This week I attended the 2006 Georgia Bioenergy Conference in Tifton GA.  This was so far the most exciting and comprehensive alternative energy conference I've attended and I plan to talk about the things I learned there in future articles, so stay tuned.

Having been to two other alternative energy conferences in the last six months, I can see a radical change occurring in the energy landscape. For the last century the energy business has been dominated by the big players, the oil companies, the coal companies, the power companies and the like.  What struck me at this conference as opposed to the previous conferences, is the grass roots interest. 

There were very few attendees from the big companies and lots of small startups trying to make a go of this business or even people trying do it themselves at home. The people I spoke with all want to learn how to be energy independent and how they can make their own fuels, to become part of the solution. There were people there that drove to the conference on the biodiesel they made themselves. In the back of their station wagon you could see the extra fuel cans full of biodiesel to get them home so they didn't have to stop at a fuel pump. I'm sensing these people are not only fed up being addicted to oil, but also fed up with the large companies feeding this addiction and they are going to do something about it. This is clearly going to be the next dot-com boom, but its going to be far bigger because it addresses a trillion dollar energy market.

During one lunch break at the conference I sat down with some local farmers.  One of them asked me if I understood any of this technology. I said I understood most of it and he replied by asking how much I would charge him to figure out how he could make my own fuel. He said he currently uses 37,000 gallons of diesel fuel per year to run his operation and at $3.00 per gallon and rising, he has to change to something else. 

We talked about his situation and concluded that he could in fact become self sufficient. He grows cotton and has a supply of cotton seed which can be crushed to extract the oil. The cotton oil can then be converted right on his farm to biodiesel to run his equipment. Then we talked about the possibility of them forming a local cooperative to help make all this easier. He said he has a friend that does the seed crushing that could help out. Maybe a number of farmers could get together to share the biodiesel manufacturing equipment. 

We talked about how farmers used to make small quantities of moonshine and why couldn't they make their own ethanol the same way? I suggested that at current prices that probably didn't make sense, but if gas goes up much more it certainly should be looked at. We also talked about their installing solar panels to help offset their high electricity bills. We talked about wind but there isn't enough wind in Georgia for that to make sense. 

The point to all of this is people are getting engaged in this movement and it is starting to spread like wildfire.

At the conference I was pleasantly surprised to see major interest from politicians at all levels. State politicians are starting to realize that this could be a huge boost to the local economy. Georgia has almost no conventional energy other then a little hydroelectric power. But if you consider agriculture and forestry being able to contribute in a big way to ethanol, biodiesel and/or gasification, all of a sudden you realize there is lots of energy in the state. It just needs to be developed. 

The economic boom of this new business will create prosperity for the State of Georgia, rather then the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and others. On top of this, the fuels are carbon neutral so we would be improving the global warming situation.

When I think about how I felt leaving this conference as opposed to previous conferences I would have to say that at other conferences that were dominated by the existing big energy players I was left with the blahs. I left with little optimism for the future and resigned myself to more of the same. Coming out of this conference I felt like we finally have reached a point where things are changing. People are getting engaged and want to be involved and make a difference. They don't want to be tied to their old energy ways and that's what will turn this around. That's the spirit that makes America great. I'm so glad it's still alive and well.

[Ed: More information can be found on Rick Jaworski's web site here.]

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