Subject: trends in renewable energy - Issue #100-5 (October 8)
TRENDS in RENEWABLE ENERGIES
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
TRENDS offers you a choice of two levels of service:
- a subscription daily with full story details, or
- a free weekly summary of topline information.
Please accept the daily version this week. Starting Monday, all
readers will receive the weekly summary version, while the daily
version will be sent to paid subscribers.
= To subscribe to the daily,
https://www.solaraccess.com/newsprojects/trends/trendssub.htm
= To subscribe to the weekly,
Do nothing; it is our pleasure to continue your service.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
IN TODAY'S ISSUE:
Energy Groups Not Impressed with U.S. Restructuring Bill
Energy Tidbits
Sun Saves Prison Big Bucks
Engineers Develop Cheaper Way to Harness Solar Power
The Future Looks Bright for the Energy Sector
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Energy Groups Not Impressed with U.S. Restructuring Bill
WASHINGTON, DC - The latest attempt to restructure the multi
billion dollar electricity industry in the United States "fails to
significantly promote energy efficiency and clean renewable
energy sources."
The Sustainable Energy Coalition has told the chairman of the
House Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Energy &
Power, Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), that his proposed legislation
("the Electricity Competition and Reliability Act") will not receive
the group's support without changes.
"Renewable industry, energy efficiency and environmental
organizations will oppose the legislation" unless it includes a
Renewables Portfolio Standard that forces utilities to generate a
certain amount of power from green energy sources.
The bill must also incorporate measures to ensure continued
research, assistance to low-income customers and promotion of
zero-emission technologies for environmental protection, said
the 18 members of the coalition who wrote to Barton on October
5. His proposal "does nothing to clean up the excessive pollution
caused by fossil fuel based mature technologies," and they want
measures to reduce excessive air pollution caused by power
plants.
The Sustainable Energy Coalition is a coalition of national
business, environmental, consumer and energy groups formed in
1992 to promote increased reliance on renewable
energy technologies.
The letter expressed disappointment that bill does not promote
renewables, which "compares rather starkly to the mature
technologies that not only have market access, but also continue
to receive large federal government subsidies." The groups said
Barton's deregulation proposal would "increase pollution, reduce
reliability, lower R&D investments, and diminish innovation and
access to new technologies."
The bill does include measures for consumer disclosure and net
metering, which allows homeowners to generate their own power
and to sell back to the utility. Federal law would establish
technical interconnection standards to allow all states to offer
this initiative.
Barton's bill include a production tax credit for wind energy, but
does not expand on the biomass tax credit, as well as credits for
other renewables energies such as geothermal and solar energy.
It does not include building efficiency
tax credits which would allow solar residential tax credits,
incentives which the Coalition says "are absolutely essential as
part of any tax package."
Some of the groups that signed the letter include the Alliance to
Save Energy, American Bioenergy Association, American Wind
Energy Association, American Solar Energy Society, Americans
for Clean Energy, Union of Concerned Scientists, and the U.S.
Public Interest Research Group.
(Contact Ron Sundergill of UCS at 202-332-0900)
--
Energy Tidbits
- Hokkaido Electric Power has received nine proposals from six
firms that want to sell 195,000 kW of wind power. Successful
bidders will be selected on the basis of price and feasibility.
Hokkaido Electric decided to buy green energy last year, but so
many bidders were interested that the utility had to undertake
competitive bidding in June.
- A 250 MW hydroelectric facility will cover 6,000 hectares on the
east coast of Malaysia, the second dam in the Kenyir Lake area.
- Ethiopia's state-owned power industry will accept foreign
investment in electricity generation with 40-year licenses. The
country is building seven hydroelectric dams to double its
generation capacity to 713 MW from the current 340 MW.
- A new group in the British communities of Puckeridge and
Standon has been set up to encourage green energy, including a
solar club that will train local residents to install PV panels.
- One of the largest electricity generators in Britain has
commissioned its first 1 MW wind turbine. Eastern Group
installed the turbine in County Antrim early this year, connected
to the grid in Northern Ireland. Eastern is committed to obtaining
10% of its generation from renewable energies by 2010.
- India will set up a plan to manufacture solar panels and
modules, to serve countries in the South African Development
Community (Swaziland, Congo, Mozambique, Angola, Lesotho,
Mauritius and Tanzania). The unit will be used for solar
electrification of two Namibian villages, including domestic and
street lighting, water pumping systems and vaccine storage.
- The 'Tour of Solar Homes' will involve hundreds of homes in
the U.S. on October 16, plus tours of NREL in Colorado.
- The Korean conglomerate Daewoo will supervise construction
of the multi-million-dollar Malakand-III hydro facility in Pakistan.
- Two hydroelectric projects in India have been told by the
government to file project reports. More than 20 private projects,
with 4,500 MW of capacity, have been commissioned and 20
more, with 5,200 MW, have started construction, but another 52
proposals, representing 25,000 MW, are slow in proceeding.
Seven IPPs must proceed or risk losing their clearances.
- The Oregon Public Utility Commission has approved the
merger of PacifiCorp and Scottish Power for $12 billion. The deal
includes the development of 50 MW of new renewable energy
within five years.
- New Jersey recently set aside $200 million in public funds to
promote clean power.
- Australia will spend $32 million in direct support for renewable
energy systems.
- The European Commission has given its approval to the
proposed merger of BP Amoco and ARCO.
- American Electric Power says coal will remain its primary
source of fuel for electrical generation "in the forseeable future,"
despite the growing popularity of natural gas. Chairman Linn
Draper, in World Energy magazine, says U.S. utilities used coal
for 56.3% of their generation in 1998, and that level will drop to
only 52.5% by 2020. If clean coal technologies were deployed
worldwide over the next two decades, emissions of carbon could
be cut by 300 million tonnes.
- The Air Conditioning Contractors of America says the U.S.
electricity restructuring bill introduced by Rep. Joe Barton does
not guarantee "fair and open competition" in the marketplace.
Many investor-owned utilities are launching unregulated
business ventures which ACCA warns may lead to unfair
competition through subsidy of affiliate operations from utility
rates, distorting the marketplace and preventing true competition.
- Energy efficiency programs offer higher reliability for the supply
of electricity at less cost than building new power plants and
transmission lines, says Wisconsin's Environmental Decade
Institute. Energy efficiency is less costly than new construction in
both financial and environmental terms, and the study says the
state should maintain spending to educate consumers on how to
use less electricity. A Public Service Commission study says that
every $1 spent on conservation yields a savings of $3.68.
- Inefficiency in electricity transmission is costing consumers
money, and the CEO of Entergy says a 'transco' distribution
system would provide wider access to low-cost power in the U.S.
- Charles River Associates of Boston will implement a system to
auction power purchase arrangements in Alberta, a major step in
the province's restructuring of its electricity industry. The auction
will bid on rights to market and sell power generated in Alberta
for up to 20 years, depending on the facility.
- The government of Uganda is pushing rural electrification as a
means to increase quality of life and incomes of 18 million rural
inhabitants. The country has large hydroelectric resources, and
the goal is to increase rural access to power to 10% (from the
current 1%) by 2010.
- U.S. presidential candidate Pat Buchanan "will oppose
international environmental accords like the Kyoto Treaty that
would devastate American industry and obligate our country to
onerous environmental regulations that do not apply to other
nations," according to his homepage.
- The First National Bank of Omaha has installed an on-site fuel
cell power plant as its primary power source, to avoid power
interruptions that can crash its computer system. Four ONSI fuel
cells will generate 200 kW each of electricity, or electricity for
150 homes and 700,000 Btu per hour of heat. A fuel cell
displaces more than 1,000 tons of carbon emissions each year.
Research estimates that computers experience 289 power
disturbances each year that are outside the voltage limits of
equipment, and U.S. businesses lose $29 billion annually from
computer failures due to power outages.
--
Sun Saves Prison Big Bucks
(condensed from the Arizona Republic, June 19)
It's an impressive array: an acre of mirrors and a mile of pipe
used to trap sunlight and heat water for 1,000 inmates at a north
Phoenix federal prison. It took three years and $550,000 to build
the solar-powered system, which provides 185-degree water for
cooking, laundry and bathing. The system will save $6,000 a
month in electricity cost.
"If the federal government can do it, you can do it," Karen
Atkison of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden
(Colorado) told a gathering of local officials at the dedication
earlier this summer.
But is Arizona, the nation's sunniest state, geared up to harness
the sun?
Last year, the three-member Arizona Corporation Commission
was going to require power companies to produce up to 1% of
their electricity from solar devices. But in January, newly elected
Commissioner Tony West voted with Commission Chairman Carl
Kunasek to drop the solar generation requirement from pending
rules on deregulating electricity sales.
Now, solar requirements for utilities are again up in the air.
The Arizona Supreme Court recently ousted West for non-
related reasons, and it is up to Gov. Jane Hull to name a
replacement appointee who will determine the fate of Arizona's
solar future.
"In the rules that are on the table now, it depends on who the
new commissioner is," Commissioner Jim Irvin said.
Kunasek has proposed requiring up to 1% of Arizona's electric
power to be produced or supplemented in many environmentally
friendly ways. The power companies could use solar, geothermal
steam or renewable fuels such as straw to produce electricity,
supplementing the nuclear and coal-fired power plants that
currently supply most of Arizona's power.
"Why not use the sun to heat the water?" Kunasek asked. "I've
had a solar water heater on my roof for 15 years."
But Irvin says Kunasek's 'environmental portfolio' proposal may
never be implemented because it is no longer part of the
deregulation rules.
"It's a fraction of what we proposed," Irvin said, referring to the
plan he put together last year with Commissioner Renz Jennings,
who has temporarily taken West's place on the commission until
Hull makes her appointment.
"It's vague and ambiguous," Irvin said of Kunasek's plan. Water
heating, with air-conditioning and cooking, accounts for the bulk
of electric bills. That's why officials at the federal prison
contracted with Industrial Solar Technology (IST) to install a
giant water heater outside the razor-wire fence.
"We save a bunch of money on water heater elements," says
prison facilities foreman Frank Foster. "We're saving a ton of
money on maintenance calls and repairs. The calls we've gotten
from the inmates about cold water have basically gone away."
But the major savings - $6,000 a month - are on the prison's
electric bill. During the 20 years that IST will operate and
maintain the system, the prison will pay 90% of the savings to
the firm, while keeping the rest.
"I really feel that this system is going to be the vanguard of
things to come," says IST president Ken May. "The emerging
environmental standards in Arizona could make a huge
difference."
The system could be modified to produce steam for electrical
generators, to meet Arizona's peak need for air-conditioning in
the summer and water heating in the winter.
"There's no reason you can't do it here," May said. "You have the
sunshine. It's a natural place to do it."
--
Engineers Develop Cheaper Way to Harness Solar Power
(Condensed from Associated Press, July 25)
A new design for cheaper and significantly thinner solar cells
may make the widespread use of solar energy more feasible.
University of Florida engineers are working on an inexpensive
method for making tomorrow's alternative energy source 100
times thinner and potentially lighter than today's silicon variety.
Solar cells capture the sun's energy and produce power without
harmful emissions. They can be used to generate electricity for a
house or small business on site, reducing the demands on power
plants and electrical grids. Conventional silicon cells used today
are expensive to make and are heavy and unwieldy, which limits
their use. They are also more expensive to buy.
Researchers hope the use of thin-film cells made from plastic will
overcome some of the drawbacks of the silicon cells. Scientists
and engineers at more than a dozen universities, government
labs and corporations are exploring various thin-film solar cell
technologies as part of an initiative sponsored by the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory. The government research lab is
providing about $1.6 million for the project.
"The material cost is very minimal," said Sheng Li, a professor of
electrical and computer engineering at the University of Florida
working on the project. "This is a very promising technology for
solar cells."
The new design fashions the solar cell out of a compound
semiconductor called copper indium diselenide, or CIS. An
extremely thin layer of CIS is placed on a sliver of specially
prepared glass that is thinner than a human hair and 100 times
thinner than conventional solar cells, Li said.
Researchers elsewhere have demonstrated CIS cells can
convert as much as 18% of sunlight to electricity, almost as
efficiently as traditional silicon cells, according to the government
laboratory.
Li said CIS cells should be widely available on the market in less
than ten years.
--
The Future Looks Bright for the Energy Sector
(Condensed from the Calgary Sun, July 29)
Solar energy is an environmentally friendly, renewable resource
that can be used in many ways -- to provide heat, lighting,
mechanical power and electricity. Unlike fossil fuels, solar
energy is available just about everywhere on earth and - except
for the initial investment in equipment - it's free.
Unfortunately, the solar energy industry is up against a few
obstacles.
"The uptake of solar technology in Canada at this time is very
low," says Peter Allen, president of Halifax-based Thermo
Dynamics, the largest solar thermal equipment manufacturer in
Canada.
The reason?
Canada is the land of plenty, with cheap sources of energy, so
making the switch to solar isn't pressing.
Nonetheless, solar energy is making inroads.
The oilpatch is a big user of solar energy, says Gordon Howell,
president of Howell-Mayhew Engineering of Edmonton,
specialists in energy-efficient housing and solar electricity.
Other applications for solar electricity include emergency
telephones, marker buoys, traffic control signs, railroad signals,
solar street lights, solar water pumps, solar power for RVs and
solar-powered oil pumps.
And in Europe, where the renewable energy market is hot, solar
energy is integrated into buildings and the infrastructure of
society, says Howell.
The use of solar energy may not be as pervasive in Canada, but
there are many ways to harness the sun's energy.
"Heating water for use in the home is a job that can very easily
be done by solar power," says Allen.
Solar domestic hot water systems are effective and efficient,
running about $2,000 to $3,000 for an installed system.
One solar cell measuring 4x8 ft, placed on a roof and used in
conjunction with a 270-litre tank, can take care of the hot water
needs of an average home in the summer. In the dead of winter,
that same solar water heater can be used in conjunction with a
conventional water heater.
An additional benefit is a significant reduction in the energy bill.
The costs of solar energy should be competitive with
conventional electric power by the early part of the next century.
"Technology is not much of an obstacle," says Allen. "It's more a
matter of economics."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
TRENDS in RENEWABLE ENERGIES is circulated by the
Canadian Association for Renewable Energies. Many sources
are examined, and it is assumed that these sources are credible;
however, CARE is not responsible for content.
If contact information is not provided, it is not available.
Back issues are posted at http://www.renewables.ca
Canadian Association for Renewable Energies
We CARE
Bill Eggertson, Executive Director, Ottawa
mailto:eggertson@renewables.ca