Mr Franklin's Folks

Preface: I originally wrote this a couple of decades ago, based upon my experiences working with a traveling energy show in the 1970s and 1980s and my own experiments with public displays of renewable energy at farmers’ markets (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2005/8/21/140257/-). I rewrote it for a new venture, Flourish Fiction which is trying to fill the need for “more hopeful stories to awaken imagination and help inspire the next generation of climate solutions.” It is also published there at https://flourishfiction.substack.com/p/mister-franklins-folks?s=r

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Mister Franklin's Folks began when a small group of people decided to bring a solar fountain to the local farmers market. A solar electric panel pumped water up from a tub into a little fountain that would splash and spray. The brighter the sunshine, the higher the water would go. Children loved to turn it on and off with their shadows, jumping into and out of the sunlight, making the water dance and themselves laugh. Older kids asked questions, and so did some of the adults. "What's it for? How does it work? Why are you doing this? So what?"

The exhibit was labeled "Solar Fountain/Wishing Well" and some coins lay at the bottom of the tub. Nearby, there was a table under the shade of an umbrella where one of Franklin's Folk sat with a collection of books, pamphlets, leaflets, cards, and stickers, along with a big can labeled “Donations.” The van parked behind them was full of working models and public experiments, product demos, and testing equipment. They shared guides with anyone who wanted them. For a small donation.

Each week, from Memorial Day to the week before Thanksgiving, throughout the farmers’ market season, they'd be there. Each week, they'd set up a little solar fountain and present a different example of solar ingenuity and practical power. When they said power to the people, they meant it.

They said, "A south-facing window is already a solar collector and we can show you how to use it. A south-facing porch is even better. It can become a sunspace or greenhouse and you can grow food all year long."

They provided designs and projects that began by caulking and sealing a window and ended with a complete one-room HVAC and electrical system for daily and/or emergency use.

"A few inches of solar panel, a hand or foot powered generator, and a set of rechargeable batteries is a perpetual source of personal electrical power. You can have power as long as the sun keeps shining and can turn the handle or push the pedal when it isn't. You can have power as long as the batteries hold a charge. And when the batteries die, recycle the old ones and buy some new. That is, unless we've changed to capacitors, flywheels, or fuel cells by then."

They had plans for many DIY solar projects and organized a bulk buying club so that people could save money on parts and supplies.

"Let your kids make their own battery power from sunlight and a little exercise. Power your electrical devices with a walk on the treadmill."

They called themselves Mister Franklin's Folks because, like Benjamin Franklin, they believed in ingenuity and thrift. They quoted from Poor Richard’s Almanac:
“A penny saved is two pence clear. A pin a-day is a groat a year. Save and have.”
“Every little makes a mickle.”
“A wise Man will desire no more than what he may get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully and leave contentedly.”
“Spare and have is better than spend and crave.”

They updated these home truths by putting them into an ecologically regenerative context. Each week they offered practical lessons in real thrift or "how to save money while saving the environment, the community, and the world."

Like Mr Franklin, they were experimenting with electricity but instead of kites and lightning, they were looking at the sun for energy independence and building the idea of a renewable economy use by use, appliance by appliance, socket by socket, room by room.

“What would Mister Franklin do these days?" they asked. "Benjamin Franklin was one of the early researchers into the Gulf Stream. How would he deal with global warming?”

These were some of the things that Mr. Franklin’s Folks did at their table at the farmer's market, week after week, all that year.

Planning for Extreme Heat: NY, Phoenix, California, and Beyond

Boston University organized a talk on how Phoenix, New York, and the State of California are planning for extreme heat the other day.

https://www.bu.edu/ioc/2022/03/02/bridging-the-research-policy-divide-lessons-from-cities-tackling-extreme-heat/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0UGVX8bs1I

As NOAA Weather Service reports, "More Americans die from heat every year than from all other extreme weather events combined."

Daphne Lundi, Deputy Director for Social Resiliency of NYC Mayor’s Office of Resiliency, spoke.  Hurricane Sandy was a wake-up call for the city and thus it has developed a long-term heat resiliency plan as part of their overall sustainability efforts. The city’s approach is "If we're in the 2080s and we're going to have triple the amount of extreme heat days, what are we doing now in terms of our buildings, in terms of our land use policy to get us to a better place decades from now."

NYC has been developing Cool Neighborhoods since 2017 including ideas like

Shading and tree canopies

White rooms or reflective surfaces like "cool roofs"

Cooling centers

Report available at https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/orr/pdf/Cool_Neighborhoods_NYC_Report.pdf [pdf alert]

They are constantly leading building preparedness and understanding of heat risk so that people know the tools available before a heat wave happens.

NYC also has building energy standards and the Office of Resiliency works on necessary legislation and regulation.  For instance, they are now looking at the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program [LIHEAP] in relation to cooling as well as heating, which is where the bulk of funding goes.

David Hondula, Chief Heat Officer, City of Phoenix; Associate Professor, Arizona State University is in the new Office for Heat Response and Mitigation, started in just the last six months.  Phoenix's first heat response plan passed recently but no long-term cooling plan yet even though they set records for heat associated deaths in the last few years, up 450% since 2014.  65% of "heat associated deaths were among unsheltered" in Phoenix.  An unsheltered person is 200-300% more likely to suffer a heat associated death than a sheltered person.

Karen Smith, Partner at Healthy Community Ventures; former Director, California Department of Public Health provided a larger perspective and addressed how academia can help the public health community gather data during heat emergencies;  advocated more research into prolonged exposure to heat as a health risk, below the threshold of heat emergency, especially for outdoor workers,  and on what actually works in saving lives among the general public.

In most heat events, Karen Smith said, "The major distinguisher of people who died versus people who didn't had nothing to do with their diseases, had nothing to do with whether they had air conditioners or fans, it was social isolation."

It's getting hotter.  We have to learn how to deal with it.

The Environmental Resilience Institute at University of Indiana has a case study of how Chicago, which had a devastating heat emergency in 1995, has worked to reduce the dangers of extreme heat as well as a comparison to what NYC and Minnesota are doing:  

https://eri.iu.edu/erit/case-studies/chicago-il-uses-green-infrastructure-reduce-extreme-heat.html

The American Planning Association has just published a report entitled Planning for Urban Heat Resilience, available as a free download at https://www.planning.org/publications/report/9245695/

A Pattern Language of Work

 I just learned that Christopher Alexander, the principal writer and force behind A Pattern Language, died on March 17.  This is to remember him, someone who made me see with a new focus.

A Pattern Language of Work
earlier version written in October 1997

There are 253 patterns Christopher Alexander et alia's _A Pattern Language_. There are over 30 that I identify as the patterns that make for human and humane work:

9 Scattered Work 19 Web of Shopping 32 Shopping Streets 41 Work Community 42 Industrial Ribbon 43 University as a Marketplace 46 Market of Many Shops 47 Health Center 61 Small Public Squares 80 Self-Governing Workshops and Offices 81 Small Services Without Red Tape 82 Office Connections 83 Master and Apprentices 85 Shopfront Schools 86 Children's Home 87 Individually Owned Shops 88 Street Cafe 89 Corner Groceries 90 Beer Hall 91 Traveler's Inn 92 Bus Stop 93 Food Stands 101 Building Thoroughfare 146 Flexible Office Space 148 Small Work Groups 149 Reception Welcomes You 150 A Place to Wait 151 Small Meeting Rooms 152 Half-Private Office 156 Settled Work 157 Home Workshop

These patterns can be roughly assembled into four groups - work, shopping, learning, and structure:

9 Scattered Work 41 Work Community 42 Industrial Ribbon 80 Self-Governing Workshops and Offices 81 Small Services Without Red Tape 148 Small Work Groups 156 Settled Work 157 Home Workshop

19 Web of Shopping 32 Shopping Streets 46 Market of Many Shops 47 Health Center 87 Individually Owned Shops 88 Street Cafe 89 Corner Groceries 90 Beer Hall 91 Traveler's Inn 92 Bus Stop 93 Food Stands

43 University as a Marketplace 83 Master and Apprentices 85 Shopfront Schools 86 Children's Home

61 Small Public Squares 82 Office Connections 101 Building Thoroughfare 146 Flexible Office Space 149 Reception Welcomes You 150 A Place to Wait 151 Small Meeting Rooms 152 Half-Private Office

Finally, these patterns and their underlying rules can be developed into sentences and paragraphs to tell something like a story:

A community should be built on walking distance so that all the basic needs can be met within a comfortable walk. Scatter work throughout the community so that there is less of a separation between living and working. No bedroom communities, no 5 pm deserted office blocks, no commutes. Build work communities, groups of a dozen or so businesses with common areas, throughout the whole community. Those activities that are noisy, dangerous, dirty should be concentrated in industrial ribbons at the edge of communities and serve as their boundaries. Work should be organized in small work groups, self-governing workshops and offices, providing small services without red tape and opportunities for home workshops and settled work.

Build a web of shopping which decentralizes services throughout the community into short, pedestrian shopping streets that are perpendicular to vehicular traffic. The shops should be individually owned rather than franchises or chains and concentrated in a market of many shops, like farmers' markets and flea markets, with push carts and kiosks, peddlers and street performers. There are opportunities for many businesses: cafes, restaurants, food stands, and bars with entertainment, health centers, corner groceries, inns and bed and breakfasts...

Education should also be decentralized with the university organized as a marketplace where anybody can give or take a course (the January Independent Activities Period [IAP] at MIT, the Cambridge Center for Adult Education, any "open university" are models already in existence). Another model is that of master and apprentice, practical mentoring, where the community becomes part of the curriculum with shopfront schools and intergenerational learning from birth to death so that teaching and learning is perpetual and integral within the life of the community. 

Now, how do we make that work economically, here and now in the cities and towns we already have?

Pattern Language for Urban Agriculture

https://solarray.blogspot.com/2013/10/pattern-language-for-urban-agriculture.html

Climate Deadlines

 According to this carbon countdown clock (https://www.mcc-berlin.net/fileadmin/data/clock/carbon_clock.htm), at the current rate (1,337 tonnes per second or 42.2 gigatonnes [Gt] per year), the most CO2 we can emit to stay below 1.5ºC rise (global average surface temperature is 1.2ºC above what it was in 1880 and the annual rate of change has doubled in the last 40 years) is 400 Gt, starting from 2020, and that carbon budget will be used up by about July/August  2029.  

We are at 311 Gts left as I write (3/8/22).

To stay below the 2°C threshold, the carbon budget deadline is April/May 2047.  No more than 1061 Gt of CO2 emitted between now and then if we want to stay below that temperature limit. 

I'd like to think there are a whole bunch of wise, dedicated people backcasting from those dates and figuring out what we can do daily, weekly, monthly in the next 7 years and a few months, 25 years and a month or two so that we don't exceed those limits.  If there is, I wish there'd be a more public conversation about it.

Maybe even an even an online all the time, open source simulation/conversation, a World Game (https://worldgameworkshop.org) where those of us all who are for the benefit of all, as my friend the ethicist Milt Raymond would say, could play out the next 7-25 years repairing the climate damage our species has done and is doing, envisioning how "To make the world work for 100% of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone," as R. Buckminster Fuller, the originator of the game, said.

Fuller also wrote, "Quite clearly, our task is predominantly metaphysical, for it is how to get all of humanity to educate itself swiftly enough to generate spontaneous behaviors that will avoid extinction."

How about a global online design workshop on a climate successful 2029 or 2047?  Just as a thought experiment.

We remain alert so as not to get run down, but it turns out you only have to hop a few feet to one side and the whole huge machinery rolls by, not seeing you at all.
Lew Welch

the war that matters is the war against the imagination
all other wars are subsumed in it.

Diane di Prima

Interface: From Living Zero to Climate Take Back

I met Ray Anderson in 1996 at a conference about The Natural Step (https://thenaturalstep.org), an environmental action framework from Sweden.  He had founded Interface (http://www.interface.com/US/en-US/homepage), a carpet tile manufacturer, in 1973 and built it into one "of the world's largest manufacturers of modular carpet for commercial and residential applications and a leading producer of commercial broadloom and commercial fabrics."

In 1994 he started the company on Mission Zero (https://www.interface.com/US/en-US/about/mission/Our-Mission), zero environmental impact by 2020 because, he said, his grandchildren started getting on him about environment, pollution, ecology.  He listened, took a good, long look at what he was doing, and realized he was a pirate, robbing resources and giving nothing back but waste and indigestible detritus.  

So he started the company on Mission Zero, the promise to eliminate any negative impact the company has on the environment by the year 2020.  They did by 2019.

At that meeting in 1996, Anderson said that Interface was working on seven aspects: eliminating waste; eliminating emissions; renewable energy; closed loop recycling; resource efficient transportation (which may he thought might be the most difficult); and sensitivity - teaching sustainability (using the example of hiring a family therapist at the Interface factory to help keep workers from bringing problems at home to work [and vice versa?] and citing the resulting growth in production and morale); and finally, redesigning commerce. For Ray Anderson, the "prototypical company of the 21st century will take nothing from the Earth, do no harm, be just, and do well by doing good." It is interesting to note that the Hippocratic Oath is "First do no harm" and that the first precept of Buddhism, according to Gary Snyder, is "Do no unnecessary harm.”

Now that Interface is living with zero negative impact it has launched its next mission, Climate Take Back, a net positive mission:
https://www.interface.com/US/en-US/sustainability/climate-take-back-en_US

They intend to do it by
Live zero
Love carbon
Lead the industrial re-revolution
Let nature cool

Ray Anderson told us back in 1996, "I think the Earth needs a miracle. We can be that miracle.”

He certainly was.

Ray Anderson wrote Mid-Course Correction: Toward a Sustainable Enterprise: The Interface Model (1998) and Confessions of a Radical Industrialist: Profits, People, Purpose: Doing Business by Respecting the Earth (2009) which was released as Business Lessons from a Radical Industrialist (2011).

How to Counter Putin and Reduce Climate Change or Reversing the Energy Weapon

 The impending (2/18/22) invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin’s Russia is, at least in part, an energy war.  Certainly, he is using the methane Russia sells to the EU and neighboring countries as a weapon.  Russia supplies a third to a half of the gas the EU burns and this is a strategic and economic fact that has to be taken into consideration by all sides.  Thus, reducing Russian energy dependence (and increasing energy independence)  would reduce Putin’s leverage and could also reduce greenhouse gases, increase energy efficiency, save money on the costs of fuel while benefitting local, national economies as well.  If done wisely.

If the worst case scenario plays out and EU and neighboring countries lose up to half their gas supply, we should remember that, for example, USAmerica produced about 92.9 quadrillion btu’s in 2020 (and has been bouncing between 90-100 quads since the year 2000) but about two thirds of that energy, about 62.3 quads, is “rejected energy,” does no useful work, it lost in transmission, distribution, friction, and systems inefficiencies.  That’s quite a lot of slack, even with Carnot efficiencies.
Source:  https://flowcharts.llnl.gov/content/assets/images/energy/us/Energy_US_2020.png

There is also at least one example of a country which  lost half of its energy supply almost  overnight, a few decades ago, Cuba after the fall of the Soviet Empire.  Their situation was made worse because they also lost 85% of their foreign trade economy and about one third of their GDP in one year, all at the same time.  The people of Cuba had to endure near starvation conditions before transforming their energy situation with a robust local and urban agriculture movement and much more bicycle and public transport.  Despite the differences in energy use, supply, and circumstances, there are still some lessons we can learn from what they did then and continue to do now.

How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
2007 diary:  http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/2/11/204215/961

Film:   https://www.communitysolution.org/mediaandeducation/films/powerofcommunity/

The EU and neighboring countries could go further.  In the face of another imminent war, the constant threat of oil-funded terrorism, and increasingly expensive natural disasters and emergencies, a solar insurgency (http://solarray.blogspot.com/2007/11/solar-insurgency.html)  could upgrade energy and resource systems to reduce waste and improve efficiency while increasing resiliency and preparedness for the next heatwave, flood, fire, hurricane....  A Civilian Conservation Corps doing deep energy retrofits and training people for two of the fastest growing jobs these days, wind technician and solar installer could help us live up to our climate commitments as well as eliminate  the cost of fuel (http://solarray.blogspot.com/2019/07/how-do-you-pay-for-green-new-deal-cost.html).   

Cutting Putin off at the wallet is powerful and, incidentally, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out he is playing the oil and gas spot and futures markets, making $$$$ hand over fist.

Old Solar: Edison and Pre-WWI Energy Independence

In 2007 I was reading Internal Combustion:  How Corporations and Governments Addicted the World to Oil and Derailed the Alternatives by Edwin Black (NY:  St Martin's Press, 2006  ISBN-13: 978-0-312-35907-2) after seeing Black on CSPAN.  

One of the informative stories he tells is of the partnership between Thomas Edison and Henry Ford to build an electric vehicle system together before WWI.

(136)  In the fall of 1912, the promise of Edison's new battery rose to the next level.  His latest wizardry would allow every home, automobile, and industrial source to function as a freestanding generating station.

In mid-September 1912, Edison announced the result of some fifty thousand experiments conducted during seven painstaking years - a radical new energy-self-sufficient home.  He called it the Twentieth Century Suburban Residence.  ostentatiously overstuffed with every modern gadget and appliance from a coffee percolator to a washing machine, to room heaters and coolers, to phonographs and tiny movie projectors - the mansion was an electric marvel.  Every device and system, basement to roof, was powered by batteries replenished continuously by a small-scale household electrical generator.

(128)  In May 1901, Edison formed the Edison Storage Battery Company and in August 1903 began churning out the cells composed of nine iron and nickel plates.  Twenty such cells were packed under a Baker run-about and other vehicles and road tested for as many as five thousand rough and bumpy miles to demonstrate durability.  Edison's batteries could be recharged in about three and a half hours, or about half the overnight duration required for lead competitors.  Most exciting, he planned a handy supportive infrastructure to recharge the batteries.  He wanted to create a widespread recharging network at trolley lines and central electrical stations, with such a network extending into the countryside.  Where such facilities did not exist, he suggested erecting small windmills attached to electrical generators that would light the home at night and recharge the batteries while occupants slept, thereby creating energy independence for the average home and vehicle.  Windmills or electrical siphoning from other facilities, he said, would be cheaper than the growing reliance on gasoline.

(137)  The system's secret was an array of three simple tanks:  one for water, a second for oil, and a third for gasoline - all connected to an on-site mini-generator itself regulated by an automatic voltage adjuster and a series of circuit breakers.  The resident was to "start his engine and forget it" for days at a time.  The system worked this way:  Edison's Type A nickel-iron batteries would run the house and all its gizmos.  Every two to three days, the batteries would become discharged.  The system would detect the drained batteries. When cued by the system, the on-site generator would automatically replenish the nickel-iron batteries in a seven-hour recharging session, often even as the homeowner slept.  A staged and redundant array of batteries ensured that energy levels throughout the abode remained constant even as some units were being recharged.  The same generator would recharge the new Type A-powered vehicle soon to be mass-produced by Ford, thus completing the circle of individual energy independence.

The first fully operational house was Edison's grand mansion at Llewelyn Park, New Jersey.  For its coverage, the New York Times photographed the home inside and out, toured all the rooms, and verified demonstrations of endless electrically driven devices, from toothbrush sanitizers to foot warmers.  The pocket generating plant was a narrow and compact machine, designed to be situated either in the yard, in a shed, or in the basement.  Its cost:  as little as $500, although it came in larger and more expensive sizes capable of supplying greater-scale housing.  Edison's Twentieth Century Suburban Residence would provide cheap, independent power to any suburban abode with a lot or the needed building space as well as the rural home beyond the lines of city power plants.  Self-sufficiency was no longer a vision for tomorrow, but a reality.

Initially, the generators would operate off a small tank of gasoline that periodically needed to be refilled.  Clearly, this temporarily retained the tether to petroleum.  But plans were to switch from dependence on a modicum of weekly gasoline to small residential windmills - that is, as soon as one could be perfected.

Perhaps if they had continued their work, Edison and Ford would have come up with something like the windmills Marcellus Jacobs made in the 1920s and 1930s.  I wonder if Buster Keaton's "Electric House" silent comedy was based upon Edison's vision.

This wasn't even the first attempt at thinking through an electric vehicle infrastructure.  Originally, it was electric cars and trucks which seemed to be the winning ticket in the automotive race.

Salom and Morris and their Electric Carriage and Wagon Company had  a 14 cab taxi fleet garaged on 39th St in NYC by 1897 and  

(67) ....worked to laminate economies of scale and sense to good electromotive mechanics.  A central garage crew of only six, and that included a washer, was all the staff needed to keep the dozen or so cabs humming seven days each week.  Using specially constructed garage cranes, slightly elevated auto rails, and removable vehicle trays, batteries could be swapped out by a single mechanic in just seventy-five seconds.  Spent batteries were then mechanically shuttled to the recharging room for the overnight refresh.  Cruising at speeds of 10 to 20 mph, each taxicab covered some eleven city miles per day.  In constant use, the small fleet transported approximately a thousand passengers monthly over a rough average of about one thousand miles per week.  Accidents and mishaps occurred only once every 360 miles, but this number diminished as drivers gained more experience with the new machines.

By 1899 some major manufacturers were designing the delivery infrastructure with electrical recharging stations, electrical hydrants to be installed on the streets like fire hydrants.

(74) General Electric produced a commercial version, dubbed the Electrant, to cheaply dispense charges of 2.5 kilowatt hours of electricity for a mere twenty-five cents.  Resembling a parking meter, a chest-high box contained wires and a connection to the same electrical grid that powered the rest of the city. GE was merely waiting to install them in every city.

In my storeroom, I have a copy of the poster which was a winning entry in a nation-wide contest to envison the electric vehicle future.  I think it was sponsored by GM.  It showed Cambridge, MA in 2008 with electrical vehicles everywhere and charging bollards, Electrants, on the streets.  That contest was in the early 1990s.  I thought they did a great job, which is why I asked for a copy of their poster presentation.  Little did I know that it was at least the third time these plans had been drawn up.

Here's their version of a charging station for electric vehicles: 

Earlier entries in the Old Solar series:
Old Solar:  Eames Solar Do-Nothing Machine
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2009/4/15/719787/-Old-Solar:-Eames-Solar-Do-Nothing-Machine

Old Solar:  Keck and Keck Twentieth Century Modern

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2007/7/9/355768/-
Old Solar:  1881
http://solarray.blogspot.com/2010/02/old-solar-1881.html

Old Solar:  Venetian Vernacular
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2007/6/9/344834/-

Old Solar: 1980 Barnraised Solar Air Heater
https://solarray.blogspot.com/2008/09/old-solar-1980-barnraised-solar-air.html

Old Solar:  JImmy Carter’s Green Deal
https://solarray.blogspot.com/2019/07/old-solar-jimmy-carters-1979-green-deal.html

Originally published February7, 2007

Zero Net Energy - January 13, 2020

 Ithaca, NY raises $100 million to decarbonize its buildings

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/19/ithaca-new-york-raised-100m-climate-proof-buildings
https://inhabitat.com/ithaca-raises-100m-to-decarbonize-buildings/

18 story tower gets a deep energy retrofit
https://www.eraarch.ca/project/ken-soble-tower-transformation/
https://inhabitat.com/ken-soble-tower-sets-an-example-for-high-rise-sustainability/
Editorial Comment:  Greening the Empire State Building (from 2011)
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/9/10/1015400/

WorldG[reen]B[uilding]C[ouncil] Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment expands to include embodied carbon
https://www.worldgbc.org/news-media/commitment-includes-embodied-carbon
WorldGBC Advancing Net Zero Project
https://www.worldgbc.org/advancing-net-zero

Telosa - "To create a new city in America that sets a global standard for urban living, expands human potential, and becomes a blueprint for future generations"
https://cityoftelosa.com
https://inhabitat.com/city-of-telosa-enlists-bjarke-ingels-group-for-urban-utopia/

Passive House 101 - Anatomy of an amazing net-zero cold climate passive house in Calgary, Alberta, Canada
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbJLSrx-jXI
hat tip John B Hoag

International Energy Agency commits to become net zero by 2024
https://www.iea.org/news/international-energy-agency-commits-to-become-net-zero-by-2024
Net Zero by 2050:  A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector
https://www.iea.org/reports/net-zero-by-2050
hat tip to treehugger.com

Robin Wood - an urban block made of wood which will be net zero in construction and operation, including a micro-forest
https://marckoehler.com/project/robin-wood-making-an-island-together/
https://inhabitat.com/sustainable-and-affordable-urban-block-coming-to-amsterdam/

Build Better Now - virtual reality presentation of green building prepared for COP26
https://buildbetternow.co
https://inhabitat.com/virtual-pavilion-looks-into-the-future-of-sustainable-design/

Ripple House - entry for Solar Decathlon in Wuppertal, Germany
https://teamvirtue.nl
https://inhabitat.com/students-design-a-house-that-revolutionizes-urban-design/

Affordable net zero houses which are carbon negative, harvest 100% of the rainwater, clean their sewage and potentially grow their own food 
https://www.billionbricks.org
https://www.architecturebrio.com/projects-item/billionbricks-homes-self-financing-home/
https://inhabitat.com/affordable-solar-homes-are-lifting-homeowners-out-of-poverty/

MA’s first energy positive public school, the 70,242-sf Annie E. Fales Elementary School
https://www.bdcnetwork.com/massachusetts-first-net-positive-energy-public-school-opens
hat tip to Rudy Perkins

Wisconsin’s first carbon neutral school
https://spectrumnews1.com/wi/milwaukee/news/2021/04/16/wisconsin-s-first-carbon-neutral-school-up-and-running
https://www.oregonsd.org/site/default.aspx?PageType=3&DomainID=552&ModuleInstanceID=10574&ViewID=6446EE88-D30C-497E-9316-3F8874B3E108&RenderLoc=0&FlexDataID=22895&PageID=5466
hat tip to Rudy Perkins

Global Carbon Budget 2021

Global Carbon Budget 2021

Abstract https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2021-386/

Full preprintr:  https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2021-386/essd-2021-386.pdf

2020, Fossil CO2 emissions (EFOS) declined by 5.4 % relative to 2019, with fossil emissions at 9.5 ± 0.5 GtC yr−1 (9.3 ± 0.5 GtC yr−1 when the cement carbonation sink is included), emissions from land-use change (ELUC) was 0.9 ± 0.7 GtC yr−1, for a total anthropogenic CO2 emission of 10.2 ± 0.8 GtC yr−1 (37.4 ± 2.9 GtCO2). 

Also, for 2020, Atmospheric CO2 concentration is measured directly, and its growth rate (GATM) was 5.0 ± 0.2 GtC yr−1 (2.4 ± 0.1 ppm yr−1), ocean CO2 sink (SOCEAN) was 3.0 ± 0.4 GtC yr−1 and terrestrial CO2 sink (SLAND) was 2.9 ± 1 GtC yr−1, with a carbon budget imbalance (BIM) of −0.8 GtC yr−1. The global atmospheric CO2 concentration averaged over 2020 reached 412.45 ± 0.1 ppm. Preliminary data for 2021, suggest a rebound in Fossil CO2 emissions (EFOS) relative to 2020 of +4.9 % (4.1 % to 5.7 %) globally.

Fossil CO2 emissions significantly decreased in 23 countries from 2010-2019 about 2.5 GtC yr fossil fuel CO2 emissions or around  one quarter of world CO2 fossil emissions.

1. The remaining carbon budget for a 50% likelihood to limit global warming to 1.5°C, 1.7°C and 2°C has shrunk to 120 GtC (420 GtCO2), 210 GtC (770 GtCO2) and 350 GtC (1270 GtCO2) respectively, equivalent to 11, 20 and 32 years from the beginning of 2022, assuming 2021  emissions levels. Total anthropogenic emissions were 10.4 GtC yr-1 (38.0 GtCO2 yr-1) in  2020, with a preliminary estimate of 10.7 GtC yr-1 (39.4 GtCO2 yr-1) for 2021. The remaining carbon budget to keep global temperatures below the climate targets of the Paris Agreement has shrunk by 21 GtC (77 GtCO2) relative to the remaining carbon budget  estimate assessed in the IPCC AR6 Working Group 1 assessment. Reaching net zero CO2 emissions by 2050 entails cutting total anthropogenic CO2 emissions by about 0.4 GtC (1.4  GtCO2) each year on average, comparable to the decrease during 2020, highlighting the scale of the action needed.

Anybody interested in an online/all the time 11, 20, 33 year World Game?

Received: 28 Oct 2021 – Accepted for review: 29 Oct 2021 – Discussion started: 04 Nov 2021
Abstract. Accurate assessment of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and their redistribution among the atmosphere, ocean, and terrestrial biosphere in a changing climate is critical to better understand the global carbon cycle, support the development of climate policies, and project future climate change. Here we describe and synthesize data sets and methodology to quantify the five major components of the global carbon budget and their uncertainties. Fossil CO2 emissions (EFOS) are based on energy statistics and cement production data, while emissions from land-use change (ELUC), mainly deforestation, are based on land-use and land-use change data and bookkeeping models. Atmospheric CO2 concentration is measured directly, and its growth rate (GATM) is computed from the annual changes in concentration. The ocean CO2 sink (SOCEAN) is estimated with global ocean biogeochemistry models and observation-based data-products. The terrestrial CO2 sink (SLAND) is estimated with dynamic global vegetation models. The resulting carbon budget imbalance (BIM), the difference between the estimated total emissions and the estimated changes in the atmosphere, ocean, and terrestrial biosphere, is a measure of imperfect data and understanding of the contemporary carbon cycle. All uncertainties are reported as ±1σ. For the first time, an approach is shown to reconcile the difference in our ELUC estimate with the one from national greenhouse gases inventories, supporting the assessment of collective countries’ climate progress.

For the year 2020, EFOS declined by 5.4 % relative to 2019, with fossil emissions at 9.5 ± 0.5 GtC yr−1 (9.3 ± 0.5 GtC yr−1 when the cement carbonation sink is included), ELUC was 0.9 ± 0.7 GtC yr−1, for a total anthropogenic CO2 emission of 10.2 ± 0.8 GtC yr−1 (37.4 ± 2.9 GtCO2). Also, for 2020, GATM was 5.0 ± 0.2 GtC yr−1 (2.4 ± 0.1 ppm yr−1), SOCEAN was 3.0 ± 0.4 GtC yr−1 and SLAND was 2.9 ± 1 GtC yr−1, with a BIM of −0.8 GtC yr−1. The global atmospheric CO2 concentration averaged over 2020 reached 412.45 ± 0.1 ppm. Preliminary data for 2021, suggest a rebound in EFOS relative to 2020 of +4.9 % (4.1 % to 5.7 %) globally.

Overall, the mean and trend in the components of the global carbon budget are consistently estimated over the period 1959–2020, but discrepancies of up to 1 GtC yr−1 persist for the representation of annual to semi-decadal variability in CO2 fluxes. Comparison of estimates from multiple approaches and observations shows: (1) a persistent large uncertainty in the estimate of land-use changes emissions, (2) a low agreement between the different methods on the magnitude of the land CO2 flux in the northern extra- tropics, and (3) a discrepancy between the different methods on the strength of the ocean sink over the last decade. This living data update documents changes in the methods and data sets used in this new global carbon budget and the progress in understanding of the global carbon cycle compared with previous publications of this data set (Friedlingstein et al., 2020; Friedlingstein et al., 2019; Le Quéré et al., 2018b, 2018a, 2016, 2015b, 2015a, 2014, 2013). The data presented in this work are available at https://doi.org/10.18160/gcp-2021 (Friedlingstein et al., 2021).

Electric Appliances as Virtual Power Plants

“We’re thinking we can turn water heaters, refrigerators, thermostats, electric vehicles and batteries into virtual power plants [VPPs]” to help balance the grid's increasing clean electricity, Jigar Shah, director of the DOE Loan Programs Office [LPO] said in a September 2021 interview (https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/policy-regulation/jigar-shahs-big-idea-for-getting-rooftop-solar-and-smart-appliances-to-low-income-americans).  The LPO are offering loan guarantees for companies that produce grid-responsive, energy-efficient appliances and equipment and low interest, long term loans for low-income buyers, a $4 billion per month market, for joining a distributed energy resources [DER] system to act as a modular, virtual power plant [VPP].

In a June DOE podcast (https://www.energy.gov/podcasts/direct-current-energygov-podcast/lpos-new-look-conversation-jigar-shah) Shah said, 

"Well, I think these distributed energy programs [DER] are the most straightforward way that we’ve thought about it [environmental justice]. And when you think about appliances, it’s not just refrigerators, air conditioners and water heaters. It also includes solar plus storage, but it also includes electric cars. Right? So electric cars are DER-enabled appliances as well, right? So when you think about, when you look at the Texas polar vortex, there were some people who actually were able to power their whole house off their car. And so, you know, in fact, I’d say a car battery is probably the cheapest way to get a battery these days, because it’s, you know, 90 kilowatt-hours for I think, $14,000 or $15,000 for a used Chevy Bolt.  So I think that there’s a lot that we can do there. I also think that the scope and the scale that we’re trying to get after is pretty large. And, you know, I think we need to find large pockets of opportunity, right? So when you think about appliances, appliances alone — not counting electric vehicles — is about a $10 billion a month — a month — business. Right? And roughly 40% of those purchases are made by low-moderate income households. Right, so that’s $4 billion a month. So if we can shift $4 billion dollars a month of purchases, from, you know, like some form of payday lending to low-interest loans with long durations, that’s going to save a tremendous amount of money for the average consumer. And if those appliances are plugged into distributed energy resources, all of our modeling shows that it’s the only idea that we have that can actually reduce electricity rates. Not reduce the growth of electricity rates, but actually reduce electricity rates…."

“We can insert ourselves there and help people get 6…or 7 percent interest rates,” Shah said. ​“But in exchange, they have to opt in their air-conditioning system into a distributed energy resources project and…get paid to provide grid flexibility...” 

"California spilled about 1600 gigawatt-hours of renewable energy last year [2020], and they could have captured a lot of that if they had demand dexterity in the grid. So they could, you know, make people’s houses a little bit cooler than they had set it for, and use some of that power then, and then not used it later in the afternoon when they would have turned it on, right? And so starting to time the loads in the homes with  when there’s overproduction of electricity is something that does qualify for Loan Programs Office, and a lot of the residential solar players are in the best place to, you know, promote those services.”

This is one way that using electric appliances as VPPs and DERs "can actually reduce electricity rates. Not reduce the growth of electricity rates, but actually reduce electricity rates…."

Old Solar: Equal Rights to the Sun

 

“Produced by Bonnie Symansky, this video, Equal Rights to the Sun (1979) documents citizen [led] solar energy projects organized in the Boston area by the Urban Solar Energy Association (USEA - founded by Barbara Brandt [Susan Baldwin, George Mokray, and Ambrose Spencer]).

Cities in the northeast have the greatest energy needs yet resources are often scarce. Solar enthusiasts are working hard to solve energy problems through neighborhood cooperative efforts. Equal Rights to the Sun documents some of Boston's self-help urban solar projects, demonstrating that solar is working in cities and it need not be expensive. Includes examples of building a breadbox heater, converting an attic into a solar greenhouse, the addition of passive wall collectors, enclosure of a south-facing porch and construction of a solar skylight. Solar energy shines on every part of the city. Shows that all we need is a little ingenuity and cooperation to take advantage of it.”

Many of the people in this 1979 video continued in the renewable energy field, even through the lean decades after 1979, when Reagan was elected and all movement stopped dead in its tracks.  It’s one reason why I say Reagan killed us (although he’s had a lot of help since then).

 The Urban Solar Energy Association became the Boston Area Solar Energy Association (http://basea.org) which hosted school programs, a long-running lecture series, and other events.  They plan to resume activities soon.
 

Here’s an upate on one of the USEA barnraised solar air heaters:
Old Solar: 1980 Barnraised Solar Air Heater
https://solarray.blogspot.com/2008/09/old-solar-1980-barnraised-solar-air.html
 

Some late 1970s context:

Old Solar:  JImmy Carter’s Green Deal
https://solarray.blogspot.com/2019/07/old-solar-jimmy-carters-1979-green-deal.html

Another example from those days was the New Alchemy Institute in Cape Cod and in 2019 the Guardian looked back at it after 40 years
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/ng-interactive/2019/sep/29/the-new-alchemists-could-the-past-hold-the-key-to-sustainable-living

I believe we knew what we were doing then and practiced positive protest by constructing the alternatives we wanted to see.  There is a positive future but only if we start building it now and continue building it daily.  One group which is doing that today in the Boston area is the Home Energy Efficiency Team [HEET] (https://heet.org) which started by doing weatherization barnraisings,proceeded to local gas leak monitoring, and is now starting a pilot GeoMicroDistrict to prune back gas lines by replacing them with geothermal heat pumps with the local utility, Eversource
https://heet.org/energy-shift/geomicrodistrict-feasibility-study/

Earlier entries in the Old Solar series:
Old Solar:  Eames Solar Do-Nothing Machine
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2009/4/15/719787/-Old-Solar:-Eames-Solar-Do-Nothing-Machine

Old Solar:  Keck and Keck Twentieth Century Modern

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2007/7/9/355768/-
Old Solar:  1881
http://solarray.blogspot.com/2010/02/old-solar-1881.html

Old Solar:  Venetian Vernacular
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2007/6/9/344834/-

Old Solar: 1980 Barnraised Solar Air Heater
https://solarray.blogspot.com/2008/09/old-solar-1980-barnraised-solar-air.html

Old Solar:  JImmy Carter’s Green Deal
https://solarray.blogspot.com/2019/07/old-solar-jimmy-carters-1979-green-deal.html

I always thought you could teach the rudiments of solar energy in about a half hour and over the years produced a series of short videos that attempts to do that:

 

But then I also thought the site-built, community renewable energy movement would produce something like this

Do It Yourself Solar:  Austrian Self-Build Coops
http://solarray.blogspot.com/2014/12/do-it-yourself-solar-austrian-self.html

Solar: Not Sold in Stores

 Recently, I’ve seen TV ads for a $10,000 home battery system, the PWRcell* (https://www.getpwrcell.com) and two versions of a solar light and motion sensor, the Bionic Floodlight# (https://bionicfloodlight.com), for $20-30 but “not sold in stores.”  Quite a price spread.

*  "PWRcell’s revolutionary battery storage technology captures and stores electricity from solar panels or the grid. The energy stored can be discharged during peak demand times when the cost of utility power is higher, which helps you save money…  The PWRcell battery storage system starts at $9,999 MSRP+. This price point includes 1- Inverter, 1- Battery Storage Cabinet, and 3 – battery modules. Special financing, as well as state or federal rebates, tax credits, and other financial incentives are available, and make the PWRcell even more affordable.”

#  $30 Version:  “Each of the three separate panels on the Bionic Floodlight can trigger 108 high-intensity LED bulbs when motion is detected, to blast a bright, penetrating light.”
$20 Version:  “8 LED lights… SPECIAL OFFER: Get a 2nd Bionic Spotlight for only $6.95!"

I’ve also seen 
Solar light/chargers for
$27 https://products.4patriots.com/power/halo-xt/secret-power-plant - 
$30 https://powerflexpro.com/products/power-flex-pro 
$50 https://luminaid.com 

Solar light/charger/fan
$36  https://etsydaily.com/collections/hot-seller/products/6-in-1-portable-outdoor-led-camping-lantern-with-fan

Another interesting product is an LED bulb with built in battery 
$28  https://shop.boundery.com/collections/emergency/products/emergency-power-led-light-bulb

For decades now I’ve been saying and practicing my own solar civil defense with a $10 solar bicycle light and charger that’s now available wholesale for $5.80@ or less
https://www.alibaba.com/pla/Bicycle-Light-bell-Solar-Powered-USB_62101116121.html?mark=google_shopping&biz=pla&pcy=US&searchText=Kids+Bicycle+Spoke+Decoration/+Bike+Accessories&product_id=62101116121

ANAI: 40 Years of Ecological Development in Costa Rica

 I wonder how many people remember the New Alchemy Institute which, from 1969 to 1991, experimented with wind power, solar power, intensive regenerative agriculture, aquaculture, and many other ideas now becoming big business and a way out of climate chaos.  I first visited with them around 1974 and am still in contact with some of the old New Alchies today, and continue to believe their vision of the world is the way to an ecologically restorative future. 

One of the founders is Bill McLarney who 40 years ago started a Costa Rican version of New Alchemy, ANAI (http://www.anaicostarica.org), to integrate nature conservation and sustainable development in the Talamanca region.  I’ve supported his work there with a small annual donation for most of that time and, in return, get a short annual report.  This year’s brought more than a smile to my face and demands to be shared:

"With the indispensable assistance of Bioeducators, we have finally completed a long deferred project to produce laminated sheets with photos of almost all of the 50 species of freshwater fish we have identified from the La Amistad Caribe watersheds, with scientific names plus common names in Spanish, English, Bribri, Naso and Ngobe.  Getting the indigenous names right was a challenge which required sending our indigenous Bioeducators on errands to remote villages to visit 'old timers' who were thoroughly familiar with the names of the fish in their native languages, and putting them together with younger people fluent in the recently created written forms of the four languages.  Thus a byproduct of our biologically focused work was to fortify the indigenous cultures….

"For many years, ANAI’s signature program was organic agroforestry.  Over the years, and in keeping with our philosophy of maximizing local responsibility and involvement, this responsibility has been passed to APPTA (Talamanca Small Producers’ Association) (https://www.appta.org/index.php/en/) which has become the world’s largest organic farmers’ cooperative.  ANAI’s most recent contribution to APPTA’s success has been in securing funding to obtain and install three industrial driers, which tremendously increases their capacity to purchase, process and market local organic farm products….

"As what was once merely ANAI’s vision of how things should be matures, we are ever more forcefully reminded of the links between terrestrial, aquatic and marine biodiversity, and the crucial role organic agroforestry plantations on small farms can play in reducing fragmentation and protecting landscape integrity.  Toward this end, we are planning to initiate a process of mapping all existing forested corridors, and gaps, in our service area extending from the Rio Estrella watershed in Costa Rica to Almirante Bay in Panama, and from the cost to the Continental Divide...

"All of the activities reported here - strengthening old and creating new organic agroforestry farms, fomenting the community Water Observatories movement, advocation for the needs of migratory fish - play into this vision.”

ANAI can always use donations at https://www.anaicostarica.org/donate.html

The New Alchemy land in Hatchville, MA on Cape Cod is still continuing the vision in different ways, with some of the original New Alchies, as you can see at https://newalchemists.net

John Todd, another of the founders and a pioneering ecological designer, is still working (one of his latest projects is on greening the Sinai Peninsula) through https://www.toddecological.com

"Rejected Energy" and Heat Mapping the EU

 USAmerica generates around 100 quadrillion BTUs per year, more or less, and has plateaued at that level since 2000.  However, about 67% of the energy produced is characterized as “rejected energy,” energy that does no useful work, according to the annual energy report of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (https://flowcharts.llnl.gov).  

We waste about 2/3rds of the energy we produce, each and every year.

A lot of that is waste heat which could be used for process heat in industrial processes and heating (and cooling) especially if we had district heating systems.  The EU does have district heating systems and is now beginning to maximize their use in order to reduce their own “rejected energy” and the climate effects it produces.  In fact, "This is how Copenhagen plans to go carbon-neutral by 2025” (https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/05/the-copenhagen-effect-how-europe-can-become-heat-efficient/) starting with Nordhavn, a district “designed to be the world’s foremost smart energy laboratory at full scale" demonstrating "how electricity and heating, energy-efficient buildings and electric transport can be integrated into an intelligent, flexible and optimized energy system."

They say, "We need to link district heating systems and expand thermal grids at scale. The next step in Europe is to make smart thermal grids that can harvest heat wasted from current and future sources such as power plants and data centres. Europe is wasting enough heat to almost cover the current heat demands in all its buildings. The Heat Roadmap Europe (HRE) project (https://heatroadmap.eu) and World Economic Forum’s Future of Europe, Energy initiative sparked the idea of creating a smart thermal grid in all EU countries. As a result, the Pan-European Thermal Atlas (Peta) (https://heatroadmap.eu/peta4/) now pairs areas with heat demand and heat excess sources. In other words, it is preparing and planning the heat grid.”

Let me make this clear, the EU is mapping waste heat sources throughout their participating nations and developing plans to transform that waste heat into useful work.  I doubt there’s anyone in USAmerica who is even thinking along those lines at that scale.  Yet.

You can learn more about these ideas at the 7th International Conference on Smart Energy Systems (https://smartenergysystems.eu) on 21-22 September 2021 at Aalborg University and Energy Cluster in Denmark.

"After being forced by circumstances into holding the conference strictly virtually in 2020, we look forward to yet again welcoming our conference participants in a hybrid setting with the possibility to attend either online or in person – this time in Copenhagen.

"The conference establishes a venue for presenting and discussing scientific findings and industrial experiences related to the subject of Smart Energy Systems based on renewable energy, 4th Generation District Heating Technologies and Systems (4GDH), electrification of heating and transport sectors, electrofuels and energy efficiency.

"This 7th conference in the series cements it as a main venue for presentations and fruitful debates on subjects that are pertinent to the development and implementation of smart energy systems to fulfil national and international objectives.”

May there be USAmerican policymakers, scientists, and engineers in attendance at this conference who take good notes to bring back home.

PS:  "How much CO2 equivalent is offset if we whiten all eligible urban flat roofs world- wide?

Answer: 24 Gigatonnes (Gt) – 2/3 of a year’s worldwide emission – Gigatonne = billion metric tons
If implemented over 20 years (the life of a roof or a program) this is ≈ 1.2 Gt/year.”

Source:  https://www.coolrooftoolkit.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Rosenfeld-Presentation.pdf

"We remain alert so as not to get run down, but it turns out you only have to hop a few feet to one side and the whole huge machinery rolls by, not seeing you at all."
Lew Welch

"the war that matters is the war against the imagination
all other wars are subsumed in it."
Diane Di Prima

"Quite clearly, our task is predominantly metaphysical, for it is how to get all of humanity to educate itself swiftly enough to generate spontaneous behaviors that will avoid extinction."

R. Buckminster Fuller

Although, given recent and current events, there seem to be a whole hell of a lot of people who seem to be in love with the death drive.