Green ArchiTEXT

30% Wind Power Feasible, New U.S. Study Finds

By Ben Block and Amanda Chiu

A new U.S. Department of Energy study concludes that up to 30 percent of the eastern and Midwestern United States could technically power itself with wind energy, the most optimistic government projection produced so far.

A 2008 analysis of wind speeds, infrastructure capacity, and government regulations estimated that the United States could generate 20 percent of its electricity from wind energy by 2030.

The new analysis, released on Wednesday, concluded that wind power could supply as much as 30 percent of the area east of the Great Plains, known as the U.S. Eastern Interconnection, by 2024 if transmission infrastructure expands significantly.

via www.worldwatch.org

Wind Power Has Another Banner Year

Despite a crippling recession and tight credit markets, the American wind power industry grew at a blistering pace in 2009, adding 39 percent more capacity. The country is close to the point where 2 percent of its electricity will come from wind turbines.

While that is still a small share, it is up from virtually nothing a few years ago. Continued growth at such a fast pace could help the nation lower its emissions of the gases that cause global warming.

The American Wind Energy Association, in its annual report to be released on Tuesday, said the amount of capacity added last year, 9,900 megawatts, was the largest on record, and was 18 percent above the capacity added in 2008, also a banner year.

via www.nytimes.com

Vermont School Builds Net-Zero Field House

If ever there was a compelling reason for a school to build sustainably, it's the one faced by Vermont's Putney School not long ago. Namely, warmer winters resulting from global climate change had reduced the cold-weather sports opportunities the private boarding school traditionally relied on, leaving it with a sudden need for gym space for the first time. Its solution? A net-zero field house that's on track to be one of only five platinum LEED-certified school buildings in the nation.

By definition, net-zero energy buildings generate as much energy as they consume over the course of a year, and that's at the heart of the Putney School's 16,800-square-foot athletics building, which opened its doors last fall. Designed by Maclay Architects, the super-insulated, super-energy-efficient building uses the sun for its heating and electricity needs. Specifically, 16 sun-tracking photovoltaic solar panels power the building, feeding excess energy during sunny months back into the grid and earning the school 6 cents per kilowatt-hour as they do. In the winter, the building draws energy out again, but in an average year, it's expected to do better than break even on its energy use. Other green features of the USD 6 million field house, include low-water fixtures and composting toilets, a white reflective roof and local materials such as site-harvested wood.

via www.springwise.com

Creating the Greenest Office Building in the U.S.

It takes a certain ruthlessness to create the greenest office building in the nation.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a unit of the U.S. Department of Energy, is midway through construction of a $64 million project that lays claim to that title. The architects and engineers have spent hundreds of hours calculating the energy use of every aspect of the building, from the elevator to the exit signs. They have tweaked the design again and again with the aim of getting the 218,000-square-foot building to perform at net zero—meaning it will consume so little energy that it won't need to draw a single electron from the grid.

via online.wsj.com

Balance of Systems: Personalized Energy, New Solar and More

With global leaders in discussions about climate change, PopTech releases three talks this week from energy researchers approaching the problem from other angles. MIT chemist Dan Nocera shows how we can move from the grid to personalized energy, spatial designer Laura Kurgan demonstrates there are no neutral maps, and scientist Nicole Kuepper creates photovoltaic cells out of nail polish, inkjet printers, and pizza ovens.

via poptech.org

There is plenty renewable energy to fight global warming

The shift from our current fossil fuel based economies to sustainable renewable energy economies is usually presented as a great challenge. That is also the message coming from the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen. Oil companies tell us that it can be done but that we need decades to get there. The numbers tell a bit of a different story. Total world energy consumption is about 15 terawatts (2005). All that energy can be generated by today’s solar panel technology on a sunny piece of land of about 550 by 550 kilometers (340 square miles). That is for instance about 3% of the surface of the United States and China, 4% of the surface of Australia, 3.5% of Brazil and 9% of India. And we just need to capture about 20% of the solar energy that hits such an area. Of course the beauty of solar energy is that it can be generated locally. So we are not going to see such a centralized production. But the numbers clearly convey that the challenge is not as huge as it is often presented.

via solutionsweneednow.com

Here comes the sun? Some wonder what’s in it for West Pullman (Chicago) with new solar farm

Victor Mejia stood at the edge of his driveway on South Loomis Street staring at 39 acres of green technology gleaming in the November sunset.

What once was a wasteland-like expanse of dirt clods, toxic leftovers and clusters of trees is now two energy companies’ latest venture into renewable electricity – a $62 million affair that, when completed next year, will be the largest urban solar farm in the U.S. It also sits 20 feet from Mejia’s property.

via news.medill.northwestern.edu

PHOTO: Danny Yadron/MEDILL

Italy's Home Grown "Adopt a kW" Initiative

Organic farmer Marco Mariano started the “Adopt a kW” initiative — a cooperative photovoltaic system — in his home region Piedmont, and his very active blog helped spread the idea also to other Italian regions.

The basic concept that underlies “Adopt a kW” — that all citizens can purchase a share of the photovoltaic system — has proven to be successful: many people have joined the project and founded a co-op to run the initiative (called Solare Collettivo). The photovoltaic system is currently hosted in a building owned by a social cooperative in the small Piedmont town of Mondovì. It provides electricity at discount rates and guarantees Solare Collettivo members guaranteed annual savings, the size of which depend on the system’s productivity. Coming from all over Italy, not all Solare Collettivo members can obtain their energy from the Mondovì-based system, yet they are committed to investing in the renewable energy market.

via www.experientia.com

How Many Solar Panels Does It Take to Power the World?

That’s essentially the question put forth by the Land Art Generator Initiative and then illustrated in “Total Surface Area Required to Fuel the World With Solar”. The map (pictured here) estimates that 496,805 square kilometers would be needed worldwide by the year 2030 to supply 678 quadrillion Btu, using solar panels alone and producing zero carbon emissions.

Their assumptions:

“According to the US Department of Energy (Energy Information Administration), the world consumption of energy in all of its forms (barrels of petroleum, cubic meters of natural gas, watts of hydro power, etc.) is projected to reach 678 quadrillion Btu (or 7.15 exajoules) by 2030 – a 44% increase over 2008 levels (levels for 1980 were 283 quadrillion Btu and we stand at around 500 quadrillion Btu today).

I wonder what surface area would be required and what type of infrastructural investment would be required to supply that amount of power by using only solar panels. To create fuel that can be used in vehicles and equipment I am assuming that some of the electricity generated would be used to create hydrogen. We should all start wondering about these things since we will have really no other choice by the turn of the next century.”

Interesting concept, based on dividing these arrays among 5,000 super-site installations around the world – equaling a land area roughly the size of Spain. Read more here.

Dell Headquarters Is 100% Green Powered

With its Austin, Texas headquarters now 100 percent powered by renewable energy, Dell has achieved a major milestone in its bid to make all company-owned and -leased facilities “carbon neutral” in 2008. The global campus is home to more than 10,000 employees. According to GreenBiz.com:

“Energy from wind and landfill gas sources now completely powers Dell Inc.'s 2.1 million square foot headquarters in Austin, Texas, the computer maker said Wednesday. 

Dell's announcement of a deal with Waste Management and TXU Energy Wind Power is part of its bid to achieve carbon neutrality at its owned and leased facilities this year.

Waste Management's Austin Community Landfill gas-to-energy facility will supply about 40 percent of the power needs at Dell’s headquarters, with the remainder coming from existing wind farms in the state through TXU Energy.”

Read more of “Dell's HQ Switches to 100 Percent Renewable Energy”.

More on Dell’s strategy to improve energy efficiency in its operations and Green Power plans is available here.