Energy Conservation News articles from May 1998

Energy Conservation News archives from May 1998

OUTLOOK: National Labs Target Carbon Technologies
May 1, 1998... A just-released Department of Energy report, Technology Opportunities to Reduce U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions, outlines nearly 50 technology options that could eliminate the emissions of hundreds of millions of tons of carbon per year. They...

GOVERNMENT: Michigan Offers Efficiency Incentives
May 1, 1998... The Michigan Department of Consumer & Industry Services (CIS) has implemented a program to offer $1,000 to the first 200 home buyers whose houses meet certain energy efficiency criteria. The program began May 1 and is open to purchasers of both...

"Steam Challenge" Could Save $4 Billion
May 1, 1998... According to the DOE, their newly announced "Steam Challenge," a voluntary partnership with the Alliance to Save Energy and more than 50 industry leaders, could improve the efficiency of steam use by 20% in a decade, an annual energy savings to...

INTERNATIONAL: Japan to Study Russian Plants
May 1, 1998... During the recent summit between Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and Russian President Boris Yeltsin, the two countries have reportedly agreed to undertake joint research, commencing in June, to improve the efficiency of energy use. The...

ENERGY MANAGEMENT/FINANCING PG&E Wins Rite Aid Contract
May 1, 1998... PG&E Energy Services (77 Beale St., San Francisco, CA 94105-1814; Tel: 415/973-7000) has entered into a $120 million agreement with Rite Aid Inc. (30 Hunter Lane, Camp Hill, PA 17011-2404; Tel: 717/761-2633) to recommend energy efficiency...

GRI Studies Equipment Options
May 1, 1998... A new GRI (8600 W. Bryn Mawr Ave., Chicago, IL 60631-3562; Tel: 773/399-8373) report, A Guide to Value-Added Services Equipment, identifies major energy efficiency manufacturers and describes and demystifies some of the equipment, hardware, and...

Onsite Wins Another Contract
May 1, 1998... Onsite Energy Corp. (701 Palomar Airport Road, Ste. 200, Carlsbad, CA 92009; Tel: 760/931-2400) has signed an energy efficiency agreement for 19 buildings at Southern California College in Costa Mesa. The project is one of the first to be...

RESIDENTIAL: Composite Windows Warmer and Stronger
May 1, 1998... Owens Corning (1 Owens Corning Pkwy., Toledo, OH 43659; Tel: 419/248- 7995) is introducing a new line of high-end replacement windows. Called "Generations," the new window comes standard with one-inch low-E glass with argon gas fill. For even...

A Path to Cutting Home Energy Use
May 1, 1998... In early May, President Clinton personally announced the Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing (PATH). The new initiative expands the development and use of new technologies in American homes to make them, among other things, more...

COMMERCIAL: Conserval to Establish Solarwall Facility
May 1, 1998... Using a $1.2 million grant from the DOE, Conserval Systems Inc. (4242 Ridge Lea Road, Amherst, NY 14226-1051; Tel: 716/835-4903) and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) intend to establish a new manufacturing...

Gas Utilities Challenge Architects
May 1, 1998... Two Canadian utilities, Consumers Gas and Union Gas, hope that their release of the results of a year-long research project into leading- edge technologies for improving energy efficiency in buildings will increase the interest of the...

INDUSTRIAL: Oil, Gas Firms Step Up Sales
May 1, 1998... As deregulation increases competition in Japan's oil and gas industries, distributors and city gas companies, such as Nippon Oil Co. (3-12, Nishi Shimbashi 1-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-8412, Japan; Tel: +81-3-3502-1135), Tokyo Gas Co. (5-20...

PV Initiative in Northwest
May 1, 1998... Siemens Solar Industries and the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (Vancouver, WA) have agreed to work together to cut energy use and production time in the manufacture of silicon crystals for photovoltaic cells and computer chips. The two...

TAPPI Promoting Paper Research
May 1, 1998... The TAPPI Foundation (15 Technology Pkwy., South Norcross, GA 30092) is soliciting proposals for innovative, fundamental research that exhibit high potential for positive impact on the industry. Proposed research must be non-confidential,...

TRANSPORTATION: More Fuel Cell Advances
May 1, 1998... According to BASF (Carl-Bosch St., 38, 67056 Ludwigshafen, Germany; Tel: +49-621-600), Daimler-Benz (Epplestrasse 225, 70546 Stuttgart, Germany; Tel: +49-711-17-1) will receive assistance with reformer catalysts for fuel-cell vehicles from BASF...

POWER GENERATION: Bacterial Fuel Cells Produce Electricity
May 1, 1998... At the just-concluded American Society for Microbiology meeting, researchers Byung Hong Kim, Hyung Joo Kim, and Moon Sik Hyun, all of the Water Environmental Research Centre, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (PO Box 131, Cheongryang,...

Dyeing to Trap Light
May 1, 1998... Researchers from the Los Alamos National Laboratory are hoping to harvest the sun's energy the way plants do. At the recent American Chemical Society annual meeting in Dallas, Greg Van Patten, a researcher in Los Alamos' Bioscience and...

Research May Cut Geothermal Costs
May 1, 1998... Reducing the cost of geothermal energy could broaden its application. Currently, only 3% of electricity in the U.S. comes from geothermal energy, because it costs twice as much to produce as electricity created from natural gas. However, current...

APPLIANCES: DOE Pushing Bulk Sales
May 1, 1998... To give new, energy-efficient washers and dryers a jump start in the marketplace, the DOE is organizing groups to buy truckload volumes through the Energy Star volume purchase program. Appliance buyers like housing authorities, utilities,...

Lithium Battery Cost Cut May Be Coming
May 1, 1998... Lithium batteries are considered ideal candidates for use in portable electronics and electric cars. According to a recent article in Nature, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (55 Hayward St., Cambridge, MA 02142-1315; Tel:...

Motorola Takes Lead in Power Management
May 1, 1998... Motorola (1303 E. Algonquin Road, Schaumburg, IL 60196; Tel: 847/576- 5000) has become the first modem technology vendor to offer a desktop power managed modem, which will allow end users to take full advantage of innovative "instantly available...

HVAC: A Cheaper Way to Cool Grocery Cases
May 1, 1998... Recent tests by a team of University of Illinois researchers indicate that an alternative method of refrigeration can reduce leakage and save money. There are approximately 30,000 large supermarkets in the United States, and the typical...

"Subcooler" System Doubles Savings
May 1, 1998... Intermagnetics General Corp.'s (450 Old Niskayuna Road, Latham, NY 12110-1500; Tel: 518/782-1122) subsidiary, InterCool Energy Corp., has received a patent for an advanced subcooling system that initially will be marketed to 135,000 supermarkets...

LIGHTING: New Energy-Saving Bulb Launched
May 1, 1998... PHILIPS Malaysia, a Dutch-based company (Groenewoudseweg 1, 5621 BA Eindhoven, The Netherlands; Tel: +31-40-273-2305) that is mainly known for semiconductor manufacturing and electronic consumer products, has introduced a new generation of...

INDUSTRY NEWS: Energy Research Completes Demo
May 1, 1998... Energy Research Corp. (3 Great Pasture Road, Danbury, CT 06813; Tel: 203-792-1460) has completed its first demonstration of a full height stack of the basic design to be used in a commercial Direct Fuel Cell power plant. The demonstration, begun...

Powergy Expands Marketing Effort
May 1, 1998... A recent Roper Starch national survey of residential customers showed significant consumer interest in power-conditioning devices. Of those interested in a power-conditioning device, 79% of consumers were willing to switch power suppliers to...

RESOURCES: GSA Provides Info Source
May 1, 1998... The U.S. General Services Administration has released the fifth edition of its Environmental Products Guide (EPG), an updated listing of more than 3,000 environmentally oriented items available from GSA's Federal Supply Service (FSS). The EPG,...

Software Pinpoints Efficiency Opportunities
May 1, 1998... A new product called EcoScan 2.0 can greatly assist product designers in understanding the energy impact of their designs. Firms that develop durable goods are realizing that they can reduce energy usage by redesigning their products. But their...

NIST Software Evaluates Efficiency
May 1, 1998... The first version of BEES, software for selecting building products that balance environmental and economic performance, is now available for 24 building products. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Green Buildings Program...

New Savings Case Studies
May 1, 1998... Two new DOE energy efficiency reports are available. The first, U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Fitness Program 1997, is 52 pages. This report was prepared to provide building owners and managers with an introduction to the energy efficiency...

CALENDAR
May 1, 1998... June 1-2, 1998, Improving Building Systems in Hot & Humid Climates, Fort Worth, TX. Contact: TX Building Energy Institute; Tel: 409/847- 8950. June 10, 1998, Energy Efficiency and Climate Change: The National Debate, Washington, D.C. Contact:...