Mayor Bloomberg will be leaving office soon, but an important part of his legacy will be climate mitigation and adaptation initiatives in New York, that have become all the more significant in the wake of Sandy.
Month: November 2013
“Apocalyptic” Rain in Sardinia
Biblical in Boulder. Apocalyptic in Italy. (Sardinia, actually)
17 inches in 24 hours. That sounds normal.
The island, which draws royals, entrepreneurs and ordinary tourists alike during the dry, peak summer months, received more than 44 centimeters (17.3 inches) of rain in 24 hours Monday — half the amount it normally receives in a year, officials said.
Have You Heard the One About the Polish Electrical Grid?
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change is in its second week of deliberations in Warsaw, Poland – a country that derives 86 percent of its energy from coal, and doesn’t look much like it wants to change. They’re building their own iron curtain against Green energy that is flooding in from Germany….
Poland, the host of the climate change negotiations, is going to extreme lengths to protect its coal-fired electricity industry – making sudden changes to renewable energy support schemes, and even going so far as erecting a form of electronic barrier to keep renewable energy from neighbouring Germany out of its grid.
The move appears to have been made with the sole intention of protecting the economic interests of its incumbent, centralised and heavily coal reliant grid. As Germany roars towards a decentralised, renewables based grid, Poland appears determined to stick to the past. The contrast between the two countries could not be starker.
The move to install equipment knows as phase-shifters on transmission links between Poland and Germany is designed to give the Polish grid operator the power to block excess renewables output from Germany entering the Polish grid. As in Germany, a large amount of renewable energy causes wholesale prices to come down, and profits to fall.
The phase-shifters are being tested in coming months and will be installed over the next year by the German network operator 50Hertz, which looks after the grid in the eastern past of the country adjoining Poland. Ironically, 50Hertz is 40 per cent owned by Australia’s Industry Funds Management, which in turn owns Pacific Hydro, Australia’s biggest specialist renewable energy company.
Grzegorz Wisniewski , the president of the Institute for Renewable Energy, says the move is clearly designed to protect the income of the incumbents generators in Poland, and comes as the country is facing a looming energy deficit in a few years time.
–Coal is given primacy in this country. WWF calculates that 95 billion zlotys (around $A30 billion) of subsidies since 1995, but Poland’s coal reserves are declining rapidly, at least the economically accessible ones. The country already imports 15 per cent of its coal needs, much of this from Siberia.
Wisniewski says the Polish government’s official forecasts are for coal to supply 65 per cent of electricity in 2060. But given its declining reserves, that is impossible. Experts say that within 20 years, the country could be entirely reliant on imports because its own reserves would be too expensive.
Recently, the Poland government recently ordered the state generation company to build a massive $3.75 billion coal plant, even though the company’s CEO said it would cause the company to lose money because of the high domestic price of coal.
Continue reading “Have You Heard the One About the Polish Electrical Grid?”
More Evidence that Keystone is a Bad Idea
George W. Bush explained recently that the Keystone pipeline would be a “no brainer”.
Insert snark here.
Former President George W. Bush has been reluctant to criticize the policies of his successor, but last week, he jumped in and spoke out against President Barack Obama’s inaction on building the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
“If private sector growth is the goal and Keystone pipeline creates 20,000 new private sector jobs, build the damn thing,” Bush, a former oil company executive, said at the shale gas industry’s DUG East conference Thursday in Pittsburgh, according to DeSmogBlog. The comment drew a round of applause from the approximately 2,500 attendees.
The Keystone XL pipeline would transport 800,000 barrels of oil per day from Alberta, across the U.S.-Canada border and south to Gulf Coast refineries. But it first requires State Department approval, which the Obama administration has continually put off. A State Department decision is unlikely before 2014.
Environmentalists contend that the pipeline would have enormous impacts — from increases in greenhouse gas emissions to the threat of oil spills.
Those concerns haven’t tempered the enthusiasm of many, though, including the former president.
“I think the goal of the country ought to be ‘how do we grow the private sector?'” Bush said. “That ought to be the laser-focus of any administration. And therefore, once that’s the goal, an issue like Keystone pipeline becomes a no-brainer.”
DeSmogBlog reported that Bush explained his support for oil and gas as the product of where he’s from. “I think it’s mostly because I’m from Midland, Texas,” Bush said. “And we don’t like government, we don’t like Wall Street, we don’t like much. We like oil and gas.”
Continue reading “More Evidence that Keystone is a Bad Idea”
Good News Monday: Zero Energy Affordable Housing/Batteries Included
Imagine living in a house so efficient that the builder guarantees you’ll have no energy bills for the first 10 years of ownership.
Such is the promise of Houze Advanced Building Science, a real-estate company in Houston, Texas. The company is building net zero-energy homes, equipped with walls that insulate like a thermos, appliances that sip little electricity and one-of-a-kind power cells.
The houses are some of the first affordable, net energy-producing homes in the United States. And, in Houston, they’re moving in to support an otherwise underserved neighbourhood, Independence Heights.
David Goswick, founder and chief executive of Houze, came up with the idea behind the company in 2008, when the US housing market slowed to a standstill. He gathered a team to assess the needs of homebuyers of the future.
“We pushed the pause button and re-evaluated for two years. We realised that the best home investment is in efficiency first,” Goswick says. In fact, the “ze” in the company’s name refers to “zero energy”, he says, because he guarantees the homeowner won’t have to make any electricity or gas payments.
The smart thing about Houze is its proprietary residential co-generation power cell, which is about size of an exterior air-conditioning unit. The power cell uses seven different energy sources to power homes – and an entire block. It’s fuelled by natural gas and solar, and also captures heat generated onsite for heating and cooling needs.
Because the power cell produces much more energy than each house consumes, it sells excess power back to the grid. Insurance discounts of 40% further cut the costs of ownership.
The first commercial, significantly islandable (the hurdle for “microgrid” designation), solar PV and battery hybrid project in Maryland came online this October in Laurel, demonstrating the reality these post-Sandy conversations are aiming to create. While at an elevation of 200 feet and not in danger of storm surge effects, Laurel and many inland communities on the East Coast can none the less be heavily impacted by broader grid shutdowns from hurricanes and other natural or man-made disruptions.
Continue reading “Good News Monday: Zero Energy Affordable Housing/Batteries Included”
Arizona’s Solar Fee – Two Forward, one back?
More on the closely watched recent change in Arizona utility regs.
I reported the other day on a new fee that will be charged against solar installations in Arizona. The picture is getting clearer as more comes in.
I’ve been confused by some of the reporting, but it appears from the overall reaction that this is a win for the Solar Industry, in that, while it establishes a small levy on new solar households, the net effect will not slow the explosive growth of rooftop solar in this sunniest state. Moreover, this may be a template for other states facing the same issue.
The original proposal by the local utility giant, Arizona Public Service, would have called for a $1oo/month charge on solar owners who are connected to the grid. The decision by the state’s utility regulatory agency, the Arizona Corporation Commission, will establish fees averaging less than $5/month.
The utilities argue that customers with solar panels, who generally use less grid power, and receive payment for electricity they produce and send onto the grid, (a process called “net metering”) should have to pay a fee to assist with the general upkeep of the grid that they still rely on . The solar industry argues that the adoption of solar rooftops lessen the need for building expensive new “peaking” plants, mostly gas turbines, which would assist to meet high power demands on the hottest, sunniest days.
With the growth of leasing programs that allow building owners to acquire rooftop solar at little to no upfront cost and without ownership responsibilities, rooftop solar is booming and utilities’ lost revenues are becoming noticeable. APS had approximately 900 rooftop solar systems in June 2009 and over 18,000 in June 2013. It added 500 in October.
The Commission kept the bill charge below all stakeholders’ proposals. TheResidential Utility Consumer Office (RUCO), Arizona’s ratepayer advocate, andthe Commission’s own staff recommended bill charges in the $3.00 per kilowatt range. APS recommended a charge in the $8.00 per kilowatt range.
Asked if such charges would impede Arizona’s solar industry, Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) Counsel Court Rich said the leasing programs that have driven 80 percent to 90 percent of Arizona’s skyrocketing rooftop solar growth in recent years save solar customers about $5.00 to $10.00 per month. “You do the math,” he said.
The average rooftop solar installation in Arizona is around 6 kilowatts.
“A $0.70 per kilowatt charge will hamper the industry,” explained Sunrun VP and The Alliance for Solar Choice (TASC) President Bryan Miller. “We cannot sustain a $1.00 per kilowatt charge.”
The RUCO-engineered compromise holds the $0.70 per kilowatt bill charge constant until the next rate case, when hearings can determine more precisely the costs and benefits of rooftop solar to ratepayers.
Throughout the proceedings, APS argued that net metering allows solar customers to avoid paying their fair share of the cost to maintain the electric grid – thereby passing $18 million in annual costs onto non-solar customers. The issue has come to a head recently because of the dramatic recent growth in rooftop solar. Systems are being added to APS’ service territory at a rate
of about 500 a month, said APS, a unit of Pinnacle West Capital Corp. Arizona was the nation’s No. 2 state for solar installations in the second quarter of this year.
Company representatives at the hearing said a charge of 70 cents a KW was not nearly enough.
Continue reading “Arizona’s Solar Fee – Two Forward, one back?”
Help Me Judge Student Video PSA Spots on Climate Change
The Erb Institute is a cooperative effort between the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, and the UM School of Natural Resources and Environment. It is an emerging hotbed of innovators interested in business initiatives for sustainable development.
Since crashing an Erb event a few years ago, to interview Mike Maccracken and Katharine Hayhoe, I’ve maintained communication with Erb director Andy Hoffman, and even presented there myself in September.
Now the Institute is sponsoring an online contest for budding climate communicators – there are 13 videos posted for review, and the public is invited to judge and vote on their choices. I’ve embedded one at the top – the rest are at the link.
Arizona Solar Skirmish Foreshadows Bigger Battles
Barry Goldwater Jr appears in this web video supporting consumer choice for solar energy in Arizona. It’s not high art, but you get the message. There is a Green Tea Party taking shape in southern and western states, making alliances with green campaigners, and threatening to throw Koch-financed anti-renewable energy campaigns into chaos.
The conflict is that more and more folks are buying solar energy systems. That cuts into big utility revenues – and threatens the business model that has sustained the electric industry for more than a century. The big Arizona Utility, Arizona Public Service, had proposed a stiff, some would say punitive, charge for solar householders who sell electricity on to the grid. The utility’s point is that even if solar powered homes don’t need as much, or any, power from the grid, they should pay to help support that infrastructure for the larger community, and so that it’s available in times of clouds or darkness.
The booming solar industry wants no impediments to growth. A lot of state regulators are watching this one, and we are a long way from figuring out how this is eventually going to work. But we’d better get started, because, like the internet, solar is now a disruptive technology, and utilities that do not find a way to adapt and adopt will be going away.
Arizona is one of 43 states that requires utilities to buy electricity from household solar systems, potentially cutting into revenue for the company known locally as APS. The regulator’s staff recommended Oct. 1 that the utility’s request be rejected and the issue taken up again at a regularly scheduled hearing in 2015 for rates that would take effect the following year. Some conservatives are siding with the solar industry.
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Utilities “don’t like the competition,” said Barry Goldwater Jr., son of the late senator and presidential candidate. “I’m a conservative Republican and I think people should have a choice.”Arizona Public Service spokeswoman Jenna Shaver declined to comment on growing conservative support for solar energy.
(below, Chris Hayes interviews Debbie Dooley of the Georgia Green Tea Party)Continue reading “Arizona Solar Skirmish Foreshadows Bigger Battles”
Music Break: As a Feather
A reader sent me this link – it appears to be a Russian(?) language site, so I’m guessing this is some kind of “Siberia Has Talent” production.
Today’s assignment:
Watch this video, then write a short reaction, no more than one paragraph, indicating what this might have to do with our discussion here.
The Weekend Wonk: Hockey Stick and Climate Wars – Now in Paperback. Documented Here.
10 Minute pre cap of Mike Manns book, “The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars”, now out in paperback with a new intro by Bill Nye – Science guy and Lord of the Dance.
The average author might have been delighted at the idea that reviews were already popping up for a book not yet published. But for Micheal Mann, the excoriating e-views haven’t been so welcome. Michael Mann is a leading climate scientist and a lightening rod for those who believe Climate Change is anything from a plot to a lie. From harassing phone calls to angry emails to death threats, he’s paying a price to pursue his science. Today we speak with Michael Mann on the chill over Climate Change.
Michael Mann is the director of the Earth Systems Science Center at Pennsylvania State University. His new book is The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines
Mike’s Congressional appearance below – the Hockey Stick Under Oath: