Top 10 clean energy stories of 2011

Top 10 clean energy stories of 2011:

by Stephen Lacey.

Cross-posted from Climate Progress.

What an odd year. While businesses around the world were making record-level investments in renewables and efficiency, a growing number of conservative politicians and members of the American media punditry -- lead by the outrageously ignorant "reporting" by Fox News -- have been foolishly projecting (even cheering on) the demise of the sector.

Aside from the mind-boggling disparity between the science and
politics of climate change, I've never seen such a large gap between
perception and what's actually happening on the ground.

Of course, we can't ignore the enormous challenges -- from cheap
natural gas to relentless competition in manufacturing -- that will lead
to the death of many of the companies we know today. That is part of the
natural (and sometimes violent) shakeout we can expect to see in years
to come.

However, in order to cut through some of the recent political attacks, here are stories on the positive trends in clean energy. These are some of our
favorites from the last year (with some of our best clean energy charts
of the year):

1. Clean energy stunner: Renewable power tops fossil fuels for the first time.

Even with a severe financial crisis in Europe and the continued
malaise in the U.S., renewable energy surpassed fossil fuels for the
first time in new power-plant investments in 2011.

2. Solar is ready now: "Ferocious cost reductions" make solar PV competitive.

This great series of charts shows just how cost-competitive solar
photovoltaics have become with new coal and nuclear plants in the U.S.

3. Regional greenhouse gas initiative (RGGI) adds 16,000 jobs and $1.6 billion in value to Northeast economies.

While RGGI was being implemented, conservative groups like Americans
for Prosperity claimed the regional cap-and-trade program would drive
rates up 90 percent. An independent analysis shows that after three years, the
program has set a course for $1.2 billion in ratepayer savings.

4. Pension funds and big companies to invest over $1.6 billion in energy efficiency projects.

This year saw a couple record-setting, private-sector investments in
efficiency, proving once again that the biggest companies in the world
see enormous value in reducing energy.

5. Google map reveals massive geothermal potential nationwide, "effectively an unlimited supply," says Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

The geothermal industry has had its share of troubles financing and
building projects in the last couple of years. But a new Google-funded
map shows that technically exploitable geothermal resources in the U.S.
are equivalent to 10 times our current coal capacity.

6. Green jobs reach 2.7 million: The "clean economy" starts delivering on its promise of high-wage jobs.

Despite what we hear from politicians who call green jobs
"progaganda," a Brookings Institute report released this summer showed
"torrid" growth in high-paying, export-heavy green jobs around the U.S.

7. Google phases out clean energy R&D in favor of deployment, citing the "compelling" cost reductions in solar PV.

With over $915 million in clean energy investments to date, Google is
emerging as one of the leading players in renewables and efficiency.
In order to make a more immediate impact on the market, the tech giant
has switched its focus from R&D to deployment.

8. Solar stunner: America is a $1.9 billion exporter of solar products.

With a high-profile trade war against the Chinese brewing in the
solar market, it's often forgotten that the U.S. is actually a net
exporter of solar products to China and the rest of the world. With 73
cents out of every dollar spent on a solar installation staying within
the U.S., this sector is providing immense domestic value.

9. What free market? Subsidies have always been a big part of energy industry.

Opponents of strategic government investments in clean energy seem to
forget the past. A report on historic government investments showed that the federal commitment to oil and gas was five times greater than
the commitment to renewables during the first 15 years of a subsidy's
life.

10. Polling reveals that being anti-clean energy is bad politics.

Anyone watching the presidential primaries has seen an astonishing
reversal from candidates on climate science and support of clean energy.
It turns out that negative rhetoric can actually have negative
consequences for candidates.

Related Links:

Solar power can fit on existing land use

Here comes the sun - the chart Paul Krugman left out

Clean energy investment tops $1 trillion

Green cities on the cheap: Low-cost solutions for a sustainable world

Green cities on the cheap: Low-cost solutions for a sustainable world:

by Jared Green.

This interview originally
appeared in The Dirt.

Jaime
Lerner was elected mayor of Curitiba, Brazil, in 1971, and reelected two more
times before serving as governor of the Brazilian state of Paraná. As mayor, Lerner
devised a number of low-cost solutions and innovative partnerships with the
public and private companies that turned Curitiba into a model green community. He has won
a number of major awards for his transportation, design, and environmental
work, including the United Nations Environment Award. In 2002, Lerner was
elected president of the International Union of Architects. Today, he is
principal of Jamie Lerner Associated Architects.

Q. You’ve argued that cities
are the solution to climate change, not the problem. What is the case for this?

A. Well, my point of view is
that there are many, many answers to what would be the best way to avoid
climate change. A lot of people are talking about new materials. Or new sources
of energy. Or wind turbines. Or recycling. They’re really important but not
enough. When we realized that 75 percent of car emissions are related to the
cities, we realized we can be more effective when we work with the concept of
the city. It’s through cities that we can have better results.

Q. What do you see as the
relationship between livability and sustainability?

A. Every time we try to
create a solution, we have to have a good equation of co-responsibility with
the public. That means it’s not a question of money and it’s not a question of
skill; it’s how do we organize the equation of co-responsibility?

For example, when I was
governor we had to work hard to reduce pollution in our bays. Of course, it’s
very expensive to do environmental cleanup work and we didn’t have the money.
Another region had taken out a huge loan from the World Bank, about $800
million. For us though, the question wasn’t about money; the question was about
mentality. We started to clean our bays through an agreement with fishermen: If
the fisherman catches a fish, it belongs to him; if he catches garbage, we
buy the garbage. If the day was not good for fishing, the fishermen went to
fish garbage. The more garbage they caught, the cleaner the bays became. The
cleaner the bay was, the more fish they would have.

It’s that kind of win-win
solution we need. We need to work with low-cost solutions.

Q. You also decentralized
garbage collection. One program to clean up dirty, narrow streets that were
inaccessible to trash collectors gave residents bags of groceries or transit
passes in return for their garbage. How well did this program work?

A. It’s been working for more
than 20 years in Curitiba. In many cities, there are places where it’s
difficult to provide trucks access to collect garbage. In many cities, if the
slums are on the hills or deep in valleys, they’re difficult to access. In
these places, people are throwing away their garbage and polluting the streams.
Their children are playing in polluted areas. In 1989, we started a program
where we said, “Okay, we’re going to buy your garbage as long as you put your
garbage in a bag, and bring it to the trucks, where it’s more accessible.” In
two or three months, all these areas were clean, and these very low-income
people had an additional source of income.

We also started public
education programs on the separation of garbage [into separate streams for
recycling, composting, etc.] because we realized that we could transform one
problem if we separated garbage in every household. We started teaching every
child in every school. Children taught their parents. Since then, Curitiba has had
the highest rate of separation of garbage in the world for more than 20 years.
Around 60 or 70 percent of families are separating their garbage at home.

Q. As mayor of Curitiba, you
created the world’s first bus rapid transit system (BRT), “Speedy Bus,” which
works like a surface subway system but at far less cost. How did you form the
public-private partnership that made it cost-effective?

A. We didn’t have the money
for a completely new fleet, which would have cost $300 million. What was the
equation? What was the solution? We said to the private sector, private
companies, “We’ll invest in the itinerary as long as you invest in the fleet.
We’ll get loans for the work on our side, for public works, for the itinerary,
if the private sector gets loans for the fleet.” We paid them by kilometers and
there are no subsidies. The system pays for itself. Now, there are more than 83
BRT systems around the world.

The problem is in many
countries, government wants to invest in everything. That doesn’t work. I’ll
give you an example. Why don’t we have a good system of transport in New York
on the waterfront? This could be a very good approach for reducing congestion
in the city’s bridges and tunnels. The city could have a very pleasant system
of water public transport. But instead, the policymakers are holding it up,
saying there are no passengers and we don’t want to invest in the fleet. First,
they need to create a good partnership and create an attractive system, then
they will have the passengers, and then they will have a low-cost solution.

Q. You’ve also mentioned
that many poor copies of your BRT are out there, and are actually setting back
BRT as a transportation movement. What are other cities doing wrong?

A. BRT can’t be designed as
a transportation solution. It has to be planned as a whole city. Why? Because
the city is a structure of living, working, and leisure. Everything together.
Transportation has to provide a structure for living and working together. It
can’t just be a system of transport. You will just have a kind of commuting system,
which is more difficult to make feasible. With that kind of approach, you will
only use public transport twice daily, concentrated in just a few hours. If you
have a system that works always and connects working and living activities,
it’s more a city [approach] than just a corridor of public transport.

Q. Now you have your own
architecture and urban design firm and you are working with major city
governments and private clients throughout the Americas. What kind of projects
are you working on?

A. Sustainability is an
equation between what we save and what we waste. There are so many problems of
mobility or integration of systems, but we have to work fast. If we understand
the city as a structure of living, working, moving together, we can work more
effectively ...

For instance, in Sao Paolo,
they have three subway lines. They are working on fourth line of the subway,
with 84 percent of the trains running on the surface. It’s the surface that has
to operate better. At the same time, the suburb railroad is being improved. The
idea is to take advantage of the existing path of the suburb railroads and
build above the rail a kind of linear park like the High Line. However, this
linear park would link the whole city, where you can connect people of all income
levels. In every place, you could have good public transport and you have a
huge park linking it all. Within this park, you could walk, bike, or take small
electric cars.

Sometimes there’s an idea
and it has to be improved. In other cases, we use “urban acupuncture.”

Q. At the street level,
you’ve been experimenting with “portable streets,” creating informal and spontaneous
market street life.

A. Some places in some
cities have become decayed. There’s no life. When that happens, it’s very
difficult to bring back life because people don’t want to live in a place like
that. However, the moment we bring street life, people will want to live there
again. That’s why we designed the portable streets. On a Friday night, we can
deliver a portable street and remove it Monday morning. We can put a whole
street life in front of a university or any place, bringing street life back ...

These are small
interventions that can provide new energy to the city, and provide assistance
during the process of long-term planning, which has to take time. But we have
to work fast.

Related Links:

One billion cars clog traffic worldwide

Monkeys go on looting spree in Rio

Renewable Energy Keeps Growing: Earth Summit in Rio provides an opportunity for even more action

Top 10 Unanswered Biofuels Questions for 2011

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Affordable solar?

Affordable solar?: A new analysis shows that solar photovoltaic systems are very close to achieving the tipping point in many regions: they can make electricity that's as cheap -- sometimes cheaper -- than what consumers pay their utilities.

Greener US schools could save $20 billion in energy

Greener US schools could save $20 billion in energy:

Making school buildings more energy efficient does more than help cut electricity, gas and water bills. Over the long term, the money saved could help schools improve education and expand jobs, according to the US Green Building Council (USGBC).

“Why green our schools?” asks Rachel Gutter, director of the USGBC’s Center for Green Schools. “Three words: education, sustainability and jobs.”

Greener schools produce tax and energy savings that can leave more money for equipment, books and teachers. The USGBC points to reports that show more efficient schools save an average of $100,000 per year in operating costs, and use 33 percent less energy and 32 percent less water than conventional school buildings. Those savings could cover the salaries for two new teachers per school, help pay for 200 new computers or buy 5,000 new textbooks.

Extended to every new school built and every existing school that’s renovated, improved efficiency could save $20 billion in energy costs alone over the next 10 years.

To recognize US schools that have made an effort to become more efficient, the USGBC and United Technologies Corp., the founding sponsor of the council’s Center for Green Schools, have awarded its first-ever Best of Green Schools list. The 2011 winners in each category include:

• Moment for the Movement – The US Department of Education’s Green Ribbon Schools program, which is the first comprehensive and coordinated federal initiative to focus on the intersection of environment, health and education.


• Region – Sacramento, where Mayor Kevin Johnson helped to bring together mayors and superintendents from across northern California to create a $100 million revolving loan fund for green school retrofits.


• State – Ohio, which leads the nation in green school projects, with 315 LEED-registered and certified projects, and 19 schools registered in 2011 alone.


• City – Philadelphia, where the school district made “significant steps” this year to green the city’s 291 public schools.


• School – Lake Mills Middle School in Lake Mills, Wisconsin. In March 2011, it became the first public school in the nation to achieve LEED Platinum certification.


• Higher Ed Innovator – University of Texas at Dallas. The University’s new LEED Platinum Student Services Building features terra-cotta shades on the exterior to provide a unique energy-efficient shading strategy, and was built $1.1 million under budget.


• Collaborators – Kentucky Representatives Jim DeCesare (R) and Mary Lou Marzian (D), for working with their colleagues in the Kentucky General Assembly to unanimously adopt resolutions in support of green schools, and for encouraging other states to work across party lines on similar efforts.


• Convener – Boston: In September 2011, Mayor Thomas M. Menino hosted the Research Summit on Childhood Health and School Buildings, which brought together a team of interdisciplinary researchers to explore the connection between school facilities and student health. Boston’s public school district is also home to one of the first Center for Green Schools Fellows — a coordinator who will work with the district for three years to advance whole-district sustainability initiatives.


• Policy-makers – District of Columbia City Council. In May 2010, the Washington, DC, council unanimously passed the Healthy Schools Act of 2010, building upon the district’s existing LEED Silver requirement and encouraging schools to achieve LEED Gold certification. In 2011, the council also began participating in the US Department of Education’s Green Ribbon Schools program, making DC the first — before any state — to sign up for the voluntary federal program.


• K-12 Innovation – A public-private partnership in Illinois this past March released a report outlining a plan to green all K-12 schools in the state.

Switchgrass as Ideal Biofuel Feedstock?

Switchgrass as Ideal Biofuel Feedstock?:

The biofuel sector is aimed at weaning us off our dependence on oil, but what of biofuel producers' dependence on corn?

American bioethanol production is still vastly reliant on corn as a feedstock. In the short term, with total output volume still relatively low, corn remains a viable feedstock option. But as ethanol production continues to ramp up, corn prices will likely increase as biofuel producers compete with corn purchasers in the food and grain markets.

What alternatives do we have? A new research review published today in the journal GCB Bioenergy states that switchgrass is indeed viable as a cellulosic feedstock, as has been previously suggested, and that it may have advantages in carbon accumulation over other options.

"We reviewed over 100 articles on switchgrass, which found that this crop has a considerable ability to accumulate carbon in the soil compared to several other grasses, and especially row crops,” lead author Dr. Andrea Monti of the University of Bologna, Italy said in a release.

The review focused on research that measured the uptake of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide by switchgrass over the course of its lifecycle, including cultivation and processing. Estimates varied throughout the body of research Monti reviewed, which is due to variables ranging from how the switchgrass was cultivated and variations in biofuel production processes. But overall, the research reviewed suggests that switchgrass has carbon-sequestration advantages over other feedstocks, especially over row crops like corn that require more intensive cultivation.

There is one caveat: there's a lack of data concerning the effects of converting land for switchgrass cultivation. In the long term, it's unknown whether switchgrass crops would continue to have a positive net gain in greenhouse gas sequestration over the land it was converted from, as is suggested by shorter-term studies.

“Although switchgrass has recently received a lot attention as an environmentally beneficial energy crop, it is important to consider that switchgrass had not been planted as a monoculture crop until the mid-20th century,” Monti said. “Information needed to make long-term predictions on carbon sequestration, such as land use change, carbon turnover rate, and the economic lifecycle length are lacking."

What the research reviewed doesn't cover is whether producing biofuels with wild grasses is economically viable. We've been talking about switchgrass for some time now, and it generally looks like grasses are a cheaper feedstock than corn and sugar, even without the competitive economics that come into play as biofuel production grows.

The United States' total fuel ethanol output has grown every year since 1996, according to the Renewable Fuels Association. The RFA states that 13.2 billion gallons of fuel ethanol were produced in the U.S. last year; according to the EPA's Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2), that number will eclipse 20 billion by 2015. In the U.S., corn is still by far the dominant feedstock used; a 2006 report from the USDA pegged corn-based ethanol at 97 percent of the total U.S. ethanol market, a figure that hasn't shifted dramatically since then. But it still can't compete with the yields that perennials like switchgrass offer: the Energy Department reports that corn grain offers a yield of 4.9 tons per acre per year, while perennials would offer eight tons per acre per year. That's a big difference, and it is even larger when you consider corn prices just starting to come down after a 15-year peak.

The issue still remains on the production side. The lignocellulose derived from grasses is still one of the most difficult cellulosic sources to convert to sugars for alcohol production. But technology to ease the process is in development.

Vinod Khosla wrote in a guest spot on GTM in January, "Though multiple cellulose and hemi-cellulose to sugars conversion technologies are in development, personally I am most bullish about some of the recent surprise developments in acid hydrolysis. At scale, HCL-like technologies should be able to produce food and non-food grade sugars at between $0.08 to 0.12 per pound at $50 per ton biomass costs," adding, "This or similar surprise technology developments could make biomass the new feedstock for sugars based processes."

The research suggests that switchgrass has a sequestration advantage over other crop-based feedstocks, and in the long term, its price advantage is likely to hold in the U.S. as corn demand increases. So is it time for switchgrass? Obama thinks so, but a more conservative outlook might be warranted until lignin-cracking technology is proven.

Best Green Schools Honored

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New solar-powered classroom brings science to schools in developing countries

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