Dear Readers, As announced last week, beginning in April ENERGIES will no longer be a free publication. All current free subscriptions will expire at the end of this month. This change was a difficult business decision to make, but after six years this self-supported publication - more than 300 ENERGIES newsletters - is due for a change.
--- Subscriptions are only $26 per year - 50 cents per weekly e-mail issue. --- Two e-mail addresses are allowed per subscriber. --- Subscribers can have their company or organization included in a linked Reader Affiliation page now under development. --- Subscriptions will also include access to a password protected area of the web site opening in April. This area will have the current edition of ENERGIES and NewsLinks as well as all recent and archived newsletters and NewsLinks. --- The public access area of the web site will have sample stories and sample NewsLinks. --- One-Month Trial Subscriptions are also now available. To encourage you to sign up early, those who subscribe in March will have subscriptions extended by 3 months - until the end of June 2003. Please visit the Green Energy News web site to subscribe today. Best Regards, Bruce Mulliken Editor and Publisher Green Energy News Inc. http://www.nrglink.com ENERGIES... week of March 3, 2002 POLLUTION, HEALTH AND FUEL EFFICIENCY. The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published a study this week - Lung Cancer, Cardiopulmonary Mortality and Long Term Exposure to Fine Particulate Air Pollution. J.D. Powers, a well known global marketing information services firm, published a survey this week - The Hybrid Electric Vehicle Consumer Acceptance Study. There's a connection between the two. The JAMA study, which included more than 500,000 participants who enrolled 20 years ago in an American Cancer Society survey on cancer prevention, showed that long-term exposure to air pollution -living in some of America's largest cities - significantly raises the possibility of dying from lung cancer. The risk for lung cancer is about the same as a non-smoker living with a smoker. The J.D. Powers survey showed that 30 percent of new vehicle buyers would definitely consider purchasing a hybrid-electric vehicle. Another 30 percent indicated a strong consideration for the purchase of the technology. Overwhelmingly, vehicle buyers want the hybrid option in their vehicle choice. Of the more 5200 new vehicle buyers in the survey, women leaned towards hybrids more than men. Both wanted hybrids in their vehicle segments (small car buyers wanted small hybrids, SUV buyers wanted hybrid SUV's for example). Men and women based their considerations on the environment, fuel prices, U.S. dependency on imported oil and the inclusion of tax incentives as part of a purchase. The connection? People seem willing to buy vehicles in large numbers that saved fuel and reduced pollution if those vehicles were available. In turn, their purchase would help save lives. It's that simple. Visit JAMA at http://www.jama.ama-assn.org/ , J.D. Powers at http://www.jdpa.com/ . WORLD PARTNERS? Governments of the U.S. and Canada have agreed to expand and intensify their existing bilateral efforts to address global climate change. All nations could work in partnership on this effort. If Canada and the U.S., why not everyone? Canada and the U.S. will cooperate on issues such as climate change science and research, technology development, carbon sequestration, emissions measurement and accounting, capacity building in developing countries, carbon sinks, targeted measures to spur the uptake of cleaner technology and market based approaches to the same. Mentioned as possible, specific areas of cooperation will be in the development of clean coal (which would be more appropriately named cleaner coal), carbon dioxide capture and storage, expanded use of cogeneration and more renewable sources of energy and the use of sustainable agriculture and forestry management to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions. Canada will be considering ratification of the Kyoto Protocol later this year. With ratification, Canada will have to reduce emissions through government mandate. But the U.S. has no plans to ratify Kyoto, but wants industry to voluntarily reduce emissions. That voluntarism would be spurred by government incentives - tax breaks, for instance. Visit Environment Canada at http://www.ec.gc.ca/ (click Media Room, News Releases) SOLAR POWER FOR EFFICIENT ENERGY. Let's be honest. Photovoltaic solar power has some faults. It's relatively expensive. It's not very efficient. And for the amount of power output, it takes up a lot of real estate. Certainly solar manufacturers and developers are working on many ways to correct and work around these faults. One of them is to connect solar panels only to highly energy-efficient devices. The more efficient the device, the less solar electricity needs to be generated and overall system cost and size goes down. This notion is now reality for one Whole Foods Market (tm) natural and organic supermarket in Berkeley, California. A newly installed 33 kilowatt rooftop solar array is used only to power the store's DC (direct current) fluorescent lighting. Fluorescent lighting in itself is efficient, but further efficiencies are gained by using the solar panel's DC current directly to power the lighting. (Typically solar power is converted - at a loss of usable electricity - from DC to AC (alternating current) for use in buildings. This loss is avoided with the Whole Foods installation.) Reflective roofing materials were also used and the PowerLight solar panels provide additional insulation for the building. The DC lighting system was provided by Nextek Power Systems. Visit PowerLight at http://www.powerlight.com/ , Nextek at http://www.nextekpower.com/ . NEXT GENERATION LIGHT BULB? Even more energy efficient than compact fluorescent or conventional fluorescent lighting are light emitting diodes (LED's). LED's can use up to 90% less electricity than incandescent light bulbs. They are also durable and can last up to 100,000 hours. LED's come in a variety of colors, but a white light that is pleasing to the eye - and that consumers would accept - has been the big challenge for LED manufacturers for a few years now. Lumileds is the first to develop an experimental white light headlamp for use in cars. Though we wouldn't want a car headlamp for our bedside reading light, this development does show that LED's can be powerful enough for general lighting. Overall, considerable progress is being made on the technology. (LED headlamps in cars would save a bit of fuel too.) Lumileds is a joint venture of Agilent Technologies and Philips Lighting. Visit them at http://www.lumileds.com/ . WORLD WIND WATCH. Just as the U.S. economy is showing signs of life, President Bush has signed an economic stimulus bill that includes the reinstatement of the Production Tax Credit (PTC) for wind power, and other renewables. The extension of the PTC through 2007 means that companies like Vestas Wind Systems will likely push forward with plans to build a turbine plant in the U.S.- read new job creation. Enron Wind, soon to become part of GE Power Systems, could become a bigger player in the wind turbine business. And NEG-Micon might reconsider plans to expand their production capability in the U.S. If the U.S economy returns to growth, look for more wind power facilities. Wind power developers are more likely to add capacity in a growing economy that is willing and able to purchase the green electricity. The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) and the Indian Wind Energy Association are jointly reporting that wind turbine installations grew by 45 percent or 6500 megawatts in 2001. Worldwide the wind now supplies enough power for the equivalent of more than 10 million homes. Visit the AWEA at http://www.awea.org/ , the EWEA at http://www.ewea.org/ . Eurowind AB of Sweden has announced plans to build a 200 turbine offshore wind farm on the Kriegers Flak shallows in the southern Baltic Sea, about 35 miles south of Trelleborg and inside Sweden's economic zone. Completion date for the Kriegers is 2006-07. Visit Eurowind at http://www.eurowind.com/ . Wind turbine company Gamesa and Spanish power company Union Fenosa will work with Australian company TME to study wind projects in Australia. The partnership could lead to 14 new wind farms in the country with a combined capacity of 450 megawatts. Visit Gamesa at http://www.gamesa.es/ . NEW! NEW! NEW! ... NewsLinks ... --- Actor/Environmentalist Ed Begley, Jr. is First Retail Customer of a Toyota RAV4-EV http://www.toyota.com/ (click About Toyota, News) (3/4/02) --- AstroPower Products Generate More Electricity Than Expected in Two California Solar Electric Power Plants http://www.astropower.com/ (3/4/02) --- Energy Storage Council Seeks National Goal for Electricity Storage http://www.energystoragecouncil.org/ (click News Releases) (3/4/02) --- Southwest Research Institute (tm) Releases Vehicle Simulation Tool http://www.swri.com/ (click What's New, News Releases) (3/4/02) --- Altair Nanotechnologies Enters Into Agreement with Japanese Conglomerate - Leading Exporter of International Goods and Services to Introduce Altair Nanomaterials and Products to Battery Manufacturers as well as the Japanese Automobile Industry http://www.altairtechnologies.com/ (click Corporate Info) (3/5/02) --- Magnetek Power Products Make Inroads in Transportation - UTC Fuel Cells' Power Plant for Ford Incorporates Magnetek Power Conditioner - Magnetek Provides Advanced Power Supply for Segway (tm) Human Transporter http://www.magnetek.com/ (3/5/02) --- CO2SIM Announces Advisory Panel http://www.co2sim.com/ (click Media) (3/5/02) --- Electric Fuel's Zinc-Air Bus Washington, DC Demonstration Slated for March 13 http://www.electric-fuel.com/ (3/6/02) --- Orbital Receives Clean Air Excellence Award From U.S. Environmental Protection Agency http://www.orbeng.com.au/ (click Investor Relations, News Releases) (3/6/02) --- Altair Expands Battery Material Technologies http://www.altairtechnologies.com/ (click Corporate Info) (3/7/02) --- Global Solar Energy Completes 1.4 Mw Solar Power Station; Signs Agreement to Enlarge System to 2.4 Mw http://www.globalsolar.com/ (click Media Center) (3/7/02) Send ENERGIES to a friend or colleague. Visit Green Energy News on the web at http://www.nrglink.com/ . For ENERGIES paid and free trial subscriptions please visit the web site. Copyright Green Energy News Inc. 3/9/02 vol.6 no.49 ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> FREE COLLEGE MONEY CLICK HERE to search 600,000 scholarships! http://us.click.yahoo.com/iZp8OC/4m7CAA/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/