Wind Cooperative Energy and Community Participation in Green Cities

For this week's assignment, I chose to read The Apollo Alliance's "New Energy for Cities" and Mark Roseland's chapter on Energy Efficiency and Renewables from "Toward Sustainable Communities." In the past, I have enjoyed reading Beatley's compendium of European-based sustainability initiatives, but this time I was drawn to look at some viable North American programs as well. I also enjoyed reading about so many different options in how sustainability is being addressed by different regions.

My readings this week continued to solidify an important lesson that has been formulated for me during this course: that sustainable cities require a diverse set of options in order to reduce their consumption and improve civic health. No one renewable resource, technology or green attitude will save an area from dependance from non-renewable resources. Rather, each community will have to diversify and look at a wide array of local options in order to move forward towards healthier systems. Increased community participation in civic decision-making and more social justice initiatives can help expand a region's green options by tapping into the knowledge and energy of a greater proportion of the population. Of course, creating site-specific and diverse sustainability options will tend to create very complex systems, but systems thinking approaches can help to sort this out and provide us with a deeper understanding of the immensely productive potential that ecological (and humans are included in this!) diversity can create.

Wind Turbine Cooperatives:

The Energy Efficiency and Renewables Chapter from "Toward Sustainable Communities" by Mark Roseland mentions cooperative wind turbines as an example of a useful green power program. The short paragraph focuses on Danish cooperatives that has joined together the efforts of over 150,000 Danish families and 6,300 wind turbines. The opportunity to research this amazing project was too good for me to pass up.

I am very interested in looking at wind power programs, particularly cooperative ones, because I think that such programs could be readily integrated into any regional power grid that has sufficient wind to operate a turbine. On an even more personal level, the precious growing area around my boyfriend's family farm is presently being threatened by plans to build a massive natural gas power plant. What better way to fight such an endeavor than to start a cooperative where the farmers can create and sell their own clean energy? The CREST (Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technology) website claims that wind power is the fastest-growing green energy technology because it is the only one that can viably compete with fossil fuels in terms of cost.(www.crest.org)

One specific example of a Danish wind cooperative is the Working Group for Wind Turbines on Middelgrunden which was started in 1997. This project, located near Copenhagen, consists of twenty offshore turbines that are placed in a shallow area that was once used for dumping sludge and construction debris. The cooperative collaborated with Copenhagen Energy so that each organization built half the turbines. According to the project's website, "[t]he total effect of the wind farm will be 40 MW. The twenty 2000 kW turbines have a total estimated electricity production of about 89,000,000 kWh per year. This means that approximately 3% of the electricity consumption within the municipality of Copenhagen can be covered by these wind turbines."(www.middelgrunden.dk)

I found it interesting that the Middelgrunden wind turbines are placed offshore of Copenhagen. I have never seen offshore wind turbines in person, but I have often wondered why Toronto does not consider such an option in their quest for renewable energy sources. One of the arguments that I have heard against placing wind turbines offshore of the city is that people don't want such windmills marring their view of the water. I happen to think that wind turbines can be quite beautiful, and from the publicity statements from the Middelgrunden project, the Danish are very proud of both the energy production and aesthetic quality of the wind turbines. At this point, I think that the usefulness of wind turbines as a source of green power should outweigh our aesthetic condescensions. Well over 18% of Denmark's power supply now comes from the wind, and according to Wikipedia, Denmark isn't even all that windy! If Denmark can do this, why can't the United States and Canada?

Energy Efficiency- District Heating/Public Buildings

I found the two readings, “Energy Efficiency and Renewables” and Chapter 9 in Green Urbanism to be extremely useful. As I was reading these chapters, I kept thinking about how the different tools discussed could be applied to my own community. I decided to look into district more in depth, since before doing these readings I had never even heard of this method. So, I used Wikipedia (don’t judge! The article is referenced), and I now I better understand the concept of this system. Say you have a regular steam-electric power plant, where electricity is generated through the burning of fossil fuels to create steam to move a turbine. In this traditional mode of production, the process converts only 47% of the fuel into electricity; the rest is lost as heat, which gets dissipated into the plant’s surroundings. With districting heating, a cogeneration plant is used. In cogeneration, the heat that usually gets lost is trapped and used to heat homes nearby. The heat is transferred through insulated pipes, either in the form of hot water or steam. While this form of power generation does greatly reduce the amount of fuel needed to power and heat homes, it is very expensive to install. District heating would be practical in a new community with high density, but to implement it in an existing low density suburb would be silly.

One of the problems district heating is experiencing in the United States is that it is poorly funded and maintained by power plants. As a result, the quality of the systems has deteriorated and not as many people get their heat through cogeneration plants. However, “Energy Efficiency” mentions the fact that district heating doesn’t necessarily need a power plant to be viable. For instance, a new hospital or school could include a higher capacity heater, and the excess heat produced by the new building could be distributed to nearby residential developments. This is particularly significant to proposed communities like the SouthWest project in Ithaca. A district heating system could be installed in a community center or other public building and then used to power the more high-density buildings. The heating system could be community owned and operated, leading to greater neighborhood capacity and sustainability.

I really like the idea of using public buildings to set examples for the rest of an area. In Green Urbanism, the author mentions Colorado’s Rooftop for Schools Program. Besides setting a positive example, a program like this has the potential to help generate revenues for an area that can always use extra funds. While researching wind energy for my group project, I ran across an elementary school that installed a single windmill and was able to sell the excess energy it generated back into the power grid. The profit was used to make improvements to the school and generally create a better learning environment for the students. This whole bit got me thinking about the possibilities of installing solar roofs on public schools in Baltimore County and what that would mean for not just the schools, but the entire county. Parents would become more aware of solar options, and individual solar units might not seem as futuristic and unattainable.

Green Urbanism mentions how cities in Europe compete with each other for the title of most solar-oriented, and I feel that his type of mentality could easily be applied to the state of Maryland. Counties are constantly competing with each other for business and population, so why not compete with each other for leadership in sustainable options like solar power? Howard County has already appointed itself as the leading green county, and I have a feeling other county executives won’t be far behind in trying to claim this title.

most relevant

Getting the people inspired:

• behavior change, community participation: Providing the community with a symbol of environmental mission for the citizens to share (i.e.; architecturally striking power plant that gives the citizens of Viborg, Denmark a source of pride (Beatley 261).) In another class, I remember reading from the book (also website) “WorldChanging” about a river in Seoul, Korea, that had been completely paved over for decades, but he city had instituted a project to uncover the river and develop its banks as public spaces, and giving the people their river back. The symbol the water, a life source, being resurrected, was incredibly inspiring for the citizens of Seoul.

• behavior change, systems approach: Beatley’s example of the “political dynamic” in Germany that facilitates the implementation of renewable energies. This simultaneous top-down and bottom-up (there is also popular support from the German people) systems approach makes behavior change practically effortless.

Carrot and/or stick:

• behavior change: Beatley’s example of carbon tax (stick) in Sweden resulting in dramatic rise in use of biomass energy, which results in significant savings for the community (carrot).

Public-Private sector partnerships:

• systems approach, behavior change: Beatley’s example of the city of Heidelberg’s incentive-based contract with private companies which allows for the companies to keep a high percentage of the money saved from the energy-conservation measures, while a smaller percentage is reinvested in the city. (This is a similar strategy to the Case Presentation Carlos gave in class!) Roseland mentions this type of strategy as well; “economic multipliers”: monies that are saved on energy that are re-invested in the local economy and circulate several times over. This strategy is pure genius, it’s so frustrating that more U.S. cities haven’t realized the benefits of implementation.

Making the renewable energy technology accessible:

• systems approach, behavior change strategies, community participation: Beatley’s example of housekeepers and building managers put in charge of monitoring consumption meters.
  
• behavior change, community participation: Giving citizens free/affordable equipment (i.e., Beatley’s example of Leiden’s energy company giving customers water conserving package of equipment).
  
• justice/equity, behavior change, systems approach: Roseland’s several examples of “DSM” or “demand-side management” weatherization programs that improve energy-efficiency of homes and therefore affordability of energy costs for low-income people living in poorly constructed homes. This example is of particular importance to me, as I have worked with families living in transitional housing many of whom were dealing incredible debt just from energy bills near (no exaggeration) $1,000/month (!) because of the poor quality of their homes. I volunteered for the Tompkins County Healthy Homes Project and Weatherization Assistance Program over the summer and it was wonderful to see how the community’s investment in the homes turned into massive savings for the low-income residents.

Synergistic Design that addresses multiple issues:

• Biomimmicry: many designs that Beatley mentions provide more than one creative response to a need, just as organisms perform synergistically in nature, (i.e.; Beatley’s example of PVs integrated into road and highway noise barrier, and the various examples of cogeneration).
  
• systems approach, community participation: Beatley’s example of the school in Nieuwland with mirrors that project a view of the green roof into the classroom so that the energy of the school becomes integrated into the teaching curriculum.
  Systems approach, biomimicry: Roseland talks about the six different areas of evaluation for the LEED Rating System. LEED is a systematic approach to ensuring a building’s sustainability, which, if successful, are often inherently designed in the likeness of a living organism.

New York Climate Summit

** November 16-18, 2007 **

** Cornell University **

WHAT: The New York Climate Summit will unite campus and community leaders to create a plan of action on how to pressure Albany to pass legislation requiring the state to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 80% below 1990 levels by 2050.

WHERE: Warren Hall, Cornell University

CONTACT: Carlos Rymer, carlos.rymer@gmail.com

VISIT: www.rso.cornell.edu/kyotonow

"EPA@35 - Where To From Here" Speaker TUES 10/23

“ EPA@35 - Where To From Here”

Richard D. Otis, Jr.U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency
Deputy Associate Administrator
Office of Policy, Economics, and Innovation

Tuesday, October 23, 2007
141 Sage Hall
12:30 – 1:30pm
Lunch will be provided.

Sponsored byThe Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise As part of theCSGE Speaker Series

BLOCKTOBERFEST!!!

Hey Class!

Maya made an announcement on Tuesday about our group's block party this sunday! Please come down to the Fall Creek area to spend a lovely afternoon outside with us! We would appreciate volunteers to help set up or tear down but we most want you to simply come and fun! You don't have to worry about bringing a dish to pass, we will have plenty of food. Hope to see you there and if you would like directions or want to confirm please call Kendra at216-536-8142 or email at kmc95

10/23 Assignment & Next Class

10/23 Assignment & Next Class

Here's a way of honoring both issues we discussed at the end of last class.We'll wrap up transportation-oriented development with 2 short pieces, do our Case presentations, then move on to Energy and Green Cities
Transportation - Kendra will share the report she has prepared, and I will briefly share a synthesis and commentary on the blog work you came up with. (30 minutes total)
Case Presentations- Melissa, Caitlin, Emily (5-7 min each)
Nature in the City- Leah, Chris (5-7 min each )
We will skip Behavior Change & Project sharing to maximize discussion & presentation time.
Discussion - Energy & Green Cities- led by Deane (50-60 min)
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Here's the assignment:
Behavior Change- Try out fresh possibilities without being constrained by "writing it up", since no journals.Energy and Green Cities
1) Read at least 2 of the following:
a) Beatley, Green Urbanism, Chapter 9 Renewable Energy Cities: Living on Solar Income (pp. 254-289)
b) New Energy for Cities, the Apollo Alliance report I gave out that is filled with great little Case Studies. Read the 2 page Introduction and at least 3 of the 6 sections. Most are 5-10 pages each.
c) The Energy Efficiency & Renewables chapter of the handout I gave out from "Toward Sustainable Communities" by Mark Roseland, (pp. 87-102) 2) Research one some place, project, or method that attracts you in any of the 3 readings OR the latest energy developments going on at an Ithaca municipal or regional level. (I can help with the local one, if you check with me).
3) Write a roughly one-page blog entry (by late Sunday night, preferably earlier) about what you've learned that you think is most relevant to our course. Ideally, you would link it to context set by the readings for the week and/or the course themes (systems approach, justice/equity, city as organism, community participation, behavior change strategies, etc.) Ideally, read other blog entries before writing, so the learning is more interactive.