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I just recently returned from a trip where my husband and I did a road trip through Northern Spain. While we were driving, I was completely surprised and impressed by the amount of wind turbines that were scattered throughout the hills and countryside. It made me wonder when we will start to see more use of the wind turbines in the US. Luckily, my wondering came to quick end when my colleague passed on an interesting article from the Governor of Massachusetts official website about the expansion of a wind turbine company right here in Massachusetts.

FloDesign Wind Turbine Corporation was selected under the Patrick-Murray Administration’s Massachusetts Recovery Plan to expand its operations in Massachusetts. “FloDesign has been recognized for its ‘transformative’ technology by U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, and I am pleased to see this innovative Massachusetts company choosing to stay and grow right here, creating jobs and helping Massachusetts show the nation and the world the way toward a clean energy economy,” said Governor Patrick (Official website of the Governor of Massachusetts).

The expansion is estimated to create and retain 150 green jobs over the next few years and the wind turbines themselves bring a large amount advantages. Below is a list the US DOE has identified:

Advantages

• Wind energy is fueled by the wind, so it’s a clean fuel source. Wind energy doesn’t pollute the air like power plants that rely on combustion of fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas. Wind turbines don’t produce atmospheric emissions that cause acid rain or greenhouse gasses.
• Wind energy is a domestic source of energy, produced in the United States. The nation’s wind supply is abundant.
• Wind energy relies on the renewable power of the wind, which can’t be used up. Wind is actually a form of solar energy; winds are caused by the heating of the atmosphere by the sun, the rotation of the earth, and the earth’s surface irregularities.
• Wind energy is one of the lowest-priced renewable energy technologies available today, costing between 4 and 6 cents per kilowatt-hour, depending upon the wind resource and project financing of the particular project.
• Wind turbines can be built on farms or ranches, thus benefiting the economy in rural areas, where most of the best wind sites are found. Farmers and ranchers can continue to work the land because the wind turbines use only a fraction of the land. Wind power plant owners make rent payments to the farmer or rancher for the use of the land.
• These problems have been resolved or greatly reduced through technological development or by properly siting wind plants.

The first wind turbine that FloDesign assembles is intended to be here in Massachusetts. If you would like to read more on this article please click on the following link: PATRICK-MURRAY ADMINISTRATION ANNOUNCES EXPANSION OF INNOVATIVE WIND TURBINE COMPANY

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Tags:reduce, Renewables

We’ve all heard about ENERGY STAR.

And you probably heard President Obama talk about the Home Star (aka “Cash for Caulkers”) program recently. Designed to provide financial incentives for homeowners who perform a variety of energy-efficiency upgrades, the Home Star program is urging Americans to green up their homes while getting a little green in return.

Well, add another “star” to the list. Melissa Hincha-Ownby reported earlier this week about USGBC’s support of the proposed Building Star legislation, which, if passed, will provide incentives for energy-efficient retrofits for existing buildings. Similar to Home Star, Building Star will provide financial incentives for energy-efficiency retrofits in multi-family residential units as well as commercial buildings.

According to the MNN article, “Every year, the American economy loses more than $130 billion from leaky, inefficient buildings,” Fedrizzi added. “We can change that through the advancement of programs like Building Star - which would create approximately 150,000 jobs. Senators Merkley and Pryor get the ‘gold star’ for introducing it; now all the Senate has to do is include it in the next jobs package.” {Source: USGBC} Therefore, if passed, according to an article on Earth2Tech, “the program is expected to save building owners more than $3 billion on their energy bills annually by reducing enough peak electricity demand to avoid the need for nearly three dozen 300 MW power plants.”

This looks like a good deal all the way around. Building will be upgraded, saving the building owners money for heating, cooling and other inefficiencies. Plus that’s less strain on the environment. And more retrofits means more jobs, which will continue to boost the economy and create more spending in other areas.

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Tags:Building, Energy Star, Environment, reduce, USGBC

On a recent trip to Florida, I got a chance to visit the Tampa Electric Company (TECO).  While this may not seem like a prime vacation destination, it must be said that this power plant goes above and beyond the normal community obligations.  TECO signed a $1.2 billion dollar plan in 1999 with the U.S. EPA and Florida Department of Environment Protection to reduce air emissions by 89% from their 1998 levels. 

Along with this pledge to reduce the emissions, they will be installing approximately 100,000 silicon-based photovoltaic panels.  The panels will generate enough electricity from the sun to serve electric needs for around 3500 homes. 

With Florida’s growing population, TECO is working hard to plan for the future of the environment.  Aside from the power plant objectives to reduce emissions and generate more renewable energy sources, they are also interested in preserving the environment for the future population of Florida.  The company holds a number of initiatives including an Aviation Protection Plan, Manatee Viewing Center, and environmental education center. 

Manatees, also known as sea cows, are listed on the World Conservation Union’s list as vulnerable to extinction.  While they have few natural predators, they are slow moving and fall victim to human interactions such as the numerous boat propellers around Florida’s coast. They have however, found a safe haven in inlets around the TECO plant.  The plants releases warm water that attracts a wide range of ocean creatures including around 300 manatees at a given time.  

Click below for a live web cam of the manatees in the inlet - http://www.tampaelectric.com/manatee/funstuff/

To find out more about the Photovoltaic and chart the hourly output click here
http://www.tampaelectric.com/

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Tags:Environment, reduce, Renewables

One of the key challenges facing today’s building designers is understanding and tackling how to incorporate sustainable design principles into existing workflows and processes.

A ‘good design is sustainable design’ ethos promoted by quantitative analysis can make a great impact.  Architects get quick environmental feedback on design iterations and environmental engineers can input more into the design.  Achieving this kind of effective collaboration and cross-discipline understanding, in my opinion is core to achieving truly sustainable, energy-efficient building design.

The advent of BIM (Building Information Modeling), and better integration between analysis and design tools, is helping push this more integrated, information sharing approach to design team working.  In particular, the Green Building XML schema, referred to as “gbXML”, was developed to facilitate information transfer from building information models to design/energy performance analysis tools.

We’ve working hard at IES to drive such integration by developing plug-ins that link our tiered suite of analysis tools to Revit Architecture, Revit MEP and Google SketchUp so users can build their designs in Revit or SketchUp and then easily translate and analyze  them in an iterative fashion.  gbXML was used to streamline the data flow from Revit to the IES <Virtual Environment> in the IES VE Revit Plug-in.

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Tags:Autodesk, daylighting, gbXML, LEED, plug-in, reduce, Revit, sketchup

There is a great diversity of climate zones across the planet. Each climate zone presents its own particular challenges for the architects and engineers of the design team. High humidity year round with a small diurnal range presents a challenge to human comfort in the humid equatorial climate zone. At the other extreme, sub zero temperatures in cold regions present an entirely different obstacle. Looking to the past, at the indigenous architecture in each region, we see a remarkable level of ingenuity in design. Before the luxuries of central heating and air conditioning, people used the very form of the building as their only means to control conditions inside the building. The traditional igloo allowed people to survive in an inhospitable climate which offered little in the way of building materials. Utilising the principal that hot air rises, the sleeping area was situated on a raised platform inside the igloo. The thick snow walls insulated the occupants from the sub zero temperatures outside and protected them from the biting wind.

No less ingenious is the traditional Malay house which has an entirely different set of challenges to overcome. Large levels of openable area help keep the house well ventilated, while the overhanging roof functions as a solar shade.

All across the world, the vernacular architecture shows a wonderful degree of congruence with the climate in which it is found. Contrast this with the modern urban skyline where generic high rise apartment and office blocks replace the highly specialised, climate specific designs of the past.

Building form is now more a result of function than climatic conditions. The inventions of central heating and air conditioning represent a great achievement in allowing us greater levels of indoor comfort and flexibility in design.

However, the energy used to condition our buildings represents a significant portion of global C02 emissions. Whilst technological advancements have delivered ever more efficient heating and cooling solutions, there perhaps remains scope for improvement in the external form of the buildings themselves. Lessons can be learned from the climate specific designs of our ancestors. With the benefit of tools and technology which did not exist for the indigenous builder, we can take inspiration from their designs to create buildings better suited to their environment. If we can control climate as much as possible utilising the form of the building alone we reduce the energy expended using mechanical methods, thus helping us towards the goal of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.

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Tags:Architects, Building, climate, Engineers, Environment, reduce

Last week, Consulting-Specifying Engineer, linked to a report containing 111 recommendations to improve NYC building codes.

According to the article, the task force, led by Urban Green Council, “was charged with recommending green changes to the laws and regulations affecting buildings in New York, bringing them to the next level. The 111 recommendations largely impact new construction and renovations.” The full report can be found here.

What is most interesting (and disturbing) is the letter at the beginning of the report.

Buildings in New York City account for nearly 80 PERCENT of its greenhouse gas emissions. More than buses, cars and taxis. And in a city with more than 10,000 cabs alone, the fact that buildings are the largest contributor of greenhouse gases is astounding. But the city is trying. In December 2006, Mayor Bloomberg committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 30 percent by 2030, which will require substantial changes to building infrastructure.

What struck me about this report is that the changes are for buildings old and new. And they don’t have to do with LEED or Architecture 2030, although those benchmarks are an added bonus. This report provides New York City the changes needed to remove impediments to green building practices, ultimately resulting in greener, healthier buildings for all New Yorkers. Let’s see what we can learn from the city that never sleeps.

We will be hosting monthly AIA Continuing Education System- registered training courses at the Center for Architecture in New York City, these courses will be held over two days every month, starting on March 2-3 and 4-5, and will focus on BIM and performance analysis, utilizing IES’ <Virtual Environment> software.

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Tags:Building, Engineers, LEED, reduce

Are you watching closely? Turns out, the new take on the gold, silver and bronze medals is more than just a funky new shape. In an effort to reduce electronic waste, each medal was made with a tiny bit of the more than 140,000 tons of e-waste that otherwise would have been sent to Canadian landfills. And that’s not the only eco-friendly thing about the 2010 winter games.

The Olympic Village in Vancouver has received LEED certification. According to The Vancouver Sun, “The athletes’ village in Vancouver’s southeast False Creek can now be called the greenest community in the North America - possibly the world - Mayor Gregor Robertson said Tuesday morning, as he announced the entire neighbourhood had received a certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.”

Yesterday, “Platinum certification was awarded to the $1-billion, 32-hectare South East False Creek neighbourhood development project based on a variety of factors including its proximity to the downtown core, affordable housing, green buildings and habitat restoration. The Olympic Village is the second development in the world to receive Platinum certification.”

Some of the examples of the design elements of the buildings throughout the athletes’ village are green roofs, cisterns to catch rainwater, passive solar design, upgraded insulation and windows as well as carpets and paint with low or no VOC.

When the announcement was made on Tuesday, USGBC chair Tim Cole called the athletes’ village a “remarkable example” of what is possible.

Lance Hosey, in his Op-Eco blog, looks over the sustainability claims by Olympic organizers that the Vancouver games are “the greenest games ever.” Supposedly, various forms of waste mitigation and energy efficiency will take down the games’ carbon output by 15 percent. But the land-grading methods used to make ski slopes at Whistler are among the most permanently destructive. And, of course, the organizers can’t help it if the air travel involved in bringing people to the games amounts to the annual belchings of 30,000 cars.

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Tags:Awards, Building, LEED, reduce, USGBC

With climate change firmly on the agenda of governments around the world, many countries are looking to invest further nuclear energy as a way to reduce their carbon emissions. This begs the question: should Ireland go nuclear? This simple question can provoke extremely heated debates in Ireland. The last time Ireland considered nuclear power was in the late 1970’s. Thousands of people descended on the proposed site in Carnsore Point in Co. Wexford for week long “protest festivals”. The plans were scrapped. Yes, Chernobyl was one of the biggest human tragedies in history but there is simply no comparison between the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl and a modern nuclear reactor. At the moment Ireland imports a significant amount of electricity from the UK and which has numerous nuclear power stations.

I believe Ireland needs to have a reasonable and logical debate on what our long term energy source will be. Do I believe Ireland should go nuclear? Absolutely not, but in my opinion Irish people are vehemently opposed to nuclear power for all the wrong reasons. Is there a single nuclear power station in Saudi Arabia? Unsurprisingly the answer is no. The Saudi’s sit on the world’s largest oil reserves so they have had no need for nuclear. The west coast of Ireland on the other hand has some of the best wind energy potential in the world. Ireland has roughly 2% of the EU’s land mass but about 6% of the wind energy potential. This makes Ireland one of the richest countries in the world in terms of wind energy potential per capita.

The ambitious “Spirit of Ireland” project proposes to build a massive network of wind turbines and hydro energy reservoirs along the west coast of Ireland to not only meet the energy needs of Ireland, but to also export electricity to the UK and mainland Europe. The key principle behind this project lies with the hydro energy reservoirs. These are basically large water reservoirs built on the top of hills or cliffs. The wind turbines are used to power water pumps which will pump water up to these reservoirs. When the water is released from the reservoir it flows down hill through hydro electric turbines to generate electricity for the country. The basic theory is to convert wind energy to hydro energy to electricity.

The major disadvantage of wind energy alone is its unreliability. The wind might blow when you don’t need it and might not blow when you do. The major advantage of using hydro energy reservoirs along with wind turbines is that you will always have a constant supply regardless of the weather! Wind energy alone would never be reliable enough to meet the countries needs. Currently Ireland has only one hydro energy storage reservoir facilities at Turlough Hill Co. Wicklow. Spirit of Ireland envisage building many more of these along the west coast of Ireland.

With natural resources like this why would we even consider nuclear…

For more information on these ambitious plans see http://www.spiritofireland.org/

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Tags:Building, climate, reduce

I recently read about the Environment 2.0 Exhibition at FutureEverything 2009. In particular two exhibits made a point of highlighting sources of Carbon Emissions in ways that encourage people to think of the impact they could be having on the environment.

The first was Aaron Koblin’s Flight Patterns

It is accepted that air travel is a major source of carbon emissions and will have to be tackled by governments who are aiming to cut emissions to meet increasingly ambitious targets and shows the reality of the current dependence on air travel by animating the flight paths of thousands of aircraft over US airspace in a 24 hour period.

The second was HeHe’s large-scale environmental installation Nuage Vert (meaning Green Cloud).

A laser image was projected on to the cloud of vapour as it spewed out from a power plant chimney (“the ultimate icon of industrial pollution”) over Helsinki with the aim of making the local population consider the emissions from the plant the relationship to their own power consumption. The image shape and size was adjusted according to power consumption and people in the local area were encouraged to reduce electricity usage while the image was projected so that “the green cloud could grow”.

These projects show us how the everyday activities of people are affecting the environment by presenting the effects of our actions in a visual way that anyone can appreciate. In much the same way, IES is constantly working to present solutions to these issues in a way that people can fully appreciate and use to improve building design so that emissions are lowered in future.

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Tags:Building, Environment, reduce

We love coming back from the holidays to good news. According to Environmental Leader, and specifically by research released by Zpryme, the U.S. green building market is set to grow 146 percent by 2013.

According to the Environmental Leader article, “The commercial sector should get a boost from the news that major real estate firms have signed up for a pilot program that would help building owners, prospective tenants and buyers ascertain the energy efficiency of a building. The Building Energy Quotient program – Building EQ for short – is administered by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).”

We are looking forward to the results of the Building EQ program. Given our position in the industry, it is (and has been from the beginning) our hope that buildings are as energy efficient as possible. For new buildings, this starts from the earliest stages of design. For retrofits, there are many changes architects can implement during the remodel to ensure a building not only reduces its energy usage, but also reduces it carbon emissions.

On another note, and for a little fun to start your new year off right, our partners at Autodesk have created RetroFits, a game to help raise awareness about the benefits of better, greener buildings. Stop by and check it out! Buildings continue to be the #1 source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. But we can make them more energy efficient, little by little.

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Tags:Architects, ASHRAE, Autodesk, Building, Engineers, reduce, USA