Domestic Offshore Wind Industry Potential, 21 Projects Planned in U.S. Waters

We talked about this yesterday on the radio show (hope you were listening) with a leading expert from URI on marine development of renewable energy and garnering, for those projects, public support.

Deepwater will be the first major offshore wind farm on the East Coast of the US.  It is historic and ground breaking.  Yet, as you will see below, many others are planned.

We recently posted some amazing stats on the growth of wind energy.  Though it got off to a slow start, at least here in the US, the winds of change are blowing full steam now.  We hope to see many more as we leave behind our dependence on traditional fuels to keep the lights on.

See more, of course, at our main site:  Renewable Now.biz.  And, if local, get signed up for our wind special on Nov 10.

The Energy Department released a new report showing strong progress for the U.S. offshore wind market—including the start of construction of the nation’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm, one of 21 projects totaling 15,650 megawatts (MW) in the planning and development pipeline. Of these 21 U.S. projects, 13 projects totaling nearly 6,000 MW—enough to power 1.8 million homes—are in the more advanced stages of development, while 12 projects with more than 3,300 MW planned have announced a commercial operation date by 2020. With 80% of the nation’s electricity demand coming from coastal states, offshore wind could play a crucial role in meeting our energy needs.

American developer DEEPWATER WIND —leveraging 25 years of European technical knowledge, as well as U.S. manufacturing and installation expertise—began construction of the Block Island Wind Farm off the coast of Rhode Island this spring. The 30-MW project is expected to be operational by fall 2016. In addition to Rhode Island, offshore wind projects in eight other states are also in the advanced stages of development.

The 2014-2015 U.S. Offshore Wind Technologies Market Report finds that offshore wind projects continue to trend farther from shore and into increasingly deeper waters. Continuing to increase in size, the average offshore wind turbine installed in 2014 had a 377-foot-diameter rotor on a 279-foot-tall tower. The average capacity of offshore wind turbines installed in 2014 was 3.4 MW (compared with 1.9 MW for land-based turbines). Last year also marked the first deployment of an 8-MW prototype, and a number of turbines rated between 6 MW and 8 MW have been ordered for pending projects. By siting projects farther from shore where they can access stronger, more consistent winds, combined with technology improvements and larger turbines, developers have increased their turbines’ capacity factors, meaning each wind turbine can generate more energy.

The study’s authors expect this year to become a record year for global offshore wind deployments, with 3,996 MW of capacity on track to begin operations. In the first half of 2015, the industry commissioned 1,190 MW of this capacity, bringing the total current installed capacity to 8,990 MW worldwide.

- See more at: http://www.renewablenow.biz/renewable-business.html#sthash.fy4XgDPg.dpuf

Washington Wire/Carbon Tax with Dividend!

From our friends at Better World Club who always send us great updates and material.  Let us know what you think on the Carbon Tax.

Carbon Tax with Dividend!  Better World Club's Stance Shared by the American Sustainable Business Council.

Well...BWC Is on the ASBC Board of Directors.
 

Also Shared by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) who Has Introduced It in the Senate.

 

As the risks of climate change become clearer, the need grows for comprehensive action to cut carbon pollution. By far the simplest and most effective action we can take is to institute a nationally-administered, economy-wide carbon tax. If implemented correctly, this would result in dramatic carbon dioxide reductions and create a market-based transition to clean, renewable energy.

A carbon tax fixes an inherent marketplace flaw:  the marketplace does not force corporations producing "externalities" (i.e. carbon) to assume the cost of the harm they do. 

Carbon is even a bit tricky--it requires a high tax beyond the cost of clean up because short-term clean up just doesn't recognize the long-term costs.

So, it is important that there be a dividend back to the American people of the tax beyond the cost of clean-up.  The real impact of the tax is to adjust the cost of fossil fuels.  Americans will still have roughly the same amount of money, but with the higher cost of fossil fuels, alternative energy becomes more attractive. (The government might even be able to stop subsidizing the development of alternative energy.)
 

Check out the American Sustainable Business Council's Petition in support of a carbon tax--and add your voice--HERE

How the U.S. Navy Plans to Save $6 Million Per Year at One Air Station

We've talked with many of the branches of the US military on their push into efficiency and renewables.  Nice to see real data coming back on some of their facilities.

What this article truly points out, though, is the amazing reduction in energy any of us can achieve, and the phenomenal ROI on doing so. What better resources to preserve than on fuel and water.

RMI, too, has been on the radio side with us and deserves kudos for their excellent work and reports.  What an inspiration to all organizations to get smart around operations.

How the U.S. Navy Plans to Save $6 Million Per Year at One Air Station

Breakthrough energy savings performance contract (ESPC) projects exemplify how an ESPC can unlock deep levels of energy savings. ESPC projects are financed through energy and water cost savings, allowing clients to reduce their overall energy and water consumption, and save money with no upfront capital costs. Because of this, ESPCs are particularly appealing to federal, state, and local government bodies, which typically lack appropriated funding; have aggressive energy, water, and carbon reduction goals; and seek to save taxpayer money.

RMI studied a number of government ESPC projects and interviewed project team members, uncovering a number of best practices that should be widely used to encourage stronger projects that achieve deeper levels of savings while benefiting both the client and the contractor. These best practices include:

• Setting aggressive long term goals
• Engaging and collaborating with diverse stakeholders
• Establishing a support system
• Starting with a clean sheet and a beginner’s mind
• Using an iterative, holistic design process
• Incorporating feedback and ongoing involvement

RMI and the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), a leader in federal energy efficiency, have teamed up to publicize these success stories. The case study featured below is part of the joint RMI-GSA report Deep Energy Retrofits Using Energy Savings Performance Contracts: Success Stories (available at RMI’s "GSA Retrofits" web page) and RMI’s greater initiative to engage federal partners to enable deeper energy savings on their building retrofit projects. These efforts have become increasingly relevant in the wake of Executive Order 13693 and the Energy Efficiency Improvement Act of 2015, two recent federal directives that emphasize energy efficiency’s crucial role in a sustainable U.S. energy landscape.

The NAS Oceana Success Story

The Naval Air Station (NAS) Oceana deep energy retrofit is a four-phase endeavor that is unprecedented in both size and scope. The project—which kicked off in 2002 and is expected to be completed in 2017—is projected to reduce energy use by over 40 percent across more than 100 retrofitted buildings, saving the naval base over $6 million in annual energy costs.
Key Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs):

• Steam and chiller-plant decentralization
• High-efficiency HVAC equipment
• Renewables: solar thermal, ground-source heat pump (GSHP) with effluent heat rejection
• Digital controls: over 18,000 measurement points
• Lighting retrofits: over 40,000 fixtures
• Water conservation: over 10,000 fixtures

Awards and Accolades:
Phase 2 of the project earned the 2011 VSBN Green Innovation Award and the 2009 Presidential Award for Leadership in Federal Energy Management, and helped the Navy earn the 2009 Platts Green Energy Initiative of the Year award.

Project Details: Phases 1–4


The project is centered on the decommissioning and decentralization of the base’s out-of-date and inefficient steam plant, which had deteriorated beyond repair from corrosion (due to the plant’s location in a coastal environment). This presented Navy and Trane personnel with an opportunity to leverage a major infrastructure investment as an enabler for deep energy savings. Load reduction measures such as lighting retrofits and the addition of high-efficiency HVAC equipment, together with system rightsizing, allowed the project team to downsize system components by up to 70 percent. Additional measures, including an extensive GSHP system that used graywater effluent from a nearby water treatment plant for heat rejection—one of the first systems of its kind—transformed the base’s energy source from an outdated liability to a state-of-the-art example of efficiency.

Multiple Phases and a Long-Term Outlook

Staging work across multiple phases allowed the Navy and Trane to capture easy, up-front savings while maintaining a long-term vision. Lessons learned during early phases were instrumental in shaping later work. The steam plant decommissioning implemented at the Dam Neck Annex in Phase 2, for example, was so successful that the measure was implemented at the main base as the cornerstone of Phase 3 work. Phase 2’s successful lighting and water ECMs were also replicated and key systems were purposely over-sized with future expansion in mind.

In addition, the project team’s long-term vision for the naval base was exemplified in operations and maintenance (O&M) procedures. The Navy decided from the project outset that O&M work would be contracted to Trane, allowing for Trane’s O&M team to contribute to project development, thus avoiding a number of maintenance issues. The Navy also elected to consider O&M savings as a value stream, a significant decision considering corrosion issues at this coastal site. Some existing outdoor systems required replacement or retrofit every three to four years, a maintenance headache that the project team was able to address by installing all new equipment and piping indoors or underground.

Making Opportunistic Adjustments

During a routine site-walk late in Phase 2 of the project, a Trane engineer noticed a six-foot pipe running through the base. The pipe, which had not been previously considered, was an effluent pipeline stemming from the nearby Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD) disposing 50 million gallons of graywater per day.

Project team members moved quickly to capitalize on the discovery. Navy and Trane quickly established a partnership with HRSD personnel, who allowed free use of their pipeline in exchange for a land easement to be used for future treatment plant expansion. The already-specified 450-ton ground-source heat pump and 4,400-ton condenser-cooling loop were redesigned to incorporate a heat-rejection loop utilizing the effluent pipeline. This allowed the project team to remove several cooling towers and other HVAC components from the original project scope. Using the massive effluent pipeline—where the internal temperature rises less than 1° F during use—was also significantly more efficient than traditional GSHP heat-rejection well fields (which generally reach 90–95° F) at a lower installation cost. This also significantly reduced the site’s potable water use and steam-plant emissions.

Exemplary Teamwork

Project personnel credited their long-term vision and collaborative approach to trust between the Navy’s deputy public works officer and a Trane federal executive. This trust was exemplified when the naval officer fought on behalf of Trane to recognize project savings that were taken off the table near the end of the project. Conversely, when Trane completed Phase 3 of the project over four months ahead of schedule (due in part to the excellent communication structure between Trane and the Navy), they elected to funnel $1.2 million in savings back into the site, retrofitting ancillary systems that had originally been left out of the project scope.

What Is a Net-Zero Home?

What Is a Net-Zero Home? Plus, How to Get One

We did a special event at my house this summer teaching this same recipe for getting homes to net zero or as close as possible.  We hope you get there. 

By Kari Klaus

Do you know what a net-zero or net-positive home is? Once you know, you're going to want one for yourself. Ah, but now what does it take to build or find a net-zero energy home for sale? Here are some tips, you're going to enjoy about one of the most energy-efficient forms of housing available.

How Does a Home Reach Net Zero or Net Positive?

Net-zero homes achieve their energy efficiency by working from the very start with this goal in mind. There are two sides to this equation — the home design must be as energy efficient as possible so they require less energy and then it must maximize the use of on-site energy sources such as solar, wind, and geothermal so they produce enough energy to power the home on their own, achieving a net zero in-take of grid energy.

While energy efficiency and renewable energy are the main components, working from a holistic design is principle to achieving a net zero or often called a zero energy home. This is accomplished by working with the site, the climate, and taking advantage of renewable energy sources. This is why net-zero homes are typically newly built, not retrofitted. Although building materials and systems are extremely important to achieving zero energy, beginning with a smart design can be paramount to a successful outcome.

Many homes begin with the passive design model. Passive design utilizes the climate and surroundings of a home to ensure that the energy needs are very limited. For example, a home may be designed with awnings that shade the high sun in the summer helping to reduce energy required for cooling and at the same time using solar for natural day-light heating and air flow for cooling can greatly reduce the need for systems to achieve a comfortable home climate.

All "off-grid" homes are net zero, but net zero encompasses a larger category, since zero energy homes are typically attached to the energy grid. There may be times that a net zero home pulls more energy from the grid than it is producing, although it will make the difference up during periods of lower energy use.

How Do I Get a Net-Zero Home?

Zero-energy homes can be found in new developments such as SpringLeaf in Boulder, Colorado, and in Fontana, California, where Meritage Homes is building California's First Net-Zero Neighborhood called Sierra Crest. Zero energy homes can built on site by design and build companies such as Bright Build, Zeta Communities or Metro Green Home.

Viva Green Homes makes it easy to find net zero homes for sale across the country. In fact with our advanced search page you can find net zero homes with a check on a single box and many other types of energy efficient and eco-friendly homes like LEED certified, Energy Star certified, solar or geothermal powered and so on.

India Vows to Cut Carbon Intensity in Paris Pledge

This story reflects some of the conflicting approaches a country takes towards reducing emissions.  For India, as you will see, they vow to reduce levels while bringing on more coal-fired plants.  In essence they are trying slow their growth a bit and power most of that surge with renewables.

Interesting, too, they take a swipe at the more developed countries and their heavy contribution do our current carbon levels.  Clearly they resent some of the limitations imposed on them through political pressure.  There are no easy solutions in the fight to balance economies and the environment.  We hope India ultimately can cut in efficiency at a rapid rate and not bring on more coal stations.

India Vows to Cut Carbon Intensity in Paris Pledge

                 

NEW DELHI — As the last major economy to submit a target for a global climate pact, India is pledging to reduce the intensity of its carbon emissions and boost the share of electricity produced from sources other than fossil fuels to 40 percent by 2030.

The world's third-largest carbon polluter filed its climate action plan to the Germany-based U.N. climate secretariat late Thursday, the deadline for pledges before a December conference in Paris where governments are supposed to adopt a landmark deal to fight climate change.

In a 38-page submission citing the country's forefather Mohandas K. Gandhi, an ardent environmentalist, the Indian government said it would slash the rate of emissions relative to gross domestic product by 33-35 percent by 2030 from 2005 levels. Already, the country has reduced its carbon intensity by 12 percent since 2005, it said.

Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said India held its submission back so it could coordinate its filing with the Indian holiday celebrating Gandhi's birthday on Friday.

"Our every action will be cleaner than what it was earlier," Javadekar told reporters, insisting that Indian traditions and culture are already "at one with nature."

The carbon intensity goal will allow India's emissions to grow as its economy expands, but at a lower rate than now.

"It is estimated that more than half of India of 2030 is yet to be built," the government said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made manufacturing and job creation a key promise of his administration, and has implored foreign companies and governments, with the slogan "Make in India," to help.

Environmental groups following the U.N. climate talks welcomed India's pledge.

"India now has positioned itself as a global leader in clean energy, and is poised to play an active and influential role in the international climate negotiations this December," said Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, a group based in New York.

Climate analyst Samir Saran at the Observer Research Foundation, a New Delhi think tank, also described India's targets as ambitious and "rooted in Indian reality," given the fact that at least 300 million citizens — a fourth of the population — still have no access to electricity at all, while hundreds of millions more make do with just a few hours a day.

India also promised aggressive reforestation efforts, with enough new trees to absorb up to 3 billion tons of carbon dioxide by 2030, and laid out plans for adapting to changing weather and temperatures.

"This is a positive and novel Indian approach," Saran said, adding that India was effectively sharing responsibility for taking action to protect the climate while seeking global partnerships on implementing those plans.

India plans a fivefold boost in renewable energy capacity in the next five years to 175 gigawatts, including solar power, wind, biomass and small hydropower dams.

Even with a major boost in renewable energy, India is also planning to expand coal power — the biggest source of emissions — to satisfy its energy needs. Coal-fired power plants account for about 60 percent of India's installed power capacity.

By 2030, the government said its installed capacity from "non-fossil fuel-based energy resources" would grow to 40 percent. It was not immediately clear whether that would also include nuclear power.

India said boosting its renewables to that level would require help with transfer of clean technology and financing — two of the crunch issues before the Paris deal, which is supposed to apply to all countries but also include provisions for rich countries to help poor countries fight climate change and adapt to its consequences.

Scientists say the heat-trapping carbon emissions released by the burning of fossil fuels — coal, oil and gas — are a key driver of rising temperatures that could lead to potentially catastrophic impacts, including flooding of island nations and intensifying droughts.

China and the U.S. are the only countries with higher emissions than India. As a bloc, the 28-nation European Union's emissions are also higher.

Like other developed countries, the U.S. and the EU committed to absolute reduction targets, while China pledged that its emissions would stop growing by 2030. India, with hundreds of millions still living in poverty, wasn't expected to offer a peak year because its emissions are projected to increase for decades as energy demand rises along with economic growth.

Javadekar said industrialized countries should be setting even more ambitious targets than what's been pledged so far.

"The developed world has polluted the world, but we will help even though we are suffering," he said.

Two climate research groups this week said the pledges put forth before the Paris conference would slow global warming but projected that temperatures would still rise by between 2.7 and 3.5 degrees C (4.9 and 6.3 degrees F).

Why world leaders are eating 'landfill salad' and cucumber-butt pickles

On those days when you wonder how you can help, reflect on this article, the state of our food production and consumption and take steps to keep compost out of the land fill.

Many people seem surprised at the massive impact food waste has on emissions.  They should not be.

Why world leaders are eating 'landfill salad' and cucumber-butt pickles

By John D. Sutter

 

CNN columnist John D. Sutter is reporting on a tiny number -- 2 degrees -- that may have a huge effect on the future. He'd like your help. Subscribe to the "2 degrees" newsletter or follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. He's jdsutter on Snapchat.

(CNN)If you had the opportunity to develop a meal for a bunch of well-heeled world leaders -- the kind of people who start wars and end them -- where would you turn for ingredients?

If you're Sam Kass, a former White House chef, the answer is obvious: the landfill.

Or, more accurately: food destined for the landfill.

Why? Well, to make a point. Wasting food is a massive, unnecessary contributor to global warming, and not too many people seem to be talking about it.

"In the United States we throw away around 40% of what we produce; and globally, 28% of the land under cultivation grows food that ends up in landfills," Kass told me. "Not only are you wasting all of the energy and water -- and the emissions from nitrous oxide from fertilizers -- you then just dump that into a landfill, which produces methane in amounts that is just staggering.

"And that's all for naught."

On Sunday, Kass and chef Dan Barber served world leaders, who were in New York for meetings at the United Nations, a lunch menu that included "landfill salad," made with vegetable scraps and ingredients that were disfigured to the point grocery stores would toss them out; bread made from spent grains that are a byproduct of beer brewing; a burger made with pulp that a juice company otherwise would have thrown away; misshapen-beet ketchup; cucumber-butt pickles; and "corn fries" made from super-starchy corn that's meant to be fed to cattle.

Yum! Eat up, Ban Ki-moon!

Actually, yes. That's exactly what happened.

"Food production and agriculture contribute as much to climate change as transportation," the U.N. secretary-general said after eating what's been called a "trash" lunch, according to a U.N. transcript.

 "Yet more than a third of all food produced worldwide -- over 1 billion tons of edible food each year -- goes to waste. That is shameful when so many people suffer from hunger."

It's incredibly shameful.

If you total up the climate change pollution created by the production of wasted or rotten food, you get more annual greenhouse gases than those from all of Russia or India.

According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, this "food waste," if it were a country, would be the third biggest polluter in the world -- behind only China and the United States.

Stop and think about that for a minute.

If we found a way to stop wasting food, we could reduce greenhouse gases more than if India -- home to some of the most polluted cities in the world -- powered itself 100% by renewable energy.

This, of course, isn't an either-or thing. We should reduce food waste while aggressively working to stop fossil fuel use if we're going to avert dangerous global warming.

But reducing food waste is "one place where progress is possible maybe faster than anywhere else," said Kass, the former White House chef, who is also an NBC News analyst.

"The general public, when they hear greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, their eyes glaze over," Kass said. "It feels so big and detached from their lives. They're very disempowered to do something about it. And I think it's been a big barrier to more aggressive action. But food is one of those ways to tell this story in a way people can really relate to -- and, ultimately, in a way people can incorporate, and become an actor in the solution over time."

Some of it's about personal choices: buying only what you need; not throwing out food that's still edible; eating those sad, "deformed" fruits and vegetables. Industry also plays a role, according to Kass. Better storage and shipping practices could reduce waste. And immigration reform, he said, could help ensure good fruits and vegetables aren't left unpicked in fields. Restaurants should do a better job of serving climate-friendly fare, too, he said, including less meat, which has an outsize effect on creating greenhouse gas emissions, and more scrap food.

"The first steps are harder," he said.

Luckily, it does seem we're stumbling forward.

Kass told me the world leaders loved the landfill salads and cucumber-butt pickles.

Hopefully they'll remember that experience when they meet in Paris this December. That's when they'll try to put together a treaty to avoid dangerous levels of warming.

Kass said he will be there again.

Serving up food that otherwise would be wasted.

And trying to raise awareness about its contribution to climate change.

Islands Poised to Become Renewable Energy Incubators

This makes sense;  to condense R & D around new, improved forms of renewables in small islands that don't demand huge amounts of energy.  These islands would, of course, be blessed, generally, by great natural resources.

Be wonderful, too, to see help bring these pristine islands local energy and new jobs.

Islands Poised to Become Renewable Energy Incubators

By Christophe Mazurier

                                                                             

CNN PRODUCER NOTE    

Christophe Mazurier has long been a vocal and passionate advocate to reverse the harmful trends being seen in climate change. He has done this not only in France and across Europe, but has actually become a true ambassador by traveling around the world advocating for various causes.

One issue that he has been increasingly focused on is that of sustainability. He has recently supported the notion that islands, partly due to their clean and serene environments, can become incubators for renewable energy sources.

A recent CNN report has posted that researchers are increasingly seeing the Caribbean island nations developing a major push to develop more renewable energy sources. They have discovered that much of the region is actually far ahead in this area in comparison to many of the larger and most industrialized nations around the globe.

This puts countries such as the Bahamas and Bermuda above nations such as the United Kingdom and the United States, in terms of developing more sustainable sources of energy moving forward. A call is being issued in these island nations to harness the power of the sun and wind to develop cleaner and more environmentally sustainable sources of energy, and to decrease their reliance on fossil fuels.

Even the French government has supported this new reality in stating that small island nations are working efficiently in terms of becoming laboratories that are well suited to being able to develop possible energy solutions that can be sustainable for future generations.

Mazurier has chimed in to this effect as well, even going so far as to state that these regions are actually ‘preordained’ to develop such renewable sources of energy, primarily because more traditional energy sources are so expensive on such island nations.

Because of their distance from mainland, many islands must rely on developing their own sources of energy, and this is beginning to translate into the generation of a great deal of interest from more industrialized nations who are interesting in learning how to develop such sources of their own.

The hope moving forward is that investments can be made on island nations to drive to develop renewable sources and to come up with ways that can be more easily implemented on a big and global scale. It is likely that Mazurier and other interested parties in climate initiatives will begin to take a sincere interest in making this a reality.