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America, and more specifically Massachusetts, will be joining the ranks of Europeans countries such as Spain, Denmark and Germany as it begins work on the nation’s first wind farm.  The wind farm will sit off the coast of Cape Cod, MA in the Nantucket Sound and consist of 130 wind turbines that stand around 40 storied tall.  The project dubbed Cape Wind has been in the works for close to a decade and was the focus of serious political and environmental debate.

The battle over Cape Wind included a great deal of passion from both sides arguing clean energy, the impact on shipping and fisheries, and of course the aesthetic appearance of some of New England’s most popular vacation destinations.   On one side were the opponents including Mass Governor Mitt Romney, American Indians (arguing that the project would cause disruption of sacred ceremonies), current Senator of MA Scott Brown and most distinguished the late Mass Senator Ted Kennedy who was well known for supporting green energy.  The project was backed by MA Governor Deval Patrick, Greenpeace, the Sierra Club and of course the CEO of Cape Wind, Jim Gordon. 

Nine years after the politicians, citizens and community activists took their sides the dust settled and showed the Cape Wind Project to be the winner.  Although the project is projected to add a good deal of new jobs to New England as well as supply MA companies and homes with renewable energy, the billion dollar question lies at is it enough? While we realize that something must be done, is wind power the saving grace for our energy crisis or just a quick 1 billion dollar solution that doesn’t even out with the sacrifices required?

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Tags:Cape Wind, Renewables, wind farm

eSim, IBPSA-Canada’s biennial conference, brings together professionals, academics and students interested in building performance simulation. Being held, in Winnipeg, Canada on May 19 and 20, this year’s conference will focus on recent developments for modelling the physical processes relevant to buildings, methods for modelling whole-building performance (including integrated resource management, renewable energy sources and combined heat, cool and power generation) and the use of building simulation tools in code compliance and incentive programs.

IES is happy to have been asked to be a part of the conference, as performance modelling becomes an ever-important part of the design process. Not just a software developer, but also a respected International consultancy, IES is trying to tackle the big problems of sustainable building design, focusing on analysis of a design throughout the entire process.

One of our consultants will be showcasing the IES Virtual Environment as part of the Software Demo Sessions. Much like technical presentations, these special demo sessions will be presented in front of a live audience during the show.  We’ll be covering the latest step-by-step workflow interface capabilities and LEED developments in our software.

A quick overview of us for those less familiar – IES provides advanced performance analysis for all types of sustainable strategies and LEED evaluation for existing buildings, new construction and core and shell projects, among others. Its software and consulting services help design teams to integrate ‘green’ design strategies throughout all stages of the design process and beyond to create low-energy sustainable buildings. IES Consulting is also a BIM GSA contract holder.

If you won’t be at eSim this year and are interested in a demo of the Virtual Environment either in-person or via web conferencing, we would be happy to arrange one at your convenience. We run regular weekly web demo sessions.  Please register online at http://www.iesve.com/Software/Web-Demo

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Tags:Academic, BIM, Building, Environment, Renewables

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

The New CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme came into force on 1st April

The new Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) Energy Efficiency Scheme began in earnest on the 1st April! The scheme aims to achieve an annual energy reduction of 3.2m tonnes by 2020 and stimulate businesses to make their buildings more energy efficient.  It affects around 20,000 organisations – is yours one of them?

Any organisation with a half hourly settled electricity meter needs to do something.  It was the requirement for qualifying organisations to start monitoring energy usage from all qualifying sources that started on 1st April 2010.  And whilst it may be straight forward to gather retrospective data from half hourly sources, this may not always be the case for class 5-8 meters, for example, which are also considered as core sources under the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme.

Those qualifying for the CRC will also need to register while those under the threshold still need to make an information disclosure.  Both actions must be done before 30 September 2010.  However, as the process could take up to 4 weeks to complete don’t leave it until the 29th September!

A raft of recent surveys indicates just how confused and unprepared organisations are for its implementation…

A survey by energy consultancy McKinnon and Clarke found that 54 per cent of participants were uncertain whether they come under the scheme, which encompasses all bodies and businesses with half-hourly meters (HHMs) that consumed more than 6,000 MWh of electricity during 2008.  Around 5,000 of the UK’s heaviest energy users will need to participate fully, while another 15,000 odd organisations that consumed less will need to make an information disclosure. 

In addition, the survey also found that three in five companies had not factored in the financial implications of having to participate fully in the scheme.  At the lowest qualifying level, a typical organisation will pay £45,000 a year to advance purchase allowances at a rate of £12 per tonne of carbon dioxide.  In addition, they will be placed in a league table, showing their carbon emissions relative to their peers.  Companies at the bottom of the table will be penalised, with the money recycled into rewards for the most energy-efficient.

In another survey by the power supplier Npower, nearly half of companies surveyed said official advice about the new legislation had been “inadequate”.  About 49 per cent said they did not understand how to buy the necessary carbon allowances and 44 per cent said they do not know how to forecast their carbon emissions.

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Tags:Building, carbon assessor, Environment, recycle, recycling, Renewables

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 benefits of IES VE tools is our collaboration with Autodesk, Google and Graphisoft which allows designers and architects to use their BIM/CAD model to start performing analysis at the very early design stage. It can simplify the process of recreating the model from scratch, as you would have had to do in the traditional way.

Through this, many architects are starting to realize that building performance analysis is not only for engineers, and that by working holistically from conceptual stage, the project can achieve much better efficiencies than when analysis is left till later phases of the project.

In traditional building performance modeling, the modeler uses information from drawings, photos, etc. to construct a model within simulation software from scratch. Misinterpreting the information from CAD to building performance model is common, and in some cases important geometry might be missing from the information provided or left out of the model by accident.

As BIM becomes increasingly popular in the architecture industry and more connections to analysis tools appear and strengthen, architects can start performing analysis on different design options, including climate understanding, building orientation, massing during conceptual stages, and as the design develops, analysis such as daylight assessment, water review, heating/cooling loads, renewable use, etc. IES has a direct plug-in for both Autodesk Revit and Google SketchUp, as well as direct connectivity to Graphisoft ArchiCAD.

One important thing to note is that there are some fundamental differences between an energy model and an architectural model used to generate construction documents. Schema’s such as gbXML (www.gbxml.org) are used to streamline the data flow between BIM platforms and analysis tools, so users should have an understanding of how this works and what will translate, and what will not. 

A model that is very heavy in details will affect the computation time of the simulation. One of the things I like to do whenever I start running simulation is to spend 15-30 minutes cleaning up any elements that are not necessary for energy analysis (of course doing a “Save As” on your existing model first). I know a lot of architects are probably saying if we have a direct plug-in, why do I want to waste all this time cleaning up the model? Isn’t that the reason why we want to use the plug-in?

Spending a little extra time cleaning up a model before running a simulation, will reduce the file size and run time; if you are doing a few simulations it’s definitely worth the time. The IES VE will still run the simulation if you don’t clean up the model, but it will go through every element within it trying to figure out what needs to be included and what doesn’t, which can take a lot of time. Plus, the more detail you have in the model, the more risk of inaccuracy during translation. If you want to understand more about model translation, visit our website for whitepapers on both SketchUp and Revit to IES: http://www.iesve.com/Learning/IES-Whitepapers

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Tags:Architects, BIM, daylighting, Engineers, gbXML, plug-in, plug-ins, reduce, Renewables, Revit, sketchup

The “Green Movement” has become a trend greatly driven by the youth of the world.  They are demanding that the environmental crisis that has arisen be taken seriously and responsibility taken where needed.  A world where colleges and universities were ranked by academics, quality of life and cafeteria food has taken a backseat to the environmental initiatives being pledged.  Whether the interest is for new energy source means, more sustainable dormitories, or better options for bicycle users; universities across the US are aiming stepping up to show their responsibility to prospective student and their parents. 

Colleges across the board, both Ivy League and state has begun their push for a sustainable world.  The 2010 Imperative has been created to propose a challenge to all colleges and universities to reach carbon-neutral by 2010.  The program, although challenging, is meant to enlighten people to the possibility of a threshold in atmospheric carbon, in which, if reached will be irreversible according to many climatologists.  The 2010 Imperative calls for combinations of designed LEED accredited buildings, on-site renewable power, and education through all disciplinarians across campus.

To find out more about the 2010 Imperative, or adopt it, please click here.

IES has joined forces with this leading environmental movement to offer all schools signed up to the 2010 Imperative a free full <Virtual Environment> software licence suitable for use across a network. Worth thousands of dollars, eligible schools should contact Lindsay Kinnally in our Boston office for more information on this offer and associated training and support offers: Tel: +1 617 426 1890, Email: lindsay.kinnally@iesve.com

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Tags:Academic, Environment, Renewables, Sustainability