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Why Renewable Energy Is Not Cheap and Not Green
Glossary
Alcohol: The family name of a group of organic chemical compounds composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. The series of molecules vary in chain length and are composed of a hydrocarbon plus a hydroxyl group; Ch3-(Ch2)n-OH (e.g., methanol, ethanol, and tertiary butyl alcohol).
Baseload Electricity: Refers to the cheapest sources of electricity on a marginal cost basis that a utility dispatches to meet a minimum demand level. Baseload supply is the opposite of "dispatchable electricity," which is temporary (on-and-off) electricity that meets higher demand levels.
Baseload Plant: A plant, usually housing high-efficiency steam-electric units, which is normally operated to take all or part of the minimum load of a system, and which consequently produces electricity at an essentially constant rate and runs continuously. These units are operated to maximize system mechanical and thermal efficiency and minimize system operating costs.
Biofuels: Fuelwood, wood byproducts, waste wood, municipal solid waste, manufacturing process waste, and alcohol fuels.
Boiler: A device for generating steam for power, processing, or heating purposes or for producing hot water for heating purposes or hot water supply. Heat from an external combustion source is transmitted to a fluid contained within the tubes in the boiler shell. This fluid is delivered to an end-user at a desired pressure, temperature, and quality.
Btu (British Thermal Unit): A standard unit for measuring the quantity of heat energy equal to the quantity of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 pound of water by 1 degree Fahrenheit.
Capacity Factor: The ratio of electrical energy produced by a generating unit for a given period of time to the electrical energy that could have been produced at continuous full-power operation during the same period.
Closed-Loop Biomass: Any organic material from a plant which is planted exclusively for purposes of being used at a qualified facility to produce electricity.
Coal: A black or brownish-black solid, combustible substance formed by the partial decomposition of vegetable matter without access to air. The rank of coal, which includes anthracite, bituminous coal, subbituminous coal, and lignite, is based on fixed carbon, volatile matter, and heating value. Coal rank indicates the progressive alteration, or coalification, from lignite to anthracite. Lignite contains approximately 9 to 17 million Btu per ton. The heat contents of subbituminous and bituminous coal range from 16 to 24 million Btu per ton, and from 19 to 30 million Btu per ton, respectively. Anthracite contains approximately 22 to 28 million Btu per ton.
Cogenerator: A generating facility that produces electricity and another form of useful thermal energy (such as heat or steam) used for industrial, commercial, heating, and cooling purposes.
Combined Cycle (Plant): An electric generating technology (plant) in which electricity is produced from otherwise lost waste heat exiting from one or more gas (combustion) turbines. The exiting heat is routed to a conventional boiler or to a heat recovery steam generator for utilization by a steam turbine in the production of electricity. This process increases the efficiency of the electric generating unit.
Cooperative Electric Utility: An electric utility legally established to be owned by and operated for the benefit of those using its service. The utility company will generate, transmit, and/or distribute supplies of electric energy to a specified area not being serviced by another utility. Such ventures are generally exempt from Federal income tax laws. Most electric cooperatives have been initially financed by the Rural Electrification Administration (U.S. Department of Agriculture).
Distillate Fuel Oil: A general classification for one of the petroleum fractions produced in conventional distillation operations. It is used primarily for space heating, on-and-off-highway diesel engine fuel (including railroad engine fuel and fuel for agriculture machinery), and electric power generation. Included are Fuel Oils No. 1, No. 2, and No. 4 and Diesel Fuels No. 1., No. 2, and No. 4.
Demand-Side Management: Utility programs to shape or reduce end-used demand for gas or electricity, particulary during periods of peak demand. Inducements include subsidies for energy-efficient appliances or energy audit services. The costs of such programs are socialized among all ratepayers rather than borne by the beneficiary alone.
Economy Energy: Surplus electricity that is sold on the spot market. Also know as "short-term power" and "spot power" as opposed to electricity bought and sold under long-term (one year or more) contracts.
Electric Utilities: All privately owned companies and all publicly owned agencies engaged in the generation, transmission, or distribution of electric power for public use. Publicly owned agencies include municipal electric utilities; Federal power projects, such as the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA); rural electrification cooperatives; power districts; and State power projects. Nonutility power producers are not included in the electric utility sector.
Energy: The capacity for doing work as measured by the capability of doing work (potential energy) or the conversion of this capability to motion (kinetic energy). Energy has several forms, some of which are easily convertible and can be changed to another form useful for work. Most of the world's convertible energy comes from fossil fuels that are burned to produce heat that is then used as a transfer medium to mechanical or other means in order to accomplish tasks. Electrical energy is usually measured in kilowatthours, while heat energy is usually measured in British thermal units.
Energy Policy Act of 1992: A federal law that, among other provisions, required wholesale open transmission access (defined below) between utilities and municipalities and federal power marketing agencies. The Energy Policy Act prohibited retail open access, defined as where end-use customers can buy their own electricity and secure nondiscriminatory transmission from utilities.
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC): A quasi-independent regulatory agency within the Department of Energy having jurisdiction over interstate electricity sales, wholesale electric rates, hydro-electric licensing, natural gas pricing, oil pipeline rates, and gas pipeline certification. The predecessor agency to the FERC was the Federal Power Commission (see below).
Federal Power Act: Enacted in 1920, and amended in 1935, the Act consists of three parts. The first part incorporated the Federal Water Power Act administered by the former Federal Power Commission, whose activities were confined almost entirely to licensing non-Federal hydroelectric projects. Parts II and III were added with the passage of the Public Utility Act, which extended the Act's jurisdiction to include regulating the interstate transmission of electrical energy and rates for its sale as wholesale in interstate commerce. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is now charged with the administration of this law.
Federal Power Commission: The Federal Power Commission (FPC) was created by an Act of Congress under the Federal Water Power Act on June 10, 1920. It was charged originally with regulating the electric power and natural gas industries. The FPC was abolished on September 20, 1977, when the Department of Energy was created. The functions of the FPC were divided between the Department of Energy and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Firm Supply: A contractual flow of electricity that cannot be cut off by the provider or recipient. The opposite of firm supply is interruptible power, which has a lower economic value because of its unpredictability.
Fossil Fuel: Any naturally occurring organic fuel formed in the Earth's crust, such as petroleum, coal, and natural gas.
Fossil Fuel Steam-Electric Power Plant: An electricity generation plant in which the prime mover is a turbine rotated by high-pressure steam produced in a boiler by heat from burning fossil fuels.
Fuel Ethanol: An anhydrous, denatured aliphatic alcohol (C2H5OH) intended for motor gasoline blending. Ethanol is a renewable motor fuel since it is derived from farm products.
Also see Oxygenates.
Fuel-Switching Capability: The short-term capacity of a generator plant or a manufacturing establishment to substitute energy sources in place of those actually consumed. Capability to use substitute energy sources means that the establishments' combustors (for example, boilers, furnaces, ovens, and blast furnaces) had the machinery or equipment either in place or available for installation so that substitutions could actually have been introduced within 30 days without extensive modifications. Fuel-switching capability does not depend on the relative prices of energy sources; it depends only on the characteristics of the equipment and certain legal constraints.
Gasohol: A blend of finished motor gasoline (leaded or unleaded) and alcohol (generally ethanol but sometimes methanol) limited to 10 percent by volume of alcohol. Gasohol is included in finished leaded and unleaded motor gasoline.
Gas-Turbine Electric Power Plant: A plant in which the prime mover is a gas turbine. A gas turbine typically consists of an axial-flow air compressor and one or more combustion chambers where liquid or gaseous fuel is burned. The hot gases expand to drive the generator and then are used to run the compressor.
Geothermal Energy (Plant): Energy from the internal heat of the Earth, which may be residual heat, friction heat, or a result of radioactive decay. The heat is found in rocks and fluids at various depths and can be extracted by drilling and/or pumping. Hot water, extracted from geothermal reservoirs in the Earth's crust is supplied to steam turbines at electric utilities that drive generators to produce electricity.
Generator Nameplate Capacity: The full-load continuous rating of a generator, prime mover, or other electric power production equipment under specific conditions as designated by the manufacturer. Installed generator nameplate rating is usually indicated on a nameplate physically attached to the generator.
Gigawatt (GW): One billion watts, or one million kilowatts, or one thousand megawatts.
Gigawatthour (GWH): One billion watthours, or one million kilowatthours, or one thousand megwatthours.
Hydroelectric Power (Plant): The production of electricity from the kinetic energy of falling water driving turbine generators.
Independent Power Producer: Wholesale electricity producers (other than qualifying facilities under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978) that are unaffiliated with franchised utilities in the area in which the independent power producers are selling power and that lack significant marketing power. Unlike traditional electric utilities, independent power producers do not possess transmission facilities that are essential to their customers and do not sell power in any retail service territory where they have a franchise.
Integrated Resource Planning: A planning exercise by state public utility commissions to shape a gas or electric utility's supply and demand strategies. The IRP process assumes that free market processes, such as from unregulated prices, cannot optionally direct supply and demand.
Intermittent Supply: A flow of electricity which cannot be estimated in advance and cannot be controlled as either "firm" or "interruptible" supply. Intermittent supply has less economic value than interruptible supply, which, in turn, has less value than firm supply, reflecting the negative of uncertainty.
Interruptible Supply: A contractual flow of electricity that can be cut off by either provider or recipient. Interruptible supply is the opposite of firm power, which has a higher economic value.
Kilowatt (kW): One thousand watts.
Kilowatthour (kWh): One thousand watthours.
Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG): Natural gas (primarily methane) that has been liquefied by reducing its temperature to -260o F at atmospheric pressure. The special facilities required for gas to be converted to LNG and then converted back to natural gas make LNG more expensive than unconverted natural gas.
Megawatt (MW): One million watts.
Megawatthour (MWh): One million watthours.
Methanol: A light, volatile alcohol (CH3OH) eligible for motor gasoline blending.
Motor Gasoline, Finished Gasohol: A blend of finished motor gasoline (leaded or unleaded) and alcohol (generally ethanol, but sometimes methanol) in which 10 percent or more of the product is alcohol.
Motor Gasoline, Unleaded: Gasoline that contains not more than 0.05 gram of lead per gallon and not more than 0.005 gram of phosphorous per gallon. Premium and regular grades are included, depending on the octane rating.
Open Access Restructuring: A regulatory regime where utilities are required to provide nondiscriminatory access to their transmission and distribution facilities at regulated rates to outside shippers, either producers, marketers, or end users, who separately procure unregulated commodity supply.
Oxygenates: Any substance which, when added to motor gasoline, increases the amount of oxygen in that motor gasoline blend. Through a series of waivers and interpretive rules, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has determined the allowable limits for oxygenates in unleaded gasoline. The "Substantially Similar" Interpretive Rules (56 FR [February 11, 1991]) allows bends of aliphatic alcohols other than methanol and aliphatic ethers, provided the oxygen content does not exceed 2.7 percent by weight. The "Substantially Similar" Interpretive Rules also provide for blends of methanol up to 0.3 percent by volume exclusive of other oxygenates, and butanol or alcohols of a higher molecular weight up to 2.75 percent by weight. Individual waivers pertaining to the use of oxygenates in unleaded motor gasoline have been issued by the EPA. They include the following:
Photovoltaic and Solar Thermal Energy (as used at electric utilities): Energy radiated by the sun as electromagnetic waves (electromagnetic radiation) that is converted at electric utilities into electricity by means of solar cells (photovoltaic) or concentrating (focusing) collectors (solar thermal).
Photovoltaic Module: A group of photovoltaic cells, solid-state devices that produce electricity when exposed to sunlight. The electricity is used primarily in applications requiring remote power, such as radio communication, cathodic protection, and navigational aids.
Propane: A normal gaseous straight-chain hydrocarbon (C3H8). It is a colorless paraffinic gas that boils at a temperature of -43.67oF. It is extracted from natural gas or refinery gas streams and includes all products designated in ASTM Specification D1835 and Gas Processors Association Specifications for commercial propane and HD-5 propane.
Proved Reserves, Natural Gas: The estimated quantities of natural gas that analysis of geological and engineering data demonstrate with reasonable certainty to be recoverable in future years from known reservoirs under existing economic (price) and operating conditions.
Qualifying Facility (QF): A cogeneration or small power production facility that meets certain ownership, operating, and efficiency criteria established by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) pursuant to the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA).
Rate Base: The value of property upon which a utility is permitted to earn a specified rate of return as established by a regulatory authority. The rate base generally represents the value of property used by the utility in providing service and may be calculated by any one or a combination of the following accounting methods: fair value, prudent investment, reproduction cost, or original cost. Depending on which method is used, the rate base includes cash, working capital, materials and supplies, and deductions for accumulated provisions for depreciation, contributions in aid of construction, customer advances for construction, accumulated deferred income taxes, and accumulated deferred investment tax credits.
Renewable Energy: Energy obtained from sources that are essentially inexhaustible (unlike, for example, the fossil fuels, of which there is a finite supply). Renewable sources of energy include wood, waste, geothermal, wind, photovoltaic, and solar thermal energy.
Solar Collector: Equipment that actively concentrates thermal energy from the sun. The energy is usually used for space heating, water heating, or heating swimming pools. Either air or liquid is the working fluid.
Solar Energy: The radiant energy of the sun that can be converted into other forms of energy, such as heat or electricity.
Solar Thermal Collector: A device designed to receive solar radiation and convert it into thermal energy. Normally, a solar thermal collector includes a frame, glazing, and an absorber, together with appropriate insulation. The heat collected by the solar thermal collector may be used immediately or stored for later use.
Solar Thermal Collector, High Temperature: A collector that generally operates at temperatures above 180oF.
Solar Thermal Collector, Low Temperature: A collector that generally operates at temperatures below 110oF. Typically, it has no glazing or insulation and is made of plastic or rubber, although some are made of metal.
Solar Thermal Collector, Medium Temperature: A collector that generally operates at temperature of 140o to 180oF but can also operate at temperatures as low as 110oF. Typically, it has one or two glazings, a metal frame, a metal absorption panel with integral flow channels or attached tubing (liquid collector) or with integral ducting (air collector) and insulation on the sides and back of the panel.
Solar Thermal Collector, Special: An evacuated tube collector or a concentrating (focusing) collector. Special collectors operate in the temperature range from just above ambient temperature (low concentration for pool heating) to several hundred degrees Fahrenheit (high concentration for air conditioning and specialized industrial processes).
Watt: The electrical unit of power. The rate of energy transfer equivalent to 1 ampere flowing under a pressure of 1 volt of unity power factor.
Watthour (Wh): An electric energy unit of measure equal to 1 watt of power supplied to, or taken from, an electric circuit steadily for 1 hour.
Wellhead Natural Gas: The price of natural gas at the extraction level. Severance taxes by state governments are levied at this level.
Wind energy (as used at electric utilities): The kinetic energy of wind converted at electric utilities into mechanical energy by wind turbines (i.e., blades rotating from a hub) that drive generators to produce electricity for distribution.
Wood and Waste (as used at electric utilities): Wood energy, garbage, bagasse, sewerage gas, and other industrial, agricultural, and urban refuse used to generate electricity for distribution.
Wood Energy: Wood and wood products used as fuel, including round wood (cord wood), limb wood, wood chips, bark, sawdust, forest residues, charcoal, pulp waste, and spent pulping liquor.
Sources: With revisions and with new entries, this glossary is adopted from the Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy Review, 1995 and Electric Power Annual, 1995.