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EREN NETWORK NEWS -- December 11, 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 Wind Energy Tests Prototype of 3.6-Megawatt Wind Turbine
Large Wind Power Projects Slated for California, Minnesota
DOE Grant Supports Development of New Products from Corn
DOE Project to Create New Life Form for Hydrogen Production
Two Solar Cell Companies Cut Costs by Making More from Less
Two Groups to Install Superconducting Utility Cables in 2005
*Site News
BetterBricks
*Energy Facts and Tips
IEA Documents Renewable Energy History, Looks Ahead to 2030
*About this Newsletter
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NEWS AND EVENTS
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GE Wind Energy Tests Prototype of 3.6-Megawatt Wind Turbine
GE Wind Energy, the largest wind turbine company in the United
States, announced yesterday that it is now testing a prototype
3.6-megawatt wind turbine, which will be the world's largest
commercial wind turbine. The wind machine was installed in Spain in
May, connected to the electrical grid in September, and reached its
nominal power output in October. Designed specifically for offshore
wind installations, the wind turbine has a hub height of 75 meters
(246 feet) and a rotor diameter of 104 meters (341 feet). The
prototype, however, was installed on a farm, so it is mounted at a
hub height of 100 meters (328 feet) to account for the higher wind
turbulence over land. The massive turbine is equipped with an
optional internal 40-ton crane that will allow for the exchange of
the rotor blades, gearbox, and generator without using a separate,
external crane. It can also be fitted with a helicopter-hoisting
platform to allow the use of helicopters when working on the
turbine. GE Wind Energy will manufacture the wind turbines in
Germany and the United States once the test period is complete.
See the December 10th press release from GE Wind Energy at:
<http://www.gepower.com/dhtml/wind/en_us/newsroom/pr.jsp>.
Large Wind Power Projects Slated for California, Minnesota
California and Minnesota will gain a total of 200 megawatts of new
wind power capacity, thanks to plans now underway by several firms.
In southwestern Minnesota, PacifiCorp Power Marketing, Inc. (PPM)
will build the 50-megawatt Moraine Wind Power Project using 34 wind
turbines from GE Wind Energy. GE's 1.5-megawatt wind turbines,
manufactured in California, are the largest made in the United
States. Xcel Energy will buy all of the power from the wind
facility, which will begin commercial operation in fall 2003. The
project will produce enough electricity to meet the annual needs of
19,000 average U.S. homes. See the GE Wind Energy press release, in
PDF format only, at:
<http://www.gepower.com/corporate/en_us/aboutgeps/releases/112102.pdf>
Minnesota has significant wind energy resources, but they are
concentrated in the southwest corner of the state. See the high-
resolution wind resource maps on the Minnesota State Energy Office
Web site at:
<http://www.commerce.state.mn.us/pages/Energy/ModTech/windmaps.htm>.
PPM, the developer of the Minnesota project, will also buy the
entire output from the 150-megawatt High Winds wind power project,
to be built in northern California by FPL Energy. Vestas Wind
Systems A/S announced on Monday that the project, to be located in
Solano County, will use the company's 1.8-megawatt wind turbines,
the largest wind turbines sold in North America. The High Winds
project is expected to begin operating in summer 2003. See the press
releases from PPM and Vestas at:
<http://www.ppmenergy.com/rel_02.11.21.html> and
<http://www.vestas.dk/nyheder/presse/2002/UK/fond20021209_UK.html>.
A number of smaller wind projects are now underway across the
country: the Southern Minnesota Municipal Power Agency (SMMPA) is
installing two 950-kilowatt wind turbines near Rochester (in
southeast Minnesota); the Palmdale Water District in southern
California, just north of Los Angeles, is planning to install a one-
megawatt wind turbine near Lake Palmdale, with assistance from Black
& Veatch Corporation; and Xcel Energy and Cielo Wind Power, LLC are
planning to add two 660-kilowatt wind turbines to the Llano Estacado
Wind Ranch in eastern Curry County, New Mexico. Among recently
completed projects, Basin Electric Power Cooperative helped dedicate
two new 1.3-megawatt wind turbines near Minot, North Dakota, and
Oncor, the energy delivery unit of TXU, completed two transmission
lines that will help deliver West Texas wind power to customers in
North Texas. See the December 3rd press release from SMMPA at:
<http://www.smmpa.com/atsmmpa/news.asp>.
See also the press releases from Black & Veatch, Xcel Energy, Basin
Electric, and TXU, respectively, at:
<http://www.bv.com/bv/palmdale/index.htm>,
<http://www.xcelenergy.com/NewsRelease/newsRelease111702.asp>,
<http://www.basinelectric.com/news/detail.php?id=627>,
<http://www.txu.com/us/newsroom/pressrel/detail.asp?ID=522>.
DOE Grant Supports Development of New Products from Corn
DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) announced on
Monday its receipt of a $2.4 million research grant from DOE for the
development of new products made from corn fiber. PNNL will work
with the National Corn Growers Association and Archer Daniels
Midland Company for the next two and half years, aiming to
economically derive high-value chemicals and oils from corn fiber.
The researchers will start by purifying and characterizing trace
chemicals within the corn fiber, but hope to progress to designing
and constructing a pilot production plant by the end of the project.
See the PNNL press release at:
<http://www.pnl.gov/news/2002/corngrowers.htm>.
DOE supports the development of such "biobased" products -- products
made from plants or other organic material -- because they often
replace materials made from petrochemicals. In the case of corn
fiber, developing a new biobased product market also improves the
economics of using the rest of the corn to produce ethanol. Archer
Daniels Midland, a partner in the project, is a leading producer of
ethanol fuels from corn. For more information, see the Biomass
Research & Development Initiative Web site at:
<http://www.bioproducts-bioenergy.gov/default.asp>.
One company is already producing a biobased product from corn -- in
this case, corn starch. Cargill Dow LLC started making commercial-
grade polylactide (PLA), a polymer, from corn starch at a large-
scale manufacturing plant in April. In November, Cargill Dow teamed
with Fountain Set Limited and Amprica S.p.A. to advance the use of
the material in clothing and for packaging foods. See the Cargill
Dow press releases at: <http://www.cdpoly.com/news_archive.asp>.
DOE Project to Create New Life Form for Hydrogen Production
Producing hydrogen from non-petroleum sources is a difficult,
energy-consuming task. Electrolysis -- the process of applying an
electrical current to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen -- is
usually costly and energy-inefficient. In recent years, researchers
have coaxed algae and even spinach extracts into using sunlight to
produce hydrogen, but these processes still have far to go before
they achieve commercial success. Researchers at DOE's National
Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) even managed to use bacteria to
produce a small but constant amount of hydrogen in recent
experiments -- see the NETL announcement at:
<http://www.netl.doe.gov/newsroom/briefs/rb-0005.html>.
Despite these advancements, researchers have yet to develop a
natural process that efficiently and cheaply produces a large
quantity of hydrogen for use as a fuel source. Those researchers
using algae, bacteria, and other natural organisms must sometimes
think that nature itself is falling short. And that's exactly the
assumption taken by a new DOE project, which aims to make nature
just a little bit better. Under the new project, announced in late
November, DOE is providing a three-year, $3 million grant to the
Institute of Biological Energy Alternatives (IBEA), which will
develop a synthetic chromosome as the first step in developing cost-
effective and efficient biological sources of energy. The institute
aims to engineer organisms that could generate hydrogen or serve
other purposes, such as carbon sequestration.
The research builds on previous work at The Institute for Genetic
Research, which found a bacterium with a very small number of genes
-- only 517, compared to roughly 30,000 in the human genome. The
institute's research team estimated that the smallest number of
genes needed to sustain the bacterium could be as low as 265. That
led the team to consider creating artificial chromosomes, which in
turn led to the formation of the IBEA. See the IBEA press release
at: <http://www.bioenergyalts.org/news.html>.
For other recent examples of attempts to use organisms to produce
hydrogen, see the February 23, 2000, and August 29, 2001, editions
of EREN Network News at:
<http://www.eren.doe.gov/news/archives/2000/feb23_00.html> and
<http://www.eren.doe.gov/news/archives/2001/aug29_01.html>.
Two Solar Cell Companies Cut Costs by Making More from Less
Two manufacturers of solar cells recently announced advancements
that will yield lower-cost solar cells by squeezing more solar cell
production out of existing equipment and materials.
Evergreen Solar, Inc. found a way to produce two ribbons of silicon
simultaneously in one crystal-growth furnace, potentially doubling
the company's production capacity. Evergreen Solar uses a
proprietary process that avoids sawing silicon blocks, instead
melting the silicon and drawing it out between two strings at high
temperatures to form a ribbon between the strings. The company has
already boosted productivity by making the ribbons 45 percent wider
and increasing the growth rate by 40 percent. The company now hopes
to introduce "double ribbon" production into its furnaces by late
2003. See the December 4th press release by selecting "News" on the
Evergreen Solar home page at: <http://www.evergreensolar.com/>.
A different approach to the same problem is being pursued by Origin
Energy, an Australian company, which is aiming to make inexpensive
solar cells by using less silicon. The company apparently produces
its new "Sliver Cell" by using micromachining technology, rather
than saws, to slice extremely thin slivers of silicon from a block
of silicon. The resulting product is flexible, translucent, and,
according to the company, uses about one-thirtieth the amount of
silicon used in standard crystalline-silicon solar cells. See the
November 28th press release from Origin Energy at:
<http://www.originenergy.com.au/news/news.php?pageid=10>.
"Micromachining" usually refers to various methods of etching
silicon and other materials to create extremely small structures.
Such methods were recently used to produce a motor that could only
be seen under a microscope. However, Oxford Lasers, Inc. uses the
term to refer to laser cutting of silicon and other materials, a
process that appears more applicable to the process of producing
solar cells. See the Oxford Laser fact sheet on laser micromachining
of silicon, available in PDF format only, at:
<http://www.oxfordlasers.com/Industrial/uchi/CSE3SiliconCutting.pdf>.
Two Groups to Install Superconductive Utility Cables in 2005
Two company partnerships recently announced plans to perform
separate tests of high-temperature superconductor (HTS) cables at
two U.S. utilities. Such HTS cables have high current-carrying
capacity and could potentially transmit electricity with higher
energy efficiency. HTS cable could increase the capacity of existing
utility transmission and distribution systems, particularly in
confined urban locations. DOE is contributing to both demonstration
projects.
Intermagnetics General Corporation (IGC) announced in mid-November
that it plans to install a 34.5-kilovolt, three-phase, 350-meter
length of HTS cable in Niagara Mohawk's distribution system in
Albany, New York, in 2005. An IGC subsidiary, SuperPower, Inc., will
collaborate with Japan's Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. on the
installation. The project will originally use cables made with
so-called first generation HTS wire, which is now commercially
available, then replace part of it with higher-efficiency second-
generation HTS wire. SuperPower, Inc. has been manufacturing second-
generation HTS wire at a pilot facility since January 2002. See the
November 12th press release from IGC at:
<http://www.prnewswire.com/micro/imgc>.
Southwire Company followed up last week, announcing that it has
teamed with nkt cables to form a new company named ULTERA. The new
company will install a 300-meter length of cable in American
Electric Power's electricity distribution system in Columbus, Ohio,
also in 2005. Both the SuperPower and ULTERA cables promise cost
savings and ease of operation and maintenance by combining all three
phases into one power cable. See the Southwire press release at:
<http://www.southwire.com/news/120602.htm>.
Another leader in HTS technology, American Superconductor
Corporation, completed the manufacture and testing of the rotor for
the first HTS ship propulsion motor in November. U.K.-based ALSTOM
is building the motor, which will be delivered to the U.S. Navy in
July 2003. The 5-megawatt (or 6,500-horsepower) motor will be just
one-half the size and weight of a conventional motor of the same
power. See the American Superconductor press release, in PDF format
only, at: <http://www.amsuper.com/press/2002/5MWRotor_110402.pdf>.
GE Power Systems and the GE Global Research Center are also entering
the HTS fray by working on a new DOE program to develop an HTS
generator for the power industry. The GE groups will work with the
National Energy Group, American Electric Power, the New York State
Energy Research and Development Authority, and DOE's Oak Ridge and
Los Alamos national laboratories to develop the generator. The
$12.3-million, 3.5-year program is expected to move HTS generator
technology toward full commercialization. See the GE Power Systems
press release, in PDF format only, at:
<http://www.gepower.com/corporate/en_us/aboutgeps/releases/102802.pdf>
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SITE NEWS
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BetterBricks
<http://www.betterbricks.com/>
BetterBricks, an initiative of the Northwest Energy Efficiency
Alliance, was established to help commercial building professionals
use energy efficiency as a design tool and financial strategy. Its
Web site features articles on energy effective design and better
building management, as well as success stories, news, and events.
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ENERGY FACTS AND TIPS
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IEA Documents Renewable Energy History, Looks Ahead to 2030
The International Energy Agency (IEA) recently published two
documents on renewable energy -- one documenting the past, and the
other looking ahead to the future.
IEA's new "Renewable Energy 2002" is IEA's first comprehensive
report on the progress of renewable energy markets in developed
countries. The report examines renewable energy use from 1990 to
2000, and finds that despite a growing use of renewable energy, the
share of energy provided by renewable energy sources stayed fairly
steady over the ten-year span. Overall, renewable energy use
increased by 1.8 percent per year in developed countries, but with
growing energy use, the percentage of total energy produced from
renewable energy sources only increased from 5.9 percent to
6.0 percent. Wind and solar power are growing faster than all other
renewable energy sources, at annual rates of 22.4 percent and 28.9
percent, respectively. Extensive details are provided in the full
166-page report, which the IEA is making available for free. See the
IEA Web site at: <http://www.iea.org/stats/files/renewables.htm>.
IEA also published a much shorter 12-page booklet in November,
presenting the outlook for renewable energy sources through 2030.
The booklet draws on the IEA's "World Energy Outlook 2002" to conclude
that renewable energy's contribution to energy use throughout the
world will drop from 13.8 percent in 2000 to 12.5 percent in 2030.
This is misleading, however, since much of that energy is traditional
uses of biomass (such as wood) for heating and cooking in developing
countries. In developed countries, renewable energy's contribution
is expected to increase to 8 percent of total energy use by 2030.
See the IEA fact sheet, in PDF format only, at:
<http://www.iea.org/leaflet.pdf>.
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ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER
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