| The White House and DOE honored 25 federal government employees, teams, and organizations last week for their efforts to save energy and use renewable energy. The White House honored five energy management teams from the Department of Defense and the General Services Administration with the Presidential Awards for Leadership in Federal Energy Management. The awards went to the General Services Administration Great Lakes Region and four Defense teams: the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base, the Navy's Southwest Region, the Army's Installation Management Agency for its Southeast Region, and the energy conservation program for the Air Force's Pacific facilities. In 2004 alone, the five teams helped save more than $9 million and 900 billion Btu, equivalent to the energy used in 9,800 typical homes. See the DOE press release. DOE honored 20 federal government employees, teams, and organizations for saving more than $14 million in energy costs in the past year. The recipients of the 2005 Federal Energy and Water Management Awards are employees from the U.S. Army, Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy; the departments of Interior and Veterans Affairs; the General Services Administration; and the Smithsonian Institution. The award-winning efforts included renewable energy installations, green power purchases, energy efficiency upgrades, and innovative energy efficiency contracting mechanisms. In addition, federal facilities at DOE, the Interior Department, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration received Energy Saver Showcase Awards for superior building performance and sustainable construction. See the DOE press release and the list of award winners. DOE deployed its first Federal Energy Saving team to a General Services Administration facility in Jamaica, New York, last week. The team will assess operational energy efficiency measures—focusing on low-cost and no-cost measures—and will conduct training, provide summary assessments of long-term efficiency opportunities, and work with on-site personnel to develop an implementation plan. The effort is part of the "Easy Ways to Save Energy" campaign announced by Energy Secretary Bodman on October 3rd. In the coming months, DOE expects to deploy energy-saving teams to the 30 largest federal facilities and the top 200 energy-intensive manufacturing facilities in the United States. See the DOE press release. Galveston-Offshore Wind, LLC is planning to build a 150-megawatt wind power plant about seven miles off the coast of Galveston Island, Texas. The Texas General Land Office (GLO) announced last week that the company, a division of Wind Energy Systems Technology, LLC, has signed a lease agreement for an 11,355-acre area in the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has given the company its approval to build two meteorological test towers in the lease area, and construction of those towers will begin immediately. The wind power project depends on good wind resources, as indicated by the test towers, as well as state and federal approvals. See the GLO press release (PDF 215 KB) and the GLO Web page for the project, which features maps, video, and other information. Download Adobe Reader.  |  The proposed Long Island and Massachusetts facilities will employ GE's 3.6-megawatt wind turbine, shown here off the coast of Ireland.
Credit: Robert Thresher, NREL | The GLO claims the Texas project could be the first offshore wind plant in the nation, but proposed wind projects off the coasts of Massachusetts and Long Island have a head start. Cape Wind LLC and the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) proposed those projects and filed permit applications with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Corps has prepared a draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Massachusetts project. See the Cape Wind and LIPA Web sites and the Corps of Engineers Web pages for the Cape Wind and LIPA projects. To help move ahead on offshore wind power, DOE recently teamed up with the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC) and GE to establish a framework for offshore wind power development. The resulting report proposes forming a national coalition to address responsible development of U.S. offshore wind resources. Meanwhile, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 has shifted the lead authority for such offshore renewable energy projects to the Minerals Management Service (MMS), part of the U.S. Department of Interior. MMS has created a Web page and is required to issue new regulations by May 2006. See the MTC and MMS press releases and the new MMS Renewable Energy and Alternate Uses Web page. New Jersey appears to be the newest hot spot for large-scale solar power installations, as two companies recently installed 500-kilowatt solar power systems in the state. Dome-Tech Solar designed and built the first system for New Jersey American Water (NJAW) using RWE Schott solar panels. Located at the utility's Canal Road water treatment plant in Somerset, the system should displace 15 percent of the plant's peak power demand, saving about $125,000 a year in energy costs. The second project, installed at a Johnson & Johnson facility in Skillman, is slightly larger, at 505 kilowatts. The PowerLight system uses sun tracking to capture 20 percent more solar energy than would a fixed array of solar panels. See the Dome-Tech Web site and the press releases from NJAW and PowerLight. Solar power is taking off in New Jersey because of generous state incentives. Each of two new solar power projects earned a $1.9 million rebate through the state's Clean Energy program, which is administered by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU). With the help of the incentives, New Jersey recently recorded its 750th solar project since 2001, and the number of companies engaging in solar initiatives has grown from just a handful in 1993 to more than 100 today. With a significant number of applications pending, the state plans to approve rebates for hundreds more solar power systems in the coming months. The NJBPU has also launched a green power program, which started on October 1st for the state's largest utilities—Public Service Electric and Gas Company and Jersey Central Power and Light—and will expand to Atlantic City Electric and Rockland Electric Company in April 2006. See the NJBPU press releases about the NJAW system, the Johnson & Johnson system, and the new green power program. October was a busy month for Pennsylvania: Since mid-month, the state awarded 87 energy grants, offered clean energy financing, and helped dedicate two new energy projects. Pennsylvania awarded 97 grants totaling $488,830 to small businesses, mainly for energy efficiency improvements and for installing auxiliary power units in trucks to reduce idling, which wastes fuel and causes unnecessary pollution. Three grants were awarded to solar and wind energy systems, and about 10 others went to projects not related to energy. The state also requested applications for financing to support wind, solar, biomass, and other energy projects. The Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority is providing $3.5 million for grants, loans, or loan guarantees, and applications are due November 15th. In addition, the state marked two projects that were financed in part by its Energy Harvest Program: a landfill gas project that not only generates power, but also sells treated landfill gas to three local manufacturers for use in their boilers, and a biodiesel facility at a fuel terminal that precisely blends the fuel with diesel fuel. See the State of Pennsylvania press releases about the energy efficiency grants, the clean energy financing, and the landfill gas and biodiesel projects. And that's not all: The Sustainable Development Fund (SDF) is offering about $2 million in grants to support new wind power projects in the state. The wind projects must begin commercial operation by the end of next year, and once the SDF determines the total grant for each project, it will be doled out at a rate of 1.5 cents per kilowatt-hour of wind power generated. Applications are due by November 23rd. Created by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission when PECO Energy was restructured, the SDF lends within the PECO Energy's five-county service territory. See the SDF Web site. The Port of Los Angeles is not only the nation's largest port, but its heavy traffic of all sorts of vehicles also makes it one of the largest sources of air pollution in California. To help address the problem, the port announced on October 12th that it plans to purchase freight trucks and in-port cargo handling equipment that run on liquefied natural gas (LNG), compressed natural gas (CNG), electric power, or other alternative fuels. The port currently has $20 million available to begin the switch. The port is considering building an LNG or CNG fueling station within the port, and will also explore the use of hydrogen fuel cells and biofuels. Following up on that announcement, the port has requested statements of interest from biofuel and LNG suppliers. See Port of Los Angeles press releases about the shift to alternative fuels (PDF 42 KB) and the biofuel (PDF 39 KB) and LNG (PDF 39 KB) requests. Download Adobe Reader. Late last year, the port announced a four-year, $52.9-million program to support near-term air quality improvement measures. At that time, the port was the only port in the world where some berthed container ships were using on-shore electrical power to reduce ship idling, a practice the port plans to aggressively expand by the end of next year. See the December press release from the Port of Los Angeles (PDF 111 KB). |
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