Nexus is the prime contractor on this award and will be teaming up with EAI as subcontractor to offer energy efficiency training for real estate professionals and appraisers. EAI and Nexus have worked together since 2010 as part of a four-state project that aims to increase residential energy efficiency through energy audits and upgrades; and by training real estate professionals and appraisers about the benefits and value of green homes and retrofits….READ FULL STORY

Southern Solar Systems Vice President Chris Shearburn says his company in Huntsville specializes in the installation of solar panels throughout the Tennessee Valley.

“For someone wanting to buy solar power the federal government has a 30% tax credit which they can take against the entire cost of the system to install. Locally there is a group called Nexus Energy Center and they have some funding, they have opened up a program where you can get up to $3,000 or 30 percent against the cost of a solar system,” Shearburn said.

With the available incentives and decrease in the cost of solar panels, businesses in Huntsville can expect to see a return on investment within five to six years.

“Businesses owners especially should consider solar because its just a great way to reduce any kind of future energy cost that they have”

Solar panels are installed facing south. The sun hits and creates usable energy. That energy powers your house delivered through a utility company.

“All the power that you produce gets deliverd to the utility grid first so you don’t actually take that power and store it at your house and consume it but you sell it all back to the power grid and in return they pay you a premium which is actually 12 cents a kilowatt hour above the current rate which means they pay you more than twice as much for all the power you produce that what it cost you to buy it from them,” Shearburn said.

Joshua Collinsworth said his family’s poultry farm, Hollow Ridge Farms, switched to solar two years ago and it is already making a big difference in their family’s budget to not receive a big bill each month.

“Some months when we don’t have chickens in all of our houses, we actually get a credit balance.”

According to Shearburn the benefits of solar energy are drawling a larger number of businesses, farms and homeonwers in the Tennessee Valley to consider solar energy systems.

Source: WAAY 31

The first meeting will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday followed by the second discussion from 5 to 7 p.m. The event is free and open to those who own electric vehicles or want to learn more about them.

Redstone Energy Group — a provider of clean, renewable energy solutions — will host the event at its new demonstration facility, which is equipped with electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE), such as charging stations. During the meetings, people can learn more about electric vehicles, solar-to-electric energy system, solar energy applications and tour the demonstration center.

The group will also have many electric vehicles on display including the Chevrolet Volt, Mitsubishi i-MiEV, Nissan Leaf, Tesla Roadster, an electric Ford Focus — owned by city of Huntsville — and a Fisker Karma, an electric luxury vehicle.

Redstone Park is located at 3609 Memorial Parkway by the Airport Road intersection where solar panels are visible.

Source: Huntsville Times

It’s easy for anyone entering the arsenal at Gate 10 on Patton Road to look west and see the work on these 1958 vintage structures is no mere facelift. This is more like a total hip replacement combined with organ transplants.

The interiors are being nearly gutted to allow for a modern, open floor plan and more efficient use of space, said Dan O’Boyle, an arsenal spokesman. Outdated heating and air conditioning will be replaced with new energy-efficient systems, along with energy-saving windows, LED lighting and more.

The effort is part of an overall plan to reuse older buildings and realign commands for more effective use of the facilities on the post, he said. Buildings 3303, 3305 and 3307, will become a new Logistics Support Activity (LOGSA) Lead AMC Integration Support Office (LAISO) walking-distance campus. LOGSA and LAISO are currently in five buildings spread out at locations on the arsenal.

OMEMS, commanded by the 59th Ordnance Brigade, graduated its first class of six students in 1952, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers and Marines attended the school on Redstone Arsenal over the years.

The 2005 Base Realignment and Closure decision relocated OMEMS and the brigade into new, mission-specific facilities at Fort Lee, Va., a move completed last year.

Source: Huntsville Times

But Browns Ferry’s operator, the Tennessee Valley Authority, faces the same paradox every summer: the plants are designed to help meet the valley’s power demand amid the swelter, but when it gets too hot the plants may have to scale back.

Under TVA’s water discharge permits with the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, the water temperature downstream from the plant cannot be higher than upstream when the water reaches a temperature of 90 degrees.

With the addition of a new cooling tower, TVA has said it hopes its system won’t have to power down.

Michael Bradley, a TVA spokesman said as of Friday things are running smoothly.

“So far this summer, we are not experiencing any impacts due to river temperatures,” Bradley said. “Browns Ferry has not been impacted by river temperatures or environmental permit limits on river temperature. When necessary, we have been operating our cooling towers, which aid in cooling the water discharged back to the river.”

David Lochbaum, a former engineer at Browns Ferry who now works with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said last week that nuclear power plants are about 33 percent efficient, so two-thirds of the waste heat they generate has to be cooled using water. Lochbaum said increasingly hot water in the Tennessee River places another potential burden on Browns Ferry operations.

Lochbaum was part of a conference call last week with area environmental advocates who said electricity generation poses an ongoing strain on water resources, especially in times of drought or the reduced rainfall levels being experienced in North Alabama this year.

A study by the River Network, released last week, found that it takes on average 40,000 gallons of fresh water to produce a megawatt of electricity. The water is used, polluted or consumed in making the electricity, said Wendy Wilson, national director of the River Network’s energy and climate programs.

Wilson said a megawatt of electricity is generally what it takes to power a household for a month.

Browns Ferry has the capacity to generate 3,300 megawatts in the summer, according to TVA.

While the River Network and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy both called for less water-intensive electricity production, such as wind and solar, the current system is stable, if somewhat challenged.

Bill Yell, spokesman for Huntsville Utilities said Friday that the local utility’s communications with TVA indicate the electricity generating system is fine, but it’s also near record load. Yell said Huntsville Utilities customers used 1,144 megawatts Friday, below the all-time record demand of 1,281 mega-watts. Yell said while Saturday’s temperatures remained high, many businesses were not operating, which was expected to lower power demand.

Water use is also high and the Madison County Water Department, which gets its water from Huntsville Utilities, has advised its customers to conserve water due to the high temperatures and lack of rain.

Mitch Reid, program director for the Alabama Rivers Alliance, noted on last week’s conference call that Alabama does not have a comprehensive water-use plan which sets out how waters users – from residents to power plants – will get they water they need. Reid said Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley has started taking steps in that direction, ordering state agencies to make recommendations by 2013 toward such a plan.

TVA’s Bradley said the utility is required to have more electricity-generation capacity available than expected demand and the utility is ready if unexpected problems arise.

Even with the plans in plans, it will likely be a challenging summer.

“TVA’s all-time summer was in August 2007 at 33,482 megawatts with an average temperature of 102,” Bradley said. “We are expecting the peak over the next few days to be about 31,000 megawatts.”

Source: Huntsville Times

By sheer numbers of members, growth has been phenomenal. From an initial cadre of a couple of dozen, the total of what founding member and local energy expert Cecil Jones calls “interested parties” has grown to more than 140 member companies, with perhaps 175 individuals represented.

Many of the companies that have flocked to Energy Huntsville were drawn by the pursuit of government energy contracts. The recently-announced $7 billion Power Procurement Agreement contracts will be the largest ever let by the Huntsville Corps.

Under the Power Purchase agreements, the COE seeks reliable energy partners who produce electric power from renewable sources such as solar, wind, geothermal and biomass.

“When the Army announced that the Huntsville Corps would be in charge of Army energy efficiency efforts worldwide, that got everyone’s attention,” said Jay Newkirk.

“We’ve shown the government that we have a community here that knows how to collaborate and work together,” said co-founder Dale Jobes, who worked early on with Battle to put together the Energy Huntsville concept and served as its first Director.

Battle has since announced Geo Huntsville, with the intent to position Huntsville at the center of the growing geospatial industry. Given the overlap between the specialties, there will be collaboration, and a Geo Summit planned for this fall will feature sessions on the synergism between Energy Huntsville, Geo Huntsville, and the original initiative, Cyber Huntsville.

Attendance at the monthly meetings held each third Thursday at the Chamber of Commerce now average “from 75 to nearly 100″ according to Kelli Ponder of Red Sage Communications, who handles marketing and communications.

But founding member Cecil Jones declines to use the term “members” when referring to the group. “This is really more like an open forum, a group of interested parties,” Jones said.

At the core is a small group of very interested organizations that span the gamut of the energy industry. They include firms such as Calibre, a Virginia-based technology services company with a growing Huntsville office, Carina Technologies, a Huntsville-based firm producing equipment for the growing energy-management market, and Schneider Electric, a global energy management specialty firm with operations in more than 100 countries.

A non-profit, recently-formed Nexus Energy Center serves as a demonstration venue for energy efficient companies, while helping companies and institution gain access to Federal stimulus financing for energy efficiency projects.

“What we came to in our first year comes down to networking, opportunities and education,” Jobes said. Networking is the key element, Ponder stressed. “We want to provide an environment for these companies to come together and form teams,” she said.

But education is also important. “We have had meetings where people learned of opportunities, but we also have tried to educate people in other areas of energy,” Jones said.

The monthly meetings have settled down to a set format. Following announcements of new developments and recognition of new interested parties, Newkirk introduces the main program. Topics have ranged from presentations on the Huntsville Corps’ energy efforts to presentations on TVA and State of Alabama energy conservation programs.

Such was the case at the April meeting, devoted to presentations on Small Modular Reactors, which TVA is looking at as part of its long-term answer to diversifying power generation.

With the passage of its first year, Energy Huntsville is looking at the best way to move forward. Under consideration is formation of a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, which would give greater structure to the currently all-volunteer initiative and require the organization to develop an annual budget.

A change of meeting times from the current 8:30 morning slot to a luncheon format is also under consideration. “But we’ve been pleased with the turnout despite the morning time, which is inconvenient for many,” said leadership team member Steve Reed, President of GoToMarket Solutions.

Early on, the initiative’s leaders decided that success depended on the successful integration of industry, academia, government and utilities. That integration is taking place, but the pace has varied considerably by sector.

For the first year, companies have shown the greatest interest. “Industry is who shows up,” said Newkirk. “They’ve been the anchor of this thing so far.”

He has observed a high level of participation by the utilities. “I’m really excited about what’s happening with the utilities,” Newkirk said, citing the recent hiring of Joe Gerdes by Huntsville Utilities to strengthen the utility’s outreach efforts. TVA has furnished presenters for several programs, including the April meeting on Small Modular Reactors.

He also is pleased by the efforts on the government side, which has included active participation by the Army’s AMRDEC and state agencies such as ADECA.

They would like to see more progress and interest from the academic sphere. “That’s our Achilles Heel right now,” admitted Jones. He did, however, credit UAHuntsville and Alabama A & M with their almost-successful efforts on securing in the 2013 International Student Energy Summit, where Huntsville’s bid to host the conference came in second.

Greater diversification outside the Federal sector is an implicit goal. “I’d love to see more companies come here to pursue non-federal work,” Jones said.

Companies such as Schnieder Electric, however, are using making efforts in the use of Federal stimulus dollars to assist companies in making their facilities more energy efficient. “They have a few projects under way, but so far nothing to write home about,” Jones admitted.

Energy Huntsville’s structure has evolved considerably in its first year and continues to change based on feedback from its first year experiences. “We’ve had several meetings about how we should organize ourselves, and are still coming to a consensus on that,” Newkirk said. Early emphasis on Integrated Planning Teams has given way to a looser structure, what Newkirk called “areas of interest” and said the organization has identified key individuals to head them.

What has not changed is what Jones calls the “council structure” in which no one person has control. “This is a collaborative organization,” Jones said, adding that it takes agreement from at least five council members on major decisions.

“Energy is a changing world, and this organization has the ability to change with it.”

Source: Huntsville Times

Three days of celebration in May included a ribbon cutting for Daikin’s expanded chemical plant as well as start up of the solar energy installation and Daikin’s annual festival welcoming the local community. Robert Bentley, Governor of Alabama, participated in the event along with other dignitaries.

Major Players

The Decatur solar, or photovoltaic, project was made possible through incentives from the U.S. “1603 Treasury” program, which paid for 30% of the project, and the Tennessee Valley Authority’s “Generation Partner” program. Daikin’s solar energy project has the annual capacity of producing more than 250,000 kWh of clean electricity, the equivalent of saving up to 20,000 gallons of gasoline and reducing CO2 emission by 200 metric tons, every year.

An American Enterprise

Daikin America’s main partners in this venture are all Tennessee Valley business entities. Suniva, Inc. headquartered in Norcross, Georgia, supplied the majority of the PV modules. These high power-density Optimus modules incorporate high performing fluoro-coated PV backsheets using Daikin products as part of a combination of materials. System integration was provided by First Century Energy Holdings, Inc., also of Georgia. TVA, the energy supplier to the area and its distributor, Decatur Utilities, will buy the electricity generated by the solar installation at a premium. “Renewable energy is an important component of TVA’s plan for a broader, more balanced energy generation mix for clean, low cost, energy in the future” said Patty West, TVA’s Director of Renewable Energy Programs. The result: green energy, growing businesses and more jobs for the region.

Many Applications

Daikin’s ZEFFLE™ fluorocoatings and ETFE films are used in a variety of crystalline-silicon and thin-film PV modules in both rigid and flexible configurations. Topsheets and backsheets made with these high-performance fluoropolymers are used by PV modules manufacturers in the U.S., China, Europe, Japan and India.

Looking to Tomorrow

Daikin is the world’s leading producer of air conditioning and refrigeration equipment, a pioneer in cooling efficiency. In the U.S., Daikin America is one of the largest producers of fluoropolymers. The combination of this expertise with renewable energy generation is part of Daikin’s strategy to achieve nearly-Zero-Energy Buildings (nZEB) in the foreseeable future.

SOURCE Daikin America, Inc.

Source: PR Newswire (http://s.tt/1f6xO)