Points of Interest | Green Energy News

August 24, 2003 – Vol.8 No.22

POINTS OF INTEREST.

A weekly collection of websites worth visiting.

The Intelligent Transportation Society of America thinks that the term intelligent transportation doesn’t have to be an oxymoron as it now is in so many traffic congested areas. There has to be better, more intelligent ways to get around.

Aside from its advocacy of everything from transit to telematics, the group keeps track of a wide range of news related to smarter ways to get from A to B. http://www.itsa.org/

Imagine subway systems without the third rail, or light rail systems without ugly overhead wires. That is what the outcome could be with work now started at the Fuelcell Propulsion Institute.

With funding from the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command and the National Automotive Center (NAC) the Institute is now in the process of converting an Army diesel-electric locomotive to a 109-ton, 1-megawatt, fuel cell powered test bed - fuel cell power on rails.

The project is to test the viability of the concept including cost-benefit analysis, performance, marketability and other aspects of a zero-emission rail system free from a power grid connection. A number of rail transit operators are involved in the demonstration project. The Institute is also developing a hybrid battery/ fuel cell powered mine loader as well as a mine tractor. http://www.fuelcellpropulsion.org/

The Blackout of 2003 in the U.S. opened a waterfall of comments, suggestions, as well as a formal investigation on its causes. In summary, Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future - PennFuture - has published a serious, but slightly tongue-in-cheek list of do’s and don’ts to tackle the power situation in the U.S.

Pennsylvania was unaffected by the outage as its grid is managed by PJM Interconnection. PennFuture considers PJM to be the most sophisticated grid operator in the nation. Its best-in the-business grid management halted the wave of outages at its borders. So well managed is PJM, which also covers Maryland and New Jersey, that PennFuture thinks PJM should become Monarch of the Grid.

While at PennFuture be sure to also read - A Global Warming Canary - listed in Pressroom and Publications. http://www.pennfuture.org/ .