Saves Money. Saves Energy. Saves the Environment!

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Converting a cart to a Sunray top will benefit the end user by increasing the distance the cart can go on a single charge by 30%. A golf cart with a solar-panel is ideal for trips around town, around the neighborhood or for those extra rounds of golf. With the Sunray Solar Roof Kit, your customers can do their part for the environment and save on energy costs. Even those who own a golf cart can now have a solar cart and not have to give up the vehicle they currently own and enjoy.

*Patent Pending

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Energy consumption is one of six factors incorporated into the tally of Forbes magazines's "Greenest States", closely linked to other "green" standards, including air quality and carbon dioxide emissions.

Kateri Callahan, president of the Alliance to Save Energy, summarized the situation in a recent presentation to Oak Ridge National Laboratory employees: "The South is the Gobi Desert of energy efficiency."

Energy Efficiency Potential Provides Greatest Savings

While bioenergy, nuclear and other expanding energy options are important, "the potential of energy efficiency is probably greater than any other resource." She views the confluence of record prices for oil and increasing anxiety over carbon emissions as a "perfect storm" that makes the attitude of both the market and the public ripe for fundamental change.

Recognizing these trends, Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers are developing an array of energy-efficient appliances, testing energy-saving building materials and refining a zero-energy home that literally will produce more energy than it consumes.

As world energy demand collides with the growing public desire for a carbon-constrained environment, ORNL increasingly is recognized as a source of expertise for cities, states and utilities looking to trim bulging energy waistlines. The Tennessee Valley Authority has joined state and local government as well as non-profit energy efficiency advocate groups in asking the Laboratory to provide input for policy, incentives and technologies to transform the desert of consumption into an oasis of energy efficiency.

Demonstrating a renewed commitment to energy efficiency, the TVA board recently named Joe Hoagland, former senior advisor to TVA President Tom Kilgore, to a newly created post of vice president for energy efficiency and demand response. Hoagland's first task is to determine how much energy savings TVA needs to achieve in order to meet growing energy demands over the next 20 years.

Times have clearly changed. "In order to meet the goals of low cost and reliability, energy efficiency and demand response are now tools as much as our assets that generate electricity," Hoagland says, adding that TVA's strategy also incorporates environmental concerns. "A megawatt not produced is a green megawatt.

"A megawatt not produced is a green megawatt."

When Hoagland came to his new post last fall, he was asked to determine what was needed to generate 1,200 megawatts of energy savings, or the equivalent of one large nuclear or coal-fired power plant, by 2013. "As we begin to understand the situation better, I'm not sure that is going to be enough. I expect that we will need to cut back more, much more," he says.

Meeting the challenge will require TVA to adopt a combination of tactics, including new technologies, rate restructuring, education and customer incentives to achieve the required savings. The agency has signed a memorandum of understanding with ORNL as a first step in what Hoagland envisions as a growing, and necessary, partnership with the Laboratory.

"ORNL has a broad expertise in energy efficient technologies to help us do things better," he says. Oak Ridge researchers have unique experience in

• designing zero-energy homes,
  
• creative construction techniques,
  
• new insulation technologies and
  
• a sophisticated set of energy efficiency standards.
  

If these initiatives prove successful, the potential impact is enormous. ORNL researchers believe that fully one-half of the South's anticipated increase in energy demand can be met through energy efficiency.

Read more about ORNL's Southern Energy Efficiency Initiatives

LOS ANGELES: Brentwood celebrates a new E85 station funded in part by a $580,000 grant from the Air Resources Board.

The new station, developed by Santa Barbara's non-profit Community Environmental Council, is California's second open to the public and the first of five to be built with the grant money.

"Ethanol will play a key role in California's clean, renewable fuels future," said Mary Nichols, Chairman of the Air Resources Board. "This station will allow the many flexible fuel vehicles already on the road to take advantage of this renewable fuel."

The $580,000 grant is part of an incentive program created by Assembly Bill 1811, authored by Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) and passed in 2006. The Alternative Fuels Incentive Program distributed its $25 million in June, 2007, to encourage public awareness and adoption of newly available technologies already reducing pollution and diversifying the state's energy sources. The program's strategies include:

• Incentives to individuals and fleets promoting alternative fuel powered vehicles;
• Economic support for the production of alternative fuel in California;
• Facilitating construction of refueling stations for the public and private fleets;
• Funding research, development and testing of alternative fuels and vehicle technology; and,
• Incentives to replace the current state vehicle fleet with clean, fuel efficient, alternative fuel powered vehicles.

More than 300,000 vehicles already on the road in California are capable of using E85. These vehicles, known as flexible fuel vehicles, can use a mixture of up to 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent petroleum. They are not limited to this fuel, as they can also mix in conventional gasoline with any E85 already in the tank.

Flexible Fuel Vehicles already on the road include:

• Ford Taurus and Explorer
• Chrysler Sebring
• Dodge Stratus
• Mercury Mountaineer
• Chevrolet Impala
• Monte Carlo
• Avalanche Suburban and Tahoe
• GMC Yukon
• Mercedes Benz C320
• Saturn Relay

E85 has many benefits compared to petroleum based fuels. It offers an alternate source of energy which alleviates problems of scarcity and dependence on foreign trade. It burns cleaner, resulting in fewer smog forming emissions. And, ethanol is produced from sources that can be replenished.

Presently, ethanol is primarily made from corn but it can be produced other ways. One process which has great environmental promise is cellulosic production. This process derives ethanol from vegetation waste, such as that from rice farming. Cellulosic ethanol promises to provide energy with little or no greenhouse gas emissions.

For more information on the program go to: AIR RESOURCES BOARD

PROBLEM: Infrastructure for alternative fuel vehicles is spotty.

SOLUTION: Subsidized refueling stations by nonprofit groups supporting alternative energy industry development.

In 2007, California had 835 alternative fuel stations, more than any other state.

Most dispense electricity (379),
Liquefied petroleum gas (215)
Compressed natural gas (174),

These figures were compiled by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Sites offering liquefied natural gas, hydrogen, biodiesel or E85 were far down the list. Although California leads the nation in adopting alternative fuels, there are only seven places to get E85 in the state, and only three are open to the public.

The disparity is largely a reflection of the state's longtime emphasis on converting large fleets used by governments, school districts and private industry to alternative fuels, rather than changing the vehicle choices and habits of the masses. It's also a manifestation of California's small role in growing corn and soy beans, the primary crops used to produce E85 and biodiesel.

Biodiesel backers have helped build a statewide roster of more than 50 sites that offer the fuel, with many selling to the public and offering blends ranging from B10 (10% biodiesel and 90% petroleum diesel) to B99, a nearly pure biodiesel fuel.

Now, however, California has adopted ambitious new goals for alternative fuels and cutting greenhouse gas emissions -- and it can no longer afford to leave the public out of the mix. For starters, the state is going to increase the use of ethanol as a fuel additive to all gasoline sold here.

For years, California's gasoline has contained 5.7% ethanol to boost octane and comply with federal emissions rules; starting in 2010, that will rise to 10% ethanol.

Family-owned Redwood Oil Co., based in Rohnert Park, Calif., operates 19 Chevron-branded gas stations. In May, the company started selling 99% biodiesel at one station and added B20 at another outlet a few months ago.

Alternative fuel retailers say state agencies, fire officials and others have been slow to adapt their rules to accommodate biofuels. Confusion and extra red tape involving equipment standards and permitting have been major hurdles, especially for E85.

The Brentwood station and the two others like it, for example, had to be designated as research sites to get all the approvals for the E85 pumps because the state hasn't finalized emissions and equipment guidelines, Moller said.

To sell the highest blend of biodiesel, stations like Conserv Fuel must secure a variance from the state Division of Measurement Standards, which regulates biodiesel as an additive and not a fuel. In addition, anyone selling biodiesel blends higher than B20 must limit sales to customers who become members of a free, loosely defined "users group," and to submit monthly reports to the measurement division -- a requirement not present in any other state, Moller said.

The market is another uncertainty. Many drivers are unaware that their vehicle can run on E85, and it's unclear how many will make the switch, given the fuel's higher per-mile cost.

SOURCE: LA TIMES

Alternative energy replaces petrochemicals -- oil, gasoline, transportation fluids, as well as coal and natural gas used to create electricity.

This website brings you practical alternatives to traditional energy and fuel products. We will track progress in clean technology resources such as biomass from trees, corn and other agricultural crops to make fuel for our cars, trucks, planes and trains. We will bring you practical sources of these alternative energies.

Alternative energies for buildings make a major impact of personal and business budgets. We bring you the solutions that help you reduce electric bills and replace lighting, heat and air conditioning and ventilation with alternative energy sources from nature: wind, sunshine, water, and even dirt!

Alternative Energy Sources for Homes

Homes have been designed for decades to rely on electricity and natural gas for light as well as heating and cooling. Alternative energy sources for homes include solar panel systems that use the sunlight for both heating water (or fluids) and conversion into electricity using photovoltaics.

Our solution website will connect you with information about these fast-growing alternatives and with information about innovative products that will provide you with quality lighting, comfortable room temperatures and efficient use of energy.

Alternative Energy Efficiency for Offices

Offices use energy for lighting, HVAC and manufacturing of paper products, digital equipment, and other office equipment. Task lighting and ambient lighting can be balanced using alternative energy designs and strategies to reduce growing electric bills and reduce the impact on our environment.

Our web resource center will help you find creative solutions and practical product sources to make your office energy efficient and green. And that's a sustainable business ROI.

Applications of Renewable Energy and Alternative Energy Product Categories

green technology, renewable energy, alternative energy, energies, clean energy, biodiesel, wind power, wind energy, solar, solar energy, solar electric, PV, photovoltaic, solar thermal, wind, passive solar, insulation, geothermal technology
• Solar Energy
• Passive Solar Energy
• Thermal Solar Energy
• Wind Energy
• Photovoltaic Solar Energy
• Geothermal Energy
• Natural Light
• Natural Ventilation
• Biomass Energy
• Insulation as Alternative Energy Conservation