Weekly Clean Energy Roundup:June 27, 2007

News and Events

• DOE Awards $375 Million for Three Bioenergy Research Centers
• DOE to Invest $60 Million for Solar Energy Research
• DOE Awards $4 Million to Two Wind Turbine Blade Test Facilities
• BLM and U.S. Forest Service to Consider Expanded Geothermal Leasing
• New System Will Certify Renewable Power Generation in the West
• Global Annual Investment in Renewable Energy Hits $100 Billion

Energy Connections

• China Now Leads in Total Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Says Report
  

News and Events

DOE Awards $375 Million for Three Bioenergy Research Centers

DOE announced yesterday that it will invest up to $375 million in three Bioenergy Research Centers in Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Madison, Wisconsin; and Berkeley, California. The centers will focus on understanding how to reengineer biological processes to develop new methods for converting the cellulose in plant material into ethanol or other biofuels that serve as a substitute for gasoline. Future biofuels production will require the use of feedstocks more diverse than corn, including cellulosic material like agricultural residues, grasses, poplar trees, inedible plants, and non-edible portions of crops.

The diverse teams of researchers at the centers will hail from 18 of the nation’s universities, seven DOE national laboratories, at least one nonprofit organization, and a range of private companies. Work at the centers is expected to begin in 2008, with full operations starting in 2009. DOE plans to fund the centers for the first five years of operation. See the DOE press release and DOE’s Genomics:GTL Web site.

DOE to Invest $60 Million for Solar Energy Research

DOE announced last week that it will provide up to $60 million for solar energy research. Up to $2.5 million will go to 13 selected cities to promote the use of solar technologies in each city, under DOE’s Solar America Cities cooperative agreements. In addition, DOE released a funding opportunity announcement as part of its Solar America Initiative, offering universities up to $30 million to research near-term improvements in solar cell technologies. DOE will also award up to $27 million to ten competitively selected, cost-shared Photovoltaic Module Incubator projects at businesses located in California, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. These ten businesses will address the challenges related to reducing cost, improving performance, and expanding manufacturing capacity of innovative solar photovoltaic technologies to move from small-scale to pilot production. See the DOE press release, the Solar America Initiative Web site, and the funding opportunity announcement.

The 2007 Solar America Cities were identified as large cities with a high electricity demand and were chosen based on their plans for and commitment to deploying solar technologies. The cities are Ann Arbor, Michigan; Austin, Texas; Berkeley, California; Boston, Massachusetts; Madison, Wisconsin; New Orleans, Louisiana; New York, New York; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Portland, Oregon; Salt Lake City, Utah; San Diego, California; San Francisco, California; and Tucson, Arizona. In addition to the funds, the cities will receive hands-on assistance from technical and policy experts who will help cities integrate and promote solar technologies and streamline regulations for the use of solar in homes and business. For more information, see the Solar America Cities page on the Solar America Initiative Web site.

DOE Awards $4 Million to Two Wind Turbine Blade Test Facilities

DOE announced on Monday that it will invest up to $4 million to develop large-scale wind blade test facilities in both Boston, Massachusetts, and Ingleside, Texas, near Corpus Christi. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Partnership and the Lone Star Wind Alliance will each receive up to $2 million in test equipment to develop the facilities. The two consortia will negotiate cooperative research and develop agreements with DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to design, build, and operate the new facilities, which are expected to be operational in 2009. The ultimate goal of the testing facilities is to test blades up to 330 feet long.

Blade testing is required to meet wind turbine design standards, reduce machine cost, and reduce the technical and financial risk of deploying mass-produced wind turbine models. Rapid growth in wind turbine size over the past two decades has outgrown the existing capabilities of NREL’s National Wind Technology Center, which operates the only blade test facility in North America capable of performing full-scale testing of megawatt-scale wind turbine blades. According to NREL, a key factor in choosing the new sites was their access to waterways: the Boston site is on the Boston Harbor, while the Ingleside site has access to the Gulf of Mexico.

The total investment for each facility will total about $20 million. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Partnership has pledged $13 million in grants and loans for construction and start
up costs, and has established reserve funding of $5 million for future blade design research and testing. The Lone Star Wind Alliance has pledged approximately $18 million from state and private sources for initial capital and startup costs. See the press releases from DOE and NREL.

BLM and U.S. Forest Service to Consider Expanded Geothermal Leasing

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced in mid-June that it will work with the U.S. Forest Service to prepare a programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS) for geothermal energy development in Alaska and 11 western states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. The PEIS will focus on public lands in those states that have a high potential for geothermal energy development. The PEIS will examine the environmental impacts of increased geothermal leasing on those lands, and if deemed appropriate by the PEIS, the agencies will amend the land use plans in those areas to allow for expanded leasing.

The PEIS will also analyze the steps necessary to facilitate the processing of the approximately 100 geothermal lease applications that were pending as of January 1st, 2005, as mandated by the Energy Policy of Act of 2005. The law stipulated that 90% of these applications must be issued, rejected, or otherwise disposed of by August 8th, 2010. Public comments on the PEIS are being accepted until August 13th, and the BLM encourages suggestions on which areas with high geothermal potential should be examined. The BLM will also hold public meetings in 10 western cities, with the first occurring in Denver, Colorado, on July 9th. See the BLM press release and the BLM’s Geothermal PEIS Web site.

The BLM has just completed its first competitive geothermal lease sales in Idaho and Utah. In Idaho, the BLM leased five parcels on 8,901 acres for more than $5.7 million. In Utah, the BLM leased three parcels on more than 6,000 acres for nearly $3.7 million. The lease sales were the first to be performed under new regulations set by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. See the press releases from the BLM state offices in Idaho and Utah.

New System Will Certify Renewable Power Generation in the West

The California Energy Commission (CEC) announced the launch on Monday of the Western Renewable Energy Generation Information System (WREGIS), a renewable energy registry and tracking system for electricity generation. The system is the largest of its kind in the world in terms of coverage and includes the western United States, western Canada, and a small portion of Mexico. It will be used to meet renewable portfolio standard requirements and other renewable energy policies for states and provinces within the Western Interconnection transmission area, which covers Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming; the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta; and the northern portion of Baja California in Mexico.

The voluntary WREGIS system was developed in response to policies set by the California legislature and the Western Governors’ Association (WGA). WREGIS will track the renewable generation to help ensure the credibility of the “green” value of renewable electricity. Using independent, verifiable, and reliable data, the system will make it easier to implement renewable policies and achieve renewable energy goals. Data in WREGIS includes megawatt-hours produced, fuel source, facility location, and all state, provincial and voluntary renewable energy program qualifications. One WREGIS certificate is issued for each megawatt-hour of renewable energy produced and deposited on the grid. To prevent double counting, each WREGIS certificate has its own unique serial number. See the CEC press release and the WREGIS Web site.

WREGIS will help the WGA to track its progress on a goal set in 2004 to develop an additional 30,000 megawatts of “clean” energy by 2015, drawing on both traditional and renewable resources. According to a progress report released on June 10th, the Western states are well on their way to that goal, with more than 4,000 megawatts of new renewable generation added in 2005 and 2006 and 3,432 megawatts of new renewable generation projected for 2007. Wind power provided about 93% of that new renewable capacity, but the numbers also include 164 megawatts of new geothermal capacity, 92 megawatts of biomass power, 216 megawatts of grid-connected solar photovoltaic power, and 65 megawatts of central station solar power (a 1-megawatt plant in Arizona and the new 64-megawatt Nevada Solar One plant near Boulder City, Nevada). See the progress report (PDF 1.3 MB).

Global Annual Investment in Renewable Energy Hits $100 Billion

The investment capital flowing into renewable energy technologies reached $100 billion in 2006, according to an analysis by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Of that, a record $71 billion was invested in companies and new sector opportunities, up 43% from 2005, while roughly $30 billion was due to mergers, acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, and asset refinancing. Wind power, solar energy, and biofuels are drawing most of the investments, including roughly $28 billion invested in new generating capacity. In addition, venture capital and private equity investors poured $2.3 billion into biofuels, $1.4 billion into solar energy, and $1.3 billion into wind power, mainly to increase manufacturing capacity. According to the report, renewable energy investment is nearly evenly split between the United States and Europe.

While some may be tempted to compare the renewable energy investment boom to the earlier dotcom boom, the UNEP report notes that the renewable energy boom is underpinned by real demand, growing regulatory support, the considerable backing of tangible assets, and increasing revenues. Most if not all of these factors were lacking during the dotcom boom, which ultimately became a burst bubble. See the UNEP press release (PDF 392 KB) and the full report (PDF 2.7 MB).

Energy Connections

China Now Leads in Total Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Says Report

Here’s one area where the United States is happy to come in second place: in carbon dioxide emissions. According to a new analysis by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, China surpassed the United States in total carbon dioxide emissions in 2006. While China’s emissions were about 2% below the U.S. emissions in 2005, the U.S. emissions decreased slightly in 2006, while China’s emissions increased by 8.7%, making them 8% greater than the U.S. emissions. According to the report, China produces about 44% of the world’s cement, and the high energy use of this industry is a key factor in the country’s high carbon dioxide emissions. See the agency’s press release.

The Dutch agency later tried to place these figures in perspective, noting that on a per capita basis, the United States still produces roughly four times as much carbon dioxide as China, at about 20 tons per person. The agency also noted that a substantial part of China’s emissions are due to its production of goods for export to industrialized countries. Current greenhouse gas agreements, such as the Kyoto Protocol, do not address which country is ultimately responsible for the emissions generated in one country while manufacturing a product for use in another country. See the agency’s follow-up press release.

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