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EREN NETWORK NEWS -- February 6, 2002 A weekly newsletter from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Network (EREN). <http://www.eren.doe.gov/<; ================================================= Featuring: *News and Events President's Budget Supports Efficiency, Renewable Energy Budget Includes Tax Incentives for Renewables, CHP, Hybrids Alliant Energy Seeks Renewable Power Sources for Iowa DOE Awards More Than $500,000 for Metal Casting Research Explosion at FuelCell Energy Plant Delays Shipments New Energy Corporation Retracts Claim of Solar Contract *Energy Facts and Tips EIA Issues U.S. Renewable Energy Maps *About this Newsletter ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS AND EVENTS ---------------------------------------------------------------------- President's Budget Supports Efficiency, Renewable Energy President Bush released his administration's proposed $2.13 trillion federal budget for fiscal year (FY) 2003 on Monday. Although the budget emphasis is on the war on terrorism and U.S. homeland security, the budget maintains funding for energy efficiency and renewable energy programs, while providing new tax incentives to encourage the use of these technologies (see second story below). See the full budget on the White House Web site at: <http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2003/<;. The proposed overall budget for DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), which funds this newsletter and the EREN Web site, remains nearly steady, increasing about 0.8 percent above FY 2002 funding levels. Funding for renewable energy programs increases 5.5 percent in the budget, with significant funding boosts for hydrogen, hydropower, and solar building technology research and development, as well as for programs that encourage renewable energy use on Indian reservations and internationally. However, the research budget for concentrating solar power technologies suffers a cut of 86 percent. Overall funding for energy efficiency programs decreases by about 1.3 percent. The largest change is a budget increase of 25 percent for the Federal Energy Management Program, which helps the federal government reduce its energy use. EERE estimates that the combined energy efficiency and renewable energy programs, which cost about $1.3 billion per year, will save the country between $76 billion and $125 billion in energy costs by 2020. See EERE's "Budget-in-Brief" on the EREN Web site at: <http://www.eren.doe.gov/budget/budget_summary03.html<. See also the "Renewable Energy Resources" and "Energy Conservation" sections under the "Detailed Budget Justifications" heading of DOE's budget request, posted at: <http://www.mbe.doe.gov/budget/03budget/index.htm<;. In his announcement of the DOE budget, Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham specifically noted that the proposed budget will support the President's commitment to double funding for the Weatherization Assistance Program over the next 10 years, and will provide roughly $150 million for FreedomCAR, which aims to develop the infrastructure and technologies needed for hydrogen-powered fuel-cell vehicles. See the DOE press release at: <http://www.energy.gov/HQPress/releases02/febpr/pr02016.htm<;. The administration's proposed budget is only the first step in the budget process. Both the House and Senate will now start working on a series of bills to set a budget and appropriate funds. For FY 2002, for instance, the President's budget originally proposed cutting funding for EERE, but as shown in the budget documents cited above, funding for FY 2002 ended up higher than the previous year's funding. See the news about last year's proposed budget in the April 11, 2001, edition of the EREN Network News at: <http://www.eren.doe.gov/newsletter/archives/2001/apr11_01.html<. Budget Includes Tax Incentives for Renewables, CHP, Hybrids The President's budget for fiscal year 2002 includes $9.1 billion in tax incentives over 10 years to encourage the use of renewable energy, combined heat and power (CHP) systems, and energy-efficient vehicles. For power producers, the budget includes a new 10-percent investment tax credit for qualifying CHP systems, an extension of the tax credit for landfill methane power plants, an extension of the production tax credit (PTC) through 2005, and an expansion of the PTC to include more biomass energy facilities. The PTC provides renewable power producers with a tax break of 1.5 cents per kilowatt-hour (in 1992 dollars, adjusted for inflation) and was formerly applicable only to electricity produced from wind power, poultry waste, and biomass power produced from dedicated energy crops. The PTC expired in December, leading to a slowdown in the wind energy business. For example, Vestas Wind Systems A/S shifted 1,200 employees to half-time work in January, with the expectation that the slowdown will continue for 12 weeks. See the Vestas press release at: <http://www.vestas.com/nyheder/presse/2002/UK/fond20020124_UK.html<. The budget also includes a tax credit for the average American -- people that install solar hot water or solar electric systems on their homes would earn a tax credit of 15 percent of the cost of the systems, including installation. The credit has a maximum of $2,000 per person for solar hot water systems and another $2,000 per person for solar photovoltaic systems. People buying hybrid electric vehicles would also earn a tax credit of up to $4,000, with the amount determined by both the performance of the hybrid system and the vehicle's fuel economy. When fuel-cell vehicles become available, they'll earn an even higher tax credit -- at least $4,000 and up to $8,000, depending on the vehicle's fuel economy. And fuel producers don't get left out of the equation -- the budget also proposes extending the tax credit and excise tax exemption for ethanol and methanol from renewable sources. See pages 71-73, 80 and 99 (PDF pages 75-77, 84 and 103) of the "Analytical Perspectives" section of the President's budget at: <http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2003/<;. Alliant Energy Seeks Renewable Power Sources for Iowa Alliant Energy announced in late January that it plans to add enough renewable energy generating capacity in Iowa to produce up to 150,000 megawatt-hours of electricity per year -- enough to meet the annual power needs of more than 20,000 households. A wind power plant that produces power one-third of the time would require a capacity of about 50 megawatts to generate that much electricity. The company serves 464,000 electric customers in Iowa, and intends to add the renewable power capacity by the end of 2003. The company has posted a request for proposals on its Web site; proposals are due by April 2nd. See the Alliant Energy press release, with a link to the request for proposals, at: <http://www.alliantenergy.com/news/news.php?issueID=237<;. DOE Awards More Than $500,000 for Metal Casting Research DOE announced last week its award of $533,328 over three years to a technical consortium, headed by the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, for research into ways to improve the casting of light metal alloys. By studying how heat is transferred between the mold casting and the metal, the researchers hope to develop lighter, stronger, and less- expensive molds. One aim of the research is to reduce the amount of scrap and reworked materials in the aluminum mold and die casting industry by eight percent. The projected energy benefits in the metal casting industry alone over the next ten years are estimated to be 36.6 trillion Btu -- enough energy to power all the homes in Arkansas for a year. See the DOE press release at: <http://www.energy.gov/HQPress/releases02/febpr/pr02015.htm<;. Explosion at FuelCell Energy Plant Delays Shipments An explosion racked the production line of FuelCell Energy's manufacturing plant in Torrington, Connecticut, on January 14th, slightly injured five employees. A buildup of solvent fumes caused the explosion on the company's new "tape casting" line, which is used to manufacture fuel cell components. The company emphasized that the explosion was not caused by hydrogen, nor was it caused by the operation of one of its fuel cells. FuelCell Energy has continued to assemble fuel cells at the facility since the explosion, but is expecting delays of four to six weeks in its fuel cell shipments. The company shut down both tape-casting lines as a safety precaution, but expects to restart the older line in mid-February. The new tape-casting line was recently installed at a cost of $1.7 million. See FuelCell Energy's Form 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (used to make investors aware of any significant company events) on the company's Web site at: <http://www.fce.com/site/investor/press/releases/2002/01_31_02.html<. New Energy Corporation Retracts Claim of Solar Contract New Energy Corporation announced last week that it had mistakenly claimed to have a contract to deliver solar electricity to Teixeira Farms of Santa Maria, California, and that in fact no such contract exists. The company now claims to have purchase orders from Distributed Power Systems for the installation of four solar electric systems, each with a generating capacity of one megawatt. The original story was covered in the January 9th edition of the EREN Network News: <http://www.eren.doe.gov/newsletter/archives/2002/jan09_02.html<. Since January 18th, the trading of New Energy stock has been suspended by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over "questions involving the adequacy and accuracy of public disclosures," in particular, "the value of certain power generation contracts, the existence and size of certain purchase orders for solar chips and its partner's relationship with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power." Last week, Stratos Research, LLC, an investment research firm, announced that it had suspended coverage of New Energy and had removed its research report on the company from its Web site, due to concerns that the report "may contain factual errors." See all of the relevant press releases by selecting "Press Release" on the New Energy Web site at: <http://www.newenergyco.com/<;. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ENERGY FACTS AND TIPS ---------------------------------------------------------------------- EIA Issues U.S. Renewable Energy Maps DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA) completed a new regional series of renewable energy maps last week. The Renewable Energy Map series includes maps of each of the nine U.S. census divisions, plus individual maps of California, Alaska, and Hawaii. The maps attempt to indicate all renewable energy resources in each region, and also show the location of all renewable energy power plants with a net summer capacity of 1 megawatt or more. See the EIA Renewable Energy Maps at: <http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/reps/remap/contents.html<;. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can subscribe to this newsletter using the online form at: <http://www.eren.doe.gov/newsletter/subscribe/<;. This Web page also allows you to update your email address or unsubscribe to this newsletter. The Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Network (EREN) home page is located at <http://www.eren.doe.gov/<;. If you have questions or comments about this newsletter, please contact the editor, Kevin Eber, at kevin_eber@nrel.gov.
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