By Matt Chaban
September 29, 2010 | 6:21 p.m
When the tornado hit Brooklyn the other week, it not only knocked over trees and damaged property. It also sent a wave of raw sewage cascading into the Gowanus. (WARNING: This video is kind of gross.):
This happens all over the city every time it rains. The reason is because our sewer system, like our subway, is decades and in some places centuries old. The city still operates a combined-sewer-overflow system. All that wastewater is not only odoriferous but also screws up the marine chemistry. The EPA is none too happy about it.
Fortunately for our noses and the fishes, the Bloomberg administration announced a plan yesterday to address this problem, called NYC Green Infrastructure. It includes the expansion of the city's traditional "grey" water systems of tunnels and cisterns as well as a new emphasis on green roofs, absorbent pavement and a dozen other fixes. The measures are expected to reduce sewage outflows up to 40 percent by 2030 and save the city $2.4 billion in sanitation costs between now and then. It's yet another piece of PlaNYC sustainability coming to fruition.
And yet what goes unsaid in that 40 percent figure is that 60 percent of our waste will still be creeping into the creeks whenever it rains too hard. Granted it would take an astronomical expenditure to completely fix this problem. But like a dainty lady in polite company, it's better not to discuss such things.
mchaban [at] observer.com / @mc_nyo
Tags: Politics | Real Estate | The Daily Transom |
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COMMENTS (4 posted)
More in Real Estate
City to Stop Using Rivers as Giant Toilet
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Using the rivers as a giant toilet
Submitted by Paula Piekos on Thu, 09/30/2010 - 01:55.
Although no one likes to hear it, this attitude is also noticeable in Westchester County.
In White Plains, I know that there are human sewage lines running very near the water runnoff storm system lines, and that there are damaged pipes along the way. I believe that this adds to the bacteria problems that are documented in Long Island Sound.
Also, the whole city was designed long ago in an archaic manner, where as it was planned, water runoff was always handled by just having storm drains shunt water off into a small river, which now rages uncontrollably when there are large storms. As I said, this was the design thought up years ago, but is still utilized today when developers want to build on wet lots. Well-paid design teams come up with mitigation ideas, such as dry wells, but when there are extreme conditions, the water level swamps the dry wells and they are useless. In addition, the city's DPW simplistically adds storm drains to enable the building on these lots. The Village of Mamaroneck is downstream from us, and I was warning about the wrongness of shunting our excess water toward them even before the devastating floods a few years back.
Another way in which we are misusing our rivers is that there really is no awareness that out eco-themed Gedney Landfill puts a good face forward to visitors on tours about how well it's run and eco-friendly it is, but viewers are blocked from seeing the deplorable way the small river that runs through it is treated. The Gedney Landfill hosts an area of the Mamaroneck River but no attempt is made to be sure that an enormous amount of disgusting garbage does not leave the premises via the waterway when it rains. I believe it is viewed as a convenient, cheap way to rid their property of trash. Rather than remove the floating debris from their property before it goes downstream, it is easier to look the other way and ignore the situation, as with each storm, it will flush out and end up in downstream residents bushes and bridges, until it eventually enters the Long Island Sound in Mamaroneck. It's hard to see this because the river is well-hidden by woods and is not visible on the walking tours.
It's time to stop treating our rivers as a feature that we can use to carry off our trash and storm water. When the economy improves, I hope that the Department of Public Works does not go back to the pre-recession practice of routinely adding stamps of approval to plans for houses on wet lots and just add city storm drains at the taxpayer's expense. It's just more water and more garbage downstream to Mamaroneck and to the Sound.
reply
River as Toilet
Submitted by Paula Piekos on Thu, 09/30/2010 - 02:07.
Your video is fabulous documentation. The audio almost makes it as good as having scratch-and-sniff video. The bystanders in the parking lot holding their noses really helped, too
Thanks for sharing an important video piece. I hope you have alerted the proper governmental agencies to its existence, so maybe something will be done more quickly.
If you monitor you site, how often have you seen this happen?
I have photos posted of the garbage that the City of White Plains allows to sit in the stream portion of the Mamaroneck River. The public can't see the existence of this garbage, but it feels to me that the city uses storm events to flush the property, knowing full well that the litter will clog our bridges, get stuck in waterfront brush, and end up going through Mamaroneck and end up in the Long Island Sound. Much of it consists of dog waste bags.
Thanks for your great video work.
reply
River as toilet
Submitted by Paula Piekos on Thu, 09/30/2010 - 02:11.
Sorry - I forgot to tell you where you might want to see my photos of how White Plains uses a river as a giant trash disposal at their Gedney Landfill. Go to the Whiteplainsecoissues.com site and look at the Landfill Gallery. The photos are old, but it is always like this, just with different garbage after each rain.
reply
Permapave
Submitted by morgera on Thu, 09/30/2010 - 11:41.
DPW and cities alike are more and more now starting green infrastructure projects. One reason is because these types of technologies mimic the natural processes in nature. The other is cost. We can reduce flooding and pollution from stormwater runoff with permeable pavement like Permapave but also reduce maintenance spending and prevent CSO's.
By making roadways and highways permeable, these biggest culprits of runoff and pollution can now be part of the solution. Rainwater can percolate through the ground and not be forced to combine with waste water. Thus, a reduction in runoff will be a reduction in treating stormwater at wastewater facilities.
Permapave is one type of pavement that has been replacing pervious asphalt and concrete in city stormwater projects. Its worth to take a look at it if your goal is improving water quality and reducing city spending.
Friday, October 1, 2010
$1.5 Billion Plan Would Cut Sewage Flow Into City Waters
By MIREYA NAVARRO
Published: September 28, 2010
The Bloomberg administration wants to invest up to $1.5 billion over the next 20 years on new environmental techniques to reduce the flow of sewage into the city’s waterways.
Related
Green Blog: Sewage Overflow in New York? Believe It (September 29, 2010)
A blog about energy and the environment.
The plan, announced on Tuesday by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, calls for building an infrastructure to capture and retain storm water before it reaches the sewer system and overloads it. The city would foster investments in projects like green roofs with plantings, porous pavement for parking lots, rain barrels, wetlands and depressions for collecting water in parks, for example.
Such strategies would complement more traditional methods to control sewage overflows like underground storage tanks and tunnel systems.
The plan is intended to block the overflow of untreated sewage and storm water into bodies of water like New York Harbor, Jamaica Bay and Newtown Creek when it rains. This week, Newtown Creek, which straddles Brooklyn and Queens, was designated a federal Superfund cleanup site by the Environmental Protection Agency because of severe pollution that includes discharges from sewer pipes that would otherwise overwhelm the city’s 14 wastewater treatment plants.
And another sewage-choked body, Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, was designated a Superfund site in March.
The problem of overflow from sewers is common around the country, and the city’s proposed solutions parallel approaches that are being tried in other cities.
City officials said that the natural features like plantings would help reduce sewer overflows by 40 percent by 2030 and reduce the city’s sewer management costs by $2.4 billion over 20 years, helping to keep water bills down for ratepayers. Up to 30 billion gallons of overflows from the city’s sewer system, which carries both sanitary sewage and storm water from the streets, end up in the waterways each year.
“Our green infrastructure plan is bringing a new approach to an old problem by using natural means to capture the storm water that too frequently overloads the system,” Mr. Bloomberg said in a statement. “The plan will help clean our waterways, green the city and reduce the costs for residents and business owners, who pay the bills for maintaining the city’s water and sewer systems.”
The federal Environmental Protection Agency promotes green infrastructure as a cost-effective and environmentally preferable alternative to conventional overflow management. Such methods also draw support from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, which enforces federal Clean Water Act requirements and consent orders under which New York City is upgrading its treatment plants and dealing with the overflow issue.
James Tierney, the department’s assistant commissioner for water resources, said the state had already approved a similar green infrastructure plan for the City of Syracuse and for Onondaga County.
“It’s a way to hold the water in the landscape and do it in a way that beautifies a community,” he said.
Mr. Tierney said the department would undertake a careful review of the engineering involved in New York City’s plan, but added, “We’re interested in exploring it and making it happen.”
Environmental groups say that sewer overflows are the biggest water quality problem in the region, keeping many waterways from meeting federal standards for fishing, swimming and a healthy habitat for wildlife.
Paul Gallay, executive director of the environmental group Riverkeeper, which monitors water quality in the waterways around the city, called the mayor’s plan “a good start.”
“Green infrastructure is great, but there has to be enough of it to achieve water quality standards, and it has to be complemented with the more traditional approaches,” he said. “It’s a question of the mix.”
Eric Goldstein, New York City director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, also welcomed the plan, saying it was a step “in the right direction” for addressing overflow.
“There will be some spirited negotiations to secure agreement on the all-important details,” he predicted.
Cas Holloway, the city’s environmental protection commissioner, said that most of the efforts would be financed through capital projects like roads and sidewalks. The city would also impose requirements for new private residential and commercial development, effectively adding $900 million in private investment to the $1.5 billion outlay.
For example, the city plans to tighten regulations to limit the amount of runoff allowed to emerge from a new property.
The goal, Mr. Holloway said, is for the city’s landscape to absorb about 12 billion gallons of untreated runoff and wastewater a year that now fouls up the waterways. “You need to make the city more permeable,” he said.
Comment
New Yorkers are really under water now, with all the rains going up the east coast.
Published: September 28, 2010
The Bloomberg administration wants to invest up to $1.5 billion over the next 20 years on new environmental techniques to reduce the flow of sewage into the city’s waterways.
Related
Green Blog: Sewage Overflow in New York? Believe It (September 29, 2010)
A blog about energy and the environment.
The plan, announced on Tuesday by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, calls for building an infrastructure to capture and retain storm water before it reaches the sewer system and overloads it. The city would foster investments in projects like green roofs with plantings, porous pavement for parking lots, rain barrels, wetlands and depressions for collecting water in parks, for example.
Such strategies would complement more traditional methods to control sewage overflows like underground storage tanks and tunnel systems.
The plan is intended to block the overflow of untreated sewage and storm water into bodies of water like New York Harbor, Jamaica Bay and Newtown Creek when it rains. This week, Newtown Creek, which straddles Brooklyn and Queens, was designated a federal Superfund cleanup site by the Environmental Protection Agency because of severe pollution that includes discharges from sewer pipes that would otherwise overwhelm the city’s 14 wastewater treatment plants.
And another sewage-choked body, Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, was designated a Superfund site in March.
The problem of overflow from sewers is common around the country, and the city’s proposed solutions parallel approaches that are being tried in other cities.
City officials said that the natural features like plantings would help reduce sewer overflows by 40 percent by 2030 and reduce the city’s sewer management costs by $2.4 billion over 20 years, helping to keep water bills down for ratepayers. Up to 30 billion gallons of overflows from the city’s sewer system, which carries both sanitary sewage and storm water from the streets, end up in the waterways each year.
“Our green infrastructure plan is bringing a new approach to an old problem by using natural means to capture the storm water that too frequently overloads the system,” Mr. Bloomberg said in a statement. “The plan will help clean our waterways, green the city and reduce the costs for residents and business owners, who pay the bills for maintaining the city’s water and sewer systems.”
The federal Environmental Protection Agency promotes green infrastructure as a cost-effective and environmentally preferable alternative to conventional overflow management. Such methods also draw support from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, which enforces federal Clean Water Act requirements and consent orders under which New York City is upgrading its treatment plants and dealing with the overflow issue.
James Tierney, the department’s assistant commissioner for water resources, said the state had already approved a similar green infrastructure plan for the City of Syracuse and for Onondaga County.
“It’s a way to hold the water in the landscape and do it in a way that beautifies a community,” he said.
Mr. Tierney said the department would undertake a careful review of the engineering involved in New York City’s plan, but added, “We’re interested in exploring it and making it happen.”
Environmental groups say that sewer overflows are the biggest water quality problem in the region, keeping many waterways from meeting federal standards for fishing, swimming and a healthy habitat for wildlife.
Paul Gallay, executive director of the environmental group Riverkeeper, which monitors water quality in the waterways around the city, called the mayor’s plan “a good start.”
“Green infrastructure is great, but there has to be enough of it to achieve water quality standards, and it has to be complemented with the more traditional approaches,” he said. “It’s a question of the mix.”
Eric Goldstein, New York City director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, also welcomed the plan, saying it was a step “in the right direction” for addressing overflow.
“There will be some spirited negotiations to secure agreement on the all-important details,” he predicted.
Cas Holloway, the city’s environmental protection commissioner, said that most of the efforts would be financed through capital projects like roads and sidewalks. The city would also impose requirements for new private residential and commercial development, effectively adding $900 million in private investment to the $1.5 billion outlay.
For example, the city plans to tighten regulations to limit the amount of runoff allowed to emerge from a new property.
The goal, Mr. Holloway said, is for the city’s landscape to absorb about 12 billion gallons of untreated runoff and wastewater a year that now fouls up the waterways. “You need to make the city more permeable,” he said.
Comment
New Yorkers are really under water now, with all the rains going up the east coast.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
3 Trashy Ideas For Building Greener Cities
3 Trashy Ideas For Building Greener Cities
posted by: Beth Buczynski 19 hours ago
In a recent post, I highlighted a Swiss study that questioned whether or not recycling is really the greenest fate for plastic waste.
The reader response was passionate and varied, but one comment stood out: Care2 member Julieta S. wrote, "I think we should start making garbage bricks... some would stand for more than hundreds [of] years... right? (please steal this idea)."
While I had never thought of making bricks from trash, it seemed like a sensible way to build green structures using the ultra-durable plastic waste that's causing our planet so much trouble.
Here's what I found...thanks for the idea Julieta!
1. "Ecological Bricks" for Low-Income Housing in Argentina
Argentina's Experimental Center for Economical Housing (Centro Experimental de la Vivienda Económica – CEVE) has developed a brick made of used food (primarily candy) wrappers and plastic (primarily PET) soda and water bottles.
The raw materials are supplied by Córdoba's selective collection plant, collection points in schools and government agencies, plus rejects from the local bottling plant.
The plastics are ground up and then mixed with Portland cement and chemical additives to make the bricks (pictured above) and something CEVE calls "brick plates." The CEVE project hires unemployed youth (between 18-24 years old) to make the bricks. The participants can use the bricks to build their own mini-houses (The Temas Blog).
2. "Byfusion" Machine Makes Building Blocks
It took a New Zealand man 10 years to put together a prototype recycling machine that could turn raw plastic into useful building materials, but now, the "Byfusion" machine is spitting out the building blocks of a multimillion-dollar business.
Peter Lewis' machine can swallow most types of raw plastic and turn it into compacted plastic bricks or other shapes.
A new brick, formed from over 20 pounds of plastic, emerges from the recycling machine every 30-45 seconds.
The rock-hard bricks can be used for garden retaining or landscaping walls, and have other potential uses including shock absorbers behind crash barriers (Otago Daily Times).
3. Interlocking Polli-Bricks Made From Plastic Bottles
Earlier this year, Taiwan jumped to the front page of green websites all over the world when it was announced that a building commissioned by Far Eastern Group was built using bricks made from 1.5 million plastic botles.
These Polli-Bricks create an interlocking shape that's light weight and structural at the same time. When connected, Polli-Bricks almost look like a honeycomb. The building, dubbed the EcoARK, can be taken apart and reassembled at another side with relative ease, and was and later donated to city government in Taipei.
Do you know of other cool building techniques that utilize waste? Share them in a comment!
Read more: plastic, argentina, waste, recycling, taiwan, trash, new zealand, environment & wildlife, green building
quick pollvote now! thanks for voting! Loading poll...
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comments16 comments add your comment
Victoria S. says
Sep 30, 2010 7:35 AM
If it were properly sealed, Plastic can be molded to mimic every thing in nature. Think of all the Forests we could save by no longer cutting them down for building materials. We could properly maintain them by means that have been proven to work for sustainability. All this information exists now, but will not be funded by our Congress or House that are 80% Bought by Wealth that do not want any changes to take place as long as they can keep making huge profits. We have to do this ourselves in our own communities and not wait for them to implement any of this kind of innovation. I have already gotten almost everyone where I work to collect the PVC plastic gift cards and store credits to keep then out of our land fills. If everyone suggest this to the business as a way to be "greener", the companies would remove 700 tons a year of this product that will leach out into our water and cause illness. We The People have to be an underground source of change for the better for us all, while they will do anything for money we will have less use for their money or their useless overpriced services. We can think of ways!
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Michelle Staples says
Sep 30, 2010 6:40 AM
I can see this leading to a whole new industry of ships gathering up the waste in the middle of oceans. Right on!
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nancy sands says
Sep 30, 2010 6:37 AM
GOOD IDEAS!
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Mike Masley says
Sep 30, 2010 6:06 AM
The idea is good, but not sure I would want to live around all of that plastic.
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Mark S. says
Sep 30, 2010 6:04 AM
The best solution (from an environmental POV) would of course be to stop using plastics altogether. And I would hate for a solution like this to lead to even further use of fossil fuels. That being said, it is a brilliant use of the plastics we've already made.
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Kate Kenner says
Sep 30, 2010 6:03 AM
the goal seems like it should be to stop making so many products that are bad for the planet yet that will not happen it seems. It seems like an idea that should be seriously considered. I am tired of picking up plastic bottles and bags every day (I know that bags are not included in this plan.) Somehow I don't think flying them around Pluto is a very good plan, Nyack. There is enough trash out there. Thank goodness in you are not on the committee to dispose of trash.
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Michele Hill says
Sep 30, 2010 5:35 AM
i do see what you mean, this is a great idea, if its safe, BUT what are the numbers?? i know that i think its a 1,3,7 are safe for us to use. the rest are not. even though they sell it to us, like rubbermaid, etc. i'm talking about on the bottom of the containers, anything that is not them numbers and they will leach into our bodies, so if it gets to hot, the fumes, geuss where their going? into us, lungs, etc. if you have a new born, and he gets asthma, Hmm i'd start wondering where he got it. or if you were pregnant and living in that building, and your baby comes out with respitory problems i'd start to wonder exactly how this came about. Don't get me wrong!! i LOVE the fact that they are reusing the plastic, and a huge amount of its going somewhere, but are they safe numbers for us to live in?? if they are, i'm all for it!! **big smile**
Comment
I saw a program last night on CNBC about using plastic water bottles to make shirts, rugs, and other stuff here in South carolina. BMW uses plastic water bottles recycled to make their car seats.
posted by: Beth Buczynski 19 hours ago
In a recent post, I highlighted a Swiss study that questioned whether or not recycling is really the greenest fate for plastic waste.
The reader response was passionate and varied, but one comment stood out: Care2 member Julieta S. wrote, "I think we should start making garbage bricks... some would stand for more than hundreds [of] years... right? (please steal this idea)."
While I had never thought of making bricks from trash, it seemed like a sensible way to build green structures using the ultra-durable plastic waste that's causing our planet so much trouble.
Here's what I found...thanks for the idea Julieta!
1. "Ecological Bricks" for Low-Income Housing in Argentina
Argentina's Experimental Center for Economical Housing (Centro Experimental de la Vivienda Económica – CEVE) has developed a brick made of used food (primarily candy) wrappers and plastic (primarily PET) soda and water bottles.
The raw materials are supplied by Córdoba's selective collection plant, collection points in schools and government agencies, plus rejects from the local bottling plant.
The plastics are ground up and then mixed with Portland cement and chemical additives to make the bricks (pictured above) and something CEVE calls "brick plates." The CEVE project hires unemployed youth (between 18-24 years old) to make the bricks. The participants can use the bricks to build their own mini-houses (The Temas Blog).
2. "Byfusion" Machine Makes Building Blocks
It took a New Zealand man 10 years to put together a prototype recycling machine that could turn raw plastic into useful building materials, but now, the "Byfusion" machine is spitting out the building blocks of a multimillion-dollar business.
Peter Lewis' machine can swallow most types of raw plastic and turn it into compacted plastic bricks or other shapes.
A new brick, formed from over 20 pounds of plastic, emerges from the recycling machine every 30-45 seconds.
The rock-hard bricks can be used for garden retaining or landscaping walls, and have other potential uses including shock absorbers behind crash barriers (Otago Daily Times).
3. Interlocking Polli-Bricks Made From Plastic Bottles
Earlier this year, Taiwan jumped to the front page of green websites all over the world when it was announced that a building commissioned by Far Eastern Group was built using bricks made from 1.5 million plastic botles.
These Polli-Bricks create an interlocking shape that's light weight and structural at the same time. When connected, Polli-Bricks almost look like a honeycomb. The building, dubbed the EcoARK, can be taken apart and reassembled at another side with relative ease, and was and later donated to city government in Taipei.
Do you know of other cool building techniques that utilize waste? Share them in a comment!
Read more: plastic, argentina, waste, recycling, taiwan, trash, new zealand, environment & wildlife, green building
quick pollvote now! thanks for voting! Loading poll...
no! leaning no leaning yes yes! no! leaning no leaning yes yes! 0 votes see results take this poll
comments16 comments add your comment
Victoria S. says
Sep 30, 2010 7:35 AM
If it were properly sealed, Plastic can be molded to mimic every thing in nature. Think of all the Forests we could save by no longer cutting them down for building materials. We could properly maintain them by means that have been proven to work for sustainability. All this information exists now, but will not be funded by our Congress or House that are 80% Bought by Wealth that do not want any changes to take place as long as they can keep making huge profits. We have to do this ourselves in our own communities and not wait for them to implement any of this kind of innovation. I have already gotten almost everyone where I work to collect the PVC plastic gift cards and store credits to keep then out of our land fills. If everyone suggest this to the business as a way to be "greener", the companies would remove 700 tons a year of this product that will leach out into our water and cause illness. We The People have to be an underground source of change for the better for us all, while they will do anything for money we will have less use for their money or their useless overpriced services. We can think of ways!
send green star
why is this inappropriate?
submit cancel Submitting...
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The response report you have submitted was unable to transmit. Please try your submission again or contact support.
Michelle Staples says
Sep 30, 2010 6:40 AM
I can see this leading to a whole new industry of ships gathering up the waste in the middle of oceans. Right on!
send green star
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nancy sands says
Sep 30, 2010 6:37 AM
GOOD IDEAS!
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Mike Masley says
Sep 30, 2010 6:06 AM
The idea is good, but not sure I would want to live around all of that plastic.
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Mark S. says
Sep 30, 2010 6:04 AM
The best solution (from an environmental POV) would of course be to stop using plastics altogether. And I would hate for a solution like this to lead to even further use of fossil fuels. That being said, it is a brilliant use of the plastics we've already made.
send green star
why is this inappropriate?
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Kate Kenner says
Sep 30, 2010 6:03 AM
the goal seems like it should be to stop making so many products that are bad for the planet yet that will not happen it seems. It seems like an idea that should be seriously considered. I am tired of picking up plastic bottles and bags every day (I know that bags are not included in this plan.) Somehow I don't think flying them around Pluto is a very good plan, Nyack. There is enough trash out there. Thank goodness in you are not on the committee to dispose of trash.
send green star
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Michele Hill says
Sep 30, 2010 5:35 AM
i do see what you mean, this is a great idea, if its safe, BUT what are the numbers?? i know that i think its a 1,3,7 are safe for us to use. the rest are not. even though they sell it to us, like rubbermaid, etc. i'm talking about on the bottom of the containers, anything that is not them numbers and they will leach into our bodies, so if it gets to hot, the fumes, geuss where their going? into us, lungs, etc. if you have a new born, and he gets asthma, Hmm i'd start wondering where he got it. or if you were pregnant and living in that building, and your baby comes out with respitory problems i'd start to wonder exactly how this came about. Don't get me wrong!! i LOVE the fact that they are reusing the plastic, and a huge amount of its going somewhere, but are they safe numbers for us to live in?? if they are, i'm all for it!! **big smile**
Comment
I saw a program last night on CNBC about using plastic water bottles to make shirts, rugs, and other stuff here in South carolina. BMW uses plastic water bottles recycled to make their car seats.
Scotland to Run Off 100% Renewable Energy by 2025
Scotland to Run Off 100% Renewable Energy by 2025
posted by: Jasmine Greene 13 hours ago
While many countries are complaining about the Copenhagen requirements, other countries are striving to go above and beyond the call of duty. Last week Northern Ireland stated that they were hoping to have 40 percent of the country running off renewable energy. This week, new First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond went even further, stating that the country could be running off of 100 percent renewable energy by 2025.
This ambitious goal happened a week after the SNP administration upped Scotland's renewable energy goal from 50 percent to 80 percent by 2020. Salmond announced the 100 percent goal in front of the Scottish Low Carbon Investment Conference citing new Offshore Wind "Route Map" that would focus first on key areas to achieve immediate results:
Investment in infrastructure;
Appropriate supply chain;
Ongoing innovation of technologies and practices;
Regulation of and access to the electricity grid;
Managing the marine environment;
Necessary and available skills;
Finance [Source: NewEnergy]
and also cited priority recommendations to give Scotland the best chance at securing the best-case scenario route map which includes increasing supply and demand of renewable energy, up-skilling or re-skilling of workforces, bringing in large investments and providing incentives to harbor and port owners for offshore wind farms. For the project to be successful, over £200 billion would be needed by 2020 for any chance of success. While this number may sound large, Salmond is confident that they will receive the funding and states, "Investment on this scale established today's North Sea oil and gas industry. Scotland's second wave of offshore energy offers unique investment opportunities..." [Source: STV news].
Salmond's confidence that Scotland could run off of 100 percent renewable energy is also not unfounded. Scotland currently has under 3 GW of renewable energy capacity, mostly from onshore wind turbines, but it has the potential to generate up to 63 GW of low-carbon electricity, under six times more than the current model of fossil fuels and renewable energy. Scotland's major source of energy would come from offshore windfarms and tidal stream power, with hyrdopower, biomass and geothermal making up a small fraction of the total power [Source: Treehugger]. Scotland has already tapped into tidal power after creating the world's largest tidal power plant unveiled at the beginning of September 2010. This power plant generates enough power for 1,000 homes (around 1 MW of energy) [Source: Wired]. The coasts of Scotland could potentially harness around a quarter of Europe's potential offshore wind and tidal capacity and a tenth of its wave resource. Besides being better for the environment, creating alternate power generators would also lead to 60,000 more jobs with 28,000 directly servicing domestic and international wind markets [Source: Business 7].
While Scotland would be weening the country off of fossil fuels, it will continue to maintain some coal and nuclear power plants to supply surplus energy to other countries, most notably the UK. This will actually mean that Scotland produces only 63 percent of its energy from renewable sources. Still, the aim is much higher than the baseline 20 percent standard for the rest of the EU nations and certainly higher than the US.
Read more: environment & wildlife, scotland renewable energy
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Robert B. says
Sep 30, 2010 7:31 AM
The US could do this too.We must eventually do it before it's too late. IF the greedy corporate owned right will either get out of the way or help, not constantly hinder the present administration. We have the resources, what we need is sane rational political will!
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Jennifer Griffith says
Sep 30, 2010 7:28 AM
If more countries would just stop whining & get to work, I'd bet that at least a dozen countries could reach this same goal. It's like the kid putting off doing homework: It has to be done, but whining & procrastinating is just making it worse. Quit whining, sit down, shut up & "git 'er done!"
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Robert B. says
Sep 30, 2010 7:25 AM
Dear "Barry O'Bama"
You seem to be another one of those no-profile frauds who have either been hired to sign up on Care2 to be a pain or you're just doing it on your own. If you can't be constructive , DON'T BOTHER!
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neil a. says
Sep 30, 2010 7:19 AM
Scottish engineers are known(but often forgotten world wide) they built or designed so many engineering projects all over the world & so many went to USA, Andrew Carnegie & so many others. Scotland can do it but should concentrate on perfecting wave power which could be 24/7 & not depend on wind or Sun, looks as if California is getting going. I am Scots & various other nationalities. here in Spain we are hydro, wind, photovoltaic & solar turbine so totally sustainable, if anything is??
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Jo C. says
Sep 30, 2010 7:18 AM
I meant 'throughout' this area. Sorry.
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Martin P. says
Sep 30, 2010 7:11 AM
This is a great step, but i think Scotland could do it! And all the other industrial states of the northern hemisphere should learn a lesson from Scotland!!!
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Donald Jensen says
Sep 30, 2010 7:04 AM
Gene W. Said... "This sounds so great until you look at the statistics, the population of Scotland is 5.1 million people"
It doesn't matter if there are 5 million or 500 million. The US can do this just as easily if we CHOOSE to but as long as the "Climate Skeptic Sheep" continue to support greedy energy, coal and oil production goals, we will live in this filthy environment. And Chris W. said the "Climate Change Gravy Train" Really? Who stands to lose and who stands to profit here? Tax payers or Big Energy? It's big energy that has created the climate controversy for their own greedy interest, not us conscious Americans who are working to save our way of life by preserving the things that sustain us and keep us alive.
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kathie f. says
Sep 30, 2010 7:04 AM
truly commendable and inspiring! instead of whining about having to change and submitting to the proposed standards, scotland is embracing them with their "we can do this and we can do more" attitude; the united states should pay attention instead of listening to big oil lobbyists and continuing to rape the environment and jeopardize the oceans and, in fact, entire ecosystems and ultimately, the planet, with their greed and "more offshore drilling". california, we have a chance in november to make a small difference and start pointing ourselves in the right direction; in 2006 or 2007 voters rejected an initiative that would have required big oil and other other energy monopolies to start exploring renewable energy sources, and, by letting them win that election, we have been paying the price! remember that those who do not learn from past mistakes tend to repeat them. we have so many more resources and so much more funding than scotland, we should be certainly be trying to at least stay in the race to use alternative renewable energy for ourselves!
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Jo C. says
Sep 30, 2010 6:59 AM
I live in West Lothian in Scotland and there are small wind farms being created throught this area. So far, they have placed them in the fields so, no trees have been cut down. They haven't had a detrimental effect on the surrounding areas at all and although they are not the prettiest sight, I'm happy to see them. We all know politicians are great at telling us what we want to hear, but in this case, they're actually getting on with the job.
posted by: Jasmine Greene 13 hours ago
While many countries are complaining about the Copenhagen requirements, other countries are striving to go above and beyond the call of duty. Last week Northern Ireland stated that they were hoping to have 40 percent of the country running off renewable energy. This week, new First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond went even further, stating that the country could be running off of 100 percent renewable energy by 2025.
This ambitious goal happened a week after the SNP administration upped Scotland's renewable energy goal from 50 percent to 80 percent by 2020. Salmond announced the 100 percent goal in front of the Scottish Low Carbon Investment Conference citing new Offshore Wind "Route Map" that would focus first on key areas to achieve immediate results:
Investment in infrastructure;
Appropriate supply chain;
Ongoing innovation of technologies and practices;
Regulation of and access to the electricity grid;
Managing the marine environment;
Necessary and available skills;
Finance [Source: NewEnergy]
and also cited priority recommendations to give Scotland the best chance at securing the best-case scenario route map which includes increasing supply and demand of renewable energy, up-skilling or re-skilling of workforces, bringing in large investments and providing incentives to harbor and port owners for offshore wind farms. For the project to be successful, over £200 billion would be needed by 2020 for any chance of success. While this number may sound large, Salmond is confident that they will receive the funding and states, "Investment on this scale established today's North Sea oil and gas industry. Scotland's second wave of offshore energy offers unique investment opportunities..." [Source: STV news].
Salmond's confidence that Scotland could run off of 100 percent renewable energy is also not unfounded. Scotland currently has under 3 GW of renewable energy capacity, mostly from onshore wind turbines, but it has the potential to generate up to 63 GW of low-carbon electricity, under six times more than the current model of fossil fuels and renewable energy. Scotland's major source of energy would come from offshore windfarms and tidal stream power, with hyrdopower, biomass and geothermal making up a small fraction of the total power [Source: Treehugger]. Scotland has already tapped into tidal power after creating the world's largest tidal power plant unveiled at the beginning of September 2010. This power plant generates enough power for 1,000 homes (around 1 MW of energy) [Source: Wired]. The coasts of Scotland could potentially harness around a quarter of Europe's potential offshore wind and tidal capacity and a tenth of its wave resource. Besides being better for the environment, creating alternate power generators would also lead to 60,000 more jobs with 28,000 directly servicing domestic and international wind markets [Source: Business 7].
While Scotland would be weening the country off of fossil fuels, it will continue to maintain some coal and nuclear power plants to supply surplus energy to other countries, most notably the UK. This will actually mean that Scotland produces only 63 percent of its energy from renewable sources. Still, the aim is much higher than the baseline 20 percent standard for the rest of the EU nations and certainly higher than the US.
Read more: environment & wildlife, scotland renewable energy
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Robert B. says
Sep 30, 2010 7:31 AM
The US could do this too.We must eventually do it before it's too late. IF the greedy corporate owned right will either get out of the way or help, not constantly hinder the present administration. We have the resources, what we need is sane rational political will!
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Jennifer Griffith says
Sep 30, 2010 7:28 AM
If more countries would just stop whining & get to work, I'd bet that at least a dozen countries could reach this same goal. It's like the kid putting off doing homework: It has to be done, but whining & procrastinating is just making it worse. Quit whining, sit down, shut up & "git 'er done!"
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Robert B. says
Sep 30, 2010 7:25 AM
Dear "Barry O'Bama"
You seem to be another one of those no-profile frauds who have either been hired to sign up on Care2 to be a pain or you're just doing it on your own. If you can't be constructive , DON'T BOTHER!
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neil a. says
Sep 30, 2010 7:19 AM
Scottish engineers are known(but often forgotten world wide) they built or designed so many engineering projects all over the world & so many went to USA, Andrew Carnegie & so many others. Scotland can do it but should concentrate on perfecting wave power which could be 24/7 & not depend on wind or Sun, looks as if California is getting going. I am Scots & various other nationalities. here in Spain we are hydro, wind, photovoltaic & solar turbine so totally sustainable, if anything is??
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Jo C. says
Sep 30, 2010 7:18 AM
I meant 'throughout' this area. Sorry.
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Martin P. says
Sep 30, 2010 7:11 AM
This is a great step, but i think Scotland could do it! And all the other industrial states of the northern hemisphere should learn a lesson from Scotland!!!
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Donald Jensen says
Sep 30, 2010 7:04 AM
Gene W. Said... "This sounds so great until you look at the statistics, the population of Scotland is 5.1 million people"
It doesn't matter if there are 5 million or 500 million. The US can do this just as easily if we CHOOSE to but as long as the "Climate Skeptic Sheep" continue to support greedy energy, coal and oil production goals, we will live in this filthy environment. And Chris W. said the "Climate Change Gravy Train" Really? Who stands to lose and who stands to profit here? Tax payers or Big Energy? It's big energy that has created the climate controversy for their own greedy interest, not us conscious Americans who are working to save our way of life by preserving the things that sustain us and keep us alive.
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kathie f. says
Sep 30, 2010 7:04 AM
truly commendable and inspiring! instead of whining about having to change and submitting to the proposed standards, scotland is embracing them with their "we can do this and we can do more" attitude; the united states should pay attention instead of listening to big oil lobbyists and continuing to rape the environment and jeopardize the oceans and, in fact, entire ecosystems and ultimately, the planet, with their greed and "more offshore drilling". california, we have a chance in november to make a small difference and start pointing ourselves in the right direction; in 2006 or 2007 voters rejected an initiative that would have required big oil and other other energy monopolies to start exploring renewable energy sources, and, by letting them win that election, we have been paying the price! remember that those who do not learn from past mistakes tend to repeat them. we have so many more resources and so much more funding than scotland, we should be certainly be trying to at least stay in the race to use alternative renewable energy for ourselves!
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Jo C. says
Sep 30, 2010 6:59 AM
I live in West Lothian in Scotland and there are small wind farms being created throught this area. So far, they have placed them in the fields so, no trees have been cut down. They haven't had a detrimental effect on the surrounding areas at all and although they are not the prettiest sight, I'm happy to see them. We all know politicians are great at telling us what we want to hear, but in this case, they're actually getting on with the job.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Engineers foresee big changes for electric grid
September 28, 2010 4:33 AM PDT
by Martin LaMonica
WALTHAM, Mass.--Technologies now being tested on the grid are a step toward strengthening the U.S. energy infrastructure and boosting the economy, according to speakers at an IEEE conference on the grid.
After relatively little change for decades, the electric grid is poised for a technical facelift that could include small nuclear power plants, new forms of grid storage, a network of electric vehicles, and power electronics that control large flows of energy efficiently, speakers here said yesterday. The IEEE is a professional organization of engineers.
Images: The many faces of the smart grid
The pace of investing in research and development in the power industry slowed over the years, but government policies to improve energy security and reduce pollution are speeding innovation, said Stanley Blazewicz, vice president and global head of technology at utility National Grid.
Energy storage could be a disruptive technology to the electric power industry because it would "firm" up supply of wind and solar power, which are intermittent sources of energy. The U.K., for example, has an aggressive target of getting 30 gigawatts of its power from wind power. (A typical large nuclear plant produces about one gigawatt.) One option to make wind more reliable is to add storage but a significant amount is needed--about 20 percent of the generating capacity, he said.
The most economically viable grid storage technologies right now are for supplying short periods of power to stabilize the grid with flywheels or batteries. Those early applications set the stage for bulk energy storage but utility regulations need to be updated to address energy storage technologies, Blazewicz said.
"Storage breaks a founding principle of the utility industry which is that you can't store the commodity. That principle has driven everything around the industry--the way it's designed, how you regulate it, and the way to make money," he said.
In the near term, electric vehicles have the potential to strain the local distribution grid if several people in the neighborhood charge at once. Based on demographics, National Grid has drawn a map of areas in its region which are likely to have high densities of EVs and is planning its network upgrades on that. Smart charging, where cars charge at off-peak times, is also crucial.
Solid-state lighting is another technology that could make a big impact. For consumers, solid-state lighting, such as LED bulbs, offer a jump in energy efficiency, he said, and the technology allows for factors such as temperature and wavelength to be tuned.
By contrast, Blazewicz said that adding IT and communications to the electric grid--also known as the smart grid--is more evolutionary since utilities are adopting IT to improve automation and efficiency, as many other industries have already done.
He added that when it comes to consumers and the smart grid, it's not clear that consumers will be eager to share energy consumption data and actively manage energy for better efficiency. National Grid plans to work with other companies to offer home efficiency recommendations, because it expects other companies to communicate conservation tips better to consumers, Blazewicz said.
ARPA-E's power electronics gambit
The electric power industry, which contributes about 40 percent of U.S. carbon emissions, offers a number of areas for the U.S. to take a technological lead globally, said keynote speaker Rajeev Ram, the program director for electrical power at the Department of Energy's ARPA-E agency. ARPA-E, which was authorized in 2007 and funded in last year's stimulus plan, is geared toward funding energy technology breakthroughs by focusing on advancing research to the prototype phase, he said.
The ARPA-E program most closely aligned with the electric grid is called Agile Delivery of Electrical Power Technology (ADEPT), which is funding research in power electronics to reduce the amount of wasted energy in power delivery.
Improvements in power electronics, which match electrical supply with the load, can make a significant difference on the overall efficiency of the grid and other electric components, such as variable speed industrial motors and power supplies. Losses in the distribution side of the electricity grid add up to about 200 million tons or carbon dioxide a year, the equivalent of 56 coal plants, said Ram.
The program is funding research in advanced materials to make equipment such as transformers more efficient and able to handle higher amounts of power in a smaller footprint, he said. The research is also geared at chip-scale power converters which could be used to optimize output of solar photovoltaic arrays and make solid-state lighting cheaper.
Advanced power electronics could result in a 25 percent to 30 percent reduction in electricity consumption in the U.S. But ARPA-E also has an explicit economic goal of improving technical innovation in the U.S. and bringing U.S. manufacturers back to the fore in the power industry, said Ram.
"What we're really trying to do is to help companies develop a product," he said. "We want to accelerate basic science to prototypes."
Small nukes?
In another talk, nuclear weapons and power expert Victor Reis, who is a senior advisor in the Department of Energy, said that small, modular nuclear power systems could be the quickest way to reignite the nuclear power industry in the U.S.
There are at least two designs of nuclear power plants, which use the same fuel as large reactors but are small enough that cost isn't as large a barrier to construction. He named the Babcock & Wilcox mPower modular reactor, which can produce 125 megawatts, and the reactor from NuScale Power, which can produce 45 megawatts.
Reis argued that Department of Energy labs and facilities, which consume a lot of electricity, should be the first customers for these systems in the U.S. This would help scale up production of these systems to help bring the cost down.
The primary barrier to their adoption in the U.S. is political, not the technology or the permitting, he said.
"I believe the DOE is very serious about doing it," he said. "It's hardly a done deal but I think everyone in the department, including Secretary (Steven) Chu recognizes it as very important."
National Grid executive director, Tom King, also focused on energy policy in his morning talk. He said there is available funding from utilities to improve the energy system of the U.S. but the country lacks a policy and regulations to make the grid more efficient and reliable. Blackouts cost $1 billion annually but publicly funded research and development for electricity delivery and reliability is only $170 million, he said.
"The U.S . is one of the few countries that doesn't have a robust roadmap in the use of the energy infrastructure, the use of energy resources, and how we deploy them on a timeline," King said.
Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20017810-54.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20#ixzz10pOrvx3T
by Martin LaMonica
WALTHAM, Mass.--Technologies now being tested on the grid are a step toward strengthening the U.S. energy infrastructure and boosting the economy, according to speakers at an IEEE conference on the grid.
After relatively little change for decades, the electric grid is poised for a technical facelift that could include small nuclear power plants, new forms of grid storage, a network of electric vehicles, and power electronics that control large flows of energy efficiently, speakers here said yesterday. The IEEE is a professional organization of engineers.
Images: The many faces of the smart grid
The pace of investing in research and development in the power industry slowed over the years, but government policies to improve energy security and reduce pollution are speeding innovation, said Stanley Blazewicz, vice president and global head of technology at utility National Grid.
Energy storage could be a disruptive technology to the electric power industry because it would "firm" up supply of wind and solar power, which are intermittent sources of energy. The U.K., for example, has an aggressive target of getting 30 gigawatts of its power from wind power. (A typical large nuclear plant produces about one gigawatt.) One option to make wind more reliable is to add storage but a significant amount is needed--about 20 percent of the generating capacity, he said.
The most economically viable grid storage technologies right now are for supplying short periods of power to stabilize the grid with flywheels or batteries. Those early applications set the stage for bulk energy storage but utility regulations need to be updated to address energy storage technologies, Blazewicz said.
"Storage breaks a founding principle of the utility industry which is that you can't store the commodity. That principle has driven everything around the industry--the way it's designed, how you regulate it, and the way to make money," he said.
In the near term, electric vehicles have the potential to strain the local distribution grid if several people in the neighborhood charge at once. Based on demographics, National Grid has drawn a map of areas in its region which are likely to have high densities of EVs and is planning its network upgrades on that. Smart charging, where cars charge at off-peak times, is also crucial.
Solid-state lighting is another technology that could make a big impact. For consumers, solid-state lighting, such as LED bulbs, offer a jump in energy efficiency, he said, and the technology allows for factors such as temperature and wavelength to be tuned.
By contrast, Blazewicz said that adding IT and communications to the electric grid--also known as the smart grid--is more evolutionary since utilities are adopting IT to improve automation and efficiency, as many other industries have already done.
He added that when it comes to consumers and the smart grid, it's not clear that consumers will be eager to share energy consumption data and actively manage energy for better efficiency. National Grid plans to work with other companies to offer home efficiency recommendations, because it expects other companies to communicate conservation tips better to consumers, Blazewicz said.
ARPA-E's power electronics gambit
The electric power industry, which contributes about 40 percent of U.S. carbon emissions, offers a number of areas for the U.S. to take a technological lead globally, said keynote speaker Rajeev Ram, the program director for electrical power at the Department of Energy's ARPA-E agency. ARPA-E, which was authorized in 2007 and funded in last year's stimulus plan, is geared toward funding energy technology breakthroughs by focusing on advancing research to the prototype phase, he said.
The ARPA-E program most closely aligned with the electric grid is called Agile Delivery of Electrical Power Technology (ADEPT), which is funding research in power electronics to reduce the amount of wasted energy in power delivery.
Improvements in power electronics, which match electrical supply with the load, can make a significant difference on the overall efficiency of the grid and other electric components, such as variable speed industrial motors and power supplies. Losses in the distribution side of the electricity grid add up to about 200 million tons or carbon dioxide a year, the equivalent of 56 coal plants, said Ram.
The program is funding research in advanced materials to make equipment such as transformers more efficient and able to handle higher amounts of power in a smaller footprint, he said. The research is also geared at chip-scale power converters which could be used to optimize output of solar photovoltaic arrays and make solid-state lighting cheaper.
Advanced power electronics could result in a 25 percent to 30 percent reduction in electricity consumption in the U.S. But ARPA-E also has an explicit economic goal of improving technical innovation in the U.S. and bringing U.S. manufacturers back to the fore in the power industry, said Ram.
"What we're really trying to do is to help companies develop a product," he said. "We want to accelerate basic science to prototypes."
Small nukes?
In another talk, nuclear weapons and power expert Victor Reis, who is a senior advisor in the Department of Energy, said that small, modular nuclear power systems could be the quickest way to reignite the nuclear power industry in the U.S.
There are at least two designs of nuclear power plants, which use the same fuel as large reactors but are small enough that cost isn't as large a barrier to construction. He named the Babcock & Wilcox mPower modular reactor, which can produce 125 megawatts, and the reactor from NuScale Power, which can produce 45 megawatts.
Reis argued that Department of Energy labs and facilities, which consume a lot of electricity, should be the first customers for these systems in the U.S. This would help scale up production of these systems to help bring the cost down.
The primary barrier to their adoption in the U.S. is political, not the technology or the permitting, he said.
"I believe the DOE is very serious about doing it," he said. "It's hardly a done deal but I think everyone in the department, including Secretary (Steven) Chu recognizes it as very important."
National Grid executive director, Tom King, also focused on energy policy in his morning talk. He said there is available funding from utilities to improve the energy system of the U.S. but the country lacks a policy and regulations to make the grid more efficient and reliable. Blackouts cost $1 billion annually but publicly funded research and development for electricity delivery and reliability is only $170 million, he said.
"The U.S . is one of the few countries that doesn't have a robust roadmap in the use of the energy infrastructure, the use of energy resources, and how we deploy them on a timeline," King said.
Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20017810-54.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20#ixzz10pOrvx3T
Monday, September 27, 2010
Partnerships Aim to Accelerate EV, Smart Grid Development
September 27, 2010
Related Stories
Federal Smart Grid Framework Released
Smart Grid Market to Peak at $35B in 2013
U.S. Smart Grid Market Projected to Double by 2014Related TopicsFleets & TransportationGreen TechnologyMajor PlayersPartnershipsSmart GridStrategy & Leadership
While GE and Better Place have teamed up to accelerate the global deployment of electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure, with one goal of converting corporate fleets to electric vehicles as a way to lower cost and carbon emissions, Hitachi and Panasonic’s partnership is aimed at creating smart communities.
The collaboration between GE and Better Place, an EV services provider, is focused on four key areas: standards-based technology development, battery financing, joint fleet electrification programs and consumer awareness.
The partnership leverages GE’s global and broad technology portfolio, smart grid expertise, and its new WattStation electric vehicle charger with Better Place’s EV services and infrastructure solution to create scalable solutions that power electric vehicles for nearly all consumers and fleet owners.
GE’s WattStation will be compatible with the Better Place network, enabling consumers to manage charging costs under Better Place’s network, while charging their vehicles using GE’s WattStation. It will guarantee that drivers can “roam” from one charge point to another under one seamless transaction for faster charging.
GE and Better Place also will develop a battery financing program that begins with a pilot project to finance 10,000 batteries in Israel and Denmark, which are the first two markets for Better Place.
The companies also are collaborating to target fleet owners for pilot projects to test a comprehensive fleet electrification offering model in major city centers and connecting highways. The goal is to convert corporate fleet owners to electric fleets, delivering a lower cost of ownership while reducing carbon emissions.
Target pilot locations include cities in North America, including the San Francisco Bay Area, Honolulu, Hawaii, and Ontario, Canada, as well as cities in Europe, Asia and Australia. Better Place is already working towards initial network deployments in these markets, beginning in 2011.
Better Place and GE, as part of its ecomagination initiative, also will focus on raising consumer awareness to understand the economic and environmental value of electric vehicles and the infrastructure required for adoption.
The Hitachi and Panasonic agreement is focused on interface development and standardization initiatives to commercialize community energy management systems (CEMS) and home energy management systems (HEMS) to drive the development of “smart” communities. Hitachi brings to the table its expertise in CEMS technologies, while Panasonic offers HEMS technologies.
The companies say in order to create these smart communities, which use information and telecommunication technologies to link power systems based on smart grids, all systems ranging from the energy supply side to the energy demand side must be linked.
CEMS link and manage the supply side — the main electricity grid beginning from power generation facilities, including wind power, large-scale photovoltaic solar power, and other renewable energy systems — and various demand side systems in detached houses, condominiums, office buildings and elsewhere including such systems as electric vehicle (EV) charging, while HEMS connect home appliances, photovoltaic solar power generators, home-use EV chargers, storage batteries and other facilities and equipment to support energy conservation.
Their goal is to jointly develop international standard interfaces for CEMS and HEMS through projects such as the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City project. Hitachi is already providing environmental technologies and solutions for this eco-city project currently under development on the outskirts of Tianjin, China. The two companies will also share market information on CEMS- and HEMS-related businesses.
Seven national smart-grid organizations recently launched the Global Smart Grid Federation (GSGF) to promote best practices and to help accelerate the deployment of smart grid around the world. GSGF will work with government policymakers to execute a national agenda on smart grid, helping governments understand these challenges, including consumer engagement, innovation and capacity building.
Related Stories
Federal Smart Grid Framework Released
Smart Grid Market to Peak at $35B in 2013
U.S. Smart Grid Market Projected to Double by 2014Related TopicsFleets & TransportationGreen TechnologyMajor PlayersPartnershipsSmart GridStrategy & Leadership
While GE and Better Place have teamed up to accelerate the global deployment of electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure, with one goal of converting corporate fleets to electric vehicles as a way to lower cost and carbon emissions, Hitachi and Panasonic’s partnership is aimed at creating smart communities.
The collaboration between GE and Better Place, an EV services provider, is focused on four key areas: standards-based technology development, battery financing, joint fleet electrification programs and consumer awareness.
The partnership leverages GE’s global and broad technology portfolio, smart grid expertise, and its new WattStation electric vehicle charger with Better Place’s EV services and infrastructure solution to create scalable solutions that power electric vehicles for nearly all consumers and fleet owners.
GE’s WattStation will be compatible with the Better Place network, enabling consumers to manage charging costs under Better Place’s network, while charging their vehicles using GE’s WattStation. It will guarantee that drivers can “roam” from one charge point to another under one seamless transaction for faster charging.
GE and Better Place also will develop a battery financing program that begins with a pilot project to finance 10,000 batteries in Israel and Denmark, which are the first two markets for Better Place.
The companies also are collaborating to target fleet owners for pilot projects to test a comprehensive fleet electrification offering model in major city centers and connecting highways. The goal is to convert corporate fleet owners to electric fleets, delivering a lower cost of ownership while reducing carbon emissions.
Target pilot locations include cities in North America, including the San Francisco Bay Area, Honolulu, Hawaii, and Ontario, Canada, as well as cities in Europe, Asia and Australia. Better Place is already working towards initial network deployments in these markets, beginning in 2011.
Better Place and GE, as part of its ecomagination initiative, also will focus on raising consumer awareness to understand the economic and environmental value of electric vehicles and the infrastructure required for adoption.
The Hitachi and Panasonic agreement is focused on interface development and standardization initiatives to commercialize community energy management systems (CEMS) and home energy management systems (HEMS) to drive the development of “smart” communities. Hitachi brings to the table its expertise in CEMS technologies, while Panasonic offers HEMS technologies.
The companies say in order to create these smart communities, which use information and telecommunication technologies to link power systems based on smart grids, all systems ranging from the energy supply side to the energy demand side must be linked.
CEMS link and manage the supply side — the main electricity grid beginning from power generation facilities, including wind power, large-scale photovoltaic solar power, and other renewable energy systems — and various demand side systems in detached houses, condominiums, office buildings and elsewhere including such systems as electric vehicle (EV) charging, while HEMS connect home appliances, photovoltaic solar power generators, home-use EV chargers, storage batteries and other facilities and equipment to support energy conservation.
Their goal is to jointly develop international standard interfaces for CEMS and HEMS through projects such as the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City project. Hitachi is already providing environmental technologies and solutions for this eco-city project currently under development on the outskirts of Tianjin, China. The two companies will also share market information on CEMS- and HEMS-related businesses.
Seven national smart-grid organizations recently launched the Global Smart Grid Federation (GSGF) to promote best practices and to help accelerate the deployment of smart grid around the world. GSGF will work with government policymakers to execute a national agenda on smart grid, helping governments understand these challenges, including consumer engagement, innovation and capacity building.
SF Giants Installing Solar Panels at AT&T Park
March 20, 2007
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The San Francisco Giants and PG&E are planning to install 590 solar panels around AT&T Park to generate 123 kilowatts of power for the San Francisco power grid, The Examiner reports (via Green Options).
Although the Giants will be hosting the solar panels and working with PG&E for ongoing promotions, the park will not use the power collected, instead PG&E will sell the electricity its customers. If they did use the energy, it would be enough to power their new high-definition scoreboard screen for the year.
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Related Topics Business-to-Business Clean Energy, Green Marketing Major Players Products & Planning Solar Energy U.S.Utilities
The San Francisco Giants and PG&E are planning to install 590 solar panels around AT&T Park to generate 123 kilowatts of power for the San Francisco power grid, The Examiner reports (via Green Options).
Although the Giants will be hosting the solar panels and working with PG&E for ongoing promotions, the park will not use the power collected, instead PG&E will sell the electricity its customers. If they did use the energy, it would be enough to power their new high-definition scoreboard screen for the year.
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