From Renewable Energy World:

More than first thought?
US wind report stirs minor tempest


A recent report from Stanford University points to a far greater US wind resource in the Midwest than was previously estimated. This is not exactly breaking news, according to consulting meteorologists, but as Paul Gipe observes, the report is a timely indicator of the future direction of the US wind industry.



The US Midwest offers a greater wind resource than has previously been thought GE WIND

Reuters picked up the story from a press release. Within five days, 10 media outlets had covered the topic, including CNN. The European wind industry was abuzz: the United States has far more wind energy potential than once thought, the American 'El Dorado' was an even richer prize than they had dreamed. A quarter of the US was windy enough to compete with coal-fired generation, or so said the report. By the end of the news cycle, Europeans were excitedly calling their Yankee colleagues for more details. They were puzzled by the collective yawn in some US circles.

It wasn't that Americans doubted the findings made by Cristina Archer,1 a doctoral student in civil and environmental engineering at the prestigious Stanford University in California, and her advisor, Mark Jacobson - it was simply that the results didn't seem that new or surprising. 'No matter how you look at it, there's a hell of a lot of wind in the lower 48 states,' says the Department of Energy's Jack Cadogan. 'Whether it's X or 2X doesn't matter … X is very large.'

Professional wind meteorologists also seemed nonplussed by the media frenzy. 'It's not jaw-dropping,' says Jack Kline. 'No surprise that the Dakotas are windy, that's nothing new.' Some wouldn't be quoted, others were openly sceptical. 'It's nice to see some academics that have no feel for our science take an interest,' says Ron Nierenberg, a cantankerous meteorologist with 26 years in the wind business. 'It's a fresh but primitive approach.'

On the other hand, Florida renewable energy activist Frank Leslie was elated with the report's findings, especially that the south-eastern coast and the Gulf of Mexico held a potential bounty of wind energy offshore. Leslie hopes to use the report to counter the conventional wisdom 'that there's no wind in Florida'. He was also excited that the Stanford report found much greater wind shear than was once thought. He was not the only one to be surprised and pleased by the report - the Stanford researchers say they received calls from wind developers who wanted more detailed data from them, especially from Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Illinois and Missouri.

Overlooked in the brouhaha was Archer's potentially more significant finding that large numbers of geographically dispersed wind plants would provide significantly less hourly deviation in power generation than a single plant. Again, not a new finding: the results do buttress those of several earlier studies in North America and Europe. Yet in the midst of a broad energy policy debate in the US, Archer's report could tip the balance among neo-conservative politicians who find the idea of wind energy - in fact, renewable energy in general - somehow unworthy of serious consideration, largely because it can't be turned on at will.

'Our paper shows that intermittency can be overcome by increasing the number of stations'

Intermittency has always been wind's Achilles heel. Wind can't be counted on because the wind doesn't always blow, its critics say. 'Intermittency is an important issue,' says Archer. 'Our paper shows that this can be overcome by increasing the number of stations.' In meteorological jargon, the standard deviation decreases as the number of stations increases. She says that the results of the study are counter-intuitive. Wind can indeed be counted upon - there will always be some wind somewhere - if there are enough stations widely dispersed geographically (as can be seen in Figure 1).

Archer, also a meteorologist, undertook the study at the request of her thesis adviser and co-author, Mark Jacobson. The study was never part of Archer's dissertation, and she's somewhat overwhelmed by the attention it has generated.



FIGURE 1. Power wind speed distribution, divided into six 4-hour blocks for (a) one station (b) three stations (c) eight stations. This illustrates the decrease in low- and no-wind periods as the number of stations increase. Source: Cristina Archer1 (modified by permission of the American Geophysical Union)

In principle the study was relatively simple. Archer examined balloon sounding data from 87 stations across the US to find wind speeds at 80 metres above ground level (see Figure 2). She also compared the soundings at 80 metres with hourly wind speeds at several meteorological stations with long-term data.



FIGURE 2. Map of US wind speed extrapolated to 80 metres, averaged over all hours of the year 2000. Source: Cristina Archer1 (modified by permission of the American Geophysical Union)

One of the more contentious findings in the Stanford study was Archer's bold assertion that she had discovered much higher wind speeds at 80 metres than those which would be obtained by previous methods of extrapolation, such as the power law equation. Unfortunately, Archer didn't use contemporary meteorological data from tall towers to validate her technique and her projected wind shear. 'We wanted reliable, official data,' she argues. 'You could spend years collecting data from various sources.' Instead, she relied solely on data easily accessible from the web. 'We would certainly want to verify our results in the next phase,' she says.

TALL TOWER DATA

Unbeknownst to Archer, there are a number of very tall towers in the US with hourly meteorological data, and more towers are being added under a new DOE programme. Someone who would like to help Archer's study is Rory Artig, manager of Minnesota's highly respected Wind Resource Assessment Program (WRAP).

Data from Minnesota show extremely high levels of shear, and shear that varies dramatically at different heights above the ground

Artig says that he could provide Stanford with 90-metre meteorological data from around the state. Archer could then work with actual, hourly data at the heights needed, instead of relying on either airport data or the limited sounding data available from balloons. Minnesota operates seven such towers, and 'we'll have two more by mid-2003', Artig adds.

Minnesota's State Energy Office has operated WRAP for nearly a decade, and has placed all the data collected in the public domain. The state's outreach has been so successful that the Energy Office has distributed more than 5000 CD-ROMs of wind data. Indeed, so popular are the CDs that the state had to produce another 10,000 copies, according to Artig.

Yet Archer points out that theirs is the very first study of wind at 80 metres for the whole country, as opposed to state-wide studies, such as the Minnesotan one. 'Even though we did not use tower data to validate our findings, we directly used sounding data in our methodology and indirectly used tower data from 13 sites to derive the hourly trends of winds at 80 metres', she says.

HIGH SHEAR

If the Stanford researchers had examined Minnesota's data, they would have found extremely high levels of shear, and shear that varies dramatically at different heights above the ground. This is one reason that consulting meteorologists were baffled by the attention given to the study.

The tall towers in Minnesota's programme measure wind speeds at 30 metres, 60 metres and 90 metres above the ground. What Artig found is startling - surface friction coefficient exceeding 0.40 at some tower heights. Meteorologists had suspected that such a strong wind shear existed from the so-called nocturnal jet, but it wasn't until data were collected that it became apparent how beneficial it might be. Wind farm developers in the Midwest were incorporating these high shear values in their performance projections by the late 1990s.



Buffalo Ridge in Minnesota - site of the Lake Benton Wind Power Facility - is a region with high wind shear GE WIND

For example, the WRAP tower at Chandler, Minnesota recorded wind shear from the 30-50 metre heights typical of the Great Plains (0.14 or 1/7) and representative of those Archer labelled as too conservative. But at heights from 50 metres to 70 metres, shear jumped to 0.42, and this knowledge was widely disseminated in the industry.


The very first study of wind at 80 metres for the whole country, as opposed to state-wide studies

'The resource is very strong,' said Artig in a 1999 interview. 'You see quite high shear at the upper levels.' Meteorologists who have examined the Minnesota data as well as those from private sources agreed with Artig. 'We've seen high shear, particularly in the wintertime,' said consulting meteorologist Kline at the time. The upper Midwest is 'not a particularly robust wind regime otherwise'.



Equipment mounted on this gin pole collects wind speed data PHOENIX ENGINEERING

NOCTURNAL JET

High shear may be a regional phenomenon. If so, this augurs well for wind development throughout the upper Midwest; it's characteristic of Minnesota's Buffalo Ridge, said Ron Nierenberg in 1999. At exposed sites in Minnesota, he explained, wind shear is often double that of the 1/7 power law, from 0.2 to 0.3, and it is similar in Iowa and Wisconsin. It is the use of the 1/7 power law that Archer's paper called into question.

During summer months, when wind speeds are typically low in a continental wind regime, a 'nocturnal jet' may occur at a certain height above ground, where the friction coefficient in the power law equation can reach 0.4.This 'jet' has nothing to do with the jet stream, elaborated Nierenberg: it's simply a layer of fast-moving air. 'There are lots of places in the world where there is a localized zone of high winds, a so-called "jet",' he says.

In fact the awareness of this high-speed jet has led to consternation. The wind speeds at current hub heights in the Midwest may be so great at times that they exceed the design margins for today's wind turbines. The high speeds could require new fatigue margins for rotors, turbine designers worried, when they gathered at the American Wind Energy Association's 2002 conference in Portland, Oregon. After a year's worth of additional data to delineate the problem, DOE has happily found that the problem isn't as severe as initially thought, but bears watching, as the powerful gusts could shorten the lifespan of turbines. If that happened, it would jeopardize all the rosy economic scenarios which depend on the bulk of wind farm profits occurring in later years.

The wind resources at today's hub heights 'are substantial around the state,' concludes Minnesota's Artig. 'The developable area is much greater than - possibly double - that we once thought.' This is even more so, explains Artig, with the low-wind speed turbines becoming available, such as NEG-Micon's 1.65 MW turbine with its huge, 82-metre rotor.


The development of low-wind speed turbines is critical to the future of wind energy in the US

LOW-WIND SPEED TURBINES

Archer's paper contends that wind is competitive with new coal- and gas-fired power plants in Class 3 wind resources, the equivalent of 80-metre hub height wind speeds of about 7 m/s (see Figure 2).This is a possibility - but only if new low-wind speed turbines, widely used in Germany, can prove themselves.

NEG-Micon isn't the only manufacturer to field so-called low-wind speed turbines. Most major manufacturers provide the option, whether it's for the American heartland or Germany's Mittelgebirge. In essence, low-wind speed turbines incorporate a large-diameter rotor relative to generator rating, and are installed on very tall towers, such as the 80-metre tower heights used in the Stanford study. Some towers in Germany reach 100 metres in height.

Consider two other manufacturers. The MD series of turbines, manufactured by several companies in Germany, can be ordered in both a 70-metre and a 77-metre version. Though both are rated at 1.5 MW, the larger turbine sweeps 20% more, by area, of the wind stream. Similarly, GE Wind offers its 1.5s model with a 70.5-metre rotor, and a 1.5sl with a 77-metre rotor. Both are rated at 1.5 MW.

The development of low-wind speed turbines is critical to the future of wind energy in the US, where the commodity price of electricity determines what is built. For this reason, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory has issued a request for proposals to develop new low-wind speed turbine designs, says NREL's Paul Migliore.

To make wind work widely in the US, the industry needs to be able to develop moderate wind sites that are also close to load centres, such as the Chicago or Minneapolis-St Paul metropolitan regions. There are 20 times as much Class 4 wind resources as Class 6 resources in the US, according to early NREL studies.

In the NREL system, Class 4 wind resources represent average wind speeds of 7.5-8.1 m/s at 80 metres (5.8 m/s at 10 metres). Class 6 resources average 8.6-9.4 m/s at 80 metres (6.7 m/s at 10 metres).Most commercial wind development in the US today is in Class 6 areas.

Most Class 6 resources are in remote areas distant from both load centres and transmission lines. Typically, Class 6 areas are 500 miles (800 kilometres) from major load centres. In contrast, many Midwestern cities are within 100 miles (160 kilometres) of Class 4 wind resources. At these distances, the transmission network is denser and transmission is less likely to become a stumbling block to greatly expanded wind development.

For NREL, low-wind speed designs can be more than simply larger-diameter rotors and tall towers. They can incorporate new blades or control strategies, or 'technology improvement opportunities' in NREL-speak.

The interim milestone for the new turbines is NREL's infamous '3-cent' turbine - that is, the turbine must produce wind-generated electricity for 3 cents per kilowatt-hour in Class 6 resources by 2004. NREL's target for the new round of low-wind speed turbine development is 3 cents per kilowatt-hour in Class 4 wind resources by 2012. While Europeans may raise an eyebrow at Yankee chutzpah, NREL argues, 'why have a target if it isn't aggressive?'



Measuring US wind speeds: dual anemometers and single wind vane, mounted on tall tower with double-sided boom NRG SYSTEMS

In 2001, the US Department of Energy (DOE) launched its new Low-Wind Speed Turbine programme. NREL's present request for proposals is for the second round of contracts in the programme. NREL will award contracts for conceptual design, component development or full-system development. Certain companies bidding on the contracts hope to develop new wind turbine designs, some for offshore. In the previous round, some proposed direct-drive generators, others simple one-stage gearboxes with permanent-magnet generators. A few are outlandish, and reminiscent, in their off-the-wall approach, of those proffered in the heyday of DOE research and development in the 1970s and early 1980s.

In the first round, one contract for US$16 million was awarded to Jim Dehlsen's Clipper Wind for a multiple-generator drive train. The contract includes cost-sharing, but NREL acknowledges that about half of the contract is public funds. Another contract was awarded to Enron Wind, ironically the company that Dehlsen once led. Theoretically, foreign firms can apply for the contracts, says NREL, but Congressional limitations thwart participation to all but the most determined.

STIRRING THE POT

The Stanford report stirred the professional and political pot in the US at a critical time, when Congress was in the midst of debating a massive new energy bill. 'We certainly welcome the Stanford contribution,' says the DOE's Cadogan. He could add that the report is particularly useful at this time.

Archer's report once more focuses attention on the nation's abundant wind resources. In doing so she and her colleague forced DOE and NREL to drag out their studies, new and old, to confirm to new media and political queries - yet again - that, yes, it's windy out there. 'We're finding a lot more wind just by refining the resolution of our mapping,' says Cadogan.


Over the last two years, developers have proposed more than 3000 MW of offshore

With the imprimatur of one of the US's most elite universities and a skilful press office, Archer's scientific paper has successfully lodged itself in the public debate on the nation's energy future. While her results may have come as a complete surprise, her timing was impeccable.

---

Paul Gipe is the author of several books about wind energy including Wind Power for Farm, Home & Business, scheduled for release in winter 2003-2004.

---

REFERENCE

1. Archer, C. L., and Jacobson, M. Z. 'The spatial and temporal distributions of U.S. winds and wind power at 80 m derived from measurements'. In Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 108, No. D9, 4289. American Geophysical Union. 2003.

- posted by Daniel @ 10:50 PM

 
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- posted by Daniel @ 10:05 PM

 


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- posted by Daniel @ 6:24 PM

 
From the AWEA:

Abstract Deadline Extended for Global WINDPOWER 2004

The Call for Papers for the Global WINDPOWER 2004 Conference and Exhibition has received an overwhelming response. To accommodate this extra demand, we have extended the deadline until October 31, 2003. To submit an abstract, visit www.awea.org/global04.html and click on Call for Papers.

ABSTRACT TOPICS

The Global WINDPOWER 2004 Conference and Exhibition Steering Committee has developed the following conference theme:

The Future of Wind Energy: An international perspective on the vision,goals and challenges facing the wind energy industry

The conference will focus on the wind industry's global potential, challenges and solutions. Each day of the conference will start with a plenary session featuring invited speakers from around the globe addressing this theme.

Following the plenary session each day will be a series of technical and educational programs for which abstracts are being solicited. These programs are organized into three main topic areas or tracks:

Policy Track: This track will focus on how policy can assist and hinder the industry in achieving its goals. Policy related papers are solicited in each of the following areas:

* Grid Access and Transmission
* Research and Development
* Experience with Market Support Mechanisms
* Developing Country/Emerging Market Focus
* Focus on the Midwest of the USA
* National and Global Region Programs
* State and National Region Programs
* Offshore Policy
* Pricing and Valuing Wind Energy
* Definition and Control of Green Attributes

Technical Track: This track will address the technical problems and solutions facing the industry. The focus will be on technology and how it can help the industry achieve its goals. Technical papers are solicited in each of the following areas:

* Forecasting Challenges and Solutions
* Advances in Turbine, Component and Materials Technology
* Approaches to Loads Reduction
* Resource Assessment & Micrositing Strategies and Experience
* Advanced Small Turbine and Hybrid System Technology
* Utility Integration Analysis and Experience
* Future Applications (Hydrogen, Storage, Desalination, etc)
* Loads Prediction Challenges and Solutions
* Operations and Maintenance

Business Track: This track will focus on business oriented information and approaches to achieving the industries goals. The Turbine Manufacturer and Component Vendor forums will provide manufacturers of turbines and components an opportunity to present their latest products, with an emphasis on how these products move the industry toward its goals. Papers are
solicited in the following categories:

* Financing and Investment Strategies
* Technical and Legal Issues for Investors
* Risk Reduction and Mitigation
* Turbine Manufacturers Forum
* Component Vendor Forum
* Financing in Developing Countries and Emerging Markets
* Development Challenges & Solutions
* MW Scale Operating Experience
* Offshore Operating Experience
* Wind Energy for Farms, Homes and Small Business
* Green Market Mechanisms and NIMBY Issues
* Utility Programs

ABSTRACT SELECTION PROCESS

Abstracts will be reviewed by an international steering committee comprised of wind energy experts. The following is a list of the primary criteria that will be used to select abstracts:

* Abstracts indicate how the work will be related to the conference themes of the industry's potential and identifying and solving the industry's challenges in the future.
* Work is relevant and is of interest to conference attendees.
* Work is new or presents a new perspective on known material.
* Abstract is well organized and clearly describes the work and its relevance to the industry.

PLENARY SESSIONS

Each day will start with a plenary session addressing the overall program theme of The Future of Wind Energy - An International Perspective. The themes for each session are listed below. It is intended that the sessions will build on the previous days session to the extent possible. It is hoped that each session will include speakers from various portions of the world, addressing the industry's global potential, challenges and solutions.

Day 1 - Visions for Wind Energy - Near and long term potential
Day 2 - Defining and Meeting the Challenges
Day 3 - Implementing the Vision: Successful Strategies

POSTER SESSION

With the overwhelming response of the Poster Sessions at WINDPOWER 2003, and to accommodate as many quality presentations as possible, additional space for the presentation of poster material is being provided. Posters will be
selected through several methods: 1) Visual presentations that were not accepted in the speaking slot, 2) Authors specifically identifying an interest in a poster presentation, and 3) through invitation. This year, posters will be identified and displayed by subject and group. To complement the General Poster Area, two new poster categories have been created. These new categories will include a Commercial & Business category and an Academic & Research category.

WORKSHOPS

This year a series of interactive workshops in each of the following topic areas are being considered. The workshops are intended to encourage less formal dialog between the panelists and audience addressing the participants experience and ideas in the topic areas.

* Transmission: Obtaining access that works
* Finance: Lowering the Cost of Capital
* Research and Development: What is needed
* Utility Experience: Approaches, Costs and Challenges of Integration
* Community Engagement: Successes and Failures
* North American Offshore: Opportunities and Challenges
* Project Development: Alternative Strategies
* Taking Small Wind to the Next Level: Reaching Industry Goals
* Transportation and Installation: Challenges and Solutions
* Insurance and Risk Reduction: An International Perspective
* Issues in Developing Countries and Emerging Markets

If you are interested in leading or speaking in one of these workshops, please contact Stephen Miner directly at sminer@awea.org or (202) 383-2504.

EXHIBITORS

Exhibitors will also be able to participate in Exhibitor Presentations that will be conducted on the Exhibit Floor during the conference. This year there will be an Exhibitor Presentation area in the center of the exhibit hall where exhibiting companies can make a presentation regarding their products and services. Sign ups for these presentations will begin in January.

Please remember to utilize the following link for more information on the Global WINDPOWER 2004 Conference and Exhibition or to submit an abstract: www.awea.org/global04.html

If you have any questions please feel free to contact Stephen Miner, the Conference Director at sminer@awea.org or (202) 383-2504. We look forward to receiving your abstract.

Robert Z. Poore
Global WINDPOWER 2004 Conference and Exhibition Chairperson
President
Global Energy Concepts

-----------------------------------------------------

The World of Wind Energy is coming together at Global WINDPOWER 2004!
Global WINDPOWER 2004 Conference & Exhibition
March 28 - 31, 2004
McCormick Place
Chicago, Illinois USA
www.awea.org/global04.html

- posted by Daniel @ 3:56 PM

 
Time for a re-statement of why I publish this weBlog:

Wind energy has huge potential in the United States. It's estimated that the USA has the greatest on-shore potential of any country, to the best of my knowledge. There are those that call the USA The Saudi Arabia of Wind. There is estimated by the DOE to be enough potential to provide more electricity with wind power, if it were fully developed from on-shore wind projects, than the US currently uses in it's entirety. And that is just on-shore potential.

Along the coastlines of the US, the potential is vast. Wind is very strong within fifty miles or so of the land-ocean boundaries because of the combination of extreme flatness of the ocean and the near constant temperature differential between the land and the sea.

It's pretty clear and obvious to most folks that wind energy is pollution free. What's not widely known, is that current utility scale technology is capable of producing power at costs directly competitive with other "dirty" forms of generation technology. The great issues facing wind today are mostly political, conceptual, and transmission system access. The greatest potential exists out in the far Midwestern plains such as the Dakotas, Montana, and Western Minnesota. These areas are generally far from large cities, so consequentially transmission capacity lines between these areas and places like Chicago, Detroit, etc, are still needing to be constructed. It is happening folks, albeit slowly.

Now, one thing that many people do not realize is that states like Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan are sitting on a gold mine of wind energy potential. Or, more properly, next to the mine. The Great Lakes are probably the area in the USA with the third largest inland wind energy potential. Think of just the nickname for Chicago. "The Windy City". Milwaukee is even windier, I can tell you. Why? Because they sit on the edge of a great flat area where there is both a land-water temperature differential, and a large flat expanse of water that is comparably shallow. Oilrigs certainly operate in deeper waters. And you won't have to construct transmission lines all the way from the plains of Montana to put it to use.

The Great Lakes area has an opportunity to get the jump on wind energy's future, if that fact is recognized and exploited. Wind energy means jobs for construction and maintenance workers, thousands of them. Wind energy means leasing rights and extra money for family farmers struggling to make it on agriculture alone. In most cases farmers can grow crops right up to the base of a windmill. The land footprint has a small impact on total farm acreage. Wind energy also means freedom from fluctuating fuel prices. Wind is free. The cost of a barrel of polluting oil can be raised or lowered drastically based on fears or political whims. The only costs for wind power are engineering, generating equipment, transmission lines, and maintenance. All of these costs apply to other forms of generation, plus fuel costs.

Even not considering the Great Lakes at all, the land areas of Wisconsin and Illinois are considered 18th and 16th in wind energy potential respectively.

We need our political leaders taking strong action to be sure wind energy has fair and effective access to transmission networks. We need a comprehensive policy of Great Lakes wind energy development and resource sharing. We need strong commitment now from local colleges and universities to training wind energy professionals and maintenance workers. We need aggressive pursuit of wind energy equipment manufacturers locating here in the Great Lakes area. And we need aggressive pursuit of wind energy projects and venture capital.

The potential gains are enormous. We've all seen the flow of good manufacturing jobs out of the area. Well, they can't tell the wind to blow in another country so it's more "convenient" or cheaper to produce. The wind is perfectly happy to whip up opportunities for us right around here.

Please, visit the American Wind Energy Association's website at www.awea.org for facts, education, and networking information. They are the leading trade organization for wind energy in the Untied States.

And please, write your political leaders and continuing education administrators at every level, especially local, asking them to help secure our economic future AND clean up the environment at the same time.

Thank you.


OK, here's the Department of Energy (DOE) wind resource potential map for the United States:



Notice those dark blue areas out on the Great Lakes...our "Gold mine" of wind energy potential.

THAT is why I publish this weBlog. Because we here in the Great Lakes States have the potential to have a very, very large impact on overall U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, as well as other atmospheric pollutants and freshwater contaminants. A very huge impact for the better, all while adding a huge economic powerhouse to the regional economy, creating thousands of new jobs in the Great Lakes region of both the U.S. and Canada. Together, we could make the Great Lakes region one of the most economically independent, stable, and wealthy in the world through development of all the potential renewable resources available to us, AND help drastically clean up the environment and preserve it. The United States, if it took steps in the right directions, could free itself of the awful shackles imposed by fossil fuel use and the dogs of war that go along with it, and the Great Lakes stands in a unique position to lead that charge if we are willing to take up the banner for a cleaner future and enhanced national security through energy independence and economic strength.

(Opinion by Daniel A. Stafford)
- posted by Daniel @ 3:51 AM

 
Also from Power Engineering...

Rising Wind — Time to Take a Closer Look

By Jim Caldwell, Policy Director,
American Wind Energy Association

Wind power is a reality today. More than 2,000 MW of wind generation — enough to serve more than 600,000 average American homes — were installed in the U.S. in the past two years alone. With continued government encouragement to accelerate its development, this increasingly competitive source of energy can provide at least six percent of the nation's electricity by 2020 (about 100,000 MW of nameplate capacity) and revitalize farms and rural communities — without consuming any natural resource or emitting any pollution or greenhouse gases.

Perhaps because of its growing success, questions about the feasibility and cost of integrating large amounts of wind into the grid have arisen within the traditional energy community. Some are disturbed by the fact that the wind does not blow all of the time, making a wind plant's generation variable and generally outside human command – thus quite different from other utility generating options.

Many of the assertions that have been made about wind integration issues over the past two decades have a grain of truth. Indeed, it would be better if wind were "dispatchable" like most other generating resources. Yet despite its modest drawbacks, the wind energy industry has continued to advance steadily, weathering a difficult policy environment, and now stands as the "poster child" of the energy crises of the 1970s.

The amount of wind in the U.S. generating mix, and in many regional portfolios, can be substantially increased with little or no operating difficulty. Wind today amounts to roughly 0.6 percent of national generating capacity, and 0.3 percent of electricity supply. Grids in California and Texas today operate with roughly 10 times that level of wind energy without difficulty. Grids in Denmark, and parts of Germany and Spain, operate with roughly 100 times that level of wind energy and only now are beginning to think about "special" investments in order to allow further expansion of wind energy.

Critics often suggest that because of its variability, wind cannot serve a given, steady amount of consumer demand. In fact, electricity demand is a constantly moving target. The more accurate picture is one of a number of generating plants moving on and off line throughout the day to meet a steadily shifting load. At any one time, only some 15 percent of the total generating capacity on line is consciously "dispatched" to keep load and generation in balance. Obviously, a variable generating source fits into this latter picture much more readily. In fact, at relatively low "penetrations" (where wind is providing less than, say, 10-20 percent of the electricity on a system in any given hour), its variability is essentially lost within the larger, shifting variability of the system.

A real-world example of a high-wind utility system can be seen in western Denmark, where the utility ELTRA obtains more than 100 percent of its electricity from wind during some low-load hours of the year (the surplus is exported), and where wind constitutes more than 50 percent of required system capacity and non-dispatchable small combined-heat-and-power plants constitute another 30 percent. ELTRA is indeed making changes to its system to improve its operations and to accommodate new offshore wind farms, but there is no indication that a wholesale shift away from wind is needed or desired.

Finally, critics have also suggested that the added costs of incorporating wind's variability will be substantial — 2 cents/kWh or more. But a series of recent studies by Xcel Energy, the Bonneville Power Administration, and PacifiCorp, as well as several European countries, have found the actual cost at "moderate" penetration levels (15-25 percent of the total energy requirement) to be roughly an order of magnitude lower, or, at most, about 0.2 to 0.3 cents/kWh.

The limits to adding wind generation are generally economic, not technical. The technical limit without significant special investment like storage or dedicated export is reached at the point when wind is providing about 40 percent of the total electricity generated on the system on an annual basis. The costs associated with adding wind are negligible at low penetration levels, modest at medium levels, and can be moderated even at relatively high level. What constitutes "low," "medium," and "high" penetration levels is variable, and primarily depends on the size of the region in question, the "tariff" and cost allocation structure that applies to users of the transmission system, the "stiffness" of the transmission grid, and the flexibility of other generation on the system.

When nuclear power was first introduced in large amounts to the U.S. utility system, a number of "special" investments and changes in operating procedures were required to accommodate it and the possibility it brought of large, "lumpy" plants suddenly going out of service and imperiling system stability. Wind power is simply another new energy source, with different operating characteristics, that will require its own set of changes to be fully integrated.

Wind is cost effective for widespread commercial application — new wind plants can and do compete with new generating plants using other technologies. Today, most new generating plants constructed in the U.S. are fueled by natural gas. Yet, new wind plants are expected to be cheaper than new gas plants as the existing stores of natural gas are used up and as new capital must be spent to discover more domestic natural gas or import it from areas of the world with a surplus.

Given the many advantages that wind offers to utility managers (reduced water use, no emissions or wastes to manage, fixed energy price, added diversity and reduced fuel price risk, strong economic development benefits for rural states and counties), it is time to give this energy source a closer look.
Power Engineering September, 2003
Author(s) : Jim Caldwell

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- posted by Daniel @ 3:30 AM

 
From Power Engineering...

Chicago Museum Goes Green With Cogen System

Steve Blankinship,
Associate Editor

The world-famous Chicago Museum of Science and Industry has a long history of offering entertaining and educational exhibits that demonstrate scientific principles - an actual captured WW II German submarine, a coal mine, a dairy farm, and a massive model railroad among a few examples. With the recent installation of a 1.75 MW cogeneration system designed to provide up to 80 percent of the museum's heat, hot water and electricity, the museum hopes to develop the green installation into what may be the only working cogeneration museum exhibit in the world.

While the goal of making the installation into a working public exhibit is still in need of funding, the new cogeneration system - commissioned in late January - has already started saving money for the museum on its energy bills.

Key organizations behind the project were the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Gas Technology Institute (GTI). In November, 2000, GTI was awarded a grant from DOE to test and demonstrate a hybrid building cooling, heating and power (BCHP) system which would utilize a natural gas powered generator set (250 - 300 kW) and a desiccant system. An initial site for the demonstration project was one of the new Chicago police stations, but an economic analysis determined the building had inadequate thermal loads and would have required too long of a payback period to be practical.

Cummins and GTI approached the museum to discuss the project. After completion of an economic analysis by GTI, the museum agreed to be the host site for the demonstration. Since the scope of the project increased from a 300 kW system to a 1.75 MW system, GTI secured additional funding from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs, the City of Chicago's Department of Environment, and the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation. The museum also contributed significant funding to the project.

Ballard Engineering of Rockford, Ill. provided overall design and installation of the cogeneration system. Primera of Chicago provided the engineering for the installation and integration of the desiccant unit to the museum's HVAC system.

The system consists of a Cummins 1.75 MW lean-burn natural gas engine generator and associated controls, a Cain ESG1 heat recovery boiler producing 4,000 lb/hr of steam at 40 psi, and a Munters AM30N-S desiccant wheel dehumidifier that supplements the building's heating and air conditioning system. The steam heat also assists in space heating during the winter and helps supply domestic hot water in the building's restrooms and cafeteria's kitchen.

"The system operates from 8:45 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. over Commonwealth Edison's peak times," says Bill Vanderbilt, the museum's facilities manager.

"In the winter months before we turn the air conditioning on, the system is carrying about 90 percent of the building's total electrical load. We had hoped to use some of the waste heat from the engine to supplement our domestic hot water, but we found that it actually supplies all of our domestic hot water needs when it is operating. When the air conditioning is on during the summer months, the main use of the waste heat output is to run a desiccant dehumidifier, but the conversion boiler puts out so much steam that we routed it into the existing boiler header to heat much of the building in so-called 'shoulder' months of the spring and fall. It pleases me how well it works."

Key organizations behind the project were the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Gas Technology Institute (GTI). In November, 2000, GTI was awarded a grant from DOE to test and demonstrate a hybrid building cooling, heating and power (BCHP) system that would utilize a natural gas powered generator set (250 - 300 kW) and a desiccant system. An initial site for the demonstration project was one of the new Chicago police stations, but an economic analysis determined the building had inadequate thermal loads and would have required too long of a payback period to be practical.

Cummins and GTI approached the museum to discuss the project. After completion of an economic analysis by GTI, the museum agreed to be the host site for the demonstration. Since the scope of the project increased from a 300 kW system to a 1.75 MW system, GTI secured additional funding from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs, the City of Chicago's Department of Environment, and the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation. The museum also contributed significant funding to the project.



Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry now has an example of both — a 1.75 MW cogen gen-set that is the basis for both a scientific exhibit and an energy frugal power system. Photo courtesy of Cummins Power Generation.

Ballard Engineering of Rockford, Ill. provided overall design and installation of the cogeneration system. Primera of Chicago provided the engineering for the installation and integration of the desiccant unit to the museum's HVAC system.

The system consists of a Cummins 1.75 MW lean-burn natural gas engine generator and associated controls, a Cain ESG1 heat recovery boiler producing 4,000 lb/hr of steam at 40 psi, and a Munters AM30N-S desiccant wheel dehumidifier that supplements the building's heating and air conditioning system. The steam heat also assists in space heating during the winter and helps supply domestic hot water in the building's restrooms and cafeteria's kitchen.

"The system operates from 8:45 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. over Commonwealth Edison's peak times," says Bill Vanderbilt, the museum's facilities manager. Instead of just supplementing the domestic hot water system, the waste heat from the cogen plant provides all the domestic hot water needs during that time, he says.

"In the winter months before we turn the air conditioning on, the system is carrying about 90 percent of the building's total electrical load. We also use the waste heat from the engine to heat domestic hot water between 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. When the air conditioning is on during the summer months, the main use of the waste heat output is to run a desiccant dehumidifier, but the conversion boiler puts out so much steam that we routed it into the existing boiler header to heat much of the building in the spring and fall. I am pleased with how well it works."

The heat recovery boiler uses the waste heat from the engine exhaust to flash water into steam at 40 psi. The Cummins lean-burn gas engine has a particularly high specific heat output compared to other gas engines of its size, which makes it ideal for a wide variety of medium size cogeneration applications, according to Tom Easterday, Director of Energy Solutions Americas for Cummins Power Generation. Additional low-quality heat from the engine may be obtained from the engine coolant jacket, but in this installation, a roof-mounted radiator is used to reject the coolant system's heat to the atmosphere.

The 10,000 CFM Munters desiccant dehumidifier treats about 15 percent of the makeup air coming into an air handler serving a portion of the building. The dehumidifier's function is to remove moisture from intake air in the summer months so that low humidity air is passing over the air conditioning cooling coils. This reduces the load on the air conditioning compressor because dry air cools down more quickly. In the dehumidifier, a large enthalpy wheel coated with a desiccant material is alternately saturated with moisture in the air stream and then rotated into another chamber where it is dried using 480 pounds of steam per hour from the heat-recovery boiler. In the winter months, the enthalpy wheel can be used to preheat a similar portion of incoming air, thus saving on heating costs.

Annual savings for the cogeneration installation were initially projected by GTI to be about $200,000 based on natural gas priced at 50 cents per therm. While the cogen plant was being installed, natural gas prices increased significantly, reducing potential savings. However, heat from the cogen plant for heating domestic hot water was a late revision to the design, and savings from water heating have added to the system's economic performance.

"When we installed the museum's food court last year, the domestic hot water system was converted to electric," says Vanderbilt. "Today, if we were to run the food court's hot water system on electricity alone it would cost us $32,000 a year for the energy. Realistically, we now save about half of that by fully utilizing heat energy from the cogen plant."

According to Mike Connolly, an instrumentation and control engineer with GTI, and the demonstration project's manager, the Cummins lean-burn engine-generator eventually installed at the museum was the first gas generator set to be tested in GTI's new Distributed Energy Test Center in Des Plaines, Ill. "Based on the original performance parameters for fuel consumption, exhaust emissions, horsepower and heat output, everything on the Cummins lean-burn generator set performed at or above specifications," says Connolly.

In order to be centrally located, the cogen plant was installed on the second floor of the building directly over two important meeting rooms — the Columbian Room conference room and the Founder's Room. "Everybody was expecting some noise and vibration, but with sound-proofing and special vibration damping mounts under the engine-generator, you can't hear or feel anything in the rooms below while the unit is running," says Vanderbilt.

If the cogeneration plant becomes an exhibit at the museum, the public will have a rare opportunity to learn about the energy-saving benefits of cogeneration, says Vanderbilt. "Everybody hears about small generating plants that get put in to reduce peak demand, but here they can actually see our cogeneration plant running and understand what it takes to make electricity and heat. Most likely, observation windows will be installed, and the public will be able to actually see things running. Plus, we're thinking about installing some real-time metering as part of the display so visitors can see how much energy is being produced and how much energy is being saved."

Power Engineering September, 2003
Author(s) : Steve Blankinship

Interested in a subscription to Power Engineering Magazine?
Click here to subscribe!
- posted by Daniel @ 3:05 AM

 
From The Milwaukee Journal - Sentinel,
Local residents of Northwest Wisconsin are up in arms and down in the dumps over:

Residents decry transmission line

Hearings seek input on project to bolster power supply

By THOMAS CONTENT
tcontent@journalsentinel.com
Last Updated: Oct. 1, 2003

Solon Springs - Opponents of a proposed Wausau-to-Duluth power line - some of them sobbing at times - decried the impact the 220-mile transmission line would have on the beauty and peaceful way of life in the state's North Woods.

More than 160 residents from Northwest Wisconsin came to this rural Douglas County town to speak out about the proposed power line Wednesday as the state Public Service Commission launched three days of public hearings on the $420 million project.

All but a few of the dozens who spoke opposed the plan.

The 345-kilovolt power line, proposed by Pewaukee-based American Transmission Co., has been described by some in the energy industry as the solution to the questionable reliability of Wisconsin's electricity grid after power shortages in the late 1990s.



Graphic/David Arbanas
PSC Reconsidered Tranmission Line


But it has also generated heated opposition from landowners and some elected officials in the northwestern part of the state.

"ATC will have to have a court order to come on my property," said Mary Ann Laajala, who vowed to stand in front of bulldozers to prevent construction of the power line on her 40-acre retirement property in Solon Springs, a town of 575 people located about an hour's drive southeast of Superior.

"Who is the Public Service Commission working for? I hope it's for us," Laajala said.

The latest round of hearings was ordered after the cost estimate for the project rose significantly since it was first approved two years ago.

American Transmission is proposing to build the line to help address Wisconsin's lack of high voltage lines that can bring power in from other states and relieve congestion on the only such line that links the state to Minnesota.

Transmission lines - and the need to update the state's power grid - are in the public eye after the Aug. 14 blackout that left 50 million people without power from Michigan to New York.

Opponents also said that the increased cost of the proposed power line means state energy regulators must look at alternative high-voltage transmission lines. The cost will ultimately be borne by ratepayers.

The hearings kicked off on the same day that the Wisconsin Merchants Federation, a supporter of the proposed Wausau-to-Duluth line, released poll results that showed support is gaining for the line among residents in seven counties that would host the transmission line.

The survey, conducted Sept. 19-24, found 57% in support and 35% opposed to the transmission line. The survey has a margin of error of 4 percentage points, the merchants federation said.

Peter Holtz, American Transmission's project manager for the line, said he considered the findings "significant" because they show a shift in public sentiment from a survey last year. At that time, views were split, with 47% in favor and 47% opposed.

Testifying in favor of the power line plan were representatives of the Superior-Douglas County Chamber of Commerce and several Superior leaders.

"We need to improve the infrastructure within the state of Wisconsin, especially our power grid, and to keep up with increasing demand for electricity in the state," said David Ross, Superior's mayor.

Opponents contend that American Transmission and the two utilities - Duluth-based Minnesota Power and Green Bay-based Wisconsin Public Service Corp. - that proposed the line several years ago haven't proven that the Wausau-Duluth line is a better solution to the state's electricity reliability problems than alternative lines that would not cost as much to build. American Transmission representatives say that they remain confident that the Wausau-to-Duluth line is the best solution, and that to begin planning an alternate line would push the opening of a new line back by several years. The company hopes it can have this line open by the summer of 2008.

A decision by the PSC isn't expected until early next year, said David Whitcomb, an administrative law judge who is conducting the hearings.


From the Oct. 2, 2003 editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
- posted by Daniel @ 2:38 AM

 
From Sustainable Minnesota comes a call near and dear to my heart:

For Immediate Release:
Wednesday, October 1, 2003

Contact:
Dona McClain, (303) 443-3130, x 106
Brad Collins, (303) 443-3130, x 102

Scientists call for Major Renewable Hydrogen Initiative as America’s Clean and Affordable Answer to Dirty Air, Blackouts, Rising Gas Prices and Foreign Oil Dependence

(Washington D.C.) Scientists and energy policy experts today called for a national commitment to exploit the vast clean potential of hydrogen fuel generated by renewable resources. According to a major new report issued today by the American Solar Energy Society, hydrogen, generated by renewable energy resources, is the most sustainable, secure, healthy, economic, environmentally friendly and socially compatible new energy option.

“How we produce hydrogen is an extremely important decision. Hydrogen is clean only if it’s produced from clean sources. Hydrogen is dirty if it’s produced from dirty sources,” said Dr. Yogi Goswami, Ph.D., University of Florida, Director of the University’s Solar Energy and Energy Conversion Laboratory.

Today America’s security is threatened by skyrocketing health costs, global warming, terrorism and environmental degradation. These are complex social and political problems that require intense commitment and resources to resolve. While not a panacea, this new comprehensive assessment finds that renewably generated hydrogen is one of the most multi-faceted, positive solutions to these and related issues confronting our society. However, strong federal leadership and a national commitment are imperative to fulfill the promise of this virtually inexhaustible resource.

“Unfortunately the Energy Department’s (DOE) Hydrogen Energy Roadmap is driving America’s new hydrogen policy down the same old dead-end road,” said Michael H. Nicklas, FAIA, Chair, American Solar Energy Society. “DOE’s Hydrogen Roadmap is dominated by fossil and nuclear power promoters; renewables have very little role in their vision of a hydrogen future.”

“Today, in much of the Southeastern U.S., one in every 2,500 citizens dies prematurely because of power plant emissions,” said Dr. Anthony J. DeLucia, Ph.D., Past Chair, American Lung Association and Professor of Surgery at the James H. Quillen School of Medicine at East Tennessee State University. “Renewable hydrogen offers a healthy choice to meet today’s and tomorrow’s energy needs.”

“The first step in taking command of our energy future is to make a national commitment to ending our dependence on carbon-based fuels. Renewable hydrogen is the key to that future,” said Dr. Paul Scott, Ph.D., a consulting scientist in wind- and solar-hydrogen systems, who has designed and built hydrogen fueled internal combustion engines and electric hybrid and fuel cell buses. “Hydrogen fuel can be ‘grown domestically’ from the wind, solar energy or biomass. The wind of the Dakotas alone could provide hydrogen fuel for the entire nation,” Dr. Scott concluded.

Working with a solar-powered hydrogen demonstration motor, Dr. Scott showed how renewable energy could easily and cleanly produce hydrogen gas through electrolysis. Large scale solar, wind or biomass hydrogen production facilities can be developed in every region of the country. However, only a concerted, focused national initiative will bring the “hydrogen revolution” from the drawing board to the gas tank, the power plant and the home.

The scientists’ primary recommendations, include:
Energy Security Launch a major renewable hydrogen initiative to eliminate the very great risks associated with carbon sequestration and nuclear power’s waste and security issues. Such an initiative will improve health, support environmental integrity, reduce terrorist targets and lower our balance of payments.

Global Climate Change The Administration must change course and acknowledge that burning fossil fuels causes global warming. Renewable hydrogen can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 3 kilograms for every kilogram of hydrogen produced.

Health Costs A “no exemptions” standard for power plants to clean our air and improve our
health. A hydrogen future fueled by coal will not allow us to breathe easier; hydrogen produced
from renewable energy will. At the earliest opportunity, hydrogen fueled internal combustion
engine vehicles should be deployed in significant numbers and their impact assessed in key
non-attainment cities.

Flexibility and Diversity Renewable hydrogen is abundant and omnipresent in the United States. Every part of the country has the ability to produce hydrogen locally. We recommend that the National Renewable Energy Laboratory be directed to devise a national profile of the key renewable hydrogen resources in each part of the country, estimate their near-term hydrogen production capacity and devisea plan for their earliest possible deployment.

Economic Risk Current utility financial success is based largely on fuel costs volatility over time; renewable energy is, by far, less risky for the consumer.

Promotion of good science The scientific process used to evaluate the various hydrogen production options must be conducted in a fair, open and competent manner and that all data, assessments, methodology and findings be made public.

Go straight toward a sustainable energy future Congress and the Administration must support research, development and deployment of technologies that build toward a sustainable energy economy. Funds should not be allocated in attempts to promote new ways of using fossil and nuclear energy. Renewable energy research must be fully funded to the FY 1998 level and
significantly increased from that level in succeeding years.

####

For a complete, free copy of the ASES Renewable Hydrogen Forum Report, go to: www.ases.org.
- posted by Daniel @ 2:25 AM

 
Also from ENN, an interesting experiment in marine restoration through recycling dead ships:

Friday, October 10, 2003
By Tomas Sarmiento, Reuters


GUABINA BAY, Venezuela — For the last few years, the Venezuelan tug boat Gran Roque was a rusting, rat-infested shell anchored off the Caribbean harbor of Puerto Cabello.

But last month when divers turned the wreck into Venezuela's first human-made reef, the corroded holes that once made walking on its steel deck a hazard became underwater windows beneath the clear turquoise waters of Guabina Bay.

The man responsible for converting Gran Roque from a heap of scrap metal into a marine experiment said that in a few years the boat will become a haven for sea life and coral formations and an amusement park for divers.

"In three years it will be teeming with fish and coral," said Cesar Navas, a deeply tanned scuba diving instructor who convinced Venezuelan authorities that the ship would be better off lying 98 feet under water.

"Instead of dying as a rat-infested piece of junk, we are turning it into a beautiful artificial reef which will shelter sea life and also will be a divers' playground," he said as he prepared to sink the boat in the waters off Aragua state, about 110 miles west of Caracas.

The 98-foot long, 217-ton Gran Roque was built in Venezuela's state-owned shipyards in 1973 to serve domestic ports, but lack of maintenance finally crippled the vessel for good seven years ago. Abandoned alongside the dock, the tug became a haven for the homeless and filled with trash and graffiti until Navas' team took over the task of cleaning it up before sending it to the bottom of Guabina Bay.

Blazing Farewell

Navas said he wanted to give "a decent send-off" to a ship that had a mostly peaceful life except for one moment of glory in 1976 when its crew rescued tourists whose hydrofoil collided with a sperm whale off Margarita Island.

Gran Roque went to the bottom with a powerful boom...(Read on in: Rusty Venezuela tug starts new life as marine reef)
- posted by Daniel @ 2:20 AM

 
From ENN, what may well be the last bullet in Kyoto's brain by corporate scientists:

From Competitive Enterprise Institute
Thursday, October 09, 2003

Events at a recent scientific conference in Moscow represent an important and dramatic change in the worldwide debate over global warming. Several distinguished scientists who spoke at the World Climate Change Conference in Moscow last week shattered claims that the science is settled and any consensus that the Kyoto Protocol would serve any useful purpose.

"This is the most important development in the public debate over global warming since President Bush's decision that the United States wouldn't ratify the Kyoto treaty," said Competitive Enterprise Institute president Fred L. Smith, Jr. "Major scientific voices from both Russia and the U.S. emphasized the uncertainties underlying the theory that man is causing catastrophic global warming. The challenge now is to address these scientific uncertainties while continuing to improve global economic and environmental conditions."

CEI has long contended that the science on global warming is not settled, that the Kyoto global warming treaty would cost the U.S. hundreds of billions of dollars each year, and that it would provide no benefits of any kind.

Among the scientists at the conference who were strongly critical of the theory of catastrophic global warming and the Kyoto Protocol were Russian President Vladimir Putin's chief science advisor, Yuri Izrael, who described Kyoto as based on "bad science", and the head of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Kirill Kondratiev, who described the theory of rapid, catastrophic global warming as "inaccurate... and contrary to the opinions held by most scientists."

Izrael and Kondratiev were joined by...(Read on in: Global Warming Shakeup in Moscow)
- posted by Daniel @ 2:14 AM

 
California Blending & Labeling

A new regulation restricting the sale of biodiesel blends and requiring a warning label at the pump has been introduced in California. You're not in California? Your state may be one of over 30 that is linked to California regulations. Your purchases almost certainly will be affected by the National Conference of Weights and Measures, which is looking at the proposed rules as a model.

The language would require biodiesel blends to meet fuel specifications for petrodiesel. If adopted, this requirement could disallow the sale of biodiesel blends such as B20. Additionally, the proposed pump warning label is negative and unnecessary.

The Division of Measurement Standards has stated that it needs as many people to comment as possible. Quantity, not quality, counts here. Here is a link for a summary, sample letter and exact language of the proposed regulation.

http://biodiesel.grassroots.com/ca_blending/

The deadline for submitting comments is Tuesday, October 14th.

Comments can be submitted electronically to: DMS@cdfa.ca.gov. Or via fax at: 916/229-3026.

Thank you in advance for your time and assistance.

Charles Hatcher
Regulatory Director
National Biodiesel Board
573.635.3893
800.841.5849
www.biodiesel.org
- posted by Daniel @ 5:04 PM

 
Great Lakes Daily News: 09 October 2003

Great Lakes Daily News is a collaborative project of the Great Lakes
Information Network and the Great Lakes Radio Consortium.

For links to these stories and more, visit http://www.great-lakes.net/news/
Did you miss a day of Daily News? Remember to use our searchable story
archive at http://www.great-lakes.net/news/inthenews.html


Stabilization aims to slow rain run-off
----------------------------------------
Officials said last week the completion of a ravine stabilization project
near the Glencoe Beach near Chicago, Ill., will lead to less sediment
run-off into Lake Michigan. Source: Glencoe News (10/9)


Brownfield beginning new life
----------------------------------------
LaPorte, Ind., is ready to start breaking the first ground for a new fire
station in a brownfield area looming on the outskirts of downtown. Source:
Indiana Post-Tribune (10/9)


Indiana summer ozone levels unhealthy
----------------------------------------
Delaware County has been tentatively added to the list of Indiana
metropolitan areas that fail to meet federal air quality standards for
ground-level ozone, the primary constituent of smog. Source: The East
Central Indiana Star Press (10/9)


Ottawa unaware of pesticide dangers
----------------------------------------
The Canadian federal government is approving new pesticides without even
knowing whether they pose a threat to children, Canada's environment
watchdog warned yesterday. Source: The Toronto Globe and Mail (10/8)


Great Lakes' toxic dangers hard to pinpoint
----------------------------------------
While experts say swimming and drinking are safe, they admit that the
long-term impact of many of the toxics draining into the Great Lakes still
isn't understood. Source: The Fremont News-Messenger (10/8)


Lake Peoria dredging on horizon
----------------------------------------
Perhaps by the end of this year, dredging of sediment from Lower Peoria
Lake, Ill., could begin and eventually find a home on a former U.S. Steel
site on Lake Michigan. Source: Peoria Journal Star (10/8)


State officials consider new hike in hunting, fishing fees
----------------------------------------
Indiana state officials are considering raising fees again for hunting and
fishing licenses, less than two years after the last fee increase of more
than 60 percent took effect. Source: The Indianapolis Star (10/8)


COMMENTARY: Port presses corps for wider channel
----------------------------------------
The Port of Green Bay would love to see more maritime commerce, but there
are pressing concerns over the width of the entrance to the Fox River, which
could keep at least one terminal operator from bringing ocean-going ships
there. Source: Green Bay Press-Gazette (10/5)


Tribe pays $5M for land where its ancestors lived
----------------------------------------
The Bad River Band of Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians purchased
23,688 acres of forest and wetland in northern Ashland County, Wis., in a
deal that closed last Tuesday. Source: Green Bay Press-Gazette (10/3)


For links to these stories and more, visit http://www.great-lakes.net/news/


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Information Network (www.glin.net) and the Great Lakes Radio
Consortium (www.glrc.org), both based in Ann Arbor, Mich.
TO SUBSCRIBE and receive this Great Lakes news compendium daily, see
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- posted by Daniel @ 4:23 PM

 
And last for today from ENN,

From Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution
Wednesday, October 08, 2003

SCIENTISTS MEETING AT HARBOR BRANCH TO PUSH ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE MARINE FISH AQUACULTURE INDUSTRY FORWARD

There is enormous economic potential in both Florida and around the country to farm raise such marine fish species as red drum, pompano, snapper, flounder, cobia and others to meet the public's ever-growing demand for seafood. However, to date the industry's progress has been slowed by regulatory problems and technological barriers. On Oct. 9 and 10, scientists will meet at HARBOR BRANCH to discuss new research and work that has overcome many of those hurdles, and ways to eliminate those that remain.

"Marine fish aquaculture is just about ready to take off as a large industry thanks to recent research. Our goal for this conference is to bring together researchers and industry from different regions and with different specialties to share the knowledge that's been generated and push the industry forward," says Dr. Megan Davis, director of HARBOR BRANCH's Aquaculture Division.

Aquaculture is currently the fastest growing sector in U.S. agriculture. The industry is worth roughly $1 billion a year in this country, up approximately 25% since 1995. Currently only about one tenth of this market is marine fish, mainly salmon along with some hybrid striped bass. However, as wild fish populations continue to decrease dramatically due to pressure from overfishing, the need for farm raised fish is growing. The scientists gathering this week at HARBOR BRANCH believe that if properly focused, the aquaculture industry can fill an increasing portion of that demand, in part through expansion in the commercial growth of additional marine fish species. For instance, Chilean sea bass, a popular saltwater fish, is severely overfished but might be replaced by black sea bass, which has a similar texture and flavor.

HARBOR BRANCH aquaculture researchers, in partnership with the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service, Florida State University, and othersare leading the way to develop the technologies needed to make marine fish aquaculture profitable as well as environmentally friendly. The group works mainly with southern flounder, black sea bass, Florida pompano, and hybrid striped bass, but their research can be applied to...(Read on in: Pushing Environmentally Sustainable Marine Fish Aquaculture Forward)
- posted by Daniel @ 9:36 AM

 
From ENN and the Rainforest Alliance, good news that I feel needs to be posted in full:

Kraft Foods Makes Unprecedented Commitment to Taking Sustainable Coffee Mainstream



From Rainforest Alliance
Tuesday, October 07, 2003

NEW YORK, NY, October 7, 2003 - The Rainforest Alliance today announced a unique partnership with Kraft Foods to promote sustainability and equity from the coffee farm to the consumers' cup. In an unprecedented multi-year arrangement, Kraft Foods has committed to purchase over 5 million pounds of coffee in the first year from farms in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Central America that have been certified as sustainably managed by the Rainforest Alliance. Ongoing monitoring and verification of compliance of these farms will be provided by Rainforest Alliance and members of the Sustainable Agriculture Network.

The new partnership, under development for more than a year, commits Kraft Foods to increasing purchases of certified coffee, paying more to farmers that employ sustainable farm management practices, and importantly, deepening the company's engagement with coffee producing communities.

"The Rainforest Alliance and Kraft Foods have been addressing social, economic and environmental issues in coffee production for many years. Given Kraft's global leadership in coffee sales, this partnership is the first indisputable evidence that the concept of sustainability, once limited to niche markets, is ready to enter the mainstream. This signals an institutional change," said Tensie Whelan, executive director of the Rainforest Alliance. She added, "With this unprecedented commitment from Kraft Foods, we will be able to demonstrate that coffee farming can be environmentally friendly, equitable and profitable."

In addition to purchasing certified coffee, Kraft Foods will support further development of the Sustainable Agriculture Network, including the training of local specialists to assist farmers achieve certification. In addition, the Rainforest Alliance will train local auditors and continue to build alliances among farmers, NGOs, coffee associations and agriculture research institutions.

"We have already demonstrated that certified farms can be havens for wildlife and good places to work, as well as economically viable and outstanding community citizens," said Juan Marco Alvarez, executive director of SalvaNATURA, a member of the Sustainable Agriculture Network. He added, "This partnership with Kraft Foods will allow us to greatly expand the reach of the program to help us bring the benefits of the certification to the hundreds of farms already in the pipeline throughout Latin America."

According to Simon Antonio Chavez, the manager of one of the co-operatives certified by SalvaNATURA, this new partnership offers great promise for farmers in the region. "This news motivates us. The certification program has helped us in protecting nature and makes life better for the families in the co-operative. We are glad to hear that a big company like Kraft is now buying certified coffee."

The Rainforest Alliance partnership is the latest initiative in Kraft's long-standing commitment to coffee farmers. "Kraft Foods has been promoting sustainability for more than a decade, most notably in Colombia, Peru and Vietnam. Our partnership with the Rainforest Alliance is another way for us to further strengthen sustainability in coffee production. Combining economic stability with environmental protection and decent social standards is an important way to ensure a long-term future for the world's coffee community," said Annemieke Wijn, Kraft Foods' Senior Director for Commodity Sustainability Programs.

--------

Contact:

Tensie Whelan
Rainforest Alliance
212 677 1900

Sabrina Vigilante
Rainforest Alliance
212 677 1900

Frank Hicks
Rainforest Alliance
506 234 8916 (Costa Rica)

Juan Marco Alvarez
SalvaNATURA
503 279 1515

Patricia Riso
Kraft Foods (North America)
914 335 6993

Jonathan Atwood
Kraft Foods (International)
914 335 1473

Joanna Scott
Kraft Foods (International)
44 1242 28 44 98

Notes for Editors

For 15 years, the Rainforest Alliance has been an international leader in verifying compliance with standards for ecofriendly and socially responsible farming and forestry. Coffee, like some other commodities, is subject to highly volatile trading cycles. Due to overproduction, coffee farmers are facing historically low prices for their crops, and the human and environmental impacts are reverberating throughout the coffee growing regions. The Rainforest Alliance believes that a long-term solution to the problems in the coffee producing areas will only be found in a strategy that embraces all three pillars of sustainability - economic, ecology and ethics. More information about the Rainforest Alliance is available on the organization's website at http://www.rainforest-alliance.org.

The Sustainable Agriculture Network standards are rigorous, comprehensive and verifiable. In order to gain certification, farmers must conserve forests and other natural ecosystems; protect wildlife; control pollution and agrochemical use; properly manage soil, waster and wastes; provide safe conditions, good basic services and fair pay to workers; and maintain good relations with the local community.

Kraft Foods Inc. is the largest branded food and beverage company headquartered in the United States and the second largest worldwide. Kraft Foods markets many of the world's leading food brands, including Kraft cheese, Jacobs and Maxwell House coffees, Nabisco cookies and crackers, Philadelphia cream cheese, Oscar Mayer meats, Post cereals and Milka chocolates, in more than 150 countries.




For more information, contact:

Sabrina Vigilante
Marketing Coordinator, Agriculture Program
Rainforest Alliance
svigilante@ra.org
- posted by Daniel @ 9:33 AM

 
Another from the ever-popular ENN,

Thursday, October 09, 2003
By Anthony Boadle, Reuters


HAVANA — The Indiana Farm Bureau signed a commitment to work for the repeal of trade and travel sanctions against Communist-run Cuba Wednesday in return for a Cuban pledge to buy $15 million in agricultural products.

Cuban officials said they have spent $512 million on food imports from 35 U.S. states in two years after a four-decade-old trade embargo against President Fidel Castro's government was relaxed by the U.S. Congress.

Indiana Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh, heading a agricultural and business delegation to Havana, said trading with Cuba was the best way to promote "positive change" on the Caribbean island, the hemisphere's only Communist state.

Efforts to abolish the Cold War sanctions against Cuba has run into stiff opposition in the Bush administration, which has threatened to veto any steps to ease the embargo until Castro allows democratic reforms.

The momentum in the United States to end the embargo lost steam this year after Castro ordered a harsh crackdown on 75 dissidents.

Bayh on Tuesday visited Cuba's leading dissident Oswaldo Paya, who heads a signature campaign calling for moderate reforms to the one-party state, and praised his "courageous" work.

Bayh defended trade with Cuba as the best way to facilitate progress and freedom for Cubans, dismissing the White House...(Read on in: Indiana farmers pledge to oppose Cuba embargo)
- posted by Daniel @ 9:30 AM

 
Also from ENN,

Thursday, October 09, 2003
By Tom Doggett, Reuters


WASHINGTON — President George W. Bush expressed frustration at Congress' delay in acting on a broad energy bill, recently, saying the legislation must be passed to help the U.S. economy and national security.

Senate and House of Representatives negotiators have been working on a combined version of energy legislation passed by both chambers earlier this year. Republican leaders this week postponed until mid-October a planned vote by the negotiators on a draft bill, which includes oil drilling in an Alaskan wildlife refuge.

"For the sake of national security and for the sake of economic security, they need to get a (energy) bill to my desk soon," Bush said at a campaign fundraiser in Milwaukee.

Congressional negotiators say at issue are disputes over subsidies to build an Alaskan natural gas pipeline, upgrading the U.S. electric grid, and increasing the use of ethanol-blended gasoline while providing lawsuit relief to producers of the competing MTBE gasoline additive.

A massive power blackout in August that left 50 million Americans and Canadians in the dark should have been enough to push Congress to pass energy legislation, according to Bush.

"It should be a wake-up call to the Congress that we need to modernize our ability to move electricity around America," he said. "We need to encourage more investment into modernizing the grid."

Bush called for increasing energy conservation efforts and developing new types of energy, but he also pushed for drilling for more traditional oil and natural gas. The administration wants to use new technology to tap the potential 16 billion barrels of crude in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and help cut back on U.S. oil imports.

"We need to use the old sources of energy in an environmentally friendly way to make sure we're less dependent on foreign sources of crude," Bush said.

Senate Democrats have warned Republicans to take the ANWR drilling language out of the energy bill or they will kill the legislation with a filibuster.

While Bush backs opening ANWR, the administration is...(Read on in: Bush pushes Congress to pass U.S. energy bill)
- posted by Daniel @ 9:27 AM

 
New from ENN, China is cracking down on coal plant emissions...

Thursday, October 09, 2003
By Associated Press


BEIJING — China has ordered coal-fired power plants in Beijing and other main cities to install emissions controls to cut down on the release of harmful sulfur dioxide, the official China Daily newspaper reported Thursday.

New requirements released this week by the State Environmental Protection Administration also apply to plants in Shanghai, China's business hub and largest city, and 21 other metropolises, the paper said.

Together with Beijing, those cities account for 60 percent of the country's total sulfur dioxide emissions from coal, vehicle exhaust, and industrial pollution.

If enforced, the regulations could substantially raise costs for producers in China's booming energy market. Most of China's coal is high in sulfur and emissions require substantial treatment to extract the most dangerous pollutants.

China Daily didn't say what sort of reductions were being ordered or when equipment would have to be installed. But it said some emissions reduction equipment must be installed in 137 "key plants" by 2005. China has set a target date of 2005 for reducing sulfur dioxide emissions by 20 percent against the level in 2000.

Equipment must be installed on both existing plants seeking to expand and new ones being built, the paper said. Plants in the China's less-developed west would...(Read on in: China orders stepped-up emissions controls at coal-fired power plants)
- posted by Daniel @ 9:25 AM

 
From Bergey Wind Power comes a story of wind power helping rebuild rural infrastructure in Afghanistan, and to be honest, readers,. every thing we do to help those people over there get beyond the devastation the country has faced warms the heart. Please see Bergey's case study on the Parwan District, Afghanistan Ozone Based Water Treatment System that is helping this area get clean and safe drinking water.
- posted by Daniel @ 1:53 AM

 
I'd like to take this opportunity to remind readers that the Great Lakes Zephyr is highly interested in publishing the renewable energy stories of all Great Lakes region residents. Please remember us if you have anything to contribute, from residential to commercial and utility scale power, we want to be an outlet where stories and opinions are able to be voiced on this subject. Please feel free to use the e-mail address at the top of this page if you have anything to contribute.
- posted by Daniel @ 1:45 AM

 
An interesting editorial from over at Bay Wind Power in Michigan, regarding national energy policy:

Alert 2001-3
Copyright Earth Policy Institute 2001
May 31, 2001

Lester R. Brown, President

The eagerly awaited Bush energy plan released on May 17, 2001, disappointed
many people because it largely overlooked the potential contribution of
raising energy efficiency. It also overlooked the enormous potential of wind
power, which is likely to add more to U.S. generating capacity over the next
20 years than coal.

In short, the authors of the plan appear to be out of touch with what is
happening in the world energy economy, fashioning an energy plan more
appropriate for the early twentieth century rather than the early
twenty-first century. They emphasized the role of coal, but world coal use
peaked in 1996 and has declined some 11 percent since then as countries
have turned away from this climate-disrupting fuel. Even China, which rivals
the United States as a coal burning country, has reduced its coal use by 24
percent since 1996.

Meanwhile, world wind power use has multiplied nearly fourfold over the
last five years, a growth rate matched only by the computer industry. In
the United States, the American Wind Energy Association projects a staggering
60 percent growth in wind-generating capacity this year.

Wind power was once confined to California, but during the last three
years, wind farms coming online in Minnesota, Iowa, Texas, Colorado,
Wyoming, Oregon, and Pennsylvania have boosted U.S. capacity by half from
1,680 megawatts to 2,550 megawatts. The 1,500 or more megawatts to be
added this year will be located in a dozen states. A 300-megawatt wind farm
under construction on the Oregon/Washington border is currently the world's
largest.

But this is only the beginning. The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA)
indicated in February that it wanted to buy 1,000 megawatts of
wind-generating capacity and requested proposals. Much to its surprise, it
received enough to build 2,600 megawatts of capacity in five states, with
the potential of expanding these sites to over 4,000 megawatts. BPA, which
may accept most of these proposals, expects to have at least one site
online by the end of this year.

A 3,000-megawatt wind farm in the early planning stages in South Dakota,
near the Iowa border, is 10 times the size of the Oregon/Washington wind
farm. Named Rolling Thunder, this project, initiated by Dehlsen Associates
and drawing on the leadership of Jim Dehlsen, a wind energy pioneer in
California, is designed to feed power to the Midwestern region around
Chicago. This proposed project is not only large by wind power standards,
it is one of the largest energy projects of any kind in the world today.
Advances in wind turbine technology, drawing heavily from the aerospace
industry, have lowered the cost of wind power from 38 cents per kilowatt
hour in the early 1980s to 3 to 6 cents today depending on the wind site.
Wind, now competitive with fossil fuels, is already cheaper in some
locations than oil or gas-fired power. With major corporations, such as
ABB, Shell International, and Enron plowing resources into this field, further
cost cuts are in prospect.

Wind is a vast, worldwide source of energy. The U.S. Great Plains are the
Saudi Arabia of wind power. Three wind-rich U.S. states-North Dakota,
Kansas, and Texas-have enough harnessable wind to meet national
electricity needs. China can double its existing generating capacity from wind alone.
Densely populated Western Europe can supply all of its electricity needs
from offshore wind power.

Today Denmark, the world leader in wind turbine technology and
manufacture,is getting 15 percent of its electricity from wind power. For
Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of Germany, it is 19 percent
and, for some parts of the state, 75 percent. Spain's industrial state of
Navarra, starting from scratch six years ago, now gets...(Read on in: WIND POWER: THE MISSING LINK IN THE BUSH ENERGY PLAN
- posted by Daniel @ 1:36 AM

 
From the Illinois Renewable Energy Association (IREA) an interesting article on Increasing Photovoltaics in Illinois :

Based on a presentation by Mark Burger
by Drs. Robert and Sonia Vogl

To establish itself in the marketplace, solar electricity (PV, or "photovoltaics") needs steady, consistent support from communities and government. Fluctuating funding levels and uncertain government policy make business planning difficult and expensive.

In contrast to the U.S., China, Japan, Germany and other countries develop long-term strategic plans, funded at predictable levels. This helps their industries develop more quickly and set predictable manufacturing schedules for output, business growth and job creation.

Although the U.S.'s PV has increased, its growth rate fell behind more dramatic increases in other countries. Five years ago, the United States accounted for 65 percent of the world's manufacturing capacity; now we only account for 35 percent. Four years ago, the world's productive capacity was 250 MW. Today, Sharp of Japan's capacity alone exceeds 250 MW/year. Japan took over from the U.S. in leading photovoltaic production in 1998. Germany is threatening to overtake the U.S. for second place in PV production. This pattern has been repeated in wind power production and installation, as the U.S. fell behind Germany, then Spain and Denmark and is in further danger of falling behind other European and Asian countries. Consistent and ambitious policies encourage new, multi-billion dollar renewable energy industries supplying tens of thousands of high-paying jobs (Swain).

While PV serves only a small portion of our nation's electrical needs, the market has been growing 25 percent to 30 percent over the last few years. When even a few percent of the population use PV, its growth rate will be exponential, making a dramatic impact on the marketplace.

The United States needs stable, predictable government programs to recapture the lead in producing PV modules. Illinois needs other policies, including...(Read on in: Increasing Photovoltaics in Illinois )
- posted by Daniel @ 1:26 AM

 
Renew Wisconsin.org Also has a map of renewable energy projects throughout the state listed HERE that you can check over. A site very well worth visiting, there's much more than I can touch on here.
- posted by Daniel @ 1:20 AM

 
This is nice, a list of Wisconsin green power pricing programs in table format provided by Renew Wisconsin.org with a few interesting web-based calculators that allow you to get an estimate of the environmental impact of your green power purchase right on the page. Sweet.
- posted by Daniel @ 1:16 AM

 
Great Lakes Daily News: 08 October 2003
A collaborative project of the Great Lakes Information Network and the Great
Lakes Radio Consortium

For links to these stories and more, visit http://www.great-lakes.net/news/
Did you miss a day of Daily News? Remember to use our searchable story
archive at http://www.great-lakes.net/news/inthenews.html


Marathon swimmer finishes with a bang
----------------------------------------------
Marathon swimmer Jim Dreyer fired a flare after he swam under the Mackinac
Bridge Tuesday night after completing his 340-mile swim of the length of
Lake Michigan (20-40 miles per stage). Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
(10/8)


Coast Guard considers ballast water regulations
----------------------------------------------
The U.S. Coast Guard will hold five public meetings in October and November,
including one on the Great Lakes, to discuss the potential environmental
impact of a ballast water discharge standard that the service is developing.
Source: Duluth News Tribune (10/8)


EDITORIAL: Water insult: Fewer inspections, reports will hurt lakes
----------------------------------------------
The Michigan quarter may have the imprint "Great Lakes State," but you'd
never know it from what the legislature is doing. Source: Detroit Free Press
(10/8)


Students put Fox River tributary to the test
----------------------------------------------
Students from Green Bay area high schools will test water from various
tributaries leading to the Fox River, investigating temperature, dissolved
oxygen, nutrients and stream flow. Source: Green Bay Press-Gazette (10/8)


COMMENTARY: Pesticides: A grave oversight
----------------------------------------------
Ottawa doesn't know nearly enough about the chemicals on our food and our
lawns, warns Environment Commissioner Johanne Gélinas. Source: The Toronto
Globe and Mail (10/8)


Lake Huron water levels set to rise
----------------------------------------------
To help even lake levels, the International Joint Commission is releasing an
extra 3 billion gallons of water per day out of Lake Superior into lakes
Huron and Michigan. Source: The Port Huron Times Herald (10/7)


Grape growers compensated for poor season
----------------------------------------------
For the first time in at least 40 years, a cooperative that is the largest
buyer of grapes grown in the Lake Erie region will pay its members $600 for
every acre they cannot harvest because of the wet, cold growing season.
Source: Port Clinton News Herald (10/7)


Pollution fails to hinder park plans
----------------------------------------------
High levels of arsenic and a petroleum-based chemical contaminate the soil
of industrial land along the Cuyahoga River channel that Cleveland wants to
turn into a park. Source: The Cleveland Plain Dealer (10/7)


COMMENTARY: Minnesota's Clean Water Initiative shows commitment to water
quality
----------------------------------------------
The Pawlenty administration's commitment to the environment couldn't be
shown any more clearly than in the unprecedented commitment they've made to
water quality. Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press (10/7)


DNR battles distrust in working for lakes
----------------------------------------------
Much to the chagrin of some northwoods property owners, the Wisconsin DNR is
revising its 35-year-old shoreland development standards, a two-year process
that the agency hopes to complete by the end of 2004. Source: The Capital
Times (10/6)


Art, parks among ideas for vivifying lakefronts
----------------------------------------------
At a recent symposium, Great Lakes city officials described planning and
financing strategies that help rejuvenate waterfronts with public parks and
other amenities capitalizing on the water, while balancing the needs of
industrial and maritime users. Source: The Cleveland Plain Dealer (10/5)

For links to these stories and more, visit http://www.great-lakes.net/news/



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Consortium (www.glrc.org), both based in Ann Arbor, Mich.
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- posted by Daniel @ 4:54 PM

 
WIND.ALERT FOR OCTOBER 2003 FROM WINDPOWER
MONTHLY

Here are your summaries of the top stories in the October 2003
issue of Windpower Monthly. For a descriptive list of this month's full
contents just go to http://www.windpower-monthly.com/current

-------------------------
Bat kills a sudden and unexpected problem
--------------------------
Bat kills are emerging as a major and unexpected problem at wind turbine sites. The issue was brought to a head last month after the death of what scientists describe as an "alarming" and "surprising" number of bats in a single large wind farm over a period of weeks. Deaths of bats at wind power stations is not new, but the recent incident... (Go to
http://www.windpower-monthly.com/current,#focus to read more about this article)

-------------------------
Spin and crossed wires
-------------------------
Politicians blinded by their own spin can be an awful liability. The glossy spin put on "rewiring Britain" for renewables has made evolution sound like revolution--and an expensive one to boot. As if all other new electricity plant needs no wires to transport generation to the consumer, the scary idea has taken hold in Britain that wind power is a special case requiring massive extra investment in transmission and distribution. Not so ... Read the entire leader at http://www.windpower-monthly.com/currentleader

-------------------------
Outcry over Irish renewables tender
-------------------------
There has been much hype about the supposed need to "rewire Britain" for renewables, mainly based on the assumption that the government's targets for green power can only be met through the use of Scotland's wind resource. Whether this assumption is correct or not is an unresolved issue. So too is how the cost of any grid upgrades are to be recovered -- and where upgrades can present best value for money. Rewiring Britain could be years away yet. Windpower Monthly has talked to market players about least cost options and the real costs, north-south political pressures which favour Scottish companies at the expense of economic reason, and new ideas for management of local grid connection. Get the facts behind the hype in our Rewiring Britain series of articles in the October issue.

-------------------------
Economic and market indicators
-------------------------
Windpower Monthly's third quarter update of wind market indicators for 2003 reports once again on share price movements, green certificate prices, market trends and includes our fully updated country-by-country table of operating wind power capacity worldwide. >From the amount of wind generation being developed, recent talk by market analysts of an industry decline looks as if it could be way off mark. Start your subscription with the October issue for an instant and authoritative market overview in this quarter's The Windicator.

-------------------------
Fighting for fair terms in California
-------------------------
The California Wind Energy Association (CalWEA) has found itself in the unusual position of opposing a utility request for more megawatt of renewable energy. The request is so stacked against wind that CalWEA wants it fundamentally changed or nullified. Read the October issue of Windpower Monthly to find out why an earlier request for renewables this year by Southern California Edison yielded no wind projects -- and why the recent request by the same utility is not likely to either.

-------------------------
Keeping Nantucket Sound pristine
-------------------------
Emissions from hundreds of gallons of fuel were loosed into the environment off Cape Cod when protestors set out to sea, mostly in motor boats, to campaign against the perceived industrialisation of Nantucket Sound off the New England coast. They had chosen to spend their Sunday burning fuel to circle and hiss at a meteorological tower erected by the wind project's developer. Windpower Monthly was there, complete with camera, on a small sailboat with an engine for back-up run on bio-fuel. Read about the oil mogul among the protestors -- and why we got hungry for spring rolls and stir fry -- in the current issue of the magazine.

-------------------------
Preliminary prices cause concern
-------------------------
After many months of delay, Brazil's government has finally published preliminary prices to be paid under its Proinfa renewable energy program. Investors are giving the prices a mixed response. While some see the move as a commitment to renewables from new President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, others remain concerned that a series of conditions attached to the tariff will introduce market distortions and confuse potential investors. Windpower Monthly reports on these concerns -- and how the new energy minister is reacting to them -- in its October issue.

-------------------------
Heat goes out of threat in Germany
-------------------------
Flames of political controversy that flared up over the summer and threatened to consumer Germany's renewable energy law in a conflagration with the fossil fuel lobby are subsiding to no more than a warning glow. Matters cooled further following a high level energy meeting last month between the government and representatives from the major utilities. Read about a possible reconciliation, which makes room in the market for both fossil fuel and wind generators, in the current issue of Windpower Monthly.

-------------------------
WindTech Notes
-------------------------
Our irregular column of technical news notes this month takes a look at research into making blades cheaper and better protected from hits by lightning, gear box testing in Germany, two new offshore foundation concepts and adding low voltage ride through capability to wind turbines. We also report, among other things, on the high capacity factors that well sited wind plant can reach and improvements in software for wind farm control. WindTech Notes. You'll find them in October's Windpower Monthly.

-------------------------------------------------------------
As a subscriber to this free Wind.Alert service you get access to summaries of some of the articles in the current issue of Windpower Monthly. For the full picture, including exclusive access to our extensive on-line article archives, why not try a subscription? As a truly independent news magazine Windpower Monthly is widely recognised as the leading title on the international wind power market. It has long been essential reading for market players and policy makers in the global wind arena. To subscribe go to http://www.windpower-monthly.com/subs or visit http://www.windpower-monthly.com to find out more. For further information on how your company can benefit by advertising your products or services via Wind.Alert or any of the other services provided by WindPower Monthly contact advertising@windpower-monthly.com For wind power technology facts and figures check out WindStats Newsletter, an unrivalled source of information available to all Windpower Monthly subscribers. http://www.windstats.com
-------------------------------------------------------------
If you like our Wind.Alert service, please feel free to forward this email to anybody you believe would benefit from it or find it useful. If this email has been forwarded to you, subscribing to this free service will take just a few seconds. Just go to http://www.windpower-monthly.com/alert and follow the instructions on screen. To unsubscribe go to http://windpower-monthly.com/alert, enter your email address then click the Unsubscribe button. (Or send a blank email to Wind.Alert@windpower-monthly.com with Unsubscribe in the Subject line.) To modify your details, Unsubscribe as above using your old email address then Subscribe again using your new one. All contents © Windpower Monthly 1985-2003
============================================
Windpower Monthly News Magazine news@windpower-monthly.com http://www.windpower-monthly.com .
- posted by Daniel @ 4:49 PM

 
Another damn good reason to support our local corn growers by supporting ethanol as an octane booster and renewable fuel additive to gasoline from ENN, and why I will pull away from the pump if I see the sign "contains MTBE" at any gas station I pull into:

Tuesday, October 07, 2003
By Stephen Frothingham, Associated Press


CONCORD, N.H. — The state sued 22 major oil companies Monday because of the gasoline additive MTBE, which has been found to pollute water, Gov. Craig Benson said.

New Hampshire wants the companies to pay millions of dollars to track down the pollution and pay to clean it up, officials said.

The lawsuit, filed in Merrimack County Superior Court, claims that the oil companies have added increasing amounts of the additive to gasoline, even though they knew years ago it would contaminate water supplies.

"New Hampshire's groundwater and surface waters are under attack," Attorney General Peter Heed said at a news conference with Benson.

He called MTBE "the Houdini of pollutants" because the chemical is water-soluble and seems to be able to escape from ground tanks and pipes.

New Hampshire is the first state to sue oil companies over MTBE, Benson said, although municipal utilities have sued.

In California, Sacramento County and 10 water utilities filed suit last week against major companies over potential MTBE contamination. Utilities in the South Tahoe, Calif., area reached a $28 million settlement with oil companies last year over MTBE pollution.

The companies being sued by New Hampshire include...(Read on in: New Hampshire is suing 22 oil companies over gasoline additive MTBE)
- posted by Daniel @ 6:19 PM

 
Incoming from ENN,

Tuesday, October 07, 2003
By David Suzuki




Out walking our dog one morning, I found my neighbor washing a brand new SUV. We live in a the heart of Vancouver, and my neighbor and his wife are retired and live in a small condo. I simply couldn't understand how an urban dweller could rationalize laying out so much money for a vehicle that is not only polluting but expensive to fuel up and a pain in the neck to park.

"You don't need an SUV," I growled at him. We're friends and I said it jocularly, but he turned and replied, "It's not for me. It's for my grandson." He wanted his grandson to be "safe."

I walked away stunned. Now that SUVs and trucks have become so popular, people justify them as a safety issue. Never mind that they are so tall that the center of gravity makes them more vulnerable to rollovers or that a side collision is especially damaging to SUVs: The size confers a sense of security.

I believe his answer illustrates why we have a global eco-crisis. We live in a world in which we tackle immediate problems that are merely symptoms of underlying causes.

It may well be that an SUV provides greater protection against collision with another SUV, but these large vehicles consume more fuel than cars and therefore spew much more of the pollution that causes smog and climate change. This will have vast repercussions for my neighbor's grandson and his entire generation.

A few days later, I had to fly to the northern B.C. town of Smithers to meet a television crew. As we approached the town, I was shocked to see a sea of red from horizon to horizon. This was a forest that should have been a luxurious green but instead had been converted to dead and dying trees as far as the eye could see. It is a massive area infected by mountain pine beetles.

This disaster has been...(Read on in: Focus on symptoms obscures underlying problems)
- posted by Daniel @ 6:06 PM

 
Now this is hot news coming in from Earth Tech Digest off Yahoo! Groups:

Message: 1
Date: Tue, 07 Oct 2003 02:12:12 -0000
From: "Robert Miller" innkeeper04443@yahoo.com
Subject: Current Project Status

We're in the process of building a log home and are incorporating some
interesting Earth-friendly technology.

First of all, we're using a prodect called "Warmboard"
http://www.warmboard.com that is a special radiant heat subfloor. It
consists of 1 1/8" plywood with a 1/2" groove for the crosslinked
Polyethylene tubing. It has an aluminum coating to distribute the heat
evenly. This eliminates the use of concrete for the radiant heat and
is much more efficient than just stapling the pex under the floor.

We will use a high-efficiency propane hot water heater for the heat
source (Polaris) which has 94% Recovery Efficiency, Stainless Steel
Tank and Combustion Chamber/Flue, Sealed Combustion Vents (Intake and
Exhaust) with 2" PVC ABS or CPVC Schedule 40 Plastic Pipe, 2" Non-CFC
Polyurethane Foam to prevent heat loss & reduce energy costs,
Electronic Hot Surface Ignition and is tested and listed with CSA
International in accordance with the latest addition of ANSI Z21.10.3
• CSA 4.3, ASHRAE Standard 90. 1 b-1992 - thermal efficiency
requirements are met or exceeded.

The next step will be to add some solar collectors. The home has been
constructed to face due south, so the roof is a good location.

We're also installing a Manabloc water distribution system, which I'll
detail later.

Robert
- posted by Daniel @ 5:59 PM

 
Great Lakes Daily News: 07 October 2003

Great Lakes Daily News is a collaborative project of the Great Lakes
Information Network and the Great Lakes Radio Consortium.

For links to these stories and more, visit http://www.great-lakes.net/news/
Did you miss a day of Daily News? Remember to use our searchable story
archive at
http://www.great-lakes.net/news/inthenews.html


Exotic water flea hops to inland waters, threatening fish
----------------------------------------------
Although the exotic spiny water flea have been living in the Great Lakes for
more than 15 years, a recent discovery marks their first appearance in
Wisconsin's inland waters. Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (10/7)


Pipeline project would employ 1,000
----------------------------------------------
Enbridge Inc. is proposing an oil pipeline worth about $800 million linking
its terminal at the west end of Lake Superior to a hub in southern Illinois.
Source: Duluth News Tribune (10/7)


Economy and budget weigh on Michigan tourism
----------------------------------------------
The topic for the day was Michigan's $15 billion travel industry, but the
nation's struggling economy was never far from the spotlight as national
travel experts and Gov. Jennifer Granholm addressed an annual conference on
tourism. Source: Booth Newspapers (10/7)


EDITORIAL: Let's reverse trend on water quality in Great Lakes
----------------------------------------------
While no one can expect the Great Lakes to be completely toxin-free in the
coming years, we owe it to ourselves and to coming generations to reverse
the trends of recent years and continue the progress toward better water
quality. Source: The Sheboygan Press (10/7)


Toledo's urban flight: Sprawl report places suburbs in 'at-risk' class
----------------------------------------------
Like in so many other parts of the country, the culprit of Toledo, Ohio's,
sprawling suburbs is a tax system that encourages new development rather
than redevelopment. Source: The Toledo Blade (10/7)


Freighter spills fuel into Lake Superior
----------------------------------------------
Weather aided the recovery of about 800 gallons worth of dime-sized tar
balls that washed ashore from an fuel oil spill aboard the combined
tug-barge M/V Presque Isle about 25 miles west of Eagle Harbor, Mich., on
Lake Superior. Source: The Daily Mining Gazette (10/6)



Lake Erie coastal policy receives low marks
----------------------------------------------
Ohio coastal residents are clashing with the state over erosion-control
rules. Source: The Toledo Blade (10/5)


Unearthed bones will be reburied
----------------------------------------------
Hundreds of American Indian bones unearthed at a home construction site near
the Mackinac Bridge will soon be returned to the earth. Source: Traverse
City Record-Eagle (10/2)


COMMENTARY: Monied conservatives are harming Great Lakes
----------------------------------------------
In government, corruption only takes a nod or a wink. Reform takes a
crusade. Source: The Buffalo News (9/29)

For links to these stories and more, visit http://www.great-lakes.net/news/


= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Great Lakes Daily News is a collaborative project of the Great Lakes
Information Network (www.glin.net) and the Great Lakes Radio
Consortium (www.glrc.org), both based in Ann Arbor, Mich.
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- posted by Daniel @ 5:50 PM

 
More interesting doings from Alt Power Digest over at Yahoo! Groups:

Message: 4
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2003 06:56:37 -0700 (PDT)
From: AP@alternatepower.com (Alternate Power)
Subject: Experimental, Solar Electric House

Tuesday, April 22, 2003:
by Duncan Mansfield:
Associated Press:
LENOIR CITY: If not for the 48 solar energy panels on the roof and the R2D2-like hot-water heat pump in the closet, Lina Kinandjar's bungalow looks like any other in her quiet neighborhood.
"I know it is an experimental house, but it doesn't bother me at all," the 33-year-old Malaysian waitress said of the home she moved into with her husband and two children in October.
The 1,057-square-foot house, designed by the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and partially funded by the Tennessee Valley Authority, is billed as the most energy efficient, all-electric home ever built by a Habitat for Humanity group.
Heating over the colder-than-normal winter cost 54 cents a day. The entire electric bill, which included power for a big-screen TV and two large aquariums, was $1.42 a day. That's half as much as a comparable house across the street.
Habitat for Humanity, a volunteer organization that takes an old-fashioned barn-raising approach to affordable housing, partnered with DOE to test building techniques and products that would conserve energy and help poor families save on power bills.
Poor families spend a disproportionate share of their incomes on power bills compared to wealthy families, said David Garman, DOE assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy.
"When you talk about the affordability of a home, quite often builders are really focused on the cost of the house and not about what it costs to operate and maintain a house," Garman said. "If you want to extend the American dream of home ownership, you really have to think about energy costs."
Lina's house cost about $100,000, with the solar collectors costing an additional $24,000.
Most of the products used in Lina's house are available to homeowners willing to do some research and demand them from their builders, Garman said.
"The technology of vastly increased energy efficiency is not far-fetched," he said. " What is difficult is to get builders to adopt that and to get consumers to ask for it."
Major components, like windows and wall systems, were donated by their manufacturers. The 40 sensors throughout the house are wired to a separate phone system to feed data back to the Oak Ridge Lab.
The house is made from structural insulated panels ‹ walls, roof and floors ‹ instead of conventional wood framing. The panels are glued and screwed together.
"It took us three days to put them in versus about two weeks to frame," said Linda Morrison, coordinator for the Loudon County Habitat for Humanity.
The 8-by-28-foot panels are a sandwich of oriented strand board, a substitute for plywood sheathing, with a polystyrene core. They tested 6 to 8 times more airtight than conventional construction, said Jeff Christian, director of the Oak Ridge Lab's buildings technology center.
Lina's house also has energy efficient windows and doors, and is so draft-free that it has a mechanical system to bring in fresh air.
Heating and cooling ducts were installed inside the living space, in a lowered, hallway ceiling rather than the attic, for a heating-cooling savings of about 35 percent, Christian said.
A heat-pump water heater, which alone produces a 60 percent hot water energy savings, was integrated with an unvented crawl space, the kitchen refrigerator and the home's heating and cooling system.
With controllable ducts, the heat-pump water heater extracts warmth from the crawl space, instead from the living area, and exhausts cool air behind the warm refrigerator.
It's so efficient, Christian said, " There is the potential to get rid of the heat pump for space heating and cooling. We are not there yet, but that is what we hope to be able to do."
A novel contraption that could lead to a future product is a copper coil that captures heat from the shower drain in the bathroom. The device preheats a water line leading to the water heater. Tests show it can save 7 percent in water heating costs.
"There are Habitat houses using (panel) construction, but the extent that Jeff's people are doing it here with all the integrated systems and monitoring, nobody has done that before," Morrison said.
DOE hopes to create a zero-energy house by 2010. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Loudon County Habitat hope to refine the lessons learned on Lina's house when they start construction on two more super-energy efficient homes in June. TVA has committed to finance five more houses in the neighborhood.
Lina says she may not know how everything works in her experimental home, but she knows one thing for sure:
"I know my electricity bill has been lower than other houses," she said. ========================================



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Message: 5
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2003 06:56:16 -0700 (PDT)
From: Buzz@bestlink.net (Buzz Armstrong)
Subject: TVA Offers to Buy Homegrown Wind/Solar Energy

Story last updated at 12:03 p.m. on Tuesday, April 22, 2003:
by Duncan Mansfield:
The Associated Press:
KNOXVILLE: The Tennessee Valley Authority wants to buy homegrown green power.
For the first time, the nation's largest public utility is offering to pay homeowners and small businesses for their wind- or solar-generated electricity.
"What we are really looking for is another way of obtaining qualifying energy for our Green Power Switch program," TVA marketing manager Ed Colston said.
The renewable energy program, the South's largest, currently sells wind, solar or landfill-gas generated power at a premium to about 6,300 residential customers and more than 300 businesses.
This new feature will pay homeowners and businesses for the power they generate and credit them for consuming less.
A participating customer's home will have two meters ‹ one to measure wind- or solar-energy generation and the other to measure the net energy consumption.
TVA will pay $500 to offset the cost of the extra meter and 15 cents for every kilowatt hour generated by wind or solar. That's more than double the 6 cents a kilowatt hour residential customers pay for TVA power.
Colston said TVA still comes out ahead, given how much TVA spends on windmills and solar collectors for extra power generation. The utility recently signed a $60 million to add 18 turbines to its Buffalo Mountain wind farm.
A super-energy efficient Habitat of Humanity house built for Lina Kinandjar and her family in Lenoir City may become the first house on the TVA grid. The 1,057 square-foot house was engineered by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and equipped with solar panels paid for by TVA.
TVA doesn't sell electricity directly to consumers, so Kinandjar will need the support of her local power distributor to participate.
Lenoir City Utilities Board general manager Kenneth Dutton said he likes the concept but is still studying the details. He wants to be sure "we don't have something that could backfeed into our system and get someone hurt."
Jeff Christian, director of the buildings technology center at the Oak Ridge lab, said the solar-powered system in Kinandjar's house was installed according to established industry standards.
If the Lenoir City Utility Board's power goes out, so will the power inverter that connects the home's solar collector system to its fuse box and sends overflow to the utility's power line. For the same reason, the home system has no storage batteries.
Christian said the home's 48 photovoltaic panels will generate 1,500 to 2,000 kilowatt hours a year, with peak production coming in hot summer afternoons when TVA's electric demand is highest.
TVA's incentives won't make self-generating homeowners rich. Christian estimates Kinandjar will earn about $300 a year from TVA on a system that cost about $24,000.
"It is not for everybody," Christian said.
But most people buying these systems look for a different kind of payback, he said.
"Right now there are people who feel outraged that we have 25 out of 30 days in August with ozone alerts and our health is impacted when we go to the Smoky Mountains," he said of the pollution in the national park.
"It is like, what can I do? I can go complain about the car I drive or the big bad electric utility, but what does that get me? That is the core of people this will appeal too," he said.
"We don't think it will be hundreds, at least not in the beginning," Colston said. "We are estimating we may see 10 systems in the first year and then maybe add slowly from there."
The TVA's service territory covers most of Tennessee and parts of Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia. ========================================



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Message: 6
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2003 06:55:36 -0700 (PDT)
From: AP@alternatepower.com (Alternate Power)
Subject: DOE Adds Two New Fuel Cell Projects

April 24th, 2003:
Washington, DC - With fuel cells playing a prominent role in President Bush's "hydrogen initiative," Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham announced plans to add two new projects valued at more than $213 million to the Energy Department's program to make these hydrogen-fueled power systems so inexpensive they could become commonplace in America's power market during the next decade.
Secretary Abraham said that the department has selected teams headed by FuelCell Energy of Danbury, Conn., and Acumentrics Corp. of Westwood, Mass., to its "Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance" (SECA) program.
"Fuel cells play a central role in President Bush's vision of a new hydrogen energy future," Secretary Abraham said. "Hydrogen fuel cells will help free us of our dependence on foreign oil and eliminate harmful emissions."
SECA's goal is to develop a solid-state fuel cell so economical and versatile that it might one day provide auxiliary power for large trucks, supply the military with a battlefield power source, or generate clean electricity in high-efficiency power plants. To make this possible, the department wants to develop breakthroughs in fuel cell design and manufacturing that can cut costs to one-tenth of today's commercial fuel cells.
Assistant Secretary of Energy for Fossil Energy Mike Smith said the SECA program is intended to move fuel cells into the mainstream of tomorrow's energy market. "Fuel cells today are being sold largely into niche markets where companies are willing to pay a premium for reliable onsite power," Smith said. "The President's hydrogen and climate change initiatives, however, envision fuel cells playing a much more prominent role. For this to happen, we have to reduce costs."
The Department's goal is to develop a ceramic fuel cell with factory costs as low as $400 per kilowatt. Today's fuel cells sell for well over $4,000 per kilowatt. If the cost targets can be met, future fuel cells could compete economically with virtually all types of power systems, including gas turbine and diesel generators.
FuelCell Energy and Acumentrics will join four other industry development teams selected by the Energy Department in August 2001 [see Techline]. If the new projects run their full course, more than $67 million in federal funding will go to the FuelCell Energy team and nearly $38 million to the Acumentrics team over the next nine years. FuelCell Energy and its partners would add nearly $72 million while the Acumentrics team would contribute $36.5 million in cost sharing.
Fuel cells generate power by combining hydrogen and oxygen in an electrochemical reaction, much like a battery produces electric current. Oxygen comes from the air while hydrogen can be extracted from a variety of fuels such as natural gas or coal, or perhaps one day from the electrolysis of water.
One key to reducing costs will be to mass manufacture standardized ceramic fuel cell modules using techniques adapted from remarkable advances in solid-state electronics. In a ceramic fuel cell, the major components - the electrodes and electrolyte - are solid materials typically configured as rolled tubes or flat plates.
The modules - each sized to generate 3 kilowatts to 10 kilowatts of electricity - would be fitted together for different market applications. By avoiding the need to custom-build each power unit, large volumes of fuel cells could be produced at lower costs. The computer industry used the same approach to dramatically cut the costs of computer chips.
The FuelCell Energy team will base much of its concept on being able to lower the fuel cell's operating temperature. Current ceramic fuel cells operate in excess of 1000 degrees C (or more than 1800 degrees F).
By bringing temperatures down to 700 degrees C (or nearly 1300 degrees F), FuelCell Energy can use lower cost metal alloys, reduce insulation, strengthen seals, and make other improvements to reduce costs. The lower temperatures also will permit the company to transfer many of the innovations it developed for its commercial line of molten carbonate fuel cells to its solid oxide design.
The Acumentrics team's design involves a series of ceramic mini-cylinders, each roughly the size of a soda straw. Combined into a 10-kilowatt module, the design potentially offers exceptional ruggedness and quicker start-ups than other systems, making the fuel cell especially applicable for residential markets, military applications, broadband communication networks, and as auxiliary power units for heavy-duty trucks.
The Energy Department will fund the projects in three phases with checkpoints to determine whether concepts warrant continued development. The first phase will extend to 2006 when developers are to produce an early prototype for testing at the National Energy Technology Laboratory in Morgantown, West Virginia. Subsequent phases would focus on improvements to meet the department's cost and performance targets.

===================


- posted by Daniel @ 5:45 PM

 
National Biodiesel Board
3337A Emerald Ln.
P O Box 104898
Jefferson City, MO 65110-4898
(573) 635-3893 phone
(800) 841-5849
(573) 635-7913 fax
www.biodiesel.org
NEWS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts: Jenna Higgins/NBB
(800) 841-5849
October 6, 2003



Back to School with Biodiesel:
Inside and Outside of the Classroom, More Schools, Students and Teachers Realize Benefits of Biodiesel

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.–The start of the 2003 school year marks the most widespread use of biodiesel yet, helping to clean up the air for kindergarten through college-level students. In addition to the numerous school bus fleets that are running on the cleaner burning fuel, teachers and students are increasingly exploring the benefits of biodiesel as part of their classroom curriculum.

Biodiesel can be made from any fat or vegetable oil, such as soybean oil, and works in any diesel engine with few or no modifications. It can be blended with petroleum diesel at any level or used in its pure form. In 1997, the Medford, New Jersey School District was the only school in the nation to run its fleet with the cleaner burning fuel. Today, thousands of buses and other diesel-powered vehicles use soy biodiesel in schools from Durham, North Carolina to colleges like the University of South Carolina in Columbia to Indiana University in Bloomington. Because of the desire of additional schools to use biodiesel, many groups also included biodiesel use as part of their recent proposals to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Bus USA grant program.

“We’re all so concerned about the other vehicles on the road, we need a fuel in our school buses that does not directly harm our children,” said Sharon Love, a parent from Louisville, Kentucky whose 13-year-old daughter Julia suffers from severe asthma. Love says her daughter had to change schools in part to reduce the time she spent on and around diesel-powered school buses because they caused such severe asthma attacks. Love says using biodiesel in school buses “can be done and should be.”

“I’m pleased that biodiesel is part of the solution to improving the air school children breathe,” said National Biodiesel Board (NBB) Executive Director Joe Jobe. “Not only are more school bus fleets making the switch to biodiesel, but teachers and students are exploring the benefits of biodiesel through classroom lessons as well.”

Biodiesel Outside the Classroom
An increasing number of school districts across the country are turning to soy biodiesel as a way to help reduce harmful emissions without having to replace their buses. For example, Durham, NC Public Schools use soy B20 (a blend of 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent petroleum diesel) in their fleet of 284 buses. Henry Kirby, Executive Director of Transportation for Durham Public Schools, said they are “very pleased with biodiesel”. He said typically they have some complaints about children getting headaches from diesel exhaust, but have had none since making the switch to biodiesel last year.

In addition, biodiesel has reduced the number of service calls they receive because it cleans the engine so well, according to Kirby. Before making the switch to biodiesel, they had eight to ten service calls a month due to clogged fuel filters, but have had none since switching to biodiesel.

Mike Thompson, Transportation Supervisor for the Ithaca, Michigan Public Schools says soy biodiesel is working very well for them and has the added benefit of easing one of their school bus driver’s asthma symptoms. “The driver with asthma tells me that she has noticed a big difference in the fumes since switching to biodiesel and as a result feels much better,” Thompson said. “She is no longer bothered by the exhaust when she walks around the buses.”

Biodiesel Inside the Classroom
In Warwick, Rhode Island, the School District not only uses soy biodiesel in its buses and heating boilers, but is integrating biodiesel into its educational curriculum. Their program is modeled after the high school curriculum on alternative fuels developed by the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA) called Cars of Tomorrow and the American Community. NESEA has distributed between 3,000-4,000 copies of the curriculum, which they developed with a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy Clean Cities Program, and has held workshops for teachers (for more information visit www.nesea.org).

Another way the biodiesel message is reaching students and teachers is through the New England Science Center Collaborative’s (NESCC) Climate Change Backpack. The Backpack is a portable collection of teaching materials and activities for hands-on learning with both formal (classroom) and informal (science centers and museum) audiences. Biodiesel is included in an exercise highlighting solutions (for more information visit www.nescc.info).

The National Energy Education Development (NEED) project -- a nonprofit association dedicated to promoting a realistic understanding of the scientific, economic and environmental impacts of energy, so that students and teachers can make educated decisions – also includes biodiesel in their curriculum materials for middle and secondary school students (for more information visit www.need.org).

In addition, Biofuels4schools, a California-based, non-profit dedicated to increasing the health of kids by promoting the use of biofuels in school buses, has launched a website which will serve as a clearinghouse for school-related biodiesel information (for more information visit www.biofuels4schools.org).

Biodiesel Background
Biodiesel is the only alternative fuel to have completed the rigorous Health Effects testing required by the Clean Air Act. Results show biodiesel poses significantly less risk to human health than petroleum diesel. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently released a comprehensive technical report of biodiesel emissions data that shows the exhaust emissions of particulate matter from pure biodiesel are about 47 percent lower than overall particulate matter emissions from diesel. Breathing particulate has been shown to be a human health hazard. Biodiesel emissions also reduce by 80 to 90 percent cancer causing compounds called Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) and nitrated PAH. Biodiesel also reduces emissions of total unburned hydrocarbons, a contributing factor to smog and ozone, by about 68 percent. Carbon monoxide is reduced by about 48 percent.

The United Soybean Board and state soybean board checkoff programs funded much of the development of the biodiesel industry in the US. Soybean farmers have invested millions of dollars in bringing biodiesel into commercial success. Today, it is the fastest growing alternative fuel in America, and about 350 major fleets use biodiesel nationwide.

Biodiesel has similar horsepower, torque and BTU content compared to petroleum diesel. It offers excellent lubricity and higher cetane than diesel fuel. Biodiesel is registered with the EPA as a fuel and fuel additive.

• Click here to view a list of some of the schools and universities that are using soy biodiesel.

# # #
Readers can learn more about biodiesel by visiting www.biodiesel.org.
- posted by Daniel @ 4:32 PM