Weekly Clean Energy Roundup:September 7, 2005

News and Events

• DOE Awards $16.5 Million for State Energy Savings Projects
• Investment Firm Offers $25 Million for Renewables, Efficiency
• DuPont and Tate & Lyle Build Large Corn-Based Chemical Plant
• Solar Tours Come to 43 States and D.C. on October 1st
• Georgia Tech Develops High-Temperature Membrane for PEM Fuel Cells
• Intel to Develop Energy-Saving Computer Chips

Site News

• California Wind Energy Association

News and Events

DOE Awards $16.5 Million for State Energy Savings Projects

DOE announced last week that it will provide $16,509,819 to 42 state energy offices for 178 energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. The state energy offices will use these funds to improve the energy efficiency of schools, homes and other buildings; promote energy-efficient industrial technologies; support renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and biomass energy; promote alternative fuels, alternative fuel vehicles, and heavy-duty hybrid-electric vehicles; and continue supporting seven CHP (Combined Cooling, Heating, and Power) Regional Application Centers. See the DOE press release.

Among the specific projects funded by the grants are efforts to measure wind resources at heights of 100 meters or more and a project to determine the temperature extremes that small inverters built into solar panels can endure. The funding is being provided through DOE State Energy Program Special Projects competitive grants, and will be awarded in September. See the State Energy Program Web site.

Investment Firm Offers $25 Million for Renewables, Efficiency

RNK Capital LLC, a manager of environmental investments, announced last week that it aims to invest $25 million in the U.S. renewable energy and energy efficiency market and is inviting interested parties to submit an Expression of Interest. The company hopes to receive offers for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects that will result in renewable energy credits, sulfur dioxide emissions allowances, nitrous oxide emissions allowances, or other environmental credits. As an active participant in the markets for emissions trading and renewable energy credits, RNK Capital will consider either buying the credits or allowances generated by the projects or providing debt financing for the projects. The company did not set a specific due date for responses. See RNK Capital’s Request for Project Proposals Web site.

Renewable energy credits are proving to be a lucrative business: PNM, New Mexico’s largest utility, announced last week that it will sell renewable energy credits to El Paso Electric Company for the next six years to help that utility meet the state’s renewable energy portfolio standard. PNM buys all the power from the 200-megawatt New Mexico Wind Energy Facility and will sell the credits from an undisclosed portion of that power to El Paso Electric. According to PNM, the deal will be worth about $4 million. See the press release from PNM Resources, and for more information about renewable energy credits, see the Green-e Web site.

A recent publication from DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) notes that some federal energy projects can earn financial benefits by taking advantage of emissions market opportunities. The publication provides a summary of the current emissions credit markets. See the NREL publication, “Emission Market Opportunities for Federal Energy Projects” (PDF 202 KB).

DuPont and Tate & Lyle Build Large Corn-Based Chemical Plant

A new $100-million manufacturing plant to support new corn-based polymers is now under construction in Loudon, Tennessee, under a joint venture of DuPont and Tate & Lyle. The new plant will convert corn into a chemical called 1,3 propanediol, or PDO for short. The companies call the new product Bio-PDO, and will use it to produce DuPont Sorona polymer, which can be used to produce clothing, carpeting, plastics, and other products. According to the companies, the production of Bio-PDO consumes 30 to 40 percent less energy than producing PDO from petroleum; producing 100 million pounds of Bio-PDO in the Loudon plant will save the energy equivalent to 10 million gallons of gasoline per year. See the Tate & Lyle press release.

The two companies announced their joint venture last year. At that time the companies said they would build a plant by 2006. See the article from the June 2nd, 2004, edition of this newsletter.

Solar Tours Come to 43 States and D.C. on October 1st

Thousands of homes, schools, and businesses that use solar energy will open their doors to the public on October 1st for the National Solar Tour, sponsored by the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) with support from DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. The tour, in its tenth year, is benefiting from growing public interest in affordable solar power and energy efficiency as energy prices reach new highs. Solar tours in hundreds of communities attracted tens of thousands of tour takers last year. This year, there will be open houses in 43 states plus the District of Columbia. And if you live in a state without a solar tour, there’s still time to organize one! See the ASES press release and state-by-state list of solar tours.

A week later, a highly unusual community of solar homes will open its doors to the public in Washington, D.C., as DOE’s second Solar Decathlon gets underway. Fifteen teams of college and university students from across the United States – plus teams from Canada, Puerto Rico, and Spain – will converge on the National Mall in late September and proceed to assemble innovative homes that run entirely on solar power. On October 7th, the Solar Decathlon officially begins and the 18 small homes open to the public. The homes will remain open to the public through October 16th, but will be closed on October 12th for part of the competition.

As the name suggests, the Solar Decathlon consist of ten contests: each solar home will be judged on its architecture and dwelling design (the “livability” and “buildability” of the home); each home will have to demonstrate its ability to maintain heat and humidity at comfortable levels, power a number of appliances, supply ample indoor lighting, and power an electric car, while relying as little as possible on the energy stored in the home’s batteries; and each team will be judged on how well the team analyzed their home and documented the design process and on how well they communicate their achievement to the public through Web sites and public tours. The overall winner of the Solar Decathlon will be announced on October 14th. See the Solar Decathlon Web site.

Georgia Tech Develops High-Temperature Membrane for PEM Fuel Cells

A breakthrough in the chemistry of fuel cells that use a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) could allow them to operate at higher efficiencies, according to researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Lightweight PEM fuel cells are considered the most promising technology for fuel-cell vehicles, but because they operate at temperatures below 100 degrees Celsius (the boiling point of water), they also operate at low efficiencies. By incorporating a chemical called triazole into the polymer membrane, the Georgia Tech researchers were able to increase operating temperatures to 120 degrees Celsius. This will not only allow the fuel cells to operate more efficiently, but will also make them more tolerant of trace amounts of carbon monoxide in the hydrogen fuel, according to Georgia Tech. Triazole consists of two carbon atoms and three nitrogen atoms in a ring, with three hydrogen atoms along its perimeter. The findings were published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. See the Georgia Tech press release.

Intel to Develop Energy-Saving Computer Chips

Intel Corporation announced in mid-August that it is employing breakthrough technologies for computers that will either reduce energy use tenfold or provide 10 times the performance of today’s products. Intel will introduce a new micro-architecture for computer chips in late 2006, using an advanced 65-nanometer manufacturing process that places four computer processors on a single chip. Intel predicts that the computer industry will employ the chips to build a new category of ultra energy-efficient “Handtop PC” devices that provide both communications and personal computing, but require less than a watt of processing power and weigh under a pound. See the Intel press release.

Site News

California Wind Energy Association

The California Wind Energy Association (CalWEA) is a nonprofit corporation that represents its members in California’s policy forums by seeking to encourage and support the production of electricity through the use of wind generators. Its involvement is focused on the California renewable portfolio standard, transmission policy, and Public Utility Regulatory Policy Act (PURPA) implementation issues.

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