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Renewables & Efficiency
This new book, Prospects for Sustainable Energy: A Critical Assessment, published by Cambridge University Press and written by Edward Cassedy, provides a critical overview and assessment of market readiness for the gamut of sustainable energy technologies: solar, biomass, wind, geothermal, ocean energy sources, and solar-derived hydrogen fuel. Written for the non-technical reader, it explores the technical features, status of research and development, and marketability of these alternatives. It addresses arguments for and against the implementation of each option. [sorry this link is no longer available]
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At the University of Colorado, the Student Union, Health Center, and Recreation Center will be running on wind power thanks to the largest student voter turnout in their history. Students voted by a 5 to 1 margin to increase student fees by $1 per semester for 4 years to purchase wind power from Public Service Company of Colorado’s Ponnequin wind farm. The increase in fees will raise $50,000 a year, enough to purchase the entire output of one wind turbine. Using a model for other universities to follow, the student group Clean Energy Now! and the Land and Water Fund of the Rockies ran a week long campaign providing information about wind power and distributing colorful pinwheels. The central campus lawn was covered with the pinwheels, a “CU wind farm.”
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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Postal Service, and the Cities of Seattle and Santa Barbara, lined up to support the Earth Day campaign for clean energy. Secretary Richardson of the DOE announced the department will purchase three percent of its electricity needs from non-hydro renewable energy sources by 2005, climbing to 7.5 percent by 2010. The Postal Service signed a three-year contract to buy renewable energy for 1,000 sites in California. The Seattle City Council unanimously adopted a proposal to meet Seattle’s future electricity needs with no net emissions of greenhouse gases. The city will rely on existing hydropower and will develop wind, geothermal, solar and landfill gas facilities, and efficiency measures. If the city resorts to using fossil fuels, it will offset carbon emissions by methods such as forest protection. The City of Santa Barbara announced it will supply all municipal buildings with 100 percent renewable energy.
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The Energy Policy Act mandates that by fiscal year 2000 federal buildings must use 20 percent less energy than 1985 levels. The feds beat the deadline by a year and have accrued $19 billion in savings. In addition, the Department of Energy reports they saved $2 billion in 1999 alone. The federal government is the single largest energy user in the U.S., accounting for almost two percent of total national consumption. Its annual energy bill runs at about $8 billion. The 20 percent savings translates into the energy needed to supply over 1.25 million households for a year. The departments that achieved the 20 percent reduction are: Departments of Energy, Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Justice, Transportation, NASA, Tennessee Valley Authority, and the US Postal Service. The agencies accomplished this goal through a variety of measures including purchase of Energy Star equipment, upgrading lighting and HVAC maintenance procedures. The Postal Service, for example, purchased 30,000 Energy Star exit signs resulting in $600,000 worth of savings from more efficient lighting.
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Updated appliance energy efficiency standards would save $14 billion a year – 5.3 percent of current residential and commercial energy consumption in 2020 – while reducing power plant emissions according to “Opportunity Knocks: Capturing Pollution Reductions and Consumer Savings from Updated Appliance Efficiency Standards,” a new report by the Appliance Standards Awareness Project. The report displays how appliance standards benefit people and the environment state-by-state. While the most populous and warmest states see the greatest savings and pollution reductions, all states benefit. The report states the U.S. Department of Energy is running years behind schedule in setting new performance standards for water heaters, fluorescent light ballasts, central air conditioners and clothes washers. It set two new efficiency standards in the past eight years – one for room air conditioners that takes effect this October, and one for refrigerators that comes into effect in 2001. [sorry this link is no longer available]
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Clean power, clean air, clean cars, and clean investments are the four tenets of the Earth Day 2000 Clean Energy Agenda. The goal of this year’s Earth Day – the 30th – is to mobilize people around the world in a unified call to action for renewable and efficient energy. Your organization can endorse the Earth Day Network’s Clean Energy Agenda online at: [sorry this link is no longer available] and, of course, get involved in many other ways. You can work with the World Wildlife Fund, for example, to develop a custom plan for your business to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or you can plan your own event. The Alliance to Save Energy is offering some great energy efficient prizes in an online contest as part of its celebration of the 30th anniversary of Earth Day. Some of the prizes are Whirlpool’s soon-to-debut Conquest refrigerator, Andersen Windows patio door, and a Black and Decker cordless electric mulching lawn mower. You can enter once a day until April 28. You just have to answer a four-question quiz. [sorry this link is no longer available]
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When Bob Vila, CBS Early Show home improvement expert, toured the White House in December he learned how the Greening of the White House initiative has saved taxpayers $1,400,000 since 1993. During the show, Bill Clinton made an appearance and made a pitch to individuals – it’s not just Congress that has to be convinced, “we have to convince ordinary people that you can actually cut your energy use and improve the economy; that you don’t have to hurt the economy.” You can watch the video online.
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In a June 1999 workshop, U.S. photovoltaics industry leaders gathered to analyze technology barriers and research needs of the industry and to create a roadmap for the industry to reach its full market potential. The PV Roadmap Steering Committee suggests an aggressive growth strategy with a goal of providing 15 percent of new U.S. peak generating capacity by 2020, at a growth rate of 25 percent a year. Some of the areas selected as high priorities include creating an effective industry coalition, educating the public, and long-term, low interest financing. In a thoughtful paper,
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The goal of providing 10 percent of the U.S. western states’ power through geothermal is achievable by 2020, according to Bill Richardson, Energy Secretary. The U.S. Department of Energy’s “GeoPowering the West” is a new initiative to capitalize on the abundant geothermal resources found in the western United States, including Alaska and Hawaii. Geothermal plants in California currently produce about 1,600 megawatts of power, about seven percent of the states annual power needs. $4.8 million in research grants for geothermal energy technology development projects will be disbursed. The plan calls for eight states to have geothermal electric power facilities by 2006, and seven million homes to be powered with geopower by 2010. Public comments are being accepted until April 30 on the draft action plan: [sorry this link is no longer available]
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A five-year, CFC-Free Energy Efficient Refrigerator Project has begun in China. The comprehensive policy bundles all the elements for market transformation: energy efficient choices and education for customers; technical assistance and financial incentives for manufacturers to build them; distributor incentives to purchase them; dealer incentives to stock them; and a bulk purchasing program for Chinese government agencies. In 1989, the U.S. EPA agreed to help China eliminate CFCs from refrigerators. A successful prototype model of 40 percent greater efficiency was produced and tested, and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab developed a market transformation program. China’s refrigerator industry is the largest in the world with sales growing at 21 percent a year. From 1985-1998, households owning a refrigerator climbed from 7-76 percent, but the average Chinese refrigerator is about half as efficient as European refrigerators. Since 80 percent of China’s electricity comes from coal, the benefits of increasing efficiency are tremendous in this populous, increasingly affluent country. Lawrence Berkeley Lab predicts, for example, that in addition to avoided emissions from coal-burning plants, the program will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by over 100 million tons as a result of greater efficiency. Earlier this year the Chinese government certified 103 domestic appliances as energy-efficient, […]
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