Possibly one of the most important talks of the year. Bill Gates' talk on energy and climate at TED:
The most important aspect of this talk is that the wealthiest man in the world and likely the most important philanthropist recognizes and asserts unambiguously the urgent need to address the climate crisis.
Rafael @www.ClimateAtBay.net
The San Francisco building code will soon be revised to require that new structures be wired for car chargers. Across the street from City Hall, some drivers are already plugging converted hybrids into a row of charging stations.This is a major focus of the Bay Area Climate Collaborative.
In nearby Silicon Valley, companies are ordering workplace charging stations in the belief that their employees will be first in line when electric cars begin arriving in showrooms. And at the headquarters of Pacific Gas and Electric, utility executives are preparing “heat maps” of neighborhoods that they fear may overload the power grid in their exuberance for electric cars.
“There is a huge momentum here,” said Andrew Tang, an executive at P.G.& E.
As automakers prepare to introduce the first mass-market electric cars late this year, it is increasingly evident that the cars will get their most serious tryout in just a handful of places. In cities like San Francisco, Portland, Ore., and San Diego, a combination of green consciousness and enthusiasm for new technology seems to be stirring public interest in the cars.
The first wave of electric car buying is expected to begin around December, when Nissan introduces the Leaf, a five-passenger electric car that will have a range of 100 miles on a fully charged battery and be priced for middle-class families.
The Bay Area will be getting new residential energy programs this spring and summer. The Association of Bay Area Governments was just awarded 10.75 million dollars to manage a Bay Area Retrofit program - and each of the counties will get part of that to expand or create their energy efficiency programs.
In addition to San Francisco launching its green financing program, the Counties of Alameda, Solano, San Mateo and Santa Clara and several other non-Bay Area Counties are participating in the CaliforniaFIRST statewide pilot program that will allow residents to finance their energy efficiency and renewable energy projects with their property taxes. The California Energy Commission also funded a grant to launch this CaliforniaFIRST pilot.
There will be both regional and local approaches to energy efficiency and should result in significant reductions of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions AND help the construction industry create new jobs or work.
Moving on what is going to be a wave of innovative financing in California and likely nationally to enable solar power, energy efficiency and other green steps for property owners, San Francisco implements a major financing program similar to Berkeley's BerkeleyFIRST.
Mayor Gavin Newsom signed legislation Monday that creates a citywide special tax district to finance energy efficiency, renewable energy and water conservation improvements. The loans, which will be attached to the property -- not the owner, will be paid back through property taxes.Soon many property owners throughout the state will have access to similar financing as the CaliforniaFIRST program facilitated by Renewable Funding ramps up and launches its pilot program in the Summer. Numerous counties have already signed on to this pilot including Alameda, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Monterey.
"This green financing program is going to create green jobs and fuel the next wave of energy and water efficiency and renewable energy development in San Francisco," Newsom said in a statement. "It helps home and property owners overcome the large up-front costs of major environmental improvements."
Beginning in March, San Franciscans will be able to seek financing from the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program, which will make $150 million in bonds available, according to Renewable Funding, a private group that will put up the capital and administer the program at no cost to the city.
Calera was founded in 2007 to bring Constantz's brainstorm to market. While conventional cement production requires kilns that heat limestone to 1,400 degrees Celsius, Calera's process recycles power plant emissions, scrubbing the carbon dioxide with alkaline water to create a raw material for cement. The result, Constantz says, is a "negative carbon" product because it both cleanses power plant emissions and eliminates carbon dioxide in cement production.
At its demo operation beside Dynegy's natural gas-burning power plant at Moss Landing, Calera is fed by two old pipelines with seawater and a new pipeline from the power plant that redirects 10 percent of its flue gases. (The goal is to eventually use it all.) The chemical process, which Constantz says is akin to converting milk into powdered milk, produces cement powder. The byproduct of desalinated water is sold to the Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency or returned to the ocean.
Calera also has pilot projects in Australia, using underground brine water, and in Dubai, using seawater. In those locales, Constantz said, the water byproduct is a much-coveted bonus. Calera has inked a partnership with Bechtel, the San Francisco-based construction giant, to bring the technology to global market. Power plant operators facing pressure to curb carbon emissions may do so by getting into the cement business.
Earlier this month the governor put in place new state-wide green building standards.
The Christian Science Monitor reports:
Taking effect January 2011, the nation's first mandatory green building code – dubbed “CalGreen” – lays out specific constraints for newly constructed buildings. It requires builders to install plumbing that cuts indoor water use by as much as 20 percent, to divert 50 percent of construction waste from landfills to recycling, and to use low-pollutant paints, carpets, and floors. It also mandates inspection of energy systems to ensure that heaters, air conditioners, and other mechanical equipment are working efficiently. And for non-residential buildings, it requires the installation of water meters for different uses.On the plus side, it raises the floor and will certainly move the market and bring benefits to state residents.
Some environmental groups including the Sierra Club and the National Resources Defense Council were critical of the two-tier “Calgreen" voluntary rating system suggested by the new code. That would clash with the "LEED" rating system, a voluntary green building label widely used nationwide, and cause confusion among builders, they said.Some 50 cities in the state, most of them in the Bay Area, have set green building standards using US Green Building Council's LEED.
Moreover, a two-tier labeling system would be open to conflicting interpretations and thus be unenforceable by local building inspectors, they argued. More than 200 architects, engineers, and builders have also e-mailed Schwarzenegger to protest the label.
Not only is Milpitas exploring an extensive municipal solar project which may cover city hall and 15 other major buildings, they are exemplifying the increasingly sophisticated collaboration characterizing the Bay Area on clean energy:
City staff has been working with local and regional cities and public agencies, including the Association of Bay Area Governments and Joint Venture Silicon Valley, to develop efficient and cost effective processes for evaluation of public facilities for feasibility of solar powering, review of options available for financing and installation of those solar panels on public facilities, he said.
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The contract with CH2M Hill will be based on time and materials, for an amount not to exceed $75,000, for a term of one year. About $55,000 in funding will come from redevelopment tax increment funds; $10,000 from the water fund; and $10,000 from the sewer fund.
