| The Energy Department on July 9 published a new rule requiring new federal buildings to meet higher energy efficiency standards. The rule applies to buildings for which design begins on or after one year after publication in the Federal Register. It updates the baseline federal commercial standards to the 2010 version of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Standard 90.1, which the Energy Department determined would save 18.2% more energy in commercial buildings than the 2007 version of Standard 90.1. The ASHRAE Standard 90.1 is developed through an American National Standards Institute consensus process that involves industry, building owners, designers, and government. The process includes extensive public review and comment on each change to Standard 90.1. See the rule in the Federal Register.   The Solar Impulse, a solar-powered airplane, on July 6 successfully landed at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport after an 18-hour flight from Washington Dulles airport. The Swiss prototype crossed the United States to showcase its ability to fly day and night powered exclusively by solar energy. Andre Borschberg, Solar Impulse co-founder and CEO, landed Solar Impulse in New York three hours earlier than planned because of a rip in the fabric on the lower side of the aircraft's left wing. Dubbed the journey "Across America," the flight started on May 3 in San Francisco, California, and included stops in Phoenix, Arizona; Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas; St. Louis, Missouri; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Washington, D.C. The journey took a total of 105 hours over 3,511 miles at an average speed of about 31 miles per hour. On its inaugural flight in 2010, the Solar Impulse, a lightweight carbon fiber aircraft with the 208-foot wingspan of a Boeing 747-400, climbed to just under 4,000 feet during its 87 minutes aloft. The ultra-light glider-like craft weighs about as much as a car and can reach a maximum height of 28,000 feet. The aircraft has nearly 12,000 silicon mono-crystalline solar cells on its wings and on its horizontal stabilizer that provide power to the craft's four 10-horsepower electric engines. In 2011, the aircraft flew from Brussels, Belgium to Paris, France. The team plans an around-the-world tour in 2015. See the Solar Impulse website. The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on July 5 announced that new mining claims would be withdrawn from 303,900 acres of land within 17 Solar Energy Zones in six western states—Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. BLM said that the location of mining claims could impede development of solar energy sites. The lands had already been segregated from the mining laws under temporary measures. The Public Land Order extends the withdrawal for 20 years. The Department of the Interior established the Solar Energy Zones in 2012 as part of a western solar plan that provides a road map for utility-scale solar energy development on lands managed by the BLM. Solar Energy Zones encompass the lands most suitable for solar energy development because of their excellent solar resources, access to existing or planned transmission, and relatively low conflict with biological, cultural and historic resources. The Public Land Order puts into action the recommendation in the western solar plan to prevent for 20 years conflicting use of the public lands encompassed by Solar Energy Zones for 20 years from potentially conflicting uses, including activities allowed under the mining laws, subject to valid existing rights. See the BLM press release. |
| Scientists build their careers on unquenchable curiosity and a constant quest for bright ideas. That’s true for researchers at the Energy Department's national labs, especially as a couple of their recent studies on light-emitting diodes (LEDs) show. LEDs are the blink-blinks in traffic lights and children’s toys. They also form the images on flat television screens, the numbers on digital clocks and have a wide range of other uses. However, they also have real limitations that Energy Department researchers are trying to overcome: They could be even more efficient, and they only shine in single colors. In principle, LEDs could be nearly 100% efficient at turning their energy into visible light. In practice, they’re somewhere near 20%, which is still far greater than the 5% of conventional incandescent bulbs. To better understand the source of those efficiencies—and hopefully improve them further—a team of researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) took a close look at indium gallium nitride (InGaN), a material used in many LEDs. For the complete story, see the Energy Blog. Known for its white beaches and blue skies, the city of Ormond Beach, Florida, recently became known for a new color—green. With the help of the Energy Department’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) Program, the city is saving energy and encouraging its residents to do the same through an environmental education program. To help the city achieve its goal of cutting energy usage, reducing the overall cost of government through investments in technology and encouraging behavioral changes through education, Ormond Beach officials developed an energy efficiency and conservation strategy. As part of the efficiency strategy, the city used almost $167,000 in EECBG funds to make energy efficiency upgrades at 16 city-owned buildings. The city installed 29 programmable thermostats, added 100 motion sensors for lighting control, and replaced more than 4,100 fluorescent bulbs and 1,200 lighting fixtures. The energy efficiency upgrades helped the city save 266,340 kilowatt hours of electricity annually—or the average yearly electricity consumption of about 23 U.S. homes. The city originally estimated energy savings at $15,800 per year, but once the projects were complete, the actual energy cost savings almost tripled to $45,637 per year. That’s a payback period of little more than three and a half years. For the complete story, see the Energy Blog. |
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