*News and Events
DOE Names 20 Teams to Compete in the 2005 Solar Decathlon
DOE Awards $4.2 Million for Solid-Oxide Fuel Cell Projects
New Large L.A. Fuel Cell System the Latest of Many
World’s Largest Utility Battery System Installed in Alaska
Twelve Companies Buy 97 Megawatts of Green Power
First Well Drilled for Australian Hot Dry Rock Project
*Energy Connections
Transmission Upgrades to Ease Power Bottlenecks
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NEWS AND EVENTS
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DOE Names 20 Teams to Compete in the 2005 Solar Decathlon
DOE announced on September 17th its selection of 20 university teams to compete in the 2005 Solar Decathlon. The Solar Decathlon premiered in 2002 and pitted 14 teams of students against each other in a competition to design and build a solar-powered house. As in that first competition, the 2005 Solar Decathlon will again return to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., where the teams will have to build their homes and then operate them for about a week using only solar energy. While nine of the teams that competed in 2002 will return in 2005, the 11 new teams will help to boost participation by more than 40 percent compared to 2002. The 2005 Solar Decathlon will include the first entry from Canada — Concordia University in Montreal — and a team from the Universidad Politecnica Madrid in Spain. See the September 17th press release on the DOE Web site at:
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The Solar Decathlon is made up of ten contests, most of which focus on solar energy and energy efficiency, including space heating and cooling, lighting, hot water, refrigeration, and appliances. The contest awards additional credits for any “extra” energy a house can generate to charge an electric vehicle, allowing the “decathletes” todrive around town. A panel of architects and design professionals will also judge each entry on aesthetics and design integration. See the Solar Decathlon Web site at:
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DOE Awards $4.2 Million for Solid-Oxide Fuel Cell Projects
DOE announced on September 17th its award of 10 grants totaling $4.2 million that will advance solid-oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technologies. Participants in the projects, including universities and businesses, will contribute an additional $1.2 million, bringing the total investment in the 10 projects to $5.3 million. The projects span a range of SOFC technologies, including new modeling tools for analyzing the performance of SOFCs, improved materials for use in the electrodes and electrical connectors, and more efficient devices for converting the direct-current output from the fuel cells into alternating current. See the September 17th press release on the DOE Web site at:
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SOFCs can use a variety of fuels and have a high tolerance to impurities that “poison” other fuel cells, such as sulfur and carbon monoxide. They can also achieve high efficiencies, but because they operate near 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,830 degrees Fahrenheit), they are most likely to be used in large-scale stationary power applications. For more information on SOFCs and other types of fuel cells, see DOE’s Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, and Infrastructure Technologies Program Web site at:
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The new SOFC grants were selected by DOE’s Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance (SECA) Program, which is co-managed by two of DOE’s national laboratories, the National Energy Technology Laboratory and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. See the SECA Web site: [sorry this link is no longer available]
In related news, Delphi Corporation announced in early September that its SOFC can be fueled with coal-derived fuel gas. Meanwhile, FuelCell Energy, Inc. is building a two-megawatt fuel-cell plant in Terra Haute, Indiana, that will operate on natural gas by year-end and switch to coal-derived fuel gas in early 2004. And in July, Ford Motor
Company and Fuel Cell Technologies Ltd. (FCT) started using the volatile fumes from the vehicle paint shop in Ford’s Dearborn Assembly Plant to fuel a 5-kilowatt SOFC system. The Michigan plant first concentrates the fumes and then reforms them to create a hydrogen-rich gas, which is fed to the fuel cell system. See the press releases from Delphi, FuelCell Energy, and FCT at:
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New Large L.A. Fuel Cell System the Latest of Many
The City of Los Angeles dedicated a new 250-kilowatt fuel cell power plant last week, marking the latest in a string of large installations throughout the United States. The L.A. fuel cell system, located at the Terminal Island Treatment Plant in San Pedro, is currently fueled with natural gas, but city officials plan to switch the fuel source to biogas by next summer. The methane-rich biogas is produced during the wastewater treatment process, but the city needs to install a gas-processing system in order to feed the gas into the
fuel cell system. See the press release from the L.A. Department of Power and Water at: [sorry this link is no longer available]
The new L.A. fuel cell power plant was supplied by FuelCell Energy, Inc., which has installed a number of large-scale fuel-cell power plants in recent months. In early August, the company finished installing a 250-kilowatt fuel cell system at the Sheraton Edison Hotel in Edison, New Jersey. The system is fueled with natural gas and provides about one-quarter of the hotel’s electricity and hot water. The company also provided two 250-kilowatt systems to Zoot Enterprises in Bozeman, Montana. The installation of the two systems was completed in late August.
Smaller hydrogen-fueled proton-exchange-membrane (PEM) fuel cells continue to advance as well. In mid-August, the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) installed three 5-kilowatt PEM fuel cell systems produced by Plug Power, Inc. in a county building in Hauppauge, New York, and Portland General Electric began installing one 5-kilowatt
fuel cell system. See the press release from the L.A. Department of Power and Water at: [sorry this link is no longer available]
The new L.A. fuel cell power plant was supplied by FuelCell Energy, Inc., which has installed a number of large-scale fuel-cell power plants in recent months. In early August, the company finished installing a 250-kilowatt fuel cell system at the Sheraton Edison Hotel in Edison, New Jersey. The system is fueled with natural gas and provides about one-quarter of the hotel’s electricity and hot water. The company also provided two 250-kilowatt systems to Zoot Enterprises in Bozeman, Montana. The installation of the two systems was completed in late August.
Smaller hydrogen-fueled proton-exchange-membrane (PEM) fuel cells continue to advance as well. In mid-August, the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) installed three 5-kilowatt PEM fuel cell systems produced by Plug Power, Inc. in a county building in Hauppauge, New York, and Portland General Electric began installing one 5-kilowatt
Plug Power unit at a juvenile center in Hillsboro, Oregon. In late August, IdaTech LLC installed a 3.6-kilowatt PEM fuel cell system at an off-grid telecommunications site in the Cascade Mountains near Bend, Oregon. The IdaTech system incorporates a fuel processor, allowing the system to be fueled with propane. See the press releases
from Portland General Electric, the Long Island Power Authority, and IdaTech at:
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http://www.lipower.org/newscenter/pr/2003/aug20.fuelcell.html
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World’s Largest Utility Battery System Installed in Alaska
The world’s largest battery energy storage system began operating near Fairbanks, Alaska, in late August. When complete, the grid-connected system will combine 13,670 nickel-cadmium battery cells to generate up to 40 megawatts of power for about 7 minutes, or 27 megawatts of power for 15 minutes. Currently three of four battery strings are operating, and the fourth will be added by year-end. The system, operated by the Golden Valley Electrical Association (GVEA), is expected to reduce power blackouts on the local power grid by more than 60 percent. Saft
provided the batteries for the system, and ABB provided the power equipment to connect it to the local power grid. See the August 27th press release by selecting “News Center” on the ABB Web site at:
Additional information is posted on the GVEA and Saft Web sites at:
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Twelve Companies Buy 97 Megawatts of Green Power
The World Resources Institute (WRI) announced last week that the 12 corporate members of its Green Power Market Development Group have purchased a total of 97 megawatts of green power over the past year. The group includes Alcoa Inc., Cargill Dow LLC, Delphi Corporation, The Dow Chemical Company, DuPont, General Motors, IBM, Interface, Johnson and Johnson, Kinko’s, Pitney Bowes, and Staples. Some of those companies had already announced their green power purchases separately.
The group purchased 36 megawatts of renewable energy certificates from wind, biomass, and landfill gas resources, 15 megawatts of wind power, 5 megawatts of landfill gas energy, and 6 megawatts of other
renewables. In addition, IBM is buying 35 megawatts of fuel cells from General Motors. See the WRI press release at: [sorry this link is no longer available]
Green power continues to grow throughout the country. In early September, Brooklyn Brewery bought 100 percent wind power for its headquarters and brewery in Brooklyn, New York. The brewery committed to buy wind power from Community Energy, Inc. for the next five years. Community Energy also launched a new “Catch the Wind” campaign in New England — where the company’s wind energy products are now widely available — and began offering an improved, lower-priced green power product to Niagara Mohawk customers. Niagara Mohawk, a National Grid
company, has been offering its GreenUp program for a year, and has signed up 7,700 customers in upstate New York. Last week, the National Grid began offering GreenUp to customers of two of its other utilities, Massachusetts Electric Company and Nantucket Electric Company. At each of the three utilities, GreenUp offers green power
from several green power providers. See the press releases from Community Energy and National Grid at:
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The green power news should provide plenty of food for thought at the Eighth National Green Power Marketing Conference, to be held in Chicago from November 3rd through the 5th. See the conference Web site
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First Well Drilled for Australian Hot Dry Rock Project
The world’s first commercial attempt to build a geothermal power plant using the energy in high-temperature underground rocks achieved its first major milestone last week. Geodynamics Limited announced that its “Habanero #1” well has reached a depth of 4,421 meters (14,504 feet), which will allow the company to proceed to the next stage of development. Although today’s geothermal power plants draw on existing underground reservoirs of steam or hot water that are heated by geothermal energy, so-called “hot dry rock” plants draw on pockets of
again, completing the cycle.
With the success of the Habanero #1 well, Geodynamics is prepared to begin its “hydraulic stimulation” stage, in which high-pressure water is injected into the well to fracture the rock and form an underground reservoir. Habanero #1 will then be drilled deeper while drilling commences on the second well. The success with Habanero #1 is good
news for the company, which had broken a drill string in July and had additional delays in August due to high fluid pressures in the high-temperature granite. According to Geodynamics, the high fluid pressures are now a benefit, as they will simplify the hydraulic stimulation stage. See the Geodynamics announcements at:
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The Geodynamics Web site also includes excellent information on
hot dry rock geothermal energy at:
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ENERGY CONNECTIONS
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Transmission Upgrades to Ease Power Bottlenecks
When the blackout struck the Northeast and Midwest just over a month ago, the nation suddenly turned its attention to electric transmission issues. Fortunately, many in the power industry had been working on those issues for months or years prior to the August 14th event, and some of those efforts have come to fruition in recent weeks. Perhaps the most significant achievement occurred last week, when the New Transmission Development Company (NTDC) completed financing for an upgrade of Path 15, a heavily used transmission line in California that has created a bottleneck between the northern and southern parts of the state. According to Trans-Elect, Inc., NTDC’s parent company, construction of the transmission upgrade will begin immediately. See the Trans-Elect press release: [sorry this link is no longer available]
Long Island is also upgrading its transmission system. The Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) announced in late August that it will spend $400 million over the next two years to upgrade its power grid. Among the company’s plans is a DOE project to install a 2,000-foot high- temperature superconductor (HTS) cable in the LIPA power grid in East
Garden City. The cable will be installed in 2005 and will carry 600 megawatts of power. See the LIPA press release at: http://www.lipower.org/newscenter/pr/2003/aug28.improvements.html
For additional information on the HTS cable project, see the April press release from American Superconductor at:
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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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