Energizer Newsletter
December 16, 2008
Volume 2, Issue 3
Extension Clean Energy Outreach
by Leigh Fortson
Extension Regional Communications Coordinator and REA (Renewable Energy Advocate)
Dolores County Opens Bioenergy Facility
After nearly five years of planning and development, San Juan Biodiesel LLC, an integrated bioenergy production facility in Dolores County has initiated full operations at its new 2.5 million gallon per-year oil crush and biodiesel production facility. The start-up ceremony, which welcomed more than 200 people, was held on December 13, 2008.
“It all began with one farmer and 80 acres of sunflower variety tests in 2005,” reports Dolores County Extension Director, Dan Fernandez, who was instrumental in seeing the project from its inception in 2004 to its fruition. But when the doors opened last week, 50 farmers growing 15,000 acres of oilseed crops stretching from Alamosa to Price, Utah, were participating. The bulk of production is centered in proximity to the facility in Dolores and Montezuma counties, and San Juan County Utah.
Fernandez says that Extension had two missions in the development of the project: to insure that there was an operational grower base that was educated with research-based information; and that the Dolores County Developments Corporations’ Weber Business Park was ready to handle a major processing facility.
Dolores County Extension serves on the board of directors of the Dolores County Development Corporation (DCDC) which owns the Weber Business Park and on the board of directors of San Juan BioEnergy LLC. For more information, go to www.sanjuanbioenergy.com.
CSU Biofuels Research Illuminated in Article
Thanks to Extension specialists Alan Helm and Jerry Johnson who have written a comprehensive article that discusses their knowledge of the state of oilseed production, promising aspects, and the constraints of five potential biofuel oilseed crops. Johnson says these crops are all in early or advanced stages of adoption by Colorado producers. They include: sunflower, safflower, soybean, canola, and Camelina.
In addition to specific considerations for crop producers wanting to grow oilseed crops for biofuel, the article also serves to inform research and extension colleagues and partners of current opportunities and constraints facing oilseed research and development.
To read the complete article, go to: www.extsoilcrop.colostate.edu/Newsletters/. You can also visit their Crops Testing Web Pages at www.csucrops.com.
Many thanks to Jerry who continues to feed me valuable information about Extension energy issues across the nation.
New CSU Fact Sheet
Ken Tremblay, Colorado State University Extension specialist and professor, design and merchandising, has put together a great new fact sheet, The Sun-Tempered Superinsulated House.
The fact sheet provides basic instructions on how to make the best use of passive solar and what he refers to as “super insulation.” Check it out at: www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/consumer/09936.html.
Saving Energy During the Holidays
The holiday season tends to be an expensive one. Between food and gifts, new clothes and hosting festive parties, we put out a lot of money. In these times, it’s nice to cut corners somewhere, and it makes good sense to reduce as much energy use as possible, thereby saving money in places where it won’t pinch off goodwill toward others.
The following tips were offered by Sue Elliott of www.Suite101.com and Smart Energy Living News at www.smartenergyliving.org.
- Purchase and use LED Christmas lights. Making the change to these new lights can save you up to 90% on energy. Other good news: they’re long life lights, lasting up to 100,000 hours, and when one goes out, the rest on the string will stay illuminated.
- Clean The Oven. Your oven uses energy most efficiently when it can reflect heat easily off the interior walls, top, and bottom. The dirtier it is, the harder it has to work.
- Clean Your Stovetop. Clean the trays or bowls under your stovetop elements. The same principle of reflected heat works here too. If your reflector bowls are dirty, your elements will work inefficiently, using more energy to do less. If the bowls have gotten old and the finish has worn off, replace them.
- Watch Your Hot Water Use. Use cold water rather than hot whenever possible. Water heaters are one of the biggest energy guzzlers in your home, and using some restraint can prevent sending energy dollars down the drain. Also, invest in a water heater blanket for best insulation.
- Clean Your Refrigerator's Condenser Coils. Your refrigerator works harder to keep the chill box cold when the condenser coils on the back or bottom of the unit are dirty. Every couple of months, get out your vacuum cleaner and clean the coils thoroughly. While you're at it, don't forget the chest freezer in the garage. Also, make sure the door gasket creates a good, tight seal. Clean your gasket once a month with warm soapy water, and periodically close your refrigerator door on a piece of notepaper. If the paper slips, your gasket needs to be replaced. Keep in mind, too, that your refrigerator works at peak performance when it's full.
- Control Heat. If you have fans, switch the orientation of the fan blades when the cold weather rolls in. As the hot air from your furnace starts to rise toward the ceiling, the fan will move it back down to where it will do some good. If you don't have a thermostat, invest in one. You'll be able to control your heat consumption better when you can schedule on and off hours and set temperature defaults. That way your home will be comfortably warm when you need it, and the heat will cut back automatically at night or when you're not around.
- Save Gas. Make a shopping list and plan your shopping trip so you can purchase as many products as possible in one trip instead of having to go back and forth.
- Seal your Chimney Flue. Stop sending costly warm air up the chimney! When the fireplace is not in use, seal the opening.
- Winterize Your Windows. Depending on your financial capabilities, either cover single-pane windows with plastic film to avoid drafts, install storm windows, or upgrade to energy-efficient windows with double panes and low-emissivity coatings to dramatically improve indoor comfort. Even hanging heavy blankets over windows and unused doors will make a difference.
- Wrap Creatively! Americans generate tons of additional trash over the holidays, trash that requires extra energy to process. Use recycled paper or, better yet, use linens or other reusable items instead.
According to 25x25…
Dr. Steve Chu, a nationwide leader in renewable energy research who has had a longstanding relationship with the National 25x'25 Alliance, was set to be named this week by President-elect Barack Obama to be the new head of the Department of Energy. Chu is director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California and winner of the Nobel Prize in physics in 1997.
Chu was a keynote speaker at the 25x'25 Annual Renewable Energy Summit in Omaha earlier this year, when he told summit attendees that the American agriculture and forestry sectors should be optimistic about what the future holds for renewable energy. Chu and his team of researchers at Berkeley have been working on more efficient means of making biofuels using unconventional feedstocks. While corn and soybeans currently remain the least costly feedstocks for biofuels, Chu said that within five to 10 years, scientific discoveries and refining processes could improve enough to move grasses, woody substances and waste to the head of the line for making fuels, with an acre of some grasses providing five times the amount of fuel as from an acre of a traditional feedstock.
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A number of 25x'25 endorsing partners, including the National Wildlife Federation, the Izaak Walton League and the Environmental Defense Fund, have joined a coalition of environmental advocacy groups in telling President-elect Barack Obama that he can revive the U.S. economy and aggressively combat climate change by investing in clean energy technologies and strengthening environmental protections.
The clean energy technology recommendation is a key part of a lengthy strategy wish list of policies sent to Obama's transition team last week by the coalition of 29 of the nation's leading environmental and conservation organizations.
"Our economy is suffering and so is our environment," Larry Schweiger, head of the National Wildlife Federation told reporters on a conference call. "The solutions to both go hand in hand."
The coalition contends that the ongoing recession presents opportunities, not obstacles, to promote clean energy and environmental protection.
"Generating green collar jobs, making our offices and homes more efficient, rebuilding our water infrastructure, reducing our dependence on oil, reviving our ailing landscapes. These are solutions that can lead directly to economic prosperity, greater social equity and even enhanced national security," the coalition's 391-page report stated.
Coalition leaders say the widely anticipated economic stimulus package offers the president-elect an opportunity to deliver on his vow to solve the "entwined economic, climate and environmental crises," including measures that promote energy efficiency and spark increased development and use of renewable energy through modernization of the nation's electrical grid.
For more information about the coalition and the recommendations to the new administration, go to www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/science-and-environmental-0162-2.html.
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New technologies will permit rapid decarbonization of the world energy economy in the next two decades, according to a new report from the Worldwatch Institute. These new energy sources will make it possible to retire hundreds of coal-fired power plants that now provide 40 percent of the world's 
power by 2030, eliminating up to one-third of global carbon dioxide emissions while creating millions of new jobs.
Reducing dependence on fossil fuels will not only strike a defiant blow to the climate crisis, it will also act as an agent of recovery for an ailing global economy, the report states, adding that rebuilding the global energy system has the potential to create thousands of new businesses and millions of new jobs, starting immediately.
The new report provides an overview of the state of renewable energy technologies as well as a roadmap charting their role in the transition to a low-carbon economy. The report notes:
- Buildings consume about 40 percent of global energy and emit a comparable share of carbon dioxide emissions. With technologies available today, such as more-efficient lighting and appliances and improved walls and windows, the energy needs of buildings can be reduced by 70 percent or more, with the investment paid for via lower energy bills.
- Two-thirds of the energy contained in the fuel for most power plants is converted to waste heat or lost in distribution. Combined heat and power (CHP) can reduce those losses to less than 20 percent and provide the United States with 150 gigawatts of generating capacity-more than nuclear power now provides.
- In 2007, wind power represented 40 percent of new generating capacity installations in Europe and 35 percent in the United States. Wind power now costs just under six cents per kilowatt-hour on average-less than natural gas and roughly even with coal.
- An area covering less than 4 percent of the Sahara Desert could produce enough solar power to match global electricity demand.
- Investment in new renewable electric and heating capacity equaled an estimated $71 billion in 2007, up from just $20 billion in 2002.
- By 2006, the U.S. renewable industry had created 386,000 jobs compared with 82,000 jobs in the coal industry.
- The development of smart electricity grids, the integration of plug-in electric vehicles, and the addition of limited storage capacity will allow power to be provided without the "baseload" plants that are the foundation of today's electricity systems.
The report is available on the Worldwatch Web site at www.worldwatch.org/node/5945.
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The EPA this month said the 2009 renewable fuel standard (RFS) will require most refiners, importers, and non-oxygenate blenders of gasoline to displace 10.21 percent of their gasoline with renewable fuels such as ethanol. The requirement aims to ensure that at least 11.1 billion gallons of renewable fuels will be sold in 2009, in keeping with the targets established by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.
While the RFS requirement is increasing by about 23 percent from 9 billion gallons in 2008 to 11.1 billion gallons in 2009, the percentage requirement is increasing by nearly one third, from 7.76 percent in 2008 to 10.21 percent in 2009. More than 500 million gallons of the RFS must be biodiesel.
Governor’s Energy Office Update (www.colorado.gov/energy)
Thirty-two partners have joined the Solar Rebate Program to promote installations of solar hot water, solar electricity (photovoltaic - PV) and, an orphan hot water systems program for residents and businesses statewide.
The Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association is administering the program for the GEO. The program is designed to increase the overall number of solar installations throughout the state. The funding is effectively doubling the funding available in this rebate program by partnering with cities, utilities, and non-profit organizations through a matching grant program. The Program Partners will use the GEO's matching grant funds to set up local solar rebate programs.
Colorado home and business owners that invest in solar hot water in early 2009 may be eligible for rebates offered by a local Program Partner. The rebates will allow customers to install solar systems at considerable savings.
"With a combination of the GEO rebates and tax credits, Colorado home and business owners can save 50-55% on solar hot water or PV installations. In addition to these savings, these systems can save anywhere from $250-500 per year in energy costs," said Tom Plant, director of the GEO.
Program Partners will begin accepting rebate applications on February 2, 2009. The Partner will review the application and upon approval, provide customers with a Rebate Reservation. Customers have 90 days from the date of the reservation to complete the installation process.
A complete list of participating Program Partners can be found at www.coseia.org. To learn more about the program and how to receive a rebate, visit the website www.coseia.org, or www.Colorado.gov/energy.
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The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency issued an updated version of the National Action Plan Vision for 2025: A Framework for Change, a proposed energy efficiency action plan for state policy makers. If implemented by all states, the plan could lower energy demand across the country by 50 percent, achieve more than $500 billion in net savings over the next 20 years, and reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those from 90 million vehicles, government officials say. For more: www.energy.gov/news/6748.htm
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The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) says a predicted 7.5-fold increase in wind power by 2017 will require the addition of significant transmission lines to maintain grid reliability. NERC is the official electric reliability organization for the United States, and its latest 10-year outlook report, the 2008 Long-Term Reliability Assessment, notes that transmission lines must be sited, permitted, and built faster in the future to maintain the reliability of the U.S. power grid.
The report projects that the miles of transmission lines will grow by 9.5 percent over the next 10 years, and it notes that it will be vital to build the major transmission lines currently planned and to build them on schedule. On the plus side, however, the assessment projects that nearly 34,000 megawatts of demand reduction and 11,000 MW of energy efficiency will be in place by 2013, cutting power demand by 3.3 percent and offsetting nearly 80 percent of the growth in peak power demand.
For more information and to access the assessment www.nerc.com/news_pr.php?npr=186
Tool for Decreasing Fuel Use
The U.S. Department of Energy has created the Alternative Fuels and Advanced Vehicles Data Center (AFAVDC). It includes an easy-to-use on-line tool that calculates exactly how to lower fuel consumption. This tool is good for individuals as well as small and large businesses that operate vehicle fleets. It could come in handy if you get calls from people wondering how they will best reduce their fuel use. For example, the tool can discern if buying new, low rolling resistant tires would save more gas or if taking public transportation a few days a week would be more efficient. There are lots of variables and therefore many options available. Go to: www.afdc.energy.gov/afdc/prep/index.php.
You can also read studies that provide compelling arguments for why we need to make these changes. One study illustrates how exhaust emitted while vehicles are idling creates a serious health hazard and uses up millions of dollars per year in wasted fuel. The Harmful Effects of Vehicle Exhaust: A Case for Policy Change (www.ehhi.org/reports/exhaust/exhaust06.pdf) conveys that drivers should turn off their engines if they are stopped for ten seconds or more. According to the Canadian government, which has launched an anti-idling program, if every car or truck avoided idling for five minutes everyday of the year, they would save one million tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.
The AFAVDC web site also includes a variety of other resources such as a map of where filling stations offer natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, E85, electricity, biodiesel, hydrogen, and liquefied natural gas.
To see the full menu of what’s available through the AFAVDC, go to: www.afdc.energy.gov/afdc/
Electric Cars Gain Speed in Slow Economic Times
According to Forbesauto.com, automakers, utility companies and others are working together to establish a grid that creates one big power source out of electric vehicles. And it's closer to becoming a reality than you might think. A future where drivers tell utility companies when and where to charge their electric vehicles and with what source of energy — wind, sun or coal, for instance — could be as close as two years away, provided automakers, power companies and consumers buy into the idea. The technology already exists to turn electric vehicles, households and businesses into one huge battery that sustains all energy needs; users would draw power from the collective pool when needed, and give back accrued power they don't use.
Experts who champion this new energy paradigm call it "smart garage," a metaphor for combining homes, buildings and utilities into eco-friendly energy networks. "A single car battery at a single person's home might only represent 10 kilowatts of electricity, which is not particularly much," says Andrew Tang, senior director of the smart energy lab at Pacific Gas & Electric. "But a parking lot full of electric vehicles may actually aggregate up to one megawatt, which suddenly becomes interesting, and at that level of aggregation, it actually makes sense to make investments in the grid to support the bi-directional power flows."
Under the "smart garage" concept, utilities would create a power network that not only sends energy to users but draws and stores unused energy from homes, businesses and parked electric vehicles to redistribute the power based on demand, says Michael Brylawski, leader of mobility and vehicle efficiency at Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), an Aspen-based firm that has taken a lead role in spurring development of infrastructure to support the "smart garage" concept. Drivers could choose when, where and how to power their electric cars — and they could even demand "clean" (sun- or wind-generated) electrons.
The benefits wouldn't just be to the environment, but to the bottom line as well, proponents say. "By putting the vehicle onto the grid, it's not just saving oil or saving gasoline for the consumer, it's providing some potentially new benefits for the utilities and other types of new business models when, say, you start putting charge stations at Starbucks or at Wal-Mart, integrating those charge stations with those retailers in their buildings," Brylawski says.
General Motors and Nissan have been working alongside Google, IBM, Procter & Gamble and Wal-Mart, among others, to push the concept into reality.
Meanwhile, Denmark's Dong Energy A/S and a Silicon Valley-based startup firm said they plan to install an electric car network that includes about 20,000 recharging stations in the Scandinavian nation.
The grid, expected to be ready by 2011, will be operated by Project Better Place, an initiative by Israeli-American entrepreneur Shai Agassi, using excess power from Dong Energy's wind turbines.
A fleet of battery-driven electrical vehicles will be introduced in Denmark after the recharging stations are built at parking lots and outside homes, Agassi said.
Renewable Energy Claims 11% of Market Share in 2008
The Renewable Energy Weekly e-magazine (www.renewableenergyworld.com) reports that for the period January 1 – August 31, 2008, the United States consumed 67.550 quadrillion Btus (quads) of energy - of which 45.428 quads was from domestic sources and 22.122 quads was imported. Domestically-produced renewable energy (biomass/biofuels, geothermal, hydropower, solar, wind) totaled 4.886 quads, an amount equal to 10.76% of U.S. energy consumption that is domestically-produced.
This share is only slightly less than the contribution from nuclear power (12.39%). 
And while consumption of nuclear power dropped slightly during the first eight months of 2008, compared to the same period for 2007 (5.629 quads, down from 5.637 quads), domestic renewable energy production's share increased by more than seven percent (4.886 quads, up from 4.549 quads).
Biomass and biofuels combined presently constitute the largest source of renewable energy in the United States (2.554 quads) followed by hydropower (1.916 quads). Wind power, however, experienced the largest growth rate, increasing by almost 45% compared to the first eight months of 2007 (0.300 quads, up from 0.207 quads). Solar and geothermal’s contributions were at roughly the same levels in 2008 as they were in 2007 – although both are poised to greatly expand their market share in the near future.
Did You Know That…
→ If each state fleet vehicle was driven a mere ten fewer miles per week, we would eliminate almost two million vehicle miles traveled per year and save 115,000 gallons of fuel. Governor’s Energy Office.
→ Some flat screen televisions use more energy than a refrigerator. According to the EPA, TVs in the U.S. consume over 50 billion kwh of energy each year, amounting to four percent of all households' electricity use--enough electricity to power all the homes in the state of New York for an entire year! To find out more about how TVs rate on the energy scale, go to: www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=find_a_product.showProductGroup&pgw_code=TV
→ Buildings are the leading source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States according to the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Jay Bhatt, senior vice president of Autodesk AEC Solutions says, "This is especially important given that half the buildings in which Americans will live, play and work by 2030 
have yet to be built. We believe that the building industry has a responsibility to do all we can to promote the creation of, and generate increased demand for, much more cost-effective and energy-efficient buildings."
Learn more at: www.sustainablefacility.com/CDA/Articles/Breaking_News/BNP_GUID_9-5-2006_A_10000000000000469216
Upcoming Events
Transmission and Wind Integration - Webinar Opportunity
Wednesday, Dec. 17th at 10:00 a.m. Mountain Time.
The webinar will feature four speakers and the session will last approximately 2hrs. Speakers will give an update on transmission studies and developments throughout the United States. You will find out what needs to be done to significantly increase the penetration of wind generation, and what the impacts and benefits will be for consumer-owned utilities. At the end of the presentations, there will be a question & answer period. To participate in this webinar or to register for any of the events listed in the webinar schedule, please contact:
Ryan Harry
BCS, Incorporated
Phone: 303-425-6800
Email: RHarry@BCS-HQ.com
9th Annual Harvesting Clean Energy Conference
January 25-27, 2009, Billings Montana
Even though this is promoted for those who live in the Northwest, we’re told that this is one of the best conferences going that teaches people about renewables. It is a gathering to advance rural economic development through clean energy production. Clean energy offers practical, profitable opportunities for our farmers, ranchers, rural utilities and towns, tribes, and regional economy. Harvesting Clean Energy is designed for Northwest farmers and agriculture leaders, tribes, rural utilities and economic development officials, lenders, elected officials and public agencies, as well as energy developers and consultants. For more, go to: www.harvestcleanenergy.org/conference/index.html
Platts 9th Annual Caribbean Energy Conference
January 29-30, 2009, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
2nd Annual AEE Solar Dealer Conference
February 18-21, 2009, Mesa, Arizona
CSU Energy Website
To learn more about wind, solar, geothermal, and biofuels, visit our energy website at: www.ext.colostate.edu/energy.
Furthermore
Go to hes.lbl.gov/hes/db/zip.shtml and you can do an online calculation of your own energy use and carbon footprint. It’s easy to use. Tell your communities about it.
Send me anything that’s newsworthy that you’re doing in the world of clean energy and renewables. We need to keep our colleagues up to date on what’s going on in Extension and the value of our role!
Leigh Fortson
Extension Regional Communications Coordinator and REA (Renewable Energy Advocate)
Colorado State University Extension
2764 Compasss Drive, Suite 232
Grand Junction, CO 81506-8746
(970) 241-3346, FAX (970) 241-3643
leigh.Fortson@ColoState.EDU
Updated Monday, August 29, 2011