Weekly Clean Energy Roundup: Dec. 4, 2002

*News and Events

*Site News

Fuelcell Propulsion Institute

*Energy Facts and Tips

Renewable Energy Gains Ground as EIA Looks Ahead to 2025

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NEWS AND EVENTS

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Honda and Toyota Deliver Fuel Cell Cars to California

Honda Motor Company, Ltd. and Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. both delivered their first fuel-cell-powered cars to customers in California on Monday.

The City of Los Angeles took delivery of a Honda FCX, a hydrogen-fueled vehicle that seats four, has a range of up to 170 miles, and performs much like a standard Honda Civic. Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. will provide the hydrogen fuel and fueling infrastructure for the city. Los Angeles is leasing the vehicle for $500 per month and plans to lease four more in 2003. Honda plans to lease about 30 vehicles in California and Japan in the next two years, but has no current plans for mass-market sales of fuel cell vehicles. See the December 2nd press release on the Honda Web site: [sorry this link is no longer available]

Meanwhile, Toyota delivered two of its hydrogen-fueled Toyota FCHVs to the University of California (UC), Irvine and UC Davis. Based on the Highlander, a mid-sized SUV, the FCHV combines improved aerodynamics, aluminum components, and a 109-horsepower motor to achieve excellent acceleration and a range of up to 180 miles. Both cars are under 30-month leases to the universities, which are leaders in fuel-cell research. Toyota plans to deliver four more FCHVs to the universities next year. The company has provided more than $2 million in research grants to UC campuses over the past five years, and plans to double that figure over the next three and a half years. See the December 2nd press release on the Toyota Web site: [sorry this link is no longer available]

The combined efforts of Toyota, Honda, the City of Los Angeles, the California Fuel Cell Partnership, and state organizations like the California Air Resources Board and South Coast Air Quality Management Board are leading to the establishment of hydrogen fueling infrastructure in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Los Angeles and Orange counties. According to Toyota, these two “model communities” will have a network of six refueling stations up and running within the next six months. Toyota’s contribution includes a new refueling station at Toyota’s national headquarters in Torrance, 40 miles northwest of the UC Irvine campus. See the Stuart Energy press release: [sorry this link is no longer available]A fuel-cell-powered bus already hit the streets in Southern

California in mid-November. The SunLine Transit Agency, which serves the Palm Springs area, is operating a 50-foot “ThunderPower” bus, built through a joint venture of Thor Industries and ISE Research. The hydrogen-fueled bus draws on a 75-kilowatt fuel cell from UTC Fuel Cells and is serving a route that will demand 100 miles of travel each day. UTC is also working with the Northeast Advanced Vehicle Consortium to develop a 200-kilowatt fuel cell power plant for buses. See the UTC Fuel Cells press releases: [sorry this link is no longer available]
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The market for fuel cell vehicles has yielded good news for Ballard Power Corporation in recent weeks. Ballard received a $1.88 million order for its Mark 902 fuel-cell engines from an undisclosed automotive company in late November, then signed a three-year supply agreement with Honda on Monday. And according to a new study from Allied Business Intelligence (ABI), the Ballard news is part of a trend: ABI predicts a rapidly growing market that will reach 800,000 fuel cell vehicles worldwide by 2012. See the press releases from Ballard and ABI: [sorry this link is no longer available]
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Coleman Powermate Launches Fuel-Cell-Powered Generator

Coleman Powermate, a leading producer of portable power systems and backup power systems, took a major step toward commercializing fuel cell systems for everyday use yesterday, as it launched a portable power generator that draws on a fuel cell. The AirGen fuel cell generator is built around a 1-kilowatt Nexa power module, which uses a Ballard fuel cell. The generators are now available for online purchase by industrial users with access to hydrogen cylinders; Coleman Powermate plans to expand to residential and commercial markets in the near future. The units sell for $5,995, but the first 50 sold in California will earn a $1,000 rebate, thanks in part to the California Air Resources Board. See the new AirGen Web site at: http://www.airgen.com

New Jersey gained a 200-kilowatt fuel cell system in late October. A $710,000 rebate from the New Jersey Clean Energy Program and a $200,000 rebate from the U.S. Department of Defense helped make the installation affordable to Merck & Company, Inc., which will use it as a supplemental power source. UTC Fuel Cells provided the system. See the UTC Fuel Cells press release at:
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If Allied Business Intelligence (ABI) is right, we won’t be reporting such installations much longer, because there will be too many of them! According to an ABI study released in late November, the global generating capacity from fuel cells will grow from today’s 45 megawatts to 16,000 megawatts in 2012 — more than 350 times today’s capacity. See the ABI press release: [sorry this link is no longer available]

Nevada Utility Signs Contracts for Wind, Geothermal Power

Nevada Power Company, the utility for most of southern Nevada, signed six contracts last week that will add up to 227 megawatts of renewable generating capacity to the utility’s power supply. More than half of the new generating capacity will come from wind power, but the remainder will come from geothermal power. The contracts include two proposed wind plants in Clark County (on the southern tip, where Las Vegas is located) and one in White Pine County, located in the central eastern part of the state. The geothermal contracts are for binary power plants in Washoe, Elko, and Churchill counties, which stretch across the northern part of the state, as well as a flash-steam power plant in Churchill County. The contracts are part of the utility’s efforts to meet its mandatory requirement for renewable power generation, as specified in a recently enacted state law. See the press release from Nevada Power’s parent company, Sierra Pacific Resources, at: [sorry this link is no longer available]

Among the projects covered by the six contracts are the 40-megawatt Steamboat IV geothermal plant, to be developed by Advanced Thermal Systems, Inc. (ATS) and mentioned in the November 6th edition of EREN Network News, and two geothermal facilities producing up to 60 megawatts of power, to be developed by ORMAT Nevada Inc. See the ATS and ORMAT press releases at:
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To help the development of renewable energy resources in Nevada, the state’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC) adopted a temporary regulation on November 20th that will allow energy providers to buy and sell renewable energy credits. One credit will represent a kilowatt-hour of electricity generated from renewable power sources. Energy providers that generate more renewable power than required can sell the excess credits to other energy providers within the state. See the Nevada PUC announcement:
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Nevada offers a number of tax exemptions for renewable energy installations in the state. See the list of incentives on the Nevada State Office of Energy Web site at: [sorry this link is no longer available]

DOE is also helping to develop renewable energy in Nevada. A $3.22 million grant for renewable energy research and development was awarded to the state in late September. The grant was administered by DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory and supported by DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. The funding will support nine projects related to solar, wind, geothermal and fuel cell applications in Nevada. See the announcement from Governor Kenny Guinn at: [sorry this link is no longer available]

Report Shows Large Benefits from Energy Star Program

A report released in late November by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows that Americans have achieved significant energy and environmental benefits through the Energy Star program and other voluntary programs. Last year alone, Americans saved more than 80 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity and avoided using 10,000 megawatts of peak power, the amount of energy required to power more than 10 million U.S. homes. Through voluntary efforts, Americans have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent to 38 million metric tons of carbon, which is the same as taking more than 25 million cars off the nation’s roads.

The Energy Star Program is a joint effort of DOE and EPA. More than 750 million Energy Star-labeled products have been purchased to date, and more than 1,600 builder partners have constructed more than 57,000 Energy Star-labeled homes, saving homeowners more than $15 million in energy costs each year. See the EPA press release at: [sorry this link is no longer available]

The full report, a 4-MB PDF file, is also available on the EPA Web site at:
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According to a recent survey by Platts Research & Consulting, 63 percent of U.S. residential consumers say they have implemented energy-efficiency measures in their homes in the past five years. Breaking the consumers into segments, the survey found that those interested most in saving money and in convenience were most likely to take action to save energy. See the Platts press release at:
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But despite such findings, there is still plenty of room for improvement. A recent study by the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project (SWEEP), for instance, found that the efficient use of electricity in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming could reduce those states’ total use of electricity by 18 percent by 2010, and 33 percent by 2020. The slower growth in electrical load due to energy efficiency would avoid the need to build 34 power plants (each generating 500 megawatts) over the next 18 years. This would also save 25 billion gallons of water per yearby 2010 and nearly 62 billion gallons per year by 2020. See the SWEEP study, with links to one regional and several state-by-state press releases: [sorry this link is no longer available]

Projects to Produce Energy from Waste are Gaining Momentum

A growing number of projects throughout the United States are converting waste products into energy using cl
ean, efficient technologies. The projects are tackling everything from animal wastes to cooking oil and grease, and are helping to reduce odors, solid wastes, and greenhouse gas emissions throughout the country.
The use of anaerobic digesters to convert animal wastes into energy is receiving growing attention. In recent months, Wisconsin’s We Energies began using an anaerobic digester to convert duck manure into energy; Environmental Power Corporation and Vermont Public Power Supply Authority began making plans to build anaerobic digesters to convert dairy farm wastes into energy; and Guepard Energy Inc. (GEI) signed a power purchase agreement with Southern California’s Imperial Irrigation District for four facilities that will convert cattle manure and other animal wastes into energy. Each of the GEI facilities is expected to process 400,000 pounds per day of animal wastes. See the GEI press release at: [sorry this link is no longer available]

See the October 10th We Energies press release by selecting “Go to News Releases” on the We Energies Web site at: http://www.we-energies.com/media/

See the Environmental Power press release on the right-hand column of the company’s home page at: [sorry this link is no longer available]

Two Wisconsin facilities are trying less conventional energy sources. Thanks to funding from Wisconsin’s Focus on Energy program, so-called “yellow grease” — used cooking oil and grease — is being used to fire an industrial boiler in Park Falls. The project should save nearly one million gallons of fuel oil each year. And a dairy farm in Oshkosh is has installed a wood boiler, allowing it to burn waste wood and bales of hay grass instead of natural gas. See the November 26th and December 2nd announcements by selecting “press releases” on the Focus on Energy Web site at: [sorry this link is no longer available]

Religious Groups Seek to Make Driving a Moral Issue

We all know that driving a fuel-efficient vehicle, taking public transportation, joining a carpool, or walking or biking are good things to do in terms of traffic, air pollution, and U.S. energy security — but does that make them the correct moral choice? That is, is it immoral to drive an inefficient vehicle? Well, according to a group called the Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN), the answer is “yes.” The group has launched a campaign aimed chiefly at Christians and asking, “What Would Jesus Drive?” The group draws on its faith to argue in favor of fuel efficiency. See the “What Would Jesus Drive?” Web site at: http://www.whatwouldjesusdrive.org/ Expanding the discussion to a wider interfaith group, EEN recently joined with the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) and other religious groups to ask the top three automakers to make more fuel-efficient vehicles. The groups gathered signatures from over 100 senior religious leaders from 21 states and delivered them to Detroit on November 20th. See the COEJL press release at: [sorry this link is no longer available]

Such involvement of religious groups in energy efficiency and renewable energy is a relatively recent and growing trend. As discussed in the August 21st edition of this newsletter, another recent example is the installation of a solar power system on a new Los Angeles cathedral. In addition, interfaith groups in California and Massachusetts have called for congregations to conserve energy and use energy efficient and renewable energy technologies. See the article at: [sorry this link is no longer available]

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SITE NEWS

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Fuelcell Propulsion Institute
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The Institute — a consortium of institutes and industries from around the world — facilitates the commercialization of fuel cell vehicles. The Web site features information on its projects and industry forums, including those concerning metal and coal mining, agriculture, and railways.

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ENERGY FACTS AND TIPS

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Renewable Energy Gains Ground as EIA Looks Ahead to 2025

The latest projections for U.S. energy use from DOE’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) present a much more favorable projection of renewable energy use than last year’s report. EIA now predicts that electricity production from renewable energy sources will grow 2.1 percent per year through 2025; last year’s report expected only a 1.3 percent annual growth through 2020. The result is that renewable sources will generate 495 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in 2025, or about 9 percent of all power generation.

The projected declines in energy intensity — the amount of energy used per dollar of gross domestic product — remain the same as last year’s projections, dropping 1.5 percent per year, and the total projected energy use remains roughly the same. But with a dropping market share for power production from coal, natural gas demand is projected to grow by 54 percent by 2025. To meet that demand, EIA projects increased natural gas production in the Rocky Mountains from unconventional sources such as coalbed methane, construction of an Alaskan natural gas pipeline, and expanded U.S. facilities for importing liquefied natural gas (LNG).

But despite all efforts to draw on natural gas, renewable sources, and energy efficiency, the EIA report projects that U.S. dependence on oil imports will increase. Imports currently provide 55 percent of U.S. petroleum demand; by 2025, the country will depend on imports for 68 percent of its petroleum needs. See the EIA press release, with a link to the full report, at: [sorry this link is no longer available]

For comparison with last year’s projections, see the November 21, 2001, edition of EREN Network News at: http://www.eren.doe.gov/news/archives/2001/nov21_01.html#energ y

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