Cooler Planet

Eco-minded partygoers will be glad to know there’s a place in London (UK) to frequent.  Dr. Earth, real name Andrew Charalambous, has opened Club Surya a nightclub where people who bike or walk there get in for free.  Though no one can actually enter until they sign a pledge and commit to take actions that reduce global warming.

The ultra-modern club has its own solar photovoltaic array and wind turbine on top.  The solar panels power the refrigerators and flat-screen TVs, the wind everything else.  The club promises to donate any excess energy it generates to the community that surrounds it.

If it’s successful, then that could be a lot of electric juice.  Even the dance floor generates energy.  The dance floor sits on top a piezoelectric system that generates an electric current from dancers gyrating on top.  Dr. Earth told Reuters that he expects the dance floor when full of energetic dancers will “provide 60 percent of the club’s energy needs.”

Ah, if only we could solve all our energy needs by dancing.

For a review of the new club try, http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/clubs/club-surya-review-52971.html

No, we’re not talking about the sunshine needed to grow hops.  Rather, about the handful of breweries that have installed solar arrays to help brew their beer.

This is not an exhaustive list, there are likely others out there using renewable energy to power their brew.  For example, New Belgium Beer, in Fort Collins, Colorado has used wind power since 1999.  Here’s the Cooler Planet short list of “solar-powered beer.”

Anderson Valley Brewing Company – since 2006 Anderson Valley Brewing in Boonville, California has relied on its 768 solar panels to brew its beer.  The solar array covers over 12,000 square feet of rooftop space and generates approximately 125,000 watts per hour. 

Sierra Nevada Brewing Company – just this year, Sierra Nevada installed 1.4-megawatt solar array on top of its manufacturing complex in Chico, California.  The solar panels add to the company’s 1-megawatt fuel cell system.  Together these systems serve approximately 80% of the company’s power needs.

Lucky Labrador Brewing Company – located in Portland, Oregon uses solar thermal technology to heat the water needed for the first stage of the brewing process.

The same day the Bureau of Land Management reversed its decision to freeze applications for solar power development projects (July 2); the United Nations issued a report commending the expediential rise in global investments for all types of renewable energy projects.

According to the new UN Environment Programme report, in 2007, investors raised over $148 billion, a 60 percent increase over 2006.  Moreover, despite market downturns from the credit crisis, investments into clean energy have continued to remain strong during the first half of 2008.

That’s good news for the renewable energy industry.  As the UNEP report points out, robust growth in clean energy projects is imperative if UN targets for greenhouse gas reductions and energy efficiencies are to be met. 

The bulk of the investment continues to target wind energy, however, new investment in solar energy projects boomed.  Over $28 billion poured into solar energy in 2007, a three-fold increase compared to 2004.

Much of the investment in solar energy originated in Germany, which continues to lead the world in its investments into solar.  Chinese manufacturers also contributed significantly to solar companies that target the US market.

Here’s the link to the full report: http://sefi.unep.org/fileadmin/media/sefi/docs/publications/Exec_summary.pdf

Alaska is known for its natural gas and oil.  Now it wants to be known for its wind.

In May 2008, Governor Sarah Palin signed a bill that authorizes $250 million over the next five years toward renewable energy projects, namely wind.  A separate law authorizes $25 million to fund the installation of submarine cables that will connect a 50-megawatt wind power project on Fire Island in Cook Inlet to Anchorage’s international airport.

With her pen stroke, Governor Palin has made Alaska the second largest state (California is still first) to fund renewable energy development.  The state has big plans for its investment; according to the Alaska Journal it hopes to augment its energy mix and cut back on using the natural gas in its gas fields that are being depleted.

Clean Edge, a research and publishing company focused on renewable technologies and the non-profit organization Co-op America released a report that states the cost of electricity derived from solar power will be on par with electricity derived from fossil fuels by 2015.

The report predicts “as solar prices decline and the capital and fuel costs for coal, natural gas, and nuclear plants rise, the U.S. will reach a crossover point by around 2015.”   It also asserts that the U.S. can grow its overall contribution of electricity generated from the sun to 10 percent by 2025.  Currently, less than a tenth of one percent of total electricity comes from the sun.

The report’s authors cite the great leaps forward already made in solar installations.  In the past five years solar installations – both solar photovoltaic and concentrated solar – have expanded from 600 megawatts in 2003 to almost 3,000 megawatts in 2008, equivalent to three conventional power plants.

From a utility standpoint, solar offers distinct advantages over conventional fuel sources, such as coal and natural gas, making its competitive edge apparent within the next ten years:

• Once a solar installation is in place, utilities need minimal, if any, fossil fuel to operate the site, offsetting both the price of those resources and the cost to transport them to the site.
• Compared to nuclear, coal, and natural gas power plants, solar has low maintenance costs and provides carbon-credits, in a cap-and-trade carbon emissions economy.
• Solar-derived electricity has proven itself a cost-effective resource, particularly during periods of peak demand.

Similar to the recent report analyzing the wind power industry in the USA, government and market forces will have to continue to propel the industry forward.  However, reaching 10 percent solar capacity is within reach using current technology available today.  

Once again the sun is proving its worth.

Someone asked Cooler Planet to profile Amory Lovins.  Not an easy task given the prolific number of supporters and critics out there.  Here’s our humble attempt:

Amory Lovins is considered by many alternative-energy-enthusiasts one of our country’s leading spokesperson’s regarding energy efficiency.  His quirky style, practice-what-he-preaches approach, penchant for numbers, and compelling lectures and writings have earned Lovins numerous accolades.  Texas Instruments, Wal-Mart, and other corporate giants have enlisted Lovins and his Rocky Mountain Institute to analyze and devise strategies to maximize their energy efficiency and profitability.  Lovins is often asked to testify before Congress and weigh in on energy policy. 

Amory Lovins has long been a proponent of solar energy.  The sun powers Lovins’ home (which also served as the original Rocky Mountain Institute headquarters) in Colorado.  Passive solar design, the use of photovoltaic arrays and solar hot water panels generate enough energy to grow at least 28 banana crops and support other tropical vegetation.  Not bad for a building that has no centralized heating or cooling system and is located up high at 7,100 feet in the Rocky Mountains.  

Lovins’ opinion regarding energy policy is once again being sought.  His answers often seem prescient regardless to whether he said them in 1976 or 2008.  In 1976, Lovins published an article, Energy Strategy:  The Road Not Taken?, that laid out his vision and rationale for pursuing “a soft energy path.”  Lovins argued that developing soft energies, such as solar, wind, and geothermal and creating technologies that capitalize on truly using energy efficiently would create a strong and energy-independent USA.  Even then, Lovins disputed the pursuit of nuclear energy development as a costly and economically non-viable choice.  That article and the subsequent 1970s Energy Crisis catapulted Lovins into the energy policy spotlight.

Today Lovins continues to make his case.  On March 12, 2008, Lovins in his invited testimony to the US House of Representatives’ Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming explained that nuclear energy does not make sense from an economic perspective.  The plants are too costly to build and private markets are not interested in financing nuclear power because of the perceived financial risk.  Furthermore, true nuclear power emits less carbon dioxide once in operation, it is so expensive to install and maintain that its cost far exceed the expense to develop other alternative energy infrastructures such as wind, solar, geothermal, or biofuel.

For those of you interested in hearing Amory Lovins explain his positions, there is a great video clip on You Tube from a Charlie Rose interview with Lovins on November 28, 2006.  

There’s an adage advertisers refer to when explaining why advertisements and messages are repeated.  According to marketers, it takes at least 11 times before your audience “takes in” your message.   Lovins and his cohorts at the Rocky Mountain Institute have certainly talked about energy policy and energy efficiency more than 11 times; this time people are listening.  For as Lovins points out in his conversation with Charlie Rose, “what people are finally figuring out is that it doesn’t matter how low the price of oil goes, energy efficiency is still a great deal.”

On Monday, June 16, USA Today published an article about rising electricity costs.  Rising prices for the raw material – such as coal and natural gas – and aging power plants that need upgrades contribute to spiking electric rates.   According to the newspaper, some ratepayers will see increases of nearly 30 percent in the coming year.

The seemingly never-ending news about increasing gasoline and electricity costs point to same trend.  Competing world demand for fuel effects the price of the resources we’ve come to rely on. 

In another, unrelated report published on Friday, June 13 the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency announced that China has now surpassed the United States in terms of carbon emissions.  China’s overall carbon dioxide emissions are estimated at 24 percent, whereas carbon dioxide emissions in the USA account for approximately 21 percent.  

Clearly, the United States is not the only country in the world seeking energy.  Demand from others contributes to rising raw energy prices as well.

Enter stage right:  alternative fuel.  We all know solar, wind, and tides will not solve all our energy needs, but they can certainly help mitigate some of these ever-looming impacts.

One has to wonder how much glum news it takes to break Congressional gridlock over extending tax credits for renewable energy . . .

Although the Democrats and Republicans cannot yet find a way to extend credits for renewable energy, both want to make headlines as renewable energy supporters.  Perhaps that’s why both the upcoming Republican and Democratic conventions in Minneapolis-Saint Paul and Denver, respectively, will get part of their power from renewable energy.

Xcel Energy is one of the nation’s leading providers of renewable energy and the country’s largest provider of wind power.  It will use its facilities close to Denver and Minneapolis-Saint Paul to power each convention.  Most of the renewable power will come from wind.  Xcel Energy expects that power through its Windsource program will offset the estimated 3,000 megawatt-hours of energy both conventions will use.

Wind power for the Republican convention will come from an Xcel Energy facility on southwestern Minnesota’s Buffalo Ridge.  The Democratic convention will receive its wind energy from a wind farm near the Colorado-Wyoming border.  Xcel will also tap into the excess energy generated from solar photovoltaic arrays from its commercial customers.  In Denver, Xcel will use energy from the 10-kilowatt solar array on top of the Pepsi Center in Denver where their convention will be held.  In Minneapolis-Saint Paul, solar power will come from a 10-kilowatt installation at the High Bridge Generating Station in Saint Paul.

We’re sure that as the conventions near we’ll hear more from their planners on how much carbon emissions are offset through the alternative energy power sources.  

By the way the Democrats have announced other “green plans” for their convention; they hope to make their convention the greenest-ever.  Plans include recognizing delegates who offset their travel emissions; partnering with Native Energy for carbon emission offsets; and providing a fleet of bicycles for delegates to borrow for quick trips between hotels and the Pepsi Center.  Molson-Coors will donate $40,000 worth of E85, an ethanol-gasoline fuel blend made from waste beer lost during packaging or rejected for quality reasons from the company’s plant in Golden, Colorado.  The fuel will power the flex-fuel vehicles from General Motors used to shuttle delegates and supplies.   Convention planners also want to go paperless, challenging their staff to complete transactions, communications, and bookings electronically.

Not to be overshadowed, Republicans have “green plans” as well.  Republicans, too, hope to have the greenest convention their party has ever hosted.  And General Motors is the Official Vehicle Provider for the Republicans supplying over 300 hybrid fuel vans and cars for delegates and staff.  The Republican Convention will showcase an energy-efficient office, complete with recycled furnishings.  Planners have also directed staff and committees to reduce the amount of paper used in planning, printing, and booking reservations.

Summer is almost here.  The longer days and, hopefully, sunny weather makes it a good time to test some of the solar gadgets out there.  All you bikers (bicycle or motor), runners, and beach-goers might want to try the HYmini or miniSOLAR panel.  These devices use the wind or sun to charge your cell phone and other handheld products.  So while you’re biking, you can capture the wind; or capture the sun while you lie on the beach and keep your Nintendo DX or iPod working all day long. 

Queen Elizabeth, Great Britian’s royal icon, has directed her managers to purchase one of the world’s largest offshore wind turbines from a California energy company, Clipper Windpower.  The turbine will be placed offshore in Scottish waters on Crown property.

The 7.5-megawatt MBE turbine will start in 2010 and the electricity it generates will be sold to the nation’s grid.  The Queen’s property company estimates that the turbine will generate the comparable amount of electricity from one million barrels of oil during its 30-year life span.  

Evidently, the Crown Estate owns the waters 12 nautical miles around the United Kingdom.  It has already invested in wind power and has leased areas to companies that specialize in offshore wind turbines.

The Crown’s support is part of a larger effort by the European Union to increase its renewable energy sources by 2020.  Couched under the goal to reduce carbon emissions, the EU set a goal to cut overall emissions 20 percent by 2020, of which the UK should reduce its share by 16 percent.  For the UK, that translates into generating 33,000 megawatts of power by 2020.  Currently, the country produces roughly 500 – 600 megawatts of power.  

That’s quite a tall order.  Still, by 2020, according to Chris Goodall, author of How to Live a Low Carbon Life, the UK will need approximately 148 gigawatts of electricity.   So by then, the nation’s wind farms will likely supply roughly 22 percent of the UK’s total electricity needs.  

Twenty-two percent is not shabby.  The Crown stands to benefit from substantial revenue and the country gains a significant wind resource.