Project Earth | Green Energy News

April 18, 2004 – Vol.9 No.4

PROJECT EARTH.

Each year to celebrate Earth Day companies and organizations take the opportunity to pat themselves on the back - deservedly so - for green energy projects they’ve completed in the past as well as those now under way.

The U.S. Navy, proud of the accomplishments of its Energy Program, has...

... built and is operating a 270-megawatt geothermal power plant at China Lake, California.

... implemented a program with Ocean Power Technologies to build and deploy a PowerBuoy wave energy converter in Kanehoe Bay, Hawaii.

... has built 1.1-megawatt photovoltaic solar power plant at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, California.

... has built a 750-kilowatt PV solar parking shelter at the Naval Air Station, North Island, California.

... has installed three 225-kilowatt wind turbines on San Clemente Island, California.

... in a noteworthy project, begun construction of a 3.8-megawatt wind farm at Naval Air Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Guantanamo Bay is where so-called detainees from the war in Afghanistan are being held indefinitely. Visit the Navy’s Energy Program at http://energy.navy.mil/ .

Siemens Building Technologies is building a 4.2 megawatt combined heat and power plant for Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, New York. One of the four combustion generators at the facility will operate on methane gas from a nearby, but closed, landfill operation. The remaining generators will operate on natural gas. The college will be able to disconnect from the local power grid as it will be generating all of its own electricity. Visit the Hudson Valley Community College at http://www.hvcc.edu/ and Siemens Building Technologies at http://www.sbt.siemens.com/ .

SANYO North America has dedicated a 150-kilowatt photovoltaic solar system atop its U.S. headquarters in San Diego, California as well as a 50 kilowatt array atop a nearby carport. The larger system utilized PowerLight’s PowerGuard (tm) solar roofing system, the smaller used PowerLight's PowerTracker system. The solar cells employed were SANYO’s HIT-190 cells which have an efficiency conversion rate of 18.5 percent, the highest rate of any mass-produced cell . Visit SANYO at http://www.sanyo.com/ and PowerLight at http://www.powerlight.com/

Conservation Services Group (CSG) which has been providing energy-saving strategies to customers for 20 years, has signed a contract with ISO New England to provide four megawatts of on-peak power in the form of energy efficiency to the Southwest Connecticut grid.

In other words, CSG is selling saved electricity as electricity available for other purposes. And explained yet another way, a kilowatt saved is a kilowatt for sale.

To hold to its contract CSG will deliver the efficiency savings by retrofitting multifamily housing projects, schools, warehouses, and other commercial facilities in the area with energy-saving lamps and light fixtures.

For ISO New England this purchase of efficiency-as-available-electricity is a first. Visit CSG at http://www.conservationservicesgroup.com/ , ISO New England at http://www.iso-ne.com/ .

Oroville, California - which likes to call itself Solar City USA - has taken Earth Day 2004 to dedicate five solar projects built for the municipality in 2003. Together the projects represent 196 kilowatts of photovoltaic solar power.

The projects are...

... a 93-kilowatt system at Police and Fire Department Headquarters.

... a 47-kilowatt system at City Hall.

... a 34.7-kilowatt system at the Public Works Yard.

... an 11.3-kilowatt system at the City-owned State Theater.

... a 10-kilowatt system at the Pioneer Museum.

These systems were additions to Oroville’s already impressive solar energy installed capacity including...

... a 622-kilowatt system at the Sewerage Commission-Oroville Region.

... a 566-kilowatt system at a community freshwater treatment plant.

Joining all of the above projects this summer will be a 1.2-megawatt solar system now under construction at the Butte County Center in Oroville. All of the systems were designed, built or are currently being installed by Sun Power and Geothermal Energy. Visit Oroville - Solar City USA at http://www.solarcityusa.com/ and Sun Power and Geothermal at http://www.sunpowergeo.com/