MORE NEWS, 3-9 (OBAMA REPS TO TEST DRIVE VOLT; HOME WIND CALCULATOR; VIRGINIA TO TRY GAS-SOLAR COMBO; JACK BAUER TORTURES EMISSIONS)

OBAMA REPS TO TEST DRIVE VOLT
Obama auto task force members to drive GM's Volt
Ken Thomas and Tom Krisher, March 8, 2009 (AP)

"Members of the Obama administration's autos task force will test drive the Chevrolet Volt rechargeable electric car and tour a Chrysler LLC pickup truck factory when they visit the Detroit area on Monday…Task force members, led by Wall Street financier Steven Rattner and Steelworkers union official Ron Bloom, also will meet with United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger and other top union officials, and they will sit down with senior General Motors Corp. and Chrysler executives…

"GM and Chrysler are living on $17.4 billion in government loans approved by the Bush administration last year, and they have asked for a total of $39 billion. Obama appointed the task force to review the automakers' viability plans and decide if they should get additional aid."

click to enlarge

"Task force members apparently will begin their day with a tour of GM's sprawling tech center in suburban Warren, Mich., followed by a tour of Chrysler's nearby Warren Truck plant, where the new Dodge Ram pickup is put together…

"The Volt, a battery powered plug-in electric vehicle, is being tested at the tech center, where GM has a studio dedicated to developing what the company is betting will be the car of the future…Struggling GM has promised to have the car in showrooms late next year…For Chrysler, the revamped Ram is an important product that executives hope will lead the company to profitability …"

click to enlarge

"The White House said Friday it was trying to determine "how to be the best partner" for the struggling auto industry…Cabinet-level members of the panel, led by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and White House economic adviser Larry Summers, met at the White House for 90 minutes to review restructuring plans from GM and Chrysler…
Many suppliers are nearly out of cash and could go into bankruptcy protection soon
without government aid…

"GM and Chrysler are seeking $21.6 billion in additional financing to execute turnaround plans submitted last month…Last week GM said in its annual report that auditors raised serious doubt about the Detroit automaker's ability to continue operating…Some Republican senators… want the automaker to seek bankruptcy protection, which would allow for reorganization…GM has said the restructuring can be accomplished without bankruptcy and said Chapter 11 would scare off customers…"


HOME WIND CALCULATOR
Calculator to put wind in sails of small turbine industry; Carbon Trust's new gadget, the wind calculator, will help turbine owners and the turbine-curious to choose the best location
Felicity Carus, 5 March 2009 (UK Guardian)

"…the Carbon Trust has developed a user-friendly online wind estimator for small-scale turbines…the calculator is designed to help businesses and consumers work out how much power a turbine could generate and how much carbon it would save. Its data and user-friendliness have been welcomed by the wind turbine industry as an improvement on the existing wind speed database…The wind yield estimator should help installers put small-scale turbines in locations where they will generate the most power and save the most carbon.

"A Carbon Trust study last year found that small wind turbines could provide up to 1.5 Terawatt Hours (TWh) a year of electricity (0.4% of total UK electricity consumption) and save 0.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. According to figures from the British Wind Energy Association from 2008, there were 14,225 small-scale wind turbines in the UK, with a projected increase to 27,886 by next year."

click to enlarge

"The estimator models wind behaviour using 30 years of data from the Met Office's 220 weather stations. It asks for details such as postcode, turbine type, how close the rotor height is to the ground, tree or roof, and what the terrain is like: open countryside, woodland, or urban.

"The calculator also uses data collected from the Energy Saving Trust's micro-wind field trial, which measures wind performance, speed and direction data from 60 roof and pole-mounted micro-wind installations in the UK. Final results of the year long trial will be published at the end of May."

click to enlarge

"If the calculator's results are good, the Carbon Trust recommends a year's-worth of on-site wind speed monitoring. If a small wind turbine is suitable, the government provides grants towards the cost of installation through the Low Carbon Buildings Programme…

"The Carbon Trust reported last year that turbines in some rural locations can provide cheaper electricity than the grid, but in many urban situations, roof-mounted turbines may not pay back the turbine's own carbon footprint from the energy used to manufacture it...After criticism over ill-conceived placement of micro-turbines, the Carbon Trust claims businesses and domestic users will be more able to make better informed choices about whether a turbine is the right source of renewable energy for them…"


VIRGINIA TO TRY GAS-SOLAR COMBO
'Green' Energy Plant Proposed for Loudoun
Tara Bahrampour, March 4, 2009 (Washington Post)

"Loudoun County would be powered by electricity generated in its back yard under a proposal to build an $813 million plant using natural gas, steam and solar energy.

"Green Energy Partners is proposing to build the facility on 80 acres just east of Leesburg, on property with two existing natural gas lines. To create the steam, the plant would use up to 5 million gallons a day of treated wastewater it would purchase from Leesburg. The treated water is now discharged into the Potomac River.

"John Andrews, who co-owns the company with his father, said it plans to sell the energy wholesale to Dominion Virginia Power and Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative, the two utilities that provide service to Loudoun consumers."

click to enlarge

"Company officials said that if the project is approved by federal, state and county officials, Loudoun will be consuming electricity that is produced within the county for the first time…Andrews said the hybrid facility would be "the lowest emitting plant in the state of Virginia."

"…The plant would generate 300 megawatts of energy from natural gas, 300 megawatts from steam and one megawatt from solar energy. Two gas turbines could produce an additional 300 megawatts during peak demand times… the plant would produce enough energy to power Loudoun County and possibly enough to sell to neighboring counties…

"If the county approves the project, the company would need to apply for state and federal permits. The approval process is expected to take a year, followed by two to three years for construction of the plant…"


JACK BAUER TORTURES EMISSIONS
Chase terrorists the green way: 24 TV series going carbon neutral
Jordan Lite, March 3, 2009 (Scientific American)

"Actor Kiefer Sutherland is fighting imaginary terrorists the green way. Producers of 24, the FOX drama that chronicles Sutherland's Agent Jack Bauer as he races to capture crooks over a nail-biting 24-hour period, are buying carbon offsets to compensate for the global warming emissions they're releasing with every car crash and explosion."

click to enlarge

"Carbon offsets are credits that carbon dioxide (CO2) emitters (whether individuals, companies or utilities) buy toward clean-energy programs to make up for their own greenhouse-gas emissions. FOX Chairman Rupert Murdoch has said he wants to make his network carbon neutral by next year, and as part of that, producers on 24 have purchased credits toward Indian wind-power plants that they say make up for 1,291 tons of carbon-dioxide, a little more than half a season's worth of emissions…FOX also hired consultants to measure how much CO2 the production is emitting, and is using 20 percent biodiesel fuel (made from plant stock or animal fat) in trucks and motion sensors that switch off the lights in unoccupied rooms…

"The idea of going carbon neutral by purchasing offsets is controversial. It can be difficult to track whether the credits really translate into clean-energy generation…The House of Representatives last week…"