Green Energy News | August 2, 1998

August 2, 1998 – Vol.3 No.18

ENERGIES... week of August 2,1998

WINDPOWER DOWN UNDER? An endless coastline fronting a mostly flat hinterland. Daily sea breezes coinciding with peak afternoon electric demand. You’d think Australia would be the wind energy capital of the world. Not so.

According to Dr. Michael Gunter Australia should pursue the renewable energy resource as a way to cut down on its greenhouse gas emissions. Gunter is a Trustee with the Renewable Energy Trust of the Alternative Technology Association and, as it turns out, owner of the Breamlea Wind Generator, one of a handful of wind turbines in the land down under. Gunter claims his single turbine should be a model of what could become a successful wind energy industry to displace some of the coal fired electricity now being produced in his nation.

A good portion of the electricity produced in Australia is used in aluminum smelting. But in an odd twist, strong and light aluminum is a key ingredient used in making transportation more energy efficient. Further, it is easily recycled, using a fraction of the energy needed to extract it from bauxite ore.

So Australia sends a lot of CO2 into the thin atmosphere, but produces a material that reduces the greenhouse gas elsewhere. With enough wind energy, maybe the smelters could be powered by the reliable wind. Check out Dr. Gunter’s work at http://suburbia.net/~mickgg/blue-sky-mine.htm .

WANTED: RENEWABLE ENERGY. Wisconsin Electric (WE) has issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) soliciting bids for one or more contracts totaling up to 75 megawatts of renewable generating capacity. The RFP is in response to legislation that calls for utilities in the eastern part of the state to provide a combined total of 50 Mw of renewable energy by the year 2000. WE is responsible for 27 Mw of that but will exceed that figure.

WE has one of the most successful customer-choice, “green pricing,” renewable energy programs in the country. Almost 7500 Energy for Tomorrow customers can choose 100% renewables at an additional two cents per kilowatt-hour, one cent for 50% renewable, and half a penny for 25% green energy.

FUEL CELL STUDY AVAILABLE. Advances in fuel cells as automobile engines have come a long way - but hurdles remain. Ballard Power Systems, for example, will make a go - no - go decision by the end of 1999 to invest approximately $1 billion that will result in the production of thousands of fuel cell engines by 2004, 40,000 per year by 2006 and 100,000 per year by 2006.

Read about progress so far and steps needed to get fuel cells on the road by the next decade. The report from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) “Status and Prospects of Fuel Cells as Automobile Engines” is available at http://www.arb.ca.gov (click What’s New).