EPA vs. Industry

Posted on December 13, 2010 by Tara Holmes

In a victory for environmentalists, on Friday, a US federal court denied an appeal by industry groups to block the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions starting in early January, 2011. The Obama Administration supports the EPA’s regulation of GHGs, including carbon dioxide, from major industrial sources due to the inability for more comprehensive national climate legislation to pass through Congress this summer.

Beginning in January, the EPA will require big emitters such as power plants, refineries and cement manufacturers, to obtain permits for polluting greenhouse gases. Companies will also have to follow EPA guidelines regarding the best technologies to control emissions when expanding or building new plants or factories.

Critics of the regulations argue the EPA is not equipped to handle the task of controlling GHG emissions and that regulations would damage the US economy. David Baron of Earthjustice however stated, “We’re glad the court rejected these baseless attempts by polluters to stall progress toward cleaner cars and safer air.”

The Fate of Vermont Yankee

Posted on November 15, 2010 by Tara Holmes

The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, located in the town of Vernon on the boarder of Massachusetts and Vermont, has been a topic of environmental concern and debate for many years. On Sunday, November 7th, the plant shut down due to a cooling water leak, but was back online to the New England grid early next Thursday morning.

Local residents and politicians, fearing the dated, aging plant could lead to potential nuclear disaster, have been pushing to permanently close the plant for years. In fact, the consensus in the Vermont Legislature is that Vermont Yankee should be closed when its 40-year license expires in March, 2012. Entergy, the Louisiana-based power company that owns the plant, has since put the reactor on the market as of last week given the continued resistance by the state of Vermont. Nonetheless, the fate of Vermont Yankee remains somewhat unclear.

The Brattleboro Reformer reported Thursday that in nearby Keene, NH, city officials are debating whether to sign a letter asking to be involved in decisions on how the reactor would be torn down. Clearly the push to close Vermont Yankee is significant, particularly when neighboring states express concern and take action. The question however remains: if Vermont Yankee shuts down, what alternative energy source will take its place? For now, the focus is the closure of an archaic power plant. What would ensue remains open for discussion and debate.

Replacing our Desktop Computer with a NAS

Posted on June 8, 2010 by BrendaPike

When we tested all our electronics with the Kill-a-Watt, we found out that the ten-year-old desktop was using a lot of energy, even when it wasn’t powered on. Since we were mostly just using the desktop for storing our music and pictures—we’re primarily laptop users now—we thought it would be a good idea to replace the poor old thing with network-attached storage (NAS for short).

A NAS is a mini-server built specifically for storage. If you work in a corporate environment, there are probably more than a few hanging around on your network. Only in the past five years or so have they started to be sold into the home market. It’s basically a tiny computer built around a bay for hard drives. When I started looking, my basic criteria was: 1) something that chews up less electricity than the old Windows Vista desktop (not hard to do) and 2) something that we can access from the laptops and backup our data to.

After some comparison, I chose the Netgear ReadyNAS NV+. It’s a very sexy little silver box that slides right into my entertainment center. The old PC ran at 110W–121W (plus 18W for the monitor) and used 6W when it was off (plus 2W for the monitor). The NAS uses 29W–45W, and just 1W when it’s off. In comparison with other NASes on the market, it’s in the middle of the pack somewhere: not the lightest sipper of electricity but not a workhorse server either. One of the many reasons I chose it is that it has an array of possible energy-saving features, such as:

A variable-speed fan—it senses the temperature and adjusts how fast the fan spins automatically.
Automatic disk spin-down—most new computers spin down when they’re not in use, but NASes generally don’t.
Scheduled startup and shutdown—in case we forget to turn it off at night, although I try to turn it off when I’m not using it.

The electricity draw varies based on what sort of hard disks one puts into the box, so it’s important to look for low-power drives to go with your NAS. I picked the WD Caviar Green drives, but there’s a variety of equally good “green” hard drives on the market now. “Green” in this case indicates only that they spin at a slower speed and thus suck down less energy. This means that they’re a little slower, but you’ll probably never notice on a network-connected server.

Those pesky fluorocarbons

Posted on May 21, 2010 by JPierce

Once found in everything from whipped desert topping in a can to sore throat spray, CFCs were eventually found to react with protective layer of our atmosphere which blocks much of the sun’s harmful rays. They were eventually replaced with related compounds, HCFCs and HFCs. Although the substitutes were not harmful to the ozone layer, like the CFCs before them they have significant global warming potential.

Chemical	GWP	ODP	Life (yr)
CO₂	1	0	>10,000
R12 (CFC)	8100	1	100
R22 (HCFC)	1800	0.06	12
R134a (HCFC)	1300	0	14
H₂O	N/A	0	N/A

Two weeks ago Canada, Mexico and the United States put forth a proposal to include these ‘Class II’ ozone depleting substances in the Montreal Protocol and phase-out their use. The proposed replacements are hydrocarbons, but their flammability complicates their use as general purpose substitutes, though these problems are not insurmountable. The Alliance for Responsible Atmospheric Policy, an industry association of HCFC/HFC producers and users, has some interesting background on the trade-offs relating to refrigerant selection, although they clearly have a vested interest in the matter.

There is another surprising alternative to these refrigerants, without resorting to the toxic ammonia of yore. If you glanced at the table above, you likely believed that the last entry was included for comparison. It was, but it turns out that water can also be used a refrigerant. Two years ago The Barr Foundation and the Cambridge Energy Alliance put forth an innocentive for a more efficient air conditioner. The winning submission was for a water-based system. A diagram of the novel solution is available on the InnoCentive blog.

Oceanic hydro-power digest

Posted on February 24, 2010 by JPierce

Oregon is set to test another buoy-based power generation system after the previous system sank two years ago.

Closer to home, plans to deploy a more traditional turbine-based system known as SeaGen in the Bay of Fundy were announced last year. An earlier Irish SeaGen installation has been operational for more than 1,000 hours since it was installed in 2008.

Both systems use “run-of-the-river” technologies which should minimize disruption of the surroundings, unlike the Annapolis basin installation also in the Bay of Fundy which operates more like a conventional hydroelectric dam.

Also of note, a relatively recent announcement about more cheap renewable energy in the future from north of the border into “Boston” which seems to have received little attention.

iPhone Carbon Watch: Apple Leads Electronics Industry Again

Posted on October 13, 2009 by LGlick

My iPhone is a pretty much constant presence in my life, from checking my email first thing in the morning to watching my nephews play with the DoodleBuddy app. But until last week, I never seriously considered its impact on the environment.

That changed when Apple published greenhouse gas emissions from its operations and products for the first time. The report, available at www.apple.com/environment, goes farther than other consumer tech companies have by accounting for product usage.

Apple iPhone emissions

It turns out that my iPhone produces greenhouse gases equivalent to about 55kg of carbon dioxide over the full course of its lifecycle, from sourcing to recycling. My use of my iPhone produces about 27kg of carbon dioxide.

To put that in perspective, 55kg of CO2 is equivalent to burning 22 gallons of gasoline in a car or 8 propane cylinders on a backyard grill. If I planted 5 tree seedlings in my backyard tomorrow, it would take them 10 years to sequester the amount of carbon my iPhone produces.

OK, so what? Twenty-two gallons of gas and 10 trees ain’t such a bad trade given that the iPhone is… well… downright awesome.

Truly. The iPhone is one of the most successful consumer tech products in history. Apple has sold 21M iPhone units since Q3 2007, shattering sales records.

All those iPhones have produced a lot of carbon emissions, equivalent to 1.16b kg to be exact, or roughly the same amount as a coal-fired power plant in one year of operation.

NY Times rising consumption

Source: New York Times

Bottom line: there isn’t enough land enough in the world to offset America’s greenhouse gas emissions from electronics by planting trees.

To halt our rising carbon emissions, America needs more than offsets. We need renewable energy alternatives at scale and stringent energy efficiency standards, especially for our electronics, “which now represent 15% of household power demand, and that is expected to triple over the next decade,” according to the New York Times and International Energy Agency.

Many are working hard to accomplish this goal. California recently proposed to ban the sale of high energy televisions. Flat-screen TVs and video game consoles can use more energy than refrigerators in some American homes today, due to a lack of mandatory efficiency standards. Massachusetts has followed suit by hearing testimony on TV efficiency.

Apple, in the same report cited above, announced that all of their desktop and laptop products now come with EnergyStar certification, an industry first. Going further, Apple also boldly withdrew from the US Chamber of Commerce, stating “Apple supports regulating greenhouse gas emissions, and it is frustrating to find the Chamber at odds with us in this effort.”

That’s a proactive step forward and a first for a major consumer brand. Other electronics manufacturers should follow Apple’s leadership.

Alex Patriquin is Founder and CEO of Digital Verdure, a digital media and sustainability company based in Cambridge, MA. Read more at his blog, DigitalVerdure.com.

Let’s Bury It?

Posted on September 23, 2009 by Tara Holmes

In New Haven, West Virginia, the Mountaineer Power Plant is about to embark on the world’s first attempt to capture and bury CO₂ from a coal-fired power plant (NYTimes). As early as this week, fluid CO₂ will be pumped into sandstone 7,800 feet underground and then into dolomite 400 feet below that; the liquid carbon dioxide is 30 to 40 feet high and hundreds of yards in length. The plan is to inject 100,000 tons annually for two to five years with the possibility of capturing 90% if Congress finds the technology economically feasible.

Initially sparked by political pressure to limit the amount of CO₂ released into the atmosphere, these plants are now faced with skeptics, scientists and environmentalists alike, who are concerned about the safety and long-term impact this new process could have. Specifically, CO₂ that’s injected into the Earth can filter into the ground water increasing the levels of carbonic acid. Other skeptics are concerned about the long-term pressure that could build as a result, leading to increased earthquakes. The EPA has discounted the risk. Either way, the bigger picture amounts to our continued dependence on fossil fuels for global energy. Until Congress understands the benefit of renewable energy both as a power source and economic stimulant, we will instead be faced with daunting and frightening “solutions” to climate change—like the one taking place in New Haven, WV—which are anything but.

Results from the Smart Grid

Posted on September 23, 2009 by Anthony Butler

IBM-smart-grid For the last six months, IBM has been running a Smart Grid test in the town of Fayettevile, North Carolina. First results show the average Smart Grid home reduces their energy usage by a surprising 15%.

The reasons offered start with the companies involved (IBM & Consent) who claim; “If it can be measured, it can be managed.” This concept has been around for a number of years, but it needs further detail to understand exactly why they called it the Smart Grid and why it could be the Holy Grail of energy efficiency.

Each house on the Smart Grid gives owners the ability to set daily use profiles, check real-time energy consumption, create monthly bill targets and cycle off appliances during peak load times–all through a standard Internet connection. One of the things the Smart Grid allows you to see–and correct–is the surprising amount of ‘vampire power’ a house consumes. Your computers, air conditioners, HDTVs, and water heater all use energy even when they’re switched off. By either unplugging these devices or cycling down power supply when you are not in the house or asleep, you can immediately cut your electricity use by least 10%.

Of course, you don’t need to wait for your local utility or IBM to put you on the Smart Grid before you start reducing your energy bills and saving money. For the first day of fall, here’s some tips for winterizing your home. And some low/no cost steps you can take for year-round energy efficiency.

Biomimicry- The next green revolution?

Posted on August 21, 2009 by LGlick

Wood Ant Hill

The current green revolution looks to renewable energy and green products to replace the polluting industries of the modern era. What is often left out of the discussion is our relationship with the living biosphere and how our technology much revolutionize itself to not just being low-carbon, but operate under the principles of how nature organizes itself. Janine Benyus, a scientist and founder of the company Biomimicry Guild, has been looking to nature to develop technologies that maximize efficiency prinicples inherent in the natural world. This new movement, labeled biomimicry, asks homo sapiens sapiens to tap into the intellengence of nature in our design principles. The natural world is not seen as a dumb organic machine, but rather a dynamic force that intelligently adapts to environmental changes to produce rhobust living ecosystems.

Humans are not the first and only species to be master builders, tool users, or farmers. For over 3.8 billion years, nature has evolved eligant solutions to some of the basic ecological challenges we are struggling with today. In the new online resource, www.asknature.org, it provides innovative minds with life’s best ideas to help develop sustainable technologies that are conductive to life. On this free open source website, one can research a design question and find a list of how nature solves the issue. For example, under the category of storing energy, there is a list of 33 species that adopt strategies to maximize energy use.

In the case of the wood ant, they build a nest with numerous holes for ventilation and entrances. At night and in cold weather the ants plug the holes to keep heat in. The workers also keep the slope of the nest at the right angle to obtain maximum amount of solar heat. The ants bring extra warmth into their nests as live heaters by basking in the sun in large numbers and taking the heat energy collected in their bodies into the nest. Can our homes be built in ways to maximize existing natural resources and store and cool the building without destroying our atmosphere? Passive solar design is one quick example of building techniques that blend old and new knowledge into our building design principles– with the potential of creating net zero energy use homes.

I believe this presents a paradigm shift for humanity, in which humans are not separate from the natural world but part of an intellegent ecosystem full of other species that have skills and wisdom to share with us. To learn more about Biomimicry I recommend watching a talk by Janine Benyus at http://www.ted.com/talks/janine_benyus_biomimicry_in_action.html.

When seeing is believing

Posted on July 21, 2009 by JPierce

Homemade thermal camera

It’s hard to beat an infrared camera when you really want to see which parts of a building the heating/cooling dollars are flying out of however, they’re rather specialized and expensive pieces of equipment. If you’re technically inclined though, you might try making your own; alternatively, you could sign up for an enhanced energy audit.

Warm Home Cool Planet

Sustainability begins at home

Category Archives: Technology