Energy Exchange

Waste Not, Want Not: Finding Energy Savings At A Waste Water Treatment Plant

By EDF Blogs / Published: August 12, 2011

By: Mohammad Sayemuzzaman, 2011 Climate Corps Public Sector Fellow at Elizabeth City, NC; PhD candidate at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University

As an EDF Climate Corps Public Sector fellow at Elizabeth City in North Carolina, I spent five weeks finding ways to reduce energy waste at the city’s waste water treatment plant, which serves 20,000 people. I asked myself, “Why do we spend so much money to process waste? And can we cut energy usage while meeting state and federal regulations for waste treatment?”

As the first and only EDF fellow at a waste water treatment plant, I had to lay the groundwork for future fellows: Read and understand the federal regulations, gather plant design blueprints, make a list of the special equipment, and determine the baseline energy usage. I interviewed the director of the Public Works department, the plant manager, the head of operations, and the energy officer. I learned that the plant’s motors and pumps are the most energy intensive parts, adding up to 85-95% of total electricity usage. I identified two giant motors and six pumps that run 24/7, which make up 60-70% of total energy usage. I found cost and energy savings by finding ways to make these motors and pumps run more efficiently and having a few go offline when they’re not needed.

In addition to the plant, I also investigated Elizabeth City’s Parks and Recreations Center and the Senior Center, built in 1976 and 1991. Since the centers were built, there haven’t been any upgrades on lighting, insulation, or HVAC. These facilities are very popular with the city’s residents and provide social outlets for teenagers and senior citizens. There are basketball games every two weeks in the Recreation Center’s 12,000 square feet gymnasium. My challenge involved planning the installation of an energy efficient HVAC system at the gym, while making sure people stayed comfortable. As for the lighting, the high bay lights in the gym had the biggest potential for energy and cost reduction. Both centers also can benefit from entire upgrades to energy efficient lighting.

With the training from EDF, support from Elizabeth City’s staff, and help from an amazing EDF Climate Corps Public Sector staff, I found many ways to cut greenhouse gas pollution, trim electricity bills, and pave the way for energy efficiency at a waste water treatment plant. I’m looking forward to finding more savings for Elizabeth City.

EDF Climate Corps Public Sector (CCPS) trains graduate students to identify energy efficiency savings in colleges, universities, local governments and houses of worship. The program focuses on partnerships with minority serving institutions and diverse communities. Apply as a CCPS fellow, read our blog posts and follow us on Twitter to get regular updates about this program.

Posted in EDF Climate Corps / Read 1 Response

DOE Panel Offers Consensus Guidelines For Extracting Natural Gas Safely

By Mark Brownstein / Published: August 11, 2011

Natural gas plays an important role in our nation’s economy, and has the potential to help reduce greenhouse gas pollution, bolster energy security, and reinvigorate domestic manufacturing. Unfortunately, these potential benefits are jeopardized by inconsistent and often poor natural gas production practices, leading to real threats to public health and the environment, that understandably engender community opposition to natural gas production.

To say the natural gas industry has a credibility problem is an understatement. If the recent spate of critical articles in the New York Times escaped your attention, than perhaps you saw this recent bit on the Colbert Report, which demonstrates, among other things, that the general public has little understanding for the complex issues surrounding shale gas development, and the industry has been doing little to engage them in a serious way. The Colbert bit is funny, but the need to get the shale gas issue right is no joke.

In March, President Obama directed Energy Secretary Steven Chu to appoint a group of energy and environmental experts to study the issue. EDF President (and my boss) Fred Krupp was appointed to the panel. During 90 days of intensive investigation and deliberation, the panel, chaired by MIT professor John Deutch, held a series of public hearings. They heard from industry officials, environmental leaders, federal and state regulators, scientists and others. They visited well sites to see drilling and production first hand. They held a public meeting in southern Pennsylvania to hear directly from people who are living with intensive shale gas development – both the good and the bad. Supporters and opponents packed the auditorium and told stories about how the shale gas boom had affected them. For some, it had provided an economic lifeline. For others, it had made life a nightmare.

And today, after much study and deliberation, the committee has issued a report with some very specific recommendations which, if implemented, could materially reduce the risks to public health and environment from shale gas development and begin to build public trust.

The report calls for increased oversight: robust enforcement practices and modernized rules to safeguard communities and improve communication between state and federal regulators. The report makes it clear that “effective and capable regulation is essential to protect the public interest. The challenges of protecting human health and the environment in light of the anticipated rapid expansion of shale gas production require the joint efforts of federal and state regulators. This means that resources dedicated to oversight of the industry must be sufficient to do the job and there is adequate regulatory staff at the state and federal level with the technical expertise to issue, inspect and enforce regulations.”

The report also makes clear that regulation alone will not be enough. It calls for the full public disclosure of all chemicals used in the process of hydraulic fracturing. It calls for gathering the data necessary to determine whether, and to what degree natural gas provides greenhouse gas benefits when substituted for coal or oil in energy production or transportation. It recommends that the industry get its own house in order by organizing itself to identify and share best practices across the industry with a relentless focus on continuous improvement in reducing air and water pollution and other environmental harms.

These recommendations won’t solve all problems, and there is much work to be done simply to make these recommendations a reality, but today’s report is an important step in getting beyond the comedy bits and headlines to focus on those measures that can make a material difference in improving public health and the environment.

Posted in Natural Gas, Washington, DC / Read 2 Responses

Energy Efficiency In The Catacombs

By EDF Blogs / Published: August 10, 2011

By: Koko Iyoho, 2011 Climate Corps Public Sector Fellow at Trinity Episcopal Church in Asheville, North Carolina; MGIM graduate from North Carolina State University

My EDF Climate Corps Public Sector fellowship took me to Trinity Episcopal Church in Asheville, North Carolina. Listed in the National Register of Historical Places, Trinity is a 100-year-old structure that has 30,000 square feet. Trinity has three floors with two stained-glass enclosed sanctuaries, which illustrate the stories of the early church. Achieving energy savings without compromising the integrity of historical buildings poses quite a challenge. However, before my arrival, the church already took commendable energy efficiency initiatives: replacing 70% of T12 fluorescents with T8s, installing Energy Star office equipment, and upgrading its HVAC system. I found a lot of energy savings, but my most exciting finding took me to an unexpected place – “The Catacombs.”

My search for energy efficiency had begun with the basic areas of lighting and temperature settings. I found savings by installing lower wattage bulbs, replacing incandescent lights with fluorescents, switching to LED exit signs, and using temperature controls and setbacks. These retrofits showed significant energy and cost savings, but my financial analysis showed room for improvement. One clue was the basement floor, which has an uninterrupted cold air supply. The mystery was that Trinity’s basement had exceptionally high humidity levels despite the use of several dehumidifiers. To solve this puzzle, I put on my detective goggles and joined a weatherization expert to investigate the source of the high humidity. Our quest led us to “The Catacombs.”

The basement is referred to as The Catacombs because of its likeness to ancient underground cemeteries, but thankfully, without burial chambers. It is an underground area consisting of a network of tunnels, pipes, and ducts, but also of several mounds of bare earth. Basements are naturally prone to high levels of humidity because of moisture seeping from the earth outside the walls and floors. In this case, mounds of earth are piled up inside a significant portion of the basement, contributing to higher than normal humidity levels. We had solved the mystery. Also, according to the weatherization specialist, if the bare earth is encapsulated with a vapor barrier, along with other weatherization opportunities we identified, there is potential to save the church about 15% in heating and cooling costs with a 9-year payback. What great energy savings!

With this finding, The Catacombs would no longer contribute to rising energy consumption at Trinity… not unless actual ghosts moved in.

Posted in EDF Climate Corps / Comments are closed

The Sun Is Shining At Groce United Methodist Church

By EDF Blogs / Published: August 8, 2011

By: Sam Sink, 2011 Climate Corps Public Sector Fellow at Groce United Methodist Church in Asheville, NC; M.S. Technology candidate at Appalachian State University

As an EDF Climate Corps Public Sector fellow at Groce United Methodist Church in Asheville, North Carolina, I have the opportunity to make a positive impact on the community. Because churches have historically been places where people share ideas and learn about emerging world trends, it is fitting that I am at Groce sharing ways to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas pollution.

I began with a traditional energy assessment of the church’s electrical systems and building usage to establish a baseline for energy consumption. So far, I have identified energy cost savings that could reduce the current electrical consumption by 25%. This amounts to 30,000 kWh saved and 20 tons of carbon dioxide reduced. Groce and I are pleased with these savings, but I had to come up with creative ideas to raise the bar and save more energy.

Inspiration came to me one hot day in June… Solar energy!

I have a background in renewable energy generation, which helped me analyze options for solar panels to curb energy consumption. I identified a section of roof at Groce that had perfect southern exposure and conducted a site assessment that yielded impressive results.

The roof site I identified has the potential to carry a 20kW photovoltaic array, which will reduce Groce’s energy requirements from the grid by an additional 19% and eliminate another 16 tons of carbon dioxide. The solar panel payback period is 5 years, and it has the potential to offset carbon pollution from coal fired power plants for 30 years.

The greatest benefit from the photovoltaic array is not the savings or the reduced carbon load, but the educational awareness. By exposing the children of the community at Groce and Asheville to renewable energy technology, and providing a sense of pride and ownership of the solar panels, we are fostering conversations about energy in the years to come. The installation of solar panels at Groce will spread the message that energy savings strategies are more than traditional lighting retrofits and programmable thermostats. I look forward to hearing buzz from the congregation and community about how cool it is that Groce is leading the way to a green future.

Posted in EDF Climate Corps / Read 2 Responses

Is Government Getting Out Of The Clean Energy Business?

By Andy Darrell / Published: August 5, 2011

Source: Front Page Magazine

Tuesday’s debt deal makes one thing clear: whatever it is that you may want government to spend money on, there will likely be less money to go around in the future. That said, I think it’s time to rethink government’s role in the clean energy marketplace. Whether or not it has money to spend, governments at all levels can do a lot to build a robust American market for clean energy. Here are some suggested ways forward:

First, engage the private sector. Our government is highly skilled and effective when it comes to enabling clean energy research, which in turn leads to high-risk investments in emerging clean technologies, but it cannot pay for everything. This is not the era of the New Deal, and we’re not China. We are, however, a nation of innovators with the ability to mobilize private capital second to none. So let’s get innovators, entrepreneurs and regulators in a room together and begin to work on projects that establish what economists have been telling us for years: clean energy and efficiency will make and save money. In some places, government can be a convener – for example, cities across the country (and the world) could work with their real estate and banking communities to aggregate efficiency upgrades at a scale large enough to attract major investment from institutional investors and other sources of capital. Government could basically be a source of data and the initial step in drawing parties together to help broker deals

Second, lead by example and cut waste. From energy needed to fuel our troops on the front lines to the air conditioning used for government officials in Washington and state and local capitols – there’s a huge amount of money to be saved and strategic advantage to be won by running our government’s own energy use more effectively. In fact, EDF’s Climate Corps Public Sector is currently engaging in this type of exercise in its efforts to reduce the New York City Housing Authority’s (NYCHA) energy use by more than 45 percent. These types of energy efficiency efforts should appeal to all sides of the political aisle: government will do more with less; we’ll send less money overseas for imported oil; we’ll pioneer new technologies through smart energy applications; and Americans will be put to work upgrading government buildings with less wasteful technology. If there’s a role for money here, it’s to finance upfront costs that get replenished out of energy savings – possibly a mix of private and public capital.

Finally, open the energy marketplace to truly fair competition. America’s utilities are governed by an arcane mix of rules that get in the way of innovation and tend to favor traditional fossil fuels. Our grid is a long way from a smart grid. Don’t even get me started on subsidies for oil and coal companies. Rules that shape the energy market and grid are set at the federal, regional and state levels. It’s time for a national effort to make it easier for households and businesses to use renewable sources of energy like solar and wind, as well as enable drivers to plug in their electric cars. Homes and businesses should be able to sell extra solar electricity into the grid easily and without limit. There should be a simple way to aggregate the benefits of efficiency; for example, consumers should be able to sell saved energy to compete with new power plants and this cleaner energy should be valued by regulators on par with new supply. Consumers should be able to charge electric cars at off-peak times, which could end up costing as little as about three cents a mile to operate. We can have all this – if we get the rules right at Public Utility Commissions (PUCs) across the country.

The role of government would change. It would become a source of data, culled from public sources like demographics and building department filings. It would help ensure that information is disclosed, like the SEC requires disclosure of information to investors on the stock market. It would change the rules to remove barriers to clean-energy investment inherent in our current electric grids and markets. It would use its bully pulpit not to harangue, but to create the negotiating table around which unlikely partners come together. It would enforce rules clearly and consistently to protect health and environment. It would use its own buildings, agencies, vehicles and supply chain to test and develop technologies – to be out front and demonstrate what works. And where possible, it could be a source of grants or loans, but that role would be overshadowed by the value of the vibrant private energy market that it would support by doing all of these other described duties.

If the government commits to moving ahead in this way, America will leap ahead in the clean energy sector – and we’ll be moving so fast that its citizens will barely have time to lament the relatively smaller amount of government spending.

Posted in Energy Efficiency, Grid Modernization, Renewable Energy, Washington, DC / Read 1 Response

The Thermostat Game

By EDF Blogs / Published: August 5, 2011

By: Eliza Davis, 2011 Climate Corps Public Sector Fellow at Shaw University in Raleigh, NC; MEM candidate at the Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University

My first month as a Climate Corps Public Sector fellow at Shaw University in Raleigh, NC, has flown by. My EDF partner, Jen Weiss, and I had a whirlwind of meetings with energy specialists, and have explored the ins and outs of Shaw’s campus. We have ventured far and wide in search of energy savings, checking natural gas meters and counting the number of light bulbs in classroom buildings. However, we made one of our greatest discoveries in our very own workspace.

Jen and I work in Estey Hall, a beautiful, red brick administration building. It was constructed in 1864 as a dormitory for women. Because of its age, the building is difficult to uniformly heat and cool. Walking through the hallways and into rooms, we noticed defined layers of temperature. We decided to track thermostat settings to get to the bottom of these temperature discrepancies. What we found surprised us!

Not only were many of the thermostats set at 70 degrees or below, but many newer programmable thermostats were on the energy wasting ‘hold’ setting. This means that the rooms are kept at the same temperature, day or night, full or empty, and regardless of outdoor temperature. Programmable thermostats can reduce energy costs by allowing you to set different temperatures based on the time of day and expected room occupancy.

After figuring out the reasons behind the layers of temperature at Estey Hall, we expanded our investigation to thermostats around campus. We uncovered thermostats of all styles and ages: small square controls that only allow for an up or down adjustment, fancy programmable models, and rectangular hotel-style air conditioner units that have ‘warmer’ to ‘cooler’ dials. Overall, we found that despite the type of thermostat, most offices, classrooms, and meeting spaces were kept cool all day long.

So began our experiment to see if anyone would notice slight increases in temperature in large meeting spaces. We increased a few of the 69-degree thermostats to a range between 72 and 76 degrees. Thus began the thermostat game. Every morning we rushed eagerly to thermostats to check the settings, and lo and behold – the thermostats were reset and left at or below 70 degrees.

Our survey of Shaw’s thermostats showed us that there is a significant potential for savings with temperature management. In the history of the Climate Corps Public Sector program, temperature management makes up one-third of projected energy savings. Shaw University can easily reduce energy use and carbon pollution through the introduction of more programmable thermostats and a campus-wide energy management system.

The thermostat game taught us the most important lesson: A device is only as good as its operation. We recognize now that energy conservation education will be an important part of our recommendations for Shaw, and we are excited about developing ways to raise awareness about energy use on campus.

Posted in EDF Climate Corps / Tagged Shaw University - 2011 | Read 1 Response