California Adopts First Statewide Green Building Standard
The California Building Standards Commission unanimously adopted the first-in-the-nation mandatory Green Building Standards Code, called CALGreen, on January 12. The program takes effect on January 1, 2011.
CALGreen requires mandatory inspections of energy systems (furnaces, heat pumps, air conditioners, and other mechanical equipment) for nonresidential buildings with over 10,000 square feet of floor space to make sure they’re operating at maximum capacity and according to their design efficiencies. New buildings must reduce water consumption by 20%, divert 50% of construction waste from landfills, and install materials that emit low amounts of indoor pollutants. Separate water meters are required for nonresidential buildings’ indoor and outdoor water use, with a requirement for moisture-sensing irrigation systems for larger landscape projects.
While water conservation is a priority unto itself, it’s also directly tied to energy consumption. A 2005 report from the California Energy Commission (CEC) found that water use consumes 19% of the state’s electricity, 30% of its natural gas, and at least 88 billion gallons of diesel fuel per year, although those figures included water heating. See the CEC report (PDF 1.3 MB).
The California Air Resources Board estimates the mandatory provisions will reduce GHG emissions by the equivalent of 3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2020. Upon passing state building inspection, California’s property owners will have the ability to label their facilities as CALGreen compliant without using additional third-party certification programs. See the governor’s press release and the Web site for the California Building Standards Commission, which has not yet posted the CALGreen code.
DOE Awards $20.5M to Community Renewable Energy Projects
DOE selected five community-based renewable energy projects to receive more than $20.5 million in Recovery Act funds. The projects involve biomass, solar, and wind energy installations in California, Colorado, Vermont, and Wisconsin, combining the Recovery Act funds with $167 million in local government and private industry funds.
From a district energy system fueled with sustainably-harvested wood chips in Vermont to California’s first "solar highway" of roadside solar systems, the projects will serve as models for other local governments, campuses, and small utilities.
California’s Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) will build 1,500 kW of concentrating and flat-plate solar PV systems along a 2-mile stretch of highway. SMUD will also install a digester to convert sewage and a variety of food wastes into biogas, producing 3 MW of power, along with a 600 kW molten carbonate fuel cell and two anaerobic digesters to convert dairy waste into 500 kW of combined heat and power (CHP).
The University of California at Davis will use a digester to produce biogas from organic wastes. The biogas will power a 300 kW fuel cell, which will work in combination with an advanced battery system to provide power to the campus’ West Village – a new mixed-use community that’s aiming for net-zero energy use.
In Phillips County in northeast Colorado, local landowners and project participants will share revenues from a community-owned 30 MW wind farm, which could eventually expand into a 650 MW wind farm spread over three counties.
In Vermont, the City of Montpelier will install a wood chip-fueled, district energy system that will provide heat to 176 downtown buildings, including the state capitol, the city hall, and a number of schools. The CHP system will also deliver 1.8 million kWh of power to the grid each year.
And in Wisconsin, the Forest County Potawatomi Tribe will provide heating, cooling, and electricity for the tribe’s governmental buildings, using a combination of a 1.25 MW, biomass-fueled CHP facility; an anaerobic digester to convert manure to biogas, paired with a 150 kW generator; three 100 kW wind turbines; and three 2.88 kW solar power systems. See the DOE press release.
DOE Invests $12M for Early-Stage Solar Technologies
DOE’s National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) will invest $12 million in four companies to support development of early-stage solar technologies and help them advance to full commercial scale.
$10 million comes from the ARRA, which is providing a total of $117 million to develop and deploy solar technologies. The goal is to further expand the clean energy economy and make solar energy more cost-competitive with conventional forms of electricity.
Companies awarded under DOE’s Photovoltaic Incubator Program will work with NREL to transition prototype and pre-commercial PV technologies into pilot-scale and full-scale manufacturing.
Partnership projects include: Alta Devices, Inc., which is developing an innovative high-efficiency, low-cost solar module, with market entry expected in 2011; Solar Junction Corp., which is developing a manufacturing process to produce a very high efficiency, multi-junction solar cell for concentrating PV (CPV) systems; Tetra Sun, which is exploring back-surface passivation for high efficiency crystalline silicon solar cells; and Semprius, Inc., which is studying a massively parallel, microcell-based CPV receiver. See the DOE press release.
DOE Closes $465 Million Loan to Tesla Motors
On January 21, DOE announced the closing of its $465 million loan with Tesla Motors for the construction of two manufacturing facilities – one in southern California for the Model S electric sedan and one in Palo Alto, California, for electric powertrains.
The Palo Alto facility will assemble electric vehicle (EV) battery packs, electric motors, and related EV control equipment, both for Tesla’s vehicles and for sale to other automobile manufacturers.
Tesla’s planned Model S EV has a base price of $49,900 and is being designed to offer a variety of range options depending on the battery pack used, from 160-300 miles on a single charge. Volume production of the Model S will begin in 2012, targeting production capacity of 20,000 vehicles per year by the end of 2013. According to Tesla, the Model S project and powertrain manufacturing facility are expected to create over 1,600 jobs.
The Tesla announcement marks the second loan agreement signed by DOE with an advanced technology vehicle manufacturer, following a $5.9 billion agreement with Ford Motor in September 2009. DOE has also signed conditional commitments with Nissan North America and Fisker Automotive. Tenneco Inc. became the first advanced technology component manufacturer to obtain a conditional commitment from DOE in October of last year. Nissan plans to build electric cars and battery packs at the company’s Smyrna, Tennessee, manufacturing complex, while Fisker recently announced plans to build plug-in hybrids by reopening a shuttered GM plant in Wilmington, Delaware.
Congress appropriated $7.5 billion to DOE to support up to $25 billion in loans to companies using U.S. factories to make cars and components that increase fuel economy at least 25% above 2005 fuel economy levels. DOE plans to make additional loans over the next several months to large and small auto manufacturers and parts suppliers up and down the production chain. The intense technical and financial review process is focused not on choosing a single technology over others, but is aimed at promoting multiple approaches for achieving a fuel efficient economy. See the DOE release and the Model S page on the Tesla Motors Web site.
NREL Study Shows 20% Wind is Possible by 2024
As much as 20% of the power connected to the grid could come from wind by 2024, according to a NREL study. The report, "Eastern Wind Integration and Transmission Study," released on January 20, is a technical review analyzing the economic, operational, and technical implications of shifting 20% or more of the Eastern Interconnection’s electrical load to wind energy by 2024.
The Eastern Interconnection is the largest of three US power grids, running from the East Coast to as far west as eastern Montana (see a map from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, and an NREL map of the study area). It provides power to some 70% of the U.S. population.
The study concludes that 20% wind power is technically feasible, although transmission upgrades and operational changes to the system will be required, regardless of the source of wind power. The study also finds that reaching 20% wind power would require a major national commitment to clean, domestic energy sources.
The report finds that drawing wind energy from a larger geographic area makes it less expensive and more reliable, because the aggregated wind output is more predictable and less variable. The cost of aggressively expanding the transmission grid would represent a fraction of the total annualized costs of wind expansion and would be more than paid for by reduced expenditures for fossil fuels. The expanded transmission grid would also help optimize the electrical system, allowing wind power to provide a highly cost-effective means of reducing carbon emissions.
While more research is needed, the report notes the widespread adoption of plug-in hybrid vehicles for nighttime recharging (when wind generation is higher) could ease some of the issues associated with the integration of wind power into the grid. See the NREL press release and Web page for the Eastern Wind Integration and Transmission Study.
New American Home Incorporates Energy-Saving Technologies
The National Council of the Housing Industry and Builder Magazine have unveiled the design of the 2010 edition of The New American Home, which aims to use 72% less energy than a similar house built to the 2006 International Energy Conservation Code.
The New American Home provides an annual real-world demonstration of current innovations in architecture, construction techniques, and new products, including the latest energy-saving technologies.
The design for this year’s structure features an energy efficient thermal shell, including insulated concrete forms for the walls, energy efficient windows and sliding glass doors, and an unvented attic with spray foam insulation applied to the underside of the roof and the inside of the gables. The airtight building employs a heat recovery ventilator to provide fresh outdoor air with minimal loss of energy. The home includes a solar hot water system, Energy Star appliances, and fluorescent lamps and LEDs used in 80% of hard-wired lamps.
Combining these energy efficiency features with high-efficiency heating and cooling systems yields a home that consumes 49% less energy than a similar house built to code. The 10.53 kW solar system on the home’s roof cuts its average energy use by nearly half again.
The New American Home is the official showcase home of the annual International Builders’ Show (IBS), which was held January 19-22 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Unfortunately, for the first time in its 27-year history, the home was not completed in time for the show. In a chain of events all too familiar to builders, tight credit and a soft market for high-end homes in Las Vegas made it difficult to find alternative financing after a private lender withdrew funding for the home. Because the home is now only 75% complete, the IBS instead created a special exhibition area that provided a virtual tour of the home. See The New American Home Web page and energy summary on the IBS Web site, as well as the Building America brochure about the home (PDF 1.1 MB).
U.S. Crude Oil Imports Decreased 9.2% in 2009
The American Petroleum Institute announced in mid-January that the imports of crude oil and related products decreased 9.2% in 2009, falling to an average of 11.7 million barrels per day. The oil industry group attributed the drop to decreased demand due to the recession.
API measures petroleum demand in terms of the total petroleum deliveries in the US, which averaged 18.7 million barrels per day in 2009, a 3.6% drop below 2008 levels, which in turn were 6% below 2007 levels.
U.S. crude oil production was also up 7% over 2008 production levels, averaging 5.3 million barrels per day. However, API saw a slight increase in petroleum demand in December 2009, suggesting that economic recovery could erode some of these gains. See the API press releases for 2009 oil demand and 2008 oil demand.
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EREE Network News is a weekly publication of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).
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