EREN Network News

March 21, 2001

News and Events

• Large Wind Projects Planned for Kansas, Pennsylvania
• Massachusetts Makes $100 Million Available for Renewables
• Maryland Commits to Green Power, Energy Efficiency
• Facing Blackouts, California Adds Energy-Saving Incentives
• Will E-Commerce Turn to the Mainframe for Energy Savings?

• Windustry

• President Bush: U.S. Shouldn't Regulate Carbon Dioxide
• EIA Examines Multi-Pollutant Strategies for Power Plants

News and Events

Large Wind Projects Planned for Kansas, Pennsylvania
Two wind projects announced last week promise to bring an additional 125 megawatts of wind power to the United States.

UtiliCorp United announced plans to buy the entire output from a 110-megawatt wind power plant that will be built near Montezuma, Kansas. The facility will produce enough power to provide the annual needs of 27,500 homes and will be the first major wind facility in Kansas. FPL Energy, LLC will construct the wind plant, starting in spring and completing by the end of this year. UtiliCorp will sell the electricity from 30 megawatts of wind power on the wholesale market and will provide 80 megawatts of wind power to its customers in Kansas and Missouri at no extra cost. See the March 14th press release on the UtiliCorp Web site.

In Pennsylvania, a consortium of private companies and non-profit organizations announced they will build a 15-megawatt wind power plant near Mill Run, about 40 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. The Mill Run Wind Project, to be built along more than a mile of ridge-top pastureland, will generate enough electricity to power about 5,700 homes. Construction of the wind plant will begin in spring and finish late this year. It will feature ten 1.5-megawatt turbines from Enron Wind Corporation and will be built by Mill Run Windpower LLC, a joint venture between Atlantic Renewable Energy Corporation and Zilkha Renewable Energy. Community Energy, Inc. will market the wind power to commercial and residential customers. See the Atlantic Renewable Energy Web site.

Massachusetts Makes $100 Million Available for Renewables
The Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust announced last week that it is making $100 million available to support renewable energy development in the state. Of that total, $47 million will go toward programs to promote the use of fuel cells, the construction of "green" buildings that use energy efficiency and renewable energy, and the development of green power — electricity from renewable energy sources. Solicitations for those programs were also released last week. The remaining $53 million will go toward grants for pollution control equipment at waste-to-energy plants. The trust is operated by the Massachusetts Technology Park Corporation (MTPC) and is funded by a small surcharge on electric bills in the state. See the MTPC press release.

Maryland Commits to Green Power, Energy Efficiency
Maryland Governor Parris Glendening issued an executive order last week that sets goals for state agencies to use energy efficiency and buy "green power" — electricity produced from renewable energy. The order calls for state owned facilities to buy at least 6 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources and allows at most half of that to come from the burning of municipal waste. The order also calls for state agencies to purchase either Energy Star- labeled products or those that are ranked in the top 25 percent for energy efficiency. It sets goals for energy reductions of 10 percent in state buildings by 2005 and 15 percent by 2010, and it establishes a council to develop a High Efficiency Green Buildings Program for state-owned buildings. See the Governor's press release.

Facing Blackouts, California Adds Energy-Saving Incentives
California Governor Gray Davis announced last week that California businesses and homeowners can earn a 20 percent rebate on their summer electric bills if they manage to cut their electrical use by 20 percent compared to last year. The one-time discount will apply to bills for June through September. See the Governor's press release.

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said last week that summer blackouts in California "appear inevitable." In testimony before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Secretary Abraham noted that "some analysts project California may experience up to 20 hours of rolling blackouts this summer, while others project 200 or more hours of blackouts." See Secretary Abraham's testimony on the DOE Web site.

Secretary Abraham's comments carried more weight this week, as rolling blackouts again struck California. A combination of hot weather and low generating capacity contributed to the blackouts, which affected roughly 500,000 homes throughout the state. Financial problems are also at least partly to blame, as many small generating companies are refusing to continue supplying power to the electric grid. These independent power generators — a group that includes the state's renewable energy industry — in many cases haven't been paid for their power since October of last year. See the press releases on the California Independent System Operator Web site.

So how can Californians cut their electricity use by a full 20 percent? The easiest and most cost-effective actions would be to replace frequently used lights with compact fluorescent light bulbs and to use natural ventilation and fans in place of air conditioning, when possible. Replacing older appliances — particularly refrigerators — with new energy- efficient models is also cost effective, and can yield dramatic energy savings. And of course, increasing your use of solar or wind energy can also greatly reduce your need for utility- supplied electricity. For more information, see DOE's Office of Building Technology, State and Community Programs Web site on EREN.

Will E-Commerce Turn to the Mainframe for Energy Savings?
In light of the electricity crisis in California, an announcement last week by the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) may prove significant for the future of electronic commerce. In December 2000, IBM began shipping a new mainframe computer, the eServer z900, and IBM now notes that new studies show the computer to be an energy-saving alternative to so-called "server farms."

Servers are the computers that drive the Internet, serving up text files, graphics, and other information each time a user visits a Web site. The growth of the Internet has led to the creation of numerous server farms — large facilities housing hundreds or thousands of servers — particularly in high-tech California. According to IBM, its new mainframe computer combines the tasks of hundreds of servers in one machine, cutting energy use by a factor of 20. The machine also requires only 400 square feet of floor space, compared to "some 10,000 square feet" for server farms, resulting in even more energy savings, according to the company. See the IBM press release.

Site News

Windustry
This site focuses on the economic development potential of wind energy. It provides the basics of wind energy technology and its benefits, explains how to determine if a location has potential for supplying wind energy, and examines the economic risks and benefits of operating small, distributed wind projects and large-scale wind farms. Farmers can also evaluate the economics of installing a wind turbine to provide electricity for their farm and home.

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

President Bush: U.S. Shouldn't Regulate Carbon Dioxide
In a letter last week to four U.S. Senators, President Bush declared that he does not believe government should impose mandatory emission reductions for carbon dioxide on power plants. He also reiterated his opposition to the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement to reduce greenhouse gases. However, the President noted, "I am very optimistic that … we will be able to develop technologies, market incentives, and other creative ways to address global climate change."

President Bush also said that he intends to work with Congress on a multi-pollutant strategy to require power plants to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and mercury. See the President's letter on the Web site of the Global Climate Coalition, an organization of trade associations that are opposed to the Kyoto Protocol.

EIA Examines Multi-Pollutant Strategies for Power Plants
One reason President Bush now opposes carbon dioxide reductions is the high costs for achieving the reductions, predicted in a recent report from DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA). According to the report, reductions of sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxides would cause only a 1 percent increase in electricity prices, but adding carbon dioxide limits would result in projected price increases of up to 43 percent above the business-as-usual reference case. This cost impact is moderated somewhat by the fact that the reference case projects falling electricity prices. Compared to 1999 prices, electricity prices with carbon dioxide limits are projected to be at most 26 percent higher in 2010 and at most 20 percent higher in 2020. Of course, the actual electricity cost is only a fraction of the average household's electric bill — in the worst-case cost scenario, carbon dioxide caps would cause the average U.S. household to pay roughly $12 per month more for electricity in 2010 than they paid in 1999.

The report also found that carbon dioxide emissions caps would result in a shift away from coal and toward a greater use of natural gas and renewable energy. "Geothermal, biomass, and wind are expected to show the largest generation increases in the cases with (carbon dioxide) caps, and total generation from non-hydroelectric renewables is expected to provide as much as 8 percent of total electricity generation in 2020 … substantially higher than the 3-percent share projected in the reference case," says the report.

Please note that the EIA report does not examine the costs of controlling mercury emissions, which President Bush is still committed to pursuing. Those costs will be addressed in a separate report. See the EIA report.

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