=================================================
EREN NETWORK NEWS -- November 20, 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/>
=================================================
Featuring:
*News and Events
World's First Hydrogen Fuel and Power Station Now Operating
Michigan's NextEnergy Center Site Earns Tax-Free Designation
Agreement Will Bolster State, Federal Cooperation on Energy
Japanese Solar Cell Firm Plans Plant in Memphis, Tennessee
Unexpected Discovery Shows Promise for Better Solar Cells
Seattle Narrowly Passes $1.75-Billion Monorail Measure
Scientific American Honors Efficient, Renewable Technologies
*Site News
Powering the South
*Energy Facts and Tips
EIA Updates State Information on Solar and Wind Energy Use
*About this Newsletter
----------------------------------------------------------------------
NEWS AND EVENTS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Editor's Note: In last week's edition, the article about solar power
on the Moon included a sentence about how "only half the sun
receives sunlight at any one time," when of course we meant the
moon, not the sun. By the way, the author of the moon-power study
notes that his plan includes solar bases on opposing limbs of the
moon, as seen from Earth, in order to provide a continuous source of
solar power. He published more information on his proposal in an
article in the April/May 2002 edition of "The Industrial Physicist,"
available in PDF format only at:
<http://www.tipmagazine.com/tip/INPHFA/vol-8/iss-2/p12.pdf>.
World's First Hydrogen Fuel and Power Station Now Operating
DOE announced on November 15th the opening of the world's first
hydrogen energy station that can provide fuel for vehicles and also
produce electricity. Producing both hydrogen fuel and electricity
may be an attractive approach for future hydrogen merchants, who
will be able to generate a steady revenue stream from electricity
sales while their fuel sales to hydrogen vehicles ramp up. Located
in Las Vegas, Nevada, the new $10.8-million station is the result of
a private-public partnership among DOE, the City of Las Vegas,
Plug Power Inc., and Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.
Housed in the city's vehicle maintenance and operation service
center, the new station combines an onsite hydrogen generator,
compressor, liquid and gaseous hydrogen storage tanks, dispensing
systems, and a stationary fuel cell. It is capable of dispensing
hydrogen, hydrogen-enriched natural gas and compressed natural gas.
DOE is also working with the city and NRG Technologies Inc. to
convert municipal vehicles to operate on hydrogen. See the
DOE press release at:
<http://www.energy.gov/HQPress/releases02/novpr/pr02240.htm>.
For more information on DOE's Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, and
Infrastructure Technologies Program, see the program's Web site on
EREN at: <http://www.eren.doe.gov/hydrogen_fuelcell.html>.
The California Fuel Cell Partnership (CaFCP) is also building
hydrogen infrastructure: The organization commissioned its first
"satellite" hydrogen fueling system in late October. The new system,
located in Richmond, California, is about 70 miles from the CaFCP
headquarters and primary refueling facility in West Sacramento, so
it extends the range over which the CaFCP's prototype fuel-cell
vehicles can be driven. Stuart Energy manufactured and installed the
fueling system, which uses electrolysis to generate hydrogen from
water and includes a storage unit capable of holding 104 pounds of
hydrogen. It is capable of fueling a small fleet of vehicles and
requires only one or two minutes per refueling. The unit is the
eighth hydrogen fueling station installed by Stuart Energy in North
America, and the fourth in California. See the CaFCP and Stuart
Energy press releases at:
<http://www.cafcp.org/releases/2002_10-30_sat_fuelsta.html> and
<http://www.stuartenergy.com/news/press_releases/press_oct30.html>.
Plug Power Inc. and Honda R&D Company, Ltd. are aiming to let future
fuel-cell vehicle owners supply their own hydrogen fueling
infrastructure. The companies have agreed to jointly develop and
test a home refueling system for fuel cell vehicles. See the
October 17th press release on the Plug Power Web site at:
<http://www.plugpower.com/news/>.
Other recent hydrogen advances include a system to produce nearly
pure hydrogen from methane or propane, a process to produce hydrogen
from biomass while sequestering the carbon byproducts, and a hydride
slurry system for hydrogen storage. See the announcements from
MesoFuel, Inc.; Scientific Carbons, Inc.; and Safe Hydrogen LLC,
respectively, at: <http://www.mesofuel.com/news/pr2.asp>,
<http://www.eprida.com/hydro/pr27082002.htm>, and
<http://www.safehydrogen.com/about.html>.
Michigan's NextEnergy Center Site Earns Tax-Free Designation
The Michigan Economic Development Corporation announced last week
that the future site of Michigan's NextEnergy Center has been
designated a tax-free zone. This so-called "NextEnergy Zone" is
located at the Wayne State University Research and Technology Park
in Detroit and will be the location for the 40,000-square-foot
NextEnergy Center. The center will be the catalyst for alternative
energy development in the state and will include laboratory
facilities, business incubator space, collaborative meeting space,
and other facilities. Alternative energy companies located in the
new NextEnergy Zone will enjoy tax-free status for 20 years. See the
announcement on the NextEnergy Web site at:
<http://www.nextenergy.org/021114NextEnergy.htm>.
As mentioned in last week's edition of this newsletter, the
authorizing legislation for the NextEnergy Zone was approved by
Governor John Engler in mid-October. See last week's story at:
<http://www.eren.doe.gov/news/news_detail.cfm?news_id=401>.
Although the plans for the NextEnergy Zone remain sketchy, DTE
Energy announced in late September that it will work with DOE to
build a hydrogen power park, likely located within the Zone.
Hydrogen will be generated primarily from renewable energy sources,
stored, and then used to power a 50-kilowatt fuel cell and a
25-kilowatt Stirling engine or reciprocating engine. A microgrid
system will serve the Zone with electricity from the hydrogen power
park and other distributed energy sources. DTE Energy hopes to
install about 600 kilowatts of generating capacity within the Zone
in 2003, with additional generation added in the following three to
four years. This will eventually allow the conventional power grid
to serve as merely a backup power system for the Zone's microgrid.
See the September 20th press release from DTE Energy at:
<http://www.dteenergy.com/pressRoom/pressReleases/mostRecentDTE.html>.
Agreement Will Bolster State and Federal Cooperation on Energy
DOE signed an agreement on November 14th that will allow state
energy officials throughout the United States to better collaborate
with the federal government on energy research and development
agreements. The agreement is an outgrowth of an alliance begun in
1998 between DOE and the energy agencies of California and New York.
The newly signed agreement establishes a collaborative that draws
together DOE, the National Association of State Energy Offices, and
the Association of State Energy Research and Technology Transfer
Institutions, Inc.
The new State Technologies Advancement Collaborative will promote
research and deployment in innovative ways to produce, transmit and
distribute energy and to use it more efficiently. The pact will make
it easier for collaborative members to share information on research
and to prevent wasteful duplication of efforts. By jointly funding
selected projects, the collaborative will be able to leverage funds
and to simplify the path for promising technologies to enter the
market. See the DOE press release at:
<http://www.energy.gov/HQPress/releases02/novpr/pr02239.htm>.
Japanese Solar Cell Firm Plans Plant in Memphis, Tennessee
Anticipating a growing U.S. market for solar power systems, the
Sharp Electronics Corporation announced plans last week to build a
manufacturing plant for solar products in Memphis, Tennessee. Sharp
Electronics is the U.S. sales and marketing subsidiary of Japan's
Sharp Corporation, the world leader in solar-cell manufacturing. The
Memphis facility is expected to begin production in spring of 2003.
By the end of next year, 90 new jobs will be created at the
facility, which will assemble solar modules for residential,
commercial, and industrial applications.
Sharp's solar-cell production capacity is expected to reach
200 megawatts per year by March 2003. Although the company entered
the U.S. market less than six months ago, it hopes to capture
10 percent of the domestic solar-cell market by March. See the
Sharp press release at:
<http://www.sharp-usa.com/about/AboutPressRelease/0,1130,C306,00.html>
A growing number of recent solar power installations in the United
States seems to support Sharp's conclusion that the U.S. market is
growing. Among recent U.S. solar installations are a new
108-kilowatt system on the roof of a Whole Foods Market store in
Woodland Hills, California, supported by the Los Angeles Department
of Power and Water (LADWP) Solar Incentive Program; and two 30-
kilowatt solar power systems installed by SunWize Technologies in
Florence, Alabama, and Oxford, Mississippi, for the Tennessee Valley
Authority's Green Power Switch Program. In addition, the New York
State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) announced
last week that 50 schools throughout the state will receive funding
for the installation of 2-kilowatt solar power systems. The grants
were awarded as part of NYSERDA's $1.8-million "School
Power...Naturally" program. See the press releases from LADWP,
SunWize, and NYSERDA, respectively, at:
<http://www.ladwp.com/whatnew/dwpnews/111302.htm>,
<http://www.sunwize.com/aboutsw/PR11_04_02.html>, and
<http://www.nyserda.org/press/2002/nov14_02solarschools.html>.
Unexpected Discovery Shows Promise for Better Solar Cells
A serendipitous discovery about the electronic properties of indium
nitride may eventually yield high-efficiency solar cells that are
able to make use of the sun's entire spectrum of radiation. While
researching the properties of light-emitted diodes (LEDs),
researchers at DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL)
recently discovered that the band-gap energy of indium nitride is
0.7 electron volts, much lower than the 2.0 electron volts
previously expected. The band-gap energy is the amount of energy
needed to free an electron from its atom; a solar cell material can
only capture sunlight at energies equal to or greater than its band-
gap energy. The low band-gap energy of indium nitride means that it
can capture sunlight at much lower energies than expected, so the
material is able to capture low-frequency, red or near-infrared
light.
To make practical use of their discovery, the LBNL researchers
propose making a solar cell from several layers of varying alloys of
indium, gallium, and nitrogen. Such indium gallium nitride solar
cells could potentially convert the full spectrum of sunlight --
from the near-infrared to the far ultraviolet -- into electricity.
The LBNL researchers' familiarity with the material, thanks to its
use in LEDs, makes them confident that it could be used to
successfully create inexpensive two-layer solar cells with a
sunlight-to-electricity conversion efficiency of 50 percent. Multi-
layered cells could even reach the maximum theoretical conversion
efficiency of greater than 70 percent. In contrast, the best
existing solar cell achieves a conversion efficiency of only about
33 percent.
Teams at Cornell University and Japan's Ritsumeikan University
contributed to the LBNL research by preparing the high-purity
crystals of indium nitride that were required for the band-gap
experiments. See the November 18th press release from LBNL at:
<http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/News-Releases.html>.
Seattle Narrowly Passes $1.75-Billion Monorail Measure
A citizen petition in Seattle, Washington, to create a monorail
system passed by a narrow margin, according to unofficial election
results released yesterday. The King County press release claims
that few if any changes are expected in the official results, which
will be released today. Out of nearly 196,000 votes cast, the
monorail measure passed by only 868 votes, according to the
unofficial results. After initial election results showed a slight
lead for the measure, the lead dwindled during the extended tally of
absentee ballots, at one point narrowing to a handful of votes. See
the King County press release and election results at:
<http://www.metrokc.gov/exec/news/2002/111902.htm> and
<http://www.metrokc.gov/elections/2002nov/resPage13.htm>.
With passage of the measure, a Seattle Popular Monorail Authority
will now be formed to build and manage a $1.75 billion monorail that
will run along a 14-mile corridor, running along a generally north-
south route from Ballard, through the city's Central District, and
ending in West Seattle. It will be paid for through a motor-vehicle
excise tax of $140 per $10,000 of value, except during the first
year when buying a new car. The measure follows two previous
initiatives that helped to shape the plan for the monorail. For more
information about the monorail plan, see the Seattle Monorail
Project Web site at: <http://www.elevated.org/>.
Although monorails date back to the 1800s, and are popular in Japan,
they have seen limited use for mass transit in the United States.
For more information about monorails, see the Monorail Society Web
site (which includes some gloating over the Seattle measure) at:
<http://www.monorails.org>.
Scientific American Honors Efficient, Renewable Technologies
Scientific American magazine launched a new award on November 11th
to honor "visionaries from the worlds of research, industry and
politics whose recent accomplishments point toward a brighter
technological future for everyone." The "Scientific American 50"
Awards went to a wide array of inventors, but energy efficiency and
renewable energy technologies fared extremely well. One of the most
prestigious of the 50 annual awards, the Business Leader of the Year
Award, went to Geoffrey Ballard, founder of Ballard Power Systems,
Inc., chairman of General Hydrogen, and a leader in hydrogen-powered
fuel cells for the past 20 years.
Other winners include Randy Howard of Cargill Dow LLC, which makes
plastics from corn starch; Ken Deering of The Wind Turbine Company,
which designed a new, efficient wind turbine; Manfred Stefener of
Smart Fuel Cell AG, developer of miniature fuel cells; Eddie
O'Connor of Airtricity, which guided Ireland's plans to build a
large offshore wind plant; Spectrolab, Inc. and DOE's National
Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), which demonstrated solar cells
with record-breaking conversion efficiencies; Hiroyuki Yoshino of
Honda Motor Company, Ltd., who directed his company's progressive
position on improving fuel efficiency and lowering emissions; Fran
Pavley of the California State Assembly, who legislated carbon-
dioxide emissions standards for California vehicles; and Cambridge
Display Technology, which develops organic light-emitting diodes and
flexible solar power panels. See the full list of winners on the
Scientific American Web site at: <http://www.sciam.com/>.
See also the November 11th press releases from NREL and Cambridge
Display Technology, respectively, at:
<http://www.nrel.gov/hot-stuff/press/> and
<http://www.cdtltd.co.uk/news/viewarticle.asp?article=2524&scheme=5>.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
SITE NEWS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Powering the South
<http://www.poweringthesouth.org>
Powering the South, an initiative of the Renewable Energy Policy
Project, promotes electricity conservation and clean power
technologies in six southern states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia,
North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The Web site was
designed to encourage a free flow of ideas between communities
within this six-state region. It provides information for the
public, advocates, vendors, and policymakers, including policy
recommendations.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ENERGY FACTS AND TIPS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
EIA Updates State Information on Solar and Wind Energy Use
DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its year 2000
data for solar and wind energy last week. The EIA tables list
consumption of each of the renewable energy sources by end-use
sector -- industrial, electric utilities, and residential - for each
state.
According to the EIA tables, California led the states in power
production from solar and wind sources -- in fact, it is listed as
the only U.S. state that used a significant amount of solar power.
For wind power, California was trailed by Minnesota, Texas, Iowa,
and Wyoming. Together, these five states accounted 97.9 percent of
all U.S. use of wind power.
The picture is different for thermal uses of solar energy, that is,
for solar water heating and other uses: Florida leads that category,
followed closely by California. And despite the potential cost-
effective use of this technology across the United States, those two
states are estimated to comprise 80 percent of the total U.S. use of
solar thermal energy. See the Solar and Wind Energy Consumption
Tables on the EIA Web site at:
<http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/states/sep_fuel/html/fuel_so_wy.html>.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can subscribe to this newsletter using the online form at:
<http://www.eren.doe.gov/news/subscribe/>.
This Web page also allows you to update your email address
or unsubscribe to this newsletter.
The Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Network (EREN)
home page is located at <http://www.eren.doe.gov/>.
If you have questions or comments about this
newsletter, please contact the editor, Kevin Eber, at
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Biofuels at Journey to Forever
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html
Biofuel at WebConX
http://webconx.green-trust.org/2000/biofuel/biofuel.htm
List messages are archived at the Info-Archive at NNYTech:
http://archive.nnytech.net/
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
