Alternative Energy Projects Emerge Statewide
Renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and biofuels come to the forefront in Texas energy industry
Lone Star Wind Alliances Gets
DOE Funds for Test Equipment
The U.S. Department of Energy has selected the Lone Star Wind Alliance to receive up to $2 million in test equipment to develop large-scale wind-blade test facilities. The Texas facility, to be located in Ingleside, outside Corpus Christi, and a facility in Massachusetts, were selected among six applications. The Ingleside facility is expected to be operational in October 2009.
The Lone Star Wind Alliance has been selected to negotiate Cooperative Research and Development Agreements to design, build and operate new facilities to test the next generation of wind turbine blades. The Ingleside facility offers a unique facility because the large blades can be delivered by sea. This announcement marks an important step in addressing the insufficient domestic capacity to test large-scale wind turbine blades.
The Lone Star Wind Alliance was selected to enter into an agreement with DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory to build facilities to test large wind blades, with an ultimate goal of testing blades up to 330 ft. in length. NREL will work with states to provide equipment and technical assistance for development and operation.
According to the American Wind Energy Association, Texas is firmly established as the leader in wind power development, with more than 2,700 MW installed at the end of 2006 and some 1,000 MW currently under construction.
Including the DOE investment, total project costs of each test facility will total approximately $20 million. The DOE investment for fiscal years 2008 and 2009 is subject to Congressional appropriations. The Lone Star Wind Alliance has pledged approximately $18 million from state and private sources for initial capital and startup costs.
Solar Energy to Power New
Project at Pearl Brewery
A warehouse renovation project on tap at the historic Pearl Brewery in San Antonio will also be a learning laboratory for energy efficiency, featuring the largest solar energy installation in the state. CPS Energy and Silver Ventures is renovating the historic brewery site in an adaptive re-use project.
The $1.35 million solar energy joint project, funded with $950,000 from Silver Ventures and $400,000 from CPS Energy, will install a 200-KW array of solar panels atop a 67,000-sq-ft former warehouse facility being adapted for office, retail and residential use. The project will also feature an educational venue to showcase the workings and benefits of solar power to visitors, including metering devices that monitor energy use and display real-time information about the amount of solar energy being generated.
All buildings at the Pearl site also include roof-water capture systems to collect and recycle rainwater for use in drip irrigation systems as well as drought-tolerant Xeriscaping. Throughout the Pearl project, original materials from the site were re-used and adapted to new functions.
Plans for the adaptive re-use of the brewery combine rehabilitation of historic structures with new construction, and were developed to ensure the project not only preserves but enhances the historic nature of the site.
Texas Could Lead the Nation in
Producing Renewable Energy
Texas would lead the nation in the production of new energy under a 25x’25 renewable energy future, the Texas State 25x’25 Alliance said today. Citing an analysis by the University of Tennessee’s Department of Agricultural Economics, the state alliance said that Texas, by helping meet 25 percent of the nation’s energy needs with renewable sources by 2025, would generate an additional 1.27 quads of energy from resources such as biofuels, wind energy and solar power. A quad is the equivalent to the electricity and fuel consumed over one year by 4.4 million American homes.
Under the 25x’25 renewable energy scenario, by 2025, Texas would also generate an additional $22.8 billion in new economic activity each year, the fifth highest in the country.
State 25x’25 Alliance members said that by 2025, Texas will have the potential to produce 3.76 billion gallons of biofuels and 144.5 billion KW hours of renewable electricity - a 2,130% increase from 2003 levels.
Building Managers Initiate Program to Create Energy Efficiencies
The Austin-based affiliate of the Building Owners and Managers Association recently announced its endorsement of a program to reduce greenhouse emissions released by its members’ 35 million sq ft of commercial office space.
The goal is to quantify local commercial building energy consumption through the Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star Program and to implement measures to >> reduce greenhouse emissions.
BOMA Austin will leverage the BOMA Energy Efficiency Program, a collaborative effort with the EPA’s Energy Star Program, to reduce energy usage through no- and low-cost strategies. Members will be able to track their progress in collaboration with local utilities. BEEP’s best-practices strive to create a 30 percent in reduction energy usage in commercial buildings. BOMA Austin’s goal is to achieve this reduction in 90% of its member buildings over the next three years.
CEMEX Cement Plants and Terminals Awarded Top Safety Honors
Houston-based CEMEX achieved the highest industry honors for its safety record at one cement plant and received recognition for its continued performance at 15 of its cement manufacturing plants and cement distribution terminals reaching from California to North Carolina.
Six of CEMEX’s plants were recognized by the Portland Cement Association for outstanding safety records. CEMEX’s Balcones Cement Plant in New Braunfels won the top award of safety excellence, surpassing one million or more hours without a lost-time accident.
The CEMEX cement terminals in Amarillo successfully completed between 10 and 19 years of performance without a lost-time accident.
Statewide Transportation Bill Passes, Regulates Variety of Items
Senate Bill 792, a statewide transportation bill that ensures Texas will continue to build needed roads and expands the powers of local transportation authorities to develop toll projects, was recently signed into law.
Key provisions in SB 792 will ensure that local toll authorities have the first option to build new toll projects and may use state rights of way as needed; and require local toll authorities and TxDOT to agree to certain business terms, such as toll rates, when a project is first proposed and to perform a Market Valuation Study based on those terms to determine a road’s total value.
Additionally, the new law will allow local toll authorities to propose that needed state roads be built as toll roads; currently, only TxDOT can initiate such a proposal. This provision will allow more needed toll roads to be built sooner.
It will also modify comprehensive development agreements by limiting CDAs to 50 years; mandating that the state’s future buyback cost be stipulated in the CDA; clarifying that competing tax roads cannot be built within four miles on either side of a CDA toll road; and requiring CDA revenue be used only for other projects in the region in which it is generated.
Also, it will place a two-year moratorium on some CDAs. Virtually all CDAs planned to be executed over the next two years were exempted from the moratorium by their local lawmakers and it will allow TxDOT to issue $3 billion in bonds to borrow against future gas tax revenue. This provision will allow TxDOT to use these bonds as toll equity for state toll roads.
URS Preparing EIS for Proposed Commuter Rail Line
The Fort Worth Transportation Authority selected San Francisco-based URS Corp. to develop an Environmental Impact Statement and conduct initial engineering design for a proposed commuter rail line in the southwest-to-northeast corridor of Tarrant County.
The project, approximately 36 mi long, links southwest Forth Worth with downtown and the north end of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. The primary alignment being studied provides links to the Trinity Railway Express commuter rail system in downtown Fort Worth, which connects Fort Worth and downtown Dallas.
The hub proposed for the north end of DFW Airport also will provide direct linkages with the Dallas Area Rapid Transit northwest light rail line’s Irving branch, scheduled to open in 2012, and will potentially provide connections to the future DART Cotton Belt alignment to Carrollton.
In addition to traditional EIS and engineering, URS will be conducting station area planning and Transit-Oriented Development analyses for several stations along the alignment. The EIS and design work is scheduled for completion within two years.
Brownsville Ship Channel
Part of Pilot Program
A pilot project for a $150 million, full-scale seawater desalination plant slated for construction in 2010 will be started when more than $2 million worth of pipes, sheds and machinery are placed in Brownsville’s ship channel.
The Brownsville plant got fast-tracked during a period of alarming drought and rapid population growth. From 1990 to 2000, the area grew 43% to 372,000 people, and the population is expected to approach 500,000 by 2020.
KBR Awarded $2.8 Billion
Algerian Project
Houston-based KBR was awarded the engineering, procurement and construction contract for the Sonatrach Skikda LNG project, to be constructed at Skikda, Algeria. The contract has an approximate value of $2.8 billion.
In addition to the EPC work for the 4.5 million metric tons per annum LNG train along with associated LPG and condensate recovery, KBR will execute the pre-commissioning and commissioning portion of the contract. Work began in July and will be executed in Houston prior to moving to the Skikda Site.
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