Green Energy News | May 13, 2001

May 13, 2001 – Vol.6 No.7

ENERGIES... week of May 13, 2001

THANK YOU, MR. PRESIDENT. Thank you for starting a much needed national discussion on energy. Thank you for calling our energy situation a crisis. Americans work best in a crisis mode.

Now you will hear how Americans feel about land they will never see. Now you will hear how Americans feel about air and water pollution - and the potential for increasing both. Now you will hear how Americans feel about their contribution to global warming - and the potential for contributing more. Now you will hear from our friends beyond our borders how they feel about more pollution and more greenhouse gases coming from our shores.

But, of course, you will also hear from Americans defending the status quo - those unwilling to take on the challenges of, or perhaps uncomfortable with change.

During the next few months you and Congress must make some important decisions. Those decisions may have little immediate impact, but almost certainly will have an impact on people decades and probably centuries from now. Please let those important decisions be in the best interest of those not yet born.

Yes, thank you for opening this necessary and belated debate. Sooner or later this had to happen.

(For your copy of the proposed National Energy Policy download the PDF file(s) at http://www.whitehouse.gov/energy/ .)

NEW URBAN MOBILITY. Visionary entrepreneur Dr. Donald E. Panoz has created a new company to find ways to make clean and efficient personal transportation work in harmony with mass transit.

The new company - eMotion Mobility - is based on a study done for Dr. Panoz by the Southern Coalition for Advanced Transportation (SCAT) which showed that a market would exist in the near future for electric vehicles equipped with advanced communications devices that could tied with transit systems.

Panoz will build eMotion on the success he already has had in developing high-tech automobiles. The Panoz organization comprises more than 30 companies some of which are involved in automotive technologies, racing cars, and through his son Danny, the exotic hand-built Panoz Roadsters. Panoz also developed a hybrid electric racing car for the 1998 LeMans - the Panoz Q9. John Wilson, former President and CEO of SCAT has been recruited to head eMotion.

Dr. Panoz’ entrepreneurial success came from his development of time release technologies for pharmaceuticals. Watch this space for further news from eMotion.

TOOLS TO TRANSPORTATION. After five years of producing cordless electric yard tools, PowerQwest is now offering a scooter in its Eco-electric (tm) product line.

Wicked Wave (tm) is the first of three electric rides to be offered this year by the company. The stand-up electric scooter has a 24 volt electric system and belt drive. Wicked Wave is now being sold through Sears stores for $299.

CONCENTRATED SOLAR. When we think of holographic images we might think of the three-dimensional image applied to some credit cards. But holographic images can also be used to direct and focus light onto a solar cell. That is what TerraSun is doing.

In a way to cut the cost of solar and include photovoltaic (PV) power in building integrated solar systems, TerraSun is utilizing holographic optics to concentrate light onto a commonly produced crystalline silicon solar cell. Cost is reduced because far fewer cells are needed for a module. The area of a complete panel module that could be used in place of a skylight, for example, would be 75 percent transparent and 25 percent PV cell.

For now the company is working to build production capability and specific products are not yet announced. Efficiency and power output figures could be expected at that time.

CANADA: SOLAR HOT WATER. Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) and the Technology Early Action Measure (TEAM) component of the Climate Change Action Fund has invested more than $600,000 towards the commercialization of a low-cost and efficient solar hot water heater developed by EnerWorks. Additional funds for the $ 2.6 million project will come from private sources, and the first 100 systems will be installed in the next few months.

According to NRCan, water heating can account for 20 percent of a home’s energy needs and can produce up to two tons of greenhouse gases per house per year. A solar hot water system would cut that figure in half.

NRCan has also invested $475,000 in a 200-kilowatt solar-simulator lamp - the largest in the world - to be installed at its National Solar Test Facility (NSTF). The Facility is used to test solar equipment in varying climatic conditions in an environmental chamber under accurate simulated solar light.

Visit TEAM and the Climate Change Action Fund at http://www.climatechange.gc.ca/ , EnerWorks at http://www.enerworks.com/ .

AUSTRALIA: GREENHOUSE GAS-TO-ENERGY. Under the more than $200 million Australian Greenhouse Gas Abatement Program (GGAP), methane gas from two Australian coal mining operations will be captured and used to generate power. With nearly $6 million, Energy Developments Limited will install 4 methane fueled gas turbines at Anglo Coal Holding’s German Creek Mine in central Queensland and Envirogen will use almost $7 million to install 20 reciprocating generators at mines in New South Wales and in Queensland.

Methane from coal mines represents 4 percent of all greenhouse gases from Australia. Electricity, carbon dioxide and other emissions will displace the methane normally released into the

atmosphere at these mining operations. Visit the GGAP at http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/ .

BETTER THAN EXPECTED. Future Energy Resources Corporation (FERCO) reports that the performance of its SilvaGas (tm) biomass-waste-to-energy process is more efficient than originally projected. Gasifier output, turning waste wood and crop residues into combustible gas, is operating in excess of 175 percent of its original design. More than 450 tons of forestry and agricultural byproducts can be gasified per day as opposed to 250 tons as originally thought capable.

Further, the heating value of the product gas has proven to be constant regardless of the moisture content of the feedstock. The constant heating value allows SilvaGas to be used as a substitute for natural gas.

WORLD WIND WATCH. In the US, FPL Energy has announced it will build, own and operate a 110 megawatt wind project in Kansas. Power from the 170 turbine facility will be sold to UtiliCorp United. The as yet unnamed wind farm should be complete by the end of this year. FPL has nearly 1000 megawatts of installed wind capacity and plans to have an additional 870 megawatts operating by year’s end.

Also in the US, VOLT Inc. has purchased an unspecified wind farm in the Altamont Pass near San Francisco. The older farm has more than 1100 95 kilowatt turbines that the company considers non-operational. VOLT plans to replace the turbines with 900 kilowatt units. As it stands now the wind farm is zoned for 114 megawatts.

Visit FPL at http://www.fplenergy.com/ .