Articles for February 16, 2009
ENERGY NEWSBRIEFS is a
weekly current awareness service provided by the Washington State University
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 Energy Newsbriefs archives at http://www.energy.wsu.edu/library/newsbriefs.cfm.
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.
BIOFUELS
"S.F. to Convert Guckiest Cooking Grease to
Fuel," by Erin Allday, Staff Writer, Chronicle, describes the new,
large scale, program for turning brown grease into biodiesel. San Francisco had already been converting yellow grease into fuel for two years. See this
article in the Chronicle, February 5, 2009, at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/05/BA5D15NJD0.DTL&type=newsbayarea
.
BUILDING RETROFITS - RESIDENTIAL
"Residential
Energy Retrofits: An Untapped Resource Right at Home," a 12-page white
paper, undated but likely published in late 2008 or in January 2009 by the
Federation of American Scientists, was written by Todd Gerarden, of that same
organization. It focuses on existing residential buildings, rather than new
construction, with efficiency improvements financed by homeowners and
utilities. Read it at http://www.fas.org/programs/energy/btech/policy/Utility%20Paper%20for%20FAS%20Website.pdf
.
BUILDING SCIENCE
"Architecture
School to Construct Outdoor Thermal Laboratory" was reported by Viviana Aldous, Staff, Daily Texan. It
describes the effort by the School of Architecture's Center for Sustainable
Development at the University of Texas to measure the outdoor thermal
performance of building parts to determine building envelope selection. See
this article in the Daily Texan, February 5, 2009, at http://www.dailytexanonline.com/1.1355616-1.1355616
.
COMPUTING CENTERS
"Blue Gene/P Takes on a
Green Hue," by staff, discusses the second most energy-efficient,
high-performance, computing center in the world, the Argonne Leadership
Computing Facility. The Facility is located at the U.S. Department of Energy's
Argonne National Lab. See this article in DOE Pulse, January 19, 2009;
scroll down to the last article at http://www.ornl.gov/info/news/pulse/pulse_v278_09.html
.
FUEL CELLS
"Harnessing
self-organizing bacterial networks for microbial fuel cells" was authored
by Ryuhei Nakamura, Assistant Professor, and Kazuhito Hashimoto, Professor,
both at the Department of Applied Chemistry at the University of Tokyo. The authors explain how the metabolizing of metal-reducing bacteria results in
electricity that can be harvested with the aid of fuel-cell technology. See
this article carried by the SPIE Newsroom, posted on January 20, 2009, at http://spie.org/x33329.xml?highlight=x2358&ArticleID=x33329
.
LIGHTING
"Outdoor lighting
options offer security along with energy efficiency," by James Dulley, is
an excellent review of what types of lighting will work well better and more
efficiently than traditional types. LEDs (light emitting diodes) and CFLs
(compact fluorescents) are featured. See this article in
Colorado Country
Life
, February 2009, at http://www.coloradocountrylife.coop/energy/index.cfm?energyID=42
.
POLICY
"Go Green Pronto,
Toronto," by Ron Kotrba, Senior Writer, Biomass Magazine, discusses
the city's organic waste recycling program based on anaerobic digestion
technology. See this article in Biomass Magazine, January 2009, at http://www.biomassmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=2308&q=&page=all
.
"Re-New-able
York City," by Ron Kotrba, Senior Writer, Biodiesel Magazine,
describes the planned 110-MMgy biodiesel refinery in the New York City borough
of Brooklyn, at the mouth of the East River, and its connection with the city's
expected bioheat mandate. See this article in Biodiesel Magazine,
January 2009, at http://www.biodieselmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=3068&q=&page=all
.
PUMPING
A
Pumping System Efficiency Calculator was developed by energy specialists at the
Washington State University Energy Program for the Western Area Power
Administration. The calculator will determine the efficiency of a pumping
plant when the user enters the appropriate data into the fields provided. To
understand what the calculator can do, what data is required, and to use the
calculator, go to http://www.energyexperts.org/pumpcalc/
.
UTILITIES: DSM (DEMAND
SIDE MANAGEMENT) - RESIDENTIAL
"Western
Updates Popular DSM Guidebook" is an article, by staff, that clearly
describes the content of this updated publication that was developed for
utilities to use to address customer questions and needs. See it in
Energy
Services Bulletin
, December 2008, at http://www.wapa.gov/es/pubs/esb/2008/dec/dec083.htm
.
Past issues of Energy
Newsbriefs are available at http://www.energy.wsu.edu/library/newsbriefs.cfm.
Generally, subscription information
for the journals cited above can be found at the home page of their web
sites.
© 2009
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.
