Why Tesla matters

I've been wondering why the Tesla electric car matters. Sure it's a flashy electric car that goes fast and will attract attention to electric cars. But it's so expensive that only the wealthiest can buy it making its direct impacts negligable.

But here's the kicker:

It goes 250 miles on a charge.

That's a huge deal.

The big knock on electric cars has always been travel distance per charge and to a lesser degree speed. Tesla completely decimates both showing that the technology is available. That's an enormous step forward for electric cars.

Not only that but they are working with PG&E on rapid charging technology - another sticking point.

But it's still too expensive. So the real kicker? They're planning a more affordable sedan.

Hat tip Green Wombat.

Peek at green homes

Here's a look inside one home, featuring LORAX development (from our previous post):

Walking the talk - and first on the block

Just in from Dave:

Mike Kerwin is the founding partner of LORAX Development, a residential green building firm. In Burlingame he is putting his trade to work on his own new home.

From the Examiner:

His will be the first in Burlingame to comply with the GreenPoint Rated system, a grade assigned by third-party organization Build it Green to tell homeowners how green their homes really are.

Kerwin’s home on Margarita Avenue will feature recycled blue-jean denim insulation, wooden floors made from reclaimed mine timbers and solar panels on the roof that will heat his domestic water.

“Some of the nastiest products that are produced are building products,” he said. “When you make the right selections up front and install them in your home, it’s a much healthier living environment.”

(my emphasis)

Build it Green is a great program. Hopefully soon having a green home will be considered unremarkable. Already at least 24 cities in California have green building requirements for municipal buildings and a number of them have put in place mandatory guidelines on residential buildings including Pasadena, West Hollywood, Long Beach, Santa Cruz, San Rafael, and Rohnert Park. Many of these use LEED for large residential but now increasingly Build It Green is also in use for single family homes.

SV Executives get plugged in

The San Jose Mercury reports

By early next year, 100 Silicon Valley business executives will be driving high-mileage plug-in hybrids, a testament to the seriousness of global warming and the earnestness of local leaders to help fight it.

One hundred might sound like a small number, but it's actually a huge step: It would more than double the number of plug-ins, which get more power from electricity than a typical hybrid, on North American roads.

While calling this "huge" is an overstatement, this is good for several reasons. It builds on Google's initiative to commercialize plug-ins, provides leadership by example, and hopefully begin to put in place some of the needed infrastructure.

Unlike other novelty "green car" initiatives like hydrogen or E85 flex-fuel vehicles which will not be solutions in the near future (or probably even distant future) because the infrastructure needs are large and complex, plug-in hybrids have the huge advantage that access to electricity is easy.

Ain't that the truth...

Nate Tyler, organizer of Lights Out San Francisco:

If we don't do something, by 2050, all the polar bears will be gone. That's where Santa Claus lives, man. That's a bummer.

Hat tip Gristmill

Burlingame may join SolarCity

Dave sends us this article from the Examiner

Residents, led by the Sierra Club, an environmental organization, want Burlingame to consider partnering with SolarCity, a provider of solar energy systems that gives substantial discounts on solar panels for homes and businesses as long as 20 people sign up.

It's good to see more cities taking these steps. Solar is a valuable part of the solution. But it is most meaningful as a broader plan which places strong emphasis on efficiency and transportation measures. Cool Cities team lead, Mike McCord makes the point:

“To me, the solar panels are one little piece of a bigger thing that we should be proposing to Burlingame’s Green Ribbon Task Force,” said longtime Burlingame resident Mike McCord. “We can make something like this happen.”

It's a good step - one part of the "silver buckshot" solution.

Burlingame and San Mateo students make their mark

San Mateo is holding a three events on global warming and steps community members can take

Sept 25, San Mateo Main Library: The Climate Crisis: Why it matters and what can we do
a presentation by Taylor Francis, a local high school student who was personally trained by Al Gore to speak on global warming. Tuesday, September 25 at 7:00 pm

Oct 9  Oct 10, San Mateo Main Library: Green It Yourself: Smart Ideas for Home Improvement
a presentation and discussion by Jacki Yahn, local green architect and author of this RecycleWorks publication! Sponsored by RecycleWorks. Tuesday, October 9 at 7:00 pm

Nov 15, Hillsdale High School: Sustainability and Solar Evening
Learn about sustainability, the high school’s solar grant project and how you can put solar on your roof, save money and support the school. Presentations by Sustainable San Mateo County, Owens Electric & Solar, teachers and students from Hillsdale High and Jill Boone, sustainability consultant for the City. This event will provide an opportunity for questions and public comment on the City’s sustainability work. Please check the City website for more details.


Local students are making their mark in many ways

Some of us are also self-motivated, researching the facts and even creating Facebook groups to raise awareness. There is no doubt in my mind that many teens care.

With this knowledge, we are helping out within our schools. After students at Mercy High School watched “An Inconvenient Truth,” an environmental club called Roots and Shoots was formed. The club then held a fundraiser selling eco-friendly light bulbs to raise money for recycling bins — the bins should be in soon.
...
Ecology and recycling clubs, partnered with leadership classes, are working on saving recyclables from entering trash bins. The clubs also organize school and community cleanups: Burlingame High School’s ecology club volunteers regularly to clean up Mills Canyon

How do I get mine?

We traveled 3,000 miles on the last post, how about another 5,000?

A good look at 1 wind turbine:


Hat tip Compass

Our Neighbors 3000 miles away

Just a glimpse of what's going on in New Hampshire:

Google: more investment in hybrids

Google will be investing up to $10 million in "green" startups, the company said today. Specifically, they are looking to invest $500k - $2 million in multiple for-profit startups that are focusing on electric/hybrid transportation. Details are here.

Hat tip TechCrunch

Sunnyvale signs Mayors' Agreement, but...

Just in from Barbara...

Greetings!

The MCPA was passed unanimously by the Sunnyvale City Council last night. Council also adopted Sustainable Silicon Valley's 20% target (from 1990 levels) for city government emissions. The GHG reduction projects (for city ops) recommended by staff made it to the budget process. Council exceeded staff's recommendation to ask that staff determine the cost of a citywide GHG audit.

A dozen Sunnyvale Cool Cities Team members attended the Council meeting; six of us spoke. We were able to introduce our group, compliment Council on their progress to date, express organized support for each of the measures that passed. We made the case for a baseline CO2 audit and city government leadership in citywide carbon reduction. We watered some seeds--power purchase agreements for solar--and planted others--workshops in reducing individual's CO2 emissions taught by volunteers. We gained 2 new members during the meeting. We listened to Council's responses. And we had a chance to chat with Council members and staff afterwards.

We are excited that the adoption of the MCPA was unanimous. Now we need to work toward robust implementation. Staff argued against the need for a citywide carbon audit. They point out that the agreement does not, strictly speaking, require it. They don't see the point of a citywide audit since they are hesitant to try to change the public's behavior. They also point out that we just need to strive to meet the goals of Kyoto. Significantly, I think, no money was allocated for implementing the MCPA. Also significantly, there was no Sunnyvale representative at last week's GHG audit working session.

So we have our work cut out for us to push for robust implementation of the MCPA, including a carbon audit.

What gets measured gets done, and reducing ghg needs to get done. We need an audit to do this intelligently.

Other notes:

We found our new wiki group, created last week by one of our dynamic new members, very helpful in formulating our comments. Our yahoo group, created after our first meeting in June is also very useful . We are working on a webpage.

Next on the agenda, we will attend Council's Sustainability Study Session, in the works since January, on Tuesday, September 25 at 5 PM. Our next regular meeting will be October 4.

(my emphasis)

Great work by Barbara and the Sunnyvale team but still more steps clearly needed.

Forward!

Steps for restaurants

Biodegradable materials making their way into restaurants



Next composting...

Some of the most important companies you've never heard of

AlwaysOn has released it's GoingGreen100 top 'greentech' companies that are "game changers" innovating in energy. Not surprisingly Silicon Valley is well represented.

According to AlwaysOn, "Greentech has become the 3rd largest investment class for venture capitalists —$6.4 billion total has been invested."

David Roberts at Grist comments on energy storage company EEStor:

Most attention in the energy storage world goes to batteries, particularly next-gen lithium-ion batteries. But one storage tech is superior to batteries in almost every way: electrochemical double-layer capacitors, or ultracapacitors (or if you have a flair for the dramatic, supercapacitors). Where batteries store electricity via a chemical reaction, ultracapacitors store it directly in an electric field, enabling them to charge much faster and provide large bursts of near-instantaneous power (added bonus: no moving parts!). Batteries degrade steadily over charge cycles, get hot with use, and contain toxic chemicals; ultracapacitors last virtually forever, have no thermal discharge, and meet RoHS standards.

So what's the problem? The Achilles heel of ultracapacitors is their specific energy density -- they don't hold nearly as much energy per unit weight as batteries. Lithium ion batteries produce around 120 watt hours per kilogram, whereas commercially available ultracapacitors produce around 6 Wh/kg, some 20 times less. That won't cut it for vehicles, must less for industrial-grade renewable energy storage.

-----

EEStor says it can do better -- way, way better.

Applied Materials gets into thin film

Another Silicon Valley company is making a push on solar technology. In May I highlighted the rampup happening world-wide and other players in Silicon Valley.

Applied's move into the solar market promises to lower the cost of solar electricity. How? By standardizing and improving the solar manufacturing process, much as the company did for the semiconductor industry...

and

Unlike traditional solar panels, thin-film manufacturing involves depositing photovoltaic materials on large and slender pieces of glass or flexible material. Though not as efficient at converting photons into electrons as standard solar cells, the promise of thin-film is that will be cheaper to produce. (Unlike thin-film solar startups like Nanosolar, which are developing next-generation technology based on copper indium gallium diselenide, or CIGS, Applied's clients use an older amorphous silicon-based process.)

(my emphasis)

Thin film also raises the promise of making solar easy to deploy on a huge range of surfaces not currently able to handle today's large, heavy panels. The thin film panels are unlikely to generate sufficient power for, let's say, a car but if we put them everywhere we can probably cut grid requirements tremendously! For example, if my notebook, which sits by a window all day had a thin film panel constantly charging, maybe I'd reduce grid consumed power 20%. Even if it's less it's a big gain when widely distributed.

Solar is moving, big-time!

More from the Wombat

Los Gatos to do emissions inventory

Just in from Rob:

Last night the council approve $15,000 to pay for the ICLEI green house gas emission base line, be a member of ICLEI, and pay the dues for Sustainable Silicon Valley!!

That's an important step.

Also, Los Gatos is holding a community meeting on Thursday Sept 27:

Green Community Meeting
Do you want to help others learn how they can "go green" and protect the environment? The Cities of Saratoga and Monte Sereno and the Town of Los Gatos invite you to attend a community meeting at the Saratoga North Facility Campus, Administration Building at 6:00 p.m., to discuss how to encourage community members to "go green." For more information, contact the City of Saratoga at (408) 868-1215.

More on the Los Gatos website.

San Jose solar and efficiency 

From earlier this summer...