Top Green Building Opening in Pittsburgh

Posted on May 7, 2012 by quest

Opening on May 23, 2012 at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, the new 24,350-square-foot Center for Sustainable Landscapes (CSL) will emerge as one of the greenest buildings on Earth. Seeking to achieve or exceed the world’s highest sustainable standards, including the Living Building Challenge, LEED Platinum and Sustainable Sites Initiative certification for landscapes, it will also be the largest operational structure pursuing living building status in the U.S. when it opens.

Constructed with local talent and mostly U.S.-made materials, the CSL—home base for environmental education and research—aims to achieve net-zero energy consumption with solar photovoltaics, geothermal wells and a vertical axis wind turbine, as well as passive cooling, heating and lighting methods. It will also save resources by treating and reusing all water captured on site. Additionally, the CSL will interact with its environs as a vital part of daily operation, blurring the lines between the natural and built environments. And, as a global SITES™ pilot project, it will feature a restorative landscape with native plants and a demonstration green roof garden. Other site features include a lagoon, water distillation system, rain gardens, and constructed wetlands.

“Designed and built by Pittsburghers and Pennsylvanians as an innovation for the world, the CSL will serve as a model for how we can all work together with nature to make our communities healthier, safer and more supportive of life,” says Phipps’ Executive Director Richard V. Piacentini. “It will also give visitors the opportunity to see just how beautiful and practical green can be.” A leader in green building and operations, Phipps has also constructed the first LEED visitor center in a public garden—complete with a 3-star Green Restaurant Certified® cafe—and the world’s most energy-efficient tropical forest conservatory when it opened in 2006.

Congresswoman Johnson Backs Renewable Energy Bill

PlanetSolar Returns To Monaco Makes History

Posted on May 6, 2012 by quest

This is the kind of accomplishment that electrifies the imagination. A solar powered catamaran that looks like the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek has just completed a trip around the world . Planet Solar is the first boat ever to circumnavigate the globe with energy generated by solar panels atop the craft. The journey started in Monaco on September 27, 2010.

Some of their ports of call included Miami, Cancun, San Francisco, Sydney, Singapore, and Abu Dhabi before finally returning to Monaco yesterday.The purpose of project was to inform the public about the importance of sustainability and  renewable energies. I’m not sure if they encounterd any unknown deep sea creatures, but PlanetSolar has an impressive group of supporters such as IMMOSOLAR, Candino Swiss Watch, SunPower and Jean Verne, Great-Grandson of the writer, Jules Verne who wrote about the mission early on said, ” In the spirit of the PlanetSolar project that calls upon scientists, technicians, industries, financiers and scholars who are working together on an “extraordinary voyage into known and unknown worlds.

PlanetSolar catamaran (without flaps) boosts 31m in length, 16m in width, and approximately 540 square meters of solar panels as the solar generator. The specially developed energy storage should permit the boat to move for approximately 3 days and nights without sunlight. The MSTÛRANOR PlanetSolar was designed by the extraordinary designer and constructor Craig Loomes and his company LOMOcean (New Zealand). It has been built by high-performance yacht builder Knierim, based in Kiel (Germany). The boat is navigated under the Swiss flag.

PlanetSolar underway

Effects of Ecotourism on Tiger Sharks

Ecotourism Can Save Javan Rhino From Extinction

Posted on May 5, 2012 by quest

A public-private partnership set up to save the Javan Rhino from extinction has reported that its goal of increasing the existing population in Ujung Kulon National Park by 50 per cent over five years is making progress – 12 months after the team was set up. The Javan Rhino Conversation Working Group (CWG) is a multi-disciplinary team made up of experts from Ujung Kulon National Park, local NGOs, private sector companies and academics. This week, the CWG reported on its first year in operation. Important steps have been taken to improve protection of the rhino habitat within Ujung Kulon, and cut down on encroachment by local communities and poaching. And video from new camera feeds set up within the rhino habitat has revealed a flourishing community of an estimated 35 individual rhinos, including – critically – several juveniles.

In the long-term, high value eco-tourism could provide the economic framework to allow the number of Javan Rhinos to grow sustainably again.Dr. Ir. Moh. Haryono, M.Si, Head of Ujung Kulon National Park and Chairman of the Javan Rhino Conservation Working Group said:“The video we are distributing worldwide today shows that the battle to save the Javan Rhino from extinction is not lost. There is a small but thriving community of rhinos within the National Park which can grow if the conditions are right.”

Asia Pulp & Paper Group (APP) is one of the main private sector partners within the CWG. Aida Greenbury, Managing Director Sustainability & Stakeholder Engagement of APP, said:“Saving the Javan Rhino from extinction requires a strategic focus on three factors: economic development, social progress and habitat enhancement. In its first year, the CWG is heading in exactly that direction, and we are proud to be part of it.” In the first 12 months, the CWG carried out habitat enhancement and restoration activities for the Javan Rhino, such as vegetation control of an invading plant species Langkap (Arenga obtusifolia) that has overgrown and eliminated plants the herbivore mammal feed on. It has also supported the Javan rhino population monitoring with video traps.The Javan Rhino was once one of the most widespread of the Asian rhinos, with thousands of animals ranging across Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand and Peninsula Malaysia. Hundreds of years of game hunting during the Dutch Colonial era caused a dramatic reduction in the population. The number of remaining Javan Rhinos continued to decline in the latter 1900s due to illegal poaching for the valuable and rare single horn of the unique animal as well as forest encroachment that resulted resulted in habitat degradation.

Climate Change Unbelievers

Angelenos Looking Up To Rooftop Solar Power

Posted on May 4, 2012 by quest

“Sunny Los Angeles has enormous potential to lead the state in solar energy, and in recent months city leaders have done a commendable job of putting L.A. in a position to harness that homegrown renewable resource,” said Susannah Churchill, Southwestern Solar Advocate for Vote Solar. “Our poll shows that this is the kind of solar progress that Angelenos overwhelmingly want to see in their community.”“Local solar power puts our energy dollars to work building a healthier and more prosperous L.A. An expanded solar program would put more boots on roofs and create more jobs in areas that need them most,” said Bill Gallegos, Executive Director of Communities for a Better Environment (CBE), a leading environmental justice organization. “Poor communities often get the worst of the fossil fuel energy system. It is only fair that they enjoy the environmental, health, and economic benefits of the clean energy system.”

A significant majority of voters in Los Angeles wants more local solar powering their city; in fact they want lots more. These are the findings of a new poll on L.A. attitudes toward renewable energy conducted by the public research firm Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates (FM3) for the Vote Solar Initiative. “Our poll shows that this is the kind of solar progress that Angelenos overwhelmingly want to see in their community.”Advocates are urging city and utility leaders to take note and keep taking bold steps to expand investment in a local solar power economy.“In addition to proving hugely popular among L.A. residents, expanded use of local clean energy can reduce the city’s dependence on out-of-state dirty coal power,” said Evan Gillespie Sierra Club, America’s largest grassroots environmental organization. “City leadership has set an exciting goal of getting LADWP off dirty coal. It just makes economic and environmental sense to harvest our homegrown solar resource, creating more local jobs and economic development for Angelenos.”

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is the largest municipal utility in the country, accounting for 10 percent of California’s electricity demand. The utility currently gets less than 1 percent of its power from solar generation. In September 2011, LADWP reopened its Solar Incentive Program with a goal of installing 125 megawatts (MW) of solar to meet on-site power needs at homes and businesses. And in April 2012, the City Council and Mayor authorized LADWP to move forward with a new program called CLEAN LA Solar that will add 150 MW of rooftop solar power to the city’s electricity mix. Together these programs will result in about five times the amount of solar currently installed in L.A. and generate enough electricity to power more than 60,000 homes. An overwhelming majority feels that the city should achieve 1,200 MW of solar, which is LADWP’s share of Governor Brown’s statewide goal of 12,000 MW of local clean power by 2020. 1,200 MW of rooftop solar would generate enough clean, reliable electricity to power more than 260,000 homes.

US solar market will explode within five years

Show Solar Some Love

Posted on May 2, 2012 by quest

Vote Solar the San Francisco based solar advocate is on a mission to bring Solar energy into the mainstream. They were looking to send 20,000 emails asking for a YES vote on fair solar credit at the California Public Utilities Commission. “More than 34,000 Californians have replied to have urged the CPUC to support the pro-solar plan! Now they would like to build on the momentum and send 40,000 emails to the CPUC by May 15? The utilities are now fighting tooth and nail against your outpouring of pro-solar messages. They are walking the halls of the CPUC every day – even spreading false and misleading information in their attempts to restrict California customer access to fair solar net metering,” says Annie Carmichael of the Vote Solar Initiative.

Net metering gives solar customers fair credit on their utility bills for valuable clean power they put back on the grid. It’s like rollover minutes for solar. There is a cap on the amount of net metering that utilities must make available to customers – beyond that cap, there’s no guarantee that utilities will continue to allow new solar customers to net meter. California’s law sets the cap at “5 percent of aggregate customer peak demand,” but does not specify how utilities should calculate that number. And guess what . . . some utilities are using a more restrictive methodology that results in almost half the amount of net metering than the original law intended.
The state regulators at the CPUC have proposed closing that loophole and requiring utilities to calculate net metering participation in a way that results in more Californians having access to the program’s bill saving credits. Vote Solar wants you to Show Solar Some Love.

Solar And Clean Energy Political Myths Revealed

Posted on April 28, 2012 by quest

The common wisdom is wrong: There is no political “fault line” that divides Americans along party lines when it comes to clean energy issues and solutions. Majorities of Republicans, Independents and Democrats agree that the United States should move away from its reliance on dirty energy sources that foul the air and water and toward a future that makes greater use of clean energy sources, according to a major new ORC International survey conducted for the nonprofit and nonpartisan Civil Society Institute (CSI).

A key finding: More than three out of four Americans (76 percent) – including 58 percent of Republicans, 83 percent of Independents, and 88 percent of Democrats — think that the United States should move to a sustainable energy future through “a reduction in our reliance on nuclear power, natural gas and coal, and instead, launch a national initiative to boost renewable energy and energy efficiency.”

However, the bipartisan support for clean energy does not mean that Americans think that Washington, D.C. is on the same page with them. More than three out of four Americans (77 percent) – including 70 percent of Republicans, 76 percent of Independents, and 85 percent of Democrats — believe that “the energy industry’s extensive and well-financed public relations, campaign contributions and lobbying machine is a major barrier to moving beyond business as usual when it comes to America’s energy policy.” The complete article: Survey- “Partisan Divide” On Energy Issues Is A Myth, Strong Bipartisan Support Seen For Shift To Cleaner Energy