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Deere & Co. is selling its wind energy business to a subsidiary of Exelon for $900 million.
The company said Tuesday that the sale of John Deere Renewables will allow it to focus on its core business of manufacturing farm equipment.
Deere said in February it was reviewing options for John Deere Renewables. It has invested $1 billion over the past five years in the financing, development and ownership of wind energy projects.
The business includes 36 completed projects in eight states with an operational capacity of 735 megawatts.
Deere will record a $25 million after-tax charge in the fourth-quarter. The sale was not reflected in the company's $375 million fourth-quarter earnings estimate from earlier this month.
The deal is expected to close by the end of the year.
Deutsche Bank is taking its green investment dollars to China and Western Europe, citing a lack of regulatory certainty in the U.S. following Congress's failure to pass federal climate change legislation.
In a strongly-worded interview with Reuters, the head of the Deutsche Asset Management Division explained why only $45 million in green investments originated in the U.S., out of the $6 billion to $7 billion in funds devoted to climate change products.
"They're asleep at the wheel on climate change, asleep at the wheel on job growth, asleep at the wheel on this industrial revolution taking place in the energy industry," Parker told Reuters, referring to Congress's failure to agree on a climate change bill.
Even some of the incentives the government has put in place are lacking, Parker said, such as off-and-on renewable energy tax incentives that have added to the investment uneasiness.
In contrast, governments in China, Germany, Italy and Spain have made climate change a priority, with national policies and laws that offer investors certainty on the regulatory risks.
Parker said the U.S. "hasn't even entered the race yet" for a low-carbon economy. It may, however, be petering out even before if reaches the starting line, according to Eric Pooley, deputy editor of Bloomberg BusinessWeek. In a column he wrote days after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid introduced a watered-down energy bill lacking a carbon cap and renewable energy standard, Pooley cited a recent gathering of cleantech executives bemoaning the turn of events.
"The deployment rate of renewable energy projects in America is withering," said Andy Karsner, CEO of Manifest Energy and a former assistant secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy during the George W. Bush Administration. "Projects announcements are happening, but largely at the end of a federal check."
In the second quarter, Pooley noted, cleantech asset investment in China, including financing of low-carbon technologies such as solar panels and wind turbines, soared 72 percent from the same time last year to $11.5 billion. In comparison, clean energy investment reached $4.9 billion in the U.S., and $4.5 billion in Europe.
China has passed the U.S. in cleantech IPO proceeds, solar panel production, and cleantech stimulus funding. It may not be long before it exceed U.S. spending on research and development.
Meanwhile, the U.S. is left attempting to address climate change through EPA regulation, which many say will be more expensive than the climate change bills that stalled in the Senate.
Said Parker, "You just throw your hands up and say ... we're going to take our money elsewhere."
ComEd plans to propose an innovative approach to modernize the Illinois electricity system, stimulate economic development and create jobs.
In a proposal expected to be filed later today with the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC), ComEd will propose a pilot program that would allow for accelerated modernization of the distribution system, increased assistance to low-income households and the purchase of state-of-the-art electric vehicles to service the electric system.
The proposal is a companion to the delivery service rate case ComEd filed on June 30, but is proposed under a separate section of the Public Utility Act that contemplates an alternative regulatory structure for investments that will benefit customers but are not immediately required for distribution system performance.
Rather than employing the traditional rate-setting process in which the utility seeks recovery of costs already incurred, the pilot process would bring utilities, stakeholders and the ICC together to develop, review and approve ongoing investment programs before those investments are made. ComEd would then be able to recover costs of these investments as they occur and operate under a targeted incentive mechanism that rewards extraordinary performance and penalizes failings. All costs would be subject to review two years after implementation and would include performance metrics to allow customers to share in any costs savings or efficiencies.
"The electric industry is at a crossroads and the opportunity for system enhancement and customer empowerment is enormous," said Frank M. Clark, chairman and CEO, ComEd. "This proposal sets up a structure that allows Illinois to move forward with a number of key long-term investments in a way that rewards efficiency, is transparent, forward-thinking and collaborative."
The initial series of proposed programs that could result from the pilot process would pave the way for significantly increased investments in grid modernization, enhanced consumer protections and greater assistance to low-income customers. Specifically, the programs currently identified for the pilot would create an additional $60 million in investments on behalf of Illinois consumers, including:
•$45 million to accelerate proactive maintenance and reconstruction of manholes and mainline cable in Chicago and surrounding areas to improve reliability and create up to 50 full-time jobs.
•$5 million investment for a pilot of utility electric vehicles and charging stations.
•$10 million in continued assistance for low-income consumers, including those who are not eligible for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program ("LIHEAP") or the Percentage of Income Payment Plan ("PIPP"), which will start in 2011, when existing assistance programs expire.
"What we have proposed today creates a framework that gives the ICC a tool to fund projects that it believes are in the best interest of customers and in a way that assures that customers will benefit," said Anne Pramaggiore, president and COO, ComEd. "We believe this pilot proposal can provide a level of collaboration, long-range planning and customer protections that will assist all stakeholders as we work to build the 21st century power system."
The pilot also would provide the funding framework for future implementation of ICC-approved Smart Grid technology investments that will be proposed in 2011, after completion of ongoing evaluations regarding the merits of Smart Grid deployment. If approved, the ICC, stakeholders and ComEd will work collaboratively to determine the state's Smart Grid goals and objectives. Smart Grid has the long-term potential to improve reliability, improve energy efficiency and demand response, and lower customers' energy costs.
If approved, the new pilot would go into effect on May 31 after a nine-month ICC proceeding and would last two years.
After three years of speculation about the introduction of a Fit Hybrid, Honda is set to unveil the world’s first subcompact hybrid next month at the Paris Motor Show this September. Not only will the Fit Hybrid be the smallest hybrid on the market, it could carry the lowest price tag.
A hybrid version will go on sale in Japan in October, and is expected in the U.S. in 2011. As we reported earlier this month, Honda plans to sell the Fit Hybrid in Japan for about $18,600. That’s approximately $3,500 less than the Honda Insight, currently the cheapest hybrid, and about $4,600 more than the gas-powered Fit. Pricing for the Japanese market does not move in sync with U.S. pricing—but a similar strategy in the U.S. would put the base MSRP around $17,000.
Exact mpg will be released at the Paris Motor Show, which will run from September 30 to October 17, but we anticipate a significant step up from the gas-powered version, which is rated at 28 mpg in the city and 35 on the highway. The Fit Hybrid is likely to become the second most fuel-efficient hybrid, right behind the Toyota Prius (51/48 mpg). The auto industry is still figuring out how to rate the fuel economy of plug-in cars, such as the Nissan LEAF and Chevy Volt.
The Fit, marketed as the Jazz in Europe, will use Honda’s IMA system— an 87-horsepower 1.3-liter engine combined with a CVT gearbox—currently found in Honda's Insight and CR-Z hybrids.
The new Fit/Jazz is updated for 2011—with revised headlights and rear lights, a new front grille, and restyled bumpers and tailgate. Inside, there’s a darker single-color dashboard and blue-lit dials and instruments. The new hybrid is also available with leather trim, the first time this has been available on a Jazz model in Europe.
Though the Fit’s outer shell takes up very little pavement, it yields an unusually large interior space. Total passenger volume is 90.1 cubic feet, which is just a hair short of the larger Honda Civic. It offers more head and legroom up front than competing subcompacts, such as the Nissan Versa and Toyota Yaris.
With so many low-volume luxury hybrids hitting the market in recent years, the introduction of a small affordable high-mpg gas-electric model from Honda is a welcome addition to the hybrid market.
Two years ago, GW-scale production facilities were considered a big deal. With more companies reaching the GW range, the next step is to get to multi-GW capacities. That's exactly what Neo Solar Power Corp. is doing in Taiwan.
This week, the company announced that construction is underway on the world's largest solar cell facility, a plant that will cost $837 million and produce 3.4 GW of cells per year. The first phase of the plant will be 400 MW in size. According to a report from Bloomberg, Neo Solar said it should be done in the first half of 2011.
The company already has 620 MW of capacity operating in northern Taiwan. The company will scale those facilities up to 800 MW by year end.
By most accounts, 2010 will be a big year for solar installations. The consultancy iSuppli predicts that around 13.6 GW of PV will be installed this year. Despite the scaling back of incentives in a few big European markets, iSuppli projects installations to be over 20 GW in 2011. Due to unexpectedly high demand in the second half of this year, it's increasingly difficult to find panels. Silicon prices have started rising as well.
Companies like Neo Solar are ramping up quickly to ensure a steady supply of cells and modules during these high growth years. Some analysts are already worrying about supply constraints into 2012.
My summer as an EDF Climate Corps Fellow making the business case for energy efficiency and carbon reduction at eBay Inc. has officially come to an end.
Despite my uncertainty of finding low-hanging fruit in energy efficiency at an environmental leader like eBay, I found my stride and was able to calculate the energy savings of a number of computer power management solutions.
Thanks to this project, and a few smaller projects on facility upgrades, I was able to dig in and provide recommendations that will be implemented across eBay Inc. Through my success working on computer power management at eBay, I found four key takeaways for working on sustainability and energy efficiency:
1. Touch Base with Departments Across the Company
During my first week at eBay Inc., my supervisor set up introductory meetings for me far and wide across workplace resources, information technology, data center strategy, finance, procurement and corporate communications departments. As I started my internship, I focused on projects related to eBay’s facilities and data centers, and did not initially work with the other groups I had met.
Thanks to these introductions, however, the IT department remembered my skill set, and approached me in mid-July to analyze the energy savings of a variety of options already under consideration. Our initial meeting was necessary in connecting organizational needs to the resources and skill set I provided.
2. Use the Ratings Systems Available.
I found a number of green and energy-saving ratings for computers, including RoHS, Energy Star, and EPEAT. The most comprehensive is the EPEAT certification, which includes RoHS and benchmarks against Energy Star so that any computer with an active EPEAT certification must have the latest Energy Star rating.
A business or individual trying to purchase the most green and energy-saving computer can therefore reference this certification. However, the certification itself highlights the great distance still to go by computer manufacturers in order to achieve truly sustainable computers. Of the 51 criteria for certification, only half are currently used in providing a rating. Additionally, many of the required criteria are still in a stage of disclosure (e.g. the manufacturer has to disclose whether there is recycled content, but is not yet required to have a certain percentage).
3. Remember, Performance Correlates to Energy Use
When it comes to computers, a higher-performing machine uses more energy. For example, while it is true that a laptop consumes less energy than a desktop during the use stage of its lifecycle, the performance capability of a laptop may be insufficient for certain IT environments, particularly those that run 24/7 and are heavily used for multimedia and programming.
I found it necessary to stratify the computing performance needs by different types of employees, so that each type of employee had the lowest-energy consuming computer possible without sacrificing performance. Interestingly, lifecycle analyses suggest that laptops also consume less energy than desktops in the manufacturing stage, and therefore have overall lower energy consumption total when compared to desktops. Given that desktops are typically priced lower than laptops, this indicates that the price of desktops is not indicative of the energy use in manufacture.
4. Include Both Purchasing and Behavioral Solutions
When addressing computer power management, a policy is incomplete if only focused on purchasing low-power computers, such as those that are Energy Star rated. IT organizations need a systematic method for ensuring the Energy Star power-saving settings are being used by employees. Since behavior change can be difficult, power management software provides an excellent solution that allows IT to override excessive energy consumption by individual computers.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a draft interpretive ruling on the definition of “showerhead” as used in the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA). Sidestepping public comment procedures, DOE has defined “showerhead” in a way that makes multi-spray systems illegal. The new ruling states that all of the fixtures used in a multi-spray system must, combined, use no more than 2.5 gallons of water per minute.
EPCA, first passed in 1975 and updated several times since then, limits water use by showerheads to 2.5 gallons per minute (gpm; 9.5 lpm) at 80 psi. The law does not, however, specify what a “showerhead” includes, so manufacturers have been able to sell shower systems with multiple heads, each of which conforms to the 2.5 gpm limit. These multi-spray systems can include body sprayers and other fixtures, and sometimes use upwards of 20 gpm (76 lpm). Marketed as a high-end product, with high prices to match, these systems are not installed frequently.
DOE’s ruling came as a surprise to plumbing manufacturers and conservationists alike, since it lacked the public comment process required for substantive rule changes. But DOE considers the ruling an interpretation of an existing law, and thus “exempt from the notice and comment requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act,” in its wording.
A letter to DOE from a coalition of industry groups noted: ”A change of this magnitude should not be exempt from the notice and comment requirements of the Administrative Procedures Act as DOE has asserted.” It also argues that the ruling would affect hand-held showers and other fixtures “used in hospitals, nursing homes, schools, and other therapeutic and medical facilities.” Marsha Mazz, the Technical Assistance Coordinator for the U.S. Access Board, disagrees with the assertion that the ruling could adversely affect the showerheads used by the elderly and disabled. “We don’t see it as a disability issue at all,” she said.
Conservation-minded observers worry that the lack of a public comment period will allow manufacturers to find loopholes in the language of the ruling, leading to increased water use. “This is a substantive change and working out all the definitions and conditions to make sure the language is watertight will take a lot of effort from a lot of folks,” said water expert John Koeller, P.E.
Over 70% of Fortune 500 companies have sustainability mandates, but do they go far enough? In a sea of corporate social responsibility programs, green “seals of approval” and eco claims, business really has not changed significantly. Seeking to enable a deep green business transformation, the Environmental Defense Fund is hosting a series of Sustainable Solutions Labs across the U.S., “un-conference” think-tanks. Orchestrated by DigIn, the Labs bring together green business leaders throughout each region to share successes, lessons learned and needed future actions that will accelerate the sustainability shift.
At the Seattle event, on August 10th at the lovely eco campus of Seattle University, conversation catalysts from Microsoft, REI, Starbucks, Brittingham Partners, and the Bainbridge Graduate Institute shared their experiences to spur the ensuing discussions. Microsoft’s Director of Environmental Sustainability Steve Lippman described a successful new practice of billing data center energy use by square foot to individual business units. The result: business units specify more efficient equipment and share in the savings. “But it’s low-hanging fruit,” he said. “The systems we create [as a society] don’t harbor sustainability.” He went on to state that the real challenge is creating large scale change, and soon. Scientists say we have 10 years in which to bring down CO2 levels in the atmosphere to avoid irreversible climate change. Despite scientific consensus, many of our policy makers, business leaders and consumers believe it’s all hype. However, if green business is good business anyway, change will do us good regardless of the climate issue. Lippmann emphasized, “Don’t let small wins distract from the bigger task at hand.” Microsoft, REI and other NW companies are part of a business coalition pushing for bigger changes through tougher energy efficiency legislation in Washington State.
As one of the event’s facilitator’s, I spent the day with the Effective Collaboration for Sustainability discussion. Our discussion groups agreed that a big focus of collaboration should be getting major corporations to support green business policies, incentives and legislation. Additional suggestions repeated across many of the day’s topics. Whether discussing Organizational & Cultural Change, Urban Agriculture Infrastructure, or Green Investing, a consensus emerged. Attendees urge corporate America to ask better questions, establish industry-wide metrics that help everyone make better decisions, and educate themselves and each other about proven success strategies.
Kevin Hagen, Director of CSR at retailer REI, underscored the need to overhaul the business decision process; “Question your assumptions, which are almost always wrong!” When looking into the company’s carbon footprint the REI team expected product transportation would be the heavy hitter. Instead, employee commuting had twice the footprint, at 14% of their total carbon emissions. Another assumption overturned, REI says they save money by purchasing renewable power, by using long term contracts that hedge them against spikes in conventional power prices.
A good example of finding and addressing the larger environmental issues is the ubiquitous disposable coffee cup. Ben Packard, Starbucks’ VP of Global Sustainability, relayed the fact that consumer concern focuses on use of disposable cups. However, only 1.9% of those concerned customers bring their own cup. Furthermore, the bigger environmental impact for coffee drinkers is tropical deforestation, not cup disposal. Starbucks has integrated sustainable purchasing practices into its entire coffee supply chain, a fact that is relatively little known yet has enormous environmental benefit.
We have a long way to go, but a lot of good data is already out there. If you have something to share or want to get involved in creating change, visit the Sustainable Solutions Lab 2010 wiki and join the discussion.
Teresa Burrelsman is a senior sustainability consultant at Eco Via Consulting in Seattle. She has worked with private and public organizations on implementing green buildings and sustainability programs. She is also a member of the Sustainability Collaboration Network, a multi-disciplinary consultant collective that focuses on regenerative development and creating sustainable expertise through training and research.
Small businesses across the nation are installing solar power systems as a way to offset higher electricity costs and make a little profit on excess energy produced.
As an example, L. Liberato Steel Fabricating in Pennsylvania has installed a 602-panel, 141-kilowatt rooftop solar photovoltaic system that will help the steel fabricator cut its electric bills and generate excess electricity for an additional profit, reports The Mercury Business.
The family-owned business claims to be the first steel fabricator to go solar in Chester County. Kathi Cozzone, Chester County Commissioner, said in the article that the installation will help the country meet its goal to decrease its carbon footprint by 9.7 percent.
The company decided to go with a solar power system as way to offset higher electricity costs due to electricity rate-cap deregulation set for January 2011, which is expected to increase the company’s costs by 30 percent. The system also offered additional income opportunities to sell the excess solar power.
M.T. Ruhl Electrical Contracting, installer of the project, told the newspaper the solar-panel installation cost about $665,000, with about $400,000 of the total cost covered by state and federal grants.
The steel fabricating company expects to see a 3 1/2-year return on its investment, taking into account state and federal grants and the sale of certificates of generation.
Since the program began in 2007, 155 businesses in Alameda and Contra Costa counties have applied for state funds to help offset the cost of solar-panel systems, according to the article.
Another driving factor behind the pickup in demand is the drop in the price of solar panels, reports The Oakland Tribune. Panel pricing has dropped from $4.20 a watt in 2007 to about $1.90 per watt.
The 542 solar panels atop of Big O Tires’ Dublin Boulevard buildings generate 50 kilowatts of power, and year round will generate enough power to supply 85 percent of the tire store’s energy needs.
Since March, the store’s utility bill dropped from an average of $1,500 a month to $29, the monthly connection fee paid to PG&E to be connected to its power grid. The business could receive a check from the utility at the end of the first year in the program.
The system cost about $300,00 but a combination of rebates and federal tax credits dropped the cost to $120,000. The business expects a payback in energy savings in about seven years.
NORTHBROOK, IL — The messy world of environmental claims certification just got a little less messy with the acquisition by ULC Standards, a unit of Underwriters Laboratories, of Ottawa-based TerraChoice, a green marketing consultancy and the managers of Canada's EcoLogo program.
While the acquisition was conducted by ULC Standards, the move serves to bring TerraChoice together with UL Environment (ULE) for a partnership that will expand and enhance both groups' capacities and reach.
"TerraChoice will be able to work with UL Environment to bring its standards and programs into the U.S., and ULE will bring its programs to a broader audience in Canada," explains Stephen Wenc, President and Managing Director of ULE. He added, "It's a wonderful complement to the work we're doing with ULE in areas like building materials, appliances and consumer electronics."
The EcoLogo program as developed by TerraChoice is a certification that currently covers more than 7,000 products in 80 categories. As part of the partnership, the EcoLogo label will continue to be administered by TerraChoice in Canada, while the EcoLogo label in the U.S. will remain on products in a select number of categories, with the rest falling under the larger ULE umbrella.
With more than 70 EcoLogo standards developed by TerraChoice to date, the partnership adds considerable breadth to the markets that ULE can reach in the U.S. and elsewhere.
"We're bringing our brand and expertise and perspectives together with ULE to combine our forces," Scott McDougall, CEO of TerraChoice, told GreenBiz.com. "In the old adage, we're making one plus one equal three in the world of eco-labeling and environmental product expertise."
The acquisition and pairing of TerraChoice with UL Environment is a natural fit, Wenc and McDougall said, in part because both firms create their standards on a framework of transparency and consensus-based development. And the consolidation of TerraChoice within ULE will bring more clarity to the field of certification.
"Our goal is to able to offer customers one standard and one evaluation with two great brands," Wenc said.
McDougall described the ULE and EcoLogo labels as "sister brands," and said that EcoLogo will remain on products in a couple of categories where it has made good headway in the U.S. market: household cleaners and toys and baby products. Both categories are growing quickly due to heightened consumer awareness over toxic ingredients and other issues, with a concomitant boom in green marketing claims -- and the potential for greenwashing.
"In toys and baby products, claims of BPA- and phthalate-free products has gone up three orders of magnitude between 2009 and 2010," McDougall said. "It's an enormous number of claims and almost no evidence that there's any legitimacy to those claims," despite the fact that there has been significant progress in the development and adoption of less-toxic alternatives, at least by some manufacturers.
In addition to developing the EcoLogo standard and consulting on green marketing and communication strategies, TerraChoice has also published two "Sins of Greenwashing" reports that evaluate the green claims made by manufacturers. The first report, published in 2007, found that all but one of 1,018 products made false or misleading green claims; the second report, from 2009, found that only about 43 products out of 2,219 passed TerraChoice's muster.
ULE, launched in early 2009, has developed or is in the process of creating a number of green certifications, including a Sustainable Product Certification that put its first seal on a computer monitor from LG in January. ULE is also working with two building groups, NAHB and BIFMA to certify green building materials, and has partnered with GreenBiz.com to create ULE 880, the first-ever sustainability certification for entire companies.
Recently my wife Charla and several of her female friends traveled to Telluride, Colorado to attend the Arts Festival. Sort of a Thelma and Louise bonding thing, but with a better purpose and a much happier ending. They hob-knobbed with the rich and famous, checked out some movie star summer homes and saw a number of the $100,000 (plus) electric Tesla Roadsters.
Now, for years I’ve brought up the notion that driving a snazzy sports car would help me to age a little more gracefully. Charla agrees that I could use some help, but she hasn’t bought off on the car-therapy at all, even though I’ve negotiated down from Corvettes to my latest offer – a reconditioned 1964 Austin-Healey Sprite.
The Tesla is, of course, way outside the realm of possibilities. We’d have to sell the house. But the thought of 0 to 60 mph in less than 4 seconds, even without an exhaust roar, is worth a daydream. And, no exhaust, no emissions. We’d be adding our little part to help keep mother earth clean!
Or would we? Maybe not. For the same amount of energy, gasoline produces much less atmospheric carbon than does coal. So, it turns out that in areas where coal is the major fuel for electric generation (in Colorado where I live for example) charging up an electric car may produce higher carbon emissions than would just driving a highly fuel-efficient conventional vehicle. In regions that use less coal the electric car would be considerably “greener”.
But all electric vehicles (EVs) cause carbon emissions, unless all of the electric generation used to charge the batteries comes from non-fossil based sources such as wind, solar, hydro etc. For the foreseeable future we expect utilities to have an evolving resource portfolio. Maybe we’ll see 20 – 30 percent non-fossil generation mix by 2050. Who knows? But, even if we accelerate the widespread building of nuclear power plants, we’re going to have fossil (mostly coal) generation for a long time.
The eco-friendliness of EVs all depends on how and when the batteries are charged. The usual electric vehicle charging paradigm has the batteries being charged overnight at home or in a company’s fleet garage. In fact, a number of utilities are offering special rates for charging EVs on off-peak hours. That makes sense from a system cost standpoint, using the least expensive base-load generation.
But those incentives may encourage maximizing total EV-related carbon emissions, particularly in areas with growing solar and wind resource penetration. That’s because little or no solar generation is available during the proposed early-evening or night charging period. Also, in some areas, (such as the Altamont Pass wind farm in Northern California), higher wind speeds often coincide with peak load hours (due to hot inland convection currents pulling in the off-coast cooler air).
There’s another disadvantage to having the EV batteries connected to the system only on off-peak hours: the utility is prevented from taking advantage of EV battery storage for system support during periods of high system demand - a very attractive idea that’s been tossed around for years.
So, as in most things we look for the optimum balance.
I’m thinking we’ll end up with a mix of options: EV owners will have home chargers, regular commuters will have parking space chargers (maybe curbside chargers also), and there will be a growing number of battery exchange stations (see Battery Switch Stations) where you drive in and quickly swap your batteries for fully-charged units.
Of course, we’d expect Smart Grid (or Son of Smart Grid) to somehow handle all the details and optimize charging operations for both the utility and customer. We’re already doing something similar by enabling water heaters to take maximum advantage of wind-generated energy. (see Smart Grid Project Will Let Wind Farms 'Talk' to Appliances).
Potential showstoppers aren’t technical. They’re economic - EV prices gotta go down, way down. And they’re political - will taxpayer and ratepayer subsidies support public charging stations? Maybe most of all they’re cultural. American drivers still admire gasoline-burning, fast cars. Terry, drooling over the yellow '32 5-window coupe in American Graffiti still speaks for most of us when he worshipfully exclaims: “This is a super fine machine!!”
The Obama administration has a goal of 1 million plug-in electric vehicles on U.S. roads by 2015 (about .4 percent of the total number of vehicles) and ultimately they could have a huge impact on reducing U.S. carbon emissions and oil dependence. But will the transition go quickly and smoothly? Hah! Will transmission lines get pretty? Will I ever own a Tesla?
Associated Builders and Contractors, a national organization representing 25,000 construction firms, has rolled out a green certification for its members. To earn the certification (which has one tier), companies must meet several prerequisites that cover office practices like recycling, green cleaning, purchasing Energy Star-qualified equipment, and writing a sustainability statement.
They must also meet 12 out of 36 optional items—these include energy audits, bike racks, insulating water pipes, and carbon-neutral status for central offices. Although the prerequisites don’t touch the jobsite, there are several electives that do, including waste and energy requirements for jobsite offices, construction waste management, and reuse of building materials.
Finally, companies can earn points by showing that staff have completed a variety of forms of sustainability awareness training. Each requirement must be documented, and a certification fee of $495 is good for three years. More information is available at www.greenconstructionatwork.com.
While awareness of green IT and energy used by a company's computing departments are widespread, a new survey sponsored by Fujitsu found that every area of green IT could use improvement, and that green IT practices as a whole lack maturity in every corner of the globe.
The survey of CIOs and IT professionals in Australia, India, the United Kingdom and the United States found that among IT departments there was some progress made on data center energy efficiency and smarter management of PC fleets and peripherals, but that expanding the reach of green IT beyond computers and into a company's footprint remains almost unknown.
"Tomorrow's business leaders will be leaders in sustainability; they will understand the importance of an integrated sustainability strategy," said Alison O'Flynn, Global Executive Director of Sustainability at Fujitsu Group, in a statement. "IT has a fundamental role to play in enabling change and must step up to face this significant global challenge."
The areas that show progress -- albeit slow progress -- are data center management, networking, communications, cloud computing and "end user" efforts like computers and printers. But the areas where awareness and action alike are minimal include the gathering of metrics on an IT department's energy use -- the first step in reducing that energy use and boosting efficiency -- and what Fujitsu calls "enablement," which is putting the power of IT to work on measuring and managing a company's entire carbon footprint.
Among the other findings of the survey:
• The U.K. performed best out of the countries surveyed, with an overall Green IT Index of 61.0. The relatively high score is likely due to the U.K.'s stringent carbon reduction and reporting goals, and its government's efforts to lead by example with green IT initiatives.
• The United States landed in second place, Australia in third place, and India came in last because green IT has yet to gain a foothold in that country.
• Responsible practices for procurement and disposal are largely ignored around the world, although in regions where there are regulations governing IT's lifecycle impacts, performance is generally stronger.
• In an industry-by-industry breakdown, ICT is the unsurprising leader, while the wholesale, retail and logistics sectors are the lowest-ranking industries. Scores by industries were relatively consistent across countries in the survey.
More retailers find it makes sense, and dollars, to employ eco-friendly building practices.
The Subway sandwich shop at 236 S. State St. may look like any other new restaurant, but its tile, crown molding and most wall coverings are made from recycled materials. In the bathroom, sensors control water flow, timers manage lights, and the toilet has a low-flow option. A smart air-conditioning system normalizes temperature between the bread ovens and the eating area.
A few blocks north at Macy's on State Street, the Starbucks cafe features LED lighting, manually-operated hand meter faucets to conserve water and a wooden coffee bar with a plaque explaining it was salvaged from a fallen local tree.
Dominick's President Don Keprta stands in the freezer section of the new Dominick's grocery store in Chicago's Lincoln Square neighborhood. The freezer section is lit by LED lights that use significantly less energy. (William DeShazer, Chicago Tribune / August 24, 2010)
The Dominick's store reopening in Chicago's Lincoln Square neighborhood next month has a "cool" roof, priority parking for low-emission vehicles, highly efficient meat and freezer cases, a bin for plastic bags that will be converted into deck materials and environmentally-friendly flooring secured with environmentally-friendly adhesive.
Restaurants, cafes and grocery stores, it seems, are in an all-out race to be green.
The Subway shop is the chain's first of its kind in a major city, and the Dominick's is the first of its Chicago grocery stores to have been rebuilt from the ground up with sustainability in mind. The store features high-tech, energy-saving equipment, such as heating and cooling systems tied into sensors that normalize temperatures from the bakery to the frozen-foods section. Starbucks, meanwhile, has vowed that all of its new, company-run stores will meet the U.S. Green Building Council's standard for environmentally-sustainable building design (LEED) by year-end.
A variety of factors have contributed to the profusion of new green buildings. Subway and Dominick's cite a slight improvement in the economy, and the city of Chicago has streamlined the green permitting process.
But most important, stores almost have to go green to retain and grow their customer base, said Robert Passikoff, founder of Brand Keys, a consultancy that measures customer loyalty.He said consumer interest in a corporation's environmentalism is five times greater than it was a decade ago.
"It's one of those things you can't ignore," Passikoff said. Green buildings, he said, resonate with consumers even more than corporate pledges to recycle or purchase carbon offsets. All things being equal, the customer will choose the green company, or the milkshake from the green restaurant, he said.
From a business perspective, motivations for building green appear to be threefold: energy savings, customer goodwill and marketing.
Passikoff noted that going greener is just the first step.
"The issue isn't just doing it, but doing it believably and communicating it believably," he said. "Right now, if I told you BP is doing a heck of a job with the environment, would you believe me?"
A company's commitment to going greener, he said, "should be part of the entire brand equity approach," integrated into everything from advertising to public relations.
Savvy retailers such as Starbucks know this and believe it's a reason customers may pay more for their coffee. The chain also certifies free-trade coffees and touts its relationships with farmers in the world's coffee-growing regions. Its store-design strategy has become another extension of the same message.
Dominick's sees a link between going green and building goodwill.
"A lot of what we've done is based on requests from consumers," company President Don Keprta said during a tour last week of the store at Lincoln and Berwyn avenues, which is slated to reopen Sept. 30. "Everyone is very conscious of the greening of the country."
For instance, in urban areas, the chain gets requests to help recycle, particularly plastic bags, and customers ask for a greater selection of reusable bags and expanded offerings of organics.
In Lincoln Square, Keprta said, Dominick's also built a bioswale, which will filter storm runoff from the parking lot before it goes into the sewer.
A bioswale doesn't have a measureable return on investment, Keprta said, "but it's the right thing to do." Besides, since the more-efficient freezer cases save so much money, "it helps us pay for the things we want to do."
Dominick's, a homegrown grocery chain that's now a division of Pleasanton, Calif.-based Safeway Inc., has committed to step up its green projects, Keprta said, because the chasm between what customers want and what corporations can afford has narrowed: It has become cheaper and easier to build green.
"The technology is catching up with the wants of the consumer," he said. "Some things in the past would have been cost-prohibitive."
And with many technologies on their third or fourth iterations, the equipment has become more reliable and affordable.
"It's like an electric car," Keprta said. "They were there 10 years ago, but you didn't want to own one."
For instance, energy-management software that can monitor and control store equipment and operating systems, even down to a freezer door left open, has gotten cheaper and easier to use in the last decade.
Dominick's expects annual energy savings of about 22 percent at the Lincoln Square store andmaintains that store outlays weren't significantly more than what would have been spent on a traditional store. That's partly due to Safeway spending several years searching out the right equipment and materials to save on cost.
But for some, building green remains expensive. Subway franchisee Murad Fazal said his store at 236 S. State St. cost about 45 percent more than a traditional Subway restaurant, yet he expects energy savings will offset the additional costs in about five years. Fazal's landlord is taking the building green and absorbed some of his costs.
"I think customers will appreciate it," Fazal said of being green. He will close his 242 S. State location and reopen two doors to the north on the following morning, perhaps as soon as this weekend.
Fazal also said customers are more aware of green technology. He and his business partner, Iqbal Ali, installed timers on bathroom lights to conserve electricity about 15 years ago, but patrons confused them with light switches and occasionally broke them trying to turn out the lights. It was also hard to set the timers — deciding on the right amount of time to give someone in the bathroom — for fear of leaving them in the dark. The timer is now set for 12 minutes.
"We felt like this was the right time," Fazal said of opening a green location. He and Ali have 24 Subway restaurants, and he said they would definitely go green again. "Particularly if it's in partnership with a landlord," Ali said.
Going green can also lead to cashing in. Susan Gallagher, a Rockford franchisee who recently opened Subway's first eco-store in Illinois, said her build-out costs weren't higher than an average location because the landlord absorbed additional costs, including a geothermal heating and cooling system. So far, the shop's utility costs are down 40 percent to 60 percent on a square-foot basis. Another big plus: Sales are up about 30 percent.
There are number of contributing factors. The restaurant is in a more visible location, has updated decor and, like the other Subway chain stores, is serving breakfast. But Gallagher also credits some of the increase in traffic to goodwill generated from being in a green building.
"I think there are some customers who don't care, but there's a lot of them who really appreciate it," she said. "They come to my Subway just because outside of outstanding service and a great product, they enjoy the fact that they're eating in a LEED silver award Subway location … and people do appreciate that."
As Americans' overall environmental confidence continues to ebb and flow, their faith in their employers' environmental responsibility has dropped to a new low, according to the monthly Green Confidence Index (www.greenconfidenceindex.com).
According to July 2010 data, just released, Americans' confidence that "the company you work for" is doing enough to address environmental challenges dropped more than 2 percentage points in a single month -- at a time that confidence in other institutions either rose slightly or held steady.
"Consumers' confidence in their employers is now at its lowest point since we began tracking," said Amy Hebard, chief research officer of Earthsense, whose company creates the Index. "Some of this is no doubt linked to high unemployment and the increased workloads of some employees."
The Green Confidence Index, which is derived from a monthly online survey of approximately 2,500 Americans aged 18 and over, measures Americans' attitudes towards and confidence in how leaders and institutions are perceived to be addressing environmental issues, the adequacy of information available to them to make informed decisions, and their past and future purchases of green products.
The Index's three components include:
• Responsibility: Who's "doing enough" – and who's not?
• Information: Is enough information available and for what types of decisions?
• Purchasing: Is green purchasing continuing, accelerating or declining?
According to research conducted during July, major companies tied with the federal government for last place in perceptions around Responsibility, while local governments have achieved their highest level yet of confidence.
In the Information category, the July data found that weeks away from the midterm elections, the availability of information on candidates' environmental positions is trending upward, though is largely seen as inadequate.
The July survey also took a look at back-to-school shopping -- specifically, the level of interest in purchasing "green" brands of school supplies.
The answer: Not so much. Green back-to-school purchases are the exception, not the rule, though they vary considerably by product type. Paper goods top the list of most frequently bought items, though fewer than a third of purchasers expect to procure green versions of those. Of 26 different school supplies we surveyed about this month, only one non-paper environmental product was being highly considered: the reusable water bottle.
"The green opportunity in the school-supply market is a gaping gap, if not a chasm," said Earthsense president Wendy Cobrda. "Getting the message to schools, not just to kids and parents -- will be crucial if there is any hope of making green part of the everyday school day."
The Green Confidence Index is a partnership of three leading business information services companies: GreenBiz.com, part of Greener World Media, which also produces research reports and events on the greening of mainstream business; Earthsense, an applied marketing company that produces Eco-Insights, the largest syndicated survey of U.S. consumers' attitudes and behaviors toward the environment and sustainability; and Survey Sampling International, the world's largest provider of multi-mode survey research sampling solutions. The Index is a subscription-based service. Annual subscriptions are $499, with charter subscriptions available at $299.
[Editor's note: William Dinkel, an avid blogger on green technologies and energy efficient solutions, contributed to the reporting and research for this article.]
The capability to provide artificial sunlight has dramatically expanded the boundaries of time and space, adding hours to the day when we may see and illuminating where sunlight was unable to penetrate. Since the first humans carried a torch to provide light, heat has been a by-product of producing light.
Traditional electric lights continue to give off more heat than light. An incandescent light bulb uses a paltry 10 percent of its energy to create light. Fluorescent lighting -- which has been the green standard in energy efficiency -- still wastes nearly half of the electricity it consumes in generating heat. All of this lost energy is significant considering that lighting devours more than a quarter of a typical commercial building's electricity, as reported by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
LED, or light emitting diode, fixtures, in comparison, are twice as efficient as fluorescents at converting electricity to light and hence generate very little heat. In addition to improved energy efficiency, LED fixtures are nearly maintenance free and provide high quality of light. They are also dimmable, contain no mercury and tolerate frequent on/off switching without degrading their lifespan.
LED Case Studies
Since UCSF Medical Center replaced some of its surgical lighting with LED fixtures, doctors and nurses no longer complain about the heat from the light fixtures when performing surgical procedures.
"Previously we had to chill the OR [operating room] to offset the heat generated by the old fixtures," UCSF Project Manager John Lewis explained. "The new LED lights do not radiate heat and the OR medical staff is comfortable at standard OR temperatures."
Quality of light is an important issue to adoption of any new lighting technology. Fluorescents were unable to replicate the incandescent bulb's soft and pleasing glow and disappointed both professional lighting designers and the cube dwellers who toiled under their unnatural glare. LEDs hark back to a more basic light source, the sun. The spectrum and color rendition come closest yet to natural daylight.
An LED is a semiconductor that creates light by releasing energy from electrons. It is frequently referred to as "solid state" or "digital" lighting. Because LED fixtures generate light over an area using thousands of tiny light sources, the fixtures also provide a clear, shadow-free light field that is ideal for task work, whether an accountant, engineer or surgeon.
"The most important criteria for our application is the quality of light. After an early test, we eliminated fluorescent fixtures since fluorescents render colors poorly," Lewis said. "The medical team found the quality of light provided by the new LED lighting was superior to the existing incandescent lighting."
While quality of light is important, CFOs, facilities managers and contractors also want to understand the financial benefits of LED fixtures. LED lighting providers emphasize the lower total cost of ownership offered by LED lighting to justify the higher upfront investment.
Much of the savings stems from the improved energy efficiency of LED lighting; up to 70 percent less energy is required to produce light. An added benefit is reducing heat generated, which saves on air conditioning and is noticeable in an operating room, office or data center.
Adding to the cost benefits, LED manufacturers promise an exceptionally long life of 10, 15 or more years. Shifting from disposable to durable lighting eliminates the maintenance costs such as tube and ballast replacement that are standard with fluorescents. Adding to replacement costs is proper disposal of the mercury-based fluorescent tubes.
The Pittsburgh International Airport found the ROI compelling. The airport is installing more than a thousand LED fixtures to cover over a million square feet in its garage (pictured below) and passenger loading and unloading area. The project is believed to be largest single installation of LEDs to date.
"Not only does the LED technology reduce our energy costs, it also reduces maintenance," said JoAnn Jenny, director of communications for Allegheny County Airport Authority.
To further improve ROI, there may be grants and incentives available. Pittsburgh International Airport is taking advantage of a state grant to subsidize installation of LED lighting. With the grant, the pay-back period is cut by half.
Barriers to Adoption
Although LED fixtures offer compelling advantages, there are barriers to adoption. Kim Parsley, a principal for IA Interior Architects, which focuses on sustainable commercial building design, commented, "We are still recommending T5 fluorescents for office and retail spaces. We are cautious about the claims of LED lighting providers and want more case studies. The upfront costs are also off-putting to clients."
To overcome these early adopter risks, Pittsburgh International Airport first completed a small pilot and then negotiated guarantees from its vendor that the LED fixtures would achieve the advertised light output, efficiency and life expectancy.
LEDs are starting to light standard commercial installations such as offices and retail. Last year, Unilever's new 400,000-square-foot headquarters (pictured above) used LEDs as primary electric light source. Starbucks also announced last year its plan to retrofit all of its 8,000 company owned stores with LED fixtures and is on-track to roll-out by the end of this year.
Costs are expected to decline with continued improvement in performance. Sandia National Laboratories completed a LED study in 2001 [PDF] to develop a price / performance model. In that paper, Drennen, Haitz and Tsao described LED improvements over the previous thirty years, "In a Moore's-law-like fashion, [light] per unit has been increasing 30x per decade ... Similarly, the cost per unit … has been decreasing 10x per decade." Improvements in this decade have been consistent with the model.
Implementation Considerations
The most favorable ROIs are for those applications where the lighting is expensive to operate:
Energy intensive -- Where there is long hours of operation, inefficient technology such as incandescent, halides, or halogens. These applications include garages, hospitals, retail, airports and other transportation hubs, decorative lighting, signage, elevator and restaurants.
Costly maintenance -- Frequent replacement required. Expensive to replace parts when using traditional fixtures. Examples are signage or outdoor lights.
Even when the ROI satisfies the company's hurdle rates, other complications may limit the realization of benefits. Since many commercial buildings are leased, if the installation pay-back period is longer than the lease or the tenant does not pay for electricity used, then the tenant has no incentive to make the investment. In these types of scenarios, the tenant and landlord need to negotiate to determine an equitable way to share the costs and benefits of an LED installation.
Next Page: Key considerations when selecting LED providers.
When selecting LED providers, the Department of Energy (DOE) has established a certification program to test and compare various LED products. Since technology advances continue, DOE and other industry groups should be checked periodically for latest insights.
No matter the lighting technology selected, the first step is to reduce the lighting required and then find the most efficient technology for the remainder. Incorporating day lighting reduces the need for artificial lights. Presence detectors and automatic dimming to maintain correct level of light will eliminate waste.
LEDs Ready for Expansion
The newest use for LEDs, developed by NASA, is to provide light to grow plants for oxygen and food in space. The research from this space application has been transferred to medical uses in the treatment of cancers (see picture, right).
The nonprofit Light Up the World Foundation is developing and distributing solar LED lighting to poor people in remote areas who still rely on kerosene lamps and wood fires. This old style lighting creates toxic emissions that debilitate the health of those exposed; especially vulnerable are the young and chronically ill. The new LED light is appreciated for its bright illumination as well as its clean and frugal operation.
The quest to provide artificial light has always been about discovering more efficient and safer lighting technology. LED lighting is the next step in that evolution. LEDs have already expanded from niche lighting to standard commercial applications in the last few years. And LED technology is helping to open new frontiers because of its low energy requirements and ability to mimic sunlight.
ROI Calculators: There are many on-line calculators available from suppliers. Ensure that the calculator considers maintenance and number of hours of operation. Although helpful that a calculator provides default values for energy costs, existing lighting and other parameters, it is best if these can be updated to reflect more accurately the ROI for a particular installation.
Unique Characteristics of LED DOE: As identified by the Department of Energy, LEDs have several unique characteristics that make them ideal for specialized applications. For example, LEDs perform better in cold temperatures making supermarket refrigerator cases a good use. They also do not emit UV light. UV light will damage archival materials and can be irritating to skin and eyes. For more LED applications, the DOE created an excellent publication. (Download the PDF here.)
Claudia Girrbach is a senior director in the IT department at Gap Inc., as well as a member of the company's EcoCouncil and Employee Engagement Team. She also authors the blog Going Green - Tips for Business. William Dinkel, an avid blogger on green technologies and energy efficient solutions, contributed to the reporting and research for this article. William works at Hewlett-Packard and holds a BS in computer engineering from California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo.
Laura Scudders, a brand born during the Depression Era, used to claim its potato chips were the "noisiest chips in the world." These days, to hear some consumers tell it, SunChips are breaking the sound barrier with new packaging that is eco-friendly but creates a din when handled.
The 100 percent compostable bags made from plant-based material that Frito-Lay uses for SunChips crackles so loudly that some chip eaters have compared it to "a "revving motorcycle" and "glass breaking," the Wall Street Journal reported today.
The buzz about the chip bags is working its way through the blogosphere and is drawing traffic with the social media. The WSJ said:
It is louder than "the cockpit of my jet," said J. Scot Heathman, an Air Force pilot, in a video probing the issue that he posted on his blog under the headline "Potato Chip Technology That Destroys Your Hearing" [see below]. Heathman tested the loudness using a RadioShack sound meter. He squeezed the bag and recorded a 95 decibel level. A bag of Tostitos Scoops chips (another Frito-Lay brand, in bags made from plastic) measured 77.
Clifford A. Wood, a 69-year-old in Tempe, Ariz., posted a warning on a Google chat page for people who work in theaters, cautioning: "Please NEVER sell Sun Chips in these bags at your venue."
View the video presentation here:
A litany of complaints, most of them good-humored, as well as some praise for Frito-Lay's environmental efforts can also be found on the new Facebook group, "SORRY BUT I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER THIS SUN CHIPS BAG," which had more than 30,000 fans this morning.
In an industry first, Frito-Lay rolled out chip bags for 10.5-ounce packages made from 100 percent polylactic acid (PLA), a corn-based biopolymer, this year and had launched a 33 percent PLA bag for Earth Day in 2009. The 100 percent PLA bag fully decomposes in about 14 weeks when placed in a hot, active compost pile or bin, according to the company. The material, though effective, makes a distinct crackling sound when the bag is opened.
The brouhaha over bags prompted Boulder Canyon Foods to pipe up that its compostable packaging made from wood pulp gets the job done more quietly.
"The truth is, 'green' snacking doesn’t have to wake the neighbors to be effective," a PR rep for Boulder Canyon emailed just before 9 this morning. "Unlike the famously loud corn starch-based compostable bag introduced by Frito Lay earlier this year, Boulder Canyon Natural Foods has introduced a fully compostable bag to its kettle-cooked potato chip line that feels and sounds like a traditional bag of chips should."
The Frito-Lay people, also no slouches when it comes to marketing, have provided a sign for stores to use. It reads: "Yes, the bag is loud, that's what change sounds like."
The company's R&D people are exploring ways to make the packaging quieter, said the WSJ.
A new government study shows that Americans are using less energy overall and making more use of renewable energy resources.
The United States used significantly less coal and petroleum in 2009 than in 2008, and significantly more wind power. There also was a decline in natural gas use and increases in solar, hydro and geothermal power according to the most recent energy flow charts released by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
“Energy use tends to follow the level of economic activity, and that level declined last year. At the same time, higher efficiency appliances and vehicles reduced energy use even further,” said A.J. Simon, an LLNL energy systems analyst who develops the energy flow charts using data provided by the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration. “As a result, people and businesses are using less energy in general.”
The estimated U.S. energy use in 2009 equaled 94.6 quadrillion BTUs (“quads”), down from 99.2 quadrillion BTUs in 2008. (A BTU or British Thermal Unit is a unit of measurement for energy, and is equivalent to about 1.055 kilojoules). The average American household uses about 95 million BTU per year.
Energy use in the residential, commercial, industrial and transportation arenas all declined by .22, .09, 2.16 and .88 quads, respectively.
Wind power increased dramatically in 2009 to.70 quads of primary energy compared to .51 in 2008. Most of that energy is tied directly to electricity generation and thus helps decrease the use of coal for electricity production.
“The increase in renewables is a really good story, especially in the wind arena,” Simon said. “It’s a result of very good incentives and technological advancements. In 2009, the technology got better and the incentives remained relatively stable. The investments put in place for wind in previous years came online in 2009. Even better, there are more projects in the pipeline for 2010 and beyond.”
The significant decrease in coal used to produce electricity can be attributed to three factors: overall lower electricity demand, a fuel shift to natural gas, and an offset created by more wind power production, according to Simon.
Nuclear energy use remained relatively flat in 2009. No new plants were added or taken offline in this interval, and the existing fleet operated slightly less than in 2008.
Of the 94.6 quads consumed, only 39.97 ended up as energy services. Energy services, such as lighting and machinery output, are harder to estimate than fuel consumption, Simon said.
The ratio of energy services to the total amount of energy used is a measure of the country’s energy efficiency.
Carbon emissions data are expected to be released later this year, but Simon suspects they will tell a similar story.
“The reduction in the use of natural gas, coal and petroleum is commensurate with a reduction in carbon emissions,” he said. “Simply said, people are doing less stuff. Therefore, they’re burning less fuel.”
In a column in its August issue, HPAC Engineering reports that the U.S. Green Building Council has handed down its first decision with respect to a third-party challenge to a LEED certification. The news column summarizes the 126-page appeal, then contends that the appeal raises numerous issues concerning LEED certification process that lawyers practicing in the green-building space have been predicting for some time.
The decision involves an appeal of the certification awarded to Northland Pines High School in Eagle River, Wisconsin. At a minimum, the appeal shows LEED certification requirements and processes are open to subjective interpretation and, potentially, arbitrary enforcement.
The column's author is one of the first attorneys in Georgia to obtain LEED accreditation from the U.S. Green Building Council. Gina Vitiello is a partner in the construction-and-commercial-litigation practice of national law firm Chamberlain Hrdlicka, representing clients in contract-negotiation matters, dispute avoidance/resolution, and litigation. See "Appeal Raises Questions About LEED Certification..."
As suspected, Energy Star appliances do not always live up to their energy savings claims, according to preliminary results of laboratory tests reported his week by the US Department of Energy (DOE).
The DOE began testing the appliances after watchdogs raised serious questions about the federal labeling program. The Energy Star seal appears on hundreds of models of refrigerators, air conditioners, clothes washers and other appliances as proof to consumers that the products meet government standards for energy efficiency and performance.
But because manufacturers self-certify their products, the program is “vulnerable to fraud and abuse,” alleged the federal Government Accountability Office in a March 2010 report. In response, the DOE, which runs Energy Star with the US Environmental Protection Agency, hired four independent labs to test actual energy savings against manufacturers’ claims.
Richard Karney, program leader in testing and verification for the DOE Buildings Technology Program explained findings from the first round of testing in a webinar Aug. 24.
The DOE purchased the appliances directly from stores, and the labs tested to see if they achieve savings within 5% of their claims. With over 40% of tests complete, the DOE reported failure by 16% of the refrigerators, 18% of clothes washers and 29% of room air conditioners.
To be fair, the tests also revealed that a fair number of appliances exceed Energy Star savings requirements.
So what happens now?
The DOE has informed manufacturers who failed in the first round of testing. Next, the federal agency will purchase additional appliances and retest the failed models. Manufacturers can choose to pull their models from the second round of testing. All appliances that fail a second time, or are pulled from the program by manufacturers, will be reported to the EPA for enforcement action. The EPA may then strip the appliances of the Energy Star label.
The EPA will make public the products that are disqualified. It will not name those that passed the test out of concern they will gain unfair market advantage over those appliances that have yet to be tested, Karney said. The DOE plans to test 20% of Energy Star appliances annually with the goal of evaluating all models over five years.
The initial findings underscore the importance that the efficiency industry establishes best practices to verify energy savings, a task that has haunted it for years. The nation’s new emphasis on green energy places efficiency in the spotlight, a good thing if the industry performs, a bad thing if it stumbles. The DOE is especially concerned about verification for appliances because the federal government has allotted $300 million to states for appliance rebate programs.
Cognizant of the problem, private industry groups are wisely stepping up to measure and verify energy efficiency for products and buildings, most recently the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers http://www.aham.org/ht/a/GetDocumentAction/i/49947.
Such self-policing is crucial to the industry’s longevity. The green energy movement has enemies who would love to portray it as a fraud. Providing consumers with accurate data is the only way to counter them.
Labs testing Energy Star appliances
BR Laboratories
CSA International (Toronto) and CSA OnSpeX
(Cleveland)
Intertek Testing Services
Springboard Engineering
Elisa Wood is a long-time energy writer whose work appears in many of the industry’s top magazines and newsletters. She is publisher of the Energy Efficiency Markets podcast and newsletter.
ComEd calls it the "innovation corridor," nine communities along the Eisenhower Expressway and Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood that are serving as a testing grounds for "smart" devices and infrastructure the utility hopes to apply across the areas it serves.
ComEd today launched the "ComEd Smart Grid Innovation Corridor," one of the broadest collections of Smart Grid pilots in the country. This suite of projects will evaluate the latest technology and implementation approaches in areas such as residential solar power, the company's first intelligent substation, distribution automation and electric vehicle charging stations.
The ComEd Smart Grid Innovation Corridor encompasses the 10 communities of Bellwood, Berwyn, Broadview, Forest Park, Hillside, Maywood, Melrose Park, Oak Park, River Forest and the Humboldt Park neighborhood in Chicago. It will build upon the information-rich Smart Meters currently installed in 130,000 residences within this area.
"Our innovation corridor is unlike any in the U.S.," said Anne Pramaggiore, president and chief operating officer, ComEd. "It allows us to study a variety of advanced Smart Grid technologies individually and in relation to each other. Through this deliberate approach, we will learn the best and most cost-effective way to deliver value to our customers, help them manage their bills, and improve system reliability."
Pramaggiore noted that the foundational technology for each pilot is the Smart Meter. ComEd recently launched one of the largest Smart Meter pilots in the country and is well-positioned to study the best approaches for creating a robust Smart Grid in northern Illinois.
"The Smart Meter is the on-ramp to the Smart Grid, and our goal is to ensure that these systems work for our customers. The ComEd Smart Grid Innovation Corridor allows us to prove out advanced technologies under realistic operating conditions," said Terence Donnelly, executive vice president of operations, ComEd.
The five pilots to be initiated this year include:
Photovoltaic (PV) Pilot: This three-year project is partially funded by a $5 million U.S. Department of Energy grant. It will examine the customer benefits of residential solar generation, hourly pricing signals, the ability to sell back unused solar electricity and the impact of changes in customer load on the ComEd grid. Participants will be selected by the end of this year for the pilot, which is expected to begin in the spring of 2011.
Intelligent Substation: Microprocessor-based controls and advanced digital devices currently are being installed at a substation in Oak Park to create an "intelligent substation" that will feature automated monitoring and analysis to improve reliability and streamline maintenance. The intelligent substation will go live in December.
Distribution Automation: Automated power-line restoration devices and smart isolation switches will be installed to create "self-healing" lines that will automatically correct disturbances and minimize the duration of outages. Equipment will go live in December.
Electric Vehicles and Charging Infrastructure: Through partnerships with General Motors, the City of Chicago, the Electric Power Research Institute and industry groups, the next generation of electric vehicles will be studied and smart-charging infrastructure will be installed to encourage development of a Chicago market for electric vehicles. The first charging stations will be installed this fall, and ComEd will begin testing GM's Chevy Volt in 2011.
Dynamic Voltage Regulation: "Greening" the electric system by using Smart Grid technologies to reduce surplus voltage on distribution lines while maintaining high reliability. This pilot will go live in December.
To recruit participants for the PV Pilot, ComEd recently sent invitations to more than 25,000 customers who own a single-family home within the ComEd Smart Grid Innovation Corridor. One hundred homeowners will be selected to receive free rooftop solar panels and other equipment, free installation and Web access to monitor their electricity generation and consumption.
ComEd will work with the University of Illinois and Argonne National Laboratory, who will serve as research partners and assist the company in analyzing various aspects of the PV pilot, including the wealth of data that will be generated, customer perceptions and overall benefits.
U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu this week dedicated the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), the world's first and most powerful X-ray laser, at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The LCLS will play an essential role in addressing the scientific needs of the 21st century by exploring new ways to create better energy sources and enabling advances in a range of scientific fields. The LCLS produces pulses of X-rays more than a billion times
Looking west, up the beamline, inside the LCLS Beam Transport Hall. The quadrupole magnet at left helps the electron beam maintain its precise shape before it enters the undulator magnets
brighter than the most powerful existing sources. The ultrafast X-ray pulses are used much like flashes from a high-speed strobe light, enabling scientists to take stop-motion pictures of atoms and molecules in motion, shedding light on the fundamental processes of chemistry, technology, and life itself.
"The LCLS shows what the scientific workforce of our nation, in cooperation with our international partners, is capable of achieving," said Secretary Chu. "Pioneering research will remain critical if the U.S. is to remain a global leader when it comes to innovation and competitiveness."
The LCLS is a new type of scientific facility that could revolutionize our view of the atomic world as it performs basic scientific research and drives applications in energy and environmental sciences, drug development and materials engineering. It is able to view matter on a scale of individual atoms, and on time scales fast enough to see atomic motion and changes in the chemical bonds between them. This improved understanding of the behavior of matter at the nanoscale and in ultrafast time intervals will provide scientists with an ability to manipulate matter to unprecedented degrees. The resulting breakthroughs are expected to lead to revolutionary new materials with combinations of properties for a host of applications throughout the American economy, promoting progress especially in energy, but also transportation, information technology, and medicine, to name only a few fields. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided $53.6 million to accelerate the construction of scientific instruments for the LCLS and to develop an additional instrument.
The LCLS is a $420 million project funded by the Department of Energy with construction led by SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in partnership with Argonne National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Other national laboratories and universities provided significant support and components of the machine during the development of the LCLS.
Here’s a roundup of some of the most recent businesses that have earned the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. These include luxury hotel Fairmont Pittsburgh, office building Bank of America Tower, Frito-Lay, education services provider Pearson, and multi-tenant building Atlantic Center Plaza.
Here are highlights for each LEED certification project.
Atlantic Center Plaza: The plaza is the first multi-tenant building in Midtown Atlanta and the first managed by Colonial Properties Trust to earn LEED Gold as an existing building. The building implemented several programs to save water, improve energy efficiency, and reduce waste, reports Earth Times. As an example, a condensate water recovery system used for supplementing cooling tower water and irrigation saved more than 200,000 gallons of water during its first year of use.
Other projects include the installation of a CO2 demand control system, lighting occupancy controls and lighting retrofits. The use of single stream recycling has resulted in 50 percent less waste going to the landfill.
Because of these energy-efficient and conservation strategies Atlantic Center Plaza earned a 92 Energy Star rating and was recently named a Bronze Partner by The Partnership for a Sustainable Georgia.
The office building, touted as the first in the world designed and constructed to LEED Platinum standards, has implemented several features that protect indoor air quality, prevent mold, conserve water, save energy and reduce waste. However, the 4.6-megawatt co-generation plant installed in One Bryant Park, which provides approximately 65 percent of the building’s energy, was a key component in achieving enough points to win LEED Platinum certification, according to the article.
Fairmont Pittsburgh: The new luxury hotel, touted as the only LEED certified hotel in the city, received LEED certification at the Gold level.
Fairmont Pittsburgh is part of Three PNC Plaza, a 23-story high-rise owned by The PNC Financial Services Group. Three PNC Plaza is said to be one of the nation’s largest green, mixed-use buildings.
The hotel has implemented several energy-saving features, including the use of LED and compact fluorescent bulbs, guestroom occupancy sensors, and access to natural light, which are expected to cut the hotel’s annually lighting energy use by 75,000 kWh and CO2 emissions by 97,500 lbs (45 metric tons) annually.
In addition, approximately 80 percent of all equipment and appliances used in the project are Energy Star compliant, which will annually reduce energy use by about 100,000 kWh and CO2 emissions by 130,000 lbs (60 metric tons). By installing water conserving fixtures, including low-flow toilets, aerators and automatic sensors on the public restroom sinks, the hotel will save about 930,000 gallons of water annually.
The project also used mostly recycled furniture and construction materials, fabricated finishes from sustainable sources as well as installed plumbing that conserves water.
As an example, Perry facility has reduced its natural gas consumption by 35 percent and its electricity use by 27 percent per pound of product since 2000 by implementing changes such as installing waste heat recovery boilers, improved maintenance systems, and upgraded oven burners.
It also has reduced its water consumption by 38 percent per pound of product since 2000 through a company-wide low water corn cook process, and installing low-flow solar-powered faucets and flush valves. In addition, none of the site’s process wastewater goes to the sewer. All of the process wastewater is used to irrigate the facility’s 1,500-acre lot.
It also improved waste management. Less than 1 percent of the Perry facility’s solid waste goes to landfill as of July 2010.
O2 has today earned plaudits with the launch a major new initiative designed to rate the environmental credentials of 65 leading mobile phones and provide consumers with an easy to understand guide to which phones are greenest.
The company is to be applauded for the move, which seeks to extend the environmental labelling that has worked effectively for cars and household appliances to the mobile phone sector.
The scheme should, as O2 anticipates, make it easier for consumers to pick up phones that boast solid green credentials, while also increasing pressure on manufacturers to deliver new phones that are energy efficient, easy to recycle and relatively free of toxic components.
But a closer look at the phones at the top of O2's eco mobile phone rating system reveals that the criteria used to assess the phones must contain a few surprises.
A number of smartphones have made it into the group of top-ranked phones, despite the fact they clearly use more energy, more components and more materials, than stripped down phones with less functionality.
Speaking to BusinessGreen.com, James Taplin from Forum for the Future, which produced the rating scheme for O2, admitted that alongside criteria covering the corporate responsibility of the manufacturer, raw materials and manufacturing processes, toxic substances, packaging and logistics, and environmental impacts during the use and disposal of the phone, the organisation introduced criteria based on the functionality of the device.
Taplin said judging the environmental credentials of a phone based on its functionality was likely to prove controversial, and admitted that the criteria had been introduced because it did not want smart phones to "all come out at the bottom" of the ratings.
The key question for green consumers is whether measuring a device's environmental credentials based on its functionality rather than its physical impact is justified.
Taplin made the somewhat tenuous point that people could use smartphone's video conferencing functionality to cut down on travel and the far more reasonable point that the satnav functionality found in many modern smartphones would mean that consumers would no longer have to buy a new satnav. Given that the bulk of the carbon emissions generated by electronic devices are produced during manufacture it seems fair to argue that replacing your satnav, camera and MP3 player with one multi-purpose device would have a positive environmental impact.
But these environmental benefits will only be realised if people really do use their smartphone for everything and stop buying other gadgets and -- much to the manufacturers' chagrin -- stop replacing their phones once a year. Otherwise, smartphones have simply been awarded extra points in the new O2 rating system that they do not really deserve.
O2 and Forum for the Future insist that they have developed a balanced rating system with a good mix of different devices among those awarded high marks. They also point out that the rating system gives room for all manufacturers to improve and that if it wants to attract customers to greener phones they need to have a good range of differing devices to select from.
But at the same time it is worth noting that green rating systems that edge away from the physical characteristics of a device (How much energy does it use? What components does it contain? What is its carbon footprint?) risk questions about the validity and fairness of their more arbitrary criteria.
Federal Express has promised it will consider the environmental and social impacts of the fuels it uses, although it didn’t specifically mention the oil sands.
The move to less carbon-intensive fuels was sparked by an ongoing campaign by San Fransisco-based environmental group Forest Ethics, Walgreens spokeswoman Tiffani Washington told the Calgary Herald.
“We found that it was a relatively simple process of surveying our vendors, seeing which ones may have tar sands oil sourcing and simply avoiding those vendors,” Walgreen’s spokesman Michael Polzin told The Canadian Press. “We are in that process right now.”
The drugstore chain, which operates more than 700 trucks in its 7,500-store network, surveyed its fuel providers to avoid any sources of oil sands-sourced gasoline, Polzin said.
“What this signals is the beginning in earnest of the financial war over the tar sands,” said Todd Paglia of the environmental group Forest Ethics, which is organizing the campaign.
“In the U.S., customers are increasingly saying we don’t want to be part of the tar sands,” Paglia told The Canadian Press.
Paglia admits the U.S. produces heavy oil of its own that isn’t singled out in Forest Ethics’ campaign. But he said the size and environmental impact of Alberta’s oil sands as well as the plans to increase its imports into the U.S. makes it an appropriate target.
Canada is the largest exporter of oil, both conventional and synthetic, to the United States, shipping approximately 1.99 million barrels per day of its 2.6 million bpd production south of the border.
The list of U.S. based refiners processing Canadian bitumen include BP, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil, as well as Sunoco, Murphy Oil and Marathon Oil.
Forest Ethics’ campaign wasn’t the first against the oil sands sourced gasoline. Last month Corporate Ethics International urged Americans and Britons to “Rethink Alberta” as a polluting, environmentally challenged province rather than a Rocky Mountain tourism destination, reports the Canadian Press.
The news that more retailers were avoiding Canadian crude, raised the ire of Albertans, from politicians to business associations, which called for reverse boycotts of U.S. products.
The Alberta Enterprise Group urged residents to stop supporting retailers that say they have stopped using bitumen-based gasoline but continue to face allegations of using child labor in Asia.
“It smacks of hypocrisy,” David MacLean told the Alberta Herald. “It’s a public relations stunt at our expense, and by ‘our,’ I mean Albertans and Canadians.”
International and Intergovernmental Relations Minister Iris Evans noted the industry is one of the most heavily regulated in the world, and urged consumers to learn more about what Alberta is doing to produce cleaner energy.
“We’ve been talking to a lot of global transportation providers and retailers and a lot of them understand the complexities of not only oil sands, but about removing any type of fuel from the fuel supply,” Janet Annesley, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers told the Calgary Herald. “And they want to work with us to find solutions rather than simply make a PR statement about a boycott.”
More U.S. coal-waste disposal sites have contaminated drinking or surface water with arsenic and other heavy metals, according to a study by Earthjustice, the Environmental Integrity Project and the Sierra Club, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Of the 39 problem sites, 35 had groundwater-monitoring data available, which showed that wells located at or near the coal-waste disposal sites contained pollutants such as arsenic, selenium, lead and chromium, according to the article. The four other sites involved surface water discharges and spills.
But there could be a bigger problem, according to the report. The study indicates that large coal ash-generating states like Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico and Tennessee, require no monitoring by law at coal ash ponds, at least while they are still in operation.
The coalition says the survey indicates that the EPA needs to regulate the waste produced by coal-fired power plants instead of leaving oversight to the states, according to the article.
The report is intended to influence the EPA as the agency begins public hearings next week on whether to regulate coal ash as a hazardous waste, put enforcement into the hands of federal and state officials, or institute new restrictions under which enforcement would come through lawsuits by states and individuals, reports the newspaper.
Depending on how those regulations are crafted, coal ash could be regulated like a hazardous waste, a move that has raised concerns among small and large businesses alike. Utilities have already begun lobbying the White House on the potential effect of the EPA’s proposed rules.
More than 40 percent of coal waste is recycled, added to products such as cement and drywall, a practice known as “beneficial reuse,” while the remainder is disposed of in landfills or retention ponds, according to The Wall Street Journal.
SunHydro today announced an agreement with Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc. (TMS) to place ten (10) Toyota Advanced Fuel Cell Hybrid Vehicles (FCHV-adv) in the Connecticut area this fall. The vehicles will support the new SunHydro solar-powered hydrogen fueling station, located at Proton Energy Systems’ headquarters in Wallingford, Conn. Proton Energy Systems is the world leader in on-site hydrogen generation, and its equipment will be used at the SunHydro station.
“We are very excited to partner with Toyota on this initiative, which will help connect people with hydrogen fuel cell technology”
SunHydro is the vision of successful entrepreneur Tom Sullivan, founder of Lumber Liquidators, who is expanding his business focus from hardwood floors to hydrogen fuel.
“This is a big step for Connecticut, our country, and the overall evolution of alternative fuels in the U.S.,” said Tom Sullivan, SunHydro founder and Proton Energy Systems owner. “We are very excited to partner with Toyota on this initiative, which will help connect people with hydrogen fuel cell technology,” said Sullivan.
SunHydro is leading the development of an East Coast Hydrogen Highway, which will make it possible to drive a fuel cell vehicle from Maine to Florida. The Wallingford, Conn. station will be the first station on this Highway. When completed, the Highway series of SunHydro stations will be the world’s first privately funded network of hydrogen fueling stations.
“We are looking forward to helping to lead the charge for solar-powered hydrogen fuel by building infrastructure that makes this alternative fuel more accessible to the general consumer,” said Michael Grey, President of SunHydro.
The FCHV-adv vehicles in Connecticut are part of a Toyota nationwide fuel cell demonstration program that will place more than 100 vehicles over the next three years. The ten fuel cell vehicles will be kept in Connecticut and will be used by SunHydro/Proton Energy Systems staff, in addition to other community members.
“The FCHV-adv demonstration program is a key step in preparing the market for advanced technologies,” said Craig Scott, TMS advanced technology vehicle manager. “The placement of the fuel cell vehicles in the Connecticut market will increase awareness of fuel technology and spur development of much-needed infrastructure prior to our planned market introduction in 2015.”
About SunHydro
SunHydro is the world’s first chain of privately funded fueling stations that provides hydrogen to fuel cell cars. SunHydro’s hydrogen is produced right on-site using solar and water, which means zero emissions. The company is developing and building a network of hydrogen fuel stations all along the east coast with larger plans for national expansion (www.sunhydro.com).
About Proton Energy Systems
Proton Energy Systems designs and manufactures proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrochemical systems to make hydrogen from water in a zero pollution process producing safe, pure, reliable onsite hydrogen to meet today’s global hydrogen requirements. Proton Energy Systems has been developing and manufacturing world-class electrolysis systems since 1996, with thousands of units deployed world-wide, on every continent. With a reputation for building robust, reliable, and safe systems, federal, state, and commercial partners repeatedly seek the creative solutions that Proton Energy Systems has proven it is capable of delivering. For more information, visit www.protonenergy.com.
About Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc.
Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A., Inc. is the marketing, sales, distribution and customer service arm of Toyota, Lexus and Scion. Established in 1957, TMS markets products and services through a network of nearly 1,500 Toyota, Lexus and Scion dealers which sold more than 1.77 million vehicles in 2009. Toyota directly employs nearly 34,000 people in the U.S. and its investment here is currently valued at more than $18 billion. For more information about Toyota, visit www.toyota.com, www.lexus.com, www.scion.com or www.toyotanewsroom.com.
San Francisco – The U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM), the official nonpartisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more, hosted a one-day meeting in San Francisco today at the Fairmont Hotel to discuss how cities in California are using federal stimulus dollars to make local communities more energy efficient and to create green jobs.
Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster, who serves in the Conference’s leadership and chaired the session, was joined by host San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, Cathy Zoi, The U.S. Department of Energy Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, and several mayors from the state of California to discuss how Energy Efficiency Block Grants are being used for the first time to support local green projects.
First funded under last year’s Economic Recovery Plan and administered by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) program is a newly-created program conceived by the Conference of Mayors designed to assist mayors in reducing city energy use and climate emissions. The program allocates $2.8 billion directly to cities and counties to improve energy efficiency and spur economic growth in the green sector, providing direct formula funding to 215 cities and 13 counties in California.
At a press availability held during the meeting, Mayor Newsom described how he is using San Francisco’s block grant funding. "The EECBG program is allowing us to improve energy efficiency in almost 150 buildings serving San Francisco's diverse neighborhoods," said Mayor Newsom. "More importantly, these energy efficiency projects create and sustain green jobs, save people money on their utility bills, and cut the City's carbon emissions by more than 3,000 tons a year."
The U.S. Conference of Mayors began pushing for the energy block grant in 2005 in conjunction with the introduction of a Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement -- a landmark pledge for mayors across the country to take bold action to reduce carbon emissions in cities by 2012. Now, more then 1,044 U.S. mayors – representing more than 87 million people – are signed onto the Climate Protection Agreement and are committed to making local economies energy efficient.
Since the Block Grant is a key priority for USCM, the organization will also take its message to Congress this fall with a push to continue the program as means of green job creation in cities and metro areas where jobs are needed most.
“Mayors know that green jobs and the new green economy are the future of America’s economic competitiveness,” said Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster, USCM Trustee and immediate past chair of the
USCM Environment Committee. “This is why the Energy Block Grant program is at the top of our Mayors’ 2010 Metro Agenda for America, our MainStreet investment plan that focuses on putting people back to work and creating an economy that will lead the world for decades to come.”
Of the benefits associated with EECBG program, Tom Cochran, USCM CEO and Executive Director said, “Mayors understand that a successful plan in this country for reducing U.S. energy consumption is grounded in local action, in our cities, counties and regions. California mayors have been leaders on energy issues in this country, and in particular this program, with strong support of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others in the California delegation.”
“We know that extending the Energy Block Grant beyond the Stimulus Bill will help mayors to build upon successes already in progress and meet the climate protection goals as stated in the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement with signatories of 1044 USA mayors,” Cochran concluded.
Meeting Participants: Mayor Gavin Newsom, San Francisco, CA
Mayor Bob Foster, Long Beach, CA
Mayor Beverly Johnson, Alameda, CA
Mayor Kris Wang, Cupertino, CA
Mayor Mary Ann Lutz, Monrovia, CA
Mayor Anthon Wong, Monterey Park, CA
Mayor Jill Techel, Napa, CA
Mayor Sue Digre, Pacifica, CA
Mayor Tony Santos, San Leandro, CA
Mayor Albert Boro, San Rafael, Ca
Mayor Abram Wilson, San Ramon, CA
Mayor Helene Schneider, Santa Barbara, CA
Mayor Susan Gorin, Santa Rosa, CA
Mayor John Lazar, Turlock, CA
Mayor Bill Fulton, Ventura, CA
Mayor Christopher Cabaldon, West Sacramento, CA
Councilmember, Pedro Gonzalez, South San Francisco, CA
Cathy Zoi, Assistant Secretary, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, U.S. Department of Energy
Tom Cochran, USCM CEO and Executive Director
Ford Motor Company and Portland General Electric are working together to help prepare the city of Portland and the Pacific Northwest for electric vehicles. Under the partnership, Ford and PGE will share information on charging needs and requirements to ensure that the electrical grid can support the demand for electric vehicles, as well as partner on consumer education outreach around electric vehicles.
The partnership also includes working with state and local governments to support charging station permitting, electric vehicle tax credits and future legislation or regulations.
Ford says vehicle incentives and an easy charging station permitting process are considered to be two key to elements to electric vehicle acceptance in Portland and across the country.
Ford is also bringing five new electrified vehicles to market over the next two years including the Transit Connect later this year and the Focus battery electric in 2011. Electrification is part of Ford’s overall product sustainability strategy that includes a range of fuel efficient and alternative fuel technologies including EcoBoost engines, six speed transmissions, power assisted steering, aerodynamic improvements, light weighting materials and the use of more sustainable and recycled materials.
PGE also is partnering with state and local government, higher education, the automobile industry, and businesses to expand the electric vehicle infrastructure in Oregon. In early August, PGE opened the nation’s first quick-charge station at its World Trade Center headquarters, which complements the network of more than 20 charging stations up and running across PGE’s operating areas.
Ford will leverage PGE’s partnership with Portland State University to further study urban mobility and the integration of energy and sustainable design.
Nissan, Ford and other electric vehicle makers said they look at three factors in picking cities for rollouts: the number of hybrid owners, friendly public policy and supportive utilities, according to the article.
Although Chicago is not high on the list of automakers’ initial electric vehicle launches, it did put a request for proposals to install $2 million worth of charging stations to be deployed throughout the city using federal and state funding, reports the Chicago Tribune.
In addition, ComEd told the newspaper that it may offer better rates to customers who charge at night when overall demand is lower, and is testing devices that allow electric cars and transformers to automatically adjust the rate and timing of charges in the event too many vehicles are charging at the same time.
ComEd also said it sees a point at which car owners could choose to “sell back” electricity in their car batteries when there is high demand on the grid, and believes mid-level charging stations will likely be installed where vehicles are parked for longer periods.
About 100 charging stations are expected to be deployed through a U.S. Department of Energy Clean Cities grant, with installations starting as early as November, according to the Chicago Tribune. To meet grant requirements, the charging infrastructure must be operational by 2012.
Public charging stations are important because they eliminate what automakers commonly refer to as “range anxiety,” according to the article.
A recent study conducted by CEA indicates that U.S consumers worry about running out of battery power on the road (71 percent), lack of charging stations and/or not being able to recharge (66 percent) and limited mileage (59 percent). However, 40 percent of them are likely to test drive an electric vehicle.
In the wake of out-of-state oil companies spending millions of dollars to oppose California’s AB32 climate law, an alliance of California businesses as well as labor, environmental and community leaders have partnered to create the California Apollo Program, which provides a strategy on how the state can continue to create clean energy jobs through a number of initiatives ranging from renewable energy use to retrofitting buildings for energy efficiency.
If California’s climate law withstands the attacks from these out-of-state oil companies and is implemented as scheduled, it alone is expected to generate up to $104 billion in economic activity by 2020, according to the alliance.
Some of the program’s strategies include generating 33 percent of California’s power from renewable sources by 2020 and prioritizing in-state production, upgrading California’s existing buildings to world class energy-efficiency standards, ensuring that new construction is “green,” and modernizing the power grid to support clean energy generation and smart-grid technology.
It also includes revitalizing California by expanding environmentally sustainable renewable energy and carbon sequestration projects, helping manufacturers retool their factories and retrain their employees to produce clean energy products, and revamping California’s transportation manufacturing industry to meet growing demand for high-efficiency vehicles.
Some endorsers of the program include SunPower, Natural Resources Defense Council, State Building & Construction Trades Council of California and California Energy Efficiency Industry Council.
As more wind projects are developed closer to communities in densely populated areas, a number of homeowners within close range are complaining about noise. This often raises the question: "When does wind become an unacceptable source of noise pollution?"
The question isn't easy to answer. While states and local communities set objective decibel standards for highways, airports and wind projects, “noise” is very subjective. Some people are not at all troubled by the low-frequency sound of an operating wind turbine. Others are extremely sensitive to the sound and report being in a constant state of agitation.
The small island of Vinalhaven in Maine's Penobscot Bay offers an interesting case study. Since Fox Islands Wind installed 3 GE 1.5 MW wind turbines on the island community last fall, a group of residents within a half mile of the turbines have complained that the turbines are not only too loud, but sometimes psychologically disturbing.
While it is a small group of people being affected by the turbines, the issue has gotten a lot of attention – even attracting experts from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory who have gone to the island to study both objective sound levels and subjective reactions to the turbines.
Vinalhaven is a very peaceful, rural community. One of the main contentions of the affected residents is that the Maine state compliance level, 45 decibels, is too loud for such a rural area. They also claim that the developer, Fox Islands Wind, misled them into believing that ambient sounds would cover up the turbines.
Even though Fox Islands Wind officials say they are in compliance with state noise standards, they are looking at some possible alterations such as lowering the cut-out speed of the machines, installing noise cancellation equipment in homes or changing out parts on the turbines.
Of course, any changes would affect the economics of the project and raise electricity prices for people on the island. For a fishing community dealing with a high cost of living and depressed prices for lobster, that could be a difficult pill to swallow. Because the vast majority of islanders strongly support the project, tension has arisen between the small number of impacted homeowners and the rest of the community.
The 45 decibel limit is lower than compliance levels for airports, factories and highways. People seem to be able to live around those. So why do wind turbines make people so angry? Well, the obvious answer – at least in rural areas like Vinalhaven – is that 45 decibels is still a significant increase in sound levels. It can substantially change the local soundscape. If that reality is not properly communicated, the agitation may increase.
But the other answer is less clear. It revolves around the quality of wind farm noise itself. Perhaps there is something in the low-frequency whooshing of a wind turbine that makes it more difficult for people to listen to.
“It's interesting that we're getting such high annoyance at these lower sound levels compared to other things,” says Jim Cummings, founder of the Acoustic Ecology Institute. “There's now research going on into the quality of this noise and how it impacts people.”
Because industrial-scale wind within communities is so new, the research around noise problems is also nascent. Some onlookers like Cummings say the lack of a coordinated, objective look at the issue contributes to misinformation and mistrust of the wind industry.
Last year, the Acoustic Ecology Institute put out a report looking at the scattered nature of the research.
The American and Canadian Wind Energy Associations put together a joint study in December of 2009. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has been giving the issue more attention, undertaking projects like the one on Vinalhaven. And there have been a few notable surveys done in Europe. But there still has been no independent, comprehensive study that has “put a lid” on the issue, says Cummings.
In the meantime, some wind advocates label people with sound complaints as “anti-wind.” At the same time, anti-wind advocates often exaggerate sound issues, saying they represent a public health problem. Without better studies and recognition of the problem, says Cummings, the misinformation and mistrust on both sides will continue.
“The reality is somewhere between,” he says.
For a detailed look at what's happening on Vinalhaven, listen to this week's podcast linked above. We'll visit the island and talk with people on both sides of the issue. It's not all bad – we'll also look at how wind transformed the culture and economy of Roscoe, Texas.
[Editor's note: This article was authored by BSR, a global business network and consultancy focused on sustainability.]
With managers across industries under pressure to develop sophisticated views about how climate change will impact their companies, it might seem natural to look to the insurance industry for guidance on how to act and communicate about risks and opportunities.
After all, with climate change threatening to increase the severity of humanitarian crises, economic disruptions, and weather-related disasters -- which, in the last half century, have cost more than a trillion dollars and killed more than 800,000 people (PDF) -- the insurance sector is being called on (PDF) to play a special role in helping society to adapt to climate change.
Unfortunately, even the insurance industry lacks the coveted crystal ball that would preview exactly how climate change will impact us. That's partly because prediction works by projecting future events based on past experiences, such as showing what the average distribution of the next thousand hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico might look like. Climate change variables can be factored in, but what to include and how much to adjust them remains largely guesswork.
Even if we had the parameters to guarantee more statistical accuracy, we would still be at the mercy of what matters most: low-probability, high-consequence events that happen once in a generation, such as this summer's heat wave in Russia and floods in Pakistan. Such outliers are hard to pinpoint in advance, yet these are precisely what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says business should be most worried about.
As a result, while climate science provides evidence of general trends, we are still a long way from being able to predict specific climate events. In lieu of precise predictions, a key to effectively managing the physical effects of climate change is preparedness, which can be achieved through developing literacy, identifying plausible impacts, evaluating priorities, and building resilience.
Developing Literacy
For business, developing literacy means understanding the mechanics by which climate change is likely to affect your company, and how to manage uncertainty.
In that sense, while climate change is expected to produce negative effects overall, there will also be important new societal needs related to climate change's direct effects on water, food, health, ecosystems, and coastal areas that businesses can focus on. These impacts can be thought of as both risks (your workforce becoming increasingly susceptible to disease) and opportunities (the chance to develop and distribute health-improving solutions).
Future climate impacts are a function of three things:
1. Impacts from today's climate, which may pose real risks, such as windstorms or floods, even if they haven't materialized
2. The potential effects of climate change, which could multiply those threats
3. Development paths that put more people and assets in harm's way
To develop expectations about total future impacts, business can use various techniques for characterizing the future, such as scenarios, storylines, analogues, qualitative projections, sensitivity analysis, and artificial experiments such as thought exercises. These all offer different tools. For example, analogues use past events to anticipate how communities will respond in the future, and storylines create narratives about how the company might logically evolve in response to climate-related economic trends.
Identifying Impacts
Given the most plausible physical effects of climate change mentioned above, which impact virtually all industries and regions, the next step is to identify where and how they might affect the company the most.
The answer depends on a range of geographic, market, and sociopolitical factors. As a starting point, the IPCC suggests that the most intense business impacts are likely to result from extreme weather, especially in coastal and flood-plain regions, in areas where subsistence is at the margin of viability, and near boundaries between major ecological zones.
With respect to business operations, impacts are most likely when there is dependence on longer-lived capital assets, (such as energy), fixed resources (such as mining), extended supply chains (such as retail and distribution), and climate-sensitive resources (including agricultural and forest products, water demands, tourism, and risk financing).
Finally, impacts are most likely in sociopolitical environments where substantial key stakeholder groups are based in poor communities, especially in areas of high urbanization. (For more details, review the IPCC's report on "Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability.")
Evaluate Priorities
Once a set of potential impacts has been identified, they can be used to evaluate the relative areas of concern. One way to structure this assessment is to evaluate the following conditions independently: the intensity of likely climate change hazards, your company's and its stakeholders' vulnerability to those hazards, and the values at stake, both financial and human.
You can combine these to form probabilistic values for each potential impact, and then compare these impacts against each other to provide a picture of the most important expected effects across the organization.
Such a study is accessible to most companies. For example, a combination of desktop research, interviews with experts, and a facilitated discussion with management could provide a good estimate of the conditions mentioned above. This, in turn, can form an appropriate initial assessment for coverage in an annual report or in your company's reporting to the CDP in May. To make the conclusions actionable, aim less for an abstract list of calculations and more for judgments that yield a rank-order priority set.
Build Resilience
A final step in preparing for climate change is to build resilience, which involves two steps. The first is to make "if-then" decisions. For instance, if energy prices quadruple, a drought occurs near a water-intensive plant, or a key ingredient is listed as endangered, what would your company do? This assessment should include both traditional disaster planning as well as defining contingencies for sudden changes in market needs or necessary supplies.
By extension, this is the time to consider how your company should react to plausible changes that could impact the whole enterprise, such as breakthroughs in energy information technology or aggressive climate policies in China's next five-year plan.
Of course, this should also include a review schedule: what to watch for, and when. In sum, managers should be ready for anything, or at least what's plausible.
The second step is taking proactive measures now, or if not now, then timed with and integrated into new capital investments. These measures include ensuring that new buildings and infrastructure meet codes to withstand extreme events; improving land-use planning, such as by limiting development in at-risk areas; and preserving wetlands, forests, and other natural ecosystems that provide cost-effective natural protection against storms and erosion.
When investing in these measures, combine adaptation with mitigation efforts wherever possible, such as by building green, and be wary of paths that are increasingly energy and water intensive because such resources will likely be under increasing strain.
It's also important to pay special attention to people in poor communities and developing countries, as they are likely to be most affected by climate change, and therefore have growing needs for companies to fulfill.
Ryan Schuchard is manager of Research & Innovation at BSR.
Light-emitting diodes, which are more energy-efficient than many other types of lighting solutions, appear to be the wave of the future. LEDs are already featured in notebook PCs and handsets, and are coming soon to a TV, office building, or home near you. This popular method of "going green" had also made lots of green for investors, especially in Cree (NasdaqGS:CREE - News) and Veeco (NasdaqGS:VECO - News), two LED-centric firms that, at their peaks, were up about 300% and 400% in the past year, respectively. While we're hoping for healthy LED adoption and global energy conservation (as well as anything that saves the planet in general), we fear that the industry could be prone to a sharp cyclical downturn down the line. While these two stocks in particular have pulled back in recent weeks, we think that prices at current levels are only just beginning to reflect some of the long-term risks surrounding LED stocks.
LED Industry Background
LEDs come in all shapes and sizes, are used in a wide variety of applications, and involve several steps of processing along the way. Firms involved in the production of LEDs can specialize in one of three areas: LED chips, which are made in a similar manner to semiconductors, the packaging of such chips into LED components, and the final step of integrating these components into LED bulbs and fixtures. Outside of the LED industry, many semiconductor firms have designed LED driver chips, which are used to control the functionality of LED chips. Also, high-tech manufacturing equipment makers, such as Veeco and Aixtron (NasdaqGS:AIXG - News), profit from the LED craze by supplying LED firms with specialized manufacturing tools.
There are four prominent players today that, in total, make up about half of the LED market: Nichia, a privately held Japanese firm, Philips (NYSE:PHG - News), Osram, a division of Siemens (NYSE:SI - News), and U.S.-based Cree. These firms manufacture both LED chips and components internally. The rest of the market is fragmented between many smaller firms that focus on specific steps in the LED supply chain, such as chip production or packaging.
Today, LEDs are most commonly found in consumer electronics, as LED chips are used to backlight mobile phones and other hand-held devices. LED components and fixtures are also commonly used in automobile displays, traffic lights and other display signs. However, the two areas for future LED growth should come from the liquid crystal display TV and general purpose lighting markets. Leading TV makers, such as Samsung, are increasingly turning to LED chips to backlight their latest TVs, because of improved picture quality, as well as the ability to sell slimmer products. Meanwhile, in the lighting market, Cree estimates that LED fixtures make up about 1% of the $60 billion general illumination market today, but Philips predicts that LEDs will make up 80% of the industry by 2020.
LEDs: A Glowing Outlook
Quite simply, the LED space is poised for tremendous growth in the coming years. Despite the credit crisis, many LED makers saw revenue growth in 2009, and 2010 should be a banner year for the industry. Recent growth has come from the exponential growth of LED-backlit LCD TVs, and industry experts expect the percentage of LED-backlit TVs to expand from 3% in 2009 to 30% in 2010 and 60%-80% by 2013. Based on this booming market, LED demand far exceeds supply at the moment, and industry insiders expect this supply shortage to continue into 2011.
Meanwhile, the general lighting market probably shows the most promise for the industry. Osram estimates that LED light bulbs last 25,000 hours, versus 10,000 for fluorescent bulbs and 1,000 for incandescent bulbs. Over this timeframe, LEDs also require less energy to produce the same amount of light. The downside, however, is that LED lights have significantly higher up-front costs.
Perhaps the biggest push for LEDs could come from public policy and broad consumer awareness surrounding "green" products. The first big step has come from several governmental bans of incandescent bulbs in Europe, Australia, and the U.S. over the next decade. LEDs should emerge as the most practical lighting alternative, especially for those that recognize that swallowing the high up-front costs for LEDs will be rewarded in the long-run in the form of longer bulb lives and lower energy costs. Commercial LED adoption in office and retail lighting should come first; Philips estimates that these segments make up about 40% of the total lighting market. However, residential LED adoption could take some time. Beyond the high cost of the bulbs, LED marketers will have to find a way to navigate around the hundred-plus years of consumer behavior where people are ingrained to buy cheap light bulbs and toss them away once they burn out.
LED Industry Dynamics
Although the growth prospects of the LED industry couldn't be brighter, we're not as confident that a single firm will emerge to dominate the space or that investors will make extraordinary profits from investing in certain names today. We see relatively few barriers to entry in the LED space. Samsung and LG, for example, have been huge buyers of LED chips in recent months as they shift their product mix toward LED-backlit TVs. However, both firms will make heavy investments in LED chip production, not by acquiring a firm with LED technical know-how, but by simply expanding their capacity and R&D in this area. Although these two firms have the high-tech manufacturing know-how and financial war chests to succeed with these investments, their entry into the space highlights the commoditylike nature of the LED business, in our opinion.
Although we recognize that the current LED supply shortage, combined with healthy demand, will lead to thriving industry conditions in 2010 and probably 2011, we are concerned about the rapid expansion plans from Samsung, LG, and a host of others. We fear that these new investments could flood the LED market with production capacity in excess of demand, regardless of whether LED demand continues to grow at a rapid pace. If overcapacity occurs, LED makers may have to cut prices and face lower profitability over time, and firms with significant LED exposure, like Cree and Veeco, may feel the brunt of a cyclical downturn down the line.
The Players
At Morningstar, Cree and Veeco are the two firms with significant LED exposure in our coverage universe and are the most direct way to invest in LEDs in the U.S., as LED sales don't move the needle at Philips, Siemens, or General Electric (NYSE:GE - News) just yet. Additionally, foreign investors may want to take a look at the Taiwanese market for LED chipmakers such as Epistar (TPE: 2448), Everlight Electronics (TPE: 2393), or Formosa Epitaxy (TPE: 3061).
Cree produces all types of LED products for a wide array of markets, but the firm's primary focus is LED components aimed at the general lighting market. The firm is widely regarded as a technological leader in the space, and Cree claims that its trade secrets allow the company to produce more-efficient, higher-quality light. Financially, Cree is profiting from both the shift toward LEDs in lighting solutions, and robust demand for LED chips in TVs. While the company is seeing both exceptional sales growth and high profitability today, we expect the negative characteristics of the industry (few barriers to entry, many substitutes, rapid capacity expansion) to weigh on Cree in the long term. Down the road, Cree may have to choose between accomplishing stellar growth by cutting prices and earning lower gross margins or carving out a niche as a high-end, high-margin LED maker and leaving some lower-margin sales opportunities on the table.
Veeco is one of the two main suppliers of LED manufacturing equipment. Although the firm has several other equipment businesses, the company's LED segment has seen terrific revenue growth in recent quarters. Veeco is benefiting from a rush of orders for new LED equipment and tools, as LED makers are frantically trying to expand in order to meet their end-market demand today, as well as install the necessary capacity to be leaders in the LED space tomorrow. However, once these LED players get their manufacturing capacity in place, and LED chip supply finally catches up with demand, we'd expect orders for new LED equipment to dry up. Although Veeco's business conditions are terrific today, the LED equipment industry is deeply cyclical and a downturn could lie ahead.
Oracle has released its Oracle Utilities Meter Data Management 2.0 (PDF) solution, as part of its Oracle Utilities Smart Meter Platform, which helps utilities manage customer energy and water consumption data gathered from smart meter deployments. With the smart meter platform, utilities can organize consumption data and turn it into actionable intelligence such as improving service, controlling operational costs and responding to meter-related events and alerts, says Oracle.
The data management solution features a centralized device portal that enables customer service representatives to review current and historical use, while also allowing field service technicians to view metering activity details and manage meter reading schedules.
Oracle says the new version resolves integration issues that exist in the industry today between customer information systems and meter data management systems. It minimizes data duplication and interoperates with Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing for quicker access to customer data without switching between applications.
It also allows utilities to leverage legacy systems with a more simplified IT architecture, which supports the move to time-of-use, intraday or real-time pricing initiatives.
The device portal also contains tools that help utilities view/edit interval data, look for signs of tampering or theft, view/analyze audit records and examine weather patterns to determine use variations from one time period to another.
A recent survey finds that 88 percent of Americans said they
would be willing to use a smart device such as a meter, thermostat or appliance if it would help to better manage their energy use.
Alliance is Expected to Add U.S. Manufacturing Jobs and Support Increased LED Product Sales
In a move that is expected to strengthen and grow America's manufacturing base, Lighting Science Group, a leading U.S. maker of LED lighting, has entered into a relationship with U.S. die cast company Pace Industries for Pace to supply key components to Lighting Science Group. The alliance is expected to increase Lighting Science Group's manufacturing capacity and efficiency as a result of the reduction in supply times for critical LED product components. The outcome: an increase in the number of high performance, affordably priced, environmentally friendly, long-lasting, and energy efficient LED lighting products for sale.
"This is a perfect American manufacturing match," said Zach Gibler, Chief Executive Officer of Lighting Science Group. "The relationship will not only help increase our manufacturing capacity and efficiency, but it will also provide an opportunity to grow our U.S. workforce and increase sales. This is a win-win-win situation — good for Lighting Science Group, good for Pace Industries, and good for America."
In order to meet the increasing demand for its LED lighting products, Lighting Science Group expects to expand its manufacturing capacity, to create a substantial number of new jobs, and to tap Pace Industries for increased supply requirements of die cast components.
"In an era where many manufacturing jobs are being created overseas, this alliance will assist in creating jobs right here at home," said Scott Bull, Chief Executive Officer of Pace Industries. "We are very excited to be working with Lighting Science Group in the production of their next generation LED lighting products."
Pace Industries Harrison Division, located in Arkansas, will supply Lighting Science Group's Florida manufacturing facility with die cast components for its residential, commercial and infrastructure product lines, including the high performance, ultra-efficient, and affordably priced DEFINITY retrofit LED lamps, Traditional series luminaires, C2D Site and Area lighting family, and the PROLIFIC series of roadway luminaires.
About Pace Industries
Pace Industries is North America's largest custom aluminum die-casting company with resources in aluminum, zinc and magnesium. The company formerly known as Leggett & Platt Aluminum Group houses 14 manufacturing facilities in the United States and Mexico, including: nine die-casting divisions, three tool and die shops, and one finishing and painting facility with more than 2,700 total associates. Visit www.paceind.com for more details.
About Lighting Science Group
Lighting Science Group Corporation (Pink Sheets: LSCG) designs, develops, manufactures and markets LED lighting solutions that are environmentally friendlier and more energy efficient than traditional lighting products. LSG offers retrofit LED lamps in form factors that match the form factor of traditional lamps or bulbs and LED luminaires for a range of applications including public and private infrastructure for both indoor and outdoor applications. LSG's Custom Solutions business unit designs, develops and manufactures custom LED lighting solutions for architectural and artistic projects. LSG is headquartered in Satellite Beach, Florida; LSG's Custom Solutions business unit is based in Rancho Cordova, California; LSG's European operations are based in Goes, The Netherlands; and, LSG has sales offices in Tokyo, Japan, Buckinghamshire, England and Sydney, Australia. LSG has over 200 workers in its Satellite Beach, Florida manufacturing facility building LED lighting products from domestic and imported parts. LSG is a Pegasus Capital Advisors portfolio company. More information about LSG is available at www.lsgc.com.
Forward Looking Statements Certain statements in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The statements include, but are not limited to statements regarding the performance of LSG and the performance of LSG's products using terminology such as "increasing,"," "expand," "leading," "advance," "success," "will," "should," "expected," "unparalleled," "would," "could," "expect," "intend," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," "potential," "opportunity," "greater," "preparing," "excellent," "substantial," "increase," "grow," or "extensive." Such statements reflect the current view of LSG with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by the statements. In evaluating these statements, you should specifically consider various factors that may cause our actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statements. Readers should carefully review the risk factors detailed under "Risk Factors" in our Form 10-K's, Form 10-Q's and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
As an example, Wells Fargo recently said its involvement with companies engaged in mountaintop removal mining would be “limited and declining,” according to the article. However, the bank was a small player in the sector, representing about $78 million in bonds and loan financing for these companies from 2008 to April 2010, according to the Rainforest Action Network.
But Wells Fargo’s policy shift follows other lenders including Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Citibank that have increased their evaluations of lending to companies involved in mountaintop removal or have stopped lending to them, reports The New York Times.
The Rainforest Action Network, which has led a campaign to highlight financial institutions with connections to mountaintop mining, has said that the policy shifts were reducing the financing to these companies.
But mining associations and companies involved in mountaintop removal mining told the newspaper that they aren’t having any trouble getting financing for their projects.
Other banks including HSBC and Rabobank are also curbing their relationships with companies based on environmental performance. As examples cited in the article, HSBC is cutting its relationships with some palm oil producers because of their link to deforestation in developing countries and Rabobank has developed a nine-point checklist of conditions for oil and gas companies that include commitments to improve environmental performance and protect water quality.
Banking analysts have told the newspaper that the debate over climate change, water quality and other environmental considerations is forcing lenders to take a closer look at their lending practices.
Karina Litvack, the head of governance and sustainable investment with F&C Investments, said in the article: “It’s one thing if your potential borrower is dumping cyanide in a river. But if they’re dumping carbon dioxide into the air, which is not exactly illegal — what do you do? Banks are in kind of a quandary, because they are competing for business, and if they get holier-than-thou and start to play policeman, they risk allowing other banks to take that business.”
Most recently, the Royal Bank of Canada had to respond to pressure from environmental advocates that denounced the bank’s financing of oil sand projects by hosting a “day of learning,” on the environmental issues surrounding the oil sands.
Over the past few years, the focus by lenders on a company’s environmental impact has led to the development of best practices and voluntary standards such as the Carbon Principles, which Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley helped form, and the Climate Principles launched by Credit Agricole, HSBC, Munich Re, Standard Chartered and Swiss Re.
Annual U.S. sales of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids could rise to as many as 100,000 in three to five years, Christina Lampe-Onnerud, founder and CEO of battery maker Boston-Power Inc., predicted today.
Lampe-Onnerud thinks EV sales in the United States will pick up once the cost of a battery pack falls to about $500 per kilowatt-hour. She hinted that suppliers will reach that price point soon.
“The market is taking off faster than the analysts realize,” Lampe-Onnerud told Automotive News. “I think the industry grossly underestimates demand.”
Boston-Power is bidding “aggressively” for automakers' business, she said in an interview at the CAR Management Briefing Seminars here.
Lampe-Onnerud already has a contract to supply batteries for an EV version of the Saab 9-3. She said the company's plant in Taiwan has launched pilot production of batteries for that vehicle.
Boston-Power is expected to announce plans to build a second battery plant in China.
The company already produces lithium ion batteries for laptop computers. Hewlett-Packard is a major customer.
Lampe-Onnerud said Boston-Power has developed a battery that will last the life of the vehicle it powers. If so, that would be a major selling point, since the battery pack alone accounts for about one-third of an EV's cost.
The Ford assembly plant on Chicago's South Side will be among the first to use Wi-Fi wireless Internet technology to install software inside the 2011 Ford Explorer SUV.
The assembly line is lined with wireless routers -- similar to the routers that people install in their homes to get wireless Internet access -- and the Explorer contains a built-in Wi-Fi receiver.
When Explorer production starts this winter, the SUV will pick up the Wi-Fi routers' signals, and an assembly-line worker will push a button to download software onto the Explorer, said Alan Hall, Ford Motor Co.'s technology communications manager.
The software is tailored for each model, so that the Explorer sold in the United States will have information about American roadways; English, Spanish and French speaking options, and the appropriate 911 delivery.
The first Ford assembly plant to use the Wi-Fi technology is the Oakville, Ontario, factory where the 2011 Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX are manufactured.
For over 30 years, Rockline has built a reputation as a trusted supplier of household paper and non-woven products. As the largest supplier of wet wipes in North America, the company is a recognised leader in product innovation as well as sustainable manufacturing practices - its line of environmentally-friendly wipes are 100% biodegradable and made with 100% renewable resources.
The company has recently taken steps to meeting its sustainability goals by replacing its inefficient metal halide light fittings with high-efficiency LED high bay lights from Dialight. Not only has the conversion enabled Rockline to reduce its energy consumption and operating costs, but it is also now positioned to benefit handsomely from the U.S. government’s energy-saving rebate incentive to the tune of just over £32,000.
Cutting energy costs and consumption with Dialight
With 15 metal halide fixtures burning 12 hours a day, five days a week in the mixing room and another 125 ablaze 24/7 in the manufacturing area at its baby wipes production facility, Rockline’s energy consumption was excessive. To improve energy efficiency and reduce total operating costs, the company recently replaced all 140 of the 400W metal halides in both areas with Dialight’s high-efficiency DuroSite™ LED High Bay fixtures. The new fixtures have not only slashed future energy consumption per fixture from approximately 460W, including ballast losses, to just 150W per unit. They have also improved light performance and output, reduced maintenance cost and qualified Rockline for a substantial rebate for its energy efficient practices.
“The installation went very smoothly with minimal interruption to our manufacturing process,” said Nick Santoleri, Vice President of Manufacturing at Rockline. “The beauty of it is that the new fixtures use all standard plugs, so there was no need for re-wiring during the retrofit.
Better performance, less maintenance
In addition to the significant energy savings, the new LED fixtures have also helped to reduce lighting maintenance. When you factor in the cost of renting a lift to reach the 5.5 metres mounting height, maintaining the old fixtures was a large expense every year.
With unique highly efficient 11,600 lumens (79lm/w), the Dialight LED High Bay fixtures combine the latest Cree® XLamp® XP-G high brightness LED precision optics and next generation thermal management practices. The long-life performance of the new Dialight LED fixtures means that Rockline can now expect to get up to 10 years of life out of each fixture with the first five covered by Dialight’s no-cost replacement warranty.
The company and its employees are both pleased with the significant temperature drop inside the manufacturing facility as a result of the new LED fixtures. Without the excess heat generated from the metal halide fixtures, Rockline’s HVAC engineers have noted a 20-ton (10% - 15%) reduction in air conditioning demand to maintain comfortable temperatures inside the facility - an additional energy saving and sustainability benefit for the company.
As a result of its energy-saving initiatives, which included the Dialight DuroSite retrofit, Rockline is qualified and has already applied for over £30,000 energy-savings rebate through American Electric Power’s Southwestern Electric Power Company.
“The energy and cost savings combined with the opportunity to receive the energy efficiency rebates has made the conversion to LED lighting a substantial part of our sustainability efforts,” Santoleri said. “We’re already looking to convert other areas where safety and colour rendering are just as important as energy efficiency, including our building exterior and truck loading area.”
UK companies should contact their MPs in order to initiate a move towards similar incentive schemes to those enjoyed in the U.S.
Installation Snapshot
• Size of Facility - 1.2 million total square feet
• Number of Fixtures - 140
• Replaced - 400W Metal Halide
• Illuminance level - 429 lux
• Mounting Height - 5.5 ms
• Air Conditioning Reduction - 10%-15%
• Payback - <1 year payback with rebate incentives
Dialight LED Lighting
Features & Benefits
• 80% lumen maintenance after 60,000 hours
• 79lm/w (LM-79) certified
• Significant energy savings
• Instant on/off
• Maintenance free
• Mercury free
• Superior light quality
• Minimal light pollution
• Simple installation
Light-emitting diode (LED) lighting manufacturer Clean Light Green Light (CLGL) announces an alliance of unprecedented significance with Marina d’Or of Spain thrusting the 10 year old company into a pivotal international role within the LED manufacturing sector. CLGL was selected for this alliance by the Marina d’Or Renewable Energy division from amongst 30 world-wide LED vendors. The partnership creates a powerful synergy towards the realization of sustainable lighting and reduced carbon emissions on a global scale.
“CLGL’s mission has always been to be the market leader in the LED lighting arena. We are quite unique in the breadth of our product line and confident we can address about any commercial installation. This unparalled partnership further demonstrates our commitment to capture the lions-share of the emerging LED market.” shares CLGL co-founder and President of Global Business Development, Tom Meyer. Meyer was instrumental in the forging of this collaboration.
According to the Marina d’Or energy division’s Product Manager, Sandra Ramírez, their engineering team conducted an exhaustive study of the world’s top LED manufacturers. “We appreciate the wide range of products that CLGL offers to cover our customers’ needs, but what really drove the choice is the product quality, efficiency and warranty.” says Ramírez. “We also appreciate CLGL’s ability to provide creative fixtures that fit our markets perfectly. I’m convinced we have chosen the best company.” Ramírez adds.
Marina D’ Or, an international real estate development firm with 35 developments in 21 countries, is a 6 billion dollar enterprise offering a wide range of vacation and leisure accommodations. Their flagship development, the Marina d’Or Holiday Resort in Oropesa del Mar and Cabanes Spain, is slated to become the largest resort in Europe.
Energy rates in Europe and the United Arab Emirates have risen as much as 50% over the past two years with Dubai reporting increases as high as 65%. It is no surprise that in July, 2010 government representatives from around the world attended the first Clean Energy Ministerial in Washington, DC. The gathering resulted in a number of initiatives designed to promote a global transition to cleaner energy development and reduced consumption. Commercial/industrial facilities which account for almost 60 percent of global energy use were specifically targeted and LEDs will no doubt play a significant role in meeting the designated guidelines.
Industry projections show the global LED market growing from $7 billion in 2009 to $20.4 Billion in 2012, with a 37 % growth rate just from 2009 to 2010. Spain has emerged as a global leader in renewable practices, and with Marina d’Or’s 25 year track record of successful developments on four continents, Marina d’Or Renewable Energy is fully prepared to act on the global energy stage.
When asked about this breakthrough collaboration, Clean Light Green Light CEO, David Mckinney shares “What we bring to the table is something that other LED companies strive for; reputation, knowledge base, breadth of product line, warranty, custom manufacturing and high profile projects. We are a truly global company with manufacturing in the US and abroad which allows us to service clients all over the world.”
About Clean Light Green Light:
Clean Light Green Light (CLGL) develops, manufactures, and sells commercially viable LED lighting designed to retrofit into existing infrastructure as well as new construction. Started ten years ago, CLGL is a pioneer in the advancement of solid-state lighting and is committed to producing cost effective, superior quality lighting solutions that provide substantial energy and fiscal savings while reducing the carbon footprint. CLGL is headquartered in Mount Clemens, Michigan and engages in global trade. To find out more, please visit www.cleanlightgreenlight.com.
Solid-state lighting pioneers long have held that replacing the inefficient Edison light bulb with more efficient solid-state light-emitting devices (LEDs) would lower electrical usage worldwide, not only “greenly” decreasing the need for new power plants but even permitting some to be decommissioned.
But, in a paper published Thursday in the Journal of Physics D, leading LED researchers from Sandia National Laboratories argue for a shift in that view.
“Presented with the availability of cheaper light, humans may use more of it, as has happened over recent centuries with remarkable consistency following other lighting innovations,” said Sandia lead researcher Jeff Tsao. “That is, rather than functioning as an instrument of decreased energy use, LEDs may be instead the next step in increasing human productivity and quality of life.”
The assumption that energy production for lighting will decline as the efficiency of lighting increases is contraindicated by data starting with the year A.D. 1700 that shows light use has remained a constant fraction of per capita gross domestic product as humanity moved from candle to oil to gas to electrical lighting. Thus the societal response to more efficient light production has been a preference to enjoy more light, rather than saving money and energy by keeping the amount of light produced a constant.
“Over the past three centuries, according to well-accepted studies from a range of sources, the world has spent about 0.72 percent of the world’s per capita gross domestic product on artificial lighting,” said Tsao. “This is so for England in 1700, in the underdeveloped world not on the grid and in the developed world using the most advanced lighting technologies. There may be little reason to expect a different future response from our species.”
Far from an example of light gluttony, Tsao said, by increasing the amount of lit work space and bright time, individuals would enjoy the desirable outcome of increasing their creativity and the productivity of their society.
To the question of how much light is enough, says Tsao, no one yet has produced a gold standard for light saturation levels.
While artificial illumination is considerably better now than decades ago, the researchers write, “People might well choose higher illuminances than they do today, particularly to help mitigate losses in visual acuity in an aging world population.” More easily available light also may help reduce seasonal depression brought on by the shorter darker days of winter, and help synchronize biological rhythms, called circadian, that affect human behavior day and night.
As for problems that could occur with too much light — from so-called ‘light pollution’ that bedevils astronomers to biological enzymes that operate better in darkness — Tsao has this to say: “This new generation of solid-state lighting, with our ability to digitally control it much more precisely in time and space, should enable us to preserve dark when we need it.” There is no reason to fear, Tsao says, that advancing capabilities “will keep us perpetually bathed in light.”
Another paper author, Sandia researcher Jerry Simmons points out, “More fuel-efficient cars don’t necessarily mean we drive less; we may drive more. It’s a tension between supply and demand. So, improvements in light-efficient technologies may not be enough to affect energy shortages and climate change. Enlightened policy decisions may be necessary to partner with the technologies to have big impacts.”
Other authors of this paper are Randy Creighton and Mike Coltrin, both of Sandia Labs, and Harry Saunders of Decision Processes Inc., of Danville, Calif.
The work was supported by Sandia’s Solid-State Lighting Science Energy Frontier Research Center, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Basic Energy Sciences.
The Ford Focus Electric, which debuts in the U.S. late next year and in Europe in 2012, will be powered by a lithium-ion battery that uses heated and cooled liquid to help maximize battery life and driving range. The vehicle will have an expected range of up to 100 miles and use no gasoline.
Ford selected the active liquid-cooling and heating system to regulate the temperature of its lithium-ion battery packs, which are designed to operate under a range of ambient conditions. Thermal management of these battery systems is key to successful all-electric vehicles because extreme temperatures can affect performance, reliability, safety and durability, says Ford.
The active liquid cooling and heating system also enables the Focus Electric to automatically precondition the battery pack temperature during daily recharging. If the battery is already at the optimal temperature, the system will automatically accept charge and maintain an optimal temperature.
When the vehicle is plugged into the power grid, the vehicle system will be able to warm up the battery on cold days and cool it down on hot days, says Ford.
Focus Electric is one of five electrified vehicles Ford will release over the next three years. Ford’s Transit Connect Electric small commercial van will be available in late 2010, followed by two next-generation hybrid electric vehicles, as well as a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle in North America in 2012 and Europe in 2013.
In other EV news, UPS and Electric Vehicles International (EVI) have launched a 90-day demonstration trial of their electric walk-in van (EVI-WI), equally split among three locations in Sacramento, San Francisco and Reno.
Aimed at the parcel delivery service industry, the EVI-WI is built on a Freightliner Custom Chassis Corporation (FCCC) glider equipped with an Utilimaster body.
Earlier this year, EVI received California Air Resource Board (CARB) approval for the EVI-WI. Purchasers can apply for a $20,000 CARB rebate through the Hybrid Truck and Bus Incentive Project (HVIP).
In June, UPS rolled out 200 new hybrid electric trucks into service across eight U.S. cities in an effort to reduce fuel consumption. The HEVs also use a FCCC body and a hybrid power system from Eaton Corp.
Peas are traditionally kept inside refrigerators. That is, if you go the conventional route.
Leo Burnett has a more novel approach. The shop asked city-based artists to take an old refrigerator and transform it into a work of art, which would be displayed on Michigan Avenue between Chicago and Illinois Streets through Sept. 15. Not a bad way to send off a trusted appliance.
The art exhibit, dubbed Fine Art Fridge, raises awareness for ComEd's appliance recycling program, developed in 2007.
Nine artists were selected from hundred of applicants to redesign a refrigerator in one month.
"Since ComEd is a local utility, we decided all the artists had to be within the ComEd service area," said Brian Shembeda, senior vice president, creative director/ art director at Leo Burnett. "When you combine refrigerators that were recycled within the community with Chicagoland artists, it gives the project a strong community feel and helps reinforce the importance of green projects on a local level."
Artists were paid a small stipend to cover the cost of art materials. Once each fridge was completed, bases were installed a week later.
The end results are impressive. Most refrigerators were revamped in their standard, upright position. Mike Helberg's "Running Down out to Pasture" features old, dirty shoes affixed to a fridge and spouting plants. Victoria Fuller's "Peas and Quiet" depicts a green refrigerator with oversized peas in a pod covering the front doors.
Larry Grobe designed my favorite entry. He took a 1950s Philco fridge, turned it on its side and crafted a "VooDoo Hot Rod." It's the one piece that doesn't look like a refrigerator at first glance.
There was no paid advertising to support the initiative but the Greater Northern Michigan Avenue Association and ComEd promoted the campaign on their Web sites, explained Sarah Paulsen, vice president, account director at Leo Burnett. "A plaque is displayed on each piece highlighting the appliance recycling program at ComEd to inform passersby of the details and a little bit about the fridge and its artist."
See the entire fridge collection here. A podcast was also created featuring the artists' describing the campaign in their own words.
Once the campaign concludes, the refrigerators will be moved to other locations within the ComEd service territory.
Idling costly for truckers, consumers and the environment, but electric auxiliary power units (APUs) could change that.
If you've ever traveled on a U.S. Interstate Highway at night, you've likely come across large numbers of trucks idling at rest areas and truck stops. Long-haul truckers are required by law to rest for 10 out of every 24 hour period. But at rest, most trucks will idle their main diesel engine to provide heating and cooling, to keep the engine and fuel warm in winter, and to provide power for electrical appliances like microwaves and TV sets without draining the batteries.
But all that resting really adds up, both in terms of cost to the truckers and trucking companies, and in terms of environmental cost. At current fuel prices, the average long-haul truck uses $3,000-$4,000 worth of diesel every year just idling. And with some fleets as large as 10,000 vehicles, the high cost of idling cuts into already narrow profit margins.
But the bigger issue for state and municipal governments is not fuel cost, it is air pollution (the federal government has yet to enact any anti-idling laws but they have set forth guidelines for states to follow if they wish). Idling anywhere between 500 and 3,500 hours a year and burning an average of .80 gallons of diesel fuel per hour, long-haul trucks emit 11 million tons of CO2, 200,000 tons of NOx, and 5,000 tons of particulate matter into the air annually.
Trucking companies used to eat the costs of truck idling, including the cost of state and local fines. But rising fuel and fine costs have spurred companies to seek alternative solutions to truck idling because, according to some reports, it has gotten to the point where it can cost less to get a hotel room than idle a truck.
New laws spurring development of clean-idling technologies
As of July 2010, 22 states and several large municipalities including the District of Columbia have enacted anti-idling regulations that normally limit idling to no more than five minutes. And in California, anti-idling enforcement is on the rise (pdf). In 2007, the California Air Quality Resources Board issued 135 anti-idling violations for large vehicles. In 2008, this number jumped to 511.
But despite the rash of new regulations and stepped-up enforcement, industry estimates are that less than 10 percent of the 1.4 million big trucks on the road have some form of auxiliary power unit (APU) on board that allows the main diesel engine to shut down yet still provide heating, cooling and electrical power for interior lighting and appliances. And of those roughly 100,000 trucks that do have APUs, most of those still run on diesel fuel, emitting CO2 and particulates into the air. Not only that, but the more costly diesel APUs still require fuel and cost more to keep up.
Bucking this trend, several companies including Thermo King, Idle Free and Glacier Bay have developed all-electric APU and battery systems that can provide climate control and electricity for a truck cab or sleeper -- and do so while producing zero emissions.
According to company spokesman Russell Castronovo, who I recently spoke with via telephone, Glacier Bay's ClimaCab can keep a truck’s cab at 75°F for 10 hours anywhere and at any time of year in the US and Canada.
The ClimaCab combines a four-battery system with advanced battery management and variable-speed compressors and blowers. The variable speed motors are critical component of maximizing battery life and performance while the truck is at rest.
"Depending on variables, an electric APU can pay for itself in 1-2 years," said Castronovo. The all-electric ClimaCab system costs $6,000-$7,000 to install on a standard sleeper-cab truck. Castronovo also pointed out that many states have rebates and other incentives that could help reduce the cost even more.
And apparently Glacier Bay is onto something. In 2009, while the market for new trucks was down by 50 percent and the overall trucking APU market was down by 70 percent, Glacier Bay grew from a $2 million business to a $15 million business.
This car turns heads. It's clear. And clearly one of the most efficient in the world. It was built by students at the DeLaSalle Automotive Design Studio in Kansas City, Missouri, as a high school class project.
AutoBlogGreen reports that the car logged the equivalent of 307 miles per gallon during testing at Bridgestone's Texas Proving Ground.
The students at DeLaSalle received help from mentors including engineers from Bridgestone Americas' Technical Center in Akron, Ohio, but built the ride themselves. It's a plug-in electric, and may set a world record for efficiency.
The project was directed by Steve Rees, an instructor at DeLaSalle. The car is based on the chassis of a 2000 Lola Indy Car. It was covered in a clear shell and mounted on (of course) Bridgestone Ecopia EP100 tires. The students developed a driveline, electric propulsion system and full, ultra light-weight aerodynamic body, according to Bridgestone.
Rees is petitioning the Guinness World Records people to consider the 307 mpg rating as a new world record.
A search under the Guinness "Travel and Transport" section doesn't include a fuel-efficiency category. But the fastest motorized sofa was clocked at 92 mph.
Either way, this one is a win for kids from an alternative high school.
"The finished car will be a single seat urban commuter that will operate at commuter speeds," according to a blog on the project.
"The goal is to show how simplicity and lightweight construction can impact performance and energy efficiency. The vehicle will weigh less than 1,500 pounds, which is half the weight of 98% of most electric vehicles on the road today. The results from their testing should be an interesting comparison to other electric cars."
The Illinois Renewable Energy Association (IREA) will be offering a variety of classes this fall.
Most will focus on renewable energy; one will focus on food independence. They will be offered at the IREA headquarters, the Kickapoo Nature Center, Rock Island, and both Rock Valley and Illinois Valley Community Colleges.
Oregon, Illinois: To register for any of the Oregon or Rock Island classes, email sonia@essex1.com. Advanced registration is essential.
Small Wind Generators for Homeowners, offered Sat., Sept. 18 from 10 am - 3 pm, will include lecture, discussion, and hands-on experiences. Class members will take, down, disassemble and reassemble a wind generator that has produced power since spring, 2005.
In Nov. (date TBA) Make a Solar Collector will involve participants in actually making and installing a hot air collector that can be used for a home, workshop, shed, etc.
On Sat., Oct. 9 from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m., for those interested in food independence a class will concentrate on preserving food for use throughout the non-gardening part of the year: freezing, drying, canning and storing. Actual preservation techniques will be taught and tried.
All three classes will be held at 1230 E. Honey Creek Rd., Oregon.
Donations to IREA (a non-profit organization) for these three classes are $40 per class for IREA members and $60 for non members, which includes membership. Advanced registration is essential.
A four day Advanced Solar Electric class will be held at the energy efficient Kickapoo Nature Center, 1919 N. Limekiln Rd. Oregon, on Sept. 13 - 16 from 9:30 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. The class will help participants continue their pv systems training with advanced design and detailed installation procedures and will prepares them for entry level jobs in the renewable energy industry. Hands-on experiences wiring a complete pv system. Course fee is $400.
Rock Island, Illinois: Learn how to install solar panels to make a golf cart both fuel and grid independent in this hands-on class. Skills are transferable. Work with panels, wiring, controller, combiner box, aluminum angle and bolts to mount the panels on the canopy. Limited to seven. Cost: $175. Location: Rock Island KOA Campground, 2311 78th Ave West, Rock Island. Sat., Oct. 9 from 10 - 3.
Rockford and Oglesby: Classes will also be offered by Rock Valley College, Rockford, and Illinois Valley College, Oglesby. Register online or phone (815) 921-3900 for Rock Valley or (815) 224-0490 for Illinois Valley.
Rock Valley classes include Small Wind Generators for Homeowners (Tues., Sept. 14 from 6: 00 - 8:30 p.m.),Basics of Solar Electricity (Tues., Sept. 21 from 6: 00 - 8:30 p.m.), Solar Hot Water Systems (Tues., Oct. 5 from 6: 00 - 8:30 p.m.), and Efficient Solar Homes (Tues., Oct. 12 from 6: 00 - 8:30 p.m.).
Illinois Valley classes include Small Wind Generators for Homeowners (Sat., Sept. 11 from 9:30 a.m. - 12:00),Basics of Solar Electricity (Sat., Sept. 11 from 9:30 a.m. - 12:00), Solar Hot Water Systems (Sat., Sept. 11 from 9:30 a.m. - 12:00),and Efficient Solar Homes (Sat., Sept. 11 from 9:30 a.m. - 12:00).
Fuel cells are one of the cleanest and quietest energy-generation sources available and meet the strictest U.S. emissions standards, says Albertsons. They are also highly energy-efficient and virtually pollution-free.
Byproduct heat from the fuel cell process will be captured and used to warm water used in the store, heat the store when necessary and power a chiller to help cool the refrigerated food, resulting in an overall energy efficiency of approximately 60 percent, nearly twice the efficiency of the U.S. electrical grid, according to the supermarket.
“With the assistance of UTC Power’s fuel cell, it’s our first store that significantly reduces its burden on the power grid,” says Rick Crandall, director of environmental stewardship at Albertsons.
In addition, the store will continue to operate even if there is a power outage, avoiding food spoilage and ensuring a reliable food supply during emergencies.
The PureCell Model 400 fuel cell is supplied by UTC Power. Neal Montany, director for the UTC Power stationary fuel cell business says the company sees strong interest in the supermarket sector for fuel cells because they need power around the clock.
The 55,000-square-foot environmentally friendly Albertsons store, which opens September 1, also incorporates several other energy-efficient features. These include LED lighting in the dairy and frozen food doors that reduce energy consumption by more than 50 to 65 percent, and photo sensors in 33 skylights to measure the amount of daylight in order to adjust the electric light levels accordingly.
The store also uses night curtains, which are pulled over all open cold cases in the evening to seal in the cool air. This reduces spoilage and energy costs by up to 25 percent, says Albertsons. The store also installed water-saving faucets and fixtures in the restrooms to reduce the amount of water use by more than 45 percent.
The Bonneville Power Administration and Mason County Public Utility District Number 3 announced today that they are partnering on a smart grid pilot project to help manage the electricity grid and use wind power more effectively.
The project address two fundamental bottlenecks in the power grid; congestion during times of high power use and the imbalance created when more wind-powered energy is being generated than is being used.
“Homeowners who choose to participate in this pilot project can help the region ease strain on the region’s electrical system,” said Bonneville Power’s Smart Grid Program Manager Lee Hall. “They will also make help the region make the best use of wind; a clean and renewable, yet variable power source.”
Mason County PUD 3 will install special devices on water heaters that will communicate with the electrical grid and tell the appliances to turn on or off, based on conditions of the regional electrical system and the amount of renewable energy available.
Homeowners can override the water heater device at any time, and with modern insulated water heaters, it is unlikely they will even notice a change in water temperature.
To thoroughly understand the benefits of the project, you have to understand a basic principle of an electrical system. That is, at any given moment, the amount of electricity consumed must match the amount that is generated. Otherwise, the grid can destabilize causing a blackout.
Shifting water heater energy use to a time when consumption is lower helps level out the peaks and valleys of energy use, which makes the balancing act of supply and demand a little easier. This is especially valuable when managing variable power sources like wind power.
“Reducing electricity use during peak hours can be a money saver for Mason County PUD 3 and our customers,” says Jay Himlie, Power Supply Manager for PUD 3. “It reduces the fees a utility has to pay for their peak power demand. It’s really exciting to help pioneer this technology in the Pacific Northwest.”
Another goal of the project is to see if the device can find out when wind power is readily available and fire up the water heaters to take advantage of it.
Wind power can only be produced when the wind blows, so using water heaters as energy storage devices gives the power system another tool to help balance out the variable nature of wind generation. When there is excess wind, the project can also help keep it from going to waste by turning on the water heaters that had been previously turned off by the device. The wind energy is put to use in heating up the water, which is stored for the family’s use. With enough of these “storage units” in place, the region can reduce the need to rely on the hydro system to maintain the power system balance of supply and demand. With increasing demands on the Northwest hydro system, this project provides a valuable additional source for system flexibility.
To goal is for the device to find the balance between making sure the homeowner has enough hot water, while making wise use of wind power in the system.
Installation of the devices in the 100 participating homes should begin in October 2010.
LED-based solid-state lighting (SSL) continues to lead the way in new street-light deployments including in newly announced projects in Saipan, Seattle, and Nebraska City. But Luxim has claimed a huge win in Scottsburg, Indiana for its Light Emitting Plasma (LEP) technology that it believes is superior to LEDs in replacing 400W metal-halide or high-pressure-sodium (HPS) street lights.
Luxim and Scottsburg are embarking on an outdoor illumination project in which 600 LEP-based street lights will be deployed across the city. Moreover, the deal includes a local job-creation angle as a local company called Stray Light Optical Technologies is designing and will manufacture the LEP-based luminaires – creating 50 local jobs.
Scottsburg mayor William Graham led an effort to evaluate several alternatives to the city's exiting lights including LED options. The city chose LEP based on its "brighter output, exceptional color quality, greater energy savings, and long life." The city projects $70,000 in annual energy savings – in part due to the fact that the LEP lights can be dimmed down to 20% of full brightness. Moreover the lights are rated for a 50,000-hour life.
As described in LEDs Magazine articles from earlier this year, Luxim and Stray Light Optical had partnered to demonstrate the LEP technology. Stray Light Optical announced its STA-41 LEP street light engine based on Luxim's LiFi-branded technology at the California Lighting Technology Center's February open house. Later at the Light+Building show, Luxim announced several LEP street-light luminaire partners.
Surely you have to wonder how the jobs package factored into the selection, but Stray Light Optical is adamant that the LEP choice was the best option. "When we looked for the best light source for this project, LEP was the standout. Beyond the usual benefits we expect, Luxim's product also offers integrated motion control and power line networking, which further reduces energy consumption," said CEO Gerald Rea. "We're keenly aware that this project represents a substantial investment by the city of Scottsburg. By partnering with Luxim, we exceeded the rigorous specs and provided a compelling solution."
But Luxim CEO Tony McGettigan did mention the jobs saying, "This is a great example of local government and small business working together to reduce energy costs, create jobs and improve the local environment."
New LED street light projects
The move to LED street lights, meanwhile, is happening globally in municipalities large and small. For example, the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands is installing 1200 LED street lights according to the Saipan Tribune. Saipan is a US Commonwealth and the new lights will be funded in part by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The New Streetlights website reports that Nebraska City, Nebraska has received more than $66,000 from the US Department of Energy's EECBG (Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant) program for new street lights. The funds will enable a pilot project to replace 50 HPS cobra-head street lights and 44 decorative HPS fixtures with LED luminaires.
In street-light purchasing news, Seattle, Washington will buy 1000 LED street lights from Leotek according to DigiTimes. Seattle is among the leaders in deploying LED technology. Leotek has supplied products for a number of major LED street-light deployments including the Los Angeles, California project.
Based on a product stewardship approach, the law gives the primary responsibility for collection and recycling to the manufacturer. Manufacturers had to register with the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) starting Jan. 1.
The state’s new e-waste recycling program, E-Cycle Wisconsin, is designed to keep hazardous materials such as lead, mercury and other heavy metals out of landfills, and reuse valuable resources such as plastic, steel, copper and glass to make new devices, while giving a boost to the state’s recycling industry, according to Government Technology.
Devices covered by the law include computers, printers, TVs and computer monitors, keyboards, mice, hard drives, DVD players, VCRs and cell phones. The new rules require consumers to bring discarded electronics to collection sites of which there are now about 300 registered sites. Fees will vary.
According to the law, any person who violates the recycling requirement is subject to a $50 fine, a $200 fine for a second offense, and a $2,000 fine for third and subsequent violations, reports Wisconsintrapidstribune.com.
However, Government Technology reports that state officials do not plan to issue any individual citations if consumers don’t comply at this time.
Several states have implemented e-waste laws or programs over the past few years. As an example, in June, the New York State legislaturepassed a new electronics recycling law that attempts to limit the growth of hazardous waste in New York landfills by requiring manufacturers to accept used electronics from consumers.
(Crain's) — State utility regulators Wednesday panned plans for a $3.5-billion Downstate Illinois “clean coal” plant that has been backed by House Speaker Michael Madigan and his daughter Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, raising questions about the proposed facility's future.
In a report that will be fodder for debate when state lawmakers decide in November whether to give the Taylorville project, developed by Tenaska Inc., the green light, the Illinois Commerce Commission concluded that the plant's uncertain benefits don't justify its high costs, which would be borne by utility ratepayers and businesses statewide.
“The commission concludes that the . . . facility features high costs to ratepayers with uncertain future benefits, and uncertainties that potentially add to already significant costs,” according to the report, which pegged the cost of power the new-breed coal plant would produce at twice what it costs to generate electricity at a nuclear plant.
Opponents of the plant immediately seized on the negative review from the ICC.
“How could anyone, after reading this, give it the green light?” said Philip O'Connor, former ICC chairman and spokesman for the Stop Coalition, a consortium of business interest groups and power suppliers to businesses.
Omaha, Neb.-based Tenaska said in a statement that much of the ICC report confirmed its own cost estimates and added that the plant was never envisioned as a low-cost power provider, but rather a facility that could use abundant Illinois "dirty coal" avoided by most generators because of its high sulfur content.
"The clean-coal law challenged us to show that we could deliver a clean-coal plant with maximum economic development and environmental benefits and minimal impact on electric rates," Tenaska Vice-president Bart Ford said in the statement. "With (our) extensive analysis . . . and the core findings of the ICC consultant's report, there is now abundant evidence that we are meeting that challenge."
The company does not directly address the ICC's conclusions, other than to say that the agency seems to be at odds with policy choices already made by legislators.
The plant, for which the General Assembly authorized funding two years ago to perform a detailed cost study, would produce more than 500 megawatts of power using Illinois coal and featuring a plan to separate and capture carbon emissions and bury them underground. The facility would meet about 2.5% of the state's power needs.
A state law requires that the state procure 5% of its electricity from so-called clean coal plants. The law caps the impact of the plant's costs on residential and small business electric rates at 2%, but it provides no such price protection for bigger businesses, which buy their power from competitive suppliers.
That effectively puts those larger business customers on the hook for cost overruns, a particular sore point with the coalition formed to stop the plant.
Indeed, the ICC in its report expressed concerns about the impact of the plant on Illinois' competitive power market and suggested that lawmakers provide similar price protection for industrial and commercial users if they decide to allow the project to move ahead.
Other opponents of the project include Chicago-based Exelon Corp., parent of Commonwealth Edison Co. and owner of six nuclear power plants in Illinois.
Supporters include a number of environmental groups and Illinois coal producers.
The Citizens Utility Board, the primary consumer watchdog group on utility issues, says it supports the clean-coal law because of its residential and small-business rate protections.
Last week, the ENERGY STAR® program published final requirements for the recognition of certification bodies participating in the redesigned ENERGY STAR® program. This adds further detail to the previous announcement that manufacturers seeking ENERGY STAR® recognition must now have their products qualified by an EPA-approved Certification Body (CB) and be subject to ongoing verification testing. EPA will require a CB to be accredited ISO/IEC Guide 65 by a signatory to the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) Memorandum of Understanding.
Under the new scheme, products will be tested as eligible to meet ENERGY STAR® requirements by EPA-recognized laboratories. Test data will then be submitted to an EPA-approved CB, who will review and confirm the product as being compliant and submit the product's test data to the EPA for final ENERGY STAR qualification. Manufacturers also have the option of streamlining this process and submitting their products directly to a CB with test data from a qualified laboratory. The CB will review the data, approve and forward it to the EPA for product recognition.
UL and UL Environment are preparing to help customers with these new requirements in a few ways. First, UL is in the process of becoming an EPA-approved Certification Body for the ENERGY STAR program. In addition, the UL global network of laboratories will be available to conduct testing to the Energy Star requirements. Finally, UL Environment can work with you individually to help you understand how these changes impact your organization and the best way for you to meet these requirements.
On August 27, 2010, majority ownership of TerraChoice was acquired by ULC Standards.TerraChoice joins ULC Standards and UL Environment as part of Underwriters Laboratories' global network providing environmental services to companies around the world.
TerraChoice is the global manager of the EcoLogo Program, with exclusive rights to certify which products can bear the EcoLogo mark.Since its creation in 1988, TerraChoice has successfully grown EcoLogo into one of the most recognized eco-labels in the world. Currently, there are more than 7,000 products across 80 categories that are licensed to bear the EcoLogo mark.
By joining forces, TerraChoice and UL Environment will enhance our combined leadership in the global market for sustainable product certification and environmental claims validation by providing you with complementary services and technical expertise.Our goal is to offer one standard, one evaluation and two great brands for certifying sustainable products in Canada and the U.S.
During this transition, you will continue to receive uninterrupted service from your current UL Environment team.In time, we look forward to introducing you to the TerraChoice leadership team to discuss the new services that we can provide.
We are here to support you during this transition, so please know that you can contact either of us with any questions.We look forward to speaking with you soon.
The Chicago Botanic Garden has earned a Gold LEED rating for the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant Conservation Science Center. The Plant Science Center, which opened in September 2009, received points in six categories including sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy & atmosphere, material & resources, indoor environmental quality and innovation and design process.
Some of the buildings sustainable features include a rainwater glen to collect and filter runoff from the building and adjacent parking areas, light-colored roofing and a 16,000 square-foot green roof garden to reduce heat island effect, and low-flow plumbing fixtures and valves that cut the building’s water use by 30 percent.
The Plant Science Center also features 280 solar photovoltaic panels on the roof of the building, which provides five percent of the power needed to operate the center. Monitoring equipment was installed on the Green Roof Garden to help plant conservation scientists measure the green roof’s insulation effect on the building and other factors that will identify the best plants to grow on Midwest green roof gardens.
Other features include energy-efficient lighting, insulation of exterior walls and roof, windows with low-E and high-performance glass, air lock vestibules at all entrances and radiant heating and cooling built into the floor to regulate building temperatures.
Building materials were selected to have no or low volatile organic compounds, such as paints and coatings, adhesives and sealants and composite wood and agrifiber products. The project also diverted 75 percent of construction waste from disposal.
Bloom Energy fuel cells are a clean energy alternative, but at what cost? Many are hailing the Bloom energy servers as “revolutionary”, claiming that they will forever change the landscape of how we get electricity for our homes. However, the innovation – albeit novel, does have some quirks that many are overlooking.
How much will the Bloom Energy fuel cells cost?
Right now, the energy servers currently being used are about the size of a parking spot and cost nearly three quarters of a million dollars. Yes, that’s right – between $700,000 and $800,000. However, for large companies such as Google, Walmart, or Staples that cost may pay for itself over time in reduced energy costs.
Fortune Magazine reported back in February about the overall number crunching involved in making a business decision to install the Bloom Energy Device. It’s been cited that the cost of a kw hour of electricity is 8 to 10 cents, which is lower than the coal power electrical grid.
However, that total includes huge government subsidies and incentives from the state of California. I’d venture to say that the incentives won’t be there forever, and so the Bloom Box may not be as cost effective years down the road.
In addition, the energy servers come with a 10 year warranty, and Bloom Energy maintains the box. However, if you lose power you will have to re-connect to the grid in order to get energy again. This comes at a cost to the consumer.
Still yet the innovation shows promise. It may not all-out replace the electrical grid, but it will go a long way in supplementing it. In order for one of these units to be viable for a residential home, it would need to be cut in price by over 90%. Even at $3,500 you’re looking at about two to three years of energy costs for the average household.
Salt Lake City’s Salt Palace Convention Center could be getting the largest rooftop solar facility in the United States.
NexGen Energy and Bella Energy have been chosen to develop a solar installation on the roof of the Calvin L. Rampton Salt Palace Convention Center in downtown Salt Lake City. The team presented a plan to install up to 2.6 megawatts of solar modules on the structure. If built to that capacity, the companies say it will be the largest U.S. rooftop solar facility, generating more than 3,330,000 kilowatt hours of electricity every year while reducing the building’s consumption by 25%.
NexGen Energy will own and operate the facility and sell the power to Salt Lake County at a 20-year fixed rate. Bella Energy will design and install the project. Construction is expected to begin later this year. The final contract will include an option for the county to purchase the system in the eighth year. NexGen Energy has retained the renewable energy credits associated with the project.
Before the August recess, Reid said he doubted a RES — which would require utilities to provide escalating amounts of power from sources like wind and solar energy — could win 60 votes. It was left on the cutting-room floor when Reid unveiled a modest energy bill in late July.
Reid told reporters on a conference call the energy bill is still a work in progress and said two Republican senators have expressed interest in a RES. He did not name them, however.
Reid also suggested passing energy legislation could be more likely during a lame-duck session. He noted the Senate would resume work after the recess but added, “Maybe, after the elections, we can get some more Republicans to work with us,” E2 Wire reports.
The energy and oil spill response package that Reid unveiled in late July contained rebates for home-efficiency retrofits and measures to boost deployment of natural gas-powered trucks and electric cars.
But Reid is under pressure from renewable energy groups, environmentalists and many members of his caucus to include a RES.
A move to renewable energy sources has long been a pillar of Democratic energy plans, but the proposals face resistance from many Republicans and some southern lawmakers from both parties,which have expressed fear that their states lack enough renewable resources to meet the targets.
Some Republicans — notably Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) — have floated a broader clean energy standard that would include nuclear power and electricity from coal plants that trap carbon emissions.
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass) and others had worked for months to craft a climate change bill that could pass. But negotiations on the bill collapsed earlier this year when it became clear the bill could not garner 60 votes.
Foothill Transit, a public transport provider that operates bus services in Southern San Gabriel and Pomona Valleys, in California, will soon be adding a fleet of all-electric, zero-emission buses and related fast-charging stations to its existing bus fleet and transit routes.
Foothill will launch the Proterra EcoRide BE35 buses on Sept. 3 with the goal of establishing a full fleet of clean-fueled vehicles by 2011. The launch also marks Proterra’s first deployment of the all-electric buses by a major transit agency.
The deployment of Proterra’s EcoRide BE35 buses, known as the “Ecoliner” by Foothill Transit, is expected to provide a real-world example of the benefits and ease of deployment of Proterra’s zero emission buses and charging solutions. They also will offer California transit agencies a solution to meet the Zero Emission Bus (Zbus) regulation, which requires large California agencies to purchase 15 percent of their annual bus orders as zero emission buses starting in 2012.
In addition to reducing air and noise pollution, the Ecoliner buses offer up to three hours of operation and the ability to recharge in less than 10 minutes on route. This will allow transit agencies to add these buses into existing routes without impacting their schedules or routes, says Proterra.
Other benefits include a 400 percent improvement in fuel economy and greater than $300,000 savings in total lifetime operating expenses.
Hybrid buses already have rolled out in pilot programs in New York City and Baltimore, where they are estimated to reduce fuel consumption by 40 percent and greenhouse gas emissions by up to 70 percent. They are also up to 35 percent quieter than typical city buses.
Global adoption of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) as well as battery electric vehicles (BEVs) is expected to takeoff over the next five years, with sales totaling 3.2 million vehicles between 2010 and 2015, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 106 percent, according to a new report from Pike Research.
The market researcher says these vehicles deliver improved fuel economy, lower emissions, and a quieter ride than comparable power internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, which will appeal to consumers in the North American market where fuel costs are rising and range anxiety in the electric vehicle market continues to be a concern.
Dave Hurst, senior analyst at Pike Research expects that China will be the largest market for electric vehicles, with more than 888,000 PHEVs and BEVs sold by 2015, representing 27 percent of worldwide sales. The United States is expected to follow close behind with 841,000 vehicles sold, or 26 percent of the global market.
Hurst also notes that PHEVs and BEVs will complement and not displace the market for conventional hybrid electric vehicles and most likely will be launched in the small car segment for consumer markets initially followed by the small SUV sector.
The report, “Plug-in Electric Vehicles,” which covers opportunities and challenges in the emerging market for PHEVs and BEVs, indicates that as automakers move into the plug-in vehicle market, they will find that U.S. consumers are still wary about high upfront costs for these vehicles despite the fuel savings. As a result, government incentives will continue to play an important role in the consumer marketplace for many years, according to the report.
Another finding indicates that many consumers may ultimately choose a plug-in vehicle that is aligned with a brand they already trust, which means Toyota and Honda are likely to benefit from their established positions in the HEV market. But GM’s early entry into the market is expected to boost its initial PHEV sales. Pike estimates that GM will have a 20-percent global PHEV market share by 2015.
AT&T has activated a 296-kW rooftop solar power installation at its Trade Street site in San Diego, which will generate an estimated 420,000 kWh of energy in its first year of operation. Over 20 years, the solar power installation will generate more than 7.7 million kWh of energy, and is projected to help AT&T avoid more than 8 million pounds of carbon dioxide during the initial 20 years of operation.
Under contract with SunEdison, AT&T plans to deploy five other solar power installations in California for a total of about 2 megawatts (MW) of solar capacity by the second quarter of 2011. Those deployments will be located in Dunnigan, Commerce, Mojave, Santa Ana and West Sacramento.
Under the power purchase agreement (PPA) between SunEdison and AT&T, SunEdison will construct, monitor and maintain an additional five solar power installations in California, and AT&T will buy the energy produced from the solar systems to offset their grid demand.
Once activated, the six systems will generate over 3.2 million kWh of energy within the first year of operation. According to SunEdison projections, these systems will avoid an estimated 62 million pounds of CO2 over 20 years of operation.
In June, AT&T released its 2009 Citizenship and Sustainability Report that shows that renewable energy is a key initiative for the company. In 2009, a second large-scale solar power plant was installed at AT&T’s campus in Secaucus, New Jersey. The 841-kW system will produce 1.0 million kWh of electricity per year.
In other solar news in California, Kikkoman Foods announced plans to install a 106.6 kW solar array, powered by 576 Mitsubishi Electric PV modules on its soy sauce factory in Folsom. The system is expected to produce 150,000 kWh annually.
The company says the new system will significantly reduce the need for fossil fuel-based electricity to power production and allow the company to sell solar electricity back to the grid when the facility is not in operation.
Kikkoman said it made the decision to install a solar system at its Folsom facility due to the high number of sun hours in California, rebates from the California Solar Initiative Program and the Federal Tax Credit. The state and federal incentives along with the reduction in the company’s monthly electric bill made the economics of the solar system very attractive, said Kikkoman.
The solar power system will be installed as a fixed carport over the employee and visitor parking lot. Similar to most other carport installations, it will serve a dual purpose of providing shade for cars while creating green energy for the company.
The new solar electric system is expected to be in operation in late September 2010.
Kikkoman Foods also has several other sustainability initiatives in place including recycling and reusing almost all waste streams from the production process, energy conservation and energy efficiency improvements and improved water management.
Despite these findings, U.S. corporate fleets are expected to be among the steadiest customers of electric vehicles, including cargo vans, as they come to market.
The study, “Electric Vehicles: The Future of Driving,” finds that consumers are concerned about several disadvantages with electric vehicles. Fifty percent of respondents are concerned about mileage potential before needing to recharge and 34 percent are worried about battery life. Other key concerns include cost of the vehicle, reliability and availability of charging station.
The study finds running out of battery power on the road (71 percent), lack of charging stations and/or not being able to recharge (66 percent) and limited mileage (59 percent) are the most common perceived disadvantages with electric vehicles.
Home charging stations may also impact purchase decisions, say CEA analysts, with 51 percent of consumers reporting that they would be less likely to consider purchasing an electric vehicle if they would have to install special charging equipment for the batteries.
Yet, the study finds that consumers are open to considering an electric vehicle in the future, with 42 percent reporting they are likely to follow news reports about electric vehicles. But overall awareness of the various types of alternative vehicles remains low. While nearly one-third (32 percent) report they are familiar, or very familiar, with hybrid vehicles, only about one-quarter are familiar with electric-powered vehicles (25 percent), according to the report.
Those consumers who are open to buying an electric vehicle cite the positive environmental impact and potential cost savings as primary reasons for purchasing electric vehicles. More than three-quarters of those surveyed (78 percent) said the vehicle’s ability to run without gasoline is the greatest advantage, followed by less pollution (67 percent), and the lack of need for oil changes and tune-ups (60 percent).
Beginning in 2012, new labels will help end the confusion caused by a new generation of electric and hybrid cars, fastcodesign.com reports.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation on Monday released two proposed window stickers designed to make it easier for consumers to compare vehicles.
The new system is designed to simplify comparisons in fuel economy and emissions for those shopping for fuel-efficient vehicles. Traditional MPG ratings don’t provide all of the information necessary to compare some hybrids and electric cars, which — depending on how much and where you drive them — might never revert to gas. As a result, car companies such as GM have been lobbying for new EPA standards that make the benefits of green(er) vehicles more transparent to consumers, reports USA Today.
In the wake of sweeping efficiency and emission guidelines that rolled out in April, the EPA is revising the information that appears on cars, starting with the 2012 model year. The new stickers mark the first major overhaul of fuel-economy ratings in 30 years.
The two labels have been produced and are now available for public review on EPA’s website.
The first label gives cars and trucks a grade from A+ to a D, and compares vehicles with three sliding scales. It also gives an estimated annual fuel cost. The rating considers fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions, and directs consumers to a website that has not yet been created, where people can learn more about the ratings and how their personal driving habits could effect them. The amount of money a car owner will save (or spend) over five years would be prominently displayed.
The second label doesn’t use a letter grade. It provides traditional information like city vs. highway fuel economy and estimated annual fuel cost, but improves upon the old design with additional info like greenhouse gas emissions and comparative fuel economy within a vehicle’s class.
“From electric to plug-in hybrid vehicles, we think a new label is absolutely necessary to help consumers make the right decision for their wallet and for the environment,” Gina McCarthy, the EPA’s top air pollution official told USA Today. The changes are required under the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act, which increases average fuel economy to 35 miles per gallon by 2016, and calls for new labels spelling out fuel economy, greenhouse gas and other emissions information.
Under the letter grade proposal, an average vehicle on fuel efficiency and emissions would receive a B-. Electric vehicles would receive an A+, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles would earn an A and three gas-electric hybrids — the Ford Fusion Hybrid, Honda Civic Hybrid and Toyota Prius — would get an A-.
The best-selling passenger car in America, the Toyota Camry, would receive a B or a B-, depending on the vehicle’s engine. Hybrid versions of the Camry would earn a B+. The top-selling pickup truck, the Ford F-150, would receive a C+ or a C, based on the engine variant.
Automakers questioned the proposed letter grades,saying it might affect sales. Gloria Bergquist, a spokeswoman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, told the Associated Press “the letter grade inadvertently suggests a value judgment, taking us back to school days where grades were powerful symbols of passing or failing.” She said a broad range of vehicle technologies were needed to improve fuel efficiency.
American Airlines and GE is debuting its inaugural flight today (August 26) using the first U.S. commercially designed instrument flight path, which is expected to significantly cut aircraft CO2 emissions, improve airline efficiency and reduce delays.
AA flight 1916 will fly from Dallas/Fort Worth to Bradley International Airport in Hartford, Conn. and land using the first public flight path in the U.S. The new “highway in the sky” ensures the aircraft adheres to a precise, predetermined path, according to GE.
Naverus, a part of GE Aviation, designed the path, which incorporates Required Navigation Performance technology (RNP), a core component of the FAA’s NextGen airspace modernization plan. RNP paths can be custom-tailored to reduce airport congestion, shorten trip distance, reduce an aircraft’s time in flight, and create community-friendly flight trajectories that lessen the effect of aircraft noise, says GE.
The new landing procedure will allow pilots to use onboard technology to follow a precise track, independent of older ground-based navigation beacons that limit where the aircraft can go.
Captain Brian Will, American Airlines’ Director — Airspace Modernization and Advanced Technologies says this new procedure is a critical step to help implement NextGen modernization.
GE deploys RNP procedures around the world and is the first third-party procedure designer to publish a public RNP procedure in the U.S. GE’s RNP procedures are in regular daily use in Canada, China, Australia, New Zealand, and Peru.
GE also is working with the FAA and other regulatory bodies and navigation service providers to develop the capability for aircraft to share optimized flight trajectories with air traffic control in real time, which will allow airlines to plan each flight to operate on the most efficient flight path with the least possible environmental impact.
GE says navigational and operational capabilities such as these will make air traffic management more efficient by helping airlines plan more direct routes, which will decrease airspace congestion, save fuel and reduce commercial aviation’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Weekly Retail Gasoline Prices (8/30/2010)
Presents average retail gasoline prices at the national and regional levels, and for selected cities and States, based on an EIA survey conducted each Monday of approximately 900 retail outlets.
Weekly Highway Diesel Prices (8/30/2010)
Contains a 53-week history of weekly retail on-highway diesel fuel prices for the U.S., 8 regions, and the State of California.
Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report (9/2/2010)
Contains weekly estimates of natural gas in underground storage for the United States and three regions of the United States.
Natural Gas Weekly Update (9/2/2010)
Contains weekly updates of natural gas market prices, latest storage level estimates, recent lower 48 NOAA weather data, and other market activity or events.
Gulf of Mexico Fact Sheet (09/01/2010)
This fact sheet contains current annual production data for oil and natural gas from the Gulf of Mexico, the hurricane season outlook, and the current tropical weather outlook from the National Hurricane Center.
Ecuador Country Analysis Brief (08/31/2010)
Ecuador is a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and one of Latin America's largest oil exporters. For all the latest information on the energy situation in Ecuador see the updated Country Analysis Brief.
Monthly Energy Review (08/31/2010)
Preliminary data show that U.S. energy net imports for the first 5 months of 2010 fell 24 percent, compared with the total for the first 5 months of 2005, the year net imports peaked on an annual basis. For more information, see the Monthly Energy Review, which provides EIA's most comprehensive look at recent integrated energy statistics, including: total energy production, consumption, and trade; energy prices; overviews of petroleum, natural gas, coal, electricity, nuclear energy, renewable energy, and international petroleum; carbon dioxide emissions; and data unit conversions. See What's New in the Monthly Energy Review for a record of changes.
Monthly Natural Gas Gross Production Report (08/30/2010)
Monthly natural gas gross withdrawals estimated from data collected on Form EIA-914 (Monthly Natural Gas Production Report) for Federal Offshore Gulf of Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Wyoming, Other States and Lower 48 States. Alaska data are from the State of Alaska and included to obtain a U.S. Total.
Petroleum Supply Monthly (08/30/2010)
Supply and disposition of crude oil and petroleum products on a national and regional level. The data series describe production, imports and exports, movements and inventories.
The Smart Energy Design Assistance Center is committed to helping the public sector save money through the use of energy efficient technologies and practices.
There is no better time to join us in our mission than now. We encourage you to attend our FREE half-day workshop and learn what you can do to realize the strong return on investment gained with an intelligent energy strategy.
Back by popular demand, the Smart Energy Design Assistance Center and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity host another workshop to discuss sensible ways you can reduce operational costs through increased energy efficiency in public buildings.
Who should attend? Public Sector administrators or facility managers for public K-12 schools, community colleges, universities, park districts, libraries, local governments, water and waste water treatment facilities in the ComEd or Ameren Illinois Utilities service territories.
DATE: Wednesday, September 15, 2010
TIME:Registration begins @ 8:30am LOCATION:Heartland Community College Community Education Center, Normal (click for directions)
SCHEDULE: 8:30am - 9:00am Registration 9:00am - 9:45amGeneral Session:
The Challenge of Energy Efficiency and Sustainability in the Public Sector (Donald Fournier, SEDAC)
Rush Hour: Congress Returns from Recess in Two Weeks with a Full Plate and Then Some
The streets of Washington, DC are quiet now, the roaring city has slowed to a purr, and Capitol Hill staff are wearing jeans and sneakers to work – all sure signs that Congress remains in recess.
But don’t let the summer daze fool you, in two weeks the House and Senate will reconvene, touching off a rush hour that will have Congress’ legislative agenda clogged with activity.
Among the items that may be considered is a pared-down version of the energy bill. The bill (whose text and specifics remain very much in flux) will not likely include any building energy provisions. A push will be made to include the Building Star Energy Efficiency Act (H.R.5476/S.3079), which ASHRAE supports. This bill would allow for rebates to building owners to offset the cost of energy efficient upgrades for existing commercial buildings and multifamily residential buildings.
Also on the agenda will be the annual funding bills. The federal fiscal year ends on September 30, and because the House and Senate have not finalized any of the bills for fiscal year 2011, Congress will likely pass a continuing resolution (CR), which funds all or most federal programs at their current levels. The prospect of a CR is troubling, as the Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings within the General Services Administration may not be funded, since they received funding for the first time through the special circumstances under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the stimulus bill).
It is important for this Office to be funded because of the unique role it plays in identifying opportunities to move federal buildings to higher performance.
ASHRAE is working with other groups in the building community to help expand awareness in Congress of this potential unintended consequence of passing a CR, and to include funding for this Office to avoid this scenario.
DOE Stokes the Site vs. Source Energy Debate
Through a notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is proposing to change how it estimates the likely impacts of energy conservation standards for certain commercial and industrial equipment. Specifically, DOE proposes to use full-fuel-cycle (FFC) measures of energy and greenhouse gas emissions, rather than the primary energy measures it currently uses.
How might this impact ASHRAE? Currently energy cost calculations for determining criteria in ASHRAE Standard 90.1 are based on site energy. Standard 90.1 has been historically developed on a site basis because site versus source energy is more visible to building owners through utility meter readings.
By issuing this NOPR, DOE has stoked a long-smoldering debate between the powerful electric utility and gas interests, each of which believes that measuring energy use (and the metric for energy determining energy savings) should be done in a way that most benefits their respective industry (site for electric utilities and source for gas utilities – because of the inefficiencies associated with the conversion of thermal energy to electrical energy).
ASHRAE is keeping a close eye on this debate. For more information on this NOPR visit http://bit.ly/9tZYhs.
Affordable Multifamily Housing Developments Receive Over $100 Million for Energy Efficient Renovations
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently announced that over $100 million has been awarded to 100 affordable multifamily housing developments around the country to complete energy efficient renovations.
These projects are funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act under HUD’s Green Retrofit Program for Multifamily Housing.
According to HUD’s press release:
The Green Retrofit Program is designed to create thousands of green jobs as workers retrofit older federally assisted multi-family apartment developments with the next generation of energy efficient technologies. Grants and loans provided through this program help private landlords and property management companies to cut heating and air conditioning costs by installing more efficient heating and cooling systems, and to reduce water use by replacing faucets and toilets. These Recovery Act funds also produce other environmental benefits by encouraging the use of recycled building materials, reflective roofing, and non-toxic products to reduce ‘off-gassing’ of potentially harmful fumes. Funds are awarded to owners of HUD-assisted housing projects and can be used for a wide range of retrofit activities, ranging from windows/doors to solar panels and geothermal installation.
For more information, including the full press release, visit http://bit.ly/b7AvXR.
Now Announcing the Chicagoland Wake Up to Efficiency Breakfast Series! Join us to learn how to identify opportunities and implement best practices form HVAC, plumbing, and energy efficiency experts.
Starting September 7th, the Chicagoland Natural Gas Savings Program and the Nicor Gas Energy Efficiency Program are offering free seminars for contractors.
Weekly Retail Gasoline Prices (8/23/2010)
Presents average retail gasoline prices at the national and regional levels, and for selected cities and States, based on an EIA survey conducted each Monday of approximately 900 retail outlets.
Weekly Highway Diesel Prices (8/23/2010)
Contains a 53-week history of weekly retail on-highway diesel fuel prices for the U.S., 8 regions, and the State of California.
Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report (8/26/2010)
Contains weekly estimates of natural gas in underground storage for the United States and three regions of the United States.
Natural Gas Weekly Update (8/26/2010)
Contains weekly updates of natural gas market prices, latest storage level estimates, recent lower 48 NOAA weather data, and other market activity or events.
Renewable Energy Trends in Consumption and Electricity 2008 (08/25/2010)
The report shows that U.S. renewable energy consumption grew 10 percent to 7.367 quadrillion Btu between 2007 and 2008 and now holds well over 7 percent of the U.S. energy market.
Renewable Energy Consumption and Electricity Preliminary Statistics 2009 (08/25/2010)
The report shows that renewable energy's market share reached 8 percent of total U.S. energy consumption, as total consumption decreased nearly 5 percent while renewable energy consumption rose 5 percent in 2009.
Green Pricing and Net Metering 2008 (08/25/2010)
Information in this report indicates these programs experienced rapid growth. In 2008 there were 982,995 green pricing customers and 70,009 net metering customers.
Renewable Energy Annual 2008 (08/25/2010)
The report has information on trends in renewable energy consumption and electricity, solar manufacturing activities, geothermal heat pump manufacturing activities, and green pricing and net metering programs.
Annual Energy Review 2009 (08/19/2010)
In 2009, U.S. primary energy production fell 1 percent to 73 quadrillion Btu. Renewable energy production reached 8 quadrillion Btu in 2009, with wind energy registering the largest year-to-year percentage increase among renewable sources. U.S. primary energy consumption fell to 95 quadrillion Btu in 2009, down from the all-time high of 102 quadrillion Btu in 2007 and 5 percent below the 2008 level. From 2008 to 2009, U.S. energy net imports fell 12 percent to 23 quadrillion Btu. Carbon dioxide emissions from energy consumption fell 7 percent from 2008 to 2009, due primarily to a decrease in consumption of coal and petroleum. The Annual Energy Review 2009 provides EIA's most comprehensive look at integrated energy statistics. It covers all major energy sources and all energy-consuming sectors of the U.S. economy from 1949 through 2009.
The USGBC-Illinois Chapter Greenbuild Host Committee, helping to organize the world's largest conference and expo dedicated to green building, awarded six grants to local community "Legacy Projects" that are advancing green building for the next generation. Furthering its goal to foster green building at a grassroots level, Greenbuild is also seeking to distribute ten full conference scholarships for the 2010 Greenbuild International Conference and Expo in Chicago to those who are making a difference in their local communities in order to encourage diversity within the green building community. Applicants can either submit a 30 second video or 200-word essay demonstrating how their attendance at Greenbuild can move their green building efforts forward. The deadline is 5:00 p.m. CST on September 1, 2010. For more information about this opportunity, visit www.usgbc-illinois.org.
The Legacy Project grants total $20,000, thanks to matching funds from ComEd. The Legacy Project grants are meant to complement the U.S. Green Building Council's mission and serve as a means of service, education and thanks to the local community that hosts the Greenbuild conference. Greenbuild and the six grant recipient projects are especially grateful to ComEd for its support of their efforts.
Awarded with a $5,000 grant, YouthBuild Lake County is a community-based organization that provides education and job training services to disadvantaged youth in Lake County. In 2009, YouthBuild launched its first green building project to educate students on energy efficiency and weatherization in a Chicago home. The organization will use the funds to train students in thermal imaging and blower door testing.
Goodcity's Food Desert Action received $3,000 to reconstruct a city bus into a biodiesel-powered mobile food market stocked with fruits and vegetables that will travel to the City's neighborhoods and community centers that currently lack easy access to fresh produce.
The Sunlight of the Spirit Rooftop Recovery Garden received $3,000 to support a new food-producing garden space atop Jack Clark's Family Recover Communities, an existing 36-unit residential and community services building. Located in Chicago's Garfield Park neighborhood, the roof garden will not only serve the building clients—who are in recovery from alcohol or drug addition, ex-offenders under electronic detention and youth offenders—but through Urban Habitat Chicago, will also be used to train the clients in organic roof gardening techniques.
Receiving a $2,500 grant, the Fuller Park Community Development Corporation will use the funds to construct a walk and accessible observation point for the native prairie preserve in the only nature center on the south side of Chicago. Fuller Park's Eden Place Nature Center provides neighboring residents, many of whom are low-income, with important access to ecological recreation, environmental education and the opportunity to participate in authentic conservation activities.
Family Shelter Service received $3,000 to help perform energy audits of family shelter facilities in order to enable energy efficient retrofits. Family Shelter Services serves those affected by domestic violence by providing a network of interconnected programs and empowering individuals and families to realize their potential. The energy retrofits will illustrate that energy efficiency improvements can be made for little or no cost, reducing operation and maintenance costs for non-profits and for-profit organizations alike.
To help construct a Solar Energy Learning Lab, the Academy for Global Citizenship Elementary School received $3,000. This Chicago Public Contract Elementary School, located on the southwest side of Chicago, hopes to show how renewable energy and sustainable living is a financial investment that over time is economically beneficial to the community.
About the U.S. Green Building Council - Illinois Chapter
The U.S. Green Building Council – Illinois Chapter's nearly 1,500 members represent the entire spectrum of Illinois' green building community, from real estate professionals, architects, engineers, designers and trade associations to contractors, product manufacturers, state and local government officials, homebuilders and homeowners. The U.S. Green Building Council – Illinois Chapter is the local affiliate of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a national non-profit composed of leaders from every sector of the building industry working to promote buildings that are environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy places to live and work. USGBC's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings. LEED provides a roadmap for measuring and documenting success for every building type and phase of a building lifecycle. In Illinois, the Illinois Chapter furthers the work of USGBC through over 150 annual programs, events, education and research initiatives, advocacy campaigns, and resources for the local green building community.
Since June 2008, ComEd's Smart Ideas for Your Business Program has provided approximately $23 million in incentives to encourage business customers to implement energy saving technologies that use electricity more efficiently, reduce electricity consumption and save money. The effort has helped more than 2,000 northern Illinois businesses save over $30 million in electric costs. For more information on Smart Ideas visit ComEd.com/BizIncentives.
Citigroup, Inc (NYSE: C) analysts raised their price target and boosted its estimates on shares of Exelon (NYSE: EXC) with a price target of $39.00. The analysts cited a better regulatory outlook citing a “hold” rating.
Exelon Corporation (Exelon) is a utility services holding company. It operates through its principal subsidiaries: Exelon Generation Company, LLC (Generation), Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd) and PECO Energy Company (PECO). Generation’s business consists of its owned and contracted electric generating facilities, its wholesale energy marketing operations and its retail supply operations. ComEd’s energy delivery business consists of the purchase and regulated retail sale of electricity, and the provision of transmission and distribution services to retail customers in northern Illinois. PECO’s energy delivery business consists of the purchase and regulated retail sale of electricity and the provision of transmission and distribution services to retail customers in south-eastern Pennsylvania, as well as the purchase and regulated retail sale of natural gas and the provision of distribution services to retail customers in the Pennsylvania counties surrounding Philadelphia.
Shares of EXC traded up 0.64% on Monday hitting $40.67 during mid-day trading on Monday.
The U.S. Energy Department says Illinois has made good progress in Recovery Act home weatherizing for low-income families.
Work is finished on more than 11,000 homes. That's more than one-third of the nearly 27,000 homes slated for weatherizing with Recovery funds.
That means the state now has access to the rest of the $242 million in funds it was allotted for the program. Initially half of that was made available.
The Recovery Act weatherization program supported more than 580 second-quarter jobs in Illinois.
Under the program, local agencies provide cost-effective services including installing insulation and weather-stripping, sealing windows and doors, and replacing inefficient heating and cooling systems.
After nearly a decade of delays, ground was officially broken on the world's largest wind project, a 1,550 megawatt (MW) farm located in Tehachapi Pass, California. The project, which is being developed near the first large-scale wind farms installed in the U.S. in the 1970s and 1980s, is a powerful illustration of the growing size and scope of modern wind projects.
"AWEC will increase wind industry jobs in California by 20 percent, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 52 million metric tons, which is equivalent to taking 446,000 cars off the road."
The project, dubbed the Alta Wind Energy Center, is nearly double the largest existing wind project in Roscoe, Texas. The Alta development is expected to create more than 3,000 domestic manufacturing, construction and maintenance jobs and contribute more than a billion dollars to the local economy. The wind farm is being developed by Terra-Gen Power.
Terra-Gen closed a $1.2 billion financing deal earlier this month with partners that included Citibank, Barclay's Capital and Credit Suisse. The law firm Chadbourne and Parke represented Terra-Gen in the deal.
The project will consist of around 300 turbines installed over a 9,000 acre area. Southern California Edison has agreed to a 25-year power purchase agreement for the power.
While it took more than a decade to get the project built, it shows just how mature wind is today. The lack of long-term policy support in the U.S. may hinder the development of future projects like this, however. The U.S. Congress still has not passed a national renewable energy target or a carbon cap and trade program, and the production tax credit for wind is set to expire at the end of 2011.
Renewable energy and green power — what’s the difference?
In short, not all sources of power generation have the same environmental benefits and costs.
Green power is a subset of renewable energy (Graph 1) and represents those renewable energy resources and technologies that provide the highest environmental benefit. EPA defines green power as electricity produced from solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, biomass, and low-impact small hydroelectric sources. Customers often buy green power for avoided environmental impacts and its greenhouse gas reduction benefits.
Green power sources produce electricity with an environmental profile superior to conventional power technologies and produce no anthropogenic (human caused) greenhouse gas emissions. EPA requires that green power sources must also have been built since the beginning of the voluntary market (1/1/1997) in order to support “new” renewable energy development.
Renewable energy includes resources that rely on fuel sources that restore themselves over short periods of time and do not diminish. Such fuel sources include the sun, wind, moving water, organic plant and waste material (biomass), and the earth’s heat (geothermal). Although the impacts are small, some renewable energy technologies have an impact on the environment. For example, large hydroelectric resources can have environmental trade-offs associated with issues such as fisheries and land use.
Conventional power includes the combustion of fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, and oil) and the nuclear fission of uranium. Fossil fuels have environmental costs from mining, drilling, or extraction, and emit greenhouse gases and air pollution during combustion. Although nuclear power generation emits no greenhouse gases during power generation, it does require mining, extraction, and long-term radioactive waste storage.
Type of emissions
Anthropogenic emissions are produced as a result of human activity that unnaturally releases CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. One of the largest sources of anthropogenic CO2 emissions is the combustion of fossil fuels or fossil fuel-based products to produce electricity.
Biogenic emissions, in contrast, result from natural biological processes, such as the decomposition or combustion of vegetative matter. Biogenic emissions are part of a closed carbon loop. Biogenic CO2 emissions are balanced by the natural uptake of CO2 by growing vegetation, resulting in a net zero contribution of CO2 emissions to the atmosphere. Examples of biogenic emission sources include burning vegetation (biomass) to produce electricity or using plant-based biofuels for transport.
Washington, D.C. For many years, the voluntary market for renewable energy was the main driver for the market. Today, it's state-level renewable energy targets. Even so, the voluntary market is still going strong, reports the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Intel Corporation remains the partnership's largest single purchaser of green power, using more than 1.4 billion kWh, equivalent to the CO2 emissions from the electricity use of nearly 125,000 average American homes.
The U.S. EPA just released a list of the 50 green power partners using the most renewable electricity. The Green Power Partnership’s top purchasers use more than 12 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power annually, equivalent to the annual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the electricity use of more than 1 million average American homes.
The top 10 on the list are Intel Corporation, Kohl’s Department Stores, Whole Foods Market, City of Houston, Dell Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Cisco Systems, Inc., Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, U.S. Air Force, and the City of Dallas.
Intel Corporation remains the partnership’s largest single purchaser of green power, using more than 1.4 billion kWh, equivalent to the CO2 emissions from the electricity use of nearly 125,000 average American homes. Washington, D.C. (No. 14), TD Bank, N.A. (No. 15), the state of Illinois (No. 23), Pearson, Inc. (No. 27), Chicago Public Schools (No. 35), and Harris N.A. (No. 42), are all making first-time appearances on the national list. BD (No. 19), a global medical technology company, and the Port of Portland (No. 49), both rose in the rankings by nearly doubling their green power purchases. Nearly a quarter of the top 50 partners have increased their green power purchases since April.
EPA’s Green Power Partnership works with more than 1,200 partner organizations to voluntarily purchase green power to reduce the environmental impacts of conventional electricity use. Overall, EPA’s green power partners are using more than 17 billion kWh of green power annually, equivalent to the CO2 emissions from electricity use of more than 1.5 million average American homes.
Solar PV is starting to enter a “sweet spot.” Because the technology is falling so dramatically in cost, is less capital intensive to develop, is more adaptable and requires less permitting, investors are taking a keen interest in solar PV projects. In this podcast, we'll examine the factors that make the market so attractive.
Jack Ehnes, the CEO of California's second-largest public pension fund, CalSTRS, talks about the need for fund managers to look at broader sustainability issues in order to limit risk. The interview comes from the Ceres Sustainability Podcast.
Then we'll have a roundtable discussion on how solar companies are engaging the financial community.
Dan Alcombright, vice president and general manager of Solon North America, talks about the company's vertical strategy to manufacture panels, develop projects and work with financiers to fund the PV plants.
Wim Goethals, managing director of Enfinity Americas talks about the “brain damage” involved in financing projects of all sizes.
And Marie Schnitzer, director of solar services at AWS Truepower, explains why it's important for the solar community to keep educating investors.
FREEPORT—The construction of Highland Community College’s newest addition, a 5,500 square foot Wind Turbine Technician Training Center is complete. The center provides the much needed space to house the state’s first Wind Turbine Technician Associate of Applied Science degree.
During the ribbon cutting ceremony held June 3, 2009, officials formally opened the facility that includes two dedicated classrooms, a sophisticated hydraulics lab and a large training “shop” that will house the equipment, components and tools needed to complete the Wind Turbine Technician training.
Students will have the unique opportunity to work on components of a turbine “nacelle” while it is indoors and on ground level. According to HCC President Dr. Joe Kanosky, “This addition will provide needed space and access to the sophisticated training required to meet the demands and expectations of the wind turbine industry.”
“In planning the program, we anticipated the need for additional space,” said HCC electronics instructor Steve Gellings. “We are very excited about this new facility; it addresses the real need for a dedicated space for the unique training the students will be receiving, such as working on specialized hydraulic systems and repairing turbine blades.”
Officials celebrated the partnership that was instrumental in making the program, and facility to house it, possible. The Wind Turbine Technician program was developed in cooperation with Elgin based EcoEnergy, who provided assistance in developing curriculum and providing staff to serve as instructors for several classes. “The program would not have been possible without the key support provided by our industry partner,” said HCC president Dr. Joe Kanosky.”It is yet another example of how the College seeks to partner with local industry to provide education and training that will meet the needs of the needs of area residents and businesses.”
Shawn Gaffney, president of EcoEnergy, spoke of the need to train individuals to become qualified industry technicians. “Wind energy is the fastest-growing segment of the energy industry today,” said Gaffney. “As more wind energy facilities are developed, the need for qualified turbine techs will increase. We see that as another positive aspect of wind energy – more stable, reliable jobs for our communities.”
The new center is has been fitted with specialized tools through a partnership with Rockford-based Greenlee Textron, Inc. Officials from Greenlee Textron assisted in a “cable joining” ceremony; crimping the cable that was cut during the building’s groundbreaking ceremony in October of 2008. “This partnership will provide Greenlee with the opportunity to work with, supply to, and foster the growing alternative energy industry in the United States,” said Ajay Chandrasekhar, a member of the Greenlee Strategy team. “This venture will directly contribute to developing a greener and stronger energy industry in northern Illinois."
Highland Community College continues to pursue partnerships with companies in the wind energy industry to raise funds to cover the entire cost needed to construct the facility. Public funds were not available, and the state cannot project when funding will again be possible for capital projects of this nature. Interim financing has been made possible in part by local banks including Amcore, Citizens State Bank, First State Bank Shannon/Polo and Foresight Financial Group (including German American Bank, Lena State Bank, Northwest Bank of Rockford, State Bank and State Bank of Davis).
Local participation was key to the successful completion of this project according to officials. Winter Construction of Freeport was the general contractor and R.L. Johnson and Associates was the architect for this project.
Photographs of the building under construction and a video of the ceremony will be posted on the College’s web site at www.highland.edu.
Highland Community College offers more than 60 programs of applied and transfer degrees, community education and business training. In addition to comprehensive academic programming, Highland provides theatre, art and music opportunities for the community. Highland Community College is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and is a member of the North Central Association’s Academic Quality Improvement Program. Located in Freeport and Elizabeth, Highland is conveniently positioned in the tri-state region with access to several major metropolitan areas.
Wind energy, which accounted for 39% of all new U.S. electric generating capacity last year, could provide 20% of the nation’s electricity by 2030 if growth trends continue for wind power installations, according to a recent study. On the down side, siting, planning and cost allocation issues remain “key barriers” to transmission investment, the study says.
It may be possible to reach the U.S. government’s goal of producing 20% of the nation’s electricity from wind energy by 2030, but the production goal it is not a shoe-in, says a recent report.
To reach the 20% goal, installations would have to ramp up to 16 gigawatts per year by 2017 and maintain that rate for a decade, states the 88-page 2009 Wind Technologies Market Report, released this month by the U.S. Dept. of Energy.
Wind power additions in 2009 shattered old records, with roughly 10 GW of new capacity added in the U.S. and $21 billion invested. At the end of last year, cumulative wind power capacity in the U.S. stood at more than 35,000 MW, says the study, which was prepared by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, Calif.
But several forecasts suggest that wind power installations this year may range from 5,500 MW to 8,000 MW, a drop of 20% to 45% from the nearly 10,000 MW installed last year, say the report’s primary authors, Ryan Wiser, a Berkeley Lab staff research scientist, and his colleague Mark Bolinger, a research scientist.
Still, an enormous amount of wind power is under consideration. “The federal policy landscape is now more favorable to wind energy than at any other time in the past decade,” states the report, which is available at http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/ems/re-pubs.html.
At the end of last year, there were some 300 GW of wind power within the transmission interconnection systems administered by independent system operators, regional transmission organizations and utilities, say the authors. The capacity represents about 60% of all electrical power generating capacity within the queues at that time. Most of the wind farms are planned for the Midwest, Northwest, Southwest and Mountain regions, and Texas.
After four years of leading the world in annual wind-power-capacity additions, the U.S. dropped to second place last year, behind China. The U.S. has 26% of the world market; China, with 25,853 MW, has 36%. Germany, with 25,813 MW of capacity, ranks third, says the research.
The news isn’t all good. The authors report the financial crisis, lower wholesale electricity prices and lower demand for renewable energy have taken a toll on the wind power sector. Last year, orders for new turbines slowed and turbine and component manufacturers announced staff reductions.
“With federal incentives extended through 2012, there is less motivation to complete projects” this year, say the authors. But because of a deadline to start construction this year—for developers to qualify for a 30% grant from the U.S. Treasury Dept.—the authors expect many projects to start up this year.
An earlier report by DOE, called the 20% Wind Energy by 2030 Report, which is available at http://www.20percentwind.org/20p.aspx?page=Report, outlines the details of power infrastructure that must be put in place each year for the U.S. to meet DOE¹s 20% goal for wind power by 2030. Growth from 2006-2009 and projections through 2012 indicate reaching the goal is possible, but it is not predetermined, say Wiser and Bolinger.
If you're looking for a comprehensive resource for renewable energy installation figures, look no further: The Renewables Global Status report was released last week, and it provides a great snapshot of where and how renewables are being developed around the world.
The report was released by the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century, also known as REN21, and it provides an upbeat picture for renewables, despite the murky outlook for the global economy.
The report was originally released in 2005. Since then, solar PV has grown by 60 percent annually, wind by 27 percent, solar hot water by 19 percent, according to the authors. In 2009, renewables made up more than half of investment in global power generation. And that's with depressed oil and gas prices, lenders being very choosy about projects and individual consumers facing their own financial problems. Total investment in the industry was about $150 billion last year.
Other than the stellar investment figures during a slow year for most other industries, there's not much surprising in the 2009 report. The industry continues to move along – increasingly in developing countries – driven largely by robust public policy. Where policy lacks, investment does too.
Perhaps the most important trend is the role of China in the global renewable energy market. According to the report, the country produces about 40 precent of solar PV panels, 30 percent of wind turbines and 77 percent of solar hot water systems globally. The Chinese presence will impact investment decisions of companies as they work to compete with “The China Price,” and decide where to locate manufacturing facilities.
Many organizations like the International Energy Agency and the Energy Information Administration put together yearly figures on renewables. But none do it quite as comprehensively and clearly as the REN21 folks do. It's worth keeping around as a go-to resource for figures on the industry.
Here are some other highlights taken straight from the report about the various renewables sectors:
Wind: Trends include new growth in off shore development, the growing popularity of distributed, small- scale grid-connected turbines, and new wind projects in a much wider variety of geographical locations around the world and within countries. Firms continue to increase average turbine sizes and improve technologies, such as with gearless designs.
Grid-connected solar PV: The industry has been responding to price declines and rapidly changing market conditions by consolidating, scaling up, and moving into project development. Thin-film PV has experienced a rapidly growing market share in recent years, reaching 25 percent. A growing of number of solar PV plants are so-called “utility- scale” plants 200-kW and larger, which now account for one-quarter of total grid-connected solar PV capacity.
Biomass power: Biomass power plants exist in over 50 countries around the world and supply a growing share of electricity. Several European countries are expanding their total share of power from biomass, including Austria (7 per- cent), Finland (20 percent), and Germany (5 percent). Biogas for power generation is also a growing trend in several countries.
Geothermal power: Geothermal power plants now exist in 19 countries, and new plants continue to be commissioned annually—for example in Indonesia, Italy, Turkey, and the United States in 2009.
Concentrating solar thermal power (CSP): CSP emerged as a significant new power source during 2006–2010, after initial stalled development some two decades earlier. By early 2010, 0.7 GW of CSP was in operation, all in the U.S. Southwest and Spain, with construction or planning under way for much more capacity in many more countries.
Solar hot water/heating: China continues to dominate the world market for solar hot water collectors, with some 70 percent of the existing global capacity. Europe is a distant second with 12 percent. Virtually all installations in China are for hot water only. But there is a trend in Europe toward larger “combi” systems that provide both water and space heating; such systems now account for half of the annual market.
Biomass and geothermal heating: Biomass heating markets are expanding steadily, particularly in Europe. Trends include growing use of solid biomass pellets, use of biomass in building-scale or community-scale combined-heat- and-power plants (CHP), and use of biomass for centralized district heating systems. Use of geothermal direct-use heat plants and ground-source heat pumps is also growing. Globally, there exists some 500 gigawatts-thermal (GWth) of heating capacity from biomass (270 GWth), solar (170 GWth), and geothermal (60 Gwth).
Biofuels: Corn ethanol, sugar ethanol, and biodiesel are the primary biofuels markets, although others like biogas for transport and other forms of ethanol are also significant. Corn accounts for more than half of global ethanol production, and sugar cane for more than one-third. The United States and Brazil accounted for almost 90 percent of global ethanol production. The second-generation biofuels industry has seen many research and pilot-production plants commissioned, most with some form of partial public funding.
Although wind and solar are clearly scaling up the fastest, the REN21 report shows that the other industries are making some good gains as well.
A bigger tax deduction for energy-efficiency improvements would benefit the troubled commercial real estate (CRE) sector and help prevent climate change, according to Ed Mazria, FAIA, and the nonprofit Architecture 2030. In a new report, “The Imminent Commercial Real Estate Crisis and The CRE Solution,” Architecture 2030 argues for increasing the federal Section 179D tax deduction for efficiency improvements to commercial properties from $1.80/ft2 to $3–$9/ft2 for projects meeting the energy reduction targets of the 2030 Challenge.
The proposed solution is well timed. As discussed in the report, the construction industry lost 35,000 jobs in May alone (mostly in the commercial sector); CRE values have dropped 40 percent, and CRE transactions have decreased 90 percent in only three years. CRE loans totaling an estimated $200–$300 billion will be due in 2011—many will require refinancing, while some are already in default.
Mazria’s 2030 Challenge calls for an immediate 60 percent reduction in fossil fuel use with a goal of carbon neutrality by 2030. Through the “CRE Solution,” Mazria proposes a tiered series of tax deductions for buildings meeting and exceeding the 60 percent goal (which is embedded in the Waxman-Markey Climate Change Bill that’s in Congress). According to the report, the result would be at least $6 billion in tax benefits resulting in an invigorated CRE market with $73.4 billion in spending and one million new jobs.
Some experts, however, feel that Mazria’s CRE solution doesn’t do enough to address the limitations of the current 179D deduction. According to Paul Naumoff, principal and national director for business incentives and tax credits at accounting firm Ernst & Young, 179D and proposals to increase the deductible have the following limitations:
• It is essentially an accelerated depreciation—it allows an immediate deduction on energy-efficiency investments, but it also reduces the basis that the owner can depreciate in the future. In this way, it offers more of a timing benefit than an overall financial benefit, and the increased certification steps required by 179D may not be worth the trouble.
• Many companies are already losing money and not paying much in taxes, so the 179D deduction is not helpful. Naumoff suggests transforming the deduction into a refundable tax credit or grant instead.
Naumoff suggests that the most beneficial options right now for property owners are utility incentives.
Similar to the way that the smart grid reflects the combination of energy management and information technology, building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) is the marriage of 3 industries that so far have only worked together in marginal ways: architectural design, renewable energy, and building products.
Whenever you approach an industry from a different perspective, that’s when you produce very interesting products, said JD Albert of SRS Energy. SRS produces curved roofing tiles made of PV that are designed to fit into the mission-style architecture of the southwestern region of the U.S. Curved red clay roof tiles there are modeled after the Mediterranean roof styles found in Spain and elsewhere.
SRS Energy has roots in the roofing industry and saw the need for PV that would fully integrate – easily – into the roofs of these types of houses. Since the region where houses with these types of roofs proliferate happens to be in areas of the world with the greatest amount of solar insolation, the combination of curved roofing tiles and PV should go far. Albert said that SRS really views itself as a building product provider as opposed to a PV provider.
Solving two problems with one solution is a concept that is echoed by Pythagoras Solar, a company that makes double pane glass windows that incorporate PV and can generate renewable energy while also letting light through. The product is generally used as a building façade in large office buildings. BIPV has a real opportunity to add more value to solar, said Brendan Dillon, product manager for Pythagoras Solar. And providing more value, in an integrated roof tile or a glass window that also increases building efficiency is what will eventually lead to cost reductions in the BIPV market.
Roland Schindler of the Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems based in Cambridge, MA thinks that the number one issue the BIPV industry should be concerned with right now is cost. “Aesthetics and cost,” he said. We have to look at the entire energy consumption of the house or building, he explained, and then see where the BIPV product fits in.
Still Far From Adoption
In Germany, the world’s biggest solar market, BIPV still only makes up about 2% of installed product so the industry still has a ways to go in order to increase uptake. (Left, a 1662 German farmhouse that was renovated in the 80's is the earliest example of BIPV in the country. Credit: Fraunhofer)
SRS Energy’s Albert views certification and standardization as a big factor in helping the industry gain market share. While in the U.S., there is a BIPV standard, albeit still young, in Europe there isn’t one, he said. Add to that the fact that each European country may have its own set of certification standards and tests for a BIPV product. “This is a big problem. You can go to Europe and, for one product, end up doing 4 different fire tests to go into 12 different countries,” he explained. “And also how much can you change a product and not have to re-certify?”
Not having one standard that is uniformly accepted costs the industry hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees. And there are long lead times to get a product certified. “For us, certifying is a multi-hundred-thousand dollar activity,” Albert said.
It also makes sense to certify installers of BIPV systems, Albert said. Whereas SRS roof tiles are designed to be easily installed by roofers, in many parts of the country, roofers wouldn’t be allowed to perform installations unless they are also licensed electricians.
Since BIPV is more of a product for the construction industry, which is experiencing a slump right now, Pythagoras Solar’s Dillon said that construction companies could differentiate themselves in the industry by incorporating more BIPV or at least learning how to use it. Green building and BIPV are segments of the market that are growing right now, even though construction as a whole is declining, he said.
And while new construction that incorporates BIPV certainly offers that “wow factor,” (see the lead image to this story) the BIPV industry would be remiss if it didn’t focus on retrofits. “I think here in the U.S. the retrofit market is really dominating,” Fraunhofer’s Schindler said.
“Just focusing on new construction is a challenge,” said Albert, “because clearly there are millions and millions of existing buildings and construction is very slow right now.”
Future Growth is Expected
Roland Schindler pointed out in a presentation that in some regions of the world, more emphasis is being placed on energy net-zero or net-positive construction. For example in France by 2020, all new buildings must be energy positive, meaning that they will generate more energy than they use. Energy net-zero or net-positive construction will by definition incorporate more BIPV as developers will be forced to incorporate as much energy generation into the building façade as possible. France also has a very high BIPV-specific feed-in tariff.
France of course is not alone. Most of the EU is requiring that new construction be at least energy neutral by 2020 and countries such as Germany, the UK and Ireland, like France, are requiring new buildings to be energy positive by 2020.
Overall, Schindler believes that there is unlimited potential for BIPV both in space and demand. They just need to get the costs down or figure out how to add value to an existing product, something SRS Energy and Pythagoras Solar have taken to heart.
Dillon of Pythagoras explained it this way: “It’s taken companies like SRS and Pythagoras and others to really design, from the beginning, a building material that also has PV so that roofers, glaziers, other construction trades can seamless integrate this into their current processes.”
To listen to a discussion I had with Brendan Dillon, JD Albert and Roland Schindler, play the video below.
New Boundary Technologies is offering businesses a free 30-day trial of its Web-based PwrSmart Service, a PC power management solution that is said to deliver energy savings and reduce carbon emissions. The Web-based solution requires no up-front infrastructure investment, long-term contract or lengthy subscription agreement.
Targeted at facility managers, finance directors and corporate sustainability officers, the PwrSmart Service costs a fraction of the monthly energy savings organizations will generate by deploying PC power management, says the company.
New Boundary Technologies touts the PwrSmart Service as the industry’s first centralized PC power management solution designed specifically as a Web-based service.
Businesses that implement PC power management on 5,000 PCs can save $350,000 in energy costs annually and prevent nearly 9,000 tons of CO2 emissions, according to New Boundary Technologies. The company says industry estimates cite that PC power management can reduce an organization’s overall annual energy consumption up to 15 percent.
Case-in-point: Ford Motor Company’s new PC Power Management program is expected to save the automaker $1.2 million and reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 16,000 to 25,000 metric tons annually.
The PwrSmart solution provides real-time PC energy savings and a built-in energy auditing capability. It also provides ongoing optimization of energy use and reporting for energy rebate and sustainability programs, says the company.
Data analysis is presented in graphs and charts with the ability to click and drill-down for additional energy/cost savings details. Power-management settings are automatically applied without manual intervention, and enforce settings even if end users try to disable or change them.
The user dashboard is accessible from any Web browser with a Silverlight plug-in. Security roles enable individuals to view, analyze and report on energy savings without the risk of impacting PC operation.
Users can control and enforce multiple power settings depending on the time of day for any computer, any setting, any time as well as schedule complete PC shut downs, hibernations or wake-up events based on work schedules and maintenance.
The solution offers pre-packaged or customizable PC power management schemes, which can be configured to keep critical applications running.
PwrSmart Service is compliant with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star requirements for PC power management solutions.
You can download an interactive PwrSmart Service demo here
From the east coast to the southwestern U.S., two companies are building solar energized parking structures totaling more than 7 MW of capacity.
In two of the hottest solar markets in the United States, solar energy is being built on or into parking structures. REC Solar announced that it would be designing and installing a 2.9 MW solar electric carport-mounted system for the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System (SAVAHCS). In New Jersey, Solaire Corporation announced that it would be supplying solar parking canopies for a 4.1-MW solar-power project that is being built at a Fortune 100 corporate office campus in central New Jersey.
Solaire said that it has already broken ground on the installation and expects to complete it by early 2011. REC is expected to complete a smaller, 302-kW single-axis tracker mounted system for SAVAHCS this month, after which it will focus on the 2.9 MW carport that will cover seven separate parking areas.
When complete, the Solaire carport will total 1.1 miles of canopies, which are designed with a dual incline. Its system also has an integrated decking and gutter system that protects people and cars from snow and ice, and protects the wiring and panels from unauthorized access, according to the company. Snow and rainwater captured by the canopies can be recycled for irrigation and other gray water uses, said the company.
REC said that when the 302-kW system and this carport are complete, the combined PV systems would significantly offset energy demand from the local utility grid for the more than 900,000 square foot medical center.
Illinois has received funding to build the largest solar field in the Midwest. Wanxiang America Corporation will get more than $4 million in a federal stimulus grant to develop the field. Wanxiang will manage the project through Rockford Solar Partners a joint venture with Chicago-based renewable energy developer, New Generation Power.
Wanxiang America is building the facility at the Rockford Global Trade Park at the corner of Blackhawk Road and Logistics Parkway. The official groundbreaking ceremony was held Tuesday afternoon
The field will support 28 megawatts of power initially and will support 62 megawatts when everything is complete. The new facility, known as The Rockford Project, will save more than 40 million gallons of water annually and will reduce carbon dioxide emissions at a rate of more than 10,000 tons annually, or about 28 tons each day. Solar panels will be sourced locally from the Wanxiang’s Rockford Plant.
Along with funding for this project, Governor Quinn also signed two bills into law that promote the use of solar power. House Bill 6202, will amend the Renewable Energy Portfolio standard to include a requirement for utilities to purchase 0.5 percent of its power from solar sources by June 1, 2012 and increase that amount each year. House Bill 5429, will allow individual homeowners to construct solar energy panels on their homes starting in 2011.
“Solar energy is the wave of the future, and it is important that our public utilities and homeowners are able to more easily increase their use of solar energy,” said Governor Quinn. “We must do everything we can to increase our use of solar energy, which will help us protect natural resources and reduce our reliance on traditional energy sources, such as foreign oil.”
Wanxiang America Corporation, based in Elgin, Illinois, is the U.S. headquarters of Wanxiang Group, one of the largest non-state owned companies in China with $8 billion in revenues worldwide. Wanxiang currently has 4,100 employees in the U.S. and more than 45,000 globally.
The Timken Company yesterday announced that it had received a contract worth US$26 million to supply wind turbine products and services to China's Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Company, one of the top five wind power equipment manufacturers in the world.
According to Goldwind, in 2009 it received new wind power capacity orders for about 2,722 megawatts (MW), accounting for approximately 19.7 percent of the wind generation added in China last year.
The company's said that Goldwind's contract with Timken will support more than 1,500 MW of new wind power capacity. It also helps Timken further itself as a manufacturer for the wind industry. The company will be providing its advanced bearings that include its new UltraWind tapered roller bearings and condition-monitoring systems. These bearings will go into Goldwind's 1.5-MW and 2.5-MW platforms.
Timken recently began producing ultra-large bore bearings for wind turbines in Xiangtan, Hunan Province, and retooled and expanded its U.S. facilities in Asheboro, N.C. and Tyger River, S.C. to provide parts to the wind industry. This is in addition to Timken's existing wind-bearing production in Wuxi, China; Chennai, India; and Ploiesti, Romania.
The companies said that they will collaborate on future wind-turbine developments.
PV Contractror, Inc. has a new open-source-based service designed to make comparison of modules and components easy. Oliver Friedrich, CEO of PV Contractor, tells us about why the company's service is so important for installers.
WASHINGTON, DC — Senate Democrats put off a vote on a watered-down energy bill until September in the latest twist in their attempt to pass a key part of President Barack Obama's agenda.
The beleagured energy bill received a significant haircut in the few weeks since the Democrats abandoned more aggressive legislation that would have implemented a greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program and instituted a renewable energy standard.
The pared-down version delayed on Tuesday mostly focused on raising the $75 million liability cap for oil spills in the wake of the BO oil, in addition to measures promoting energy efficiency and incentives for natural gas as a transportation fuel. It lacked hard targets for emissions reduction targets.
Yet even the modest bill failed again to attract unanimous Democratic support or a handful of Republican votes. Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Mark Begich (D-Alaska) opposed the elimination of the $75 million liability cap, Politico reported.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid postponed a vote on the bill until after the Senate's August recess, which begins later this week.
The House of Representatives narrowly passed a climate change bill last summer aimed at reducing emissions in the U.S. by 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. A handful of subsequent bills introduced in the Senate stalled.
The sustainability profession is in development. Spurred by environmental necessity and societal imbalances, a new field is emerging. Recognizing the need to bring clarity and cohesion to this growing concern, our friends at the International Society of Sustainability Professionals (ISSP), formed in 2008, released a comprehensive, survey-based report highlighting the primary competencies needed by sustainability professionals. While all of the reported skills are important, good communication is without a doubt the most vital ability.
Why communication? Because this skill is critical to meet the industry’s #1 challenge: articulating the value of sustainability. No matter if the conversation is with consultants or in-house CSR professionals, the complaint is the same: building the business case for sustainability and establishing buy-in from colleagues is a difficult, uphill battle. Of course, this is only a reflection of the general societal misunderstanding of sustainability. Even today, despite all the improvements and steps forward, I get a “deer in the headlights” look when I try to explain why I am pursuing a Sustainable MBA. Folks just don’t know what a Sustainable MBA is!
Of course, this lack of understanding is improving and will continue to do so. Indeed, the ISSP survey concluded that this challenge, promoting understanding, will decrease in the next five years where other challenges, such as dealing with climate change issues, will increase in importance. The hard skills cited in the report will help to meet such challenges. These include systems thinking, project management and strategic planning. More specifically, scientific expertise and knowledge of sustainability reporting were cited as important hard skills, especially for large organizations. Note that financial analysis and ROI was most important to consultants and those in the manufacturing and service sectors.
It seems that the ISSP survey respondents agree with my assessment that the primary “soft skill”, communication, is of most concern. In fact, ISSP reported that soft “…skills will continue to be needed in the future because they are necessary for bringing about transformational change”.
This conclusion, that communication is one of, if not the most important skill for sustainability professionals is mirrored in other studies as well. In 2008, Hudson Gain, a New York based consulting firm, interviewed 61 executives from several corporations in an effort to determine the needed characteristics for a sustainability officer. According to Hudson, virtually every interviewee placed a high importance on communication. The report noted however, that the communication efforts should be substantial, not just talk. There should always be something real and tangible to say.
Further, the Canada based group, International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), published an extensive 2007 report on becoming a leader in sustainability. Study respondents, who were interns or part of the IISD RS team, reported communications skills as the most important with figures between 55-60% respectively.
At the end of the day, a sustainability professional needs to know just about everything. That is what my research has led me to believe (good thing I embrace lifelong learning). But, no matter the discipline or specific field, no matter if the subject matter is full cost accounting, greenhouse gas mitigation or ecosystem valuation, communication is key. You have to know how to articulate your position, state your case and translate the value of your efforts to all stakeholders. All steps towards the greater green are for naught if they are not well communicated. So, speak up, write well and let us hear you. We are listening.
A new sustainability survey reveals that only 16 percent of U.S. consumers and 29 percent of Fortune 1000 executives believe that a majority of businesses are committed to sustainability. The Gibbs & Soell survey also finds that 54 percent of executives and 48 percent of consumers believe only “some” businesses are committed to “going green.”
The study, “2010 Gibbs & Soell Sense & Sustainability” (PDF) surveyed both U.S. consumers and Fortune 1000 executives on their views of corporate efforts to improve the health of the environment through sustainable practices, products, or services.
Financial inefficiency, market reluctance and unclear measurement are impeding the path to corporate sustainability, says Gibbs & Soell. Executives cite insufficient return on investment (78 percent), consumers’ unwillingness to pay a premium for green products or services (71 percent), and difficulty in evaluating sustainability across a product life cycle (45 percent) as the top barriers to more businesses going green.
The survey also finds that businesses are taking more conservative approaches to resource management by asking “green” stewards to share duties, says Gibbs & Soell.
While more than two-thirds of executives (69 percent) indicate their companies have people responsible for sustainability or “going green” initiatives, most have added responsibilities for green efforts to the primary duties of a team of individuals (35 percent), or a C-suite or another senior level position (15 percent).
Only about one in 10 say they have a C-suite or other senior level title/position dedicated solely to sustainability (12 percent), while 31 percent said there is no one at their organization who is primarily or partially responsible for green initiatives.
“Closing this credibility gap is going to require actions and communications that connect with key stakeholders,” says Ron Loch, senior vice president-greentech and sustainability practice, Gibbs & Soell. “Having a dedicated staff and line item budget for green initiatives is an important step in making believers of
Nation-wide Shortage of Electronic Ballasts
In a strongly-worded 
My summer as an 
NORTHBROOK, IL — The messy world of environmental claims certification just got a little less messy with the acquisition by ULC Standards, a unit of Underwriters Laboratories, of Ottawa-based TerraChoice, a green marketing consultancy and the managers of Canada's EcoLogo program.
Recently my wife Charla and several of her female friends traveled to Telluride, Colorado to attend the Arts Festival. Sort of a Thelma and Louise bonding thing, but with a better purpose and a much happier ending. They hob-knobbed with the rich and famous, checked out some movie star summer homes and saw a number of the $100,000 (plus) electric Tesla Roadsters.
While awareness of green IT and energy used by a company's computing departments are widespread, a new survey sponsored by 
As Americans' overall environmental confidence continues to ebb and flow, their faith in their employers' environmental responsibility has dropped to a new low, according to the monthly Green Confidence Index (
The capability to provide artificial sunlight has dramatically expanded the boundaries of time and space, adding hours to the day when we may see and illuminating where sunlight was unable to penetrate. Since the first humans carried a torch to provide light, heat has been a by-product of producing light.
Since UCSF Medical Center replaced some of its surgical lighting with LED fixtures, doctors and nurses no longer complain about the heat from the light fixtures when performing surgical procedures.
"Not only does the LED technology reduce our energy costs, it also reduces maintenance," said JoAnn Jenny, director of communications for Allegheny County Airport Authority.
Laura Scudders, a brand born during the Depression Era, used to claim its potato chips were the "noisiest chips in the world." These days, to hear some consumers tell it, SunChips are breaking the sound barrier with new packaging that is eco-friendly but creates a din when handled.
U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu this week dedicated the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), the world's first and most powerful X-ray laser, at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The LCLS will play an essential role in addressing the scientific needs of the 21st century by exploring new ways to create better energy sources and enabling advances in a range of scientific fields. The LCLS produces pulses of X-rays more than a billion times 
O2 has today earned plaudits with the launch a major new initiative designed to rate the environmental credentials of 65 leading mobile phones and provide consumers with an easy to understand guide to which phones are greenest.
The question isn't easy to answer. While states and local communities set objective decibel standards for highways, airports and wind projects, “noise” is very subjective. Some people are not at all troubled by the low-frequency sound of an operating wind turbine. Others are extremely sensitive to the sound and report being in a constant state of agitation. 
For over 30 years, Rockline has built a reputation as a trusted supplier of household paper and non-woven products. As the largest supplier of wet wipes in North America, the company is a recognised leader in product innovation as well as sustainable manufacturing practices - its line of environmentally-friendly wipes are 100% biodegradable and made with 100% renewable resources. 
"Since ComEd is a local utility, we decided all the artists had to be within the ComEd service area," said Brian Shembeda, senior vice president, creative director/ art director at Leo Burnett. "When you combine refrigerators that were recycled within the community with Chicagoland artists, it gives the project a strong community feel and helps reinforce the importance of green projects on a local level." 
There was no paid advertising to support the initiative but the Greater Northern Michigan Avenue Association and ComEd promoted the campaign on their Web sites, explained Sarah Paulsen, vice president, account director at Leo Burnett. "A plaque is displayed on each piece highlighting the appliance recycling program at ComEd to inform passersby of the details and a little bit about the fridge and its artist." 
Idling costly for truckers, consumers and the environment, but electric auxiliary power units (APUs) could change that.
Not only that, but the more costly diesel APUs still require fuel and cost more to keep up.
energy servers as “revolutionary”, claiming that they will forever change the landscape of how we get electricity for our homes. However, the innovation – albeit novel, does have some quirks that many are overlooking.
Now Announcing the Chicagoland Wake Up to Efficiency Breakfast Series!
Washington, D.C. 
ever, feel that Mazria’s CRE solution doesn’t do enough to address the limitations of the current 179D deduction. According to Paul Naumoff, principal and national director for business incentives and tax credits at accounting firm Ernst & Young, 179D and proposals to increase the deductible have the following limitations:
Still Far From Adoption
WASHINGTON, DC — Senate Democrats put off a vote on a watered-down energy bill until September in the latest twist in their attempt to pass a key part of President Barack Obama's agenda.
The sustainability profession is in development. Spurred by environmental necessity and societal imbalances, a new field is emerging. Recognizing the need to bring clarity and cohesion to this growing concern, our friends at the International Society of Sustainability Professionals (
