| Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham announced yesterday the appointment of Dan Arvizu as director of DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado. Formerly senior vice president and chief technology officer for CH2M Hill, Dr. Arvizu succeeds Vice Admiral Richard Truly, who announced his retirement last June. Midwest Research Institute (MRI) also appointed Dr. Arvizu as senior vice president. MRI, headquartered in Kansas City, has operated and managed NREL for DOE since the lab first opened in 1977, and has teamed with Battelle to run the lab since 1998. "Dan shares our view about the importance of getting our technology out of the lab and into the marketplace, and he is an excellent choice to lead NREL," said DOE Assistant Secretary of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, David K. Garman. "Under Dan's leadership, we expect NREL to achieve new heights of technical excellence and market relevance." Dr. Arvizu holds both a doctorate and master's degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford University and a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from New Mexico State University. He will assume his new post on January 15th. See the DOE press release. The California Energy Commission (CEC) approved new regulations in mid-December that will make appliances sold in the state the most energy-efficient in the nation. The new energy regulations set standards for incandescent lamps; audio and video equipment; residential pool pumps and portable electric spas; evaporative coolers; ceiling fans, exhaust fans and whole house fans; commercial ice makers, refrigerators and freezers; vending machines; commercial hot-food holding cabinets and water dispensers; and other appliances. The regulations go into effect on a staggered schedule beginning in January 2006, and are expected to avoid 100 megawatts of load growth each year they are in effect, as consumers start buying the new appliances. The new regulations also cover external power supplies, the small transformers that power answering machines, cell and cordless phones, and a host of other small consumer products and appliances. These devices draw electricity whenever they are plugged in to an electrical socket, even if the product they are powering is not in use. In this standby mode, some power supplies use 15 times more energy than equivalent energy-efficient models, costing the average California homeowner as much as $75 in wasted electricity each year. The new standard will require power supplies to use at most 0.5 Watts when the device is off, and will start to go into effect in July 2006. See the CEC press release and the Appliance Efficiency Regulations Rulemaking Web page (which includes the proposed regulations). While many of today's appliances have built-in energy-saving features, including "sleep" modes on computers and printers, they lack consistency in the controls for such features. The use of different terms and symbols for controlling low-power modes confuses some users, discouraging them from taking advantage of these energy-saving features. Thankfully, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) approved in early December a new standard, IEEE 1621, which covers the terms, symbols, and indicator lights for such power controls. DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) developed the draft standard with CEC funds. See the LBNL Web site, which includes the draft version of the standard. The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) approved $745 million in funding in late December to support the state's Clean Energy Program. The funds will be allocated over the next four years, with three-quarters of the funds going toward energy efficiency and the remainder going toward renewable energy programs. The funds will help the state achieve its goal of drawing on 300 megawatts of renewable electric generation capacity by the end of 2008, with 90 megawatts consisting of solar photovoltaic power systems. The NJBPU will hold the 2005 budget steady at $139 million but increase it to an average of $202 million per year for the years 2006 to 2008. Funding for the Clean Energy Program comes from electric and gas customers through a charge added to their utility bills. See the NJBPU press release. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced in late December that as of November 1st, 2004, it began buying 100 million kilowatt-hours per year of green power for its facilities in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. The three-year purchase of renewable energy credits will support the generation of renewable power from a biomass power plant in Port Wentworth, Georgia, to offset the electricity from non-renewable sources used by the EPA's facilities in the Triangle Park area. As a result of this and previous purchases, EPA's offices and laboratories are currently meeting 77.7 percent of their electricity needs from renewable energy through a combination of green power purchases and the purchase of renewable energy credits. See the EPA press release and the EPA's related Green Power Web page. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is also looking to make a large green power purchase for the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The agency is requesting bids for between 20 and 80 million kilowatt-hours of green power over a two-year period. The Defense Energy Support Center (DESC) issued a request for proposals in early December, and bids are due on January 11th. See the DESC solicitation. Certification of green power supplies went nationwide in mid-December, as the non-profit Center for Resource Solutions (CRS) announced that it has established a default national certification standard to cover those areas for which a regional standard has not yet been developed. CRS began certifying green power through its Green-e program in California and gradually expanded the process to 32 other states, but that process left many gaps in the national map. See the CRS press release. Companies and government organizations in California have literally racked up a huge number of solar panels in recent weeks. In Fairfield, midway between Sacramento and San Francisco, the new Solano County Government Center features two solar power systems—provided by PowerLight Corporation—that generate a total of 340 kilowatts of power. In Colfax, about 50 miles northeast of Sacramento, Felix Electric installed a 145-kilowatt solar power system at Hill Flat Lumber Company, using solar modules from RWE SCHOTT Solar Inc. And in Borrego Springs, just west of the Salton Sea in southern California, WorldWater & Power Corporation installed a 267-kilowatt solar power system to drive a 200-horsepower irrigation system at the Seley Ranches citrus orchard. See the press releases from PowerLight, RWE SCHOTT Solar, and WorldWater. Finally—just to prove that California doesn't have a monopoly on large solar power systems—Pepsi Cola of Klamath Falls, Oregon, installed 172 kilowatts of solar power at three locations, including a 132-kilowatt system integrated into the company's main office and warehouse. Pacific Power, a PacifiCorp company, supported the project by buying green tags for its Oregon Blue Sky customers and is also providing net metering, which allows the company to earn credit for power fed back into the electrical grid. See the PacifiCorp press release. The first U.S. power plant to be fueled primarily with poultry litter is now under construction in Benson, Minnesota, about 125 miles west of Minneapolis. Fibrowatt LLC completed financing of the 55-megawatt plant in mid-December and immediately began construction. The plant will consume about 700,000 tons per year of biomass, of which about 90 percent will be poultry litter and 10 percent will be other agricultural biomass. Fibrowatt LLC is partly owned by Fibrowatt Ltd., a company that has built three similar plants in the United Kingdom. SNC-Lavalin Power Inc. is building the Minnesota plant under a $142-million contract, and expects the plant to start operating in early 2007. See the press releases from SNC-Lavalin Power and Fibrowatt, as well as Fibrowatt's Benson Project Web page. |
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