Results: Calendar of Events
November 30, 2011
Lauren Sommer of NPR: Researchers at the window testing facility at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are developing dynamic windows treated with nanocrystals that block heat from the sun when a small electrical current is applied — useful for hot summer days.
When you think of high-tech gadgets that make us greener, you might picture solar panels or electric cars; windows may not seem as exciting. But buildings are responsible for 40 percent of the country’s energy use, and researchers say they can lower that number by making windows smarter.
As someone who studies windows, Howdy Goudey isn’t surprised that most of us find them a little boring.
“It’s a pretty pedestrian object,” he says. “You know, what’s new to do with a window?”
But at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif., windows are the focus of some cutting-edge research in nanocrystal technology.
For the most part, windows aren’t good insulators. They leak heat in the winter and let heat in during the summer. Many homes still have single-pane windows, which were the name of the game during the post-World War II building boom.
Insulating With Low-E Windows
But the country soon learned that insulation is necessary, as energy prices skyrocketed in the 1970s. Double-pane windows became common, and then came double-pane windows with invisible coatings, which are twice as efficient. Today, they make up more than half of windows sold. At a hardware store, these are labeled low-e windows, short for low emissivity.
Goudey demonstrates how the treated double-pane windows work with the help of heat lamps — the kind that diners use to keep food warm.
To simulate a hot summer day, he puts them behind two double-pane windows that look identical. In front of one window, it feels like standing in the sun. But standing in front of the other, low-e window is dramatically cooler, because it has an invisible layer of metal on the glass that acts as an insulator. The coating blocks heat from the sun while letting in light.
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November 30, 2011
David Nogueras from OPB news: The Oregon Military Department is making a big investment on green energy. The agency is building a million dollar solar instillation east of Christmas Valley. The array is part of the agency’s plan to produce as much energy as it uses.
The Backscatter Radar Site used to consume massive quantities of electricity when the Air Force used it to scan the horizon for incoming targets.
Now the Oregon Military Department wants to use that same infrastructure to send power back to the grid.
The agency helps equip and train the Oregon National Guard.
Stan Hutchison chief of planning and programming for the National Guard. He says the agency is committed to meeting what it calls “net zero for energy” by the year 2020.
Read more:
November 28, 2011
By Shaina Kilcone, Kate McKeown and Louisa Yanes in the Anchorage Daily News: The winter holidays bring great cheer, great food and greater utility bills. Holiday cooking, festive lights and inefficient appliances all contribute to rising electric bills. Alaskans already pay some of the highest energy costs in the United States and use on average 40 percent more electricity in the winter months than in the summer. But before you say “bah, humbug,” check out some of these simple holidays tricks to use your energy more efficiently and give yourself the gift of lowered energy bills this season.
We know you have already checked your list twice — your grocery list, that is. What holiday fete is complete without a sumptuous spread and what better place to start seeing energy savings than in your kitchen. When using your oven, put in as many dishes as possible, since an almost empty oven requires the same amount of energy as a full one.
Resist sneaking a peek at those gingerbread cookies. Every time you open the door, the oven loses up to 25 degrees, which increases cooking time and wastes energy. Also, using glass or ceramic pans allows you to decrease the suggested recipe temperature by 25 degrees. When using the range, make sure to use lids and match the size of your pan to the heating element or gas flame. Using a smaller pan than your element means you are just heating open air.
Don’t underestimate your microwave. Although grandma may disapprove, microwaves use about half the energy required by a conventional oven. At the end of the night, remember to start your dishwasher only if you have a full load, which shouldn’t be a problem given the holiday feast. When your guests arrive, turn down the thermostat. The extra bodies, the baking and the snappy holiday sweater will warm the space more than expected. For every degree you lower the thermostat you save about 2 percent on your heating bill, which is significant in Alaska since heating is the largest part of our energy bills.
Go a step further and add a programmable thermostat. Programmable thermostats allow you to set a heating schedule in your home so you don’t have to remember to adjust the heat. According to Energy Star, a programmable thermostat can help a family save up to $180 a year when used correctly.
Of course, Thanksgiving is just the kickoff to the holiday season. Next come the festive lights and other holiday decorations. When choosing holiday lights, the choice is simple — use LED (light emitting diode) lights. They are cool-burning, which means they are not a fire hazard, and can save you up to 90 percent on decorative lighting energy costs.
Maximize those savings by plugging lighting into power strips to make it easy to turn them off when you are not using them. Using timers and photo cells for outside lighting can also help reduce power usage. Last, to make sure you are not haunted by the ghost of energy bills to come, consider adding energy efficient appliances to your wish list.
Look for the Energy Star label, which indicates that the product meets strict energy efficiency guidelines set by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency. Energy Star ratings have already helped Americans save nearly $18 billion on their utility bills in 2010. For example, Energy Star-rated televisions are on average 40 percent more energy efficient than standard models, meaning you will have even more to be thankful for when watching next year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade on your new flat screen.
By following these simple tricks, you can enjoy seasonally low energy bills without sacrificing any of that holiday cheer. So this year, when the stockings are taken down from the chimney with care and the last of the fruitcake is … taken care of, lift a well-deserved glass of eggnog to yourself. Not only were you the hostess with the mostest, but you were also the hostess with the most energy savings.
Shaina Kilcoyne is energy efficiency director for the Renewable Alaska Energy Project (REAP). Kate McKeown is clean energy coordinator for the Alaska Conservation Alliance. Louisa Yanes is energy organizer for the Alaska Center for the Environment.
November 28, 2011
Jonathan Grass of Alaska Journal of Commerce: A ballerina hovers on stage at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts. The PAC has invested thousands of dollars in recent years to become more energy efficient, including the lighting in the theaters and in the lobbies. The nonprofit that runs the PAC said the efforts have proven a savings of more than $100,000 a year.
The lights go up and the performers hit the stage … and then again, more than a thousand times a year. Just think of the electricity bill with lights across 176,000 square feet of space.
But the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts has worked to cut its utility bill, undergoing an energy efficiency program that has saved the nonprofit more than $100,000 a year in electricity alone.
Officials at the PAC have done extensive renovations for the past decade or more.
PAC President Nancy Harbour and her recently retired plant manager, Gene Dale, originally realized their contract to manage the building on behalf of the city was becoming too difficult to keep up without some real efficiency changes.
“Honestly, we could look into the future and realize that if we didn’t do something we would be in serious trouble financially,” said Harbour.
They developed a conservation plan that started with simple steps like wattage reduction and photo cells both inside and outside. They substituted fluorescent lights and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for incandescent lights. LED strip lighting was added to the lobbies. Mercury vapor fixtures in the dock area and backstage were replaced with other fluorescent fixtures with motion detectors.
These simple steps worked. Harbour said the center has saved more than $100,000 annually in electricity. In some years, it was much more.
“Then we took some serious actions and installed a heat exchanger in the south side of the building,” she said.
There is also a very aggressive air filter replacement plan plus regular calibration and testing on major equipment. Air is also handled through an automated control system.
Continuous progress included timers in all the dressing rooms, toilets and showers. There are motion sensors throughout the building. A remote cooler was installed to reduce chiller time in the sound rack and amp rooms.
November 16, 2011
By Morgan Smith of the New York Times: BLACKWELL, Tex. — When people complain about the weather here, Abe Gott, the school superintendent, just smiles. A visit to the campus of the school district of about 160 students shows why. Behind the 1930s-era facade of the Blackwell school 30 miles south of Sweetwater looms a distinctly 21st-century sight: a wind turbine.
Energy development capitalizing on the high winds in the area — which quickly turned sunshine to chill rain one afternoon in late October — has injected sluggish rural communities with new economic lifeblood. More than one local resident has called it the “windfall,” and it has bestowed hundreds of millions of dollars on West Texas schools.
By the 2018-19 school year, Mr. Gott’s district will have received about $35 million from a deal it brokered with a wind farm company in 2005. On the school grounds, $15 million from a combination of bond and wind farm revenue has paid for a new football stadium and academic complex attached to the original school building. About $28 million sits in a foundation earmarked for scholarships; graduates receive $3,000 for each year they have spent in the district, which they can put toward any type of professional advancement, from a beauty school certificate to a bachelor’s degree.
The influx of wealth has also enabled the district to buy an iPad for every student, starting in the seventh grade.
“What I wanted is, if you grew up in a town of 350 people in West Texas, that should not work against you,” Mr. Gott said. “We can send you to Harvard, we can send you to Baylor, we can send you to Texas Tech — we can send you anywhere because we have the pathway to get there.”
About 69 districts across Texas — mostly rural, tiny schools — continue to benefit from a now-extinct quirk in the state’s school finance law that has led to what some consider an embarrassment of riches. How they spend the money, however, could be a valuable experiment in innovation in public education. Read more
November 14, 2011
Richard Cockle of The Oregonian: GRASS VALLEY — Every household in windswept Sherman County will soon get a Christmas gift in the mail: a $590 check.
The lonesome 831-square-mile county may lay to rest the adage about an “ill wind blowing nobody any good.” This is the third consecutive year that checks will go out for the people’s share of annual wind-energy revenues.
No other Oregon county makes similar payments and the $416,540 cash outlay may be unprecedented in the United States, says John Audley, spokesman for Renewable Northwest Project. His Portland-based coalition of companies and groups promotes renewable energy.
The checks are loosely modeled after dividend payments to Alaskans for oil gurgling through the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline. The county also gives its four tiny towns — Wasco, Moro, Rufus and Grass Valley — annual checks of $100,000 each.
Wind companies will pay Sherman County about $9 million this year in wind turbine revenues in lieu of property taxes. The companies pay another $3.3 million to about 35 wheat farmers who have turbines on their land, an average of $6,000 per turbine.
The county will pay out $100,000 each to its four towns and $416,540 to residents ($590 to 706 households). That’s a drop from $426,570 last year, when 723 households received payments. Also, the county uses some of the money for capital improvements.
Roughly 550 wind turbines rearing 300-plus feet into the breezy high desert sky have brought dramatic changes here. Twelve wind farms are now on line, producing 1,000 megawatts of alternative energy — enough to power 100,000 homes — and providing the county government with $9 million annual revenues.
Under the county’s agreement with the wind companies, the payments will continue until 2025.
Officials in nearby counties sometimes express “shock that we are giving that much money to residents,” says Judge Gary Thompson, chairman of the county’s governing commissioners.
But the county leaders figured regular folks deserved a cut of the windfall for having to look at the gigantic structures — not just the 35 or so landowners who reap payments from the companies for allowing wind turbines on their wheat farms. The property owners receive an average of $6,000 a year per wind turbine — and some have up to 30 on their wheat farms.
“We felt if you are going to live with these wind turbines, people should benefit from them somehow,” Thompson says.
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November 8, 2011
The U.S. Roadmap and Executive Summary are available online: http://www.oceanrenewable.com/roadmap
Today, the Ocean Renewable Energy Coalition (OREC) unveiled the first U.S. Marine and Hydrokinetic (MHK) Technology Roadmap. The roadmap describes the issues, challenges and opportunities facing the MHK industry and outlines a clear and logical path to its commercialization. Technologies that capture energy from free-flowing waves, tides and currents represent the potential to provide up to ten percent of U.S. electricity consumption and continue to make advances and gain popularity in coastal communities around the world.
Canada’s Ocean Renewable Energy Group (OREG), the Canadian MHK trade group, announced the release of its own industry roadmap today at the OREG annual conference in Montreal, where the Honorable Joe Oliver, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, was on hand to receive the first printed copy.
Also announcing similar initiatives this Fall include:
The ORECCA Offshore Renewable Energy Roadmap (European Union);
The International Energy Agency’s Ocean Energy Systems International Vision for Ocean Energy;
3rd phase SuperGen Marine Energy Research Consortium (United Kingdom); and,
The Chilean Energy Ministry and the British Embassy in Chile recently commissioned a marine energy strategy for Chile.
“The fact that Canada and the U.S. announced MHK roadmaps on the same date, along with the announcements of additional regional and international MHK roadmaps, underscores the competition and cooperation we’re experiencing in this fast growing industry.” said Sean O’Neill, OREC’s President. “A clean energy future is in everyone’s best interest. As North America enters the global competition, we are joining an international race based on common interests in energy security, job growth and economic development, environmental improvements and the reality of finite fossil fuel resources.”
Chris Campbell, OREG’s Executive Director, commented, “Canada’s strategy is based on existing sales of river current generators, wave and current monitoring equipment worldwide, Alstom’s development of a Canadian tidal technology to be the world’s first 2 Megawatt system and the strategy we are seeing emerge around tidal opportunities in Nova Scotia.”
Bob Thresher of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory facilitated the development of the U.S. Roadmap. “Countries in Europe produced similar roadmaps as long as ten years ago,” he said. “The U.S. Roadmap is a critical step forward in the domestic commercialization of these technologies. Support from the U.S. Department of Energy and colleagues from overseas, including Henry Jeffrey of the University of Edinburgh who has had his hand in just about every Roadmap, worldwide, helped move this along.” he added.
“I am delighted to have been involved in so many of these efforts,” added University of Edinburgh’s Dr. Henry Jeffrey. “International interest in coherent strategic planning shows how serious these efforts are. There is significant global recognition of the economic and environmental benefits this sector can deliver and the increased system reliability supported by a diverse supply portfolio.”
John Huckerby, Chairman of Ocean Energy Systems, the international intergovernmental consortium welcomed the number of national and regional initiatives that complement the international vision just released by OES. “These initiatives highlight the growing recognition of this industry and its potential contributions to energy security, our environment, and our economies.”
“Since 2008, the U.S. Government has invested more than $50 million in the MHK sector. This roadmap and continued federal support will help protect these investments and lead to energy independence, a cleaner environment and the potential to export clean energy technology and capture a piece of this global market estimated at over $600 billion (U.S.),” said O’Neill.
The U.S. MHK Roadmap spells out the steps necessary to achieve at least 15 Gigawatts of grid-connected MHK power by 2030 and create up to 36,000 jobs in the process. The Roadmap emphasizes the need for coordinated efforts, continued funding for research, development and deployment activities and support for an environmental study program that would help place vital data into the public domain.
About the Ocean Renewable Energy Coalition
The Ocean Renewable Energy Coalition (OREC) is the only national trade association exclusively dedicated to promoting marine and hydrokinetic renewable energy technologies from clean, renewable ocean resources. Founded in April of 2005, the Coalition has grown to over 60 members including technology developers, consultants, law firms, investor-owned utilities, publicly owned utilities, universities, and scientific and engineering firms. The coalition is working with industry leaders, academic scholars, and other interested NGO’s to encourage ocean renewable technologies and raise awareness of their vast potential to help secure an affordable, reliable, environmentally friendly energy future.
OREC seeks a legislative and regulatory regime in the U.S. that fosters the growth of ocean renewable technologies, their commercial development, and support in the race to capture the rich energy potential of our oceans. While other countries have already deployed viable, operating, power generating projects using the emission-free power of ocean waves, currents, and tidal forces, the U.S. is only beginning to acknowledge the importance of these technologies.
November 7, 2011
Matthew Ryan Williams of The New York Times: For decades, electric companies have swung into emergency mode when demand soars on blistering hot days, appealing to households to use less power. But with the rise of wind energy, utilities in the Pacific Northwest are sometimes dealing with the opposite: moments when there is too much electricity for the grid to soak up.
So in a novel pilot project, they have recruited consumers to draw in excess electricity when that happens, storing it in a basement water heater or a space heater outfitted by the utility. The effort is rooted in some brushes with danger.
In June 2010, for example, a violent storm in the Northwest caused a simultaneous surge in wind power and in traditional hydropower, creating an oversupply that threatened to overwhelm the grid and cause a blackout.
As a result, the Bonneville Power Administration, the wholesale supplier to a broad swath of the region, turned this year to a strategy common to regions with hot summers: adjusting volunteers’ home appliances by remote control to balance supply and demand.
When excess supply threatens Bonneville’s grid, an operator in a control room hundreds of miles away will now dial up a volunteer’s water heater, raising the thermostat by 60 more degrees. Ceramic bricks in a nearby electric space heater can be warmed to hundreds of degrees.
The devices then function as thermal batteries, capable of giving back the energy when it is needed. Microchips run both systems, ensuring that tap-water and room temperatures in the home hardly vary.
“It’s a little bit of that Big Brother control, almost,” said Theresa Rothweiler, a teacher’s aide in the Port Angeles, Wash., school system who nonetheless signed up for the program with her husband, Bruce, a teacher.
She said she had been intrigued by an ad that Bonneville placed in the local paper that asked consumers to help enable the grid to absorb more renewable energy, especially wind.
“We’re always looking at ways to save energy, or be more efficient or green, however you want to put it,” said Ms. Rothweiler, who worries about leaving the planet a livable place for her 21-year-old daughter, Gretchen. Bonneville paid for the special technology, which runs around $1,000 per home.
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November 7, 2011
David R. Baker of San Francisco Chronicle In the debate over our energy future, solar, wind and electric car companies don’t speak in a single, unified voice. Tom Steyer and Hemant Taneja want to change that.
They have formed an organization, called Advanced Energy Economy, that the two hope will grow into a nationwide chamber of commerce for alternative energy companies. The organization, which they will formally announce today, already has state and regional chapters representing 700 companies.
“There is no business voice for advanced energy, and there has to be,” said Steyer, founder of the Farallon Capital Management hedge fund in San Francisco. “There has to be on a local level, and there has to be on a national level.”
The organization will promote the growth of American alternative energy companies and technologies at a time of intense global competition to dominate this young industry. For membership, Advanced Energy Economy will cast a wide net, including nuclear power companies as well as businesses that create energy-efficient buildings.
Several national groups, such as Environmental Entrepreneurs and the American Sustainable Business Council, already pursue similar missions. Wind power has its own nationwide trade association, as does solar. Northern California, the nation’s premier clean-tech hub, boasts business organizations such as the San Francisco Bay Area Green Chamber of Commerce.
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November 2, 2011
In an op-ed in the Orange County Register published Monday, Romney regurgitates GOP talking points on loan guarantees to Solyndra and Fisker Automotive, two stories that have turned leading conservative politicians and media pundits into a pack of scandalmongers — even while many of those politicians supported the same government investments for companies in their own districts.
Romney has officially joined the herd, calling green jobs “illusory.”
First, the good news: President Barack Obama has finally created some “green jobs.” Now for the bad news: They are not in the United States, but in Finland.
The creation of environmental
