October 31st, 2009

What's the hurry? You can still see Miami from the plane.

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 7:39 am

Categories: Blogroll, air pollution, climate change, conservation, energy, engineering, environmental health, federal government, global warming, green tech, law & politics, state government

Tags: Global Warming, Harry Fuller, GAO, Congress, national planning

Most American government entities–from township to feds–aren’t in a big hurry to confront global warming. That’s the conclusion of a new report from the Government Accounting Office (GAO). You can read the full report here.

The GAO did find action being taken in Maryland, New York City and Seattle. In general the problem seems to be muddled thinking, or “Is that part of my job?” Also, financial problems at local and state levels make it very attractive to postpone any global warming action for now.

Finally the GAO goes into the horrible closet that hides centralized planning. They actually call for some rational, planned, fact-based approach to global warming. Here is their exact plea,
“Congress and federal agencies could encourage adaptation by clarifying roles and responsibilities. About 71 percent (129 of 181) of the respondents rated the development of a national adaptation strategy as very or extremely useful. Climate change is a complex, interdisciplinary issue with the potential to affect every sector and level of government operations. Our past work on crosscutting issues suggests that governmentwide strategic planning–with the commitment of top leaders–can integrate activities that span a wide array of federal, state, and local entities…
“The appropriate entities within the Executive Office of the President, such as the Council on Environmental Quality and the Office of Science and Technology Policy, in consultation with relevant federal agencies, state and local governments, and key congressional committees of jurisdiction, should develop a national strategic plan that will guide the nation’s efforts to adapt to a changing climate. The plan should, among other things, (1) define federal priorities related to adaptation; (2) clarify roles, responsibilities, and working relationships among federal, state, and local governments; (3) identify mechanisms to increase the capacity of federal, state, and local agencies to incorporate information about current and potential climate change impacts into government decision making; (4) address how resources will be made available to implement the plan; and (5) build on and integrate ongoing federal planning efforts related to adaptation.”

Well, that pretty well ruins the day of any anti-government conservative, not to mention corporate lobbyist or global warming denier. Central planning? Isn’t that what brought down the Soviet Union? Heavens. My local schools should have the right to spend money on the football team and not replace that antique boiler in the basement.

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October 31st, 2009

Geothermal gets its day in the sun

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 7:16 am

Categories: Blogroll, air pollution, conservation, energy, engineering, federal government, geothermal, green tech, law & politics, renewable energy, research

Tags: Geothermal Energy, Harry Fuller, Department of Energy, Alaska, Oregon, Nevada, electricity, alternative energy

The Department of Energy (DOE) is handing out $338 million from the Recovery Act for new geothermal plants and research into advanced geothermal technologies. Energy Secretary Steven Chu says the grants will support 123 projects in 39 states.

Here’s the whole list from the DOE.

Most of the actual in-ground projects are in the western U.S. But there are some grants for research at places like General Electric, based in Manhattan, or the University of Minnesota.

The three largest grants are to private companies planning demonstration projects: AltaRock Energy gets $25 million for a plant in Newberry, Oregon. Naknek Electric Association gets over $12 million for a project in Alaska. Naknek is a member-owned co-operative. TGP Development Company gets $14 million for a project in New York Canyon of Nevada. The money comes from the federal stimulus legislation passed in February. Nearly all the grants are aimed at work on using geothermal to produce electricity, not direct use of the steam for heating.
The big winner is Nevada which got 30% of the money handed out. Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid (D-Nevada) was pleased.

October 30th, 2009

Digital River e-commerce suite aids with levying environmental fees

Posted by Heather Clancy @ 12:53 pm

Categories: European Union, conservation, federal government, green tech, recycling

Tags: E-business, Digital River, Web Technology, E-business/E-Commerce, Internet, Heather Clancy

As Gartner has recently proclaimed, businesses aren’t just interested in Green IT, they’re interested in IT that helps satisfy green initiatives.

Digital River, which provides a suite of services for enabling e-commerce, has come up with something that definitely falls into the latter category. Specifically, the company has come up with a feature for its e-commerce software that helps electronics companies collect fees related to the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE).

Here’s some context: WEEE, which is big across Europe, requires that any company (”producer”) that has brought an electronic or electrical product into the European Commission to assume the obligation related to its responsible disposal. Some companies have begun to charge fees at the point of sale to cover this, which may or may not be made visible to the consumer. The feature that Digital River has developed allows you to levy this fee and show it. The challenge is that the fee might be applied differently from country to country. Some don’t really want consumers to see the fee, while others require that it be exposed. Digital River’s software lets you do either.

This is a feature that is embedded into the core feature set of the Digital River e-commerce suite, so you don’t have to pay more to use it, according to Digital River executives.

So, if your company offers e-commerce of its Web site AND it has e-commerce capabilities in countries like France or Germany, it may want to read up on these issues. If you’re interested in learning more about WEEE or about how other environmental directives might impact your e-commerce activities, you can visit this link on the Digital River Web site.

October 30th, 2009

If you STILL haven't invested in power management, here's another option

Posted by Heather Clancy @ 12:18 pm

Categories: conservation, energy, green tech

Tags: Power Management, SetPower, Heather Clancy

Heard this month from a company called SetPower, which offers two flavors of a utility that allows you to harness and make better use of a Windows computer’s in-born power management capabilities.

The company has just released a new version of its enterprise edition (list is $5 per machine); the most notable new feature is a function for creating reports that provide an aggregate view of the power saved through its Power Schedules. It also provides a free version that people can use to try out the software. SetPower encourages people who use the free application to evangelize the product at work.

Here’s a blow-by-blow review of the SetPower software from the MakeUseOf.com Web site. Sorry, I can’t try it out myself as I only have a Macintosh.

October 29th, 2009

Treece and truth

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 7:38 pm

Categories: Blogroll, environmental health, federal government, law & politics, water

Tags: Treece, Treece Truth, Harry Fuller, Kansas, water pollution, soil pollution, lead mining, zinc mining

Treece is in Kansas and it’s a toxic town. The Treece truth is in the result: nature gives no free lunch. You take resources, there’s always a cost. A real-world, palpable cost, not some numbers on a computer screen. How can we short-sighted humans really imagine we can pump oil, blow off mountaintops, cut forests, plow prairie or spread poisons without any lasting effects?

Treece, Kansas, is just another case study in how resource exploitation with an eye on profit and no concern for the effects leads to…another trashed spot on the planet. Love Canal. Times Beach, Missouri. Bikini Atoll. Chernobyl. Brown fields all over the planet. Desertification. Our list of human-induced destruction is pretty long.

Under the laws of nature, ignorance is no excuse. The laws are inexorable.

October 29th, 2009

Let's do this now, why wait?

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 3:55 pm

Categories: Blogroll, air pollution, building, conservation, energy, engineering, green tech, housing, water

Tags: America, Energy, OPTIMUM Rothman, Energy Saving, Construction, Tools & Techniques, Management, Harry Fuller, Mineta Airport, San Jose

CEO Nathan Rothman told me by phone that we have the technology now to completely upgrade and enhance our use of energy in America. But we seem to lack the will. America is about change and innovation, Rothman says. And there are lots of jobs to be created if we get to work. “What are we afraid of?” I wondered. What’s wrong with us that we don’t just get working? I suggested that change would upset a lot of very rich vested interests who really love the status quo, even if that means burning coal by the mega-ton and importing a billion dollars worth of oil every day.

OPTIMISM FROM OPTIMUM

Rothman is CEO of Optimum, and he’s actually quite optmistic. We Americans can and should solve our energy problems. Now, not gradually as we work toward 2020, he says. Optimum is a company that promises to make huge energy savings in America’s many large buildings as they exist now. Optimum is about making the best use possible of existing HVAC systems. They offer a management software solution that works with any manufacturer’s hardware already in place. And Optimum doesn’t require heavy staffing by building operations personnel. The software reads meters, calibrates, calculates and regulates, by remote control.

Optimum goes well beyond the thermostat and the old on-off switch. Rothman explained: two cooler fans running at half speed use less than one-third as much energy as one of the fans at top speed. No human operator is going to have time to constantly recalculate what speed each cooler or circulation fan or rooftop ventilator should run at. Optimum’s software can do that and then let the various mechanisms know what to do to maximize efficiency, reduce energy waste. Ever walked into a conference room first thing in the morning and found it at around sixty degrees? What a waste. That air conditioning of an empty room all night could be eliminated by a smart HVAC system.

QUICK PAYBACK

Optimum says they’re top selling point: rapid ROI. Three years or less and the system pays for itself in energy savings in a standard office or business building. If energy prices go higher the payback gets quicker, of course. Rothman mentioned that Seattle, where there are a few servers operating 24-7 in big buildings, just had a 25% electricity rate increase.

Rothman says they’ve found energy savings in most applications are over 50%. That’s true even in the brand new Mineta Airport in San Jose. That was built up to high LEED standards, but when Optimum added their services the savings topped 50%. Also, Optimum can help save water, the liquid used in large buildings’ cooling systems. At the Mineta Airport they’ve saved over $150,000 in annual costs including over 1.5 million gallons of water in droughty California.

Optimum dashboard for Mineta Airport. Courtesy Optimum. Red line is st=andard HVAC ops, blue line is operations managed by Optimum in real time.

So how big a deal is this? Almost 40% of America’s energy is used in heating, cooling and powering buildings. Rothman gave me this example: a thirty-story building would use huge engines to run big fans, the equivalent of 1500-2000 horsepower. That in turn is the equivalent of a locomotive engine. If you can make those engines 30-60% more efficient? Big deal.

Rothman says the standard for efficiency in building HVACs is kilowats of electricity needed for a ton of chilled water. Optimum, he says, can lower that figure even if it is a new server farmt hat operates at .7 KW. Most older buildings are above 1 KW per ton of chilled water. Their savings would be nearer the 60% mark on HVAC energy costs. Modern boilers are highly efficient, says Rothman, so the big savings come from the cooling units which are inefficient as currently operated.

Optimum customers include IBM, GE and the Hong Kong Police headquarters. Optimum Energy’s solutions are in more than 60 installations across the U.S. and the globe, including: office towers, airports, medical facilities, shopping centers, university campuses, convention centers, as well as public sector buildings of all types, including libraries and courthouses.

October 29th, 2009

Indian cement company buys American solar technology

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 3:19 pm

Categories: Blogroll, India, building, conservation, energy, engineering, environmental health, green tech, renewable energy

Tags: Cement, Telecom & Utilities, Harry Fuller, Infinia, Dalmai, cement, solar heat, Stirling engines

Dalmai Cement, one of India’s largest, is going to use American technology to harness solar power for a new cement plant. Making cement is an energy-intensive business. In the U.S. over 10% of all our energy goes into making building supplies like cement, glass, steel and roofing.

The technology is being supplied by Infinia, which I blogged about recently. Dalmai is also buying the necessary engines from Stirling Energy Systems which makes engines that turn heat into mechanical energy and thence into electricity.

October 29th, 2009

Green parking lots?

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 3:03 pm

Categories: Blogroll, cars & traffic, conservation, environmental health, federal government, fossil fuel, green tech, research, water

Tags: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Rain Garden, Harry Fuller

Aren’t parking lots supposed to kill all life beneath them and then produce run-off laced with petrochemicals and plastic candy wrappers? Apparently some idealists think there might be a better way.

Now the EPA’s testing various parking pavements at their facility in Edison, New Jersey. A good place to come up with a useful invention.

EPA now has three kinds of permeable pavement on their parking lot. They’ve also planted several rain gardens with varying vegetation for the study. Over the next decade, EPA will evaluate the effectiveness of each pavement type and the rain gardens in removing pollutants from stormwater, and how they help water filter back into the ground. The rain gardens are supposed to stop the flash flood effect of heavy rainfall or rapid snowmelt on hard surfaces.

The EPA will see how each type of pavement handles traffic and vehicle-related pollution like leaking oil. Run-off from hard surfaces like streets, parking lots and driveways are a major source of water pollution in the U.S. and most developed nations. If we convert to more electric cars there will be a major reduction in petrochemicals dripped from cars and trucks.

October 29th, 2009

Want a cleantech grant? Here's a place to search

Posted by Heather Clancy @ 12:03 pm

Categories: green tech

Tags: Clean Technology, Tool, Productivity, Litigation, Personal Finance, Taxes, Business Operations, Financial Planning, Finance, Heather Clancy

The clever souls at law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and green research and events company Cleantech Group have assembled an online database tool with information about federal and state funding that might be available for your green technology project.

The tool can be accessed off either company’s Web site at this link or this one. It includes information about grants, loan guarantees, tax credits and other programs that might be a source of green funding.

October 29th, 2009

Software integration eases green product design

Posted by Heather Clancy @ 11:55 am

Categories: building, conservation, green tech

Tags: Software, Product Design, Autodesk Inc., Integration, Product Marketing, Marketing, Heather Clancy

Software developers Sustainable Minds and Autodesk have created a close integration that marries Sustainable Mind’s Web-based lifecycle assessment tool more closely with the Autodesk Inventor 3-D design application.

The primary benefit of the integration: Designers at manufacturing companies can assess the impact of a proposed product design BEFORE it even gets to the prototyping phase by bouncing information about selected components against the Sustainable Minds Release 1.0 ecodesign information service.

Here are specific details about the integration:

• Materials names in Inventor have been mapped to the Okala Impact Factor database
• There is now consistency between the way that the Inventor and Sustainable Mins applications handle bill of materials
• The software now supports automatic mass unit conversion