EREN Network News

February 2, 2000

News and Events

• Renewables Touted in President's State of the Union Address
• White House Announces Proposed Bioenergy Tax Credits
• TXU Electric & Gas Pursues New Renewable Energy Sources
• Pennfuture Campaign Promotes Pennsylvania Green Power
• DOE Awards $6 Million for Energy-Saving Innovations
• DOE Joins California Fuel Cell Partnership

Site News

• ETDEWEB

• World Energy Use Holds Steady in 1998

About this Newsletter

News and Events

Renewables Touted in President's State of the Union Address
President Clinton's final State of the Union Address last week included several proposals to advance renewable energy technologies. The President's speech called for "expanding our programs for bio-based fuels and products." Bio-based or "bioenergy" fuels and products draw on biomass resources such as plants, trees, trash, and wastes from agriculture, forestry, and industries. The President also proposed new tax incentives for clean energy.

"To speed innovation in these kind of technologies, I think we should give a major tax incentive to business for the production of clean energy, and to families for buying energy- saving homes and appliances and the next generation of super-efficient cars when they hit the showroom floor," said President Clinton. "I also ask the auto industry to use the available technologies to make all new cars more fuel-efficient right away."

The President also proposed making clean energy technologies more readily available to the developing world, and asked for a $3 billion increase in the "Twenty-First Century Research Fund" that encourages private research in science and technology. See the State of the Union Address on the White House Web site.

See also the related White House announcements on bioenergy and the Twenty-First Century Research Fund.

White House Announces Proposed Bioenergy Tax Credits
In a separate announcement, the White House spelled out several of the proposed tax credits for bioenergy. These include extending the current tax credit for biomass power plants that are fueled by trees and plants grown specifically as fuel. New tax credits would apply to biomass power plants that are supplied by agricultural and forestry wastes. The President is also proposing tax credits for landfill methane power plants and for coal-fired power plants that mix biomass with their coal. See the White House announcement.

TXU Electric & Gas Pursues New Renewable Energy Sources
In what it's calling "one of the largest renewable energy proposals in U.S. history," TXU Electric & Gas announced in late January that it is seeking bids for projects to supply 500 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year from renewable energy sources. That's enough to supply the annual electricity needs of 29,000 homes. For comparison, the company's award-winning Big Spring Wind Power Project generates about one-fourth as much electricity, at 137 million kilowatt-hours per year.

TXU Electric & Gas services 2.5 million electricity customers in Texas. The company's request for bids is not entirely surprising, as it is in response to a new Texas state goal to add 2,000 megawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2009. See the TXU press release.

Pennfuture Campaign Promotes Pennsylvania Green Power
Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future, also known as Pennfuture, announced last week a new ten-year initiative to encourage people in that state to buy their electricity from renewable energy sources. The "Green Power: Turn it On!" campaign is endorsed by a host of groups, including the Pennsylvania Council of Churches and the American Lung Association. The initiative has the goal of meeting 10 percent of Pennsylvania's electricity needs with green power by 2010. See the Pennfuture Web site.

DOE Awards $6 Million for Energy-Saving Innovations
DOE announced Monday that it was awarding more than $6 million in grants to help develop, demonstrate, and commercialize new energy-saving inventions. The 32 projects range from a highly efficient industrial furnace to automotive glass that can selectively filter out the sun's heat. The grants were awarded through two DOE programs: the National Industrial Competitiveness through Energy, Environment and Economics (NICE3) program and the Inventions and Innovations (I&I) program. While the NICE3 program works with industry, the I&I program assists inventors and entrepreneurs. See the DOE news release.

For more information about the NICE3 and I&I programs, see DOE's Office of Industrial Technologies Web site.

DOE Joins California Fuel Cell Partnership
The California Fuel Cell Partnership announced last week that DOE has joined as a partner. The partnership was formed in April 1999 to help commercialize fuel-cell electric vehicles. Fuel cells convert hydrogen into electricity and emit only water vapor. The vehicles can be fueled with hydrogen or can derive the hydrogen from fuels such as methanol, ethanol, natural gas, or gasoline. The electricity from the fuel cell is used to power an electric motor that propels the car.

To commercialize fuel-cell electric vehicles, the California Fuel Cell Partnership has brought together four automakers, three oil companies, a fuel cell company, the State of California, and now the federal government. The partnership intends to place 50 fuel-cell cars and buses on the road by 2003. In December, it announced the construction of a hydrogen refueling station and a facility for maintenance and testing of fuel-cell electric vehicles. See the partnership's Web site.

Site News

ETDEWEB
Operated by DOE's Office of Scientific and Technical Information and sponsored by the International Energy Agency, the Energy Technology Database Exchange World Energy Base (ETDEWEB) features information from 18 member countries on the environmental impact of energy production and use. ETDEWEB includes such topics as climate change, energy research and development, energy policy, and renewable and non-renewable energy technologies. This growing collection includes more than 600,000 bibliographic records, with more than 3.5 million downloadable full-text pages dating back to early 1995. People from any of the member countries can register and gain free access to the collection.

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

Energy Facts and Tips

World Energy Use Holds Steady in 1998
The world's consumption of energy dropped slightly from 1997 to 1998, according to a new report by DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA). The "International Energy Annual 1998" found that world energy use stayed essentially the same, dropping only 0.1 percent. According to EIA, 1998 was the first year of no growth since 1982. The same report shows world population growing by nearly 1.4 percent from 1997 to 1998. See the report on the EIA Web site.

See in particular the bottom of the energy consumption table.

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