Weekly Clean Energy Roundup: Nov. 20, 2002

*News and Events

*Site News

Powering the South

*Energy Facts and Tips

EIA Updates State Information on Solar and Wind Energy Use

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NEWS AND EVENTS

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Editor’s Note: In last week’s edition, the author of the moon-power study notes that his plan includes solar bases on opposing limbs of the moon, as seen from Earth, in order to provide a continuous source of solar power. He published more information on his proposal in an article in the April/May 2002 edition of “The Industrial Physicist:” [sorry this link is no longer available]

World’s First Hydrogen Fuel and Power Station Now Operating

DOE announced on November 15th the opening of the world’s first hydrogen energy station that can provide fuel for vehicles and also produce electricity. Producing both hydrogen fuel and electricity may be an attractive approach for future hydrogen merchants, who will be able to generate a steady revenue stream from electricity sales while their fuel sales to hydrogen vehicles ramp up. Located in Las Vegas, Nevada, the new $10.8-million station is the result of a private-public partnership among DOE, the City of Las Vegas, Plug Power Inc., and Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.

Housed in the city’s vehicle maintenance and operation service center, the new station combines an onsite hydrogen generator, compressor, liquid and gaseous hydrogen storage tanks, dispensing systems, and a stationary fuel cell. It is capable of dispensing hydrogen, hydrogen-enriched natural gas and compressed natural gas.

DOE is also working with the city and NRG Technologies Inc. to convert municipal vehicles to operate on hydrogen. See the DOE press release: [sorry this link is no longer available]

For more information on DOE’s Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, and Infrastructure Technologies Program, see the program’s Web site on EREN: [sorry this link is no longer available]

The California Fuel Cell Partnership (CaFCP) is also building hydrogen infrastructure: The organization commissioned its first “satellite” hydrogen fueling system in late October. The new system, located in Richmond, California, is about 70 miles from the CaFCP headquarters and primary refueling facility in West Sacramento, soit extends the range over which the CaFCP’s prototype fuel-cell vehicles can be driven. Stuart Energy manufactured and installed the fueling system, which uses electrolysis to generate hydrogen from water and includes a storage unit capable of holding 104 pounds of hydrogen. It is capable of fueling a small fleet of vehicles and requires only one or two minutes per refueling. The unit is the eighth hydrogen fueling station installed by Stuart Energy in NorthAmerica, and the fourth in California. See the CaFCP and Stuart Energy press releases: [sorry this link is no longer available]
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Plug Power Inc. and Honda R&D Company, Ltd. are aiming to let future fuel-cell vehicle owners supply their own hydrogen fueling infrastructure. The companies have agreed to jointly develop and test a home refueling system for fuel cell vehicles. See the October 17th press release on the Plug Power Web site:
http://www.plugpower.com/news/

Other recent hydrogen advances include a system to produce nearly pure hydrogen from methane or propane, a process to produce hydrogen from biomass while sequestering the carbon byproducts, and a hydride slurry system for hydrogen storage. See the announcements from MesoFuel, Inc.; Scientific Carbons, Inc.; and Safe Hydrogen LLC, respectively, at:
[sorry this link is no longer available]
http://www.eprida.com/hydro/pr27082002.htm
http://www.safehydrogen.com/about.html

Michigan’s NextEnergy Center Site Earns Tax-Free Designation

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation announced last week that the future site of Michigan’s NextEnergy Center has been designated a tax-free zone. This so-called “NextEnergy Zone” is located at the Wayne State University Research and Technology Park in Detroit and will be the location for the 40,000-square-foot NextEnergy Center. The center will be the catalyst for alternative energy development in the state and will include laboratory facilities, business incubator space, collaborative meeting space, and other facilities. Alternative energy companies located in the new NextEnergy Zone will enjoy tax-free status for 20 years. See the announcement on the NextEnergy Web site at: [sorry this link is no longer available]

As mentioned in last week’s ed
ition of this newsletter, the authorizing legislation for the NextEnergy Zone was approved by Governor John Engler in mid-October. See last week’s story at: [sorry this link is no longer available]

Although the plans for the NextEnergy Zone remain sketchy, DTE Energy announced in late September that it will work with DOE to build a hydrogen power park, likely located within the Zone. Hydrogen will be generated primarily from renewable energy sources, stored, and then used to power a 50-kilowatt fuel cell and a 25-kilowatt Stirling engine or reciprocating engine. A microgrid system will serve the Zone with electricity from the hydrogen power park and other distributed energy sources. DTE Energy hopes to install about 600 kilowatts of generating capacity within the Zone in 2003, with additional generation added in the following three to four years. This will eventually allow the conventional power grid to serve as merely a backup power system for the Zone’s microgrid.
See the September 20th press release from DTE Energy at: [sorry this link is no longer available]

Agreement Will Bolster State and Federal Cooperation on Energy

DOE signed an agreement on November 14th that will allow state energy officials throughout the United States to better collaborate with the federal government on energy research and development agreements. The agreement is an outgrowth of an alliance begun in 1998 between DOE and the energy agencies of California and New York. The newly signed agreement establishes a collaborative that draws together DOE, the National Association of State Energy Offices, and the Association of State Energy Research and Technology Transfer Institutions, Inc.

The new State Technologies Advancement Collaborative will promote research and deployment in innovative ways to produce, transmit and distribute energy and to use it more efficiently. The pact will make it easier for collaborative members to share information on research and to prevent wasteful duplication of efforts. By jointly funding selected projects, the collaborative will be able to leverage funds and to simplify the path for promising technologies to enter the market. See the DOE press release at: [sorry this link is no longer available]

Japanese Solar Cell Firm Plans Plant in Memphis, Tennessee

Anticipating a growing U.S. market for solar power systems, the Sharp Electronics Corporation announced plans last week to build a manufacturing plant for solar products in Memphis, Tennessee. Sharp Electronics is the U.S. sales and marketing subsidiary of Japan’s Sharp Corporation, the world leader in solar-cell manufacturing. The Memphis facility is expected to begin production in spring of 2003. By the end of next year, 90 new jobs will be created at the facility, which will assemble solar modules for residential, commercial, and industrial applications.

Sharp’s solar-cell production capacity is expected to reach 200 megawatts per year by March 2003. Although the company entered the U.S. market less than six months ago, it hopes to capture 10 percent of the domestic solar-cell market by March. See the Sharp press release at:
[sorry this link is no longer available]

A growing number of recent solar power installations in the United States seems to support Sharp’s conclusion that the U.S. market is growing. Among recent U.S. solar installations are a new 108-kilowatt system on the roof of a Whole Foods Market store in Woodland Hills, California, supported by the Los Angeles Department of Power and Water (LADWP) Solar Incentive Program; and two 30- kilowatt solar power systems installed by SunWize technologies in Florence, Alabama, and Oxford, Mississippi, for the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Green Power Switch Program. In addition, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) announced last week that 50 schools throughout the state will receive funding for the installation of 2-kilowatt solar power systems. The grants were awarded as part of NYSERDA’s $1.8-million “School Power…Naturally” program. See the press releases from LADWP, SunWize, and NYSERDA, respectively, at: [sorry this link is no longer available]
http://www.sunwize.com/aboutsw/PR11_04_02.html
[sorry this link is no longer available]

Unexpected Discovery Shows Promise for Better Solar Cells

A serendipitous discovery about the electronic properties of indium nitride may eventually yield high-efficiency solar cells that are able to make use of the sun’s entire spectrum of radiation. While researching the properties of light-emitted diodes (LEDs), researchers at DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) recently discovered that the band-gap energy of indium nitride is 0.7 electron volts, much lower than the 2.0 electron volts previously expected. The band-gap energy is the amount of energy needed to free an electron from its atom; a solar cell material can only capture sunlight at energies equal to or greater than its band-gap energy. The low band-gap energy of indium nitride means that it can capture sunlight at much lower energies than expected, so the material is able to capture low-frequency, red or near-infrared light.

To make practical use of their discovery, the LBNL researchers propose making a solar cell from several layers of varying alloys of indium, gallium, and nitrogen. Such indium gallium nitride solar cells could potentially convert the full spectrum of sunlight — from the near-infrared to the far ultraviolet — into electricity. The LBNL researchers’ familiarity with the material, thanks to its use in LEDs, makes them confident that it could be used to successfully create inexpensive two-layer solar cells with a sunlight-to-electricity conversion efficiency of 50 percent. Multi-layered cells could even reach the maximum theoretical conversion efficiency of greater than 70 percent. In contrast, the best existing solar cell achieves a conversion efficiency of only about 33 percent.

Teams at Cornell University and Japan’s Ritsumeikan University contributed to the LBNL research by preparing the high-purity crystals of indium nitride that were required for the band-gap experiments. See the November 18th press release from LBNL at: [sorry this link is no longer available]

Seattle Narrowly Passes $1.75-Billion Monorail Measure

A citizen petition in Seattl
e, Washington, to create a monorail system passed by a narrow margin, according to unofficial election results released yesterday. The King County press release claims that few if any changes are expected in the official results, which will be released today. Out of nearly 196,000 votes cast, the monorail measure passed by only 868 votes, according to the unofficial results. After initial election results showed a slight lead for the measure, the lead dwindled during the extended tally of absentee ballots, at one point narrowing to a handful of votes. See the King County press release and election results at: [sorry this link is no longer available]
[sorry this link is no longer available]

With passage of the measure, a Seattle Popular Monorail Authority will now be formed to build and manage a $1.75 billion monorail that will run along a 14-mile corridor, running along a generally north-south route from Ballard, through the city’s Central District, and ending in West Seattle. It will be paid for through a motor-vehicle excise tax of $140 per $10,000 of value, except during the first year when buying a new car. The measure follows two previous initiatives that helped to shape the plan for the monorail. For more information about the monorail plan, see the Seattle Monorail Project Web site at: [sorry this link is no longer available]

Although monorails date back to the 1800s, and are popular in Japan, they have seen limited use for mass transit in the United States. For more information about monorails, see the Monorail Society Web site (which includes some gloating over the Seattle measure) at: [sorry this link is no longer available]

Scientific American Honors Efficient, Renewable Technologies

Scientific American magazine launched a new award on November 11th to honor “visionaries from the worlds of research, industry and politics whose recent accomplishments point toward a brighter technological future for everyone.” The “Scientific American 50” Awards went to a wide array of inventors, but energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies fared extremely well. One of the most prestigious of the 50 annual awards, the Business Leader of the Year Award, went to Geoffrey Ballard, founder of Ballard Power Systems, Inc., chairman of General Hydrogen, and a leader in hydrogen-powered fuel cells for the past 20 years.

Other winners include Randy Howard of Cargill Dow LLC, which makes plastics from corn starch; Ken Deering of The Wind Turbine Company, which designed a new, efficient wind turbine; Manfred Stefener of Smart Fuel Cell AG, developer of miniature fuel cells; Eddie O’Connor of Airtricity, which guided Ireland’s plans to build a large offshore wind plant; Spectrolab, Inc. and DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), which demonstrated solar cells with record-breaking conversion efficiencies; Hiroyuki Yoshino of Honda Motor Company, Ltd., who directed his company’s progressive position on improving fuel efficiency and lowering emissions; Fran Pavley of the California State Assembly, who legislated carbon-dioxide emissions standards for California vehicles; and Cambridge Display Technology, which develops organic light-emitting diodes and flexible solar power panels. See the full list of winners on the Scientific American Web site at: [sorry this link is no longer available]

See also the November 11th press releases from NREL and Cambridge Display Technology, respectively, at: [sorry this link is no longer available]
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SITE NEWS

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Powering the South
http://www.poweringthesouth.org

Powering the South, an initiative of the Renewable Energy Policy Project, promotes electricity conservation and clean power technologies in six southern states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The Web site was designed to encourage a free flow of ideas between communities within this six-state region. It provides information for the public, advocates, vendors, and policymakers, including policy recommendations.

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ENERGY FACTS AND TIPS

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EIA Updates State Information on Solar and Wind Energy Use

DOE’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its year 2000 data for solar and wind energy last week. The EIA tables list consumption of each of the renewable energy sources by end-use sector — industrial, electric utilities, and residential – for each state.

According to the EIA tables, California led the states in power production from solar and wind sources — in fact, it is listed as the only U.S. state that used a significant amount of solar power. For wind power, California was trailed by Minnesota, Texas, Iowa, and Wyoming. Together, these five states accounted 97.9 percent of all U.S. use of wind power.

The picture is different for thermal uses of solar energy, that is, for solar water heating and other uses: Florida leads that category, followed closely by California. And despite the potential cost- effective use of this technology across the United States, those two states are estimated to comprise 80 percent of the total U.S. use of solar thermal energy. See the Solar and Wind Energy Consumption Tables on the EIA Web site at: [sorry this link is no longer available]

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