- Soilutions
Doug Stewart- The Climate Project
Krista Bonfantine- Arid Land Innovation, LLC /New Mexico Recycling Coalition
Mayor Martin Chavez- Mayor of Albuquerque
We have filled all of the speaking positions for the track classes as well as the Pre-Conference Workshop for the 2008 Conference. However, we will continue to accept abstracts for the 2009 conference. Please send any material for review to the address below.
daniel@newworldbiomass.com
