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.

Zero Net Energy - August 23, 2021

 Zero emissions drive would grow U.S. economy - Report shows meeting Paris climate goals would add trillions of dollars in economic growth

https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2021/03/zero-emissions-drive-would-grow-u-s-economy/
https://energyinnovation.org/publication/a-1-5-celsius-pathway-to-climate-leadership-for-the-united-states/

Zero net energy, waste, and water development in Albany, NY
http://garrisonarchitects.com/projects/the-seventy-six
https://www.treehugger.com/triple-net-zero-development-albany-5118512

NC net zero home
https://inhabitat.com/no-waste-no-carbon-no-wonder-this-net-zero-home-breaks-the-mold/
https://www.acsarchitect.com/baboolal-residence

Carbon neutral, net energy positive ecodistrict for Lille, France
https://vincent.callebaut.org/object/210126_archiborescence/archiborescence/projects
https://inhabitat.com/vincent-callebaut-envisions-a-carbon-neutral-district-for-france/

Toranomon-Azabudai Project - an urban village for Tokyo focusing on “green” and “wellness"
https://inhabitat.com/the-toranomon-azabudai-project-puts-health-before-business/

Positive net energy for Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania
https://inhabitat.com/phipps-conservatory-and-botanical-gardens-leeds-the-way-in-green-design/

Tesla Energy, Brookfield, & Dacra Are Developing A Large-Scale Sustainable Neighborhood In Austin, Texas
https://cleantechnica.com/2021/07/09/tesla-energy-brookfield-dacra-are-developing-a-large-scale-sustainable-neighborhood-in-austin-texas/
Editorial Comment:  Anybody remember the 1979 Solar Community in Davis, CA (http://schadavis.org)?

Cantilever House - zero net energy design for India
https://www.zeroenergydesignlab.com/cantileverhouse
https://inhabitat.com/the-cantilever-house-combats-a-hot-climate-with-sustainable-design/
Editorial Comment:  Finally some work on zero net energy designs for cooling as well as heating.  ZED Lab looks interesting as well.  They’ve been working since 2009.

Hot Heart - artifical islands to supply heat to Helsinki and support a tropical forest
https://inhabitat.com/a-tropical-forest-will-soon-grow-in-helsinki-and-provide-all-the-citys-heat/

Greenhouses for extreme climates
https://www.agritecture.com/blog/2021/7/19/this-company-builds-greenhouses-in-some-of-the-worlds-most-extreme-climates

Austin, TX’s Whisper Valley "a net-zero capable community, and every home has a geothermal HVAC (it’s a very unique* geothermal system – it’s the first of its kind and the largest in the world)”
https://whispervalleyaustin.com
https://cleantechnica.com/2021/07/28/idea-for-tesla-energy-look-at-austins-whisper-valley-for-your-next-solar-neighborhood/
Editorial Comment:  My old English teacher, Mr Neilsen, would want me to remind people that “unique” means “one of a kind” which is difficult to modify.  There’s no such thing as “very one of a kind.”

Toyota’s Woven City - a programmable city and a test bed for a hydrogen energy system (?)
https://www.woven-city.global

The Carbon Coin

 from Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

Page 294: They [a consortium of all the big central banks, with open access for more central banks to join] would issue together a single new currency, coordinated through the BIS [Bank for International Settlements]: one coin per ton of carbon-dioxide-equivalent sequestered from the atmosphere, either by not burning what would have been burned in the ordinary course of things, or by pulling it back out of the air. They promised to establish a floor in the value of this carbon coin, which exposed them to great danger from speculators trying to scare money out of the plan; and they foretold a rise in the value of the currency over the coming decades. By doing these things they made this investment a sure thing, assuming civilization itself survived.

Page 295: In fact, at the end of the agreement they all lent some fiat money of the ordinary kind, pooled into a fund administered through the BIS, which would be enough to pay for this new bureaucracy of verification that would have to be created to certify that carbon was rally being sequestered. This was a bureaucracy so vast no single bank could afford it, nor of course the ministry, not even close. It was almost a full employment plan all by itself.

Here are some programs that exist now which point in that direction:

Global Carbon Reward (https://globalcarbonreward.org/) is looking for a central bank to trade and manage a "carbon currency,” their “Global Carbon Rewards,” for a demonstration project.  "The central bank will need permission from their regulators to establish a temporary swap line for buying the carbon currency during the demonstrations…”

Regrow (https://www.regrow.ag/mrv) does “Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV)... to ensure data is transparent and reliable” in terms of carbon sequestration, among other things.

There are other models at other scales and I believe Ralph Borsodi’s “Constant,” an inflation proof local currency, could be adapted to carbon: 

https://themonetaryfuture.blogspot.com/2009/03/borsodi-constant-inflation-free.html

Many more alternative currencies, even carbon coin possibilities, in Barbara Brandt’s Whole Life Economics (1996, New Society Publishers).

The Carbon Coin According to The Ministry for the Future (more quotes):

https://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com/2021/08/the-carbon-coin-according-to-ministry.html

Previously:  How Do You Pay for the Green New Deal:  The Cost of Fuelhttp://solarray.blogspot.com/2019/07/how-do-you-pay-for-green-new-deal-cost.html

To Catch the Sun: DIY Solar Handbook

To Catch the Sun (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lonnyg/to-catch-the-sun) is a book of inspiring stories of communities coming together to harness their own solar energy, with the nitty-gritty details so you can do it too!

Learn how to design and build a photovoltaic system for engagements like:

A small home in a financially rich country

A few homes in a financially poor country

School rooms and community spaces 

Zombie-apocalypse equipment

Laptop and cellphone chargers 

A tiny home or #vanlife 

Glamping and backpacking equipment 

Emergency supply, e.g., powering an oxygen machine during power outages

Isolated loads like electric gates, pumps, greenhouse fans, backup generators, and telecommunications equipment

You had me at "Zombie-apocalypse equipment" (and I wonder why none of the zombie shows I've seen take renewables seriously - it's all motor vehicles and dirty clothes).  

Then again, I believe that Solar IS Civil Defense (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2007/3/30/317777/-)

A Speech from Her Speeches Greta Thunberg Never Made

I recently read No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference  by Greta Thunberg (NY: Penguin Books, 2018, 2019  ISBN 9780143133568), a slim book of her speeches since she started her Friday School Strike, "that idea was inspired by the Parkland students, who had refused to go to school after the school shootings.  [More on Parkland at https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/8/7/1877501/-Parkland-When-the-Targets-Talk-Back]

"And sometimes NOT doing things - like just sitting down outside the parliament - speaks much louder than doing things.  Just like a whisper sometimes is louder than shouting."

As usual, I flagged passages as I read and then copied them over to my computer when I was finished.  Then I thought about how to share what I learned from this remarkable young woman, finally deciding that my collection of notes from her words could make one coherent speech.

What follows is my cut-up of her book to present what I believe are her core concepts.  All the words are hers joined together with ellipses (...) and my own commentary in brackets ([ ]).

We want you to follow the Paris Agreement and the IPCC reports. We don’t have any other manifestos or demands - you unite behind the science, that is our demand... 

Right there (page 108, chapter 2, in the latest [as of July 2019] SR15 IPCC report) it says that if we are to have a 67% chance of limiting the global temperature rise to below 1.5ºC, we had, on 1 January 2018, 420 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide left in our CO2 budget. And of course that number is much lower today. We emit about 42 gigatonnes of CO2 every year. At current emissions levels, that remaining budget is gone within roughly 8.5 years. [3.5 gigatonnes per month, 0.80769 gigatonnes per week, 0.115 gigatonnes per day] And now that figure is already down to less than 360 gigatonnes [in 2019, the May 2021 figure is 276 gigatonnes and falling according to https://www.mcc-berlin.net/fileadmin/data/clock/carbon_clock.htm]...

But perhaps the most dangerous misconception about the climate crisis is that we have to “lower” our emissions. Because that is far from enough. Our emissions have to stop if we are to stay below 1.5-2ºC of warming. The “lowering of emissions” is of course necessary, but it is only the beginning of a fast process that must lead to a stop within a couple of decades, or less. And by “stop” I mean net zero [Greta and others are strongly interrogating the idea of "net zero" as accounting tricks have been used in some current "net zero" claims] - and then quickly on to negative figures. That rules out most of today’s politics... 

And our main enemy right now is not our political opponents. Our main enemy now is physics. And we cannot make “deals” with physics... 

The fact that we are speaking of “lowering” instead of “stopping” emissions is perhaps the greatest force behind the continuing business-as-usual... 

If the EU is to make its fair contribution to staying within the carbon budget for the 2ºC limit, then it means a minimum of 80% reduction [in greenhouse gases] by 2030 and that includes aviation and shipping. So, it is around twice as ambitious as the current proposal... 

If the emissions have to stop, then we must stop the emissions... 

We need to keep the fossil fuels in the ground and we need to focus on equity... 

To do your best is no longer good enough. We must all do the seemingly impossible. [Be realistic, demand the impossible - a Che Guevara quote used as graffiti on the walls of Paris in 1968 and by Prof Donald Sadoway of MIT, the developer of the Ambri flow battery and a way to decarbonize steel production, to inspire his students]...

We should no longer measure our wealth and success in the graph that shows economic growth, but in the curve that shows the emissions of greenhouse gases. We should no longer only ask: “Have we got enough money to go through with this?” but also: “Have we got enough of the carbon budget to spare to go through with this?” That should and must become the centre of our new currency... 

In Sweden, we live our lives as if we had the resources of 4.2 planets. Our individual carbon footprint is one of the worst in the world. This means that Sweden steals 3.2 years of natural resources from future generations every year: Those of us who are part of these future generations would like Sweden to stop doing that. Right now... 

Now we probably don’t even have a future any more. Because that future was sold so that a small number of people could make unimaginable amounts of money. It was stolen from us every time you said that the sky was the limit, and that you only live once. [The sky WAS the limit and now it’s striking back.]... 

Many people say that we don’t have any solutions to the climate crisis. And they are right. Because how could we? How do you “solve” the greatest crisis that humanity has ever faced? How do you “solve” a war? How do you “solve” going to the moon for the first time? How do you “solve” inventing new inventions?... 

“That’s still not an answer,” you say. Then we start talking about a circular economy and rewilding nature [or geotherapy, see http://solarray.blogspot.com/2021/04/geotherapy-not-geoengineering-please.html for more] and the need for a just transition. Then you don’t understand what we are talking about... 

Avoiding climate breakdown will require cathedral thinking. We must lay the foundation while we may not know exactly how to build the ceiling. [Sacred]... 

And yes, a transformed world will include lots of benefits. But you have to understand. This is not primarily an opportunity to create new green jobs, new businesses or green economic growth. This is above all an emergency, and not just any emergency. This is the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced. This is not something you can like on Facebook... 

We already have all the facts and [some of the] solutions. All we have to do is to wake up and change.