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EREN NETWORK NEWS -- February 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
General Electric Buys Enron Wind, Buoys U.S. Wind Industry
NREL Updates Top-Ten List of Utility Green Power Programs
Study: Economy Can Grow While Carbon Emissions Are Cut
Army Corps Releases Final Report on Snake River Dams
IBM Introduces New Energy-Saving Web Server
Microbes Found to Convert Organic Matter Into Electricity
*Energy Facts and Tips
EPA Releases Draft Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gases
*About this Newsletter
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NEWS AND EVENTS
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General Electric Buys Enron Wind, Buoys U.S. Wind Industry
GE Power Systems -- a General Electric company --
nnounced last week that it plans to buy Enron Wind from its
parent company, the bankrupt Enron Corporation. GE Power
Systems will take ownership of the Enron's wind turbine
manufacturing and marketing operations, but not the wind
facilities owned or operated by Enron. The news was a relief
to the U.S. wind energy industry, which feared that one of
the largest U.S. wind turbine manufacturers -- the seventh
largest in the world -- would be sold to a company overseas.
If approved by bankruptcy court, the deal should be finalized
in April. See the press releases from Enron and General
Electric on the Enron Wind Web site at:
<http://www.enronwind.com/newsroom/pressrel/index.html>.
Meanwhile, the progress on U.S. wind power installations
has slowed dramatically this year. One of the few recent
wind power additions was a single 900-kilowatt wind turbine
installed near Valley City, North Dakota, by Minnkota Power
Cooperative. Power from the turbine will be sold through the
utility's green power program. Commissioned in late
January, the turbine holds the honor of being the first utility-
scale wind turbine in North Dakota. See the Minnkota press
release at: <http://www.minnkota.com/infinity1.htm>.
Despite the slowdown, larger wind power installations are
still being planned and pursued by several companies.
Endless Energy Corporation, for instance, has announced
plans to install a 7-turbine wind facility near Manchester,
Vermont, and a 29-turbine facility near Stratton, Maine.
Combined, the two facilities could generate enough
electricity to power 35,000 New England homes. The
company hopes to install the Vermont facility this summer.
See the Endless Energy Web site at:
<http://www.endlessenergy.com/>.
NREL Updates Top-Ten List of Utility Green Power Programs
DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
updated this month its popular top-ten lists of utility programs
that sell green power, which is electricity from renewable
energy sources. NREL ranks the most effective of these
utility programs -- sometimes called "green pricing" programs
-- based on customer participation, new renewable energy
installed capacity, and cost premiums.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power ranked
first for total number of customers: its "Green Power for a
Green L.A." program has 87,000 participants, although about
half of those are low-income customers who are signed up at
no cost. In terms of percentages, Moorhead Public Service
of Minnesota comes in first with 7.0 percent of its customers
signed up. For new renewable power capacity, Austin
Energy of Texas takes first place with 76.9 megawatts of
wind and solar power installed. And there's a three-way tie
for the lowest premium, with two California utilities --
Roseville Electric and Sacramento Municipal Utility District --
and the Texas-New Mexico Power Company each charging
customers just a penny extra per kilowatt-hour for green
power. See the top-ten lists on the EREN Green Power Web
site at: <http://www.eren.doe.gov/greenpower/topten.shtml>.
Green power experts believe these numbers will get even
better: at a green power conference last week, experts
predicted that utilities would achieve 10 percent participation
rates in green pricing programs within the next five years.
Xenergy Inc. organized the conference in cooperation with
the Center for Resource Solutions (CRS). See the February
21st press release by selecting "For the Press" on the
Xenergy Web site at:
<http://ragtime.xenergy.com/XENHome.nsf/HTMLDocs/1_About>.
CRS, by the way, is offering an accreditation program for
utility green pricing programs. Three programs -- Tennessee
Valley Authority's "Green Power Switch," Wisconsin
Electric's "Energy for Tomorrow," and Madison Gas and
Electric's "MGE Wind Power" -- have already been
accredited. See the CRS Web site at:
<http://www.resource-solutions.org/CRSprograms/greenpricing.html>.
Study: Economy Can Grow While Carbon Emissions Are Cut
A new report by the Center for a Sustainable Economy
(CSE) and the Economic Policy Institute concludes that the
U.S. economy can grow under policies that tax carbon
dioxide emissions while promoting energy efficiency and
renewable energy. The study used a sophisticated
macroeconomic model to examine the effects of these
policies. Included in the model were policies to help energy-
intensive industries that would be hurt by a carbon tax and
policies to help workers that would be displaced from
carbon-intensive industries, such as the coal industry. The
model also assumed that most of the revenues from the
carbon tax would go towards a cut in income tax.
The study found that under this set of policies, U.S. gross
domestic product (GDP) would grow 0.6 percent by 2020,
while carbon dioxide emissions would drop by 50 percent.
Along the way, a net 1.4 million jobs would be created, after-
tax wages would rise, and household energy bills would fall.
And oil imports, currently projected to increase by about
40 percent by 2020, would instead stay essentially level. See
the CSE press release, with a link to the full report, at:
<http://www.sustainableeconomy.org/press/cleanenergy.htm>.
A growing number of U.S. cities are now pledging to reduce
their greenhouse gas emissions. Salt Lake City is a recent
entry, pledging to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to
7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. To help meet that
goal, the city will establish a scientific, detailed tracking of its
greenhouse gas emissions. Through the city's "Salt Lake
City Green" program, the city plans to cut emissions by
encouraging the construction of "high performance" energy-
efficient buildings while promoting alternative fuel vehicles,
electricity conservation, and other measures. Mayor Rocky
Anderson announced the pledge on the eve of the Olympic
Winter Games. See the Mayor's announcement at:
<http://www.slcgov.com/mayor/pressreleases/kyoto%20protocol.htm>.
Army Corps Releases Final Report on Snake River Dams
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released last week its
final report on improving salmon passage through the lower
Snake River dams, reaffirming its recommendation to make
major systems improvements to the dams, as was first
announced in December. The Corps report rejected the
option of breaching the dams, which would have eliminated
3,033 megawatts of hydroelectric power capacity for the
region -- about 7 percent of the region's total generating
capacity. The newly released feasibility report and
environmental impact statement provides the basis for the
Corps' recommendation and includes details of the
recommended system improvements.
The recommended improvements include structural changes
such as upgraded fish ladders (to aid adult fish migrations
upstream) and turbine upgrades. The report also recommends
operational changes such as improved spills of water past
the dams to assist with juvenile fish migration downstream.
The Corps is accepting public comments on the report
through early April. See the February 20th press release on
the Corps' Walla Walla District Web site at:
<http://www.nww.usace.army.mil/html/offices/pa/NR/NR02_files/NR02.htm>.
The full report is loaded with photos and illustrations, and is
actually quite educational. However, the download times are
long, so you might opt to order a compact disk. Both options
are available on the "Final Feasibility Report and
Environmental Impact Statement" link at:
<http://www.nww.usace.army.mil/lsr/>.
IBM Introduces New Energy-Saving Web Server
The International Business Machines Corporation (IBM)
announced last week that it is producing a new server that
uses 57 percent less electricity than comparable models.
Servers are computers that "serve up" the graphics, text,
forms and other contents of Web pages. The new IBM
server also produces 63 percent less heat than comparable
models, thus also requiring less energy for air conditioning.
See the February 13th press release on the IBM Web site at:
<http://www-916.ibm.com/press/prnews.nsf/TodayDate/Today?OpenDocument>
Microbes Found to Convert Organic Matter Into Electricity
Researchers at the University of Massachusetts (UMass)
have found that a class of energy-harvesting microbes
known as "Geobacters" can convert organic matter into
electrical energy. In a January issue of Science magazine,
the researchers reported on how they built a simple battery
using mud from Boston Harbor and two graphite electrodes.
They then determined that Geobacters were responsible for
generating the electricity. After other microorganisms broke
down the large organic molecules in the mud into acetate,
the Geobacters were able to transfer electrons from the
acetate molecules to the graphite electrode, generating a
current. The Geobacters were also able to generate
electricity from toluene. One possible application, according
to the researchers, would be to harvest sediment on the
ocean floor to generate electricity for deep-sea submarines.
See the UMass press release at:
<http://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/archive/2002/011702electrodes.html>.
More traditional technologies for harvesting ocean energy
draw on the mechanical energy of waves or tides and on the
thermal energy of the ocean. To learn more about these
technologies, see the EREN Ocean Energy page at:
<http://www.eren.doe.gov/RE/ocean.html>.
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ENERGY FACTS AND TIPS
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EPA Releases Draft Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gases
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released
in early February its draft inventory of U.S. greenhouse gas
emissions and sinks. The report finds that U.S. greenhouse
gas emissions increased 2.5 percent in 2000, to a level that
is 14.1 percent greater than 1990 emissions. The EPA
attributes the increase to robust economic growth, cooler
winter conditions, and a decreased output from hydroelectric
dams. The report, prepared to meet the U.S. commitment to
the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change, is open to public comment until mid-March. See the
EPA report at:
<http://www.epa.gov/globalwarming/publications/emissions/index.html>.
In news that may or may not be related, depending on your
outlook, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) announced last week that average
global temperatures in January made it the warmest month
on record. And here in the contiguous United States, the
three-month period from November 2001 through January
2002 was also the warmest on record. See the NOAA press
release at:
<http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories/s869.htm>.
Even warmer global temperatures are expected by this
summer, as a continuing warming trend in the tropical Pacific
waters signaled the likely development of El Nino conditions
within the next three months, according to researchers at
NOAA's Climate Prediction Center. See the NOAA press
release at: <http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories/s860.htm>.
Meanwhile, new research from Australia's Commonwealth
Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
suggests that El Nino events may be getting stronger due to
global warming. CSIRO researchers say they have evidence
that warm water in the oceans at high latitudes is being
carried to the eastern equatorial Pacific by deep ocean
currents. The researchers matched the observation to a
global climate model, suggesting that global warming may
have caused the shift in ocean currents. See the CSIRO
press release at:
<http://www.csiro.au/index.asp?type=mediaRelease&id=WarmingUp>.
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ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER
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