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Over the past two years, New Mexico has been engaged in a significant new approach to implement large purchases of solar power. This effort followed a regulatory process that treated solar power generation similar to conventional generation obtained by an investor-owned utility under the regulation of a public utility commission. In 1997, Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM) gained approval to purchase power from a 100-MW combustion turbine facility that would be owned and operated by a wholesale generator. At the same time it issued the approval, and following discussions with the utility, the New Mexico Public Utility Commission (NMPUC) also required PNM to issue a request for proposal for a 5-MW central station solar facility, a major step for solar technologies in the state, in what would be the world's largest of its technology type. In cooperation with the staff of the NMPUC, PNM reviewed the proposals received, and Applied Power Corporation was selected for the photovoltaic portion of the proposed plan; retaining ownership of the plant, assuming the risks connected with the technology, and operating the plant in exchange for a power purchase agreement in a first-of-its-kind contract for photovoltaics. During the NMPUC hearings, various parties raised significant opposition to the cost-recovery mechanism that was proposed and voiced issues about the type of solar plant, its size, cost and the tiding approaches to building it. Because of these issues, alternative proposals were put forth that reduced the size and costs of the plant and had implied changes in ownership and risks. The order issued by the NMPUC on October 21, 1998, requires PNM to impose a charge of 0.5% on its retail electric customers' monthly bills to be used to acquire the solar facilities, but also to obtain other renewable electric power resources, both on a pay-as-you-go basis. This paper identifies the issues and their resolution that similar projects are expected to encounter.

This fact sheet describes how the Industrial Technologies Program steam software tools can help industrial plants identify steam system improvements to save energy and money.

This is a technical document in regards to climate change. The document covers measurements and calculation methods, explains how to obtaining data, estimates of variability and uncertainty, and provides references and sources.

No combustion tests for this program were conducted during this reporting period of January 1 to March 31, 1992. DOE-sponsored slogging combustor tests have been suspended since December 1991 in order to perform combustion tests on Northern States Power Company (NSP) coals. The NSP coal tests were conducted to evaluate combustor performance when burning western sub bituminous coals. The results of these tests will guide commercialization efforts, which are being promoted by NSP, Westinghouse Electric, and Textron Defense Systems. The NSP testing has been completed and preparation of the final report for that effort is underway. Although the NSP testing program has been completed, the Westinghouse/DOE program will not be resumed immediately. The reason for this is that Textron Defense Systems (TDS) has embarked on an internally funded program requiring installation of a new liquid fuel combustor system at the Haverhill site. The facility modifications for this new system are significant and it is not possible to continue the Westinghouse/DOE testing while these modifications are being made. These facility modifications are being performed during the period February 15, 1992 through May 31, 1992. The Westinghouse/DOE program can be resumed upon completion of this work.

This report examines relationships between a comprehensive set of definitions of and viewpoints on the concept of Sustainability and the abilities of communities and individuals in the United States to meet the behavioral prescriptions inherent in these definitions and viewpoints. This research is timely because sustainability is becoming a cornerstone of national and international environmental strategies designed to simultaneously achieve environmental, economic, and social goals. In the United States, many communities have adopted sustainability principles as the foundation for both their environmental protection efforts and their socioeconomic development initiatives. This research is important because it highlights serious problems communities and inviduals may have in achieving sustainability expectations, and illustrates how much work is needed to help communities and individuals overcome numerous considerable and complex constraints to sustainability.

The objective of this project is to provide the fundamental information on the mechanisms of bacterial leaching of pyrite. The knowledge of how bacterial leaching of pyrite functions is essential for design and development of a technology for coal cleaning with bacteria. The features of major electrochemical techniques will be examined to find out if any of them can provide a diagnostic information on the mechanisms of related reactions.

The most common form of utility- sized energy storage system is the pumped storage hydro system. Originally, these types of storage systems were economically viable simply because they displace more expensive generating units. However, over time, as those expensive units became more efficient and costs declined, pumped hydro storage units no longer have the operational edge. As a result, in the current electricity market environment, pumped storage hydro plants are struggling. To offset this phenomenon, certain market modifications should be addressed. This paper will introduce some of the challenges faced by pumped storage hydro plants in today's markets and purpose some solutions to those problems.

In 1999, the National Petroleum Council (NPC) stated that the resource base for meeting growing natural gas demands in the United States is adequate. A significant and increasing portion of natural gas production (8% by 2015) is expected to come from coal bed methane (CBM). The NPC cautions that for this to occur, certain factors, including compliance with environmental requirements, must be addressed. Numerous federal, state, and local programs address a variety of environmental issues, including water quality and quantity, air quality, wildlife, noise, and visibility. This paper examines existing and potential environmental regulatory requirements that could affect the timely development and production of CBM resources in the United States. Such an examination can help technology developers and policy makers target areas for research and development (R&D), demonstration, and implementation to help facilitate cost-effective CBM development and production to meet the nation's natural gas demands. It can also help identify R&D areas that will give rule-making bodies the information they need to incorporate more science into the regulatory development process.

This project supports the DOE/METC Fossil Energy Program for the development of PFBC technology. Based on the analytical activated-bauxite sorber-bed technique, we are developing the RABSAM as an altemative to the on-line alkali analyzer for field application. As shown in Fig. 1, the RABSAM is a sampling probe containing a regenerable activated-bauxite adsorbent (RABA). It can be inserted directly into the PFBC exhaust duct and requires no HTHP sampling line. Alkali vapors are captured by the adsorbent purely through physical adsorption. The adsorbent is regenerated by a simple water-leaching process, which also recovers the adsorbed alkalis. The alkali analysis of the leachate by atomic absorption (AA) provides a basis for calculating the time-averaged alkali-vapor concentration in the PFBC exhaust. If the RABA is to use commercial grade activated bauxite, the clay impurities in activated bauxite can react with alkali vapors and, therefore, need to be either removed or deactivated. In earlier work, a 6M-LiCl-solution impregnation technique was shown to deactivate these impurities in fresh activated bauxite [8]. During this year, RABA prepared by this technique was tested in a pressurized alkali-vapor sorption test unit to determine its NaCl-vapor capture efficiency and the regenerability of the sorbent by water extraction. Results of this study are presented and discussed.