Columbia University to Host City's Green Tech Hub

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Thursday an initiative he says will unite all the forces needed to get the city's buildings on a greener path quickly.

The NYC Urban Technology Innovation Center (UTIC) at Columbia University will connect colleges that develop green technologies with the companies that use those technologies in their products and services. These companies will, in turn, connect with real estate developers and building owners.

“It will help you to forecast where the industry is going, [and] where the technologies are going so that you can be sure you are getting out ahead of the curve, rather than having to react, which is what really up to now most building owners have had to do because information is just very difficult to gather and predictions are very hard to make,” said Seth Pinsky, president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation(EDC).

Though the center is located on the Columbia University campus, it is a broad academic collaboration. Other institutions, such as the City University of New York (CUNY), and New York University (NYU) will also contribute resources and data.

The announcement of this initiative comes a day after the mayor's State of the City address, in which he promised to promote environmental sustainability throughout the city to create green jobs and save money on energy. However much money this initiative will save in the long run, it will take an initial investment. Read Full Story

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Nature Inn is first in park system to demonstrate Green Technologies

This September the Nature Inn at Bald Eagle State Park, the first facility of its type in Pennsylvania's state park system, opened its doors, offering visitors not only an up-close experience with nature, but an up-close experience with green technologies.

Energy and water conserving features of the 18,500-sq.ft. Nature Inn include a geothermal system to provide heating and cooling; solar collectors to heat water for showers and laundry; five rain barrels and four large cisterns to collect and harvest rainwater; and low-flow plumbing fixtures.

"As a southern entrance point to the 12-county Pennsylvania Wilds, this Nature Inn will welcome people to a region known for its wealth of state parks and forests and opportunities for wildlife watching and many other outdoor adventures," said Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) Secretary John Quigley. "Along with offering a good night's rest, we also are demonstrating stewardship and conservation by connecting guests to outdoor activities in the park and showing them 'green' energy-efficient building features and how to collect and use rainwater."

Geothermal is first choice

The geothermal system is a closed-loop system consisting of 24 6-in. diameter vertical wells 300-ft. deep. The wells are divided into three groups of eight, located under the parking lot.

“The site selected is previously disturbed, and DCNR wanted to keep any disturbance of the surrounding woodland to a minimum, but the site is also long and narrow,” explained Michael Twigg, architectural supervisor of Pennsylvania’s DCNR Bureau of Facility Design and Construction. “DCNR has more than 20 geothermal systems at facilities around the state and the preferred location is generally an open field or yard, but for this project the selected location had to be beneath the parking lot.”

Geothermal was chosen for this project because past experience with geothermal heating and cooling has been successful for the DCNR.

According to Twigg, based on the performance of the geothermal systems at other locations, geothermal is generally DCNR’s first choice when constructing or upgrading major facilities.

The geothermal loop is connected to a Mitsubishi CITY MULTI Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) system, consisting of four WR2-Series water source heat pumps, four Branch Circuit (BC) refrigerant controllers, one connected with each of the heat pumps, and a variety of indoor units throughout the public and service areas of the Nature Inn.

“The VRF system provides several benefits including simultaneous heating and cooling, simple zoning, quiet operation, system simplicity, and a lower lifecycle cost,” said Twigg. “In addition, the VRF system allows for heat recovery of unneeded heat which can then be rerouted through the BC controller to areas of the building that need it without operation of the main compressor unit.”

Solar thermal system

A primary goal of the Nature Inn is to assist in delivering a message of resource conservation to the guests that visit the inn. Therefore, the solar thermal array for domestic hot water is located in a visible location — on a trellis above the doors directly from the main lobby where guests can see the panels.

“We thought that knowing that when you take a shower, or when your sheets and towels are laundered, part of the energy to heat the water was generated in a clean, fossil-fuel free manner was a powerful message,” said Twigg.

The solar thermal system is made of 80 vacuum tubes by Thermo Technologies. The tubes collect the sun’s heat, transferring it through a header manifold to a water loop. The water is then pumped to the hot water storage tank where the heat is transferred to the water stored in an 80-gal. Rheem solar water storage tank.

According to Jerry Plummer, vice president of K&K Plumbing Co., Johnstown, Pa., this was the first thermal system the company installed, and the installation went well.

“This took about two weeks,” said Plummer. “This project was unique since there are not a lot of these systems in the area.”

According to Twigg, the solar thermal system is estimated to meet roughly 50% of the annual hot water demand and save about 8,300 kWh of energy each year.

Water conservation

Besides having an up-close experience with solar thermal and geothermal systems, guests at the Nature Inn will also experience a water-conserving plumbing system and rainwater collection system. 

Low-flow plumbing fixtures in conjunction with the rainwater collection system is anticipated to reduce total building water use by almost 200,000 gallons per year, or more than 45% over a typical building, according to Twigg. 

Low-flow Symmons lavatory faucets and Moen showerheads are being utilized. Plus, EPA WaterSense-rated American Standard dual-flush toilets are used throughout the building, allowing guests to select the amount of water needed — either 1.6-gpf or 0.8-gpf.

“Besides the solar thermal system, the rainwater harvesting is unique to the building,” said Plummer. “This is the first rainwater harvesting system K&K Plumbing Co. installed, and it went smooth.” 

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Marines Harness the Sun

The Marine Corps now has the power of the Sun.

Later this year, a company of Marines will deploy to Afghanistan equipped with solar power systems to supplement its gasoline-powered generators. The move is an effort by the service to begin fielding some green technologies to shorten a long and expensive logistics trail.

Company I of the 3^rd Battalion, 5^th Marine Regiment, based at Camp Pendleton, Calif., will deploy with seven Ground Renewable Expeditionary Energy Systems (GREENS). Produced by the Naval Surface Warfare Center's Carderock Division in Maryland, each GREENS can provide up to 300 watts of power, making it an alternative to a small conventional generator. The device features four hybrid rechargeable photovoltaic batteries, a power converter and a controller.

The company tested the GREENS during training drills in August at Twentynine Palms, Calif. National Defense reported that during the exercise, the Marine unit never had to turn on a generator to power its combat operations center. Marine sources said the solar equipment provided 196 hour of continuous power during the exercise.

Besides the solar power systems, the Marines of Company I will also be using LED lights, which are more durable and longer lasting than fluorescent tubes. The company will also deploy solar-powered light trailers designed to illuminate areas such as checkpoints after dark. The timer-operated trailers can run continuously for 12 hours when fully charged by the sun.

The Marine Corps is also looking into other technologies to save power. National Defense notes that the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory is investigating ways to integrate the various types of generators used at Marine facilities into basewide microgrids that would automatically monitor the electric load and switch generators on or off based on consumption.

Alternative power sources are attractive to the Defense Department for environmental and logistical reasons. Environmentally, the Pentagon has a goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent in three years, although progress on this front has lagged, Wired reported.

The other concern is cutting the military’s logistical needs for forces scattered across Afghanistan’s often inhospitable terrain. Wired notes that according to operational estimates released in 2009, a single soldier in Afghanistan uses 22 gallons of fuel a day, and delivering each gallon to the war zone costs between $300 and $400.  Courtesy of GCN




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Living a Sustainable Lifestyle

 As back to school begins young students are looking to go to a school where they can spend four years living a sustainable lifestyle.
 
With its Georgian architecture and Old Virginia bricks, South Hall looks a lot like other buildings on the Wake Forest University campus.

But the new residence hall, which will open to freshmen on Aug. 19, is a showpiece that was built using modern ideas on sustainability.

And it's been outfitted with the latest in green technology, from energy-efficient appliances to flat-screen TVs that will show students how much water and electricity is being consumed on each of the building's four floors.

The 67,000-square-foot building on the southern tip of campus reflects the university's mission to become more sustainable, said Donna McGalliard, the dean of residence life and housing.

"The university's philosophy has really been focused on sustainability," McGalliard said. "And that it's not just a fad or a trend."

For the past few years, the university has added things such as more efficient washers and recycling centers at its residence halls, but South Hall is the first building that was planned, designed and constructed with LEED-certification in mind. LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a certification system used for green building.

Wake Forest will not know whether South Hall meets LEED certification for several months.

Jim Alty, the associate vice president for facilities and campus services, said the university has started a number of programs to get faculty, staff and students to recycle, reuse food trays and share cars.

"This is the first time that Wake has had a chance to demonstrate in a physical way our commitment to sustainability," he said.

A new welcome center also is being built following green-building standards.

South Hall, one of six freshmen residence halls that form a cluster on the south end of campus, was built to accommodate the growing number of freshmen attending Wake. It will house 201 students, most of whom will live in a double room that averages about 220 square feet. Freshmen will be randomly chosen to live there.

The residence hall is the first to be built at Wake since 1998, when an apartment-style hall was built on the north end of campus. The new dorm cost $18 million to build. The green features did not add to the price, Alty said.

The building's environmentally friendly features will be a draw for this generation of college students, McGalliard said. "I would not say the same thing of students five years ago. This follows naturally with what they've been learning." Green dorms are showing up all over the country, said Alexandra Adler, the assistant director of Sustainable Endowments Institute, which promotes sustainability on college campuses. About 44 percent of 332 colleges surveyed have either a "green" residence hall or one that is devoted to sustainable living, according to a report the institute issued last year.

A recent report that looked at sustainability at 332 universities showed that about 44 percent have either a "green" residence hall or one that is devoted to sustainable living.

"Young students are looking to go to a school where they can spend four years living a sustainable lifestyle," Adler said. "When you're in a dorm, you don't have control over how much water is being used, so to live in a dorm with those kinds of facilities would be attractive."

One of South Hall's features is the amount of natural light that filters through its many windows. The windows, which are double-pane and framed in aluminum, not only bring in natural light but offer good views of the campus and the surrounding green space.

Ryan Swanson, the university architect, said the connection to the outside world is part of sustainable design. "Part of being sustainable is satisfying the occupant," he said.

Those occupants can study in rooms with individual thermostats, lean back in chairs made of recycled seat belts, and fix popcorn in a microwave-refrigerator-freezer combo that uses just one plug.

"This is going to help students understand what it means to live in a sustainable environment," McGalliard said.   See Full Story




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Tesla Motors IPO to Test Demand for Green Technology Stocks

The Tesla Motors initial public offering this week will be a bellwether for investor confidence in green technology, analysts say.

Telsa will raise nearly $US200 million ($229m) tomorrow in one of the most eagerly awaited IPOs of the year because it is a "technology velociraptor", according to its founder and chief executive.

Elon Musk does not mean that his electric car company is a dinosaur.

Quite the opposite.

He is counting on the company's image as an agile, Silicon Valley high-tech predator to help it to raise at least $US185m from the sale of 11.1 million shares priced in the $US14 to $US16 range.

Mr Musk has been running a pre-IPO roadshow to drum up business.

"We're closer to an Apple or a Google than we are to a GM or a Ford. There will not be anybody that will bring technology to market faster than Tesla," he said in a video presentation.

Touted as the first American car company to go public since Ford in 1956, the Tesla IPO will be a bellwether for investor confidence in green technology and the future of the car industry, analysts say.

The company, based in Palo Alto, California, has won many admirers for its all-electric Roadster sports car, which sells for $US109,000 in the United States, but questions remain about the company's viability.

Tesla has had years of losses and admits to an uncertain production schedule for its battery-powered cars.
The company sells only the Roadster, a high-end car powered by lithium-ion batteries with a design based on the Lotus Elise two-seater sports car. It has sold only 1063 Roadsters since 2008 and has lost $US290m since the company was founded in 2003.

Revenue has totaled $US147.6m. Tesla has said that it will end production of the Roadster in 2011 and start selling a mass-market luxury sedan in 2012 priced at a more affordable $US49,900. The Model S will have a top speed of about 145km/h and a range of more than 161 km between recharges.

In a 30-page risk-factors entry in its IPO prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said that it expected continuing quarterly losses until the Model S hit the market.

Tesla has taken $US19.7m in 2200 reservations for the five-seat car, for which it has still to finalize a production-ready prototype. After the Model S, Tesla plans to continue expanding its line-up of electric cars with increasingly cheaper models.

However, the company has been forced to deny that the IPO will be affected by a divorce dispute between Mr Musk, a South African who co-founded the online payments company PayPal, and his estranged wife.    Source theaustralian




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