August 2009 Archives

The so-called "nuclear renaissance" is finding few friends among state lawmakers in the United States. The nuclear power industry has been shut out across the board in 2009 in its efforts in all six states -- ranging across the nation from Kentucky to Minnesota to Hawaii -- where it sought to overturn what are either explicit or effectively bans on construction of new reactors, according to the nonprofit Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS). Efforts to overturn bans also have failed to advance in Illinois and West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Beyond failing to reverse a single state-level ban on new reactors, the industry also suffered a wide range of major defeats, including an effort to repeal a ban on "Construction Work in Progress" (CWIP) payments that would have been imposed on Missouri ratepayers to finance a new nuclear power plant, which was then promptly mothballed. Industry efforts to get nuclear declared "renewable" by the states of Indiana and Arizona also failed to achieve results. Also going nowhere is a California bill to lift the state's pioneering law banning new reactors until a high-level waste dump is in place. That follows a 2008 California statewide referendum drive with the same focus that failed for lack of sufficient signatures to get it on the ballot.

Michael Mariotte, executive director, Nuclear Information and Resource Service, said: "While the nuclear power industry and a few members of Congress claim the U.S. is on the verge of a nuclear power resurgence, the industry looks more like a critical patient struggling to get by on life support out in the real world beyond the Beltway. No one seriously expects the industry to go away. But the truth is that things will be even tougher for their state lobbyists in 2010 now that the freeze on Yucca Mountain has taken long-term waste disposal off the table and also in the wake of new evidence of runaway construction costs that make nuclear power even more of a boondoggle."

Dave Kraft, director, Nuclear Energy Information Service, Chicago, IL., said: "Authorizing construction of new nuclear reactors without first constructing a radioactive waste disposal facility is like authorizing construction of a new Sears Tower without bathrooms. Neither makes sense; both threaten public health and safety."

Jennifer Nordstrom, Carbon-Free Nuclear-Free coordinator, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, Madison, WI., said: "Telling states to build new nuclear plants to combat global warming is like telling a patient to smoke to lose weight: There are too many other serious downsides that cannot be ignored. Fortunately, it is both technically and economically feasible to go both carbon-free and nuclear-free by 2050. Here in Wisconsin, we have a carbon-free, nuclear-free coalition in support of Wisconsin's current law on nuclear power, and a 100 percent renewable Wisconsin."

Commenting on the defeat of an industry-sought CWIP repeal in the Missouri Legislature this year, Mark Haim, chair, Missourians for Safe Energy, Columbia, MO., said: "New nuclear plants are far too risky and expensive to attract investor funding. Utilities will only build them if they can transfer the risk to the taxpayers or their ratepayers. Here in Missouri AmerenUE attempted to repeal a voter-enacted state law that bans Construction Work in Progress charges. Their goal was to get the ratepayers to assume the risks. When our legislators heard from consumer, senior, low-income and industrial groups all opposing CWIP, the CWIP repeal went nowhere. Once Ameren realized they couldn't get CWIP, they announced that they were abandoning efforts to build a new nuclear reactor. The pattern is clear, investors find nuclear too risky and utilities will only go down the nuclear path if their customers or the taxpayers underwrite the project."

NIRS provided this overview of the six states where industry efforts to overturn what are explicit or effective bans on new reactors failed:

MINNESOTA. The 1994 law in Minnesota provides that the state will not approve "the construction of a new nuclear-powered electric generating plant..." The Minnesota House voted 70-62 on April 30, 2009 to keep the state's nuclear moratorium in place. Rep. Frank Hornstein, DFL-Minneapolis, has stated publicly that the issues that led to the 1994 law are still not resolved. "We hear about advancement in technology, but we haven't solved the issue of waste -- a million-year radioactive toxic legacy that we'll pass on to untold generations," said Hornstein.

Since then, Minnesota has seen the launch of a group calling itself "Sensible Energy Solutions for Minnesota" including a retired power company CEO and the self-proclaimed head of a wildlife group who also headed up an organization called "Sportsmen for Bush." According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the new organization was founded by "three veteran Republican operatives": Matt Burns, spokesman for the 2008 Republican National Convention; Ben Golnik, who last year was Midwestern manager of Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign; and Tom Steward, a campaign spokesman for McCain and communications director for former Sen. Norm Coleman. By contrast, the Minnesota House's upholding of the moratorium was supported by the Clean Water Action Alliance of Minnesota, Environment Minnesota, Izaak Walton League of America-Minnesota Division, Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy and Sierra Club North Star Chapter.

WEST VIRGINIA. In 1996, section 16-27A-2 of the West Virginia State Code was enacted, stipulating that any nuclear facility must be approved by the Public Service Commission, comply with environmental requirements, be economically feasible for in-state rate payers, and, most importantly also that "a functional and effective national facility which safely, successfully and permanently disposes of any and all radioactive wastes associated with operating any such nuclear power plant, nuclear factory or nuclear electric power generating plant has been developed and that such facility has been proven safe, functional and effective by a minimum of twenty-four months' operation or experience." This spring, a bill to repeal West Virginia's effective ban on nuclear power plants died in the 2009 Legislature.

WISCONSIN. Wisconsin law sets two conditions that must be met before new nuclear power plants can be built in the state. One is that there must be "a federally licensed facility" for high-level nuclear waste. In addition, the proposed nuclear plant "must be economically advantageous to ratepayers." As the Center for Media and Democracy noted on March 26, 2009: "Given the near-death of the planned waste storage facility at Yucca Mountain, and the estimated $6 to $12 billion cost of building one nuclear reactor -- not to mention the lack of interest from private investors and the tanking economy -- Wisconsin's law effectively bans new nuclear plants in the state. The major industry group Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) registered four lobbyists in Wisconsin. NEI is lobbying state legislators on issues related to 'nuclear generation... engineering education and other issues related to state policies on energy, job creation, and environmental law,' according to disclosure forms. It's the first time that NEI has had lobbyists in Wisconsin since at least 1996, though the group has organized public and media events here, especially in recent years."

As the Milwaukee Journal reported on April 21, 2009: "Supporters of nuclear power made a big push earlier this spring to overturn the state's ban on construction of nuclear reactors. The supporters included (Patrick Moore) a co-founder of Greenpeace who now is working for an energy coalition funded by the Nuclear Energy Institute... [A] coalition of environmental groups and others concerned about nuclear power responded, saying the high cost of nuclear power and the challenge of radioactive waste -- the spent fuel left over from production of electricity from reactors -- make nuclear the wrong choice for the state. 'Given nuclear power's high costs and its legacy of nuclear waste, expanding the use of nuclear power is not a responsible choice for meeting future electricity needs in Wisconsin,' Physicians for Social Responsibility and other groups said in a letter to Gov. Jim Doyle and members of the Legislature.

HAWAII. Hawaii's ban on nuclear reactors dates back to the state's 1978 Constitutional Convention, which added Article XI, Section 8 to the State Constitution: "No nuclear fission power plant shall be constructed or radioactive material disposed of in the State without the prior approval by a two-thirds vote in each house of the legislature." Industry-supported bills to lift this constitutional requirement failed in the 2009 Legislature.

ILLINOIS. Illinois' law requires either a federally-approved waste disposal strategy or the state legislature's approval for a new reactor project. According to the Nuclear Energy Information Service, the repeal attempts of the Illinois nuclear construction moratorium did not move in the 2009 legislative session in the Capitol. Bills introduced in the Illinois House and Senate died in both chambers. These restrictions may be linked to the fact that Illinois is described as "the Most Nuclear State in the USA". Illinois has 11 operating power reactors, three power reactors prematurely closed, and hearings underway for a new plant. Illinois also has a waste closed and leaking dump for "low level" radioactive waste, a storage facility for spent fuel, and Manhattan Project waste buried in a forest preserve.

KENTUCKY. Kentucky's law not only requires a high-level nuclear waste facility "in actual operation" by the time the new nuclear reactor would require it, but also insists on detailing "the cost of [waste] disposal... with reasonable certainty." A combination of industry-backed bills designed to remove these restrictions died in the 2009 Legislature.

According to NIRS, the nuclear industry's 2009 defeats in 10 or more state capitols -- including all six efforts to overturn bans on new reactors -- were offset by only one win. Georgia state lawmakers approved CWIP, empowering a subsidiary of the Atlanta-based Southern Co. to collect $2 billion from its customers before a single watt of power is produced from two planned nuclear reactors. Outside of the South, CWIP bail-outs for the industry have made little headway to date.

SOURCE Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Washington, DC

The Common Ground Alliance (CGA), the nation's leading organization focused on protecting underground utility lines and the safety of people who dig near them, today announced findings from its comprehensive Damage Information Reporting Tool (DIRT) Report. The estimated total number of underground utility damages occurring in the U.S. in 2008 has decreased to 200,000 from the 2004 and 2007 estimates of 450,000 and 256,000 respectively.

The total number of events submitted for 2008 was 135,521, which represents facility damages, near misses and/or downtime incurred. The number of event submissions increased for the fifth consecutive year, which is indicative of broader support for voluntary data submission into DIRT. Several stakeholder groups currently submit data to DIRT as listed below.

• Natural Gas - 41 percent
• One Call Center - 27 percent
• Telecommunication - 23 percent
• Excavator - 3 percent
• Electric - 3 percent
• Other - 3 percent
  

Part of the increase may be attributable to the number of Virtual Private Dirt (VPD) accounts being requested and developed. VPD is an efficient, secure and useful solution for managing damage and near miss data. VPD enables users to collect and report their data for DIRT, as well as collect data for unique "flex fields" which can be customized to fit the needs of the individual organization or company.

In addition to the larger number of records submitted; the quality of the records improved in 2008. The Data Quality Index (DQI), a measurement of each record's level of completeness, improved from 50 percent to 57 percent. The DQI was used to evaluate each record, based on a variety of criteria, providing insight on reporting trends and training needs, as well as providing valuable feedback to the submitter.

Of the total number of incidents reported in 2008, more than half (73,152) had a known root cause, and were identified as follows:

• Notification not made - 37 percent
• Excavation practices not sufficient - 37 percent
• Locating practices not sufficient - 22 percent
• Notification practices not sufficient - 3 percent
• Miscellaneous root cause - 1 percent
  

Reported damages with "Notification Not Made" as the root cause are down to 37 percent from 48 percent in 2004, the year when DIRT submissions began. "Notification Not Made" was identified as the root cause in some 200,000 damages in 2004. That number was approximately 75,000 in 2008. More than ever, homeowners are calling their one call centers prior to beginning projects on their properties. The implementation of "811" in May 2007 has had a positive impact on the calling process.

"This year's DIRT Report enables us to take a more comprehensive look at the progress being made in underground damage prevention efforts throughout North America," said Bob Kipp, President of CGA. "With this data we are able to uncover important trends and also see the positive impact the implementation of 811, in May 2007, has had on reducing utility damages, specifically those caused by the failure to contact a one-call center before digging."

The DIRT Report was created as part of CGA's continuing mission to identify the contributing factors and root causes of underground utility damages and near misses, with the ultimate goal of reducing the occurrence of these incidents in the future.

The complete DIRT Annual Report for 2008 is available for download athttp://www.commongroundalliance.com, and stakeholders interested in submitting data to the 2009 report or establishing a Virtual Private Dirt account should visit the DIRT site at http://www.cga-dirt.com.

About CGA

CGA is a member-driven association of nearly 1,400 individuals, organizations and sponsors in every facet of the underground utility industry. Established in 2000, CGA is committed to saving lives and preventing damage to North American underground infrastructure by promoting effective damage prevention practices. CGA has established itself as the leading organization in an effort to reduce damages to underground facilities in North America through shared responsibility among all stakeholders. For more information, visit CGA on the web at http://www.commongroundalliance.com.

SOURCE Common Ground Alliance

Chinese oil demand continues to grow versus last year after reversing the first quarter's decline in April, official data showed August 19, though some of it could be attributed to stockpiling.

Chinese refiners ratcheted up their combined crude oil processing volume to a new record high of 33.11 million metric tons, or 7.83 million barrels per day in July, and overall implied oil demand in the world's third largest economy rose 4.2% from a year ago to 34.92 million metric tons, according to a Platts analysis.

July was the fourth consecutive month to register a year-on-year increase in China's apparent oil demand, which includes barrels moving into storage.

The latest monthly data dwarfs the 33.51 million metric tons of apparent demand calculated in July 2008, when oil stockpiling ahead of the Beijing Olympics had propped up Chinese appetite more than usual.

Meanwhile, domestic crude oil production inched 0.3% lower to 16.14 million metric tons, or 3.8 million barrels per day in July. Chinese crude imports spiked in July to an all-time high of 19.64 million metric tons, or 4.66 million barrels per day, which is 42.4% greater than a year ago.

However, China's year-to-date implied oil demand is only marginally higher than the corresponding period of 2008, still weighed down by the slump in the first quarter. At 221.47 million metric tons, January-July consumption was just 0.69% above the 219.96 million metric tons recorded for the same period of last year.

"The recent robust Chinese oil demand growth rates seem counter-intuitive, given that exports, the mainstay of the Asian giant's economy, remained depressed in July," said Vandana Hari, Asia news director at Platts. "The continued rise in crude refining volumes is understandable because that puts more money into the pockets of the refiners under the government's new products pricing formula. But if end-user demand is not in sync, that simply translates to more oil moving into storage."

"Whether Chinese industrial activity is able to get fully back on track once Beijing's massive fiscal stimulus runs out will hold the key to the country's oil demand growth in the coming months," Hari added.

    MONTHLY TRADE DATA IN MILLION METRIC TONS:

                Jul'09  Jul'08   % Chg  Jun'09  May'09  Apr'09  Mar'09  Feb'09
    Net crude
     imports     19.20   13.53  +41.90   16.31   16.62   15.81   15.87   11.12

    Crude
     production  16.14   16.19   -0.30   15.71   16.03   15.59   15.82   14.32

    Apparent
     demand      34.92   33.51   +4.21   33.35   33.23   31.47   31.26   27.91

Platts calculates China's apparent or implied oil demand on the basis of crude throughput volumes at the domestic refineries and net oil product imports, as reported by the National Bureau of Statistics and Chinese customs. The government releases data on imports, exports, domestic crude production and refinery throughput, but does not give official figures on the country's actual oil consumption or stockpiles.

Platts releases its monthly calculation of China's apparent demand between the 18th and 26th of every month via press release and via its website. Any use of this information must be appropriately attributed to Platts.

For more information on crude oil, visit the Platts website at www.platts.com For Chinese-language information on oil and the energy and metals markets, visit http://www.platts.cn/.

Source: Platts

Pace Global Energy Services, LLC ("Pace Global") and Standard Solar, Inc. have created a strategic alliance to quickly penetrate the growing solar energy markets in the commercial, academic, government, and residential sectors. This alliance builds on Standard Solar's existing success in the solar energy markets and will comprise a team with proven project origination and execution skills, global industrial experience, and supported by the necessary capital to expand quickly. Pace Global and Standard Solar are fully committed to bring added value to all of their customers and provide the differentiated energy solutions that solar power represents.

Pace Global and Standard Solar are currently developing a number of distributed power project opportunities in both the academic and the commercial marketplace. For these project hosts, the cost savings and dependence on renewable fuels will commence on day one of operation.

"The market environment for solar energy is strong and holds immediate opportunities for commercial and academic sites. The technology is now stable; the regulatory environment is extremely attractive; and demand for this cost effective renewable resource holds immense promise for our strategic alliance. Together we bring the development skills, the client portfolio, the capital and the regulatory experience to bring solar solutions to operational status immediately and we intend to do so," said Timothy F. Sutherland, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Pace Global.

Tony Clifford, Chief Executive Officer of Standard Solar, added, "We foresee an upward trend in electricity rates while the cost of implementing solar projects will fall. In addition, governments at both the Federal and the State level are providing attractive incentives for solar projects. This alliance has significant opportunities for successful growth and will allow us to provide real value to our current clients and as well as future customers."

Pace Financial Services, LLC - a wholly owned subsidiary of Pace Global - is serving as Financial Advisor to Standard Solar.

Source: Standard Solar Inc.

PPL Electric Utilities has conducted the first in a series of scheduled purchases for 2011 electricity supply. The results were approved Thursday (8/13) by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.

In this first procurement, PPL Electric Utilities obtained 16.875 percent of the load-following electricity supply it will need to serve residential and small- and mid-size business customers in the five-month period from Jan. 1, 2011, to May 31, 2011.

"We are continuing with the strategy of obtaining electricity supply in stages over time to minimize the price risk for our customers," said David G. DeCampli, president of PPL Electric Utilities.

These purchases are the first under a plan approved in June by the PUC for obtaining electricity supply for 2011, 2012 and the first five months of 2013.

State law requires PPL Electric Utilities, which does not own power plants and does not generate electricity, to buy default electricity supply from the competitive market for its customers who do not select an alternative supplier.

The company must obtain electricity supply through a combination of short-term, long-term and spot-market purchases, and pass the costs through to customers without profit. The initial purchases made this week represent the beginning of PPL Electric Utilities' efforts to assemble a supply structure that meets those requirements.

"Continuing the experience we have had with obtaining electricity supply for 2010, this first procurement for 2011 was a highly competitive process," DeCampli said. "We had 14 suppliers participate, ensuring competitive prices for our customers."

The purchase of five-month full-requirements contracts resulted in a price of $88.60 per megawatt-hour for residential customers and $90.31 per megawatt-hour for small- and mid-sized business customers.

"Because the amount of supply we purchased in this auction is only a small portion of what we need and does not cover the entire year, it is premature based on these prices to estimate the effect on customer bills in 2011," DeCampli said.

In addition, PPL Electric Utilities purchased for residential customers a five-month block of 50 megawatts of round-the-clock electricity supply for January through May 2011 at a price of $57.15 per megawatt-hour, as well as renewable energy credits for January through May 2011 to comply with Pennsylvania's Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard.

The price for the 50-megawatt energy block is for energy only, and does not include capacity and other charges, which the company will purchase separately from the regional PJM Interconnection.

These purchases are separate from the electricity supply that PPL Electric Utilities has obtained for 2010, and are not comparable to the 2010 purchases due to the five-month time period and different product mix. The sixth and final purchase for 2010 will occur in October.

PPL Electric Utilities, a subsidiary of PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL), provides electric delivery service to 1.4 million customers in 29 counties of eastern and central Pennsylvania and has consistently ranked among the best companies for customer service in the United States. More information is available at www.pplelectric.com.

Source: PPL Electric Utilities

BlackLight Power, Inc. (BLP) today announces that scientists at Rowan University have for the first time independently formulated and tested fuels that on demand generated energy greater than that of combustion at power levels of kilowatts using BLP's proprietary solid-fuel chemistry capable of continuous regeneration. Operating power systems using BLP's chemistry, Rowan University professors have reported a net energy gain of up to 6.5 times the maximum energy potential of the materials in the system from known chemical reactions.

In a joint statement, Dr. K.V. Ramanujachary, Rowan University Meritorious Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Dr. Amos Mugweru, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, and Dr. Peter Jansson P.E., Associate Professor of Engineering said, "In independent tests conducted over the past three months involving 10 solid fuels made by us from commercially-available chemicals, our team of engineering and chemistry professors, staff, and students at Rowan University has independently and consistently generated energy in excesses ranging from 1.2 times to 6.5 times the maximum theoretical heat available through known chemical reactions."

"Additionally, we have analyzed the reaction products and are confident that the procedures we have followed and chemicals we have procured and reacted are not capable of generating the quantities of heat we have observed with previously known chemistry. This significant disclosure by BLP makes it readily possible for other laboratories to demonstrate the repeatability of these reactions that produce anomalous heat regularly in our university laboratory. Moreover, we have also reproduced BLP's tests that identify a novel form of hydrogen as the likely explanation of the additional heat evolved."

Based on the solid fuel used and power generated at scales of approximately 30 kW, the reaction appears scalable to any level. Moreover, BLP scientists were able to regenerate the fuel by simply applying heat. This breakthrough advances the commercial viability of the BlackLight Process as a new non-polluting energy source that was first announced by BLP in October 2008.

Proof of Power

The validation by the Rowan University team provides further evidence that the observed energy gain will enable the operation of commercial power plants by continuously replacing the hydrogen that is consumed by the BlackLight Process to form hydrinos. Hydrinos are a prior undiscovered form of hydrogen in lower-energy states produced by the BlackLight Process as latent energy is released by hydrogen atoms. The energy released forming a hydrino is over 200 times the energy required to extract hydrogen from water by electrolysis to produce the new hydrogen fuel consumed during the BlackLight Process.

"The advanced version of the solid fuel is very efficient at liberating energy from forming hydrinos and requires essentially no energy to reverse the chemical product back into the initial fuel. Regeneration was achieved simply with heat. This is enabling of continuous generation of power using simplistic and efficient systems that use heat liberated by forming "hydrinos" to concurrently maintain regeneration. The system is closed except that only hydrogen consumed in forming hydrinos needs to be replaced," said Dr. Randell Mills, Chairman, CEO and President of BlackLight Power, Inc.

"The observed energy gain and successful thermal regeneration of the solid fuel show the feasibility of using the solid fuel in a recycled manner as a replacement for fossil and nuclear fuels in power plants. These developments are anticipated to result in a significant decrease in the time to commercialization", noted Dr. Mills.

John Miller, recently appointed to the Board of Directors of BLP and former president of Standard Oil, described the recent advances saying, "The successful development of new-generation chemistry and its simple thermal regeneration is a major historical step toward near-term, commercial hydrino power. Our recent execution of eight billion watts of commercial licensing agreements demonstrates that the power market is beginning to agree."

Proof of Existence of Hydrinos

BLP also announces successful independent production and characterization of a new form of hydrogen by professors at Rowan University. In the study independently performed at Rowan University laboratories, Professor Ramanujachary and Professor Mugweru synthesized from base materials the previously undiscovered form of hydrogen and were able to characterize hydrogen atoms existing in lower-energy states - called hydrinos - as predicted by BLP. In further confirmation, the Rowan University team was also able to identify similar hydrino signatures from net energy producing systems operating in Professor Jansson's laboratories. This represents the first time BLP has taught independent labs the techniques for making hydrinos from scratch.

Dr. Ramanujachary remarked, "Recent advances in techniques at BLP in production of this new form of matter appear to make it straightforward for any lab in the world to synthesize sufficient volumes to characterize this previously unknown form of hydrogen." Dr. Mugweru continues, "Knowing the starting materials of the synthesis reaction and fully characterizing the by-products, other than a new form of hydrogen, we were unable to make an assignment to known species for the signatures observed."

Light Signature of Hydrino

BLP also announces today the publication of a paper, by Dr. Randell Mills, Dr. Kamran Akhtar, and Dr. Ying Lu in the Central European Journal of Physics describing a significant new confirmation of hydrinos. For the first time, BLP confirms direct spectral observation of transitions of hydrogen to form hydrinos. These experiments showing hydrogen spectral emissions below 80 nanometers, the previously known ground state, are decisive evidence of the existence of hydrinos theoretically predicted by Dr. Randell Mills. Describing the significance of the breakthrough, Dr. Mills said, "This is smoking-gun evidence of the existence of hydrinos, the light signature observed is from pure hydrogen and at much higher energy than deemed possible for this element in any known form."

Successful Application of Theory

BLP has published eight journal articles in the past seven months reporting the energetic characteristics of its power-producing process and released in July the newest edition of the Grand Unified Theory of Classical Physics that predicts hydrinos. These are available at: http://www.blacklightpower.com/.

BLP's wholly-owned subsidiary, Millsian, Inc., a developer of molecular modeling applications of classical physics, announces the release today of Millsian 2.0 Beta software that can visualize the exact three-dimensional structure and calculate physical characteristics of a boundless number of molecules of any length and complexity including complex proteins and DNA. BLP believes that Millsian software represents a major breakthrough that may impact nearly all businesses involved in drug development, material science, and chemistry. More importantly, it proves that classical laws of physics apply at the atomic and molecular scale, the principle that predicted hydrinos.

Professors Peter Jansson, K.V. Ramanujachary, and Amos Mugweru, have released reports outlining the full documentation and results of the off-site replication and independent testing of the new power systems, new-generation chemistry, and hydrino characterization testing that is available at: http://www.blacklightpower.com/.

A technical paper giving the detailed chemistry that BLP believes laboratories can easily follow and replicate is given at http://www.blacklightpower.com

About BlackLight Power

BlackLight Power, Inc. is the inventor of a new primary energy source and a new field of hydrogen chemistry with broad commercial applications.

BlackLight Power has invented a new primary energy source with applications to heating, distributed power generation, central power generation, and motive power based on a new chemical process of releasing the latent energy of the hydrogen atom, the BlackLight Process.

For more information, please visit http://www.blacklightpower.com/

About Rowan University

Rowan University, Glassboro, N.J., is a highly ranked comprehensive public university that offers bachelor through doctoral degrees. The University comprises seven colleges: Business, Communication, Education, Engineering, Fine & Performing Arts, Liberal Arts & Sciences, and Professional & Continuing Education. U.S. News & World Report ranks Rowan's College of Engineering 12th in the nation among programs that offer bachelor and master degrees.

Glossary:

BlackLight Process: A novel chemical process invented by BLP causing the latent energy stored in the hydrogen atom to be released as a new primary energy source.

Hydrino: Hydrinos are a new form of hydrogen discovered by BLP. Hydrinos are produced during the BlackLight Process as energy is released from the hydrogen atom as the electron transitions to a lower-energy state resulting in a smaller radius hydrogen atom.

Spectral Emissions: Spectral emission of an atom such as hydrogen is a unique signature that acts like a fingerprint of its characteristics. Each line of the spectrum is characteristic of and identifies the energy levels of the atom.

Applications of BlackLight Process

Two of the potential applications of its technology are in heating and electric power production. The heat-generating prototypes have shown the BlackLight Process to be potentially competitive with existing primary generation sources over a range of scales from micro-distributed to central power generation. The BlackLight Process thermal power source may be ideal for interfacing with commercially available electric power generating equipment. BlackLight technology may be well-suited for the utility industries and could reduce or eliminate problems such as those arising from the variable regional supply and price of fuels such as coal, natural gas, and oil, and the cost of building out a suitable supporting infrastructure and transmission grids, as well as eliminate pollution, greenhouse gas emission and other market, supply, infrastructure, or environmental adversities.

SOURCE BlackLight Power, Inc.

The United States government today announced $2.4 billion in grants to accelerate the manufacturing and deployment of the next generation of U.S. batteries and electric vehicles. Remy International, Inc. was among the grant winners and will receive $60.2 million to establish a standardized platform of hybrid electric motors and controls.

"This is outstanding news as it accelerates our growth strategy," said John Weber, President and CEO of Remy International, lnc. "This reconfirms Remy's technology in hybrid electric motors and will accelerate our leadership position in the market."

The DOE grant awarded to Remy and its co-applicant, Phoenix International (a John Deere company), will allow for critical capital and human resource investments to produce a full line of standard electric motors and power electronics. This investment will create or protect nearly 1,000 highly skilled jobs in the United States for Remy, its partners, and its supply base. It will also establish a strong domestic manufacturing base for electric drive motor technology and accelerate the use of electric drive vehicles with higher fuel efficiency.

Remy is the largest North American hybrid electric motor manufacturer with industry leading technology and intellectual property. Its hybrid electric motor platform can be used in passenger vehicles, trucks and heavy equipment vehicles.

SOURCE Remy International, Inc.