Articles for November 10, 2008
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.
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APPLIANCES (RESIDENTIAL)
The following two September
2008, publications are from PIER (Public Interest Energy Research, a program of
the California Energy Commission):
1.
"Energy Use of Household Electronics: Taming the Wild
Growth" is a two-page technical brief. The phantom load (the
power used by appliances that are in standby mode) of residential appliances in
50 California homes have been measured. Contrary to what might have been
expected, findings indicate that phantom load prevention (mostly by unplugging
appliances that are not in use), while still advisable, would not save a great
deal of energy. The loads of appliances in active mode represent the lion's
share of energy consumption, and suggestions to reduce this energy use are
offered as a means to bring about much more dramatic energy savings than
phantom load reductions might. View this document at http://www.esource.com/esource/getpub/public/pdf/cec/CEC-TB-32_HsholdElectronics.pdf.
2.
"What Lies Within: Improving
the Efficiency of Internal Power Supplies" is a two-page technical brief.
It describes how Ecos Consulting and the Electric Power Research Institute have
developed energy efficiencies for appliances, how they are interacting with various
members of the appliance sector to encourage the implementation of those energy
efficiencies, and how they are working with others to encourage
energy-efficiency appliance standards. See
this document at http://www.esource.com/esource/getpub/public/pdf/cec/CEC-TB-41_IntPowerSupplies.pdf.
BIOMASS and EMISSIONS
"Knocking down the
Dust," by Petru Sangeorzan, National Sales Manager, Weiss Environmental
LLC, describes the two basic types of electrostatic precipitators, wet and dry,
and the uses for each. The author focuses on the application of dry
electrostatic precipitators which isolate harmful emissions in the combustion
of biomass for energy generation. See this article in Biomass Magazine,
October 2008, at http://www.biomassmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=2069&q=&page=all.
CODES
"Uncertain Future for ASHRAE Standard 189"
is an article about ASHRAE's dismissing the committee which, for the past two
years, had been developing minimum codes for green buildings. See this article
in BuildingGreen.com, October 29, 2008 (an update of an earlier
version), at http://www.buildinggreen.com/auth/article.cfm/2008/10/17/Uncertain-Future-for-ASHRAE-Standard-189/.
EMPLOYMENT and NEW ECONOMIES
Three important
studies/reports have been released which address related, new economies in
global, national, and U.S. urban environments:
1. "Effects of a Transition to a Hydrogen Economy
on Employment in the United States" is a 66-page, July 2008 report
prepared by RCF Economic and Financial
Consulting for the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Secretary
was required by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to produce such a report for
members of Congress. "Hydrogen Fuel Cells Would Create Green Jobs - DOE
Report" is a short article about the report from SustainableBusiness.com
News, October 10, 2008, at http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/16899.
For the report, itself, go to http://www.usfcc.com/Fuel%20Cell_Hydrogen%20Employment%20Study_final.pdf.
2.
"Green Jobs: Towards Decent
Work in a Sustainable, Low-Carbon World" is a 376-page, September 2008
report developed for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) by the
Worldwatch Institute with technical assistance from the Cornell University
Global Labor Institute. It aims to describe and quantify current levels of
green jobs and estimate future employment as global efforts toward
sustainability and carbon reductions intensify. Read the UNEP, September 24,
2008, press release, "Landmark New Report Says Emerging Green Economy
Could Create Tens of Millions of New Green Jobs," announcing the Web-only
publication of the report at http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=545&ArticleID=5929&l=en.
Select links to parts of the report, the entire report, and other related
information at http://www.unep.org/labour_environment/features/greenjobs-report.asp.
3.
"The 2008 Green Jobs Report:
Current and Potential Jobs in the U.S. Economy" is a 41-page, report
prepared for the U.S. Council of Mayors and the Mayors Climate Protection Center by Global Insight. There is a Council of Mayors October 2, 2008, press
release announcing the publication of the report at http://www.usmayors.org/pressreleases/uploads/greenjobsrelease.pdf.
See the report at http://www.usmayors.org/pressreleases/uploads/GreenJobsReport.pdf.
METHANE GAS AS PROPERTY
"Determining the
Ownership of Landfill Gas," was written by James E. Goddard and Patrick
Beaton, both attorneys at Lock Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP. This is a very
interesting article which discusses the possible conflicts that can arise when
landfill gas is generated for sale on land where the mineral rights for the
land are owned by another party. See this article in Biomass Magazine,
October 2008, at http://www.biomassmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=2068&q=&page=all.
LIGHTING
"Managing
Lighting Upgrades," is a valuable four-part article on lighting, by Stefan
Graf, Principal, Illuminart. It appeared in the October 2008 issue of that Building Operating Management:
·
Part 1: "Choosing a Design
Philosophy for the Lighting System," at http://www.facilitiesnet.com/bom/article.asp?id=9858
, explains the five steps to be taken to develop lighting systems criteria for
any lighting project with a more in-depth examination of whether to approach
the first step with an engineered lighting solution or a designed lighting
solution.
·
Part 2: "Lighting Systems
and Specification Documents," at http://www.facilitiesnet.com/bom/article.asp?id=9864
, shows how to specify the lighting components with the aid of eleven specification-related
tips.
·
Part 3: "Lighting System Bids:
What Facility Managers Need to Know," at http://www.facilitiesnet.com/bom/article.asp?id=9865
, emphasizes how important it is that bids not be accepted for review unless unit
pricing for all specified parts is expressed in the bids.
·
Part 4: "Installing and Commissioning a Lighting System,"
http://www.facilitiesnet.com/bom/article.asp?id=9868
, addresses five steps to be taken in the commissioning process.
POLICY
"Energy-Efficiency
Home and Vehicle Tax Credits" is an Alliance to Save Energy web page which
explains very well the various tax credits allowed under the Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008, which
is part of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. View this web
page at http://www.ase.org/content/article/detail/2654#appendix_info.
SOLAR
"New Solar Cell
Material Achieves Almost 100% Efficiency, Could Solve World-Wide Energy
Problems," by Rick C. Hodgin describes the inadvertent discovery of a
material that enables a solar cell to phosphoresce for a long enough time to suggest
that solar storage might not require batteries. This article may be seen in Trendwatch
(TGDaily), October 20, 2008, at http://www.tgdaily.com/html_tmp/content-view-39807-113.html.
WASTE-TO-ENERGY
Two interesting and
complementary articles appeared in the October 2008 issue of Biomass
Magazine:
1.
"Power and Fuel from Plastic
Wastes" was authored by Ron Kotrba, Senior Writer, Biomass Magazine.
In it, he discusses three approaches, which are new takes on existing
technologies, to convert some of the vast amounts of plastic waste into energy:
combustion, gasification, and catalytic
pyrolysis. See it at http://www.biomassmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=2067&q=&page=all.
2.
"Waste Not, Want Not,"
by Jessica Ebert, includes a fourth approach, anaerobic digestion with a twist -
anaerobic phased solids (APS) digester
technology. See it at http://www.biomassmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=2066&q=&page=all.
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.
© 2008
Washington State University Extension Energy Program. This publication
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