Energy Conservation News articles from September 2001

Energy Conservation News archives from September 2001

OUTLOOK: Senator Pushing A/C Efficiency.
September 1, 2001... According to the Alliance to Save Energy (ASE, 1200 18th St., NW, Suite 900, Washington, DC 20036; Tel: 202/530-2217, Fax: 202/331- 9588; Website: www.ase.org, a draft bill by Senate Energy Chairman Jeff Bingaman would raise energy efficiency...

PNGV Program Not Likely to Achieve Goals.
September 1, 2001... The newest report issued by the National Research Council (NRC) regarding the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) program recommends that the goals of the PNGV program be reevaluated and updated. The current goals of the PNGV...

GOVERNMENT: Fund to Invest in Fuel Cells.
September 1, 2001... Across the country, fuel cell development initiatives are being driven and endorsed by major corporations, including recent announcements made by the automotive and Aerospace industries. In Connecticut, fuel cell projects are quickly becoming a...

RESIDENTIAL: ASHRAE Standard Estimates Savings.
September 1, 2001... Residential duct systems typically demonstrate energy inefficiencies, including lack of insulation and airflow, leakage, and interaction with HVAC equipment. A proposed standard from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and...

Draft of Green Building Regulation.
September 1, 2001... New York's Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) commissioner Erin M. Crotty has released a draft regulation (see DEC's website: www.dec.state.ny.us under the heading "Education and Information") to implement the nation's first state...

Guide to Residential Windows Published.
September 1, 2001... The Department of Energy's Windows and Glazing Research Program has supported the development of a new energy efficiency guide entitled, Residential Windows: A Guide to New Technology and Energy Performance, Second Edition (by John Carmody,...

COMMERCIAL: Integrated Energy HVAC Developed.
September 1, 2001... Burns & McDonnell (9400 Ward Pkwy., Kansas City, MO 64114; Tel: 816/333-9400, Fax: 816/333-3690; Email: busdev@burnsmcd.com, Website: www.burnsmcd.com) is leading one of the teams selected by the Department of Energy (DOE) to pioneer...

INDUSTRIAL: Another Breakthrough for Superconductivity.
September 1, 2001... Scientists from Lucent Technologies' (600 Mountain Ave., Murray Hill, NJ 07974; Tel: 908/582-8500, Toll-Free 888/458-2368, Fax: 908/508-2576; Website: www.lucent.com) Bell Labs have shown that soccer ball-shaped carbon molecules known as...

TRANSPORTATION: Efficient Transmission for Small Vehicles.
September 1, 2001... According to Antonov Automotive Technologies B.V. (Website: www.antonov-transmission.com), they have designed a new automatic transmission, the 6-speed Antonov Automatic Drive (AAD) that is highly compact and can be used in small- and...

Hybrids Offer the Best of Both Worlds.
September 1, 2001... A new Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) study indicates that consumers think plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) offer the best of both worlds with the advantages of both electric and gasoline vehicles-such as savings on fuel and...

UTILITIES/POWER GENERATION: Alstom Power Looking at More Efficient Coal.
September 1, 2001... ALSTOM Power, Inc. (63 Industrial Park Rd., Putnam, CT 06260-3005; Tel: 860/928-5960) intends to build and evaluate a new type of coal furnace known as a "circulating moving bed combustor." This advanced combustor could be as much as 30%...

New Patents for Alternative Fuels.
September 1, 2001... Headwaters, Inc.'s (11778 S. Election Dr., Suite 210, Draper, UT 84020; Tel: 801/984-9400, Fax: 801/984-9410; Website: www.hdwtrs.com) subsidiary, Hydrocarbon Technologies, Inc. (HTI), has just received a patent for a process that converts...

Sure Power Teams with Trane.
September 1, 2001... Historically, data centers have had large electric cooling loads. Recently, however, Sure Power (30 Main St., Suite 405, Danbury, CT 06810-3040; Tel: 203/743-4237), a provider of backup power systems-some of which are fuel cell based-and Trane...

Separation System Promising for Coal.
September 1, 2001... America's vast coal resources have long been viewed as a potential hedge against future energy needs. Increased use of this resource, however, is complicated by the emission of pollutants and concerns approximately global warming. One promising...

Emphasis on Efficient Gas Production.
September 1, 2001... Domestic production of so-called conventional gas could peak as early as 2015. Therefore advanced methods for locating and producing low permeability gas reservoirs are being sought. The National Energy Technology Laboratory has just announced...

APPLIANCES: Power Plant on a Chip?
September 1, 2001... A silicon chip that produces hydrogen to operate a laptop computer? Scientists at Lehigh University are developing a tiny generating plant, housed on a silicon chip, which they believe can produce enough hydrogen to run power-consuming portable...

Nanotech for Next- Generation Energy.
September 1, 2001... NEC Corp. (NEC, 7-1, Shiba 5-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-8001, Japan; Tel: +81-3-3454-1111, Fax: +81-3-3798-1510; Website: www.nec.com), the Japan Science and Technology Corp., and the Institute of Research and Innovation have developed a tiny...

HVAC: Ammonia May Be a Born-Again Refrigerant.
September 1, 2001... Modern microchannel tube technology-widely used in the automotive industry for heat exchangers-offers an excellent opportunity to rethink the use of ammonia as a refrigerant, say scientists at the University of Illinois (University of Illinois...

Five-Ton Gas Cooling Unit Available Soon.
September 1, 2001... Cooling Technologies, Inc. (333 14th St., Toledo, OH 43624; Tel: 419/536-9006) has started producing a new high-efficiency, natural gas-fired air conditioning unit at a site in Johnstown, Ohio. The production rate is low, 10 units/day, but the...

LIGHTING: High-Efficiency Program Moves to Private Sector.
September 1, 2001... A DOE program to introduce better-performing, lower-cost subcompact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) that also reduce lighting costs to consumers is being turned over to the private sector. The program, which is already saving American consumers more...

INDUSTRY NEWS: Marubeni, TSK Team for Biomass Ethanol.
September 1, 2001... Marubeni Corp. (Website: www.marubeni.co.jp/english/) and Tsukishima Kikai Co., Ltd. (Website: www.tsk-g.co.jp/eng/) have announced the acquisition of rights to exclusively license and use BC International Corp.'s (Website: www.bcintlcorp.com)...

Ethanol Industry in Major Expansion.
September 1, 2001... A recently completed survey, U.S. Ethanol Industry Production Capacity Outlook (Website: www.energy.ca.gov/ethanol/documents/) by the California Energy Commission (California Energy Commission, 1516 Ninth St., MS-29, Sacramento, CA 95814) shows...

RESOURCES: Ultraefficient Vehicles Report Updated.
September 1, 2001... The Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) program is a cooperative venture of the federal government and the U.S. automotive industry to develop a midsize sedan that can attain a fuel efficiency of up to 80 mpg. Since PNGV's...

Appliance Reports Issued by EIA.
September 1, 2001... EIA has recently published four new reports in the Regional Energy Profiles Appliance Reports series. The series is now complete and presents reports for each of the nine U.S. Census divisions. The reports compare long-term trends in market...

CALENDAR.
September 1, 2001... October 3-4, 2001. Energy Efficient Papermaking, Manchester, NH. Contact: Sheila Rodriquez, Intertech Conferences; Tel: 207/781- 9800, Fax: 207/781-2150; Email: nfo@intertechusa.com November 7, 2001. Building Retrofit for Energy Efficiency,...