Empire State Building to use 40% less energy

In a move designed to spur energy efficiency efforts world-wide, it was announced this week that the Empire State Building will undergo an extensive retrofit designed to save 38% of its annual energy consumption. The aggressive retrofit was planned in partnership with the Rocky Mountain Institute, Johnson Controls, Jones Lang LaSalle, and the Clinton Climate Initiative, and targets several key areas.

Load Reduction

  1. Radiative barriers: more than six-thousand insulated reflective barriers will be installed behind radiator units on the perimeter of the building to prevent excess heat loss through the exterior wall.

  2. Building windows: a suspended coated film, and a gas fill will be added to the over six thousand existing double paned windows to improve the thermal resistance to R-6 from R-2.

  3. Tenant daylighting, lighting, plug loads: lighting power density will be reduced through the use of daylighting and task lighting, the installation of dimmable ballasts and photosensors in perimeter rooms, and plug load occupancy sensors for personal workstations will shut down equipment when it is not in use.

More Efficient Delivery

  1. Chiller plant retrofit: load reduction will allow for the existing chillers to be upgraded and retrofit for higher efficiency performance.

  2. Variable-air-volume air handling units: two floor-mounted units will replace four ceiling-mounted units per floor. Variable-air-volume units will allow for demand control ventilation, and floor-mounting will allow the HVAC system to be designed for a lower pressure drop, requiring less energy to run.

High Quality Controls

  1. Demand control ventilation: CO2 sensors will control the level of outside air introduced to the building. This will give better control over indoor air quality and prevent the wasteful addition of outdoor air when spaces are unoccupied.

  2. Direct digital controls: the existing controls, and building energy management system will be upgraded, and will include temperature sensors, and electrical service monitoring.

  3. Independent metering: tenants will have online access to their energy consumption along with sustainability tips. They will also be able to compare their performance to that of other tenants in the building.

The project is estimated to save $4.4 million annually, with a total incremental cost of $13.2 million over and above the cost of already planned upgrades. The building will be more comfortable to work in, with better insulated windows, improved indoor air quality, and well designed lighting. In order to bring tenants on board, 40% of whom will be turning over in the next four years, the Empire State Building has designed a space for the 42nd floor to market improvements to prospective tenants. They have also designed a 'green build' for tenants which will save $0.70-0.90 per square foot in operating costs annually for an additional first cost of $6 per square foot.

One of the key goals of the retrofit is to provide an example for the rest of the world to follow. To this end, a number of details and documents are available online, including decision making, rating and design tools and a "Lessons learned" document. Key among the lessons learned are:

  1. An integrated design process including engineers, property managers, energy models, efficiency experts, architects and building management is necessary to achieve deep cuts in energy consumption. Tenant involvement is also essential, as many of the measures rely on their direct involvement.

  2. It is very important for the retrofit to be aligned with planned replacements and upgrades of major building components for the project to be cost effective. If major upgrades are not planned, then retro-commissioning the building to optimize existing systems can save 5-15% of the energy used.

  3. Unless the price of carbon increases dramatically (on the order of 8% per year), it will not be profitable to make the steepest cuts to energy consumption. The Empire State Building project leaves almost 50% of the carbon dioxide reduction potential on the table.

  4. An easily repeated and streamlined process which allows for rapid categorization of buildings, and iteration between financial and energy modeling is needed.

Of ants and energy

Simply beautiful:

If ants can get in from outside, so can the cold winter (and hot summer) air. I followed the ants for a few day and figured out how they got in — there were a few rather significant cracks. So, I used the ants to find the leaks I should have caulked last fall.

The ants are still happy and doing their thing … except now, outside. Our house will be warmer next winter and cooler this summer. No trucks loaded with chemicals came by our house.

(Via What's On?.)

Reinventing America’s cities

Nicolai Ouroussoff expresses his hope for urban renewal in America in a New York Times article which considers how four iconic cities--New Orleans, Los Angeles, The Bronx, and Buffalo--might be remade and revitalized:

The country has fallen on hard times, but those of us who love cities know we have been living in the dark ages for a while now. We know that turning things around will take more than just pouring money into shovel-ready projects, regardless of how they might boost the economy. Windmills won’t do it either. We long for a bold urban vision.

Building code changes required to improve efficiency?

Björn Stigson, president of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, comments on energy efficiency in buildings in an interview with Worldchanging:

The price of carbon will not do anything for the energy efficiency of buildings. Energy efficiency of buildings is a very important part of the efficiency improvement in society, but it's such a fragmented value chain. So the price of carbon is not going to have any real impact, for the individual ... Between the owner of the building -- residents, so on -- the lever for change for any individual actor in that value chain would be so small. So if you want to improve the energy efficiency of buildings, you have to look at the building codes and formal standards. The example of California is a good example.

The trailer park as eco-mecca

The Sustain MiniHome, a line of sustainable and off-grid pre-fabricated homes designed in Toronto, is highlighted in a recent Guardian article on "reinventing the trailer park" as a model for green development:

[Sustain Design is] partnering with trailer park owners in Canada to transform older parks into those perfect ecotopia villages, with MiniHomes replacing the formaldehyde models ... the goal is to return the parks to as close to their pre-development incarnations as possible, through habitat restoration, de-paving of surfaces to improve groundwater quality, and rainwater collection. Thomson also envisions organic gardening; community solar power, wind turbines, and electric vehicle fleets; even organic grocery delivery and pet waste compost collection areas.

Canada’s largest green roof

VancouverConventionCentre.jpgThe expansion of the [Vancouver Convention Centre][], which will be celebrating it's grand opening this week, features the largest green roof in Canada with more than 400,000 plants covering almost 2.5 hectares. The expansion, which is aiming for LEED Gold certification, also has an extensive water conservation program, and will heat and cool the building with a sea-water based heat pump to conserve energy. One of the touted green features is shoreline and marine habitat restoration which, for a building which juts out into the ocean, struck me as a bit unlikely. It turns out that the pre-existing shoreline was de-contaminated, and a large concrete reef was added to the base of convention centre expansion. From the [Times Colonist][]: >A new $8.3-million concrete reef - or marine life "habitat skirt" - should be swarming with new sealife within months around the base of the Vancouver convention centre expansion project. Barnacles, mussels, seaweed, starfish, crabs and various fish species are expected to inhabit the five-tiered underwater structure being installed this week. Interestingly, >The Department of Fisheries and Oceans demanded the convention centre install the new marine life facility to replace the habitat displaced by the expanded centre. (Via [Jetson Green][]. Photo from [Vancouver Convention Centre][] website.) [Jetson Green]: http://www.jetsongreen.com/2009/04/vancouver-convention-centre-features-six-acre-living-roof.html "Vancouver Convention Centre Features Canada's Largest Green Roof | JetsonGreen.com" [Times Colonist]: http://www2.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=a9880c5d-b421-43b3-881e-6618897db879&k=97208 "Vancouver convention centre expansion to include marine life 'habitat skirt' | Times Colonist" [Vancouver Convention Centre]: http://www.vancouverconventioncentre.com/ "Vancouver Convention Centre"

‘Paving’ the way for biodiversity in new building

The UK Green Building Council is making recommendations to improve biodiversity in urban landscapes, potentially bringing wildlife back into the city and providing green corridors "to allow mammals to commute":

Under recommendations from the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) for developers, planners and policy-makers, otters could return to urban rivers, bats could roost under bridges, swifts could flock to office blocks and peregrine falcons could soar above cathedrals.

(Via Worldchanging.)

150 MW per year solar facility planned for Kingston

The Toronto Star is reporting that a large solar panel factory, based on thin-film solar technology, will be built in Kingston:

Four entrepreneurs from Toronto announced an ambitious plan yesterday to build a $500-million solar module manufacturing facility in Kingston, an investment expected to create 1,200 direct and indirect "green-collar" jobs in the area.

Concrete remixed with environment in mind

There is a nice overview of the steps being taken to reduce the environmental impact of concrete production in yesterday's New York Times:

Now the experimentation is more elaborate, designed to tailor the concrete to the need. Increasingly, that need includes the environment. Aesthetic considerations aside, concrete is environmentally ugly. The manufacturing of Portland cement is responsible for about 5 percent of human-caused emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. “The new twist over the last 10 years has been to try to avoid materials that generate CO2,” said Kevin A. MacDonald, vice president for engineering services of the Cemstone Products Company.

Amory Lovins on efficiency

There is some fantastic stuff in this Worldchanging interview with Amory Lovins, energy efficiency guru, and co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute:

The cornucopia of efficiency is real, but it's the manual model: we actually have to go turn the crank. It's not easy, but it's easier than not doing it. And if we do get serious about using energy in a way that saves money, some big problems like oil dependence, climate change, and the spread of nuclear weapons will go away, not at a cost but at a profit, because efficiency is cheaper than fuel. That's a prize worth working hard to capture.

Habitat for Humanity homes aim for sustainability

Two Portland Habitat for Humanity Homes Seeking LEED Platinum:

There's a conundrum in the green building world that a lot of people are working on.  They're trying to figure out how to build homes that are both sustainable and affordable -- homes that most of us can approach.  I could rattle off a list of folks working on this, and Habitat for Humanity would certainly be at the top.

I'm encouraged to see progress on this front. New homes will not be truly sustainable unless they are also affordable for all home buyers.

How to finance solar panels for homeowners

A promising initiative to promote renewable energy in homes has been started in Berkeley. The major barrier to installing solar panels is their large upfront cost and long payback period. Even if the savings are there in the long run, homeowners may not have the money upfront to buy solar panels, and they may not want to make a huge investment in a house that they could sell before the 20 years it might take to make their money back. Enter Berkeley FIRST which solves both problems by financing the costs with your property taxes:

Berkeley FIRST (Financing Initiative for Energy Efficiency Renewable and Solar Technology) allows property owners to install solar systems and make energy efficiency upgrades with no upfront cost.

Berkeley pays the upfront costs through the issuance of a new kind of municipal bond. The bonds are repaid from a new line item on participating property owners' property tax bills over 20 years. Participating property owners pay for only the costs of their energy project.

The program is 100% "opt-in" and property tax expenses remain unchanged for those who choose not to participate.

The result: solar and energy efficiency projects are paid for over a long period of time, in bi-annual installments. The interest rate is fixed. Property owners do not need to access their own capital or credit. And if the owner sells the property, the repayment obligation transfers along with the property itself.

(Via Gristmill.)

Green chemistry

An encouraging article in the New York Times talks about the growing interest in green chemistry:

"Students can earn a doctoral degree in chemistry in nearly every university in the country and not have to demonstrate a basic understanding of toxicology or eco-toxicology -- how to design a molecule that doesn't disrupt the endocrine in some way," said Michael Wilson, assistant research scientist at the University of California, Berkeley.

But students, faculty and industry are starting to change that by pushing for programs and courses about alternate design principles, slowly shifting chemistry education.

US Energy Department supports tubular solar power

From the New York Times:

The Energy Department has tentatively awarded its first alternative-energy loan guarantee, breaking a four-year logjam in the federal loan program. The $535 million guarantee will go to Solyndra Inc., which said it would use the money to expand its production of photovoltaic panels at its facilities in Fremont, Calif.

Solyndra manufactures thin-film photovoltaics plated onto cylinders (picture a fluorescent light tube) that collects direct, diffuse and reflected solar energy over a 360° angle. The cylinders are assembled into panels which are easily installed on flat roofs using simple brackets.

Ontario to dramatically accelerate renewable energy production

More good news on Ontario's proposed Green Energy Act:

Renewable energy in Ontario could get a massive financial boost with newly proposed feed-in tariff rates.

For those unfamiliar with feed-in tariffs, qualifying projects receive an above-market rate for the electricity they produce, fixed for a given time period (say 20 years). All of the electricity produced is sent into the grid. The costs of implementing the incentive program are then spread across all consumers of electricity. In general, the costs increase a customer's utility bill only slightly, while stimulating the development of renewable energy. Of all the ways of promoting renewable energy growth, [feed-in tariffs], though not widely adopted in North America, are found by many analyses to be the most cost-effective incentive program.

The feed-in tariffs will support a wide range of renewable energy options, including biomass, biogas, small-scale hydropower, solar photovoltaics, and wind power. Feed-in tariffs have been wildly successful in Germany at accelerating the adoption of solar and wind power to the point that over 10% of Germany's energy is now produced from renewable sources.

Via Treehugger.

New map exposes US energy waste

Recent research from the Rocky Mountain Institute highlights the astonishing potential for energy efficiency in the United States:

If the rest of the country achieved the level of efficiency of the top 10 states, we would save 30 percent of U.S. electricity consumption, or 1.2 million gigawatt hours.

This would translate to savings of $100 billion on electricity bills, cutting the equivalent of 60 percent of coal-fired electricity, or avoiding 779 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.

In fact, if less-efficient states matched the efficiency levels of top-performing states, we could wipe out enough carbon dioxide emissions to offset both the Netherlands' and the United Kingdom's emissions for a year!

Building affordable LEED platinum homes

An insightful, provocatively titled article from the 100K House blog addresses the importance of taking an integrated, holistic process to green building design, as opposed to the much more expensive approach of tacking on 'green' features to a poorly designed building:

In an interview a few weeks ago I was asked what our premium was for building LEED Platinum. The reporter had done some research and found that the highest level of LEED for Homes usually carried a 15-20% markup and wanted to know what the added cost was for our project. It was a difficult question since we don’t have a non-LEED version of the house with which to compare, but eventually I said, "Um . . . I guess . . . negative 5%"

Most of the builders and developers reporting high premiums for pursuing LEED are still trying to build the exact same home they have always built ... they polish the turd. Rather than redesign the house that has been successful for them in the past, they add solar panels, geothermal systems, high end interior fixtures, extra insulation and other green features. Since the features are add-ons and extras, the price rises as each one is tacked on.

To avoid these extra costs, one must start the home design process with affordability and sustainability factored into every decision.

The Philadelphia passive project

The inspiring 100K house project in Philadelphia, which aims to build affordable, environmentally friendly housing, has announced a new initiative to build two houses to the Passive House standard (which can reduce energy for heating and cooling by over 90%):

We will definitely return to LEED after this project, but we see the Passive House standard as a great way to improve some very specific aspects of our houses, mainly the envelope and the mechanical systems. In these two areas, Passive House far exceeds even the highest standards of LEED.

The goal, as always, is to pursue this new standard in an affordable manner ... Our goal is to adhere to the same requirement as the 100k House project and build this home for less than $100 per square foot in hard construction costs. With any luck this will allow us to provide one of the most affordable Passive Homes ever built in the US.