Power to the people: local governments go green
Abstract Local governments could become important vehicles for green power by acting as community aggregators and offering consumers the opportunity to express local preferences for cleaner power sources through the purchase of renewable energy.
Promoting Renewable Energy in a Market Environment: A Community-Based Approach for Aggregating Green Demand
PREFACE This report is the result of a partnership between the Land and Water Fund of the Rockies (LAW Fund) and the Community Office for Resource Efficiency (CORE). It introduces, describes, and justifies a new community-based approach for selling clean power we have developed in Colorado. We believe this grassroots approach can play an important role in commercializing renewable resource technologies in an increasingly competitive electric utility industry. The Community Office for Resource Efficiency is a non-profit energy office funded by a unique coalition of three local governments and three utilities. Based in Aspen, Colorado, CORE's mission is to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy in western Colorado. CORE was established due to the efforts of a grassroots advocacy group interested in resource efficiency issues. undertaken to produce this report was critical in leading to the offering of a wind energy product by several utilities in Colorado. Throughout this project we have greatly appreciated the counsel, flexibility, and patience of Cathy Ghandehari, the Contracting Officer's Technical Representative. Many others played essential roles in developing the Colorado green pricing programs, providing advice, and reviewing draft versions of this report. We would especially like to thank The views expressed in this report represent those of the LAW Fund and CORE, and not necessarily those of the DOE. The DOE's financial support for this project in no way represents an endorsement of the views or findings represented in this report.
Multilayer high density flex technology
The industrial trend of shrinking microelectronic devices while increasing the density of interconnections places great demands on the substrates upon which these devices are packaged. Multilayer flex circuits will provide the interconnection densities needed to meet these demands in a wide range of packaging and interconnection technologies. This paper discusses the development of ultra-high density flexible circuits. Processes and materials to fabricate fine line pitches from 12.5 /spl mu/m to 40 /spl mu/m are examined. Various microvia structures, through hole and blind via, are demonstrated. A test vehicle was designed and built for BGA packages to illustrate the density capability. A four-layer structure is demonstrated by using Z-connection to connect two layer pairs. Electrical, mechanical, and reliability test results are presented to show the selection of flex substrate material, Z-connection methodology and fabrication processes. A cost comparison of high-density flex to alternative substrates is discussed to identify potential.