Carbon Dioxide emissions in the states are down.  The government estimates that between 2007 and 2009, carbon emissions will be down by a whopping nine percent.  This is the equivalent of shutting down 400 coal plants for a year.  This is good news and it’s real.  Now the bad news.  The reason for the decline is our economic slump.  Carbon emissions basically track the rise or fall in gross domestic product (GDP).

How can we get GDP and jobs going again without CO2 following?  Are greenhouse gases irrevocably tied to economic growth?  Must we stop growth and employment in order to stop coastal, island and wetland flooding by rising oceans, stop regional desertification, rivers running dry and plant and animal extinctions?

Demand for electricity was down 4% in the first half of 2009, including a decline at FPL.  Does this conform to the need for a new nuclear plant and a cost recovery charge on customers’ bills?  Utility representatives say the decline is only temporary and that demand will increase again with economic recovery but there is uncertainty now about that future demand.

Industrial demand is down to use levels during the 1990s.  Is this due to recession or are industries taking actions to increase operating efficiencies?  Is the increasing production and use of energy efficient appliances in homes slowing electric consumption?  Some states are providing incentives for such appliances.  In fact, even the US government has stepped in to phase out incandescent light bulbs beginning in 2012.

Last April, John Wellinghoff, chairman of the FERC, said the combination of renewable energy and energy conservation could avert the need to build any coal or nuclear plants to meet base-load capacity.  We may not need any ever, he said.  The gears of fossil fuel consumption are turning more slowly.  The nuclear industry can’t find private investors and must indenture their own ratepayers.  Consumers understand the carbon footprint idea and are paying more attention to their own.

Conservation; Energy Efficiency; Renewable Requirements for Utilities; Solar, Biomass, Ocean and Wind Generated Electricity; Liquid Biofuels; Fuel Cells; Electric Transportation; Organic Food production.  These are the attitudes and industries that will permanently cut our link to carbon emissions.  Instead of GDP, we’ll measure growth by the amount of CO2 that doesn’t enter the atmosphere.  The new, jobs-supporting growth economy climbing out of this recession is non-carbon, non-radioactive, non-polluting, sustainable and safe.

Sam Kendall

Sources: NYT 11/18/09 A Surplus of Energy That Might Even Last,  NPR 11/20/09 Financial Crisis is Green For the Environment, WSJ 4/23/09 FERC Chairman: We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Nukes

Lynx bus service is available from the Orlando Airport.  It was very convenient for me when I arrived back in Orlando because the 41 bus travels right up route 436 to Altamonte Springs.  I had a three block walk and the trip cost me a dollar.  Lynx is going to be a cleaner ride soon when they start blending biodiesel.

According to an article in the Orlando Sentinel, use of public transportation is up 4 percent nationwide and the number of miles driven in cars is down 4 percent.  Car travel didn’t change in Florida last year, but use of public transportation, including both buses and the trains in south Florida was up by 3 percent.  If we ever do build the Sunrail commuter system in Central Florida, “they will come.”  After the gasoline boom and bust earlier in this decade, the price of a barrel of oil stabilized around $40.  After the boom and bust of ‘08 and ‘09, a barrel has stabilized around $70.

Not only is public transportation gaining ridership, it is also gaining in renewable, clean technology.  Through the Stimulus Bill, $100 million has been released in competitive, clean-transport grants.  Forty-three local transit agencies across the country will be buying diesel-electric hybrid buses, installing PV on terminals and maintenance shops and upgrading cooling systems to improve mileage.

Sam Kendall

The St. Lucie County Extension Office (U of F IFAS) will conduct a workshop exploring the potential for biodiesel feedstocks appropriate to that area of the state.  For information and registration click here.

Speakers will discuss the domestic and international biodiesel industry and provide information on feedstocks such as sunflower, jatropha and algae.  The biodiesel initiatives in Washington and Vermont will also be discussed.

Sam Kendall

This is the first PPA request I have heard about in Florida.  Applicants begin the process by submitting a Statement of Qualifications (SOQ) to OUC.  You can get applications and details at the Orlando Utilities Website here.  The deadline is September 3, 2009.

Applicant teams must have participated in an aggregate of at least one megawatt of PV installations.  At least one of the qualifying PV projects must be 100 KW or greater.  Teams are encouraged to partner with local solar / electrical firms.  Experience developing and successfully negotiating power purchase agreements is required.

California utilities took the lead in negotiating these types of solar facilitating agreements.  No doubt their interest was sparked by the California Legislature’s mandates to achieve renewable energy standards.  OUC has been one of the most progressive Florida utilities and is paying a premium to private owners who supply PV power to the grid.  Now they are preparing for utility scale photovoltaics.

Sam Kendall

The July-August edition of Audubon Magazine has an article by Barry Yeoman called Work Plan.   Mr Yeoman tells the story how Newton, Iowa is transitioning from high employment (Maytag Washing Machine factory) to recession (Maytag bought out and factory closed 2006) to new era green companies with jobs expanding.   The Newton Transformation Council saw clean energy on the horizon and brought in a wind turbine blade manufacturer and a biodiesel plant.  Now the City Council is looking at big wind turbines to power the city; more support for green technology and more green jobs.

We are into the Renewable Energy transition but only consistent government support will make it successful.  After all, you and I, the government and the fossil fuel producers have all been interdependent for over a century.  President Obama is making good on his campaign pledge of $150 billion over ten years, already committing $100 million in the Stimulus Package this year.  A green economy is more labor intensive.  Yeoman refers to the study showing that three to five more jobs are created per dollar invested in green tech than when you invest in the fossil fuels.

But the author also points out the investments coming from the private sector: an ocean wave energy and modern street car manufacturer in Oregon, a wind turbine manufacturer in Minnesota and Ford Motor Company committing to build electric cars at a plant in Michigan beginning in 2011.  Remember Ford declined any bailout money.

Sam Kendall

How Sweet It Is!  Does anyone doubt that we have entered the New Era?

I had sent an email to my Central Florida Congressman, John Mica, urging him to support the Bill.  He wrote back that he understands the need to protect the environment, but he is concerned about the loss of so many jobs.  He says the amount of green jobs created by the legislation will pale when compared with the millions lost due to these new “energy taxes.”  He says the legislation will move household energy costs up by $3128 per year.

In this new Renewable Energy Era, we will need congressmen who are serious enough about protecting the environment that they will seek out ways to assist workers transitioning from carbon intense jobs to clean energy jobs.  The Bill is forward looking.  Unfortunately, a lot of  congressmen can’t see past their next pay check.  The transition to solar and renewables would be moving along much more efficiently if the Republicans had seen years ago that a clean environment translates into millions of jobs and incomes.  Now, especially at state and local levels. a few of them are starting to see how this works.  We’ll just have to pull Congressman Mica along with us!  If he is worried about his energy costs rising, I suggest a home energy survey, investing in the most energy efficient appliances and installing some solar panels right away.  If he does that now, his future energy costs will go down.

Sam Kendall

This on-line twelve-session course appears to cover every aspect of pushing home energy consumption down to zero:  efficient walls and windows, solar hot water, attics, appliances, solar PV, etc.  If you have thought about building or retrofitting a home for net zero energy, this sounds like where you should be.

The sessions begin June 3rd and continue twice monthly until November.  You can register separately for sessions at $69 each.  Check the schedule and register here.

Sam Kendall

Following up on my previous blog, I listened to the Solar Advisory Committee report and the commissioners’ response.  The commissioners had evidently previously charged the Committee to develop a bold plan to implement solar hot water in Sarasota county.  Larry Altman, the committee chairman, said “a public utility is the only way to make a significant dent” in the 100,000 solar heaters needed.  The commissioners had envisioned that one half of the homes in Sarasota county have solar within five years.  That would require at least 20,000 installations per year.  This, indeed, is the kind of bold thinking that is going to be necessary overcome the natural, human resistance to change.  At present, only several hundred systems are being installed in the county each year.

The report recommended three simultaneous initiatives: 1)create a public solar hot water heating utility 2) help expedite owner installations and 3) much more emphasis on education and marketing.  Altman said the up-front costs and lack of knowledge about the benefits of solar hot water appear to be the barriers to widespread installation.  He said fears about risks and liability must be addressed but sited the FSEC report showing how solar installations withstood the hurricanes of ‘04.  The utility would own and install the systems.  Homeowners would get a bill lower than what they pay the electric company for hot water (solar systems would be metered).  The environment would benefit and local employment would increase.  He expected the solar utility to become self-sustaining and recommended that users of large amounts of hot water be first in line.  This report was only the first step.  County staff would follow-up with detailed assessments of feasibility, financing and insurance options to present to the commissioners.

The commissioners rejected the heart of the report.  A solar utility would overcome the primary barrier to wide spread installation of solar hot water; the up-front cost.  These public officials couldn’t see it!  They wouldn’t even give the county staff the opportunity to assess the feasibility of such a utility.  Water utilities are common functions for governments and the advisory committee planned to incorporate the solar hot water into the existing county utility.  This Plan deserves more attention.  You can view the proceedings here.

Sam kendall

How can you convince people to heat their water with solar energy?  Aren’t people busy trying to keep their jobs and paying their mortgages; finding some kind of transportion to get to work?  There is a lot going on in our lives besides thinking about having a solar hot water heater installed.  Now, one county is trying to make a solar installation so easy that people won’t even have to think about it.

No one disputes the claim that solar can save a minimum of ten per cent on an electric bill and usually more than that.  What will it take, besides a government mandate, to get people motivated?  Power companies and governments are making attempts to move the population toward solar with a variety of rebates and tax credits.  But a homeowner still must pay the up front cost of the installation, which can be three or four times the cost of an electric water heater.

Sarasota County, Florida has formed an Advisory Committee to find a solution.  Their recommendation is to have the county pay for the installation and then bill the homeowner monthly for the hot water used.   The Committee wants the monthly bill to be less than what the power company would receive for the same amount of hot water.  A government run solar hot water utility!  So easy that homeowners won’t even have to think about it!

Sam Kendall

While state legislators wonder whether to call nuclear power clean or renewable the old issues that have kept the industry shut down for thirty years are still unresolved: nuclear proliferation, waste, sabotage and safety. Just last year, the safety issue was raised again at the FPL Turkey Point plant. The top nuclear operator there accused company executives of putting cost savings ahead of safety after the plant “accidentally” shut down. Since 1979, there have been thirty five nuclear plant stoppages of a year or more in order to restore minimum safety standards. Can we be sure the regulators overseeing nuclear safety are more vigilant than the regulators of banks, brokers and insurance companies?

Energy Secretary Steven Chu says Yucca Mountain is no longer an option for storing highly radioactive nuclear waste. Instead, he says a new, comprehensive plan for waste disposal will be developed. Scientists researched the suitability of the Yucca Mountain site for twenty seven years and spent about $13.5 billion in the process. We all know that spent nuclear fuel must be disposed of in such a way as to protect the environment from contamination and living organisms from exposure. Yet, no plan has ever existed. So the spent fuel remains in ponds or dry casks on site. Are these casks or ponds accessible to terrorists?

While these fundamental questions continue to occupy the time and money of Dr. Chu and others, changing climate patterns from an overheated atmosphere present new challenges for the nuclear industry. Global warming is excess heat that leads to more intense regional drought and rain. Melting glaciers around the globe shift potable water from where it is needed down rivers and out into the oceans. Less snow melt in the Rocky Mountains means less potable water for Californians and less hydroelectricity. Extended drought in Georgia means a lower water level for the Apalachicola River mussels and fishermen and the Alabama nuclear plant also on the river. Rising sea levels mean losses of protective wetlands and highly valued coastal real estate.

What are thermal electric plants, such as coal, oil and nuclear? They are heat! By the law of thermodynamics much of that heat is not converted into electricity but is wasted into the atmosphere or nearby water bodies. Water is used to cool plants now and so water is diverted from other essential uses. Fear that river levels will drop below what is necessary to maintain nuclear plant thermal stability has numerous plant operators nervous. Nuclear power has the distinction of using water less efficiently than any other thermal electric provider. But whether plants are cooled by water or air, excess heat still reaches the atmosphere. In 2007, a reactor at Browns Ferry in Alabama had to shut down to avoid heating the Tennessee River to dangerous levels. Nuclear power plants do not release carbon dioxide. But can we say that nuclear power is necessary to reduce global warming?

By locating new nuclear plants along our coastlines, ocean water can be used for cooling. Does this make sense? It is exactly the rising sea levels that we will need to mitigate. The National Intelligence Assessment on the National Security Implications of Climate Change to 2030, received by congress in June, 2008, said as many as two dozen nuclear facilities on US coast lines are at risk and may be severely impacted by storms. Can the nuclear industry make coastal plants safe from flooding and rising sea levels? Will we see more nuclear plants offline in the future due precisely to the effects of global warming?

When energy from our sun is converted to electricity there is no excess heat because this energy is already part of the overall system. Solar PV panels, wind and wave turbines release no wasted heat to warm the atmosphere. Storing this current, solar energy is still in developmental stages. The high renewable goals set in California have set utilities seeking innovative methods for storing energy and already we are seeing results. Concentrating solar thermal systems there can extend the time that steam is available during the night so turbines can continue producing electricity. Biomass is solar energy storage and new gasification methods can clean up the old air quality problems associated with combustion. Battery technology, hydrogen and fuel cell technology can be used to extend solar through the intermittent periods. If legislators allow utilities to include nuclear in any renewable or clean standard, these solar conversion and storage technologies won’t mature. We need to set goals that will take us beyond our flawed, twentieth century fuels and into the future.

Sam Kendall