Infographic: America’s water crisis – and how we can fix it

By Gretchen McClain

Published November 28, 2012

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Tags:Water, Water Efficiency & Conservation, More...Water, Water Efficiency & Conservation, Water Use

More than three in four Americans are concerned about the state of U.S. water infrastructure, and 61 percent are willing to pay more to fix it, according to a nationwide poll of more than 1,000 American voters age 18 and older.
The 2012 Xylem Value of Water Index assessed what Americans think should be done about the country’s water crisis and who should pay for it. It found that most Americans hold all levels of government responsible for investing in fixing and maintaining our water infrastructure.
However, few Americans are aware of the factors impacting water costs, recognize their water footprint, or understand the extent to which water infrastructure problems would impact them personally. For instance, most people believe they use 50 gallons or less daily -- when it is really closer to 100 gallons. The share of Americans believing water infrastructure problems would affect them “a great deal” has fallen significantly since 2010, to 29 percent in 2012 from 41 percent.
The inaugural Value of Water Survey was issued in 2010. The 2012 Value of Water Index builds on the 2010 results, providing new insights into public perception of the U.S. water crisis. Click on the infographic below to open it up in a new window (which enables the reader to zoom in).

Photograph of water droplet provided by somchaij via Shutterstock.

In Europe, Investors Are Seeking Green Real Estate Strategies, Not Simply Sustainability Certifications

In Europe, Investors Are Seeking Green Real Estate Strategies, Not Simply Sustainability Certifications

In addition to presenting some important insights about the current state of the European green real estate market, a recent survey of property owners in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom concludes that investors are most interested in identifying green-related opportunities at the portfolio level.

• byStephen Del Percio
• on November 27, 2012
• inEurope, Green Real Estate Finance
• Leave a comment

According to a recent survey performed by the German cooperative bank fund Union Investment, the embattled continent’s real estate investment community is “not interested in simple sustainability certifications for individual assets, but are moving on to full-blown green real estate strategies” across entire portfolios and companies. These results echo those from a few years ago in a survey prepared by RICS, which concluded that investors are more interested in specific energy performance metrics rather than individual third-party certifications.
Union’s results were published in a recent issue of Property Investor Europe News, and came from surveying 172 property investors in Germany (75), France (50), and the United Kingdom (47). The survey required that participating companies only self-use 50 percent or less of their total real estate portfolios and its conclusions are interesting for those of us on the other side of the Atlantic, given that Europe has generally trended ahead of North America in terms of thinking about sustainability issues connected to real estate.

• First, for 35 percent of respondents, green leases have become “more relevant;” according to PIE, this is “an especially strong trend in France,” where 68 percent of respondents agreed. This result is likely because of the Grenelle environmental legislation that we’ve discussed here previously and requires landlords to incorporate an environmental appendix into most commercial office leases.

• 62 percent agreed that green maintenance has increased in importance; 39 percent actively look for green service providers; and 34 percent of respondents offer building metric data – energy consumption, lifecycle costs, and waste volume – at a portfolio level: an increase from 25 percent last year.

• Also at the corporate level, 34 percent of respondents have incorporated a sustainability program into their overall corporate social responsibility strategy; 31 percent have a sustainability strategy for their overall portfolio; and 36 percent produce a sustainability report (49 percent in the United Kingdom).

• Given Europe’s more acute energy challenges, it’s perhaps not surprising that for 58 percent of respondents overall energy consumption remains the most important metric in considering how “sustainable” an individual property may be. In France, that figure swelled to 72 percent. But only 36 percent of respondents answered the same question by ranking a property’s carbon footprint or use of renewable energy resources as most important.

The survey also yielded some interesting attitudes about green buildings and sustainability within real estate generally. For example, although 50 percent of respondents agreed that green buildings have the potential to become an asset class of their own, less than 50 percent agreed that a market for green buildings has already emerged within their respective country. Perhaps of most interest to USGBC and other third-party organizations that certify the environmental performance of buildings, less than 20 percent of respondents agreed that there are “clear evaluation criteria for sustainable buildings.”
On the other hand, over 60 percent agreed that “user behavior has a significant impact on the environmental performance of a building” and that “transparency is not possible without benchmarking ” This latter conclusion should be of interest to those of us here in New York City, where mandatory benchmarking for both public and private sector buildings has already resulted in some important reports and other conclusions that ought to assist in driving building performance higher in the months ahead.
A fully copy of the survey results is available for download here.

GE Acquires LED Lighting Startup Albeo Technologies

GE buys Albeo to strengthen its position in the growing market for industrial LEDs.

Katherine Tweed: November 26, 2012

General Electric Lighting has signed an agreement to acquire the Boulder startup Albeo Technologies.

The purchase will help GE boost its ability to offer all-LED solutions to customers, especially in the area of industrial lighting. “This acquisition is a big boost for GE customers moving aggressively toward an all-LED building envelope in new construction and retrofits, including retail, commercial and industrial high-bay applications,” Maryrose Sylvester, president and CEO, GE Lighting, said in a statement.
Earlier this year, Albeo raised $8 million in a series C funding round. Albeo saw a 50-percent increase in revenue in 2011. Commercial and industrial sectors are moving more quickly toward LEDs than other sectors, with a significant increase in sales for many players in the market.
For cold storage and data centers, in particular, the payback is usually less than two years. Albeo works in one of the world’s ten largest data centers to provide an all-LED solution.
"Some of our biggest customers told us they wanted a GE-quality solution for high bay,” said Sylvester. “This acquisition accelerates our development of cutting-edge technologies that brings customers the energy-efficient solutions they need. That’s what customers get at the end of the day -- a refined, highly modular and scalable platform that delivers the GE quality they’ve come to expect.”
For Albeo, the move to become part of GE allows it access to GE’s worldwide paths to market and huge research and development capabilities.
The announcement comes at the same time GE released a report on the “Industrial Internet,” which is essentially the networking of industrial machines, could add $10 trillion to $15 trillion to global GDP.
Lighting is a perfect example. In commercial buildings, lighting gobbles up 35 percent to 40 percent of electricity. With LEDs and controls, that figure can be vastly reduced. The savings are so great that, although cold storage and data centers have been early adopters, large office spaces and various other types of manufacturing and commercial operations are investigating LEDs.
A 2010 Enterprise LED Lighting report from Groom Energy and GTM Research also found that the market for LEDs in parking garages should start to mature going into 2012. "GE is making a statement that they need to broaden their product offering faster, and Albeo fits into a category where they didn't have a competitive LED product [in the] high bay [category]," said Jon Guerster, CEO of Groom Energy Solutions and the report author. "This is an early industry, developing at a rapid pace, and consolidation is to be expected."
Outside of commercial and industrial applications, the interest is still nascent. There will be some groundwork laid in 2012, but GTM Research and Groom Energy see the period of 2013 to 2015 as the breakout years for those markets.
Earlier this year, Jeff Bisberg, CEO of Albeo, told Greentech Media that the LED market was wide and there would be a lot of winners. For Albeo, the market just got a whole lot bigger.
While there will likely be more consolidation in the fixture market, Guerster said to keep an eye out for large incumbents, like GE, acquiring an LED chip company. "That would be a much bigger statement about how serious they are about the LED lighting market."

US-Israeli energy projects to receive $3.5m funding

By SHARON UDASIN

11/26/2012 04:37

Four American-Israeli energy projects to receive binational government startup funding.

Photo: Courtesy

Four American-Israeli projects in renewable energy will be receiving portions of a $3.5 million budget allocated jointly by the United States Department of Energy and Israel’s Energy and Water Ministry, under the 2012 Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Energy program.

Each project receiving funding involves one American and one Israeli partner and aims to address energy challenges that both countries are interested in tackling, BIRD Energy announced on Sunday.

Not only will the money finance research, but it will also serve to help commercialize clean energy technologies that can improve economic competitiveness and create jobs, according to BIRD. This is the fourth class of collaborative BIRD projects to be approved specifically for the energy sector.

The US and Israeli governments established BIRD in 1977 to promote cooperation between the two nations in the emerging hi-tech and start-up sectors, and have since expanded its scope to areas of renewable energy, life sciences, electronics, optics, software and homeland security, the organization said. BIRD finances about 20 projects annually, and the cumulative sales of products that have resulted from BIRD projects now amount to over $8 billion.

The first of the four projects that BIRD has selected for this round of investments is a Hydrogen-Halogen Regenerative Fuel Cell initiative between Bromine Compounds of Beersheba and Sustainable Innovations of Glastonbury, Connecticut. In developing the fuel cell, the two companies hope to generate a mechanism that can provide low-cost, transportable, modular energy storage capability, according to BIRD.

Also focusing on storage, the second project will center on developing high-energy, rechargeable magnesium batteries.

The two firms working on the project, Bar-Ilan Research and Development Company of Ramat Gan and Pellion Technologies of Cambridge, Massachusetts, claim that the magnesium batteries are superior to lithium-ion technology in size, weight, lifetime and cost.

B.G. Negev Technologies in Beersheba will be working with Southwest Solar Technologies of Phoenix, Arizona, to jointly develop a concentrated photovoltaic system that employs a new type of active cooling module, in the third project, according to BIRD.

The fourth project will involve Pythagoras Solar of Petah Tikva and BISEM of Sacramento, California, and the two companies will be developing windows capable of efficiently producing electricity from solar energy. The windows will involve building- integrated photovoltaics, in which photovoltaic solar windows with a high level of transparency and insulation replace the typical windows of a building.

Solar Technology Boils Water in Radically Different Way

November 21, 2012 by Energy Manager Today Staff

Rice University scientists unveiled a new technology that uses nanoparticles to convert solar energy directly into steam.
The new solar steam method from Rice’s Laboratory for Nanophotonics can even produce steam from icy cold water.
The technology has an overall energy efficiency of 24 percent compared to photovoltaic solar panels, which typically have an overall energy efficiency around 15 percent, according to Rice. And solar steam can have a very small footprint unlike PV systems, which can require acres of solar panels.
The efficiency of solar steam is due to the light-capturing nanoparticles that convert sunlight into heat. When submerged in water and exposed to sunlight, the particles heat up so quickly they instantly vaporize water and create steam. “We’re going from heating water on the macro scale to heating it at the nanoscale,” said LANP Director Naomi Halas, the lead scientist on the project. “Our particles are very small – even smaller than a wavelength of light – which means they have an extremely small surface area to dissipate heat. This intense heating allows us to generate steam locally, right at the surface of the particle, and the idea of generating steam locally is really counterintuitive.”
Steam is one of the world’s most-used industrial fluids. About 90 percent of electricity is produced from steam, and steam is also used to sterilize medical waste and surgical instruments, to prepare food and to purify water.
Most industrial steam is produced in large boilers, and Halas said solar steam’s efficiency could allow steam to become economical on a much smaller scale by boiling water in a radically different way. Another potential use could be in powering hybrid air-conditioning and heating systems that run off of sunlight during the day and electricity at night.
People in developing countries will be among the first to see the benefits of solar steam. Rice engineering undergraduates have already created a solar steam-powered autoclave that’s capable of sterilizing medical and dental instruments at clinics that lack electricity. Halas also won a Grand Challenges grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to create an ultra-small-scale system for treating human waste in areas without sewer systems or electricityEnergy Efficiency & Construction Group

Smart Grid Executives Rate ‘Reducing Peak Energy Consumption’ a Top Priority

Smart Grid Executives Rate ‘Reducing Peak Energy Consumption’ a Top Priority

November 26, 2012 by Energy Manager Today Staff

A Zpryme survey of 223 smart grid executives conducted in September reveals that 24 percent of respondents rated reducing peak energy consumption as their top justification for investing in the deployment of smart meters and other advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). Other top justifications for investing in AMI were to reduce costs, increase grid reliability, and to allow consumer-based demand response.
The survey results, included in a white paper sponsored by Elster, also found that 28 percent of executives rated improved grid reliability as the top justification for investing in distribution automation (DA). The most important technologies required to enable DA are automated communication networks, intelligent distribution sensors, IT hardware/software, distribution management systems, intelligent electronic devices, and outage management systems.
The findings shown in the “Elster Answers AMI & DA Trends 2012” reveal that a convergence of DA and AMI will benefit utilities the most in the short-term, but customers will win over the long-term, as these technologies will give them more choice and control of their energy usage, a more stable grid, and lower electricity bills. Further, distribution automation plays a vital role in integrating renewables, distributed generation, and advanced demand response applications.
The survey findings indicate that over the next five years, the AMI and DA markets are poised for tremendous growth, both separately and in combination. The AMI industry is consolidating as large corporations acquire the proprietary solutions of smaller firms in order to expand their solution offering for utilities. The DA market is projected to quadruple in size in North America alone. North America and Asia offer the best investment targets for both AMI and DA. AMI and DA deployments will also spur investments in new technologies such as data analytics, cloud based energy management systems, load balancing and fault-detection-isolation-and-restoration systems.
Based on the Elster sponsored survey, about half of the smart grid executive respondents feel national smart grid policies or goals should be put in place, while 40 percent prefer polices to be set at the state level.

Global Wind Energy & Wind Turbine Industry Analyzed by Transparency Market Research

Global Wind Energy & Wind Turbine Industry Analyzed by Transparency Market Research
PRWeb – Fri, Nov 16, 2012Email0Share0Share0PrintAccording to Transparency Market Research, “Global Wind Energy & Wind Turbine Market (2011 – 2016)” The global market for wind turbine registered growth rate of 25% CAGR over the last five years. The Global Wind Energy cumulative capacity accounted for 197,039 MW in 2010.Wind turbine expected to attain market size of USD 93.1 billion in 2016 while wind energy cumulative capacity will rise to 1,750,000 MW by 2030.
Albany NY (PRWEB) November 13, 2012
The wind energy technology started paving its path approximately 20 years back and since then has continuously expanded its base all across the world. With the generation cost declining dramatically, this technology is becoming more affordable and hence is increasing its entry even in previously unexplored markets.

With the increase in understanding about a sustainable alternate source of energy worldwide, wind power is gaining stimulus importance across the globe. The global wind energy market is estimated to have a growth rate of 25% CAGR over the last 5 years. Till 2010, Europe was considered to be the largest market for wind energy followed by the Asia-Pacific and North American markets. However, owing to the increase in investments, its long coastline and large land mass, China is expected to attain the worldwide top rank in this market.

Due to steady evolution in the segment, the development of modern wind technology can now be operated effectively at a wider range of sites suitable to high as well as low wind speeds. Further, the development of light weight material has helped in phasing out bulky turbines and in introduction of more sleek and effective turbine designs.

As per estimates, the wind turbine market has experienced an approximate growth rate of 28% globally and is expected to grow at an increasing double-digit growth rate. Wind power, being the fastest growing alternate source of energy is witnessing an increase in investment globally.

The Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT) and Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) together form the two major segments for wind turbine market globally. However, the HAWT generate the major chunk of revenue to the turbine market capturing approximately 90% share. The Wind turbine market is characterized as highly competitive market and includes GE Energy, Gamesa, Vestas, Suzlon, Siemens, Mitsubishi etc. as few major players.

In the present scenario, the onshore technology is leading with approximately 95% share and offshore technology owing to its nascent stage is making its move with 5% market share. The cost propositions with offshore technology rise because of their high O&M costs. Hence, the offshore wind turbine market occupies only 5% share in the global wind turbine market.Particularly in onshore wind energy market, U.S. was the largest onshore wind energy market in 2010 followed by Germany and China. However, China is expected to rank ahead of U.S thereby becoming a market leader by 2016.

Related Reports:

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/coal-bed-methane-market.html

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/low-voltage-cables-market.html

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/north-american-ground-mount-pv-utility-market.html

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/waste-derived-biogas-market.html

Sheela AK
Transparency Market Research
+1-518-618-1030
Email Information

City program to reduce energy costs benefits The Rose

City program to reduce energy costs benefits The Rose

Excited about savings at The Rose are, from top left, Baker Goldsmith and Lisa Lin, with the city of Houston; Ivy Guice, HARC; Joel Braceworth, Colliers Property Management; Danny Earp, Oates Industries, Inc.; Bernice Joseph, The Rose; J.J. Vickers, Colliers Property Management; Pam Lyle, The Rose; Monica Neukomm, Department of Energy; Dorothy Gibbons, The Rose.

Posted: Sunday, November 25, 2012 4:00 am

City program to reduce energy costs benefits The RoseSubmittedHouston Community Newspapers

A nonprofit devoted to breast health care in Houston is saving money through energy efficiency, and that translates into saving lives.The Rose, which provides mammography, diagnostics and access to treatment to all women, regardless of their ability to pay, expects to save between $34,000 and $38,000 annually after making $202,535 in improvements at its southeast Houston location.“We will be able to cover the medical costs of 340-380 women each year as a result of those savings,” said Dorothy Gibbons, The Rose CEO and co-founder. “Everything we do is for our women. So we were first in line when we discovered the potential funds available through the Energy Efficiency Incentive Program (EEIP). We are incredibly grateful for the community support that helped make these upgrades possible.”
The EEIP is an initiative of the city of Houston’s Green Office Challenge, which recognizes innovative ways -- such as retrofits and new operation methods -- to reduce utility costs and greenhouse emissions in office buildings.
To date the city has committed approximately $2 million to the program from its Energy Efficiency Conservation Block Grant (EECBG), provided by the Department of Energy. Eligible businesses and building owners applied for funding to make permanent energy efficiency improvements, to reduce utility expenses and to cut greenhouse gases.
The Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) manages the EEIP for the city. When HARC opened up opportunities to apply for grants earlier this year, The Rose was the first to apply and later became the first nonprofit to receive EEIP funding.
The $81,014 award covered a portion of the costs for improvements such as upgrading interior and exterior lighting, installing variable speed controls on the chilled water pump and air handler fans, replacing the roof, upgrading the direct digital control system, sealing leaks in the supply air ducts, repairing outside air dampers and fans, and installing occupancy sensors for lights. These measures are expected to achieve a 22 percent energy savings and an annual cost savings between $34,000 and $38,000.
The highest ticket items included $98,073 for roof repairs, $38,087 for interior light replacement and $19,500 for upgrade to the DDC Control System. In October, The Rose became the first entity in the program to complete the upgrades.
In recognition of the completion of the upgrades and with a nod toward October being breast cancer awareness month, representatives from the DOE, the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC), Colliers Property Management Services and Oates Industries, Inc. participated in a recent tour.
“The city of Houston and the Houston Advanced Research Center are thrilled that an organization that helps detect breast cancer and save the lives of so many women in the Houston area, was the first recipient of this funding. The group’s innovative upgrades will result in substantial savings, will improve the environment, and will allow the nonprofit to redirect those precious dollars back to their first priority – savings lives,” noted Ivy Guice, director of Business Affairs at HARC. “It’s truly a win, win, win.”
The Rose, Houston's leading nonprofit breast healthcare organization, has served more than 355,000 patients since 1987. For more information, visit www.TheRose.org.

Mpls. may force commercial buildings to report energy use

Mpls. may force commercial buildings to report energy use

• Article by: ERIC ROPER , Star Tribune
• Updated: November 25, 2012 - 10:46 PM

Hoping to cut local energy emissions and promote green jobs, city leaders in Minneapolis are mulling a proposal that would force commercial buildings to receive public ratings based on their energy-efficiency.

The ordinance would require commercial buildings larger than 50,000 square feet to submit utility usage and other information to Energy Star, a government-backed program that offers a tool for calculating energy efficiency. The city would publish the resulting rating -- likely a score between 1 and 100 -- on its website, with hopes of encouraging building owners to cut their energy consumption.
The local building owners association warns this could have detrimental effects on the marketplace, pinning low scores on buildings whose owners may lack the funds to retrofit or have tenants with high energy demands.
Kevin Lewis, executive director of the Greater Minneapolis Building Owners and Managers Association, said requiring disclosure means "it's not a level playing field anymore."

City Council Member Elizabeth Glidden, who authored the change, said the proposal falls in line with the city's pledge to reduce its overall emissions. The city's target is to cut greenhouse gas emissions 15 percent from 2006 levels by 2015. She said there would also be opportunities for job creation.
"We know when you're working on buildings and doing energy-efficient improvements -- very nuts-and-bolts kind of work -- that is green jobs," Glidden said.
Public hearing in January
The proposal will get its first public hearing in January 2013. If approved by the City Council, it would be phased in over two years to eventually cover 551 commercial buildings and all city-owned buildings larger than 25,000 square feet.
The policy would be the first of its kind in Minnesota, but similar disclosure requirements are already in place in Washington, D.C., New York City and San Francisco.
"Unfortunately, we see this as a sign of things to come," said Karen Penafiel, a vice president with the Building Owners and Managers Association International. The Washington, D.C.-based group opposes the disclosure mandate, which it does not believe is necessary. Penafiel added that individual tenants often control much of a building's energy use.
Speaking for the local owners, Lewis said, "The result could be a loss of value for certain members of ours. Or be forced out of business if their vacancies levels rise so much because of this."
This does not appear to have happened in San Francisco, where large commercial buildings started getting mandatory Energy Star ratings in late 2011.
"Our property owners initially thought, 'Oh, this is going to be horrible' ... but there's been no blowback, if you will, from property owners," said Ken Cleaveland, a vice president with BOMA San Francisco. "It's just been a non-issue, quite frankly."
Glidden said they have not found negative market consequences in other cities that have implemented similar systems.
"I don't think that any of this stuff, frankly, is ever going to outshine price and location," Glidden said.
While the disclosure would be a change for many building owners, nearly 50 buildings in Minneapolis already disclose their ratings on the Energy Star website. The full list is available at startribune.com/a1898.
The city doesn't have precise information about what portion of the city's emissions can be attributed to commercial buildings. They do know that commercial and industrial emissions combined accounted for more than 44 percent of the city's total emissions in 2010.
Brendon Slotterback, the city's lead staffer on the project, said commercial properties' natural gas usage accounted for about 50 percent of the city's total in 2011.

Group: Energy-efficiency incentives can save billions for Arizona:

Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2012
By Corbin Carson
Cronkite News

The full 270-page report is available here:

http://swenergy.org

PHOENIX – Arizona households and businesses can cut electricity use by 21 percent and save $7.3 billion by 2020 if utilities ramp up energy-efficiency incentives, a public policy group said Tuesday.
A report presented to Arizona energy officials by the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project (SWEEP) said the state’s utilities already have programs that can be expanded to achieve the forecast savings.
“We’re suggesting by expanding those programs, investing more in energy efficiency and bringing in more participants, the net economic benefits from expanding programs out to 2020, would be over $7 billion,” said Howard Geller, author of the report and SWEEP’s executive director and founder.
The report found that every dollar invested in energy efficiency returns more than $2 in savings on business and household utility bills.
“Let me use the refrigerator as an example,” Geller said. “Utilities would provide a rebate, say $50, and educate customers to buy Energy Star refrigerators when they need a new one, because Energy Star refrigerators are more efficient than a typical refrigerator.”
Geller said the household that does that will see its energy consumption and utility bills go down.
The 270-page report calls for $5.5 billion in investments in efficiency programs by Arizona utilities, money that Geller said the companies would have to spend anyway on things like new power plants to keep up with demand.
James Wontor, manager of demand-side management programs for APS, said the utility sees the value in providing options for customers to save on electric bills.
“We’re proud to say that of these 18 best practice programs (in the report), we offer virtually all of them to our customers right now today,” Wontor said.
Arizona Corporation Commissioner Sandra Kennedy said the state has made great strides when it comes to energy efficiency but that there is always room for improvement.
“I think the utility companies should ramp up their funding beginning next year,” said Kennedy, a Democrat who lost a bid for re-election this month. “And put a little more effort into energy efficiency because the programs actually work.”
Geller’s study said the energy saved would allow Arizona to avoid building or close 10 large power plants, which would result in 4.1 billion gallons of water saved per year and reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants equivalent to taking 1.9 million passenger vehicles off the road, all by 2020.
“It’s both an economic and an environmental win for Arizona,” he said.

Weather data from nation’s largest wind farms could improve U.S. models, forecasts

Weather data from nation’s largest wind farms could improve U.S. models, forecasts

Private companies share weather data with NOAA

November 14, 2012

Two of the nation’s largest producers of wind-generated electric power will share privately-collected weather data with NOAA, providing agency scientists with additional observations from wind farms across the nation for research and operations.

NOAA now has data sharing agreements with Iberdrola Renewables of Portland, Ore., and NextEra Energy Resources of Juno Beach, Fla.—the country’s two largest generators of wind-generated electric power, according to the American Wind Energy Association.

The companies will provide valuable weather observations from instrumented towers in their wind farms and wind speed data from instruments atop wind turbines. Since 2011, Xcel Energy of Minneapolis, Minn. has provided similar observations to NOAA.

“We appreciate this opportunity to work with industry and are eager to start similar data sharing agreements with other industry partners,” said Kathryn D. Sullivan, Ph.D., assistant secretary of commerce for environmental observation and prediction and NOAA deputy administrator. “Everyone who uses weather information will benefit from these additional data. These observations are made at altitudes that are not routinely observed. The more information we are able to collect leads to more accurate predictions.”

NOAA will use these weather observations in operational model forecasts produced by NOAA’s National Weather Service. Wind data at these heights are not routinely observed and are of great interest to many industries and researchers involved in renewable energy, aviation, and air quality.

While the observations are business-sensitive and will not be redistributed outside of NOAA, the agency’s scientists will use the data to validate and improve weather models at NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory and at NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Prediction.

“NextEra Energy recognizes that a better NOAA weather forecast will ultimately improve our operational decisions and our bottom line,” said Mark Ahlstrom, CEO for WindLogics, a NextEra Energy Resources subsidiary that also contributed data to NOAA. “Sharing data with NOAA makes sense because it helps NOAA deliver better forecasts for use by our company and the general public.”

Jerry Crescenti, Director of Meteorology for Iberdrola Renewables, added, “When it comes to observations, you can never have enough. Hopefully, other wind energy companies will consider securely providing their weather observations to NOAA to improve the foundational forecasts for all in the industry.”

NextEra Energy Resources is a clean energy leader and one of the largest competitive energy suppliers in North America, operating in 22 states and Canada as of year-end 2011. A subsidiary of NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NEE), NextEra Energy Resources is the largest generator of renewable energy from the wind and sun in the United States, owning and operating approximately 8,569 megawatts of wind and 158 megawatts of solar power generation at the end of 2011.

Iberdrola Renewables, LLC is the U.S. renewable energy division of parent company IBERDROLA, S.A., an energy pioneer with the largest renewable asset base of any company in the world. Iberdrola Renewables, LLC is headquartered in Portland, Ore., and has over $9 billion of operating assets totaling more than 5,000 megawatts of wind and solar generation.

NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Visit us atwww.noaa.gov and join us on Facebook, Twitter and our other social media channels. 

Energy Department Efficiency Project Earns R&D Magazine Editor's Choice Award

November 20, 2012

The Sandia Cooler—an innovative energy efficiency technology developed at the Sandia National Laboratories—is one of three emerging technologies to receive R&D Magazine's 2012 Editor's Choice Award. The Sandia Cooler, which efficiently cools processor chips in computer systems, was recognized earlier this year with one of the magazine's annual R&D 100 awards. Sandia National Laboratories developed this technology with support from the Energy Department's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

The Sandia Cooler technology significantly improves the way heat is transferred and cooled in computers and microelectronics by addressing the heat sink boundary layer—a longstanding bottleneck to heat transfer in conventional coolers. Data centers and other large-scale computing environments could benefit from this technology, as it significantly reduces the energy needed to cool the processor chips used in these facilities.

Additionally, the Sandia Cooler can benefit other applications where thermal management and energy efficiency are important, particularly with heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC). The Sandia Cooler also functions in a smaller, quieter package compared to a standard central processing unit (CPU) cooler, and greatly improves resistance to dust in the heat exchanger fins.

Since 1962, R&D Magazine has presented awards for innovative technology developments that offer promising commercial potential. Researchers funded by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy received 12 of the R&D 100 awards in 2012, and the Department of Energy as a whole won a total of 36 R&D 100 awards across all of its research and development programs.

The Department's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) accelerates development and facilitates deployment of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies and market-based solutions that strengthen U.S. energy security, environmental quality, and economic vitality. Learn more about EERE's emerging building technologies and Sandia National Laboratories' energy programs.

University Honored for Environmental, Clean Energy Achievements

Home > News > Leading by Example

University Honored for Environmental, Clean Energy Achievements

Representatives from UMass Lowell were on hand to receive the Governor’s Leading by Example award during a State House ceremony on Beacon Hill in October.

11/16/2012

By Edwin L. Aguirre

Citing the University’s outstanding energy and environmental leadership, the state recently presented UMass Lowell with a Leading by Example award.
Established by Gov. Deval Patrick in 2007, the annual award recognizes state agencies, public universities and colleges, municipalities and individuals for their efforts in significantly reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, increasing recycling and the use of renewable energy and other clean-energy and environmental quality initiatives.
The award recognizes the University for making clean energy and energy efficiency improvements over the years. For example, the North Campus Power Plant recently replaced two of its three boilers with more energy-efficient units and converted the third one from fuel oil to cleaner natural gas, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 4,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent annually. The University’s zero-sort recycling program, meanwhile, has increased the solid waste recycling rate on campus by more than 376 percent, from 97 tons in 2008 to 462 tons in 2011.
The award also notes that UMass Lowell “is the first New England college or university to achieve Green Guard certification, aimed at protecting human health and improving quality of life by enhancing indoor air quality and reducing exposure to chemicals and other pollutants.”
This year’s other winners include the state’s Department of Correction and Department of Conservation and Recreation, North Shore Community College, the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission, the towns of Sutton and Scituate and residents of Norton and Sudbury.
A Campuswide Effort
“Leading by Example is a prestigious award that recognizes our multifaceted energy conservation program,” says Thomas Dreyer, UMass Lowell’s associate vice chancellor for facilities management. “We have three great reasons to conserve: It is a good business decision, it is a great example for our students, who will be the green leaders of tomorrow, and it meets the strategic goals of the governor and our University.”
Adds Paul Piraino, UMass Lowell’s energy and sustainability manager in Facilities Operations & Services: “The award elevates the University’s standing to prospective students that this is a highly technological institution with a very environmentally conscious program that will help keep the Earth a sustainable planet. Ecology, sustainability and energy conservation are highly important topics for new students looking at colleges.”
Accolades belong to people and departments across the campus, says biology Assoc. Prof. Juliette Rooney-Varga, director of UMass Lowell’s Climate Change Initiative.
“One of the most important things to recognize about this award is that it is a campuswide award — in other words, it was given to UMass Lowell in recognition of the work of many, many faculty, administrators, students and staff across the campus,” notes Rooney-Varga. “In fact, there is good reason to believe that the breadth of our work across the University is exactly why we received this award. In a remarkably short amount of time, we have been able to pull together a tremendously diverse group of people around a common cause.”
Other sustainable practices at UMass Lowell include:

• Working toward achieving the goals outlined in the University’s Climate Action Plan (CAP) by implementing projects on campus and incorporating energy and environmental awareness into academic curricula and community outreach. The CAP, signed into action by Chancellor Marty Meehan in January, commits the campus to attaining carbon neutrality by 2050.
• Installing solar photovoltaic arrays on the roofs of Costello Gym, Bourgeois Hall, Dugan Hall and Leitch Hall with a combined output of 250 kilowatts, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 115 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent annually.
• Installing more than 100 real-time, building-level energy meters on campus to track electricity, gas and steam usage and identify opportunities for increasing efficiency, especially during peak hours.
• Incorporating green building principles as the University continues to grow, as demonstrated by the most recent campus addition, the Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center (ETIC), a LEED Silver building. Other LEED-certified buildings being constructed on campus are the Health and Social Sciences building, University Suites and University Crossing. These buildings are expected to reduce annual emissions by 1,670 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.

The award ceremony, which was held Oct. 25 at the State House in Boston, was attended by (shown in the photo, from left) Robert Barnett, executive director of Business Administrative Services; Paul Piraino; Vice Chancellor for Finance and Operations Joanne Yestramski; Donald Lampron, director of maintenance and trades in Facilities Operations & Services; Prof. Robert Gamache of the Department of Environmental, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences; Richard Lemoine, director of Environmental and Emergency Management; Juliette Rooney-Varga and Thomas Dreyer.
“Governor Patrick has set some of the most ambitious energy efficiency and renewable energy targets in the nation, and our state and local governments are setting the pace when it comes to reaching those targets,” says Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Rick Sullivan. “This year’s winners are really walking the walk and taking steps that will continue to yield long-term environmental and economic dividends for years to come.”
For more information about the Leading by Example program, go to the state’s website.

Schools Experience Benefits of Wind Energy Firsthand

Schools Experience Benefits of Wind Energy Firsthand

Date: 11/7/2012

Source: Seanica Reineke, National Association of Farm Broadcasting News Service.

Audio with Ruth Douglas Miller, Kansas State University Wind Applications Center director and Darin Headrick, Greensburg, Kansas schools superintendent. (MP3 2.8 MB) Download Windows Media Player. Time: 00:03:01.
The Wind Applications Center at Kansas State University oversees school wind projects across Kansas. The school district in Greensburg, Kansas is one of those with a wind turbine. Superintendent Darin Headrick says the district looked at every aspect of the project to see how it might benefit the district.
"For us, it would be a good situation even if all it produced is exactly what its cost was. We still aren't out anything. We still have produced as much power by dollars as what it cost us to put it up. In case of our 50-kilowatt tower we have, we think we're going to do a little bit better than twice our investment. So our $300,000 investment for wind, we should see a revenue of about $700,000 of production of power. So it's really just a matter of having some cash on hand and knowing it's a good business decision, and then putting it in place. In fact, it's such a good decision for us, we're considering adding a second tower because it does provide some savings for us."
Wind Applications Center director Ruth Douglas Miller says there are nearly 25 projects now and those projects are typically funded by various entities, but the school usually covers the cost of the actual turbine and the tower. In recent years, USDA even has provided some grants for school wind projects. Miller says having a school wind turbine is very valuable in many ways. For one thing, she says it helps the entire community understand more about wind energy.
"We really were hoping to inspire students, to say 'This is really cool. We've got this turbine. I know a little bit about it. I would like to pursue a career in the wind industry.' I can't say we've had gobs of students end up going in that direction, but we've had a few, and it's really exciting to talk to a student who when he was in 8th grade helped write the proposal to me to put the turbine up. And then I see him again in the summer and he says 'I really want to go into wind. I want to be an engineer.' He just needed that motivation to push him through some of those tougher classes."
Headrick says wind turbines have become a staple in the community.
"It's something that's always on our landscape. It's something that we see. It's something that I think we sometimes take for granted. But I do know that we understand that it's a way for us to produce power, to produce power efficiently, and more importantly, to produce power that's green and renewable and responsible to our environment. But when you ask about students and the parents and how they see it, I think it's something they appreciate. I also think it's something that we've become accustomed to living here."
Headrick says he believes the school district has become an advocate of recognizing the obligation to be responsible with taxpayer dollars. The initial, additional cost upfront, Headrick says, saves a lot of money in the end and the school is seeing that firsthand. He says the school's investment in sustainable, green, renewable energy is not just responsible because it uses taxpayer dollars more efficiently but also because it's an additional educational aspect for the students.

This information was last updated on November 07, 2012

Liberty Property Trust Cuts Energy 17.9% in Four Years

November 8, 2012

Liberty Property Trust Cuts Energy 17.9% in Four Years

 

Liberty Property Trust has reduced energy use 17.9 percent, saving $4.6 million, since implementing its corporate sustainability project in 2008, goals achieved with help from eSight’s energy management system.
Liberty, a $6.2 billion real estate investment trust, owns 79 million square feet of office and industrial space in more than 20 markets throughout the US and UK. The company wanted to collect and measure the energy-related data across the sites, and bring that information together into a central database.
Liberty selected eSight’s energy management software and Exp US Services’ hardware to provide a system that could measure and verify data as well as identify areas of potential savings and reduce overall energy use across its buildings.
The software was installed at Liberty’s headquarters in Philadelphia. Data is collected via Tridium’s Java Application Control Energy (JACE) and automatically imported to eSight. Liberty is now able to analyze data across all buildings and can drill down into the information further using an easy-to-use energy dashboard, eSight said.
Liberty also is able to receive energy alarms, which might be triggered by sudden changes in consumption, and then distribute reports about the changes automatically.
Liberty Trust announced in September that it had pinpointed $2.3 million in energy savings potential across 110 buildings using an energy assessment tool from software company Retroficiency. The tool was able to remotely identify 25 million kWh savings potential, across lighting, heating, cooling, controls and plug loads, using a year’s worth of electric energy interval data and an address for each building. The Virtual Energy Assessment tool allows energy managers to identify potential savings without ever visiting a building or installing specialized hardware.
Liberty Trust won a 2012 Energy Star Partner of the Year award for its energy management approach and savings accomplished in 2011, including reducing its average weather-normalized source energy intensity by six percent, which equates to an estimated energy savings of $1.3 million, and earning Energy Star certification for 26 buildings, for a cumulative total of 78 certified buildings representing 10.8 million square feet of space. In 2011, the company also invested more than $4.2 million to complete more than 160 energy efficiency projects.

Building Owners ‘Slow Energy Retrofits’

Building Owners ‘Slow Energy Retrofits’

US building owners are scaling back the pace of energy-efficiency upgrades, according to the latest Global Sustainability Perspective report from Jones Lang LaSalle.
Seventy-eight percent of building owners plan to perform sustainability improvements over the next two years, compared to 91 percent that said they spent money on upgrades over the past two years, the financial services firm says.
In Building Energy Retrofit – Owners Need Convincing, Not Just Financing, the firm says the decline in sustainable retrofits isn’t connected to a lack of financing. In most cases, JLL says the biggest obstacle is proving that the investment will increase the bottom line.
The report says more capital is available for energy retrofits and renewable energy installations today than in recent years, but most owners have avoided financing options, focusing on self-financed projects that can demonstrate a direct financial payback.
Owners favor less expensive projects such as lighting retrofits and temperature controls, rather than HVAC upgrades that would save more energy but be less visible to tenants, says Dan Probst, chairman of energy and sustainability services at Jones Lang LaSalle.
Owners do not expect energy improvements to result in higher rent, but they do expect to attract more tenants, thus improving return on investment and building value.
While owners have focused primarily on moderate-cost improvements, those that analyze the cost and financial payback of a whole-building energy retrofit — and can take advantage of tax incentives — may find more extensive retrofits make financial sense as well, JLL says.
And there is increasing evidence that sustainability and energy-efficiency programs are good for business, according to the firm.
As certification systems such as LEED or BREEAM have defined what sustainable features are most effective, they’ve also redefined what constitutes a Grade A in the larger real estate investment markets, writes Franz Jenowein, director of energy and sustainability services, in the report’s lead editorial.
Benchmarking tools at enterprise levels have emerged as sustainable building investments rise, it says. These tools help track property companies’ sustainability initiatives and progress in achieving “green” goals.
A Jones Lang LaSalle study published last month said cities that invest in smart-grid technology and infrastructure, called “connected cities,” experience an annual GDP growth rate that is 0.7 percent higher, an unemployment rate that is a full percentage point lower, and office occupancy rates 2.5 percent higher than less advanced cities, Energy Manager Today reports.