Department of Energy proposes to use full-fuel-cycle analyses in developing energy efficiency standards

August 20, 2010 by Andrew Soto · Leave a Comment
Filed under: energy

Today, the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, issued a notice of proposed policy, proposing to incorporate a full-fuel cycle analysis into the methods it uses to estimate the likely impacts of energy conservation standards on energy use and emissions. See Energy Conservation Program for Consumer Products and Certain Commercial and Industrial Equipment; Public Meeting and Availability of Statement of Policy for Adopting Full-Fuel-Cycle Analyses Into Energy Conservation Standards Programs, 75 Fed. Reg. 51,423 (Aug. 20, 2010). Here is the DOE proposal and a memorandum summarizing the proposal.

In general, DOE is proposing to use full-fuel-cycle measures of energy and greenhouse gas emissions, rather than the primary energy measures it currently uses. DOE is also proposing to work with the Federal Trade Commission to make full-fuel-cycle energy and emissions data available to the public to enable consumers to make cross-class comparisons. DOE is proposing this policy change to implement the recommendations of the National Academy of Sciences that DOE consider moving over time to use of a full-fuel-cycle measure of energy consumption for assessment of national and environmental impacts, especially levels of greenhouse gas emissions, and to providing more comprehensive information to the public through labels and other means, such as an enhanced website. DOE is soliciting public comment on its proposed policy, its methods for modeling energy consumption and emissions impacts, and the ways in which this information can be disseminated to the public.

DOE will hold a public meeting on its proposal on Thursday, October 7, 2010, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. EDT, in Washington, DC, and will accept written comments from interested parties up to October 19, 2010.

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Natural gas and energy efficient gadgets

August 9, 2010 by Dan Gibson · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Natural Gas, energy

Energy efficiency is one of the key aspects people look at when they’re trying to look at ways to address our energy needs, which are only going to grow in my opinion. We talk about energy efficiency quite often around the office because of this.

Water Powered Calculator

I was thinking about this while I was reading an article on Mashable profiling 5 Energy Efficient Office Gadgets. I’m actually thinking about buying the water powered calculator. The calculator uses water-activated batteries that produce about the same amount of energy as alkaline batteries. The real advantage though is those batteries aren’t toxic because they’re made of carbon. Just refill your battery tubes with tap water every two or three months and your calculator should be solving problems for a good long while.

If you really want to talk about energy efficiency though, you have to talk about natural gas. Since 1970, the number of natural gas homes has increased by more than 70 percent. At the same time, today’s homes use 40 percent less natural gas per household than 40 years ago. That’s a tremendous energy savings. A good deal of that savings is due tighter homes, more efficient appliances, and investment by natural gas utilities (our members) and their customers in energy efficiency programs. According to our energy efficiency fact sheet, Natural gas utilities invested nearly $565 million in natural gas efficiency programs in 2008 and budgeted about $927 million in 2009.

Here’s some data from the fact sheet on how the use of Natural Gas in home appliances saves energy:

Gas efficiency has improved tremendously over the past three decades as evidenced in the declining consumption of natural gas per household during this time period, falling one percent annually from 1980 through 2000 and declining further to 2.2 percent annually from 2000 through 2006. As a result, the average American home uses 40 percent less natural gas now than in 1970.
On a national average basis, natural gas is three times more efficient than fossil fuel generated electricity in providing energy for end-use applications. While 92 percent of the energy content of natural gas is delivered to customers as useful energy, less than a third of the energy used in the production of electricity reaches homes and businesses.
Efforts to improve appliance technology have resulted in natural gas furnaces and boilers that are up to 96 percent efficient.

Be sure to take the time to read the entire fact sheet and let us know your thoughts on energy efficiency in the comments below. Anyone going to try the Solar Gadget Charger? I wonder if it will work with my iPod?

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Tags: efficiency

The natural gas grid…the really smart grid

July 20, 2010 by Dan Gibson · 1 Comment
Filed under: Natural Gas, energy

I read a lot of stuff about the “smart grid” but it generally covers only the electric side. Here’s a good article from CleanTechies titled “The Natural Gas Grid – The Other Grid” that has some good information on the natural gas grid. The article brings attention to the industry’s record of safely and reliably delivering natural gas. Some highlights from the article:

The current demand to update the gas grid is more about reducing utility expenditures, increasing energy conservation, and meeting global climate initiatives and mandates, rather than dealing with failing system integrity issues
Southern California Gas (SoCalGas) was recently approved by the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) to implement a $1.05 billion, 5.5 million meter AMI system in Southern California. SoCalGas is the largest gas utility in the United States and is a gas-only utility
The gas grid received zero funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)

Putting it all together

The article goes on to talk about some of the initiatives to combine the information from the electric smart meters and the natural gas smart meters so that consumers can get comprehensive information on their energy use. They focus on sub-metering. In this process, a gas module is put on an existing gas meter, sending signals to an electricity meter. In turn, the meter sends a signal containing gas and electricity data to the utility business system.

Let us know your thoughts on the smart grid before you skip over to CleanTechies to read their article.

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