DOE Headquarters Inaugurates 205 kW Solar PV System
A new 205-kilowatt solar power system was turned on for the first time at DOE’s Forrestal Building on Tuesday, in an inaugural ceremony led by Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman. The new rooftop solar electric system, designed and installed by SunPower Corp., consists of 891 solar PV modules and is 40-50 times larger than a typical residential system.
Each module is able to convert 18.5% of the sunlight hitting it into electricity, which is one of the highest conversion efficiencies available for purchase today. The system will generate about 200 megawatt-hours of electricity per year, providing up to 8% of the Forrestal complex’s energy during peak hours and saving as much as $26,000 in utility costs in its first year of operation. Insulation incorporated into each module will provide additional energy savings by reducing the building’s heating and cooling load, and the system will ultimately help DOE avoid the emission of 186 metric tons per year of greenhouse gases. See the DOE and SunPower press releases.
DOE’s new solar power system will help it comply with the Executive Order President Bush issued in January 2007, calling for all federal agencies to reduce their energy consumption per square foot by 30% and requiring all agencies to use more renewable energy. In response, DOE developed the Transformational Energy Action Management (TEAM) initiative, with the aim of being the first federal agency to meet or exceed the energy efficiency and renewable energy requirements laid out in the Executive Order. For more information about the initiative, see the TEAM Web site.
DOE Awards $6.6 Million for State-Led Clean Energy Projects
DOE announced on Monday that it will award $6.6 million in competitive grants for 15 state-level projects, nine of which focus on developing policy and regulations to support gigawatt-scale clean energy capacity, and six of which focus on developing advanced building codes.
Of these awards, $4 million will go to the gigawatt-scale clean energy capacity projects, which will develop policy and regulatory frameworks that will enable gigawatt-scale clean energy, either through renewable energy or demand-side reductions. Although no cost share was mandated, state partners will contribute up to $1.8 million for these projects. The six advanced building codes projects will receive $2.6 million, which will assist states in developing and implementing residential, commercial, or overarching building codes. Along with its financial assistance, DOE will support these projects with ongoing technical assistance.
Of the nine clean energy capacity projects, three will go to states that are focusing on electrical grid infrastructure: Colorado will examine barriers and incentives to expand its transmission grid for renewable energy projects, while Hawaii and Maryland will examine policies for smart grid technologies that could encourage the use of renewable energy, demand-side management, and energy storage.
Two states will focus on financing: Michigan will develop four pilot projects for utility financing of customers’ cost-effective clean energy projects, with each loan repaid using a portion of the consumer’s energy cost savings, while Wisconsin will draft regulations for low-interest loans for renewable energy projects. Wisconsin will also aim to convert up to 25 old, small coal-fired power plants to burn wood instead.
In the Southeast, Georgia will develop a framework for integrating clean energy supplies into the energy infrastructure of Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, while South Carolina will seek to overcome barriers for coastal wind, wave, and tidal energy projects. And in terms of energy efficiency, Arizona will create a streamlined and cost-effective home weatherization program, while Maine will partner with the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnership to develop regional protocols for evaluating, measuring, verifying, and reporting demand-side resource impacts.
For the advanced building code projects, Florida, Massachusetts, Nebraska, and Washington are improving their existing residential or commercial energy codes in order to produce a 30% energy usage reduction over the existing codes. In addition, North Carolina will update its state energy code by 2010, while California plans to build the California Building Energy Efficiency Standards Learning Management System, an online system that will educate building department processionals about enforcing its current building energy efficiency standards and the next standards update. See the DOE press release.
U.S. Wind Power Capacity Exceeds 20,000 Megawatts
The U.S. wind industry has doubled its generating capacity over the past two years, exceeding 20,000 megawatts in installed capacity, according to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). The wind industry trade group announced last week that U.S. installed wind capacity is now at 20,152 megawatts, producing enough electricity to serve 5.3 million average U.S. homes. The industry hit the 10,000-megawatt milestone in August 2006, just over two years ago, which means that the industry grew as much over the past two years as it did in the previous two-and-a-half decades.
AWEA expects more than 7,500 megawatts of wind power capacity to be installed in 2008, bringing the total U.S. wind capacity to more than 24,000 megawatts by year end. However, the looming expiration of federal tax credits at the end of the year could cause the industry’s growth spurt to sputter in 2009. See the AWEA press release.
A recent report from BCC Research suggests that the U.S. wind industry is poised for further rapid growth. With an estimated market value of $11.2 billion in 2008, the industry is projected by BCC to grow to $60.9 billion in 2013, clocking a compound annual growth rate of 40%.
Among the companies preparing to help achieve that growth rate is Vestas Americas A/S, which announced in August that it will build two new wind turbine factories in Brighton, Colorado, about 20 miles northeast of Denver. When they reach full capacity in 2010, the factories will manufacture 1,800 wind turbine blades per year and annually assemble 1,400 nacelles (the housings that sit atop the wind towers), creating 1,350 jobs. Vestas already has a wind turbine blade manufacturing facility in Windsor, Colorado, about 35 miles north of Brighton, that can also produce 1,800 blades per year, and the company plans to build another factory in Colorado to manufacture 900 wind towers per year. The company is also establishing a research center in Houston, Texas, that will open next year. See the BCC press release and the Vestas press releases about the Colorado wind turbine factories (PDF 27 KB) and the Houston research center (PDF 28 KB). Download Adobe Reader.
NSF to Invest $18.5 Million in Green Grid Technologies
The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced on Monday that it will establish a new NSF Engineering Research Center (ERC) at North Carolina State University for power grid technologies that can effectively integrate renewable energy and energy storage systems. The new "NSF ERC for Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management Systems," or FREEDM systems for short, will develop a new, distributed power grid network that will permit any combination and scale of energy sources and storage devices to be connected to the grid through standard grid-interface modules. This "Internet for energy" will work as a "plug-and-play" system to make it easy to sell excess energy from renewable energy systems to power companies. NSF will invest about $18.5 million in the new ERC over the next five years.
Since 1985, the NSF’s ERC program has fostered broad-based research and education collaborations in close partnership with industry. The new NSF ERC for FREEDM Systems will be based at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, in partnership with four other U.S. universities and with contributions from universities in Germany and Switzerland. The ERC will work with more than 65 industry partners, including many small start-up firms, as well as 18 state and local government organizations in Arizona, California, Florida, New York, North Carolina, and Tennessee. See the press releases from NSF and North Carolina State University, as well as the new FREEDM Systems Center Web site.
If there was any question that power grids are an essential part of renewable energy development, it was settled in late August, when two wind power developers snatched up 585 MW of transmission capacity on the planned 850 MW Wyoming-Colorado Intertie Project.
GreenHunter Wind Company, LLC and Duke Energy Ohio, Inc. plan to develop wind projects near Chugwater, Wyoming, delivering the power to consumers in Colorado. According to the Wyoming Infrastructure Authority (WIA), the two companies had the only winning bids on the proposed transmission line. Renewable energy developers have also had long waits to gain access to existing transmission lines, particularly in California and the Midwest. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued guidance for possible interconnection queue reforms in March, and in July and August, it allowed reforms to the process for the California and Midwest grid operators, which are called "independent system operators" or ISOs. See the WIA press release (PDF 113 KB), the FERC Generator Interconnection Web page, and the press releases from the California ISO (PDF 81 KB) and Midwest ISO (PDF 48 KB).
Construction Underway on First Geothermal Power Plant in New Mexico
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and Raser Technologies, Inc. announced in late August that construction has begun on the first commercial geothermal power plant in New Mexico. Located near Animas in the southwest corner of the state, the 10 MW Lightning Dock geothermal power plant will produce power using modular "PureCycle" power units from UTC Power, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation.
First deployed at Chena Hot Springs Resort near Fairbanks, Alaska, in 2006, the PureCycle units use relatively low-temperature geothermal resources to vaporize an organic fluid, using that vapor to spin a small generator to produce power. According to Raser, 45 PureCycle units will be combined to form the 10 MW plant. The modular, prefabricated system will allow Raser to build the power plant in only 6 months and easily accommodates Raser’s plans to eventually expand the plant to 20-25 MW. See the press releases from the governor (PDF 79 KB) and Raser, the technology descriptions from Raser and UTC Power, and the article from this newsletter on the Chena Hot Springs project.
The PureCycle system’s ability to produce power from low-temperature resources (as low as 195°F, according to UTC Power) also simplified project development for Raser, as the company is drawing on a geothermal well that was drilled 20 years ago, but was abandoned because the resource was not hot enough for the technology available at that time.
Armed with the UTC Power technology, Raser is charging ahead with eight geothermal power projects, including three projects in Nevada, three in Utah, one in Oregon, and the New Mexico project. The company has made the most progress at its 10-MW Thermo geothermal power plant near Beaver, Utah, where it began placing PureCycle units in August. Last week, the company announced that it had set its first 50 PureCycle units in place. Raser ordered 90 PureCycle units from UTC Power last year, and in April it ordered another 110 units, which will give the company the ability to build 40-45 MW of geothermal power capacity at its various project locations. See Raser’s project list and its press releases on the Thermo geothermal power plant and its PureCycle unit purchases.
Geothermal power plants are also under development in California and Nevada. The California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) approved two geothermal power contracts in late July: San Diego Gas and Electric Company (SDG&E) will buy 40 MW of power from a plant in California’s Imperial Valley that Esmeralda Energy Company plans to build by December 2010, while Southern California Edison will buy 30-100 MW of power from a plant that Ormat Technologies, Inc. plans to build near Wister, California, by June 2012.
Ormat builds and operates geothermal power plants throughout the United States, and last week, the company earned approval to begin building the 49.5-MW Faulkner 1 geothermal power plant in Blue Mountain, Nevada. Nevada Geothermal Power Inc. (NGP) developed the Blue Mountain project, which is located about 20 miles west of Winnemucca. When the facility is completed next year, it will sell its power to the Nevada Power Company. See the press releases from the CPUC, SDG&E, and NGP.
Florida Green Power Dispute Puts Spotlight on Marketing Costs
A dispute over the costs of a green power program offered by Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) has drawn attention to the costs associated with managing and promoting such programs. In late July, the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) terminated FPL’s Sunshine Energy Program after an audit revealed that only 20% of the $11.4 million collected from customers was applied to developing renewable energy facilities, with the remainder allegedly going toward marketing and administrative costs. Established in December 2003, the program was run by Green Mountain Energy Company and collected voluntary contributions of $9.75 per month from more than 38,000 customers to promote the development of renewable energy. See the Florida PSC press release.
In late August, Green Mountain defended itself, claiming that half of the program revenue was spent on renewable energy projects, while marketing costs were less than $1.50 per FPL customer (although they did consume about half of the funds provided to Green Mountain). Green Mountain says it created customer demand for more than 1.2 billion kilowatt-hours of renewable energy and also built 450 kilowatts of new solar energy projects, all at less than half the national average price per kilowatt-hour for green power programs and at a lower cost than other Florida green power programs.
As noted by Green Mountain, the program’s success has placed it in the "top ten" lists for utility green pricing programs for the past four years. DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory ranked the program fourth in the nation for total sales and sixth for total number of participants in 2007, and the program has landed in the top-ten rankings for at least one of those two categories since 2004. See the press release (PDF 106 KB), discussion paper (PDF 194 KB), and presentation (PDF 356 KB) from Green Mountain Energy Company, as well as the NREL top-ten rankings.
So what is an appropriate amount of money to spend on marketing of such programs? A report issued by NREL last year, "Trends in Utility Green Pricing Programs," found significant variability in the costs reported by the largest utilities. The report notes that the top performers generally devoted more funds toward marketing, spending an average of 24% of program premiums on marketing and administration, which is about half that of the FPL program. In terms of expenses per utility customer, however, the average marketing costs were about 28 cents per year. Multiplied by five years, that yields $1.40 per customer, which is in line with Green Mountain’s spending. The report also notes that many utilities absorb their green power marketing costs into their general marketing budget. All of which should provide plenty to talk about at the 2008 National Renewable Energy Marketing Conference, which comes to Denver, Colorado, on October 26-29. See pages 18-22 (PDF pages 27-31) of the NREL report (PDF 786 KB) and visit the conference 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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