Weekly Clean Energy Roundup:May 24, 2007

News and Events

• Sixteen Cities and Five Banks Join Efficiency Effort for Buildings
• EPA Proposes Criteria for Clean Vehicles Allowed in HOV Lanes
• General Motors Achieves a Record Distance in a Fuel Cell Vehicle
• Racers Fall Short of Mileage Record at Shell Eco-marathons

Energy Connections

• EIA: World Energy Use to Grow 57 Percent by 2030
  

News and Events

Sixteen Cities and Five Banks Join Efficiency Effort for Buildings

Sixteen of the world’s largest cities – including Chicago, Houston, and New York – have joined in a global effort to reduce energy consumption in existing buildings. The Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit Program, a project of the Clinton Climate Initiative, will draw on $5 billion in financing to be provided in equal amounts by five banks: ABN AMRO, Citi, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, and UBS. The banks will finance cities and private building owners to undertake energy efficiency retrofits. Four energy service companies – Honeywell, Johnson Controls, Siemens, and Trane – will conduct energy audits, perform building retrofits, and guarantee the energy savings of the retrofit projects. The companies will be assisted by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and the U.S. Green Building Council. See the ASHRAE press release.

The municipal and private building owners will then pay off the loans, including interest, using the money saved by the energy retrofits. As a result, the projects create no net costs for the building owners while reducing their energy use by 20 to 50 percent. According to the Clinton Foundation, the available funding should double the global market for energy retrofits in buildings. The Clinton Foundation is also working with Microsoft Corporation to develop online tools to help cities monitor their greenhouse gas emissions. See the Clinton Foundation press releases on the retrofit program and the Microsoft project.

Such energy-saving agreements are often referred to as “energy saving performance contracts,” and are widely used by companies and institutions, as well as all levels of U.S. government. Several recent examples are provided by Honeywell Building Solutions, an energy service company. In the past two months, the company has signed such contracts with the City of Perris, California; the housing authority in Columbia, Tennessee; Edinboro University in Edinboro, Pennsylvania; and the City of Quincy, Massachusetts. The Edinboro University project is a $9.7 million effort that will yield $1.3 million per year in energy savings. The Quincy project is a $32.8 million effort that will yield $1 million per year in energy savings, while an included water-metering project will add another $1.5 million in new revenue for the city. That contract is the first in Massachusetts since the state passed a law allowing municipalities to enter into long-term energy saving performance contracts. See the recent press releases from Honeywell Building Solutions.

EPA Proposes Criteria for Clean Vehicles Allowed in HOV Lanes

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed criteria last week for hybrid and alternative-fueled vehicles that states might allow to travel in the high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, even when the driver is alone in the vehicle. The 2005 transportation act authorized such occupancy exemptions for HOV lanes to encourage the purchase and use of clean vehicles. The act also required EPA to set the criteria for such clean vehicles. According to DOE’s Alternative Fuels Data Center (AFDC), some type of HOV exemption is currently offered in eight states – Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, Utah, and Virginia, and the District of Columbia. See the AFDC Web site.

The EPA is proposing to require the vehicles to be either a dedicated alternative fuel vehicle or a high-efficiency hybrid vehicle. Hybrids must achieve either a 50 percent or better improvement in fuel economy during city driving, compared to a similar gasoline-only vehicle, or a 25 percent or better improvement in average fuel economy (using the EPA’s combined city and highway estimates). The “dedicated” requirement for alternative fuel vehicles excludes flex-fuel vehicles, which can run on either gasoline or a blend containing 85 percent ethanol, because many flex-fuel vehicle owners fill their tanks with gasoline.

The EPA also requires the vehicle to meet stringent air quality criteria (either EPA Tier 2, Bin 5 or California LEV II) and to weigh less than 8,500 pounds. States will be able to set tougher criteria but not looser ones. The EPA will accept comments on the proposal for 30 days after its publication in the Federal Register, which as of Tuesday had not yet occurred. See the EPA press release and the proposed ruling.

General Motors Achieves a Record Distance in a Fuel Cell Vehicle

General Motors Corporation (GM) drove a fuel cell vehicle 300 miles on public roads last week, claiming a real-world distance record for traveling on a single tank of hydrogen. The Chevy Sequel drove across New York State, beginning its drive at GM’s Fuel Cell Activity Center in Honeoye Falls, just south of Rochester, and finishing in Tarrytown, which is north of New York City. According to GM, the Sequel is the first vehicle in the world to successfully integrate a hydrogen fuel cell propulsion system w
ith advanced technologies such as steer- and brake-by-wire controls, wheel hub motors, lithium-ion batteries, and a lightweight aluminum structure. See the GM press release.

Racers Fall Short of Mileage Record at Shell Eco-Marathons

A record fuel economy set in 2003 continues to stand, as the best competitors in the United States and Europe have fallen short. At the 2007 European Shell Eco-marathon – held in Nogaro, France, from May 11th to the 13th – the winning team from St. Joseph La Joliverie in France traveled 3,039 kilometers on a liter of fuel, the equivalent of 7,152 miles per gallon. That fell far short of the record 10,705 miles per gallon set by a team from the same school back in 2003. This year’s event also featured solar cars and hydrogen-powered fuel cell cars, with the best hydrogen car achieving the equivalent of 6,583 miles per gallon of gasoline.

Although fuel cell vehicles fell short of internal combustion engines during steady running on a track, the sole fuel cell entry in a new urban competition far outshone its gasoline-fueled competitors. Back in 2003, Shell introduced the “UrbanConcept” category, which includes vehicles with more practical designs that could potentially be used on actual urban streets. This year, for the first time, Shell added mandatory pit stops as a way of simulating the stop-and-go traffic of urban driving. Even under such constraints, a fuel cell vehicle achieved the equivalent of 1,311 miles per gallon of gasoline, while the best gasoline-fueled entry achieved 720 miles per gallon. See the European Shell Eco-marathon Web site.

While the European event featured more than 250 teams from 20 countries, the first Shell Eco-marathon Americas drew only 17 teams from the United States and Canada. The event, held in Fontana, California, on April 13th and 14th, was won by a team from California Polytechnic State University, which achieved 1,902.7 miles per gallon in the race, far short of its European rivals. Shell’s final event of the year, the Shell Eco-marathon UK, will be held on July 4th and 5th in Corby, England. See the Shell press release and Eco-marathon Web site.

Energy Connections

EIA: World Energy Use to Grow 57 Percent by 2030

Less than a quarter century from now, the world will be consuming 57 percent more energy than it does today, if the latest projections from DOE’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) prove correct. The EIA’s International Energy Outlook 2007, released on Monday, projects a growing thirst for energy in developing countries, particularly in Asia. The report sees coal as the fastest-growing energy source, while petroleum consumption increases by more than 30 percent. Meanwhile, liquid fuels produced from biomass, coal, and natural gas are expected to provide 9 percent of the world’s liquid fuels supply by 2030. Overall, renewable energy barely increases its share of the world’s energy supply over the next 23 years, growing from today’s 7 percent share to about 8 percent in 2030.

The EIA’s reference scenario does not include greenhouse gas constraints, and as a result, global greenhouse gas emissions increase nearly 60 percent by 2030. The report notes that developing countries produced more greenhouse gas emissions than the industrialized countries in 2004, and are expected to widen the gap in the future. By 2030, the EIA expects today’s developing countries to generate 57 percent more greenhouse gases than today’s industrialized countries. See the EIA press release and the full report.

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