EREN Network News

July 26, 2000

News and Events

• 160-Megawatt Wind Project Slated for West Texas
• Oregon Wind Project: The Start of 500 MW for the Northwest?
• Chicago and Suburbs to Buy 80 Megawatts of Renewable Power
• G-8 to Increase Renewable Energy in Developing Countries
• DOE Provides $15 Million for Biomass, Ethanol Research
• New BP Amoco Station Canopies to Include Photovoltaics
• Purdue: Carbon Dioxide Refrigerants Poised for a Comeback

• Local and Regional Energy Management On-Line

• Choose High-Efficiency Cooling for Your Home

News and Events

160-Megawatt Wind Project Slated for West Texas
TXU Electric & Gas announced last week that it has contracted for the construction of a 160-megawatt (MW) wind power plant south of Odessa in west Texas. FPL Energy will build, own, and operate the facility, which will consist of 242 wind turbines, each 660 kilowatts in size. The wind facility will generate a total of 500 million kilowatt-hours annually — enough to power about 29,000 Texas households. Construction should start late this year, and power should start flowing to customers by the third quarter of 2001. See the TXU Electric press release.

The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) sees the west Texas project as an indication of a growth spurt for U.S. wind energy. AWEA predicts that U.S. wind generation will grow by 30 to 50 percent by the end of 2001. See the AWEA press release.

Oregon Wind Project: The Start of 500 MW for the Northwest?
Support for the AWEA prediction was provided last week by DOE's Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), which announced that it has signed a pre-development agreement with SeaWest WindPower Inc. to develop a 24-megawatt wind power plant in Gilliam County, Oregon. BPA is currently preparing an Environmental Impact Statement for the facility, to be called the Condon Wind Project. See the BPA press release.

SeaWest has identified or acquired several sites in Oregon and Washington and hopes to develop 300 to 500 megawatts of renewable energy projects there. See the SeaWest press release.

Chicago and Suburbs to Buy 80 Megawatts of Renewable Power
Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago announced last week that the city will team with 47 neighboring local governments to buy electric power as a group. The combined agencies use about 400 megawatts of power, and the cities' request specifies that 20 percent of that, or 80 megawatts, come from renewable energy sources. That's enough electricity to power 13,000 homes, or nearly the entire Chicago Transit Authority. See the announcement on the City of Chicago Web site.

G-8 to Increase Renewable Energy in Developing Countries
The White House announced on Monday that as part of the Group of Eight (G-8) summit in Okinawa, Japan, the industrial leaders agreed to create a new task force on renewable energy. The task force will identify concrete ways to increase the use of renewable energy in developing countries. The G-8 leaders also agreed to "seek early resolution of major outstanding issues in the further development" of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which sets limits on the emissions of six greenhouse gases. See the press release on the White House Web site.

DOE Provides $15 Million for Biomass, Ethanol Research
DOE announced last week that it was providing more than $15 million for two projects that will advance bioenergy, which is the production of energy from trees, plants, agricultural and forestry wastes, and other organic materials.

More than $8 million will go to seven organizations to fund research in using biomass in large-scale utility and industrial boilers. Four of the organizations will investigate burning biomass along with coal in existing coal-fired boilers. The three other organizations will investigate the gasification of biomass to create a synthetic fuel gas for boilers. See the DOE press release.

An additional $7 million subcontract was awarded to Genencor International for research into less expensive enzymes that will help convert plant material into ethanol. The project will build on enzyme research performed at DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Genencor's research will examine new processes to produce the enzymes, possibly reducing their cost from about 30 to 50 cents per gallon of ethanol produced to about 5 cents per gallon of ethanol produced. See the DOE press release.

For technical information about using enzymes to produce ethanol, see the DOE Biofuels Program Web site.

New BP Amoco Station Canopies to Include Photovoltaics
BP Amoco announced Monday that in the near future, all of its service stations will feature a new look that includes the use of transparent solar photovoltaic electric systems in the canopies over gasoline pumps. The use of thin films of photovoltaic materials deposited onto glass or plastic (rather than wafers cut from a crystalline sheet of silicon) has led to the development of transparent photovoltaic materials that can be integrated into buildings in skylights, windows, canopies, and other applications. BP Amoco will start incorporating the transparent photovoltaic materials into new and revamped service stations starting late this year. The company plans to update its 28,000 service stations around the world in the next four years. See the BP Amoco press release.

BP Amoco also announced that its BP Solarex division — one of the largest producers of photovoltaic systems in the world — will change its name to BP Solar. See the press release.

Purdue: Carbon Dioxide Refrigerants Poised for a Comeback
Engineers at Purdue University have made strides in the use of carbon dioxide as a refrigerant, particularly in automotive and portable air-conditioning systems, the university announced last week. Carbon dioxide was once the refrigerant of choice, but was eventually replaced by synthetic chemicals. The newest refrigerants, called hydrofluorocarbons or HFCs, cause 1400 times more global warming by weight than carbon dioxide. But advances such as thin-walled aluminum tubing could help carbon dioxide make a comeback. The Purdue engineers are presenting their latest findings at one of three international air- conditioning and refrigeration conferences being held at the university this week. See the Purdue press release.

Site News

Local and Regional Energy Management On-Line
This site, sponsored by the European Commission and managed by the International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives, promotes the exchange of experience and coordination between local and regional European energy agencies. It features an interactive database of energy case studies, an online conference center, and a contact directory.

For this and other recent additions to the EREN Web site, see http://www.eren.doe.gov/new/whats-new.html.

Energy Facts and Tips

Choose High-Efficiency Cooling for Your Home
As heat waves throughout the country are causing electric utilities to call for energy conservation, this may be a good time to consider upgrading your air conditioner to a more efficient model. With that in mind, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) has just updated the online version of their "Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings" to include the latest information on energy-efficient air conditioners and heat pumps. See the ACEEE Web site.

Of course, there are many alternatives to air conditioners that use less energy and have fewer negative effects on the environment. Depending on where you live, natural ventilation, fans, or evaporative coolers may be feasible options to help cool your home. For information about these options, plus tips on getting the most energy efficiency from air conditioners, see the "Cooling Your Home Efficiently" section of the Office of Building Technology, State and Community Programs Web site on EREN.

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