Weekly Clean Energy Roundup: January 14, 2008

  • Energy Efficiency in New Federal Buildings to Increase by 30%
  • Most EERE Programs See Increased Funding in Appropriations Bill
  • Idaho’s First Geothermal Power Plant is Now Online
  • New Cargo Ship Cuts its Fuel Use using a Kite-Like Sail
  • Oil Prices to Hover Near $100 per Barrel in 2008


Energy Efficiency in New Federal Buildings to Increase by 30%

DOE has established regulations that require most new federal buildings to achieve at least 30% greater energy efficiency than that of the prevailing building codes. The new standards, which were published in late December, are also 40% more efficient than the standards in the current Code of Federal Regulations and will help federal agencies meet Executive Order #13423, which mandated increased federal energy efficiency. Over the next ten years, the standards could save more than 40 trillion Btu and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 2 million metric tons. The new regulation updates an interim final rule that DOE issued on December 4, 2006, and which applied to any federal building that entered the "design for construction" phase by January 3, 2007.

The new regulations take effect on January 22 and apply to new federal commercial buildings, multi-family high-rise residential buildings, and low-rise residential buildings. The standards aim to address energy efficiency by looking at a building’s entire performance, instead of relying on prescriptive requirements for building components and systems. The high standards put forth in the new regulations will also encourage federal builders to use an integrated approach when constructing new buildings. See the DOE press release and the final rule (PDF 77 KB).

Most EERE Programs See Increased Funding in Appropriations Bill

An appropriations act signed into law in December provides $1.536 billion in direct support of the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), a 4.2% increase over the funds that were provided through a continuing resolution in 2007. The bill also directs $186 million toward congressional earmarks.

A number of EERE programs will see significant increases under the appropriations bill, including hydrogen technology, which is up by 9% over its fiscal year (FY) 2007 funding; solar energy, which is up by 5.7%; geothermal technology, which is essentially quadrupled (but still slightly below its FY 2006 funding level); building technologies, which gained 4.4%; industrial technologies, which gained 14%; weatherization assistance grants, which gained 11%; and tribal energy activities, which increased by 50%.

The act also boosts funding for vehicle technologies by 13%, to $213 million, with more than $94 million going toward hybrid vehicle technologies. The hybrid vehicle research will emphasize the advanced battery technologies needed for today’s hybrids and tomorrow’s plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles.

The act also revitalizes the hydropower program with $19.8 million in funds, but expands the program to include ocean thermal, wave, tidal, and in-stream energy technologies. In addition, the act provides more than $26 million for facilities and infrastructure at DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, including nearly $5 million toward a new Energy Systems Integration Facility. And the act provides essentially level funding for biomass and biorefinery systems, wind energy, the Federal Energy Management Program, and the Renewable Energy Production Incentive. Only state and international programs suffer under the act, with a 25% cut in state energy funding and an elimination of funds for international activities.

The appropriations act is difficult to interpret, because the act itself contains little detail, referring instead to an "explanatory statement" released in conjunction with an amendment that was added in the House of Representatives. And while that statement contains all the details, its numbers must be adjusted to reflect a later rescission of funds that was made to keep the act within spending limits. As a result, the direct program funding for DOE in the explanatory statement must be adjusted downward by 0.91%, while congressional earmarks must be adjusted downward by 1.6%. See the appropriations act; pages 30-32d (PDF pages 64-70) of the explanatory statement (PDF 4.6 MB); and for comparison, pages 5 and 6 of the DOE spending plan for FY 2007 (PDF 62 KB).

Idaho’s First Geothermal Power Plant is Now Online

U.S. Geothermal Inc. achieved commercial operation last week at its new geothermal power plant in Raft River, Idaho, making it the first commercial geothermal power plant in the state.

Ormat Nevada built the power plant, which began producing power during a test phase in late October 2007. After some mechanical tweaks, the plant was restarted on November 22, 2007, and has continued to produce power since then. As a result, Idaho Power Company declared that commercial power operations began on January 3. So far, the plant output is around 9 megawatts, but the company expects the plant to achieve an average annual net power output of 13 megawatts.

The company currently has a contract to sell Idaho Power Company up to 10 megawatts of geothermal power, but is in the process of trying to renegotiate that contract for the full output of the geothermal power plant. See the U.S. Geothermal press releases on the completion of construction (PDF 39 KB) and the start of commercial operations (PDF 37 KB).

The Raft River project employs binary cycle technology, in which the geothermal fluid is pumped through a heat exchanger to vaporize isopentane, an organic compound that vaporizes at lower temperatures than water. The isopentane vapor drives a turbine, which spins a generator to produce power. The vapor that exhausts from the turbine is then condensed and returned to the geothermal heat exchanger, forming a closed loop. The completion of the Raft River project also closes a loop in a historic sense, as the binary cycle technology was first tested at the Raft River site from 1980 to 1982 as part of a DOE demonstration project. See the U.S. Geothermal Web page on the Raft River project.

Coincidentally, a new report from the Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) claims that binary cycle technology revolutionized the geothermal power industry by allowing power production from medium-temperature geothermal resources. The report examines a number of other new and under-used technologies that could lead to similar drastic changes in the geothermal industry, while noting a number of incremental technology improvements that could benefit the industry in the near term.

The report, "The State of Geothermal Technology – Part II: Surface Technology," also provides an excellent overview of the issues and technologies relating to geothermal power production, and provides a short overview of geothermal direct use technologies and geothermal heat pumps. See the GEA press release (PDF 77 KB) and the full report (PDF 5.76 MB).

New Cargo Ship Cuts its Fuel Use using a Kite-Like Sail

Back in the 19th century, the steam engine replaced the sail as the preferred mode of propulsion for cargo ships. Now a cargo ship has gone full circle, drawing on wind energy to help reduce its fuel use.

The MV "Beluga SkySails," christened in mid-December, employs a kite-like sail similar to a paraglider to help tow it across the ocean. Mounted on the bow of the ship, the towing kite system is fully automated to deploy the kite in favorable winds and to recover the kite when the winds die down. The SkySails system includes a routing system that combines weather forecasting into a decision-making model to determine the optimal route for the ship to follow. According to Beluga Shipping GmbH, the SkySails system is the only convenient way to employ wind power in a modern cargo ship, because it doesn’t restrict the stowage space or hinder the loading and unloading of the cargo.

The Beluga SkySails is currently using a 191-square-yard kite, and Beluga expects it to cut the ship’s fuel consumption by 10%-15%. Beluga plans to eventually upgrade to a 383-square-yard kite, which is expected to cut fuel consumption by 20%-30%. The company also plans to outfit two new larger cargo vessels with kites more than 700 square yards in area. The system was developed by SkySails and tested by Beluga under a European Union co-funded project called WINTECC. See the Beluga press release, the SkySails Web site, and a technology description and photos on the WINTECC Web site.

EIA: Oil Prices to Hover Near $100 per Barrel in 2008

According to DOE’s Energy Information Administration (EIA), the record price, reached January 2, reflects the current tight and volatile world market for crude oil, and the market is expected to remain tight throughout 2008. Oil suppliers that are not part of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will not be able to keep pace with increasing oil demand this year, so developed countries will either count on increases in OPEC production or will have to draw on their stored inventories of crude oil.

With the supply situation remaining tight, EIA’s latest "Short-Term Energy Outlook," released yesterday, expects crude oil prices to average $94 per barrel for January and to average $87 for the year as a whole. By 2009, increased oil production should ease the supply crunch, dropping average crude oil prices to $82 per barrel.

The oil prices will be felt at the pump, with the price for regular gasoline peaking near $3.50 per gallon this spring, and both gasoline and diesel prices averaging greater than $3 per gallon for the next two years.

Regular gasoline is expected to average $3.14 per gallon in 2008, dropping to $3.03 per gallon in 2009, while diesel fuel prices are expected to average $3.29 per gallon in 2008, dropping to $3.15 per gallon in 2009. The oil prices will also impact those households using heating oil, as its price is expected to average $3.19 per gallon in 2008, dropping to $3.01 per gallon in 2009. See the EIA’s "Short-Term Energy Outlook," and for the latest on oil and gasoline prices, see the New York Mercantile Exchange Web site and the American Automobile Association’s Daily Fuel Gauge Report 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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