Palo Alto’s outlook for expanding its supply of cheap, green energy brightened this week, when a City Council committee enthusiastically approved a new contract that would allow the city to buy solar energy at a rate that Utilities Department officials believe to be lowest ever in state history.
The 25-year contract with Hecate Energy, a Nashville-based firm that develops renewable-energy projects, would allow the city to buy solar power at a price of 3.676 cents per kilowatt-hour, by far the lowest rate the city has ever paid for a renewable contract. James Stack, the contract administrator for the Utilities Department, called this rate an “exceptionally low price” — the lowest ever for a solar purchaser in California and, possibly in the U.S.
“For reference, it’s almost 50 percent lower than the cost of our other solar contracts, which we executed just a few years ago and that we thought were pretty well-priced,” Stack said.
Though the project won’t be up and running until 2021, once in place it would accommodate about 7.5 percent of the city’s electricity needs. The city will also have an option of extending the contract by up to three five-year terms. In addition, Hecate is required by the contract to post a $5.2 million development-assurance deposit to mitigate the risk that the development of the project would be delayed.
The timing of the cheap solar energy could hardly be more fortuitous. California’s drought, which is now heading into its fifth year, has dealt a blow to the city’s hydroelectric sources, which typically generate about half of the city’s total energy, forcing the Utilities Department to buy non-renewable energy in the interim. Largely as a result of the drought, the city expects to raise electricity rates by about 12 percent in July and by roughly 8 percent or more in 2017.
In addition to taking some of the pressure off the city’s stressed hydro supplies, the new contract will also help Palo Alto meet its goal of drawing at least 50 percent of its electricity from renewable sources (not including hydro). Currently, the city has nine renewable energy contracts in place and operating: five involving landfill gas, two relying on wind power and two on solar energy.
Now, it looks like solar energy is emerging as the most cost-effective option. In addition to the two solar projects already in place, the city has reached deals with three other solar projects that are expected to begin operating by the end of this year. Altogether, these existing contracts are expected to supply 57.5 percent of the city’s energies needs in 2017.
The new contract is also expected to help the city meet its goal of getting all of the city’s electricity from carbon-neutral sources, which includes hydroelectric plants. The policy, which was adopted in 2013, currently relies on a mix of hydro, wind, solar and landfill sources, along with purchases of “renewable energy certificates.” These certificates allow the city to offset the impacts of emissions from non-renewable energy that the Utilities Department purchases from the wholesale market.
Starting next year, the city plans to achieve carbon neutrality without these certificates, which will require investing in renewable energy contracts. The new contract, part of that effort, will also help the city offset the loss of one of its earliest wind contracts, which is set to expire in 2021.
The contract with Hecate was selected from a pool of 41 proposals that the city received in response to a recent request for renewable-energy proposals. Solar projects dominated the proposals, according to Stack, constituting 32 of the 41 projects, including the 10 with the lowest rates.
The Hecate project will be based in Palmdale, in Los Angeles County, and will provide 75,000 megawatt-hours of electricity per year at a total cost not to exceed $101 million over 40 years (which includes the initial 25-year period and three possible extensions).
The council’s Finance Committee happily recommended approval of the project, with Councilman Greg Schmid congratulating Utilities Department staff on obtaining such a good deal and Councilman Cory Wolbach saying that his main concern is that it is “may be too good to be true.” Their colleagues, Chair Eric Filseth and Councilwoman Karen Holman agreed, ensuring a unanimous vote of support.
The contract is now expected to be approved by the full City Council.
The Carmel Valley Recreation Center will soon play a part in helping the city reach its renewable energy goals as outlined in San Diego’s recently-approved Climate Action Plan as the facility on Townsgate Drive has been tapped for the installation of rooftop and parking lot solar panels.The project has been approved by the Carmel Valley Recreation Council and came before the Carmel Valley Community Planning Board as an informational item on Jan. 28.San Diego City Council adopted its Climate Action Plan in December, which mandates reducing greenhouse gases 50 percent by 2035, more ambitious than Governor Jerry Brown’s goal of 40 percent by 2030.The plan includes five main strategies to reach the reduction of greenhouse gas targets: energy and water efficient buildings, clean and renewable energy, bicycling, walking and transit, zero waste and climate resiliency.James Chen, from San Diego’s environmental services department, said in 2014, the city completed a solar assessment of over 200 city facilities and identified the top 25 sites where solar could be installed to generate approximately 6.6 megawatts. Among the top sites was the Carmel Valley Recreation Center.Chen said the systems will be developed, financed, installed and maintained through a third party power purchase agreement. The city will sign a 20-year agreement with the third party to provide energy at a price lower than SDG&E.The Carmel Valley project includes carport canopies ranging in size from 70 to 100 feet in width over parking lot spaces, as well as 13.2 square feet of roof-mounted panels atop the recreation center building. The system’s 280 kilowatts of solar energy generated will be used to offset 75 percent of the recreation center and pool’s energy usage, Chen said, noting the city will also be looking for ways to be more energy efficient with lighting and heating, ventilation and air conditioning upgrades.“The project will cut down on greenhouse gases and help the city achieve its Climate Action Plan goals to reach 100 percent renewable energy by 2035,” Chen said.The proposed project is anticipated to start in spring 2016 and be completed by fall.
The sounds of city vehicles on Los Angeles streets are about to get a bit quieter.
Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Friday the city will least 160 pure battery electric vehicles, which reduce greenhouse emissions and also make less noise.
The Los Angeles Police Department will use 100 of the vehicles, while the fire department, general services and water and power department will lease the remaining 60. More than 100 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles will also be acquired.
Garcetti says the new vehicles will make Los Angeles home to the largest city-owned fleet of pure battery electric cars in the country.
General Manager Marcie Edwards with the LADWP says the vehicles include plug-in hybrid trucks which are friendlier to neighborhoods because they are better for air quality and also quieter.
TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwired – July 31, 2015) – Bullfrog Power®, Canada’s leading green energy provider, and PortsToronto, which owns and operates Toronto’s Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, are announcing that the airport’s pedestrian tunnel, which opened to the public on July 30, 2015, will be bullfrogpowered with 100 per cent renewable electricity.
“By choosing Bullfrog Power’s green electricity for the pedestrian tunnel, PortsToronto is reducing its environmental impact while supporting the development of new green energy projects in communities across Canada,” said Ron Seftel, CEO, Bullfrog Power.
Through the agreement, Bullfrog Power’s generators put 100 per cent renewable electricity onto the grid to match the amount of power the pedestrian tunnel uses. Across Canada, Bullfrog Power’s green electricity comes from a blend of wind and low-impact hydro power sourced from new Canadian renewable energy facilities.
Bullfrogpowering the pedestrian tunnel includes green electricity for 42 state-of-the-art LED and LCD features along the tunnel walls that enable travellers who are walking along the pathway or standing on the moving sidewalks to view and engage with the screens as they make the six-minute journey under the Western Gap to the island-side atrium.
“PortsToronto is committed to sustainability, which is why we are the only airport in Canada to choose renewable energy for all of our facilities and operations,” said Geoffrey Wilson, CEO, PortsToronto. “With the opening of our innovative new pedestrian tunnel this week, that commitment will extend below ground with the tunnel being powered entirely by Bullfrog Power’s green energy.”
Bullfrog Power, Canada’s leading green energy provider, offers renewable energy solutions that enable individuals and businesses to reduce their environmental impact, support the development of green energy projects in Canada and help create a cleaner, healthier world. As a Certified B Corporation, Bullfrog Power meets higher standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. Thousands of individuals and businesses in Canada are doing their part to address climate change and air pollution by choosing green energy with Bullfrog Power. Sign up easily, quickly and affordably at bullfrogpower.com.
Join the bullfrogpowered community online on Facebook (@bullfrogpower).
About PortsToronto
For more than 100 years PortsToronto, (formerly the Toronto Port Authority), has worked with its partners at the federal, provincial and municipal levels to enhance the economic growth of the City of Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area. PortsToronto owns and operates Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, which welcomes more than two million passengers each year; the Outer Harbour Marina, one of Canada’s largest freshwater marinas; and, Terminals 51 and 52, which provide transportation, distribution, storage and container services to businesses at the Port of Toronto. PortsToronto is committed to fostering strong, healthy and sustainable communities and has invested more than $6.7 million since 2009 in charitable initiatives and environmental programs that benefit communities along Toronto’s waterfront and beyond. PortsToronto operates in accordance with the Canada Marine Act and is guided by a nine-member board with representation from all three levels of government. www.portstoronto.com
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.
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.
MIDDLETOWN >> A local solar power company is looking to add two more solar arrays to its city catalog.
GreenSkies Renewable Energy met with the Economic Development Commission Wednesday to outline proposals for solar arrays at the transfer station on Johnson Street and a plot of land on Berlin Street adjacent to the water department building.
Both properties are owned by the city. The utility would build the arrays on its own dime, and the city would commit to buying the power the arrays produce for the next 20 years. GreenSkies’ projections indicate the city would pay a substantially lower rate for the solar power than it would to a traditional utility company.
The EDC voted to recommend to the city council to allow the mayor to sign a contract. That’s expect to take place at the council’s June meeting.
Andrew Chester, a senior vice president for GreenSkies, told EDC that the company would begin selling power to the city at nine cents per kilowatt hour, well under the 16.8 cents per kilowatt hour the city pays Connecticut Light & Power. The rate will increase incrementally each year should remain much lower than traditional utility rates.
The Berlin Street plot is the same piece of land where Animal Control Officer Gail Petras has proposed building a city animal shelter, although Mayor Dan Drew said that proposal “is still in very formative stages.” Chester indicated that the layout for that array was flexible.
SAN DIEGO — San Diego homeowners got a much easier and more affordable way Tuesday to install solar power and make other upgrades that improve energy efficiency and shrink utility bills.
The City Council unanimously approved allowing owners of residential properties to pay for such projects without any up-front costs as part of the state’s “property assessed clean energy” program.
The program was previously open only to the owners of commercial properties, including apartment buildings with at least four units, and residential properties with no mortgages.
Instead of paying for the upgrades immediately, homeowners can now secure private loans from lenders participating in the program and then pay the money back over several years as a surcharge on their property tax bills.
City officials said reductions in utility bills will often be larger than the property tax surcharges.
“It’s a slam-dunk kind of economic stimulus,” Councilwoman Marti Emerald said.
Councilwoman Lori Zapf called the inclusion of residential properties “a long time coming,” noting that former Mayor Jerry Sanders began pursuing such a loan program several years ago.
Industry officials said two-thirds of applicants seeking loans from the program are typically approved.
San Diego joins several other local cities that have approved such programs, including Oceanside, Carlsbad, Vista, San Marcos, Lemon Grove and Solana Beach.
An estimated 80 of California’s nearly 550 cities and counties are participating, city officials said. They estimated the programs have created more than $400 million in economic activity across the state.
Adding residential properties to San Diego’s program is expected to create many local jobs and reduce energy use, a greater regional priority since the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station ceased operations last June.
Drawbacks for homeowners include possible hurdles refinancing their mortgages or selling their homes. Some buyers might request homeowners pay off the debt before a purchase can be completed, city officials said.
In addition, city officials said homeowners that have mortgages funded by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac could be at greater risk.
The Federal Housing Finance Administration, which regulates those lenders, has imposed special restrictions on mortgages where homeowners have participated in energy-efficiency loan programs because the loans for energy upgrades have priority over mortgage loans.
That decision curbed the spread of the program, but the state passed legislation last year that aims to help homeowners with loans from Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac participate.
The state set aside $10 million over 10 years to cover any outstanding debts for energy-efficient upgrades owed by homeowners who had Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loans.
Deputy City Attorney Brant Will said city officials are optimistic the state set aside enough money, but he said the city will warn homeowners of the possible risks.
Will also said rising property values make it less likely homeowners participating in the program will struggle to refinance or sell their homes because they are expected to have accumulated significant equity.
The two lenders participating in San Diego’s program are the Western Riverside Coalition of Governments and the California Enterprise Development Authority.
Will said the city also plans to add a third program in the next few months called Ygrene, which the city of Chula Vista has chosen for its energy-efficient loan program. Under Ygrene, the loans are paid back as part of a community facilities or Mello-Roos district.
