EREN Network News

August 11, 1999

News and Events

• Solar Energy Converts Brownfields to "Brightfields"
• Nevada Company Plans Large Renewable Energy Project
• Northern California Governments to Buy Green Power
• Report: U.S. Funding for International Energy Insufficient
• Fuel Cell Generates Power from Wastewater Methane
• Reversible Fuel Cell Tested Successfully
• Low-Lignin Trees Hold Promise for Ethanol Fuels

Site News

• Energy Partners

Energy Facts and Tips

• World Energy Research Funding at 20-Year Low
• Consider Energy Efficiency When Buying Appliances

About this Newsletter

News and Events

Solar Energy Converts Brownfields to "Brightfields"
DOE has launched a new solar energy initiative to help make use of polluted, unused factory sites, often referred to as brownfields. The "Brightfields Initiative" will convert brownfields into usable land by bringing pollution-free solar energy and high-tech solar manufacturing jobs to these sites.

DOE kicked off the initiative in Chicago, where Spire Corporation will establish a new company called Chicago Solar. The company's plant on a current brownfield will create 100 total jobs in Chicago when it opens in July 2000. The City of Chicago and Commonwealth Edison will purchase a total of $8 million worth of Chicago Solar products to be installed throughout the city. For more information, see the DOE press release.

DOE is currently working with cities in California, Virginia, Minnesota, New York and Connecticut to expand the Brightfields Initiative. For more information, see the initiative's Web site on EREN.

Nevada Company Plans Large Renewable Energy Project
Composite Power Corporation (CPC) of Las Vegas, Nevada, announced last week its plans to construct a renewable energy project in the Nevada desert with a total capacity of 50-150 megawatts. The project, in Nevada's Nye County, will combine wind and solar energy, and the electricity will be sold in the emerging "green power" market. CPC claims that future phases of the project will add more than 1,000 megawatts of renewable energy capacity. CPC has formed partnerships with 10 other companies to carry out the project. For more information, see the CPC Web site.

Northern California Governments to Buy Green Power
Starting in September, electricity from renewable energy will power 59 government agencies in northern California. Through a program administered by the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), the agencies will save nearly $1 million per year by receiving their electricity from Calpine Corporation's geothermal energy facility in Sonoma County. The agencies -- including the cities and counties surrounding San Francisco Bay, the City of Davis, and the Counties of Butte, Humboldt, Monterey and Santa Cruz -- consume a total of 63 megawatts of electrical capacity, roughly equivalent to the entire city of Davis, California. Government agencies are the largest buyers of green power in California. For more information, see the ABAG Web site.

Report: U.S. Funding for International Energy Insufficient
A report from the President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) has found that funding for international cooperation on energy innovation is "not commensurate with either the needs or the opportunities." The report found that U.S. federal funding for international energy projects totaled less than $250 million per year in 1997, and recommended doubling that amount by 2001 and quadrupling it by 2005. Many of the initiatives recommended in the report relate to renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies.

"International energy markets, already worth hundreds of billions of dollars a year, are growing dramatically to meet exploding demand in developing countries," said Vice President Gore in response to the report. "This translates into big market potential for competitive U.S. energy technology companies."

For more information, see the PCAST report on the White House Web site.

Fuel Cell Generates Power from Wastewater Methane
In a clever example of using available energy sources to produce power, the City of Portland in late July dedicated a fuel-cell power plant at its North Portland wastewater treatment facility. The 200-kilowatt fuel cell is powered by methane gas, which is released during the sewage treatment process. The city has plenty of methane for any future expansions of the power plant: the fuel cell consumes only 5 percent of the gas produced daily by the treatment facility. For more information, see the City of Portland's press release.

Reversible Fuel Cell Tested Successfully
Proton Energy Systems of Rocky Hill, Connecticut, announced in early August that it had successfully tested a reversible hydrogen-powered fuel cell. The fuel cell can "store" electricity by using it to generate hydrogen, then later convert the hydrogen back into electricity, much like a battery. Combined with recently developed fuel processors, the fuel cell system has the potential to be powered by a range of fuels or integrated with an intermittent source of electricity, such as a wind turbine or solar panel. For more information, see the News section of the Proton Energy Web site.

Low-Lignin Trees Hold Promise for Ethanol Fuels
Researchers at Michigan Technological University have genetically engineered an aspen tree that contains roughly half the lignin as normal trees. Lignin, a glue-like substance in all trees and grasses, is one of the reasons that these plants are difficult to convert into ethanol. The low-lignin trees are also 15 percent higher in cellulose and are said to be remarkably fast-growing, both of which show promise for using the trees to generate ethanol fuels. The research was published in the August edition of Nature Biotechnology. For more information, see the press release on the Michigan Tech Web site.

For more information on producing ethanol from trees, grasses, and other sources of "lignocellulosic biomass," see the Bioethanol Technology page on DOE's National Biofuels Program Web site.

Site News

EnergyPartners
DOE's Office of Building Technology, State and Community Programs (BTS) has created the Energy Partners Web site, a one-stop resource where users can find information on BTS programs, projects, and initiatives that develop and promote energy efficient and renewable energy technologies nationwide. The site includes community partnerships, solicitations and grants, research results, and BTS program partnerships. Fully searchable by keywords, the information can also be browsed by location or BTS program.

For this and other recent additions see the EREN Web site.

Energy Facts and Tips

World Energy Research Funding at 20-Year Low
Researchers at Princeton University have found that the money spent worldwide on energy research has fallen to a 20-year low. Among the ten nations that perform most of the world's energy research, spending has declined 39 percent since 1980. In the United States, energy research and development (R&D) funds peaked at $11.9 billion in 1979, but had declined to $4.3 billion in 1996 (both figures are in 1996 dollars). The research, which was published in the July 30th issue of Science, also found similar trends in the number of new energy-related patents. The researchers noted that energy companies reinvest much lower percentages of their revenues into R&D than do other industries. For more information, see the Princeton University press release.

Consider Energy Efficiency When Buying Appliances
U.S. consumers usually know what they want in a refrigerator: they know what color, what size, and what special features they want, and what price they can afford. What they often fail to consider is energy efficiency, even though the energy costs of an appliance might be several times more than the cost of the appliance itself.

To save yourself money in the long run (and often even the short run), be sure to look for energy efficiency when you buy home appliances. To help you in that task, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) has posted a list of top-rated energy-efficient appliances. See the ACEEE Web site.

DOE and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also label energy-efficient appliances with the Energy Star label. See the Energy Star Appliances Web site.

About this Newsletter

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