Renewable Energy's Biggest Ally

Published by www.renewableenergyworld.com, March 19th 2009

Although it has been said that when it comes to the U.S. military "successes are private while failures are public," a recent success involving the Defense Department (DoD) and the renewable energy industry must come to light.

In December of last year, the secretary of the Air Force, Michael B. Donley, signed the Air Force Energy Program Guidance Memorandum, which is the first time that the U.S. military's created a comprehensive energy strategy that focuses on increasing the use of renewable energy.

"The Air Force is identifying alternative sources of energy to reduce the impact of energy use on the environment, developing long-term objectives to achieve zero waste, and is pledging support to achieve DoD and Air Force environmental goals," the memorandum stated.

It should be no surprise that the Air Force, or the U.S. military more generally, is concerned with energy consumption, especially considering the two most recent wars that have cost the U.S. hundreds of billions of dollars. With the supply needs of the American military today, like the $6.5 billion the Air Force spends on total energy costs (2006), securing energy supplies remains critical to its operational capacity.

What is surprising is how the Air Force Energy Memorandum has made renewable energy a main pillar of DoD energy supply policy.

From the Memorandum: The Air Force plans to increase facility renewable energy use at annual targets of 5 percent by 2010, 7.5 percent by 2013, and 25 percent by 2025 — while 50 percent of the increase must come from new renewable sources. As well as implementing the strict use of environmentally friendly energy, the Air Force is evaluating and developing protocols that will allow it to identify, quantify and manage its own greenhouse gas emissions.

"The U.S. military is probably better at mobilizing action and committing funds to R&D than any organization in the world," said Dr. Richard Andres, a Senior Fellow at the National Defense University (NDU) and head of the new Energy and Environmental Security Research Group. "The Defense Department only recently started seriously talking about renewable energy and you can already see some of the world's most impressive projects starting to generate power on U.S. bases."

A Department of Energy panel of experts in the field of energy technology recently discussed their findings from "Breakthrough Energy Technologies: The Enabling Role of Basic Science" at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington, DC.

At the conference, Dr. John Hemminger, a scientist from UC Irvine, concluded that "many options hold great promise — solar PV, efficiency, battery and storage technologies — but their realization will rely on further advances in our understanding of basic science."

Herein lies the opportunity for the Air Force Energy Program to have multiplier effects as it spins off new technology and disseminates expertise and investment around the country. If the U.S. was able to secure the next great renewable energy breakthrough, before, say China, then not only would the U.S. become better equipped as an energy exporter, and perhaps give rise to a new energy trade and balance of power, but in doing so might also solve the global environmental problem of climate change.

In this contest the renewable energy industry can use all the help it can get. The investment incentives structure is simply not yet there, and Congress' stimulus package alone cannot support the future U.S. energy infrastructure.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act contains $20 billion in tax incentives for renewable energy, as well as an extension of the Production Tax Credit for wind, hydropower and other clean energy sources. However, these incentives cannot force investors to expand the supply of clean energy without first evaluating the credit situation, as well as the market demand for technologies like PV and solar thermal.

With the Air Force Energy Memorandum, a gap has been bridged that will bring about one of the most effective policy mechanisms in the world. It will force the U.S. military into the development of renewable energy without having to wait around for someone else to write the check.

For NDU Scholar Richard Andres, the military's mission is evolving and will continue to grow in scope. "The Air Force's official energy slogan is "make energy a consideration in all we do," he said. Its goal is to have all Air Force personnel trained in energy awareness by 2010, as part of a required energy curriculum in the Academy and the Air University. "Under the leadership of true visionaries like Michael A. Aimone [Air Force Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff], the military has begun considering energy and the environment in its long list of operations. This means renewable energy, alternatives to oil and gas as well as any number of improved efficiencies."

Most organizations absorb new directives in only one way: slowly. Contained within the Air Force's Energy Program is an overall Energy Management Structure that disseminates objectives across the chain of command, which forces expediency and as Dr. Andres put it: "makes the U.S. military unlike most other organizations in the world." But changing the culture of the military by making energy a consideration in all planning will be more difficult. These are pains that have stricken the environmental groups forever, and the military's effectiveness at changing its energy culture is yet to be seen.

But the military cannot quietly act alone. Changing a culture requires the most public of all displays. The renewable energy industry has been successful at making energy and the environment an issue for discussion, while lacking the funds and manpower to breakthrough the U.S. culture of consumption. The U.S. military is very much the opposite. With the manpower and money to build a hospital in days or roads in hours, the Defense Department can to set a public example about changing its own culture of consumption, while promoting the same through research and development.

These two sides must work together to help combat energy dependence and climate change. The Air Force Memorandum is only the first step toward a new energy alliance that will raise eyebrows and with appropriate cooperation change the future culture of American energy consumption.

Russia and Energy

For anyone interested in the importance of Russian gas flows to Europe that traverse Ukraine...

Energy Policy Diversification: The European Union and the Market Mechanism

You Can't Start A Fire Without A Spark

Published by www.renewableenergyworld.com, July 16th 2007.

“Build a small, sufficient solar array on a man’s house, he saves money and uses clean energy. Build a large, sustaining solar model on the man’s community center; his community saves money and it teaches everyone how to help save the environment.”

Listening to Dave Merrill, the President of SunAir Systems, make this proclamation, while sliding my work gloves up to my wrists, I began to get a little nervous about what I had volunteered to do: Assist in the installation of a 1 kW photovoltaic (PV) system on the roof of Upper Arlington High School. I am Solar Resource Corp’s Corporate Development Coordinator, and while I know everything about the schematics, the logistics, and the productivity of solar arrays—Photovoltaic or Thermal—I didn’t know anything about getting my hand’s dirty or the physical act of installation. I told Dave, “I can help you coordinate the installment, but I’m afraid I’ll screw something up, or attach the wrong wires if I am involved in the actual installation.”

My entire life, I have always wanted to be more blue-collar. I want to be more like my grandfathers and work with my hands, building. I am not sure where this compulsion comes from, but I like the idea of building instead of destroying. Destruction is much easier than building—a wrecking ball takes a button, but erecting a building takes work—and for someone who likes to be in control, there’s nothing more satisfying than hands-on building, creating.

That’s why I got into solar in the first place. Building a renewable resource infrastructure in a society where it’s just too easy to continue on our way, destroying our bodies, our air, and our homes, is the easy way out. Literally, it is pushing the button. It is the way we have always done it because no one wants to do the building. Well, not no one.

They say in politics that it takes years to move stones, and lifetimes to move mountains. Well, it’s a good thing for solar that the sun is high enough and—mountains or no mountains—all we need is a group of devoted individuals, who focus on building instead of destroying, to do great things for our community.

As the group dispersed Dave and I went to the building’s roof for inspection. The day before we had made the same trip onto Upper Arlington High School’s roof, but this time I was there as a participant and not an examiner. The plot Dave had lined out was still there, empty, and awaiting something. Like an empty puzzle spot in the middle of the puzzle’s board; this twenty feet plot was waiting to open up an entire community to a new way to do things.

My first task was to line up the 25 solar panels and strip them of their old electrical wire and replace each with a new one. I found the positive-charge ends of each panel—each panel has one end with a (+) and one end with a (-), just like a battery—and screwed in the appropriate wiring. The job was tedious, but I had no idea my skills of replacing the battery of my guitar pedal would be the only prerequisite needed to build the intra-circuit of the solar panel model.

“Perfect job,” Dave said as he looked over my ‘electrical’ work. “When those are finished we’ll get them to the roof for the display.”

“What do you mean?” I said.

“We’re going to the roof to attach the panels together. We’re building the display,” he said. Taken aback, I went back through my rolodex of knowledge of the various auxiliary power systems, and found Photovoltaic: The circuit is made up of a collector (Panels)—check—of a charge control (a conduit running from the display into the building), and DC/AC inverter (which takes the power from the sun and basically runs it through the wires in the form of usable energy), and the AC load center (turning the DC power into AC which is how the power is used). I guess Dave was right; next stop, putting the collector together in the form of the display. Seems too easy.

While Titan Power Solutions (one half of Solar Resource Corp’s joint-venture) was craning up the materials onto the roof of the High School, I paused for a photo op. I thought the best way to document this construction would be to take pictures of the progress of the build, so I had my camera ready at all times. The only problem I found was the quickness of the job itself. While I was working I forgot to take pictures.

As I became saturated in the melodic instructions given by Jim Groeber, I didn’t realize I was wiring the panels together onto the newly constructed frame. “Hey Dave,” I said, “I’m writing this article about the progress of this display but I forgot to get some more photos before we began installing the panels. Do you think we could take a few panels off, and reapply them so I can get some photos?”

"You’re killing me Alex,” he said. “If we really need to.” Even though Dave was unhappy about my request, I found that one of the other gentlemen helping with the construction took a few photos of me, hands dirty, installing the panels. I told Dave those would work. “Never mind Dave, thanks,” I said.

With the display complete I wiped my brow and looked around at the tools and the small group required to complete (what I thought was) such a daunting task. The community of individuals on top of that roof saw past the politics of renewable energy—the name calling, the slander—and were the perfect balance of realism and idealism.

The notion that as an individual one can help the world is, without a doubt, idealistic. However, no one in Solar Resource Corp, Titan Power Solutions, or SunAirSystems wants to “fix” the world’s energy problems. What we want is to help by leading by example. It is like what “The Boss” once said, “You can’t start a fire without a spark.” And our aim is to show communities the plausibility of solar, then the rest will come with the combustion.

Looking past the High School I could see the Upper Arlington community of homes and rooftops; each rooftop representing potential space for energy savings, and each homeowner representing someone who could make a difference. I wanted to scream and say, “Complacency isn’t cool and change is inevitable, can’t you see that?” But I didn’t scream because Solar Resource Corp already had a plan for that community and I was standing on it. The High School was to be a shining example of the feasibility of solar technology and I was beginning to believe it was simple enough for residential construction and use, as well. I admit, before the day began I would be scared to death to tell someone installing solar in their own home is easy because I have a terrible poker-face. But it only takes a confidant teacher like Dave Merrill to share the know-how, and a small group of able individuals, and the rest is sun-baked cake.

A Friend In Need Is A Friend Indeed

Published by www.energyseeds.com, July 30th, 2008

It is nearly impossible to look at the Sidwell Friends Middle School, located in Washington, DC, and not mistake your location for something closer to the Smithsonian. But the Middle School, completed in 2006, would have a tough time finding an appropriate exhibit, even at the Smithsonian’s 19 compounds: it’s not Deco, it is not exactly Contemporary. The building’s structure embodies art in a more utilitarian fashion, bringing together beauty and energy efficiency that is unprecedented and merits an exhibit all by itself.

Enter the Sidwell Friends School: the building was constructed from mostly recycled materials, which is unbelievable considering its modern vibes. The facade, for example, is made from regionally manufactured recycled wine casks. Walking close to the building I am reminded of a quality last seen from Frank Lloyd Wright. Layered beneath the recycled outer structure is a deep-set wall of windows that provides the school with natural day lighting, which helped the building become the first K-12 school in the United States to have an LEED Platinum rating by the US Green Building Council, in March 2007.

While the aesthetic is pleasing it is all but dwarfed by the Green Building’s capabilities: It uses 60% less energy, thanks to its passive solar design which includes natural shading, day lighting and occupancy sensors and photo sensors. Out of its total water use, only 7% of it comes from DC’s supply, as the Green School treats sewage in their on-site wetlands (yeah, it even has on-site wetlands - see the picture below!); 78% of the building materials were manufactured nearby to minimize energy lost in transportation costs; 5% of electricity is sun-generated; and 60% of the waste generated during construction was diverted from landfills and recycled. Sidwell embodies a splendor that can be appreciated through the eyes as well as through the cerebrum.

To match the school’s physical prowess, Sidwell Friends has a website specially designed for the Green School. It is a multimedia dissection of the building’s many energy efficient components: the biology pond, solar chimneys, reflective roof, and PV panels and vertical solar fins. By clicking on any of the various components, the viewer can listen to students’ testimony and check to see how much output (or input) each faculty is providing.

One of the students, Tony, provides a tutorial on the Low-e windows. He says: “The glass in the low energy windows allows daylight in while deflecting heat. There are actually two panes in each window and in between them there is argon gas, which also helps to deflect heat.”
Felling kind of lost, I had to admit that I had never heard of argon gas before young Tony told me about it. I didn’t know that it is on the periodic table as Ar, and that it has a very low thermal conductivity, which is why it is great for thermal insulation. I understand that Tony was just reading from a script, but still, I felt uneasy that a boy that young knew something that I had never even heard of. Somehow, he was better informed.

When I was walking out of Sidwell, the DC sun was melting into the horizon and painting a golden streak across the face of the School I have since begun to call the “Super School.” I stopped in front of the building, trying to take in all that the Green Middle School has to offer, when I realized that it isn’t the building that is going to save the planet, it is kids like Tony; it is the future generations who are going to take all that Sidwell Middle School has to offer and make our planet a safer and more habitable place. And as long as we’re teaching the Tonys out there the beauty of invention and the importance of looking after the future, then I’ll learn to live with the fact that there are people out there that might know (a little) more than I do.

Oh me-o, Oh my-oh, Oh Cleveland-Ohio

Published by www.energyseeds.com, December 10, 2007

Driving through downtown Cleveland, Ohio for the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) convention, last July, I couldn’t help but notice the decomposing warehouses, standing vacantly among the boroughs of the gentrified districts of the “Mistake on the Lake.” I was passing by the stage where many steel workers presented their empty plea to future-looking authorities; the ensuing death that inevitably destroyed the antiquated industry of the past shined today in the presence of my brand-new hotel.

My grandfather, born and raised in Cleveland, was one such loser in this battle with the “Technology Age.” Invisible hands have actually brought impending unemployment to both my grandfathers, but that’s the beauty of capitalism, right? In all truthfulness, that’s correct. Regardless of our forefathers’ exclamations, such as, “You can’t find a shoe made within the continental United States, anywhere!” this is the way things work in our globalized world. I have to ignore it when my grandfather calls and asks, “Where can I get an American-made television? Our Sony is busted and Walmart only has Samsung in stock.” I never have the heart to tell him there’s no escaping international trade.

Having the solar energy convention in Cleveland is exactly what the former proprietors of Cleveland had in mind when they put an axe to their industrial economy. “Someday,” they might have said over cocktails at a local aristocratic dinner, “the sons and daughters of the bone-broke factory men and women will thank us. They will be able to discuss alternative resources as plausible supplements to an economy that needs to go in that direction, anyway. Also, they will be able to buy Japanese TVs at discount prices.” Or they’d say something similar to that tune.

It’s sad to say but they were right. Cleveland—much like I hope for the rest of America—was able to effectively cut their losses when it came to the costly economic dead weight of the steel industry; an industry that was physically dangerous for workers and extremely costly to run when compared to the low-cost of steel imports and the high-cost of American labor. But for solar energy, the evolution I am referring to requires a little more complexity, as the dangerous and costly industries that I’m suggesting (oil and coal) have permeated American and global life even further than the omnipotent steel industry. The oil and coal industries are, without a doubt, economic juggernauts with seemingly infinite resources around the world. Everything runs on, eats up, uses, and digests some form of these two resources. For America, however, a similar opinion was held by U.S. migrants less than a century ago regarding the aforementioned metal (steel). From Cleveland to San Francisco, America embodied ample land, so much land it was thought it would take centuries to lay the necessary tracks. America followed the economic path of least resistance and benefited from it resoundingly.

If Cleveland was opening its once bitter doors to an alternative energy convention, then maybe there’s hope of incorporating solar energy into our national economy on a real level. Because this year’s ASES convention wasn’t in Florida or California, but, instead, in Me-o, Oh my-o, Oh-Cleveland Ohio, the more I thought about it the more I felt satisfied with our country’s current state of events. When can someone actually say they’re participating in an event that proves that the Midwest might someday evolve economically? Well, I can.

The ASES convention exhibits the Midwest’s openness to the technologies “of the future.” Even though I embody the enemy of my grandfathers—Idealists, who at one time were, as my grandfather put it, “trying to move American jobs to Outer Space”— I am beaming to see if the economic evolution of Cleveland is, in fact, a microcosm for the potential evolution of our economy on the national scale. If a large Midwest city can open its doors to a new type of resource; if a people surrounded by their fallen industry can accept their evolving economy as a must; and if non-progressive citizens recognize their current oil and coal consuming trajectory as problematic to America’s power (both home and abroad), then I am optimistic that our economy can evolve and incorporate alternative energy solutions in the same way that Cleveland left steel for something more safe and more effective. Parking my car in the lot, I walked up the underground tarmac to find the Cleveland Convention center and then my businesses’ (Solar Resource Corp.) booth. I was excited to see if others had come to the same conclusion as I had.

Before I stepped into the convention center building, I stopped and looked at a gigantic wind turbine that sits before the convention center on the Lake’s side. Watching the long white blades swipe across the tall blue sky, I couldn’t help but wonder why Cleveland was so frequently referred to as the “Mistake on the Lake.”

Hanging with Mr. Munford

Published by www.energyseeds.com, February 8th 2009

By Alex Kizer

In Richmond, Virginia, the trees glow a particular gold in autumn. There is plenty of history and even more friendly folks. Greg Muzik, the principal of Mary Munford Elementary School, is no exception.“I ride it to school most days,” Mr. Muzik boasts, showing off his Ego electric scooter. Greg Muzik is a large man with a voice that contains life. “I don’t live far from the school and so it costs me about a penny a mile in electricity costs!”

For the last 7 years, Principal Muzik has followed an environmentally responsible personal life. But like all hard workers, it is difficult to separate work and private life. Mary Munford Elementary has been a solar school for a little longer than Principal Muzik has been seen buzzing through the streets on his electric scooter. “The school’s 1 kW system was an inspiration to me and the students. Frankly, I hoped it would show our young kids the viability of new energy technologies – I didn’t suspect I’d be so excited too!”

American Electric Power (AEP) donated the system to Mary Munford, hoping to create an awareness of energy issues like solar and recycling in the school. Looking at Principal Muzik’s attitude 7 years later suggests that it has been working. The school now has a PTA committee that makes energy efficiency a priority. “They worked on projects to make us more “green” before anyone started using the word “green,” said Muzik.

Not all of the Richmond School System has progressed as far and as fast as Mary Munford, however. Maryan Cammarata, a long-time Richmond resident, thinks that the energy efficiency policies of Mary Mumford have influenced her community, with more opportunity to come. “Mary Munford was the first school, for a long time, to have any recycling policy in the region,” she said. “I’ve heard about [Mary] Munford’s recycling and energy management policies for sometime now. Just look at Principal Muzik. He’s always zipping around, setting a good example for everyone.”

“I’m a big guy,” Mr. Muzik laughs, “and my weight has limited the range I can get from my scooter.” Mr. Muzik’s larger-than-life personality has definitely contributed to his standard-setting example, with students looking up to him for advice, and watching him live by the examples he preaches: “The students and I figured that the power generated by the solar array, while not much, would provide enough electricity to fuel my scooter forever.” With his good example and with new technologies on the horizon, Mr. Muzik’s next scooter should get him much farther, hopefully alongside an army of his former students, all embodying Muzik’s lessons of efficiency and excitement for life.