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EREN NETWORK NEWS -- March 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/>
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Featuring:
*News and Events
Ford: Fuel-Cell-Powered Focus Available for Fleets in 2004
Hybrid Electric Honda Civic Hits Dealerships This Week
Tally of Highly Energy-Efficient U.S. Buildings Reaches 729
California Offers $30 Million for Clean Energy in Industry
California Supports Research on Efficient Server Farms
Long Island Faces Power Shortage, Promotes Solar Energy
DOE Awards $8.3 Million for Home Weatherization
*Energy Facts and Tips
Report Examines Air Pollution From Top 100 Power Companies
*About this Newsletter
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NEWS AND EVENTS
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Ford: Fuel-Cell-Powered Focus Available for Fleets in 2004
Ford Motor Company expects a fuel-cell-powered version of
its Ford Focus sedan to be commercially available for use in
company fleets by 2004. The Focus FCV combines high-
pressure hydrogen gas storage with a Ballard Mark 900 fuel
cell to achieve a peak power output of 90 horsepower and a
peak torque of 140 foot-pounds. The vehicle has a top speed
of greater than 80 miles per hour and a range of 100 miles.
See Ford's "TH!NK Mobility" Web site at:
<http://www.thinkmobility.com/tech_gallery.asp?PRODCODE=FOCUSFCV>.
Ford is expected to unveil a prototype of the Focus FCV later
this week at the New York International Automobile Show
(NYIAS). See the NYIAS Web site at: <http://www.autoshowny.com/>.
Volkswagen is developing its own fuel-cell car based on the
European version of the Jetta, called the Bora. Volkswagen's
Bora HY.POWER prototype uses a 75-kilowatt motor to
achieve the equivalent power output of a 102-horsepower
engine. Rather than using batteries, the Volkswagen vehicle
draws on two 15-kilowatt ultracapacitors to provide a power
boost when accelerating or going uphill. The company
announced last month that the prototype successfully
passed a mid-winter long-range test drive that included a
6,578-foot mountain pass. See the Volkswagen press
release at:
<http://dealer.vw.com/vwpress/fullStoryA.html?release_id=5504>.
Hybrid Electric Honda Civic Hits Dealerships This Week
American Honda Motor Company announced last week that
the new Civic Hybrid is expected to begin arriving at
dealerships this week. The manual 5-speed version of the
sedan, which combines a gasoline engine with an electric
motor and a battery pack, has earned a fuel economy rating
of 46 miles per gallon (mpg) in the city and 51 mpg on the
highway. The vehicle will also be available with a continuously
variable transmission (CVT), which has earned city/highway
fuel economy ratings of 48/47 mpg. Honda expects to sell
2,000 Civic Hybrids per month and will make the vehicle
available at all of its U.S. dealerships. The manufacturer's
suggested retail price (MSRP) for the Civic Hybrid is $19,550
for the manual transmission and $20,550 for the CVT
version. See the Honda press release at:
<http://www.hondacars.com/news/press.html?y=2002&r=802>.
If you want to find other high-mileage cars that achieve low
air emissions, you're in luck: the American Council for an
Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) released the 2002
version of its "Green Book," an environmental guide to cars
and trucks, last month. Although the full "Green Book" is only
available for a fee, the highlights are available online for free
at: <http://www.greenercars.com/bestof.html>.
Tally of Highly Energy-Efficient U.S. Buildings Reaches 729
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
announced last week that 729 buildings throughout the
United States have earned the EPA/DOE Energy Star.
These office and school buildings use about 40 percent less
energy than average U.S. buildings. The EPA estimates that
the buildings have saved $134 million in energy costs since
1999, avoiding the emission of 1.9 billion pounds of carbon
dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas. Among the Energy Star
buildings are 122 owned and occupied by large commercial
institutions, 204 owned by commercial real estate
organizations and leased to commercial tenants, 287 public
schools and 116 federal government facilities. See the press
release and the full list of buildings at the Energy Star News
Room on the EPA Web site at:
<http://www.epa.gov/nrgystar/news.html>.
Energy-efficient homes earned the limelight on Monday, as
15 homebuilders were lauded at the National Green Building
Conference in Seattle, Washington. The winners of the
"EnergyValue Housing Awards" were honored for using such
technologies as high-efficiency windows, insulated basement
walls, solar water heating, and geothermal heat pumps in the
homes that they built. The National Green Building
Conference was sponsored in part by DOE and its National
Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). See the NREL press
release at:
<http://www.nrel.gov/hot-stuff/press/1002_home_builders.html>.
Want to learn more about new building technologies? Check
out the new Web site for the Partnership for Advanced
Technology in Housing (PATH), a public-private partnership,
at: <http://www.pathnet.org/>.
Many of the PATH technologies relate to energy efficiency.
A related Web site, called ToolBase, provides detailed
results of PATH field projects and PATH's "Technology
Inventory." See the ToolBase Web site at:
<http://www.toolbase.org/secondaryT.asp?TrackID=&CategoryID=1381> and
<http://www.toolbase.org/secondaryT.asp?TrackID=&CategoryID=1382>.
California Offers $30 Million for Clean Energy in Industry
The California Power Authority, a new state agency created
during last summer's electricity crisis, announced last week
the availability of $30 million for low-interest financing for
manufacturing companies using or producing clean energy
products. The power authority defines clean energy as
renewable energy, energy efficiency, or "clean" distributed
generation. The low-cost loans will go either to manufacturers
that purchase and install such technologies, or to manufacturers
who want to establish or expand facilities to produce such
technologies. The announcement marks the first substantive
program announced by the authority. See the press release
on the California Power Authority Web site at:
<http://www.capowerauthority.ca.gov/MediaRelease/main.asp>.
California Supports Research on Efficient Server Farms
The California Energy Commission (CEC) announced early
this month its award of $500,000 to DOE's Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) for research into
energy-efficient Internet server farms. Internet servers are
the workhorses of the Internet, "serving up" the files that
make up Web pages. Server farms, also called server hotels
or data centers, are facilities that house a large number of
these servers. Many server farms are located in California,
and although their energy consumption is often overstated,
they still represent a significant electrical load. In fact, about
17 percent of the nation's server farms are located in the
San Francisco Bay and Silicon Valley areas, drawing about
80 megawatts of electrical power. Although the initial LBNL
work will focus on data collection, the researchers intend to
eventually develop a computer industry "roadmap" that will
lead to more efficient server farms in the future. See the
March 1st press release on the CEC Web site at:
<http://www.energy.ca.gov/releases/>.
Readers may recall a recent report on server farms
produced by Platts, a provider of energy market information
and market services. The press release for that report was
headlined, "Utilities struggling to provide electricity to power-
hungry data centers, according to Platts" -- a conclusion that
was questioned in this newsletter. Platts has since decided
that the original press release was not representative of the
true content of its report. To address that problem, the
company has issued a second press release, headlined
"Data center power 'catastrophe' never materialized; utilities
prepare for next wave of development, according to Platts
study." The new press release cites a server farm in Austin,
Texas, that was expected to require 100 megawatts, but
ended up drawing only 6 megawatts of power. See the new
press release at:
<http://www.platts.com/pressreleases/pressrelease2002-0206b.shtml>.
See also the original story, published in the January 23rd
edition of the EREN Network News, at:
<http://www.eren.doe.gov/newsletter/archives/2002/jan23_02.html>.
Long Island Faces Power Shortage, Promotes Solar Energy
New York Governor George Pataki and the Long Island
Power Authority (LIPA) kicked off a new and improved
program to encourage solar energy use in late February.
The second phase of LIPA's Solar Pioneer Program now
offers rebates of $6 per watt for solar power systems up to
10 kilowatts in capacity, thus doubling both the rebate and
the size limitation for the program. The rebates are available
to both commercial and residential customers of LIPA and
are good for systems installed and operating by July 31,
2002. After that, new systems can still earn a rebate of
$4 per watt. To launch the program, 30 lucky families were
selected to receive the free installation of a 300-watt solar
power system on their homes.
LIPA also awarded a $300,000 rebate check to Scotto
Brothers Enterprises for their use of a geothermal heat pump
system for heating and cooling a new 145-room hotel in
Woodbury. The system uses variable-frequency motors for
maximum efficiency, and is controlled by a building energy
management system. These combined technologies will
save 425,000 kilowatt-hours each year while cutting the
hotel's peak energy demand by 86 kilowatts. They will also
avoid about 350 tons per year of greenhouse gas emissions.
See the LIPA press release at:
<http://www.lipower.org/newscenter/pr/2002/feb28_02_a.htm>.
Such energy-saving technologies may be critical for Long
Island this summer, as LIPA expects power supplies to
remain tight. LIPA Chairman Richard M. Kessel warned in
mid-March that LIPA customers will "need to conserve as
much as possible to get Long Island through extreme heat
waves." See the LIPA press release at:
<http://www.lipower.org/newscenter/pr/2002/mar12_02.html>.
DOE Awards $8.3 Million for Home Weatherization
DOE awarded a total of $8.3 million in weatherization
assistance funds to Iowa and West Virginia over the past
week. The funds will be used to improve the energy
efficiency of low-income homes in the two states. DOE
awarded more than $5 million to Iowa and more than
$3.2 million to West Virginia. See the DOE press releases at:
<http://www.energy.gov/HQPress/releases02/marpr/pr02044.htm> and
<http://www.energy.gov/HQPress/releases02/marpr/pr02050.htm>.
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ENERGY FACTS AND TIPS
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Report Examines Air Pollution From Top 100 Power Companies
A report released last week by CERES, a national coalition
of environmental and investor groups, tallies the air pollution
caused by the 100 largest electric power companies in the
United States. The report finds that fewer than 20 of these
companies account for half of the carbon dioxide, mercury,
nitrous oxides, and sulfur dioxide emissions produced by all
the companies combined. Leading the list for total emissions
are American Electric Power, Southern Company, and the
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). See the CERES press
release at: <http://www.ceres.org/events_news/press_emissions.htm>.
For those who prefer more refined analyses, the report also
ranks the companies by total emissions per megawatt hour,
emissions from fossil plants per megawatt hour, and
emissions from coal plants per megawatt hour. For total
emissions, Associated Electric Cooperative produces the
most nitrous oxides per megawatt-hour, Buckeye Power
produces the most sulfur dioxide per megawatt-hour, and
Basin Electric Power Cooperative produces the most carbon
dioxide per megawatt-hour. See the full report, especially the
Executive Summary, on the CERES Web site at:
<http://www.ceres.org/publications/main.htm>.
Coincidentally, the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO)
just released a report that examines TVA's plans to reduce
air emissions. Although the report notes that TVA plans to
reduce its emissions while increasing its generating capacity,
it also finds that TVA's programs to reduce electricity
demand are currently falling short. The report recommends
an expansion of demand-side management programs at the
utility. See the GAO report, available in Adobe PDF format
only, at: <http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d02301.pdf>.
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ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER
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