Weekly Clean Energy Roundup:July 27, 2005

News and Events

• Michigan Takes Narrow Lead in North American Solar Challenge
• Illinois Adopts Requirements for Efficiency, Renewable Energy
• Massachusetts Joins Effort to Build “Green” Affordable Housing
• Subway Station in Coney Island Features Integrated Solar Roof
• Wal-Mart “Experimental Store” Uses Efficiency, Solar, and Wind
• Wind Power Benefits Port in Duluth, Minnesota

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Hydrogen Pathways Program at UC Davis


News and Events

Michigan Takes Narrow Lead in North American Solar Challenge

The University of Michigan holds a narrow lead over the University of Minnesota and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as today’s much-anticipated final stage of the North American Solar Challenge gets underway. The 2,500-mile solar car race started on July 17th in Austin, Texas, and will end today in Calgary, Alberta. Eighteen solar cars remain in the race, which is sponsored by DOE, DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Natural Resources Canada. According to DOE’s Richard King, the race has highlighted all aspects of solar racing: early in the race, rainy weather challenged teams on several days; on some sunny days, the only thing holding back the leaders was the speed limit; on Sunday, a strong head wind favored the most aerodynamic cars; and on Monday (and Tuesday, for some teams) the uphill climb to Medicine Hat, Alberta, favored the lightest cars. See Monday’s press release (PDF 90 KB) and King’s “Reports from the Road.”

Today the solar cars are racing from Medicine Hat to Calgary, a one-day, 188-mile race to determine the winner. The race is very much up for grabs, and you can track it online using the race’s GPS tracking system. See the GPS tracking page and check later for the official results.

Illinois Adopts Requirements for Efficiency, Renewable Energy

The Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) announced last week that it has adopted new standards for the use of renewable energy and energy efficiency by the state’s electric utilities. Under the new Renewable Portfolio Standard, or RPS, the state’s electric utilities will draw on renewable energy sources for 2 percent of their electricity needs by the end of 2006. After that, the requirement will increase by 1 percent per year until 2012, when it tops out at 8 percent. Under the Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard, utility companies will create new programs to help their customers invest in energy saving equipment and technologies, causing a 10 percent decrease in the growth in electricity demand by 2007 and a 25 percent lower growth in demand by 2015. The ICC expects the state’s electric utilities to file plans to implement the new portfolio standards within 30 days. See the ICC press release (PDF 15 KB).

With the new renewable requirements in place in Illinois, 19 states and the District of Columbia have adopted a Renewable Portfolio Standard. See the ICC’s Renewable Portfolio Standard Fact Sheet (PDF 23 KB).

Massachusetts Joins Effort to Build “Green” Affordable Housing

Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney announced in early July that two agencies within the state have joined with The Enterprise Foundation, a national nonprofit, to launch a $209-million initiative for building “green” affordable housing. Through the new Massachusetts Green Communities Initiative, MassHousing and the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC) will work with The Enterprise Foundation to help build 1,000 energy-efficient, environmentally friendly, affordable homes throughout the state. In particular, MTC will provide $8.5 million in grants for the homes to employ renewable energy technologies such as solar panels, wind turbines, small hydropower systems, and fuel cells. Massachusetts Green Communities is part of the National Green Communities Initiative, a five-year, $555-million commitment to build more than 8,500 environmentally responsible and affordable homes. See the governor’s press release, the MTC “Green Affordable Housing Program” Web page, the Massachusetts Green Communities Web site, and the National Green Communities Web site.

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), developer of the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System, is also getting involved in affordable housing. The USGBC is currently developing a LEED rating system for homes, called LEED for Homes. Thanks to a grant from the Home Depot Foundation, USGBC will also launch the Initiative for Affordable Housing, which will include a reference manual, pilot demonstrations of LEED for Homes in six housing markets, and new affordable housing training sessions at the USGBC’s annual conference this November. See the USGBC press release.

Subway Station in Coney Island Features Integrated Solar Roof

Brooklyn, New York, now features the largest thin-film, building-integrated solar roof in the United States, a 210-kilowatt subway station roof on Coney Island. RWE SCHOTT Solar provided the 76,000-square-foot arched roof, which consists of 2,730 translucent solar panels that should generate about 250,000 kilowatt-hours of power each year. The panels consist of thin films of amorphous silicon laminated onto glass, and are themselves the largest thin-film solar panels in the world: each panel measures 5 feet by 20 feet. The newly renovated Stillwell Avenue Terminal is the first subway station in the New York City Transit system to use solar energy and was part of the transit system’s effort to meet a New York State executive order on green buildings and vehicles. See the press release from SCHOTT North America, Inc. and the New York City Transit Web site.

Large solar power systems have been popping up all over the country in recent weeks. In Chicago, Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd) is building a high-efficiency, 82-kilowatt system on the roof of the Social Security Administration building. Another Chicago entity, Spire Solar Chicago, wandered a bit out of its normal territory recently: the company installed its laminated solar panels at Denali National Park in Alaska. See the press releases from ComEd and Spire.

Of course, the really large solar power systems continue to be built in California. For instance, Chevron Energy Solution just finished installing 780 kilowatts of solar power at Foothill and De Anza Community Colleges in Los Altos Hills and Cupertino; Kyocera Corporation installed a 235-kilowatt system at its facilities in San Diego; Northern Power Systems announced that it is building a 401.8-kilowatt system at Timberland’s distribution center in southern California; and EI Solutions won a contract to install a 594-kilowatt system in the San Francisco Bay Area. See the press releases from Chevron Energy Solutions, Kyocera, Northern Power Systems, and EI Solutions (PDF 32 KB).

Wal-Mart “Experimental Store” Uses Efficiency, Solar, and Wind

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., the king of the “big-box” store, has launched an experiment near Dallas, Texas, to see how its retail outlets might lessen their environmental impact. The new “Wal-Mart Experimental Store” in McKinney features a total of 50 kilowatts of solar power systems integrated into the Garden Center’s canopy, the roof of the entry vestibules, the facade of the front entry, and the roof of the Tire and Lube Express. The store also features a 50-kilowatt wind turbine that will supply about 5 percent of the store’s electricity needs.

The building features a white reflective roof to reduce its cooling loads and a reduced building height to reduce its need for heating and cooling. It uses radiant floor heat, in which hot water runs through the concrete slab that forms the floor, and uses displacement ventilation, an energy efficient way to distribute conditioned air throughout the store. The store even captures the waste heat from its refrigeration equipment, using it to heat water for the restrooms and for the radiant floor heating system. The heating system is also fueled with waste cooking oil and used automotive oil. The store’s efficient lighting system is automatically dimmed to make the best use of daylighting and is also dimmed slightly at night. LED lighting is employed inside grocery cases to avoid adding unnecessary heat. According to Wal-Mart, the company “hopes to learn new environmental conservation best management practices and benchmarks that will serve as future design standards in the retail industry.” See the Wal-Mart press release and press kit (PDF 1.4 MB) and the related press release from SCHOTT North America, Inc.

Wind Power Benefits Port in Duluth, Minnesota

The old business adage holds true: success depends on location, location, location. A case in point is Duluth, Minnesota, the westernmost stop for oceangoing vessels on the St. Lawrence Seaway and now a key port for shipping wind turbines and components into the heartland of North America. As of this spring, the Duluth Seaway Port Authority expected five ships to deliver wind turbine components this year for destinations in Minnesota and Manitoba, and by mid-July all five had arrived. The first, the Bavaria, delivered 21 wind turbine blades on April 13th; the fifth, the Scan Arctic, arrived on July 17th to deliver wind turbine towers. The other three ships carried wind turbine hubs and nacelles as well as another 24 wind turbine blades. The port authority worked with Lake Superior Warehousing Company, Inc. (LSWCI) to market the port to wind power companies; LSWCI certainly did a fine job of documenting the shipments on its Web site. See the story from Duluth Seaway Port Authority, and the photos of the arrivals of the five ships?the Bavaria, the Ostkap, the BBC France, the BBC Shanghai, and the Scan Arctic?on the LSWCI Web site.

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Hydrogen Pathways Program at UC Davis

The Hydrogen Pathways Program contributes to the understanding of hydrogen as a transportation fuel with research focused on four areas: hydrogen markets and demand, hydrogen infrastructure modeling, policy, and environmental analysis. Hydrogen Pathways Program researchers are developing new and innovative tools to examine the technological, economic, social, and environmental characteristics of hydrogen energy systems. The goals are to support public policy and private investment decision processes and educate the next generation of engineering, government, and business leaders.

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