Renewables & Efficiency

China Gives Go-Ahead to Green Refrigerators

A five-year, CFC-Free Energy Efficient Refrigerator Project has begun in China. The comprehensive policy bundles all the elements for market transformation: energy efficient choices and education for customers; technical assistance and financial incentives for manufacturers to build them; distributor incentives to purchase them; dealer incentives to stock them; and a bulk purchasing program for Chinese government agencies. In 1989, the U.S. EPA agreed to help China eliminate CFCs from refrigerators. A successful prototype model of 40 percent greater efficiency was produced and tested, and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab developed a market transformation program. China’s refrigerator industry is the largest in the world with sales growing at 21 percent a year. From 1985-1998, households owning a refrigerator climbed from 7-76 percent, but the average Chinese refrigerator is about half as efficient as European refrigerators. Since 80 percent of China’s electricity comes from coal, the benefits of increasing efficiency are tremendous in this populous, increasingly affluent country. Lawrence Berkeley Lab predicts, for example, that in addition to avoided emissions from coal-burning plants, the program will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by over 100 million tons as a result of greater efficiency. Earlier this year the Chinese government certified 103 domestic appliances as energy-efficient, […]

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Certification Begins for Hydro Industry

This January, The Low Impact Hydropower Institute will certify hydro facilities that meet “stringent criteria for protection of environmental quality.” The criteria were developed by American Rivers and GreenMountain.com over the past two years, in concert with environmentalists, hydropower officials, government agencies and electricity marketers. Standards involve river flow, water quality, fish passage and protection, watershed protection, threatened and endangered species protection, cultural resource protection, recreation, and facilities recommended for removal.

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Bringing Solar to Rural Residents

Last month, we highlighted Shri Shakti Alternative Energy Technologies which is opening 300 energy retail stores across India. Enersol Associates, Inc., a Massachusetts non-profit is also working to make solar systems available and affordable. Enersol works with the Asociacion para el Desarrollo de Energia Solar (ADESOL) in the Dominican Republic and Honduras to train interested local residents to be solar technicians. The technicians form independent small businesses, which purchase PV equipment, often on credit, then design and sell PV systems suited to the needs and financial capacity of their customers. About 10,000 households enjoy solar energy as a result. Since only a small minority of households can afford to purchase a system, Richard Hansen, founder of Enersol, established SOLUZ Inc. which leases PV systems rather than sells them. SOLUZ uses private capital to own and maintain the PV systems and customers pay only a monthly service fee for electricity ($5-20). The Greenstar business model, just getting underway, uses another innovative approach. The Greenstar Corporation’s first investment is in a small rural Palestinian village in the West Bank. A typical $100,000 investment supplies 4kW of solar power for electricity and water purification, a health clinic, wireless communication and computers connected to […]

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Higher A/C Efficiency Standards in the Works

The U.S. Department of Energy is proposing new energy-efficiency standards for central air conditioning that would increase efficiency by 30 percent. DOE seeks comments and collaboration from the energy industry, energy-efficiency advocates and environmentalists on the final proposal. The new standard is slated to take effect by December 2000. “What is clear regarding power outages is that we’ve got to improve the reliability of the electricity supply and cut peak demand,” said Dan Reicher, assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy. “The most important way to cut peak demand is to cut air-conditioning load.” Visit the website for more details.

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Energy Star Reaches Europe

European manufacturers of energy efficient office machines will be able to carry the U.S. EPA Energy Star label starting this spring. The EPA and EU are jointly reviewing certification requirements and may release more stringent guidelines next year. Personal computers in Europe will continue to carry the flower eco-label.

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Wisconsin Passes R2K Bill

The Wisconsin state legislature passed the “Reliability 2000” bill, known as R2K, making it the first state to create an independent energy efficiency fund and a renewable energy requirement without deregulating its utilities. The Renewables Portfolio Standard starts at a half percent by the end of 2001 and increases to 2.2 percent by the end of 2011. This will triple the amount of non-hydro renewables (400 MW), enough to meet the entire electricity needs of 204,000 homes and to reduce air emissions equal to taking 145,000 cars off the road. The bill also creates a “public benefits” fund that sets aside about $80 million a year for energy efficiency, renewable energy, and environmental research. Find out more at the Customers First! website: [sorry this link is no longer available]

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Green Power Headlines: Kinko's, Time Warner and More

Kinko’s and Time Warner have joined the growing list of businesses running on renewable energy. Kinko’s signed on with GreenMountain.com for its 75 California stores and for several branches in Pennsylvania. Time Warner chose Commonwealth’s Green Power for its 1700 accounts in the Los Angeles area. The Los Angeles Department of Water & Power has signed up over 20,000 customers for its green power program and predicts the program will reach 200,000 customers in the next two to three years. The utility supplies customers with free compact fluorescent light bulbs to offset the six percent green power premium with lower electric costs. The City of Palmdale, California also announced it is switching to Commonwealth Energy’s green power program. Customers in regulated states will be able to access green power through The Center for Resource Solutions’s – the group responsible for Green-e green power certification – new “Green Pricing Accreditation Initiative.” Utilities that offer verifiable green power options to customers in regulated states can receive accreditation. Participating utilities must meet stringent environmental standards and must undergo an annual independent audit.

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U.S. Renewable Energy Firms Are Losing Ground

The authors of Renewable Energy Policy Project’s, “Renewable Energy Policy Outside the United States,” contend that because “U.S. policymakers have chosen to reject strategies to commercialize renewable energy in favor of continued reliance on fossil fuels” U.S. renewable energy companies are losing ground to overseas companies. They assert, “Europeans have seized the lead” and Japan has “systematically laid the groundwork for a possible widescale deployment of renewable energy.” You will read about the governmental policies and market-driven incentives in Germany, the UK, The Netherlands, Denmark and Japan. They cover guaranteed electricity purchases, green labeling, consumer financing, supplier tax incentives, and competitive bidding measures. The report suggests that renewable energy technologies may soon join the list of innovations pioneered in America – but developed into competitive industries elsewhere. Download the report at: [sorry this link is no longer available] and click on “New Publications.”

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Green Taxes Are Good For Germany

Ecological tax reform could create over a million jobs and raise $78 billion (euros 75.2 billion) from taxes on energy, transportation and waste disposal over the next 10 years, according to a study prepared for the German Environment Agency. The authors suggest a phased-in plan that goes beyond present eco-taxes that would shift the tax burden to resource use and pollution. Energy costs would rise by 40 percent, energy consumption would decrease by 13 percent and gas would decrease by 25 percent. Germanys Parliament is scheduled to debate the second phase of the eco-tax reform the results of which will be become law on January 1, 2000. The German Institute for Economic Research and the Financial Research Institute at Cologne University conducted the study.

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Renewable Energy Can Displace Nuclear in Japan

After the recent nuclear accident in Japan, the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Geothermal Energy Association compiled data on the potential of wind and geothermanl energy in Japan. They concluded that offshore wind turbines could generate up to 40 percent of Japan’s electricity needs. The Japan Wind Energy Association projects the wind market there will grow from 150 megawatts in 2000 to 30,000 megawatts in 2030. Geothermal energy could supply more than three percent of Japan’s 1996 electricity use, enough to replace six nuclear plants.

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