Energy Conservation News articles from January 2000

Energy Conservation News archives from January 2000

OUTLOOK: Conservation Driving Emissions Reductions.
January 1, 2000... According to Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gases 1998, just published by the Energy Information Administration (EIA, U.S. Department of Energy, Washington, DC 20585), 187 U.S. companies and other organizations have reported 1,507 projects...

EMPA Says Wind Program Flawed.
January 1, 2000... A January 7 report criticizing the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) new "Wind Powering America" program is "deeply flawed" and "disregards some fairly well-known facts about wind energy technology," according to the American Wind Energy...

ENERGY MANAGEMENT/FINANCING : Web-Based Software Controls Thermostats.
January 1, 2000... Silicon Energy (1250 Marina Village Pkwy., Suite 100, Alameda, CA 94501; Tel: 510/749-9400, Tel: 877/749-9400, Fax: 510/749-6823; Website: siliconenergy.com) has entered into an agreement with CellNet Data Systems, Inc. (125 Shoreway Rd., San...

Comverge to Install Load Control Overseas.
January 1, 2000... Comverge Technologies, Inc. (80 S. Jefferson Rd., Whippany, NJ 07981- 1027; Tel: 973/560-4800), a subsidiary of Data Systems & Software, Inc., has agreed to supply 25,000 Customer Alert Devices (CADs) to a major foreign electric utility....

RESIDENTIAL: Residential Fuel-Cell Markets Heating Up.
January 1, 2000... During the month, Plug Power (968 Albany-Shaker Rd., Latham, NY 12110; Tel: 518/782-7700, Fax: 518/782-7914; Website: plugpower.com) generated renewed interest in fuel-cell markets, particularly for residential applications. After a couple of...

GE to Enter Home Automation Market.
January 1, 2000... A branding and marketing agreement between GE Industrial Systems (41 Woodford Ave., Plainville, CT 06062-2372; Tel: 860/747-7111) and SMART LLC (2629 Georgia St. NE, Albuquerque, NM 87110-3423; Tel: 505/881- 3351; Website:...

Study Says, "Sell Solar Like an Appliance".
January 1, 2000... An increasingly diverse number of players are supplying solar power to consumers, from conventional utilities to newly formed energy service providers taking advantage of deregulated markets for electricity. A just-released analysis of...

COMMERCIAL: Waste Heat Warms Aquaculture.
January 1, 2000... New energy-saving technologies from the Electric Power Research Institute (3412 Hillview Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94304-1395; Tel: 650/855- 2354) make the business of fish farming more profitable than ever. Improved recirculation aquaculture...

INDUSTRIAL: Century Gets DOE Contract.
January 1, 2000... Century Aluminum Co. (Rte. 2 S., Ravenswood, WV 26164-5382; Tel: 304/273-6000) has been awarded its second U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) contract in two years to participate in improving the operating and energy efficiencies of the primary...

Pulp and Paper Focus of New Efficiency Drive.
January 1, 2000... A new competition begun in early January by the Department of Energy (DOE) could make the pulp and paper mills of the 21st century more energy efficient by demonstrating improved technologies to convert their spent cooking liquor streams into...

TRANSPORTATION: Biggest EV Order Goes to California.
January 1, 2000... The nation's largest single fleet of 480 electric vehicles is coming to California, thanks to a partnership of public and private organizations quickly brought together this fall by the California Energy Commission. The U.S. Postal Service...

Making Aluminum Auto Parts More Practical.
January 1, 2000... Manufacturers have known for years that they could make cars more fuel efficient by incorporating aluminum parts, but the metal often tore when they tried to stamp it into shape. Manufacturers could take about half the weight out of an auto...

GM Concept Car Gets 80 MPG.
January 1, 2000... General Motors Corp. (100 Renaissance Ctr., Detroit, MI 48243; Tel: 313/556-5000, Fax: 313/556-5108; Website: gm.com/) unveiled the Precept, an experimental, teardrop-shaped sedan capable of getting 80 miles per gallon (mpg). Both the...

Solid-Oxide Fuel-Cell System Demo'd on Gas.
January 1, 2000... Delphi Automotive Systems Corp. (5725 Delphi Dr., Troy, MI 48098-2815; Tel: 248/857-5000), a large auto-parts supplier, and Global Thermoelectric Inc., a Canadian fuel-cell company, have reportedly successfully tested an integrated solid-oxide...

UTILITIES/POWER GENERATION: ORNL Technology Could Boost Solar Energy.
January 1, 2000... Solar energy could get a mega-boost, effectively gaining a three- fold improvement over conventional technology, with a system being developed at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The full-spectrum solar energy...

HTS Power Cables Moving Forward.
January 1, 2000... American Superconductor Corp. (2 Technology Dr., Westborough, MA 01581-1727; Tel: 508/836-4200; Website: amsuper.com) and Pirelli Cables and Systems (Viale Sarca 222 20126, Milan, Italy; Tel: +39-02-6442-4688, Fax: +39-02-6442-4686; Website:...

Sensor Enhances Oil Recovery.
January 1, 2000... A new fiber-optic acoustic borehole receiver array has been developed by the Guidance & Control Systems Division of Litton Industries (21240 Burbank Blvd., Woodland Hills, CA 91367-6675; Tel: 818/598-5000, Fax: 818/598-5940; Website:...

IMPCO Announces New Controls.
January 1, 2000... IMPCO (17872 Cartwright Rd., Irvine, CA 92614; Tel: 949/399-4500) is a supplier of clean emission alternative fuel systems to the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) market and aftermarket. The company develops and manufactures fuel systems...

APPLIANCES: Process Saves Battery Power.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... To send images and video from one place to another, computers now rely on compression, a method of squeezing large amounts of digital information into smaller packets that can be moved swiftly along an electronic highway. Before compression...

Chip Developments Point to Reduced Power.
January 1, 2000... Intel (2200 Mission College Blvd., Santa Clara, CA 95052-8119; Tel: 408/765-8080, Tel: 800/628-8686, Fax: 408/765-6284; Website: intel.com) is about to unveil a new energy-saving mobile chip for notebook computers. The Pentium III processors...

Lucent in Chip Advance.
January 1, 2000... Researchers at Lucent Technologies' (600 Mountain Ave., Murray Hill, NJ 07974; Tel: 908/582-8500, Fax: 908/508-2576; Website: lucent.com) Bell Labs has developed a method to significantly improve the flow of current in nanoscale transistors -...

Film May Boost Communications.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Efforts to manufacture cheaper, faster, and smaller cell phones, digital cameras, and other electronic devices have been hampered by the performance of semiconducting materials. As a result, industry is in search of improved insulating...

HVAC: U.S. Seeks to Increase Cooling Efficiency.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... The U.S. Department of Energy's proposal for new energy-efficiency standards for central air conditioning, published in the Federal Register on November 24, could increase equipment efficiency by as much as 30%. The proposal comes at a time...

Utility Promotes Efficient Design.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Energy Assets, a design-assistance program initiated in 1994 by Minnesota utility company Northern States Power (NSP) and the University of Minnesota, has helped more than 100 mid-size buildings reduce their energy use. A computer energy...

Window Coatings Cut Cooling Loads.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Researchers at the DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL; Website: eren.doe.gov/buildings) have developed self-powered electrochromic coatings that control the amount of sunlight that enters a building through its windows. The...

MOTORS: Controller Slashes Energy Costs.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Energy required to run millions of electric motors in industry and commerce around the world could be reduced up to 40% by a new advanced motor controller, based on recent tests in numerous applications. "With more than two billion motors...

INDUSTRY NEWS: SatCon Sets Up Fuel-Cell Division.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... SatCon Technology Corp. (161 1st St., Cambridge, MA 02142-1207; Tel: 617/661-0540) has established its seventh and newest operating division, the Advanced Fuel Cell Power Products Division, formerly HyComp, in Marlborough, Massachusetts....

Active Power Raises $20 Million.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Active Power, Inc. (Austin, TX; Website: activepower.com), the developer and manufacturer of a flywheel-based energy storage system, has completed its mezzanine round of venture capital financing. The $20 million raises total private funding...

Cooper Markets Supercapacitors.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Cooper Bussmann (P.O. Box 14460, Saint Louis, MO 63178; Tel: 314/394- 2877, Fax: 314/527-1416; Website: bussmann.com) and their Cooper Electronic Technologies business have entered into an exclusive worldwide sales and distribution agreement...

Top Award to Apogee.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... The Association of Energy Services Professionals Intl. awarded its highest honor, "Innovation in Energy Services" to Apogee Interactive (Website: apogee.net) CEO Joel Gilbert, P.E., for creating The Demand Exchange. The Demand Exchange is an...

RESOURCES: Study Says U.S. Can Meet Emissions.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... The United States can achieve its greenhouse gas emissions target under the Kyoto Protocol while saving households and businesses $500 billion, according to a new study issued by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE)....

Fuel-Cell Directory Adds Many Companies.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... The Fall 1999 edition of Fuel Cells 2000's Fuel Cell Directory features nearly 700 listings of fuel cell manufacturers, researchers, consultants, suppliers to the fuel-cell industry, utilities, associations, and interested government agencies...

Check Out New Publications.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... The following new publications came to our attention this month and will be of interest to ECN readers. The first, authored by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBL), is an evaluation of the electricity consumption associated with...

CALENDAR.
January 1, 2000... March 22, 2000, National Conference on Ethanol Policy & Marketing, San Francisco, CA. Contact: Bryan & Bryan, Inc.; Tel: 719/942-4353. March 22-24, 2000, Ethanol: Clean Air, Clean Water, Clean Fuel, San Francisco, CA. Contact: Nicole...