AUDUBON OF FLORIDA APPROVED PSC PROPOSAL

Florida's Public Service Commission’s (PSC) has proposed renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) in its recent Rule.

Audubon of Florida announced that it would prefer that utilities be required to invest more funds to support the development of renewable energy and that it would work with allies in the renewable energy industry to recommend improvements.

The Rule must be ratified by the Legislature. Audubon will support ratification with improvements related to increasing the cap on utility investments in renewable energy. A summary of the draft Rule is here.

The RPS Rule would require each investor-owned electric utility to supply a percentage of retail electricity sales from renewable energy resources located in Florida. The PSC was required to submit a draft rule to the Legislature by February 1, 2009, and to include comments from the public provided at workshops held in July, August and December, 2008.

As part of the Rule development process, the PSC was required to evaluate the
current and forecasted availability and cost through 2020 of each renewable energy resource.

In addition, the PSC discussed whether to suggest that the Legislature consider expanding the eligible resources in the existing statute to include other “clean energy” options. Currently, nuclear energy and energy savings associated with efficiency improvements and customer resource conservation efforts are not currently eligible pursuant to the definition of Florida renewable energy resources in Section 366.92, F.S. This draft Rule does not go beyond the definitions included in the Statute.

The Rule also sets mandatory standards for Florida’s Investor Owned Utilities that must be met with Florida renewable energy resources and caps incremental compliance costs at two percent of each company's annual retail revenues to protect ratepayers from undue rate increases.

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MIAMI'S FIRST LEED GOLD CERTIFIED OFFICE BUILDING

What is 35 stories tall, made of glass exterior and when completed will be gold? In January 2010, the office tower at 1450 Brickell Avenue will be Miami's first LEED Gold-certified office highrise. Located in downtown Miami, the building was pre-certified in 2008.

Developed by Alan Ojeda, the building has an unclear future, given the state of downtown Miami's 15% office vacancy rate.

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SAVING MONEY BY SAVING ENERGY AT SCHOOLS

Last night's Green Drinks was sparesely attended, probably due to the rain, but the comments from Manny Joanos, director of Energy for Leon County School, has found cost savings in a number of areas, including disconnecting the chillers in all school water foundations, saving pennies a week, but adding up to a substantial annual cost saving. The County's adoption of software which automatically shuts down computers daily and on weekends has saved over $75,000 in a year.

Superintendent Jackie Pons has supported the purchase of 40 school buses that will run on compressed natural gas rather than diesel. A new facility at the corner of Highway 20 and Capital Circle will refuel the buses, which may also allow private vehicles to fill up, also. Discussions are underway with the local governments who may be interested in a source of compressed natural gas for their fleet conversions.

The solar on schools was highlighted, as well as the popular recycling program at all grade levels.

Next month's Green Drinks speaker is Cynthia Barrett from Florida Trend magazine.

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GREEN DRINKS TONITE!

See you at at 6 at Waterworks on Thomasville Road for Green Drinks
Tallahassee. MORE info. at the Green Calendar.

--
Sent from Gmail for mobile | mobile.google.com

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biomass plant dead

today's announcement from the office of the Mayor seals the fate of
the biomass plant. the community gains five months onto its collective life.
Personal insults from the CEO of BG & E toward Commissioner Bill Proctor: unprofessional and unnecessary.

--
Sent from Gmail for mobile | mobile.google.com

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RECYCLE STYROFOAM

photo courtesy of Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers

does anyone still have one of these players?

Styrofoam (trademark), it's not that I don't appreciate you and the fact that you have gotten computers, toys and other electronic parts to my house in one piece and in working order. It's just that, you have to go. But where? Not into our ever-growing landfill (where it is estimated that it takes up 25 - 30% of space), not into my garage to gather dust and take up space. But neither can you join your brothers, the washed and clean polystyrene food trays in the big green bin outside my local supermarket.

UPS stores will accept those little peanuts, but only very limited quantities of those rigid molded hunks. Leon County has launched a program for businesses to recycle EPS (expanded polystyrene or Styrofoam TM). The Electronic Recycling Building at the Solid Waste Management Facility on Apalachee Parkway will accept clean EPS that is dropped off there. This includes (white) computer, furniture and appliance packaging, unused hot/cold cups, packaging peanuts and all clean polystyrene labeled #6. They do not accept anything that previously contained food. For more information about the County's program, contact Cyndy Brantley: brantleyc@leoncountyfl.gov

But, unless one has a large quantity of EPS, it's not really cost efficient to drive out to the landfill (Solid Waste Facility). It can be shipped at our own expense to a facility that accepts EPS (see Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers for more info.).

In the meantime, we can join together as a neighborhood to recycle EPS, especially after the holidays, since we're purchasing less, we'll have less waste of which to dispose. If you buy a product packed in EPS at a local store, you can unbox it there and ask them to include the pieces in their next drop-off to be recycled. Do we know that they will do this?

Any other suggestions?

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SOLAR ON SCHOOLS + GREEN DRINKS!

This month's Green Drinks featured guest will be Manny Joanos from Leon County Schools. For more information about Wednesday night's gathering, click on Green Calendar.

In additin to 'no idle' zones and non-diesel, hybrid school buses, one topic of discussion may be Schools on Solar, with more information and solar and weather data and the sunviewer here. Oak Ridge Elementary and Montford Middle School are participating. The project focuses on the educational aspects of solar and energy production, renewable energy, conservation, etc. It's projected that the solar thermal and solar PV systems will save each school about $800 per year

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ENERGY CONSERVATION: THE GREENEST OF ALL?

A recent report reminds us that energy conservation could realistically reduce the rate of growth of electricity consumption by 22 percent over the next two decades if key barriers can be addressed.

The report issued this month by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) details how conservation could saving 236 billion kilowatt hours by 2030 (equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of 14 New York cities). Or it means that over the next two decades the demand for electricity could be reduced from the projected 1.07% annual rate of growth projected by the US Energy Information Administration.

Locally, the City of Tallahassee has continued to promote conservation as an important component of its energy plan. Conservation projections become critically important in the discussion of the controversial proposed biomass plant, which is projected to meet only 5% of Tallahassee's base load demand when in full operation.

What are the barriers to achieving this type of reduction in electrical energy consumption? A lot has to do with us--attitudinal and societal actions are as important as regulatory and market barriers. We can be resistant to doing more than "the minimum required" or we can reject attributes of efficient technology or changing processes within our homes as too time consuming, too inconvenient, requiring too much thought. Individuals may perceive that they are sacrificing something or, at a minimum, doing something differently. We may lack information or resources necessary to implement changes. This resistance, for whatever reason, reduces the likelihood of achieving energy conservation goals.

The report points out that to achieve the projected energy savings would require the "perfect utility customer." A copy of the report, "What Can Efficiency, Demand Response Programs Realistically Deliver?" is available on the EPRI website.

Information from their website: The Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. is an independent, nonprofit organization that conducts research and development relating to the generation, delivery and use of electricity for the benefit of the public.

EPRI brings together its scientists and engineers as well as experts from academia and industry to help address challenges in electricity, including reliability, efficiency, health, safety and the environment.

EPRI's members represent more than 90 percent of the electricity generated and delivered in the United States, and international participation extends to 40 countries.

The energy conservation mantra: the cheapest new power plant is the one you don't have to build--

• Florida's energy goal: reduce its energy requirements through enhanced conservation and efficiency measures in all end-use sectors and reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide by promoting an increased use of renewable energy resources and low-carbon-emitting electric power plants.

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OVER-PACKAGING ORGANIC FOOD

Commercial grocery stores here sell things like organic and/or free range eggs. However, these eggs come in ugly, bulky, flimsy packaging like this:



Instead of packaged in reuseable, recyclable cardboard cartons like this:
A British website overpackaging.com suggests writing to "the perpetrators." In that spirit, I encourage Green Reader to contact the company despite the clearly printed a recycling logo assuring buyers that "we share your concerns about the environment. We use recycled and recyclable plastic packaging. Please recycle." (Perhaps someone has brought this concern to there attention before?)

Comments to the www.4grain.com website, E-mailed to info@tampafarms.com
We'll post the company's response.

Here are five ways to fight retail overpackaging.

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HOW MANY GALLONS?

Working wage? How many gallons of gas are your working for per hour?

If you're salaried, it tells you how to convert your annual salary into an hourly wage, just for fun!

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CERTIFIED GREEN HOME

Chad and his family have embarked on a Tallahassee adventure: to build their home to be certified green by the Green Building Coalition.
Green Readers can follow the adventures at Its Not Easy Being Green.

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BIKE YOUR WAY TO GREEN ENERGY

I love the fact Sierra Club reported that a gym in Portland, the Green Microgym was reported to be generating electricity from its stationary bikes. I love even the more the story about two Portland women who rigged their own bikes to power their washing machine!

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ENERGY EFFICIENT MANUFACTURED HOUSING

In the 1950's and 60's Florida's landscape was dotted with mobile home parks, the Sunshine State's answer to affordable housing. Families bought large plots of land before strict zoning regulations and built family compounds of mobile homes, one at a time as the kids grew up and out.

Hurricanes, Nimbyism (not in my backyard) and land use regulations have significantly removed the sprinklings of 'trailers' from Florida, except for pockets of rural land and a few parks that have managed to be grandfathered in and survive. One, we stumbled upon squeezed among the million dollar mansions of Ocean Ridge is Briny Breezes, a 43 acre mobile home park right on the Atlantic Ocean. Probably the most expensive mobile home park property in the US, it is incorporated as a town in Palm Beach County (population 411--maybe less today--or tomorrow, as the median age of the residents is 70).

Trailers with rooves of aluminum was notoriously poorly costructed and even more poorly insulated. There was nothing energy efficient about their heating, cooling or roll-out windows.

Now, a company, Frontier Housing has constructed manufactured homes that qualify for an EnergyStar rating. Frontier Housing is a nonprofit organization that has been building affordable husing in nine eastern Kentucky counties. Frontier has designed a single section manufactured home to address the housing needs of very low-income families. These manufactured homes are considered 'real property' and therefore qualify for traditional mortgage loans rather than the high interest rate personal loans associated with most 'singlewide' products. Second, they are affordable and energy efficient.

The primary feature is the heating and cooling system with a 13 SEER rating (seasonal energy efficiency ratio). The home has upgraded exterior walls and all envelope insulation rated R-19 rather than the usual R-11 standard. Floor insulation of R-22 and ceiling insulation of -30. Windows are upgraded doublepane Argon low-E windows. Compact fluorescent lamps are used. These energy efficient features total to an average energy cost projected to be 34% lower than any other standard single section home.

Sometimes innovations in energy efficiency come in small steps and are beneficial to those who can least afford their own home. Given Florida land prices, the return of affordable manufactured housing may be seen here, but may serve a need in states like Kentucky. Click on Frontier Housing for more information.

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SOLAR CLOTHES DRYER

No honey, your parents do not believe in having a clothes dryer
because we're solartarians.

The clothes dryer, also known as the second biggest energy hog in our homes, the first being the refrigerator, has no model that is Energy Star rated due to its gross inefficiency. Then, along comes something called the Dryer Miser that claims to be the first eco-friendly clothes dryer and claims to dry clothes 41% faster while using up to 50% less energy. Developed in Orlando by Hydromatic Technologies, the system uses heated fluid to warm the air inside the dryer instead of warming the air inside.

According to the New York Times' Blog, The Dryer Miser received approval from the Underwriters Lab, the independent product safety certification organization. Also, there is a conversion kit that will adapt your existing gas or electric dryer into a fluid-heating hydronic dryer for around $300. The manufacturer calls it the first green clothes dryer and claims it is safer than dryers now on the market.

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Don't forget, it can't be New Year's without green resolutions
Make yours on the Green Calendar.

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SOLAR IN TIGHT BUDGET TIMES CAN HAPPEN IF THERE'S A COMMITMENT

While it appears that the increasing revenue shortfalls in Florida’s budget means that $1 million in state support (of a total $8.5 M state match) was erased from the $17 million solar field array being built at Florida Gulf Coast University. But university officials said they planned to raise the amount cut by the state by raising additional private contributions.

While City of Tallahassee residents and elected officials fret over the biomass incinerator as a way to generate 5% of the City's base load needs, the City of Gainesville and its regional utilities have proposed an incentive for investing in solar photovoltaic systems. The proposal is to pay residences or businesses 32 cents per kilowat hour for electricity generated with PV panels. This is more than twice than what Floridians pay for electricity. This proposal is modeled after a successful program in Germany that has been adopted in a number of other nations. As noted in this October Green post, the Gainesville City Commission unanimously approved the plan and is expected to give final approval early this year.

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SAVING ENERGY AT THE STATE

As we face significant budget cuts in the State, it seems that the Department of Education on Gaines Street in Tallahassee could save a great deal on the energy as well as money for the energy bill by turning off the lights in its building after hours. I drive by the building in the late evening and every floor is lit up.

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Green the White House?

The Associated Press reported yesterday that President-elect Barack Obama wants to include ways to cut energy use in federal buildings in his economic aid plan.  

"If we do that effectively, then over the long term we are going to save billions of dollars in energy costs for the federal government and for taxpayers," Obama said.  

The idea of reducing energy consumption goes back to the energy crisis of the 1970s. This story is going to seem familiar to Green Readers, but, guess what? The initiatives lost their momentum when energy prices fell!

Since it's estimated by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) that the US government spends around one-third of $17 billion a year just to heat, cool and light government buildings, it would seem time to create some energy efficient measures to reduce the energy bill we we pay with our tax dollars.  Here's the link, if you would like to read the GAO report. 

We could weatherize the White House!  A post from Solar Ray shows some great pictures of a weatherization 'barn raising' event including blower doors and a little heat seeking gun, which will soon be available to consumers.  This little device whose beam changes color in the presence of cooler temperatures. Solar Ray includes the idea that the application of energy efficient improvements to the White House could be a public even, televised event, promoted to get more folks interested in doing similiar improvements to their own homes.  

Through the US Department of Energy, the low income weatherization program has been around since the 1970's.  The program is designed to train crews who work for non-profits to go into low income homes to fix leaking or broken windows, caulk and weather-strip doors, blow in attic insulation and, in some cases replace the heating sytems.  Originally designed to address heating deficiencies, the program later expanded to include all things related to energy efficiency and incorporated some more sophisticated equipment such as the blower doors and higher quality insulation.  The program creates jobs and helps low income people with long-term energy savings on their heating and cooling costs.  The program received its largest boost when funding from a portion of the 'oil overcharge' funds was funneled into weatherization efforts nationwide. These funds were awarded to states as a result of federal court action requiring certain oil producers to pay restitution for violation of federal oil price and allocation controls that occurred between 1973 and 1981. These funds have subsequently been exhausted.  

In Florida, the weatherization program is administered by the Department of Community Affairs, which funds local non-profits to hire and train crews and provide materials for income eligible families.  In Tallahassee, the Tallahassee Urban League operates the program.  In Franklin, Gadsden and Gulf counties, the Capital Area Community Action Agency provides the services. 

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Biomass Plant Meeting Last Night

An interesting collection of people turned out for the meeting, sponsored by CONA. Here's the complete summary.

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GREEN RV

Oh yes! A RV that is eco-friendly? This modded truck appeared at the Florida RV show at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa this past weekend.

The camper sits on a Ford F-350, 4 x 4 pickup truck. It has a diesel engine with six solar panels and a wind turbine to help power the electrical appliances. It also captures, stores and sanitizes rainwater for use in the camper.

Too bad the truck itself hasn't been converted to run on bio-diesel!

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BIOMASS PLANT PUBLIC MEETING MONDAY

Astute Green Readers have been following the discussion of proposed siting of a biomass plant on Roberts Avenue in Tallahassee's southside. To catch up, this link collects a number of local articles on the issue. Also, read the Florida Environmental News article about Florida's approach to land use planning and its public process. Erwin Jackson, a local Realtor and property owner in the areas around the proposed site has funded placement of the signs pictured above on Railroad Avenue and Gaines Street and near FSU.

First, it is interesting to note that original objections from Commissioner Bill Proctor were right on target, although perhaps not well-informed. Any community activists can tell you where, historically, the polluting plants, garbage dumps are located and where the tainted waters flow. It's not unreasonable to think that a number of Tallahassee residents had this immediate reaction when the biomass plant was announced.

Second, promoting the plant as progress toward 'clean energy' by burning something proves a fallacy in these times of more innovative, clean energy technology.

Third, we acknowledge the healthy debate created by this proposal. In other areas of Florida and across the US, the plant would have been sited and little discussion would have taken place. Whatever we think about the pros and cons of the biomass plant, we thank Tallahassee's citizens by providing forums for discussion and information gathering. Perhaps a little more of this at the front-end (two years ago? * October 17, 2006 when the Florida Cabinet approved the sublease of the Roberts Avenue site to BG & E) would have provided a constructive approach, rather than what appears to be a response to some vocal advocates in opposition to the plant. The final hearing on the FSU campus master plan, which includes the proposal for siting the biomass plant, will be held on January 29, 2009.

Now, it's your turn. The Council of Neighborhood Associations (CONA), which has not taken an official position regarding the proposed plant, is hosting a meeting:

Monday, January 5th, beginning at 6:00 PM
at Jacob Chapel Freewill Baptist Church, 2333 Lake Bradford Road.
The church is located near the intersection of Lake Bradford Road and West Orange Avenue. You may travel this way to the airport--see Google map below. It's about 2 1/2 miles from the proposed plant site.

Stephen Hogge, President of CONA, promises the meeting to be a "structured and fact-driven" meeting with opportunity for audience members to ask questions. Panelists will include Wilson Barnes, Tallahassee NAACP, Mark Bertolami, Director of Facilities Planning at FSU, Rob Brinkman, Sierra Club of Florida, Ben Cowart, Energy Services City of Tallahassee, Glenn Farris, Biomass Gas and Electric, Inc., Dr. Scott Hannahs, Citizens United for Responsible Growth, Terrance Hinson, Hinson Realty, Dorothy Inman-Johnson, Capital Area Community Action Agency, Alex Mahon, Leon County Health Department, David Read, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Deb Swim, Environmental/Energy Attorney and Wayne Tedder, Tallahassee/Leon County Planning Department.

Marjorie Turnball will moderate.

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Map Location for Biomass Plant Meeting

View Larger Map

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2008 GREEN TOP TEN

Green Readers, check out the Green Top Ten Listings under Green Musings in the left column!

Happy New Year!

 

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