=
EREN NETWORK NEWS -- April 17, 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
GE Purchase of Enron Wind Approved in Bankruptcy Court
Non-Profits Launch Small Wind Turbine Co-op in Northwest
USDA Funds Biomass Projects in Illinois, Oklahoma
New Superconductor Wire Manufacturing Plant Starts Test Run
Solar Cell Manufacturer Expands to Meet Growing Demand
Solar Power Systems Bring the Internet to the Navajo Nation
Central Ohio Joins Clean Cities Program
*Site News
BioMatNet
*Energy Facts and Tips
Will Drought Conditions Affect Hydropower Generation?
*About this Newsletter
--
NEWS AND EVENTS
--
GE Purchase of Enron Wind Approved in Bankruptcy Court
GE Power Systems moved near to acquiring Enron Wind
Corporation last week, when the U.S. Bankruptcy Court
approved the purchase. According to General Electric
Company (GE), the purchase is still subject to approval by
the European Union (EU), which is expected within the next
several weeks. See the April 12th press release on the GE
Web site at:
http://www.ge.com/cgi-bin/biz-pressroom-list.pl?list=all.
On the same day the U.S. court made its decision, the
EU issued its prior notification on the purchase. The
European Commission (the executive body of the EU)
appeared likely to approve the purchase, although it
reserved a final decision. It requested third-party comments
on the purchase by the end of this week. See page seven of
April 11th edition of the Official Journal of the European
Communities at:
http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/oj/2002/c_08720020411en.html.
Non-Profits Launch Small Wind Turbine Co-op in Northwest
A collaborative of non-profit groups in the Pacific Northwest
plan to start up a new wind power cooperative, the groups
announced last week. Called Our Wind Co-op, the
cooperative will install small wind turbines on farms,
ranches, and rural facilities throughout the region and sell
their environmental attributes through a green tag system.
Most of the host sites will receive a 10-kilowatt turbine
manufactured by Bergey Windpower and capable of
generating up to 1600 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month.
The co-op organizers are currently negotiating with DOE's
National Renewable Energy Laboratory for funding to
support the project. See the announcement on the
Northwest Sustainable Energy for Economic Development
(NWSEED) Web site at: http://www.nwseed.org/nwswtc.asp.
Wondering if you're in a good area of the Northwest for wind
power? With partial support from DOE, NWSEED has put
together a series of wind resource maps for the five-state
region, as well as for selected portions of California, Nevada,
and Utah. The site includes maps of power and wind speed
at heights of 50 meters as well as wind speed at heights of
30 meters. It also includes an interactive tool for zooming in
on specific locations within the maps. See the Wind Power
Maps Web site at:
http://www.windpowermaps.org/windmaps/windmaps.asp.
The green tags that the co-op plans to sell are also
referred to as tradable renewable energy credits. They
serve as an innovative market mechanism to help expand
the use of renewable energy. For more information, see the
Green-e story in last week's EREN Network News at:
http://www.eren.doe.gov/newsletter/archives/2002/apr10_02.html.
Green tags are one of the topics to be tackled at the Green
Trading Summit, coming up in mid-May in New York City.
The summit is sponsored in part by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency. See the announcement at:
http://www.global-change.com/conferences.html.
USDA Funds Biomass Projects in Illinois, Oklahoma
Farmers in Illinois and Oklahoma will soon be growing
switchgrass that will help fuel their local power plants, thanks
to new funding announced by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) in late March. The Illinois project, located
near the town of Havana, will convert the switchgrass into
pellets that will be burned along with coal. In Oklahoma, Old
World Bluestem grass and some native grasses will be
collected from a five-county part of the panhandle. The
project will work to find markets for the biomass and will also
try combining the pelletized grass with the state's high-sulfur
coal to produce a cleaner-burning product. See the USDA
press release at:
http://www.usda.gov/news/releases/2002/03/0115.htm.
New Superconductor Wire Manufacturing Plant Starts Test Run
American Superconductor Corporation announced yesterday
that it is starting to run production tests at its new
manufacturing facility for high-temperature superconductor
