"Merton Rule" becomes law with Royal Assent for Fallon Bill

• t

The Queen has added her signature to the Planning and Energy Bill - giving councils legal powers to require renewable energy systems for new buildings.

More than 100 local authorities around the country have already adopted the so-called "Merton Rule" - where construction firms advised that they want planning permission, they ought to include facilities for new buildings to generate their own energy.

The new legislation, which became a full Act of Parliament yesterday as its Royal Assent was confirmed, requires councils to set local targets for decentralised energy.

In order to meet those local energy targets, the Bill allows those councils to require developers to include within their plans technologies ranging from wind turbines and solar panels to heat pumps or biomass systems.

Local authorities will be free to require whatever level of renewable energy generation, though it is expected that a 10-15% level could be common.

There is no threshold within the Bill to allow smaller building projects to be exempt - although councils could decide to set such a threshold. Similarly, projects that propose renewable energy components of more than a local energy target level would not be prevented from doing so under the legislation.

Fallon

Sevenoaks MP Michael Fallon put the Bill forward as a Private Members Bill, and told New Energy Focus today that he was pleased it had finally achieved Royal Assent yesterday.

He said: "It's taken a year, including two debates in the House and five meetings with the Department. It's been a lot of hard work, but we managed to get a consensus behind the Bill along with the Liberal Democrats. Ministers changed throughout its progression, but the Bill survived."

It's not necessarily just on-site energy systems, it could also be near-site.

Michael Fallon MP

Mr Fallon said the Bill had only needed "minor" changes to get the government's ultimate approval, considering the consensus backing the project.

He said it was now up to individual councils to decide on what levels of decentralised energy to require new building projects to include. He said: "If you are going for 10% or 15%, it is up to them. It's not necessarily just on-site energy systems, it could also be near-site."

Government

The government's Department for Communities and Local Government said the Planning and Energy Act is tied very closely to its own planning guidance published last year.

A spokesman for the Department told New Energy Focus today: "The Michael Fallon Bill enshrines the Merton principle in law, and the government supported this Bill so we're very pleased it got through.

"We have a Planning Policy Statement on Climate Change that we published last December which contained detailed guidance to local authorities on setting local energy targets. This Bill was complementary to that, making it a legal requirement for councils to set local targets."

Merton

The measures within the Planning and Energy Act have become known as the "Merton Rule" because of the first local authority to adopt planning guidance suggesting developers ought to inclure renewable energy systems in their plans.

The London Borough of Merton set its "Rule" based on the government's 2004 planning guidance, Planning Policy Statement 22, requiring a 10% level of on-site energy generation for local development projects. 

The first project to comply with Merton's target was an industrial development at Willow Lane, Mitcham, which used small wind turbines and solar photopholtaic panels. Neighbouring Croydon became the next council to adopt the 10% target level, with others like North Devon setting slightly higher level of 15%.

Some councils like Richmond are already asking developers to push for even higher levels of renewable energy, of 20% or more, with Kirklees looking to set a 30% target for 2011.

Ultimately, the "Merton Rule" is seen as providing a middle step towards tough new requirements under the building regulations, which will require "zero carbon" domestic buildings from 2016, and commercial buildings from 2019.

http://newenergyfocus.com/do/ecco.py/view_item?listid=1&listcatid=32&listitemid=1939&section=

Green-basher Boris relaunches himself as an eco-warrior

Mayor of London says he wants to make the city the most environmentally friendly in the world

By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor
Sunday, 23 November 2008

REUTERS

Boris Johnson is backing a cycle-hire scheme for the capital

•  ENLARGE

•  Print 
•  Email

Search 
 Independent.co.uk  Web

Bookmark & Share

• Digg It
• del.icio.us
• Facebook
• Reddit

What are these?

Change font size: A A A

Cripes! Boris Johnson, one of Britain's least environmentally friendly politicians, will this week relaunch himself as a green champion.

In his maiden green speech, which aides are billing as "extremely substantial" and "a milestone event", London's Mayor – who used to denounce "eco-moralists" for spouting "mumbo-jumbo"– is to announce his intention to make the city the eco-capital of the world.

The man who compared fear of global warming to a "Stone Age religion", and poured scorn on renewable energy, has decided that he wants to make the capital "the world's leading city in delivering carbon reductions and capturing the benefits of the new energy economy".

The speech – to be delivered on Tuesday to the annual conference of the official Environment Agency – will stress that the financial crisis provides a crucial opportunity for developing environmentally friendly businesses, one of the main arguments of those pressing governments to launch a "green new deal" to revive growth.

Industries will have the chance to develop "new technologies", the Mayor will add, and householders will be able to save money by conserving energy and reducing their carbon footprints.

Mr Johnson will also promise "substantially increased investment" in small-scale exploitation of solar, wind and other forms of renewable energy in homes and communities, and "minimum-hassle, minimum-cost energy efficiency programmes" to insulate homes, offices and other buildings.

The speech will mark one of the most remarkable political Damascene conversions in years, for the Mayor was one of the few prominent Britons to welcome George W Bush's determination to kill off international attempts to combat climate change. He said that the President's "decision to scrumple up the Kyoto Protocol" was "right not just for America but for the world".

Mr Johnson then proclaimed that sharply reducing emissions would "exacerbate" climate change. He insisted that windfarms, "even when they are in motion, would barely pull the skin off a rice pudding" and denounced energy saving as a waste of effort. He became a hero to climate-change deniers worldwide.

He changed his tune during his election campaign earlier this year, describing global warming as "the biggest challenge of our generation", but his proposed policies were unconvincing and lagged far behind measures that his rival, Ken Livingstone, was already taking, which made London a world leader in combating global warming.

Jonathon Porritt, the Government's top environmental adviser, said that a Johnson victory would be "a massive setback" – and, once in office, the new Mayor seemed to justify the warning. He cancelled Mr Livingstone's plans to charge gas-guzzlers more to enter central London, put all his far-reaching climate-change measures under review, and sacked Allan Jones, the highly regarded head of the capital's Climate Change Agency. He also scrapped an order for 60 vehicles running on hydrogen – thought to be the world's biggest initiative of its kind.

However, the Mayor's office retorts: "Boris Johnson was elected on a firm commitment to reduce carbon emissions by 60 per cent by 2025 and to make London's environment cleaner and greener. Since being elected he has announced a range of measures to set London on the road to achieve this."

It points out that, among other promises, he has pledged to retain Mr Livingstone's Low-Emission Zone and has announced plans for a cycle-hire scheme and 10 low-carbon zones.

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/greenbasher-boris-relaunches-himself-as-an-ecowarrior-1031233.html

Boris Johnson sets out plans for green London

Mayor seeks to throw off image as climate change sceptic with major speech on environment

• Hélène Mulholland
• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday November 25 2008 17.34 GMT
• Article history

Boris Johnson today sought to burnish his green credentials by vowing to make London "greener, cheaper and cleaner at the same time".

The mayor of London announced plans to give all residents in the capital free up-front access to efficiency measures such as loft insulation to help drive down bills by an average of £300 a year, regardless of income.

Johnson also told the Environment Agency's annual conference that the economic downturn presented a "huge opportunity" for the capital by creating new green jobs, offering opportunities to reduce emissions as well as households and companies' energy bills.

"There is a huge opportunity for us to go greener and cleaner and cheaper at the same time," he said.

Simple changes to buildings to make them more energy efficient could save small- and medium-sized businesses £725m a year, declared the mayor.

"That is a considerably more powerful stimulus than a 2.5% cut in VAT," he quipped, referring to the government's pre-budget report statement yesterday.

The Tory mayor, famed for scorning the global warming agenda in the past, sought to throw off his image as the man who used to write caustic articles about "the religion of climate change" by saying that his mind had been changed by the incontrovertible science. "If the climate can change, I don't see why my mind can't," he said.

In an 18-minute speech, which was light on detail, Johnson said that his new environment adviser, Isobel Dedring, was looking at a scheme in Kirklees seeking to convert all households into energy efficient homes.

The council-led project will visit every home to offer free cavity-wall and loft insulation and low-energy light bulbs to everyone, and improvements to heating systems for those in fuel poverty or on benefits.

If implemented, a replication of the scheme across London would cost hundreds of millions of pounds.

Johnson is also considering low carbon zones in 10 areas within Greater London, and is keen to make better use of waste technology.

He said it was "completely crazy" that London spent roughly £12bn on energy while councils were filling landfill sites with waste that could be turned into domestic electricity with the use of the right technology.

Johnson also vowed not to replace his Toyota people carrier until he found an electric or hybrid car to replace it.

"I want to use our influence as powerfully as possible to drive forward an electrification of the motor car," he said.

"The GLA has 8,000 vehicles running around London … I want to use our bulk buying power to electrify or hybridise as much of the fleet as possible."

Johnson, who turned up by bicycle to make a speech from notes for the second of a two-day conference held in Westminster, used his address to espouse the virtues of cycling and express despair at the fact that just 1% of Londoners use two wheels to get around the capital.

This compared with 20% of people living in Copenhagen, and 30% of those in Norwich, he lamented.

Highlighting his plans for a bike hire scheme, which would see between 6,000 and 10,000 bikes available by 2010 to Londoners interested in occasional cycle use, Johnson admitted he faced the headache of dealing with 32 London boroughs who could push against his proposals.

Citing the Parisian Vélib' bike hire scheme, run by a mayor who has complete control over his city's pavements, Johnson said enviously that his own powers were limited in turns of placing cycle stations at regular intervals along London streets.

"We need to work with London boroughs, who are jealous of their parking receipts, who do not want to give valuable space up," said Johnson, adding that he was seeking to foster close collaboration with councils on all fronts.

The mayor looked floored when a member of the audience pointed out to him that he had "cut him up" on his bike by going through a red light.

Johnson seemed obviously relieved when told the incident had taken place before he was elected mayor.

"I now punctiliously obey every red light," he said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/nov/25/boris-green-politics

Along 240 Miles of Power Lines, Preparing Every Tower for Winter’s Wrath

Joyce Dopkeen for The New York Times

Eric DeChent, an inspector for Con Edison, scaled a tower in Verplanck, N.Y., to check for structural problems.

By KEN BELSON

Published: November 9, 2008

With the leaves turning and the temperatures dropping, homeowners are chopping wood, storing lawn furniture and weatherizing windows.

Enlarge This Image

Joyce Dopkeen/The New York Times

Mr. DeChent and Doug Wassil, driving, can inspect about 30 towers a day.

Doug Wassil and Eric DeChent have a different winter checklist: Help inspect the 1,600 towers that support high-voltage electrical lines in New York City, Westchester County and points farther north. On a recent morning, the two men, who work in Con Edison’s transmission line maintenance department, used binoculars, hoists and voltage meters to ensure that the towers’ concrete bases, steel beams, ceramic insulators and other hardware will be able to withstand the high winds, freezing cold and heavy snow that winter brings.

“Basically, we want to batten down the hatches,” said their boss, George Czerniewski, standing below a tower not far from the Indian Point nuclear power plant.

The stability of Con Edison’s towers, some nearly 500 feet tall, is critical to the health of the state’s electrical grid, which carries much of the power New York City needs from upstate. If one of the lines carrying up to 500,000 volts of electricity were downed by a falling tree, high winds or ice, parts of the city and its suburbs could go dark.

That is why each of the towers along the 240 miles of Con Edison-owned pathways that stretch from Dutchess County to the Bronx-Yonkers border is inspected twice a year, or more if maintenance is required. Every month, inspectors in helicopters fly over the towers and the hundreds of miles of cables between them.

Winter weather, though, brings additional risks and can make it more difficult for workers to get to the towers, some of which can be reached only by all-terrain vehicle.

“The worst for us is when ice builds up and wind pushes the cables and puts stress on the towers, which can break an arm,” said Mr. Wassil, 53, who has worked on transmission lines since 1983 and was finishing the fall patrol with Mr. DeChent late last month.

Like Con Ed’s half-dozen other inspection teams, the two men inspect about 30 towers a day. First, they use binoculars to survey the joints of the steel towers and the health of the equipment at the top. The ceramic, circular insulators, for instance, can be damaged by lightning — or by frustrated hunters, who have been known to shoot at them when deer are scarce.

They search the base of the tower for cracks and graffiti, a telltale sign of potential damage elsewhere. Sometimes, intruders dump washing machines, cars and barrels of toxic chemicals around the towers. Thieves try to remove grounding wires in hopes of selling the copper in them.

Nests are another potential hazard. Hawks, vultures and raptors carry food to their perches that can end up damaging equipment. Red-tailed hawks and turkey vultures can also short-circuit feeders when they leap off cables and discharge streams of excrement that, at up to 12 feet long, can simultaneously touch a live wire and a grounded structure. Nests without eggs in them are removed.

Then there are the trees — hundreds of thousands of them. Con Edison uses light detection and ranging technology, or Lidar, to keep track of every tree, cable, tower and other structure on its property. To create a map accurate to within two feet, helicopters equipped with devices that shoot 50,000 laser pulses a second survey the pathways. The heights of the objects below are determined by how fast the laser beams bounce back.

Con Edison paid a contractor about $500,000 in 2005 to create a map and a parallel database. On a spreadsheet of one stretch between Buchanan and the Hudson River, Mr. Czerniewski could see each tower, the sag of the cables and their horizontal and vertical clearance from trees nearby. He could also see the distance of the cables between towers.

The database helps Con Edison prioritize its three-year tree-trimming cycle. On his spreadsheet, Mr. Czerniewski could see that trees that were less than 10 feet from a cable were colored red and had to be trimmed first. Those that were 10 to 20 feet from a cable were marked yellow, while those more than 20 feet from a cable were green and considered out of harm’s way.

Con Edison also uses the database to determine whether residents living along its rights of way can plant trees abutting the property, and to decide whether trucks would have enough room to pass under transmission lines.

On a computer at Con Edison’s headquarters near Union Square in Manhattan, each tree along one stretch looked like a lollipop: Circles had been drawn around the trunks indicating how far they could fall in every direction. Some trees had circles that crossed over the circles around other trees and transmission lines, suggesting potential problems.

Orville O. Cocking, an engineer in the utility’s substation and transmissions group, can also analyze the impact of extreme temperatures, high winds and ice to determine whether cables and other equipment need to be replaced.

“You can play a lot of what-if games,” Mr. Cocking said. “This lets us know whether we can add extra weight to the towers.”

With winter approaching, though, Con Edison is intent on clearing trees in danger of falling into towers or transmission lines. Along a 9.5-mile corridor between Buchanan and Millwood, a team of contractors was busy removing oaks, birches and other trees to create a quarter-mile clearing. In one clearing, a feller buncher — a kind of bulldozer with a giant claw in front — grabbed the trunk of a black locust.

In one motion, the machine ripped the tree out of the ground. Shrubs and small trees nearby were left intact because they do not grow fast enough or high enough to pose a danger, according to Mike Amato, a field operations planner who oversees the tree-trimming and removal program.

“Lidar kind of sets a benchmark and puts into perspective whether your eye is right, whether the tree might hit the line,” he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/10/nyregion/10tree.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion

NYC proposes bike parking rules in new buildings

By KAREN MATTHEWS – Nov 11, 2008

NEW YORK (AP) — Officials are proposing new rules that would greatly expand bicycle parking in apartment and office buildings around the city, the latest step in a plan to make New York one of the most bike-friendly places in the nation.

They believe making bicycle parking more available in buildings will motivate more New Yorkers to cycle to work or perform errands on bike.

Surveys show that the lack of secure bicycle parking prevents New Yorkers from riding bikes. Some people are leery of leaving even locked bikes on the street for fear they will get stolen, and many places restrict people from parking bikes on the sidewalk in front of buildings.

The rules would require one secure bike parking space for every two units in new apartment buildings and one space for every 7,500 square feet in new office buildings.

"It will really transform the culture of the city from a car-oriented city to a bike-oriented city," Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden said.

The rules proposed Monday follow up on Mayor Michael Bloomberg's 2007 blueprint for a more sustainable city, which includes a push for greater bicycle use.

Transportation officials are doubling the city's bike lanes and expect to have 420 miles in place by June 2009. They also are installing thousands of on-street bike racks.

"We have found that one of the greatest impediments to more biking is the lack of space to store your bike long term at home and at work," Burden said.

Burden said the proposed regulations are comparable to those enacted in bike-friendly cities such as Portland, Ore., and San Francisco. "We have tried to be as aggressive as anyone and more," she said.

The rules would require weather-protected, lockable bike parking spaces at apartment buildings with at least 10 units, commercial office buildings, stores, hospitals, universities and automobile parking garages. They would apply to new buildings, enlargements of 50 percent or more and residential conversions.

Bike advocates hailed the proposal but said they hoped the rules could be broadened.

Elizabeth Kiker, vice president of the Washington, D.C.-based League of American Bicyclists, said the league "applauds New York City for answering one of the biggest challenges for cyclists in the city with this progressive set of bike parking requirements. We hope that these will be extended to cover existing buildings in the future."

Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, a New York group that promotes cycling and public transportation, said: "Mayor Bloomberg's push for indoor bike parking in the zoning code is an investment in the future. We need to match it with bicycle access to the office buildings of today."

Burden said the rules would not burden developers unduly.

"You can fit 150 bikes in 1,800 square feet," she said. "It's not expensive to build at all."

But Mike Slattery, senior vice president of the Real Estate Board of New York, said some in the real estate industry fear there may not be enough demand for all the bike parking the regulations would require.

"It's driven by the right set of goals," he said. "We just don't want to see space set aside for uses that there's no demand for."

The Planning Commission will vote on the new rules after a public comment period lasting several months. If approved, the regulations will become part of city zoning law.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5imJlY8QsUZi2RKlHorqZi8YSwCYwD94CKMO81

SHIFTING GEARS

From MIT, a quantum leap in bike mechanics

By Susan Chaityn Lebovits  |  November 16, 2008

Bicyclists in Copenhagen will soon be able to take part in a project that will allow them to track the roads they've traveled, get a boost up tough hills, and maybe even improve their social lives.

The Smart Biking Project is being developed by the SENSEable City Laboratory, an MIT research group focused on technology and cities, part of MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning.

Using a Facebook application called "I Crossed Your Path," cyclists will be able to make connections with each other by exchanging information - online or through a smartphone - about which routes they took that day. The program, which formally gets underway in 2009, will work through a smart tag that functions a lot like RFID (radio frequency identification) technology. The tag, which they expect to be the size of a USB flash drive, can be installed under a bike seat, inside the frame, or on a headlight.

"MIT's smart tags will have low power consumption, low bandwidth, and will be affordable at under $30 per tag," said Christine Outram, project leader and a graduate student in the Master of Science in Architecture Studies program.

"If I ride past a particular point, and a friend from Facebook or another social networking site rides past, I can get a little ping on my bike, or a text message on my cellphone, or a message that will appear on my social networking site," Outram said.

The application will also allow individuals or groups to monitor the distance they travel as part of a citywide green-mileage initiative, similar to a frequent-flyer program, where points are awarded and prizes earned for those reducing their carbon footprint through biking.

"You can interpolate the data for a variety of things, like monitor how well you do month-to-month, or challenge your friends," said Outram, who already holds degrees in both architecture and urban design.

With the information it collects, the project might also help urban planners make better decisions on things like where new bike paths should be built.

Professor Carlo Ratti, the lab's director, suggests that fine-grained monitoring of urban activities could allow cities such as Copenhagen to enter into carbon trading, in which cities could then get funding for sustainable city services in exchange for their efforts to cut carbon dioxide emissions.

"The impact could be considerable," said Ratti. "For the first time in history, cities now contain over 50 percent of the world population and are responsible for an even higher share of carbon emissions."

In addition to the smart tags, Ratti's lab is collaborating with the Smart Cities Group, headed by William J. Mitchell, at the MIT Media Lab to develop a smart hybrid bicycle called the GreenWheel. Although the GreenWheel can be used as a traditional bicycle, it also has a motor that offers riders more torque when going up a hill, and power when accelerating.

"The regenerative battery and motor harvests energy when braking and releases it while cycling, a system similar to hybrid cars," explained GreenWheel project leader Michael Lin, a graduate student at the Media Lab who also holds a Master of Science in Architecture and Urbanism.

All of the elements are housed in the rear wheel.

"I combined the battery into the hub, did the drawings, and sent out the plans for fabrication," said Lin. "The motorized hub fits into any size and kind of bicycle."

Other components include a wireless control module, reduction gearbox that reduces wheel speed and allows more torque, and an accelerometer, a chip that detects incline, decline, and acceleration.

Currently the SENSEable City Lab has a three-year partnership with the city of Copenhagen to look at how technologies can improve understanding of the city's sustainability.

City Lab's associate director, Assaf Biderman, said in a press release that sharing this information and showing individuals the environmental impact of their actions could be formidable, as research has shown that behavioral change is one of the most powerful forces in tackling climate change and reducing carbon emissions.

The system in Copenhagen allows residents to "borrow" city-owned bicycles, which are stored in stands and released for a small sum of around 20 kroner (about $3.40). The coins are returned when the bicycles are returned to any housing station in the city.

The city of Copenhagen is looking to increase its five-year-old fleet of 1,200 City Bikes to 5,000.

Many bicycles, said Outram, have turned up in canals and have to be fished out and repaired. She said in some cases residents are riding the bicycles downhill, but not back up, an issue that the GreenWheel could potentially obliterate.

Outram said the ultimate goal is to get the contract and build the prototypes for CityBike in Copenhagen, but if MIT doesn't get the contract, it will continue to produce the wheel as a stand-alone that can be sold to individuals. And the smart tag device can easily be distributed to people in Copenhagen and incorporated into their own bicycles.

"Practically it wouldn't be hard to incorporate the smart tag systems into any city," said Outram. "The model, however, would vary depending on government structure, support for deployment, and maintenance and incentives for citizens to engage in these programs."

The Smart Biking Project is scheduled to be implemented throughout Copenhagen in time for the November 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference that will take place there.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/11/16/from_mit_a_quantum_leap_in_bike_mechanics?mode=PF

The New Greens Like It Big

The green view based on small sources and market power will give way to one based on scale and subsidies.

David Victor

NEWSWEEK

From the magazine issue dated Dec 8, 2008

The winds of economic destruction are flattening not just retirement accounts but also naive visions for a green economy. Public support for costly new green mandates is weakening, and government budgets to fund them are bleeding red ink. Plummeting prices of oil and other fossil fuels have made it harder for green to compete in the marketplace. IPOs of firms working on "clean tech" green energy that have fueled fantasies of the coming energy revolution have crashed to a halt. In all the bad economic news, a new face of green is coming into focus. Whereas the old view of green tech was based on many small, decentralized sources of power and a green economy that harnessed the power of the marketplace, the new version will rely more heavily on regulation and subsidies. It will also embrace the wisdom, true in most of the energy business, that bigger is better for weathering economic storms.

The market, it's now clear, is not a reliable force for driving the adoption of green technologies. Just as the role of government is rising across banking and other sectors of the economy, new green will be much more wary of market forces as the route to profit. Google dreamed, in its "RE <>

The carbon market may be another casualty of the poor economy. It became the darling of green economists because in theory it created a market price to encourage switching from high-carbon fuels that cause global warming. In recent years European countries have imposed caps on emissions of carbon dioxide and let firms trade emission credits. Cap and trade, however, has not done much to reward green energy. The cost of emission credits in Europe over the last year weren't even half what they would need to be to coax power companies to drop coal for natural gas. Those market forces have been even less effective in pushing zero-emission green energy into Europe's electric-power system. Green energy has taken off, but because European governments channeled direct payments to renewable energy, especially wind; carbon markets had little to do with it. Solar energy, which is more expensive than wind, is most successful in Germany and Japan, which are famous not for sunshine but regulatory subsidies.

On the logic that greenness could come from harnessing markets, governments from Washington to Beijing dreamed of creating "green GDP" accounts that would make it easier to manage each nation's economy with a fuller picture of ecological assets and liabilities. But politicians scuttled the schemes out of fear in part because of the transparency they would bring, and because of the difficulty of measuring true greenness. Dreams of green tax reform—in which government would replace growth-sapping taxes on labor and investment with new taxes on pollution—have been abandoned nearly everywhere because pollution taxes are too unreliable as a source of income to run a modern government.

The other change to the face of greenery will be scale. Advocates for everything green have always had a hard time with heavy industry, preferring the ideals of self-sufficiency and localism. The paragon of old green was a Lilliputian solar panel on every rooftop linked by local lines to households and even electric vehicles. But "small is beautiful" isn't working because people don't like to live near industrial facilities, even very small ones. Installers of solar panels are finding neighbors wary about letting rooftops shift to odd-colored silicon. When New York City's power utility tried to build a few small gas-fired turbines to stabilize the local grid, neighbors were adamantly opposed. Developers of wind power are finding similar blowback where their giant towers are visible. That's why the richest area in wind power is now in huge offshore wind parks. A future with large amounts of intermittent wind and solar supplies will lead to more big industry, not less: the grid, for instance, will require storage (think batteries) to ride out periods when the wind isn't blowing. In such a world, big operators are more likely to thrive than mom-and-pop green power providers.

Plans to jump-start the economy with green spending won't pan out either. Serious greenery is about efficiency—not only in the use of energy but also labor and capital. Some of the green projects most cherished for their jobs, such as installing rooftop solar panels on homes, are the most dubious economically because of high labor costs. The most profitable green firms require few highly skilled workers. A full-scale shift to green could eventually employ millions, but not until long after the current crisis is over. Green will look much different than what most people imagine.

Victor is professor at Stanford Law School and director of the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/171312