Climate Challenge
The CLIMATE CHALLENGE
program is a successful, joint, voluntary effort of the U.S. Department
of Energy (DOE) and the electric utility industry to reduce, avoid, or
sequester greenhouse gases. Utilities, in partnership with the Department
of Energy, identify and implement cost-effective activities which are specified
in individual agreements between DOE and individual electric utilities.
Electric utility trade associations are active in promoting the program,
and developing industry-wide initiatives. Each utility will report
its results annually to DOE’s Energy Information Administration, consistent
with the voluntary
reporting of greenhouse gas emissions guidelines developed under Section
1605(b) of the Energy Policy Act of 1992.
The actions that utilities
have committed to in their agreements include: efficiency improvements
in end-use, distribution, transmission, and generation; increased use of
energy efficient electrotechnologies; fuel switching to lower carbon fuels
such as natural gas, nuclear, or renewable energy; transportation actions,
including greater use of natural gas powered and electric vehicles; forestry
actions; recovery of methane from landfills and coal seams; and the use
of fly-ash as a Portland cement substitute.
Achievements
- The utility industry
developed nine CLIMATE CHALLENGE initiatives for collective utility
action. The initiatives include venture capital funds under the EnviroTech
charter, with over $50 million committed to accelerate commercialization
of renewable energy technology and energy-efficient electrotechnologies;
the Earth Comfort Program, to increase annual sales of energy-efficient
geothermal heat pumps from 40,000 to 400,000; the Utility Forest Carbon
Management Program, with over $2 million committed to funding several domestic
and international projects throught the non-profit UtiliTree
Carbon Company; the International Utility Efficiency Partnerships,
which is evaluating projects in 18 countries; and the Combined Purchasing
Initiative to aggregate utility purchasing power to create a market for
technologies such as high-efficiency transformers and photovoltaics.
Other initiatives include: EV
America (electric vehicles), Electric End Use Efficiency Technology
Initiative, Tree Power, and International Donated Equipment Initiative.
- Several utilities, including
Jacksonville (Fla.) Electric Authority and DTE Energy, have committed to
landfill gas and generation projects. Other utilities, are considering
recovering methane from coal mining operations. As methane has more
than 21 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide, reducing
methane emissions is a very cost-effective strategy.
- The Tennessee Valley
Authority now recognizes the potential for reducing carbon emissions by
substituting wood waste, generated from the forest product industries in
the TVA service area, for coal. This causes no net addition of CO2,
since the CO2 emitted by the combustion of wood is part of the natural
carbon cycle. TVA expects to cofire wood waste on a continuous, commercial
basis at several of its plants.
- In the first market-based trade,
Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation exchanged 1.75 million tons of CO2 reductions
for Arizona Public Service Company's 25,000 tons of sulfur dioxide allowances.
Niagara Mohawk then donated the sulfur dioxide allowances, which have an
established market value under the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, to a
non-profit environmental group to be retired. This exchange reduces
both acid rain and greenhouse gas emissions. Since this first trade
in 1997, additional electric utilities and non-utilities have announced
trades.
- Nearly all fossil-fired utilities
are committed to fossil generation efficiency improvements. Tampa
Electric Company and Sierra Pacific cite their participation in DOE's Clean
Coal Technology Program as a way to more efficiently generate electricity
and to concurrently reduce CO2 emissions by 25 percent (compared to a conventional
power plant).
- A significant effect of the
CLIMATE
CHALLENGE program is the shift in thinking of electric utility management
and strategic planners to include the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions
into their corporate culture and philosophy.
CLIMATE CHALLENGE has served
as a catalyst for utility support of many of the voluntary CCAP actions
such as EPA's SF6 EMISSIONS
REDUCTION PARTNERSHIP FOR ELECTRIC POWER SYSTEMS, GREEN
LIGHTS PROGRAM, ENERGY STAR TRANSFORMER
and LANDFILL METHANE PROGRAM, and DOE's
MOTOR CHALLENGE PROGRAM and REBUILD AMERICA.
Status
The program now has 124
Participation Agreements with various electric utilities and their subsidiaries.
The 124 agreements represent 651 of the over 800 utilities that have expressed
interest in the program, and 71% of 1990 electric generation and utility
carbon emissions. DOE estimates that the reported commitments of the CLIMATE
CHALLENGE utilities will reduce carbon emissions by over 47.6 million
metric tons of carbon equivalent in the year 2000. The estimate is
conservative, as it does not include reductions not yet quantified, nor
includes the effects of nine utility industry-wide initiatives. No
estimate is made for reductions from utilities that have not yet joined
the CLIMATE CHALLENGE. Of the 47.6 million metric tons of
reductions: pledged reductions of at least 7.6 million metric tons of carbon
equivalent are over and above any actions contemplated in the Climate Change
Action Plan or in the Administration's Base Case; another 6 to 12 million
metric tons of pledged reductions are included in other CCAP actions, such
as EPA's GREEN LIGHTS PROGRAM; about 1.2 million metric tons of
reductions are attributable to international activities or reductions in
greenhouse gases other than CO2, CH4, and N2O; and, more are accounted
for in the Base Case. The magnitude of these pledged, real reductions
and the effects of utility contributions to other actions will continue
to grow as more utilities join the CLIMATE CHALLENGE program.
| New Partner Participation |
651 |
| Initiatives Launched |
9 |
| Contact: |
Larry Mansueti
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Energy Efficiency
and Renewable Energy
202-586-2588
Robert Kane
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Fossil Energy
202-586-4753 |
6/22/00
Please send comments to:
Lawrence.Mansueti@hq.doe.gov
|
