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*News and Events DOE Awards $128.2 Million to Weatherize Homes in 30 Statesand the Navajo Nation DOE Will Enforce 13 SEER Air Conditioner Standard Florida Schools Launch On-Line Energy Monitoring GE Energy Completes Its Acquisition of AstroPower Illinois Gains Its First Commercial Wind Power Plant New Jersey Doubles Its Requirements for Renewable Energy DOE Awards $128.2 Million to Weatherize Homes in 30 States and the Navajo NationSecretary of Energy Spencer Abraham announced last week the award of $128.2 million to 30 states, plus the Navajo Nation, to improve the energy efficiency of the homes of low-income families. Such families spend an average of 14 percent of their income on energy, compared with 3.5 percent for the average U.S. family. Weatherization reduces an average home’s energy costs by $218 a year. For a full list of states and the amount awarded to each, see the DOE press release.DOE’s Weatherization Assistance Program performs energy audits to identify the most cost-effective measures for each home, which typically include adding insulation, reducing air infiltration, servicing the heating and cooling systems, and providing health and safety diagnostic services. For every dollar spent, weatherization returns $1.40 in energy savings over the life of the measures. The […]
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*News and Events DOE Partnerships to Develop Wind Turbines for Low Wind Speeds DOE and Ford Motor Company Host the SUVs of the Future Minnesota and Wisconsin Seek 300 Megawatts of Renewable Power Arizona Utility Builds a 1-Megawatt Solar Trough Plant Utah Power Installs Innovative Battery Energy Storage System Two Companies Break Records with New Superconducting Wires DOE Partnerships to Develop Wind Turbines for Low Wind SpeedsDOE intends to expand the use of wind power in the United States, and sees significant potential in areas with wind speeds that are too low to tap economically with today’s wind turbinesareas with average annual wind speeds of about 13 miles per hour. To allow wind power projects in these areas, DOE is establishing 21 partnerships with public and private entities to develop low-wind-speed wind turbines. The program includes conceptual design studies and the development of both turbine components and complete wind turbines, and DOE expects the total investment in the partnerships to total $60 million over the next four years. DOE announced the partnerships on Monday at the wind industry’s Global Windpower 2004 Conference in Chicago. See the DOE press release.The wind energy resources that DOE intends to capture through the new […]
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*News and Events PowerLight Installs Large Solar Arrays in California World Wind Power Development Figures Show Continued Growth Coalition Works to Protect Bats from Turbines States Offer Renewable Energy Funding California Orders 30 Hydrogen-Fueled Cars *Energy Connections Sustainable Design Reaches Lower Manhattan ———————————————————————-NEWS AND EVENTS ———————————————————————-PowerLight Installs Large Solar Arrays in CaliforniaTwo Sonoma County vineyards are now relying on sunshine for more than its propensity to ripen grapes. A 766-kilowatt system built by PowerLight Corporation and covering 60,000 square feet of roof space atop Rodney Strong Vineyard’s barrelhouse recently began providing a significant portion of the winery’s power needs. The system went online earlier this year, and PowerLight is in the process of installing a 457-kilowatt system for St. Francis Winery in Santa Rosa to be completed in May. Vineyards may be particularly appropriate for solar power applications due to their customary flat-roofed storage areas and sunny locations. See PowerLight’s press releases on the installations. PowerLight is also responsible for installing the largest city-owned solar installation in the country, a similar 60,000 square-foot flatroof installation on San Francisico’s Moscone Center. Mayor Gavin Newsome dedicated the 675-kilowatt system on March 18. In addition to the array, the Moscone Center installed new […]
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Two leading companies that are models of sustainable business practices, Quad Graphics and Norm Thompson, made announcements recently that will help protect forests. Quad Graphics, the world’s largest privately held commercial printer, has achieved chain-of-custody certification from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). That means customers can print their magazines, catalogs and other printed materials on FSC-certified paper and get the benefit of displaying the FSC logo in those materials. The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) uses Quad Graphics as their printer for its showcase magazine, National Wildlife, as well as its childrens publications Ranger Rick, Your Big Backyard and Wild Animal Baby. Laura Hickey, NWF’s Senior Director of Production said, As one of the largest conservation education organizations in the country, being able to specify FSC-certified paper and display the FSC logo demonstrates our support of responsible forest management that is critical for maintaining healthy wildlife habitat.Quad/Graphics, headquartered in Sussex, Wisconsin, is an employee-owned firm and a pioneer in incorporating sustainable practices throughout company operations and in the printing industry. The company employs 12,000 people worldwide and has annual sales of $2 billion. Their magazine clients include Architectural Digest, Time, Newsweek, People, Food & Wine, and National Geographic. Some of their […]
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Sam Askins is a 54-year old farmer whose family has been raising tobacco in the Virginia Appalachians since 1786. “Growing ‘bacco is a bad habit,” he says with a chuckle as he adjusts his bright orange hunting cap. “So I quit.”At at time of year when generations of local farmers usually gather in barns to bundle their cured tobacco for auction, Askins is working to rescue the last of his organic bell pepper crop from the coming frost. The peppers are bound for an Atlanta branch of Whole Foods Market. “I used to get sicker than a dog with fever, burning skin, and nausea if I wasn’t real careful with the chemicals I sprayed on tobacco,” he says, as he goes on to describe the symptoms of nicotine poisoning from handling ripe tobacco plants. The other growers gathered here, all at least third generation tobacco farmers who have started raising organic vegetables, nod in agreement. “You don’t hear bullfrogs or toads anymore, because we poisoned the streams and creeks with our chemicals.” The shift underway in this small southwest corner of a state world renowned for tobacco represents a trend throughout the nation, as farmers, beset by falling prices or […]
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ST's energy efficiency investments have added $60 million of profit from 1994 - 2001.
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*News and Events DOE Launches “Energy Hog” Energy Efficiency Campaign DOE Offers $6 Million to Advance Solid-State Lighting DOE Releases Long-Term Hydrogen Research Plan Ford to Employ Toyota’s Hybrid Electric Control Technology General Electric Wins Approval to Buy AstroPower Assets U.S. Firms to Test Ocean Wave, Current, and Thermal Technologies *Site NewsNew FEMP Web Site Reflects the Program’s Energy Expertise *Energy Connections Latest U.S. Census Shows More Workers Driving Alone to Work ———————————————————————-NEWS AND EVENTS ———————————————————————-DOE Launches “Energy Hog” Energy Efficiency CampaignDOE has launched a national public service advertising campaign designed to make children and their parents aware of energy efficient behavior. The Energy Efficiency Campaign, launched last week, features a reprehensible new villainthe energy-wasting Energy Hogand includes public service announcements on television, radio, and the Internet. The Energy Efficiency Campaign currently targets children between the ages of eight and 13, but in future phases it will also target parents and teachers. The Advertising Council and Energy Outreach Colorado developed the Energy Hog and the campaign, and sponsors include DOE, The Home Depot, the North American Insulation Manufacturers Association, the National Fuel Funds Network, and 20 state energy offices. See the DOE press release.The centerpiece of the campaign is the […]
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*News and Events Fifty-Seven Energy Efficiency Leaders Win Energy Star Awards New Mexico Passes Laws to Promote Clean Energy and Hybrid Cars Massachusetts to Build a 500-Kilowatt Solar Power Plant Large Wind Power Plants Planned for Maine and Pennsylvania Indian Tribes and Cities Teaming Up to Deploy Renewable Energy Texas and Iowa Utilities Top NREL’s List of Green Power Programs ———————————————————————- NEWS AND EVENTS ———————————————————————-Fifty-Seven Energy Efficiency Leaders Win Energy Star AwardsOn March 2nd, DOE and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognized 57 businesses and organizations as winners of the Energy Star Partner of the Year Awards. DOE and EPA sponsor these awards each year to recognize energy efficiency investments made by Energy Star partners. These investments save energy while also saving consumers money and avoiding greenhouse gas emissions. The award winners are businesses and organizations that have achieved energy efficiency in new homes and consumer products, as well as firms that have achieved excellence in energy management and in energy efficiency and environmental education.Companies that earned special mention from DOE include General Electric Consumer Products, a leading manufacturer of Energy Star products; Whirlpool Corporation, which manufactured the largest number of Energy Star appliances; Osram Sylvania, for producing an […]
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by Jim MotavalliSuppose in addition to your blue bin for recyclables, you had a green one for kitchen scraps? And suppose that those scraps were collected and mixed with yard waste, then processed in small, low-emission factories into compost and a clean fuel that could power your car? It sounds utopian, but it’s reality in Europe, where no less than 18 Kompogas plants operate. There’s even one in Japan. Kompogas got its start in Zurich, Switzerland in the late 1980s, when inventor Walter Schmid conducted some experiments on his balcony at home. His test fermenter convinced him it would be possible to turn organic wastes (a third of the household garbage stream) into fuel and compost. The first trial plant was set up in Rmlang, Switzerland in 1991, and from there the concept has spread to Germany (which plans to ban landfill disposal of untreated solid waste by 2005) and Austria. “Kompogas is like an ox,” says Schmid. “It eats, which gives it the energy it needs to power the cart. Any surplus is used as fertilizer for the fields.”The Kompogas plant near Zurich, Switzerland can fuel 1,200 cars and trucks like this one on reprocessed food scraps from homes […]
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Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), the world’s leading expert on energy efficiency, is launching a web-based tool to help communities understand how energy efficiency and renewable energy can be an integral part of economic development. The most common way of creating jobs and a tax base for cities and towns is to attract industry. Towns usually offer tax breaks or free infrastructure to new industries or retail developers. These then compete with existing businesses, gobble up land, and increase infrastructure costs. After paying the costs of growth, the community may be worse off than when it started. Michael Kinsley, of RMIs Research & Consulting team, says, Most simply dont know there are business development and job creation opportunities in energy efficiency and renewable energy. RMI’s new website, the Community Energy Opportunity Finder, is designed to help communities discover those opportunities. We know that efficiency and renewables work, both through logic and by the examples of such cities as Sacramento, Kinsley continues. Sacramento voters told the municipal utility company to shut down a poorly performing nuclear electric generation plant after costly repairs failed. The utility responded by helping customers use energy more efficiently, which avoided the need for new power. It also […]
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