Small Steps to an Energy Independent World, Montpelier's Electric Vehicle Charging Station

All-Electric Vehicle Charging Station in Montpelier, VT

     Yesterday while downtown in Montpelier, I walked behind City Hall and literally ran into something I've never seen before and which given April 22nd and Earth Day is just around the corner it's definitely worth sharing. It's also just another reason why I think Montpelier is the best place to live in Vermont. We do stuff.  Seriously good stuff.  

     In February, the City and Green Mountain Power teamed up to install a free solar powered electric vehicle charging station behind city hall.  It's the third one for GMP so far, with one installed in South Burlington and Colchester.  Last week I pumped over $4.00/ gallon gas into my cars for the second time in my life, the last being in 2008.  I read yesterday how hybrids and all electric vehicles had there best month ever in the Burlington Free Press and here as described in the March 2012 Hybrid Dashboard.  I believe it.  While the current percentage of the total vehicle sales pie is small at 3.5% or so it's a rapidly growing segment of the market fed by high prices at the gas pumps.  

A Leverage Point, An Overflowing Park & Ride

     A few weeks ago I happened upon an overflowing Park & Ride lot just off of Exit 11 into Richmond, Vermont.  I haven't seen this ever in Vermont.  Perhaps it's a sign of the times.  Everywhere in the US costs at the pump distress drivers and as indicated here  at the Park & Ride dramatically shifting behaviors.
     We are at another leverage point where economic pressures are shifting consumers and businesses to  action towards more energy efficient and conserving practices.  Given the turbulence in the energy market, unpredictable prices at the pump can and fuel truck aren't we better off seeking more predictability in operating our homes, offices, schools, public buildings and the buildings where we shop?  We can't afford not to.  
     As an architect I know how helpful to homeowner's bottom line it is to consider weatherizing existing homes with better air-sealing, additional insulation and retrofitting windows with higher performing ones while updating heating and cooling systems and appliances to more energy efficient models.  There are numerous federal  and state tax incentives renewables and efficiency homeowners and businesses can apply for to soften the costs of taking these steps.  There's also incentives to moving to renewable energy sources for homes and businesses, you can learn more here by clicking on this link to Renewable Energy Vermont's website.
     Living in Vermont you can't miss the impact of Efficiency Vermont and its many programs assisting Vermonter's in large and small ways.  Whether it's helping subsidize the cost of purchasing compact florescent light bulbs at local hardware stores, providing information on weatherization contractors or best practices on green building and energy efficiency this statewide organization is an invaluable resource.  Vermonter's through the assistance of this program and others around the state, have lowered overall electrical usage and demand as compared to ten years ago.  Vermonter's by our nature are early adopters in green and sustainability strategies.  We're known for it.
     Over the last ten or so years Vermont building and general contractors along with architects and engineers have developed expertise in best practices in green and sustainable building from the very small scale home renovation to campus wide construction.  Green design is mainstream design now.  To soften the blow to your monthly finances and ensure greater predictability in managing your household and business in the coming years it pays to consider taking steps now.  You can find architects through AIA Vermont's online Architect directory.  Check out Efficiency Vermont's link to it's Better Buildings by Design Conference Website award winners by year.  It's a great way to find building professionals who are practicing state of the art energy efficient design whether residential or commercial scale.

Reviewing "Toward a Zero Energy Home"

A few months ago in late spring I read Toward a Zero Energy Home - A Complete Guide to Energy Self-Sufficiency at Home by David Johnston and Scott Gibson.  Or shall I say devoured it hungrily.  I read it on a cross-country flight in one sitting.

2010, The Taunton Press

The book begins by making a great case for the zero energy house by framing the view through the energy price bubble of 2008 and the need to shift behaviors moving forward.  Ironically in the spring of 2011 we were experiencing another price bubble seeded by political instability driven by the unprecedented democratic spring of Egypt, Syria, Libya and elsewhere.  Once again prices spiked ever higher over the course of late winter and spring.  Fairly quickly it seemed, world-wide strategic oil reserves were tapped to temper the price spikes and people's fears abated but high prices linger.  Today, the US Energy Information Agency says gas prices are up $0.91 from a year ago.

If you consult the EIA's interactive tables and build predictions out to 2035 you'll find an average yearly growth rate of 3.5% for residential fuel oil costs.  So in about ten years prices may rise 35% over today's already high rates.  With the unpredictability of the global geo-political climate and growing effects of global warming, growing population pressures and scarcity in fossil fuels, radically reducing energy consumption is urgent.  More predictable energy costs and growth in resource conservation is critical to creating a more sustainable future "softening the hard landing to come" as said by Bill McKibben in his recent book, Eaarth.

While residential delivered energy consumption has been going down historically in a gentle slope since 1990 the EIA forecasts four different scenarios showing reductions.  The reference light blue line models this continuing fall while the magenta (high tech usage) and green (best available technology) go even lower.

As energy costs continue to escalate residential users will naturally seek to conserve.  The space between the purple and green line is where Toward A Zero Energy Home plays an important role today in driving best practices  in zero energy home design into the marketplace towards consumer acceptance.

The book is organized into five chapters; The Building Envelope, Passive Solar Design, Renewable Energy, Heating-Cooling-Ventilation, Living a Zero Energy Life.  In each chapter they provide helpful overviews going over the basic components, design strategies and approaches with insightful case studies from around the country relating to the chapter focus.  The case studies provide wisdom from the field about how projects develop and mature between owners, architects, builders and energy consultants.

I recommend this book.  It tackles a very complex subject and breaks it down to basic elements where the complexity supports the big picture of why certain strategies are valuable varying by budget, climate, owner likes and dislikes, project delivery methods scalable for a variety of situations.  Whether seeking to do a custom design and build home, or hybridized process with some level of factory panelization and custom building, or finally, full out factory built and controlled modular home with quick onsite assembly the book has insights valuable for all.

The book also shows how fast moving high performance building science and knowledge truly is.  After this book came out, Alex Wilson's published a groundbreaking article in Environmental Building News on the Global Warming Potential of Foam Insulation.  Their research led to a wholesale re-evaluation of the viability of using closed expanding cell foam and related insulation materials in building envelopes because of the long-term costs of using fossil fuel as blowing agents.  Many of the case studies homes in the Toward a Zero Energy Home used closed cell insulation in some aspects of the building envelope.  The new research indicated the need to look more closely at using open cell insulation or other more benign alternatives such as cellulose insulation instead going forward.  Hindsight is 20/20 though and admittedly best practices will always be evolving to ever-higher standards.

Green Infrastructure_Fixed Solar Arrays at Logan Airport Economy Lot 2

22 Panel fixed solar arrays sitting atop Economy Lot 2 Parking Structure (20 of them
at 3-4 kw each )  Not sure what they're tied into yet but what a great way to use a
parking surface!

It's been a while since I've flown out of Logan airport and the first time I've parked at the new 3000 space economy lot 2 which recently opened last November.  I'm always on the lookout for signs of hope, however small or large in this case.   I know I drove to park here but at least I smiled when I drove atop of this structure.  (of course there was barely any parking on this new economy lot...with cars parked intruding into drive lanes allover)

This urban solar orchard is impressive and can serve as an example for others around the country and world looking for ways to bring solar into widespread use.  A lonely piece of infrastructure like this garage is a perfect location for adding such renewable energy sources.  Like rooftops in many urban locations parking structure upper decks can provide ample solar exposure with minimal sun shading to reduce panel efficiency and output.  The twenty fixed 22 panel solar arrays produce approximately 60+ KW of electricity (my visual estimate) about 12 percent of the garage's energy needs.  Ultra low energy use LED lighting is installed throughout the parking structure further reducing the energy footprint of the new structure.

I understand from my research into MassPort's overall sustainability efforts they use an award winning Sustainable Design Standards and Guidelines on all of their projects.  The (SDSG) is an authority-wide strategy initiated at the direction of soon to retire Executive Director and CEO Thomas J. Kinton, Jr. "to integrate sustainable technologies and practices into all of Massport’s capital projects, reflecting Massport’s long history of achievements in sustainability."  I called Massport's Office of Strategic Communications and Marketing and they were happy to send me a link to a press release about the project.

It was apparently built to provide a centralized economy parking option at ($18/day and $108/week) relieving pressure on numerous nearby over capacity surface parking lots.  However, given how this lot was over capacity during a normal non-holiday midweek I have to ask whether the vision for this lot falls short, ie not enough parking deck levels in the first place?  I hope MassPort and its design team had the foresight to build into the structure the ability to expand upwards with enhancements in structural design to allow future additions.  

Another visible potential green measures was the addition of four story tall screens which someday may hold vegetation and act as living walls buffering the heat-island effect of the sun beating down on the massive concrete parking structure.   These screens were installed on the corners of the garage facing the heaviest traveled roads, likely more of a signpost of "green-ness" than really being effective.  I say may someday hold vegetation as there was no visual evidence of planters and irrigation systems installed (yet I hope!). They are usually installed in planters on the ground level and given the height at midpoints up the structure. The living wall panels could also be lit up a night from hidden LED light sources installed in the ground below the frames to accentuate the green message and enhance visibility.   (MassPort, if you need help in designing these additional green upgrades please give me a shout out.  The structure needs it!)

Doing so would be extremely functional and by using the cooling albedo effect of plants (climbing ivy's and such) the area parking area immediately near the green living wall would be more cool and comfortable.  The bottom line, adding these screens can help reduce the global warming impact of this structure by dampening the heat island effects.  However, the lack of green vegetative ground cover around the base of the structure reduces the opportunity to make a difference.  The monotonous expanse of 3" stone rubble rip rap is alienating from a pedestrian scale however productive it might be from a storm-water filtration standpoint.  I hope MassPort installs some kind of green ground cover there down the road.  Hopefully this is a work in progress!

Maybe that's asking too much of such a back of house building.  The challenge is this element needs cultivating and stewardship over time and access to water.  Storm water run-off from the parking garage roof deck (which must be considerable!) could be stored in cisterns below and pumped up and provide an easy grey water source to nurture the living wall growth which could potentially climb the wire screens.  Those cisterns could also be installed near the upper decks and grey water could gravity feed down the screen. The Solar panels likely could also power the pumps as well as the lighting, elevators and other electrical systems in the building.  

Of course the greater issue is I drove by myself to the parking garage rather than taking the T (Boston's subway and above ground train system)  I called my sister in law who told me there wasn't really a great way to catch a ride to the T off of Interstate 93 north of Boston with adequate long-term parking at the T station.  I could have planned a little more in advance and maybe I could of made this happen.  I'm sure I missed a golden opportunity to do so but I ran out time.  What I wish for is next time I come down, I can park at the Anderson Transportation Center off of 93 and ride a train in to Logan.  I can do this so easily in Chicago with the L and their larger regional trains out of the city core to O'Hare airport.  By riding the train from 15 miles outside the city I would have not added my car's exhaust to the mix of downtown drivers, diverting my ugly CO2 from the mix over the city.  

But, I'm psyched about seeing the roof top solar trackers though! However, if there is a next time for designing and building additional structures like this at Mass Port or other locations around the world I recommend:

• Ensuring flexibility for later deck additions by building into the design beefier structure and footings.
• Build actual living wall screening systems watered by gray water retention from roof top storm water run-off.  Not just on a few corners, but over substantial wall surface areas, imagine a "green ivy covered" parking structure?  Talk about branding and messaging green measures!
• Beef up the solar array coverage on the roof structure.  Why stop at 12% renewable needs?  
• Invest in more robust green ground cover at the base of structure rather than easy to maintain hard to look at stone rip rap.  Or at least up the ground cover plantings near parking structure corners and entry / exit locations where pedestrians and visitors frequent.
• Its unclear from the press release whether fly-ash was used in the concrete parking structure but it's certainly an option and resonates with the LEED System.

However, Great job in general and may this be just a beginning for MassPort's journey towards deeper sustainability efforts!  But, consider hardy travelers next time you fly in and out of Logan seek alternatives such as taking the train or buses into the airport rather than even parking here.  

Economic Graphs - Recovery amidst rising oil prices

I visited USA Today's Economic Outlook area on their website and produced these graphs which I share courtesy of their site. I like what I'm seeing on the upper graph especially the projected continued US economic growth.  It's the lower graph which charts Crude Oil prices which worries me.  The latest price per barrel of oil is $90/barrel.  The first time we saw that price was in November 2007 according to this graph and the last time was October 2008 right in the middle of the epic US banking system financial crisis.

At least to my eyes the oil price trend will continue to move upward in the coming years returning pressure on consumers and the business world to more whole heartedly  embrace energy efficiency, energy conservation and resource preserving behaviors and operational measures.  Not only because it might be nice for mother earth and feels right but because their bottom line and longer term business success demands it.  Forward looking companies coming out of this recession may want to dust off their carbon footprint reports from 2007 and 2008 and sustainability initiatives because it might just be prudent business to do so and consider taking concrete actions to reduce their vulnerabilities to rising energy and commodity costs.  By reinvigorating your internal green operations teams and greening facilities initiatives and aligning them again with long term business objectives and priorities, you'll be doing your shareholders and stakeholders a great favor!  Maybe you're already doing this which is great.  But if you're not. then food for thought!

Anyway, enjoy the graphics!  They're pretty interesting.  The USA Today link I gave you allows you to toggle between the the 11 key economic factors forming the basis of the top graph.  It's a novel and easy to operate.

Supporting Clean Energy_A Vermont Perspective

Here's a video I posted to the RePower America Wall about supporting Clean Energy. Like I said in the video below I see here in Vermont all around me communities shifting away from dependence on fossil fuels and foreign oil to renewable, clean sources.  Shifting towards cleaner sources both benefits our local environment and promotes green jobs in our local communities.  Many Vermont companies now manufacture, install and consult on bringing clean energy, whether solar, wind, geothermal, biomass into Vermont homes, businesses and institutions.  By doing so we ensure a more stable and sustainable way of life for generations to come.

For more information about the impact of renewable energy here in Vermont I urge you to click on this link to the Renewable Energy Vermont website and it's sister entity, Efficiency Vermont, an energy efficiency utility working to bring energy efficiency and conservation deeper into households and businesses around our small state.  Another resource is the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund, an organization dedicated to shifting Vermont towards clean energy and green jobs.  

What's great about Vermont is while we may be small, we have big ideas and a track record others can learn from on their journey towards shifting away from fossil fuel dependence towards clean energy and building stronger local communities.  Check us out for best practices on how to do this.  Contact me if you'd  like more information from any of these resources or if you're considering adding renewable energy sources to your building project.  I can help or if not, I will find someone who can.

(Slow) Green

Awareness of our actions and consequences
We are awakening at last
Reading and seeing catastrophic oily substances surrounds us on the news
Chocking shorelines, habitats, livelihoods and communities
Illuminating our dependence upon oil and other fossil fuels
Revealing tragic vulnerabilities
Intensifying resolve to change behaviors
To finally make a difference
Stemming from another time and place
A different set of rules and natural patterns
No longer valid or reliable
Instead a changed world behaves unexpectedly

The idea of growth for growth's sake so anachronistic
Replaced by the need to think smaller, leaner and self-sufficient
Embracing a changed natural world
A difficult sickened place needing productive cultivation
A multi-generational effort awaits, so daunting
Achievable if together we set one foot in front of another
Beginning on the slow journey to a sustainable future

No longer just a few, but now a motivated many.

Cape Wind Gets Approval from the Federal Government

I read today in my local paper the Cape Wind Project gained approval from the Feds to proceed off Cape Cod. I understand there was immediate threats of lawsuits and further action. I hope this gets sorted out and this project can proceed. My guess, if this can happen, it will be helpful for other projects where clean energy, aesthetics, passion and a myriad of other issues come together. Of course, as they say in tight competitons, it's not over until it's over. Read more about it at CNET. Let me know what you think about this decision. See also the newscast found on YouTube.

It resonates close to home for me as I live in Vermont amidst a beautiful, scenic landscape with many oppourtunities for wind and solar energy and lots of challenges as well. All I want is to retain the historic, quirky character of this wonderful state while keeping our eyes and minds open to the realities of needing to lessen our dependence on fossil fuels and see alternatives in the clean energy economy. I'm not sure how to get it done but examples like Cape Wind at least offers hope the conversation is continuing to the next step. This I believe benefits us all.

DOE Solar Decathalon Winners_Let the Sun Shine on Innovation

When I was in graduate school in the the early 1990's sustainable design was just getting off of the ground in the way we know it now. (I know it's been around since Mesa Verde, but the current generation of thinking)

I wish programs such as the Solar Decathalon held each year in the fall in Washington D.C. were around then. It is sponsored by the US Dept of Energy and teams from universities and colleges from all across the world compete in it. It provides an oppourtunity for pursuing design innovation and experiential learning on a small solar home scale. What a fantastic all around oppourtunity!

The program has six-goals worth noting. The basic premise is to invigorate interest, research and developing marketable technologies able to be brought to the market-place. Another one is to help develop zero energy homes which is something many of us want to know more about.

The winners this year, especially the top three, offer a wide ranging view of how to solve the design challenge. Check out the winners! I wonder if teams from Norwich University or Yestermorrow Design Build School have ever entered? It seems like this program would be right up their respective areas of focus. I'll have to check with friends who teach there.

See photostreams of the homes on Flickr and Hi-res Gallery of Homes on the DOE site.

Enjoy seeing what the next generation of design leaders are up to!

Dan Reicher from Google Spoke at Yestermorrow

Last night I attended Dan Reicher's illuminating lecture at the Yestermorrow Design Build School in Warren. He spoke to a overflow crowd of summer program students, area professionals and interested public. He was there as part of Yestermorrow's weekly lecture series.

As director of Energy and Climate Initiatives at Google, former Assistant Secretary of Energy under the Clinton Administration and team member on the Obama transition team he offered a wide ranging yet extremely well-informed discussion of global energy issues, how they're connected to our local context in Vermont (He used to live in the Mad River Valley) and how Google intersects with them. He participated on helping originate key ideas in the Economic Stimulus Package pertaining to Energy and spoke also about the Climate legislation before congress right now.

He had some interesting quotes for slides, one of them from Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel who said, "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste". He spoke to the potential for rapid transformation and change given our current systemic economic problems and how the economic stimulus package provides dramatic opportunities and funding sources to drive energy conservation and efficiency R&D to examine alternative and promising energy fuel options. What's interesting I think is how subtle and imperceptible stimulus related change is to us in Vermont. What we see is heightened activity on our local roads and highways and read about awards of grants and programs to non-profits in affordable housing, agricultural economy and health centers among a few examples. Dan spoke how the arrival of the Obama Administration really is changing the energy policy game in Washington. Their arrival and focus on these issues has released eight years of pent-up demand where alternative energy sources, energy efficiency and other key factors were routinely level funded and poorly supported by the former administration. Things really are different now and it's evident from where he sits.

As Director of energy and climate initiatives at Google, Dan is participating and shepherding some interesting projects along. One project relates to plug-in electric hybrids. He discussed Google's plug-in electric car initiatives where they modified Toyota Prius' aftermarket with additional batteries and installed plug in stations at 'Googleplex'. They made the cars readily available to staff to use as they wish. The gas mileage results were astounding for typical everyday driving at 93 MPG (Done by professionally trained drivers to model typical behavior) Googlers got 73 MPG in average googleplex short trips of 1-2 miles per day. Google envisions in 10 to 15 years possibly millions of such vehicles on the roads. Along the way, battery and electric charging technologies will in his mind no doubt improve.

He also spoke about Enhanced Geothermal Systems which I'd never heard of before. This is the kind of system which takes advantage of the earth's natural heat well below the earth's crust, kilometers below the surface. Water is pumped into the wells and run into the hot areas below and channeled back to the surface to produce electricity. He showed slides displaying the Geothermal energy potential in the U.S. at 3KM, 5KM and 10 KM below the surface. It's a promising technology getting lots of publicity and funding right now. Some issues though were enhanced seismicity (meaning prevalence for earthquakes) related to drilling deep wells although he said this is similar to oil and natural gas drilling where similar issues exist.

An over-arching theme emerged from this where he said virtually in any emerging and existing energy technology there are environmental and societal downsides which must be carefully considered. This is a pervasive theme and it's up to society and political systems to debate together the cost-benefit equations to determine the contingent 'right' answers. He did argue which ever alternative technologies are successful they would be working together and there was no magic new single transformation technology out there. No matter if it's wind, solar, enhanced geothermal, wave energy, traditional oil and gas extraction, bio-mass or cellulose fuel sources there are down-sides in to all of them. He share an anecdote about how public opinion is fickle in regards to this. He reminded us about the recent devastation near a coal plant where coal sludge literally despoiled an entire valley down south last summer and how public opinion didn't seem to get ruffled. This is in comparison to the passionate debate about Nuclear Energy and nuclear power plants and fear of plant accidents. You have two kinds of technologies both effecting the environment and people potentially disastrously with inconsistent concern and fears.

He spoke about the promise and obstacles facing deployment of industrial scale renew ables and plugging them into the smart grid. The biggest issue he said the smart grid effort faces is getting power lines to hook into future and existing generation sites. The permitting and entitlement process for power-lines is lengthy and potentially slowing of the roll-out of large scale generation. The other side to the equation is in the meanwhile, micro-grid power generation such as residential and small scale wind, solar, geothermal are very easy to deploy and likely will find success in the market place simultaneously to the slower development of the smart-grid and power transmission. Thus for all of us here in Vermont and elsewhere committed to small scale projects this is a great sign of promising times ahead.

The last thing I want to mention which was important I think to me and perhaps most importantly is Energy use of Google search at data centers behind our everyday searches. Dan mentioned how the search marketplace is extremely competitive and aware of its energy footprint and that great strides have been made to dramatically reduce power usage levels at Data Centers both at Google and with other search providers. He emphasized how Google really is focused here and as well, more importantly he hopes, on the bigger energy picture. He tried to convey how Google is committed to being involved in large scale energy related projects going forward. I think he did that very well.

Thanks Dan and Yestermorrow for a fascinating looking into global and local energy issues!

(I included an image from Google's 2006 Earthday logo to spice up the post)

Microgrid Houses, energy independance and giving back to the grid

In this summer's July / August issue of Fast Company Anya Kamenetz wrote an article an Why the Microgrid Could Be the Answer to Our Energy Crisis .

It identifies how the microgrid which is small scale consumer, commercial developer and municipality driven is at odds with the large scale smart grid, renewable energy industrialization efforts of large regional or national energy players. What's fascinating and powerful is how both together large and small can help provide needed renewable energy sources to all scales of users. And, the economic oppourtunity for redefining our troubled economy through the conversion to greener energy sources can only or the other but both together which is powerful. It's not Smart Grid vs. Microgrid but both, 1 + 1 = 5 etc. With multiple ways to deliver renewable energy in a more complex interdependant system we are all better off.

As she says "The microgrid is all about consumer control -- aligning monetary incentives, with the help of information technology, to make renewables and efficiency pay off for the average homeowner, commercial developer, or even a town. The name of the game is to scale up renewables big enough, fast enough, to bring the cost down to parity with conventional resources. "

Here in Vermont, one of our local energy companies, Green Mountain Power they have a 10,000 panels in 1,000 days program in their Choose to go solar campaign. They are committed to transforming the energy landscape in Vermont business, homeowners and municipalities and exemplify microgrid efforts on a more local scale. I believe we're in the midst of a viral consumer driven renewable energy revolution. Smart companies which realize this are stepping in like Green Mountain Power to help make it easy for consumers to green up their energy usage and create more energy independance on a local scale. It's the Wiki distributed and nimble consumer driven approach to change rather than old style large scale 1,000 acre wind or solar farm.

One thing however, the Microgrid house from the article which I include here falls short as an example but is worth including to get the conversation going. I agree the house can be a small power plant generating electricity but what's missing in the example are additional flyouts identifying smart choices for low use water fixtures, recycled materials in construction and finishes. Having a garage in the front helps make the case for the electric plug-in visually but speaks to broken conventional development patterns and attitudes. This is an incomplete picture at best.

Anyway, that's all with this post. I think I'd better offer some ideas about the ideal microgrid house in future posts. But please read the linked articles and information. And, any feedback or comments are welcome.