SmartPower SmartTip of the Week: Refrigerator follies—low dials and dirty coils

Posted on August 27, 2008
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fridge 1 2 3by Brian Keane

As we all know, your fridge is running 24/7 to keep your food fresh (in my case it’s working to keep cold some delicious leftover chicken parmesan for my lunch). And as efficient as new refrigerators are made today, it is worth remembering that there are still easy steps you can take to save money and reduce your CO2 footprint. What’s more, these same steps will extend the life of your appliance.

First, set your refrigerator temperature between 36 and 40 degrees Fahrenheit, and your freezer to 0. That way your hummus doesn’t get icy, you save  money and you can keep your refrigerator from being responsible for what is an average of 7% of your home’s carbon footprint.

Another trick to maintaining your icebox is to clean the coils underneath it. While not a particularly glamorous task, doing it can reduce your unit’s energy use by 6%.

Those two simple tricks will help lower your energy bill, lessen the air pollution that results from powering your home, and take care of your refrigerator so that it lasts you longer.

And that’s being Energy Smart!

Brian Keane is President of SmartPower

Cross posted at Shine from Yahoo.

Energy smart in Denver

Posted on August 26, 2008
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dnc logo

note:  Brian Keane filed this report from Denver

by Brian Keane

Denver:  It’s the “greenest” convention ever!  The convention is powered by clean energy; there are bikes — literally for the taking - - for visitors to tour around the city and recycling has taken on a whole new meaning at the Pepsi Center.

But perhaps the best part of the “greening” of this convention — is that it doesn’t feel showy — it just feels real.  This is a glitzy affair with all the bells and whistles that typically go along at these quadrennial events.  Yet, where they can, the convention organizers have taken simple, meaningful steps to sustainability.  And their example will help inspire thousands of others too. Because of the example set by this Energy Smart convention, Denver could have impacts long past Thursday — and long past the next election!

Speaking of “greening” — this convention is also chock full of events, panel discussions and opportunities to learn more about how easy it is to become energy smart.  To that end, The New Republic magazine is hosting “The Future of Environmentalism”, a panel discussion on environmental policy and energy related issues. The event is scheduled for today, Tuesday, August 26th and will run from 4:00 to 5:30 PM.  Joining me on this panel will be   Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club; Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE); Representative George Miller (D-CA); Cass R. Sunstein, a legal scholar and author from Harvard University; Ted Nordhaus of the Breakthrough Institute and Matt Bennett of Third Way. TNR editor Franklin Foer will be the moderator for the event.

A ticking time bomb, just below the surface

Posted on August 26, 2008
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tundraby Willy Ritch

Too often stories about rising globabl temperatures include a phrase like “faster than previously thought.” Today’s example is from a new study on how much carbon dioxide is trapped just beneath the surface in the Arctic:

Based on what they’ve found, they estimate that the Arctic could harbor an average of 60 percent more carbon that previous estimates have indicated.

Why is that a problem?  Becuase, as the Arctic warms, the permafrost that has been keeping that carbon safely locked away just underground is beginning to melt.  And the carbon dioxide could soon be released into the atmosphere.  The study suggests that the amount of carbon currently trapped in the Arctic could equal one-sixth of all the CO2 in the atmosphere right now–and if that’s released the previous computer models about how fast the planet will warm will be way off.

As the “air conditioner for the planet” the Arctic is not only an early indicator of climate change, but becomes part of a feedback loop in which progressivelly warmer temperatures trigger processes in the Arctic that in turn contirbutes to further global warming.

SmartPower does Denver

Posted on August 25, 2008
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conventionby Willy Ritch

There is no question that the Democratic National Convention in Denver is the greenest political convention ever–and probably one of the most eco-friendy large scale gatherings of any kind.  From biodegradable corn-starch cups to high efficiency lighting and clean-energy powered building.

When delegates and media arrive at the convention, they will find compact fluorescent, LED and solar powered lighting, and generators fueled by biodiesel. A percentage of the power supplied to convention venues will be generated by wind farms and purchased by the venues through Green-e certified renewable energy credits.

There are many alternatives to gasoline and petroleum diesel for transportation around Denver.

Freewheelin, the nation’s largest bike-sharing program rolled into Denver this afternoon, bringing 1,000 bikes to the Democratic National Convention for free use all week. Developed by health-benefits company Humana and bike-advocacy group Bikes Belong, the Freewheelin program will also bring 1,000 bikes to Minneapolis-St. Paul for the Republican convention during the first week in September.

SmartPower President Brian Keane is among the tens of thousands who have descended on Denver–and will be sharing the stage tomorrow with Sierra Club President Carl Pope, Senators Ben Nelsen and Jeff Bingham and others to discuss “The Future of Environmentalism” as part of a New Republic panel.

In Denver, Brian told the Colorado Springs Gazette, powering an event like the Democratic Convention with clean energy helps consumers understand that renewable power is a reliable choice for electricity.

“The best way to get people to want to try this stuff is to show them clean energy works,” Keane said. “When the convention is running on clean renewable energy and the lights stay on, that’s a big ‘Aha’ for the American people.”

It should be a big week for clean energy and environmentally friendly practices in Denver–and a busy week for Brian and SmartPower.  (And if you bump into him, make him tell you his story about hanging out with Joe Biden at the 30th St. Station in Philadelphia.)

Biden on climate change, energy

Posted on August 23, 2008
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bidenby Willy Ritch

The news this morning, of course, is All About Biden.   The focus on the cable shows is mostly about his personality and tempermant–his outspoken nature, his assertiveness.  Can we pause for a minute and consider some issues.  (I know, BO-ring.)

The influence a Vice President has on an administration’s policies varies dramatically–can anyone, for example, remember anything that Dan Quayle contributed to the national debate?  On the other hand, it was as Vice President that Al Gore brought attention to climate change and global warming and pushed hard for Koyoto.  So it’s worthwhile taking a look at some of the things Joe Biden has said about global warming and energy issues.

Fortunately, Grist.org has made our work easy for us this morning, printing excerpts and linking to an interview they did with Biden  last August.

To deal with global warming, you have to change the attitude of the world, particularly China and India, the two largest developing nations. But in order to do that, to have any credibility, you have to begin here in the United States by capping emissions, increasing renewable fuels, establishing a national renewable portfolio standard, requiring better fuel economy for automobiles. I would cap emissions at 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 and set a national RPS of 20 percent. I would announce an executive order that the federal government would not purchase one single automobile for its fleet that gets less than 40 miles to the gallon. And I would not build a single solitary federal project without it being a green project. That would have the effect of getting states to do the same thing, and that would create a pot of somewhere between a third and a half a trillion dollars that would be a lure to every major business in America to go green.

These measures would put us in a position to be able to actually attempt to lead the world. But we have no credibility right now.

We certainly like the talk of a renewable portfolio standard.  And his point about the US needing to show some leadership on greenhouse gas reduction is spot on.  But I also found his take on “clean coal” interesting.

I don’t think there’s much of a role for clean coal in energy independence, but I do think there’s a significant role for clean coal in the bigger picture of climate change. Clean-coal technology is not the route to go in the United States, because we have other, cleaner alternatives. But I would invest a considerable amount of money in research and development of clean-coal and carbon-sequestration technologies for export. China is building one new coal-fired plant per week. That’s not going to change unless there’s a fundamental change in technology, because they have about 300 years of dirty coal, and they’re going to use it.

Not withstanding my post yesterday about the decline of coal as a source of power in the US–it’s undeniably true that there are countries like India and China who are going to keep building new coal plants.  Carbon capture and sequestriation (CSS) holds great promise in the right parts of the world.  Building a coal plant from scratch with technology to capture the carbon and an appropriate place to store it underground can make a dirty fuel substantially less dirty.  That doesn’t alleviate the environmental degradation associated with mining coal and the CSS technology still has a way to go–but in a developing world it may need to become a reality.

A few more nails in Big Coal’s coffin

Posted on August 22, 2008
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coalplant

by Willy Ritch

For the first time ever a major utility has decided to voluntarily shut down a coal-fired power plant.  Actually, Xcel Energy in Colorado has asked for and been granted regulatory permission to close down two coal plants in that state.  They cite CO2 emissions as the main reason, suggesting that Xcel just wants to make the world a cleaner place.

Forgive my cynicism on this–but I don’t really believe Xcel is making such a big move entirely based on their concern for the environment.  But what I do think they understand is that we may very well be soon living in a carbon-constrained world, where a carbon tax or cap-and-trade legislation make it expensive to release greenhouse gases like CO2 into the atmosphere.

Xcel is proposing they make up for the lost capacity with natural gas–not exactly CO2 free, but better.  The Colorado Public Utilities Commission, meanwhile, is plugging more clean, renewable energy into the state’s mix:

“The Colorado Public Utilities Commission has set a clear path for Colorado’s energy future,” said Keith Hay, energy advocate for Environment Colorado, an advocacy group. “Colorado will be a leader in clean, renewable energy, and we’ll close down coal-fired power plants and replace that energy with renewable resources.

The take home message is this:  the clock is ticking quickly on the dirtiest, green-house-gas-emitting fossil fuels.  (Earth2Tech maintains a coal death-watch map.)

Clean energy:  it’s here, it’s real, it’s working.  Let’s make more.

SmartPower SmartTip of the Week: Put some bounce in your wallet…by taking it out of your dryer

Posted on August 20, 2008
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laundryby Brian Keane

Sometimes being energy smart isn’t about what you can see, but what you don’t see.  Not too long ago my wife and I invited a professional energy auditor over to show us how to take care of some suspected energy waste in our home. (Hey, even the best of us need to be shown the right way to weather strip and insulate our homes!)

But our energy auditor showed us something very interesting. (I know . . . I wouldn’t dare imply that insulation is “interesting”.)

He took out the lint trap from our clothes dryer, it was free of lint and you could see through it. Then he placed it under a faucet and turned on the water—drops of water could barely find their way out of the mesh.

“What’s up with that?” I asked with both amusement and confusion.

“You use dryer sheets for all your loads, don’t you?” said the auditor.

He was right. When we use the dryer, we do (did) use dryer sheets. Some commercial somewhere had told us that we NEEDED dryer sheets in order stop that pesky static cling!  Turns out, as far as household problems go, static cling really isn’t one of them.  But what’s more, we learned that a clear “film” develops on the lint trap from using dryer sheets. As a result,  the residue from dryer sheets restricts airflow through the dryer, forcing it to work harder and wasting energy and money!

So what’s the solution? Simply don’t use dryer sheets.  We’ve done without them in my home (I know, I’m going to have Snuggles after me for writing such a thing.) Or, scrub your lint trap with a wire brush under cold water every month to remove the weird film the dryer sheets left behind.

Bottom line: by not using dryer sheets we save energy on our dryer, not to mention the savings by simply not buying dryer sheets!

Of course, this is all for when you’re unable to let Mother Nature dry your clothes for you.

Now . . . about that static cling . . .

Brian Keane is the President of SmartPower
Cross-posted at Shine from Yahoo

The cars-as-cell-phone-model

Posted on August 20, 2008
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betterplace

by Willy Ritch

The other day I heard someone say we need to drill for more oil because “you can’t run cars on renewable energy.”    Maybe not yet, but in the not-too-distant future, if Shai Agassi gets his way.

Many of us feel the future of transportation involves electricty. Until cars and trucks can be fully or partially powered by clean energy, we won’t have fully ended our dependence on oil.

Plug in hybrids is one option–allowing you to run on battery power for extended distnaces, with a gas engine only kicking in on really long trips.  Since most Americans don’t travel that far on a daily basis, recharging a plug-in hybrid every night would really mean you’d hardly ever have to fall back on the gas engine.

Then there are pure electric cars. The Tesla sports car is one (very expsensive) example. The main limitation is the batteries needed to power the car–they are big, heavy and fairly slow to recharge.  This is where Agassi comes in, according to the latest edition of Wired:

Agassi dealt with the battery issue by simply swatting it away. Previous approaches relied on a traditional manufacturing formula: We make the cars, you buy them. Agassi reimagined the entire automotive ecosystem by proposing a new concept he called the Electric Recharge Grid Operator. It was an unorthodox mashup of the automotive and mobile phone industries. Instead of gas stations on every corner, the ERGO would blanket a country with a network of “smart” charge spots. Drivers could plug in anywhere, anytime, and would subscribe to a specific plan—unlimited miles, a maximum number of miles each month, or pay as you go—all for less than the equivalent cost for gas. They’d buy their car from the operator, who would offer steep discounts, perhaps even give the cars away. The profit would come from selling electricity—the minutes.

There would be plugs in homes, offices, shopping malls. And when customers couldn’t wait to “fill up,” they’d go to battery exchange stations where they would pull into car-wash-like sheds, and in a few minutes, a hydraulic lift would swap the depleted battery with a fresh one. Drivers wouldn’t pay a penny extra: The ERGO would own the battery.

It’s a unique approach–and if it seems like one of those clever ideas that isn’t going to get past the clever idea stage consider this:  after quitting a senior job at SAP to pursue this idea, Agassi has been able to round up about $200 million in working capital–one of the largest startups ever.  Renault has begun building prototypes and the government of Israel has made some signficant moves toward making Agassi’s idea a reality.

(You can read the view from the inside on Agassi’s blog here.)

Island independence

Posted on August 19, 2008
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samso denmark 1

by Willy Ritch

What do the islands of Samso off the coast of Denmark and North Haven and Vinalhaven off the coast of Maine have in common?   A sense of rugged self-sufficiency, I suspect.  And probably a can-do spirit.   But most notably, they have all embraced wind power as a way to get meet all of their electricity needs.

Samso has been energy indpendent for about a decade now.  They host ten turbines on the island and another eleven just offshore.  Not only is that ample electricity for everyone who lives there, but it leaves plenty to sell to the folks back on the mainland.  These wind turbines–costing around $85 million–are nearly entirely paid for and owned by residents.  This isn’t a utility or government funded venture, but instead an investment by residents that is paying off nicely.

North Haven and Vinalhaven (collectively called the “Fox Islands”) is just getting its windpower game going.  Residents there are part of an electric co-op that buys power from the mainland grid–and it is expensive. Instead of sending their utility payments out of the community, residents decided they wanted to build some wind turbines and start keeping the money on the islands.   A Harvard Business School professor who has been spending some time on the islands has helped residents figure out how some of the specifics, and with an overwhelming vote of support, the islands are now shopping for one–and possibly two–wind turbines.  They expect to produce all the electricity they need and even have some left over to sell back to the mainland–just like Samso in Denmark.

Both Samso and the Fox Islands are crystal clear examples of one of the biggest economic advantages of clean energy:  instead of sending our money out of the community–mostly out of the country, really–to pay for imported oil or gas, clean energy is produced locally.   And these islanders in two countries are demonstrating how solutions to rising energy costs and questions of energy security can truly be home-grown.

Solar at a “significant scale”

Posted on August 18, 2008
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solarspain

by Willy Ritch

The New York Times reported this weekend on those massive solar power projects in California–so big they will cover 12.5 square miles with solar panels.  The Times points out the plants are “the latest indication that solar energy is starting to achieve significant scale.”

Two companies are involved:  OptiSolar builds relatively low-cost thin film solar panels and will be building a 550MW project.  SunPower, meanwhile, is doing a 250MW installation nearby.  (I mentioned SunPower last week when writing about JC Penny’s initative to put solar on top of ten of their stores.)  Pacific Gas & Electric will be buying the power–and as the Times story points out, California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) is part of the motivation:

The power will be sold to Pacific Gas & Electric, which is under a state mandate to get 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2010. The utility said that it expected the new plants, which will use photovoltaic technology to turn sunlight directly into electricity, to be competitive with other renewable energy sources, including wind turbines and solar thermal plants, which use the sun’s heat to boil water.

California has a SmartPower-like requirement of 20% renewable power by 2010 and the development of these two massive solar installations show how important it would be to have a national RPS.

— keep looking »

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