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EERE NETWORK NEWS -- December 10, 2003
A weekly newsletter from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE)
Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).
<http://www.eere.energy.gov/>
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Featuring:
*News and Events
California to Host World's Largest Photovoltaic System
L.A. Utility Pursuing Power Production from Yard Waste
New Water Pipeline Feeds World's Largest Geothermal Facility
California Marks the Success of its Renewable Energy Program
Arizona Public Service Doubles Incentives for Solar Energy
Toyota Boosts Prius Production for U.S. Market by 31 Percent
*Site News
Wind Energy Development Programmatic EIS Information Center
*Energy Connections
New DOE Reports Highlight Climate Change Technologies
*About this Newsletter
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NEWS AND EVENTS
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California to Host World's Largest Photovoltaic System
TrueSolar Solutions, LLC will build a 5-megawatt solar photovoltaic
power system -- the largest of its type in the world -- in southern
California's Mojave Desert next year, according to Southern California
Edison (SCE). The utility will buy all the power produced by the
system under an agreement approved by the California Public Utility
Commission on December 4th. TrueSolar Solutions will work with Global
Solar Energy to begin construction of the system in early 2004. The
solar power plant will be located on a 40-acre site near Barstow,
about 80 miles northeast of Los Angeles. See the SCE press release at:
<http://www.edison.com/media/indiv_pr.asp?id=4673>.
As reported in this newsletter a year ago, the largest photovoltaic
system in the world is currently a 3.3-megawatt system in Serre,
Italy. However, two Arizona utilities are each building systems that
will eventually achieve peak capacities of 4 to 5 megawatts. See the
December 18th, 2002, edition of this newsletter at:
<http://www.eere.energy.gov/news/news_detail.cfm/news_id=6193>.
The northern California city of Oroville -- the Butte County seat --
will also join the "solar megawatt" club next year, as a one-megawatt
photovoltaic system will be built there by Sun Power & Geothermal
Energy, Inc. The new solar power system will consist of two ground-
mounted arrays, one roof-mounted array, and an array of panels mounted
on parking shade structures for the county parking lot. The system
will include more than 9,000 185-watt solar modules, manufactured by
Sharp Manufacturing Company of America. It will provide all the power
needs for the Butte County administration building and the county's
two jails. See the Sun Power press release at:
<http://www.sunpowergeo.com/butte_pr.html>.
L.A. Utility Pursuing Power Production from Yard Waste
The Los Angeles Department of Power and Water (LADWP) announced last
week that it plans to buy 40 megawatts of power from a new facility
that will use anaerobic digestion to convert grass clippings and other
yard waste into power. The L.A. Board of Water and Power Commissioners
approved the power purchase agreement on December 2nd, but the
L.A. City Council must also approve the agreement. Under the proposed
agreement, LADWP will buy all the power from the facility, which will
be built by BioConverter LLC by 2008. According to that company, the
new facility will be more efficient than previous anaerobic digesters,
producing 30 to 50 percent more energy from the same amount of
biomass. The facility is expected to convert 3,000 tons of plant
material into biogas each day, which will be used to produce about
333 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year. See the LADWP
press release at: <http://www.ladwp.com/ladwp/cms/ladwp005149.jsp>.
New Water Pipeline Feeds World's Largest Geothermal Facility
Calpine Corporation announced last week that a 40-mile pipeline is now
supplying recycled water to The Geysers, the world's largest
geothermal facility. The Santa Rosa Geysers Recharge Project is meant
to extend the commercial life of The Geysers geothermal resource,
located in northern California. The Geysers is a rare type of
geothermal field in which the energy is carried by dry steam. Although
the geothermal heat supplying the resource remains essentially
constant, the constant release of steam from the underground resource
threatens to deplete the subterranean supply of water, which is
essential to transport the geothermal energy to the surface. To remedy
that situation, the new pipeline is carrying 11 million gallons of
recycled water per day from the City of Santa Rosa's municipal water
system to The Geysers, where it is being injected into the underground
reservoir of steam. See the Calpine press release and the project
description from the City of Santa Rosa at:
<http://ir.ccbn.com/ir.zhtml?t=CPN&s=410&item_id=475360> and
<http://ci.santa-rosa.ca.us/geysers/project.asp>.
Calpine owns 19 of the 21 geothermal facilities at The Geysers, which
covers a 30-square-mile area that straddles the border of Lake and
Sonoma counties. According to the Geothermal Energy Association (GEA),
the power plants at The Geysers have a total rated capacity of
1,650 megawatts, although the plants are currently achieving an
average annual net capacity of only 862 megawatts. See the GEA Web
site at: <http://www.geo-energy.org/Facilities/CA/alldataCA.htm>.
While the new Geysers pipeline aims to maintain an existing geothermal
energy source, researchers at DOE's Idaho National Engineering and
Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) are working to help geothermal
developers find new resources to tap. The researchers have generated a
new regional geothermal resource map and individual resource maps for
13 Western states (including Alaska and Hawaii), available on the
INEEL Web site at: <http://geothermal.id.doe.gov/maps-software.shtml>.
California Marks the Success of its Renewable Energy Program
While California is home to many large wind energy, solar power, and
geothermal energy installations, it is also home to a growing number
of smaller wind and solar energy installations, in part because of the
financial support provided by the state's Renewable Energy Program,
administered by the California Energy Commission (CEC). According to
the CEC's annual report, released last week, the program has provided
more than $82 million in rebates for a total of 5,300 solar and wind
energy systems installed at homes and businesses throughout the state.
The systems have a combined capacity of more than 20 megawatts, and
systems comprising another 9 megawatts in capacity are under
construction. The program's support for new commercial renewable
energy plants has thus far yielded 40 new projects that total
259 megawatts in capacity, and the program has helped 275 existing
facilities -- totaling 4,400 megawatts -- either remain competitive or
return to service. The program has also supported more than 200,000
purchases of renewable energy by consumers. See the CEC report, a
1.28-megabyte PDF file, at:
<http://www.energy.ca.gov/reports/2003-12-02_500-03-103F.PDF>.
California provides a tax credit for solar and wind energy
installations, and is currently offering incentive payments of
$3.80 per watt for solar power systems less than 30 kilowatts in
capacity, and $2.30 per watt for wind energy systems up to
7.5 kilowatts in capacity. Those incentives are scheduled to drop by
20 cents per watt on January 1st, but due to the large response to the
solar incentive, the CEC is considering decreasing the solar power
incentive to $3 per watt. The CEC will hold a public workshop tomorrow
to solicit comments on that change. See the announcements on the
CEC's Consumer Energy Center Web site at:
<http://www.consumerenergycenter.org/erprebate/new_info.html>.
Arizona Public Service Doubles Incentives for Solar Energy
Arizona Public Service (APS), the state's largest electric utility,
announced last week that it will double its incentive for grid-
connected solar power systems starting January 1st. The utility
currently offers an incentive of $2 per watt, up to half the cost of
the installation, but has realized that nearly all of the 200
customers that took advantage of the incentive were located off of the
electric grid. The new incentive of $4 per watt for grid-connected
systems will help APS meet its requirements for generating power from
solar energy. To further sweeten the deal, Arizona residents can also
receive a state solar energy credit equal to one-quarter the cost of
the system, up to $1,000.
APS is also doubling its incentive payment for solar water heating
systems to $700. See the December 3rd press release from APS at:
<http://www.aps.com/general_info/newsrelease/default.html?year=2003>.
Toyota Boosts Prius Production for U.S. Market by 31 Percent
Toyota Motor Sales announced on Monday that it will increase its
production of the hybrid electric Prius for the U.S. market by
31 percent. Toyota originally planned to produce 36,000 of the
vehicles for the U.S. market in 2004, but has now boosted that number
to 47,000. The increase is Toyota's response to high demand for the
vehicle: Toyota received 12,000 pre-orders before the vehicle launched
in mid-October and delivered 10,000 vehicles in its first six weeks on
sale.
Last week, Toyota announced that the second-generation Prius enjoyed a
second consecutive record sales month of 5,584 vehicles in November --
more than double the sales of the first-generation Prius' best-ever
month, March 2003, when Toyota sold 2,532 vehicles. See the
December 2nd and 8th press releases on the Toyota Web site at:
<http://www.toyota.com/about/news/index.html#product>.
The Prius continues to earn kudos from the critics: last week, Car and
Driver magazine named the Prius to its list of "10Best Cars," which
represents both value and drivability. The Prius beat out an
impressive list of nominees to make the list. See the "10Best Cars"
link on the Car and Driver Web site at:
<http://www.caranddriver.com/>.
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SITE NEWS
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Wind Energy Development Programmatic EIS Information Center
<http://windeis.anl.gov>
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is preparing a Programmatic
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to evaluate issues associated
with wind energy development on western public lands administered by
the BLM, excluding Alaska. This Web site, administered by DOE's
Argonne National Laboratory, provides access to information about the
project and invites public participation in the process.
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ENERGY CONNECTIONS
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New DOE Reports Highlight Climate Change Technologies
DOE released a report last week that profiles near- and long-term
technologies for addressing climate change. The report includes a
range of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies, as well
as hydrogen energy. It also includes such options as low-emission
fossil energy, nuclear fission and fusion, carbon sequestration
technologies, and other approaches. An accompanying report summarizes
the current state of research on these technologies. See the reports
and a link to the DOE press release on the "New" page of the
U.S. Climate Change Technology Program Web site at:
<http://www.climatetechnology.gov/new.htm>.
Meanwhile, a report released by the Prototype Carbon Fund -- a public
and private partnership to combat climate change -- finds that the
global trading of carbon emission credits doubled in 2003. As of
November, more than 70 million tons of carbon dioxide were traded
worldwide. See "State and Trends of the Carbon Market" on the
Prototype Carbon Fund home page at:
<http://prototypecarbonfund.org/router.cfm?Page=Home>.
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ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER
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If you have questions or comments about this
newsletter, please contact the editor, Kevin Eber, at
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