Honeywell and Kansas City Power & Light Extends Energy Optimizer Program

Honeywell and Kansas City Power & Light (KCP&L), have announced a contract extension to the utility’s Energy Optimizer program. Managed by Honeywell, Energy Optimizer is designed to reduce peak energy consumption from June to September, when air-conditioning use reaches its highest levels of the year.

The demand-response program, which was launched in 2005, features the installation of programmable thermostats in residential homes and small businesses. The thermostats include a paging system that allows KCP&L to communicate with the thermostats and cycle air conditioners off and on for brief intervals. This only happens on the hottest days of the year, when energy consumption peaks.

Energy Optimizer is part of KCP&L’s strategy for meeting Kansas City’s future energy needs. To date, 18,000 thermostats have been installed, exceeding the three-year program goal in less than two years. By extending the program, the utility plans to install an additional 13,000 thermostats.  

KCP&L customers who enroll in the program receive a free, professionally installed programmable thermostat, which can reduce the home heating and cooling costs by as much as 20 percent. The thermostat also includes online programming capabilities, allowing users to easily adjust their settings from work or other remote locations.

MIT and Italian energy company Eni have formed a major energy research partnership. The centerpiece of this collaboration will be a program focusing on the development of advanced solar technologies, from novel photovoltaic materials to the design of solar power plants. Eni will also become a Founding Member of the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI), supporting a portfolio of diverse energy research projects at the Institute.

Total funding for the partnership will be $50 million over five years. Of those funds, $25 million will establish the Eni-MITEI Solar Frontiers Research Program. The remainder will support Eni's founding membership in MITEI.

The Eni-MITEI Solar Frontiers Research Program will include six areas of focus including nano-structured thin film photovoltaics, luminescent solar concentrators, self-assembling photovoltaic materials, water splitting, materials for solar energy capture and storage and maximizing the return on investment for solar thermal plants.

As a Founding Member of MITEI, Eni will also support a range of other research projects at the Institute spanning the energy spectrum from traditional oil and gas to methane hydrates to global change to transportation options. This portfolio will include a large research project in multi-scale reservoir science for enhanced oil recovery.

The Certified Green Dealer Program has released that Bradco Supply, a national distributor of building materials with more than 155 locations throughout the country, has committed to train its staff and certify all of their branches through the Certified Green Dealer Program. Bradco Supply is the first large distributor to commit to a national rollout of the Program, which launched in late 2007.

The Certified Green Dealer Program is a Web-based “distance learning” program that certifies the nation’s lumberyards and building material dealer locations as sources of information on green building and green products through online training and printed resources. Each Bradco Supply dealer location will be become a Certified Green Dealer when 75 percent of its sales personnel view a series of Web-based training videos about building basics, green building and green building products. With this Program, Bradco Supply can brand itself as a certified source of information about good green building techniques and green products.

Serious Materials has closed $50 million in additional investment, led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Foundation Capital, along with Rustic Canyon Partners. Serious Materials develops and manufactures sustainable green building materials that considerably reduce the impact of the 'built environment' on the climate.

The investment will be used to build state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities for EcoRock, which will go into production this year, ThermaProof high-insulating windows and to expand the company’s Quiet product line. EcoRock looks, feels, performs and is used the same way as standard drywall. However, it uses virtually zero energy in its core production resulting in zero CO2 emissions, giving it the lowest carbon footprint of any drywall product by an order of magnitude.

Using EcoRock instead of gypsum drywall could reduce US CO2 emissions by 25 billion pounds per year.

The negative consequences of climate change demand a new approach to building materials that are ultra-sustainable, cost-effective and energy-efficient throughout their lifecycle. Manufacturing common building materials including cement, steel, glass and drywall contributes more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere than all the cars on US roads today.

Kyocera Solar, Inc., a supplier of environmentally friendly photovoltaic (PV) systems, has announced that Qualcomm, Inc. has installed 417 kilowatts of solar energy that will provide power for one of its campuses in San Diego. The PV systems, composed entirely of Kyocera high-efficiency photovoltaic modules, are projected to have a combined monthly output of 42,745 kilowatt hours.

The PV installation is part of Qualcomm’s initiative to address global warming and protect the environment, and contributed to Qualcomm’s Gold LEED-certified campus, one of the largest in the US. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification is provided by the US Green Building Council to “promote buildings that are environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy places to live and work,” acknowledging performance in five key areas: “sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality”.

Sixty percent of the campus’s lighting requirements will be powered from the PV arrays, which consist of 1,440 Kyocera 200 watt modules and 678 Kyocera 190 watt modules encompassing both rooftop and ‘solar carport’ parking structure installations.

Kyocera Solar, Inc. was one of the first to introduce the idea of a ‘solar carport’ after gaining recognition in 2005 for installing the Solar Grove, a carport shading structure comprised of 25 “solar trees” that converts a 186-vehicle parking lot into a 235-kilowatt solar electric generating system. The Solar Grove is located at Kyocera’s North American headquarters in San Diego.

Telkonet Advances Green Energy Efficiency with Innovative Energy Management Thermostat

Reinforcing the market imperative of delivering interoperability, Telkonet has become an Adopter Member of the ZigBee Alliance, an association of companies working together to enable cost-effective, low-power, wirelessly-networked monitoring and control products based on an open global standard. The company believes that the enhancements made to the Version 4.5 thermostat will make the product more desirable for its target markets, which are primarily the hospitality, commercial, education and government sectors, for which there is an increasingly critical need for efficient, cost-effective energy management solutions.

The new design increases the overall flexibility of the new thermostat, particularly its compatibility with a far wider range of PTAC and Fan Coil systems. The core has been completely re-engineered to use a flash-based CPU, which can be easily upgraded in the field to meet the control requirements of diverse systems. This ensures a high level of future-proofing, while guaranteeing its ease of integration with new product designs as they emerge, including new wireless mesh technologies. The Version 4.5 thermostat also operates across a larger voltage range, both AC and DC, further enhancing its inter-working with third-party equipment. With a data rate nearly 100 times faster than the previous 4.0 Version, and a dedicated serial interface for computer control and configuration, this thermostat offers dramatically improved communications across the entire energy management system, a particularly important feature for energy efficiency monitoring and accurate data analysis.

IdaTech, plc, has launched the iGen fuel cell system, a CE certified 250 watt integrated power generation solution for charging batteries in industrial applications.  Operating on a liquid fuel, the compact iGen system is the newest addition to IdaTech’s family of fuel cell power products for critical power applications.

Designed to work with battery packs and renewable energy systems such as solar and wind power, quietly and efficiently providing seamless power in challenging environments, the iGen system incorporates IdaTech’s patented fuel processor, purifier and fuel cell stack in a compact, rugged, outdoor package.  By operating on HydroPlus, IdaTech’s methanol-water fuel mixture, the iGen system provides a dependable and flexible solution for critical power needs.  Potential applications for the iGen system include automated battery charging in signaling, sensing and telemetry, security and telecommunications applications, including PV and wind hybrid configurations.

3M has introduced a line of Filtrete filters for commercial buildings. Filtrete Commercial HVAC Filters may offer a marked return on investment by reducing energy, maintenance and lifecycle costs associated with traditional ventilation systems. Lifecycle costs may be reduced due to the filters’ low airflow resistance, which may result in fan energy savings. 3M Technologies have also enabled extended service life, requiring fewer filter changeouts on an annual basis.  Filtrete Commercial High Performance HVAC Filters with integral seals may help reduce air bypass. This may reduce particle deposits and cleaning costs for HVAC coils, ducts, and occupied spaces. The potential savings are significant and major capital investments are not required to begin using Filtrete filters.

“3M has expanded its line of Filtrete Commercial HVAC Filters, and customer demonstrations show that the filters are helping building owners save energy and reduce costs,” states Steve Hendrick, global business manager with 3M Commercial Filtration. “3M has filters to fit the needs of a variety of commercial HVAC systems including central HVAC systems, rooftop units, vertical fan coil units and PTAC units.”

Use of Filtrete filters may also earn points toward LEED certification. Hendrick expects that this will make Filtrete filters al resource for architects, engineers, specifiers and contractors who are involved in designing sustainable architecture, especially projects in the healthcare and education industries where good indoor air quality is of great importance.

A study sponsored by ASHRAE shows that if schools improve indoor air quality, students could perform as much as 10 to 20 percent better. Furthermore, the Environmental Protection Agency notes that most Americans spend up to 90 percent of their time indoors, with much of that time spent in an office environment. Health, attendance, comfort and productivity of building occupants can all be affected by poor indoor air quality.

Energy Efficiency and Sustainability Symposium 2008

The symposium will be held November 6 in Atlanta, Ga. This first annual event will feature presentations on corporate sustainability, renewable energy, energy efficiency, green building materials and financing, as well as the latest market trends, best practices, case studies and opportunities for "green tech" implementations.

The conference is designed for sustainability managers, operators of renewable and alternative energy systems and programs, managers of energy efficiency and green programs for product development.

Give a Presentation! The Energy Efficiency and Sustainability Symposiumcommittee is currently accepting abstracts. The symposiumprovides an excellent forum to discuss new developments in technology, market conditions and end-user requirements that are driving innovation, capabilities and features, application trends and performance improvements today and in the future. Attendees will include top executives, managers and professionals, government organizations and system developers and integrators. Click here for details on submitting a presentation: http://www.greenpowermagazine.com/energy08_papers.php