Energy articles from March 2005

Energy archives from March 2005

20/20 vision for 2020.(EDITORIAL)(Editorial)
March 22, 2005... A half-year ago, I called Ford Motor Co. about an energy issue and at the end of the call, I gave some limited views on energy forecasts. I wanted to see what their reaction was. This, as you know, was during the time when we were well into...

LNG Peril: countering the threat of terrorist attacks on gas terminals.(SECURITY)
March 22, 2005... The following is a hypothetical scenario drawn from open-source information. It is intended only as an illustration of the use of technology against highly technological societies, and the security impacts that need to be addressed in...

Upgrading heavy oils: they could help balance the supply equation and cut prices at the pump.(SUPPLY)
March 22, 2005... Skyrocketing crude oil and gasoline prices, escalating military budgets, and worries about security of energy supplies, U.S. deficits, the stability of the international financial system, and global environmental pollution, are some of the...

Homeowners can produce electricity.(American Honda Motor Co. contracts with Climate Energy L.L.C. )(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... American Honda Motor Co. will work with Massachusetts based Climate Energy, LLC to bring a home heat and power technology to market. The system uses micro combined heat and power (MCHP) cogeneration technology with natural gas to provide...

Helping plastic conduct electricity.(IN THE NEWS: TECHNOLOGY)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... Yueh-Lin (Lynn) Loo at The University of Texas at Austin has received a 2005 Young Investigator Award from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation to find ways to improve the ability of polyaniline to conduct electricity. Loo, an assistant...

Chill out: solid-state refrigerator hypothesized.(United States. National Institute of Standards and Technology)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... NIST research describes a solid state refrigerator device in the form of a tiny sandwich-shaped diode whose layers are successively a normal metal, an insulator, and a superconductor. The stack has the effect of pulling the hottest electrons...

Technology accelerates solid-state lighting.(IN THE NEWS: TECHNOLOGY)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... Scientists at the Lighting Research Center (LRC, 21 Union St., Troy, NY; Website: www.lrc.rpi.edu/ programs/solidstate/) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a method known as "SPE" to get significantly more light from white...

Iran's advantage: the country holds ten percent of the world's proved oil reserves.
March 22, 2005... In March 2004, President Bush extended sanctions originally imposed in 1995 by President Clinton for another year, citing the "unusual and extraordinary threat" to U.S. national security posed by Iran. The 1995 executive orders prohibit U.S....

Coal age: coal production is increasing. A review of U.S. supply and demand.(FOSSIL FUELS)
March 22, 2005... In 2004, the coal industry experienced increasing production levels as well as increasing coal consumption. Factors expected to contribute to increased coal demand and production in 2005 include: continued economic recovery; continued...

Active biogenisis: microbes are making natural gas in Wyoming's Powder River Basin.(NATURAL GAS)
March 22, 2005... Recent studies in the coal beds of the Powder River Basin (PBR) in northeastern Wyoming have identified significant populations of anaerobic microorganisms that are responsible for active, ongoing methanogenesis. Further, this investigation...

Plastics from Corn reduce petroleum inputs.(NATURAL GAS)
March 22, 2005... The Iowa Corn Promotion Board, ICPB, has signed its first commercial license with Battelle to produce a new plastic additive made from corn that offers a variety of commercial advantages. Battelle operates the Department of Energy's Pacific...

$53 b investment required to meet state standards.(OUTLOOK)
March 22, 2005... Improving economics, technology advances and increasingly favorable government policies are creating unprecedented opportunities for 52,000 MW of new capacity to meet the demand for renewable energy projects according to a new study,...

Utilities consider gasified coal.(COAL)
March 22, 2005... Some U.S. electric companies are looking into integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) technology as a way to address environmental concerns, according to a report published in March by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services titled "U.S....

Spent fuel is at risk of terrorist attacks.(NUCLEAR)
March 22, 2005... Spent nuclear fuel stored in pools at some of the nation's 103 operating commercial nuclear reactors may be at risk from terrorist attacks, says a new report from a committee of the National Academies' Board on Radioactive Waste Management....

Sandia, Stirling to build solar dish engine plant.(ELECTRIC POWER)(Sandia National Laboratories and Stirling Energy Systems Inc.)
March 22, 2005... The National Nuclear Security Administration's Sandia National Laboratories is joining forces with Stirling Energy Systems, Inc. (SES) of Phoenix to build and test six new solar dish-engine systems for electricity generation that will provide...

Legislation would spur more efficient chillers.(ENERGY EFFICIENCY/NEW TECHNOLOGY)
March 22, 2005... According to the Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute (ARI, 4100 North Fairfax Dr., Suite 200, Arlington, VA 22203; Tel: 703/524-8800; Website: www.ari.org), Congressman Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.; E-Mail: john. mcdonald@mail.house.gov),...

Finding could help develop clean energy.(ENERGY EFFICIENCY/NEW TECHNOLOGY)
March 22, 2005... Chemical engineers at Purdue University have made a discovery that may help to improve a promising low-polluting energy technology that combusts natural gas more cleanly than conventional methods. The finding revolves around the fact that...

Giving customers more control.(ENERGY EFFICIENCY/NEW TECHNOLOGY)
March 22, 2005... San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E, 8326 Century Park Ct., San Diego, CA 92123; Tel: 619/696-2000; Fax: 858/ 654-1515; Website: www.sdge.com) has unveiled a proposal to install technologically advanced electric meters for its customers over the...

Improving efficiency of molecular solar cells.(ENERGY EFFICIENCY/NEW TECHNOLOGY)
March 22, 2005... Scientists have been able to follow the flow of excitation energy in both time and space in a molecular complex using a new technique called two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy. While holding great promise for a broad range of...

Nanodevices efficient at water splitting.(ENERGY EFFICIENCY/NEW TECHNOLOGY)
March 22, 2005... Sunlight splitting water molecules to produce hydrogen using devices too small to be seen in a standard microscope; that's a goal of a research team from the National Nuclear Security Administration's Sandia National Laboratories. The...

Fast savings: restraints on passenger vehicles can save millions of barrels of oil.(TRANSPORTATION)
March 22, 2005... The transport sector accounts for over hall of oil use in International Energy Agency (IEA) countries and is expected to account for nearly all future growth in oil use. A new IEA analysis, Saving Oil in a Hurry, explores measures to rapidly...

Boom in Asia: China and India must address the brewing crisis over access to oil.(TRANSPORTATION)
March 22, 2005... China and India are the two largest countries in the world, with roughly five and four times the population of the United States, respectively. Each has a booming transportation sector, and burgeoning numbers of motor vehicles are straining...

Smaller, lighter HEV components.(IN THE NEWS: TRANSPORTATION)(Hybrid Electric Vehicle)
March 22, 2005... Denso Corp. (24777 Denso Dr., P.O. Box 5133, Southfield, MI 48086; Tel: 248/350-7500) has developed four new components for hybrid vehicles: a hybrid control computer; a battery-monitoring unit; a DC-DC converter; and an electric compressor...

Project to develop recyclable hydrogen storage.(IN THE NEWS: TRANSPORTATION)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... Researchers at RTI International (PO Box 12194, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2194; Tel: 919/485-2666; E-mail: listen@rti.org) have been awarded $1.6 million to develop a hydrogen-fuel storage technology that will provide a stable and...

Solar peaking: distributed photovoltaic generation can ease utility demand.(DISTRIBUTED ENERGY)
March 22, 2005... Solar photovoltaic (PV) systems are unique among distributed energy resources in that the electricity generation profile is driven by the same factor that drives most, if not all, utility peak loads--the sunlight. When air conditioners are...

Greening petroleum: U.S. oil and gas companies bow to shareholders on climate.(FINANCE)
March 22, 2005... After extensive negotiations with shareholders, Anadarko Petroleum, Apache, ChevronTexaco, and three other leading U.S. oil and gas companies have taken far-reaching actions in recent months to disclose their potential financial exposure from...

Tiny electric motor packs more power.(IN THE NEWS: ENERGY ELECTRONICS)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... According to a report published in the 21 March 2005 issue of Applied Physics Letters, the smallest electric motor in the world, devised by physicists at UC Berkeley, is based on the shuttling of atoms between two metal droplets--one large...

Diode improves power supplies.(IN THE NEWS: ENERGY ELECTRONICS)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... With the help of MDA funding, EMCORE Corporation (145 Belmont Drive, Somerset, NJ 08873; Tel: 732/271-9090; Fax: 732/271-9686; Website: www.emcore.com) has developed a GaN-based Schottky diode that can replace the silicon diodes used in a...

Laser spark plug out-powers current systems.(IN THE NEWS: ENERGY ELECTRONICS)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... Researchers at DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory recently squeezed additional power out of a laser spark plug that holds promise for replacing existing spark plugs on natural-gas-fired reciprocating engines. Using a miniaturized...

Coating enhances engine operation.(IN THE NEWS: ENERGY ELECTRONICS)(Ames Laboratory )(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory (www. ameslab.gov) and Iowa State University have developed a new bond coat for thermal barrier coatings, or TBCs, that may allow gas turbine engines in aircraft and other...

Can glass store hydrogen? Researchers as Alfred University think it just might work. Hmmm.(Contrarian's View on Energy)
March 22, 2005... Not being an Internet surfer, I have to thank a friend for calling my attention to an item, on 7 July 2004 by reporter Miguel Llanos, about an ongoing research project at Alfred University, NY. It is under the direction of Jim Shelby,...

Calendar.(Calendar)
March 22, 2005... July 19-22, 2005, 7th Biennial Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Industry, West Point, New York. Contact: ACEEE, 1001 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 801, Washington, D.C. 20036-5525; Website: http:/ /aceee.org. August 8-12, 2005,...