Washington State University Tri-Cities recently landed two grants to advance biofuel research. Associate professor Xiao Zhang received $500,000 to pursue converting lignin to biofuel.Lignin is a common material that makes the cell walls of plants rigid.The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture awarded the grant to Zhang,...
Three Tri-City public power electricity producers and providers recently paid more than $9 million in privilege taxes to the state.The annual tax is levied on public power electricity producers and providers for the privilege of generating electricity or providing electricity in the state.Energy Northwest paid nearly $4.8 million, up from...
Thanks to a partnership between the city of Richland and the Bonneville Power Association, commercial and industrial businesses within city limits are being rewarded for reducing their carbon footprint.The energy efficiency program offered through Richland Energy Services works with 30 to 50 commercial and industrial customers a year. After providing...
Energy Northwest recently announced some changes, including a new CEO and promotions within its leadership team. This includes a decision by the company’s executive board to name Brad Sawatzke as chief executive officer, after serving as interim CEO since the end of March. Brad SawatzkePrior to being named CEO, Sawatzke...
By David ForsythPlants are the ultimate energy-conversion machine, taking energy from sunlight along with carbon dioxide to produce plant biomass and oxygen. Wine grapes, like many plants, will store some of this energy as sugar in the fruit. David ForsythThe grapevine using the captured energy, along with water, nitrogen and...
While a proposed Richland solar power project would be the biggest in the state, the economic future of this source of electricity in Washington is not yet written in stone.This will be the first American venture for the French solar power company Neoen. As Neoen studies the potential installation of...
By Don C. BrunellDriving east along Highway 14 these days, you see water pouring out of Columbia River dams. It is already a high water year with much of the run-off from our heavy mountain snowpack yet to come. Don C. BrunellIt is part of our “feast or famine” weather...
By Don C. BrunellSince the construction of Grand Coulee and Bonneville dams, Washington has enjoyed an abundance of low cost, reliable hydropower. It has been one-key competitive advantage for energy intensive industries and now it is vital to our state burgeoning “clean-tech industries.”Hydropower, along with nuclear, solar and wind, produce...
When it comes to hydroelectric power, most people think of a mighty river and a massive dam. Electricity is generated when the build up of water is released from the reservoir. The energy of water falling over the dam is then converted into electric energy through a turbine.There are about...
By Don C. BrunellToday, many elected officials are fixated on tearing down coal-fired power plants and replacing them with solar and wind farms. But that isn’t practical, because when there is no wind or sunlight those plants produce no electricity.There is an alternative.Nuclear power plants supply 10 percent of world’s...
