Seven Global Renewable Energy Conferences Slated For October

Manila, Philippines (AHN) - The growing global interest on renewable energy development has spawned a spate of intercontinental conferences, with seven international conferences scheduled for October.

The renewable energy gabfest will be held in The Netherlands, Argentina, U.S., China, the Philippines and Spain, with two gatherings on solar and hydro energies.

The two-day Next Generation Biofuels Market runs until Friday in Amsterdam. On Sunday and Monday, Manila will host a regional biofuel conference on the theme "Biofuels Development in Southeast and East Asia: Policy Issues and Research Agenda."

Several Philippine companies plan to build biofuel facilities to meet the expected rise in demand for cleaner fuel, estimated at 250 to 270 million liters a year. The Biofuel Law passed early this year mandates a 5 percent blend of regular gasoline with biofuels by 2009.

Among the firms that have started to build ethanol plants are the San Carlos Bioenergy Corporation and Basic Energy Corporation. San Carlos Bioenergy, a subsidiary of British firm Bronze Oak, expects to produce 100,000 liters a day of ethanol in Negros province.

Another firm, Basic Energy, previously known as Basic Petroleum, opened in July a nursery to propagate sugarcane seedlings in 10,000 hectares of leased lands spread across three municipalities in Zamboanga del Norte province.

Basic Energy will use sugarcane as feedstock for an integrated ethanol plant, anticipated to generate daily 200,000 liters of green fuel by late 2009.

Granada in Spain will host the three-day Hydro 2007 Conference on Oct. 15-17. The two-day Biodiesel Conference will open on Oct. 18 at Buenos Aires, Argentina, followed by the Renewable Energy Project Finance Conference in New York on Oct. 22-23 and the 2nd North Asia Biofuels Conference 2007 in Beijing on Oct. 23-24.

The Solar Industry Conference in Madrid on Oct.24-25 will cap the month-long renewable energy forum expected to spawn more ideas on reducing carbon dioxide emission in the atmosphere by tapping cleaner forms of energy.