A Study of the Emerging Renewable Energy Sector Within Iowa

Abstract

This article offers an understanding of the evolution of Iowa's ethanol industry landscape. A conceptual framework based on a techno-economic paradigm of networked organizations and associated regional innovation systems is used to understand linkages among organizations involved in the ethanol production value-chain. Iowa is an adapter region—federal and state policies conducive to renewable energy and ethanol production encouraged new entrants to the sector. Farmers became business owners through cooperatives and outsourced refinery design and sometimes management. The state also attracted integrated large firms, including agri-processors and an oil refiner, which leveraged additional support from the local government and indirectly affected federal policy through their position in industry associations. University research, extension services, government laboratories, and foreign companies got involved in the process, directly and indirectly, through research and development (R&D), farmers’ support, and other related services. The ethanol industry's future depends on progress in R&D (cellulosic ethanol), innovation, shifts in embedding environmental concerns in economic processes, and policy. Subsidies and mandates across the value-chain and innovative shifts in products and processes will continue to influence the restructuring of how the industry is organized.

Este artículo ofrece un entendimiento sobre la evolución del paisaje de la industria del etanol en Iowa. Se utiliza un marco conceptual basado en un paradigma tecno-económico de cadenas de organizaciones y sistemas de innovación regional asociados, para entender los lazos entre aquellas organizaciones que están implicadas en la cadena económica de producción de etanol. Iowa es una región adaptadora—donde las políticas federales y estatales orientadas hacia la energía renovable y la producción de etanol estimularos la entrada de nuevos participantes en el sector. Los agricultores se convirtieron en propietarios de negocios a través de cooperativas y por diseños de refinería subcontratados, y a veces por actividades de manejo. El estado también atrajo grandes firmas integradas, incluyendo procesadores de productos agrícolas y un refinador de petróleo, que aseguraron el apoyo adicional del gobierno local e indirectamente afectaron la política federal a través de sus posiciones en las asociaciones industriales. La investigación universitaria, servicios de extensión, laboratorios del gobierno y compañías extranjeras se involucraron en el proceso, directa e indirectamente, a través de investigación y desarrollo (I&D), ayuda a los agricultores y otros servicios relacionados. El futuro de la industria del etanol depende del progreso que se logre en I&D (etanol celulósico), innovación, cambios en la inclusión de asuntos ambientales en los procesos económicos, y de las políticas que se adopten. Los subsidios y mandatos por encima de la cadena de valor y las transformaciones innovadoras en productos y procesos, seguirán determinando la reestructuración sobre cómo organizar la industria.

Keywords:

• ethanol
• policy
• regional system
• renewable energy

关键词:

• 乙醇
• 政策
• 区域系统
• 可再生能源

Palabras clave:

• etanol
• políticas
• sistema regional
• energía renovable

Notes

1. TEPs include Industrial Revolution (1760–1920), Fordism (1920–1970), ICT (1970–2020), and Green (2020–). The present ICT paradigm can be characterized by its network structures emphasizing heterogeneity, diversity, and adaptability with a focus on knowledge as capital. Industry organization emphasizes cooperation facilitated by instant global and local contact and often takes the form of clusters (Freeman 1987; Hayter 2004).

2. Net energy balance is a comparison of the amount of energy used to produce a certain amount of biofuel related to the amount of energy that biofuel will produce when used (Hammerschlag 2006; Hill et al. 2006).

3. The percentage Iowa's total corn production derived from genetically modified seed rose sharply from 2000 to 2010 (2000, 30 percent; 2004, 54 percent; 2007, 78 percent; 2010, 90 percent; U.S. Department of Agriculture 2010). Although genetically modified corn is not a necessary resource for ethanol production, in Iowa over half the corn crop has been planted from genetically modified seed since 2004 when the number of ethanol refineries started to rise sharply

4. Ethanol cannot currently be shipped through oil and gas pipelines. This substantially raises not only its production cost but also production emissions and environmental impacts. Ethanol must be shipped by rail or truck to market.