Legislation authorizing a U.S. biomass and alcohol fuel program, and that authorized loan guarantees and price guarantees and purchase agreements for alcohol fuel production.

A company that specializes in undertaking energy efficiency measures under a contractual arrangement whereby the ESCo shares the value of energy savings with their customer.

The process of storing, or converting energy from one form to another, for later use; storage devices and systems include batteries, conventional and pumped storage hydroelectric, flywheels, compressed gas, and thermal mass.

A thermodynamic property of a substance, defined as the sum of its internal energy plus the pressure of the substance times its volume, divided by the mechanical equivalent of heat. The total heat content of air; the sum of the enthalpies of dry air and w ...

A gasifier in which the feedstock (fuel) is suspended by the movement of gas to move it through the gasifier.

A measure of the unavailable or unusable energy in a system; energy that cannot be converted to another form.

All the natural and living things around us. The earth, air, weather, plants, and animals all make up our environment.

In reference to solar photovoltaic devices, the growth of one crystal on the surface of another crystal. The growth of the deposited crystal is oriented by the lattice structure of the original crystal.

The two times of the year when the sun crosses the equator and night and day are of equal length; usually occurs on March 21st (spring equinox) and September 23 (fall equinox).

A unit of work done by the force of one dyne acting through a distance of one centimeter.

Ethyl alcohol (C2H5OH)

A chemical compound produced in a reaction between ethanol and isobutylene (a petroleum-derived by-product of the refining process). ETBE has characteristics superior to other ethers: low volatility, low water solubility, high octane value, and a large re ...

A mixture of substances that has a melting point lower than that of any mixture of the same substances in other proportions.

Salt mixtures with potential applications as solar thermal energy storage materials.

A solar collector in which the absorber is contained in a sealed glass tube, thereby providing for relatively high temperature heat gain.

The physical process by which a liquid or solid is transformed into the gaseous state. For this process a mechanical device uses the outside air's heat to evaporate water that is held by pads inside the cooler. The heat is drawn out of the air through thi ...

The inner coil in a heat pump that, during the cooling mode, absorbs heat from the inside air and boils the liquid refrigerant to a vapor, which cools the house.

The power required to energize the magnetic field of a generator.

An unregulated subsidiary of an electric utility that is allowed to generate and sell wholesale power as an independent energy producer, and is exempt from the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935.

A type of insulation that is molded or expanded to produce coarse, closed cells containing air. The rigid cellular structure provides thermal and acoustical insulation, strength with low weight, and coverage with few heat loss paths. Often used to insulat ...