World’s Most Beautiful Solar Building
July 2, 2009 – 22:01
The Akademie Mont Cenis in Herne, Germany is a strikingly beautiful wooden structure covered with glass and transparent photovoltaic modules over an old coal mine. Beautiful.
EPA Cracks Down on Ship Emissions: Enter Cold Ironing
July 2, 2009 – 13:46The world’s most sea worthy ships – container ships, tankers, bulk carriers, cruise ships and so forth – are also significant sources of air pollution. Not surprisingly, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced plans to reign in ship-based air pollution by imposing a stringent rule for emissions from large U.S.-flagged ships.
The proposed rule would set ambitious engine and fuel standards in an effort to bring U.S. regulations into harmony with international standards and reduce air pollution in U.S. cities and ports. The rule adds muscle to the recent decision by the U.S. and Canada to designate thousands of miles of the two countries’ coasts as an Emission Control Area.
There are two types of diesel engines used on oceangoing vessels. The main propulsion engines on most oceangoing vessels are very large “Category 3″ marine diesel engines (those with per-cylinder displacement at or above 30 liters). Auxiliary engines on oceangoing vessels typically range in size from small portable generators to locomotive-size engines with power of 4,000 kilowatts or more. Auxiliary engines on U.S.-flagged oceangoing vessels are subject to EPA’s marine diesel engine standards for engines with per-cylinder displacement up to 30 liters per cylinder.
Industry has already developed strategies for complying with the new regulations. One of the most compelling solutions is a technology called “cold-ironing,” which allows a specially equipped vessel to plug in to local power grids while tied onshore. The vessel can then draw power for its pumps, communications, ventilation, lighting and other needs from Southern California Edison, instead of its own diesel engines. Providing shore power to an off-loading oil tanker is the pollution-reducing equivalent of removing 187,000 cars from the road for a day. In a year, shore power will eliminate more than 30 tons of pollution. The picture featured below shows a vessel owned by BP, which uses “cold ironing.”
The BP shore power installation delivers enough electricity to power about 5,500 homes — up to 8 megawatts at 6,660 volts. The Alaska Tanker Company has equipped two of vessels that regularly visit the Port to be able to plug into the BP Terminal on Pier T, which supplies local refineries with crude oil. The joint project, which was undertaken voluntarily, was completed at a cost of $23.7 million — $17.5 million from the Port and $6.2 million from BP.
Prior to its modification, the Alaskan Navigator burned nearly 10,000 gallons of diesel each day in port to power massive pumps needed to off-load its oil. The Pier T project cost $23.7 million to build – $17.5 million from the Port and $6.2 million from BP – and took three years to complete.
Global Warming Enemy No. 1 Declares Climate Bill “Dead on Arrival” in U.S. Senate
July 1, 2009 – 12:40
Oklahoma’s Republican senator James Inhofe said the Senate will kill the climate-change legislation that passed by a margin of seven votes in the U.S. House of Representatives last week.
“It’s dead on arrival in the Senate,” Inhofe said during an appearance at the Vance Development Authority in Enid, Oklahoma on Monday. “It will not happen. I can absolutely guarantee you it’s not going to happen in the Senate.”
The Democratic-controlled House backed the global warming measure on a 219-212 vote late Friday. Eight Republicans voted in favor of the bill, while 44 Democrats voted against it. A key component of the legislation is the creation of a market-based cap-and-trade program that will reign in carbon emissions by allocating a limited number of allowances to industry, which can trade those allowances amongst themselves.
Inhofe has challenged global warming on nearly every imaginable front, but is best known for his criticisms of climate science. He has questioned the science that supports the global warming hypothesis, famously dubbing it “the greatest single hoax perpetuated on the American people.”
Cogeneration Facilities Earn Energy Star Award for Significant Energy Savings
June 30, 2009 – 14:14
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency presented Energy Star Combined Heat and Power (CHP) awards to two organizations that have invested in highly efficient CHP systems to reduce their fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. CHP or cogeneration can increase efficiency by 60 to 80 percent compared to systems that produce heat and power separately.
Consolidated Edison CHP System of New York received an award for using a CHP system that produces up to 360 megawatts (MW) of electricity, enough to power most of Manhattan. The system is the largest district steam operation in the world and a key source of electricity for New York City. The CHP system operates at 75 percent of its optimal thermal and energy levels, better than the industry average, reducing greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to the annual emissions from approximately 150,000 cars.
“Beyond Petroleum” Becomes “Back to Petroleum”
June 29, 2009 – 16:29
BP has confirmed that Big Oil remains a fitting description of the world’s mega-energy companies regardless of the vast public-relations efforts undertaken in recent years to make the public believe otherwise.
Despite the widely marketed “Beyond Petroleum” moniker, BP has taken yet another step in the direction of dismantling its alternative energy business, which has suffered a series of funding cuts and abandoned business investments over the past year. The company said it would close its alternative energy headquarters in London and accepted the resignation of its leading clean energy executive.
The news is only the most recent sign that BP’s intentions toward the development of clean energy may be different than widely advertised over the past few years. The company has gradually given up on plans to enter the UK wind industry and closed a range of solar power manufacturing plants in Spain and the US. Meanwhile, BP’s CEO, Tony Hayward, has publicly questioned whether solar would ever be able to compete with fossil fuels.
Hayward has also moved BP into more controversial oil areas, such as Canada’s tar sands, creating an impression that he has given up on the objectives of his predecessor, Lord Browne, to take the company “Beyond Petroleum.”
