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News & Events
Toyota to Manufacture Camry Hybrids in Kentucky
Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America announced last week that it will begin building a hybrid-electric version of the Camry – Toyota’s top-selling vehicle – at its Georgetown, Kentucky, plant in late 2006. The Camry hybrid will be Toyota’s first hybrid produced in North America, and only the second hybrid vehicle to be manufactured in the United States (Ford Motor Company currently produces the Escape Hybrid in Kansas City, Missouri). Toyota will invest $10 million to upgrade the plant for hybrid production and will have the ability to produce 48,000 Camry hybrids per year. The company did not yet release specific details about the Camry hybrid. See the Toyota press release.
The Toyota news comes on the heels of record-breaking sales of hybrid vehicles in the United States. In late April, R.L. Polk & Company reported that U.S. registrations for new hybrid vehicles increased by 81 percent in 2004, to 83,153. The Toyota Prius dominated the U.S. market in 2004 with 53,761 new-vehicle registrations, about 64 percent of the total. Sales of the Prius are continuing to gain strength in 2005: In April alone, Toyota sold 11,345 of the vehicles in the United States, a near doubling of sales over April 2004. In addition, Toyota’s Lexus division launched its RX 400h hybrid sport utility vehicle on April 18th and reported selling 2,345 of the vehicles by month’s end. American Honda Motor Company, Inc. is also experiencing record sales of its hybrid vehicles, with year-to-date hybrid sales at 14,604 vehicles at the end of April, a 56.7 percent increase above last year’s sales figures for the same time period. Ford Motor Company likewise reported record sales of its Escape Hybrid in April, although it did not provide sales figures. See the press release from Polk, Toyota, Honda, and Ford.
Growth in Solar Power Drives Changes in Silicon Supplies
The rapid expansion in the solar power industry appears to be causing structural changes among the suppliers of silicon, the primary material for manufacturing most of the world’s photovoltaic solar cells. Since silicon is also used to produce computer chips, the solar cell market has traditionally been a secondary market for silicon – a fact that has occasionally caused supply disruptions for solar cell manufacturers. That situation seems to have reversed itself at Germany’s Wacker Polysilicon, which is expanding its polycrystalline silicon production from 5,000 metric tons per year to 9,000 metric tons per year by 2007. According to the company, this time the rise in production is mainly attributable to the solar industry, and although Wacker has been supplying the semiconductor industry for 50 years, it has been increasingly supplying the photovoltaics industry over the past five years. Wacker has even developed a new fluidized-bed process for producing granular polycrystalline silicon, and is currently testing the process in two pilot reactors. See the Wacker press release.
SolarWorld AG, a German solar power company, has taken a multi-pronged approach to the silicon supply problem: It signed a 10-year silicon supply agreement with Wacker in late April, but it has also formed a joint venture with another company to produce a dedicated supply of solar silicon. Test runs began last month at the prototype plant for the joint venture, called Joint Solar Silicon GmbH & Co KG (JSSI). Producing solar-grade silicon from silane, a gas, JSSI expects to supply 800 tons per year of solar silicon by 2007. See SolarWorld’s press releases from April 18th and April 25th.
Currently, the world’s only dedicated producer of polycrystalline silicon for solar cells is located in Moses Lake, Washington. Solar Grade Silicon, LLC (SGS) – a joint venture of Japan’s AsiMI LLC and Norway’s Renewable Energy Corporation AS (REC) – produced roughly 2,100 metric tons of solar silicon from silane gas in 2004, capturing 30 percent of the market, according to REC. The company claims that the current supply of solar silicon is less than demand and may remain so through 2007. To help meet that demand, SGS is currently expanding and will produce 2,300 metric tons of silicon in 2005, according to REC. See the REC press release and REC’s SGS Web page.
New Technologies Promise to Revolutionize the Solar Power Industry
While the conventional silicon solar cell industry is facing supply constraints, a number of new solar cell technologies aim to produce solar cells from new materials, at lower cost, with higher efficiencies, and in new forms. With a wide diversity of approaches, the pho
tovoltaic solar cell industry remains dynamic, and the next breakthrough appears to be just around the next corner.
One of the most promising new technologies is quantum dots, particles of semiconductor material smaller than 10 billionths of a meter. At such small scales, quantum effects cause the dots to respond differently to light depending on their size, an effect allowing the dots to be “tuned” to different wavelengths of light. A new study from DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Naval Research Laboratory suggests that quantum dots could theoretically yield a solar cell with twice the efficiency of today’s solar cells. Quantum dots can produce as many as three electrons from a single photon of light, so they can theoretically convert as much as 65 percent of the sun’s energy into electricity, according to the researchers. The findings were published in a recent issue of the American Chemical Society’s Nano Letters journal. See the NREL press release.
Quantum dots aren’t just theory: Evident Technologies, already considered a leader in quantum dot development, recently teamed with Konarka Technologies, Inc. in an effort to combine quantum dots with Konarka’s flexible plastic solar cells. Meanwhile, Konarka is also incorporating its so-called “power plastic” into tents and portable chargers for the U.S. Army, even coloring it with a camouflage pattern, while also working on power-generating fibers and plastics. And for those who prefer foil to plastic, DayStar Technologies, Inc. is developing its TerraFoil, a flexible metallic solar cell made by depositing thin films of semiconductor material onto foil. See the March 23rd and May 4th press releases from Konarka, as well as the DayStar Technologies press release.
Cow Manure and Cotton Gin Waste to Fuel Ethanol Plant in Texas
Ethanol fuel has a big advantage over conventional motor fuels: its primary energy source is the starch found in corn and other grains, a renewable source of energy. However, in most ethanol fuel plants, that benefit is watered down a bit by the use of fossil fuels to run the fermentation and distillation processes that convert the starch to ethanol. The developers of a new ethanol fuel plant in Hereford, Texas ?located about 40 miles southwest of Amarillo?plan to avoid that dilemma through an unusual approach: the biofuel plant will produce its fuel using biomass energy. As you might guess from the name, Hereford has an ample supply of cattle manure, and the plant will combine that with cotton gin waste, converting the mixture into a clean-burning biogas to fuel the plant’s boilers. The Panda Group is developing the project and plans to break ground on the project this summer, with commercial operation expected in late 2006. The plant will produce 100 million gallons of ethanol per year from corn and milo, a type of sorghum that produces large yellow or whitish seeds. See the Panda Energy press release (PDF 95 KB).
Something must be in the air in Texas, because a similar idea is being put to the test in Denton, about 30 miles north of Fort Worth. Biodiesel Industries, Inc. and the City of Denton dedicated a new biodiesel plant in late March that uses landfill gas to provide all its process heat and power needs. See the press release from the National Biodiesel Board (PDF 27 KB).
Such efficient uses of biomass energy could help to put the United States on the road to energy independence, according to a recent feasibility study prepared for DOE and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The study by DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) outlines a strategy in which 1 billion dry tons of biomass would displace 30 percent of the petroleum used for transportation in the United States. According to the study, such an amount would represent a six-fold increase in biomass production, but could be achieved with relatively modest changes in land use and agricultural and forestry practices. See the ORNL press release or go directly to the full report (PDF 8 MB).
First Commercial Wave Power Plant Slated for Portugal
Ocean Power Delivery (OPD) announced last week that a Portuguese consortium has ordered the world’s first commercial wave energy plant to be installed five kilometers off of Portugal’s northern shore. The initial phase of the project will consist of three Pelamis wave energy converters, each capable of producing 750 kilowatts of power, for a combined capacity of 2.25 megawatts. If the first phase of the project is successful, the consortium may order another 30 Pelamis machines, increasing the capacity of the installation to nearly 25 megawatts. The consortium is led by Enersis SGPS, one of Portugal’s leading renewable energy companies. See the OPD press release (PDF 76 KB).
The Pelamis device consists of four long semi-submerged cylinders connected by hinged joints and moored to the ocean floor. The wave action passing these cylinders causes the joints to bend, an action resisted by hydraulic rams, which pump high-pressure oil through hydraulic motors to generate power. See the OPD Web site.
In related news, the U.K.’s Robert Gordon University has launched a tidal current power device called the Sea Snail in Burra Sound on the northern Scotland island of Orkney. The device uses a hydrofoil to produce power from the current, but also uses the downforce from the hydrofoil to hold the device firmly on the sea floor without mooring devices. See the university’s press release and Sea Snail Web page.
Global Wind Power Study Finds Huge
Potential
A new global wind power map has found enough wind energy to easily supply the world’s power, according to the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Researchers from Stanford University collected wind speed measurements from about 7,500 surface stations and 500 balloon-launch stations to determine global wind speeds at 80 meters (300 feet) above the surface, which is the hub height of modern wind turbines. Using a mathematical technique to extend those results over the entire globe, the Stanford researchers report that nearly 13 percent of world experiences winds with average annual speeds of 15 miles per hour, which the researchers consider strong enough for power generation. Such wind speeds were found in every region of the world, although North America was found to have the greatest wind power potential. The report will be published this month in the Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres, an AGU publication.
The authors found that the locations with suitable wind resources could produce about 72 trillion watts of power. In contrast, DOE’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimated the world’s electricity-generating capacity in 2002 at 3.45 trillion watts. See the AGU press release and the electricity tables from EIA’s International Energy Annual 2002.
Editor’s Note on Revised 2005 Tour de Sol Results
Editor’s Note: Last week’s newsletter reported on the National 2005 Tour de Sol, but since then the event organizers have revised their rally results. See our updated story on the event.
Energy Connections
Six Sites Considered for Future Advanced Nuclear Power Plants
NuStart Energy Development LLC, a consortium of nine nuclear power companies and two nuclear reactor vendors, took another step toward reviving the U.S. nuclear power industry last week, when it announced its selection of six potential locations for future nuclear power plants. The six locations are in the states of Alabama, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, and South Carolina, and five of the six sites are at existing nuclear power stations. By October, NuStart plans to pick two of the sites and move ahead with the licensing process for those sites. See the NuStart press release.
Earlier this month, NuStart signed an agreement with DOE to complete the designs for two advanced nuclear power plants and to demonstrate the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensing process for those plants. Under the 50-50 cost sharing agreement, NuStart will complete the detailed engineering work for two designs: the Westinghouse Advanced Passive 1000 Reactor and the General Electric Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor. Once the two plant locations are chosen, the design analyses will be integrated with the characteristics of the selected sites, and NuStart will develop comprehensive applications for two construction and operating licenses. NuStart expects to submit its license applications to the NRC in 2008 and could receive the licenses as early as 2010. See the NuStart press release.
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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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