Green Energy News | May 7, 2000

May 7, 2000 – Vol.5 No.6

ENERGIES... week of May 7, 2000

FORD’S STUNNER. Ford acknowledged at its annual meeting that its own most profitable products - its varied line of sport utility vehicles - conflict with company’s goal of becoming a social and environmental leader among car companies. The SUVs pollute heavily, have poor fuel efficiency, and are a safety issue to smaller vehicles. To reflect concerns about the products - and prove it is willing to take action to erase the shortcomings - Ford has published a 96 page report detailing the faults and the efforts to fix them.

But is Ford really becoming a good corporate citizen? Can Ford deliver on its promise to do better? Ford does have the technology and know-how to build the kind of responsible vehicle it says it would like to offer. The question is whether Ford can convince consumers to buy them when available - especially when many buyers seem to have little interest in clean, efficient and safe-for-all vehicles. Hope for the report, or portions of it, to be published in the Ford website at http://www.ford.com/ .

UP IN SMOKE. A billowing cloud of steam from a factory generally means energy is going to waste. If captured and put to work that steam could reduce the dependence on other energy sources or be a new supply of energy to meet growing demands.

Minnesota Power has offered to invest $10 million in a new turbine generator which will harness waste steam to generate electricity at the Potlatch Corp. Cloquet, Minnesota paper plant. Potlach makes steam at the facility for use in the paper production process by burning waste wood and natural gas. Steam not used in production is fed into two turbines which supply electrical power to the facility. But there is more steam than needed by Potlach, so the Minnesota Power turbine will use the remainder to produce up to 24 megawatts of electricity that will be piped into the grid. Visit Minnesota Power at http://www.mnpower.com

COUNTING TURBINES. The number of installed wind turbines grows steadily. The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) has signed a power purchase agreement with SeaWest WindPower to supply the federal agency with an additional 16.8 megawatts of electricity from SeaWest’s Foote Creek IV project. The 20 year agreement will result in an additional 28 turbines to be installed at the Foote Creek Rim site in Carbon County, Wyoming. When the project is complete the site will have an installed capacity of 84.8 megawatts.

BPA is a self-funding U.S. federal agency which sells electricity and power transmission at cost to other utilities. BPA also has nuclear and hydropower in its power portfolio. SeaWest WindPower claims to be the largest independent developer of wind power in the world. Visit BPA http://www.bpa.gov/ , SeaWest at http://www.seawestwindpower.com/

WIND BELGIUM. Belgium may have a short coastline on the North Sea, but it still may build offshore wind power to achieve a national goal of getting 3.5 percent of its electricity from renewables. A plan by the nation’s Energy Ministry to begin soliciting bids for offshore wind power must first be approved by the cabinet. If approved, the Belgium power company Electrabel has already expressed an interest in building wind parks off the Belgian coast. Visit Electrabel at http://www.electrabel.be