Clean coal clean!

Just for fun. The latest from Reality Campaign (Alliance for Climate Protection, Sierra Club, et. al) by the Coen Brothers.

Pics From the Museum

Last weekend, we braved the crowds at the new-ish California Academy of Sciences at Golden Gate Park for the first time.

The “mile-long lines” haven’t quelled since opening in September, and for good reason. Between the penguins, the planetarium, and the rainforest, the museum was so much fun. The tons of kids who were there were well-behaved, probably because they were so engaged with what the museum had to offer.

It was raining pretty heavy that day, so we didn’t go outside to look at the living roof. We also missed the Galapagos Islands area. And we loved the cafeteria’s semi-sustainable menu. So, naturally, we are looking forward to our next visit.

One thing that really impressed me was the global warming exhibit. I think kids and adults alike were hooked by the museum’s presentation, which could be a tricky thing considering it isn’t the most uplifting topic. Here’s me gazing at the rise of CO2 atmospheric concentration. How many ppm by 2030!?

Here are some more awesome pictures taken by my awesome fiancé. While walking through the rainforest, we spotted this little red frog. See him?

The rainforest is heated to be about 78 degrees with 80 percent humidity. Lots of butterflies and birds in there.

The aquarium was wonderous. Take the whole family.

PG&E boosts renewables & climate legislation

PG&E has announced another major contract for renewable power.

The estimated $1.4 billion plan would supply up to 500 megawatts of solar power for Northern and Central California by 2015, which is equivalent to the power needed for 150,000 homes, the company said. Half of the power will be developed by PG&E, and half will be developed by independent solar energy companies, from whom PG&E will purchase power.
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Under the program, PG&E would develop and own 250 megawatts of its own solar-generation capacity, mostly using ground-mounted solar panels, which are cheaper and faster to install than roof-mounted systems. As much as possible, the panels will be located on land already owned by PG&E, and each installation will generate from 1 to 20 megawatts. Placing the panels near PG&E substations will cut down on costs and delays in getting the new equipment connected to the power grid, the company said.

What remains unclear however is the degree to which the credit crisis will undermine these efforts. Some proposed projects may go under.

And while PG&E has come under recent criticism for their opposition to community-choice aggregation which would provide more local control and support for distributed power generation, their overall power mix is among the best in the nation.

PG&E is also pushing local efficiency, including installing smart meters for that purpose, and playing an important positive role in climate legislation.

Stimulus bill

It's been suggested that Obama has done more in 24 days than has been accomplished on clean energy in the last 16 years. That may be true. The NY Times provides a perspective on the $80 billion aimed there:

ENERGY EFFICIENCY Homes and buildings soak up 40 percent of the energy generated in this country — more than vehicles. Of the $25 billion provided for energy efficiency, more than half is aimed at helping low-income families weatherize one million homes and helping governments at all levels retrofit public buildings.

RENEWABLE ENERGY In addition to new money for research into alternative fuels, the measure provides roughly $20 billion in tax incentives for wind, solar, hydroelectric and other renewable power sources. These incentives, which are crucial for future development, were the subject of endless Congressional bickering last year, and it is heartening to see them enshrined in law.

SMART GRID The measure invests $11 billion in grants and $6 billion in loans to modernize the electric grid and increase its capacity to deliver power generated by renewable sources. These programs will need especially careful oversight.

MASS TRANSIT Federal transportation spending has long favored highways over mass transit by a 4-to-1 margin, even though mass transit is far more effective in reducing oil consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The package improves this ratio while providing $17.7 billion for mass transit, Amtrak and high-speed rail, nearly a 70 percent increase over present spending levels.

The package includes other potentially useful energy-related provisions: $2 billion in grants and loans for research into advanced car batteries, a tenfold increase over the existing program; and $3.4 billion to develop coal-fired power plants that can capture and store greenhouse gases, also a tenfold increase.

More specifically for Silicon Valley, the value is significant.

The SJ Mercury News offers a view of the impact.

Valley clean-technology companies said Thursday that they anticipate adding thousands of employees in the next few years as a result of the stimulus bill.

"We'll be hiring hundreds of people over the next 12 to 18 months," said Kevin Surace, president and chief executive of Serious Materials, a Sunnyvale company that makes green building materials. His company's ultra-insulated windows fit perfectly with the stimulus bill's goal of spending $5 billion to weatherize up to 1 million homes a year, he said. Serious Materials is adding factory space to meet the anticipated demand.

The stimulus plan will "catapult the U.S. to be the world's largest solar market by the end of 2010," predicted Suvi Sharma, CEO of Solaria, a solar-cell maker in Fremont.

Solaria and SunPower, the San Jose solar-module maker, said the stimulus package could speed up their plans for U.S. production.

"For some time, we've considered expanding our manufacturing footprint in the U.S. beyond our modest facility in Richmond," said Julie Blunden, a SunPower vice president. "This could certainly accelerate our thinking about where and when we could deploy."

BrightSource gets another big deal

Solar-thermal deal reflects momentum in utility scale solar power. Driven by the state's renewable portfolio standard requiring 20% of retail electricity to be from renewable sources.

Oakland's BrightSource Energy, which already has a deal to build a series of huge solar power plants in the Mojave Desert for Pacific Gas & Electric, announced an even larger project Wednesday with Southern California Edison.

By 2016, the two companies said, BrightSource will build a series of solar-thermal power plants that will generate 1.3 gigawatts of electricity for Southern California Edison's customers. That's enough power for 845,000 homes, said Stuart Hemphill, the utility's vice president of renewable and alternative power. He characterized the deal as "the largest set of solar agreements ever signed."

Solar thermal may have an edge on photo-voltaics for large scale installation because it is not reliant on expensive and complex silicon wafers.

Desal or recycling and efficiency?

While the wave of recent rain has eased concerns somewhat, worries about a severe third year of drought has again raised talk of desalination by many water agencies in the region.

About 20 water agencies up and down the California coast seem to think so.

From Marin County to San Diego, small and large projects that turn seawater into tap water are gaining favor, propelled by events unprecedented in California's history: worsening drought, dwindling species of freshwater fish, crumbling plumbing systems and unyielding demand.

"People are worried about water supply," said Michael Carlin, assistant general manager of water at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. "Desalination is for drought supply, for an emergency, and it augments existing supply - it's another tool in our toolbox."

But it is unclear if these discussions really account for the much greater costs associated with desalination. It is extremely energy intensive and efficiency alternatives in urban areas - where these utilities are focused - are substantially less expensive and provide not only water but energy savings as well.

Alternatives include replacing top-loading washing machines and 3-gallon-per-flush toilets with water-efficient versions, Gleick said, while communities could offer incentives for drought-resistant plantings and use water from showers and dishwashers for irrigation.

Saving water has a price advantage. A study last year by the Los Angeles Economic Development Council found that conservation would cost $210 a year per acre-foot, compared with more than $1,000 per acre-foot for desalination.

These discussions however provide little solace for farmers who face imminent impact from the drought and water management decisions.
Here the problems are more complex and require solutions that require more lead time than urban efficiency measures.

Water shortages are a severe threat to the state's agricultural industry, which uses 80 percent of the water consumed by Californians to produce more than half of the country's vegetables, nuts and fruits. The industry, the state's largest, generates more than $36 billion annually in sales. It provides 1.1 million jobs in a state with one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation — 9.3 percent.

Already many farmers are letting their fields lie fallow. Fresno County's farmers plan to grow about half the lettuce they did last year. Other farmers are panicking and spending millions of dollars to dig expensive wells that mostly yield poor-quality water.

A new University of California-Davis study estimates that $1.6 billion in agriculture-related wages — and as many as 60,000 jobs across the Central Valley — will be lost in the coming months because of the drought.

But not all farmers in the surrounding region are faced with the same difficulties. Salinas acted with foresight with some farmers adopting highly efficient drip irrigation techniques and more.

Amid the debate, the fertile Salinas Valley — which didn't participate in either the state or federal water projects — is a model of water management that is good for the environment and good for farmers. The water in Monterey County's reservoirs is low but should be adequate to get farmers through the year.

"I think our ancestors had the foresight to put in a system that constantly recharges our aquifers," said fourth-generation farmer Dirk Giannini, 36. It was a crisis in the Salinas Valley that led to a solution that has won plaudits from both environmentalists and farmers.

The problem was saltwater intrusion, where seawater gradually replaces freshwater pumped from wells near coastal land. The solution was to send Monterey County's wastewater through advanced treatment — yes, that includes toilet water — to irrigate farmland in the northern part of the Salinas Valley around Castroville.

More on agricultural opportunities for better water management at the Pacific Institute.

Recommended Reading

I want point you to an article in the latest Bay Nature magazine by Glen Martin -- former SF Chron environment reporter -- on climate change and the Bay Area’s ecosystems. It’s a very thorough read but definitely worth it.

One thing it makes clear: global warming’s impact is already happening in our own backyard and it’s not slowing down anytime soon.

Redwood City Green Bag Lecture: Do it Yourself Green Remodeling

February Green Bag Lecture: Do it Yourself Green Remodeling

Do you think green building is too expensive and time consuming? Come learn about the basics of green remodeling, and how you can have a beautiful home that is healthy for you and the environment. Kirsten Flynn of Sustainable Home will speak about her favorite green interior materials and furnishings and the simple things you can do at home when remodeling.

Date: Wednesday, February 4th
Time: Noon - 1 pm
Place: 455 County Center, Rm 101
Redwood City


Coming Soon
Can't make it to the event? The Green Team will be posting proceedings from each Green Bag series (voice over presentation format). Check soon for updates at the Green Portal:
http://intranet.co.sanmateo.ca.us/portal/site/Intranet/menuitem.a66ecd86ecbb478553ded3a3e17332a0/?vgnextoid=dde852383f838110VgnVCM1000001937230aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default

For additional information, contact RecycleWorks at 1-888-442-2666

http://www.recycleworks.org/green_bag_2009.html

Out with Tesla, in with Proterra in San Jose?

With Tesla's plant sadly out of the picture due to issues surrounding its loans for the factory, San Jose is now looking to a company called Proterra, maker of electric buses, to provide some of that electric vehicle mojo. Writes the San Jose Mercury News:

On Friday, Proterra showed off a prototype of its electric bus, the aerodynamic EcoRide BE35, outside San Jose City Hall. City officials got a ride in the nearly silent, zero-emissions vehicle, as did students from Trace Elementary School and staffers from Breathe California, a nonprofit that fights lung disease.

Proterra is taking its approximately $1 million prototype on a 10-city tour of California this month. The company hopes to get orders for production versions of the bus, and then use those orders to get financing for a factory to build them, Weis said.

San Jose would be willing to offer equipment and training incentives to the company, Weis said. It has done the same thing for numerous solar companies, offering packages worth $500,000 to $1.5 million to convince companies such as NanoSolar and Stion to locate in the city.

Proterra would like to have its factory in California, where a state law mandates that 15 percent of the buses added to transit fleets after 2011 be emission-free, said Dale Hill, the company's founder and chief technology officer. Either electric buses or those using hydrogen fuel cells would meet the mandate.

Though Proterra would be great for the region, it's not clear it's quite as exciting a set of wheels as Tesla. But then if you have a need for speed, you could go with one of these.

More on drought

California's drought is entering its third year. But let's hope we don't see what others are seeing.

Consider China:

The prolonged drought has added to the misery in rural areas China has declared an emergency in eight northern and central drought-hit regions, where nearly four million people are suffering water shortages.

Nearly half of China's winter crop - some 10m hectares (24m acres) of wheat and rape seed - are also under threat.
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China's drought relief office called it an event "rarely seen in history".

China faces droughts and floods annually but has seen a recent increase in extreme weather conditions.

Or Australia

The drought has already wiped more than A$20 billion from the $1 trillion economy since 2002. It is the worst in 117 years of record-keeping, with 80 percent of eucalyptus trees already dead or stressed in the Murray-Darling region.

Freeman said the volume of useable water in storage was now 1,470 gigaliters, or 16 percent of capacity, slightly higher than at the end of January last year, but well below the January long term average of 5,400 GL.

A recent heatwave across the country's southeast and lower than normal flows had also increased the risk of algal blooms and aquatic plant growth along the river, also bringing three mass fish kills due to high water temperatures.

What innovation looks like - Xerox PARC & paper

If we apply our ingenuity remarkable solutions are possible. The average US worker consumes 10,000 pages of copy paper a year with the equivalent energy consumption of running a 60 watt light bulb for an hour not to mention the forests...

Sunnyvale: priorities & green building

Just in from Barb (closing the loop on green building in particular will be a big win)

I thought it might be helpful to post some of the issues the City of Sunnyvale recently decided to study, in anticipation of action, during the coming year. Especially in the Department of Public Works, the environment did pretty well.

Environmental issues ranked highly by the Council:

Department of Public Works (started off with 20 issues; 10 were ranked, others dropped/deferred)

#1 Study how to connect to the Stevens Creek Trail

#2 Study ways to conduct transportation demand management for schools

#3 Revise building code to better deal with gray water installations

#4 Study the desirability of forming a Joint Powers Authority to accelerate action on regional solid waste issues. (Currently these issues are handled through the County Department of Agriculture. Staff believes that a JPA that deals only with solid waste, similar to those in other jurisdictions, would provide a more effective and focused use of resources.)

#5 Study a City plastic bag ban, in case the county measure stalls.

#7 Study effect of traffic calming devices on cyclists.

Community Development Department (started off with 40 some issues; 11 were ranked)

# 1 Develop permitting standards for renewable energy sources, e.g. wind, geothermal, bio-diesel. (Solar has already been updated. Citizens are inquiring about these other sources.)

#7 Study whether and where to require purple piping (for reclaimed water) in new construction

#8 Consider increasing minimum space requirements for new construction

We deferred forming a Sustainability Commission or Advisory Committee. We continue exploring zero waste pathways. We also continue studying a traffic oriented development near the Lawrence Station. Our Land Use and Transportation Element of the General Plan is undergoing a two-year review.

In terms of Cool Cities basic goals,

Our new sustainability coordinator is conducting our second carbon audit of municipal facilities and operations, in order to report results to Sustainable Silicon Valley. He will follow with our first community carbon audit. Staff expects to complete the community audit by June 30.

Since Council adopted a green building policy last August, staff has been working on the ordinance. Staff is conducting significant outreach to building trades, other cities, US Green Building Council and others. The policy includes municipal, commercial, and residential buildings--new construction, additions and remodels. (Residential remodels were included as per the Sunnyvale Cool City's Team's request.) The green building ordinance is now expected to go to Council in March.

Also last year Council limited use of disposable water bottles at City-sponsored events and up-dated pay-as- you-throw garbage rates. Our sustainability coordinator also formed green teams in city government departments.

So, that's where things stand in Sunnyvale.

Key Bay Area Green Leaders

The SF Chronicle profiles a set of local leaders playing important roles in moving us to a sustainable future.

These 10 people are among the brightest lights in their respective fields - from solar energy to venture capital to water policy to "smart" growth.

They might not become household names, but their research, policy papers and startups could shape the way many households run in the years to come.

There are of course many that are high-profile such as John Doerr or Carl Pope. The Chronicle's criteria appears to be that their public visibility is limited while there impact is large. The Chronicle's list?

• Sherry Boschert, clean cars


• John Woolard, solar power


• Mary Nichols, carbon emissions


• Daniel Kammen, energy efficiency


• Julie Lundquist, wind power


• Jeremy Madsen, smart growth


• Peter Gleick, water policy


• Ben Santer, climate research


• Chris Somerville, biofuels


• Nancy Floyd, venture capital

Truth is the the list is very large at every level. Who is on your list?