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In February US company LanzaJet, which produces sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from ethanol, announced that it intended to build a second, larger plant on US soil.
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was a "big influence", says Jimmy Samartzis, its chief executive.
The second plant would add to its facility in Soperton, Georgia - the world's first commercial scale ethanol-to-SAF plant.
"We have a global landscape that we are pursuing…[but] we have doubled down on building here in the United States because of the tax credits in the IRA, and because of the overall support system that the US government has put in place."
Signed into law by President Biden in August 2022, the IRA, along with the so-called Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) enacted in November 2021, are intended, amongst other things, to funnel billions of federal dollars into developing clean energy.
The aim is to lower greenhouse gas emissions, and incentivise private investment, to encourage the growth of green industries and jobs: a new foundation for the US economy.
With a 10-year lifespan, and a cost originally estimated at $391bn (£310bn) but now predicted to reach over $1tn - the final figure is unknown - the IRA offers new and juicer tax credits, as well as loans and loan guarantees for the deployment of emissions reducing technology.
The tax credits are available to companies for either domestically producing clean energy, or domestically manufacturing the equipment needed for the energy transition, including electric vehicles (EVs) and batteries.
Consumers can also receive tax credits, for example for buying an EV or installing a heat pump. The tax credit for SAF producers like LanzaJet is new in the IRA and, offers between $1.25 to $1.75 per gallon of SAF (though it only lasts five years).
Complementary is the BIL, which runs for five years and provides direct investment largely in the form of government grants for research and development and capital projects. Under the BIL, about $77bn (£61bn) will go to clean energy technology projects, according to the Brookings Institution which monitors the law.
One company to benefit so far is EV battery recycling company Ascend Elements.
It has won BIL grants totalling $480m (£380m), which it is matching a similar amount in private investment to build its second commercial facility in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.
"[The IRA and BIL] are massive investments… larger than the infrastructure related provisions in the New Deal," says Adie Tromer from the Brookings. "There is a clear sense that America has become more serious about transitioning to a cleaner economy."
While rules for some tax credits are still being finalized, tens of billions in actual public spending is flowing into the economy, says Trevor Houser at the Rhodium Group, an independent research provider. Rhodium, together with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, runs the Clean Investment Monitor (CIM) to track US clean technology investments.
According to recently updated CIM data, in the 2023 fiscal year, the federal government invested approximately $34bn (£27bn) into clean energy, the vast majority through tax credits.
The extent to which the policy instruments are so far spurring not just announcements - of which there are plenty - but real extra private investment is harder to know: clean energy investment has been on a general upward trend anyway and the IRA hasn't been around long. But experts believe it is rising.
Total clean energy investment in the US in the 2023 calendar year including from both private and government sources reached a record $239bn (£190bn), up 38% from 2022 according to the CIM data.
Clean energy investment in the US, as a share of total private investment, rose from 3.7% in the fourth quarter of 2022 to 5% in the fourth quarter of 2023.
The IRA has had two main positive effects thus far, says Mr. Houser.
It has "supercharged" private investment in more mature technologies which were already growing very rapidly like solar, EVs and batteries.
It has also, combined with the BIL, led to a "dramatic growth" in investment in emerging climate technologies like clean hydrogen, carbon dioxide capture and removal and SAF. While the total magnitude of those investments are still relatively small compared to the more mature technologies, "the IRA fundamentally changed the economics" says Mr. Houser.
But the IRA is failing to reach some parts of the green economy: so far it hasn't lifted investment in more mature technologies which have been falling like wind and heat pumps, though Mr. Houser notes things may have fallen further without the IRA.
On the industry's mind is the fate of the laws, particularly the longer-to-run IRA, should there be a change of government in the US November elections.
Repealing or amending the IRA (or BIL) would require Republican control of the Presidency, Senate and House - though wholesale repeal would likely face meaningful opposition from within. The rub is many of the projects that the IRA is incentivising are being or will be built in Republican states or counties.
Yet a Republican president alone could potentially frustrate things for example by slowing or deferring loans or grants, or amending the rules which serve the laws. "A Trump presidency would definitely chill the atmosphere and possibly more," says Ashur Nissan of Kaya Partners, a climate policy advice firm.
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank and purveyor of hard-right ideas for the next conservative President, advocates repeal for both the IRA and BIL. For the organization's Diana Furchtgott-Roth, a former Trump administration official, it is fiscally irresponsible for the US, with its vast deficit and debt, to be spending like this.
It is also time, she says, that renewable energy such as solar and wind, into which subsidies have been poured for years, stood on their own feet.
Yet others argue the US can't afford not to do take this path. And the point of the loans program is to take risks to help unlock new solutions that scale. "It would be failing if there weren't any so called 'failures' within it," says Richard Youngman, of Cleantech Group, a research and consulting firm.
Meanwhile, the US's approach is putting competitive pressure on Europe to do more.
Some European clean energy manufacturing companies are now building facilities in the US to take advantage of the tax credits that otherwise would have been built in Europe including solar panel maker Meyer Burger and electrolyser manufacturers Nel and John Cockerill.
"The US wasn't a market for some of these companies in the past because Europe was more active," says Brandon Hurlbut, of Boundary Stone Partners, a clean energy advisory firm.
The EU's Net Zero Industrial Act (NZIA) is expected to enter into force this year. It doesn't involve new money, but seeks to coordinate existing financing and introduces domestic favourability for the first time - putting in place a non-binding target for the bloc to locally manufacture 40% of its clean energy equipment needs by 2030.
In the UK, chancellor Jeremy Hunt has made clear he isn't interested, nor can the UK afford to copy the IRA's approach in some "distortive global subsidy race" and will stick to other ways of helping. The Labour party recently scrapped its $28bn green investment plan seen as a stab at leaning into an IRA style policy.
A global audience will be watching as the US's clean energy juggernaut unfolds. And if it leads others to ask what more they can do to produce clean energy products - even if just for reasons of economic opportunity - it will be good for humanity's sake, says Mr. Hurlbut.
#us politics#news#bbc#uk politics#world politics#green energy#clean energy#LanzaJet#sustainable aviation fuel#Inflation Reduction Act#Bipartisan Infrastructure Law#Brookings Institution#electric vehicles#Clean Investment Monitor#european union#Net Zero Industrial Act#Jeremy Hunt#2024
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LanzaJet Opens 'World's First Ethanol to SAF Production Facility' in Georgia
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LanzaJet opens LanzaJet Freedom Pines Fuels, the world’s first ethanol-to-sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production facility, in Soperton, Georgia.
The facility aims to produce 10 million gallons of SAF and renewable diesel annually using sustainable, certified ethanol.
This development aligns with global efforts to reduce aviation emissions, including the U.S. SAF Grand…
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LanzaJet ने अमेरिका में एथेनॉल-टू-सस्टेनेबल एविएशन फ्यूल (SAF) उत्पादन संयंत्र की शुरुआत की है। इस सुविधा में LanzaJet की नवाचारी तकनीक का प्रदर्शन होगा, जो एथेनॉल से SAF उत्पादन को संभावना प्रदान करती है। सुविधा व्हाइट हाउस के SAF ग्रैंड चैलेंज के लक्ष्य के साथ मेल खाती है, जिसका हल 2030 तक सालाना 3 बिलियन गैलन SAF की आपूर्ति करना है। LanzaJet की तकनीक, विमानन उत्सर्जन में कमी लाने के लिए महत्वपूर्ण योगदान करने का लक्ष्य रखती है।
पूरी जानकारी के लिए क्लिक करें - LanzaJet द्वारा अमेरिका में एथेनॉल-टू-SAF उत्पादन प्लांट शुरू
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Bill Gates grant will help LanzaJet make sustainable jet fuel as cheap as fossil fuel for the first time
Bill Gates grant will help LanzaJet make sustainable jet fuel as cheap as fossil fuel for the first time
The burgeoning market for sustainable jet fuel will soon reach a milestone, with a plant capable of turning out for the first time a lower-emission fuel at the same price as fossil fuel-based options. But this price parity will only come as result of a $50 million grant from Bill Gates-led Breakthrough Energy, alongside support from discounted loans and other financial subsidies.
LanzaJet, the…
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LanzaJet takes a step forward in Georgia thanks to Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund
LanzaJet takes a step forward in Georgia thanks to Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund
LanzaJet, a sustainable fuels technology company and renewable fuels producer, has secured financing for its Freedom Pines Fuels plant in Soperton, Georgia, through the Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund. The Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund has made a $50M investment to support the construction of LanzaJet’s (and the world’s) first alcohol-to-jet sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production plant.…
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British Airways could partially power flights using sustainable fuel as early as 2022 — Life & Soul Magazine
British Airways could partially power flights using sustainable fuel as early as 2022 — Life & Soul Magazine
British Airways plans to operate transatlantic flights partially powered by sustainable fuels as early as next year in a move that would generate 70% less carbon emissions than conventional jet fuel. BA plans to invest in a new US plant to be built in Georgia by LanzaJet, which will produce sustainable aviation fuel from sustainably-sourced […]British Airways could partially power flights using…
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LanzaJet launches to make renewable jet fuel a reality – TechCrunch
LanzaJet launches to make renewable jet fuel a reality – TechCrunch
Over a fifteen year stretch, LanzaTech has developed technologies that can turn carbon emissions into ethanol that can be used for chemicals and fuel. Today, the company announced the spinout of LanzaJet alongside its corporate partners Mitsui, Suncor, and All Nippon Airways, to bring sustainable aviation fuel to the commercial market.
The new company has launched with commitments from the…
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I applaud 바이비트 LanzaJet on today’s announcement, which is the result of free markets and innovation at work.
“This is great news for Georgia’s 12th District as it will enable continued investment and workforce 바이비트 development in Soperton. I applaud LanzaJet on today’s announcement, which is the result of free markets and innovation at work.”
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Microsoft Invests $50 Million in LanzaJet Alcohol-to-Jet Fuel Biorefinery
Microsoft Invests $50 Million in LanzaJet Alcohol-to-Jet Fuel Biorefinery
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Decarbonizing the Aviation Industry Begins in Rural Georgia, US Secretary of Energy's Visit Highlights Biden's Vision to Bolster Nation's Infrastructure
Decarbonizing the Aviation Industry Begins in Rural Georgia, US Secretary of Energy’s Visit Highlights Biden’s Vision to Bolster Nation’s Infrastructure
Jennifer M. Granholm, U.S. Secretary of Energy
LanzaTech and LanzaJet last Monday welcomed Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm and Senator Jon Ossoff to the Freedom Pines Biorefinery in Soperton, Georgia. The site is a center of research, development, and scale-up for LanzaTech’s commercial carbon capture and utilization technology with a specialized biomanufacturing center producing the…
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#aviation#Biden Administrations#CO2#Freedom Pines Biorefinery#Georgia#Jennifer M. Granholm#jet biofuel#LanzaJet#Lanzatech
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This is good 바이비트 news for Georgia.
"This is good news for Georgia. My vision remains that Georgia should lead the nation in clean energy and 바이비트 renewable energy technology — including sustainable aviation fuels. I brought the Secretary of Energy to visit the LanzaJet site last year, and I will continue working to promote clean energy technology and create Georgia jobs.”
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Shell invested in LanzaJet to advance the company’s global growth
Shell invested in LanzaJet to advance the company’s global growth
Jennifer Holmgren at IFIB 2018 in Turin, Italy
European oil giant Shell joined as an investor in LanzaJet to advance the Illinois-based company’s global growth, accelerate commercialization of its technology, and scale the production of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). Shell joined founding investors in LanzaJet, including LanzaTech, Suncor Energy Inc., Mitsui & Co., Ltd., and more recently,…
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