DOE Helps Develop Clean Energy in Latin America & the Caribbean
On April 15, DOE announced partnerships to advance clean energy and energy security in the Western Hemisphere as part of the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA).
Clean energy projects include launching an Energy Innovation Center for Latin America and the Caribbean, exploring the potential of a Caribbean-wide electrical transmission system, developing biomass resources in Columbia, and cooperating with Argentina on clean energy technologies.
DOE and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the largest source of development funding for Latin America and the Caribbean, signed an agreement creating an Energy Innovation Center, the latest in a series of Regional Clean Energy Centers located throughout the hemisphere.
Staffed by some of the world’s leading experts in renewable energy and energy efficiency, the center will serve as a focal point for clean energy jobs, project development and financing in the region. It will be able to access the IDB’s financing pipeline for renewable energy and climate-related projects, which the IDB intends to increase to $3 billion per year by 2012. Among the proposed projects is development of an energy infrastructure in Haiti to help the country harness its wind, solar, and hydroelectric power potential. See the IDB press release.
DOE will provide technical assistance to the Caribbean Sustainable Energy Working Group, starting with a workshop to explore the potential for a Caribbean-wide transmission system that will help tap the region’s renewable energy resources.
And under DOE’s Low Carbon Communities of the Americas initiative, DOE and experts from its national labs will partner with scientists and technology experts in Columbia to develop a plan to produce heat and power from sugarcane and palm residues. DOE also signed a MOU with Argentina to promote cooperation on clean energy technologies.
ECPA was launched in 2009 during the Fifth Summit of the Americas, when President Obama and Western Hemisphere leaders committed to expand energy and climate cooperation in the hemisphere as part of a joint effort to ensure economic growth and prosperity. The ECPA is focused on developing clean energy resources, increasing energy security, and reducing energy poverty.
The latest round of activity occurred as energy ministers and delegations from 32 countries gathered at the IDB in Washington D.C., for the Energy and Climate Ministerial of the Americas, held on April 15-16. Energy officials joined with more than 200 businesses and NGOs to advance initiatives that will help countries across the hemisphere develop and deploy clean energy technologies and achieve economic growth without significantly increasing their carbon emissions. See the DOE press release.
DOE Issues Guidance for Reducing Petroleum Use in Federal Fleets
On April 14, DOE released its Federal Fleet Management Guidance, the first comprehensive document that addresses the environmental impact of federal vehicles. It will help agencies develop strategies to reduce petroleum use and GHG emissions, required by President Obama’s Executive Order on Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy and Economic Performance.
The guidance highlights ways federal agencies can reduce petroleum consumption by reducing vehicle miles traveled, increasing fleet fuel efficiency, and switching to alternative fuels with lower GHG emissions. The document calls for federal agencies to optimize the size of their fleets, encourage transit options such as bicycling, and purchase alternative fuel vehicles, including electric and plug-in hybrids. The guidance also provides federal agencies with methods to track petroleum reductions and alternative fuel use.
On October 5, 2009, the president signed Executive Order 13514, calling on federal agencies to reduce petroleum fuel use by 2% each year from 2005 through 2020, for a total 30% reduction. Agencies will be accountable for meeting these goals and are required to annually report on their progress and make adjustments as necessary.
Each vehicle purchase must demonstrate how it helps support the agency’s mission and sustainability targets. The guidance follows the General Service Administration’s recently announced plans to double the federal hybrid fleet this year and to buy about 100 plug-in hybrids in 2011.
See the DOE press release, the Federal Fleet Management Guidance (PDF 755 KB), and a summary of Executive Order 13514 from DOE’s Federal Energy Management Program.
DOE, EPA Bolster Energy Star Program
DOE and the U.S. EPA jointly announced changes to the Energy Star product certification process to ensure that only products meeting Energy Star energy efficiency requirements can receive the label.
Effective immediately, manufacturers wishing to qualify their products for Energy Star must submit complete lab reports and results for review and approval by EPA prior to labeling. EPA has strengthened its approval systems and no longer relies on an automated approval process – all new applications will be reviewed and approved individually by EPA. These changes accelerate steps DOE and EPA initiated over the past several months to bolster the verification, testing, and enforcement aspects of the Energy Star program.
The certification process will further be strengthened at the end of the year when all manufacturers must submit test results from an approved, accredited lab for any product seeking the Energy Star label. Testing in an accredited lab is currently required for certain product categories, including windows, doors, skylights, and compact fluorescent lighting, but the new process will extend the requirement to each of the more than 60 eligible product categories.
These efforts are in addition to enforcement and testing procedures already in place to ensure compliance with the Energy Star specifications. DOE is conducting off-the-shelf product testing for some of the most common household appliances – a recent Inspector General audit found that 98% of products tested fully complied with the Energy Star requirements. See the DOE press release and the Energy Star Web site.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Offers Wind Turbine Siting Guidelines
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) sent a set of final recommendations on how to minimize the impacts of land-based wind farms on wildlife and habitats to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar on April 13.
The proposed siting and operational guidelines by the 22-member Wind Turbine Guidelines Federal Advisory Committee include a science-based "tiered" process that corresponds to the stage of development of each wind power project, ranging from preliminary assessments to post-construction impact studies. The process is intended to assist developers in assessing the environmental footprint of their projects.
The recommendations also call for meaningful incentives for developers that voluntarily adopt the tiered approach and cooperate with FWS while advancing their projects. The advisory committee includes representatives from federal, state, and tribal governments, as well as wildlife conservation organizations and the wind industry.
The advisory committee recommends the Interior Department assess all forms of environmental stressors to birds and wildlife, such as climate change, when making policy decisions. The committee also calls for stakeholders at federal, state, and tribal levels to develop a national research plan designed to reduce negative effects on wildlife while allowing further wind development. Secretary Salazar will review the recommendations and then direct the FWS to write turbine siting guidelines for public and private lands. See the FWS press release (PDF 48 KB) and the advisory committee recommendations (PDF 1.43 MB).
Report Examines Ways to Monitor, Verify GHG Emissions
The world has yet to reach a binding international agreement on climate change to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, but a report from the National Research Council (NRC) has already looked at how independent data may be used to verify GHG emissions reported by countries.
Developed countries can estimate their GHG emissions fairly accurately by keeping track of fossil-fuel consumption and calculating the resulting carbon dioxide emissions. Tracking emissions of other industrial gases that contribute to climate change yields a more precise estimate. But for developing countries, deforestation and agricultural land-use changes may contribute significantly to GHG emissions, and these sources are harder to track and tally.
Developing countries will need financial and technical assistance to build capacity to collect, analyze, and report GHG emissions, although the investment needed may be relatively small. The report estimates that significant improvements in the accuracy of emissions reporting from the 10 highest-emitting developing countries would require an investment of only $11 million over five years.
The report calls for independent verification of fossil-fuel use and actual emissions, including ground-based monitoring systems near cities and other large emission sources. Ground-based monitoring stations could also measure the isotope carbon-14 to distinguish between biomass and fossil-fuel emissions. Such measurements would need to be combined with improved models of how GHGs circulate in the atmosphere.
The report notes that high-resolution satellite imagery can estimate deforestation, growth of new forests, and agricultural land-use changes. Such monitoring would ideally be combined with an improved understanding of how such land-use changes affect emissions of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane.
The report also calls for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to build and launch a replacement for the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, which failed at launch in February 2009. It would monitor carbon dioxide emissions from cities and power plants and attribute them to individual countries. No other satellite has the same critical combination of abilities, including high precision, a small footprint, and an ability to sense carbon dioxide concentrations near Earth’s surface. See the press release from the National Academies and the full report.
DOE Picks 20 Teams to Compete in the 2011 Solar Decathlon
DOE selected 20 collegiate teams to compete in the next Solar Decathlon in fall 2011 at the National Mall in Washington D.C. For two weeks, teams of college and university students from across the US and around the world will compete to build and operate the most affordable, attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered houses.
The competition will highlight affordable homes that combine energy-efficient construction and appliances with renewable energy systems that are available today. Teams generally design and partially build their solar homes on or near their campus, then ship the homes by truck (and sometimes by barge) to the National Mall, where they have a limited number of days to finish construction. The teams then open their homes to the public while they compete in 10 contests.
The selected teams and their projects represent a diverse range of design approaches, building technologies, and geographic locations, including urban, suburban, and rural settings.
Applications for the 2011 competition were evaluated by a panel of engineers, scientists, and experts from the National Renewable Energy Lab. Teams had to meet specific criteria including their ability to design and build an innovative, entirely solar-powered house; to raise additional funds; to support the project through a well-integrated curriculum; and to assemble the team necessary to carry the project through to completion.
See the DOE press release and the newly revised Solar Decathlon Web site.
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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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