Weekly Clean Energy Roundup:June 22, 2005

News and Events

News and Events

DOE to Award $2.5 Million to 18 Tribes for Efficiency, Renewable Energy

DOE announced last week that it plans to award nearly $2.5 million to 18 Native American tribes to advance the use of renewable energy and energy efficient technologies on tribal lands. The tribes will investigate energy audits, energy efficiency improvements, and a wide range of renewable energy technologies, including biomass, geothermal, solar, and wind energy. Notable projects include plans to tap geothermal energy resources on the Citizen Potawatomi Nation tribal lands in central Oklahoma, efforts to evaluate wind power development in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, and plans to install utility-scale wind power plants on tribal lands of the Hualapai and Hopi in Arizona. See the DOE press release, or go directly to the full list of projects (PDF 9 KB).

The grants are being awarded through DOE’s Tribal Energy Program, which promotes tribal energy self-sufficiency and fosters employment and economic development on tribal lands in the United States. As part of the program’s effort to promote energy self-sufficiency, it has created a new Web site called “A Guide to Tribal Energy Development.” See the new Tribal Energy Development Web site.

Nissan to Build Altima Hybrid in Tennessee Starting in 2006

A hybrid-electric version of the Nissan Altima sedan will not only be sold in the United States next year, but will also be built here. Nissan announced last week that its first hybrid vehicle will be built at its existing manufacturing plant in Smyrna, Tennessee, in 2006 for the 2007 model year. Nissan first unveiled a prototype of the Altima Hybrid a year ago. The car mates Nissan’s four-cylinder engine to hybrid system components from Toyota. Under an agreement signed in 2002, Nissan can produce up to 100,000 hybrid vehicles within a five-year period using Toyota hybrid components. See the Nissan press releases from last week and a year ago.

Meanwhile, Ford Motor Company is gearing up for the sale of its newest hybrid vehicle, the 2006 Mercury Mariner Hybrid. The new hybrid sport utility vehicle (SUV) uses a drivetrain similar to the Ford Escape Hybrid to achieve estimated mileage ratings of 33 miles per gallon (mpg) in the city and 29 mpg on the highway. Ford donated its first production vehicle to a California-based environmental group, which sold it for $47,500 at a fund-raising auction. See the Ford press release and the 2006 Mariner Hybrid press kit.

Indiana Students Achieve 1,836 MPG in Supermileage Competition

A team of students from Mater Dei High School in Evansville, Indiana, took top honors last week at the 2005 Supermileage competition by achieving 1,836 miles per gallon (mpg). Sponsored by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), the competition requires each team to build a fuel-efficient vehicle using a small four-cylinder engine, then demonstrate its fuel efficiency by traveling 9.6 miles on an oval track while maintaining a speed of at least 15 miles per hour. The competition involves building lightweight, highly aerodynamic vehicles with low rolling resistances, and most teams also rebuild the engine and fuel system for greater fuel efficiency.

For instance, the entry from the University of British Columbia (UBC) rides extremely low with wheels totally encased in a teardrop-shaped body, powered by a reduced-displacement, fuel-injected engine. The vehicle features an aluminum honeycomb chassis with a carbon fiber body that achieves a drag coefficient of only 0.11 (for comparison, the aerodynamic Honda Insight has a drag coefficient of 0.25, and the ideal teardrop shape has a drag coefficient of about 0.04). The vehicle took first place among the college teams with a fuel economy of 1,608 mpg. See the SAE press release and Supermileage Web page, as well as the UBC team Web site.

DaimlerChrysler researchers are also looking for more aerodynamic vehicles, and have drawn their inspiration from an unlikely source: the boxfish. The resulting concept car, called the Mercedes-Benz Bionic Car, features an extremely short snout and high glass “forehead” for the windshield, followed by streamlined contours tapering towards the rear of the car. With a drag coefficient of only 0.19, combined with a lightweight honeycomb body structure and a direct-injection diesel engine, the Bionic Car achieves an estimated fuel economy of about 70 mpg. See DaimlerChrysler’s special report on the Bionic Car.

Ethanol Partnership Plans to Produce Biodiesel from Corn

A new company plans to build a biodiesel production facility that will extract a crude-oil-like substance from corn and convert it into biodiesel fuel. The company, SunSource BioEnergy LLC, was formed by four ethanol producers?VeraSun Energy; Glacial Lakes Energy, LLC; KAAPA Ethanol LLC; and Golden Grain Energy, LLC?and one technology company, called Ethanol Oil Recovery Systems LLC. The latter company developed the oil-extraction technology, which SunSource BioEnergy plans to employ in a new facility capable of producing 50 million gallons of biodiesel per year. SunSource BioEnergy hopes to extend the benefits of the technology throughout the ethanol industry by offering producers extraction units and oil purchase agreements. See the VeraSun Energy press release.

Vermont Sets Renewable Energy Requirement; Iowa Expands Tax Credits

Vermont and Iowa have both advanced legislation that will encourage greater use of renewable energy within their states.

In Vermont, Governor Jim Douglas signed a bill on June 14th that establishes a renewable energy requirement for electricity sold within the state. Through 2011, every retail provider of electricity in Vermont must meet its growth in electrical demand using new renewable energy resources or must buy renewable energy credits equal to its growth in energy sales. Electricity providers can also use a combination of new renewable energy resources and renewable energy credits. The new law sets a cap at 10 percent of the electricity provider’s energy sales in 2005 and provides an incentive for electricity providers to enter into long-term purchase agreements with renewable energy facilities. The law also includes measures to encourage combined heat and power facilities, removes a cost cap for energy efficiency programs, and requires the state’s public service board to set interconnection standards for small power generators. See Vermont bill S. 52.

In Iowa, Governor Tom Vilsack signed a bill on June 15th that extends wind energy production tax credits to producers of energy products from biomass or solar energy. To earn the tax credit, the producers must have a signed agreement for the purchase of their energy product, which can be in the form of electricity, biogas, hydrogen, or heat for a commercial purpose. The bill, Senate File 390, applies to facilities placed in service after July 1st of this year and before 2011. The renewable energy facilities can earn tax credits for up to 10 years. See the text and status of the bill on the Iowa General Assembly Web site.

Planetary Society Launches a Solar Sail

The Planetary Society launched a prototype “solar sail” into space yesterday, marking the first attempt to prove that thin films of reflective material can be deployed in space to capture the solar wind. Solar sails may one day serve as a space propulsion technology; although they accelerate slowly, they will continue to accelerate for a long time without the need for fuel. The Planetary Society, which bills itself as the world’s largest nonprofit, non-governmental space advocacy group, is trying to prove the potential of solar sails by placing one in Earth orbit. Called Cosmos 1, the craft features eight triangular sails, each 50 feet long, which will deploy outward from the small craft. Cosmos 1 was launched from a Russian nuclear submarine aboard a converted intercontinental ballistic missile. As of press time, the Planetary Society still didn’t know if the craft was successfully inserted into Earth orbit and operating correctly. If the launch proves successful, Cosmos 1 will attempt to capture the solar wind and use the energy to move to a higher orbit. See the Solar Sail Web site, and for the latest news, see the Solar Sail Weblog, posted by the Planetary Society’s Emily Lakdawalla.

Both Japan and the United States are investigating solar sails. Japan’s Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) successfully deployed two solar sails in space last August, but did not attempt to control the sails once they were launched. Last month, Alliant Techsystems and the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) conducted a successful ground test of a solar sail measuring 66 feet wide in a vacuum chamber operated by the NASA Glenn Research Center. See the press releases from ISAS and Alliant Techsystems.

Energy Connections

International Funding Helps Shape China’s Energy Future

As China’s hunger for energy steadily grows, both the World Bank and the United Nations have recently announced plans to support China’s progress toward sustainable energy solutions. Last week, the World Bank approved a loan of $87 million to the People’s Republic of China for the financing of the “Renewable Energy Scale-up Program,” which will finance a 100-megawatt wind power plant and a 25-megawatt biomass energy facility. The program will also provide grants for renewable energy projects, and is supplemented by a grant of $40 million from the Global Environment Facility. See the World Bank press release.

In early June, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) entered into a 12-year program that will using a sustainable, market-based approach to support China’s efforts to reduce its energy use in industry and buildings. According to the UNDP, China’s gross domestic product is expected to quadruple by 2020, but the country wants its energy use to grow at only half that rate. To achieve that goal, China must operate more efficiently. Currently, China uses 2.4 times more energy per unit of gross domestic product than the world does on average, according to the UNDP. See the UNDP press release.

A report issued earlier this year by the Earth Policy Institute demonstrates how quickly China is growing: the country is now the world’s top consumer of grain, meat, steel, and coal, and is second only to the United States in oil consumption. Between 1994 and 2004, China’s use of oil has doubled. But according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China also instituted a renewable energy law in February, creating favorable policies for achieving China’s goal of using renewable energy for 10 percent of its energy needs by 2020. The Center for Resource Solutions, a nonprofit working to increase the supply and use of renewable energy, is working with China to implement the law. See the press releases from the Earth Policy Institute and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as well as the March 5th and April 6th press releases from the Center for Resource Solutions.

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