Zero Net Energy - December 25, 2020

 "Second + Delaware is the largest Passive House building in the world, which means that it uses 80-90% less energy than conventional buildings”

Opening in October in Kansas City, Missouri
https://www.secondanddelaware.com
https://inhabitat.com/worlds-largest-passive-house-building-to-open-in-kansas-city/

A blog about living in a self-designed shipping container tiny house which is completely self-sufficient in Australia
https://tinyhousesustainablelivingaustralia.com

40 hectare “regenerative city” plan for Bergen, Norway
https://www.tredjenatur.dk/en/portfolio/regenerative-city/
https://inhabitat.com/third-nature-imagines-a-zero-emission-regenerative-city-district-in-bergen/

How Oslo plans to become a zero emissions city by 2030
https://www.fastcompany.com/90552168/this-is-what-a-zero-emissions-city-looks-like

Net Zero energy McDonald's
http://www.r-barc.com/fast-company-new-mcdonalds-solar-powered/
https://inhabitat.com/disney-world-mcdonalds-to-be-first-net-zero-fast-food-restaurant/

Snøhetta’s Powerhouse Telemark will use 70% less energy than a conventional building of similar size and will produce more energy than it will require over its entire lifespan, including the energy used in construction and even during its eventual demolition in decades to come
https://snohetta.com/projects/523-powerhouse-telemark-a-sustainable-model-for-the-future-of-workspaces
https://cleantechnica.com/2020/11/03/powerhouse-telemark-by-snohetta-produces-more-energy-than-it-consumes/
https://inhabitat.com/snohetta-completes-breeam-excellent-net-positive-energy-office/

In January, 2019 this list included
Trondheim, Norway’s net energy positive building, Powerhouse Brattørkaia, "will generate more energy in its operational phase than it consumes through the production of buiding materials, construction, operation, and disposal of the building” or Snøhetta strikes again
https://www.powerhouse.no/en/prosjekter/powerhouse-brattorkaia/
https://www.citylab.com/environment/2018/12/norway-energy-positive-building-powerhouse-snohetta/577918/

Editorial Comment:  Snøhetta is the standard for zero net energy, net zero energy design and construction, at least in my opinion.

Plan for UK’s first carbon neutral “urban quarter” 
https://inhabitat.com/sunderlands-riverfront-to-house-uks-first-carbon-neutral-community/

The Green Gateway, a zero-emission, highly sustainable multimodal hub, is the winner for the 2020 Fentress Global Challenge (FGC), an annual global student design competition
https://fentressglobalchallenge.com/news/2020/airport-of-the-future-global-student-design-competition-2020-winners-announced
https://inhabitat.com/zero-emission-airport-concept-wins-2020-fentress-global-challenge/

Westwood Hills Nature Center in St. Louis Park, Minnesota with net-zero energy design
https://hga.com/projects/westwood-hills-nature-center/
https://inhabitat.com/this-nature-center-proves-zero-energy-is-possible-even-in-wintry-minnesota/

Net energy positive hotel for Bornholm Island, Denmark
https://inhabitat.com/3xn-unveils-denmarks-first-climate-positive-hotel-for-bornholm-island/
https://www.greensolutionhouse.dk/en/
Editorial Comment:  Bornholm Island was the test-bed for the EU’s Grid 2.0 project to determine how to mesh renewables with the existing grid and speed the renewable transition:  http://www.eu-ecogrid.net
More on Bornholm and other near net zero island projects at http://solarray.blogspot.com/2017/09/crowd-funding-emergency-solar-electric.html

Redesigning Bellinzona, Switzerland through an “'eMergetic evaluation' concept that considers the entire building lifecycle to minimize the city’s carbon footprint. The proposal also includes planned energy policy objectives with zero-emission targets, renewable energy systems and environmental monitoring."
https://www.tamassociati.org/2020/10/22/tamassociati-takes-part-in-redesigning-the-future-of-bellinzona-switzerland/
https://inhabitat.com/tamassociati-envisions-a-zero-emissions-future-proof-urban-development/

Planning the Energy Transition

 Over the past couple of weeks I’ve run across what might be a few really useful reports on the energy transition.

The Lancet is doing an annual climate countdown report to monitor our progress.  Here is this year’s edition: https://www.lancetcountdown.org/2020-report/

That should give us some idea of where we are and this particular finding jumped out

"Indicator 4.2.5: net value of fossil fuel subsidies and carbon prices—headline finding: 58 of the 75 countries reviewed were operating with a net negative carbon price in 2017.  The resulting net loss of revenue was, in many cases, equivalent to substantial proportions of the national health budget...

"This indicator calculates net, economy- wide average carbon prices and associated net carbon revenue to government. The calculations are based on the value of overall fossil fuel subsidies, the revenue from carbon pricing mechanisms, and the total CO2 emissions of the economy. Data on fossil fuel subsidies are calculated on the basis of analysis from the IEA and OECD.  Together, these sources cover 75 countries and account for around 92% of global CO2 emissions. Carbon prices and revenues are derived from data in the World Bank Carbon Pricing Dashboard (https://carbonpricingdashboard.worldbank.org/) [Corporate Carbon Accounting Market https://cleantechnica.com/2020/11/30/the-corporate-carbon-accounting-market/ may also be useful here]

"Of the 75 countries, 61 (81%) countries in 2016 and 58 (77%) countries in 2017 had net negative carbon prices, and only 14 (19%) countries in 2016 and 17 (23%) countries in 2017 had a price higher than zero, a result of substantial subsidies for fossil fuel production and consumption (figure 25). The median net carbon revenue was negative, a pay-out of $0·66 billion (IQR –0·04 to –3·48), with some countries providing net fossil fuel subsidies in the tens of billions of dollars each year. In many cases, these subsidies were equivalent to substantial proportions of the national health budget—more than 100% in eight of the 75 countries in 2017.  Of the 38 countries that had formal carbon pricing mechanisms in place in 2017, 21 still had net negative carbon prices.”

An historical perspective is available with an interactive diagram of the Energy Transitions in U.S. History, 1800–2019 (https://us-sankey.rcc.uchicago.edu), extremely fine work which maps the transitions from biomass to coal to oil to gas to nuclear to renewables.  The supporting paper is at https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54dcfad0e4b0eaff5e0068bf/t/5fbeba6ffa04221c71019ccc/1606335091993/Suits_Matteson_Moyer_2020_Energy_Transitions.pdf

McKinsey has just released a report on How the EU Could Achieve Zero Emissions at Net Zero Cost (https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/sustainability/our-insights/how-the-european-union-could-achieve-net-zero-emissions-at-net-zero-cost#) and there are two new studies for the USA:

Net-Zero America:  Potential Pathways, Infrastructure, and Impacts

https://environmenthalfcentury.princeton.edu/sites/g/files/toruqf331/files/2020-12/Princeton_NZA_Interim_Report_15_Dec_2020_FINAL.pdf

https://environmenthalfcentury.princeton.edu/research/2020/big-affordable-effort-needed-america-reach-net-zero-emissions-2050-princeton-study

and two US renewable energy policy scenaria, administrative action alone doubling renewables by 2030 and 50% renewables by 2030, from Wood Mackenzie (https://www.woodmac.com/our-expertise/focus/Power--Renewables/us-renewable-energy-policy-scenario-analysis/).

The Sierra Club also has a paper on how they are approaching "Climate Resilience, Carbon Dioxide Removal, and Geoengineering Policy”

https://www.sierraclub.org/sites/www.sierraclub.org/files/2020-Sierra-Club-Climate-Resilience-Policy.pdf

Toward Net Zero Energy: Tiny Houses on Up

The Laney College Carpentry Department in Oakland, California built a net zero tiny house, the Wedge, in 2016 for the SMUD Net Zero Tiny House Competition

https:/youtu.be/PyxJQynaC_c

That tiny house is for sale for
$55,000
https:tinyhouselistings.com/listings/oakland-ca-12-matthew-wolpe

Laney College carpenters are currently building two other prototypes tiny houses, the Pocket House, for the unhoused and homeless in Oakland
https:laney.edu/carpentry/tiny-houses/pocket-house

The Northern Nomad is another net zero tiny home designed and built by a group of students from Carleton University in Canada as this video from 2019 shows:
Northern Nomad Tiny House 
https:/youtu.be/gbz35FLg9L4
http://www.thenorthernnomad.ca/

Reading Design Guidelines for a Net Zero Tiny House (https:tinyhousedesign.com/design-guidelines-for-a-net-zero-tiny-house) and Guide to Off-Grid Tiny Houses (https://gosun.co/blogs/news/guide-to-an-off-grid-tiny-house), the core idea seems to be energy efficiency first, last, and always:  the less energy you use the easier it becomes to supply it with renewables onsite.

That core idea of energy efficiency applies to all houses, not just tiny houses.

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Zero Net Energy - August 9, 2020

 Santa Monica civic building will produce net positive energy and going for full Living Building challenge certification

https://fisherpartners.net/projects/city-of-santa-monica-city-services-building/
https://inhabitat.com/new-santa-monica-city-services-building-will-produce-more-energy-than-it-uses/

An affordable Passive House development that’s “aggressively green"
https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/04/15/999376/the-passive-house-thats-aggressively-green/

A ski chalet in Utah which will be a net-positive energy building, generating 364% more power than it needs
https://tomwiscombe.com/THE-DARK-CHALET
https://archpaper.com/2020/04/tom-wiscombe-architecture-dark-chalet-utah/#gallery-0-slide-0
https://inhabitat.com/dark-chalet-in-utah-will-generate-over-350-more-energy-than-it-needs/

Link City - proposed self-sustainable city-forest, using an urban operating system with an AI (Artificial Intelligence)
https://www.lucacurci.com/portfolio/the-link-city.html
https://inhabitat.com/luca-curci-architects-designs-a-zero-energy-smart-city-of-the-future/

Park Avenue Green - affordable passive house apartment building in the South Bronx, the largest passive house development in North America
http://www.cplusga.com/works/park-avenue-green-2/
https://inhabitat.com/passive-house-certified-development-offers-affordable-housing-in-south-bronx/

Wellesley College Global Flora greenhouse "exceeds the Net Zero Water & Energy requirements of the Living Building Challenge, the world’s most rigorous certification of sustainable construction."
http://www.kvarch.net/projects/133
https://inhabitat.com/wellesleys-global-flora-greenhouse-can-generate-all-of-its-own-energy/

Energy neutral school in Utrecht
https://inhabitat.com/energy-neutral-school-in-utrecht-enhances-biodiversity/
http://e-v-a.net/?fluxus_portfolio=so-fier

AI to identify energy wasting homes
https://venturebeat.com/2020/07/07/wattscale-is-an-open-source-ai-tool-that-identifies-energy-wasting-homes/
WattScale https://arxiv.org/pdf/2007.01382.pdf
Watthome, an earlier version:  http://www.ecs.umass.edu/~irwin/watthome.pdf 

Arctic Nordic Alpine  - Exhibation on Snøhetta’s work including Hotel Svart in Svartisen, the Arctic World Archive Visitor Center in Svalbard Island, and the Museum Quarter in Bolzano
https://www.aedes-arc.de/cms/aedes/de/programm?id=19520291
https://www.fastcompany.com/90524716/how-the-worlds-most-remote-buildings-can-help-us-adapt-to-climate-change
hat tip to Heath Row’s Media Diet: http://tinyurl.com/joinmediadiet

Orford Mews - energy-positive, carbon positive, zero construction waste nine-unit development planned for London
https://studioanyo.com/work/orford-mews/
https://inhabitat.com/zero-waste-orford-mews-to-bring-energy-positive-homes-to-east-london/

Moonstone House - test bed for energy efficiency started in 2002 is still evolving
https://themoonstoneproject.co.uk
https://cleantechnica.com/2020/07/30/fully-charged-tours-the-net-zero-energy-moonstone-house/

Self-sufficient skyscraper proposed for NYC
https://www.lissoniandpartners.com/en/architecture/competitions/americas/completed/skylines-new-york/1289
https://inhabitat.com/self-sufficient-garden-city-skyscraper-proposed-for-nyc/

COVID19 and Energy: What McKinsey Thinks

On Tuesday, April 28, I attended an online seminar on Energy and COVID19 organized by the Harvard Undergraduate Clean Energy Group (https://www.huceg.org/) with Scott S. Nyquist and Luciano Di Fiori both of the consulting firm McKinsey and Company. I’ve heard Scott Nyquist speak on energy a few times over the years, usually at MIT, and have found him to be informative even though our perspectives are very different.

The COVID19 scenaria McKinsey is examining now include
Virus contained — based upon China’s 6-8 week shutdown  
Vaccine — 12 – 18 months away plus the time it takes to innoculate the world population (at least another 12 – 18 months), similar to the expectation author Laurie Garrett reported to Frank Bruni in the NYTimes over the last few days
Waves — there will almost certainly be a second wave of COVID19 and possibly multiple waves until we have a vaccine.

In terms of energy, liquid fuels demand will take 2 — 4 years to recover; gasoline use is estimated to decrease 60% under lockdown; natural gas is down 5-10%. There will be excess supply and dropping prices which means that fracking will become even less economic (a conclusion I draw which Nyquist and Di Fiori did not offer). Global oil products demand will be down 6.7 -13.0 million barrels per day pushing refinery levels and margins to historically low levels and LNG [liquid natural gas] may take 5-7 years to come back to stable prices, lower with occasional flare ups of higher prices as things equalize. McKinsey expects no long-term consequences to demand, but is monitoring for changes. I don’t agree with McKinsey about no long-term changes in demand.  

Electric power demand is down 3-5% and peak load down by 18-24%. Electricity peak times and amounts have changed due to more people staying at home, primarily from increased air conditioning.

The airline business is down to 20% of its former business and will take a long time to come back. Cruise lines are in an even worse position with worse projections for the future.

GDP growth is going to be negative for about 2 years and then come back but to 2019 levels, at best.  

There may be a very cautious consumer culture, as after the Depression, coming out of the pandemic. The frugality imposed by the Great Depression affected all the generations that lived through it for decades afterwards.
Economic growth may be much slower after this. Companies will be less likely to hold debt and become very cash conscious.  

Nyquist believes that governments will be much better prepared for the next pandemic but “we have to pay for this” and government debt will be much higher. I do not have as much confidence as Nyquist does in the future preparations of any government in the USA but will be happy to be proved wrong.

Zero Net Energy - March 23, 2020

Sheridan Small Homes - affordable net zero single family homes in Providence, RI designed by architects and students from RI School of Design
https://cleantechnica.com/2019/11/23/public-private-partnership-building-net-zero-homes-for-low-income-families-in-rhode-island/

Dutch Railways adult swing set for generating power
https://id310.nl/en/play-for-power-ns/

Net zero community planned for Hamburg, Germany
https://www.saota.com/project/neulander-quarree/
https://inhabitat.com/net-zero-community-planned-for-hamburg-will-rely-on-geothermal-and-solar-energy/

Vertical City, a proposal for urban development through a series of modular, zero-energy skyscrapers anchored to the ocean floor
https://www.lucacurci.com/portfolio/vertical-cities-zero-energy-city-building.html
https://inhabitat.com/luca-curci-architects-proposes-a-self-sustainable-vertical-city-of-the-future/

Unisphere, one of the largest net zero energy commercial buildings in the world
https://cleantechnica.com/2019/12/31/a-peak-inside-the-unisphere-one-of-the-worlds-largest-net-zero-buildings/

Park Avenue Green - the largest passive house development in the USA, 154 low income housing units, 46 of which are for formerly homeless tenants
http://www.cplusga.com/works/park-avenue-green-2/
https://cleantechnica.com/2020/01/01/the-largest-passive-house-in-north-america-154-low-income-housing-units-46-for-formerly-homeless/

Net positive 47,000-square-foot building living building opens at Georgia Tech
https://livingbuilding.gatech.edu/kendeda-building-innovative-sustainable-design
https://inhabitat.com/kendeda-a-net-positive-living-building-opens-at-georgia-tech/

Prefab homes that require "84% less energy per square foot to operate than a conventional stick built home” making net zero energy eminently achievable
They can be ordered with solar power and a battery back-up
https://cleantechnica.com/2020/02/20/new-prefab-homes-never-need-to-be-connected-to-the-grid/
https://www.curbed.com/2020/2/14/21135428/prefab-homes-self-powered-dvele
https://www.dvele.com

Canada’s first net-zero carbon, mass timber college building
http://www.dialogdesign.ca/open-dialog/centennial-college-announces-canadas-first-zero-carbon-mass-timber-building/
https://inhabitat.com/canadas-first-net-zero-carbon-mass-timber-college-building-to-rise-in-toronto/

Green Concept House - a zero-waste, 100% self-sustaining home, including growing food
https://www.archdaily.com/934277/green-house-yang-design
https://inhabitat.com/a-zero-waste-self-sustaining-home-of-the-future/

"Edwina Benner Plaza is among the first affordable housing projects in the nation to have zero operating emissions.”  It has 66 apartments in Sunnyvale, CA
https://www.dbarchitect.com/project_detail/202/Edwina%20Benner%20Plaza.html
https://inhabitat.com/new-affordable-housing-in-silicon-valley-boasts-net-zero-emissions/

Vertical Oasis - concept for a green solar-powered skyscraper
https://faab.pl/en/vertical-oasis/
https://inhabitat.com/architects-envision-a-green-solar-powered-skyscraper/

Simple Solar Education

Back in the early 1980s I made some 15 second PSAs for the Urban Solar Energy Association [USEA] that were actually shown a couple of times late at night on the local TV stations.

In the early 1990s, I made another set of 30 second PSAs for the Boston Area Solar Energy Association, the successor organization to USEA, but none of them were broadcast as local TV stations all had their own approved non-profits to soak up public interest broadcast time requirements by then.  Or so I was told.  At the same time, I was producing the monthly lectures of the Solar Association and putting them on local cable access.

In the last decade or two I’ve put my share of solar video online at Youtube.  You can see them at http://youtube.com/user/gmoke

So I’ve been dabbling in solar video for a long time.   But not for a long time.  These are relics of what I’ve thought and done with simple solar throughout my life.

The presentation may be amateurish at best but I believe the majority of the information and ideas is accurate although I may have made some mistakes in the details here and there.

May these be of use.

One Square Foot of Sunlight  https://youtu.be/LICMvQCOnkg 

Solar History  https://youtu.be/BIGS5LSjlnk

come from the early 1990s and were the 30 second PSAs I was trying to get local TV to broadcast.

Simple Solar Principles  https://youtu.be/6_NN__fS5pM

Recycled Solar  https://youtu.be/KTLBsxI-Xl8
Sixpack of Solar  https://youtu.be/A_UEtfWrf2A

Solar Is Civil Defense  https://youtu.be/u0mjqjgZ64E

Solar/Dynamo  https://youtu.be/0GlbYQhrtXg

Cell Phone Solar  https://youtu.be/ybxbJ53X4kY
Minimum Solar Light  https://youtu.be/m56Lu2o9Wfc

Homefront Advantage - WWII posters   https://youtu.be/FIlQJg1kSvk

A South-facing Window Is Already a Solar Collector  https://youtu.be/FdGAdEq242M

Solar Windowbox Air Heater  https://youtu.be/lTOe2OYSPlw

Insulating Roller Shade  https://youtu.be/jEh9Bq4qQB8

Old Solar:  1980 Barnraised Aolar Air Heater  https://youtu.be/N8SEwJkEwoc
Old Solar:  1990 Boston Area Solar House Tour  https://youtu.be/NkOkFmq6doI

I believe you can provide people with the essential concepts of practical solar energy within a very short period of time and can even present it as a series of short segments like these Youtube videos

Simple Solar parts 1 - 8

is my one attempt at trying to assemble a curriculum that leads from one possibility to another.

At a skill share.  Whatever happened to those?

Part 1.  https://youtu.be/IdPftGMNbEA

Part 2.  https://youtu.be/9541OXjABf8

Part 3.  https://youtu.be/ig7kxZlhIWE

Part 4.  https://youtu.be/lhLmL6VM0hQ

Part 5.  https://youtu.be/e9vEiNvwjnM

Part 6.  https://youtu.be/rq7mZ0xmgL8

Part 7.  https://youtu.be/LVRRkbYp76Y

Part 8.  https://youtu.be/OxRDcqLRWVA

Providential Experimentation   https://youtu.be/wC-uqy2qJH0

Worms, worms, worms  https://youtu.be/iMe9ssId0Bk

expands the concept beyond direct solar energy into secondary sources and regenerative systems leading to full geotherapy.

Simply Questions  https://youtu.be/ehKgs_rFhF8

is an attempt to visualize that system in terms of basic logistics

Net Zero Energy Buildings at the Poles

The NYTimes published "The Coolest Architecture on Earth Is in Antarctica" by John Gendall on January 6, 2020. (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/06/science/antarctica-architecture.html)
It was a general overview of new research stations and their designs to cope with the "world’s harshest environment."

According to the story, designer architects are bringing "aesthetics — as well as operational efficiency, durability and energy improvements” to the new buildings planned or under construction.

The Halley VI research station of the British Antarctic Survey, designed by Hugh Broughton Architects, is credited with changing the state of the art.  The Halley VI is built on hydraulic stilts, "allowing operators to lift it up out of accumulating snow drifts. And if the entire station needs to be moved — it sits on a drifting ice shelf — skis at the base of those stilts make that possible."

India’s National Center for Antarctic and Ocean Research’s new research station, is built, partially, out of the shipping containers the rest of the materials came in, designed into the process from the beginning by the German architecture firm of bof architekten.

The article quotes Ben Roth of the Antarctic Infrastructure Modernization for Science, or AIMS, the National Science Foundation initiative to modernize the USA’s McMurdo Station, as saying the existing buildings there are “energy hogs” which create additional problems for scientific research.

It was a good article but, since I’ve been collecting links to developments in net zero energy buildings since 2013 (http://solarray.blogspot.com), I was surprised that the world’s first zero emission polar research station with a decade’s worth of operating experience, the Princess Elisabeth Station in Antarctica (http://www.antarcticstation.org), the research station of the International Polar Foundation based in Brussels, was not mentioned at all.  I’d like to know if the Princess Elisabeth Station is still the only zero emission polar research station and if so, why;  but both the station and the concept of net zero energy seems to absent from the architectural context of this particular article in the NYTimes.  

The fact of the matter is there are net zero buildings at every scale, at every price in every existing climate, including net positive energy buildings in polar regions.

Snøhetta is the company to watch as they have completed the world’s northernmost energy-positive building, an 8-story, 18,000 square meter Powerhouse Brattørkaia in Trondheim, Norway "which produces, on average, more than twice as much electricity as it consumes daily”
(https://snohetta.com/projects/456-powerhouse-brattorkaia-the-worlds-northernmost-energy-positive-building
https://inhabitat.com/snohetta-completes-worlds-northernmost-energy-positive-building/)
and another far Northern net positive energy office building
(http://snohetta.com/projects/283-powerhouse-telemark
http://inhabitat.com/worlds-northernmost-plus-energy-office-could-spark-an-energy-revolution/)
They also worked on Harvard’s HouseZero, a near net zero retrofit of a 1940s building in Cambridge, MA.
(http://harvardcgbc.org/research/housezero/)

In addition, California’s Title 24-2019 is the first state code in the USA in force now to require solar panels and nearly net zero levels of energy consumption in all new homes through improvements in the building’s thermal envelope and demand responsive technologies including battery storage and heat pump water heaters 
(https://ww2.energy.ca.gov/title24/2019standards/documents/2018_Title_24_2019_Building_Standards_FAQ.pdf https://www.energy.ca.gov/programs-and-topics/programs/building-energy-efficiency-standards/2019-building-energy-efficiency
https://zeroenergyproject.org/2019/02/18/2019-is-the-year-of-energy-codes/)

The EU has near net zero building standards as well through their Energy Performance of Buildings Directive or EPBD which "requires all new buildings from 2021 (public buildings from 2019) to be nearly zero-energy buildings (NZEB)” meaning "a building that has a very high energy performance... The nearly zero or very low amount of energy required should be covered to a very significant extent from renewable sources, including sources produced on-site or nearby."
(https://ec.europa.eu/energy/en/content/nzeb-24)

We have built net zero energy buildings in every climate on Earth.  Over the next few decades we will rebuild our structures to those standards and, eventually, replace the energy from the grid that goes into our buildings, about a third of all energy the USA generates in a year, about 33 quadrillion btu’s with energy efficiency and energy production onsite.

This is the reality coming down the pike.  The more we recognize it, the faster it will happen.  Changing building codes across the USA is a significant leverage point for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, energy waste, improving resilience and preparedness (Solar IS Civil Defense), and building a renewable future now as Justin Gillis has recognized, also in the NYTimes
(https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/20/opinion/climate-building-codes.html).