Wintry
Canada to Use Solar Power to Heat Homes
Spring
2005
Toronto, Canada - better known for snow than sun, plans to build a 52-home solar powered community in Alberta that will harvest the sun’s rays in summer and use them to heat homes in winter. The Drake Landing development, already under construction in the western province, will be the first of its kind in North America. Officials say it will cut greenhouse gas emissions by 260 tons a year and supply the homes with more than 90 percent of the heat they need.
Under the scheme, solar panels mounted on garage roofs will collect energy from the sun and store it underground. Come winter, the thermal energy will heat homes through a central district heating system.
Some C$5.5 million ($4.5 million) has been invested so far in the project, which is jointly funded by the governments of Canada and Alberta and by a number of Canadian companies.
— Reuters, Monday 04 April 2005, http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/040405EC.shtml
The Straus Family Creamery creates electricity with its new methane digester. The $280,000 digester, nestled in a lagoon, captures the methane created by manure and converts it into electricity, saving $6,000 per month. It also fuels the family car, says Vivien Straus. The wastewater left over is deodorized and used for fertilizing the fields.
The system takes advantage of California’s net metering law, which allows the operation to run its meters in reverse as excess electricity is sent back into the grid. It also takes advantage of the cows, says Douglas Williams, designer of the system and professor of BioResource and Agricultural Engineering at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. “Cows produce two times as much manure as milk, in fact each cow produces 120 pounds of waste per day.”
Methane is a greenhouse gas with 21 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide, according to Sustainable Conservation. Hundreds of methane digesters are operating in Europe, and at least 50 in the US. A dozen or more are underway in California, thanks to the net metering legislation and grants from California’s Energy Commission and other state and federal agencies.
For more information about the technology, visit http://www.valleyairsolutions.com or call 877-430-7600.
— “Dairy Runs on Cow Poop,” Julia Hollister Progressive Populist, 3/15/05
Willie Nelson is promoting a clean-burning alternative fuel through his new company, Willie Nelson Biodiesel. The product is no other than used vegetable oil, mainly soybean, from Dunkin Donuts or Sid’s Greasy Spoon. The used oil must be filtered and processed slightly to remove the glycerin, then it’s ready to go into your diesel engine. French inventor Rudolf Diesel’s original engines ran on vegetable oils.
The fuel’s average price is $1.79/gal. While the supply is mostly in the Midwest, it could soon appear all over the US. Now your exhaust system can smell like donuts - or French fries! Rep. Dennis Kucinich is preparing legislation to help develop the new industry. For information call 202-225-5871.
— “BioWillie,” Jim Hightower, Progressive Populist, 3/15/05
Oil
in the Greenhouse
Winter
2004/05
Here’s a new recipe for salad this winter! Take a vat of used cooking oil from restaurants, strain out food bits ranging from bread crumbs to chicken bones, then use it as fuel to heat a greenhouse full of ...vegetables. It works in the Maine winter in a 7,500 square foot plastic-covered greenhouse.
Even with costs of labor and materials factored in, Ralph Turner of Laughing Stock Farm calculates that it costs only about 20-30 cents a gallon to burn used cooking oil. “I think it’s fantastic,” said John Harker, an agriculture development specialist with the Maine Dept. of Agriculture.
Cooking oil is not suitable for heating homes, but using a specially designed waste burner donated by Clean Burn (Leola,PA), Turner can burn unrefined cooking oil.... Turner warms the cooking oil so it is liquid, then strains all of the sediment out of it. The burner heats water that is circulated in pipes throughout the greenhouse....He calls it “one small local solution.”
— Tess Nacelewicz, "Farm Uses Waste Cooking Oil to Heat Its Greenhouse," Portland Press Herald, Dec. 30, 2004. http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=6838.
Enough
Electricity
Fall
2002
Vermont Gov. Howard Dean said yesterday that his state can meet electricity demands for the next decade by using renewable energy and efficiency and relying less on large fossil-fuel plants. For starters, Dean said he would probably devote $750,000 from an oil-industry settlement to solar and wind system rebates.
Christine Salembier, commissioner of the state Dept. of Public Service, said that the state saved residents $17.7 million last year on their electric bills through a statewide energy conservation program. She said the resulting reduction in greenhouse gas emissions was equivalent to taking 2,100 cars off the road.
— Rutland Herald, AP, David Gram, 9/19/01.
Veggie
Fuel
Fall
2001
In 1995, the Hawaiian island of Maui became concerned about environmental and health problems resulting from restaurant grease clogging its landfill. Operators complained that static pile fires were becoming more frequent, and the oil could leak into groundwater. The owner of King Diesel on Maui spearheaded the formation of Pacific Biodiesel (PacBio) in 1996.
PacBio receives used oil directly from pump trucks that service restaurants and hotels, and converts this into 150,000 gallons of premium biodiesel each year. This fuel, made totally from recycled cooking oil, goes to cusomers ranging from private business to farmers.
Biodiesel is safe for use in all conventional diesel engines and requires no engine modifications. Torque, horsepower and fuel economy are similar to regular diesel fuel. Engine durability may even be increased because lower sulfur content results in more lubrication. It is a naturally oxygenated fuel which results in cleaner burning and less pollution.
Also it smells better, like french fries sizzling in hot grease.
— E Magazine, Nov/Dec 2000, www.emagazine.com
Biodiesel works just as well in Maryland, where the USDA Agricultural Research Center uses soy oil based biodiesel as a transportation and heating fuel, in all 150 of its diesel vehicles, from tractors to snowplows.
The Beltsville MD center will heat all of its buildings with biodiesel next winter, as a result of last winter’s successful experiment with heating a dozen buildings.
Over the past two years the US Forest Service has used biodiesel in fifteen assorted bulldozers, road graders and trucks located at the Black Hills National Forest in South Dakota.
— GrassRoots Recycling Network, Gary Liss, 916-652-7850
Let
it Blow
Summer
2001
Wind power is now cheaper than coal in the US, according to a study published n the journal Science. The study’s researchers, two Stanford engineers, priced wind power at 3 to 4 cents per kilowatt hour, already competitive with coal. After factoring in health and environmental costs, they put the true price for coal power at 5.5 to 8.3 cents per kilowatt hour. For wind power to take off, however, the researchers say that lawmakers will need to give the industry the same investment opportunities and tax breaks historically given to fossil fuels. They propose this bargain-basement deal: eliminating nearly two-thirds of coal-generated electricity and single-handedly dropping the country’s greenhouse gas emission levels below 1990 levels by building 225,000 wind turbines - at an initial cost of $338 billion.
— www.msnbc.com, 24 Aug. 2001.
Chicago officials say that within five years, at least 20% of electricity used by the city to power everything from public buildings to elevated trains will come from renewable sources like wind and solar power.
City Environment Commissioner Bill Abolt said, “The competition Chicago is involved in is an international one to establish itself as the premier environmentally friendly city.” Since Mayor Richard Daley took office, Chicago has planted thousands of trees, created more than 100 miles of bike paths, installed solar panels on city museums, and built a rooftop garden on City Hall.
— Boston Globe, AP, Tammy Webber, 20 June 2001
“The Pacific Northwest is well on its way to becoming the wind capital of the US,” says Tom Gray of the American Wind Energy Association. For example, the new Stateline Wind Energy Project on the Washington-Oregon border will begin operations this fall with 396, 242-foot turbines, together capable of powering 60,000 homes.
Wind power generates only 0.1% of the nation’s electricity, but new wind projects coming on line across the country this year will be enough to power 300,000 homes.
— USA Today, Patrick McMahon, 16 Aug. 2001
Kansas is third among US states in wind resources, and for the first time, that power is about to be significantly tapped. Wind turbines are gong up near the southwest Kansas town of Montezuma. A 110-megawatt wind generated power plant built by Florida Power & Light will be online this fall, sowing the wind on an 18,000 acre farm to reap electricity for 33,000 homes in Kansas and Missouri. FPL operates wind farms in Iowa, Texas, Minnesota, Oregon and California.
Richard Nelson, energy researcher at Kansas State University, can foresee a day when wind turbines dot the Kansas landscape as oil wells do now. “I think a wind farm is aesthetically appealing, and if you’re a farmer, why not sell wind rights, just like you do mineral rights?”
— Wichita Eagle, Alan Bjerga, Aug. 16, 2001
The same wind that spread radioactive dust from nuclear explosions at the Nevada Test Site during the 1990s may soon be generating electricity for Nevada and other Western states.
A 1,069 acre wind farm on the site about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas is in the final planning stages. The US Dept. of Energy took public comments during July and August on the scope of a proposed environmental impact statement.
Issues for analysis include impacts on archaeological resources especially Shoshone Mountain and Pahute Mesa, and other sites important to 17 Native American tribes. Some significant environmental impact is expected.
An agreement signed in January between the Energy Dept and Nevada Sen. Harry Reid will result in the second largest wind power farm in the US. Plans provide for up to 545 wind turbines generating up to 600 megawatts of electricity. One megawatt is enough to power 1,000 typical American homes.
Energy
in the Wind
Spring
2001
More wind generating capacity than nuclear has been installed worldwide for the second year in a row in 2000, an indication that wind is becoming a competitive player in today’s power markets, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) said on May 13.
The steady growth of investment in wind farms makes it clear that deployment of wind power can be part of the solution in America’s energy crisis, according to AWEA.
-- www.awea.org
Solar
Power for School
Winter
2000/1
Los Angeles is at the center of a small surge in solar energy use. The L.A. Convention Center, which housed the Democratic convention last August, has installed 15,000 square feet of solar panels and has plans for more. City Hall and the Department of Water and Power are next, and the zoo is designing a new entrance made of solar panels.
On a national level, the U.S. Department of Energy is asking architects to incorporate solar features into their blueprints and working with developers to construct homes that are 50% more energy-efficient without adding to the sale price.
The most environmentally friendly public school in Washington state opened last August. The elementary school in Kent, Wash., is partially powered by solar and wind and warmed by geothermal heat, and it includes a storm water collection-and-reuse system for irrigation, as well as waterless urinals expected to save about 144,000 gallons of water a year.
-- Lisa Pemberton-Butler, Seattle Times, 8/30/00.
Renewables
Winter
1999/2000
Is nuclear power necessary? Solar advocates say NO and point to advances in technology, not to mention the high cost of gasoline and oil.
Take cars for example. A new speed record was set for solar-powered cars on a cross-Australia race course, 66.8 miles per hour over the 62 mile course. The Australian Greenhouse Office helps sponsor the annual race and administers a $50 million renewable energy commercialization program including cash incentives for household solar power generators.
The US had a program like that when Jimmy Carter was president, and the solar industry took off like a jackrabbit with the help of tax incentives. Now our subsidies are going to prop up the nuclear industry. As the cost of solar keeps dropping it should not need subsidizing in just a few years.
Meanwhile new car technology has produced the Honda Insight which the Sierra Club calls the best car on the US market. Using a hybrid gasoline-electric engine, it gets 70 miles to the gallon (unleaded) and doesn’t need to be recharged braking the engine recharges the battery as it runs. Cost is about $20,000. Toyota will come out next year with its version of the hybrid, the Prius, rated at only 67 mpg on the highway. It is already being sold in Japan.
Compare those figures with the 16 mpg Ford Excursion. Don’t think the Excursion will keep you safe. If you crash the Excursion and a 40 mpg Saturn SL1 subcompact against a wall, the Saturn’s driver and passenger will have a better chance of surviving because of its superior safety features.
Someone in the post office got the word. The US Postal Service has placed the largest electric vehicle order in the nation’s history. It committed to buying 500 electric mail delivery vehicles from Ford and has the option to purchase 6,000 of the clean running trucks.
— Environmental News Service 12/21/99 and 2/18/00, and Sierra Nov/Dec 1999.
The power companies tell us that solar can’t produce electric power as cheaply as nuclear, which appears to be true but only if you don’t count a couple of important items. First, the nuclear industry is thoroughly subsidized by act of Congress, including the insurance policy that covers disasters. Second, the power companies never include the high cost of decommissioning the old nuclear plants, some of which are already closed down. Just finding a safe place to dump the old plants, and the ever-growing pile of radioactive waste, is an expensive process without a solution to date.
Remember when they said nuclear electricity would be too cheap to meter? Promises, promises. Suggestion: switch those big subsidies to solar and save the disaster insurance.
In Austin, Texas, the municipal utility is inviting its 350,000 customers to sign up for GreenChoice, a program that provides electricity from wind, sun and biomass technologies. Subscribers will pay only four tenths of a cent more for each kilowatt hour of green power, expected to be about $4 per month extra for the average residential customer.
Austin Energy will reduce carbon emissions by 160,000 tons per year, the equivalent of having 600,000 trees to remove the carbon over the next decade. Could this program save Atlanta’s air?
— Environmental News Service 2/7/00
