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EERE NETWORK NEWS -- February 5, 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
President's Budget Retains Funds for Efficiency, Renewables
President Bush Launches $1.2-Billion Hydrogen Initiative
Navy to Demonstrate Potential of Solar-Supplied Hydrogen
Los Angeles Proposes to Build a 120-Megawatt Wind Plant
Green Power Adopted in North Carolina and Successful in D.C.
*Site News
DOE Launches Revised EERE Web Site at New Web Address
*Energy Facts and Tips
Energy Companies Added Significant Oil, Gas Reserves in 2001
*About this Newsletter
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NEWS AND EVENTS
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Editor's Note: In coordination with today's launch of the new Energy
Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Web site (see the "Site News"
below), this newsletter takes on a new name, EERE Network News, and
a new Web address: <http://www.eere.energy.gov/news/>.
With all those changes, we're also sending this issue out a bit late.
We apologize for the delay.
President's Budget Retains Funds for Efficiency, Renewables
President Bush released his administration's proposed $2.2 trillion
federal budget for fiscal year (FY) 2004 on Monday. According to the
President, the budget meets the challenges posed by three national
priorities: winning the war against terrorism, securing the homeland,
and generating long-term economic growth. Despite these three
priorities, the budget maintains funding for energy efficiency and
renewable energy programs. It assumes enactment of the energy tax
incentives proposed in the President's 2003 budget, including tax
credits for the use of solar power in residences and for purchases of
hybrid electric and fuel cell vehicles. It also proposes a two-year
extension in tax credits for electric vehicles, clean-fuel vehicles,
and power produced from certain renewable energy sources (the
so-called "production tax credit"). See the budget on the White House
Web site at: <http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2004/>.
The proposed overall budget for DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency
and Renewable Energy (EERE) remains nearly steady, increasing about
0.1 percent above the President's request for FY 2003 (the FY 2003
budget has not been finalized, so it is not available for
comparison). See page four of the text (page five of the PDF file)
of the DOE Budget Request, a 387-KB PDF file, at:
<http://www.mbe.doe.gov/budget/04budget/content/orgcont.pdf>.
See also the "Energy Supply" and "Energy Conservation" sections of
DOE's "Budget Highlights," a 3.64-MB PDF file at:
<http://www.mbe.doe.gov/budget/04budget/content/highlite/highlite.pdf>
President Bush Launches $1.2-Billion Hydrogen Initiative
President Bush announced a $1.2-billion FreedomCAR and Fuel Initiative
to develop hydrogen-powered fuel cells during his State of the Union
speech on January 28th.
"A single chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen generates
energy, which can be used to power a car -- producing only water,
not exhaust fumes," said President Bush. "With a new national
commitment, our scientists and engineers will overcome obstacles to
taking these cars from laboratory to showroom, so that the first car
driven by a child born today could be powered by hydrogen, and
pollution-free."
Read, view, or listen to President Bush's speech on the White House
Web site at:
<http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/01/20030128-19.html>.
The FreedomCAR and Fuel Initiative will develop the technology needed
for commercially viable hydrogen-powered fuel cells to power cars,
trucks, homes and businesses. It will include $720 million in new
funding over the next five years to develop the technologies and
infrastructure needed to produce, store, and distribute hydrogen
fuel. It complements the existing FreedomCAR Initiative, which is
developing technologies needed for the mass production of safe and
affordable fuel cell vehicles.
Together, the two initiatives will invest $1.7 billion over the
next five years to develop hydrogen-powered fuel cells, hydrogen
infrastructure, and advanced automotive technologies. These
initiatives will dramatically improve America's energy security by
significantly reducing the need for imported oil. See the FreedomCAR
and Fuel Initiative Web page at:
<http://www.eere.energy.gov/hydrogenfuel/>.
The FreedomCAR and Fuel Initiative is part of EERE's Hydrogen,
Fuel Cells, and Infrastructure Technologies Program. See the new
program Web site at:
<http://www.eere.energy.gov/hydrogenandfuelcells/>.
Navy to Demonstrate Potential of Solar-Supplied Hydrogen
Proton Energy Systems announced in late January its award of a
U.S. Navy contract to develop a regenerative fuel cell system
powered by solar electricity. The system will use a solar electric
system as a source of power during daylight hours, while also using
some of the sunlight to generate hydrogen. At night, the system will
use the hydrogen to power the fuel cell, allowing the system to
continue to produce electricity. Proton Energy will install the
system at the Naval Air Weapons Station at China Lake in California.
See the Proton Energy press release at:
<http://ir.ccbn.com/ir.zhtml?t=prtn&s=410&item_id=374133>.
Los Angeles Proposes to Build a 120-Megawatt Wind Plant
Los Angeles Mayor Jim Hahn announced plans to build a 120-megawatt
wind power facility on Monday. The Pine Tree Wind Project will be
the largest municipally owned wind plant in the Unites States,
producing enough power for more than 100,000 households. The
facility will be built on about 22,000 acres of land located
12 miles north of Mojave, California. However, the project still
needs approval from the Board of Commissioners of the Los Angeles
Department of Power and Water as well as the Los Angeles City
Council, both of which will review the project this month. If built,
the project will be completed by July 2004. See Mayor Hahn's press
release, in PDF format only, at:
<http://www.lacity.org/mayor/myrpress/ND8646.pdf>.
According to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), the Pine
Tree Wind Project will consist of 80 wind turbines built by General
Electric, each 1.5 megawatts in capacity. See the AWEA press release
at: <http://www.awea.org/news/news030203lad.html>.
If you're wondering how good the wind energy resource is in
California, you're in luck: In late 2002, the California Energy
Commission published new high-resolution wind maps of the state on
their Web site. See the new California wind resource maps at:
<http://www.energy.ca.gov/maps/wind.html>.
Green Power Adopted in North Carolina and Successful in D.C.
The North Carolina Utilities Commission approved a statewide green
power program last week. The NC GreenPower Program will draw on
biopower, wind, and solar energy and will be coordinated by Advanced
Energy, a non-profit corporation. See the announcement on the
Advanced Energy Web site at:
<http://www.advancedenergy.org/greenpower>.
Green power -- electricity produced from renewable energy sources
-- is proving popular in the Washington, D.C. area: Washington Gas
Energy Services and Community Energy, Inc. announced last week that
25 percent of the output from the new Mountaineer Wind Energy Center
has already been sold. American University, World Wildlife Fund, the
Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Norm Thompson Outfitters, and
Ecoprint are among the organizations that have signed up for the
wind power, in addition to almost 5,000 residential and small
commercial customers. See the Washington Gas Energy Services press
release at: <http://www.wges.com/press.htm?p=2>.
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SITE NEWS
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DOE Launches Revised EERE Web Site at New Web Address
We've moved! The Web site for DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and
Renewable Energy (EERE), formerly known as EREN, has moved to a new
address and shed its former moniker. Now known simply as the
EERE Web site, the new site places greater emphasis on EERE and its
11 technology programs. The site's new Web address also emphasizes
EERE while aligning with DOE's move from doe.gov to energy.gov back
in October 2000. Please update your lists of bookmarks and favorites
to the new EERE Web site at: <http://www.eere.energy.gov>.
The new EERE home page features a clean look and easy navigation,
with enhanced accessibility features and a "liquid" design that will
size itself automatically to your computer's screen size. The
EERE home page design will eventually be carried down throughout the
EERE Web site -- for now, the Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, and Infrastructure
Technologies Program is the first program to reflect the new look.
For those of you around the world whose Web sites link to EERE, the
EERE Web team urges you to update your links. Please also change the
name of your links to "U.S. DOE Energy Efficiency and Renewable
Energy." As before, the EERE Web site will continue to provide
access to all of the EERE office and program Web sites, while also
serving as a comprehensive, worldwide gateway to information on
energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies. In 2002, more
than three million people visited the site.
The former "EREN" Web site is ancient in Web years, having first
been launched in 1994, not long after the birth of the World Wide
Web. The site has come a long way since those early days, as
demonstrated by the Wayback Machine, an archive of old Web sites
established by the non-profit Internet Archive. See most of the
site's earlier incarnations on the Wayback Machine at:
<http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.eren.doe.gov>.
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ENERGY FACTS AND TIPS
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Energy Companies Added Significant Oil, Gas Reserves in 2001
Renewable energy advocates often look to the world's limited supply
of oil and natural gas as one of the incentives for developing new
energy sources. Although those energy sources are ultimately finite,
recent data from DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA)
suggests that the world won't be running out of them anytime soon.
In fact, in 2001 the major U.S. energy companies added the
equivalent of 7.9 billion barrels of oil to their reserves, thanks
to an increase in spending on exploration and drilling. The increase
in reserves was the largest since EIA began tracking the industry in
1974. To achieve that record increase in reserves, the major energy
companies boosted their spending on exploration and development in
2001 by 35 percent, to $50.2 billion. See the EIA press release at:
<http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/press/press206.html>.
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ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER
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