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EREN NETWORK NEWS -- November 7, 2001
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
San Francisco to Spend $100 Million on Solar, Wind Power
Nevada Utilities Request 1.3 Million Megawatt-Hours from
Renewable Energy for 2003, Nearly Doubling by 2006
First "Green Power" Plant in South Carolina Dedicated
New Study Finds Energy Efficiency, Renewables Create Jobs
Long Island Utility Successfully Installs 55 Fuel Cells
*Energy Facts and Tips
Power Reliability Report Wary of Fuel Supply, Transmission
*About this Newsletter
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NEWS AND EVENTS
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San Francisco to Spend $100 Million on Solar, Wind Power
Residents of San Francisco yesterday approved two bond
measures that will generate $100 million for the installation
of solar power, wind power, and energy efficiency
technologies on city-owned property. Proposition B, the
Solar Revenue Bond, is expected to provide financing for
about 10 to 12 megawatts of solar power -- enough to make
the city a world leader in solar generation -- and about
30 megawatts of wind generation. For comparison, the city
government in San Francisco currently uses a total of
160 megawatts of power.
The solar panels will be installed on rooftops of city facilities
in the sunniest areas of the city. The wind turbines will be
located on city-owned property in Alameda and San Mateo
Counties. Because the bonds will be repaid through energy
savings from these installations and from energy-efficiency
improvements at city facilities, the measure will not result in
higher taxes.
A related measure, Proposition H, enables an ongoing
commitment to renewable energy and energy efficiency by
allowing the city to use general revenue bonds for these
types of projects. General revenue bonds are approved by
the city's board of supervisors and do not require a public
vote. In essence, the measure allows the city to handle such
energy investments in the same way as other infrastructure
investments, such as roads and water and sewer systems.
For details about the two propositions, see the California
Solar Center Web site at:
<http://www.californiasolarcenter.org/sfbond2001.html>.
Proposition B won handily with about 73 percent of the votes
in favor; Proposition H faced a tighter vote but still won with
about 55 percent of the votes in favor. See the official voting
results on the City & County of San Francisco Web site at:
<http://www.ci.sf.ca.us/election/results01/results.htm>.
Nevada Utilities Request 1.3 Million Megawatt-Hours from
Renewable Energy for 2003, Nearly Doubling by 2006
Two Nevada utilities -- Nevada Power Company and Sierra
Pacific Power Company -- issued requests for proposals in
mid-October for a combined total of more than 1.3 million
megawatt-hours of electricity from renewable energy for
2003. To supply that much renewable electricity would
require more than 150 megawatts of geothermal power or
more than 450 megawatts of wind power, assuming the wind
turbines operate about one third of the time. The utilities also
intend to boost their purchase of renewable electricity to
more than 2.5 million megawatt-hours by 2006 -- nearly
double. The power purchases would cause a boom in
renewable energy production in Nevada, which currently
draws on 235 megawatts of geothermal power capacity but
has no commercial wind power.
The two requests for proposals also set aside a total of
136,400 megawatt-hours of electricity in 2003 to be
generated from solar power only. That purchase would
increase by more than 50 percent by 2006, to a total of
210,600 megawatt-hours. To meet those requests would
require about 68 megawatts of solar generating capacity in
2003, increasing to about 105 megawatts in 2006 -- enough
to make Nevada a leader in solar power. See the press
releases from the two utilities, with links to the requests for
proposals, at:
<http://sierrapacificresources.com/news/releases/sppc/1003215600.html>
and <http://www.nevadapower.com/news/releases/1003215600.html>.
Proposals were originally due on November 1st, but last-
minute changes allowed bidders to inform the utilities by last
Monday, November 5th, if they intend to submit a proposal
by the end of this month. See the updates from the two
utilities at:
<http://sierrapacificresources.com/news/releases/sppc/1004601601.html>
and <http://www.nevadapower.com/news/releases/1004601600.html>.
The utilities' requests for renewable electricity are in
response to a new law in Nevada that requires a percentage
of all electricity in the state to be generated from renewable
energy. Senate Bill 372, passed this summer, requires
5 percent of each utility's electricity to be generated from
renewable energy by 2003, increasing to 15 percent by
2013. Five percent of the required renewable electricity must
be met with solar energy. See the bill summary at:
<http://sierrapacificresources.com/news/features/spr/995007600.html>.
Such requirements are referred to as "renewable portfolio
standards." Although 12 states currently have renewable
portfolio standards in place, a recent report by the Union of
Concerned Scientists (UCS) finds that a federal renewable
portfolio standard could accomplish even more. According to
the UCS study, the United States could derive at least
20 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources
by 2020. The study found that combining the 20-percent
portfolio standard with energy efficiency policies would save
U.S. consumers $440 billion in energy costs by 2020. See
the UCS press release, with a link to the report, at:
<http://www.ucsusa.org/releases/10-15-01.html>.
First "Green Power" Plant in South Carolina Dedicated
Santee Cooper, the public utility serving South Carolina,
dedicated a new 2.2-megawatt landfill methane power plant
in late October. The facility is the state's first commercial
renewable energy power plant that is being supported by
customers who are willing to pay a premium for such "green
power." Santee Cooper is selling the power from the plant to
its customers in Horry and Georgetown counties at a
premium of 3 cents per kilowatt-hour. Horry Electric
Cooperative and Santee Electric Cooperative are also
offering the green power to their customers, and the state's
other 18 electric cooperatives may also participate in the
program. At full capacity, the plant will produce enough
electricity to provide blocks of 100-kilowatt-hours of green
power per month to about 9,300 residential customers. See
the Santee Cooper press release at:
<http://www.santeecooper.com/your_sc/newsroom/2k1news/1025_01.html>.
As opposed to the renewable portfolio standards discussed
in the Nevada story above, the sale of green power relies on
market forces and customer choice to support renewable
energy installations. The success of these green power
programs depends on educating consumers about their
electricity supply choices while developing market rules and
public policies that support customer choice. According to a
recent report from DOE's National Renewable Energy
Laboratory (NREL) and Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory, unleashing these market forces could increase
the generation of electricity from renewable energy by
40 percent by 2010. The study notes that experience from
related industries suggests that it takes time to build new
markets, and slow and steady growth in the early years is to
be expected. See the NREL press release, with a link to the
full report, at:
<http://www.nrel.gov/hot-stuff/press/4001-customer.html>.
New Study Finds Energy Efficiency, Renewables Create Jobs
Here's a test: What could the United States do regarding
energy that would generate 1.3 million new jobs by 2020
while increasing U.S. energy security, boosting U.S. gross
domestic product by $43.9 billion, and putting, on average,
an extra $400 each year in the coffers of every household in
the nation? The answer, according to the World Wildlife
Fund (WWF), is the implementation of energy efficiency
technologies and the development of renewable energy
resources. Both approaches also reduce the U.S. dependence
on limited energy resources while reducing the vulnerability
of the U.S. energy infrastructure. See the WWF press
release, with a link to the report, at:
<http://www.worldwildlife.org/news/headline.cfm?newsid=303>.
Long Island Utility Successfully Installs 55 Fuel Cells
The Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) announced last week
that it has successfully installed 55 of a planned 75 fuel cells at
its West Babylon substation. Of the 55 installed fuel cells -- all
5-kilowatt units produced by Plug Power Inc. -- 18 are now
feeding electricity into the LIPA power grid. The project, part of
LIPA's Clean Energy Initiative, uses the fuel cells as a clean,
efficient means of enhancing the reliability of the electric grid.
See the LIPA press release at:
<http://www.lipower.org/newscenter/pr/2001/oct31_01.htm>.
Plug Power also announced last month that it received a
contract to install and operate 10 of its 5-kilowatt fuel cell
systems at the Watervliet Arsenal in Watervliet, New York.
The contract, worth $1.2 million, was awarded by the
Construction Engineering Research Laboratory of the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. See the October 10th press
release on the Plug Power Web site at:
<http://www.plugpower.com/news/>.
Another fuel cell company, FuelCell Energy, Inc., is moving
ahead with a large fuel-cell installation in Massachusetts. The
company will install a 250-kilowatt system at a U.S. Coast
Guard station on Cape Cod. See the October 18th press
release on the Fuel Cell Energy Web site at:
<http://www.fuelcellenergy.com/>.
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) also announced in
October that it is installing a fuel cell system, but using an
even more innovative technology. The TVA facility, now
under construction, will use regenerative fuel cells to store
electricity in a chemical form, then convert that stored energy
back into electricity when needed. Using technology
developed by Regenesys Technologies Limited, the plant is
designed to store up to 120 megawatt-hours of energy and
provide power for 10 hours or more to some 7,500 homes.
To be used mainly to store energy during periods of low
demand and produce energy during peak periods, the
energy storage project will cost more than $25 million and is
expected to begin operation in 2003. See the TVA press
release at:
<http://www.tva.gov/news/releases/1001storageplant.htm>.
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ENERGY FACTS AND TIPS
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Power Reliability Report Wary of Fuel Supply, Transmission
The latest electric power reliability assessment for the United
States says the country will have plenty of power plants over
the next five years, but may have trouble fueling those plants
and delivering their power to consumers. The report, released
by the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) in
late October, expects U.S. electricity demand to grow by nearly
64,000 megawatts by 2005, but also anticipates new power
plants totaling from 138,000 to 245,000 megawatts over the
same time period. In the next couple years, however, the NERC
report still predicts tight power supplies in California and in New
York City and Long Island.
However, the report expects little growth in transmission
capacity -- according to the report, the reliability of the
transmission system in the long term is highly dependent on the
location of new generating sources. The report also anticipates
problems with the natural gas supply infrastructure, on which a
growing percentage of U.S. power plants are dependent. See
the report on the NERC Web site at:
<http://www.nerc.com/~filez/rasreports.html>.
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ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER
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