Energy Conservation News articles from April 2000

Energy Conservation News archives from April 2000

OUTLOOK: Nation's First Energy Efficiency Utility.(Vermont)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2000... In late March, Vermont's governor, Howard Dean, unveiled a new kind of public utility--the first in the nation to focus on energy efficiency. Along with Vermont Public Service board chair Michael Dworkin and other public officials, Dean...

Web Service Leads In Cutting Cost.(priceline.com offers low-priced gasoline)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2000... According to a new program by the Priceline WebHouse Club, regardless of OPEC machinations, consumers will soon be able to name the price they pay for gasoline, and save as much as 20 cents a gallon off the price at the pump every time they...

House Seeks Study of Energy Supply.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2000... Partly spurred on by the recent "mini energy price crisis," Congress has voted funds to look into researching methane hydrates. The House has approved $47.5 million over five years to study methane hydrates, ice-like crystals buried under the...

Alternative Vehicles Won't Rule the Road.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2000... Market costs are likely to make vehicles that are powered by fuels other than gasoline too expensive for most consumers for the next decade, according to a report co-authored by Jonathan Rubin, a University of Maine resource economist. Rubin...

INTERNATIONAL: Canada Pushing Efficient Geothermal Solutions.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2000... The Canadian government will sign a contract with a U.S. association to develop the market for ground-coupled heat pumps in Canada. NRCan will pay $870,000 over 3 years to the Geothermal Heat Pump Consortium (701 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 3rd...

Bechtel/Nexant Wins Contract in India.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2000... Bechtel National, Inc. (45 Fremont Ave., San Francisco, CA 94105; Tel: 415/768- 1234, Fax: 415/768-9038), in conjunction with Nexant--the newly formed Bechtel energy consulting firm--has been awarded the four-year, $9.4 million Energy...

Tax Cuts Shine on Solar Panels.(UK manufacturers of solar energy equipment)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2000... U.K.'s Energy Minister Helen Liddell is urging U.K. suppliers and manufacturers of solar energy equipment to respond to the chancellor's VAT reduction on their products. The chancellor announced that installation of solar panels would qualify...

ENERGY MANAGEMENT/FINANCING DSM for Large End-Users and Electric Utilities.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2000... Electric City Corp. (1280 Landmeier Rd., Elk Grove Village, IL 60007-2410; Tel: 847/228-7666) has developed a new product and service offering designed to provide large-scale reduction of peak electrical demand for large end-user customers and...

RESIDENTIAL: Duct Leak Tests Sought.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2000... ASHRAE (1791 Tullie Circle, Atlanta, GA 30329; Fax 404/321-5478) has just announced 17 new requests-for-proposal (Website: www.ashrae.org). One of the projects should have great interest to residential sector conservation specialists. That RFP...

COMMERCIAL: Practical Technique for PV Wall Panels.
April 1, 2000... Flour City International, Inc. (915 Riverview Dr., No. 1, Johnson City, TN 37601-3804; Tel: 423/928-2724), a designer, fabricator, and installer of non- bearing custom exterior wall systems, has filed for a patent that will eliminate the...

INDUSTRIAL: Spark Plug Patent Allowed.(Environmental Solutions Worldwide Inc.)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2000... Environmental Solutions Worldwide, Inc. (250 Shields Court, Unit 3, Markham, ON Canada L3R 9W7; Tel: 905/947-9923, Fax: 905/947-9924, Website: www.cleanerfuture.com, Email: investors@cleanerfuture.com) has revealed that their U.S. patent...

Polymers Reduce Chips Energy Needs.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2000... New polymers developed by chemists and engineers at the University of Southern California and the University of Washington appear to achieve speed and capacity increases so great that they will revolutionize telecommunications, data processing,...

CHP Plant Reduces Chemical Costs.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2000... Construction has commenced on a new combined heat and power (CHP) plant to provide electricity and steam for industrial processes at the Ashtabula, Ohio Complex of Millennium Inorganic Chemicals (200 International Cir., Suite 5000, Hunt...

TRANSPORTATION: Rising Energy Cost Drives New Fuels.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2000... As average U.S. gasoline prices rise, proponents of using bio-based fuels and chemicals are gaining momentum. Gasoline-replacement research in the past has focused on ethanol derived from corn, but now agricultural engineers are beginning to...

Dumping Hydraulics Cuts Fuel Needs.
April 1, 2000... A material developed at the Ames Laboratory may steer automotive companies toward their goal of lighter, more fuel-efficient vehicles. Researchers say an inch-thick ring of the material could be used in an electronic torque sensor to regulate...

Can "Dirty" Hydrogen Foul Fuel Cells.
April 1, 2000... The green halo around fuel cells could vanish if the wrong fuel is chosen to power them, wasting their clean-energy potential, says a report just issued by the David Suzuki Foundation (Suite 219, 2211 West 4th Ave., Vancouver, B.C. V6K 4S2...

UTILITIES/POWER GENERATION GRI Study Delivers Microturbine View.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2000... The market for microturbine products will be a significant niche, totaling $2.4 billion to $8 billion by 2010; more than 50% of that market will be international. That's one of the conclusions reached by microturbine stakeholders, according to...

First Clean Coal With a Fuel Cell.(FuelCell Energy Inc.'s contract with Kentucky Pioneer Energy L.L.C. for power plant construction in Kentucky)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2000... FuelCell Energy, Inc. (3 Great Pasture Rd., Danbury, CT 06813; Tel: 203/825- 6000, Fax: 203/825-6100, Website: www.fuelcellenergy.com) has signed a contract with the Kentucky Pioneer Energy, L.L.C. (Clark County, KY), a subsidiary of Global...

Los Alamos in Supercon CRADA.(Los Alamos National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory and Intermaaaagnetics General Corp. sign cooperative research and development agreement)(agreement)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2000... On March 17, the DOE's Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) announced, in cooperation with Argonne National Laboratory, the signing of a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) with Intermagnetics General Corp. (450 Old...

Hydrogen Without Carbon Dioxide?(Solar Energy Ltd. produces H2 from coal)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2000... Solar Energy, Ltd. (Los Alamos, NM) has devised a super clean process to provide plentiful hydrogen without the attendant CO2 released in present hydrogen processes. This development actually promises to make valid the current claim of fuel...

NASA Advances Wind Turbines.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2000... For the first time ever, engineers at NASA's Ames Research Center will begin testing a wind turbine this month in the world's largest wind tunnel to learn how to design and operate the turbines more efficiently. The three-week test of the...

Research Projects Improve Stripper Gas.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2000... Stripper gas wells are an important source of domestic energy supply and under constant threat of permanent loss due to marginal economics. In 1998, 192 thousand stripper gas wells produced over a Tcf of gas, at an average rate of less than 16...

70% Savings From Conversion Method.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2000... In April, Synergy Technologies Corp. (Calgary, Alberta) received a French patent for the company's proprietary CPJ technology for conversion of heavy oils into more valuable lighter oils. The patent, assigned to Synergy subsidiary Carbon...

APPLIANCES: Standards Might Save $14 Billion.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2000... Swift adoption of long-awaited appliance efficiency standards would dramatically reduce U.S. energy demand, saving consumers $14 billion a year by 2020--equal to more than one month's free electricity for every household--according to a new...

Process Enhances Chip Efficiency.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2000... IBM Corp. (New Orchard Rd., Armonk, NY 10504; Tel: 914/499-1900, Fax: 914/765- 7382, Website: http://www.ibm.com) has developed a process to make microchips up to 30% faster, paving the way for faster Internet access and increasingly powerful...

LIGHTING: Lighting System Cuts Costs.(Los Angeles County's Dept. of Public Social Services)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2000... Los Angeles County's Dept. of Public Social Services (DPSS) has installed an innovative building-wide controllable lighting system in its Metro Special District offices in downtown Los Angeles, resulting in both improved quality of light and...

INDUSTRY NEWS: Ballard Concludes Bus Demonstration.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2000... Ballard Power Systems (9000 Glenlyon Pkwy., Burnaby, B.C. V5J 5J9, Canada; Tel: 604/454-0900, Fax: 604/412-4700, Website: www.ballard.com), XCELLSIS Fuel Cell Engines Inc., and the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) have concluded the world's...

FCL and Marubeni Establish Sales Agreement.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2000... Fuel Cell Energy, Inc. (Website: www.fce.com) and the Marubeni Corp. of Japan (4-2, Ohtemachi 1-chome, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8088, Japan; Tel: +81-3-3282- 2111, Fax: +81-3-3282-7456, Website: www.marubeni.co.jp) have signed a collaborative...

Toolbook Charts Course to $avings.
April 1, 2000... Billions of dollars in private and federal and state resources are available to manufacturers hoping to modernize their operations and improve productivity by adding energy efficient technologies. The trouble is most manufacturers do not know...

CALENDAR.
April 1, 2000... May 7-10, 2000, Sixth Annual Clean Cities Conference & Expo, San Diego, CA. Contact: DOE; Tel: 1-800-CCITIES. May 17, 2000, Strategic Energy Forum, Rosemont, IL. Contact: SEF 2000; Tel: 770/279-4390, Fax: 770/381-9865. June 11-15,...

Center Focuses On IC Engines.(Advanced Propulsion Technology Center, internal combustion engines)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2000... The Advanced Propulsion Technology Center (Website: www-aptc.ornl.gov) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has been designated a DOE national user facility. The center specializes in the detailed characterization of internal combustion...

RESOURCES: Sandia Seeks PV Reliability Data.(fielded photovoltaic systems)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2000... In a concerted effort to reduce the cost--while increasing the reliability--of fielded photovoltaic systems, staff at Sandia's System Applications Dept. (Website: www.sandia.gov/pv) are studying ways in which the life-cycle cost of a PV system...