Earth Advantage Institute:  January 19, 2010

Starting in 2010, Portland metro area residents will see major changes related to sustainable and green practices. These changes will occur as the city begins to implement its Climate Action Plan, which was developed in 2009. Climate change is a serious problem that affects the world, and carbon emissions are a major contributing factor. Although the comprehensive Climate Action Plan aims to improve the sustainability and quality of life in many different areas of the community, the overall goal is to reduce carbon emissions in the Portland metro area 40% by 2030 and 80% by 2050.

The Climate Action Plan will improve the city of Portland environmentally, socially, and economically. A fundamental consideration of the plan was to create an economic development strategy, including the creation of local jobs. Specifically, the city recognized that the Portland metro area boasts many companies that provide green products and services. The focus will be on integrating these local companies into projects that may have previously outsourced similar products or services. A larger and economically sound workforce will provide the city with more resources to achieve the environmental and social objectives outlined in the Climate Action Plan.

Because carbon emissions are directly related to fossil fuel consumption, reducing residents’ dependence on fossil fuels is a common goal of every objective in the Climate Action Plan. Other important objectives of the plan are to improve social equity by ensuring that the most vulnerable communities are given priority for Climate Action Plan measures and that these communities are integrated in a meaningful and engaging way. Also, the city hopes to create healthier residents by improving the walkability of neighborhoods and enriching the quality of local forests, watersheds, and ecosystems.

Implementing the Climate Action Plan will be a serious undertaking. The State of Oregon and its local governments are going to be the primary entities responsible for this implementation. The framework of the Climate Action Plan is broken down into objectives; each objective is then broken down into the actions that are necessary for its completion. Currently, the deadline to meet all of the objectives is 2012. Because of the complexity and dynamic scope of sustainable practices, the city will evaluate and modify individual objectives every three years with a complete plan revision scheduled for 2020.

The following are some of the actions that will take place in the Portland metro area between now and 2012:

The establishment of a business tax credit for the simultaneous installation of solar panels and an eco roof.

The city will collaborate with private companies to reduce carbon fuel sources, including coal and natural gas, from Portland’s electricity mix.

Diesel fuel will start containing at least 10% biodiesel. Half of the biodiesel must be produced in Oregon.

The city of Portland will assist 1,000 businesses every year to improve compliance with the city’s paper, metal, and glass recycling requirements

State and local governments will replace street lighting, water pumps, water treatment systems, and other energy dependent systems with energy efficient technologies.

The city of Portland will collaborate with companies or individuals to develop and implement an outreach campaign to residents about the benefits of trees, watershed health, and green infrastructure.

The city will develop a more balanced funding mechanism and adopt a schedule for public investments to make neighborhoods highly walkable and bikable.

Overall, the Climate Action Plan lays the groundwork for a healthier, happier Portland. It will not be an easy task, but with everyone’s participation, the city can create the diverse network of businesses and individuals necessary to complete such a progressive plan. To see the complete plan, visit http://www.portlandonline.com/bps/index.cfm?c=49989&a=268612 .

January 9th, 2010 by Sundance Channel:

WASHINGTON, DC, January 8, 2010 (ENS) – President Barack Obama today announced the award of $2.3 billion in Recovery Act Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credits for 183 clean energy manufacturing projects across the United States.

“Building a robust clean energy sector is how we will create the jobs of the future,” said President Obama. “The Recovery Act awards I am announcing today will help close the clean energy gap that has grown between America and other nations while creating good jobs, reducing our carbon emissions and increasing our energy security.”

Scientist Harv Mahan makes anodes for litium-ion batteries. (Photo by Jack Dempsey courtesy NREL)

“Harnessing new forms of energy will be one of the defining challenges of the 21st century,” said the President. “And unfortunately, right now the United States, the nation that pioneered the use of clean energy, is being outpaced by nations around the world. It’s China that has launched the largest effort in history to make their economy energy efficient.”

“We spearheaded the development of solar technology, but we’ve fallen behind countries like Germany and Japan in producing it,” Obama said. “And almost all of the batteries that we use to power our hybrid vehicles are still manufactured by Japanese companies or in Asia – though, because of steps like the one we’re taking today, we’re beginning to produce more of these batteries here at home.”

The investment tax credits, worth up to 30 percent of each planned project, will leverage private capital for a total investment of nearly $7.7 billion in high-tech manufacturing in the United States, administration officials said.

Qualifying manufacturers will produce solar, wind, and geothermal energy equipment; fuel cells, microturbines, and batteries; electric cars; electric grids to support the transmission of renewable energy; energy conservation technologies; and equipment that captures and sequesters carbon dioxide or reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

Worker examines aluminum parts at the National Renewable Energy Lab. (Photo by Pat Corkery courtesy NREL)

“By investing in innovative clean energy manufacturing projects like these, we are not only creating good jobs now, but helping lay a new foundation to keep America competitive in the 21st century economy,” said Vice President Joe Biden. “This is what the Recovery Act is all about.”

Projects in 43 states are expected to create tens of thousands of high quality clean energy jobs.

“There is no greater priority for this administration than getting Americans back to work,” said Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. “The awards announced today, together with the more than $5 billion in private sector capital spurred by our investment, will drive significant growth in the renewable energy and clean technology manufacturing sectors, good jobs, an energized private sector marketplace and a leadership role for the U.S. in these crucial high-growth markets.”

These credits move the country towards meeting the President’s goal of doubling the amount of renewable energy America uses in the next three years with wind turbines and solar panels built in the United States.

“The world urgently needs to move toward clean energy technologies, and the United States has the opportunity to lead in this new industrial revolution,” said Secretary Chu. “Today’s awards will create new jobs and jumpstart the industries we need to both solve the energy problem and ensure America’s future competitiveness.”

Awardees will use the funding to create new products large and small that will make energy manufacture and consumption cleaner and cheaper. On the solar side, a random sampling of the 183 selected projects finds:

Amonix will manufacture low-cost solar electricity systems using inexpensive plastic lenses that concentrate sunlight. The systems generate 500 times more solar electric power from small, high-efficiency solar cells.

Dow will produce photovoltaic cells built into residential and commercial roofing and siding products. Dow’s technology imbeds solar cells into shingles, sidings, and other building materials.

GreenRay will manufacture a simplified “plug and play” AC solar electricity system for residential rooftops.

Nanosolar will factory-produce tools for the manufacturing of low-cost, low-GHG emission solar cells, using nanotechnology-enabled roll-to-roll processes.

PPG Industries will produce a double anti-reflective coating for glass that will permit increased light transmittance in solar modules. At their Louisiana facility, PPG will produce a special tire tread component that reduces rolling resistance and improves fuel economy.

On the wind side:

Eagle Claw will manufacture large wind turbine towers, a component piece of wind turbine systems used to generate electricity from wind energy. Towers are typically 250 to 400 feet high.

Great Lakes Industry will manufacture component precision gears for multi-megawatt wind turbine gearboxes.

Ingeteam Inc. will manufacture wind turbine generators in various technologies and will also manufacture power converter and control systems.

Johnson Plate & Tower Fabrication will establish and design a facility to manufacture commercial wind towers.

Martifer-Hirschfeld Energy Systems LLC will develop a factory for the production of steel towers for wind turbine generators.

Merrill Technologies Group will invest $73 million in advanced manufacturing equipment to support the production of nacelles for Northern Power’s new 2.2 MW utility-scale wind turbines.

Mitsubishi Power Systems Americas, Inc. will create a new facility that will manufacture nacelles for 2.4MW wind turbines.

Siemens Energy Inc. will expand a wind turbine blade manufacturing facility.

TPI Composites, Inc., a developer and volume manufacturer of large-scale composite structures for the wind energy, transportation and military vehicle markets, is building a new manufacturing facility in Nebraska to produce next generation wind turbine blades, creating over 200 new jobs.

Companies receiving tax credits for other technologies include:

CalStar Products will manufacture bricks and pavers from coal power plant fly ash. The process uses 88 percent less energy than traditional “fired” clay products, while avoiding the CO2 emission associated with concrete, and makes beneficial use of fly ash.

GEMX will re-equip an existing manufacturing facility to produce sodium metal halide batteries for electricity grid support and regulation and help increase efficiency by reduced peak power demands.

General Electric will redevelop manufacturing facilities to produce Energy Star compliant heat pump electric water heaters, heat pump clothes dryers, and efficient refrigerators, resulting in greenhouse gas emissions and energy savings.

W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc. is producing an advanced membrane for high efficiency fuel cells for buildings and vehicles. The company’s products can help enable lower-cost fuel cells for use in electric vehicles or to power homes and businesses. They are also manufacturing an advanced turbine filter to improve the performance of gas turbines to produce greater outputs at lower cost and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

While projects selected for this tax credit generally must be placed in service by 2014, approximately 30 percent of them will be completed in 2010.

October 28th, 2009 by Sundance Channel
ARCADIA, Florida, October 27, 2009 (ENS) - President Barack Obama today announced the largest single energy grid modernization investment in U.S. history. The federal government has awarded $3.4 billion to 100 private companies, utilities, manufacturers, cities and other partners to fund technologies intended to move America towards what the President called “a smarter, stronger, and more secure electric grid.”

These Smart Grid Investment Grant awards represent the largest group of Recovery Act awards ever made in a single day and the largest batch of Recovery Act clean energy grant awards to date. The end result is expected to be energy-saving choices for consumers, increased efficiency, and the growth of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power.

FPL’s DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center (Photo courtesy FPL)

To announce the Smart Grid Investment Grant awards, President Obama joined FPL Group and Florida Power & Light Company officials for the commissioning of the largest photovoltaic solar facility in the nation.

The DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center in Arcadia uses more than 90,000 photovoltaic panels that turn the Sun’s rays into electricity to power more than 3,000 homes.

“Today we’re taking the first step into the new clean energy economy of the 21st century,” said FPL Group Chairman and CEO Lew Hay. “It’s high-tech, it’s low emissions, and it empowers consumers to control their energy usage.”

Congratulating FPL on the new solar facility, President Obama said, “We’ve got to do more than just add extra solar megawatts to our electrical grid. That’s because this grid - which is made up of everything from power lines to generators to the meters in your home - still runs on century-old technology. It wastes too much energy, it costs us too much money, and it’s too susceptible to outages and blackouts.”

Obama said the smart grid will save some of the $150 billion the country loses each year during power outages and put America on a path to source 20 percent of the country’s energy needs from renewables by 2020.

President Barack Obama, October 27, 2009 (Photo credit unknown)

“It will allow us to more effectively transport renewable energy generated in remote places to large population centers, so that a wind farm in rural South Dakota can power homes in Chicago,” he said. “And by facilitating the creation of a clean energy economy, building this 21st century energy infrastructure will help us lay a foundation for lasting growth and prosperity.”

The smart grid investment grants are funded by the Recovery Act economic stimulus package and will be matched by industry funding for a total public-private investment worth over $8 billion.

Such an investment will create new pathways for energy and new green jobs, said Obama. “It’s expected to create tens of thousands of new jobs all across America in areas ranging from manufacturing and construction to IT and the installation of new equipment in homes and in businesses.”

The smart grid is expected to save consumers more than $20 billion on their utility bills by 2030. An analysis by the Electric Power Research Institute estimates that the implementation of smart grid technologies could reduce electricity use by more than four percent by 2030. That would mean a savings of $20.4 billion for businesses and consumers around the country.

Among the 100 smart grid grant recipients is Florida Power & Light, which will use its $200 million in funding to install 2.6 million smart meters and other technology that will cut energy costs for its customers.

In the coming days, Cabinet members and other administration officials will visit awardee sites across the country to discuss how this investment will create jobs, improve the reliability and efficiency of the electrical grid, and help bring clean energy sources from high-production states to those with less renewable generating capacity.

Today’s announcement includes:

Reducing Energy Bills - Investments worth $1 billion will create the infrastructure and expand access to smart meters and customer systems so that consumers will be able to access dynamic pricing information and have the ability to save money by programming smart appliances and equipment to run when rates are lowest. This will help reduce energy bills for everyone by helping drive down “peak demand” and limiting the need for “stand-by” power plants – the most expensive power generation there is.
Making Electricity Distribution and Transmission More Efficient - The administration is investing $400 million to fund grid modernization projects across the country that will reduce the amount of power wasted from the time it is produced to the time it reaches end users. By deploying digital monitoring devices and increasing grid automation, these awards will increase the efficiency, reliability and security of the system, and will help link renewable energy resources with the grid. This will make it easier for a wind farm in Montana to instantaneously pick up the slack when the wind stops blowing in Missouri or a cloud rolls over a solar array in Arizona.
Integrating and Crosscutting Across Different Components of a Smart Grid - Investments worth $2 billion will enable smart grid components to work together. The administration is funding a range of projects that will incorporate these various components into one system or cut across various project areas, including smart meters, smart thermostats and appliances, syncrophasors, automated substations, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, and renewable energy sources.
Building a Smart Grid Manufacturing Industry - Investments of $25 million will help expand the U.S. manufacturing base of companies that can produce the smart meters, smart appliances, synchrophasors, smart transformers, and other components for smart grid systems here and around the world – representing a significant and growing export opportunity for the United States and new jobs for American workers.
The combined effect of the investments announced today, when the projects are fully implemented, will:

Install more than 850 sensors - called ‘Phasor Measurement Units’ - that will cover 100 percent of the U.S. electric grid and make it possible for grid operators to better monitor grid conditions and prevent minor disturbances in the electrical system from cascading into local or regional power outages or blackouts. This monitoring ability will also help the grid to incorporate large blocks of intermittent renewable energy, like wind and solar power, to take advantage of clean energy resources when they are available and make adjustments when they’re not.
Install more than 200,000 smart transformers that will make it possible for power companies to replace units before they fail thus saving money and reducing power outages.
Install almost 700 automated substations, representing about 5 percent of the nation’s total that will make it possible for power companies to respond faster and more effectively to restore service when bad weather knocks down power lines or causes electricity disruptions.
Power companies today typically do not know there has been a power outage until a customer calls to report it. With these smart grid devices, power companies will have the tools they need for better outage prevention and faster response to make repairs when outages do occur.
Empower consumers to cut their electricity bills. The Recovery Act combined with private investment will put us on pace to deploy more than 40 million smart meters in American homes and businesses over the next few years that will help consumers cut their utility bills.
Install more than one million in-home displays, 170,000 smart thermostats, and 175,000 other load control devices to enable consumers to reduce their energy use. Funding will also help expand the market for smart washers, dryers, and dishwashers, so that American consumers can further control their energy use and lower their electricity bills.
Reduce peak electricity demand by more than 1400 MW, which is the equivalent of several larger power plants and can save ratepayers more than $1.5 billion in capital costs and help lower utility bills. Since peak electricity is the most expensive energy – and requires the use of standby power generation plants – the economic and environmental savings for even a small reduction are significant. In fact, some of the power plants for meeting peak demand operate for only a few hundred hours a year, which means the power they generate can be 5-10 times more expensive than the average price per kilowatt hour paid by most consumers.

Saving water in bathrooms of commercial buildings will be saving water big time. What a great new step forward!

With the recently finalized WaterSense specification for flushing urinals, you will soon see WaterSense labeled products in commercial and institutional restrooms.

WaterSense labeled urinals have the potential to help save businesses and institutions water and money on utility bills. If all urinals installed before 1994 were replaced with WaterSense labeled models, it would save nearly 36 billion gallons of water annually—equal to the flow over Niagara Falls in 20 hours.

To earn the WaterSense label, urinals must flush using no more than half a gallon, well below the current federal standard of 1.0 gallon per flush (gpf). Older models installed before regulations were in place can use even more water—as much as 5.0 gpf. As with all WaterSense labeled products, urinals must undergo independent, third-party testing and certification before earning the WaterSense label.

Schools, restaurants, businesses, and other commercial buildings can benefit from the financial savings of WaterSense labeled urinals. If a high school of 1,000 students replaced its inefficient urinals, for example, it could save enough to supply water for nearly 700 households.

EPA estimates that there are about 12 million urinals currently in use in the United States, and up to 65 percent of them are inefficient models that use significantly more than the federal standard. For every inefficient urinal replaced with a WaterSense labeled model, 4,600 gallons are saved annually. Learn more about the WaterSense specification for flushing urinals.

If a college with 10,000 students installed WaterSense labeled urinals in its classroom buildings,
it could save 700,000 gallons in a year—enough water to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool!

The Oregon Department of Justice reached settlements with National Homeowners Assistance Services, Inc., of Lake Forest, Calif., and American Mitigation Group, of Newport Beach, Calif. The companies offered to help people facing foreclosure to modify their mortgages. Attorney General John Kroger said the companies purposefully used tactics that could confuse homeowners, including implying they were affiliated with government agencies or programs. American Mitigation Group has paid $1,000 in restitution to an Oregon consumer and must pay an additional $3,000 to the Oregon Department of Justice for further restitution and to cover its costs. The company is no longer doing business in the state. National Homeowners Assistance Services must pay $4,000 to cover legal costs and must change its practices in order to continue to do business in Oregon.