Green Energy News | September 26, 1999

September 26, 1999 – Vol.4 No.26

ENERGIES... week of September 26, 1999

UNBELIEVABLE MILEAGE. Honda's Insight electric hybrid has won the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) highest fuel efficiency rating ever - 61 miles per gallon (mpg) city and 70 highway. Journalists from three magazines challenged those already phenomenal figures in a contest sponsored by Honda.

A team from Car and Driver driving the Insight in the partial suction behind a lead vehicle, known as drafting, achieved 121.7 mpg in a highway test routine and 101.9 mpg on a test track. The Popular Mechanic's team achieved 83.4 mpg highway and 102.2 mpg on the track also by drafting. Ward's Auto World used similar driving methods to get 73 and 105.9 mpg respectively.

The very-aero Insight has a coefficient of drag of 0.25 and weights only 1887 pounds - easy to be pulled along in the wake of a larger vehicle. But don't try drafting yourself - leave it for professional drivers. Visit the Insight at http://www.hondahybrid.com/ .

CANADIAN WIND UNVEILING. The windy Gaspe Peninsula on the Gulf of St. Lawrence in northeastern Quebec is now producing renewable electricity for the province. Considered the largest wind facility in Canada, the Nordais Wind Farm with 76 turbines now operating, and another 57 on-line in a few weeks, will be able to produce 100 megawatts - enough to power 16,000 households.

The Farm is part of planned wind power network for Quebec. The network is expected to steadily grow with the addition of 50 megawatts each year. With 60-70 new turbines of 750 kilowatt capacity added annually, the network could be producing 450 megawatts by 2011

Built by a consortium of Axor International of Canada, NEG Micron of Denmark and Nichimen Corporation of Japan, power from the Nordais Wind Farm will be sold for distribution to Hydro-Quebec in an already-signed 25 year contract.

NEW DANISH WIND MAKES CO2 REDUCTION. New numbers from the Danish energy board has shown that the nation’s carbon dioxide emissions have been reduced by 2.8% - thanks mostly to newly installed wind power. Last year 9% of Denmark's electricity was supplied by wind. The new wind installations displaced some electricity formerly generated by coal.

U.K. APPROVED RENEWABLES. Britain's first government accredited renewable energy supplier - Unit Energy Limited - has begun operations. The accreditation program “Future Energy” was devised by the Energy Saving Trust to register and regulate a growing number of green power suppliers entering the U.K. utilities market.

Under the program suppliers either have to match renewable energy sold with renewable energy purchased averaged over 12 months, or can ask customers to pay into a fund used to stimulate investment in renewables. Unit Energy will offer green power under the matching plan.

Research for Future Energy found that 71 percent of U.K. home owners were interested in purchasing renewable power and 45 percent would be willing to pay a premium for the service. The U.K. government wants 10 percent of the nation's power to be generated by renewables by 2010.