Energy Conservation News articles from December 1998

Energy Conservation News archives from December 1998

OUTLOOK: Industrial Sector Needs to "Reduce".
December 1, 1998... According to a just-released GRI (8600 W. Bryn Mawr Ave., Chicago, IL 60631-3562; Tel: 773/399-8100) study entitled "1998 Industrial Trends Analysis," completed by GRI along with Energy and Environmental Analysis Inc. (1655 N. Fort Myer Dr.,...

Gasoline More Costly Than You Think.
December 1, 1998... According to a report by the International Center for Technology Assessment (310 D St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20002; Tel: 202/547-9359; Email: office@icta.org), tabulating all of the "external" costs of gasoline pushes the price of gasoline as...

GOVERNMENT: Saving Energy Dollars by Aggregating.
December 1, 1998... The GSA (Washington, D.C.) is one of the three central management agencies in the Federal Government. GSA employs over 14,000 people and has an annual budget of nearly $13 billion. In mid-November, GSA contracted with Exelon Energy (Website:...

INTERNATIONAL: EU Allots Money for Efficiency.
December 1, 1998... European Union energy ministers have agreed to budget about $200 million (U.S.) to energy sector programs over the next 3 years. The 15- nation EU bloc has a plethora of programs and projects designed to put its energy policies into practice,...

Japan to Pay Buyers of Efficient Vehicles.
December 1, 1998... Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry is considering a plan under which the government would provide 180 billion yen in subsidies to buyers of fuel-efficient vehicles. The plan would apply to about 800,000 vehicles which account...

Milestone in Drive for Efficiency.
December 1, 1998... Poor energy use pervades transition economies. A Ukrainian company will use two to three times more energy than an average American company to make one ton of steel. And Russian families spend on average 25% of their take-home pay on heat for...

ENERGY MANAGEMENT/FINANCING TeCom, IEP Integrate Management Systems.
December 1, 1998... TeCom, Inc. (702 N. Franklin St., Tampa, FL 33602; Tel: 800/836-9909; Website: http://www.InterLane.com), a provider of energy information systems, and Illinova Energy Partners (IEP, 500 S. 27th St., Decatur, IL 62525-1805; Tel: 800/388-7528),...

Browse Your Way to Savings.
December 1, 1998... A free website (http://www.scebiz.com) is helping managers of small- to medium-size businesses in California research how to cut energy costs, obtain state rebates on new equipment purchases, and select electric rate options that reduce their...

RESIDENTIAL: Home Builder Finds a Selling Point.
December 1, 1998... According to information supplied by Steve Baden of RESNET (475 College Blvd., Ste. 6-210, Oceanside, CA 92057; Email: resnet@earthlink.net), the Tucson Division of Pulte Homes is constructing Five Star Homes that reduce utility bills by 30%...

HUD Promotes Efficient Walls.
December 1, 1998... HUD (Housing and Urban Development, HUD USER, P.O. Box 6091, Rockville, MD 20850; Tel: 800/245-2691; TDD: 800/483-2209, Fax: 301/519-5767) has prepared a guide to ICF wall systems entitled, "Prescriptive Method for Insulating Concrete Forms in...

COMMERCIAL: Cost of Wastewater Treatment Reduced.
December 1, 1998... Praxair, Inc. (39 Old Ridgebury Rd., Danbury, CT 06810-5113; Tel: 203/837-2000; Website: http://www.praxair.com) has announced test results for a technology that reduces the energy cost and emissions associated with municipal (and industrial)...

INDUSTRIAL: DOE Targets Power Losses.
December 1, 1998... The U.S. Department of Energy has announced its intention to seek a doubling of combined heat and power systems in commercial, industrial, and institutional buildings in communities throughout the United States. This would produce 46 gW of...

Laser Glazing Reduces Friction; Saves Energy.
December 1, 1998... According to researchers at Argonne National Laboratory (Industrial Technology Development Ctr., 9700 S. Cass Ave., Argonne, IL 60439; Tel: 630/252-5936), treating steel rails with a process called laser glazing reduces friction between the...

UTILITIES/POWER GENERATION Super Efficient Hybrid Power Plant.
December 1, 1998... Edison Technology Solutions (Edison Intl., 2244 Walnut Grove Ave., Rosemead, CA 91770; Tel: 626/302-1212) intends to demonstrate and lead the commercialization of the first 250 kw "hybrid" generating plant integrating a fuel cell with a...

Army Says: "Reduce Fuel Requirements".
December 1, 1998... Under a $1.3 million army contract, H Power (60 Montgomery St., Belleville, NJ 07109; Tel: 973/450-4400) is developing a fuel cell system for the Marine Corps that can use either diesel or aviation fuel. A major objective in developing the...

Making Efficient Use of Waste.
December 1, 1998... The Western Hemisphere's first fuel cell power plant to run on gas produced during sewage treatment is operating in Yonkers, New York. The New York Power Authority (NYPA) fuel cell, funded in part by the EPA and the DOE, uses the anaerobic...

Regs for Transformers Being Contemplated.
December 1, 1998... The November 12 issue ([63](218), 63359-63372, 1998) of the Federal Register, contains a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and public hearing issued by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Department of Energy, the purpose of which...

APPLIANCES: Potential of Ultrasonic Humidifiers Examined.
December 1, 1998... A new Federal Technology Alert provides a comprehensive analysis of the energy-savings potential of ultrasonic humidification. Ultrasonic humidification is a relatively recent technology and there are few installed units. There are no known...

Diamond's Potential in Electrical Efficiency.
December 1, 1998... Vanderbilt University (305 Kirkland Hall, Nashville, TN 37420; Tel: 615/322-7311) engineering professors Jim Davidson and Weng Poo Kang are looking into new uses of diamond coatings which could have significant implications for the electrical...

HVAC: HVAC Data on the Net.
December 1, 1998... The Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute (4301 N. Fairfax Dr., Suite 425, Arlington, VA 22203; Tel: 703/524-8800) is offering its Applied and Unitary directories on the Internet in a new, searchable database, beginning in January, 1999....

MOTORS: Motor System Market Assessment Completed.
December 1, 1998... The final report of the United States Industrial Electric Motor Systems Market Opportunities Assessment will be available in January, 1999. For the last several years, Motor Challenge has sponsored this comprehensive assessment of motor-driven...

Louisiana Pacific Saves with Optimized Motors.
December 1, 1998... The Louisiana-Pacific (LP, 111 S.W. Fifth Ave., Portland, OR 97204; Tel: 503/221-0800) plant in Tomahawk, Wisconsin, proves that a typical company can implement relatively low-cost, simple changes to realize significant energy and dollar...

VSD Control of Motors Slated to Save.
December 1, 1998... At the just-concluded Embedded Systems Conference, Anacon Systems, Inc. (5354 E. Sunshine, Suite 200, Springfield, MO 65809; Tel: 888/456- 3398, Fax: 417/877-9076; Email: info@anaconsystems.com, Website: http://www.anaconsystems.com) announced...

SatCon Pushes Variable Reluctance Motor Concept.
December 1, 1998... SatCon Technology Corp. (161 First St., Cambridge, MA 02142; Tel: 617/661-0540) has received contracts, initially totaling $200,000, to develop a Variable Reluctance Motor (VRM) for NASA and a high speed, permanent magnet motor for the AC...

LIGHTING: Office Saves 76% Using Controllable Ballasts.
December 1, 1998... Alachua County's Office of the State Attorney (Gainesville, FL) is saving more than $20,000 a year in energy costs - a reduction of 76% of its lighting costs - due to a controllable (dimmable) electronic ballast retrofit incorporating a new...

Sub-Compact Fluorescent Lamps Hit the Market.
December 1, 1998... According to the Department of Energy, several suppliers are now offering new, energy-efficient sub-compact fluorescent lamps (sub- CFLs) that are significantly smaller than commonly available conventional compact fluorescent lamps. Several are...

INDUSTRY NEWS: $500,000 Lighting Retrofit Announced.
December 1, 1998... Energy System Solutions, Inc.'s (2490 Hilton Dr. S.W., Suite A, Gainesville, GA 30501; Tel: 770/503-1167) wholly owned subsidiary, Lighting System Solutions, Inc. (LSS), has recently entered into four lighting retrofit contracts in Georgia...

Geothermal Heats Up.
December 1, 1998... A promising technology developed by DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory to increase the efficiency and production capacity of geothermal power plants was demonstrated at the Geysers, the world's largest geothermal power plant in northern...

Saving Energy and Money by Design.
December 1, 1998... A groundbreaking ceremony at Zion National Park in Utah signaled the start of a new era in energy efficiency for the National Park Service. The park's new visitor transportation center, a low-energy passive solar building that will use 70% less...

RESOURCES: EPRI Releases End-Use Consumption Data.
December 1, 1998... EPRICSG, a member of the EPRI (Electric Power Research Inst., 3412 Hillview Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94304; Tel: 415/855-2000) family of companies, has announced the launch of the PowerShape portfolio. PowerShape includes a CD-ROM collection of...

1998 ACEEE Summer Study Highlights.
December 1, 1998... The theme of the August, 1998 ACEEE (American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, 1001 Connecticut Ave., N.W., Suite 801, Washington, D.C. 20036; Tel: 202/429-8873) Summer Study was Energy Efficiency in a Competitive Environment. The...

Finding ESCOs the Easy Way.
December 1, 1998... The Gas Research Inst. (8600 W. Bryn Mawr Ave., Chicago, IL 60631- 3562; Tel: 773/399-8124) and E SOURCE, Inc. (4755 Walnut St., Boulder, CO 80301-2537; Tel: 303/440-8500; Email: esource@esource.com) have developed the first comprehensive...

CALENDAR.
December 1, 1998... January 20, 1999, State of the Art of Energy Efficiency in Consumer Electronics, Paris, France. Contact: Olof Molinder, Conference Manager; Tel: +46 8 25 0018; Email: olof.molinder@omva.se. February 7-9, 1999, 3rd Industrial Energy...