19th August, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Austin Business Journal has this article, which says that Austin energy is contracting with a California company to supply more than $2 million in solar panels. The panels will be installed installed on municipal buildings for Austin Public Library, Austin Water Utility, Austin Energy and others. The article also notes that:
The project is part of Austin Energy’s plan to increase renewable energy capacity to 200 megawatts by 2020. The energy produced by the panels is equivalent to removing an estimated 380 cars from roads annually, or planting 59,475 trees.
The city has set aside a total $21.7 million for alternative energy purchases.
photo credit
11th August, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Check out this KUT article, which says that Texas reached a new energy consumption record yesterday afternoon, at 63,830 megawatts. An Austin Energy representative Carlos Cordova said that “An air conditioner can only offset about 20 degrees from the outside temperature to the inside temperatures…so if you’re setting your thermostat at 75 or lower your air conditioner will run virtually all day long because it cannot cool that house down.” Cordova also recommended avoiding washing dishes or clothes during the day.
Photo credit
29th July, 2010 - Posted by carsi - No Comments
KUT has a story today on electric charging stations for cars, which will become important in November when Chevrolet starts selling its all-electric vehicle, the Volt, in Austin (for $41k). The car will be able to go about 40 miles on one charge, but it also has a generator to run on gas if needed. Still, some people are worried that consumers will get “range anxiety,” or a feeling of nervousness about having enough charge to get to their destinations. As of now, there is only one public charging station in Austin at the Whole Foods on 6th and Lamar, but the City is planning to add 100 more stations in the next two years. Right now, it’d take about eight hours to fully charge a car at that station, but that will be cut to three hours in the future.
Many people are also worried that, if the Volt takes off, all this charging will drain the electric grid, but some say there is enough power in clean energy to meet the demand. For example, wind power from East Texas is highest at night, when most people are expected to be charging their vehicles. Additionally, Austin Energy is working on incentives to promote charging at non-peak times. It should be interesting to see if the public is ready to purchase an all-electric vehicle and if the city is ready to support the accompanying electricity demand.
The Chevrolet Volt
photo credit
28th May, 2010 - Posted by carsi - No Comments
The Clean Air Force of Central Texas issues warnings when the levels of ground-level ozone in the air reach unhealthy levels. This has been happening lately, so it’s probably a good idea to keep an eye on the warnings each day. Unhealthy levels of ozone can be a lung irritant, which is especially bad for seniors, children, people with asthma, and people exercising outside. Check their website for updates on daily ozone warnings. You can even sign up to get emails about the ozone warnings. Although an ozone watch is in place, we haven’t yet reached unhealthy levels today. When the Orange Level is reached, it is recommended that “active children and adults as well as people with respiratory disease, such as asthma, limit prolonged outdoor exertion.”
Ozone is caused by human activities, and burning fossil fuels is the biggest contributor to ground-level ozone in Central Texas. The city has a website that gives all sorts of recommendations of things you can do to reduce ozone in our air, including green activities like driving less, carpooling, not letting your car idle, and taking the bus.
Also, on a related note, did you know that Austin Energy will give you a rebate if you purchase an all-electric vehicle? So awesome.
11th May, 2010 - Posted by katherine - 1 Comment
Austin Business Journal has this article which states that with help from a $450,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, Austin Energy will be installing solar learning centers at 21 area schools. These centers will each have functioning solar generators that power the schools and teach students about the solar industry. Austin Energy will also be contributing $375,000 of its own funds.
26th April, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
This article has details about city council’s decision last week to approve Austin Energy’s proposed plan to increase the amount of electricity Austin gets from renewable resources.
The article states that “At (Mayor) Leffingwell’s suggestion, the council also decreed the plan not take effect until later this year to give the city time to craft specific cost-containment goals to be considered alongside the plan’s environmental objectives. The council will not authorize major energy purchases until the city decides how it will approach cost containment. The measure was requested by some big businesses and advocates for the poor, concerned the plan would raise rates too much. The plan does not address how the council will resolve potential conflicts between the new cost and environmental priorities. Austin Energy estimates the plan would raise rates 20 percent. But the utility concluded that the plan would be the best long-term hedge against possible coal and natural-gas price hikes.”
Austin Energy has pointed out before that city council’s approval of the plan does not mean that the plan cannot be adjusted in the future if changes are needed.
12th March, 2010 - Posted by carsi - No Comments
This article from the Austin Business Journal reports that Austin will be the first city in Texas to try out a new clean energy storage system. Austin Energy is planning to use the Ice Energy storage system to store energy during off-peak hours to distribute later during peak usage hours in small- to mid-sized commercial buildings. Ice Energy has also been affiliated with the Pecan Street Project.
More information about how the Ice Energy storage system works is available here.
25th February, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
As reported here in the Statesman, Austin Energy is seeking permission from City Council to secure rights to build and operate a wind farm in Pecos County. By owning the wind farm, Austin Energy hopes to have more control over wind costs than it currently has by buying wind power from privately-owned facilities. The article notes that AE is paying roughly about twice as much for wind power since it started buying it from privately-owned facilities a decade ago. Customers of AE can opt-in to AE’s GreenChoice program and buy wind energy.
23rd February, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
As discussed in this Statesman article, about 200 people attended last night’s energy forum discussing AE’s proposed plan to increase Austin’s use of renewable resources. Under the plan the utility would get 35% of its energy from renewable resources by 2020. City council may vote on the plan as early as March. It sounds like the discussion was very similar to the one that took place last week on PBS and KUT.
22nd February, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Last Thursday we watched the discussion on PBS of Austin’s proposed long-range Austin Energy’s generation plan. The discussion included green energy, ratepayer, and business advocates as well as AE representatives and a representative of the Catholic diocese. The AE representative said the company had looked at plans that would raise rates between 15-30% and picked a plan that would raise rates about 22%. However, as pointed out by Catholic diocese representative, since there will additionally be a rate case in 2012 to update rates (rates haven’t been updated since 1994), and because other miscellaneous charges are scheduled to be added, bills could severely impact low-income residents of Austin when the cost of the proposed plan is added in as well (at one point a 60% rate increase was mentioned when all costs are totaled). Some of the panel members wanted to focus more on conservation/ energy-efficiency programs in order to use less total MWs, rather than using the same amount of MWs as we are now but from different, cleaner sources. The AE representative stressed that because this is just a plan, AE wouldn’t be obligated to use a certain type of fuel or technology – it would just try and follow the plan if practical. Tonight at the Palmer Events Center at 6:00 there’s a Mayor’s Energy Generation Town Hall meeting to allow public input on the plan and learn more about the details.
16th February, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Austin Energy recently added solar panels to 6 additional schools in the Austin area. To read the utility’s press release about it, which states that Austin Energy has a goal of installing solar panels at around 50 schools by the end of the year, click here. For the 28 schools Austin Energy has installed solar panels on so far this year, it estimates annual savings of 120,744 kWh.
15th February, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Austin Energy is proposing that Austin get 35% of its energy from renewable resources by 2020, up from 11% currently. For more information, check out the Statesman. Listen to discussion about the proposed plan and its potential costs on KUT Thursday at 8:00PM, or watch it on our local PBS station Thursday at 7:30. There is going to be a public forum on the proposed plan next Monday – we’ll update you with the time and place of that meeting when we have more information.
*UPDATE: The public forum will be on Monday, Feb. 22 at 6 pm at the Palmer Events Center. Read more on the plan here: http://bit.ly