bluecurl.ca

By Alyssa Danigelis

Noise from wind turbine blades, inadvertent bat and bird kills and even the way wind turbines look have made installing them anything but a breeze. New York design firm Atelier DNA has an alternative concept that ditches blades in favor of stalks. Resembling thin cattails, the Windstalks generate electricity when the wind sets them waving. The designers came up with the idea for the planned city Masdar, a 2.3-square-mile, automobile-free area being built outside of Abu Dhabi. Atelier DNA’s “Windstalk”project came in second in the Land Art Generator competition a contest sponsored by Madsar to identify the best work of art that generates renewable energy from a pool of international submissions.

By Dan Ferguson – Langley Times

Published: January 04, 2012 10:00

A report on two public forums to discuss the future direction of  the Langley school system expresses concern about a lack of “adequate technology” at some schools.

“Access to technology varies from site to site and the equality of access was noted as a concern by a few of the attendees,” said the report by assistant school superintendent Suzanne Hoffman.

The two forums, in March and October, drew about 150 people, including teachers, support staff, parents students and administrators,

Then-board of education chair Rob McFarlane called the forums “very, very successful.”

“I was quite impressed,” McFarlane said.

The Hoffman report said participants recognized “that in Langley schools there are exceptional practices and outstanding staff working diligently to meet the needs of all students” adding the participants “valued the opportunity to engage in a meaningful and constructive dialogue.”

The report said the recommendations from the forums mostly agree with the direction provincial Education Minister George Abbott outlined in October of this year when the province unveiled a five-point plan that calls for personalized teaching, “quality” learning, more flexibility, “high standards” and “learning empowered by technology.”

According to some participants, the last principle, using technology like the internet to aid learning, needs some work because not all schools have the same level of equipment.

The Hoffman report suggests the school district align its plans with the provincial government, and make sure school facilities can accommodate the new technologies.

It also recommends holding more public forums.

Psst. Hey you. I know a little something about you. Let me guess:

• You     own a bike — or a public transit pass, or a pair of boots made for     walkin’ — and you use it.
• You     think seeing a recyclable plastic bottle tossed in the trash is akin to     witnessing the clubbing of a baby seal.
• You     consider Organic, Seasonal, and Local the holy trinity of foodstuffs.
• You     slurp your French roast from a reusable mug, you turn off your CFLs when     you’re not home, and you generally give a crap about climate change and     deforestation and clean water and all that heavy stuff.

I know. Me too — well, kinda. Yes, I’m part of the “Green Is The New Black” generation. Yes, I’m a devout recycler, I want to save the spotted owl, and I feel a personally responsibility for the abysmal state of the planet. But like a lot of Americans, I haven’t fully committed to the uber-green lifestyle. I don’t have a composting toilet. I don’t even have a backyard clothesline. Sometimes I take two showers a day — hot ones.

That’s where the Greenie Pig comes in.

Read more —-> http://www.grist.org/green-living-tips/2011-09-22-meet-the-greenie-pig

Virtual Computing

Click on the above heading to see a great article written about School District 6 and how virtual computing saved their classrooms!

Gas powered everything

Posted by Michael Lee http://www.cleanenergyandtechnologyblog.com/british-columbia-bc/bc-municipalities-addressing-climate-change-through-new-regulation/

In partnership with the provincial government, thirty-six BC municipalities have opted into a new regulation that requires all new homes to be built “solar hot water ready.” While not requiring the installation of solar hot water systems in new housing, the regulation will require new construction to be built to allow easy installation of these systems and this will include making provision for an area for a solar collector.

Because solar power is not a viable renewable option in many communities in BC, the provincial government decided to make the new regulation optional. The regulation came into effect on June 21, 2011 and the province estimates that it will add between $200 and $500 to the cost of constructing a new home where the regulation applies.  The province also estimates that the installation of a solar hot water system in a single-family home could reduce the GHG emissions of that household by as much as two tonnes per year.

The regulation is a good example of how governments can use forward-looking laws to make future reductions in GHG emissions much easier and cheaper. By adding a relatively small amount to the cost of building a house, the regulation ensures that new homes are equipped for an easy transition to a green energy option. With solar technology expected to improve significantly over the next few years, this regulation will ensure that the opt in communities will be ready for an easier transition.

For more on the regulation and for a list of the communities that have opted into the regulation, click here.

Pumping water is energy intensive to begin with. But when the water has to be lifted straight up and out of the ground, and 8 million fish depend on it for life support, you’ve got an energy efficiency project with some unusual complexities.

That’s why the Freshwater Fisheries Society of B.C., or “Go Fish BC” worked with BC Hydro’s Conservation Innovation group to explore options for saving money at their fish hatchery operations. After a successful demonstration project, the non-profit anticipates saving an impressive 40% on its annual electricity costs – and as much on maintenance too.

This is no “big fish” story.

Pumping: life support for fish

“We stock 7-8 million fish per year into about 800 lakes and streams around B.C.,” says Ray Billings, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives for Go Fish BC, and its energy manager.

The organization is primarily funded by revenues from fishing licenses, and operates five hatcheries across the province. The Vancouver Island Trout Hatchery, based in Duncan, was the location of the demonstration efficiency project.

“We need a disease-free source of water, so all of our hatcheries use ground water,” says Billings. “We pump water from 20-30 metres underground to 10 metres above ground so it can drop through an aeration column to add oxygen.

“Electrical energy is our second-largest expense, and about 60-70% of all of our electrical energy is consumed through the pumping of water to fish. And with our current system, we use the water once and then it’s discharged.”

Billings says that made it easy to identify pumping as the “low-hanging fruit” in terms of finding energy efficiencies. “Having said that, fish take oxygen out of that water, so it’s a critical life support system,” he says. “You want to reduce your pumping, but you have to keep your fish alive and healthy at the same time.”

Goal: reduce and reuse water

To reduce costs, they needed to focus on the key points where energy is consumed (lifting water) and the key requirements for reusing water – it must be re-oxygenated, it must be cleansed of excess carbon dioxide, and it has to keep moving through the tank systems.

The answer lay in adapting technology that’s common in sewage treatment plants – using a blower to both lift and cleanse used water.

“Now we have an air lift process, where about 75% of the water that’s passed through the fish is recirculated,” says Billings. “We use a blower pump that in one step aerates, strips carbon dioxide, and raises the water up so it can flow back through the fish again – a bit like taking a straw and blowing into a glass of water.”

Rather than pumping new water as much as 40m vertically, the system only needs to lift water a few centimetres. That means money back in the bank.

40% less electricity; $160,000 less cost

“This has allowed us to reduce our water consumption and therefore electrical consumption, to about 40% of what we were previously using,” says Billings. “It’s a huge drop. How many businesses are able to achieve a 40% drop overall in consumption through one technology?”

Once implemented across Go Fish BC’s full operations, Billings estimates savings of about $160,000 per year in electricity costs. There are other benefits too.

“When you pump a lot of water from wells you eventually have to redevelop those wells because they get fouled up over time,” says Billings. “The new system reduces wear and tear on our pumps and our wells.”

Billings says maintenance savings are expected to nearly match the savings on electricity.

Meanwhile the Duncan hatchery, which uses up to 25 million litres of water per day – or the same amount as a small city with 80,000 people – will drop its water consumption by 75%.

“We stretch our water resources, which is a good thing; if we ever need to expand, we’ve freed up water that we can access in the future,” says Billings. “Reducing groundwater withdrawals is also good for the environment as that water will eventually be used by other organisms, including people.

“Finally, the new system also improves the cleaning of these fish tanks, so that’s selfishly a good thing too.”

And the fish like it.

“The oxygen doesn’t start high and get low by the end of the tank. It’s kept at an optimum level throughout,” says Billings.

BC Hydro a ‘hugely supportive partner’

The air lift demonstration project was the result of several years of collaboration between BC Hydro and the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC.

“They came to us and suggested we look at their Power Smart program,” says Billings. “So we signed an energy manager agreement, we’ve done energy audits and detailed energy studies. They’ve been a hugely supportive partner to us in achieving our goals of reducing energy; they’ve guided us through the process.

“Now, we’d like to spread this success story to other fish-hatchery operations across Canada and North America.”

Go Fish BC is continuing with various energy efficiency initiatives, including a lighting upgrade, studies to determine if they can downsize their pumps and add variable speed drives, and engaging employees in an energy awareness team.

“It’s really a paradigm shift for our organization to go from a single-pass system into an in-tank water recirculation system, and getting everybody conscious of energy goals,” says Billings. “As a non-profit, it’s important for us to reduce costs. We can use the money we save to provide other services for the public, such as enhanced stocking of lakes, installation of angling docks, and improved angler access to the fish that we stock.

“We would have only touched the outer surfaces of energy reduction if we did this on our own. The support from BC Hydro allowed us to put more resources into it and get into it in a bigger way, and that’s been a huge benefit to us.”

from http://www.bchydro.com/news/articles/conservation/2011/go-fish-bc.html

METRO VANCOUVER – A mass-burn incinerator sits along the Seine River in downtown Paris quietly turning the city’s garbage into ash. Embassies in Copenhagen are a block away from a waste-to-energy plant. In Switzerland, 30 incinerators dot mostly densely populated valleys of the country.

People usually don’t even know they’re there, said Metro Vancouver director and Surrey Coun. Marvin Hunt.

Metro is pointing to the European Union, which has 450 mass-burn incinerators, as it pushes ahead with plans to investigate options for a $450-million facility in or outside the Lower Mainland as part of its solid-waste management plan.

The plan recommends using waste “conversion technologies,” such as anaerobic digestion, gasification or mass burn, to dispose of 500,000 tonnes of the region’s garbage annually and generate heat and electricity.

“The reality is there’s not an air quality issue here; the reality is there’s a perception of an air quality issue,” Hunt said. “We would be working at the same standards [as the EU] for this and you’d be having some of the best air coming out.”

The City of Surrey has already expressed interest in building an incinerator in its centre, while New Westminster is reportedly eyeing a site within its boundaries.

U.S.-based Covanta Energy has also pitched a trash incinerator for Gold River, while there’s another proposal for one on the Tsawwassen First Nation reserve.

The Paris plant, which opened in December 2007, treats more than 460,000 tonnes per year of household waste while producing 52 megawatts of electricity and district heating for about 79,000 houses and apartments.

“We’ll be looking at the best emissions levels in the world and that’s where we will start from,” said Port Coquitlam Mayor Greg Moore, chairman of Metro’s waste-management committee.

Dennis Ranahan, Metro’s division manager for solid waste planning, said waste-to-energy technologies are constantly evolving, making it easier to control emissions through high-temperature destruction of toxic materials, advanced emissions control systems to capture contaminants and better monitoring systems.

Upgrades to the Burnaby incinerator, which has been in place since 1988, have led to emissions below the Canadian standard, he noted.

But no incinerators will be emissions-free.

“You’re still burning something somewhere; it depends on what the exact nature of the fuels that are burnt and what the emissions-control systems are,” he said.

That’s what worries Fraser Valley residents; they fear toxins will be spewed into their communities and trapped there, leading to potential health problems.

But B.C.’s chief medical officer Dr. Perry Kendall suggests the Fraser Valley’s air quality issues could be more adversely affected by a growing population and increased traffic than incinerators, which can be controlled through proper emissions standards.

“Currently [Fraser Valley residents] do have a lot of emissions from Metro Vancouver and south of the border,” Kendall said. “But plans to double the population base in the valley is going to contribute a significant amount of traffic. Without [better transit] this will contribute more to air quality than a well-managed plant can do.”

Moore argues Metro will have to meet “prescriptive” emissions controls and conditions that include working with the Fraser Valley Regional District to address air quality concerns. Metro must also go through a competitive bid process for plant proposals both in and outside the Lower Mainland.

A 2005 Metro report found waste management only accounted for 0.3 per cent of emissions in the region. Heating accounted for 20 per cent, open burning for 15 per cent and non-road uses for 12 per cent.

Hunt said it will likely take at least three years before any project is contemplated, noting it has to go through extensive consultation with the public as well as the Fraser Valley. The incinerator is being proposed by Metro Vancouver to take the pressure off the Cache Creek dump, which is slated to close in 2016.

Metro Vancouver produces about 1.4 million tonnes of garbage every year. The draft solid-waste management plan aims to raise recycling rates from 55 per cent of garbage today to 70 per cent by 2015, with the remaining 30 per cent — about one million tonnes — burned or buried.

from http://www.globaltvbc.com/health/Burning+trash+success+Metro+Vancouver+board/5166745/story.html

the blog team is going on a summer vacation so there won’t be any new posts until the week of July 25th. We all hope you enjoy reading our newest post on the Antigonish Library while we are away