Sustainable Urban Energy for Dhaka City

by Md. Zahidur Rahman and Saeed Ahmed Siddiquee
October 5, 2012

Blitz

Our entire way of life and all of our economic projections relies on more energy. Howbeit, the world is now facing most serious challenge in energy supply which could be a more devastating crisis than world wars. Global energy depletion has already begun, although few countries have realized it. The peak energy affects the future of the entire global economy. Presently the energy producing resources like fossil fuel, gas, coal, and uranium has placed in peak position. It is predicted that those non-renewable energy is going to be declined position in every place of the earth.

Dominant consumption of non-renewable energy for electricity is leading to Green House Gasses (GHG) emission into the atmosphere. According to the International Energy Agency (2011), approximately 901 grammes of CO2 or equivalent are released per kilowatt hour of electricity that generated from coal. Presumably, global urban populations are principle responsible for GHG emissions due to the consumption of bulk amount of energy for the aristocratic lifestyle. While on the contrary, Renewable World stated that still 1.3 billion people in the world still live without access to electricity and 2.7 billion people have no access to clean cooking facilities. Admittedly, energy crisis will happen in future and then urban inhabitants will be more sufferer compare to rural people. In this situation, global economic wheel may be plummeted and thus leading to global inevitable poverty. Indeed, a concerning era has already arise in front of the global leaders to make them busy thinking alternatively about how to overcome this energy crisis?

At present, what is the overview of Bangladesh's energy situation? Currently, around 43% population belongs to electricity facilities with per capita consumption of 140 kilowatt hour. The electricity consumption rate has increased gradually due to the demand of overwhelmed growing population. Reported by the country power system Master Plan 2010, the forecasted demand would be 19,000 megawatt by the year 2021 and 34,000 megawatt by 2030. Till now majority of our energy come from non-renewable sources which are facing challenges in order to growing energy demand for mostly electricity generation. Presently, Bangladesh has 20.5 TFC recoverable natural gas reserve and 420 million tones of coal reserve. Noticeable gas fields are already facing multifaceted crisis for gas supply for electricity generation. For example, Sangu gas field has reduced the supply of gas from a well. In addition, day by day oil prices have increased in the global market schemes which lead to raise prices per unit cost of electricity.

Surprisingly, the capital city of Dhaka itself consumes almost 41.22% of the total generated electricity while the demand of electricity is approximately 12000 megawatt and only 5493 megawatt is on pipeline. Stated by DESA, the demand for power in Dhaka city has increased by around 10% a year. As the supply is not adequate to meet the demand in the city, so either we have to adopt it or think alternative path way to solve the power crisis. If we consider Thailand, we can see that almost 28% electricity comes from the renewable sources. Bangladesh also has plenty of renewable energy sources to innovate and mainstreaming it to the main grid.

In Dhaka city we have not enough wind speed for windmill, neither enough River current for hydroelectric power plant nor even any suitable peri-urban places for nuclear power station installation. Nuclear power plant might be a suitable option for bulk amount of power generation and also it has no carbon emission but it is supposed to be risky in terms of earthquake frequency. Surprisingly, Dhaka is situated in the solar radiation receiving zone on the earth with almost 335 sunny days a year. Hence, solar photovoltaic energy generation is the best option for Dhaka city to face the present energy crisis.

According to CDMP's Urban Risk Reduction Specialists, there are 3,26,000 (appx.) buildings in Dhaka City. If we consider introducing a 5m² solar panel for each building, it might produce about 222 megawatt (5*136W*326000) electricity. Another expert from the same domain said that, we have almost 20000 shopping malls in Dhaka city and where we could introduce renewable energy for electricity generation. Furthermore, the growing real estate companies could also use environment favorable architectural design like Council Building-2 (Solar energy capturing building) in Melbourne where produce a substantial amount of electricity locally for every building. Apart from this, solar technology also reduce GHG emission rate by absorbing around 20% solar radiations that might balance the inner city heat. Cutting down of existing load shading, long term health and financial benefits are also might be ensured and even people could get installation cost back within three years.

From renewable energy sources, Bangladesh government has set a target to meet 5% by the year 2015 and 10% by 2020 of total power demand (RENDEV). However, our government has already been taken some effective initiative for enhancing efficiency of electricity through energy saving distribution within urban communities. Bangladesh has an extensive renewable energy policy. Few governmental offices, institutions and common places are now being implemented solar power installation for the purpose of alternative power generation.

Energy is one o f the most important ingredients required to alleviate poverty, realize socio-economic and human development. Energy returned on energy invested, banning of profligate users, increase people awareness, policy implementation, generation of individual or household level options, community or private sector initiative along with investment, zero interest bank loans for renewable energy and enforcement of law and order situation are required to overcome the present condition. Furthermore, we need feasibility study of those technologies aiming to adopt suitable technology for electricity production from renewable resources. For an instance close your eyes and think, what will be the situation without or insufficient electricity supply of Dhaka? Completely become dead city!

http://www.weeklyblitz.net/2626/sustainable-urban-energy-for-dhaka-city

China price war drains jobs in Germany’s Solar Valley

Sydney Morning Herald
9/8/12

When Thomas Behling returned to his home state of Saxony-Anhalt in 2006, he was drawn by a job in the solar industry and the chance to participate in Germany’s renewable energy boom. He was fired in July.

Behling’s employer, Sovello, produced its last solar panel on Aug. 26, sending 1,000 workers home after attempts to find an investor to save the seven-year-old company failed. Next door, Q-Cells SE, once the world’s largest solar-cell maker, is being acquired by Hanwha Group of South Korea as soaring debt brought it to the brink of bankruptcy. At least 12 German solar companies filed for protection from creditors in the past year.

Their demise, fueled by price competition from China and a cut in German subsidies from April, has hobbled Saxony-Anhalt’s effort to turn a 350-hectare (1.4 square miles) business park near the town of Bitterfeld-Wolfen into Europe’s solar-power nucleus. Even as Chancellor Angela Merkel pins Germany’s exit from nuclear energy on power derived from the sun and wind, a global glut of solar panels is killing the fledgling firms.

“I believed that I was working in an industry with a future,” Behling, a 31-year-old industrial mechanic, said in an interview. “That it’s over now is very sad.”

The European Union yesterday threatened to impose tariffs on solar panels from China, echoing a similar move by the U.S., as it opened a probe into whether Chinese manufacturers are selling them below cost, a practice known as dumping. Tariffs however will come too late for Sovello and many German firms.

Bosch closing

The closures aren’t confined to Saxony-Anhalt. Robert Bosch, the world’s biggest car parts manufacturer that has invested at least 1.5 billion euros in its solar division, said last week it would close a plant in the state of Thuringia by the end of the year. First Solar Inc. of the U.S. said in April it would shutter its biggest European manufacturing site in Brandenburg that employs 1,200 people.

China’s share of global crystalline silicon-cell capacity surged to 66 percent last year from 26 percent in 2006, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Germany’s share sank to four percent from 23 percent six years ago.

Crystalline-based cells are the principal device in most solar panels.

Of the world’s 10 biggest solar-cell manufacturers with a combined production capacity of almost 17 gigawatts, eight were mainly based in China and two in Taiwan as of last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. JA Solar, the biggest cell-maker based in Shanghai, more than tripled its capacity to 2.8 gigawatts from 2009 to 2011.

Chinese panel makers led by Suntech Power are grabbing market share from European rivals in a price war that drove solar-panel prices down by about 50 percent last year, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Price matters

“Quality matters, but what matters more is price,” Heinz Steffen, an analyst at Fairesearch GmbH in Kronberg, said in an Aug. 30 interview.

The Bloomberg Industries Global Large Solar index has fallen about 37 percent this year as German solar companies including Solon SE, Solar Millennium AG and Solarhybrid AG filed for insolvency. That compares with the 2.7 percent gain in the period by the MSCI World Index, a 1,625-member global benchmark.

The collapse flies in the face of a German plan to use renewable energy as a pillar to rebuild the economy in the eastern part of the country after reunification in 1990.

The policy helped turn a landscape that in the 1980s was dotted with coal-fired power stations that emitted fly ash and chemical plants that pumped waste into local rivers, earning it the title of Europe’s dirtiest region, into a clean-energy hub.

Solar survives

The government pumped about 375 billion euros ($450 billion) into eastern Germany in the 20 years after reunification, according to a study by the Ifo Institute for Economic Research in Dresden. It led industrial nations in subsidizing renewable energy generators, which supplied 25 percent of the nation’s power in the first half of this year.

German Environment Minister Peter Altmaier said on Aug. 16 that “it’s in Germany’s interest” that the domestic solar industry survives.

Germany’s introduction in 2004 of the world’s first above-market rates for solar energy turned the country into the single-biggest photovoltaic market that same year, prompting Spain, Britain and Japan to follow suit with similar initiatives aimed at generating “green jobs.”

Q-Cells produced its first solar cell in 2001, with 19 workers. Six years later, it had more than 1,700 employees and generated annual sales of 860 million euros. By 2008, it had overtaken Sharp of Japan as the world’s biggest producer of solar cells.

Purge overcapacity

“The solar industry needs this storm to purge some of the overcapacities, not just in Germany but in Asia too,” Fairesearch’s Steffen said. “German solar companies still have excellent intellectual property, so there’s hope that some will survive.”

While German cell- and panel makers have largely stayed domestic, the U.S. solar industry, led by First Solar of Arizona, is focusing on thin-film technology and is producing mainly in Southeast Asia.

The U.S. government mainly supports installations with a 30 percent investment tax credit for solar projects through 2016 and has backed projects with billions of dollars in federal loan guarantees. First Solar got $3.1 billion in such guarantees for three projects it later sold.

As Chinese companies took market share from Q-Cells and the failed Solyndra LLC of the U.S. in the last few years, they’ve become burdened with billions of dollars in debt amid the global drop in profit margins they helped instigate.

Chinese financing

State-owned China Development Bank has offered at least $47.3 billion in financing since 2010 to support the country’s wind and solar manufacturers, though credit lines were only been partially tapped, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Employment in Germany’s clean energy industry probably will “stagnate” this year after creating about 31,600 jobs a year since 2004, Claudia Kemfert, a senior energy analyst at the DIW economic institute in Berlin, said in April.

Unemployment in Saxony-Anhalt dropped from about 20.5 percent in 2003 to 11.6 percent last year. That’s still more than Germany’s 6.8 percent national average. The state’s Economy Ministry estimates that as many as 6,000 positions at local suppliers, including glass makers, are dependent on the solar industry.

All not lost

Rainer Haseloff, the governor of Saxony-Anhalt, and state Economy Minister Birgitta Wolff traveled to South Korea on Aug. 29 to meet with potential investors, Beate Hagen, an economy ministry spokeswoman, said.

“The solar industry is very important for Saxony-Anhalt and for eastern Germany as a whole,” Hagen said by phone on Aug. 28. “We have the entire solar value chain in our region and we’re doing everything possible so that it stays here.”

Still, all is not lost. Hanergy, a Chinese renewable-energy operator, agreed in June to buy Solibro, a thin-film unit of Q-Cells, pledging to raise production at its plant in Germany’s Solar Valley to 100 megawatts.

The Fraunhofer Center for Silicon Photovoltaics CSP in nearby Halle is conducting research into new technologies, and Calyxo GmbH, a maker of thin-film solar panels, plans to more than triple its output to 80 megawatts by the end of this year.

Thin-film technology

“Thin-film has a very attractive future,” because the technology’s costs will continuously fall, Florian Holzapfel, the company’s chief executive officer, said in an interview with Photovoltaics International.

Thin-film panels are made by depositing semiconducting material such as cadmium telluride onto metal or glass. While cheaper, they’re less efficient at converting sunlight to power than traditional, polysilicon-based panels. The falling cost of polysilicon has narrowed the price gap between the technologies.

The creditors of Q-Cells on Aug. 29 backed a takeover bid from Hanwha, which pledged to keep manufacturing and research in the Solar Valley and keep 1,250 of the company’s 1,550 global jobs.

“We’re seeing light at the end of the tunnel for Solar Valley,” Hagen said.

Behling, who operated and monitored Sovello’s machines for the past six years, is optimistic he can start working elsewhere by October. While three local companies contacted him after he sent around applications, none of his potential new employers works in the renewable energy industry, he said.

“In life, you have to move on,” he said.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/china-price-war-drains-jobs-in-germanys-solar-valley-20120908-25kp4.html#ixzz25udzAbSU

Life Without Indian Point, Redux

By MATTHEW L. WALD

NY Times

9/7/12

The consequences of running the Indian Point nuclear reactors or shutting them down run from easy-to-spot to hard-to-calculate.

Is a serious accident plausible? Would retiring the reactors open the way for alternative sources of electricity that pose a lower safety risk? Or simply ensure an economic blow?

Two Westchester County business groups have sponsored a study, released on Friday, that takes the latter view — a counterpoint a 2011 study by opponentsthat argued that there was nothing indispensable about the reactors.

The new report, by Howard J. Axelrod, a longtime economics consultant, predicts payroll and tax payment losses (which seem pretty certain) and takes a stab at predicting electricity rate increases and a general decline in economic activity. The study was sponsored by the Business Council of Westchester (of which Entergy, Indian Point’s owner, is a member), and the Westchester Business Alliance

The report updates a version commissioned by Westchester business interests four years ago.

Some of the numbers are straightforward. Indian Point has 1,200 employees and uses another 200 contractors. The employee payroll is $130 million, and the plant pays $75 million in property taxes plus additional taxes to New York State.

The study quotes an earlier estimate that the plant contributes $363 million to local purchases. (Some fraction of the payroll and property taxes would continue during the decommissioning of the plant’s reactors.) A high-efficiency natural gas plant of the same capacity might employ only 20 workers, the study said.

It’s a little harder to estimate the effect on electric rates.

New York State’s electricity system relies on a complicated auction method whereby utilities like Con Edison say how much electricity they think they will need and generating companies say what price they need to produce electricity.

A computer tallies up the demand and ranks the suppliers by price, from lowest to highest. It then decides which generators will run, beginning with the lowest-priced and continuing until demand is met, with the last megawatt-hour being the priciest. Yet all generators get paid the price demanded by the last supplier.

Indian Point is a relatively low-cost supplier. If it disappears, the computer will have to reach higher into the stack of generation offers to match supply to demand, and that last megawatt-hour will be more expensive. So all generators will receive more income, and all consumers will pay more.

Mr. Axelrod’s study puts Indian Point’s energy costs at $44 to $53 per megawatt-hour. He says that the least costly alternative would be a plant burning natural gas at high efficiency, which would cost $76 to $109 per megawatt-hour. He estimates an increase in electricity rates of 6.3 percent, or $374 million a year.

Of the two functioning Indian Point reactors (Unit 1 closed down in 1974), Unit 2’s license expires in 2013, and Unit 3’s in 2015. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has yet to turn down a request for a license extension, although it wants some steps to be taken on safety at the plant.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants the plant retired, and while the state has no jurisdiction over safety, it is trying to deny a vital water-use permit. Under the commission’s rules, the plant’s existing licenses are valid beyond their expiration dates if an application for a renewal is still under consideration.

The debate over the effects of shutting down the plant will surely drag on.

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/07/life-without-indian-point-redux/

Liverpool looks to the future as Shanghai EXPO ends

Oct 15 2010by Merseyside News, Liverpool Daily Post

LIVERPOOL is laying long term plans to tackle the challenges of becoming a low carbon city, regeneration chief Max Steinberg told an international conference in China today.

Mr Steinberg, chief executive of  Liverpool Vision, the organisation spearheading the city's involvement in the World Expo in Shanghai, told an urban regeneration forum: "Nothing short of a completely new model for the development of sustainable cities is required."

Mr Steinberg and council leader Joe Anderson gave keynote speeches at the forum, which reflected on the regeneration of the twin cities of Shanghai and Liverpool, the parallels between them and the lessons to be learned from each other's challenges.

"We have already achieved much in a short time, but we know we can make even more progress," said Mr Steinberg. 

"Low carbon cities of the future will demand even more creativity from politicians and professionals, even more collective action globally, nationally and locally."

He said it was difficult for politicians to be risk takers.

"Public leadership is generally short term, and there is no reward for long-term decision-making," he added. "But in Liverpool we are thinking long-term - long term regeneration, long term improvement for our communities, long term commitment to playing our part in the UK's and world's future.

"We are going to have to find new ways to plan, build and govern our city. We must reduce our impact on the environment and increase our residents' quality of life."

He said that, far from being a threat to competitiveness, this was the key to Liverpool's future ability to compete in a world in which the sustainable use of resources and environmental technologies would become increasingly important.

Cllr Anderson told the conference that Liverpool and Shanghai faced many similar challenges in terms of regeneration, and of the importance of protecting the cities' heritage as they develop.

He thanked the city of Shanghai for the opportunity to take part in the World Expo, adding: "We cannot yet calculate the economic value of our place at World Expo, but we already know that relationships forged in Shanghai will continue to pay dividends in the future.

"And our international drive does not end with the close of the event. I am determined that there will be a lasting legacy – long after our Pavilion has shut its doors. "Both Liverpool and Shanghai are cities with a great past – but we share an even bigger future."

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2010/10/15/liverpool-looks-to-the-future-as-shanghai-expo-ends-92534-27479585/2/

Waste to Resource: Seattle Moving on Eco-Industrial Districts

By Bill DiBenedetto | October 11th, 2010  

The “eco-industrial district” concept in Seattle is moving – slowly – from concept to sustainable reality.

The Metropolitan King County Council last month adopted a proposal that calls for a partnership with the City of Seattle (which resides in King County) to create Eco-Industrial Districts in the city and throughout the county.

The idea is to assist development in Seattle’s industrial core areas, such as the SoDo district or in the Duwamish River corridor in south Seattle by coordinating various public sector initiatives on sustainable communities.

That coordination is an opportunity for local industries to create green jobs and share resources that will benefit and business and the environment, said County Councilmember Larry Phillips, who sponsored the partnership measure. Development of EIDs “will advance our regional vision for land and resource conservation, energy efficiency and shared energy resources, recreational amenities, and transit access,” he said.

EIDs can vary in size, from a few properties to a large industrial community, within which manufacturers located in close proximity use waste products from one firm as an input resource for a neighboring firm, and where workforce housing, recreation and public transit are located nearby.

The districts help create sustainable communities by using waste byproducts, maximizing resources, promoting green job creation, applying sustainable manufacturing practices, and creating livable communities.

Under an EID partnership, the jurisdictions are hoping to “identify opportunities for innovation and collaboration within Seattle’s industrial center, provide public sector support for those innovations that may face legislative barriers and partner with industrial companies to support existing businesses and attract new business to the region,” a King County statement said.

The county manages regional utilities including transit, solid waste and wastewater treatment, and has resources – otherwise known as waste byproducts – to offer for this effort, including heat from wastewater trunk lines, treated wastewater effluent, mixed municipal waste and solid waste recyclables.

The legislation calls for the County Executive to coordinate these resources to ensure that they will be available to interested cities as they move forward and develop EIDs  or other facilities that promote the sustainable use of resources and development of green communities in urban areas throughout King County.

Seattle’s City Council is working with the Seattle Office of Economic Development and the Mayor to draft an EID scope of work this fall.

It’s a potentially far-reaching step towards a more sustainable approach to developing the city’s most industrialized – and polluted – areas.

A likely first candidate is the Duwamish River corridor, which is home to an EPA Superfund site as well some grandiose and expensive development ideas from environmentalists and community activists. The industrial district along the Duwamish River valley and surrounding neighborhoods is one of the largest contiguous industrial areas in the U.S., encompassing about 4,000 companies and 70,000 employees.

An EID program there would strengthen the city’s industrial core while improving the environmental quality of the Duwamish, said Council President Richard Conlin.

Can clean and green coexist with industrial grit?

Maybe Seattle’s template will show the way to a new way of thinking about grunge.

http://www.triplepundit.com/2010/10/waste-resource-seattle-moving-eco-industrial-districts/

San Jose makes progress on mayor's ambitious green vision

By John Woolfolk

Mercury News

Article Launched: 10/05/2008 10:00:00 PM PDT

One year ago, Chuck Reed unveiled one of his boldest initiatives as San Jose mayor, a "green vision'' to turn the city into "the center of innovation in clean technology.''

Environmentalists praised him and politicians near and far took notice — most notably Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who dubbed Reed "the green mayor.'' He even earned the backing of some of his toughest critics at City Hall.

A year later, there are early signs of success. The city already can point to measurable progress in attracting "clean tech" jobs, promoting renewable energy and making buildings more efficient — including a new mandate for private developers that will be voted on Tuesday.

But there's still a long way to go, and it remains to be seen whether many of the 10 ambitious goals, such as powering the entire city with renewable energy, diverting all waste from the landfill and reusing all wastewater, can be achieved in the 15-year time frame that Reed mapped out.

"I think they're making some pretty aggressive efforts toward meeting the goals of the green vision," said David Marsland of the Sierra Club's Loma Prieta chapter. "Those are particularly ambitious goals, no doubt about that. I don't know if the goals are unreachable, but they're certainly working toward them."

Reed admits he's set a high bar, but he insists San Jose can rise to the challenge.

"We've got some pretty good progress in a year," Reed said. "They're tough goals, not impossible."

Notable progress toward the green vision over the past year includes:

 Doubling the number of "clean tech" jobs in San Jose to more than 3,000. Renewable energy companies, notably SunPower and Nanosolar, added 1,500 positions to their payrolls. If that pace continues, San Jose will add 22,500 clean-tech jobs in 15 years, just shy of the 25,000 goal. On Tuesday, the city council is expected to approve a hard-fought land deal to bring Tesla Motors to San Jose, a move expected to add at least 1,000 more jobs producing electric cars.

 Adding 159,000 square feet of "green buildings" meeting high-energy efficiency and sustainable materials standards, including a 96,000-square-foot central service yard and a 63,000-square-foot affordable-housing project. That puts San Jose on pace to have 2.4 million square feet of new or retrofitted green buildings in 15 years, far short of the 50-million-square-foot goal. But the city council Tuesday is expected to approve a green-building requirement for private development that could greatly increase the totals in coming years.

Green vision is Reed's most popular initiative since taking office in 2007. And although Reed has clashed with council members over how to go about eliminating the city's chronic budget deficits, he has won unanimous backing on the environmental agenda.

Councilwoman Nora Campos, who has challenged Reed to devote more resources toward crime-fighting, lauded the mayor for efforts to ensure that his environmental initiatives reach out to include residents of modest means.

She noted his insistence earlier this year that solar power companies offer their systems to residents at no up-front cost. In June, five local solar companies announced they would do so by offering leases or purchase agreements that are paid for with the savings from consumers' monthly energy bills.

"Though I support the mayor's green vision, I have always been concerned that it would become an ideal that most of our hard-working residents cannot afford," Campos said. "I am pleased that the mayor has addressed many of the affordability issues that I have raised."

Yet it also could be argued that, in a state where environmentalism is popular, San Jose is in some ways running with the pack.

The green-building requirements for private development that the council is expected to approve Tuesday will surely put San Jose on the leading edge of environmental construction standards. But several other cities have already adopted similar policies this year, including San Francisco, Los Angeles and Palo Alto.

Still, environmentalists say San Jose's ambitious pursuit of leading-edge environmental policy under Reed's leadership has laid a foundation for substantial progress.

Marsland noted that Reed was successful in winning support for the private-sector green building policy from key business groups, including housing developers and architects. Pat Dando, president of the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce, said Reed has taken business leaders' considerable concerns about new regulations into account in pursuing the green goals. She cited, for example, a phased implementation of the proposed green building policy.

"All the goals the mayor set out in the green vision plan are laudable; we all want to work toward them," Dando said. "This mayor is a business-friendly mayor and he understands the value of a healthy economy. I don't believe he'll do anything to cause more challenges for businesses today."

Celia Canfield, director of development for West Coast Green, which promotes environmentally sensitive building products and featured Reed at its convention in San Jose last month, said she's "not hearing any cynicism" among green activists about Reed's ability to deliver on his environmental goals.

"When you have somebody like a Chuck Reed who says 'I'll clear the roadblocks to make that happen,' " she said, "it can happen."

http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_10645975?nclick_check=1

Bay Area mayors band together for green future

Christopher Heredia, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Mayors of the Bay Area's three largest cities vowed Wednesday to set aside provincial interests and back an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by building houses near rail lines and expanding employment in solar energy and green technology.

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Meeting at Santa Clara University for a conference about going green and how it can be profitable, Mayors Ron Dellums of Oakland, Gavin Newsom of San Francisco and Chuck Reed of San Jose agreed to push for local laws to get people out of cars and onto public transit and encourage housing, commercial and job development near transit hubs.

"We all have deficits," Reed said. "It's not about spending money. It's about innovation."

The goals of the Clean and Green conference, hosted by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, also included the need for local and state green building standards, increasing renewable energy and the use of electric vehicles.

"Time is not on our side," Dellums said, adding that city and state leaders first must convince residents used to gas-guzzling cars and far-flung suburban living that it is in their interest and the interest of their children and grandchildren to reduce their carbon footprint.

One of the biggest impediments to accomplishing the mayors' ambitious agenda, Dellums said, "is getting people to understand there are no options. Either we do it or we do not survive."

Newsom said his city is switching much of its municipal fleet to biodiesel and electric vehicles as well as establishing green building standards in hopes of encouraging other cities to follow.

He has also proposed building urban wind farms in neighborhoods and harnessing wave energy from ocean tides off San Francisco's shoreline as alternatives to relying on carbon-based fuels.

Newsom and Dellums said the jobs created by the green economy - such as installing solar panels on buildings - must go to Bay Area residents, and local residents must be trained to be ready for hire.

"There are economic opportunities of enormous proportions here," Newsom said.

The mayors were joined on a panel by Kim Polese, CEO of Redwood City software company SpikeSource, who echoed Newsom's assessment.

"We have an opportunity to create a whole new economy," Polese said, citing $1.8 billion in venture capital money that flowed into the state last year alone to fund such efforts as turning algae into jet fuel and developing carbon-negative cement. "Business has a tremendous responsibility and a tremendous opportunity."

While some business leaders have said laws requiring reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are detrimental to the economy, Polese said such government mandates "open the floodgates to investment."

Dellums said he recently visited Washington to promote the city's efforts to expand green job training as private industry shifts to growth in that sector.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, have agreed to develop legislation to expand the concept of the Oakland Green Jobs Corps, a pilot project with the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights that seeks to train 40 low-income residents for jobs in the green economy, Dellums said.

"We can fight pollution and poverty," Dellums said.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/11/BA2U12RNBQ.DTL

Can Green Jobs Save the American Middle Class?
By Brita Belli
E Magazine
November 9, 2007

The American middle class -- of which some 80 percent of Americans claim to be a part -- is getting anxious. While there is no carved-in-stone edict about what it means to be middle class, it's the term that Americans hang their dreams on.

It suggests earning enough to get by without struggling; being able to afford health care, college costs and the occasional trip to Disney World. The middle-class ideal is tied to earning power, and it's there that confidence is eroding. Over the last five years, while most workers' incomes have increased slowly or not at all, costs have reached record levels. Housing costs are up 23 percent, college costs up 44 percent and health insurance costs up 71 percent.

And while the traditional economic outlook is bleak, the green economy is taking shape, bringing with it the promise of well-paying manufacturing jobs; of management and sales opportunities with huge growth potential and lots of niche positions for enterprising students and job seekers looking for alternative careers. On the upper tiers of the economic ladder, many CEOs and CFOs are already jumping into green jobs, and online green job directories are heavy with listings for those with established business experience.

What remains to be seen is if the career ladders appearing in every sector, from green building to organic farming, solar installation and sustainable marketing, are available to all or to a select few. With the momentum behind environmental issues, Congress, spurred by advocacy organizations such as the Apollo Alliance and the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, is responding with legislation that could ensure a place for America's disadvantaged and disenfranchised in the new green economy. For that to happen, the House version of the new energy legislation -- spearheaded by Hilda Solis (D-CA) and John Tierney (D-MA) -- has to make it through Congress and past President George W. Bush's threatened veto.

The Green Jobs Act, which passed the House as part of the Energy Bill last August with a vote of 241 to 172, contains specific language about using the green economy as a "pathway out of poverty." Of the $125 million that would be set aside for job training in renewable energy, energy-efficient vehicles and green building, $25 million of that would be earmarked specifically for those most difficult to hire: at-risk youths, former inmates and welfare recipients. The Energy Savings Act of 2007 sponsored by Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and Hilary Clinton (D-NY) in the Senate allows for $100 million in training for "green-collar jobs," but is not geared specifically toward low-income Americans.

That, says Van Jones, president of the Ella Baker Center, is a critical difference. "There's this whole invisible infrastructure trying to get people who need jobs connected with work," says Jones. "There are vocational training centers, return-from-prison work centers, community colleges. But none of that infrastructure is pointed at the green economy. There are a lot of 'certificate factories' pointed at the pollution-based economy, and lots of people going to night school for jobs that aren't there any more."

The Green Jobs Act is a way of "repurposing our job training," says Jones. He testified before Congress in favor of the bill -- a national version of the Green Jobs Corps his organization established in Oakland, California -- and says the shortage of skilled workers throughout the renewable energy sector is already leading eco-entrepreneurs to hire their college buddies. But there's a larger issue at stake. Unless the green economy is designed to include America's urban youth, they are bound to be overlooked, shuffled back into the same low-wage, go-nowhere retail and fast food jobs with little opportunity for improvement.

"The work of saving the polar bears and poor kids is the same work," says Jones. "If we give the jobs to the people who most need them, we solve two problems."

Many say that $100 to $125 million is miniscule money for such a major economic transition. But the government's initial investment is only meant to be a launch pad, says Kevin Doyle, president of green consulting and training company Green Economy. "The federal government serves best as an innovative leader," he says. "Money from the private sector should be at least five times that much."

Companies taking the risk of implementing new, sustainable technologies won't be eager to bear the cost of training unskilled workers. And that incentive is needed, especially in the educational system, to create a workforce that's ready for the new economy. Until sustainable practices move from testing phase to the norm, as they have in green building, companies need a reason to make the switch. "All economic activity has to be financed," says Doyle. "There are no jobs without money." At the same time, he notes, "We are reaching the tipping point where cost incentives no longer have to come from some strange amalgam of tax incentives. Green is tipping into the mainstream."

Green on Top

The green economy has already opened doors for those in the upper echelon of the business world, the managers, directors, CEOs and CFOs.

"CEOs and senior-level people across a broad spectrum are entering the environmental field in droves," says Rona Fried, founder and president of SustainableBusiness.com which includes a "Green Dream Jobs" online directory. "They're saying 'I'm the CEO of an IT company and I want to put my skills to work for the environment. How do I make that transition?'"
As corporations build environmental strategy into their policy, partnering with nonprofits and responding more quickly to rising public concern for environmental issues, they need strong communicators. "Many companies have environmental managers that are now being upgraded in terms of status," says Dan Esty, director of the Center for Business and Environment at Yale University, and co-author of Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value and Build Competitive Advantage. "To be a successful environmental manager, you need good analytic skills, to understand the environment in a business context -- as a core business strategy."

That's the advice Esty gives his Yale students: if they want to improve the environment, they should find ways to help companies tackle the issues that are important to them -- be it safe drinking water, less urban pollution or protecting the rainforest.

And the growing partnerships between corporations and environmental activist groups have created jobs on both sides of the aisle. Greenpeace and Coca-Cola are now collaborating on hydrofluorocarbon (HFC)- and chlorofluorocarbon (CFC)-free refrigeration equipment. Other high-profile partnerships include Chiquita and the Rainforest Alliance, which vastly improved that company's labor and environmental practices in Latin America; and McDonald's with (among others) Environmental Defense which led to the fast-food chain eliminating those wasteful Styrofoam containers. "There are many more jobs today focused at managing the business-environmental interface," says Esty.

The 300 largest corporations are in the initial stages of crafting a new social frontier, writes author Bruce Piasecki in World Inc. "Enlightened self-interest is what fuels the global equity culture, from the search for fuel cells and biofuels to new ways to package and new ways to power our economy, transportation and computing infrastructure," writes Piasecki, president and founder of consulting firm the American Hazard Control Group. "Business first seeks to sustain and further itself, but this revolution has the side benefit of being good for us all."
While green jobs are often touted as a way to create a solid American workforce, it's the installation and maintenance jobs in solar and wind that can't be outsourced. "The technology, where a big part of the upper money is...it's not at all clear the U.S. will win that game," says Doyle. "Right now there are a lot of technology companies in Spain, Japan and Switzerland."

Turning Blue Collars Green

But those in-country manufacturing jobs are not to be taken lightly. They represent a huge possibility for a new "green-collar" economy to restore a rapidly disintegrating American middle class. The 10 Midwestern states, ideally suited for wind energy development, could see nearly 37,000 new jobs by 2020, according to the Environmental Law and Policy Center, if the nation's renewable energy portfolio were set to 22 percent. According to a University of California at Berkeley study in 2004 (and updated in 2006), "Putting Renewables to Work: How Many Jobs Can the Clean Energy Industry Generate?" the renewable industry consistently produced more jobs per megawatt of electricity generated in construction, manufacturing, installation, operations and management and fuel processing than the fossil fuel industries. With a 20 percent national renewable energy standard that included 55 percent wind energy, that would equal 188,018 new jobs by 2020.

Kate Gordon, program director for the Apollo Alliance, a nonprofit working for American energy independence, says, "There's been a wholesale loss of manufacturing jobs, which are union-protected, highly skilled jobs. But with wind turbines, solar panels, energy-efficient retrofits -- there's a whole world of green jobs. It's pretty exciting if you can harness it."

Both recent college graduates and professionals looking to redirect their careers need to find ways to plug into this new green economy. As those pathways from conventional to green are still being laid, that's not always easy. But Doyle, who offers consulting and training for the new green economy, says there are two key strategies. One is to look at what skills are needed by all industries to solve environmental problems. All need information management and financing.
"So much starts with gathering huge amounts of data," Doyle says. This includes jobs in information technology, geography and statistics. And whether a nonprofit, a government agency or a business is looking to purchase open space, or evaluating smart growth versus sprawl, people are always needed to find funds. This opens up jobs like sector analysts, green accountants, government finance officers and foundation managers, among others.

The second strategy for green job seekers is to "pick a niche without any sense of ideological blinders," he says. Someone wanting to "fix" climate change would investigate the major sources of carbon emissions -- power plants, automobiles, gas flares -- and focus on finding solutions within these polluting industries.

People on the forefront of this rising green economy see enormous green growth potential within once-suspect corporate entities, from Wal-Mart to Starbucks. "At one point, five to 10 years ago, it was unusual to have an employee involved in corporate social responsibility," says Ted Ning, conference director of LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) and executive editor of the LOHAS Journal. "Now corporate social responsibility is a whole department for large corporations like Office Depot or Trader Joe's." Looking at the big picture, from corporate scandals to Hurricane Katrina to rising gas prices to the conservative ideology of the current administration, Ning says it's "a perfect storm -- people are fed up with what's typically given to them."

Of course, as savvy marketers have realized, the conscious consumer behind many of the fastest-growing green businesses, from eco-travel to organic food to hybrid cars and Fair Trade coffee, are as seduced by the comfort and social status of these items as by their reduced carbon footprint. "People don't have to sacrifice their lifestyle anymore," says Ning. "They don't have to wear burlap or eat sand."

Brita Belli is managing editor of E Magazine.

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