San Francisco airport opens "Climate Passport" kiosks
By Mike Rosenberg
Contra Costa Times
San Francisco International Airport passengers can now help reverse the damage their flight inflicts on the environment by paying a fee that will help fund reforestation projects.
The voluntary program for travelers unveiled Thursday is, according to involved parties, the first of its kind among U.S. airports. The airport spent $190,000 to install three "Climate Passport" kiosks past security checkpoints, one in domestic Terminal 3 and two more in the International Terminal.
Paying at the kiosks, or online at the airport's Web site, is relatively simple. Travelers enter their flight's origin and destination, their number of passengers and whether they plan to fly round-trip. The machine then calculates a fee that can be paid via credit card to counteract the carbon emissions spewed into the atmosphere during their trip.
The kiosk shows how many pounds of carbon dioxide each passenger is responsible for, then charges $16.50 per ton of emissions. For example, a passenger flying round-trip from San Francisco to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York would be responsible for offsetting 3,824 pounds of carbon dioxide at a cost of $23.42. A one-way trip to Los Angeles International Airport, meanwhile, would cost only $1.75 per person.
For every $16.50 collected, $15 goes toward reforestation efforts to suck up carbon dioxide at the 23,780-acre Garcia River Forest in Mendocino County, Calif., and $1.50 helps fund San Francisco green initiatives.
Since the program is unprecedented, officials from the airport and 3Degrees, the San Francisco-based company operating the system, say they have no idea how popular it will be.
As airlines continue to raise ticket prices and charge fees for checked bags and even amenities such as pillows, the success of the program may be limited.
Steve McDougal, a 3Degrees vice president, admits the program should mostly appeal to those who "feel empowered to doing something bigger," not passengers who feel guilty about their flight's impact on climate change.
"You ask somebody to stop and pay some additional money, I realize that's challenging," said McDougal, adding the purchases are not tax-deductible. "The knee-jerk reaction on this is from skeptics."
Deputy Airport Director Kandance Bender said the airport anticipates the kiosks will take a while to catch on. The airport will monitor purchases made at the machines and online monthly, she said.
McDougal said there is a third-party monitoring process in place to ensure the money goes toward CO2-reducing projects, adding that the airport and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom have staked their integrity behind the program.
3Degrees uses a standard brought forth by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for calculating the average amount of carbon emissions per mile on commercial flights, McDougal said.
Most of the money then goes toward ongoing projects to restore the heavily-cut Garcia River Forest, which is along the Northern California coast and consists mostly of redwood trees. The carbon offsets should have a real impact, as each acre of the Garcia River Forest absorbs three tons of carbon dioxide per year, said Chris Kelly, California program director of the Conservation Fund, the nonprofit that owns and manages the forest.
The remaining money is given to a San Francisco green program that thus far has helped fund a biodiesel business and tree plantings in the city, said Johanna Gregory Partin, Newsom's director of climate protection initiatives.
"Even though the economy's tough right now, we're still seeing people who want to do the right thing," Partin said.
The carbon kiosks follow the January launch of the nation's first green rental car program, in which San Francisco travelers receive $15 discounts for renting hybrid vehicles.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/travel/2009894857_webairportenvirofee18.html
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Sunday, September 13, 2009
guardian.co.uk
Sustainable cities are the solution
Despite our romantic ideas about nature, it will be well-run, energy-efficient cities that ultimately save us from ourselves
David Lepeska
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 13 September 2009 13.00 BST
New York mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled a $25m, energy-efficient office building on the Brooklyn waterfront a few months back. The Perry Avenue Building features solar panels, rainwater-fed toilets and six rooftop windmills, which will produce 10% of its energy supply. "Wind power in this city," said the mayor, "is one of the solutions to our problem."
That problem – devising more sustainable cities – has rightfully drawn a great deal of attention of late. In February, Barack Obama created the White House office of urban affairs and quickly set about staffing it with experienced urban planners, to complement what many have called his "green dream team" on environmental policy.
Earlier this year in Strasburg, Obama acknowledged that the US bears the brunt of the responsibility for climate change. Combined with nearly $50bn in infrastructure spending in the stimulus package, the new administration's emphasis on building better cities is clear.
As for New York, the new Brooklyn building is part of a $250m programme to make Brooklyn's Navy Yard a hub for green industry, just one aspect of the mayor's broader plan to make the city more eco-friendly. When he launched PlanNYC two years ago, Bloomberg pointed out that the world's cities were responsible for 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Former US president Bill Clinton and UN officials have quoted the same figure.
This bit of data would mean city dwellers emit nearly four times as much as their rural counterparts. (The UN estimates that humanity became more urban than rural in 2008. Right now, the global populations of urban and rural folk are roughly the same.) Put another way, living in a city is almost four times as polluting as living outside of one.
Thankfully, the figure turns out to be wildly inaccurate.
The carbon footprint of urban dwellers is relatively light, says a report by David Dodman in the April issue of Environment and Urbanisation. Dodman, a researcher at the International Institute for Environment and Development, examined emissions reports from cities in the Americas, Asia and Europe.
He found that New Yorkers emit a third less greenhouse gases than the average American and that Barcelonans and Londoners emit about half of their national averages. And urban Brazilians are truly green: the residents of Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro are responsible for only one-third the national emissions average. Dodman's paper complements an earlier study by IIED senior fellow David Satterthwaite, who argued that cities emit about 40% of all greenhouse gases, as opposed to the oft-cited 80%.
On average, then, people who live in small towns and rural areas emit 50% more greenhouse gases than city folk. That cities may be part of the solution, however, does not mean that efforts like Bloomberg's PlanNYC are misplaced. Precisely the opposite is true.
By 2050, some 70% of us will live in urban settings, and it will ultimately be well-managed urban environments, with smart, energy-efficient buildings, power systems, transport and planning, that will save us from ourselves. Seeking better ways to do precisely that, a constellation of designers, architects and academics gathered at a conference on "ecological urbanism" at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design earlier this year.
Mitchell Joachim, who teaches architecture and design at Columbia University and was selected by Wired magazine as one of 15 people Obama should listen to, presented his vision for a collapsible and stackable electric city car, which would hang at public recharging stations, available for shared use.
He also explained "meat tectonics". Aiming to use meat proteins developed in a lab as building material, Joachim presented a digital rendering of an armadillo-shaped, kidney-coloured home. "It's very ugly, we know that," he said. "We're not sure what a meat house is supposed to look like."
Dorothee Imbert, associate professor in landscape architecture at Harvard, pointed to urban farming, a trend that has taken root in Detroit, New York, Milwaukee and a handful of international cities. Imbert mentioned her own student-assisted organic farms in Boston, yet acknowledged that adequate food supplies for future cities "would require rethinking of landscape in the building process".
Pritzker-winning Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas is thinking regionally. The Harvard professor and designer of the MC Escher-esque CCTV building in Beijing talked about his Zeekracht ("sea power" in Dutch), a plan for oceanic wind farms across the North Sea that would provide energy to much of northern Europe. With its constant high winds, shallow waters and advanced renewable industries, Koolhaas believes the North Sea offers energy potential approaching that of Persian Gulf oil.
His plan, which includes production belts in a half-dozen urban centres on or near the sea, energy cooperation and clean-tech research centres, is the type of project that, ideally, will both preserve green spaces and increase urban sustainability.
Another is a recently approved high-speed rail project in California, which will link that state's southern and northern hubs. Obama's stimulus package contains $8bn for high-speed and urban rail projects. That amount is nowhere near enough to install networks on a European scale, but, like windmills on the Brooklyn waterfront, it's a step in the right direction.
Henry David Thoreau moved to Walden Pond "to live deliberately", as he put it. But shortly thereafter the American naturalist and philosopher accidentally burned over a hundred acres of pristine Massachusetts woodlands. We can no longer afford to be like Thoreau. If we want to continue to romanticise our natural world, we, as a civilisation, must also avoid it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/sep/13/cities-carbon-emissions-environment-urban-planning/print
Sustainable cities are the solution
Despite our romantic ideas about nature, it will be well-run, energy-efficient cities that ultimately save us from ourselves
David Lepeska
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 13 September 2009 13.00 BST
New York mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled a $25m, energy-efficient office building on the Brooklyn waterfront a few months back. The Perry Avenue Building features solar panels, rainwater-fed toilets and six rooftop windmills, which will produce 10% of its energy supply. "Wind power in this city," said the mayor, "is one of the solutions to our problem."
That problem – devising more sustainable cities – has rightfully drawn a great deal of attention of late. In February, Barack Obama created the White House office of urban affairs and quickly set about staffing it with experienced urban planners, to complement what many have called his "green dream team" on environmental policy.
Earlier this year in Strasburg, Obama acknowledged that the US bears the brunt of the responsibility for climate change. Combined with nearly $50bn in infrastructure spending in the stimulus package, the new administration's emphasis on building better cities is clear.
As for New York, the new Brooklyn building is part of a $250m programme to make Brooklyn's Navy Yard a hub for green industry, just one aspect of the mayor's broader plan to make the city more eco-friendly. When he launched PlanNYC two years ago, Bloomberg pointed out that the world's cities were responsible for 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Former US president Bill Clinton and UN officials have quoted the same figure.
This bit of data would mean city dwellers emit nearly four times as much as their rural counterparts. (The UN estimates that humanity became more urban than rural in 2008. Right now, the global populations of urban and rural folk are roughly the same.) Put another way, living in a city is almost four times as polluting as living outside of one.
Thankfully, the figure turns out to be wildly inaccurate.
The carbon footprint of urban dwellers is relatively light, says a report by David Dodman in the April issue of Environment and Urbanisation. Dodman, a researcher at the International Institute for Environment and Development, examined emissions reports from cities in the Americas, Asia and Europe.
He found that New Yorkers emit a third less greenhouse gases than the average American and that Barcelonans and Londoners emit about half of their national averages. And urban Brazilians are truly green: the residents of Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro are responsible for only one-third the national emissions average. Dodman's paper complements an earlier study by IIED senior fellow David Satterthwaite, who argued that cities emit about 40% of all greenhouse gases, as opposed to the oft-cited 80%.
On average, then, people who live in small towns and rural areas emit 50% more greenhouse gases than city folk. That cities may be part of the solution, however, does not mean that efforts like Bloomberg's PlanNYC are misplaced. Precisely the opposite is true.
By 2050, some 70% of us will live in urban settings, and it will ultimately be well-managed urban environments, with smart, energy-efficient buildings, power systems, transport and planning, that will save us from ourselves. Seeking better ways to do precisely that, a constellation of designers, architects and academics gathered at a conference on "ecological urbanism" at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design earlier this year.
Mitchell Joachim, who teaches architecture and design at Columbia University and was selected by Wired magazine as one of 15 people Obama should listen to, presented his vision for a collapsible and stackable electric city car, which would hang at public recharging stations, available for shared use.
He also explained "meat tectonics". Aiming to use meat proteins developed in a lab as building material, Joachim presented a digital rendering of an armadillo-shaped, kidney-coloured home. "It's very ugly, we know that," he said. "We're not sure what a meat house is supposed to look like."
Dorothee Imbert, associate professor in landscape architecture at Harvard, pointed to urban farming, a trend that has taken root in Detroit, New York, Milwaukee and a handful of international cities. Imbert mentioned her own student-assisted organic farms in Boston, yet acknowledged that adequate food supplies for future cities "would require rethinking of landscape in the building process".
Pritzker-winning Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas is thinking regionally. The Harvard professor and designer of the MC Escher-esque CCTV building in Beijing talked about his Zeekracht ("sea power" in Dutch), a plan for oceanic wind farms across the North Sea that would provide energy to much of northern Europe. With its constant high winds, shallow waters and advanced renewable industries, Koolhaas believes the North Sea offers energy potential approaching that of Persian Gulf oil.
His plan, which includes production belts in a half-dozen urban centres on or near the sea, energy cooperation and clean-tech research centres, is the type of project that, ideally, will both preserve green spaces and increase urban sustainability.
Another is a recently approved high-speed rail project in California, which will link that state's southern and northern hubs. Obama's stimulus package contains $8bn for high-speed and urban rail projects. That amount is nowhere near enough to install networks on a European scale, but, like windmills on the Brooklyn waterfront, it's a step in the right direction.
Henry David Thoreau moved to Walden Pond "to live deliberately", as he put it. But shortly thereafter the American naturalist and philosopher accidentally burned over a hundred acres of pristine Massachusetts woodlands. We can no longer afford to be like Thoreau. If we want to continue to romanticise our natural world, we, as a civilisation, must also avoid it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/sep/13/cities-carbon-emissions-environment-urban-planning/print
Friday, September 11, 2009
CCTV.com
Shanghai subsidizes energy-saving light bulbs
Shanghai is helping residents make the switch to energy-efficient light bulbs by offering a significant subsidy. Bulbs normally priced at 20 yuan will now be sold at two to three yuan at residential complexes.
It's early morning but already long queues are forming at this energy-efficient bulb vendor's booth in Shanghai. Eager buyers are responding to the government's subsidy for the new bulbs. This 80-year-old woman believes saving money and electricity is a bright idea.
Resident of Shanghai said "I came at nine in the morning to find the long queue was already here. I like the government subsidy, which shows the government really takes care of us."
Resident of Shanghai said "Saving energy is good for the country and good for individuals."
Many residents bought more than a dozen bulbs each. In addition to their power and cost savings, the energy-efficient bulbs have a longer lifespan than their incandescent counterparts.
Shanghai will subsidize 8 million energy efficient bulbs this year, compared to 1 million last year.
Shanghai subsidizes energy-saving light bulbs
Shanghai is helping residents make the switch to energy-efficient light bulbs by offering a significant subsidy. Bulbs normally priced at 20 yuan will now be sold at two to three yuan at residential complexes.
It's early morning but already long queues are forming at this energy-efficient bulb vendor's booth in Shanghai. Eager buyers are responding to the government's subsidy for the new bulbs. This 80-year-old woman believes saving money and electricity is a bright idea.
Resident of Shanghai said "I came at nine in the morning to find the long queue was already here. I like the government subsidy, which shows the government really takes care of us."
Resident of Shanghai said "Saving energy is good for the country and good for individuals."
Many residents bought more than a dozen bulbs each. In addition to their power and cost savings, the energy-efficient bulbs have a longer lifespan than their incandescent counterparts.
Shanghai will subsidize 8 million energy efficient bulbs this year, compared to 1 million last year.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Christian Science Monitor
To save power, Bangladesh bans suits and ties
By Eoin O'Carroll | 09.05.09
In an inspiring display of sensibility, the prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, has ordered male government employees to stop wearing suits, jackets, and neckties.
In addition to eliminating pointless and uncomfortable decorative elements from men’s clothing, the move will help minimize the need for air conditioning. Accompanying the government’s laudable decision was an order not to turn air conditioners in government buildings below 75 degrees F.
According to the BBC, Bangladesh has been suffering from a major energy shortage, with daily blackouts as the state-owned power plants are unable to meet demand. The British news service reports that the plants’ output has not been able to keep up with the country’s economy, which has been growing 6 percent annually for the past five years.
Additionally, the energy sector has been plagued by allegations of corruption, which, if true, could possibly be exacerbated by the low morale that inevitably results from forcing workers to tie useless strips of fabric around their necks every day.
Under the new dress code – which applies even to the highest levels of government – men may also wear their shirts untucked, instead of stuffing the bottom portion into their pants for no good reason other than to conform to some arbitrary display of professionalism.
The BBC reports that the government plans to encourage private businesses to follow its example.
As can be expected, Sheikh Hasina was praised for her compassionate and pragmatic – albeit long overdue – change to the official dress code. Writing in The New Nation, an independent English-language news source in Bangladesh, columnist Maswood Alam Khan suggests that the new attire, in addition to saving energy, might help restore a sense of national pride.
Wearing suits and stuffing our necks with a tie, in spite of ourselves, is a sartorial fashion we have borrowed from the British who were our colonial rulers. Our ancestors enjoyed punishing themselves by mimicking the British style and fashion, which was seen as synonymous with being chic and modern. They wanted in vain to be ‘brown sahibs’! So, as a legacy our office executives-the fashion victims-now find it prestigious to chill their car and office chamber to [64 degrees F.] so that they and their guests can wear pinstripe suits and silk ties wrapped over the designer shirts when the weather outside is extremely hot and humid and when the general people are sweating and panting due to power outage.
Despised by all but the most inveterate masochists, the necktie traces its origins to the uniforms of 16th century Croatian mercenaries in the employ of King Louis XIII of France. In a sartorial choice that has baffled and dismayed people ever since, upper-class Parisians adopted the mercenaries’ knotted scarf, which they called a “cravat” – a mispronunciation of the word “Croat” probably caused by a restricted larynx.
The cravat eventually “evolved” into the modern necktie, which was eventually paired with an outfit consisting of a heavy jacket and flimsy slacks, a design that guarantees that its wearer will be uncomfortable regardless of the ambient temperature.
The predecessor to the modern suit and tie emerged in Britain the early 1800s, with Beau Brummel, an influential fashion arbiter and friend of the Prince Regent, the future George IV. Brummel, who claimed to have spent two hours getting ready each morning, can also be blamed for introducing the expectation that men should have to shave their faces every single day.
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2009/09/05/to-save-power-bangladesh-bans-suits-and-ties/
To save power, Bangladesh bans suits and ties
By Eoin O'Carroll | 09.05.09
In an inspiring display of sensibility, the prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, has ordered male government employees to stop wearing suits, jackets, and neckties.
In addition to eliminating pointless and uncomfortable decorative elements from men’s clothing, the move will help minimize the need for air conditioning. Accompanying the government’s laudable decision was an order not to turn air conditioners in government buildings below 75 degrees F.
According to the BBC, Bangladesh has been suffering from a major energy shortage, with daily blackouts as the state-owned power plants are unable to meet demand. The British news service reports that the plants’ output has not been able to keep up with the country’s economy, which has been growing 6 percent annually for the past five years.
Additionally, the energy sector has been plagued by allegations of corruption, which, if true, could possibly be exacerbated by the low morale that inevitably results from forcing workers to tie useless strips of fabric around their necks every day.
Under the new dress code – which applies even to the highest levels of government – men may also wear their shirts untucked, instead of stuffing the bottom portion into their pants for no good reason other than to conform to some arbitrary display of professionalism.
The BBC reports that the government plans to encourage private businesses to follow its example.
As can be expected, Sheikh Hasina was praised for her compassionate and pragmatic – albeit long overdue – change to the official dress code. Writing in The New Nation, an independent English-language news source in Bangladesh, columnist Maswood Alam Khan suggests that the new attire, in addition to saving energy, might help restore a sense of national pride.
Wearing suits and stuffing our necks with a tie, in spite of ourselves, is a sartorial fashion we have borrowed from the British who were our colonial rulers. Our ancestors enjoyed punishing themselves by mimicking the British style and fashion, which was seen as synonymous with being chic and modern. They wanted in vain to be ‘brown sahibs’! So, as a legacy our office executives-the fashion victims-now find it prestigious to chill their car and office chamber to [64 degrees F.] so that they and their guests can wear pinstripe suits and silk ties wrapped over the designer shirts when the weather outside is extremely hot and humid and when the general people are sweating and panting due to power outage.
Despised by all but the most inveterate masochists, the necktie traces its origins to the uniforms of 16th century Croatian mercenaries in the employ of King Louis XIII of France. In a sartorial choice that has baffled and dismayed people ever since, upper-class Parisians adopted the mercenaries’ knotted scarf, which they called a “cravat” – a mispronunciation of the word “Croat” probably caused by a restricted larynx.
The cravat eventually “evolved” into the modern necktie, which was eventually paired with an outfit consisting of a heavy jacket and flimsy slacks, a design that guarantees that its wearer will be uncomfortable regardless of the ambient temperature.
The predecessor to the modern suit and tie emerged in Britain the early 1800s, with Beau Brummel, an influential fashion arbiter and friend of the Prince Regent, the future George IV. Brummel, who claimed to have spent two hours getting ready each morning, can also be blamed for introducing the expectation that men should have to shave their faces every single day.
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2009/09/05/to-save-power-bangladesh-bans-suits-and-ties/
prweb.com
New York City's New Green Workforce Duo
Envirolution's Win-Win Campaign and CleanEdison Announce Partnership for NYC's Emerging Green Economy. Two New York City Agencies, Manhattan Borough President's Office and New York Department of Small Business Services, Deliver Big Apple Green Collar Jobs Training Programs.
New York, NY (PRWEB) August 13, 2009 -- Two city-endorsed leaders in green workforce training - Envirolution, a New York-based sustainability consulting and green workforce training non-profit and CleanEdison, a national green building consulting and education provider, - today announced a partnership to produce the most qualified green collar jobs candidates in New York City, those who possess both field experience and training for accredited certifications.
"The combination of mentored field experience and formal certification training provides a huge advantage to green job hunters," said Janna Olson, executive director of Envirolution's Win-Win Campaign. "With CleanEdison's comprehensive training in LEED and BPI certifications, we're giving our interns every chance at a leg up in New York's emerging green economy."
On August 10, the highest ranking interns among Enivrolution's young adult-led energy efficiency campaign kick-off the CleanEdison partnership by taking sponsored seats in the nationwide green certification trainers three-day course.
The 12 Win-Win Campaign interns are concluding a summer of hands-on energy efficiency analysis provided to New York City's local small business communities. Their CleanEdison-sponsored workshops in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and Building Performance Institute (BPI) training and test preparation will help prepare them to enter the workforce armed with the appropriate credentials.
"Right now, I can't just train the best and the brightest, I need to hire them too. Green industry jobs are playing a crucial role in our nation's economic recovery," Avi Yashchin, CEO and founder of CleanEdison said. "I'm eager to review Win-Win's latest grads. They have a great track record with us, as well as with the city."
With its city council poised to adopt mandatory energy efficiency benchmarking in the form of four local building code laws called the Greener, Greater Buildings legislation, New York will follow the new benchmarking trend already passed into law in Washington D.C. and the state of California. The city's goal is to get commercial buildings on an "energy diet" by making their monitored energy consumption data publicly available, as a driver in the real estate leasing market.
Win-Win's Spring 2009 pilot semester recruited 15 students as green workforce trainees ranging in age from 17 to26. These selected interns engaged in the energy mapping of 1,160 businesses in a 55 square block assessment zone in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Of those businesses, 126 were selected for outreach and 36 of the small business owners elected to receive Energy Efficiency Assessments from Win-Win.
Through reporting submitted by Con Edison's Targeted Demand Side Management program, Win-Win removed 25.68 metric tons of carbon per year as a direct result of energy efficiency upgrades undertaken through the program's recommended statewide incentive. Of the 36 small businesses assessed, the total potential carbon-reduction is 597.4 metric tons. And Win-Win's ongoing project management training will provide assistance to those businesses eager to engage incentive upgrade programs with the Fall campaign session.
The Manhattan Borough President's Office endorsed the Win-Win Campaign upon completion of its pilot session and includes Envirolution as a partner in Scott Stinger's Go Green initiative.
In July of 2009, CleanEdison was awarded a significant grant from the NYC Department of Small Business Services to implement green training in the corporate sector. CleanEdison's success in hiring experienced Win-Win graduates for its growing business was the impetus for the partnership between these two organizations. Additionally, all of CleanEdison's courses are approved by many CEU organizations including American Institute of Architects (AIA), Building Owners & Managers Institute International (BOMI), Building Performance Institute (BPI), International Facilities Managers Association (IFMA), and National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES).
As part of their training, Envirolution's Win-Win community energy analysts have already attained experience in administering energy audits and providing project management of cost-saving solution programs for small businesses in the Lower East Side. Emerging to compete in the job market prepared by CleanEdison's certification training will provide the accreditation these interns need to build a professional green workforce in New York City.
Envirolution (envirolution.org) - the managing non-profit of the Win-Win Campaign - is a 501 (c)(3) Sustainability think & do tank located on New York's Lower East Side. The organization is dedicated to providing young adults from diverse communities with green career development opportunities through sustainability education, civic engagement and job training programs. Envirolution was founded in 2007 by recent Yale graduates, Alex Gamboa, Executive Director, and Antuan Cannon, Developmental Director, to provide sustainability consulting and to build programs that have positive environmental, economic, and social impacts.
Win-Win Campaign (winwin.envirolution.org [winwin.envirolution.org) is a green workforce and small business economic development initiative that empowers young adults to be the drivers of sustainable change in their communities while gaining the real world, new economy skills necessary to obtain green jobs in the future. Through training, mentoring and fieldwork, participants become Community Energy Analysts (CEAs) who provide access to affordable, measurable environmental and financial benefits, through energy efficiency assessments for small businesses and other institutions in their neighborhoods. Win-Win is endorsed by the Manhattan Borough President's LES Go Green Initiative, Lower East Side Business Improvement District, Consortium for Worker Education, Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, Fourth Arts Block Cultural District, Asian American/Asian Research Institute, Green Depot, and Con Edison.
CleanEdison (cleanedison.com) is the nation's largest provider of LEED Training and BPI Certification. CleanEdison offers everything in the green space from Commercial Energy Audit Services to LEED Consulting to help identify energy-saving opportunities in commercial buildings. CleanEdison's energy auditors are experts in evaluating new ways to reduce your operating costs and increase your building's performance, focusing on improvements and incentives which bring CleanEdison's clients' ROI inside of 3 years.
ECMweb.com
In-Home Monitors Help Customers Save Energy
A pilot program by Seattle City Light, a Seattle-based publicly owned utility, found encouraging results on the effectiveness of in-home energy monitoring displays for helping people conserve energy, the company has reported. In a pilot program the 24 randomly selected participants reduced their electricity consumption by an average of 3%, or 340kWh, over the eight month test. That adds up to nearly $22 in savings. Some saved much more, with the biggest reduction of 4,174kWh, or nearly 20%, which cut the customer’s bills by about $267 during the test period.
“In-home energy-monitoring displays can be an effective tool for those motivated to get the most out of them,” says Lars Henrikson, the energy planning analyst who ran the pilot. “We’re continuing to monitor our test group and to see how their electricity use continues over time.”
City Light plans to expand the pilot through its Neighborhood Power Project in early fall. Annually, the utility focuses on a neighborhood area in its service territory to promote energy saving programs and services and to provide energy education. In-home monitors will provide additional energy-saving opportunities for residents who are looking for more ways to conserve.
The energy monitors read a customer’s electricity meter and display the usage in real time, including the cost of that usage. Recognizing how much energy they use and what it’s costing them can motivate people to be more energy efficient.
http://ecmweb.com/ezone/home-energy-usage-monitors-20090910/
nytimes.com
Keep Home Cool With Energy Efficient Strategies
Filed at 3:15 p.m. ET
Find yourself sweating inside your house during the long, hot days of summer? Are high utility costs enough to make you perspire on their own?
Strategies such as eliminating air leakage, upgrading attic insulation, and installing a new air conditioning system and ceiling fans help keep your home cool efficiently, and can help save on energy costs in the process. On average, heating and cooling a home costs about $1,000 a year, nearly half the total energy bill for the house, the Environmental Protection Agency reports.
Through 2010, a federal tax credit is available for energy efficiency upgrades for insulation, windows, central air conditioners and heat pumps.
The credit refunds 30 percent of the purchase price for energy-efficient products, up to a total of $1,500. Homeowners can use the tax credit for cooling systems, and many local power companies offer rebates for installing more efficient products.
BEST PRACTICES
There are many ways to make sure your home stays cool in the best way possible, without buying a new air conditioning systems or adding ceiling fans.
First, check to make sure your attic is properly insulated. An uninsulated attic allows too much cool air to escape and too much warm air to enter. Adding or updating the insulation is one of the easiest ways to make a home more energy efficient.
According to the National Association of Home Builders, upgrading inefficient insulation in the attic of a two-story, 2,000 square foot home in Chicago can cost around $1,000, but the tax credit lowers that cost to $700.
Added to an energy efficient rebate from MidAmerican Energy in Chicago for up to $600, the cost can drop to $100. That project will save about $51 in annual utility costs, the NAHB said.
Another tip is to cover windows with shades or blinds, to keep hot sunlight out.
Homeowners can also plant trees to give the home shade. West-facing windows are important to protect because it's typically hotter in the afternoon. Other shade options include overhangs and awnings.
FINDING THE RIGHT PRODUCT
Decide if you need room air conditioners or a central unit. Homes with many rooms would benefit from a central unit, while studios apartments or efficiencies will be more likely to have units in individual rooms.
Also, check the condition of ceiling fans and pick out rooms that would benefit from the added circulation of a new ceiling fan, such as living rooms and bedrooms.
Cooling systems vary in cost, depending on the system size and price the contractor will charge for installation. But count on spending at least $2,000 for a new central air conditioner. Adding ducts to the home will bring the cost up even more.
Room air conditioners typically cost between $150 and $600, depending on the size and model.
When considering buying a central air conditioner or heat pump (which both cools and heats a home), homeowners should ask a local contractor to check for leaks in the house that allow cool air to escape. The contractor evaluates whether ducts need to be sealed, insulated or replaced, and whether windows and doors are properly sealed.
Holes hidden in attics, crawl spaces and basements should be sealed.
The key measurement of a central air conditioner is the SEER rating (officially the ''Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio). The higher the rating, the higher the energy efficiency.
SEER ratings of 14 to 21 are becoming more common, but the system typically gets more expensive as you move up the SEER scale. Proponents of high-SEER systems stress that savings on utilities outweigh the cost.
When looking for energy efficient products, check if they carry an Energy Star rating by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The EPA began using the rating in 1992 as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through better energy efficiency. It includes more than 60 products, which are listed on the EPA's Web site, www.energystar.gov.
The more reliable products are among the most well known in the industry -- Trane, Rheem and Ruud, according to a July 2009 product reliability survey of more than 32,000 readers of Consumer Reports magazine. Other brands include General Electric, Carrier, Lennox and American Standard.
Nearly two-third of readers in the Consumer Reports survey who had a problem with their central air conditioning said the unit broke down for a day, and about one in three reported a complete system failure. About half of those reporting problems spent $150 or more to get cool again, Consumer Reports said.
For ceiling fans, blades sizes range from 29 to 54 inches, with the most popular being the 52-inch model, according to the EPA. Smaller rooms need a fan size of 29 to 36 inches, while the larger rooms take 50 to 54 inch fans.
Standard mounts come with a 3 to 5 inch ''downrod'' -- the metal pipe that extends from the ceiling bracket down to the fan. Longer mounts are available for higher ceilings.
Here's a good tip from the EPA. In summertime, use the fan in a counterclockwise direction, which forces cool air down and gives the feeling of a breeze. In winter, a clockwise direction at slow speed produces an updraft that pushes warm air down into the room.
MAINTENANCE
The easiest way to ensure a long life for the cooling system is changing the filter regularly -- once a month is a good starting point.
Cooling coils should be cleaned at least once a year. Cooling systems in homes with furry pets that shed hair will be more susceptible to getting dirty and potentially malfunctioning.
Make sure the contractor you choose to install your air conditioning system or heat pump is licensed and insured.
The product should have a warranty as well, so fill out the correct paperwork to ensure that you are covered.
Many sellers and installers of air conditioners should have maintenance agreements in which the consumer pays a yearly fee for visits from repairmen to make sure the product is working correctly.
BY THE NUMBERS
So far this year, combined U.S. factory shipments of central air conditioners and air-source heat pumps have totaled more than 2.7 million, down 18 percent compared with January to June of last year. That's according to the Air-Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute.
The struggling economy may be a reason for this drop, but companies like Rheem are seeing more buyer activity due to the tax credit, said Carrol Basham, an assistant product manager at Rheem.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/08/31/business/AP-US-Service-Package-Home-Cooling.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print
chicagotribune.com
eptember 01, 2009
Power play: architects help turn old Sears power plant in Chicago into new charter school
In London nine years ago, Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron took a mighty, decommissioned power station on the Thames River and transformed it into Tate Modern (left), an acclaimed showcase for the Tate Gallery's collection of modern art.
Now in Chicago, a team of architects, foundation leaders and consultants has turned a handsome but derelict old power plant that once served Sears, Roebuck & Co.'s massive West Side headquarters into an inspired (and likely, inspiring) public charter high school.
Named the Charles H. Shaw Technology and Learning Center, in memory of the late Chicago developer who had a passion for revitalizing the beleaguered North Lawndale neighborhood, the building houses Power House High (below), which will welcome its first students Tuesday.
Throughout are energy-saving features, from retrofitted historic windows to geothermal wells, that are expected to earn the center a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold rating from the U.S. Green Building Council.
Located at 931 S. Homan Ave., just south of the Eisenhower Expressway, the 104-year-old structure is among the remnants of Sears' once-vibrant West Side catalog operation. Chicago architects Nimmons & Fellows melded Chicago School efficiency and classical decoration in the complex, which at its height mailed thousands of orders every day to customers across America.
Sears left in 1973 for the 110-story Sears (now Willis) Tower. More than 30 years later, the power plant appeared to be a white elephant. Its arched windows were either broken or boarded up. Birds flew inside. And oversize rodents lived there.
"We thought they were cats -- they turned out to be rats," said Kristen Dean, president of the Homan Arthington Foundation. The foundation worked with Shaw, who died in 2006, to develop more than 300 homes and a community center in North Lawndale.
A palace of steam is now a palace of learning, even if some details, like the steel entrance staircases, are disappointingly mundane. Yet old arched windows (left, at rear of building, with new fire escapes) have been sensitively replaced with double-glazed, energy-efficient glass. And the building's 185-foot-tall, brick chimney has been handsomely restored.
To their credit, the architects didn't strip the building of its grit. On the north facade, for example, smudgy lines formed by old lean-to buildings haven't been erased. Round terra cotta decoration enlivens the brown brick exterior with details like bolts of electricity..
Inside, Farr Associates followed the broad outlines of the Tate Modern, making the three-story turbine room a dramatic great hall and turning the boiler room into smaller but no less compelling spaces -- in this case, classrooms and meeting rooms instead of galleries.
"Every room in this building has a story," said Farr Associates' principal designer on the project, Jonathan Boyer.
The story and spaces are equally good in the building's other half, where giant boilers once turned water into steam. There, the architects supervised the removal of a junglelike thicket of machinery and carefully threaded new floors, walls, corridors and stairwells amid historic features they retained as artifacts.
Windows in some classrooms offer views to the the building's chimney. A coal ash conveyor belt is displayed behind glass.
The school's leaders -- Principal Kothyn Evans-Alexander and executive Chris Reynolds, who works for the school's partner, the Henry Ford Learning Institute of Dearborn, Mich. -- predict that the architecture and artifacts will inspire curiosity and help drive home lessons that books alone would not.
It remains to be seen, though, whether the design will help or hinder teaching. Will boisterous kids turn the hard-surfaced turbine room into an echo chamber?
Even if the Shaw Center lacks the Tate Modern's bracing contrasts of old and new, it is still likely to emerge as a model for recycling historic buildings -- and for harnessing architecture's aesthetic power to a broader social purpose.
chiefengineer.org
Chicago Climate Action Plan: Is Your Building Ready
By Colleen Kramer, President, Evergreen Supply Company
For engineers, helping reduce their building’s energy consumption and carbon footprint has become not just a luxury but a necessity.
Pressures from building owners, a return on investment for many energy conservation measures, and the need to attract tenants who increasingly want space that is “green,” make energy efficiency critical.
The city of Chicago also requires a certain degree of compliance. In April 2009, the Chicago City Council approved an updated Energy Conservation Code for energy-efficient new and existing buildings: compliance is mandatory.
Climate change is a huge challenge worldwide but it also presents a huge opportunity, according to Karen Hobbs, first deputy commissioner of Chicago’s Department of Environment, who spoke at a recent meeting of the U.S. Green Building Council-Chicago Chapter. “The goal in Chicago is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase energy efficient buildings,” she said.
Older buildings, such as the office building at 550 W. Washington in Chicago, must be retrofitted to comply with Chicago's Energy Conservation Code to reduce its overall energy consumption and carbon footprint.David O’Donnell, the Department’s deputy commissioner, echoes the goal, noting that the problem cannot be resolved without an aggressive improvement in energy efficiency.
O’Donnell says Chicago has approximately 300 large commercial and industrial buildings which account for 23 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, 90 percent of Chicago’s power consumption is from commercial buildings. “That sector is particularly important because it can have a significant impact on reaching our energy reduction goals,” he says.
To address the issue, the city developed the Chicago Climate Action Plan (www.chicagoclimateactionplan.org), an aggressive plan that outlines 26 actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and nine actions to prepare for climate change. Chicago’s goal is an 80 percent reduction below 1990 emissions by the year 2050 and a mid-term goal of a 25 percent reduction by 2020.
The Chicago Christian Industrial League building.As part of its plan, the city has developed numerous initiatives to help “green” local businesses, including the Green Office Challenge, Green Chicago Restaurant Co-op, Green Hotels Initiative, and the Green Museum Initiative.
“ I don’t know of another city except perhaps Aspen, Colorado, that has done the level of analysis we have done on reducing our carbon footprint,” O’Donnell says. Aspen, which is committed to a 30 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and an 80 percent reduction by 2050, cut its emissions by 10.5 percent in only 18 months.
Even the nation’s largest city, New York, has developed a plan, announced in April 2009, to reduce energy consumption by upgrading everything from boilers to bulbs in existing buildings. The program is set to begin in 2013 with 2,200 buildings performing energy audits and a certain number of building upgrades each year for a decade.
Anil Ahuja, president of CCJM Engineers, Ltd., headquartered in Washington, DC, with offices in Chicago, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Michigan, and the author of the book “Integrated ME Design, Building Systems Engineering,” believes that most building engineers are aware of what they need to do to conserve energy in the interior of their buildings. Where they fall short is in understanding how to reduce their building’s overall carbon footprint as well as how to address changing the exterior or “skin” of the building.
“ The skin of the building is difficult to address because there is only so much surgery you can do on it,” he states. “A landmark building is almost untouchable when it comes to changing the exterior.”
Cost to change the exterior is another major consideration. For example, placing window film on a building’s windows will block energy from the sun and save on cooling costs in summer and heat retention in winter. But they are expensive. Most large commercial buildings are not yet able to use solar panels but the city reduced the cost of heating water in about 20 buildings by utilizing solar technology. Rooftop gardens, which have sprouted up on a number of buildings from Chicago’s City Hall to residential structures, have proven to save about 20 percent in a building’s energy costs.
Before engineers and building owners can plan their energy conservation “trip,” they must determine a starting point, according to Ahuja. They need to ask questions such as how your building emissions rate compares to other buildings and whether your building has the potential for a rapid return on your energy conservation measures and investment.
Ahuja encourages engineers to invest in “carbon benchmarking” to measure the building’s carbon footprint, then develop a plan to address the issue. This benchmarking measurement covers the building itself but may also include energy consumption outside the building. “If 100 people work in a certain building and all drive SUVs 40 miles to get to work, how does that impact the building’s carbon footprint?” he asks rhetorically.
Ideally, building owners will set aside funds to provide energy-conserving improvements at certain intervals. The improvements are especially important for buildings that were built in the 60s and 70s and are in need of renovation.
These buildings are great targets for a sustainability plan, says Ahuja. When the building is renovated, retrofits can be incorporated to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. It’s natural for a building’s mechanical and electrical systems to become inefficient due to obsolescence, equipment and control failures, and deferred maintenance, Ahuja explains. The result is that comfort and energy efficiency suffer. But, significant savings may be realized with relatively little expense. For example, buildings can be updated with heating and cooling systems, modernized water and lighting systems or new windows. The aesthetic upgrades and energy savings that can be realized in lighting alone has made major advances in the last few years.
“ Any building with ten-year-old lighting can realize significant and quick returns on lighting retrofits, installing, for example, compact fluorescent bulbs or LED lighting,” he said.
Making the reductions and changes won’t be easy, but it is critical. As Hobbs put it: the mantra should be “reduce, reuse and recycle.”
http://www.chiefengineer.org/content/content_display.cfm/seqnumber_content/3961.htm
reuters.com
Energy-gulping U.S. buildings ripe for savings
By Andrew Stern
CHICAGO (Reuters) - New York's Empire State Building is doing it, Chicago's Willis Tower is about to start and many more landlords and companies are expected to undertake building retrofits to reduce energy costs.
Spurred by steadily rising utility bills, the need to rein in costs in the recession, a host of government tax incentives and increasing awareness of carbon footprints, energy-saving building renovations are in vogue.
"Things are thriving," said Terry Singer, executive director of the National Association of Energy Service Companies. "There have been a lot of drivers to increased investment," among them new government funding, volatile energy prices and new technology that can reduce energy consumption.
Energy conservation is an unsung hero in the global effort to burn less fossil fuels and buildings account for roughly half of global energy consumption.
Several successive U.S. presidents have championed conservation which is at the center of the Obama administration's proposals to combat climate change.
The energy services industry has grown by at least 22 percent a year since 2004. Additionally, billions of dollars were allocated in the federal stimulus package to retrofit and weatherize government buildings.
"There's this huge untapped potential," said Maria Vargas, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's decade-old "Energy Star" program. The agency had put its energy-efficient tag on 6,300 U.S. buildings by the end of 2008, which was 57 percent more than a year earlier.
"More will start doing it, as they realize their competitors are doing it and they realize it makes good business sense," said Branko Terzic of consultant Deloitte's Energy & Resources Group.
The energy services industry, which has a myriad of large and small players, is expected to triple in size by 2013 and there is a reservoir of untapped projects valued by a Pike Research report at $400 billion, he said.
The number of "green" jobs is growing, with the sector one of the few to add positions during the recession, said employment expert John Challenger.
The Empire State Building undertook a renovation designed to save $4.4 million, or 38 percent, on its yearly energy bill. Those savings will repay the cost within a few years.
In June, the owners of Chicago's Sears Tower, since renamed the Willis Tower, unveiled a $350 million retrofit that included replacing the 110-story tower's 16,000 single-pane windows.
INVESTMENT CAN BE OFF-PUTTING
The high cost of energy-efficient heating and cooling systems, improved and automated lighting, high-quality windows, and variable speed motors on equipment may deter executives aiming to preserve capital during an economic slump.
For others, conservation may lack the cachet of tapping into renewable power sources such as solar and wind.
But experts said investment in energy conservation can often be recouped fairly quickly in lower utility bills -- usually in five years or less. Retrofits also allow building owners to attract tenants by marketing them as "green," a designation known to reap higher rents.
Of about 70 billion square feet (6.5 billion sq meters) of U.S. office space, as little as 1 billion square feet (93 million sq meters) have been retrofitted, Terzic said.
To illustrate the potential, McKinsey & Co projected that U.S. investments of $520 billion in building efficiency through 2020 would yield $1.2 trillion in energy savings and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1.1 gigatons annually -- the amount emitted by the entire current fleet of U.S. vehicles.
Existing players in the field of energy conservation are Honeywell International Inc, Johnson Controls Inc, Siemens AG, Ingersoll-Rand Plc, and United Technologies Corp. Recent entrants are Chevron Corp, Cisco Systems Inc, IBM Corp, and Lockheed Martin Corp.
Massachusetts-based Bluestone Energy Services Ltd is among dozens of expanding privately-held companies tapping into the demand, having doubled in size last year and again this year.
"Our forte is we work with the utility companies to qualify those solutions for incentive money. We also bundle tax incentives," said Bluestone Vice President Adam Fairbanks.
Future energy savings can collateralize the financing for the retrofit, and utility grants and government tax credits can help defray the initial cost, he said.
A growing number of utilities add a fee to customer bills and then issue grants to businesses for energy-saving projects. Customers who install solar, wind, geothermal or other power-saving systems and appliances can also get rebates.
Vying for the Willis Tower windows contract is Serious Windows, a Sunnyvale, California-based manufacturer of high-quality windows that have insulating capabilities that can rival a building's exterior walls.
CEO Kevin Surace said his windows are the most cost-effective retrofit available, offering up to 50 percent energy savings in buildings in which cheaper windows were installed to save on construction costs.
"Every building I can see from this vantage point needs new windows, every single one," Surace said in an interview conducted next to the Willis Tower. "They could save $1 million a year. As energy costs go up, it becomes $2 million a year."
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE5817EA20090902
Reuters.com
ComEd Petitions ICC to Approve Federal Funding Proposal for Smart Grid
ICC approval would improve utility's application for $175 million in federal stimulus funds. CHICAGO, Sept. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- ComEd yesterday submitted a petition to the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) to approve the utility's application for federal stimulus grants that would fund half of a $350 million Smart Grid pilot. If approved and fully funded, ComEd would add 180,000 customers to its original Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) pilot proposal and finance other technologies to significantly reduce customer interruptions. ComEd's application was submitted to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) last month. It calls for expanding the proposed AMI pilot and more than doubling the number of customers receiving new Smart Meters from about 140,000 to 320,000 customers in Chicago and 31 other communities. The stimulus funding also would significantly expand investment in other advanced automation technology to make the transmission and distribution systems "smarter" and more reliable. The petition to the ICC includes a request to allow ComEd to recover remaining costs of the stimulus projects after receiving the 50 percent match from the DOE. The ICC's approval would be in addition to the more than 100 letters of support the utility received from the City of Chicago, other municipalities and organizations for its federal application submitted in August. "ICC support will greatly increase the chance that the DOE will select ComEd's application, as it will demonstrate strong local interest to put federal stimulus funds into action," said Anne Pramaggiore, president and chief operating officer, ComEd. "By tapping up to $175 million in federal stimulus funds, we can accelerate and multiply Smart Grid benefits to our customers and reduce customer costs." Earlier this summer, ComEd filed a petition with the ICC recommending a one-year AMI pilot, one of the country's most comprehensive evaluations of how customers will interact with this innovative technology. If the $350 million federal stimulus project is approved by the DOE and the rider by the ICC, the effect to the average residential customers' bills would be an average 35 cents per month beginning April 2010 - or an increase of about one half of a percent on an average customer bill of approximately $77. ComEd's proposed expansion of smart grid technologies also will provide useful information to the ICC and other stakeholders as policies for statewide Smart Grid deployment are developed. ComEd's AMI pilot and Smart Grid vision will play an important role in building a more energy efficient and independent future for Illinois by delivering higher levels of reliability and providing customers unprecedented choices and control. The federal matching funds come from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 (ARRA), which is designed to accelerate the modernization of the nation's electric system and promote economic recovery through job creation. DOE will select projects for funding later this year, and if approved, benefits from the ComEd application also will include: -- Creation of about 3,800 jobs in northern Illinois. -- Deployment of additional smart meters in ComEd's service territory in combination with advanced pricing and billing options. Additional customers will receive in-home displays, programmable devices that will let them control their air conditioners remotely and Web interface options to help manage energy usage and costs. -- A unique project with the City of Chicago that integrates smart meters and advanced technology with energy efficiency incentives in urban communities targeted for sustainability investments through the Chicago Climate Action Plan. -- Dynamic Voltage Reduction technologies to reduce line losses the energy that is wasted as power is moved from power generation plants to homes and businesses. -- Intelligent substation technologies to improve safety and optimize maintenance practices while enhancing reliability and operational performance. ComEd also applied for federal funding for an innovative test integrating solar power with smart metering dynamic pricing and energy storage to increase reliability and provide more options to manage energy use. Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd) is a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC), one of the nation's largest electric utilities with approximately 5.4 million customers. ComEd provides service to approximately 3.8 million customers across northern Illinois, or 70 percent of the state's population.
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS196013+03-Sep-2009+PRN20090903
philly.com
N.J. venture uses compressed air to store energy
A central New Jersey company says it believes it has figured out a way in the green economy to make money from air.
Compressed air.
Energy Storage & Power L.L.C., funded by a $20 million investment from utility giant Public Service Enterprise Group Inc., has devised a patented system for storing electricity in compressed air, which is pumped into caverns, abandoned mines, or aboveground canisters and then released when it is needed to generate power.
Such mass-storage systems will be increasingly necessary as more power is derived from intermittent sources such as wind and solar generators. Windmills tend to produce power at night, when customers need it the least.
"As folks have seen renewables come into the market, particularly wind, people have gained a much greater appreciation for the importance of storage," said Stephen C. Byrd, chief executive officer of the company in Bridgewater, N.J., near Edison.
The firm, a joint venture of Public Service Enterprise Group Global L.L.C. and air-storage pioneer Michael Nakhamkin, is in line to get a share of the $50 million to $60 million that the Department of Energy will award this fall to as many as four compressed-air energy-storage projects.
Byrd said the venture's technology was incorporated into several proposed air-storage facilities that were strong candidates for grants, including a 300-megawatt plant being developed by Pacific Gas & Electric Co., of San Francisco.
"I would not be surprised if we had several of those parties win DOE support," he said.
Mass energy-storage systems will become increasingly critical as the nation's energy markets shift to comply with laws favoring renewable power over greenhouse-gas-emitting fossil fuels. Among several alternatives - ice-storage systems, pumped-storage hydroelectric plants, massive battery arrays - the compressed-air systems are considered the most cost-effective.
If renewable power is to constitute 20 percent of the nation's electrical supply - about 9 percent now comes from renewables, mostly hydroelectric - the nation will need 114,000 megawatts of electrical-storage capacity, according to a study published last year by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
"That's about a $342 billion market," Byrd said.
Though compressed-air storage sounds exotic, the process employs technology and equipment already extensively used by oil and gas developers to force hydrocarbons to the surface by pumping high-pressure gas and liquids underground.
And Byrd said storing compressed air in depleted salt mines or gas fields was no different than the technique utilities use to store high-pressure natural gas underground ahead of the heating season.
"We're just storing air. We're not storing hydrocarbons," he said. "So it's much more straightforward."
As the compressed air is released and expands, it becomes very cold and must be mixed with natural gas to drive a conventional turbine generator. The mixture saves about 65 percent of the gas used by a fossil-fuel turbine.
"It does take a little bit of education, but once people understand how it works, it is akin to a regular power plant," Byrd said. "It's just configured in a very different way."
Only one such facility exists in America: a 110-megawatt plant built in 1991 in McIntosh, Ala.
Nakhamkin, the technological muscle behind the Energy Storage & Power joint venture, helped build the Alabama plant. He has developed technology that cuts plant emissions, improves efficiency, and reduces costs by using more standard components.
Byrd said the installed cost had dropped about 30 percent, to $700 to $800 per kilowatt of capacity.
Energy-storage systems make economic sense: Cheap electricity produced during off-peak hours is acquired, stored, then used to generate power during peak hours, when prices are much higher.
The economics have become much more attractive with the push to build more renewables.
Advocates for storage systems say they could be built at the site of renewable-energy production, such as wind farms. But they also might be located closer to markets for the power, even in urban areas, so that they would draw upon long-distance transmission lines during the night and provide some relief during peak hours, when the electrical grid is most stressed.
"If you have storage, you can much more evenly use the transmission system and can substantially decrease the amount of transmission you have to build for renewables," Byrd said. "That's big, and a number of utilities are looking at that."
Some of the systems the company is developing are as small as 16 megawatts and could be built on two acres where the compressed air is stored aboveground in canisters, he said.
Environmental hurdles for a compressed-air plant would be "quite minimal" since regulatory agencies are accustomed to underground gas storage, Byrd said.
"And from an emissions point of view, it's quite benign."
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/breaking/business_breaking/20090909_N_J__venture_uses_compressed_air_to_store_energy.html
www.brazzil.com
| Written by Isaura Daniel |
| Wednesday, 15 July 2009 05:51 |
Brazilian merchant Lizete Araújo da Silva, 51, has worked for approximately ten years in a variety store in Perus, one of the farthest neighborhoods from the center of the city of São Paulo. She commutes from the adjoining city of Franco da Rocha and, since 2003, the air as she comes off the bus, Perus, is better for breathing. |
The reason is that nearby, large volumes of methane and carbon dioxide have ceased to be emitted into the air and now have a nobler purpose: generating energy. The Perus neighborhood houses one of the projects for generating energy from waste in São Paulo. The site was not chosen at random. There used to be an active landfill named Bandeirantes operating there. Now, the landfill no longer receives trash, but the material that was disposed of at the site for approximately thirty years, now in decomposition, produces the gas needed for electric energy production. In the past, it used to go into Lizete's lungs, and into the lungs of other men and women who live nearby, making the air of those living nearer the site foul, and collaborating to destroy the ozone layer. In addition to the Bandeirantes landfill, São Paulo also generates energy from waste at another landfill, named São João and located in the São Mateus neighborhood. Together, they enabled the São Paulo City Hall, which is in charge of the projects, to reduce its emissions of environmentally harmful gases by 20%, and to make money as well. The initiative results in carbon credits that have already been traded at two auctions, in 2007 and 2008, generating 71 million Brazilian reais (US$ 35.6 million). The funds are used in projects for the communities that live in the surroundings of the landfills. The Bandeirantes landfill is Latin America's largest in terms of household residue, with an area of 1.4 million square meters, and the piping in its power plant receives 150,000 normal cubic meters of gas per day, according to information supplied by Biogás, the company in charge of energy generation. Counting in the São João landfill, whose plant is also managed by Biogás, the project answers to 59% of carbon credits traded worldwide from waste energy generation. Biogás took over the Bandeirantes landfill in 2003, and of São João in 2006. Half the carbon credits obtained belongs to the city hall, and the other half belongs to Biogás. All of the electric power, in turn, is Biogás'. As a result of an agreement signed early on between Biogás and the Unibanco bank, the electric power - 20 megawatts per hour - is used at the banking institution's branches. As a matter of fact, what the bank does, explains Antonio Carlos Delbin, technical director at Biogás, is transfer all of the energy to the grid of the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel) in exchange for its electricity bills. Delbin says that 4.5 million carbon credits have already been captured. Seemingly, it is all very simple. Suction pipes are installed at the landfill, and the gas goes through them and into the plant, where it works as an engine for generating energy. That, however, requires investment that is not always profitable. So much so that the São Paulo City Hall has designed energy generation projects for four other landfills. Only two of them received proposals from companies interested in operating the plants. If a landfill is too far removed from the energy grid, explains Delbin, then investment in gas transport is not worthwhile. At the Bandeirantes landfill, for instance, Biogás invested from 3 to 4 million reais (US$ 1.5 to US$ 2 million) for that. At São João, investment totaled 30 million reais (US$ 15 million). The cost-to-benefit ratio is pointed out as one of the reasons for the small number of initiatives for generating energy from waste in the country. The technical director claims that each individual landfill must be assessed to determine if applying for carbon credits and generating electric energy is worthwhile. This type of project is in fact criticized by environmentalists and energy industry professionals. Holding a doctorate in Science from the University of São Paulo (USP), Sabetai Calderoni, whose environmental studies are known worldwide, believes that this is not the best solution for waste, and that in a best-case scenario landfills would not be made. Calderoni, however, claims that for landfills that already exist, it is a good measure. "Methane gas is twenty times more pollutant than carbon dioxide," says the Doctor. In Calderoni's opinion, the best thing would be to have the waste sorted. Afterwards, materials that cannot be reused and have heat-generating power, such as construction waste and wood, would be placed into gasification equipment to then generate energy. Different from the landfill, which has a short lifespan in terms of energy generation - it is capable of generating energy for 15 to 20 years after it stops receiving waste -, this other type of initiative can be permanent, which makes it economically more interesting as well. As long as projects along those lines are not a reality, however, generating light and carbon credits from waste is one of the initiatives in the environmental field that earn praise worldwide. The municipality of São Paulo received international acclaim for its landfills-energy factories. The projects were presented at the summit of the C40, a group of the world's largest cities turned to finding ways for a more sustainable planet, held in Seoul in May. As a result of the environmental work, São Paulo may host the C40 summit in 2011. "Cities and urban settings answer to 75% of carbon dioxide emissions," says the joint secretary of Foreign Relations of the São Paulo City Hall, Flávio Goldman. He recalls, though, that the solutions to environmental issues are also in the cities, by means of policies for urban management, residue management, rational energy use, and incentive to collective transport, among others. With a mayor (Gilberto Kassab) who is concerned with the environmental issue, the city of São Paulo has implemented a series of actions in recent years, such as the 100 Parques (100 Parks) program, by which the municipality, which now has 58 parks, should have 100 parks by 2012. Another such initiative is the Projeto Solar (Solar Project), which makes it mandatory to install water heating systems using solar energy in new buildings, and vehicle inspection, which measures emissions by automobiles, among others. The city has also created a set of municipal laws regarding the environment. http://www.brazzil.com/component/content/article/206-july-2009/10212-sao-paulo-brazil-finds-out-its-not-easy-to-be-green.html |
Vietnam News Service
HCM City starts programme to retrofit energy-saving buildings
(17-07-2009)
HCM CITY — The Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) and HCM City authorities yesterday kicked off a programme to retrofit buildings to make them energy-efficient.
The programme, which aims to cut energy consumption in existing buildings, is sponsored through former US President Bill Clinton’s Clinton Foundation.
The Clinton programme and the city’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment held a conference yesterday to discuss the cost-saving and sustainable business model of retrofitting buildings.
Attendees were building and facility owners of commercial centres, hospitals, hotels and factories.
The programme is the first between the CCI and the HCM City after the latter became a member of the C40, a group of the world’s largest cities committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Buildings are responsible for 15 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, which consume one-third of energy worldwide, according to Christopher Seeley, CCI’s Asia Pacific Regional Manager of Retrofit Programme.
They account for about 80 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions in cities.
Retrofitting buildings with modern products, technologies and systems will help reduce emissions.
The programme provides support to building owners who employ best practices, discounted prices of energy-efficient technology and choices on low-cost financing schemes.
The CCI has negotiated agreements with major energy service companies, such as Johnson Controls, Trane, Siemens and Honeywell, who offer energy performance contracts.
It also brings a number of financial institutions such as IFC (International Finance Corporation), Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and ABN Amro to offer financing for projects on competitive terms.
CCI’s Purchasing Alliance provides information and discounted prices on a number of energy-efficient products and technologies.
The programme has helped more than 300 retrofit projects in 30 cities around the world, including Chicago, New York, Bangkok, Mumbai and Melbourne. —VNS
http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=02ECO170709
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