Cooling the planet with white roofs

An article in the Guardian points out that simply making roofs and paving more reflective could have a dramatic impact on climate change:

Computer simulations of Los Angeles show that resurfacing about two-thirds of roads and rooftops with reflective surfaces, as well as planting more trees, could cool the city by 2-3C. That would reduce LA smog as much as a total ban on cars and lorries, and cooler roofs could also save a fortune in electricity bills. On hot days in North America, up to 40% of all electricity can be consumed by air-conditioners, and each degree a city such as LA warms is reckoned to see the air-con turned up enough to need another 500MW - the output of a decent sized nuclear power station. Akbari estimates that widespread use of cooler rooftops could slash $1bn from electricity bills in the US alone.

And what about glare?

No problem, Akbari says: reflective materials need not be white. Lighter colours such as grey are good too. And there are other ways to increase the albedo of materials. Pigments that bounce back infrared light can raise the reflectivity of dark surfaces by 40% without any obvious change in colour. They are not as effective as white, which bounces back visible wavelengths of light too, but they are much better than conventional materials.

The Public Works Research Institute in Japan has experimented with paints with such pigments applied to conventional asphalt surfaces. They made a road that reflects 86% of infrared light, which helps keep the surface cool, yet reflects just 23% of visible light, to keep down glare.

For more information, see the discussion of cool roofs as geoengineering on Gristmill.

(Via Jetson Green.)

Draughty Victorian transformed into ecohome

The Guardian has an article on the transformation of old homes in the UK into well-insulated energy-sipping 'ecohomes' as part of the "Old Home Superhome" program:

Looking around it's hard to find clues. There are few obvious clues that Penney Poyzer and Gil Schalom live in one of the most radical homes in the UK. In the kitchen is a recently plastered wall; on the floor an organic veg box; and upstairs a dual-flush loo. Otherwise it's hard to find evidence that the couple have taken the sort of eco-nightmare draughty Victorian house lived in by millions of people in the UK and turned it into an almost totally carbon-free home, with a gas bill of £20 a year.

The Live Building at Queen’s University

Queen's University has an amazing website which tracks, in real time, the performance of its Live Building which houses its Faculty of Applied Science. The building was designed as a teaching tool for students to learn about building, construction, and design strategies for making better and more sustainable buildings. The website contains overviews of the various strategies employed to make the building more environmentally friendly and comfortable for its occupants. Among other things, occupancy sensors and daylighting are used to reduce lighting energy requirements, an enthalpy wheel exchanges heat and humidity between the incoming and outgoing airstreams to reduce the energy required to heat/cool and humidify/dehumidify the building, a gorgeous three-story biowall acts as a natural air filtration and humidification system, and a detailed life-cycle analysis based on Athena™ was used to determine whether cast-in-place concrete or structural steel with a composite deck would have a lower environmental impact (the concrete won out). Details of the building's structural design and electrical systems are also discussed on the website, along with data from a full suite of monitoring tools and sensors which track room-by-room lighting levels, temperature, humidity, electrical power consumption, and even the temperature in different layers of the building envelope (which allows for tracking of the performance of insulating layers).

India climate solutions

An inspiring story about young people in India working toward climate change solutions is highlighted in a column by Thomas Friedman in the New York Times:

“Why did this tour happen?” asked Ringwald. “Why this mad, insane plan to travel across India in a caravan of solar electric cars and jatropha trucks with solar music, art, dance and a potent message for climate solutions? Well ... the world needs crazy ideas to change things, because the conventional way of thinking is not working anymore.”

Solar thermal goes big

A massive solar thermal installation, slated to produce over 1 GW of energy, has been announced. From Wired.com:

The largest series of solar installations in history, more than 1,300 megawatts, is planned for the desert outside Los Angeles, according to a new deal between the utility Southern California Edison and solar power plant maker, BrightSource.

The momentous deal will deliver more electricity than even the largest nuclear plant, spread out among seven facilities, the first of which will start up in 2013. When fully operational, the companies say the facility will provide enough electricity to power 845,000 homes -- more than exist in San Francisco -- though estimates like that are notoriously squirrely. The technology isn't the familiar photovoltaics -- the direct conversion of sunlight into electricity -- but solar thermal power, which concentrates the sun's rays to create steam in a boiler and spin a turbine.

Solar thermal power generation seems to be very competitive on the 'city-scale', as it avoids the (currently) high cost of producing photovoltaic panels. The technology is described in the official press release:

The system uses thousands of small mirrors called heliostats to reflect sunlight onto a boiler atop a tower to produce high temperature steam. The steam is then piped to a conventional turbine which generates electricity. In order to conserve precious desert water, the LPT 550 system uses air-cooling to convert the steam back into water. The water is then returned to the boiler in an environmentally-friendly closed cycle. This fully integrated energy system is designed to offer the highest operating efficiencies and lowest capital costs in the industry.

Rising acidity threatens oceans

If global warming (or air pollution) isn't sufficient reason for us to change the way we use and generate energy, then maybe this article in the New York Times on the acidification of the oceans by the absorption of carbon dioxide should make us sit up and take notice.

The oceans have long buffered the effects of climate change by absorbing a substantial portion of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. But this benefit has a catch: as the gas dissolves, it makes seawater more acidic. Now an international panel of marine scientists says this acidity is accelerating so fast it threatens the survival of coral reefs, shellfish and the marine food web generally.

Ontario government drops hints on green energy stimulus

An article published in the Globe and Mail on February 5 suggests that the Ontario government may be about to make some important announcements on support for renewable energy:

The government is poised to introduce ambitious legislation that will profoundly shake up the province's electricity system by giving more scope for renewable sources of energy such as wind, solar and biomass generation. Environmentalists and others who are familiar with the discussions at the Ministry of Energy are excited that the Green Energy Act will make Ontario a world leader in encouraging alternatives to conventional fossil-fuel power generation. Some even believe that there will be such a rush of green energy on to the power grid that the government might have second thoughts about building new nuclear plants.

I'm hopeful that the act will also give a major push to energy efficiency efforts, although this is only mentioned in passing:

Targets would also be set for conservation and demand management. It is expected that more than 15 current acts -- dealing with municipalities and energy agencies -- would have to be amended to accommodate the push for green energy.

Passive house taking hold in US

The Passive House concept, invented in Germany, is starting to take root in the US. Passive houses are super-insulated to the point where they don't need a furnace and can be heated with a toaster. Despite their air-tight construction, they continuously move fresh air into the house through heat-recovery ventilators, which take heat from stale air on the way out of the house and use it to heat up incoming fresh outdoor air.

From OregonLive:

We wrap up in wool sweaters to keep warm in winter. Why not extend the same courtesy to our drafty, energy-gobbling homes?

The "super-insulated" house got its start in Canada in 1977. The Germans followed up in 1991 with an improved version by eliminating the furnace altogether. They called it a "passive house," which quickly caught on in their chilly climate.

This revolutionary concept has only recently spread to the United States, where it is gaining devoted followers among green building enthusiasts.

"The irony is that we knew about this (Canadian) house in the 1980s," says Mike O'Brien, residential green building specialist for the city of Portland. "Everybody at the time thought it was overkill. But now our energy bills have caught up with us and we're ready to hear about it."

Wind power grows

Good news on wind power growth:

[W]ind was the largest component of Europe's growth in electric generating capacity, the US became the world's top wind energy producer, and China doubled its installed capacity in just a year -- for the fourth year running.

On the down side, econonomic troubles are creeping into wind power production:

Like most energy projects, wind power facilities are capital intensive, and capital is hard to come by in the US these days, so the report is accompanied by hopes that the US stimulus package will include provisions to expand wind energy even further, which should limit the job losses in manufacturing and prevent them from spreading downstream to construction and maintenance. The AWEA's CEO, Denise Bode, stated, "The hope is that provisions such as those included in the House stimulus bill to restore the effectiveness of the tax incentives for renewable energy will quickly become law and provide the capital needed to continue to build projects."

Zero waste

Moving toward zero waste:

Put simply, zero waste means keeping the majority of our materials in closed loops: Food scraps are composted back into fertile soil; paper back into fiber, and so on. Eventually the whole concept of waste would disappear and we would continuously recycle our resources in never-ending loops.

Last week, members of [the] Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) toured Eco-Cycle, one of the largest non-profit recycling outfits in the United States.

All those who subscribe to Eco-Cycle receive three bins for their waste: one for compost, another for recyclables, and a third for "whatever's left".

Eco-cycle intends to eliminate the "whatever's left" category over time by working with designers to adjust their choices in packaging and product materials. In the long run, consumers would be left with two waste streams: one for composting and another for recycling.

Eco-cycle isn't alone in its transition toward zero waste. Toronto now recovers over 42 percent of its waste and is aiming for 70 percent by 2010. Germany recycles 60 percent of its municipal waste.

The smart garage

The Rocky Mountain Institute is promoting the Smart Garage concept, which aims to kill two birds with one stone by powering our transportation infrastructure, while simultaneously reducing the variability of renewable power generation. The Smart Garage concept is the intelligent interconnection of plug-in hybrid vehicles with the electrical grid. An intelligent grid would charge the batteries in your car in cheap off-peak periods of electricity use (like the middle of the night), and sell power back to the grid during peak periods (like the middle of a hot summer's day while your car sits in a parking lot). This would lower the cost of charging your vehicle (and maybe even make you some money), and provide a vast, distributed storage network for electricity. This storage network of potentially millions of car batteries could soak up power from renewable power generators during periods of low demand/high generation, which could then be sold back to the grid during periods of peak demand/low power generation.

From the RMI weblog:

Given the utility is experiencing a peak load period, it asks my house if it can use the spare power in the car's battery and send that electricity elsewhere in the grid. What's more, it will pay me for that power. Since I like being paid, I have already programmed the system to accept such requests.

So, while I am snacking in the kitchen, I am actually being paid for the unused power remaining in my car battery, and yet have complete confidence there will be more than enough power left in the vehicle to get me to where I need to go.

Green home renovation

Kate & Rob, friends of mine here in Ottawa, are undertaking a renovation of an older home in a central Ottawa neighbourhood. They have a real passion for green building which they are bringing to bear on an environmentally friendly upgrade to their house. You can follow the fascinating story of their renovation on their weblog, where they consider, among many things, the ins and outs of good window design, environmentally-friendly 'heatlok' insulation, drain water heat recovery, geothermal heating, tile selection, and 'freecycling'. Here's how it all began:

We were not looking for a house just yet but when the for sale sign was spotted on a favourite street the idea was planted on a Friday afternoon. After a mosquito/rain infested overnight camping trip, Erin was invited to join us at a Sunday showing without a realtor in hand. We explored a house that not only had character but authentic elements of an original home -- smoke stained walls, grimy kitchen and all. While the idea that it "needed a little work" was clear, the house had so much potential with its unique layout (with 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms) and incredible location ...

Standing under a tree in the rain, the phone rang 20 minutes later and the house was ours.

Sustainable agriculture and foie gras

At the Taste3 2008 conference, hosted by TED talks, the chef Dan Barber tells a wonderful story about sustainable agriculture and foie gras. It is a story of a Spanish farmer and producer of foie gras, who is in love with his geese and does not force feed them but instead allows them to gorge in the fall on the fruit of his olive and fig groves, in order to produce what Dan Barber says is the best foie gras in the world¹.

From Dan's closing remarks:

We need now to adopt a new conception of agriculture. One in which we stop treating the planet as if it were some kind of a business in liquidation. And stop degrading resources under the guise of cheap food. We can start by looking to farmers like Eduardo, farmers that rely on nature for solutions, for answers; rather than imposing solutions on nature [they are] "listening to nature's operating instructions". The great thing for people that care about food and cooking is that the most ecological choice for food is also the most ethical choice for food. And it's also, almost always, and I haven't found an example otherwise, the most delicious choice. That's serendipitous.

1. In 2007 Eduardo Sousa was awarded the Coup de Coeur for the best foie gras by the Paris International Food Salon.↩

Change doesn’t always come easily

I just came across this quote from Niccolo Machiavelli in The Prince on the Gristmill weblog which I think is worth chewing on:

It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out ... than to initiate a new order of things. For the reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who could profit by the new order, this lukewarmness arriving partly from fear of their adversaries ... and partly from the incredulity of mankind, who do not truly believe in anything new until they have had an actual experience of it.

Yikes! 8000 lbs of waste per house

An interesting article on the incredible amount of waste produced by home building and some tips on how to reduce it while saving money and building a better house.

According to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) study, an estimated 8,000 lbs of waste is created from the construction of a 2,000 square foot home ... Much of the debris was either unnecessary material or material that could be salvaged or recycled.  The problem can be solved by streamlining the material coming into the construction site and better managing how the waste is separated and where it ends up.

(Via Jetson Green.)

Chicago Plans 1140 Acre LEED Neighborhood Development

From the Jetson Green weblog/magazine on green building:

Looks like Chicago city planners have big ideas for a 1140 acre swathe of land in South Chicago.  The spot is former U.S. Steel land, and planners have been mulling development options for the spot since about 2000.  Now, they'd like to submit a proposal for a green development with sustainable neighborhoods, green buildings, street cars, and bicycle paths, etc.  Officially referred to as the "South Chicago LEED Neighborhood Development Initiative," the plan would be rated by the USGBC's LEED-ND pilot program and would unravel over roughly 20-30 years. 

365 days of trash

So this guy, Dave Chameides, decided to keep all of his trash in the basement for a year and not throw anything out. And he has a family. Amazingly, he managed to keep his total trash down to 30.5 lbs plus recycling. It looks like he has a great blog with all kinds of inspiring tips on reducing your waste, and on more sustainable living in general. I like his byline: "noone can do everything but everyone can do something". Here's the video of the final result:

"Takin' Out The Trash" from Sustainable Dave on Vimeo.

A simple solar heater

Interesting piece on making a small solar heater out of 2x4's and pop-cans:

Insulating the garage would go a long way to help keep the bitter Vermont cold out, but that’s a project for another day. I decided instead to take advantage of the south-facing side of the garage and build a solar furnace to collect some of that sunshine just bouncing straight off my garage.

A 24 room, 344 square foot apartment

I'm not sure if this has anything to do with green building, but I think this one room apartment – described in a recent New York Times article – which can be transformed into 24 different rooms, from a kitchen to a spa to an entertainment room, is very interesting. This flexibility might find some traction with the "small house" movement:

This room -- the "maximum kitchen," he calls it -- and the "video game room" he was sitting in minutes before are just 2 of at least 24 different layouts that Mr. Chang, an architect, can impose on his 344-square-foot apartment, which he renovated last year. What appears to be an open-plan studio actually contains many rooms, because of sliding wall units, fold-down tables and chairs, and the habitual kinesis of a resident in a small space. As Mr. Chang put it, "I glide around."

Be sure to check out the photos if you follow the link through to the article.

(Via Kottke.)

The future of cars looks electric

From Wired:

"We're starting to see the path forward coalesce," says Aaron Bragman, an auto-industry analyst with IHS Global Insight. "They're all rallying around electric vehicles, and these aren't cars that are five or 10 years away. These cars are on production timelines."

Extended-range electric vehicles take us another big step away from petroleum. Cars ... use electricity to drive the wheels and a small internal combustion engine to recharge the battery as it approaches depletion ... eliminat[ing] the "range anxiety" that can make EVs a tough sell.

With the infrastructure already in place, battery-driven electric vehicles have a key advantage over their hydrogen fuel cell powered counterparts.