Weekly Clean Energy Roundup:January 28, 2004

*News and Events

• Zero Energy Home Displayed at International Builder’s Show
• Award-Winning Building Products and Projects Advance Energy Efficiency
• U.S. Wind Growth Nears Record in 2003, but 2004 Outlook Dim
• Ethanol Production Hits Record as MTBE Bans Take Effect
• Advances in Materials Show New Promise for Superconductors
• NASA Delivers Solar-Powered Vehicles to Mars

Zero Energy Home Displayed at International Builder’s Show

Attendees at last week’s International Builder’s Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, had a chance to tour a custom home that, over the course of a year, will produce as much electricity as it uses. Called the “Ultimate Family Home,” it draws on two rooftop-mounted solar energy systems: one for power and another for hot water. A highly efficient air-conditioning system combines with good insulation, air sealing, and advanced windows to keep the 5,300-square-foot home comfortable. Other energy-saving highlights include tankless water heaters that deliver hot water only on demand, fluorescent and LED lighting, and heat-reflecting roof tiles combined with a radiant barrier for added energy savings and comfort. The home will use 90 percent less energy than a similar home built strictly to code.

DOE started the Zero Energy Homes initiative to bring the latest research out of its national laboratories and into homes. DOE and its National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) partnered with Pardee Homes and Consol Energy Consultants to build the Ultimate Family Home. See the NREL press release and the Ultimate Family Home Web site.

The Ultimate Family Home was one of several energy-efficient homes displayed at the builder’s show, two of which were covered in last week’s newsletter. In addition, a house called the “Home by Design Showcase” was displayed in the parking lot of the Stardust Hotel. The Home by Design Showcase is built on an insulated concrete foundation, uses Structural Insulating Panels (SIPs) for the walls and roof, and features Energy Star-labeled appliances and double-pane low-E windows. Insulated metal window shutters help to further shut out the hot afternoon sun. A tankless water heater supplies both hot water and space heating, and a high-efficiency air conditioner is combined with sealed ducts to cool the house efficiently. According to the home’s Web site, the house is 41.8 percent more efficient than required by the Nevada Building Code. See the Home by Design Web site.

Award-Winning Building Products and Projects Advance Energy Efficiency

The Des Moines Area Community College West Campus in Iowa earned special recognition on Saturday for the technical innovations in its heating and cooling system. The system distributes heated and cooled air through a 12-inch space underneath the building’s raised floor, an innovation that earned a first-place technology award from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). The system draws its energy from a four-acre pond on the campus, using a geothermal water-source heat pump. In areas with concrete floors, water-to-water heat pumps supply an in-floor radiant heating system. ASHRAE announced the award at its 2004 Winter Meeting, which concludes today in Anaheim, California. See the ASHRAE press release.

Advanced building technologies were also lauded at the International Builder’s Show, held last week in Las Vegas, Nevada. During the show, the Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing (PATH) named its “Top Ten Technologies,” including such energy-saving innovations as tankless water heaters and pre-cast concrete panels, which are filled with batt or foam insulation to yield a well-insulated foundation. PATH also recognized wall and roof panels built around insulating cores. While Structural Insulating Panels, or SIPs, use a plywood skin, PATH notes that new panels are using skins made of steel, aluminum, concrete, and fiberglass. PATH also acknowledged new guidelines that allow heating and cooling systems to be properly sized for a home. See the PATH press release and the “Top Ten Technologies” list.

Another “top ten” list was produced by the editors of GreenSpec and Environmental Building News, who recently named their “Top-10 Green Building Products” for 2003. Among the products is a polyurethane spray-foam insulation derived in part from soy oil. Another “Top-10” product is a “smart” vapor retarder that changes permeability as the relative humidity changes: in the right climate, the material will prevent condensation in the winter but allow the building envelope to dry out during humid summers. And for those of us tired of pouring water down the drain as we wait for it to heat up, there’s the Taco D’MAND System, an electronically activated water-pumping system that quickly delivers hot water to a fixture while returning water that has been sitting in the hot water pipes back to the water heater. See the list of Top-10 Green Building Products.

U.S. Wind Growth Nears Record in 2003, but 2004 Outlook Dim

The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) announced last week that 2003 was one of the best years ever for the U.S. wind industry, but its outlook for 2004 is considerably less optimistic. In 2003, a total of 1,687 megawatts of new wind capacity w
ere installed in the United States, just 9 megawatts shy of the record established in 2001. There are now 6,370 megawatts of wind power installed throughout the country, and utility-scale wind turbines are spinning in 30 states. But since the wind energy production tax credit expired at the end of the year, AWEA claims that the industry is now facing layoffs, stalled projects, and a negative near-term market outlook. See the AWEA press release.

Among the wind power projects completed in December 2003 is the 74.25-megawatt Blue Canyon Wind Power Project, built near Lawton, Oklahoma, by Zilkha Renewable Energy. See the Zilkha Web site.

The latest wind industry trends are sure to be a topic of discussion at the Global WINDPOWER 2004 Conference and Exhibition, to be held in Chicago in late March. See the conference Web page.

Ethanol Production Hits Record as MTBE Bans Take Effect

The U.S. ethanol fuel industry had its best year yet in 2003, producing a record 2.81 billion gallons of fuel, according to the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA). The record ethanol production in 2003 is about 32 percent more than the industry produced in 2002. The ethanol market has been growing steadily in recent years as gasoline suppliers switch to ethanol to replace MTBE as an additive. Due to concerns about groundwater pollution, MTBE bans took effect in California, Connecticut, and New York on January 1st. See the RFA press release.

RFA is sponsoring the 9th Annual National Ethanol Conference, from February 16th to 18th in Miami Beach, Florida. See the conference announcement.

Advances in Materials Show New Promise for Superconductors

It was bound to happen: “superconductor”a material able to carry electrical current with little or no resistancehas long been one of those technology buzzwords you could impress your friends with, but in recent years it has been largely supplanted by the latest thing, “nanotechnology,” the use of materials at the sub-microscopic scale of a billionth of a meter, or nanometer. So leave it to a superconductor company to put the two together! American Superconductor Corporation is currently selling 10-meter lengths of its second-generation high-temperature superconductor (HTS) wire to select customers, but plans to enhance the product by dispersing “nanodots”particles of inorganic materialsthroughout the superconductor coating in the wire. The technical explanation is that the nanodots immobilize magnetic lines of flux in the superconductor, but the bottom line is that they allow 30 percent more current to flow through the wire. The company expects to produce the second-generation HTS wire in commercial volumes in three to four years. See the American Superconductor press release.

DOE’s national laboratories are also advancing superconductor technology. At DOE’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, researchers have found a way to produce superconductor wire from magnesium diboride, a material that was found to be a superconductor in early 2001. Although the material is much cheaper than earlier superconductors, researchers have had difficulty fabricating useful products from it. The Los Alamos researchers overcame that difficulty by subjecting the material to high pressures and temperatures, a process known as hot isostatic pressing. They were able to produce 80 feet of wire that was able to carry 45 percent more current than previous magnesium diboride wires. See the Los Alamos press release.

DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is investigating yet another class of superconductors, made from cobalt oxide. A BNL scientist has found a way to make the superconductor, sodium cobalt oxyhydrate, without using dangerous chemicals. The superconductor is unusual because the compound contains water; if allowed to dry out it loses its superconductivity. See the BNL press release.


NASA Delivers Solar-Powered Vehicles to Mars

Thanks to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Mars is now the planet in our solar system with the highest percentage of solar-powered electric vehicles. In fact, 100 percent of the Mars fleet is now solar-powered, a feat not expected to be repeated here on Earth anytime soon! NASA even managed to double the size of the Mars fleet in a single day, when it landed a second vehicle on Mars on Saturday. With the two vehicles on the opposite sides of the planet, NASA has also dramatically extended the geographic coverage of its solar-powered fleet.

Of course, we’re referring to the two Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, each of which is powered by 140 watts of solar power. Each craft carries two rechargeable batteries that are energized by the solar cells. See the Mars Exploration Rover Mission Web site, provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

In defense of the fleet of vehicles here on Earth, the Mars fleet falls short on a couple items, including its top speed of two inches per second, an average speed of less than half an inch per second, and a price somewhat higher than the average Earth vehicle (the pair cost roughly $800 million). The rovers do, however, feature four-wheel-drive. See the “Wheels” section of the Rover Mission Web site.

Spectrolab, Inc. is the proud manufacturer of the high-efficiency solar cells used on the Mars rovers. The “triple junction” cells use three layers of photovoltaic material to capture a high percentage of the solar energy striking the cell and convert that energy into electricity. Each rover carries 1.3 square meters (about 14 square feet) of solar cells. See the Spectrolab press release.

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