Solar Decathlon Nears End of Assembly Phase, Prepares to Open
The assembly of 20 solar homes on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., is quickly approaching completion, as the 2007 Solar Decathlon prepares to open to the public on Friday. The Solar Decathlon is an international event in which DOE challenges university teams to design and build homes that run entirely on solar energy. The teams ship their partially constructed homes to the National Mall, assemble them, and then compete in ten contests, including architecture, engineering, market viability, communications, comfort, appliances, water heating, lighting, power generation, and the ability to get around in small electric cars that are powered by the houses. See the Solar Decathlon’s “Contests and Scoring” page.
Today is the final day of assembly for the teams. Because several of the homes arrived late, assembly can be a greater challenge for those teams. For instance, the truck for California’s Santa Clara University suffered a broken axle in Nebraska and didn’t arrive until the night of October 5th, making it the last to arrive. The second-to-last arrival was the Kansas Project Solar House, which rumbled onto the National Mall on the afternoon of October 3rd (most houses arrived just after midnight that morning). But the Kansas house came largely pre-assembled, so the team was not concerned about the late arrival. Three other teams took a similar approach and already had their homes comfortably cool with air conditioning this weekend, providing a welcome respite from a string of hot days in our nation’s capital. See the Solar Decathlon “Photos of the Day,” the Web cams from the event, and the “Daily Journal” from DOE’s Richard King.
After opening to the public this Friday, the Solar Decathlon will be open through October 20th. The homes will be open weekdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends, with the exception of Wednesday, October 17th, when the houses will be closed for competition purposes. The first contest winners will be named on Monday, October 15th, and the overall winner will be announced next Friday, October 19th. Consumer workshops are also held during the event. DOE is the primary sponsor of the 2007 Solar Decathlon, which is also sponsored and managed by DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Other title sponsors include the American Institute of Architects; the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers; the National Association of Home Builders; the U.S. Green Building Council; BP; and Sprint. See the event schedule and sponsor information on the Solar Decathlon Web site.
New Jersey and Texas Pursue Offshore Wind Power
The installation of offshore wind power plants in the United States is becoming less and less a question of “if” and more and more a question of “when and where?” as both New Jersey and Texas are poised to install wind turbines off their coasts. In New Jersey, the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) approved a $19 million solicitation last week to support the development of a pilot offshore wind plant within 20 miles of the New Jersey coast. The BPU will help fund the needed studies and applications for the facility, which could be located somewhere along a 72-mile stretch of coastline in southern New Jersey, running from Seaside Park to Stone Harbor. The BPU hopes to spur the construction of as much as 350 megawatts of offshore wind power. Proposals are due by January 18th, 2008, and the grant is expected to be awarded by March 2008. See the BPU press release (PDF 30 KB) and the full solicitation (PDF 142 KB).
In Texas, the General Land Office (GLO) has become the first U.S. entity to award “competitive” leases for offshore wind power plants. Last week, the GLO offered four offshore tracts of land for lease for future wind development. While the leases were open to competitive bids, only one company actually bid on them: Wind Energy Systems Technology, LLC. The company already held a lease for an offshore wind site near Galveston. The four tracts are geographically dispersed along the length of the Texas coast. The leases allow the company to install meteorological testing towers at the four sites, and the company has four years to research the area before pursuing a commercial installation. See the Texas GLO press release (PDF 12
7 KB).
Meanwhile, the fate of a proposed 140-megawatt wind power facility off the southern coast of Long Island remains uncertain. The Long Island Power Authority released a report in late August that found that the wind facility would cost the typical residential customer an extra $2.50 per month, compared to the cost of an efficient power plant fueled with natural gas. The LIPA Board of Trustees met to discuss the plant on October 2nd but did not reach any definitive conclusions. See the LIPA press release and the full report (PDF 196 KB).
DOE Kicks Off Change a Light, Change the World Campaign
October 3rd marked the start of the 2007 Change a Light, Change the World campaign. DOE kicked off the event at Wasatch Elementary School in Salt Lake City, Utah, where students and the community were encouraged to change at least one light bulb in their house to an ENERGY STAR compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL). Meanwhile, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) kicked off a 20-day, 10-city national bus tour. The Change a Light, Change the World campaign encourages all U.S. residents to take simple steps to help conserve energy and pledge to change at least one bulb in their home to a CFL. More than 500,000 people have already taken the online pledge to use CFLs. See the DOE and EPA press releases.
CFLs use 75% less energy and last up to 10 times longer than standard bulbs, and each CFL can save up to $35 in energy bills over the length of its extended lifetime. If every U.S. resident replaced one light bulb with a CFL, enough energy would be saved to light more than 3 million homes for a year, save more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars. The Change a Light, Change the World campaign is run in partnership by DOE, the EPA, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and hundreds of retail stores, manufacturers, energy efficiency organizations, and state and territory governments. To take the Change a Light pledge, visit the ENERGY STAR site.
DOE Loan Guarantee Program Invites 12 Clean Energy Projects to Apply
Twelve renewable energy and energy efficiency projects that were proposed to DOE as part of a pre-application process for federal loan guarantees have been invited to submit full applications. The 12 projects include a highly efficient paper production plant in Washington, a manufacturing facility in Minnesota for highly efficient windows, a Luz II solar thermal plant in Nevada, a thin-film solar production plant in California, the world’s largest single-site installation of fuel cells in Connecticut, Tesla Motor’s electric vehicle production plant in New Mexico, and biofuel facilities in California, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Virginia, and an additional site in the Southeast. The biofuel facilities include four plants to produce ethanol from non-edible, cellulosic biomass, as well as an advanced biodiesel production plant and a biomass gasification plant for producing a clean diesel fuel substitute. The applicants have until the end of the month to let DOE know if they are still interested. The announcement came as DOE finalized its rules for the loan guarantees, which can cover 100% of the loan, so long as the loan is not for more than 80% of the cost of the project. See the DOE press release.
Average Fuel Economy of 2007 Cars and Light Trucks Unchanged
New cars and light trucks that are sold as part of Model Year 2007 are expected to achieve an average fuel economy of 20.2 miles per gallon (mpg), unchanged from the previous model year, according to a report released last week by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA also revised its assessment for Model Year 2006 light vehicles, finding that fuel economy actually increased that year, marking the second consecutive year of fuel economy increases, a feat that hasn’t occurred since the 1980s.
The EPA credits technological advances that lowered the weight of light trucks, which include pickups, vans, and sport utility vehicles. But for 2007 vehicles, sales trends are expected to shift to heavier vehicles, yielding the highest-ever average weight for cars and light trucks. However, the EPA notes that the averages are based on expected sales and could shift if consumer preferences change. See the EPA report’s executive summary and the full report.
ScottishPower Earns Approval for Record Wave Energy Project
A Scottish energy company has earned planning approval from its government for a 3-megawatt wave energy project. ScottishPower plans to deploy Pelamis wave energy converters, which consist of large floating cylinders linked together in a way that captures wave energy as the cylinder ends pivot while the cylinders rise and fall in rolling waves. The company hopes to have the facility operating by 2008. The planning approval was announced at the opening of the new European Tidal Test Center in Orkney. ScottishPower and Norwegian company Hammerfest Strom have also joined forces to create a new company, Hammerfest UK, which will develop a full-scale prototype of Hammerfest’s tidal energy devic
e, which resembles a wind turbine. The companies plan to deploy the prototype in 2009. See the ScottishPower press release and the Hammerfest Strom Web site.
In September, the U.K. government gave planning approval for another large-scale wave energy system to be located off the coast of Cornwall in southwest England. The Wave Hub project, developed by the South West of England Regional Development Agency (SWRDA), will involve an onshore substation connected via undersea cable to an energy “hub” located about 10 miles offshore. Wave energy companies will be able to plug their prototypes into this “Wave Hub,” using it as a test bed. Four companies have already been selected to use the Wave Hub, which is expected to begin operating in 2009. See the SWRDA press release and the Wave Hub Web site.
DOE is also planning to create an Ocean Energy Program, subject to congressional appropriations. In late September, DOE’s Wind and Hydropower Technologies program released a call for proposals from companies or organizations interested in partnering with DOE on wind and ocean energy technologies. These cost-neutral Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) partnerships will leverage industry experience and needs with the technology research and development expertise available at DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Sandia National Laboratories. The program has budgeted approximately $1 million for in-kind laboratory-based technical support for these agreements and expects to budget additional funding next fiscal year for additional partnerships. The deadline for submitting proposals is Monday, November 5th. See the announcement on the NREL Web site.
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| Kevin Eber is the Editor of EREE Network News, a weekly publication of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). |
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