Weekly Clean Energy Roundup:March 22, 2006

News and Events

News and Events

DOE and EPA Honor Energy Star Partners

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Stephen Johnson honored 67 businesses, groups, and government entities last night for their accomplishments and leadership in the Energy Star program. The 67 organizations have achieved major energy savings or are helping consumers to save energy, and the top awardees include the Whirlpool Corporation, General Electric Company, Osram Sylvania, Gorell Windows and Doors, Precision Entry Inc., The Home Depot, the Maytag Corporation, Lowe’s Corporation, the Sierra Pacific Power Company, and Sears, Roebuck and Company. See the DOE and EPA press releases and the full list of awardees.

The Energy Star program was formed in 1992 as a voluntary, market-based partnership to reduce air pollution through increased energy efficiency. In partnership with DOE, EPA works to offer businesses and consumers new ways to save energy and money while helping to protect our environment. More than 8,000 organizations have joined Energy Star as partners, committed to improving the energy efficiency of products, homes, and businesses. Over the past year, Energy Star and its industry partners have helped consumers save 150 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, equivalent to $12 billion on electric bills. That’s enough to power a city the size of Dallas, Texas, for more than 36 years. See the Energy Star Web site.

Low Premiums Increase Sales for Utility Green Power Leaders

The nation’s top utility green power programs experienced significant growth in 2005, thanks in part to record-low premiums. In the annual ranking of top utility green power programs, released last week by DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Austin Energy still holds the lead for renewable energy sales. The utility experienced 30 percent growth in green power sales in 2005, selling more than 435 million kilowatt-hours of renewable power at a premium of 0.7 cents per kilowatt-hour. Total utility green power sales reached 2.7 billion kilowatt-hours in 2005, a 36 percent increase over 2004. An estimated 430,000 customers are participating in utility green power programs nationwide, up 20 percent from 2004.

Austin Energy is among a number of utilities that offer green power at a fixed price, exempt from utility fuel charges, so when rising natural gas prices boosted electricity rates last year, the premium paid by their customers fell. For the first time, the three lowest price premiums for green power were actually negative: customers for Xcel Energy in Colorado and Edmond Electric and OG&E Electric Services in Oklahoma saved money by buying green power. Xcel Energy customers had the best deal, saving 0.67 cents per kilowatt-hour by buying green power. See the NREL press release and the current and previous lists of leading utility green power programs.

The growth of green power may accelerate with the use of a new Green-e National Standard for certifying green power products. Established in the late 1990s, the Green-e certification originally used different standards for different regions and states. The Center for Resource Solutions (CRS), which runs the Green-e Program, is now moving to a national standard to provide consistent certification of green power products throughout the United States. The new standard will go into effect on January 1st, 2007, and was first issued in February, but was revised last week. See the CRS press release and the latest version of the Green-e National Standard (PDF 59 KB).

New Wisconsin Energy Act Boosts Efficiency and Renewable Power

Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle signed into law last week the Energy Efficiency and Renewables Act, which increases the state’s requirement for the use of renewable energy. The new energy legislation, Senate Bill 459, requires 10 percent of the state’s electrical supply to come from renewable energy resources by 2015. It replaces an earlier law that required 2.2 percent renewable power by 2011. The act sets tougher standards for state agencies, requiring the six largest state agencies to draw on renewable power for 10 percent of their power needs by the end of next year, and 20 percent of their power needs by 2015. It requires the state to pursue additional funding for the research and development of agricultural digesters, and it also calls for a pilot program to test the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of burning leftover corn plants to heat residences.

In terms of energy efficiency, the act req
uires Wisconsin utilities to directly support energy efficiency programs, ensuring annual expenditures of $85 million a year to promote energy efficiency. It also increases funding to local governments for energy efficiency projects, requires the state to update building codes to include higher energy efficiency standards, and requires the state to set higher energy standards for state building projects and purchases. See the governor’s press release and the full text of Senate Bill 459 (PDF 163 KB).

Senate Bill 459 reflects many of the recommendations of the governor’s bipartisan Task Force on Energy Efficiency and Renewables, which submitted its final report to Governor Doyle in October 2004. Coincidentally, the bill also follows many of the recommendations of the “Clean Energy-Environment Guide to Action,” a recent publication of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that aims to help states implement clean energy. See the governor’s task force report (PDF 1.66 MB) and the EPA publication.

World’s Largest Biodiesel Plant Slated for Indiana

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels announced early this month that Louis Dreyfus Agriculture Industries LLC plans to build the world’s largest biodiesel plant near Claypool, about 40 miles west of Fort Wayne. The facility will be one of the first biodiesel production plants to be fully integrated with a soybean processing plant, converting about 260,000 metric tons of soybean oil into 80 million gallons of biodiesel each year. Eighty-five ongoing jobs will be created at the plant, and about 300 people will be employed during the plant’s construction. See the governor’s press release.

Two other biodiesel plants are currently under construction in the state. Evergreen Renewables LLC is building a plant in Hammond, in the state’s northwest corner, that will soon begin producing 5 million gallons of biodiesel per year, and Integrity Biofuels is building a plant in Morristown, just east of Indianapolis, to produce 10 million gallons of biodiesel per year. With these three facilities, Indiana alone will produce 95 million gallons of biodiesel per year. For comparison, the National Biodiesel Board (NBB) recently noted that the entire industry produced 75 million gallons of biodiesel in 2005, which itself was a three-fold increase in production over 2004. Clearly, the industry is growing rapidly. See the Evergreen Renewables press release, the Integrity Biofuels Web site, and the NBB press release.

A number of other companies plan to further fuel the rapid expansion of the biodiesel industry. Mean Green Biofuels Corporation, part of GreenShift Corporation, plans to build facilities in northeast Indiana and western Tennessee that would each produce 30 million gallons of biodiesel per year. Pennsylvania’s first biodiesel plant began producing 2 to 3 million gallons of biodiesel per year in January. The owner, AGRA Biodiesel Inc., plans to build 10 more plants over the next five years that combined will produce more than 200 million gallons of biodiesel per year. In addition, Ag Processing, Inc. is planning a 28-million-gallon biodiesel plant in St. Joseph, Missouri, that will start production in late 2007, and NewGen Technologies, Inc. is planning a 60-million-gallon biodiesel plant in Fairfield, Iowa. But not all the news is positive: last month, a fire destroyed the Bakersfield Biodiesel Plant in California, which was partly owned by Green Star Products, Inc. See the press releases from GreenShift Corporation on the plans for Indiana and Tennessee and the press releases from the State of Pennsylvania, Ag Processing (PDF 23 KB), NewGen Technologies, and Green Star.

Hydrogen Fueling Stations Moving Ahead in California

California has been making significant progress in its effort to build a “hydrogen highway” of hydrogen refueling stations and fuel cell vehicles. In southern California, the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) is building hydrogen fueling stations in Burbank, Ontario, Riverside, Santa Ana, and Santa Monica, and at the SCAQMD headquarters in Diamond Bar. Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide, Inc. is delivering 30 hydrogen-fueled Toyota Prius hybrid vehicles to the new hydrogen stations, and in recent months has delivered five vehicles each to completed stations in Riverside and Santa Ana. Last week, Quantum delivered five more vehicles to a new station in Burbank. Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. is providing the hydrogen fueling stations, three of which will use electricity to separate hydrogen from water. The Los Angeles International Airport opened its own hydrogen fueling station in 2004, and placed five fuel-cell-powered Mercedes-Benz F-Cell cars in service last month. See the SCAQMD press releases on the Santa Ana and Riverside installations and the press releases from Quantum and the Los Angeles World Airports.

In northern California, the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit) is running the HyRoad demonstration program, which features a Chevron Hydrogen fueling station, three fuel-cell buses, and up to 10 Hyundai and Kia fuel-cell cars. The new HyRoad program was formally dedicated last week. San Francisco’s utility, the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), is also doing its part: last month the utility took delivery of three F-Cell cars for use in its fleet. See the Chevron press release, the AC Transit Web site, and the PG&E press release.

New Lexus Hybrid Sedan Emphasizes Performance Over Efficiency

Are you looking for a high-performance luxury sedan, but hoping to avoid fuel economy in the teens? The new Lexus GS 450h may be your dream car. The sedan’s fuel economy of 25 miles per gallon (mpg) in the city and 28 mpg on the highway doesn’t break any mileage records, but the GS 450h does set a new performance level for hybrids. The rear-wheel-drive sedan accelerates to sixty miles per hour in only 5.2 seconds; according to Autos.com, that places it on par with the Porsche Cayman S.

The GS 450h features a whole new hybrid system, combining a 3.5-liter V6 engine with a high-output electric motor that drives the rear wheels. The combined package delivers 339 horsepower, equal to the power of a 4.5-liter V8 engine, while providing a 28 percent improvement in fuel economy. Of course, all that power comes at a price: the GS 450h goes on sale in May at a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $54,900, about $3,500 more than the comparable GS 430 sedan. Lexus notes that the GS 450h includes many standard features that are optional on the GS 430. See the Toyota press releases on the pricing and fuel economy of the Lexus GS 450h, and the list of acceleration times for luxury cars on the Autos.com Web site.

While Toyota continues to introduce new hybrid models, General Motors Corporation (GM) is gearing up to manufacture its first true hybrid vehicles. GM is investing $118 million at its transmission plant in Baltimore, Maryland, for manufacture of its unique “two-mode” hybrid transmissions, which incorporate two small electric motors in a variable transmission. Starting next year, GM’s assembly plant in Arlington, Texas, will start incorporating the transmissions into hybrid versions of the Chevrolet Tahoe and the GMC Yukon. See the GM press release.

Energy Connections

DOE Report Raises Concerns About China’s Energy Needs

DOE’s Office of Policy and Foreign Affairs released a report in February that raises concerns about the impacts of China’s growing energy needs. DOE prepared the report, “National Security Review of International Energy Requirements” to meet a requirement of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, and enlisted the aid of the departments of Defense, Homeland Security, State, and Treasury, as well as the Central Intelligence Agency. The report notes that China’s energy demand is expected to more than double by 2025, contributing strongly to the growth in global energy demand. It concludes that although China is securing energy assets throughout the world to meet its future energy demand, this alone is not of concern for world energy supplies; the main concern is the impact of China’s energy demand on world energy markets, regardless of how China acquires its energy. The report notes that greater use of energy efficiency and renewable energy in China and throughout the world, including the United States, could help limit the impact of China’s economic growth.

There is, however, a political impact to China’s energy investments. As noted on page 35 of the report: “In countries like Uzbekistan, Sudan, and Burma, China has openly supported regimes whose human rights violations, support for terrorism, or proliferation activities have engendered worldwide opposition. As a long-term trend, China’s behavior in this respect runs counter to key strategic goals of the United States. … Further, if Chinese companies increase their ownership of (energy) assets in these countries, this may increase China’s propensity to intervene in order to protect its investments.” See the 69-page report (PDF 496 KB).

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