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Zero Net Energy Homes Part 3 – The Federal R&D Agenda

January 9, 2009 in energy efficiency, energy generation, green building, integrative design, policy by nils | 1 comment

This entry is part 3 of 5 in the series Zero Net Energy Homes
A House

House, ready to become zero net energy (Image by Panoramas, CC 2.0 licensed)

In October 2008, a number of federal government departments and research organizations collaborated to produce the Federal R&D Agenda for Net Zero Energy High Performance Green Buildings (PDF). It's a fascinating document, its origins driven primarily in response to two energy policy laws passed in 2005 and 2007 (during the Bush administration). In particular, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA 2007) created an Office of Commercial High Performance Green Buildings and a consortium on a Zero Net Energy Commercial Buildings Initiative. This consortium produced the R&D agenda.

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Zero Net Energy Homes – Part 1

January 6, 2009 in energy efficiency, energy generation, energy storage, green building by nils | 3 comments

This entry is part 1 of 5 in the series Zero Net Energy Homes
Beautiful sunset (CC 2.0 license)

Beautiful sunset (photo by Santa Rosa OLD SKOOL, CC 2.0 license)

This is the first post in a series on zero-net energy homes. Over the course of the series I will be covering all aspects of this topic, from the technology and knowledge available today, to the changes needed in technology, building codes, trade skills, design approaches, and will to achieve the goal of all new homes eventually being zero net energy.

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Ten Energy Predictions For The Next Decade

January 5, 2009 in accelerating change, carbon mitigation, economy, energy efficiency, energy generation, energy storage, green building, integrative design, opinion, solar electricity, transportation by nils | Add your comment

Snow on the San Gabriel Mountains (photo by Jerry Thompson1)

Snow on the San Gabriel Mountains (photo by Jerry Thompson1, CC 2.0 license)

On December 30 of last year (six days ago), my wife and I were in Pasadena, CA visiting the Greene and Greene exhibit at the Huntington Library. It was one of those glorious and rare smog-free days in the LA basin. The air sparkled, you could see for miles in every direction, and mountain range after mountain range was visible - all the way out to the snow-covered San Gabriels. Nowadays, the air is only ever this clear around the Christmas holiday, when the freeway traffic is substantially reduced and a lot of factories shut down for the week. It got me thinking about how the future - say ten to twenty years hence - may be unrecognizable in both dramatic and mundane ways. For example, smog-free days may no longer be rare in LA, once the economy has shifted off fossil fuels. (I suspect the traffic will remain, unfortunately!)

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The Answer Is Blowing In The Wind

December 12, 2008 in analysis, biofuels, carbon mitigation, energy generation, transportation by nils | Add your comment

Windmill and old houses in Schipluiden

Old Windmill (image by waterwin, CC 2.0 license)

The results of this study on solutions to global warming, air pollution, and energy security, by Stanford professor Mark Z. Jacobson, are somewhat surprising, given the drumbeat from many areas on both nuclear and biofuels as necessary for the salvation of the world.

Jacobson analyzes 12 energy sources for their beneficial impact on global warming, air pollution, and energy security - the ten electricity sources are solar-photovoltaics (PV), concentrated solar power (CSP), wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, wave, tidal, nuclear, and coal with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology; the two liquid fuel options are corn-ethanol (E85) and cellulosic-E85.

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Watch Out For Unintended Consequences

November 17, 2008 in carbon mitigation, energy generation, policy by nils | Add your comment

Mojave Desert scene in Joshua Tree National Park.

Image via Wikipedia

In their editorial Green Energy vs. Actual "Green" Energy Basin and Range Watch point out that there are lots of opportunities for making a big mess of the environment while trying to save it. The focus of this site is the Mojave and Great Basin Deserts in Nevada and California, the targets of many new solar projects. "There are over one million acres of public land in the six states that are being considered for sacrifice."

Most of these projects require a lot of water, and all require "clear cutting" the desert to prevent weeds and pests.

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A Note From The Fuel Cell Research Front

October 29, 2008 in biofuels, energy generation, energy storage, materials by nils | Add your comment

Methanol fuel cell.

Methanol fuel cell. Image via Wikipedia

I plan to do an in-depth post or series on fuel cells soon, because there is so much breakthrough work going on in this research area. Fuel cells are interesting on so many fronts - for example, they're probably the best way to use the hydrogen generated by Daniel Nocera's new hydrogen splitting method, announced in mid-August. And just since August, researchers have announced big improvements or cost reductions in every component of the fuel cell - membrane, catalyst, and electrodes.

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30-fold Increase In Solar Energy By 2016 – Moore’s Law, Anyone?

October 21, 2008 in energy generation, policy, solar electricity, solar thermal by nils | Add your comment

Solar Power International Logo

Solar Power International Logo

The opening keynotes at the Solar Power International trade show last week were eye-opening. (See the Tuesday Keynotes video on this page - Resch at 20 minutes, Hamm at 37 minutes.)

Rhone Resch of the Solar Energy Industries Association first told the story of getting the investment tax credit for solar renewed - 17 failed votes before it finally passed with the Paulson Bailout bill. He then outlined the benefits to the solar industry of the ITC - stability for solar energy businesses, creation of thousands of new business opportunities due to the remove of the residential solar cap, and a return to leadership of the US in solar. "Solar energy is going to create 440k new jobs, 1.2 million new solar installations, and 28 gigawatts of new capacity - enough to power seven million homes throughout the U.S."

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Sahara Forest Project: An Awesome Example of Mega-Integrative Design

October 17, 2008 in energy generation, integrative design, solar thermal by nils | Add your comment

The Sahara Forest project will use seawater and solar power to grow food in greenhouses across the desert. Photograph: Exploration Architecture

The Sahara Forest project will use seawater and solar power to grow food in greenhouses across the desert. Photograph: Exploration Architecture

The Sahara Forest project represents integrative design at a huge scale. (Integrative design combines multiple design improvements to get an overall improvement that's bigger than the sum of its components.) As it says on the the Sahara Forest project home page:

The project combines two proven technologies in a new way to create multiple benefits: producing large amounts of renewable energy, food and water as well as reversing desertification.

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Expanding Options In Solar Energy and Electric Cars

October 10, 2008 in accelerating change, energy generation, solar electricity, transportation by nils | Add your comment

Mission Peak (L), Mount Allison (C) and Monume...

Mission Peak in Fremont, CA. Image via Wikipedia

A roundup of a few stories that came out this week that I found particularly interesting.

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How Much Sun Is There Really?

October 7, 2008 in energy generation by nils | Add your comment

Solar power systems installed in the areas def...

Image via Wikipedia

Do you ever wonder about that claim that the energy flux of sunshine on the Earth is 10,000 times the projected energy use of civilization? Well, I do. I decided to drill down a bit into this number, to find out what the real bottom line potential of solar energy is. There are a lot of caveats to that number:

  • 3/4 of the Earth's surface is ocean, so the energy flux on land, right off, is on 2,500 times the projected energy use of civilization. I'm not saying we can't collect solar energy off the ocean, but to the layperson, "Earth's surface" means "land surface," and that should be clarified
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