From: Rita Schenck [mailto:rita@iere.org]
Sent: Monday, April 22, 2002 9:04 AM
To: rita@iere.org
Subject: Sustainable Energy Update #3

Dear Friends:

We are working along still gathering data on Vashon-Maury Island's energy consumption and energy resources. We have recently gotten estimates of the amount of fuel oil consumed per year (about 500,000 gallons) and the amount of firewood consumed per year (about 2000 cords). The firewood we burn is usually from clearing for development of some sort-- either to put in houses or pastures or to clear around existing houses. No forestry permits have been issued for the island for some time. We do actually import some firewood from off island!

It would be nice to have sustainable forestry on island-- because the waste wood can produce quite a bit of heat and power. In fact I recently learned that the more efficient pulp mills actually produce more electricity from their wood wastes than they need to run their processes. They sell it into the grid.

One of the issues we have been looking into is the potential to generate hydrogen from our new clean energy to power cars on the island. According to our consultant (Princeton Energy Resources International), "18 kWh of electricity is needed to generate enough hydrogen to drive a fuel cell vehicle as far as the same vehicle could be driven on a gallon of gasoline". They also told us that it takes about 1 gallon of water to produce the hydrogen equivalent to 1 gallon of gasoline. There is a demonstration project of this technology up and running in California. You can read about it at http://www.humboldt.edu/~serc/generationcenter.html

We have been working hard to gather the rest of the funding we need to make the project go. As noted in our last update, we wrote a proposal to NAFTA's Commission on Environmental Cooperation. Since then we applied to Royal Dutch Shell Foundation, and we are writing a grant to the Bullitt Foundation. We plan to evaluate opportunities with the Department of Energy, too. So far, no responses are in.

We continue to do our public outreach. I was interviewed by the Voice of Vashon, and the Seattle PI published a story on our project. Representative Toni Lysen contacted me and I met with her when she was on island recently. I also met with US Representative Jim McDermott. Our legislators are anxious to help us, and it is terrific to have their support.

We invite you to share this note with anyone you believe would be interested. We will gladly add the names of anyone who requests it to this mail list. Likewise, if you wish to be removed, send me a note and I'll remove your name.

Best regards,

Rita Schenck
Institute for Environmental Research and Education
P.O. Box 2449
Vashon, WA 98070

206-463-7430
206-279-1570 (fax)
rita@iere.org