Tuesday, December 17, 2019

What I Read in the Green New Deal for Public Housing Bill

The Green New Deal for Public Housing Act (these comments come from the draft https://ocasio-cortez.house.gov/sites/ocasio-cortez.house.gov/files/OCASNY_053_xml.pdf but the actual bill has now been filed at https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/5185/text) is the first binding legislation drafted.  It will reconstruct "the entire public housing stock of the United States, as swiftly and seamlessly as possible,” into zero-carbon homes, "a highly energy-efficient home that produces on-site, or procures, enough carbon-free renewable energy to meet the total annual energy consumption of the home” within a decade.

Public housing stock will be eligible for deep energy retrofits, including 
energy-efficient windows; 
super insulation of roofs and exterior walls, including the addition of new cladding to buildings and the rerouting of plumbing and electricity; 
electrification of water heating and building heating systems using electric heat pumps; 
and electric heat pumps to provide air conditioning, where feasible; 
materials and technology to increase airtightness of the building envelope, including air sealant paints; the acquisition and installation of heat-recovery ventilation systems; 
and energy monitoring devices including smart meters and smart thermostats.  

There will be grants "to build and expand community energy generation in public housing, including 
the construction of and ongoing costs associated with renewable energy rooftops; 
renewable energy generation; 
photovoltaic glass windows; 
the bulk purchase of clean energy supply from energy utilities; 
and community-scale energy storage."

What the bill is calling a zero carbon home is also known as zero net energy housing or, more commonly, net zero energy buildings, structures which produce as much energy as they consume and such buildings have been built in just about every Earthly climate, from the Arctic Circle to the South Pole;  at single family and skyscraper scales;  at low, moderate, and luxury prices.  I’ve been collecting examples of Zero Net Energy buildings and technologies for years at http://solarray.blogspot.com if you want to see what is operating now, is being built, and some of the design visions for the future.  CA is already transitioning to a net zero energy building standard for all low-rise residential buildings now (2020) and the EU is moving to a “near net zero” standard now too.  Both will have a net or near net zero building standard for all buildings, including rehab, by 2030.

There are positive net energy buildings as well (see http://solarray.blogspot.com).

In 1979 Jimmy Carter’s energy plan called for insulating 90% of American homes and all new buildings and use solar energy in more than 2.5 million homes by 1985. There were 1.3 million solar installations in the USA in 2017 by one count and may be 1.9 million in 2019 by another.  The DOE is predicting there will be 3.8 million solar homes by 2020.

Carter also wanted "20% of our energy coming from solar power by the year 2000."  Renewables, wind, solar and hydro, are at just about that level now, 20 years behind his schedule.

Carter was thinking in terms of his next four years in office. Extinction Rebellion is demanding that “Government must act now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025.”  The Green New Deal has a 10 year timeframe.

Jimmy Carter in 1979 was more ambitious than we are now. 

The Green New Deal for Public Housing also provides for community resilience centers, "a communal space in public housing that is used as a cooling center, heating center, or disaster relief center during extreme weather.”  This fits in with the idea of emergency preparedness, civil defense, no matter what the opinion of climate change.  After all, Solar IS Civil Defense (and entry level electricity for the billion or so people in this world who don’t yet have access to minimal electricity for light, communications, and other things.  See Personal Power Production:  Solar from Civil Defense to Swadeshi (http://solarray.blogspot.com/2010/12/personal-power-production-solar-from.html) for more on these concepts and Personal Power Set (http://solarray.blogspot.com/2018/09/personal-power-set.html) for a look at current available technologies.

Community resilience measures include a "grant program to help provide the purchase and installation of energy storage, including batteries, flywheels, compressed air, and pumped hydroelectric or thermal energy storage, in order to ensure energy backup of not less than 48 hours in the event of an emergency or disaster;  the construction of childcare centers and ongoing costs associated with childcare centers;  the construction of senior centers and ongoing costs associated with senior centers;  the construction of community gardens and ongoing costs associated with community gardens.”

This will allow public housing to become islanding microgrids, housing that can power themselves when the grid goes down.  Grid interconnection will also allow public housing to feed energy back into the grid and offset costs.

The Green New Deal for Public Housing Act also authorizes the "training and development of skills necessary for career development in the fields, trades, and services reasonably determined during the first public comment period held in accordance with subsection (b)(3) to be of interest to public housing residents,” at a wage of $15  per hour with "stipends valued at not less than $250 per week to individuals participating in the workforce development program.”

Using the reconstruction of the USA's public housing as a job development program in energy efficiency and renewable power is supported by the results of the 2019 US Energy and Employment Report [USEER]* which found that there are currently more clean energy jobs available than workers to fill them.  The lack of trained people was highlighted by virtually all surveyed sectors as a growing problem with lack of experience, training, and technical skills almost universally cited as the top reason for hiring difficulty by employers. The need for technical training and certifications was also frequently cited, implying the need for expanded investments in workforce training and closer coordination between employers and the workforce training system.

US Energy and Employment Report [USEER]*  also found that energy efficiency has the most overall growth and potential for jobs.  It is about 41% of energy sector jobs now.  More than 1 out of 6, 17% of all USA construction jobs are in energy efficiency.  E2 [Environmental Entrepreneurs] (https://www.e2.org) has an Energy Efficiency Jobs in America report that goes deeper into this subject (https://www.e2.org/reports/energy-efficiency-jobs-in-america-2019/).  Cities like Boston have found that energy efficiency retrofits, electrification of existing residential buildings, and improved transportation are the most impactful strategies for reducing carbon emissions (http://sites.bu.edu/cfb/files/2019/01/Carbon-Free-Boston-Report-web.pdf).
*Summary of the report at https://www.e2.org/reports/clean-jobs-america-2019
Full report at http://usenergyjobs.org
Webinar at https://www.dropbox.com/s/9jgpx73nmeh4myu/E2%20Webinar%203.20.19.mp4
More at https://solarray.blogspot.com/2019/04/why-isnt-job-growth-first-thing-climate.html

There are 3.3 million clean energy jobs
2.3 million in energy efficiency
508,000 renewable energy
254,000 clean vehicles
139,000 grid and storage
38,000 clean fuels

The Green New Deal for Public Housing Act requires biannual reports
"on the impact that the grant programs established under subsection (a) have had on—
(1) the rehabilitation, upgrades, innovation, and transition of public housing in the United States;
(2) total greenhouse gas emission output, and quarterly data on greenhouse gas emission reductions from individual public housing developments, specifically as they relate to—
(A) home energy carbon pollution emissions in each public housing development, as calculated using the Carbon Footprint Calculator from the Environmental Protection Agency;
(B) waste-related carbon emissions in each public housing development, as calculated using the Carbon Footprint Calculator from the Environmental Protection Agency; and
(C) total greenhouse gas emissions released by individual public housing buildings and homes within a public housing development, as calculated using the Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator from the Environmental Protection Agency;
(3) the amount of Federal money saved due to energy cost savings at public housing projects, on a quarterly basis;
(4) the amount of energy savings per KwH at each public housing project, on a quarterly basis;
(5) public housing residents, including—
(A) access to economic opportunities through compliance with the hiring and contracting requirements described in subsections (c) and (d) of section 3 of the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968 (12 U.S.C. 1701u);
(B) the impacts, if any, those residents have experienced to their individual economic growth as measured by individual and household income;
(C) the specific career skills acquired;
(D) the impacts, if any, those residents have experienced to their overall health; and
(E) the specific educational or technical certifications acquired; and
(6) changes to the overall community health indicators in public housing developments and their surrounding neighborhoods, including asthma rates, air quality, water quality, and levels of lead and mold.”

And
"Before the start of the second fiscal year beginning after the date of enactment of the Green New Deal for Public Housing Act, and quarterly thereafter, the Secretary shall require each public housing agency to monitor, measure, and report to the Secretary on the economic impacts of this section on the community in which housing developments of the public housing agency are located, including

‘‘(A) the aggregate dollar amount of contracts awarded in compliance with this section; 
(B) the aggregate dollar amount of wages and salaries paid for positions employed by low- and very low-income persons in accordance with this section;
(C) the aggregate dollar amount expended for training opportunities provided to low- and very low-income persons in accordance with this section; and
(D) the aggregate dollar amount expended for training and assisting public housing resident-owned businesses for compliance with this section."
The Green New Deal for Public Housing Act guarantees "the right to housing for every individual… all housing in the United States is habitable, highly energy-efficient, and safe; and… that the Federal Government should act and build new public housing where there is a serious need that the free market cannot address or is not addressing responsibly.’’

Most, if not all. of the Green New Deal for Public Housing necessitates "SEC. 10. REPEAL OF FAIRCLOTH AMENDMENT. Section 9(g) of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437g(g)) is amended by striking paragraph (3), Faircloth Amendment which forbids HUD to "fund the construction or operation of new public housing units with Capital or Operating Funds if the construction of those units would result in a net increase in the number of units the PHA owned, assisted or operated as of October 1, 1999."
Faircloth Amendment - HUD
https://www.hud.gov


Saturday, November 23, 2019

Zero Net Energy - November 23, 2019

Carbon-neutral science museum in Sweden to be powered by bicycles
http://www.cobe.dk/project/science-center
https://inhabitat.com/carbon-neutral-science-museum-in-sweden-will-be-powered-by-bicycles/

Bergen, Norway's masterplan for a zero-carbon urban mixed use development of over 1,600 homes
https://www.dezeen.com/2019/06/28/trenezia-masterplan-waugh-thistleton-bergen/
https://inhabitat.com/zero-carbon-masterplan-on-the-water-aims-to-revitalize-bergens-urban-growth/

24 storey mixed use PassivHaus building in midtown Manhattan
https://zh-architects.com/midtown-mixed-use-passive-house/
https://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/24-storey-passive-house-tower-built-manhattan.html

Net Zero plant-filled Singapore pavilion for Dubai’s 2020 World Expo
https://www.dezeen.com/2019/08/29/woha-singapore-pavilion-dubai-expo-2020-architecture/
https://inhabitat.com/woha-unveils-a-lush-net-zero-singapore-pavilion-for-the-2020-world-expo/
https://www.woha.net

Trenezia, carbon neutral village of over 1000 houses for Bergen, Norway
https://www.dezeen.com/2019/06/28/trenezia-masterplan-waugh-thistleton-bergen/
https://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/master-plan-new-community-bergen-seriously-low-carbon.html

Snøhetta completes world’s northernmost energy-positive building, 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/

Self-charging solar electric vehicle with air purifying moss interior
https://sonomotors.com
https://inhabitat.com/sono-motors-self-charging-solar-electric-car-will-feature-an-air-purifying-moss-interior/

ReGen Village - a real estate developer planning to build food and energy self-reliant communities
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/26/business/james-ehrlich-environment-neighborhood.html

Gaobeidian, China Passive House project is 330,000 square meters (3,552,100 square feet) of certified Passive House buildings—8 high rises, 12 multifamily buildings, and 6 villas
https://passivehouseaccelerator.com/articles/conference-in-china-shows-a-new-order-of-magnitude-for-passive-house-construction
https://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/chinese-city-has-largest-passive-house-project-world.html

Living Vehicle 2020 travel trailer generates all its own energy (and may be net positive energy)
https://www.livingvehicle.com/2020-series
https://inhabitat.com/living-vehicles-2020-travel-trailer-generates-a-whopping-200-percent-more-solar-power-than-its-previous-model/

Smart Forest City for Cancun, Mexico "conceived to be completely food and energy self-sufficient"
https://www.stefanoboeriarchitetti.net/en/project/smart-forest-city-cancun/
https://inhabitat.com/first-smart-forest-city-in-mexico-will-be-100-food-and-energy-self-sufficient/

LIFE Hamburg, a new energy self-sufficient educational campus that will “reinvent learning” for 1,600 students scheduled to open 2023, the solar-powered sustainable building will feature a carbon dioxide-absorbing green facade and an organic rooftop garden
https://www.l-a-v-a.net/projects/life-hamburg/
https://inhabitat.com/lava-designs-carbon-neutral-life-hamburg-with-an-edible-green-roof/

Thursday, September 26, 2019

What To Do After the Climate Strike

Fridays for the Future (https://www.fridaysforfuture.org) - the Friday Climate Strikes continue
October 2 there will be a Global Solar Yatra (https://www.ggsy.in) with 1 million students in over 70 countries building their own solar lights for studying
October 7 Extinction Rebellion (https://xrmass.org/action/nyc-kickoff-global-rebellion/) will be doing actions around the world
Sunrise Movement (https://www.sunrisemovement.org) is planning actions in support of the Green New Deal up to and after the Inauguration of the next President in January 2020

September 20 was a great show of strength but what are we going to do tomorrow and the day after that?  Is there a daily climate practice that can do what we need to get done in the time available?  I know someone who used to write a letter to the editor to some publication around the world on climate issues every day.  Now he does stand outs most mornings during rush hour traffic with his climate signs.  Another is standing up in the train to talk about climate on the commute home.  (“How did Solidarity start?” someone once asked Lech Walesa who answered, “By speaking loud at the bus stops.”)  I have a solar swadeshi myself: http://solarray.blogspot.com/2005/05/solar-swadeshi-hand-made-electricity.html
and have been practicing Solar IS Civil Defense for 20 years:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/9/8/1697177/-Is-It-Time-to-Talk-About-Solar-Civil-Defense
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2007/3/30/317777/-

If the children can devote one day a week to climate issues, the adults should too.  Climate strikes can evolve into climate teach-ins, brainstorms, hackathons, and barnraisings, especially if we have a daily climate action plan on international, national, regional, state, county, municipal, neighborhood, family, and individual scales with benchmarks and targets.

Greta Thunberg at the UN mentioned that we are on track to burn through our carbon budget, the amount of greenouse gases we can put into the sky and still stay within that “magic” 1.5º F heating range, within 8 years.  That’s one benchmark.  The idea that “we have a little more than a decade” to turn around climate comes from a 2017 paper from Christiana Figueres, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Gail Whiteman, Johan Rockström, Anthony Hobley & Stefan Rahmstorf.  What gets mentioned less is their six-point plan with specific targets for turning the tide of the world’s carbon dioxide by 2020:  https://www.nature.com/news/three-years-to-safeguard-our-climate-1.22201

However, China may reach its greenhouse gas emissions peak in 2022, far ahead of its 2030 schedule announced at the 2015 Paris climate meeting:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-carbon/china-co2-emissions-to-peak-in-2022-ahead-of-schedule-government-researcher-idUSKCN1VQ1K0
and Norway, Iceland, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Uruguay, Paraguay are all countries which get almost all their electricity from renewable energy now:  https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/11-countries-leading-the-charge-on-renewable-energy/
Costa Rica plans to be a carbon neutral nation by 2021:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/21/climate/costa-rica-zero-carbon-neutral.html

Job One for Humanity (https://www.joboneforhumanity.org/plan) has a four point plan for climate action starting from emergency preparation and working on up to mass political and social change.  Many of their ideas are not only adaptation to the weather emergencies they believe are now inevitable but also best practices which will also mitigate any more climate damage and improve individual, family, and local resilience.

Lots to do and lots we can do.  

If anyone is interested, My Approach to Climate Change is available at http://solarray.blogspot.com/2018/12/my-approach-to-climate-change.html

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Agrophotovoltaics, Agriphotovoltaics, Solar Sharing

Fraunhofer Institute in Germany has been doing “agrophotovoltaics” studies for the last few years, the concept of producing both crops and solar power on the same land.  Their 2018 study results are available here: https://www.ise.fraunhofer.de/en/press-media/press-releases/2019/agrophotovoltaics-hight-harvesting-yield-in-hot-summer-of-2018.html

”The results from 2017 showed a land use efficiency of 160 percent, as confirmed by the project consortium under the direction of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE. The performance of the agrophotovoltaic system in the very hot summer of 2018 greatly exceeded this value.”

Fraunhofer is also doing tests of solar panels over shrimp ponds in Vietnam:
https://www.ise.fraunhofer.de/en/press-media/news/2019/aqua-pv-project-shrimps-combines-aquaculture-and-photovoltaics.html
They show similar results there, too, possibly even better as the solar shading is more conducive to shrimp growth.  If there are any applicable aquaculture facilities in your state, there might be some solar opportunities available there too.

What Fraunhofer calls agrophotovoltaics the Japanese call  “solar sharing” and have been doing since at least 2004:
https://www.renewableenergyworld.com/2013/10/10/japan-next-generation-farmers-cultivate-agriculture-and-solar-energy/

”The concept was originally developed by Akira Nagashima in 2004, who was a retired agricultural machinery engineer who later studied biology and learned the “light saturation point.” The rate of photosynthesis increases as the irradiance level is increased; however at one point, any further increase in the amount of light that strikes the plant does not cause any increase to the rate of photosynthesis….

”Based on the tests conducted at his solar testing sites in Chiba Prefecture, he recommends about 32% shading rate for a farmland space to reach adequate growth of crops. In other words, there is twice as much empty space for each PV module installed.”

UMass Amherst is working on this concept as well with outreach to farmers through a state program:
https://ag.umass.edu/clean-energy/fact-sheets/dual-use-agriculture-solar-photovoltaics

Mother Jones article on this idea:
https://www.motherjones.com/food/2019/09/the-best-place-for-harvesting-solar-energy-is-not-where-i-expected-it-to-be/
Paper from Nature Sustainability the article references
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-019-0364-5.epdf

There should be no competition between active farmland and solar development.  When done correctly, solar can become a lucrative second “crop” for farmers while maintaining and, in some cases, increasing agricultural productivity.

Sunday, July 28, 2019

Old Solar: Jimmy Carter's 1979 Green Deal

Jimmy Carter’s energy plan called for "20% of our energy coming from solar power by the year 2000" in 1979. Renewables, wind, solar and hydro, are at just about that level now, 20 years behind his schedule.


Carter also wanted to insulate 90% of American homes and all new buildings and use solar energy in more than 2.5 million homes by 1985. There were 1.3 million solar installations in the USA in 2017 by one count and may be 1.9 million now by another and all low-rise residential buildings in CA will be built to net zero energy standards starting in 2020.


Carter was thinking in terms of his next four years in office. Extinction Rebellion is demanding that “Government must act now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025.” The Green New Deal has a 10 year timeframe.


The argument can be made that Jimmy Carter in his cardigan sweater spouting “mush from the wimp” is more radical about energy than almost anyone in the public eye today.


PS: Reagan won the 1980 election and shut down the building solar wave with extreme prejudice. Reagan killed us. Carter’s energy plan would have saved us (as long as the terrible shale oil component was shelved).


Old Solar: 1881
https://solarray.blogspot.com/2010/02/old-solar-1881.html
Old Solar: 1980 Barnraised Solar Air Heater
https://solarray.blogspot.com/2008/09/old-solar-1980-barnraised-solar-air.html

Thursday, July 18, 2019

Zero Net Energy - July 18. 2019

Zero-energy demonstration project in Beijing made from pre-fab timber components
https://www.archdaily.com/907507/xuhui-demonstrative-project-sup-atelier
https://inhabitat.com/prefab-timber-complex-shows-off-net-zero-energy-technologies-in-beijing/

Energy blockchain for 55,000 rooftops in Japan planned, 100 rooftops now
https://cleantechnica.com/2019/01/22/blockchain-goes-big-55000-rooftops-eyeballed-for-peer-to-peer-solar-trading/
Power Ledger - Australian company behind the project
https://www.powerledger.io

Singapore’s first net zero energy building - 6 story building at the National University of Singapore School of Design and Environment
https://www.arch.nus.edu.sg/about/facilities/net-zero-energy-building-sde-4
https://inhabitat.com/singapores-new-build-first-net-zero-energy-building-opens-its-doors/

"S2A Modular in Southern California is building a factory to manufacture modular net-zero-energy private homes, condominiums, apartment complexes, and commercial buildings."
https://cleantechnica.com/2019/03/19/s2a-modular-offers-affordable-net-zero-homes-with-tesla-renewable-energy-components/
https://www.s2amodular.com

Renovated office building in Amsterdam is net positive energy with BREEAM outstanding rating 
https://inhabitat.com/an-old-office-is-transformed-into-the-netherlands-most-sustainable-renovated-building/
https://www.archdaily.com/911575/goede-doelen-loterijen-and-dutch-charity-lotteries-head-offices-benthem-crouwel-architects

Net zero energy church in Iowa
http://neumannmonson.com/uu/
https://inhabitat.com/inspiring-zero-energy-church-in-iowa-embraces-nature-in-more-ways-than-one/

In the EU all new buildings will be nearly zero-energy by the end of 2020 and all new public buildings have been nearly zero-energy since 2018.
https://ec.europa.eu/energy/en/topics/energy-efficiency/energy-performance-of-buildings/nearly-zero-energy-buildings

Eco-Capsule - self-sustainable micro-home
https://www.ecocapsule.sk
in Times Square NYC
https://www.facebook.com/events/999791243558680/

Net positive house in Lincoln, MA produces 67% more energy than it consumes with  -6.3kBtu/sf/yr
https://zeroenergy.com/lincoln-farmhouse
http://thoughtforms-corp.com/portfolio/better-than-net-zero
https://inhabitat.com/sublime-net-positive-energy-farmhouse-pays-homage-to-the-local-vernacular/

Carbon Drawdown Now:  Turning Buildings into Carbon Sinks
https://newframeworks.com/blog/2019/3/22/nesea-2019-carbon-drawdown-now-turning-buildings-into-carbon-sinks

Zero carbon retrofit for Paris 2024 Olympics
http://www.jakobmacfarlane.com/en/project/c40odysseepleyel/
https://inhabitat.com/industrial-building-is-reimagined-as-a-zero-carbon-paragon-for-paris-2024-olympics/

Norwich, UK’s 100 unit Passivhaus council house development
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/jul/16/norwich-goldsmith-street-social-housing-green-design

Tuesday, July 02, 2019

How Do You Pay for the Green New Deal: Cost of Fuel

I did some back of the envelope estimates of the cost of the fossil fuels we use in a year.  
The source of these figures is the USA DOE Energy Information Agency https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php

But any mistakes in arithmetic are my own.

----------------- 

7.5 billion barrels of petroleum products consumed in USA in 2018
average price $69.78 per barrel
Cost of petroleum products:  $523,350,000,000

In 2017, the United States consumed about 27.11 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas
average of $4.08 per thousand cubic feet
Cost of natural gas:  $110,608,800,000

EIA expects total U.S. coal consumption in 2018 to fall to 691 million short tons (MMst)
$39.09 per short ton (2017 price) 
Cost of coal:  $27,011,190,000

Total:  $660,969,990,000

We spend nearly $661 billion per year or something like that on fuel alone every year.
And these are only ballpark numbers, probably on the low side.

With the 2018 USA GDP at $20.50 trillion, the cost of fuel is approximately 3.22% of annual GDP

--------------------------- 

Another "cost" of fuel is covered in the International Monetary Fund's recent report on fossil fuel subsidies, covering 191 countries:

They look at the difference between the market price and "how much consumers would pay if prices fully reflected supply costs plus the taxes needed to reflect environmental costs and revenue requirements."

Global fuel subsidies were $4.7 trillion (6.3% of global GDP) in 2015 and were projected to be $5.2 trillion (6.5% of GDP) in 2017
China subsidizes the most with $1.4 trillion per year
$649 billion in 2015 for the USA, 3.6% of GDP
Russia at $551 billion
EU at $289 billion
India at $209 billion

"Efficient fossil fuel pricing in 2015 would have lowered global carbon emissions by 28% and fossil fuel air pollution deaths by 46%, and increased government revenue by 3.8 % of GDP."

Subsidies consist of underpricing for local air pollution, the largest source (48% in 2015), 
global warming at 24% 
broader environmental costs of road fuels at 15% 
undercharging for general consumption taxes 7% 
supply costs 7%

Coal and petroleum get 85% of the global subsidies monies. 
Coal receives 44% of subsidy monies
petroleum 41%
natural gas 10%
electricity 4%

"If fuel prices had been set at fully efficient levels in 2015, estimated global CO2 emissions would have been 28% lower, fossil fuel air pollution deaths 46% lower, tax revenues higher by 3.8% of global GDP, and net economic benefits (environmental benefits less economic costs) would have amounted to 1.7% of global GDP."

---------------------------

The USA spends about $661 billion per year on the cost of fuel
and another $649 billion on subsidies for that fuel
That's about $1.2 trillion per year for the full cost accounting of fossil fuels and such fossil foolishness.
That's about 7% of USA GDP

The energy transition, Energiewende, of Germany is estimated to cost 0.5 - 1.2% of GDP per year

How do you pay for the Green New Deal?  You do away with the cost of fuel (and all the subsidies that go along with it).

Sunday, June 02, 2019

Daily Reminder Calendar for the Next Decade of Climate Change

Scientists tell us that
we have about a decade to do something
to reduce climate calamity.
Let's schedule out the next 10 years
3,650 days
for climate action
month by month
week by week
day by day
to do what is
ecologically necessary
to restore the atmosphere to
270 ppm CO2
ASAP.

This is a reworking of the end of My Approach to Climate Change (http://solarray.blogspot.com/2018/12/my-approach-to-climate-change.html) which I was reminded of by reading a paper on “German Energiewende:  Power System” I received at the NE - Germany Energy Transition Forum (https://www.eventbrite.com/e/new-england-germany-energy-transition-forum-tickets-59674085797), at Harvard Law school on May 16, 2019.  In it I saw goal figures for greenhouse gas reductions (ghgs) and renewable power increases for both Germany and the EU.

My daily reminder climate catastrophe calendar would have these kinds of things on each page:

Climate goals for the EU:
80-95% reduction greenhouse gases (ghg) by 2050
(compared to 1990 levels, the agreed upon standard it seems)
32% renewables by 2030
32.5% increase in efficiency by 2030
 
Climate goals for Germany:
55% reduction in ghgs by 2030
80-95% by 2050
30.8% reductions from 1990 levels of ghgs now
65% renewable electricity by 2030
80% by 2050
37.8% renewable electricity now, already above the 2020 goal of 35%
(Renewables are the dominant source of electricity in Germany for the second year in a row and renewables have tripled since 2000)
40-45% renewables by 2025
nuclear phase out by 2022
coal phase out by 2038

I know another date to add to the calendar could be Costa Rica’s goal of being carbon neutral by 2021.

I wonder whether people would actually buy a Climate Change Daily Reminder Calendar.  I’m guessing the German Network Development Plan 2019-2030 which outlines the planned grid development to accomodate 65% renewables by 2030 has something like it though.  

May somebody somewhere be working on a 100% by 2030 calendar for their country and the world — just as a thought experiment.  Perhaps those who are interested can work on it every Friday while the schoolchildren are striking for climate.

Sunday, April 21, 2019

Why isn’t job growth the first thing climate activists mention?

In 2016 and 2017, the US Department of Energy produced the US Energy and Employment Report [USEER] as part of an effort to "produce the most comprehensive and accurate study of energy workers across all sectors." The last DOE USEER was released in January 2017.  With the installation of Trmp, the DOE cancelled the project.  

In response, the National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO) (http://www.naseo.org) and the Energy Futures Initiative (http://energyfuturesinitiative.org) worked with numerous partners to "continue producing the USEER report using the same methodology, datasets and research firm that produced the reports for the DOE.”  The report searches 186 employment codes, contacts 30,000 employers each year, and covers 53 different energy, efficiency, and motor vehicle technologies.  

I attended a webinar on March 30, 2019 on the 4th annual USEER.  Here are my notes and some observations. 

There are 3.3 million clean energy jobs
2.3 million in energy efficiency
508,000 renewable energy
254,000 clean vehicles
139,000 grid and storage
38,000 clean fuels

There were 226,000 new jobs in 2018 in these 5 clean energy sectors.  Renewable energy and energy efficiency added 152,000 new jobs, out-performing the economy for the 4th year in a row, 2.3% growth to 1.8%.  

Energy efficiency alone added 76,000 jobs, for a total of 275,000 new jobs in the last 3 years.  Alternative fuel vehicles added almost 34,000 jobs.  

Energy storage (battery, pumped hydro, mechanical, thermal) employed 75,180 people.  

Employers expect over the next year for renewable generation to have 7.1% growth, energy efficiency 7.8%, 9% if they can “find the folks,” battery storage 4.4%.  However, solar hiring was down in 2018 by .03%  and solar jobs declined by about 4% due to Trmp’s tariffs.  Solar jobs, however, are still up significantly over past the 5+ years with 3-4% decreases only in the last two years.  

For comparison, there are 1.15 million jobs in the entire US fossil fuel industry with coal mining and fuels production gaining 650 jobs or 0.9% in 2018.  There are 1.15 million employed in fossil fuels and 3.3 million employed in clean energy today.

CA, TX, FL, NY, MI, ILL, MA, OH, NC, VA are the top 10 states for clean energy jobs.  
10 states generate more than 20% of their electricity from wind and solar:  KS, IA, OK, ND, SD, VT, CA, ME, CO, and MN.  
The fastest-growing jobs in 12 states were in renewable energy in 2018.  
There are more clean energy jobs in Republican districts than Democratic districts.

Full report at http://usenergyjobs.org

There are currently more clean energy jobs available than workers to fill them.  The lack of trained people was highlighted by virtually all sectors as a growing problem.  Lack of experience, training, and technical skills was almost universally cited as the top reason for hiring difficulty by employers across all five surveyed sectors. The need for technical training and certifications was also frequently cited, implying the need for expanded investments in workforce training and closer coordination between employers and the workforce training system.

MA Clean Energy Center and NYSERDA workforce development programs were mentioned as good currently working models.  It takes a few years to train people for these jobs including continuing education for electricians, plumbers, carpenters.  Community colleges, military, and labor unions are all involved or should be. 

Editorial Comment
Clean energy technology teach-ins are certainly possible too.  Community groups have been doing self-education and activism around energy and environmental issues for decades.  At the end of the 1970s, the Urban Solar Energy Association (now Boston Area Solar Energy Association http://basea.org) and many other groups around the country did solar barn-raisings.  More recently, the Home Energy Efficiency Team (http://heetma.com) has organized weatherization parties and is currently deeply involved with Mothers Out Front and others on policing natural gas (methane) leaks.  These can all feed into DIY and certificate training, in combination with all the educational institutions interested in the possibilities.

This is an example of what I call swadeshi, local production or local economy.  It is the daily practice of nonviolent (home) economics that Gandhi believed was the heart of satyagraha, soul or truth force, the individual and community strength to perform political nonviolence.  A significant difference between Gandhi’s nonviolence and Martin Luther King Jr’s nonviolence is the absence of swadeshi, a practical or cottage industry component to the demonstration of economic, political, and social nonviolence.
End of Editorial Comment

Energy efficiency has the most overall growth and potential for jobs.  It is about 41% of energy sector jobs now.  More than 1 out of 6, 17% of all USA construction jobs are in energy efficiency.  E2 (https://www.e2.org) is preparing an Energy Efficiency Jobs in America report due in summer 2019.  Cities like Boston have found that energy efficiency retrofits, electrification of existing residential buildings and improved transportation to be the most impactful strategies for reducing carbon emissions (http://sites.bu.edu/cfb/files/2019/01/Carbon-Free-Boston-Report-web.pdf).

Higher energy standards are another policy that supports clean energy and energy efficiency jobs.  On April 18, the city council of New York approved a plan where every building in the city larger than 25,000 square feet in size must reduce its carbon emissions by 40% no later than 2030.  "The new policy will apply to more than 50,000 buildings in the city, including Trump Tower” (https://cleantechnica.com/2019/04/19/new-york-city-seeks-to-reduce-carbon-emissions-from-buildings-by-40/).  CA will have a building standard of net zero energy for all low rise residential buildings in 2020 (http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/zne/).  In the EU, all new buildings will be nearly zero-energy by the end of 2020 and all new public buildings have been nearly zero-energy since 2018 (https://ec.europa.eu/energy/en/topics/energy-efficiency/energy-performance-of-buildings/nearly-zero-energy-buildings).  Over the past few months, I’ve heard at least two energy policy experts say that a few hundred people, the people on the state and local boards who determine building codes, are a key constituency to speed the energy transition.

Over 50% of energy and energy efficiency jobs have median entry level wages below $17/hour.  Solar and wind employ a higher percentage of veterans than the national average, 8 - 11% as opposed to 6%, but women are a smaller portion of the workforce in these sectors, ranging from 23% to 33%, compared to the overall economy, where women make up 47% of the workforce.

Clean energy employers said they anticipate 6% job growth for 2019.  After two years of losses, solar energy employers predict 8% job growth for 2019, Energy efficiency continues to lead the clean energy sector in total number of jobs, growing 3.4% to 2.3 million jobs.  Wind energy is also up 3.4% jobs over the past year.

Jobs in clean vehicles manufacturing increased by 16%. About 254,000 Americans now work at companies building hybrid, electric and other clean vehicles, while another 486,000 Americans work in companies that manufacture parts that make vehicles more efficient.  Energy storage employment increased 14% as utilities, businesses and consumers deployed more batteries in EVs and with solar and wind installations.  Grid modernization jobs grew by 3.3%.

Between 2013 and 2018, support for renewable energy research increased from 73% to 88% among registered voters, including a 30 percent shift among conservative Republicans.
A majority of Americans (58%) say they think policies to transition from fossil fuels to clean energy will improve economic growth and create new jobs.

Nevada saw 32.43% growth in green jobs over 2018.  However, MA solar job growth is down 11.4% and Vermont is down 19.9% so state policies really matter and may be temporary blips in the overall trend, which is increasing growth for clean energy jobs.

Why climate activists don’t talk about clean energy job growth first and foremost is beyond me.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (https://www.bls.gov/ooh/fastest-growing.htm), solar photovoltaic installers (median salary $42,680) and wind turbine service technicians ($54,370) are the number one and two fastest growing jobs in the country, with expected growth rates of around 100% out till 2026.

Monday, March 18, 2019

Healing Earth (Through the Waters)

John Todd, author of Healing Earth:  An Ecologist’s Journey of Innovation and Environmental Stewardship (Berkeley, CA:  North Atlantic Books, 2019  ISBN 9781623172985) (https://www.northatlanticbooks.com/shop/healing-earth/), has spent his professional life building living technologies, eco-machines and eco-restorers, biological systems which "contain representative species from all the kingdoms of life ranging from bacteria and viruses at the lower end of the size scale to fungi, animals, and woody plants at the macro scale.  Working together as a biological team, these assemblages of organisms help us transform polluted water into clean water.  In return, we provide them with extra air and water circulation as well as appropriate substrates to live on or in.” He works on the basis of “that which has been damaged can be healed” and “do good things in bad places,” showing that the field of applied ecology is practical and can solve problems, exploring the myriad ways that informed stewardship can help heal and transform the Earth.

He started with a greenhouse full of transparent water tanks for the treatment of septage in Harwich, MA in the 1980s and, “more by accident than design,” included representative species of all the kingdoms of life in the system. Over years of experimentation, he learned "that a diversity of organisms from a variety of parent ecosystems could produce systems with a meta-intelligence that had a highly specific ability to self-organize, self-design, and self-replicate.  They were capable, in fact, of surviving through long periods of times, possibly centuries, with minimal human support.”

His installations are ecologically engineered, "they are designed with the attributes of natural ecosystems like marshes, ponds, and streams,” borrowing their designs, life forms, and progressions from natural ecosystems.  For John Todd "natural history is not an old-fashioned form of knowing;  it comprises the narratives of living entities that provide the alphabet of the design vocabulary.”

In this book, he provides a pattern language, the human grammar for that design vocabulary, a baker’s dozen of design principles for constructing living technologies and eco-machines based upon his decades of experience with projects that treat sewage, septage, petroleum wastes and other toxics, producing improved water quality at both household and community scales.

Todd considers such individual projects as First Order Ecological Design, techniques and technologies applied to the landscape.  Second Order Design is the linking together of processes and practices into new associations and entities, industrial ecologies and agricultural eco-parks for example.  Third Order Ecological Design addresses larger economic and social structures and their evolution over time.  He writes, "It is my belief that durable and sustainable economies, in an age of resource limits and information richness, can replace the extractive and environmentally destructive technologies and infrastructures of today.”  For an example of a Third Order Ecological Design see John Todd’s ecological plan for Appalachia, the winner of the first Buckminster Fuller Challenge Award at https://www.bfi.org/ideaindex/projects/2008/challenge-appalachia

In Healing Earth, John Todd has given us practical, working examples of how to think like nature itself, in ever expanding systems which repair the damage we homo sap sap (the sap) have already done.  We must learn to live in our ecological niche or risk extinction.  John Todd’s report of his lifetime of observation and experimentation teaches us not only how to live within that niche but expand it.

Projects from Todd Ecological

Providence, RI living machine treating sewage and septage with ecological systems design and without chemicals (1990)

Canal Restorer to River Restorer (2013)

Gaian Design of Ecological Alchemy:  notes from A Safe, Sustainable World (2005)

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

A Just Transition to Zero on Climate Change

Here are my notes on two of the best talks on energy that I’ve listened to in some time.  They both get the scale and the tactical outline correct, according to everything else I’ve seen and my own gut instinct.

An Energy Plan the Earth Can Live With
1/28/19
Radcliffe
Daniel Kammen (http://kammen.berkeley.edu), Director of Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (http://rael.berkeley.edu)

[Part of a Radcliffe symposium on climate and data]

A just transition is a more apt title
RAEL began working on PACE financing in 2009
SWITCH model to define utility energy storage needs
Morocco is the only country which has met its climate goals so far
Demonstrate climate change in a model free way to speak with doubters - NASA's Arctic ice animation over time, the loss of 50% ice cover displays the reality of climate change better than numbers
US-China climate agreement in 2014 was the tipping point.  China will reach peak emissions and then decline around 2025
We have already warmed the planet by 1 degree C [since 19th century, 280 ppm CO2e]
Getting to 1.5 degrees requires carbon negative policies as well as zero emissions [Ray Anderson’s Interface now making 80-100 year carbon negative products and on track for zero environment impact according to their metrics]
CA has had the same energy per capita since about 1978, energy sector has increased only as population has increased [USA annual energy production has been 100 quads or less since 2000]
Carbon and time are more useful in sustainability than money measures
CA does not count large hydro or nuclear as renewables
60% renewables by 2030 and 100% by 2045 now law in CA
All new homes [low rise residential] zero net energy by 2020 in CA
All commercial buildings net zero by 2030 [he is still trying to figure out high rises [July 12, 2013 edition Zero Net Energy links list:  Pearl River Tower, Guangzhou, China 71 floor zero net energy skyscraper, whether it performs to specs is an open question - http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building.php?building_id=454]

Carbon budget of 600 gigatons in 2017, according to Christiana Figueres
20% (?) drop in price for every doubling of production (in solar) - Moore's Law
Nuclear costs have been rising in the USA in the last few decades [Vogtle seems to be pushing back their completion date on two reactors under construction in USA]
Energy storage is declining in cost as quickly as solar ever did
Kenya is the Silicon Valley of East India
Pay as you go solar is growing quickly - 50 cents a day for small solar - now TVs, [computers,] and DC refrigerators are available [the future is high efficiency, low energy, I build from Solar IS Civil Defense/entry level electricity - light, phone, small batteries - to household, neighborhood, and town systems, different scales of islanding microgrids]
Solar is 30% more prevalent in white neighborhoods even when you control for income
Cool CA carbon footprint calculator which also gives recommendations about how to reduce - also for Germany and Japan:  http://coolclimate.berkeley.edu [We need a World Game for the benefit of all who will allow the benefit of all to work out how to provide bare minimums (and bare maximums) without destroying more than homo sap sap (the sap) already has]
Clean energy creates many more jobs than fossil fuels [and fastest growing jobs in most places are solar and wind, at least as a thought experiment]
40% of all USA renewables venture capital is in CA
Brazil's bagasse biofuel is now extending into the Amazon with disastrous results, food and forest production is being turned over to biofuels [too much of a good thing isn’t, balance portfolio of options within zero emissions framework - zero as an approachable goal as in TQM]
Carbon price should put back some money for research [and revolving loans]


Getting to Zero on Climate Change
2/7/19
Harvard
Hal Harvey @hal_harvey, author of Designing Climate Solutions, founder of Energy Foundation, Energy Innovation Policy & Technology LLC

By changing the averages moderately we've changed the extremes a lot
Electric grid, transportation, buildings, and industry - four sectors [he did not talk about agriculture but it’s in the book]
75% of all ghgs come from 20 countries [about 100 companies responsible for 71% of ghgs by one count - Pareto rules!! - https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jul/10/100-fossil-fuel-companies-investors-responsible-71-global-emissions-cdp-study-climate-change] 
$5 trillion per year on energy and $6 trillion on infrastructure that establishes consumption patterns 
Converting brown $ to green $ is key [no mention of stranded assets or carbon bubble]
A few key policies for each sector are available [in the book]
Offshore wind smooths load when combined with land-based wind as onshore/offshore winds are different in time of day and speed [see bagasse comment above]
Demand response can make 100 million buildings into thermal batteries [electric vehicles are rolling batteries too]
RPS and grid flexibility are two proposals that work here [microgrids for resilience and disaster preparedness, which we will definitely need in the near term]
A green grid plus an electric car solves transportation [rolling batteries] but internal combustion engines will still be out there
50 mpg is probably the most effective standard, 60 mpg doesn’t buy you much more
ZEV mandates and fuel efficiency standards are the policies here, continuous improvement in standards; don't set a number set a rate of change
Building codes and appliance standards are effective levers [CA and EU net zero building standards, mass retrofit of existing building to net zero standards from EnergieSprong https://energiesprong.org, pilot in NY state, other net zero energy resources I know of are available from Switzerland and Belgium]
Agriculture, iron and steel, chemicals and plastics, cement, and waste management are the most ghg intensive industries
Carbon pricing, carbon standards for products, device efficiency standards [no mention of removal of subsidies for fossil foolishness]
Concentrate on the USA public utility commissions which means you need to talk to a little over 100 people
NRDC, Advanced Energy Economy, CLF, UCS know about working with PUCs

These are the information resources I publish:
http://hubevents.blogspot.com - Energy (and Other) Events around Cambridge, MA
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com - notes on lectures and books
http://solarray.blogspot.com - renewable energy and efficiency - zero net energy links list
http://cityag.blogspot.com - city agriculture links list
http://geometrylinks.blogspot.com - geometry links list
http://www.dailykos.com/user/gmoke/history - articles, ideas, and screeds

Please let me know if you are interested in any of them and I’ll put you on the relevant listserv.  They are all free.

Sunday, January 13, 2019

Zero Net Energy - January 13, 2019

Building Off the Grid - DIY Network TV show with 34 episodes as of December 2018
https://www.diynetwork.com/shows/building-off-the-grid

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/

Rocky Mountain Institute’s Carbon-Free City Handbook
https://rmi.org/insight/the-carbon-free-city-handbook/

Rocky Mountain Institute’s Carbon-Free Region Handbook
https://www.rmi.org/insight/carbon-free-regions-handbook/

Nearly zero-energy buildings
https://ec.europa.eu/energy/en/topics/energy-efficiency/buildings/nearly-zero-energy-buildings
Zero net energy Project Guide
https://newbuildings.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/GtZ-ZNEProjectGuide_FINAL.pdf

Santa Monica City Residential Zero Net Energy Guide for New Construction
https://www.smgov.net/uploadedFiles/Departments/OSE/Categories/Green_Building/SantaMonica_Residential%20ZNE%20Guide.pdf
Green Building Energy Code Overview
https://www.smgov.net/Departments/OSE/Categories/Green_Building/Energy_Code_Overview.aspx

UN17 Village, a sustainable residential development of 400 new homes to Copenhagen, Denmark, “the first building project in the world that translates all 17 of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into tangible action.”
https://lendager.com/en/news/un17-village-the-worlds-most-sustainable-building-project/
https://inhabitat.com/ecovillage-in-copenhagen-strives-to-meet-all-17-sustainable-development-goals/

Dutch microgrid communities with up to 90% renewables
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/09/these-dutch-microgrid-communities-can-supply-90-of-their-energy-needs/

Zero Energy House - CleanTech Sundsvall
https://vimeo.com/77403726
from http://www.cleantechregion.com

Pax Futura - Seattle 35 unit apartment building built to Passivhaus standards at 5% more per square foot than Seattle code with 50% less annual energy use (and costs)
https://www.livepaxfutura.com/floorplans/
https://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/small-apartment-building-seattle-could-be-model-solving-our-housing-and-energy-crises.html

Short video on the Netherland's Energiesprong, a program for ongoing deep energy retrofit of existing housing to approach net zero energy
https://vimeo.com/235335180
http://energiesprong.eu
Mass Production of Net Zero Energy Retrofits for Single Family Homes
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/1/9/1824927/-Mass-Production-of-Net-Zero-Energy-Retrofits-for-Single-Family-Homes

Japan plans to develop 2020 Olympics Village into 'hydrogen town’
https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/japan-plans-develop-2020-olympics-village-into-hydrogen-town-1482091