Oregon and California
Students Win Fuel Cell Model Car Challenge
High school students from Portland, Oregon, and San Jose, California,
took top honors on Saturday at the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Model Car Challenge,
part of DOE's National Science Bowl competition.
The team from the Woodrow Wilson High School of Portland took first place
in the Grand Prix speed race, and the team from
the Harker School of San Jose won the "King
of the Hill" award by conquering a 20-degree incline with their
hydrogen-powered model car. The two first-place teams will each receive
$1,750 for their schools' science departments. The Model Car Challenge is
one of several hands-on activities in which the 63 National Science Bowl
teams took part on Saturday. Eighteen teams, selected by lottery, used
model car kit components provided by General Motors Corporation to design
and build hydrogen-powered race cars measuring at most one foot wide by two
feet long. See the DOE
press release.
While West Coast schools dominated the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Model Car
Challenge, on Monday an East Coast school won the main event: the 2005
National Science Bowl championship. The team from the Thomas
Jefferson High
School for Science & Technology, located in Alexandria, Virginia,
earned first place for the fourth consecutive year. Clinching the top spot
by answering a question about mathematician Kurt Gödel's
Incompleteness Theorem, the team earned its fourth trophy as well as a
research trip to Alaska,
three computer-based laboratories, and $1,000 for its school's science
department. See the DOE
press release.
DOE created the National Science Bowl in 1991 to encourage high school
students to excel in math and science and to pursue careers in these
fields. The 63 National Science Bowl teams had to first win regional
competitions before congregating in Washington,
D.C., for this weekend's
competition. See the National
Science Bowl Web site.
The State Technologies Advancement Collaborative (STAC) announced Monday
a $4.95-million solicitation for distributed energy and energy efficiency
projects. The solicitation is open to state entities for multi-state
projects involving distributed energy and energy efficiency in industry,
transportation, and buildings, including projects relating to the Rebuild
America Program (DOE recently transferred the management of that program to
STAC). Formed in November 2002, STAC is a five-year pilot project
comprising DOE, the National Association of State Energy Officials, and the
Association of State Energy Research and Technology Transfer Institutions.
See the STAC press release (PDF 108 KB). The
full solicitation is linked to from the STAC
home page. Download
Acrobat Reader.
Long
Island Power, FPL
Energy Apply to Build an Offshore Wind Plant
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The proposed Long Island facility will use GE Energy's
3.6-megawatt wind turbine, shown here installed off the coast of Ireland.
Credit: GE Energy ©2004, General Electric Company
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The Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) and FPL Energy are moving ahead
with their plans to build a 140-megawatt wind power facility off the south shore of Long Island. The two companies
announced last week that they were jointly filing an application with the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, thereby starting an extensive state and
federal review of the project. The project will consist of 40 3.6-megawatt
wind turbines clustered in an eight-square-mile area about 4.1 miles south
of Cedar Beach,
with a 10-mile transmission cable to connect the facility to an existing
substation in West Amityville. See the LIPA press
release.
Meanwhile, the developers of two other North American offshore wind
projects are planning to work together to cut costs. Cape Wind Associates,
LLC plans to build a 420-megawatt wind project on Horseshoe Shoal, five
miles off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts,
and Nai Kun Wind Development Inc. plans to build
a 700-megawatt wind project off the north coast of British Columbia. Under a collaboration
agreement announced Monday, the companies will jointly procure the
foundations, towers, turbines, blades, and power cables for both projects.
The companies also plan to pool their skills and experience on other
aspects of the projects, such as maintenance regimes, marine service
vessels and best practices. See the Nai Kun press release.
While offshore wind projects remain in the planning stages, wind
projects on land continue to charge ahead. Last week, the American Wind
Energy Association (AWEA) increased its forecast for new wind power
capacity this year. AWEA now expects up to 2,500 megawatts of new U.S. wind
power capacity this year, a record growth that could exceed the previous
record by 50 percent. See the AWEA press release.
California Continues to Lead the Way with Large Solar
Projects
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Shell Solar's 980-kilowatt
solar power installation at the Semitropic
Water Storage District in Wasco,
California.
Credit: Shell Solar
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An increasing number of solar energy projects are now being installed
across the United States,
but California
is still king when it comes to really large solar power installations.
Shell Solar provides the best proof: last week alone, the company powered
up a 350-kilowatt solar power system at the Desert Water Agency in Palm
Springs, then dedicated a 980-kilowatt system at the Semitropic
Water Storage District in Wasco, about 25 miles northwest of Bakersfield.
The Palm Springs
system was assembled into large panels at the Shell Solar plant, allowing
for easier installation at the site. The Semitropic
system, which covers an area equal to about four football fields, employs a
unique single-axis tracking system to maximize its power production. See
the Shell Solar press releases from April
26th and April
29th.
California
universities and local governments are also leaders in solar power. Cal
State Northridge recently dedicated a 467-kilowatt system that also
provides shade in one of its parking lots. The campus already has a
225-kilowatt solar power system, making it a leader among California universities. And Alameda County marked Earth Day by
dedicating 1.1 megawatts of new solar arrays, located at seven sites across
the county. The county now has a total of 2.3 megawatts of solar power
projects, all of which were installed by PowerLight
Corporation. See the press releases from Cal
State Northridge and PowerLight.
All of the new solar power systems earned hefty checks from local
utilities, thanks to the state's Self-Generation Incentive Program, which continues
to drive new solar power investments in the state. But while those
utilities encourage their customers to invest in solar power, they are also
investing directly in solar power. For instance, the San Francisco Public
Utilities Commission (SFPUC) approved last week the installation of a
300-kilowatt solar power system on the roof of the city's Northpoint Wastewater Treatment Plant, noting that the
system would pay for itself over the life of the project. In addition, San
Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) announced plans to install as much as
3 megawatts of solar power in its service area. See the press releases from
SFPUC
and SDG&E.
Arizona Passes, Colorado Vetoes Appliance Efficiency Standards
Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano signed a bill last week that sets
minimum energy efficiency standards for 12 products not covered by current
federal standards. Starting in 2008, the law will apply to the following
products sold in Arizona: torchiere light
fixtures, exit signs, commercial refrigerators and freezers, commercial
clothes washers, large commercial air conditioning equipment, icemakers,
spray nozzles used in commercial kitchens, low-voltage distribution
transformers, metal-halide lamp fixtures, power supplies for electronic
devices, unit heaters, and traffic signals. According to the Southwest
Energy Efficiency Project (SWEEP), the standards will save Arizona consumers
and business a total of $650 million on energy bills by 2030. California, Connecticut,
Maryland, and New Jersey have already adopted
efficiency standards on these products. See the history
and text
of House Bill 2390 and the SWEEP press release (PDF 136 KB). Download
Acrobat Reader.
Colorado Governor Bill Owens vetoed a similar bill last week. House Bill
1162 aimed to set minimum energy efficiency standards on 14 products not
currently covered by federal energy efficiency standards. According to the
governor's veto message, Governor Owens prefers to let market forces
generate energy efficiency, with the concern that standards could increase
costs. The governor is also opposed to state-by-state legislation, arguing
that the federal government should set uniform standards. See the governor's
veto message.
Meanwhile, New York Governor George E. Pataki has proposed similar
legislation in his state. The governor's proposed legislation would set
energy efficiency standards for 14 products not currently covered by
federal efficiency standards. Governor Pataki estimates that the
legislation could save New York
consumers $284 million annually when fully implemented. See the governor's
press release.
Portland Aims for Gold with Revised Green Building
Policy
Portland, Oregon, has updated its four-year-old
Green Building Policy and now requires all municipal buildings to obtain
LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The
Gold certification is the second-highest rating under the USGBC LEED
(Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification system. Portland and Scottsdale,
Arizona, are now the only two U.S. cities
that require municipal buildings to acquire LEED Gold certification. The
new policy also requires new city-funded private sector buildings and major
retrofits of city-owned buildings to achieve LEED Silver certification, and
provides for city support of new private building projects to help them
achieve LEED Silver certification. See the press release from the City of
Portland Office of Sustainable Development (PDF
89 KB). Download
Acrobat Reader.
Green building continues to gain momentum in the United States.
In Tennessee, DOE's
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has built a joint institute building
with the University
of Tennessee that is
expected to receive LEED certification. The joint institute uses 25 percent
less energy than comparable buildings. In Maryland, the Maryland Energy
Administration has set its own green building standards, and has recently
awarded tax credits to both a 65-unit residential building and an office
building. Both buildings will be 35 percent more efficient than comparable
buildings, and the office building will also generate 200 kilowatts of
power from a wind turbine and building-integrated solar power panels. See
the ORNL
press release and the Maryland Energy Administration press releases for
the residential building (PDF 61 KB) and
the office building (PDF 65 KB).
Building designers that aim to save energy rely heavily on building
energy simulation software such as DOE's EnergyPlus program. Those designers now have more
computing power to draw on, as the latest version of EnergyPlus
is now available for Windows and Linux operating systems. The new version
includes more weather files, the ability to model more complex ventilation
schemes, and many other new features. See the EnergyPlus
Web page and the full list
of new features on DOE's Building
Technologies Program Web site.
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