EREN Network News

October 6, 1999

News and Events

• Ford Delivers Hybrid Electric Vehicle to DOE
• GM Fuel Cell Shows Promise for Cold-Starting Cars
• DOE Celebrates the 75th Clean Cities Partnership
• President Signs Bill for Renewable Energy Funding
• Conference to Review California's Energy Research Program

Site News

• Fuel Economy Guide: Model Year 2000

Energy Facts and Tips

• State Energy Use from 1960 to 1997
• Consider Generating Your Own Solar Electricity at Home

About this Newsletter

News and Events

Ford Delivers Hybrid Electric Vehicle to DOE
Ford Motor Company delivered the keys to its P2000 LSR hybrid electric vehicle to Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson on Tuesday. The car uses advanced technologies to achieve a gas mileage that exceeds 60 miles per gallon (mpg). Hybrid electric vehicles combine a gasoline- or diesel-fueled engine with an electric motor to achieve high efficiencies. The P2000 LSR combines a 1.2-liter, direct-injection diesel engine with a motor that serves as a starter and alternator, provides added power while accelerating, and converts braking energy into electricity, which is stored in a battery.

DOE has worked with Ford on the development of hybrid electric vehicles since 1993, most recently through the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles. For more information, see the DOE press release.

October is Energy Awareness Month, and DOE used the P2000 LSR delivery to launch this year's Energy Awareness campaign, "Clean Energy for the 21st Century." DOE has planned events throughout the month to celebrate the contributions energy makes in the lives of all Americans and to educate the public about the clean energy technologies that DOE develops and deploys.

GM Fuel Cell Shows Promise for Cold-Starting Cars
General Motors (GM) announced late last month that it had developed a fuel cell capable of producing power at -20 degrees Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit). The fuel cell is a key development for fuel-cell-powered vehicles, which must be able to start in cold winter temperatures. Because fuel cells combine hydrogen and oxygen to produce water, the freezing of water within a cold fuel cell has long been a technical challenge in adapting fuel cells to automobiles. For more information, see the GM press release.

DOE Celebrates the 75th Clean Cities Partnership
The Florida Space Coast Clean Cities Partnership was designated the 75th member of DOE's Clean Cities Program on October 1st. The new partnership serves East-Central Florida, with such high-level partners as Walt Disney World, the NASA-Kennedy Space Center, and the Florida Solar Energy Center. The Clean Cities program works at the local level to develop a sustainable alternative fuels market. For more information, see the DOE press release.

For more information about the Clean Cities Program, see the Web site.

President Signs Bill for Renewable Energy Funding
On September 30th, President Clinton signed H.R. 2605, the "Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act, 2000," which includes funding for DOE renewable energy research and development for fiscal year 2000. The bill sets renewable energy funding at $311 million -- $25 million below last year's levels and $88 million below the President's request. In a press statement, President Clinton expressed disappointment at the budget cut. Renewable energy advocates say there is still hope that the numbers could be revised during final budget negotiations. Today only, see the President's statement under the heading "Statement by the President" on the White House Web site.

After today, you can search the White House Web site for the President's statement.

Conference to Review California's Energy Research Program
When California restructured its electric industry in early 1998, state legislators took advantage of the opportunity to generate funding for "public interest" energy research, development, and deployment. The Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program receives roughly $62 million annually for research in technologies related to energy efficiency, renewable energy, and other clean energy technologies. Now in its second year, the PIER program will hold its first review conference, "Energy Innovations '99" from October 25-27 in San Diego. For more information, see the California Energy Commission's PIER Web site.

Site News

Fuel Economy Guide: Model Year 2000
The Fuel Economy Guide: Model Year 2000 was prepared by DOE's Office of Transportation Technologies from data compiled by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The guide helps consumers compare the gas mileage of similarly sized cars, light-duty trucks, minivans, sport utility vehicles, and special purpose vehicles. In addition, users can find gas mileage data by class of car or by manufacturer, search for vehicles that have specific mileage performance, and find out which cars get the best and worst mileage in their respective classes.

For instance, searching the Fuel Economy Guide by mileage will tell you that the best gasoline-fueled car is the new Honda Insight, a hybrid electric vehicle that goes on sale in December. The Insight achieves 61 miles per gallon (mpg) in the city and 70 mpg on the highway, for a combined mileage of 65 mpg. The car with the worst mileage is the 12-cylinder Ferrari 550 Maranello, which has a combined city/highway mileage of 10 mpg.

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

Energy Facts and Tips

State Energy Use from 1960 to 1997
Last month, DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its "State Energy Data Report 1997," which includes tables of energy consumption data for all major types of energy, for each state, dating back to 1960. Looking at Texas, for instance, you can see that while the use of motor gasoline more than doubled during that period, the use of jet fuel increased by a factor of 10. For more information, see the EIA report.

Consider Generating Your Own Solar Electricity at Home
Over the past nine months, this newsletter has included frequent news about installations of solar photovoltaic electric systems on schools, factories, and other buildings. You can also install a photovoltaic system on your own roof to provide a reliable source of electricity to your home. But it may be difficult for you to evaluate the usefulness of a photovoltaic system, since they are rated in terms of peak capacity, which is how much electricity they will generate under fairly ideal conditions.

To translate this figure into an estimate of electricity production for your home, try using the new PVWATTS, a Web-based calculator for photovoltaic systems that are connected to the power grid. After choosing your location and entering a photovoltaic system capacity, PVWATTS will calculate the system's month-by-month production of electricity. Note that you'll usually want to use the default entries, although you might want to adjust the "tilt" and "azimuth" to reflect the angle of your home's roof and the orientation of your home. See the PVWATTS calculator on the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Web site.

About this Newsletter

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