. . . ENERGY FLASHES . . . ENERGY FLASHES . . .

By the Mother Earth News editors

THE WORLD'S LARGEST ETHANOL PRODUCTION PLANT HAS OPENED in South Bend, Indiana. The $186 million factory is capable of converting, each week, 20 million bushels of corn into more than a million gallons of fuel ethanol (to be used as an octane enhancer in unleaded gasoline). In addition, the plant is expected to produce some 185,000 tons of animal feed and 150,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually. The facility, built with the help of the largest loan guarantee ever granted under the Department of Energy's alcohol fuels program ($141 million), is lauded by some but criticized by others as an example of the industry's — and the government's — tendency to support a few large, centralized production facilities rather than develop a wide network of many smaller operations.

OUR DOMESTIC ETHANOL OUTPUT, HOWEVER, PALES IN COMPARISON TO BRAZIL'S, where annual alcohol fuel production is expected to top the 3-billion-gallon mark this year. In the face of near-record low international prices for sugar (they've been as low as one-third the cost of producing the substance!), the country will convert much less of its cane crop to sweetener for export and much more to ethanol. Since American alcohol-fuel producers use primarily corn — an increasingly expensive commodity — the Brazilians expect to be able to broaden their share of the market in this country, which already consumes about 90% of Brazil's total ethanol exports.

188 MILLION KILOWATT-HOURS OF WIND-GENERATED ELECTRICITY were purchased by California's two major utilities in 1984, according to the American Wind Energy Association. That's enough to meet the needs of some 31,300 typical customers, and more than four times the 46.5 million kilowatt-hours purchased by the two companies in 1983. In 1982, the total was only 4.8 million . . . and in 1981, it was just 0.1 million!

THE TREND AWAY FROM CENTRALIZED POWER PRODUCTION IS NATIONWIDE and is changing the face of America's electric industry, according to a report issued recently by the Worldwatch Institute (1776 Massachusetts Ave. N.W., Washington, DC 20036). Some 785 small-scale, independent power projects — many of which employ renewable-energy technology — have been built or planned in the past three years, says the Institute. Together, the projects will match the output of 14 large nuclear plants.

MEANWHILE, ONE-THIRD OF ALL AMERICANS — ABOUT 35 MILLION FAMILIES — ARE IN FOR "RATE SHOCK," says a study released by the Environmental Action Foundation (724 Dupont Circle Building, Washington, DC 20036). Although more than 100 U.S. nuclear plants have been canceled in recent years, 49 are still in various stages of construction. When they're completed, the study estimates, Americans will be jolted by a total first-year increase in their electric bills of $25 billion.

WINE MAKERS ARE RETURNING TO TRADITIONAL TUNNEL-STORAGE TECHNIQUES in order to cut utility and construction costs. Rutherford Hills Winery, one of California's Napa Valley vintners, has opted to dig a cave for storing its wine rather than proceed with plans for building a 30,000-square-foot refrigerated warehouse. Using electricity only for lighting, the cave will maintain ideal storage conditions — a natural temperature of 60° to 65°F, with 70% humidity — regardless of outside conditions . . . and should save a minimum of $12,000 a year in air-conditioning costs.

DISTURBINGLY HIGH CANCER RATES AMONG EMPLOYEES AT FEDERAL NUCLEAR FACILITIES have been discovered in 9 out of 12 Department of Energy (DOE) project-summary studies. Workers (including janitors, laborers, and construction personnel) at DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have a 49% higher leukemia mortality rate than the U.S. average . . . those employed at the Oak Ridge uranium-processing plant from 1943 to 1947 had significantly higher lung cancer rates . . . and higher-than-average fatalities from Hodgkin's disease and cancer of the lungs, brain, and central nervous system were reported among employees at the Oak Ridge weapons plant. A 36% higher digestive cancer rate was found at the government's uranium-processing plant at Fernald, Ohio . . . and a 1976 study conducted by DuPont revealed a 60% excess incidence of lung cancer and a 114% higher-than-average leukemia rate at the Savannah River plant.

THERE ARE CURRENTLY ONLY 2 MILLION AUTOMOBILES IN CHINA, but that number is expected to jump to 13 million by the end of the century, according to The Wall Street Journal.... Construction of HAWAII'S LARGEST WIND TURBINE — a Danish-built unit rated at 340 kilowatts — has been completed on the island of Maui, and plans are underway to install 15 larger generators on Oahu .... The Sacramento Municipal Utility District will build a $40 MILLION, 5-MEGAWATT PHOTOVOLTAIC GENERATING FACILITY near Rancho Seco, California. The plant is expected to be producing current by 1987 . . . . and in Red Boiling Springs, Tennessee, A 3-MEGAWATT TURBINE FUELED BY SAWDUST will convert 100 tons of sawmill waste each day to produce power for the Tennessee Valley Authority.