Lenny Antonelli is deputy editor of Passive House Plus. He also writes regularly for the Irish Times, and has contributed to a variety of other publications including the Sunday Times, the CS Monitor, Village, the Sunday Tribune amd the Dubliner. He is currently working on a radio documentary on Ireland's oceans.
The ESRI on Ireland's carbon reduction options
It may be over two weeks since it was published, but I still thought it would be worth attempting to summarise the main points from the ESRI's 'Policy Options to Reduce Ireland's Greenhouse Gas Emissions' report. Ultimately it recommends the inevitable, a carbon tax, which it says will discourage carbon emissions while allowing 'actors' in the economy to respond flexibly based on the most appropriate methods of reducing carbon in their particular sector. It would also provide revenue for the government to offset the negative effects of a rise in fuel prices, enabling it to encourage competitiveness through reductions in labour and income taxes, and to support the vulnerable. What I find most interesting is the acceptance that we need to put a price on the limited capacity of the atmosphere to absorb man-made carbon emissions - if that's the case, don't we also need to put a price on other finite elements of the biosphere that we exploit, such as biodiversity?
Among its most interesting observations and conclusions are the following:
Energy efficiency measures that don't save much energy
Rob Moody has posted an interesting article on Greenbuildingadvisor.com about home energy efficiency measures that don't actually save much energy.
Among his suggested culprits?
Boiler tune-ups, floor insulation, window replacement and cooling your attic.
ReBurbia: redesigning the suburbs
Inhabitat has published the 20 finalists in its ReBurbia suburban design competition. Some of my favourites include:
Regenerative suburban median: Within many suburban developments there is an abundance of under utilized space within residential lots and public rights of way. Many suburban streets are 35-50ft wide; such widths unnecessarily consume ecological, social, and economic resources. We propose a new regenerative median for suburban streets that treats gray water and sewage, produces agriculture, provides a platform for small scale commercial activity and slows down automobile traffic to promote increased pedestrian activity and social interaction within the neighborhood.
Ex Box: There is a movement of reusing abandoned malls for community spaces. EX-BOX will allow the building to be self-sustaining by providing energy and space for public events. It provides renewable energy by maximizing the solar exposure with the use of various angles. By plugging in the programs that add density to the empty space and provides better environment, the space will bring people and allow community events.
Entrepenurbia: Rather than taking the traditional, additive approach to solving problems, the Entrepreneurbia model simply abolishes poorly conceived zoning laws to attract forward-thinking small business owners and start-up companies. The result is a community of entrepreneurs who transform inefficient single-family dwellings and purely decorative landscape spaces into intelligent home-based businesses.
C3 Initiative: The C3 initiative will “re-colonize” suburbs by adding localized and micro versions of retail, energy generation, water efficiency, community organization, and economic development. C3 colonies utilize existing/built environments but look inward and generate energy, water conservation, community and revenue as a sustainable micro-society.
Leaf power
The Guardian reports on attempts by scientists to mimic the energy-producing abilities of plants:
Now scientists developing the next generation of clean power sources are working out how to copy, and ultimately improve upon, the humble leaf. The intricate chemistry involved in photosynthesis, the process where plants use sunlight to convert water and carbon dioxide into sugar, is the most effective solar energy conversion process on Earth. And researchers believe that mimicking parts of it could be the ticket to a limitless supply of clean power...
...At Imperial College London, researchers have embarked on a £1m project to study, and eventually mimic, photosynthesis. Part of a project called the "artificial leaf", involves working out exactly how leaves use sunlight to make useful molecules. The team then plans to build artificial systems that can do the same to generate clean fuels such as hydrogen and methanol. These would then be used in fuel cells to make electricity or directly to power super-clean vehicles.
Similar projects are gathering pace around the world: the US is poised to approve a federal research budget of around $35m a year for ideas that could create fuels from sunlight and the Dutch government has allocated €40m for similar research.
According to James Barber, a biologist at Imperial College London and leader of the artificial leaf project, if artificial photosynthesis systems could use around 10% of the sunlight falling on them, they would only need to cover 0.16% of the Earth's surface to satisfy a global energy consumption rate of 20 terawatts, the amount it is predicted that the world will need in 2030. And unlike a biological leaf, the artificial equivalent could be placed in the arid desert areas of the world, where it would not compete for space agricultural land.
There's more here .
Harp attack
The HARP database allows Building Energy Rating assessors to enter real performance data for heating appliances when calculating Building Energy Ratings rather than low default scores - but few renewable appliances are listed, and the industry appears confused and deterred by the application process. Lenny Antonelli investigates.
Heaven sent
When it comes to redeveloping old buildings, green designers face two choices: replace existing structures with modern, energy efficient buildings or refurbish and avoid the embodied energy and waste of demolition and new construction. Lenny Antonelli visited a redeveloped convent in Booterstown, County Dublin that combines the best of both approaches.
Home and dry
Homeowners thinking of applying for Home Energy Saving scheme grants should pay close attention to a renovation project in Stillorgan, south Dublin. The refurbishment boasts every upgrade measure grant-aided under the scheme, including three types of wall insulation, a high efficiency boiler and sophisticated heating controls. Lenny Antonelli visited the house to find out more.
The sage house
CFLs v LEDs - what's the greenest option?
An interesting article on TreeHugger examines the whole life cycles of both LED and CFL lightbulbs, asking which is the greenest option. The conclusion?
Both the Carnegie Mellon and Osram studies found that production is a relatively small portion of the total life-cycle impact of the different lightbulb technologies. From the Osram study: "[with LEDs and CFLs] over 98% of the energy used is consumed to generate light. Less than two percent is allocated to production. This dismisses any concern that manufacturing of LED particularly might be very energy-intensive."
When comparing LEDs that produce about 30 lumens/watt to CFLs, the results are very close, and for all practical purposes, we can say that LEDs are as energy efficient as CFLs. But LEDs are still improving and they do not contain mercury, which makes their disposal less hazardous than CFLs. The Carnegie Mellon study predicts that efficiencies of 150 lumens/watt are possible for LEDs:
This would make LEDs take a significant lead and assure their dominance over CFLs, as long as prices can be brought down. Even if 150 lumens/watt isn't attainable in the near future, a doubling to 60 lumens/watt would leave CFLs in the dust.
Pay As You Save: financing low energy refurbishment in housing
The UK's Green Building Council is publishing a report on its 'Pay As You Save' (PAYS) proposals today. The report will detail a scheme that would enable householders to undertake home energy upgrades at no initial cost, allowing them to pay for the work over time. Construct Ireland has been working on similar proposals for the Irish market, and described potential measures in this article.
The executive summary of the PAYS report, which has already been published, provides basic details on how the scheme would work: