Weekly Clean Energy Roundup:August 24, 2005

News and Events

• U.S. Green Building Council Launches LEED for Homes
• New Tool Helps Fleet Managers Evaluate Hybrid Vehicles
• Carbon Nanotubes Show Promise for Solar Cells, Other Devices
• Spain to Build an 11-Megawatt Solar Power Tower
• Anti-Neutrinos Shed Light on the Source of Geothermal Energy

Site News

Labs 21: Labs for the 21st Century

Energy Connections

Reports: High Gas Prices Changing U.S. Consumer Behavior

News & Events

U.S. Green Building Council Launches LEED for Homes

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), which has set the standard for commercial green buildings through its LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system, is currently launching a one-year pilot project to demonstrate a new LEED rating system for homes. The LEED for Homes Rating System is a voluntary program that will recognize and reward the top 25 percent of green homebuilders. New homes built to the LEED standards will be designed and constructed to use less energy, less water, and fewer materials. The LEED homes will also provide improved indoor air quality through improved controls of pollutant sources and better ventilation and filtration systems. Builders in 11 states plus the Northeast region are participating in the pilot. See the USGBC press release and the LEED Rating System for Homes Web page.

A number of builders throughout the country are already pursuing green building practices. In New England, three housing developments won Energy Star Builder Achievement Awards in July for their use of a variety of energy efficient technologies, as well as solar energy. In California, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) is working with Treasure Homes to build 32 super-efficient homes with 2-kilowatt solar power systems on their roofs. SMUD designed the homes with the help of DOE’s Building America program, DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and ConSol, a building energy consultant. Treasure Homes broke ground on the project in late July. And in southern California, the San Diego Regional Energy Office (SDREO) has teamed up with Kyocera Solar, Inc. to offer highly affordable solar power systems to residents who lost their homes in the October 2003 wildfires. Thanks to reduced costs and a $10,000 rebate, homeowners can install a 2.5-kilowatt system for only $7,600, according to SDREO. The rebates end in November. See the press releases from Energy Star Homes (PDF 65 KB), SMUD (PDF 35 KB), and SDREO.

New Tool Helps Fleet Managers Evaluate Hybrid Vehicles

A new software tool that compares the costs and emissions of hybrid electric vehicles to conventional vehicles is now available for government and business fleet managers. The tool takes into account purchase price, fuel costs, repair and maintenance costs, resale value, and applicable tax incentives. For example, the tool indicates that at the current fuel prices of $2.50 per gallon or more, hybrid vehicles can offer significant financial savings to fleets. A high percentage of city driving and large number of miles driven per year can further increase the cost-effectiveness of hybrid vehicles. Called the Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) Cost Calculator Tool, the tool was developed by the DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the Center for a New American Dream, and the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. See the NREL press release.

The HEV Cost Calculator Tool is available on DOE’s Clean Cities Web site, which also features a great deal of information about hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles; alternative fuels and fuel blends; fuel economy; and technologies to reduce the time that vehicles are left idling. See the HEV Cost Calculator Tool.

Carbon Nanotubes Show Promise for Solar Cells, Other Devices

GE Global Research announced a breakthrough last week that could lead to a new generation of solar cells, as well as a wide variety of electronic devices. The organization, which is the central research arm of General Electric Company, has developed a diode from carbon nanotubes?tubes of carbon on the scale of about a billionth of a meter?that operates at the best possible performance for diodes, the theoretical limit. The diode is also able to convert sunlight into electricity, which means it could be used to build a solar cell. Diodes are the fundamental building block for many electronic devices, including solar cells, transistors, computer chips, sensors, and light-emitting diodes (LEDs), so an ideal diode could result
in a wide variety of more efficient devices. GE published the research in the August 15th issue of Applied Physical Letters. See the GE press release.

One problem with nanotubes is the difficulty of assembling these sub-microscopic materials into a usable product, a barrier that researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) claim to have overcome. In research published in the August 19th issue of Science, the UTD researchers claim to be able to fabricate sheets of nanotubes at a rate of seven meters per minute. The resulting sheets have a number of amazing properties: they are transparent, extremely lightweight, highly conductive, and stronger than steel. The research team believes the sheets could have applications in either LEDs or solar cells, as well a wide variety of other applications. The UTD research was performed in collaboration with an Australian national laboratory, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). See the UTD press release.

Spain to Build an 11-Megawatt Solar Power Tower

A solar energy technology largely abandoned in the United States is now being commercialized in Spain: Solucar Energia, S.A., an Abengoa company, is building an 11-megawatt solar power tower near Seville. Called PS10, the power plant will be the largest solar power system in Europe and the first tower-based solar power system to generate electricity commercially. The system will consist of a field of 624 large mirrors mounted on computer-controlled pedestals to focus sunlight onto the top of a 330-foot tower, generating steam to turn a turbine and produce electricity. Telvent is supplying the control system for the computer-controlled mirrors, which are called “heliostats.” The plant will benefit greatly from last year’s royal decree that will allow it to sell power for up to three times the normal rate. See the Telvent press release (PDF 55 KB) and the description of PS10 and news on the royal decree from SolarPACES, an international cooperative organization for solar thermal power.

DOE operated a similar plant in the southern California desert as a test facility. The plant operated in the 1980s under the name Solar One, boiling water to steam in a solar tower. The plant was later revived in the 1990s as Solar Two, which used molten salt as the fluid to collect heat in the tower, store the heat, and transfer the heat to water, which was boiled to steam. Solar Two shut down in April 1999. See the summary of the project on the SunLab Web site.

Meanwhile, the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel has developed a process to convert metal oxides, such as zinc oxide, into their pure metal form using solar heat. The metal can later be reacted with water to generate hydrogen. The process was developed using the solar heat from a solar tower located at the Weizmann Institute’s Canadian Institute for the Energies and Applied Research. See the Weizmann Institute press release.

Anti-Neutrinos Shed Light on the Source of Geothermal Energy

Anti-neutrinos?lightweight particles that interact very weakly with matter?may be the key to understanding nuclear processes that occur deep with the Earth and contribute to geothermal energy production. Anti-neutrinos are the anti-matter counterpart to neutrinos, both of which interact so weakly with matter that they can easily pass straight through the Earth. A specific kind of anti-neutrino, the anti-electron neutrino, is produced when radioactive isotopes decay. Scientists believe that much of the heat generated within the Earth comes from the radioactive decay of two isotopes, uranium-238 and thorium-232. By studying anti-electron neutrinos coming from within the Earth, scientists hope to understand how much geothermal energy is produced from the decay of these isotopes, and how much is left over heat from when the Earth was formed.

To study these so-called “geoneutrinos,” an international collaboration of scientists used a neutrino detector called KamLAND (Kamioka Liquid scintillator Anti-Neutrino Detector) that is built deep underground in central Japan. The underground location helps shield the detector from other particles, allowing it to detect the elusive geoneutrinos. In a paper published in the July 28th issue of the journal Nature, the scientists demonstrated the ability of the KamLAND detectors to measure the radioactivity of the uranium and thorium isotopes. Although the initial test was not sensitive enough to precisely determine the amount of heat produced by radioactive decay, the experimental results were consistent with current models of Earth’s core, and the study could pave the way for future, more accurate measurements. Scientists from DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) participated in the study, which was funded by the DOE Office of Science and the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. See the LBNL press release.

Site News

Labs 21: Labs for the 21st Century

The Labs 21 program improves the energy efficiency and environmental performance of U.S. laboratories by examining facilities from a “whole building” perspective. The Web site includes a toolkit of resources such as design guides, case studies, and videos. See the Labs 21 Web site.

Energy Connections

Reports: High Gas Prices Changing U.S. Consumer Behavior

With gasoline prices soaring, U.S. drivers are driving less and considering more fuel-efficient vehicles, according to two new studies. A report from the California Energy Commission (CEC) notes that despite an increase in population in 2004, the state is now using less gasoline. Comparing the state’s total gasoline sales from the first four months of 2005 and 2004, sales actually decline
d by one half of one percent. In the same time period, gasoline prices rose from $2.12 per gallon to $2.60 per gallon. A public opinion poll and forthcoming study by the Polk Center for Automotive Studies confirms the CEC findings, noting that 59 percent of the people polled say they will drive less at current gasoline prices. The Polk study also found that 40 percent of poll respondents said they would delay purchasing a new vehicle, and 55 percent said that when they do buy a new vehicle, they’ll buy a more fuel-efficient one. See the press releases from the CEC and Polk.

++++