Clean Energy

My Visit to the First Ever “Living Building”

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The highlight of my recent trip to Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY was their LEED platinum Omega Center for Sustainable Living. The first, and one of only 3 in the nation, to achieve Living Building status, it exceeds USGBC’s highest green building standards. The building has a geothermal heating/cooling system, produces all of its own electricity using a 48 kw solar system, some of which is ground-mounted. It also houses the “Eco- Machine” which converts the 52,000 gallons of sewage and graywater from the campus into clean water using an indoor lagoon, and native plants such as cattails in a constructed wetland that absorbs chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

  • The building was made from reclaimed wood (it even incorporated wood from President Obama’s inaugural platform.)
  • Since there is no waste in nature, 99% of construction “waste” was put to reuse.
  • Part of the roof is covered with a “green roof” of succulent plants, and rainwater is captured for use in toilets.
  • Omega purchased 90 acres in the Hudson Valley to be kept forever wild as an offset for any impacts of the building.
  • No toxins on the Living Building Institute’s “Red List” were used.

The coolest feature of the building’s maintenance is the Lotus Pro, made by Tersano. It is a machine that electrifies tap water, giving it extra ions, making it suitable to be used as a cleaner and disinfectant that kills germs even faster than bleach! The whole place is a model that many come from long distances to see. For info see http://eomega.org/omega-in-action/key-initiatives/omega-center-for-sustainable-living.

water ionizer/cleaner
Sustainability Manager Jeff Reel in constructed wetland

Conference Promotes Offshore Wind for Long Island

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(L-R) Carol Murphy, Alliance for Clean Energy NY; Peter Grannis, NYS Comptroller's office; Adrienne Esposito, Citizen's Campaign for the Environment; Gordian Raacke, Renewable Energy Long Island; Frank Murray, NYSERDA; Kevin Law, Long Island Association; & Catherine Bowes, National Wildlife Federation

Wind is a free, clean source of energy. Right now, the U.S. produces about 50,000MW (enough for 12.8 million homes) from on-land wind turbines (See AWEA.org), but the number of offshore wind farms stands at zero. A conference held 7/31/12 at the Long Island Association, Melville, NY aims to change that. Sponsored by Renewable Energy Long Island, Citizen’s Campaign for the Environment, Alliance for Clean Energy NY, National Wildlife Federation and Sierra Club, the conference invited key leaders: Peter Grannis, First Deputy Comptroller,  NY State Comptroller’s office, and Kevin Law, Long Island Association, talked about jobs and economic benefits that offshore wind could bring; Karsten Moeller from Siemens Energy discussed the numerous successful projects in Europe, stating that wind turbines are now big enough to produce 6mw each and can be placed further offshore to minimize view impacts. (Most people I’ve met who’ve seen wind turbines think they’re beautiful, BTW…)

Bill Moore, Deepwater Wind, discussed a proposed wind farm between Rhode Island and Long Island. Representatives from NYSERDA, the NY Department of State, and the utility companies LIPA and NYPA contributed status updates on an existing proposal off the Rockaways, for which NYPA has submitted a lease application to the federal government. LIPA has found the area off the south shore of Long Island to be highly suitable for wind power production, and NY State is doing “competitive use” studies right now to determine which areas are best, given shipping lanes, fishing uses, etc.

The main point of the conference was to point out that while no energy source is perfect, offshore wind holds the potential to be a clean energy source with very few negative effects, especially when compared to the use of fossil fuel-burning power plants, so it would be a welcome addition to New York’s energy mix.

Greater Long Island Clean Cities, Advancing the Choice

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The Greater Long Island Clean Cities held its annual Advancing the Choice Conference on October 14th, 2011 at Bethpage Park. This event highlights alternative fuel vehicles, alternative fuels, and all the people locally who are helping to make them a reality here on Long Island. Peter Scully, Regional Director of the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) addressed the crowd with facts about climate change to remind the group why their efforts are so important. He pointed out a scary fact– because we are releasing so much carbon into the atmosphere that is binding with oxygen, there is now actually less in oxygen in the atmosphere. On the positive side, it’s therefore always inspiring to hear about successes with fleets being converted from conventional fossil sources of fuel, and to actually see cutting edge vehicles on display. See GLICC.org.

David Schieren, Empower Solar, loves his new Chevy Volt
Peter Scully, Regional DEC Director speaks at GLICCC event

My Visit to the Middelgrunden Wind Farm, Copenhagen

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It was a thrill for me to be able to travel to Denmark July 19-21, 2011 and visit the Middelgrunden Wind Farm, installed in 2000. It is located about a mile out in the North Sea from Copenhagen city, and is comprised of 20 turbines in a subtle arch formation. They produce 40 MW of energy, or enough to power 3% of the city of Copenhagen. Though the tours happened to be closed during my time there, I managed to find a ferry that goes past the wind farm to Middelgrundsfortet (a small island fort) right from the beautiful area of Nyhaven, which was near my hotel. It was a glorious experience to see functioning offshore wind turbines, since my organization and many others had worked so hard to encourage a wind farm offshore Long Island. Most people I met in Copenhagen didn’t seem to think the turbines were a big deal; most said that though turbines do impact the view, it is necessary and they in fact wished their government would install more of them. I hope we can learn from others about the importance of pursuing this clean energy source as we face continuing climate change. They are a beautiful solution…

Brilliant Op-Ed by Bill McKibben

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Since I couldn’t have said it better myself, I am re-posting an op-ed by Bill McKibben that appeared in this week’s Washington Post newspaper.

A link between climate change and Joplin tornadoes? Nah…

By Bill McKibben, Published: May 23

Caution: It is vitally important not to make connections. When you see pictures of rubble like this week’s shots from Joplin, Mo., you should not wonder: Is this somehow related to the tornado outbreak three weeks ago in Tuscaloosa, Ala., or the enormous outbreak a couple of weeks before that (which, together, comprised the most active April for tornadoes in U.S. history). No, that doesn’t mean a thing.

It is far better to think of these as isolated, unpredictable, discrete events. It is not advisable to try to connect them in your mind with, say, the fires burning across Texas — fires that have burned more of America at this point this year than any wildfires have in previous years. Texas, and adjoining parts of Oklahoma and New Mexico, are drier than they’ve ever been — the drought is worse than that of the Dust Bowl. But do not wonder if they’re somehow connected.

If you did wonder, you see, you would also have to wonder about whether this year’s record snowfalls and rainfalls across the Midwest — resulting in record flooding along the Mississippi — could somehow be related. And then you might find your thoughts wandering to, oh, global warming, and to the fact that climatologists have been predicting for years that as we flood the atmosphere with carbon we will also start both drying and flooding the planet, since warm air holds more water vapor than cold air.

It’s far smarter to repeat to yourself the comforting mantra that no single weather event can ever be directly tied to climate change. There have been tornadoes before, and floods — that’s the important thing. Just be careful to make sure you don’t let yourself wonder why all these record-breaking events are happening in such proximity — that is, why there have been unprecedented megafloods in Australia, New Zealand and Pakistan in the past year. Why it’s just now that the Arctic has melted for the first time in thousands of years. No, better to focus on the immediate casualties, watch the videotape from the store cameras as the shelves are blown over. Look at the news anchorman standing in his waders in the rising river as the water approaches his chest.

Because if you asked yourself what it meant that the Amazon has just come through its second hundred-year drought in the past five years, or that the pine forests across the western part of this continent have been obliterated by a beetle in the past decade — well, you might have to ask other questions. Such as: Should President Obama really just have opened a huge swath of Wyoming to new coal mining? Should Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sign a permit this summer allowing a huge new pipeline to carry oil from the tar sands of Alberta? You might also have to ask yourself: Do we have a bigger problem than $4-a-gallon gasoline?

Better to join with the U.S. House of Representatives, which voted 240 to 184 this spring to defeat a resolution saying simply that “climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for public health and welfare.” Propose your own physics; ignore physics altogether. Just don’t start asking yourself whether there might be some relation among last year’s failed grain harvest from the Russian heat wave, and Queensland’s failed grain harvest from its record flood, and France’s and Germany’s current drought-related crop failures, and the death of the winter wheat crop in Texas, and the inability of Midwestern farmers to get corn planted in their sodden fields. Surely the record food prices are just freak outliers, not signs of anything systemic.

It’s very important to stay calm. If you got upset about any of this, you might forget how important it is not to disrupt the record profits of our fossil fuel companies. If worst ever did come to worst, it’s reassuring to remember what the U.S. Chamber of Commerce told the Environmental Protection Agency in a recent filing: that there’s no need to worry because “populations can acclimatize to warmer climates via a range of behavioral, physiological, and technological adaptations.” I’m pretty sure that’s what residents are telling themselves in Joplin today.

Bill McKibben is founder of the global climate campaign 350.org and a distinguished scholar at Middlebury College in Vermont.

© The Washington Post Company