The EPA partnered with DOE's National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) to identify Superfund sites, brownfields, and former landfill or mining sites that may be used for renewable energy projects. As a result, EPA and NREL are evaluating the feasibility of installing wind, solar, or small hydropower systems at 12 sites in Puerto Rico and 10 states: California, Florida, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. See the NREL press release, the EPA's list of fact sheets for the 12 sites, and the EPA Web site for the RE-Powering America's Land initiative.
Interior Dept Awards $3.7M to 13 Tribes for Renewable Energy
The U.S. Department of the Interior announced on March 11 that its Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development (IEED) awarded $3.7 million to 13 tribes that are developing renewable energy resources for their communities.
IEED selected six geothermal, four biomass, and three hydroelectric power projects for tribes located in California, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Washington, and Wisconsin. The projects were identified by the individual tribes, which developed comprehensive proposals that were evaluated by IEED under a competitive process. See the Interior Department press release for the full list of tribes.
Utilities in California, Ohio Test New Energy Storage Technologies
Utilities in several states are beginning to integrate energy storage technologies as part of the deployment of advanced Smart Grids.
In Ohio, International Battery will supply large-format lithium-ion batteries for a first-of-its-kind Community Energy Storage (CES) system, a distributed energy storage system developed by S&C Electric Company for American Electric Power (AEP).
AEP Ohio's gridSMART Demonstration Project, funded in part by a $75 million DOE grant using Recovery Act funds, will be deployed to 110,000 of the utility's customers in a patchy rectangular area stretching from northeast Columbus to about 25 miles east and about 15 miles north. The CES systems will be added to certain AEP circuits in the gridSMART test area to provide improved distribution line efficiencies, local back-up power in case of outages, better integration of community renewable power, and support for plug-in electric cars. See the press releases from International Battery and S&C, as well as the gridSMART map from AEP Ohio.
AEP has also been testing large-scale sodium-sulfur (NaS) batteries for energy storage on the grid. AEP installed a 1.2 MW NaS battery near Charleston, West Virginia, in 2006, followed by three 2-MW NaS batteries in Indiana, Ohio, and West Virginia in 2008.
In California, the California Energy Commission (CEC) awarded $2 million to PG&E for a 36-month NaS battery demonstration project. The utility will invest an additional $13 million in the 4 MW system, which will have a storage capacity of 28 megawatt-hours. Once installed and operating, this will be the largest stationary battery energy storage system in California. See the CEC press release.
Southern California Public Power Authority (SCPPA) and Ice Energy announced in January a 53 MW project using ice energy storage to provide utility-scale distributed energy storage. Ice Energy's products produce ice during off-peak hours and use it for cooling commercial buildings during peak hours. By combining hundreds of these systems with the Smart Grid, the systems can work together to act as a large distributed energy storage system.
