Green Options

By Leslie Berliant
Originally published on June 17, 2009, at SolveClimate

By the middle of next year, the nine campuses that make up the nation’s largest community college system plan to be completely energy self-sufficient.

It’s a huge step, and it will begin saving money immediately.

The Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) started down this path in 2001, the year voters approved the first part of $5.7 billion in bond funding to renovate the campuses.

The LACCD Board of Trustees was thinking about much-needed modernization work and its first new construction in 35 years, but it was also thinking ahead. It passed a sustainable building policy mandating that all new buildings that use 50% or more of bond funding be LEED certified. The board had previously developed a renewable energy plan that aimed for a minimum 10% renewable energy standard.

At the time, the trustees were afraid that anything beyond that would be too costly, says Larry Eisenberg, executive director of Facilities, Planning and Development for the LACCD.

The system’s chancellor and the implementation team saw greater potential, though.

High-altitude winds hold enough energy to power the world 100 times over.

Though harnessing them is another issue.

You’ve heard of commercial wind turbines in farm fields, offshore turbines on the water, even small wind turbines on the rooftops of homes, but high-altitude winds are also being studied as a potential energy source.

The first-ever study of high-altitude winds by the Carnegie Institution and California State University says winds in the jet stream, about 30,000 feet up, would be the ideal source to exploit. And the sky over New York is a prime spot, along with population centers in the eastern United States and East Asia.

The state of Massachusetts is hunting for unusual places to put wind turbines as it looks to meet an ambitious goal of producing 2,000 megawatts of windpower by 2020.

The Associated Press reports that state officials are encouraging municipal planners to look at using capped landfills as potential wind farm locations. Plans were also just announced for a military reservation on Cape Cod.

The state is hoping to jump start development, because right now, the AP reports, there are only 11 commercial scale turbines in the state. But, ther are dozens of smaller ones installed and nearly 200 other projects in various stages of planning.

Meeting energy needs while being efficient and using environmentally responsible technologies is probably the single greatest change that needs to happen to alter the effects of climate change now. In the United States and the European Union, governments are backing smart grid and renewable energy programs. Undoubtedly, the two technologies go hand-in-hand, but where should we put our efforts (and dollars/euros) first?

Diepenbeek, Belgium - On June 2, 2009, 365-Energy announced that the Katholieke High School of Limburg (KHLim) will begin deploying ChargePoint(TM) Network charging stations from the infrastructure manufacturer Coulomb Technologies as part of the first European Clean Mobility Center in Belgium.

Coulomb’s international partner 365-Energy will provide the charging stations and manage the ChargePoint Network for subscribers.

KHLim produces its own green energy through wind, heat and solar as part of its CO2 neutral area. The ChargePoint charge stations will be connected to KHLim’s own power grid, which will supply the necessary energy.

Where is the grid going, big or small?

Right now, there’s no wind in the Great Lakes, but lots of talk.

There’s a bit of money, too, totaling about $100,000 from the federal stimulus package, aka the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

The Great Lakes Commission has been granted $99,740 to develop a set of “Best Practices to Accelerate Wind Power in the Great Lakes and Beyond.”

The end result will be a guide to what works and what doesn’t when it comes to protecting the environment, being sensitive to community concerns and … building wind turbines in the water.

The United States have already started down the path of Renewable Portfolio Standards.

There are now almost 30 states with their own RPSes, which require utilities to generate more of their power from renewable sources, like wind and solar and even landfill gas. Different states have set different standards, often with percentages based on years: 15 percent by 2015, for instance. It’s more catchy that way.

Now Congress [...]

This is the first in a series of environmentally focused cartoons we wil be featuring from Seppo Leinonen a cartoonist from Finland. I met Seppo through Twitter @sepponet and loved his business oriented green cartoons - I think you will too!

A wind farm that was planned for the upstate New York town of Beekmantown and shot down by town officials after a collapse of a turbine at a nearby park, may be back on again.

A new developer has submitted plans to the town, the Plattsburgh Press-Republican reports. The town council voted down a plan submitted by Windhorse Power LLC in March. Among the reasons cited were contentious lawsuits filed by residents, inaction by Windhorse Power and fears of an incident similar to a turbine collapse in neighboring Altona.

“I was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth.”

You might recognize the opening line of “Substitute” by The Who. There’s no substitute for having money when it comes to pushing wind and solar development in the United States.

The concept of replacing fossil fuels with “free” alternative energy from the breeze and sun is great, but without money, it’s just a dream.

Here comes the silver spoon, a trust fund called EarthEra Renewable Energy Trust. It’s like having a rich dad.

The fund, run by NextEra Energy Resources, the largest wind and solar energy producer in the U.S., invests proceeds from renewable energy purchases by businesses and consumers into the construction of new wind and solar projects in the U.S.