. Page 4 RAIN May/June 1984 ACCESS: Energy Be Your Own Power Company, by David Morris, 1983, 326 pages, $9.95 from: Rodale Press 33 East Minor Street Emmaus, PA 18049 advantages and disadvantages of each of the renewable-energy-generating technologies. If you've started down the road to generating electricity from renewable resources and selling part or all of it to your local utility, you've probably got more questions than any book could answer. But this one can answer a lot of them, as well as answer questions you hadn't thought to ask but probably. should have. —Michael Philips Michael Philips is a Senior Energy Analyst for the City of Portland Energy Office. Previously, he worked for the Solar Lobby and the National League of Cities in Washington, DC. tion, in English and French, on the sponsoring group, original language (mostly English and French), research protocol, start and end dates of the project, financial sponsor, publications, and indexing information. In the back of the book, the author has organized the projects by new and renewable energy sources (solar energy, biomass), disciplines (chemistry, forestry), applications (production of electricity, water pumping), and activity sectors (household, tourism) and localization (mountain, coastal, and island). This is a good resource if you want a quick reference to representative renewable-energy research in Europe and selected developing countries. -^TK When the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act was passed in 1978, it effectively eliminated the legal monopoly electric utilities had over electric generation by requiring them to purchase at a fair price electricity generated by small, independent power producers. PURPA only applies if the small producers generate electricty via cogeneration or with renewable resources such as pho- tovoltaics, windpower, and hydropower. Author David Morris, codirector of the Institute for Local Self Reliance, explains how to generate and sell electricty to utility companies from backyard and small-scale systems. Although several books are available that explain, mainly from a Popular Science perspective, how to design wind turbines, micro-hydro generators, and the like, this is the only comprehensive guidebook on the financial and legal issues involved in interconnecting with the utility grid. The issues can be complex, but Morris dissects each one in an easy-to-understand fashion. One of the most crucial issues involves determining the price the utility should pay for a small producer's power. PURPA regulations require utilities to pay roughly the same price per kilowatt-hour that it costs them to add new baseload generating capacity, such as from a new coal or nuclear plant. This price can turn out to be high. The federal rules, however, are only guidelines, and the ultimate sale price a small producer gets is largely determined in individual negotiations with the local utility, which, in all probability, isn't anxious to hook up to a backyard windmill, jet alone pay a high rate for the electricity. Morris explains what considerations should go into calculating the actual sale price, and he takes readers through basic negotiating points and standard contracts. He also covers the New Energy Sources for Developing Areas, by Sandro Amaducci, 1984, 277 pp., $24 from: Sandro Amaducci 246 avenue Coghen, bte 2 B-1180 Brussels Belgium Applications of pedal power, microbial digestion of treated cereal strains in the rumen, the sea-clam wave energy conversion system, and holographic thin-film systems for multijunction solar cells are four of the 230 research projects indexed in this directory. The author surveyed over 1000 research centers or organizations that have an interest in energy research in the European Community or in ACP countries (63 countries in Africa, the Caribbean, or the Pacific, associated with the European Community) to collect this information. For the most part, the projects studied are intended to provide solutions to energy problems in developing countrios. Each one-page entry includes informaAppropriate Technology Organizations: A Worldwide Directory, compiled by the Center for Business Information, 1984, 149 pp., $29.95 from: McFarland and Company, Publishers Box 611 Jefferson, NC 28640 A comprehensive listing, by country, of the addresses of 1,977 appropriate technology organizations. The organizations are arranged by country (there are 16 A.T. organizations in Botswana, you can see at a glance), and there is an alphabetical index in the back of the book. I spotted a few typos in the addresses, and I wonder if some of the organizations are still in operation. In all, though, this is a good place to start looking if you want to find out about A.T. activity in any country (or U.S. state) you choose. It's good to see these kinds of guides are still being published, after the big flurry of A.T. activity of the 1970s. —TK Types of lids: porcelain-lined screw top, metal screw cap, self-sealing cap, and clamp-type lid FROM: The Living Kitchen
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc4NTAz