NEW DELHI—On the roof of an office building in India’s capital, the world’s smoggiest city, Kamal Meattle has a unique tactic for cleaning the air: a greenhouse with 400 common plants, including mother-in-law’s tongue.
Meattle, the CEO of Paharpur Business Centre, has 800 other plants spread throughout the building’s lower six floors, greening each room and hallway. Their job: remove soot and other chemicals from the often charcoal-colored outdoor air.
In India, where almost no one wears filter masks on the streets as many do in China, Meattle is seen as a radical. He says he’s even been dubbed the Mad Hatter of Nehru Place, a high-tech hub that’s home to his leafy building and an adjacent lot he converted from a slum into an oasis of 2,000 trees.
He uses rainwater collected in cisterns to spray the trees so they can grow faster and absorb more pollutants. He’s urging India’s new government to require rainwater harvesting and to paint roofs, and buses, white. And he’s pushing to build one of the world’s largest energy-efficient office parks, complete with greenhouses.
Meattle hardly seems a firebrand. A soft-spoken grandfather, he’s a scion of India’s elite who attended school with Rajiv Gandhi and later earned a chemical engineering degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He sees his efforts, touted in a 2009 TED talk that’s attracted more than two million views, as common sense.
“Sustainability is good business, and energy efficiency is low-hanging fruit,” says Meattle, whose 25-year-old building was India’s first to earn the top rating (in 2010) for a retrofit from the U.S. Green Building Council. He says it uses one-fifth as much energy per square meter as the average office building in India. At least 10 percent of its energy savings is due to plants, which obviate the need to pump in ambient air.
His horticulture is also a practical nod to ancient tradition. “Why did Buddha sit under the peepul [or bodhi] tree?” he asks, adding that the sacred fig with heart-shaped leaves releases oxygen even at night, allowing those beneath a light sleep.
Good Business—and a Health Imperative
As Meattle tells it, he really had no choice but to try something new. “My doctors told me to leave” India in 1992, he says, citing his reduced lung capacity because of the city’s air pollution. He decided to stay, seeking instead to solve a society-wide problem that’s become increasingly dire. (See related story: “In Climate Talks, Spotlight Turns to India.”)
“Delhi’s unfit for living between October and March,” Meattle says, noting how often its air pollution veers into the “very unhealthy” or even “hazardous” category. The U.S. Embassy, which posts its air quality data on outdoor monitors, has issued warnings against letting kids play outside.
Smog envelops the landmark India Gate in New Delhi, the world’s smoggiest city.
Photograph by Altaf Qadri, AP
In fact, New Delhi’s smog is now nearly three times worse than Beijing’s, the World Health Organization reported in May, based on measurements of fine particulates, or PM 2.5. The WHO found that the city had the world’s dirtiest air, and the cities ranking second through fourth are also in India. (See related story: “What Step Is Crucial in Fighting Cities’ Air Pollution?“)
India’s press has only recently begun to focus on the issue, but the people are still largely in denial, says Barun Aggarwal, director of the Paharpur Business Centre’s Breathe Easy program and Meattle’s son-in-law.
“We are Indians. We have iron lungs,” Aggarwal says is a common attitude, adding that many have adopted Nietzsche’s “what-doesn’t-kill-me-makes-me-stronger” mentality.
Meattle, after reviewing research by NASA and others, drew up a plan that focuses largely on three common houseplants because of their complementary abilities to detoxify indoor air and enrich it with oxygen: the areca palm, mother-in-law’s tongue, and the money plant.
Before outside air is allowed indoors, his 50,000-square-foot facility uses a scrubber to wash it with water to reduce the levels of chemical compounds such as nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide. The air then passes through his greenhouse to remove formaldehyde, benzene, and carbon monoxide and through a filter to remove bacteria. No smoking is allowed inside.
Since January 2013, Meattle’s company has created plant-based air-filtering systems for more than 700 homes in India’s capital. It’s also working to clean the air inside the embassy schools of the United States and Germany.
But Can Plants Really Clean the Air?
“It’s a phenomenon that’s growing now,” says Bill C. Wolverton, one of the original NASA researchers and author of the 2010 book Plants: Why You Can’t Live Without Them. Wolverton has been working in Japan, where plants have been used to make 50 to 60 “ecological gardens” in hospitals. He also says there’s budding interest in South Korea and China.
The Paharpur Business Centre’s greenhouse focuses largely on three plants: mother-in-law’s tongue, the areca palm, and the money plant.
Photograph by Wendy Koch
NASA published several studies in the 1980s showing interior plants could purify the air in sealed test chambers akin to a space station. It later tested the value of plants to both clean air and recycle waste in a tightly sealed building known as the BioHome.
Subsequent studies have also suggested that plants could help clean indoor air. In 2009, via greenhouse tests, a Pennsylvania State University research team found plants could reduce indoor ozone, which can be emitted by copy machines and laser printers.
Not everyone is convinced. “I certainly would not rely on plants to clean indoor air…To get them to work, you’d need too many plants,” says John Girman, former senior science adviser at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Indoor Air Division. He says a 1,500-square-foot house would need 680 plants to duplicate NASA-like benefits, and the result would be “an indoor jungle” with moisture problems.
Girman co-wrote a study criticizing research such as NASA’s that tested plants only in sealed chambers, which don’t replicate the actual conditions of buildings with ventilation systems that can bring in fresh outside air. He says increasing ventilation is far more effective than using plants to clean the air.
But what if the outdoor air is filthy? “I don’t have a good solution for India,” Girman says.
Meattle’s building has been proved to alleviate health problems, according to a 2008 study by the Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute and the Central Pollution Control Board. The study compared 94 nonsmokers working there with nonsmokers employed elsewhere in Delhi. It found the former had fewer cases of eye irritation, headaches, hypertension, and respiratory problems.
“We have an air treatment plant,” Meattle says of his innovative combination of scrubbers, filters, and greenery. The result, he adds, is fewer employee sick days, greater productivity, and air as clean as that in Davos, Switzerland.
On Twitter: Follow Wendy Koch, and get more environment and energy coverage at NatGeoGreen.
Asian stocks were mostly weaker on Tuesday as worry about Greek political affairs and the shaky Russian ruble spoiled confidence in the global economy.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 plunged 0.7 percent to 17,610.13 while South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.7 percent to 1,913.50. China’s Shanghai Composite Index shed 0.4 percent to 3,155.28 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was also down 0.6 percent to 23,628.95. Australia’s S&P/ ASX 200 dropped 0.4 percent to 5,455.10. Market benchmarks in Taiwan and Thailand were down but Singapore and Malaysia rose.
Greek bonds and shares moved down after parliament failed to approve a new president, forcing the government to call early elections that could bring more economic turmoil. Investors worry elections might be won by the left-wing opposition Syriza party, which rejects Greece’s bailout deal. The Athens stock market closed 4 percent lower after plunging as much as 11 percent earlier.
Despite fears about Greece, U.S. stocks inched higher in light trading on Monday. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index surged 0.1 percent to 2,090.57. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 0.1 percent to 18,038.23. The Nasdaq composite increased 0.05 points to 4,806.91.
Trina Solar Limited (ADR) (NYSE:TSL) functions as an integrated solar-power products manufacturer and solar system developer in the People’s Republic of China, Europe, the United States, and other Asia Pacific regions. The Company shares are trading +14.63% above their 52 week low price after the last close and -54.08% below the 52 week high. Its latest closing price was down -26.52% from the average-price of 200 days while it kept its distance from the SMA50 at -11.74% and -4.22% compared with the SMA 20.
Shares of Yingli Green Energy Hold. Co. Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:YGE) were +17.65% up 52 week lows as of the latest close and -70.47% below the 52 week high. Its latest closing price was down -34.14% from the average-price of 200 days while it maintained a distance from the SMA 50 at -17.07% and -6.40% compared with the SMA 20. Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited, through with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, manufacture, markets, sells, and installs photovoltaic products in the People’s Republic of China.
NQ Mobile Inc (ADR) (NYSE:NQ) offers mobile Internet services in the People’s Republic of China and worldwide. The stock’s latest price traded at +16.81% up 52 week lows after the closing bell and was -81.95% behind its 52 week high. Its latest closing price was -52.42% below the SMA200 while the distance from the SMA 50 and SMA 20 was -40.53% and -26.03% respectively.
ReneSola Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:SOL) is trading +18.18% higher than the 52 week low price and -67.94% behind the 52 week high. The stock’s latest closing price was -45.54% down from the average-price of 200 days while it kept its distance from the SMA50 at -27.00% and -3.54% compared with the SMA 20. ReneSola Ltd, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells various solar power products. It works through two segments, Wafer, and Cell and Module.
China Finance Online Co. (ADR) (NASDAQ:JRJC) in engaged in online precious metal trading on Haixi Commodity Exchange and Tianjin Precious Metals Exchange on behalf of their clients. The Company so far this year has moved down -6.84% and its monthly performance stands at -18.38%. The stock was up +151.50% from its 52 week low and was -50.67% below the 52 week high. Its latest closing price was up +8.28% from the average-price of 200 days while it kept its distance from the SMA50 at -8.75% and -13.72% compared with the SMA 20.
“We are pleased with the sale of these two plants to Renewable Energy Trust Capital, and we look forward to closing the sale of the third plant in early 2015,”
Submitted on 12/29/14, 03:29 PM
GUELPH, Ontario, Canada, December 29, 2014 – Canadian Solar Inc. (the “Company”, or “Canadian Solar”) (NASDAQ: CSIQ), one of the world’s largest solar power companies, today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Canadian Solar Solutions Inc., completed the sale of two 10 MW AC solar power plants, DiscoveryLight and FotoLight, to Renewable Energy Trust Ontario Holdings, INC/ULC (RET Capital), at a valuation comparable to other recent project sales completed by Canadian Solar on a per megawatt basis in the Ontario market. These two plants utilize Canadian Solar’s CS6X-305P modules, and are part of a sales agreement whereby Canadian Solar will sell a total of three utility-scale solar power plants from its Ontario pipeline to RET Capital, for a total of 40.9 MW DC.
DiscoveryLight is located in the town of Beaverton, while FotoLight is located in the Township of Prince Edward County. The electricity generated by these two power plants, both currently in commercial operation, will be sold to Hydro One under a 20-year Ontario Power Authority feed-in-tariff contract.
Canadian Solar provided turnkey engineering, procurement and construction services, and will also provide operations and maintenance services. A third 10 MW AC power plant (“CityLights”) is scheduled to begin commercial operation in the first quarter of 2015 with closing occurring post commercial operation.
“We are pleased with the sale of these two plants to Renewable Energy Trust Capital, and we look forward to closing the sale of the third plant in early 2015,” said Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Canadian Solar. “This transaction underscores the successful execution of our business plan in Ontario, as well as our proven track record as a leading project developer on a global scale.”
“The good work we have done with our friends at Canadian Solar means we will be able to bring clean and cost-effective energy to Ontario households for years to come,” said John A. Bohn, chief executive officer and chairman of RET Capital. “We are pleased to announce this 40.9 MW DC deal and look forward to identifying and engaging similarly strategic opportunities in the new year.”
About Canadian Solar Inc. Founded in 2001 in Ontario, Canada, Canadian Solar is one of the world’s largest and foremost solar power companies. As a leading manufacturer of solar photovoltaic modules and provider of solar energy solutions, Canadian Solar has an industry leading and geographically diversified pipeline of utility-scale solar power projects as well as a track record of successful solar deployment boasting over 7 GW of premium quality modules installed in over 70 countries during the past decade. Canadian Solar is committed to providing high-quality solar products and solar energy solutions to customers around the world. For more information about our company, products and projects please visit www.canadiansolar.com.
About Renewable Energy Trust RET (Renewable Energy Trust) Capital is a privately held company that makes sponsor equity investments in solar PV power generation facilities. RET Capital works closely with its Asset Partners- project developers, EPC providers, IPPs, and utilities- to acquire projects with long-term contracted cash flows. The RET team endeavours to help our Asset Partners meet their objectives through innovative structuring and design of portfolio acquisition and joint ownership opportunities. For more information, please visit www.renewabletrust.com.
Xu Zongyan says his mask can deliver air almost completely free of PM2.5. Photo: SMP
Xu Zongyan was working at a large air-conditioner manufacturer when he noticed that air-quality products were becoming increasingly important to mainlanders. He left the company to launch his own business, intending at first to design only pollution monitors. But Xu, 29, soon realised that with a slight tweak of filtration technology, he could combine air-purification with monitoring into a single “smart” device. He says prototypes are ready and he hopes to begin production in a few months.
Describe your invention.
It looks like a set of headphones, but instead of earpieces, it has a tube that emits clean, treated air in front of your nose. The device comes with a sensor that monitors pollution levels – such as the amount of PM2.5 particulates and the level of oxygen in the air around you. It also features an electrostatic precipitator – a highly efficient filtration device – which sends purified air to the nose area through either a tube or a nasal pillow.
What’s a nasal pillow, and how clean is the purified air?
The nasal pillow is similar to devices used in respiratory machines that fully cover your nose. As the purified air is delivered directly into your nose, the air you breathe can have a near-zero PM2.5 level, while surrounding PM2.5 levels can be more than 300 micrograms per cubic metre. The pillow is comfortable to wear, but some users may not like it. If you use the tube, however, the air you breathe will be a mixture of purified air and ambient polluted air. But that mixture will still have a lower PM2.5 level than the air in your surroundings.
Some air purifiers come with Hepa, or high efficiency particulate arrestor, filters. Is the electrostatic precipitator as effective in catching tiny particulates?
It’s true that Hepa filters are very effective in removing particulate pollutants, but users in such heavily polluted cities as Beijing have to change the filters every two or three months and the cost is quite high. The precipitator, on the other hand, is cheap and easy to maintain. You need only to wash it to remove the dust it catches. We wanted the device to be affordable and easy to use.
The result was good enough?
I’d say tests show that its efficiency now is comparable to Hepa filters. I worked for air-conditioner manufacturer Broad Group for four years, where I marketed its products and gained a thorough understanding of electrostatic precipitators. I decided to fix its problems – such as its low efficiency and releasing of ozone – in my wearable air purifier. My purifier also features a monitoring device as well as smartphone apps that allow users to share real-time air quality information online.
How’s your progress so far?
All the technical problems have been sorted out and we have produced prototypes for testing. We’re currently trying to improve the design so that the product will be more comfortable to wear, and we’ve invited an industrial design company to finalise our designs. I hope it will be ready for mass production in two months.
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as From drawing board to drawing fresh breath
Is it possible to create large solar jobs with homes as backers, as well as do it time and again? That’s the idea behind solar yards or neighborhood discussed solar, a style capturing quickly in the United States.
Thus many individuals, Delight Hughes wanted to do something for the victims of the July 2012 mass capturing in a movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado in the US. But while others held vigils and established memorials, Hughes located herself searching websites for solar yards 6 days after the capturing in the Denver suburb.
‘It is something good for folks to concentrate on that could aid with the recovery process,’ stated Hughes, which worked at Apple Computer and numerous Silicon Valley start-ups just before starting the Colorado-based Solar Garden Institute.
A solar yard, additionally called community-shared solar, is a photovoltaic array that takes from the suggestions of community veggie plots, crowd source financing as well as power gatherings. The yard is built near or within a neighborhood, where it shows up to its members. Regional families and online business come together to fund the jobs via subscriptions, ownership of shares, or a few other kind of financial investment, sometimes utilizing energy on-bill financing. Versions differ, however the harvest often is available in the type of electrical bill credits, assured utility prices, or other kind of financial compensation for the gardeners.
Aiding a community through damage is not a solar garden’s normal objective, yet then Hughes explains that the model opens all kinds of opportunities rarely linked with a nuclear power plant. ‘This is a means folks can take individual possession, individual responsibility for their power supply,’ she stated. ‘lt comes to be a symbol for durability for every community.’.
Beyond the meaning, the solar garden offers an innovative financial design that can leverage online net metering, mass purchasing, solar power investment contracts (PPAs) and also tax obligation equity credit ratings to reduce solar expenses and also guarantee all parties benefit from the offer. Additionally, solar yards supply a method to entice financial investment from property owners that are otherwise disenfranchised from the solar boom.
Commonly solar gardens are built on public land, depleted farming plots, flight terminals, institution rooftops and also other cost-effective items of property that are highly noticeable to the area. Yet it’s not just neighbourhoods that could profit; the idea likewise could serve retail operations with several shops, and also towns that pay electricity bills for colleges, fire houses, water procedure plants as well as various other facilities.
The results, claim its backers, can quickly be gigawatts of brand-new photovoltaic installments.
Spreading Like Weeds.
While solar yards initially surfaced in the common green-oriented states: the Pacific Northwest, America and also Colorado, they are now dispersing somewhere else, and the community design represent 60 MW, baseding on the Solar Electric Power Organization (SEPA). Eight states have policies that specifically motivate area solar: Colorado, Massachusetts, The golden state, Delaware, Vermont, Washington, Rhode Island and also Maine. The principle is specifically active in Colorado where previous guv Bill Ritter authorized a costs in 2010 that allowed around 6 MW annually of solar yards. Adjustments in government policies, nevertheless, are not consistently essential– solar yard models exist that can operate in most states.
Up until now individual solar gardens have tended to be in the 1 MW array, however that looks transforming, as existing yards increase and also brand-new ones are suggested.
‘This is the method that we could create solar to scale,’ Hughes stated. ‘There have actually been 2 solar industries up to now: one being the residential/commercial as well as the various other being the utility scale. Now we are developing a third sector at a mid-scale dimension.’ Additionally, if pending legislation in California comes to be law, solar gardening may take on gigawatt percentages.
The golden state’s SB 843, the Community-Based Renewable resource Self-Generation Program, would certainly create reward for around 2 GW of solar yard installments, which can each be as large as 20 MW. The state Assembly Energies as well as Commerce Committee elected 9-2 in favour of the bill in June, and also the complete legislature is anticipated to think about it by the end of August 2012.
‘This, I assume is a potential video game changer. If that bill passes, it will unleash development around these company models and the plans to support them. Watch on America,’ stated Hannah Masterjohn, plan supporter at Vote Solar, an US non-profit solar advocacy company.
Solar yards conquer among the greatest blockages to mass PV installation. While 90 % of the US populace claims it wants to capitalize on solar energy, simply 25 % in fact can, according to Masterjohn. The remaining 75 % are precluded due to various challenges: trees share their roofing systems, they don’t own the structure, or they do not have the resources or financing.
Making use of a community-shared model, houses as well as companies could participate in solar, and do so by capitalizing on the economic situations of level supplied with bulk investment and also aggregation. This lessens the currently dropping cost of PV installation.
‘Exactly what the client sees is the expense savings; it is a small expense savings at this factor, however it could quickly become a much better savings over time as the setup costs of panels goes down,’ Hughes stated.
Lots of solar garden programmes bring savings to clients through digital or aggregate net metering, an idea modelled after typical net metering, yet able to spread the monetary benefit of dispersed generation past the building that holds the solar panels. Digital net metering supplies expense credit reports for structures not in fact connected to the solar panels.
In a July 2012 webinar on area solar, Masterjohn cited the example of an university school where a dormitory structure has solar panels on its roof covering. In the summer season, when the students are away, the dorm takes in far much less power compared to the solar panels generate. But administrative buildings continue to be occupied– and proceed consuming electricity– over the summertime. So they receive expense credit ratings for the dorm’s solar manufacturing.
Likewise, in an area with solar gardens, the facility feeds the power into the electric grid and local families or companies gain the digital net metering benefits, despite the fact that they have no bodily connection to the panels. Nevertheless, not all states permit digital net metering. That is why the Clean Power Collective has actually created a solar yard version that works without digital net metering. Established in 2009, the firm has eight solar yard tasks either built or in development in Colorado, Minnesota and also New Mexico, and also is talking with energies all over the country about extra projects. The firm anticipates to establish 5 MW– 10 MW this year as well as six to 7 times that amount in 2013.
As a supporter of responsible natural gas development in New York, I must admit defeat and congratulate the opposition. The science of Yoko Ono and other celebrities has carried the day. The facts presented by our health commissioner and our governor consist of “uncertainties” and “potential” vague health risks, and they pose too great a threat to our safety for us to proceed with natural gas development.
I believe the next logical step for New York to take should be to ban the use of any natural gas in the Empire State. A large portion of the natural gas we now consume is gathered by use of fracking in other states. We have proven that fracking is a dangerous process. Purchasing gas produced in this manner will undoubtedly cause death and disease among the ignorant residents of these states. As the only enlightened state in the union, New York should not be hypocritical by purchasing their gas.
I am certain that the majority of the anti-frackers currently use natural gas to heat their homes and water. I am also sure that these people would gladly stop using this deadly product to protect the health and well-being of those people living outside New York. They can easily switch to electric or convert to coal-fired heaters. We all know that coal is totally safe and the coal-mining techniques of strip mining and mountaintop removal pose no threat to water supplies or cause any other environmental issues. They also can dispose of the toxic coal ash in their backyards.
Since a large portion of petroleum produced in this country is also extracted by fracking, it makes sense to ban the use of any domestically produced petroleum products, in the interest of the health of all Americans. I’m sure that most of the anti-frackers will gladly stop using petroleum-powered vehicles and switch to all-electric cars. Of course, we can still buy oil from our buddies the Saudis, Iranians and Russians.
Elimination of fracking-produced fossil fuels limits our electric producing options. We probably would want to avoid the use of nuclear power generation, because of the danger of a China syndrome. We are left with our old friend coal, which can be produced with no risk to the environment, and the residue can be safely disposed of in coal-ash pools. (Just ask Duke Energy how that has worked out for them in Danville, Va.)
Of course, there is wind energy and solar. I’m sure the anti-frackers would welcome the sight of every ridge-top covered with wind turbines. The noise of the generators probably would not drown out all of the sounds of nature we love so much. The number of migrating birds killed by the blades probably would be acceptable. Solar panels can be arrayed in abandoned farm fields, which the farmers will sell at a low price since their opportunity to sell mineral rights for their property has been taken away by the state.
On windless nights, we can read by candlelight and throw on another blanket to keep from freezing.
Like many college freshmen, Tiffany Silverstein signed up for dozens of extracurriculars when she arrived at Vanderbilt University.
One by one, many of them fell off her radar. But one intriguing option held her attention, mainly because of the enthusiasm of the other students involved and the massive challenge it presented.
Together, Team Tennessee, which includes students from Vanderbilt University and Middle Tennessee State University, is working to design and build a family home that is entirely powered by solar energy. They unveiled their design on Tuesday, along with a virtual video tour of the “green” house, which includes a roof lined with solar panels.
The next step is to construct the two-bedroom, one-bathroom home and then break it down, ship it to California and rebuild it for the 2015 Solar Decathlon competition in October sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. Judges at the competition will select a winner based on design, energy production and affordability.
While designing the home, which is dubbed Harmony House, the group tried to create a home that would would be comfortable for a modern family. They included a covered front porch that allows room to entertain and a garden wall in the back to provide shade.
Silverstein, who is now a sophomore majoring in computer engineering and math, said that working on the project for more than a year has opened her eyes to the viability of solar power on a large scale.
“The big catch for a while has been cost,” she said. “That really is changing a lot, and the world of solar power has changed so much in the last five, 10 years even.
“As more people use them, as more companies produce these things, as more people realize this is something they can do, things will get less expensive.”
The students hope to build Harmony House for less than $200,000. After the competition, they’ll donate the finished product to Habitat for Humanity, which has partnered with Team Tennessee.
“Being environmentally friendly is no longer sort of a fringe concept,” Silverstein said. “On an institutional level, Vanderbilt, MTSU and Habitat for Humanity all really care about green technology.”
Reach Adam Tamburin at 615-726-5986 and on Twitter @tamburintweets.
To help
Under Solar Decathlon rules, Team Tennessee must raise the money needed to build, construct and ship the house. To contribute visit http://www.teamtennessee.org and click the “donate” button.
Ready for a brand new you and a healthier home in 2015? Jotham Hatch [pictured below], director of Training at Chem-Dry, is here to share six tips that will transform your surroundings right before your very eyes!
1. Regularly wipe down countertops. Countertops are not only where food is prepared, but it’s also where dirt, dust, bacteria and allergen particles floating in the air often settle. If you have a countertop with granite or tile, it’s best to use a mild cleaner and preferably one that can refresh the sealer. Sealers can degrade over time and it’s important to keep that sealer fresh to prevent bacteria from getting into the porous areas of the stone.
2. Keep carpets and rugs clean. To improve the life and appearance of your carpet, vacuum your carpets and rugs weekly with a bag vacuum, preferably one that has either a HEPA filter or a microfiltration system. However, it is important to note that while vacuuming does pick up dirt and dust on the surface, there can be a lot of bacteria and allergens trapped deep down within the fibers of the carpet – including pet dander and urine, particle pollution and everyday dirt and dust. While these toxins may not be visible to homeowners, they can still be the source of unpleasant health issues and allergy symptoms. Vacuuming and routine cleaning are helpful in maintaining cleaner carpets, but they are simply not enough. For this reason, the EPA recommends getting carpets professionally cleaned at least once a year, and in homes with pets and/or children, it recommends bringing in a cleaning service two to three times per year. For homeowners with pets, it’s advisable to find a professional cleaning service that has an effective urine detection and removal process. To eliminate the maximum amount germs from your carpets and rugs, request adding a sanitizer to the cleaning process to kill off and eliminate bacteria as well as a protectant, which puts a protective coating on the carpet fibers and makes it easier to keep carpets cleaner for a longer period of time on your own.
3. Don’t forget about your upholstered furniture. Most people think about vacuuming and cleaning their carpets and rugs but they forget about cleaning their upholstery, despite spending significant time every day on their couches and chairs. Similar to countertops and carpets, particles like dust, dirt and allergens settle on upholstered furniture as well. Vacuuming upholstered furniture is nearly as easy and is just as important as carpets, particularly in the high-traffic areas like family rooms. It’s recommended to vacuum the upholstery in your home once every other week and have it professionally cleaned once a year.
4. Sanitize high touch points around the house. Popular “hot spots” include door knobs, toilet handles, faucets and light switches. Spending a few minutes sanitizing those areas, particularly before and after guests come into the home, can go a long way toward minimizing the spread of germs. More preventive approaches to minimizing the spread of germs include being vigilant about washing your hands regularly throughout the day and placing a bottle of hand sanitizer in the high-traffic areas of the home, making it easy and convenient to keep your hands clean and germ-free.
5. Use door mats or area rugs in entry ways and high-traffic areas. While it’s easy to forget them, door mats and area rugs do a great job of trapping dirt and allergens before they enter the heart of your home. Part of the reason they aren’t as common in homes today is due to the misconception that hard surfaces are healthier than carpets or rugs, which is not the case. The fact is that carpets and rugs act as filters that capture and trap dirt, dust and allergens and prevent them from getting into the air and spreading throughout the home. On hard surfaces, these particles simply settle and then are stirred back into the air the next time there is traffic and activity in the area. Using door mats and area rugs is an effective and inexpensive way to prevent unwanted and unhealthy particles from getting deeper into your home or from remaining in the air where they can spread more easily to members of the family.
6. Check and replace your heating and air conditioning filters. While furnaces are vital to keeping homes warm in the colder months, it’s important to change the furnace air filter at regular intervals to prevent dirt, dust and other unhealthy particles from being distributed around the house. Follow the recommended replacement timing for each filter that is indicated on the filter package. To remind yourself when it’s time to change the filter, write the date that you’re performing the replacement on the outer edge of the new filter that you’re installing to make it easy to know when your next one is due. Another way to stay on schedule with future filter replacements is to send yourself an invitation in your online calendar for the date of the next replacement or for replacements for the remainder of the year, based on the manufacturer’s recommended cycle.
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A 50 kw rooftop solar project set up by the Uttarakhand Renewable Energy Development Agency at the Pithoragarh collectorate building
Uttarakhand is all set to promote rooftop solar power as part of alternate energy initiative, with the Union Ministry of New Renewable Energy already having a target of 7 MW of power generation through solar rooftop projects for 2014-15.
Talking to the Tribune, Dr AK Tripathi, Director, Union Ministry of New Renewable Energy, said Uttarakhand had immense potential for solar rooftop projects and the ministry has set a target of 7 MW for the state for the current financial year.
He said with the Uttarakand solar power policy 2013 already in place, the state, that has been bestowed with enormous solar wealth, is poised to take a giant leap in solar rooftop projects. He appreciated Uttarakhand Renewable Energy Development Agency for promoting solar rooftop projects in the state.
Tripathi said the ministry aims to identify 100 campuses in the country as green campuses, that resort to consumption of solar energy to meet their energy requirements. He said the Pant Nagar University in Uttarakhand has already been identified as one such green campus. He lauded the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee for putting solar energy to maximum use, generating 1.8 MW power solely through rooftop solar plants.
Referring to importance of rooftop solar power, AK Tripathi said solar rooftop projects were viable for even individual houses. He said a five-six room house can meet its own electricity requirements through the rooftop solar system. Barring airconditioners, power for light and other appliances can be easily arranged at the home itself from a 1 kW solar rooftop project that can provide more than 5 units of power for consumption on a daily basis.
“At the national level, the country has a potential of generating 124 GW just through solar rooftop projects,” Tripathi told The Tribune. He said countries such as Germany, Japan and United States have been exploiting rooftop solar power in a big way and India too has been laying emphasis on solar power.
RES is partnered with US-based Pattern Renewable Holdings Canada and the municipalities of Saint-Sylvestre and Saint-Séverin.
“The project is currently owned by RES and it is anticipated that Pattern will be the long-term owner,” RES Canada SVP development Peter Clibbon told reNews.
“RES will continue to develop and engineer the project, supervise construction and work with Pattern to procure construction contractors.” The municipalities will have no ownership position.
The developer intends to install 46 Siemens 3.2MW turbines at Mont Sainte-Marguerite, located about 50 kilometres east of Québec City.
“The use of Siemens direct-drive turbines will be a first in Quebec, creating a new supply chain under Quebec’s local content provisions,” said Clibbon.
The price obtained by the Hydro-Québec tender was the lowest ever in the province, he added.
“At an average price of 6.3 cents/kWh, wind energy is now some of the cheapest power in the province, even taking into account network upgrade costs that bring the total average price to 7.6 cents/kWh,” he said.
The project will employ up to 200 workers at the peak of construction and create 10 to 12 permanent jobs once operational.
Image: the developer’s 99MW Greenwich wind farm in Ontario (RES Canada)
Do homework before deciding on solar energy system for your home.
Industry production of photovoltaic modules is growing annually, which allows more households to benefit from solar energy systems.
Financial incentives, such as those offered by the federal government and many states, provide the extra motivation for homeowners to have photovoltaic arrays mounted on rooftops or on the grounds. Maine offered rebates to solar photovoltaic and to solar thermal systems at one time but state government unfortunately has not authorized more rebates.
Two types of photovoltaic systems are most common. In early systems, batteries were connected together and served the house “off-grid,” meaning the system is self-contained. In the other option, the household system is connected to the electrical grid.
Before you begin you need to do some planning. Is the roof orientation correct? How much roof space do you have to mount panels? How much power do you want? How much money do you want to invest? Though systems can be installed in increments, there is a lot of economic advantage to larger systems installed at once. A small system, such as a 4 module (1kW, nominal) roof-mounted system, costs more than $5 per kW to install. Once you reach a threshold (typically about 3 kW), the cost per kW becomes more reasonable.
For a ground-mounted system, increased production can result using automatic sun trackers that will help offset the cost of the separate foundation and ground mount structure. When mounting on a roof, it is important to consider the structural integrity of the roof, the need for re-shingling, and that the attachments for the array don’t sacrifice the integrity of the roofing.
Two primary benefits of a photovoltaic solar array are its longevity and dependability. These arrays can last 30 years and most inverters can be connected to a wireless router to broadcast system production and communicate any system errors.
In my line of work, I occasionally do an energy audit for a homeowner who wants to have a photovoltaic array to supplement some of the electricity needed over the course of a year. The first thing I usually do after providing specific guidance about how to lower heating costs is to look at a year or two of electric bills for the house and figure a system that will power 90 percent of the annual power demands.
Following Maine’s net-metering rules, photovoltaic production in excess of what you use month-to-month is allowed to be credited to your bill at your per-kWh rate. This credit is carried forward for up to one year and used to offset times when your photovoltaic array doesn’t make enough power.
For example, a 3,000-W system of 12 panels, at 250 watts per panel, taking into account a number of factors, and $3.65 per watt installation, would cost approximately $11,000. With a 30 percent federal tax credit, the cost is lowered to $7,700. This would be save you close to $600 or more yearly.
Another factor in CMP’s service territory is a CMP charge each month, which can account for up to the first 100kWh of consumption. The savings increase as electricity rates rise.
Some people have been steered away from solar water heating systems for photovoltaic when a solar water heating system would be a much better investment (compared to a tankless coil in oil boiler situations, for example). I think it is important for all systems to be viewed with the other options (photovoltaic vs. efficiency vs. pellets vs. heat pumps vs. natural gas vs. solar water heating) to make sure the option best fits the homeowner’s goals in terms of financial return, self-sufficiency and environmental impact.
If the economics of these systems are a driving factor in your decision-making, be sure to have a detailed analysis of the economic benefits performed. The review includes using a shade analysis, modeling the system performance, taking into account your monthly usage patterns, and determining the benefit of the tax credit for your particular circumstances.
Lastly, always consult with an Efficiency Maine registered vendor and one who is certified by the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners. Always ask for references and request photos of comparable installations.
Clough Toppan is a member of Sustain Mid Maine Coalition’s board of directors as well as the Energy Team. He is a Maine licensed engineer who performs energy audits to homeowners and businesses as Toppan Consulting Services in Vassalboro. Email: [email protected]. Portions of this article are based on conversations with Vaughan Woodruff of Insource Renewables, Pittsfield, specializing in solar power installations. Email: [email protected].
Germany said Saturday it has committed an additional 500 million euros (Rs.3,900 crore) to support India in developing its green energy corridors.
According to German embassy here, the funding will be released under the Indo-German bilateral development cooperation.
The additional funding was approved after German Ambassador Michael Steiner and Finance Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi sealed the new outlay agreement on Wednesday.
The additional funding will help finance measures to facilitate the transmission of renewable energy into the national grid.
“This is one of the flagship project of Indo-German cooperation – in terms of volume, but also in terms of the enthusiasm of everyone involved, the speed of implementation and its sustainability,” said Ambassador Steiner.
“It matches well with next year’s bilateral schedule, as India will be the official partner country of the biggest international trade fair in Hannover with its focus on ‘future-proof’ technologies.”
Till now, the German government’s development bank (KfW) has signed three loan agreements initiating the implementation of this ambitious program. In 2013, Germany had already committed 250 million euros to India under this project.
The green energy corridors project aims to create transmission infrastructure in states with a high potential in renewable energy and facilitate evacuation of renewable energy into the national grid.
Under the Indo-German bilateral development cooperation, the Germany government, in 2012 offered to support the GEC project with funds amounting to 1 billion euros or Rs.7,800 crore over a period of five years.
MHI Vestas Offshore Wind has received the first commercial order for the V164-8.0 MW from DONG Energy, the world’s leading developer of offshore wind power.
MHI Vestas Offshore Wind will deliver 32 machines for the 258 MW Burbo Bank Extension project off the coast of Liverpool Bay in the UK.
Blades for the project will be produced at the recently announced MHI Vestas Offshore Wind manufacturing facility on the Isle of Wight – the first facility with the capacity to serial produce blades for future UK offshore projects.
Milestone project CEO Jens Tommerup says the order marks a historic milestone for MHI Vestas Offshore Wind and the wind industry in the UK,
“We are extremely pleased to receive the first commercial order for the V164-8.0 MW, our flagship wind turbine and a machine which will contribute to driving down the cost of offshore wind energy.
“DONG Energy were closely involved in the development and testing of the turbine and today’s announcement represents a significant vote of confidence from the world’s leading developer of offshore wind in the V164-8.0 MW and MHI Vestas Offshore Wind.
“MHI Vestas Offshore Wind will become the first manufacturer with the capacity to serial produce blades for future offshore wind projects in the UK. Serial production of 80m blades for the Burbo Bank Extension project will commence on the Isle of Wight from as early as Q2 2015.”
Samuel Leupold, Executive Vice President in DONG Energy, said
“We are very excited to being able to construct the Burbo Bank Extension offshore wind farm. The introduction of the MHI Vestas Offshore Wind V164-8.0 MW turbine will be an important measure in our joint efforts to reduce the cost of electricity of offshore wind. Bigger turbines, producing electricity more efficiently is an important element in realising our ambitious targets.”
About the Burbo Bank project The 258 MW Burbo Bank Extension project lies off the coast of Liverpool Bay, in the UK. When installed the power plant will produce enough energy to meet the electricity requirements for approximately 180,000 houses.
The order includes supply, installation and commissioning of the wind turbines as well as a five year full scope service contract. Installation is expected to begin in 2016, and commissioning is expected to be completed in 2017. Pre-assembly of the turbines will take place in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Manufacturing in the UK MHI Vestas Offshore Wind will utilise the production hall at Vestas’ blades technology centre on the Isle of Wight from 1 January 2015 and will invest in upgrading the facility for serial production. The facility was opened in 2011 and was specifically designed to develop large blades for the latest wind turbines. The facility consists of two halls 170m long and 50m wide, one for testing and verification, and one for blade production, which will be leased by MHI Vestas Offshore Wind.
Jens Tommerup said,
“The Isle of Wight is a world class R&D centre for developing and testing blades. The blades for the V164-8.0 MW prototype were designed, manufactured and tested at the Isle of Wight facility so we have developed the unique skills and processes necessary to manufacture blades which makes it a good location to ramp up to serial production.”
A ray of sunshine came out of the Colorado Springs Utilities Board meeting this week as the panel OK’d two projects that will add 20 megawatts of solar power and credits to the area’s energy portfolio.
“It’s very exciting,” John Romero, Colorado Springs Utilities general manager of energy acquisitions, engineering and planning, said Friday. He said the added solar capacity will help keep the utility in compliance with state renewable energy standards until 2030.
The projects are expected to be completed by the end of June.
The first is a 10 megawatt solar array to be constructed on Utilities’ property near the Nixon Power Plant in south Colorado Springs. An array is a group of solar panels or cells that convert sunlight to electricity. Ten megawatts of solar translates into enough power for 3,000 homes each year.
The utility is working with El Paso County officials to expedite rezoning of the area, Romero said. Construction of the arrays will be contracted out to solar developers.
The other project is a 20-year purchase of renewable energy credits that will equal about 10 megawatts of capacity. These credit investments enable renewable solar energy projects and will help the utility meet and even exceed state regulations.
The state requires that utilities generate 10 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2020. But Colorado Springs Utilities has voluntarily upped its energy plan to 20 percent.
The two projects will help the utility meet of the Colorado Renewable Energy Standard until 2030. Romero said Utilities is using an accelerated timetable to take advantage of the state’s so-called multipliers that provide three times the number of credits if put in place by the end of June, when the plan expires.
“For every renewable energy credit we purchase, it would be counted three times. It’s a state incentive to get utilities on board early,” Utilities spokeswoman Amy Trinidad said.
Romero declined to provide an estimate of the cost of the projects because the utility is in negotiations with various entities involved in the development proposals.
The solar projects will be owned and operated by third parties and located in Springs Utilities’ electric service territory.
The airborne radiation leak that shut down a nuclear waste repository in southeastern New Mexico earlier this year was ultimately small and localized, according to a report by independent researchers.
In its final report on air, soil and water samples taken from around the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant over the course of several months, the Carlsbad Environmental Monitoring and Research Center said the concentrations of radiological contaminants in the air above ground were “very small, localized, and well below any level of public health or environmental concern.”
Soil, sediment and surface water monitoring also showed no detectable increases over radiation levels typically measured in the area.
The findings in the report are consistent with CEMERC researchers’ presentations to the public over the past nine months.
On Valentine’s Day this past February, a hot reaction inside at least one drum of nuclear waste stored at WIPP cracked open a container, releasing plutonium and americium into the underground space. Small amounts of the radiation escaped into the air above ground before WIPP’s high-powered air filters kicked in.
The report concluded that, inside the deep underground repository, “moderate levels of radioactivity” were released.
CEMERC has been monitoring concentrations of radiation in the air at WIPP since the facility opened in 1996. The above-normal readings at its air-monitoring stations in the wake of the Feb. 14 event were the first indication of an airborne radiation release during WIPP’s 15 years of operation.
“No negative radiation-related health effects among local workers or the public should be expected,” CEMERC concluded.
New Mexico State University runs CEMERC, which is funded by the Department of Energy through a grant process “that respects its independence in carrying out and reporting the results of environmental monitoring at and near the WIPP site,” the report said.
WIPP — the final resting place for certain types of defense nuclear waste, key to the nation’s cleanup of Cold War-era weapons production — is expected to remain shuttered for several years. WIPP managers have estimated the clean-up could cost half a billion dollars.
On Dec. 3, while 190 governments were meeting for two weeks of climate change talks in Lima, Peru, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet agreed to a package that continues Germany’s optimistic but unrealistic goal and increases subsidies for measures designed to cut emissions.
Regarding Germany’s “climate protection package,” Barbara Hendricks, Environment Minister, admitted, “if no additional steps were taken, Germany … would miss its targets by between five to eight percentage points.”
The results of the German agreement will require operators of coal-fueled power plants to reduce emissions by at least 22 million tons — the equivalent of closing eight of them. The Financial Times believes the plan will “lead to brownouts in German homes.”
With the goal of generating 80 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2050, Germany has aggressively pursued a green dream with unsustainable subsidies that have produced an unstable system described by the Financial Times on Nov. 25 as “a lesson in doing too much too quickly on energy policy.”
So what should the U.S. and other countries learn from Germany’s generous subsidy programs and large-scale deployment and integration of renewable energy into the power system? These are the questions U.S. legislators should be asking themselves as they argue over a tax extender package that includes a retroactive extension for the now-expired Production Tax Credit for wind energy.
Fortunately, the answers are easy to determine. Finadvice, a Switzerland-based adviser to the utility and renewable industry, did an exhaustive study, “Development and Integration of Renewable Energy — Lessons Learned from Germany.”
The report’s introductory comments include the following statement, “The authors of this white paper would like to state that they fully support renewables as a part of the power portfolio. … a couple (of the authors) have direct equity interests in renewable projects.” The authors’ viewpoint is an important consideration, especially in light of their findings. They wanted Germany’s experiment to work; yet they begin the executive summary with these words:
“Over the last decade, well-intentioned policymakers in Germany and other European countries created renewable energy policies with generous subsidies that have slowly revealed themselves to be unsustainable, resulting in profound, unintended consequences for all industry stakeholders. While these policies have created an impressive roll-out of renewable energy resources, they have also clearly generated disequilibrium in the power markets, resulting in significant increases in energy prices to most users, as well as value destruction for all stakeholders: consumers, renewable companies, electric utilities, financial institutions, and investors.”
After reading the paper, I was struck with three observations. The experiment has 1) raised energy costs to households and business; 2) the subsidies are unsustainable; and 3) without intervention, the energy supply is unstable.
Anyone who reads the paper will conclude there is far more to providing energy that is effective and economical than the renewable fairytale storytellers want consumers to believe. The German experiment proves butterflies, rainbows and pixie dust won’t power the world after all — coal, natural gas and nuclear energy are all important parts of the power portfolio.
If only U.S. legislators would read the paper before they vote for more subsidies for renewable energy, maybe we could learn from Germany’s expensive and destructive experience what they haven’t yet learned themselves.
The author of Energy Freedom, Marita Noon serves as the executive director for Energy Makes America Great Inc. and the companion educational organization, the Citizens’ Alliance for Responsible Energy.
FREMONT, Calif.–(Business Wire)–The following is a statement and open letter from Petersen-Dean to the Solar Energy Industries Association:
PetersenDean, a privately-held roofing and solar company, announced today that is calling for the president and full board of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) to resign immediately because of its recent position in the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) hearings regarding the imposition of anti-subsidy and anti-dumping duties against China and Taiwan. Company executives are also asking for an ethics investigation under the SEIA by-laws, including Article 10.
According to the letter: “In spite of these companies having been found guilty of illegal and unfair widespread underselling and dumping of Chinese solar panels and their components in the U.S. market (three times by the Commission in some cases), SEIA supported them. SEIA is an American solar trade organization that should not be representing Chinese and Taiwanese interests in these matters.”
According to PetersenDean Roofing & Solar President Erin Clark, the trade association’s support for China and Taiwan in these matters is a clear conflict with its own stated purpose to keep America competitive.
“SEIA has become nothing more than a tool used by Chinese companies to try and bankrupt and destroy American solar manufacturing. Thanks to some of these actions, thousands of American workers have lost their jobs in the past three years due to the closure of solar manufacturing plants in America. All of this at a time when our domestic economy and employment are struggling to recover from the devastating recession,” said Clark.
Petersen Dean has a long-standing initiative to buy American made products.
“We made a decision at PetersenDean to only source our products from North America. It’s costing us a little more money to buy these panels, but we are supporting the American economy, we are supporting the American worker and we’re reinvesting those dollars back in America,” said Jim Petersen, Founder of PetersenDean. “It’s that simple. I want to make sure that our products stand the test of time and that our customers are happy with it and that’s why we choose to go American. That’s what Solar4America is all about. It’s about lowering our electric bills, but it’s also about American jobs, American panels and reinvesting in America. It’s something we deeply care about and it’s why we felt compelled to ask for these resignations.”
The full letter is included with this news release and will be delivered to SEIA on Tuesday, December 16, 2014. The letter calls for the immediate resignation of Rhone Resch the president and CEO of SEIA, the entire Executive Committee of SEIA and ALL board members whose parent companies are in China.
About PetersenDean/Solar4America: Founded in 1984 by Jim Petersen, PetersenDean is the largest, full-service, privately-held roofing and solar company in the United States. Specializing in residential and new home construction, PetersenDean works with some of the nation’s largest builders and developers. With more than a million roofs under its belt, the Fremont, CA-based company employs 4,600 and operates in five states: Arizona, California, Florida, Nevada, and Texas. Please visit http://www.petersendean.com/ for more details.
PetersenDean Roofing & Solar
Jim Petersen
Erin Clark
39300 Civic Center Drive, Suite 300
Fremont, CA 94538
December 16, 2014
Solar Energy Industries Association
505 9th Street, N.W., Suite 800
Washington, D.C. 20004
Dear SEIA:
This letter is to inform you that we are asking the president and full board of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) to resign immediately because of your recent position in the International Trade Commission (ITC) hearings regarding the imposition of anti-subsidy and anti-dumping duties against China and Taiwan. We are also asking for an ethics investigation under the SEIA by-laws, including Article 10.
We were impressed to see SEIA vice president for trade and competitiveness John Smirnow testify last Monday, December 8, 2014, with some of the biggest manufacturing names in our industry. That said, we were confused. In spite of these companies having been found guilty of illegal and unfair widespread underselling and dumping of Chinese solar panels and their components in the U.S. market (three times by the Commission in some cases), SEIA supported them. SEIA is an American solar trade organization that should not be representing Chinese and Taiwanese interests in these matters.
Perhaps you’re confused too. An American trade organization generally protects the industry its charter claims to represent. An American trade organization does not trade one sector of the industry for another; in this case, American manufacturing jobs for installation jobs. SEIA is a trade group that should be an advocate for all of the American solar industry; especially when providing testimony before the United States International Trade Commission in this critical case that will have long-term and far-reaching impacts on the solar industry.
According to your own mission statement: “SEIA is the voice of the solar industry at the federal and state level, advocating for the protection and expansion of the U.S. market for all solar technologies. We represent the entire solar industry; from the small-business owners to the multi-national companies, from the installers on the roof to the engineers in the lab. We build coalitions of solar energy professionals and renewable energy supporters to champion the legislative successes that grow our industry and keep America competitive.”
Your support for China and Taiwan in these matters is a clear conflict with your own stated purpose to “keep America competitive.”
In order to restore balance to the governing body of SEIA, a new president and board needs to be established immediately. SEIA is a powerful Washington, D.C. based national trade organization whose member companies are involved in research, manufacture, distribution, finance, and building of solar projects domestically and abroad, with today, a seemingly greater emphasis on abroad.
Among your many activities, SEIA lobbies Congress for the advancement of the solar power industry, but not necessarily the industry based in this country. Seventy percent of the Board Members who control the organization are employed by Chinese-based manufacturing and affiliated companies and thus most of your lobbying activities are intended to benefit these interests, frequently to the detriment of American manufacturers and installers. This is no surprise given the plans laid out by Wuxi Suntech in The New York Times in 2009.
Although the U.S. solar industry continues to be the most robust and fastest growing in the world, the multiple economic and employment benefits it could generate for our nation are being undermined by the ill-advised activities of SEIA.
SEIA is now a tool used by Chinese companies to try and bankrupt and destroy American solar manufacturing. Your alliance with Chinese manufacturers is responsible for thousands of American workers who have lost their jobs in the past three years due to the closure of solar manufacturing plants in the U.S. at a time when our domestic economy and employment are struggling to recover from the devastating recession.
SEIA needs to be reorganized so that the membership structure includes a greater balance of industry interests while ameliorating the undue influences of the Chinese and Taiwanese manufacturers. The sooner this restructuring is completed, the sooner the U.S. solar industry can get back squarely on its feet and deliver the many promises of economic growth, technological advancement and environmental benefits the industry holds for the future of our country and its people.
We, the undersigned, call for the immediate resignation of Rhone Resch the president and CEO of SEIA, the entire Executive Committee of SEIA and ALL board members whose parent companies are in China. That might clear up some of the confusion.
Resign now: Nat Kreamer, Tom Starrs, Mike Healy, Scott Hennessey, Arno Harris, Tony Clifford, Craig Cornelius, Todd Glass, Steve Trenholm, Kathy Weiss, Polly Shaw, Thomas Koerner, John Smirnow.
Signed,
Jim Petersen, CEO of PetersenDean/Solar4America Erin Clark, President of PetersenDean/Solar4America and our 4,600 employees who support American jobs
for PetersenDean Roofing & Solar Christine Rombouts, 949-631-1557 crombouts@ca.rr.com
The scene could be straight from a science-fiction film: a vision of everyday life, but with one jarring difference that makes you realise you’re on another planet, or in a distant future era.
A sports class is in full swing on the outskirts of Beijing. Herds of children charge after a football on an artificial pitch, criss-crossed with colourful markings and illuminated in high definition by the glare of bright white floodlights. It all seems normal enough – except for the fact that this familiar playground scene is taking place beneath a gigantic inflatable dome.
“It’s a bit of a change having to go through an airlock on the way to class,” says Travis Washko, director of sports at the British School of Beijing. “But the kids love it, and parents can now rest assured their children are playing in a safe environment.”
The reason for the dome becomes apparent when you step outside. A grey blanket hangs in the sky, swamping the surroundings in a de-saturated haze and almost obscuring the buildings across the street. A red flag hangs above the school’s main entrance to warn it’s a no-go day: stay indoors at all costs. The airpocalypse has arrived.
A sports class inside the inflatable clean-air dome at the British School of Beijing.
Beijing’s air quality has long been a cause of concern, but the effects of its extreme levels of pollution on daily life can now be seen in physical changes to the architecture of the city. Buildings and spaces are being reconfigured and daily routines modified to allow normal life to go on beneath the toxic shroud.
Paper face masks have been common here for a long time, but now the heavy-duty kind with purifying canister filters – of the sort you might wear for a day of asbestos removal – are frequently seen on the streets. On bad days, bike lanes are completely deserted, as people stay at home or retreat to the conditioned environments of hermetically-sealed malls. It’s as if the 21-million-strong population of the Chinese capital is engaged in a mass city-wide rehearsal for life on an inhospitable planet. Only it’s not a rehearsal: the poisonous atmosphere is already here.
The British School is the latest of Beijing’s international colleges to go to the drastic lengths of building an artificial bubble in which to simulate a normal environment beneath the cloak of smog. Earlier this year, the nearby International School of Beijing lavished £3m on a pair of domes covering an area of six tennis courts, with hospital-grade air-filtration systems, following the lead of the Beijing satellite of exclusive British private school Dulwich College, which opened its own clean-air dome last year.
Air Quality Index graphics by the Shanghai Environmental Monitoring Centte
“Pollution is what all the parents are talking about,” says Nicole Washko, Travis’s wife, who also works at the school where their two daughters go, too. “More and more ex-pat families are leaving this country for the sake of their kids’ health. So if all the other schools have a dome, then we’ve got to have a dome.” A non-toxic learning environment is perhaps the least parents might expect, when they’re paying £20,000-a-year fees.
The British School has recently undergone a complete filtration overhaul, as if preparing for atmospheric armageddon, with new air curtains installed above the doors and almost 200 ceiling-mounted air purifiers put in to complement the floor-standing kind in each classroom. Windows must remain closed, and pupils must adhere to the strict air safety code. Reception classes stay indoors when the air quality index (AQI) hits 180 – measured on an official scale of 500 by various sensors across the city. For primary kids the limit is 200, while the eldest students are allowed to brave the elements up to 250. Anything above 300 and school trips are called off. The World Health Organisation, meanwhile, recommends a safe exposure level of 25.
“We were finding our sports fixtures were being cancelled so often, and kids were getting cabin fever from being kept in doors so much of the time,” says Travis Washko. “But now we have the dome, it’s perfect weather all year round.”
The day I arrive in Beijing, the AQI hits 460, just 40 points away from maximum doom. It’s the kind of air that seems to have a thickness to it, like the dense fug in an airport smokers’ cubicle. It sticks in the back of your throat, and if you blow your nose at the end of the day, it comes out black. Peddling around the city (I am one of the only cyclists mad enough to be on the road) is an eerie experience – not just for the desolation, but for the strange neon glow coming from signs at the top of invisible buildings, like a supernatural, carcinogenic version of the northern lights. The midday sun hangs in the sky looking more like the moon, its glare filtered out by the haze.
Heavy-duty face masks are now frequently seen on Beijing’s streets. Photograph: Imaginechina/Corbis
Daily talk of the AQI has become a national pastime amongst ex-pats and Chinese locals alike. Air-quality apps are the staple of every smartphone. Chinese microblogs and parenting forums are monopolised by discussions about the best air filters (sales of the top brands have tripled over the last year alone) and chatter about holidays to “clean-air destinations” like Fujian, Hainan and Tibet.
This year’s Beijing marathon, held on a day that exceeded 400 on the scale, saw many drop out when their face-mask filters turned a shade of grey after just a few kilometres. Some said it felt like running through bonfire smoke. With such hazardous conditions increasingly common, it’s not surprising that foreign companies are now expected to pay a “hardship bonus” of up to 20 or 30% to those willing to work in the Chinese capital.
And yet denial still persists. Many Beijingers tend to use the word “wumai” (meaning fog), rather than “wuran” (pollution), to describe the poor air quality – and not just because it’s the official Newspeak of weather reports. It’s partly because, one local tells me, “if we had to face up to how much we’re destroying the environment and our bodies every day, it would just be too much.” A recent report by researchers in Shanghai described Beijing’s atmosphere as almost “uninhabitable for human beings” – not really something you want to be reminded of every day.
October’s Beijing marathon saw many competitors drop out; some said it felt like running through bonfire smoke. Photograph: Imaginechina/Corbis
When I first came to Beijing in 2003, as a volunteer English teacher, my students told me that the city’s air wasn’t nearly as bad as London’s. “We know about your ‘pea-soupers’,” they would say, conjuring images of ye olde England shrouded in Dickensian gloom, happily ignoring the murky haze outside their own classroom window (then more often caused by sand storms than coal-burning power plants). Ten years later, the same former students are all too aware of the problem.
“We never used to have days as bad as this,” says Li Yutong, who has recently returned to Beijing after several years studying in Australia and working in Hong Kong. “I used to play football outside and go running, but you just can’t do that any more. School kids seem to get sick more often now – and they’re much fatter because they don’t play outside.”
Our school was sited across the street from the national Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, which proved to be an alarming neighbour when SARS broke out and we watched the constant train of ambulances. Now its attentions have turned to an airborne threat of a different kind. In June, the centre released data which suggested that the average 18-year-old Beijinger will spend as much as 40% of their remaining years in ill-health – potentially suffering from cancer, cardiovascular or respiratory disease. Breaking the usual government silence on the issue, China’s former health minister, Chen Zhu, spoke out in January to reveal that between 350,000 and 500,000 people die prematurely each year here as a result of air pollution.
In response to mounting pressure, the government has introduced a host of new laws and regulations, increasing fines for environmental violations, and attempting to shut down high carbon-emission factories. But there is little to suggest any of their measures are having an effect.
“To be able to monitor these factories, local officials are supposed to visit them in person,” says Zhang Kai, lead campaigner on air pollution at Greenpeace East Asia. “But there is just no capacity to do that, and no policy in place to punish the polluting factories effectively.”
British artist Matt Hope has designed a ‘breathing bicycle’ which filters air as you pedal, then feeds it into your mask. Photograph: Petar Kujundzic/Reuters
The national “airmageddon” has spawned a host of other attempts to solve the problem, ranging from the miraculous to the madcap. In the western city of Lanzhou, officially deemed by the World Health Organisation to have the worst air in China, officials have proposed digging great gullies into the surrounding mountains in the hope of trapping polluted air in a gigantic landscape gutter, like an atmospheric ha-ha. But Lanzhou’s poor air quality is caused less by burning coal and car fumes than by the local penchant for blowing up mountains with dynamite. More than 700 peaks are being levelled to provide swathes of flat land for development, and blowing out a huge gulley would only add to the problem.
Other solutions proposed in Beijing have a more futuristic air. Environmental scientist Yu Shaocai has proposed fitting water sprinklers to the tops of tall buildings, to try and “wash” the smog out of the sky. “Water should be sprayed into the atmosphere like watering a garden,” Yu wrote in the journal Environmental Chemistry Letters, noting that most urban pollution hangs below 100m, so it could be caught by an artificial shower from the city’s taller towers. An expert in “wet deposition” (how rain can clean particles from the air), he thinks he’s got the science sorted, and the main challenge is just to “design the specific spray system that can spray a good raindrop size and [ensure] the most scavenging efficiencies for the air pollution.” But his hastily Photoshopped visuals of garden sprinklers stuck on top of skyscrapers don’t do much to inspire confidence.
In fact, wet deposition has long been hailed as a possible solution by higher powers, with their lofty pretensions to control the elements. China’s Meteorological Administration issued a paper last year which ambitiously declared all local officials would be able to use artificial rain to clear away smog by 2015. And as the Washington Post reported, the idea might not be so far from reality: because of chronic water shortages, China has invested heavily in artificial rain since the late 1950s. The country now boats a battery of 7,000 cloud-seeding artillery guns, the same number of launchers for chemical-bearing rockets, and more than 50 planes – all manned by an army of 50,000 employees, ready to launch full-scale warfare on the weather.
Daan Roosegaarde’s plan for a smog-free park uses buried coils of copper to create an electrostatic field that attracts smog particles. Illustration: studioroosegaarde.net
At the other end of the scale are the initiatives that aim to affect people’s attitudes on the ground. Driven by an effort to raise awareness of the smog problem and spur the government into action, a host of critical art projects have been spawned. British artist Matt Hope has designed a “breathing bicycle”, a home-made Heath Robinson-style contraption that filters air as you pedal along and feeds it through a tube into a fighter-pilot breathing mask. Cycling around the hutong alleys, looking like Darth Vader being attacked by a hoover, he’s certainly attracted some funny looks.
“It’s a provocational prototype,” Hope says. “It’s pretty archaic, but then burning coal is pretty archaic too. It’s an intentionally ridiculous solution to a ridiculous problem.”
Another plucky Dutch designer thinks he can turn the pollution into a lucrative commodity. Over the past few months, Daan Rossegaarde has been meeting with the mayor of Beijing to talk through his plan for “electronic vacuum cleaners” to be installed in parks across the city, to suck smog from the skies. It might sound far-fetched, but he says his working prototype should be ready by next summer.
“I want to move away from statistics and the usual factsheet discussion,” says Roosegaarde, talking at excitable break-neck speed, a man on a mission. “If you create a place that’s 75% cleaner than the rest of the city, you create a powerful incentive for people to clean the whole city.”
Roosegaarde’s ‘smog ring’ houses a cubic kilometre of smog in a 1mm-cube carbon crystal
His proposal, developed in partnership with scientists at the Technological University of Delft in the Netherlands, uses buried coils of copper to create an electrostatic field that attracts smog particles, creating a kind of halo of clean air above it. “It’s similar to how static electricity attracts your hair,” Roosegaarde says. “We charge the smog particles and suck them to the ground.”
He has also developed a mobile version which uses the same technology, but housed in a vertical totem-pole structure that sits atop a small temple-like pavilion, akin to those found in Beijing’s parks. It’s here where the real alchemy will happen. “We’re going to turn dust into diamonds,” Roosegaarde says. “We will condense a cubic kilometre of smog down into a millimetre-cube carbon crystal – which we will set like a diamond on a ring.” When you buy a smog ring, he says, you’re effectively donating 1,000 cubic metres of clean air to the city.
“I like the idea that you can take a problem and turn it into something desirable,” Roosegaarde adds. “Of course it’s not a practical solution, but I’m hoping that smog jewellery will get people talking about the problem – and when they see these clear circles of blue sky above the parks, they’ll demand clean air for the whole city.”
The volume of discontent has been rising since Beijingers got a chance to see exactly what clear blue skies looked like last month, when miraculous weather was laid on for visiting world leaders, in town for the high-profile Apec summit. With the kind of draconian measures unseen since the 2008 Olympics, the entire region was locked down to guarantee clear skies for the precious week. Production in all factories within a 125-mile radius of the city was suspended, half the cars were banned from the roads, schools were closed, and public-sector workers were given compulsory holidays. No weddings were registered, no passports issued, no taxes paid, no fresh products delivered, and no banks open. Bodies went uncremated and burials were partly suspended.
A Chinese soldier enjoys the ‘Apec blue’ sky after Beijing imposed drastic measures to reduce pollution levels for the recent summit. Photograph: Narendra Shrestha/EPA
The result? A climatic Potemkin facade of perfect blue skies – which soon became an internet meme, coining the term “Apec blue”.
“It’s not sky blue or ocean blue. It’s not Prussian blue or Tiffany blue,” wrote one user of the microblogging site, Weibo. “A few years ago it was Olympic blue, and now it’s Apec blue.” It quickly came to mean something of fleeting, artificial beauty, probably too good to be true. “He’s not really into you,” went one recurring online saying. “It’s just an Apec blue.”
Returning to Beijing during the Apec week was like arriving in a completely different city. What had been a ghostly world of streets that disappeared if more than a block away, became a wide-open place of grand avenues terminating at distant mountains, visible for the first time.
And back at the British School, the smog dome was empty. Pupils were enjoying a rare outdoor lesson beneath a different kind of artificial roof – the crystal clear canopy of Apec blue.
