Energy Flashes

A NEW USE FOR THE OLD TOWN WHISTLE: When folks in Curtis, Nebraska, hear a half-minute blast on the town whistle, they don't head for a fire truck or storm shelter. Instead, they turn off their TVs and air conditioners and other electrical appliances. The 30-second signal means that the Curtis Water and Power Department's system is nearing its peak capacity, so customers are being asked to cut back on their consumption of current. A second half-minute whistle tells people that the crisis is over and they can return to normal usage. Officials say the signal, coupled with the willingness of the town's 1,014 residents to cooperate, has effectively eased the community's power load.

PACIFIC GAS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY BOUGHT MORE RENEWABLE ENERGY LAST YEAR than any other utility in the nation. According to PG&E chairman Frederick Mielke, the company purchased nearly 125 million kilowatt-hours (kwh) of wind-generated electricity . . . almost 1.9 billion kwh from cogeneration and biomass plants . . . and 17 billion kwh from hydroelectric stations. In addition, it produced 15.1 billion kwh of current at its own hydro plants and generated a record 7.1 billion kwh at its Geysers geothermal facility.

 THE "ICEMOBILE," A SIMPLE ENGINE THAT RUNS ON TEMPERATURE CHANGES, has been introduced by Innovative Technology International, Inc. (10747-3 Tucker St., Beltsville, MD 20705, 301/937-3688). The gadget's primary component is a wire made of the nickel-titanium alloy nitinol, which is looped around two wheels. When an ice cube is pressed against the wire, the metal attempts to straighten out and thus spins the wheels and cuts into the cube, acting much like the blade on a band saw (the device, in fact, looks like a miniature version of that tool). Its inventors claim that it may be possible to develop a larger, multiwire unit that would convert solar or waste energy into power for industrial applications.

A BUOY THAT GENERATES ELECTRICITY BY RIDING THE WAVES has been patented by the United States Navy. When a magnetic ball inside the float rolls in response to wave movement, the magnet's field passes across wires embedded in the buoy, and an electrical current is produced. The device (which carries U.S. Patent No. 4,492,875) is used to power oceanographic instruments.

WOOD HEATING HANDBOOK: A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR THE RESIDENTIAL USER is an exceptionally comprehensive manual on choosing, installing, and using a home wood-heating system. The spiral-bound, 95-page book includes worksheets to help you determine your home's R-values, rate of air exchange, and loss of heat through conduction and other factors. In addition, it surveys the full range of possible equipment choicesfrom fireplaces, stoves, and inserts to wood-chip furnaces and central multifuel units-and provides detailed information to help you determine which kind and size of system would be most suitable for your home. Best of all, the publication is _free for the asking from Great Lakes Regional Biomass Energy Program, Council of Great Lakes Governors, 122 W. Washington Ave., Suite 801A, Madison, WI 53703, 608/255-7880.

THE NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION (NRC) SAYS THERE IS NEARLY A 50/50 CHANCE OF A SEVERE NUCLEAR REACTOR CORE MELTDOWN at one of 100 U.S. reactors during the next 20 years. NRC analyst Robert Bernero calculates that the chance of such an accident happening at a single reactor is one in 3,333 per year-which, when multiplied across a total of 100 reactors over a span of 20 years, yields a probability of roughly 45%. Worst-case scenarios have estimated that thousands of immediate fatalities and perhaps hundreds of thousands of long-term cancers could result from a core meltdown and the subsequent release of radioactivity. But the NRC considers the calculated odds of a meltdown tolerable-in large part because of the agency's growing confidence in the recent hypothesis that reactor containment buildings are better able to control releases than was once thought.

THE AVERAGE RESIDENTIAL CUSTOMER'S UTILITY BILL WENT UP 196% between 1972 and 1983, according to a survey by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners .... 10 METHANOL-POWERED BUSES have been added to Seattle, Washington's Metro transit system to replace aging conventional carriers .... 120,000 FRENCH HOMES ARE NOW HEATED GEOTHERMICALLY, and the number is expected to jump to 850,000 by 1990 . . . . GEOTHERMAL ENERGY HAS ALSO REACHED NEW HEIGHTS IN TIBET, where a 3,000-kilowatt geothermal power plant located at an elevation of 14,000 feet is expected to be operating by 1986 . . . . SALES OF GASOHOL SOARED TO A RECORD LEVEL LAST YEAR, when some 5.7 billion gallons of blended fuel (10% ethanol, 90% gasoline) were sold. 5.42% of all the gasoline purchased in the U.S. in 1984 contained at least some ethanol .... CALIFORNIA'S BOOMING WIND INDUSTRY HAS INJECTED $1 BILLION of private investment money into the state's economy, creating 3,000 jobs since 1981, says the California Energy Commission.