DOE Announces New Energy Star Criteria for Water Heaters
DOE established new Energy Star criteria for water heaters last week, setting the wheels in motion for the first water heaters to carry the Energy Star label next year. The new criteria apply to solar water heaters, advanced drop-in integrated heat pump water heaters, and three gas-fired designs: high-performance storage tank, condensing, and whole-home tankless water heaters.
The criteria will be implemented across two years, with the first phase being initiated on January 1, 2009. The second phase, introducing stronger standards, will take effect on September 1, 2010. According to DOE projections, these new water heater criteria could, after five years of being implemented, save about $780 million in utility costs, avoid 4.2 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions, and achieve cumulative energy savings of more than 3.9 billion kilowatt-hours and 270 million therms of natural gas. For more information about the specific requirements for each type of water heater, see the DOE press release.
DOE and EPA Honor Energy Star Partners
DOE and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) honored 76 businesses, groups, and government entities last week for achieving major energy savings or helping customers save money and energy through their work with the Energy Star program.
Eight of the businesses recognized last week were given special awards to highlight their work: Gorell Enterprises, Inc., Osram Sylvania, and Whirlpool Corp. were awarded Sustained Excellence Awards; Pella Corp. and ProVia Door, Inc. received Partner of the Year awards; Bosch Home Appliances was lauded for its Excellence in Energy Star Promotion; and Best Buy received an award for Excellence in Appliance Retailing.
Over the past year, Energy Star, a joint program of DOE and EPA, has helped consumers save more than $16 billion on their electric bills and displace the greenhouse gas equivalent of 27 million vehicles. For more information about the awards, see the DOE press release, the EPA press release, and a 72-page profile of the award winners (PDF 5.3 MB). Download Adobe Reader.
The EPA is also asking organizations to join the new "Energy Star Low Carbon IT Campaign." That’s "IT" as in "information technology," and to join the campaign, organizations simply take an online pledge to activate power management features on their monitors and computers to save energy and reduce their carbon footprint. Organizations can increase energy savings further by purchasing Energy Star-qualified computers and monitors.
In turn, EPA provides free assistance to help implement power management, helps estimate the organization’s energy and carbon savings, and offers official recognition for the organization. The Energy Star program is also teaming up with the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, in which companies commit to both enabling power management and procuring energy-efficient computers. The initiative was launched last year, and thousands of individuals have since pledged their support. See the EPA press release, the campaign Web page on the Energy Star Web site, and the Climate Savers Computing Initiative press release.
Large-Scale Solar Thermal Power Projects Planned for California
The push to develop large concentrating solar power (CSP) plants in California gained momentum last week, as FPL Energy filed an application to build a 250-megawatt CSP plant in the Mojave Desert and the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) agreed to buy the power from up to 900 megawatts of CSP projects proposed by BrightSource Energy, Inc.
The FPL Energy project, called the Beacon Solar Energy Project, will employ trough-shaped parabolic mirrors to concentrate the sun’s heat, capture the heat in a fluid such as oil, and then transfer that heat to a boiler. The boiler generates steam that drives a turbine to produce electricity. FPL Energy plans to build, own, and operate the facility, which will be located on 2,000 acres of land in eastern Kern County. Construction is slated to begin late next year, and it will take about two years to build the project, which will consist of more than 500,000 parabolic mirrors. See the FPL Energy press release.
Meanwhile, PG&E has signed contracts with BrightSource Energy to buy at least 500 megawatts of power from three CSP facilities. BrightSource submitted an application to the California Energy Commission (CEC) last year to build Ivanpah 1, 2, and 3 in the Mojave Desert, with the first two units each producing 100 megawatts of power and the third unit producing 200 megawatts of power.
Ivanpah 1 is slated to begin operating in 2011 and will use a field of flat mirrors, or "heliostats," to focus the sun’s heat on a receiver mounted on a tower. A fluid pumped through the tower carries the heat to a boiler. This "power tower" technology was developed by DOE and demonstrated at a facility near Barstow, California, in the 1980s and 1990s. If BrightSource is successful with its initial power tower installations, PG&E has an option of buying another 400 megawatts of power from additional CSP facilities. See the PG&E press release.
The CEC is currently reviewing a number of CSP proposals and is expecting more in the near future. In addition to the Ivanpah and Beacon Solar Energy projects, the CEC is reviewing the Victorville 2 Hybrid Power Project, which combines a 513-megawatt natural gas power plant with 50 megawatts of CSP, and the Carrizo Energy Solar Farm, which will generate 177 megawatts. The CEC is also expecting an application from the City of Palmdale for another hybrid plant combining a natural gas power plant with 50 megawatts of CSP, as well as applications for two CSP plants using arrays of dish-shaped mirrors to concentrate the sun’s heat onto thermal engines.
These "dish/engine systems" convert the heat directly into power, and the CEC is expecting proposals for a 900-megawatt project and an 850-megawatt project. In the long run, the CEC anticipates another six CSP plants with a combined capacity of 1,370 megawatts. See the CEC listing of all recent and proposed energy projects.
California Utility Inks Deal for Nearly 1,500 Solar Homes
The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) has signed an agreement with homebuilder Woodside Homes to help fund the construction of 1,487 energy-efficient solar homes, the largest deal to date between a utility and a homebuilder in the United States. The funding, provided through SMUD’s SolarSmart program, will help reduce the added cost of the high-efficiency features and the solar roof tiles, which together can reduce the homes’ annual electric bills by as much as 60%.
The homes will be located near Rancho Cordova, which is about 10 miles east of Sacramento, California. Construction will begin this year, and the subdivisions are expected to be completed by 2012. According to the SMUD Web site, the utility is already funding 1,383 SolarSmart homes to be built by Lennar and Tim Lewis Communities. See the SMUD press release (PDF 33 KB) and the SolarSmart Web page.
Meanwhile, another California homebuilder is launching two new home communities in San Diego, featuring solar homes that are also LEED certified. Pine Brothers Fine Homes is teaming up with OCR Solar & Roofing to install BP Solar roof-integrated solar modules, which emulate the shape of flat concrete roof tiles. The homes will be 35% more efficient than California’s strict Title 24 Energy Standards. The new communities, called Orchard Heights and Falcon Place, opened their model homes to the public in mid-March. See the OCR Solar & Roofing press release (PDF 59 KB).
Iowa Leads the Nation with 5.5% Wind Power
Wind power provides 5.5% of the electricity generated in Iowa, making it the leading state for wind power generation on a percentage basis, according to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA).
AWEA’s annual ranking of wind power leadership, released last week, continues to show Texas leading the states in terms of both total installed wind power capacity and the amount of new wind power capacity that was installed last year. In fact, the Sweetwater, Texas, wind plant more than doubled in capacity to 585 megawatts, pushing it from fifth to second place in the size rankings, while the state’s Buffalo Gap wind facility expanded to 353 megawatts, placing it in fifth place for size. The recently completed 364-megawatt Capricorn Ridge wind facility, also in Texas, landed in fourth place, while last year’s 401-megawatt Peetz Table Wind Energy Center in Colorado is the only non-Texas wind plant in the top five. See the AWEA press release and report (PDF 312 KB).
One result of the expanding use of wind power in the U.S. is the establishment of new wind turbine manufacturing facilities. In early March, Vestas Americas A/S opened its first U.S. manufacturing facility in Windsor, Colorado. Though the factory was originally designed to manufacture 1,200 wind blades per year, Vestas announced late last year that the production capacity will be expanded to 1,800 blades per year. The 400,000-square-foot facility is expected to create about 650 new local jobs.
In addition, Nordic Windpower announced in March that it will build a wind turbine manufacturing facility in Pocatello, Idaho. Nordic is leasing a 42,786-square-foot facility that will start producing turbines this fall, ramping up to 20 turbines per month by September 2009. Nordic has the potential to quadruple the size of the facility to meet future expansion needs. See the press releases from Vestas (PDF 34 KB) and Nordic (PDF 25 KB).
Meanwhile, a company called 3TIER has launched a global wind map that is available for free viewing on the Internet. The map provides global wind data at an 80-meter height for a single year, but the free version is at a relatively low resolution. For the higher resolution generally needed for wind power developers, the company is currently selling maps for locations within the continental United States and plans to gradually expand its service to other countries over the next 20 months. See the 3TIER press release (PDF 131 KB) and its "firstlook" global wind mapping Web site.
Scotland Offers $20 Million Prize for Ocean Energy Innovations
The Scottish Government announced last week that it will offer a $20 million prize for innovation in marine renewable energy. The Saltire Prize is designed to "galvanise world scientists to push the frontiers of innovation in the crucial area of clean, green energy."
It is open to the world, but competitors for the prize must demonstrate their innovations in Scotland. The government is in the early stages of setting the parameters for the prize, having just named two members of an expert committee that will help shape the rules for winning the prize, but the goal is to have a clear impact on climate change. The prize clearly encompasses wave and tidal energy technologies, but it’s not clear if it will also include offshore wind power technologies. Full details about the prize will be announced on St. Andrew’s Day, which falls on November 30. See the press release and the Saltire Prize page on the Scottish Government Web site.
According to consulting company Frost & Sullivan, Europe is leading the way in marine energy technologies, with research efforts focused in the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney, Scotland, and the Wave Energy Centre in Portugal.
That view was supported last week, when the U.K.-based Marine Current Turbines (MCT) installed a commercial tidal turbine in Strangford Narrows in Northern Ireland. The 1.2-megawatt SeaGen Tidal System features twin turbines, each 52.5 feet in diameter, and will start supplying power to the local grid this summer. In addition, U.K.-based Pulse Tidal Ltd. plans to install a 100-kilowatt tidal stream generator in the Humber estuary, on the east coast of northern England, later this year. The device uses hydrofoils that move up and down in the tidal stream. The U.K. Secretary of State for Energy approved the test on Monday. See the press releases from Frost & Sullivan, MCT, Pulse Tidal (PDF 43 KB), and the U.K. government.
EIA: Crude Oil Prices to Average $101 per Barrel in 2008
The combination of rising oil consumption and low surplus oil production capacity will continue to put upward pressure on oil prices this year, resulting in an annual average price of $101 per barrel, according to DOE’s Energy Information Administration (EIA).
The EIA’s "Short-Term Energy Outlook," released yesterday, projects rising gasoline prices in the U.S, with the monthly average price of regular unleaded gasoline peaking at about $3.60 per gallon this spring, suggesting the possibility that some local prices could exceed $4 per gallon. In addition, monthly average prices for diesel fuel will average about $3.90 per gallon in March and April, and weekly regional prices have already exceeded $4 per gallon in some parts of the country. According to the American Automobile Association’s "Fuel Gauge Report," regular unleaded gasoline set a new record of $3.339 per gallon on Monday, while diesel fuel peaked at $4.037 in late March. See the Fuel Gauge Report Web site.
The EIA also concludes the U.S. is not to blame for the current high energy costs. U.S. energy demand has been dropping, and the new report estimates that U.S. consumption of liquid fuels will drop by about 85,000 barrels per day in 2008 as a result of the economic slowdown and higher petroleum prices. After accounting for increased ethanol use, U.S. petroleum consumption is expected to fall by 210,000 barrels per day in 2008, although it should start rising again next year.
However, global petroleum demand is still increasing and is expected to grow by 1.2 million barrels per day in 2008. By the second part of the year, oil production increases in Azerbaijan, Brazil, and Sudan are expected to ease the strain on global oil supplies. The high oil prices are also affecting natural gas prices, which are expected to increase 20% this year.
And we can thank Europe for U.S. gasoline prices that are lower than diesel prices, which is a flip-flop of historic U.S. trends in fuel prices. Because of the higher demand for diesel fuel in Europe, much of their gasoline is exported to the U.S. On the East Coast, about 30% of the gasoline comes from imports, and that’s actually helping to keep gasoline prices lower than they would be otherwise. See the EIA’s "Short-Term Energy Outlook," and for the latest prices for light, sweet crude oil, see the New York Mercantile Exchange Web site.
++++
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).
Loading...