Energy Newsbriefs
Articles for May 30, 2011
ENERGY NEWSBRIEFS is a weekly current awareness service provided by the WSU Extension Energy Program Library and written by Angela Santamaria, WSU Energy Library Manager, to assist users in tracking developments in the energy field. To view past issues or to subscribe to receive an email notification of the publication of a new issue, go to the Energy Newsbriefs home.
Please be aware that although every URL is checked for accuracy prior to the publication of Energy Newsbriefs, URLs are, for various reasons, subject to change. Further, servers sometimes fail to connect to working URLs.
BIOMIMICRY
"The Answer Is (Artificially) Blowing in the Wind," by Anne Eisenberg, was published in the May 21, 2011 issue of the New York Times. Artificial leaves will not look like leaves but they will function similarly, in terms of how real leaves make energy from sun, water, and CO2.
"From Whales to Fans," by Alan S. Brown, Associate Editor, Mechanical Engineering, was published in the April 2011 issue of that journal. How to increase lift without increasing drag is what a designer of airfoils learned from the natural design of the flippers of humpback whales.
"Reflecting Nature" records, in the March+April issue of GreenSource, a brief interview of biologist Janine Benyus by Alanna Malone; it is on the topic of biomimicry, especially as it relates to buildings.
BUILDING SCIENCE – NET-ZERO ENERGY, INSULATION
"Learning from Performance" was jointly written by Cathy Higgins, Program Director at New Buildings Institute (NBI), and by Karl Brown, Deputy Director of the California Institute for Energy and Environment (CIEE), a branch of the University of California Energy Institute; it was published in the Spring 2011 issue of High Performance Buildings. New Buildings Institute has developed a database of the commercial and institutional buildings in the United States (plus two in Canada and one in Australia) identified as using half the energy as other comparable buildings. The article includes a list with descriptions of the 12 technologies that are reported to have been most often used in the identified buildings. These are daylighting, controls, high R-value glazing, increased insulation, high-efficiency HVAC, natural ventilation, heat recovery, applied renewable energy, variable frequency drives, underfloor air distribution/displacement, ground source heat pump, and demonstration renewable energy.
"Pay Now or PAY Later" was written by Robert Bean, RET, PL (Eng); it was carried in the March/April 2011 issue of HPAC Heating, Plumbing, Air Conditioning Magazine. The author makes a strong case for under-slab insulation, especially for heated slabs, using telling, graphic comparisons of heat losses between insulated and uninsulated slabs. Related codes are discussed as are exceptions to his rules of thumb about insulation.
COMBINED HEAT and POWER (CHP)
"The New Era of CHP," by Ed Ritchie, is a four-web-page article in the May/June 2011 issue of Distributed Energy. The author writes there is, in the United States, increasing interest in and success of combined heat and power (CHP), a well-known and much-used technology in Europe. He illustrates this with several in-depth examples. For one, dry (rather than wet) anaerobic digestion produces biogas that fuels the cogeneration system at the University of Wisconsin (Oshkosh). For another example, the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) is commissioning a biomass gasification system that relies on sawmill residue. A third example is the microturbine system at the City of York Wastewater Treatment Plant in York, Pennsylvania; it replaces a worn-out CHP system that had become too expensive to maintain. Finally, the Doubletree Guest Suites Boston (Boston, Massachusetts) has a CHP system fueled by natural gas.
COMPUTING – CHIP STACKING and HEAT
"Cooling the Electronic Brain" was co-authored by Avram Bar-Cohen, Distinguished University Professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, and by Karl J. L. Geisler, Research Scientist/Engineer, 3M; it was published in the April 2011 issue of Mechanical Engineering. This article addresses the issue of high heat generated by computer chips that results in nearly unmanageable heat fluxes along the surfaces of computing components. While three-dimensional, chip-stacking promises to greatly expand computing capability, the increased heat will have to be managed before increased capability can be realized. Using the human brain as a model, scientists are hypothesizing how fluids might manage vast amounts of heat in non-brain circuitry.
LANDFILLS
"Texas Landfill Receives LEED Certification," by staff, appeared in the April 2011 issue of Waste Age. The landfill earned LEED-Silver certification for the buildings at the site. Efficiency efforts focused on lighting, water, and geothermal heating and cooling. The buildings were constructed with recycled materials.
POLICY – AGRICULTURE
"Transforming U.S. Agriculture" was co-authored by J. P. Reganold, Washington State University, et al.; it was published in the May 2011 issue of Science. The U.S. National Research Council (NRC) has made recommendations for re-orienting U.S. agriculture so that it continues to supply food in necessary quantities but without the damaging effects to the environment and public health that have become prominent. The authors of this paper review the two types of NRC recommendations, incremental and transformational. While they agree that incremental changes in agricultural policy and practices should be continued, they argue that only the transformational approach, where agriculture as a whole system is considered, can make the changes that are necessary and turn U.S. agriculture into a sustainable enterprise.
RESIDENTIAL EFFICIENCY STRATEGIES
EnergySavers.gov: Stay Cool, Save Money is a website, revised (and re-named) seasonally, from the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office of the U.S. Department of Energy. The site is now offering many tips for energy savings for the spring and summer.
TRANSPORTATION
"An Online Tool Directory" (select or scroll to page 3) appeared in the April 2011 issue of Clean Cities Now. It briefly describes the Clean Cities web page that features its free electronic tools including databases, calculators, and more. The short article also links directly to that page.
UTILITIES
"Scale Matters," by Marc Goldsmith, Head, Marc Goldsmith & Associates LLC, was published in the April 2011 issue of Mechanical Engineering. It discusses the new landscape for utilities where more and more efficiencies for power generation on a small scale are beginning to outweigh the efficiencies of larger generating plants.
WASTE-TO-ENERGY
"Renewable Natural Gas" (select or scroll to page 4; the article continues on page 5) – was published in the April 2011 issue of Clean Cities Now. It discusses RNG (renewable natural gas), a refined version of natural gas produced via anaerobic digestion at sites such as landfills.
Past issues of Energy Newsbriefs are available here.
Generally, subscription information for the journals cited above can be found at the home page of their web sites.
© 2011 Washington State University Extension Energy Program. This publication contains material written and produced for public distribution. Permission to copy or disseminate all or part of this material is granted, provided that the copies are not made or distributed for commercial advantage, and that each is referenced by title with credit to the Washington State University Extension Energy Program. Copying, reprinting or dissemination, electronic or otherwise, for any other use requires prior written permission from the Washington State University Extension Energy Program.