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Illinois Rural Electric Cooperative named wind co-op of the year DOE announced Feb. 17 that the Illinois Rural Electric Cooperative won the 2005 Wind Cooperative of the Year Award. The utility was cited for its leadership, demonstrated success and innovation in its wind power program. The member-owned utility in Winchester, Ill., is the first co-op in the state to install a wind power project. IREC serves more than 10,000 consumer/owners throughout 10 western-central Illinois counties. Federal and state funds partially financed the 1.65-megawatt project, which was completed in May 2005. Highlighting the project’s potential, a recent wind resource assessment indicates that Pike County, Ill., could support as many as 100 projects of this size, adding as much as $7 million to the local tax base. Sponsored by DOE’s Wind Powering America effort, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and the Cooperative Research Network, the award was presented at the opening session of NRECA’s TechAdvantage 2006 Conference and Expo in Orlando, Fla. The Illinois co-op was one of six rural member-owned utilities nominated this year. Geothermal power plants moving ahead in Idaho and Utah Geothermal power development will get a boost from two contracts to purchase power from a new 10-megawatt geothermal plant in south-central Idaho and a new 42-megawatt plant in southwest Utah. In Idaho , U.S. Geothermal entered into an agreement with Ormat Nevada, Inc., for engineering, procurement and construction on its first 10-MW powerplant at Raft River, with an option to build two more plants at the site. U.S. Geothermal signed power purchase contracts with the Idaho Power Company for three 10-megawatt geothermal power plants. PacifiCorp signed a 20-year agreement to purchase the output of a 42-megawatt geothermal electric plant near Cove Fort, Utah. The project is anticipated to be on line before Dec. 31, 2007. Amp Resources LLC will develop, own and operate the project which will be built on the site of a smaller geothermal plant the company acquired from the Utah Municipal Power Agency and the city of Provo, Utah. The Cove Fort project was selected as part of a request for proposals PacifiCorp issued in February 2004 to acquire up to 1,100 megawatts of renewable resources. In response, PacifiCorp received more than 50 bids for some 6,000 megawatts of renewable energy projects including wind, geothermal, hydro, solar and biomass. OEMC creates Colorado landowners small wind guide The Colorado Governor’s Office of Energy Management and Conservation unveiled its “Small Wind Applications Guide” at the Colorado Agricultural Outlook Forum in February. The tool for landowners interested in harnessing wind energy consists of a video and handout covering projects from 35 kW to 300 kW, rather than large-scale wind farms. The video gives a virtual tour of a Colorado hog farm where electricity from a 65-kW wind turbine "blends" with generation from a methane digester. The guide breaks the development process into three different phases. The first phase covers the feasibility study through assessing the site, energy usage, financing and other considerations. The second phase covers installation, and the final phase discusses ongoing maintenance and measuring actual turbine performance. OEMC received funds from DOE's Wind Powering America Program to help produce this video and its handout. Download the guide for free at the OEMC Website. Arizona gets aggressive new RPS With an eye on the state's abundant solar resources, the Arizona Corporation Commission recently passed a renewable portfolio standard requiring regulated electric utilities to generate 15 percent of their energy from renewable resources by 2025. The standard calls for renewable resources to account for 1.25 percent of retail energy sold in 2006. Solar, wind, biomass, biogas, geothermal and other technologies qualify as "clean" energy under the rules, which also allows for new and emerging technologies to be added as they become feasible. The Commissioners also included a distributed energy requirement starting at 5 percent of the total portfolio in 2007, and growing to 30 percent of the total renewable mix after 2011. The current Environmental Portfolio Surcharge of $0.000875 per kilowatt-hour will increase to $0.004988 per kilowatt-hour to help offset the increased cost of meeting the higher standard. The monthly caps limiting the total impact on customer bills will also increase from 35 cents to $1.05 for residential customers. Nonresidential customers will see their cap rise from $13 to $39.00, and the cap for energy-intensive commercial users will be $117, up from $39. The state's original renewable energy standards, called the Environmental Portfolio Standard, topped out at 1.1 percent in 2007. In a move to keep Arizona in the forefront of renewable energy development, the Commissioners voted to review the rules and consider a more aggressive standard in February 2004. The aggressive new standards are designed to encourage new generation and emerging opportunities. DOE sets higher bar for dishwasher efficiency Dishwashers must now be even more energy efficient to earn the Energy Star label. The Department of Energy recently released more stringent energy-efficiency criteria for Energy Star dishwashers that could save American families more than $26 million a year. The new criteria will also give tax credits to manufacturers producing energy efficient appliances under the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The new ENERGY STAR criteria require dishwashers to be a minimum of 41 percent more efficient than Federal energy efficiency standards. The standard will save more than 160 million kWh of energy per year, enough to light every household in Washington, D.C., for six months. The new qualifying levels will go into effect on Jan. 1, and dishwashers that meet the criteria will be eligible for manufacturer tax credits under EPAct 2005. The Energy Star program is a joint effort of DOE and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Energy Star label appears on more than 40 kinds of consumer products. Please visit our home page at http://www.wapa.gov/es/pubs/esb/default.htm
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