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Weekly Clean Energy Roundup:August 6, 2003

*News and Events

DOE Provides $200 Million for Hydrogen Technology Projects

USDA Funds Rural Renewable Energy Projects in Alaska, Hawaii
Spectrolab Concentrating Solar Cell Sets Efficiency Record
Reports See Major Growth in Store for Renewable Energy
FERC Sets New Rules for Connecting Generators to the Grid
Awards Honor Champions of Industrial Energy Efficiency


DOE Provides $200 Million for Hydrogen Technology Projects

DOE announced the release of two hydrogen technology solicitations on July 31st. The solicitations will provide up to $200 million in funds over four to five years (subject to congressional appropriations) for research and development to support the President’s Hydrogen Fuel Initiative.

The first solicitation, for hydrogen production and delivery technologies, covers processes to make hydrogen from biomass, devices to convert fuels into hydrogen, photovoltaic and biological processes to generate hydrogen using solar energy, and other advanced technologies to produce hydrogen by splitting water molecules.

The solicitation also covers hydrogen separation and purification technologies, advanced hydrogen delivery technologies, and analyses of hydrogen production infrastructures.

The second solicitation, for hydrogen storage technologies, seeks to establish virtual “Centers of Excellence” — led by the DOE national laboratories — for metal hydrides, chemical hydrides, and carbon-based hydrogen storage. Applications are also being requested from universities and industry for new and innovative materials and concepts, compressed- and liquid-hydrogen technologies, and other hydrogen storage technologies.

Proposals for both solicitations are due in September 2003. See the solicitations under the “Hydrogen” heading on the Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, and Infrastructure Technologies Program Web site at [sorry this link is no longer available]

See also the July 31st press release from DOE at:
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USDA Funds Rural Renewable Energy Projects in Alaska, Hawaii

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) last week announced funding for three projects that will bring more renewable energy to Alaska and Hawaii. In Hawaii, more than $1.1 million will go towards installing 300 solar hot water systems on the island of Molokai. Homeowners there pay 23.7 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity, and solar hot water systems typically cut their electrical bills by 45 percent. In Alaska, nearly $400,000 will go towards a small hydroelectric plant in Atka, replacing expensive diesel fuel as a power source and providing electricity for the town’s seafood processing plant. Another $2.5 million will go to the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative (AVEC), in part to help fund four new 50-kilowatt wind turbines to be installed in Chevak. The Chevak project will also include a new 1,570-kilowatt diesel-fired power plant with a heat recovery system, allowing the cooperative to make use of 50 percent of the energy in the diesel fuel. The projects are part of $14.9 million in grants awarded by USDA’s High Energy Cost Program, which aims to improve energy services in rural areas with high energy costs. See the USDA press release and list of grant recipients at:
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AVEC serves the largest land area of any electric cooperative in the world, providing power to about 20,000 people in 51 remote villages by drawing on more than 144 diesel generators. In May, AVEC installed four 50-kilowatt wind turbines near Selawik. See the AVEC Web site at:
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AVEC’s new projects tie in well with the draft Alaska Rural Energy Plan, prepared by the Alaska Energy Authority. The plan places an emphasis on using wind turbines, more efficient diesel generators, and heat recovery from diesel generators to meet the state’s rural energy needs. The plan also calls for increased energy efficiency. See the draft plan on the Alaska Energy Authority Web site at:
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Spectrolab Concentrating Solar Cell Sets Efficiency Record

Spectrolab, Inc. announced in late July its achievement of a record efficiency for a terrestrial solar cell. Using concentrated sunlight, Spectrolab’s new cell converts 36.9 percent of the sun’s energy into electricity. The achievement shows promise for one of DOE’s goals for solar electric devices: to develop solar modules that convert more than 33 percent of the sun’s energy into electricity. See the press release from The Boeing Company, Spectrolab’s parent company, at:
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Concentrating solar power systems use lenses and reflective surfaces to focus sunlight onto a relatively small solar cell. The design aims to produce a low-cost solar electric module by minimizing the amount of expensive semiconductor material used for the solar cells in each module. Spectrolab’s new cell achieves high efficiency by effectively stacking up three solar cells — each tuned to capture different frequencies of light — and combining them into one device, called a multijunction cell (in this case, a triple-junction cell). For more information, see the DOE Photovoltaics Program Web site at:
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Reports See Major Growth in Store for Renewable Energy

A slew of reports have been beating the drums for renewable energy in recent months, documenting continued increases in the world’s use of renewable energy and forecasting significant growth in the future. The Worldwatch Institute, for example, says that renewable energy is entering a boom period, with global wind energy use tripling since 1988 and annual solar cell production increasing 150 percent in the past three years. A study from Navigant Consulting, Inc. predicts that renewable energy use will more than double over the next decade in the United States and Canada, with wind and biomass comprising about 85 percent of that growth. And a study by Platts Research & Consulting projects that U.S. renewable power capacity will grow by 8 percent per year through 2025, with wind power chalking up 31 gigawatts of new capacity. Meanwhile, the Council of State Governments (CSG) noted that renewable energy projects spur states’ economies by creating jobs and increasing tax revenue. See the announcements from Worldwatch, Navigant, Platts, and CSG at:
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FERC Sets New Rules for Connecting Generators to the Grid

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) set new standards for connecting electrical generators to the power grid in late July. Although the new standards apply to generators larger than 20 megawatts in capacity, FERC also proposed expedited grid-connection procedures for smaller generators, which would include small- to
medium-sized wind projects, solar power systems, microturbines, fuel cells, and other small generators. Both rules include standard “interconnection” procedures and standard agreements to be signed by the utility and the generator. See the FERC press release, in PDF format only, at:
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A top issue for the owners of large generators is who must pay the cost of any upgrades needed for the utility’s system to accommodate the power being fed into it by the generator. The FERC rule says the generator owner will pay for any upgrades in the high-voltage transmission system, but the utility will pay the owner back over the
following five years. The generator owner, however, must pay the full cost of any upgrades to the low-voltage distribution system. The rule will take effect in late September.

For generators of 20 megawatt or less in capacity, FERC divides them into three categories. For connecting a generator of 2 megawatts or less in capacity to a distribution system, using pre-certified equipment, FERC proposes “super-expedited” procedures that avoid any costly studies. Generators between 2 and 10 megawatts in capacity connected to a distribution system face more complicated procedures, but would often be able to avoid costly studies as well. Systems larger than 10 megawatts in capacity or connected to the high-voltage transmission system would likely require impact studies as part of the process. Comments on the proposed rule are due by early September. Links to fact sheets on both of the FERC orders, as well as links to the orders themselves, are available on the FERC Web site at: [sorry this link is no longer available]


Awards Honor Champions of Industrial Energy Efficiency

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) named four industrial “Champions of Energy Efficiency” last week at its biennial conference on energy efficiency in industry. The winners include Aimee McKane of DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, for her work on DOE’s “Compressed Air Challenge” and “Industrial Best Practices” partnerships; Gunnar Walmet of the New York State Research and Development Authority, who runs a leading research and development program in industrial energy efficiency; Steven Schultz, director of corporate energy management at 3M; and the Rohm and Haas plant in Deer Park, Texas, which has achieved impressive energy savings and emissions reductions through its energy management program. See the
ACEEE press release at: [sorry this link is no longer available]

For more information about DOE’s industrial energy efficiency programs, see the Industrial Technologies Program Web site at: [sorry this link is no longer available]

While energy management is a hot topic for industry, it also serves as an energy-saving strategy for a wide range of businesses and government agencies. The latest strategies and products for saving energy in buildings will be presented at Energy 2003, the sixth annual national energy management workshop and exposition. Sponsored by DOE’s Federal Energy Management Program, Energy 2003 takes place in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, from August 17th through the 20th. See the Energy 2003 Web site at: [sorry this link is no longer available]

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Kevin Eber is the Editor of EREE Network News, a weekly publication of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).

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