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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/>
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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
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NEWS AND EVENTS
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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
(HTS) wire. The tests will validate the company's new
manufacturing process and allow engineers to fine-tune the
equipment as the plant is prepared for commercial
production. The facility, located in Devens, Massachusetts,
is the first high-volume commercial manufacturing plant for
HTS wire and will eventually be capable of producing 12,000
miles of HTS wire each year. The company expects to begin
producing commercial HTS wire at the plant by year-end.
HTS wires carry up to 140 times the current carried by
copper wires and experience lower energy losses. They
have wide-ranging applications for electric generators,
transformers, motors, and cables. See the April 16th press
release on the American Superconductor Web site at:
<http://www.amsuper.com/press.htm>.
Solar Cell Manufacturer Expands to Meet Growing Demand
ASE Americas, a manufacturer of solar cells and solar
electric modules, celebrated a major expansion of its
U.S. manufacturing facility last month. The company
expanded its solar wafer production plant, located in
Billerica, Massachusetts, from 12 megawatts per year in
production capacity to 20 megawatts per year. Solar cell
manufacturing plants measure their production capacity in
terms of the combined peak capacity of all the solar cells
produced in one year. The company has grown 40 percent
per year for the last five years. See the ASE Americas press
release at: <http://www.asepv.com/News/pr020319.html>.
Two hundred square feet of solar modules from ASE
Americas were recently put to use in the nearby town of
Wellesley. A 2-kilowatt system was installed on Wellesley
High School in late March. See the Solar Boston Web site at:
<http://www.solarboston.org/Wellesley/index.htm>.
A number of large solar power systems are slated to be
installed throughout the country in the near future, including
three in California: a 31-kilowatt system on the Vallejo Police
Station, a 59-kilowatt system on the Sacred Heart School in
Saratoga, and a 68-kilowatt system on the Rubin Salazar
Building at Sonoma State University. The California Energy
Commission (CEC) is providing loans for the two school
systems; see the two March 28th press releases on the CEC
Web site at:
<http://www.energy.ca.gov/releases/index.html>.
For the Vallejo system, the California Public Utilities
Commission will provide a rebate of nearly $140,000,
allowing the system to pay for itself in about 16 years. See
the City of Vallejo Web site at:
<http://www.ci.vallejo.ca.us/News/news.htm#solar>.
But not all the large installations are planned for California: a
50-kilowatt system will be installed on the Greenpoint
Manufacturing and Design Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Partially funded by the New York State Energy Research
and Development Authority, the system will use PowerLight
Corporation solar panels, batteries from ZBB Energy
Corporation, and a power conditioning system from SatCon
Technology Corporation. See the SatCon press release at:
<http://www.satcon.com/news/pr/040902.html>.
Solar Power Systems Bring the Internet to the Navajo Nation
Internet connections and telecommunications services are
hard to come by if you're nowhere near a telephone line, and
harder yet if you have no power. But as of late February,
more than 80 communities in the Navajo Nation were newly
connected to the Internet using the latest in satellite and
wireless technology. For those sites without power, solar
electric systems provided the answer. According to STM
Wireless, Inc. and OnSat Network Communications, Inc., a
total of 115 satellite systems will be installed on Native
American lands through funding from the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation. The Solar Electric Light Fund is providing
funding for the solar electric systems. See the STM Wireless
press release at:
<http://www.stmi.com/the_company/press_release_byDate.asp?ID=26>.
See also the Solar Electric Light Fund Web site at:
<http://www.self.org/index.asp>.
DOE has a program to bring renewable energy installations
to tribal lands, called the Tribal Energy Program. See the
program's new Web site on EREN at:
<http://www.eren.doe.gov/power/tech_access/tribalenergy/>.
While solar power is great for systems in the middle of the
desert, you don't need to live in a remote community to use
solar power for telecommunication and Internet services. In
fact, the community of Stelle, Illinois, claims to operate the
first off-grid, solar-powered telephone switch in North
America. The Stelle Telephone Company uses a 3-kilowatt
system to power its phone switch as well as its Internet
servers. See the Web site at: <http://www.stelle.net/about_us.htm>.
Central Ohio Joins Clean Cities Program
DOE designated the Central Ohio region as the newest
member of its Clean Cities Program last week. The
designation recognizes the Central Ohio Clean Fuels
Coalition, which serves the city of Columbus and seven
surrounding counties, for its commitment to using alternative
fuel vehicles and building local markets for alternative
transportation fuels.
Several refueling stations in Central Ohio offer alternative
fuel to both fleets and the general public. Although most of
the facilities offer natural gas and propane, the region is also
home to the state's first public-access pump providing E85,
an alternative fuel that is 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent
gasoline. See the DOE press release at:
<http://www.energy.gov/HQPress/releases02/aprpr/pr02062.htm>.
Clean Cities is a voluntary, public-private partnership
program coordinated by DOE and designed to increase the
use of alternative fuels and alternative fuel vehicles. See the
Clean Cities Web site at: <http://www.ccities.doe.gov/>.
Clean Cities is also working at the international level -- see
the Clean Cities International Web site at:
<http://www.ccities.doe.gov/international/>.
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SITE NEWS
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BioMatNet
<http://www.biomatnet.org/>
The BioMatNet Web site provides information on the
European Commission's research on using biomass
materials to produce non-food products. Biomass is organic
matter available on a renewable basis, such as agricultural
products and organic wastes. The Commission is
investigating biomass for the production of fuels, products,
and chemicals.
For this and other recent additions to the EREN Web site,
see: <http://www.eren.doe.gov/new/whats-new.html>.
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ENERGY FACTS AND TIPS
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Will Drought Conditions Affect Hydropower Generation?
Given the drought conditions that are currently hitting the
United States, particularly on the East Coast, this seems like
a good time to visit the federal Web site on drought
conditions. Called "Drought Termination and Amelioration,"
the site is produced by the National Climatic Data Center
(NCDC), part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration. The site shows current U.S. conditions in
terms of the Palmer Hydrological Drought Index (PHDI),
which becomes more negative as conditions deteriorate: a
PHDI of -3 or more is a severe drought, and a PHDI of -4 is
an extreme drought. The site then looks at the probability,
based on weather statistics, of receiving enough
precipitation to ameliorate the drought (increase the PHDI to
-2) and to end it (increase the PHDI to -0.5). See the NCDC
Web site at:
<http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/drought/current.html>.
Comparing current drought conditions to the production of
hydropower in each state, it appears that for now the West
coast is being spared -- the drought conditions are worst in
the areas that produce relatively little hydroelectric power.
On the East Coast, however, drought conditions could
potentially impact electricity supplies in Maine, South
Carolina, and Virginia. These states normally draw on
hydropower for 26.5 percent, 19.2 percent, and 16.5 percent
of their power, respectively. See the State Electricity Profiles
on the DOE Energy Information Administration Web site at:
<http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/st_profiles/toc.html>.
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ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER
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