Richardson said the station will produce 50 high-wage jobs and earn $4 billion annually for New Mexico from energy sales.

Hydrogen-Fueled Vehicles Work to Perfection in West Virginia

     A hydrogen production and dispensing station constructed and operated with support from the Office of Fossil Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) has opened at the Yeager Airport in Charleston, WV.  The facility will produce, compress, store and dispense hydrogen as a fuel source for vehicles that have been converted to run on hydrogen, as well other types of ground equipment at the airport.

Hydrogen is considered the fuel of the future because it does not produce air pollutants when used – clean water is the only byproduct.  NETL directs research and development in hydrogen energy to resolve the challenges faced by many of its most promising technologies.

The Yeager Airport uses coal-generated grid electricity to split water to produce pure hydrogen fuel.  About 300 gallons of water is used to produce up to 12 kilograms of hydrogen per day, enough to completely refuel three vehicles.  The fuel will be used by airport operations, the 130^th Air Wing of the West Virginia Air National Guard, and the Charleston community.

The facility at Yeager Airport is a research, development, test, and evaluation platform designed to allow new innovations in hydrogen technology to be "swapped in" and tested within the context of an operating hydrogen station.

The new hydrogen-dispensing facility is the first of three that are planned along Interstate 70 from Charleston, WV, to Pittsburgh, PA, to demonstrate the viability of hydrogen as an alternative transportation fuel.  Additional facilities will be constructed at West Virginia University in Morgantown, WV, and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Progress Energy Inc., Raleigh, NC, plans to close three coal-fired power units and replace them with a natural gas-fueled plant at the site near Goldsboro, NC.  The company said the new plant would increase electricity-generating capacity while cutting emissions.  A request has been filed with the NC utilities commission to build a 950-megawatt natural gas plant to replace the 397 megawatts of coal-fired generation at the plant.  The project would cost $900 million and be completed in early 2013.

The Central Energy Fund (CEF) has received bids from interested parties for the supply of solar water heaters (SWHs) for the first phase of a major project rollout in Port Elizabeth.  South African National Energy Research Institute is reviewing the bids and will make a final decision on three or four suppliers in forthcoming weeks. The project would entail the large-scale installation of SWHs for domestic use in the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality over the next five years.  About 100,000 SWHs could potentially be installed.  A target of installation of 60,000 units over the next five years has been set with a potential to save 41 MW of power.

Technology International Inc. has developed a borehole imaging system that stands on the cusp of commercialization.   By pushing the limits of seismic-while-drilling technology, the patent-pending SeismicPULSER system provides more accurate geo-steering for the discovery of new oil and natural gas reserves, facilitating new field development and improving well economics.  Drill-bit seismic-while-drilling techniques use a downhole acoustic source and receivers at the surface to create real-time images that allow operators to "see" ahead of the drill bit.

The Office of Fossil Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), Washington, DC, has selected nine new projects targeting environmental tools and technology for shale gas and coalbed methane (CBM) production.  NETL's goals for these projects are to improve management of water resources, water usage, and water disposal, and to support science that will aid the regulatory and permitting processes required for shale gas development.  Primary goal of Fossil Energy's Oil and Natural Gas Program is to enhance the responsible development of domestic natural gas and oil resources that supply the country's energy.  The following recipients will help provide the new technologies, tools, strategies, and knowledge toward reliable and environmentally responsible development of natural gas:  All Consulting, Tulsa, OK; GE Co., Niskayuna, NY; WVU, Morgantown, WV; Univ. of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR; Ground Water Protection Research Foundation, Oklahoma City, OK; Geological Survey of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL; Aitela Inc, Albuquerque, NM; University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA; and Texas Engineering Experiment Station, College Station, TX.

SkyPower Corp. and Scotian Windfields announce that Nova Scotia Environment has granted environmental approval for 25.5 MW of wind turbine capacity for the Digby wind power project in Digby, Nova Scotia.  Once completed, the Digby project will be one of Nova Scotia's largest wind parks.  Skypower and Scotian Windfields are currently identifying 3 more suitable turbine locations and will seek approval for 4.5Mws more.

Ohio's first Advanced Energy Job Stimulus Program project has received a $10 million loan that will assist in a significant expansion at the Willard & Kelsey Solar Group's manufacturing facility in Perrysburg.  Willard & Kelsey manufactures thin-cell photovoltaic solar panels that are used in residential and commercial settings to generate electricity.  The company will receive the loan funds over a two-year period to expand from one manufacturing line employing 40 workers to as many as 16 lines employing more than 3,500 workers.  Average annual wage and benefits for company employees will be approximately $61,000.  Total project cost is $1.2 billion.

South Africa's PBMR Company and the Nuclear Industries Association of South Africa (Niasa) hope that the local development of the fourth-generation high-temperature gas-cooled pebble-bed modular reactor (PBMR), and national electricity supplier Eskom's intention to also build advanced third-generation pressure water reactors (PRWs), will result in the creation of a South African nuclear industry, which will supply both the international and local markets.

In 2004 with $130 million in stock offerings with which to work. The U.S. Navy is working with an OPT buoy in Hawaii, with hopes of using marine energy to run its bases.  Lockheed is using the company's technology to power data-gathering buoys, and in Oregon, OPT has applied to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for permits to produce 250 megawatts in three locations.  Around the world, more than 300 marine energy projects are being planned, and a new report from Pike Research forecasts that the industry will provide 2,700 megawatts of power generation capacity by 2015.  More than 50 companies worldwide, a third in the U.S., are developing prototypes.

U.S. Energy Corp., Riverton, WY, and its partner, Houston Energy, L.P. (HE), announces that an initial production test from the Stoddard #1 well (first well drilled with HE) in southeast Texas resulted in approximately 3.9 MMCF and 240 barrels of oil per day or an equivalent of 5.34 MMCFE/D.

A new study, sponsored by the Nature Conservancy, of energy development indicates that centralized solar electric generation may destroy more habitats per kilowatt-hour produced than coal, even taking mining into account.  The report, Energy Sprawl or Energy Efficiency: Climate Policy Impacts on Natural Habitat for the United States of America, examined a range of energy sources and delivery modes, from biodiesel and ethanol to nuclear and geothermal.  The authors calculated the land area within the U.S. required to meet energy consumption levels based on assumptions in current Cap-and-Trade laws, then ranked each source of energy by its power output divided by the total land area that energy source would disrupt.  This is referred to as "energy sprawl."  Biofuels had the highest energy sprawl.  Ethanol, biomass-fueled electrical generation and biodiesel combined would require more than 2,500 square kilometers – about 960 miles – per Terrawatt-hour of energy generated per year.  Nuclear and geothermal were at the bottom of the list. Coal consumes almost 10 square kilometers per TW-hr/yr, while solar requires 15.3 km per TW-hr/yr, and photovoltaic generation would take four times the amount of land to generate the same amount of electricity as coal.    For every square mile of Appalachian mountain used in coal mining, it would take between one-and-a-half square miles of desert instead to replace that coal-fired power with industrial solar.

Duke Energy Corp. plans to build its ninth wind farm in the U.S., and fourth in Wyoming, as it continues to build it alternative-energy program.  The latest project, dubbed "Top of the World," will be on some 17,000 acres of private and public land Duke Energy holds under long-term lease.  The effort is expected to be in operation before 2011, and generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of 50,000 to 60,000 homes on an annual basis.  The new project will be powered by at least 66 turbines from General Electric.  Duke announces plans to roll out 700,000 smart meters to measure customers' electricity usage while proposing the investment of $121 million for a study of permanent underground storage of part of the carbon dioxide emissions from an Indiana power plant under construction.

Next Step Biofuels, Omaha, NB, has discovered a way to make pellets that burn like coal from all the leftover parts of a corn plant.  The corn pellets, a new form of renewable energy, are made from corn stalks, leafs and cobs left behind after harvest.  Coal-fired power plants can reportedly burn the corn pellets along with coal, reducing pollution.

The Central Energy Fund (CEF) is seeking consulting service for a joint-venture wood-waste power plant in George.  Cape Clean Energy (CCE), owned 81.5 percent by CEF and the remainder by Carbon & Environmental Options, will develop and operate the project.  CCE has procured about 70,000 t/y of feedstock and is looking for an additional 20,000 t/y.  The project is expected to start operating in the first quarter of 2010.

Excel Energy Inc. had partnered with Abengoal Solar IST, a Spanish company, to break ground on a $4.5 million concentrating solar power plant at the Cameo coal-fired power station near Grand Junction, CO., demonstrating whether the sun's heat can be used at an existing coal-fired power plant to produce electricity.  When completed at the end of the year, the test plant will use mirrors aligned in a parabolic trough to concentrate the sun's heat on pipes that hold fluid.  The fluid will then transfer the heat to water, producing steam to spin a turbine and produce electricity. By using the sun's heat it is expected carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced. The plant uses about 900 tons of coal a year and produces about 77 megawatts of power. The test plant will produce about 1 megawatt of power, enough to support 1,000 homes.

KeLa Energy, LLC, Orlando, FL, has developed and produced an enhanced coal based fuel containing up to 50 percent biomass by weight.  The goal is to determine if high levels of biomass could be successfully integrated into a KeLa Engineered Fuel pellet.  KeLa produced a cleaner burning fuel pellet from waste coal fines and renewable biomass using a binder based on recycled carpet and other recycled plastics.  The resulting fuel pellet has a heating value equal or greater than coal (typically 15 percent higher).  The KeLa pellets can be transported and handled like coal and be used as a blend stock with existing coal or as a stand-alone fuel.  Testing using 10 percent biomass pellets showed 39 percent reduction in sulfur oxides and a 42 percent reduction of nitrous oxides.  Research by the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research is being used to demonstrate that blending biomass not only extends the fossil resources but also reduces emissions of pollutants. The biomass used in the KeLa process can be sourced from timber waste, mill waste, agricultural waste, and urban waste.  Both kiln dried and green biomass materials are acceptable.

South Africa has the potential to generate some 150 MW in small hydro schemes, in addition to the some 50 MW now being generated.   NuPlanet's Bethlehem Hydro has switched on a 3 MW hydro plant and the other 4 MW plants will be ready to be commissioned later this year.  It is reported that 15 MW plants are being planned and in three to four years there will be some 50 MW of small hydro under construction.  Small hydro projects have a capacity of up to 10 megawatts, and can involve small dams, pumps or water mills.

The world's largest offshore wind farm is in operation at a site 30 kilometers off the coast of Denmark called Horns Rev 2.  It consists of 91 turbines made by Siemens.  The farm is projected to generate 209 megawatts or enough electricity to supply 200,000 households for a year. Total cost of the project was estimated at $1 billion.

Electrawinds Belgium is planning an R1.2-billion wind farm in the Coega Industrial Development Zone in the Eastern Cape.  The wind farm project consists of 25 wind turbines of 2.3 MW each.  The project would be fully operational by 2011.  Electrawinds plans to have the first turbine in place by May of 2010.  The country has a target of installing 10,000 GWh of renewable energy by 2013.

ElectraTherm will deliver two Green Machines this month to Florida Canyon Mine in Northern Nevada. The machines will create fuel-free, emissions-free electricity immediately, using geothermal heat from the mine.  The technology will hook into the existing mining processes, and create 100kW of clean energy.

NRG Energy and the City of Houston, Houston, TX, are planning a solar plant near its existing I.H. Wharton natural gas-fired plant, in northwest Houston.  The 10-megawatt plant will supply up to 1.5 percent of the city's power demand.  Construction cost is estimated at $40 million and completion is expected July 2010.  Under a 25-year proposed agreement the city of Houston will buy power for its buildings from the plant, which will be the largest solar plant in Texas.

Focus on Energy, Madison, WI, has helped finance solar-electric generation projects that produce 2.5 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 350 homes a year.  The production avoids having to burn more than 2,650 tons of coal at a coal-fired generator.  Focus on Energy has helped fund 582 solar electric systems in Wisconsin, including the town of Menasha's 28-kilowatt system and a 14.7-kilowatt project for the Navarino Nature Center near Shiocton.

Joint Venture Partners SunEdison Canada and SkyPower Corp. announce the activation of Canada's first ground mount photovoltaic solar system.  The 9.1 megawatt project named First Light, located in Stone Mills, Ontario, covers 90 acres of land. First Light is expected to generate more than 10 million kilowatt hours, enough electricity to power almost 1,000 homes the first year of operation.  The system will remove almost 8,000 metric tons of CO₂ from the air in its first year of operation, the equivalent of carbon emissions from almost 1,800 cars.

Zero Emission Energy Plants Ltd. and Colombia's Integrador De Soluciones Technologicas Ltd announce a partnership for the purpose of developing gasification plants in Colombia utilizing the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, Inc. compact gasification technology.  The partnership is the first step in ZEEP's Latin America Clean Energy Strategy with plans to expand to other Latin American countries in the future.

Duke Energy Corp., Wilmington, NC, is funding a pilot study of commercial wind turbines in the waters offshore of North Carolina.  The pilot study would focus on Pamlico Sound, between North Carolina's Outer Banks and the mainland.  The pilot turbine installation will facilitate utility-scale wind energy development by enabling studies to optimize measuring and predicting the wind resource, quantifying ecological impacts, and demonstrating turbine performance in tropical storm conditions.  Duke Energy has 634 megawatts of land-based wind energy in Pennsylvania, Texas and Wyoming, another 99 MW under construction and with an additional 251 MW of wind projects scheduled to begin operation in 2010.

NRG Energy, a wholesale power generation company that operates in the U.S., Australia and Germany, has begun a pilot project to replace some coal with locally grown switchgrass and sorgham at its Big Cajun II plant in Louisiana.  The company said that the Big Cajun II project could lead to commercial-scale projects using biomass fuels to reduce carbon intensity from coal plants.  The company is also planning to expand its South Texas Project nuclear power plant, and is testing the use of solar panels at a natural gas plant in Houston.

The Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) has partnered with the South African government to assess the possibility of building its first solar park, which could add up to 5,000 MW of electricity to South Africa's energy mix.  A solar park would serve as a concentrated zone of solar development and would include significant solar generation capacity by different independent power producers, it is reported.  Construction of the park could start as early as December 2010.  CCI is working on similar projects in India, Australia and in the South Western States of the U.S., where feasibility studies are nearing completion. 

Cook Inlet Region Inc. (CIRI) has unveiled plans to develop land at Cook Inlet for energy, but in an unconventional way.  CIRI plans to use underground coal gasification to tap into seams of 55 feet thick – without physically touching the coal or moving earth.  Instead, they plan to inject oxygen into the seam to spark combustion, essentially igniting the coal seam.  Water follows, squelching the reaction and pushing out syn gas, or coal gas.  By the time the project would be operating in early 2014, CIRI thinks it would produce a product competitive with today's low energy prices in Southcentral.  At the surface, CIRI proposes capturing carbon dioxide before sending the gas to a 100-megawatt combined cycle power plant.  Electricity would flow into the Railbelt grid.  Methane can be added to syn gas to create natural gas.

Coskata Inc., Warrendale, IL, opened a demonstration scale cellulosic ethanol plant in the Westinghouse Plasma Center in Madison, PA.  The center is a subsidiary of Alter NRG Corporation and operates a gasifier that will support the ethanol plant.