================================================= EREN NETWORK NEWS -- February 27, 2002 A weekly newsletter from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Network (EREN). <http://www.eren.doe.gov/> =================================================
Featuring: *News and Events General Electric Buys Enron Wind, Buoys U.S. Wind Industry NREL Updates Top-Ten List of Utility Green Power Programs Study: Economy Can Grow While Carbon Emissions Are Cut Army Corps Releases Final Report on Snake River Dams IBM Introduces New Energy-Saving Web Server Microbes Found to Convert Organic Matter Into Electricity *Energy Facts and Tips EPA Releases Draft Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gases *About this Newsletter ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS AND EVENTS ---------------------------------------------------------------------- General Electric Buys Enron Wind, Buoys U.S. Wind Industry GE Power Systems -- a General Electric company -- nnounced last week that it plans to buy Enron Wind from its parent company, the bankrupt Enron Corporation. GE Power Systems will take ownership of the Enron's wind turbine manufacturing and marketing operations, but not the wind facilities owned or operated by Enron. The news was a relief to the U.S. wind energy industry, which feared that one of the largest U.S. wind turbine manufacturers -- the seventh largest in the world -- would be sold to a company overseas. If approved by bankruptcy court, the deal should be finalized in April. See the press releases from Enron and General Electric on the Enron Wind Web site at: <http://www.enronwind.com/newsroom/pressrel/index.html>. Meanwhile, the progress on U.S. wind power installations has slowed dramatically this year. One of the few recent wind power additions was a single 900-kilowatt wind turbine installed near Valley City, North Dakota, by Minnkota Power Cooperative. Power from the turbine will be sold through the utility's green power program. Commissioned in late January, the turbine holds the honor of being the first utility- scale wind turbine in North Dakota. See the Minnkota press release at: <http://www.minnkota.com/infinity1.htm>. Despite the slowdown, larger wind power installations are still being planned and pursued by several companies. Endless Energy Corporation, for instance, has announced plans to install a 7-turbine wind facility near Manchester, Vermont, and a 29-turbine facility near Stratton, Maine. Combined, the two facilities could generate enough electricity to power 35,000 New England homes. The company hopes to install the Vermont facility this summer. See the Endless Energy Web site at: <http://www.endlessenergy.com/>. NREL Updates Top-Ten List of Utility Green Power Programs DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) updated this month its popular top-ten lists of utility programs that sell green power, which is electricity from renewable energy sources. NREL ranks the most effective of these utility programs -- sometimes called "green pricing" programs -- based on customer participation, new renewable energy installed capacity, and cost premiums. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power ranked first for total number of customers: its "Green Power for a Green L.A." program has 87,000 participants, although about half of those are low-income customers who are signed up at no cost. In terms of percentages, Moorhead Public Service of Minnesota comes in first with 7.0 percent of its customers signed up. For new renewable power capacity, Austin Energy of Texas takes first place with 76.9 megawatts of wind and solar power installed. And there's a three-way tie for the lowest premium, with two California utilities -- Roseville Electric and Sacramento Municipal Utility District -- and the Texas-New Mexico Power Company each charging customers just a penny extra per kilowatt-hour for green power. See the top-ten lists on the EREN Green Power Web site at: <http://www.eren.doe.gov/greenpower/topten.shtml>. Green power experts believe these numbers will get even better: at a green power conference last week, experts predicted that utilities would achieve 10 percent participation rates in green pricing programs within the next five years. Xenergy Inc. organized the conference in cooperation with the Center for Resource Solutions (CRS). See the February 21st press release by selecting "For the Press" on the Xenergy Web site at: <http://ragtime.xenergy.com/XENHome.nsf/HTMLDocs/1_About>. CRS, by the way, is offering an accreditation program for utility green pricing programs. Three programs -- Tennessee Valley Authority's "Green Power Switch," Wisconsin Electric's "Energy for Tomorrow," and Madison Gas and Electric's "MGE Wind Power" -- have already been accredited. See the CRS Web site at: <http://www.resource-solutions.org/CRSprograms/greenpricing.html>. Study: Economy Can Grow While Carbon Emissions Are Cut A new report by the Center for a Sustainable Economy (CSE) and the Economic Policy Institute concludes that the U.S. economy can grow under policies that tax carbon dioxide emissions while promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy. The study used a sophisticated macroeconomic model to examine the effects of these policies. Included in the model were policies to help energy- intensive industries that would be hurt by a carbon tax and policies to help workers that would be displaced from carbon-intensive industries, such as the coal industry. The model also assumed that most of the revenues from the carbon tax would go towards a cut in income tax. The study found that under this set of policies, U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) would grow 0.6 percent by 2020, while carbon dioxide emissions would drop by 50 percent. Along the way, a net 1.4 million jobs would be created, after- tax wages would rise, and household energy bills would fall. And oil imports, currently projected to increase by about 40 percent by 2020, would instead stay essentially level. See the CSE press release, with a link to the full report, at: <http://www.sustainableeconomy.org/press/cleanenergy.htm>. A growing number of U.S. cities are now pledging to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Salt Lake City is a recent entry, pledging to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. To help meet that goal, the city will establish a scientific, detailed tracking of its greenhouse gas emissions. Through the city's "Salt Lake City Green" program, the city plans to cut emissions by encouraging the construction of "high performance" energy- efficient buildings while promoting alternative fuel vehicles, electricity conservation, and other measures. Mayor Rocky Anderson announced the pledge on the eve of the Olympic Winter Games. See the Mayor's announcement at: <http://www.slcgov.com/mayor/pressreleases/kyoto%20protocol.htm>. Army Corps Releases Final Report on Snake River Dams The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released last week its final report on improving salmon passage through the lower Snake River dams, reaffirming its recommendation to make major systems improvements to the dams, as was first announced in December. The Corps report rejected the option of breaching the dams, which would have eliminated 3,033 megawatts of hydroelectric power capacity for the region -- about 7 percent of the region's total generating capacity. The newly released feasibility report and environmental impact statement provides the basis for the Corps' recommendation and includes details of the recommended system improvements. The recommended improvements include structural changes such as upgraded fish ladders (to aid adult fish migrations upstream) and turbine upgrades. The report also recommends operational changes such as improved spills of water past the dams to assist with juvenile fish migration downstream. The Corps is accepting public comments on the report through early April. See the February 20th press release on the Corps' Walla Walla District Web site at: <http://www.nww.usace.army.mil/html/offices/pa/NR/NR02_files/NR02.htm>. The full report is loaded with photos and illustrations, and is actually quite educational. However, the download times are long, so you might opt to order a compact disk. Both options are available on the "Final Feasibility Report and Environmental Impact Statement" link at: <http://www.nww.usace.army.mil/lsr/>. IBM Introduces New Energy-Saving Web Server The International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) announced last week that it is producing a new server that uses 57 percent less electricity than comparable models. Servers are computers that "serve up" the graphics, text, forms and other contents of Web pages. The new IBM server also produces 63 percent less heat than comparable models, thus also requiring less energy for air conditioning. See the February 13th press release on the IBM Web site at: <http://www-916.ibm.com/press/prnews.nsf/TodayDate/Today?OpenDocument> Microbes Found to Convert Organic Matter Into Electricity Researchers at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) have found that a class of energy-harvesting microbes known as "Geobacters" can convert organic matter into electrical energy. In a January issue of Science magazine, the researchers reported on how they built a simple battery using mud from Boston Harbor and two graphite electrodes. They then determined that Geobacters were responsible for generating the electricity. After other microorganisms broke down the large organic molecules in the mud into acetate, the Geobacters were able to transfer electrons from the acetate molecules to the graphite electrode, generating a current. The Geobacters were also able to generate electricity from toluene. One possible application, according to the researchers, would be to harvest sediment on the ocean floor to generate electricity for deep-sea submarines. See the UMass press release at: <http://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/archive/2002/011702electrodes.html>. More traditional technologies for harvesting ocean energy draw on the mechanical energy of waves or tides and on the thermal energy of the ocean. To learn more about these technologies, see the EREN Ocean Energy page at: <http://www.eren.doe.gov/RE/ocean.html>. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ENERGY FACTS AND TIPS ---------------------------------------------------------------------- EPA Releases Draft Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gases The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released in early February its draft inventory of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and sinks. The report finds that U.S. greenhouse gas emissions increased 2.5 percent in 2000, to a level that is 14.1 percent greater than 1990 emissions. The EPA attributes the increase to robust economic growth, cooler winter conditions, and a decreased output from hydroelectric dams. The report, prepared to meet the U.S. commitment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, is open to public comment until mid-March. See the EPA report at: <http://www.epa.gov/globalwarming/publications/emissions/index.html>. In news that may or may not be related, depending on your outlook, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced last week that average global temperatures in January made it the warmest month on record. And here in the contiguous United States, the three-month period from November 2001 through January 2002 was also the warmest on record. See the NOAA press release at: <http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories/s869.htm>. Even warmer global temperatures are expected by this summer, as a continuing warming trend in the tropical Pacific waters signaled the likely development of El Nino conditions within the next three months, according to researchers at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center. See the NOAA press release at: <http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories/s860.htm>. Meanwhile, new research from Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) suggests that El Nino events may be getting stronger due to global warming. CSIRO researchers say they have evidence that warm water in the oceans at high latitudes is being carried to the eastern equatorial Pacific by deep ocean currents. The researchers matched the observation to a global climate model, suggesting that global warming may have caused the shift in ocean currents. See the CSIRO press release at: <http://www.csiro.au/index.asp?type=mediaRelease&id=WarmingUp>. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can subscribe to this newsletter using the online form at: <http://www.eren.doe.gov/newsletter/subscribe/>. This Web page also allows you to update your email address or unsubscribe to this newsletter. The Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Network (EREN) home page is located at <http://www.eren.doe.gov/>. If you have questions or comments about this newsletter, please contact the editor, Kevin Eber, at [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Stock for $4. No Minimums. FREE Money 2002. http://us.click.yahoo.com/BgmYkB/VovDAA/ySSFAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Please do NOT send "unsubscribe" messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/