Southern Company acquires nation's largest DC tracking solar installation

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Press release:


Southern Company acquires nation's largest DC tracking solar installation
Sep 28, 2012

ATLANTA, Sept. 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Southern Company today announced its acquisition of the largest direct current solar tracking array of its kind.  The Spectrum Solar Facility – a 30-megawatt (MW) solar photovoltaic installation in Clark County, Nev. – will have greater DC capacity than any tracking-based installation in the United States.  Tracking technology enables greater operating efficiency by optimally directing solar panels as the sun moves across the sky.

The plant is located on a 311-acre site and will be built, operated and maintained by SunEdison, a leading global provider of solar energy services and a subsidiary of MEMC Electronic Materials (NYSE: WFR).

"Southern Company is committed to energy innovation and leads our industry in proprietary research and development," said Southern Company Chairman, President and CEO Thomas A. Fanning. "This project pushes the boundaries of solar energy by harnessing the power of large-scale tracking technology."

The Spectrum Solar Facility is the third facility jointly acquired by Southern Company and Turner Renewable Energy.  This partnership demonstrates a commitment to energy innovation and the commercial viability of renewable energy resources in America.

Ted Turner, an internationally renowned philanthropist and environmentalist, teamed with Southern Company in January 2010 to strategically develop renewable energy projects in the United States. Southern Company and Turner are concentrating their investments in large-scale solar photovoltaic projects where solar resources are most available. 

The partnership's first project was the acquisition and development of the 30-MW Cimarron Solar Facility near Raton, N.M. It was, at the time of purchase, the largest solar PV plant in the nation. In June 2012, the companies made their second purchase, the 20-MW Apex Solar Facility located in North Las Vegas, Nev.

"It's gratifying to see that our partnership with Southern Company is achieving its goal of expanding large-scale solar power generation and demonstrating the technology's feasibility as a commercial-scale electricity source," said Turner. "Southern Company is taking a leadership position in finding innovative solutions to diversifying the nation's energy portfolio with a greater mix of renewables, and we're pleased to be a partner in that effort."
SunEdison continues to play a major role in the expansion of clean, renewable solar energy.

"We are pleased to once again work with Southern Company and Turner Renewable Energy to provide high-quality solar power plants as they continue to build their renewable portfolio," said Carlos Domenech, President of SunEdison.  "Our development capabilities and execution track record have made us a trusted provider in the marketplace.  We look forward to continuing to provide visionary leaders like Southern Company with solar energy solutions that make economic sense."

Construction of the Spectrum Solar Project is expected to begin in October and commercial operation is anticipated by the second quarter of 2013.

The plant's output will serve a 25-year power purchase agreement with NV Energy, making the Spectrum Solar Facility a natural fit in Southern Company's overall business strategy and low-risk profile.

NV Energy, Inc., headquartered in Las Vegas, provides a wide range of energy services and products to approximately 2.4 million citizens of Nevada and nearly 40 million tourists annually.

SunEdison is a global provider of solar-energy services. The company develops, finances, installs and operates distributed power plants using proven photovoltaic technologies, delivering fully managed, and predictably priced solar energy services for its commercial, government and utility customers. In 2011 SunEdison interconnected approximately 300 megawatts of solar throughout the world. For more information about SunEdison, please visitwww.sunedison.com.

Turner Renewable Energy is wholly owned by Ted Turner. Turner Enterprises, Inc., a private company, manages the business interests, land holdings and investments of Ted Turner, including the oversight of 2 million acres in 12 states and in Argentina, and more than 55,000 bison.

With 4.4 million customers and more than 43,000 megawatts of generating capacity, Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is the premier energy company serving the Southeast.  A leading U.S. producer of electricity, Southern Company owns electric utilities in four states and a growing competitive generation company, as well as fiber optics and wireless communications.  Southern Company brands are known for excellent customer service, high reliability and retail electric prices below the national average.  Southern Company also is continually ranked among the top utilities in Fortune's annual World's Most Admired Electric and Gas rankings. Visit our website at www.southerncompany.com.

SOURCE Southern Company

NREL study: Hybrid delivery vans show nearly 20 percent higher fuel economy

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News release:


NREL study: Hybrid delivery vans show nearly 20 percent higher fuel economy
Friday, September 28, 2012
The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE)'s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) recently completed a performance evaluation report that showed significant fuel economy benefits of hybrid electric delivery vans compared to similar conventional vans.

"During the on-road portion of our study, the hybrid vans demonstrated a 13 to 20 percent higher fuel economy than the conventional vans," said NREL Project Engineer Michael Lammert. "During dynamometer testing, three standard drive cycles were chosen to represent the range of delivery routes. The hybrids showed a 13 to 36 percent improvement in fuel economy and up to a 45 percent improvement in ton-miles-per-gallon. This wide range in fuel economy is largely dependent on drive cycle."

The new NREL report -- Eighteen-Month Final Evaluation of UPS Second Generation Diesel Hybrid Electric Delivery Vans-- details the impact of hybridization on fuel economy and performance and identifies the conditions under which the hybrids offer maximum fuel savings.

The NREL team collected and analyzed in-service fuel economy, maintenance, and other vehicle performance data on 11 hybrid and 11 conventional step vans operated by the United Parcel Service (UPS) in Minneapolis. The team also performed dynamometer testing at the Renewable Fuels and Lubricants (ReFUEL) Research Laboratory in Denver.

"The reliability of the hybrids was slightly lower, 92.5 percent compared to 99.7 percent, in part due to troubleshooting and recalibration issues related to prototype components," Lammert added. "Differences in per-mile maintenance and operating costs were not statistically significant."

The hybrid vans feature hybrid propulsion systems: 44 kilowatt electric motors, lithium-ion batteries and regenerative braking that captures energy normally lost during braking to power the electric motor. The comparable conventional vans were approximately the same age and were operated in similar conditions out of the same facility. The two vehicle groups switched route assignments during the study period to provide a balanced review of the vans on the same route.

NREL has been working in partnership with UPS for five years to track and evaluate the performance of its hybrid vehicles. The first study, performed in 2008, focused on first-generation hybrid vans operated by UPS in Phoenix. In 2010, UPS deployed 200 second-generation hybrid vans to eight U.S. cities, including the 11 under study in Minneapolis. These second-generation hybrids feature more advanced control algorithms and an "engine off at idle" feature that automatically stops and restarts the engine at stoplights and during other short-stop conditions.

These evaluations are part of the Advanced Vehicle Testing Activity, which supports the Energy Department's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Visit www.nrel.gov/vehiclesandfuels/fleettest to learn more about NREL's fleet test and evaluation projects.

NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy's primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for DOE by The Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.

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Using Aluminum to Lighten Manufacturers’ Load

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The following is an excerpt from an article in:


The New York Times
Sunday, September 30, 2012

Using Aluminum to Lighten Manufacturers’ Load

By NICOLE LaPORTE

SHIPPING pallets, those slatted platforms that fill warehouses, are intended to move heavy loads, not people.  

But innovations in their design and manufacture may play an important role in creating a fleet of more environmentally sustainable cars and trucks.

Taylor Hopkins, 24, was part of a five-student research team at Ohio State University that recently created three novel designs for shipping pallets. Ordinary pallets are made of wood; the students’ prototypes are made of aluminum, which lasts longer.

The aluminum pallets are also much lighter than wood pallets, which saves fuel during shipping.

“We were presented with the problem of, try and come up with a new pallet that we thought could make an impact environmentally,” Mr. Hopkins said. “We ended up going with aluminum just because it’s very widely used and it’s lightweight.”

Aluminum is also significantly more expensive than wood, which means that the students’ designs are unlikely to become the industry norm soon. But the technology behind them could be useful to carmakers, which have started to embrace aluminum as a means of building lighter, more fuel-efficient vehicles.

“This project is such an interesting microcosm of the challenges that the transportation industry in total is facing, in moving from heavy steel to lightweight aluminum,” said Randall Scheps, automotive marketing director of Alcoa, and chairman of the aluminum transportation group at the Aluminum Association. Mr. Scheps said the student team looked at various methods of joining, or bonding, metals. It also looked at forming, or bending, metals, and at recycling. “These are all issues that the auto industry is facing,” he said.

For more, visit www.nytimes.com.

Electric Vehicles’ Weak Sales Have Automakers Thinking Twice

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The following is an excerpt from an article in The New York Times.  Not an article about renewable energy or energy efficiency, strictly speaking, but still of possible interest:


The New York Times
Monday, October 01, 2012

Electric Vehicles’ Weak Sales Have Automakers Thinking Twice

By JACK EWING

PARIS — Many auto executives were not that enthusiastic about battery-powered cars at their outset, and now that sales of electric vehicles made by Tesla and Renault have been disappointing, some carmakers are playing down the technology.

Martin Winterkorn, the chief executive of Volkswagen, said last week, on the eve of the Paris Motor Show, that the company would instead focus on plug-in hybrids, which can travel short distances on battery power alone and switch to gasoline or diesel fuel for longer trips.

“We had a realistic view of the technology all along,” Mr. Winterkorn said at a company event held here last week in conjunction with the motor show, which runs through Oct. 14. “There will be, for a long time to come, no alternative to the internal combustion engine.”

Volkswagen is the largest carmaker in Europe by far, so its decisions about technology are likely to greatly influence the industry’s direction. While VW has not completely scrapped plans to introduce all-electric cars, Mr. Winterkorn and other executives made it clear that they expected plug-in hybrids to be the more realistic way to reduce automobile emissions.

Renault, which bet heavily on electric vehicles along with its partner Nissan, said it had not given up on battery power. But the company concedes that sales have been below expectations, reaching about 15,000 units so far.

For more, visit www.nytimes.com.

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News release from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory:

GridLAB-D: A one-of-a-kind energy grid simulator

October 01, 2012

• Annie Hass, PNNL, (404) 210-1349
• Frances White, PNNL, (509) 375-6904

White House gets a look into PNNL's open-source tool for modeling 21st Century electric systems

Contact PNNL for Image Release PNNL Scientist Jason Fuller (seated) is at the White House today to demonstrate how PNNL's GridLAB-D™ tool works to simulate all aspects of the energy grid from generation to end use, including markets, in unprecedented detail. Also pictured is David Chassin, project manager for GridLAB-D and a PNNL scientist.

WASHINGTON – A one-of-a-kind, high-tech modeling tool designed to simulate different situations on the electric power grid will be on display at the White House today. The result of a multi-year funding effort by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory researchers will join Energy Secretary Steven Chu to demonstrate how GridLAB-D™ can help power system operators, industry, innovators and entrepreneurs understand how making a change to one part of the power system impacts other parts of the grid.

"GridLAB-D provides first-of-its-kind analysis and simulation of all aspects of grid operations, from generation to consumption, in unprecedented detail. Using this open source, freely available tool, we can understand how making changes to one part of the electric system, such as incorporating more solar or wind power, impacts other parts of the system, and in different types of situations, such as inclement weather, record heat or even drought," said Carl Imhoff, PNNL's Electricity Infrastructure Market Sector lead. "In a sense, GridLAB-D lets users see the future of the grid like never before," he said.

The GridLAB-D research team joins other teams of researchers from government, industry and academia as part of "Datapalooza," an event sponsored by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Council on Environmental Quality, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It's designed to showcase various ways in which data analysis can be used to improve the nation's power system. PNNL researchers will be demonstrating how GridLAB-D allows users to see how solar panels in various community scenarios can impact the performance of the power system. From there, utilities can understand what investments should be made to ensure the solar power can come online in a safe and effective manner.

How it works

The smart grid is often referred to as the merger of the internet and the electric grid. It includes information technology that identifies how much power is being used. It also generates a lot of data, which must be analyzed in real time to enable optimal energy resource usage. GridLAB-D has been in development at PNNL for nearly 10 years and is made available as an open-source tool for utilities, universities, researchers, consultants, and government and defense agencies.

"GridLAB-D is a powerful tool capable of pulling together and simultaneously considering the effects of multiple technologies on the electric grid over periods of time that can range from seconds to decades," said David Chassin, project manager for GridLAB-D and a PNNL scientist. "It's a power systems simulator, market simulator, communication simulator and building simulator, all tied into one. Every piece shares information with every other piece to build a clearer picture of how the electric grid will evolve over time."
"For example, GridLAB-D allows us to drill down to see how changing prices or weather conditions impact voltage levels and communications loads on a minute-to-minute basis," said Chassin. "It has also been used to study whether different utility rate designs make sense when new demand response technology becomes more widely available."

Seeing solar at the White House

For the Datapalooza event, PNNL researchers are using GridLAB-D to simulate what would happen if a large numbers of solar panels were incorporated into a typical southern California distribution system. They worked with colleagues from PNNL's National Visualization and Analytics Center in Richland to develop an animation that shows what may occur as more homes and businesses install solar panels. The PNNL team used building design parameters for southern California and weather data from Bakersfield, Calif., to represent a typical southern, inland-California energy usage model, where utilities are currently experiencing a rapid rise in solar power on their systems.

"We've found that as clouds move through neighborhoods, the voltage can rise or fall outside allowable ranges, depending on conditions," said Kevin Schneider, a PNNL lead power engineer on the project. "Utilities may be required to manage voltage differently depending on how much solar power is found in various parts of their systems."

GridLAB-D is one component of PNNL's smart grid research and development program, under which researchers have been applying capabilities and expertise for more than 20 years to shape and deliver an electricity grid that is more resilient, secure and efficient.

Funding for GridLAB-D was provided by U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability. More information about GridLAB-D is available at www.gridlabd.org.

Interdisciplinary teams at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory address many of America's most pressing issues in energy, the environment and national security through advances in basic and applied science.  PNNL employs 4,700 staff, has an annual budget of nearly $1 billion, and has been managed for the U.S. Department of Energy by Ohio-based Battelle since the laboratory's inception in 1965.  For more, visit the PNNL's News Center, or follow PNNL on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Dana Alston

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Remembering An Envirnmental Justice Heroine

Dana Alston

Dana died on August 7, 1999 and the environmental justice movement will never be the same.  This EJ activist worked tirelessly for social and environmental justice. Dana was 47 years old when she died.

Dana Alston received a Bannerman Fellowship in 1992 in recognition of her leadership in the development of the environmental justice movement. The Bannerman Fellowship Program was founded in 1987 on the belief that the most effective approach to achieving progressive social change is by organizing low-income people at the grassroots level. In 2002, the Fellowship Program was renamed the Alston/Bannerman Fellowship Program in honor of Dana Alston. Dana died on August 7, 1999 at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco.

Dana was a native of New York and lived in Washington, D.C. She was in San Francisco for treatment of kidney disease and consequences of a stroke when she died. Her beloved son, Khalil Alston-Cobb, resides in Washington, D.C.

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EPA Region 4 EJ Conference

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EPA Region 4’s 2012 Southeast Regional Environmental Justice Conference theme was, “Promoting Environmental Justice through Effective Education, Collaboration, and Mobilization”

ABOUT THE CONFERENCE

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 4, Office of Environmental Justice hosted the Regional Environmental Conference on August 16-17, 2012. The conference was held at the Sam Nunn Atlanta Federal Center in Atlanta, GA. The conference goals are:

1. To develop tangible solutions to address environmental, health, and social impacts affecting communities with environmental justice concerns;
2. To educate the attendees on the environmental, health, and social impacts affecting communities with environmental justice concerns; and
3. To provide networking opportunities for environmental justice leaders and organizations.

Over 150 people, representative of all stakeholder groups, attended the conference and built relationships that will benefit their communities and promote sustainable growth. Workshops and sessions were led by experts in their field. Conference Schedule

Purpose:
This conference promoted environmental justice by:

• Identifying the presence and impact of health problems in environmental justice communities;
• Increasing stakeholder understanding of the public health impacts of unequal distribution of environmental pollution;
• Helping stakeholders to identify their problems, develop and implement creative solutions and share project success stories;
• Identifying tools and strategies environmental justice organizations can use to sustain themselves once federal and state funding have ceased;
• Using environmental justice, within each state, as a theme to build partnerships with state and local government officials, community groups, academics, industry and others; and
• Providing technical assistance, such as grant writing training, to help stakeholders advance their environmental justice efforts.

Although the federal government has taken measures to ensure environmental equality, an effective strategy must incorporate perspectives from a diverse group of impacted stakeholders. This conference promoted education, collaboration and mobilization among environmental justice community groups; environmental organizations; federal, state and local government officials; academic institutions; and other interested stakeholders to help us all better identify and implement solutions for communities that are most overburdened by environmental pollution.
Audience:

Communities, States, Local Businesses, Colleges, and Universities in GA, AL, MS, TN, KY, FL, SC and NC

CO-SPONSORS

Alabama Department of Environmental Management
Cardno TBE
Center for Sustainable Communities
DIRTT Environmental Solutions
Emory University, Office of Sustainability Initiatives
Green Group Holdings
MDB, Inc.
Restoration Services, Inc.
Southface
Spelman College
U.S. Climate Action Network
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Secretary for Health
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service