Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL) recently announced they're developing a unique combustion method that results in lower power plant pollutant emissions, without efficiency penalties, by combining staged-combustion with nitrogen-enriched air.

It begins: "...When some utilities entered the communications loop and began offering fiber-optic services, success was supposed to be a slam-dunk. But the market became saturated with bandwidth capacity and prospects for such achievement became more elusive. In some cases, companies have entirely written off their losses or ceased operations.

The Electric Energy Storage Applications and Technologies Conference (EESAT 2002) was held in San Francisco April 15-17, 2002. Ever hopeful for the promise of storage, sponsors point to growth in markets, increased focus on reliability (supply crises and terrorism), and advances in technology.

Here's an article that may be useful. It's in current issue of IEEE Spectrum, and it appears to be available to nonmembers. The accompanying article on the major players is interesting also. (Don't miss the chart.)

The 70 technical reports, each available as a separate downloadable file, represent the efforts of researchers and engineers at National Labs, universities, and in industry from across the US. They cover hydrogen production, storage, and use, with excellent papers on analysis and the Program's technology validation projects. The CD-ROM will be available for purchase soon.

NREL is the smallest of the DOE national labs, with just over 1000 staff, and an annual budget of $187 million (FY00).. It is also the only lab with a specifically defined mission to advance renewable energy technology. NREL has a number of special purpose facilities and programs in wind, solar (PV and thermal), biomass/bioenergy, hydrogen and advanced transportation vehicles.

NRECA has an aggressive program to support its members to do fuel cell demonstrations, with training, handbooks, databases, and a users group. Coops view DG as "a solution, not as a problem". Together coops represent the largest "single" utility in the country, with 34 million customers in 46 states.

First demonstrated over 80 years ago, GTL has a long and colorful history. It was a mainstay of the German and Japanese fuel supply in WW2. Governments, major oil companies, and new entrants have made substantial investments over the years. While limited commercial operations are in place, the technology hasn't progressed enough to enable widespread economic use.

A new Power Line Carrier (PLC) / Power Line Telecommunications (PLT) network technology is under development by a startup company called PowerWAN, which plans a complete solution to the last mile problem. PowerWAN's coding and modulation technology is their own proprietary approach to OFDM, especially suited to the reflective and noisy power line environment.

As distributed generation continues to evolve (technically and politically), microturbines continue to be one of the main technologies in the mix. Capstone, of course, is the only one with a truly commercial product and sizeable installed base. The collapse of the Honeywell Parallon program is well known.

Officially established by IEEE Standards and integrated into SCC21, the P1547 project was launched 4/99, and the Working Group (WG) has been on a fast track ever since to get a standard written and accepted by stakeholders in a wide-open consensus process. Relentlessly, meetings have been held 4-6 times a year, around the country.

Subject: UFTO Note - IEEE 1547 Interconnection Working Group Date:…

There is a requirement at DOE for "peer review", so we're seeing many of these meetings throughout the year. Last fall there was one for Distributed Energy Resources Program (DER), which includes the Distributed Power Program.

A massive amount of energy is wasted in water distribution systems, and HydroLinq, a new company, has come along to make recovery of that energy a reality. It looks like a big opportunity. The idea is similar to a common practice in the gas pipeline industry, where turbines or expanders are used to reduce pressure from long haul pipelines as the gas enters distribution systems.