Joe Biegelsen's Sustainable Development

Electric Truck

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 01:34:54 GMT

Here is one I had blogged about before. It does better on range and you can recharge it today, instead of overnight. The 10 minute recharge time might make it close to acceptable for a lot of people. On the other hand, when I blogged before it was going to have a 250 mile range and be available in 2007. Now they say a 200 mile range and available in 2008.

Again.... I'll believe it when I see it.

Electric Car

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 01:24:11 GMT

If you have five minutes, you can check out the video. My summary... All electric car capable of 100 miles and up to 60 mph to be available for around $12,000 in about 18 months.

My comments...

1) Doesn't exactly compete with a cheap gasoline car on performance or range. Same issues that have killed electrics like the EV-1 and kin in the past. The eight hour recharge time makes the max distance less than half the range (you have to get back after all). People want cars that can do it all. Buying a separate whole car just for short trips doesn't fit into very many budgets. IMHO, the range and recharge issue will always kill electric cars.

2) The big news is the proposed price. Not the performance or range. Without dealing with the range issue, the project is doomed to failure regardless of price.

3) Not in show rooms yet. I'll believe it when I see it.

92 Miles Square of land to Power the USA

Sun, 23 Sep 2007 02:10:15 GMT

As many commenters have noted, 92 miles square is much different from 92 square miles. The article is really speaking of 92 x 92 = 8464 square miles.

Also noted is this is solar thermal. Not photovoltaic. Solar thermal is much more efficient at converting the heat from the sun to electric power but is much harder to put on your roof. Solar thermal works at commercial power plant quantities.

That being said, this is an opportunity to do some math. We know the sun provides about 500 watts/square-meter.* So we go to www.onlineconversions.com and convert 8464 square miles to 21,921,659,365 square meters. Multiply by 700 to get about 11 Tera-Watts.

The only thing left is to add up the amount of energy used in the USA and compare to 11 Tera-Watts. Is it just the electric use or does it claim all the liquid fuel energy users as well? How would we convert all the liquid fuel applications to electricity?

* The referenced article actually claims 1000 watts/square meter at noon on a clear day. I've divided by two to account for some clouds and rotation of the earth.

Photovoltaic/Thermal Collectors in Large Solar Thermal Systems

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 03:08:49 GMT

Yes! It looks like some people are combining PV and Solar Thermal.

Make Photovoltaics More Efficient by Combining with Solar Thermal

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 02:55:05 GMT

This page explains that for a typical photovoltaic panel 14% of incident energy is converted to electricity. 7% is reflected and the remaining 79% is converted to heat. It also explains that "All solar panels lose power at higher cell temperatures." That is why they recommend ventilating the PV panels and not using roof tiles.

My question is: Why not combine the panels with solar thermal somehow? We could thermally connect the panel to glycol or other heat transfer medium to take away the heat and keep the panel cool. The heat could then be transfered to a storage medium such as a water tank. We would get better PV performance and also have heat warm our house or hot tub.

Is anybody doing this?

CoGeneration in the New York Steam Pipe System

Sun, 22 Jul 2007 21:37:02 GMT

The article explains how steam, which would normally be waste heat from electric power generation, is recycled to heat buildings and run air conditioner compressors on New York City. This saves massive amounts of energy.

The Planet Will be Fine.

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 22:30:09 GMT

This is a great article. Global warming is not going to tear the Earth out of its orbit. But our children and grandchildren won't have the cushy lifestyle that we enjoy now... If they have a lifestyle at all...

Found via Digg on The Good Human.

17 Reasons For Free Public Transit

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 12:02:32 GMT

The following is excerpted from The Tyee. The article also comments on the obvious relationship between fares are ridership. Raising fares reduces ridership... Duh! Here in NYC, major capital projects are underway to address under capacity problems. They will take years. A fare increase is also in the works. Maybe the fare increase will hold ridership in check until the new capacity can come on line.

Fare-free transit brings many benefits, some of which include:

a barrier-free transportation option to every member of the community (no more worries about exact change, expiring transfers, or embarrassment about how to pay)
eliminating a "toll" from a mode of transportation that we as a society want to be used (transit is often the only way of getting around that charges a toll)
reducing the inequity between the subsidies given to private motorized vehicle users and public transport users
reducing, and in some cases eliminating, the need for private motorized vehicle parking
reducing greenhouse gas emissions, other air pollutants, noise pollution (especially with electric trolleys), and run-off of toxic chemicals into fresh water supplies and ocean environments
reducing overall consumption of oil and gasoline
eliminating the perceived need to spend billions on roads and highways (now up to $7 billion for the proposed Gateway Project in Vancouver)
eliminating the perceived need to spend billions on bigger car-carrying ferries ($2.5 billion for BC Ferries' new super-sized boats and ramps)
contributing significantly to the local economy by keeping our money in our communities
reducing litter (in Vancouver, the newer transfers/receipts have overtaken fast food packaging for most common garbage found on our streets)
saving trees by eliminating the need to print transfers and tickets
allowing all bus doors to be used to load passengers, making service faster and more efficient
allowing operators (drivers) to focus on driving safely
giving operators more time to answer questions
providing operators a safer work environment since fare disputes are eliminated
eliminating fare evasion and the criminalization of transit-using citizens
fostering more public pride in shared, community resources

Single Bladed Ceiling Fan Uses Biomimicry to Double Efficiency

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 03:56:32 GMT

Via TreeHugger

Who Would'a Thunk It Department

Sat, 16 Jun 2007 13:39:47 GMT

As a fraud prevention measure, credit card companies limit the amount of dollars for each pay-at-the-pump transaction. Now that gas prices are rising, that is inconveniencing people with larger gas tanks.

50 Ways to Stop Global Warming

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:08:05 GMT

From globalwarming-facts.info

Austrailia to Ban Incandescent Light Bulbs

Wed, 21 Feb 2007 01:27:04 GMT

Expected to save 800,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions during the three year phase-out period.

First Inhabited Island Lost To Global Warming

Wed, 27 Dec 2006 15:46:08 GMT

The article does not answer, or even mention, the obvious question. "How much has sea level changed so far?"

Electric SUV -- 250 Mile Range -- 10 Minute Charge Time

Tue, 26 Dec 2006 19:21:57 GMT

Available in small quantities late in 2007... So they say.

High-tech Taxis Coming to New York

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 15:17:17 GMT

SiliconValley.com says New York taxis will soon have all sorts of cool electronics to entertain the riders. According to the article, we will be seeing about that in just a few weeks. I'll keep you posted.

Meanwhile, I recently attended a Green Renter presentation about Hybrid taxis. Rob Muldoon from the Sierra Club told us all about the push to put more hybrid taxis on the road. Here are a few notes from that.

There are about 13,000 yellow taxis and 50,000 other "cars for hire" in New York City.
So far, there are about 300 hybrids. Most of these are Ford Escapes, but also a few Priuses, Camerys, etc.
After convincing the taxi fleet owners, the next hurdle was the Taxi and Limousine Commission. No hybrids were approved as taxis, with the TLC saying they were too small. Eventually they did get approved.
The most recent allocation of 900 new taxi medallions reserves 9% of those for alternative/clean fuel vehicles. Hybrids qualify, along with compressed natural gas. The auction of the medallions raised about $27 million for the city, about $300,000 each. Medallions can be sold, leased, transfered like other real property.
As with green buildings, the motivation for hybrids depends on ownership. Taxi owner operators are easier to convince because the owner is the one to benefit from the reduced fuel usage. Fleet owners who hire drivers need additional incentives.

Bob is working the the TLC to allow a longer allowed lifetime for the cars (The TLC currently limits the working life of a taxi to five years and there is a push to allow six or seven for hybrids.)
It remains to be seen whether the batteries etc. will hold up for that many miles. An owner/operator taxi typically runs up 60,000 miles per year -- 300,000 in the allowed life. A fleet vehicle will run three shifts per day instead of one and rack up 120,000 miles per year or more. Will the batteries last that long.?

No Till Farming

Wed, 06 Dec 2006 20:17:34 GMT

In an earlier post, I raised some questions about soil depletion due to burning of plants as biofuel. It turns out that very little of the carbon in plants gets there by being absorbed from the soil. This makes sense because plant roots don't have teeth, digestive systems and the other apparatus necessary to take up fibrous organic material.

However, it is still the case that common farming practices do release substantial amounts of carbon dioxide anyway, as a quick search on No Till Farming reveals. While I don't understand the underlying mechanisms, apparently simply turning over the soil releases trapped carbon dioxide. (Is it as simple as just shaking it loose?) We also have all the carbon dioxide released by the fuel for the tractors, etc.

Gro Harlem Brundtland

Tue, 05 Dec 2006 16:17:45 GMT

Another bullet point in the Principles of Sustainable Design course that I took recently was the source of the quote which has adorned the top of this blog from the beginning.

"Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

While I've seen this in a number of places, I've always been bothered by my inability to track down the source. Thanks to Jamy Bacchaus, who lead the course, I've now been able to track down the quote to the 1987: Brundtland Report.

Thanks Jamy.

Are Biofuels Sustainable?

Sun, 03 Dec 2006 19:54:13 GMT

William McDonough was the keynote speaker for the opening plenary for this year's GreenBuild conference. Among other things, he spoke about the “Waste Equals Food” concept. He showed a beautiful scenic picture of a mountain terraced with rice paddies. He explained that the local people had been farming that land continuously for five thousand years and that they might know a thing or two about sustainable agriculture. And then the kicker.... He said when visiting for dinner in that part of the world it is considered impolite to leave without “leaving a deposit” because that would mean taking some of the families nutritional resources away.

Yesterday I attended a “Principles of Sustainability” class at the New York Designs business center. The subject of biofuels was discussed. A bullet point on one slide made the debatable claim that the fossil fuel inputs to ethanol production are greater than the energy produced. Another claim was that biofuels are carbon neutral because the carbon released when the fuel is burned matches the carbon sequestered during the plants growth. I'm not a farmer, but I'm not so sure that is true. First, there is the question of the fossil fuel inputs to the farm. Certainly those must be included in the carbon equation. Second is the question of where the carbon in the plant actually comes from. Does it all come from the photosynthetic reaction where C02 is converted to O2? Or does some come from the organic material in the soil where the plant grows?

I conjecture that if the biofuel farmer is making a profit, then the energy produced must be greater than the energy inputs. E.g. that the embodied energy of the biofuel is closely approximated by the cost of its production. This cost of production includes the cost of fuel for the tractors and the oil used to produce the fertilizer. It also includes the energy required to manufacture and deliver the tractors. The tractor cost includes the energy used by the steel mill to smelt the ore which includes the cost of the energy used to mine and transport the ore to the smelter. And so on down the line.

To push this idea to the limit, I further conjecture that the cost of labor involved in all these activities is also driven primarily by energy costs. The farmer, manufacturer, steel worker and miner are all paid a decent living allowing them to buy houses, cars, televisions etc. As we have seen for the tractor all of those things cost as much as their energy inputs. As these are all commodity workers, their incomes are pushed by our free capitalist market place to a level that avoids spilling much out of the system, to places like vacations in the Caribbean for example.

What do these conjectures miss? As with much of our economy, they miss the costs of environmental destruction in the extraction of the ore, climate change due to burning of the fuels and – getting back to William McDonough – depletion of the soil as we convert topsoil to plants and then to ethanol and then burn it up leaving just a few green house gases and soot.

Now, I'm not claiming to be an expert in any of these subjects. I just want to point out that simple sounding statements such as “biofuels are carbon neutral” are not really so simple. There are a lot of open questions about sustainable farming and how to do it. When biofuels come into the picture, when the farm products are burned and sent into the atmosphere, when nutrients do not come back to the soil, when biofuel production cannot be done organically and is dependent on chemical fertilizers which are derived from fossil fuels – when all of this happens can biofuels be considered sustainable at all?

Save the humans. Relocate them.

Fri, 01 Dec 2006 17:46:46 GMT

Stephan Hawking says we need to move to space to guarantee survival of the human race. His logic is impeccable, pointing out that we could be wiped out by unpredictable events completely beyond our control.

However, we are far more likely to be wiped out by apathy and inaction toward controllable and ongoing processes such as climate change the the end of cheap oil.

Far better, I think, to keep the focus on saving our current planet and not on finding a new one. The technology to save the Earth is firmly within our grasp. The technology to find a new one is a remote fantasy.

It brings to mind the serenity prayer.... Not that I normally do much praying...

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.

And it would also be great if I could have more personal effectiveness and be able to change more things.

Wal-Mart Watch

Sat, 11 Nov 2006 13:58:58 GMT

On October 27, I attended a workshop on LEED CI Workshop. One of the stories told by the instructors was about Wal-Mart. As the story goes a Wal-Mart store was built with skylights but only in part of the store. Analysis of sales data showed an unusually high sales rate for certain products. Someone noticed that those were the products under the skylights. Curiosity lead them to rearrange the store to put other products under the skylights and the increase in sales followed the lights. So the theory goes that people will quite simply spend more time in that part of the store.

On November 9, I attended the Green Brooklyn conference. Jeffrey Hollender of Seventh Generation also talked about Wal-Mart. Apparently Wal-Mart is still not green enough for Jeffrey. Seventh Generation still won't sell to Wal-Mart. But he says they are doing a lot better lately.

And now, via an advertising link on Grist Magazine's site, I find a link to Wal-Mart Watch.
The purpose of Wal-Mart Watch is to independently track the progress that Wal-Mart is making on these goals (which I have copied directly from the Wal-Mart web site.

To Be Supplied 100% By Renewable Energy
Existing stores 25% more efficient in 7 years
New stores 30% more efficient in 4 years.

To Create Zero Waste
Have a 25% reduction in solid waste in 3 years
All private brand packaging improved in 2 years

To Sell Products That Sustain Our Resources & Environment
To have 20% supply base aligned in 3 years
Design and support Green Company Program in China

Focus on Green Building

Thu, 26 Oct 2006 21:03:58 GMT

Just a few notes on things I am doing lately. The big news is that I'm getting out of computer programming as a profession and focusing 100% on sustainability. This is a huge and scary change for me, but one that I think will be worth while in the long run.

My primary focus right now is to build a personal network of people in sustainable industries and to build my knowledge base in general. My focus for the next few months will be on Green Building. I will be attending classes and conferences in the green building arena and talking to as many people as I can. I will be working toward obtaining LEED Accreditation.

My calendar looks something like this for the next couple of months.

10/27 -- LEED CI Workshop
11/2 -- “False Flat: Why Dutch Design is so Good Today”
11/9 -- Green Brooklyn
11/14 -- LEED Technical Overview Workshop
11/15-17 -- GreenBuild 2006
11/21 -- BGBG Brownbag Lunch Presentation: Understanding Energy Modeling
12/2 -- Principles of Sustainable Design

US Passes 300 Million in Population

Wed, 18 Oct 2006 13:40:42 GMT

As of 7:46 am Eastern Time

Taxi Cab Update

Sun, 08 Oct 2006 01:19:42 GMT

BTW. I did get to try out one of the Ford Escape Hybrid taxi cabs. It still had the sticker in the window and from where I sat I could see it had less than 100 miles on the odometer. I suppose I might have been the first fare. I passed on asking the driver how it was holding up :-)

I suppose we can say they are holding up well enough that the cab compaines are still buying them.

Move to New York City

Sun, 08 Oct 2006 01:05:16 GMT

So, I've moved to New York City and not blogged for a while. Today I saw the NYC version of the National Solar Tour, sponsered by GreenHomeNYC.

Another interesting link I'm adding to my blog role is Plenty Magazine.

Cow Power

Wed, 12 Jul 2006 00:45:01 GMT

This is similar to the Windsource program for Xcel, but uses methane produced from cow manure instead. The added cost is about 4 cents per Kwh. About a 40% increase from what I am paying now. Thus it is not nearly as economic as the Windsource program, which at times has actually been cheaper than conventional fossil electricity.