- New International Clean Energy Fund to Battle Climate Change
- DOE to Invest $114 Million in Small-Scale Cellulosic Biorefineries
- Hawaii and DOE Sign Agreement to Advance Hawaiian Clean Energy
- Intel Corporation Leaps to Top of the EPA Green Power List
- DOE Selects 20 Teams for the 2009 Solar Decathlon
- ASHRAE Publishes Energy Design Guide for K-12 School Buildings
New International Clean Energy Fund to Battle Climate Change
President Bush committed on Monday to provide $2 billion over the next three years for a new international clean energy technology fund. The President mentioned the fund during his final State of the Union Address, while an accompanying White House fact sheet includes the funding commitment and touts the fund as a tool to help confront climate change throughout the world.
The new fund will increase and accelerate the deployment of all forms of cleaner, more efficient technologies in developing nations like India and China. It will also help leverage substantial private-sector capital by making clean energy projects more financially attractive. President Bush first proposed the fund in September 2007 at the First Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change. See the White House fact sheets on the energy aspects of the State of the Union Address and on the September 2007 proposal.
To complement the new fund, the United States and the European Union submitted a joint proposal to the World Trade Organization in late November to eliminate barriers to clean energy and environmental services. Global trade in the goods covered by the proposal totaled $613 billion in 2006. According to the World Bank, that trade could increase by an additional 7%-14% per year under the proposal. See the U.S. State Department press release.
DOE to Invest $114 Million in Small-Scale Cellulosic Biorefineries
DOE announced on Tuesday that it will invest $114 million in four small-scale biorefinery projects over four years. These small-scale biorefineries will use a wide range of feedstocks to test conversion technologies for the production of cellulosic ethanol. The new biorefineries-to be built in Colorado, Missouri, Oregon, and Wisconsin-are expected to produce about 2.5 million gallons a year of ethanol, as compared to the 20-30 million gallons that a full-sized facility can produce.
The news follows the February 2007 announcement that DOE was investing $385 million for the development of six commercial-scale biorefineries. The six full-scale biorefineries are employing near-term commercial processes, while the four small-scale facilities will experiment with diverse feedstocks and novel processing technologies.
Lignol Innovations, Inc. plans to build a biorefinery at the site of an existing refinery in Commerce City, Colorado, to convert wood residues into ethanol using a unique solvent-based pretreatment technology. In St. Joseph, Missouri, ICM Incorporated will convert agricultural residues, switchgrass, and sorghum into ethanol using both fermentation and thermochemical processes. Pacific Ethanol, Inc. plans to convert agricultural and forest product residues into ethanol at the site of its existing corn ethanol plant in Boardman, Oregon, using BioGasol’s process that combines fermentation with an anaerobic digester. And in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, paper manufacturer NewPage Corporation will gasify wood wastes and convert them to diesel fuel using the Fischer-Tropsch catalytic process. See the DOE press release, BioGasol’s description of its process, and the DOE Biomass Program’s description of the Fischer-Tropsch process.
Hawaii and DOE Sign Agreement to Advance Hawaiian Clean Energy
The State of Hawaii and DOE formed a partnership on Monday that will work towards dramatically shifting Hawaii’s energy system from one that is fueled primarily by oil to one that is powered primarily by renewable energy. Governor Linda Lingle and Alexander Karsner, DOE’s assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy, signed a long-term Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish the partnership, called the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative.
The partnership aims to have 70% of all of Hawaii’s energy needs generated by renewable energy sources by 2030, cutting crude oil consumption in the state by 72%. It will start with seven joint working groups that will tackle the topics of transportation, energy efficiency, power generation, power delivery, technology integration, sustained financing, and policy and regulatory mechanisms. That work will identify the mechanisms that Hawaii will need to implement to meet its energy goals.
Through the new partnership, DOE will help Hawaii to develop its renewable energy resources, including wind, biomass, solar, ocean, and geothermal energy. The partnership will focus on both public and private sectors, and will simultaneously target various energy efficient opportunities. DOE and Hawaii also aim to design cost-effective approaches to using renewable energy exclusively on the smaller islands; design systems to improve the stability of electric grids operating with variable generating sources; minimize energy use and maximize energy efficiency at military housing developments; and expand Hawaii’s ability to use locally grown crops and byproducts for fuels and electricity. See the DOE press release, Governor Lingle’s press release, and the full text of the MOU (PDF 180 KB). Download Adobe Reader.
Governor Lingle got a head start on the shift to renewable energy in early January, when she announced plans to install solar photovoltaic power systems at 12 locations around the state. The systems will have a combined capacity to produce as much as 34 megawatts of solar power. Eleven solar power systems will be installed at facilities owned by the state’s Department of Transportation (DOT), including seven airports, and one will be installed at the Hawaii Foreign-Trade Zone in downtown Honolulu. The DOT is currently soliciting proposals and intends to have all systems installed and operating within two years. Responses are due today. See the governor’s press release and the request for proposals.
Intel Corporation Leaps to Top of the EPA Green Power List
Intel Corporation became the largest purchaser of green power in the United States on Monday, when the company committed to buy 1.3 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of renewable energy credits per year. The purchase catapulted Intel to the top of the list of leading U.S. green power purchasers, a list maintained by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Renewable energy credits, or RECs, represent the environmental attributes of renewable power that is sold to wholesale power markets. Intel is buying its RECs from Sterling Planet, and its purchase will support a variety of wind, solar, biomass, and small hydropower facilities. See the Intel press release and press kit.
Intel Corporation’s green power purchase is partly in response to a nationwide challenge issued by EPA in December 2006, calling for Fortune 500 corporations to collectively double their green power purchases to more than 5 billion kWh per year. Fifty-three companies stepped up to the challenge and exceeded the goal, buying more than 6 billion kWh of green power annually, enough to power nearly 670,000 average U.S. homes. The purchases will avoid carbon dioxide emissions equal to burning more than 570 million gallons of gasoline. See the EPA Fortune 500 list.
EPA also updated its other green power lists, and on its National Top 25 list, the U.S. Air Force moved back up to the number three spot after more than doubling its annual green power purchases. The Air Force is now buying more than 899 million kWh per year, up from 457.5 million kWh last year. In addition, HSBC North America jumped from 17th place to the 10th spot by more than doubling its green power purchase to 300 million kWh per year. New to the National Top 25 list are two Texas cities-the City of Dallas at number 9 and the City of Houston at number 12-and those cities now lead the Top 10 Local Government list. EPA’s Green Power Partnership works with more than 850 partner organizations that are buying more than 13 billion kWh of green power annually. See the EPA press release and Green Power Partnership Web site.
DOE Selects 20 Teams for the 2009 Solar Decathlon
DOE announced the names last week of the 20 university teams that will participate in the 2009 Solar Decathlon. The teams, chosen from the United States, Canada, and Europe, will each receive $100,000 from DOE to design, build, and operate energy efficient, solar-powered homes. Universities from 15 states-Arizona, California, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin-as well as from Canada, Puerto Rico, Germany, and Spain were chosen to participate. For a complete list of the participants, see the DOE press release.
The Solar Decathlon is an international, biennial competition that challenges university teams to design and build energy efficient solar-powered homes. In the fall of 2009, the students will transport their houses to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., where the homes will be open to tour. The homes will be judged according to 10 contests that will rank the houses based on their technical design, functionality, market viability, and ability to power an electric car. See the Solar Decathlon Web site.
ASHRAE Publishes Energy Design Guide for K-12 School Buildings
The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc. (ASHRAE) has published a new energy design guide that can cut annual energy use in new K-12 school buildings by 30% or more. The publication features easy-to-follow recommendations for various climate zones and a series of case studies of actual school construction projects. It also includes suggestions for achieving green building energy credits, as well as supplemental strategies for achieving advanced energy savings beyond 30%.
To encourage schools to follow the new design guide, ASHRAE and its partners recently sent free printed copies to 16,000 school boards throughout the United States. Paul Torcellini of DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory chaired the committee that prepared the new design guide. See the ASHRAE press release.
The new design guide for school buildings is part of the Advanced Energy Design Guide series, developed through a collaboration of ASHRAE, DOE, the American Institute of Architects, the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, and the U.S. Green Building Council.
In addition to schools, the series also includes design guides for small retail buildings and small office buildings, and an upcoming guide will address warehouses. The guides provide a sensible approach to easily achieve advanced levels of energy savings without having to resort to detailed calculations or analyses. They offer contractors and designers the tools needed for achieving a 30% energy savings compared to buildings that meet minimum energy efficiency requirements. And to encourage designers and builders to make full use of the guides, they are now available for free download on the ASHRAE Web site. See the ASHRAE press release and free download site.
ASHRAE has also published an updated version of its energy efficiency standard for buildings other than low-rise residential buildings. The new standard addresses advanced lighting technologies that use less power, resulting in lower electrical and cooling loads for new buildings. In addition, ASHRAE has published a new book on energy efficiency in data centers. The book lists a variety of best practices to minimize energy use in new and existing data centers. See the ASHRAE press releases on the publications for buildings and data centers.
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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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