fueling biodiesel in VT

How do you a create a market for a product that historically hasn't existed in your state? And how do you do so through the lens of sustainable development?

The Vermont Legislature, encouraged by a group of successful, progressive entrepreneurs (members of Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility), came up with an innovative answer to these challenges. They created an organization that provides early stage funding and technical assistance to entrepreneurs, businesses, farmers, networks and others interested in developing the green economy.

With bipartisan support in the Vermont Legislature, the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund (VSJF) was created in 1995. VSJF is unique in the sense that it receives a state appropriation each year but it is technically a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit that can raise money from additional sources.

Over the subsequent 13 years, VSJF has used its 'quasi-governmental' status to good effect, working to accelerate the development of Vermont's green economy by providing over 150 grants and technical assistance to hundreds of entrepreneurs to build markets for local food systems, sustainable forestry, and renewable energy, including biofuels.

Our investment in biofuels was triggered by our growing concern about the implications of peak oil and climate change.

Although Vermont consumes the least energy of any State in America, on a per capita basis it ranks 6th in gasoline consumption and 18th in total petroleum consumption.

That is, Vermont is very vulnerable to supply disruptions of the kind anticipated to occur after peak oil.

The challenge, of course, was that virtually none of the infrastructure for a liquid biofuels sector was in place four years ago when we started. So, VSJF and its partners had to start from scratch with nearly every component of the system.

From Day One we attempted to develop a market for biofuels that does justice to Vermont's small scale and our sustainable development mission.

As an alternative to industrial-scale biofuels, we believe that sustainable biofuels, especially first generation biofuels, should be produced and used as close to the feedstock source as possible, and that local ownership of production and distribution matters.

With support from U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy and the Department of Energy, we created the Vermont Biofuels Initiative (VBI) as a multi-year, integrated program designed to develop the supply and demand for locally produced biofuels, starting with biodiesel.

We have four goals for the VBI:

1) To develop alternative models to industrial-scale biofuels production that ensure opportunities for rural sustainable development through renewable energy production for local use,

2) To create opportunities for Vermonters to reduce their overall petroleum consumption and greenhouse gas emissions;

3) To buffer Vermont against disturbances in the petroleum market, and

4) To create a dynamic development model that can be applied to any form of biofuels (i.e. biodiesel, biomass pellets, algae, cellulosic ethanol, woody biomass).

To flesh out these goals we try to identify all of the elements that need to be in place in order to affirm the existence of a sustainable biofuels market. We ask:

In order to support the expansion of the supply of in-state biodiesel, VSJF grants and technical assistance have gone to several farmers for crop trials, purchasing biodiesel processing equipment, and engineering work (including State Line Farm, featured in Issue #7 of biodieselSMARTER); one small-scale waste grease biodiesel producer (Green Technologies) for equipment; and the University of Vermont Extension and Center for Sustainable Agriculture for research and outreach.

Leveraged funds were also used to conduct oilseed crop market potential and economic feasibility studies, a small-scale commercial biodiesel production facility feasibility study, a mobile processor feasibility study, emissions testing, and to develop enterprise budgets for famers.

On the demand-side, grants were used to help users (Smugglers Notch Resort, for example) familiarize themselves with biodiesel, and to hold trainings for fuel dealers and technicians. Finally, grants to the Vermont Biofuels Association and Renewable Energy Vermont were used to help educate the public about the benefits of sustainably and locally produced biofuels.

Vermont now has two on-farm biodiesel production facilities, a waste grease biodiesel facility, one commercial biodiesel facility, and over 30 fuel dealers carry biodiesel.

We're kicking off 2009 with additional grants for biofuels course development, a Renewable Energy Atlas of Vermont (a GIS-based website of renewable energy possibilities in Vermont), and several grants for feedstock analysis and production techniques for oilseeds, biomass pellets, and algae; capacity building with an additional on-farm biodiesel production facility, mobile pelletizers, algae demonstration, and additional assistance to commercial biodiesel distributors.

In very short order, and with very little money ($1.5 million) in the big scheme of things, it is possible for you to catalyze the development of an entirely new sector in your state. S