Hill Heat

In today’s executive session on the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, the Senate Finance Committee passed by a 14-7 vote a package that includes $5.6 billion in “green” incentives, including $400 million in new “clean renewable energy bonds”, a one-year extensions for:

• the renewable electricity production credit
• solar, fuel cell, and microturbine credits
• energy-efficient building deductions and credits;

and two-year extensions for:

• the high-efficiency appliances manufacturing credit
• stripper well depreciation credit
• energy-efficient home retrofitting credit

Full details are available here.

Last Friday, 33 senators sent a letter to the Committee leadership urging support for renewable energy, energy efficiency, and green jobs incentives.

According to the Sierra Club, by today the number of Senators was up to forty:

Senators who have expressed support for the inclusion of the renewable energy incentives include: Cantwell, Snowe, Wyden, Smith, Klobuchar, Kerry, Sununu, Sanders, Dole, Boxer, Johnson, Allard, Salazar, Mikulski, Stabenow, Murray, Dorgan, Brown, Bayh, Clinton, Collins, Specter, Menendez, Thune, Feingold, Dodd, Levin, Obama, Brownback, Coleman, Murkowski, Feinstein, Schumer, Stevens, Lautenberg, Leahy, Akaka, Kohl, Roberts, Grassley, Bingaman, and Domenici.

In A Solar Grand Plan (Scientific American January 2008), Ken Zweibel (NREL), James Mason (Solar Energy Campaign) and Vasilis Fthenakis (Brookhaven National Photovoltaic Environmental, Health and Safety Research Center) lay out a vision for replacing our fossil fuel-powered electricity production to solar energy. The editorial summary:

A massive switch from coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear power plants to solar power plants could supply 69 percent of the U.S.’s electricity and 35 percent of its total energy by 2050.

A vast area of photovoltaic cells would have to be erected in the Southwest. Excess daytime energy would be stored as compressed air in underground caverns to be tapped during nighttime hours.

Large solar concentrator power plants would be built as well.

A new direct-current power transmission backbone would deliver solar electricity across the country.

But $420 billion in subsidies from 2011 to 2050 would be required to fund the infrastructure and make it cost-competitive.

By way of contrast, the Friends of the Earth analysis finds that Lieberman-Warner (S. 2191) allocates approximately $800 billion in subsidies to the fossil fuel industry, with about $350 billion to subsidize carbon capture and sequestration specifically. About $350 billion is allocated to all sustainable technologies (wind, solar, biomass, geothermal).

The winner of the Solar Decathlon will be announced at the awards ceremony at the conclusion of the Engineering judging.

The Solar Decathlon competition is being held on the National Mall, Washington D.C., from October 12-20, 2007.

Student leaders in architecture and engineering from three universities at the US Solar Decathlon on the Mall discuss special features of their leading-edge, solar-powered houses and how their experience has helped shape their future as innovators. Participants are from the University of Colorado, Boulder – a two-time solar Decathlon winner, Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA) and the University of Maryland, College Park. Panel moderator is Bobbie Faul-Zeitler, editor of Green News Update and mentor to the University of Maryland team. Co-sponsored by the Smithsonian office of Energy Management.

At the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History at 10th Street & Constitution Ave. NW.

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) invites you to a Congressional briefing featuring the Solar Decathlon and the value of incorporating high-performance “green” design in buildings. The briefing will also discuss how provisions in the pending energy bill can help improve efficient homes. Buildings account for more than 40 percent of annual U.S. energy use and are, in turn, responsible for more than one-third of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Because buildings last many decades, the economic, environmental and health impacts of inefficient building design are long-lasting.

The Solar Decathlon-taking place on the National Mall October 12 – 20- is an exciting competition in which 20 teams of college and university students from across the country, including four international teams, compete to design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house. The house must also be able to power an electric vehicle as well as be “off the grid.” These solar homes are powerful, comfortable, and stylish. They are relaxed and elegant, wasting neither space nor energy. High efficiency solar houses like these are using readily available technology and designs-not futuristic concepts. But policies like stronger building codes and the solar provisions in the energy bill are essential in helping make our homes greener and much more efficient-saving both energy and money.

• Rhone Resch, Executive Director, Solar Energy Industries Association
• Dr. Kaye Brubaker, Associate Professor, University of Maryland
• Bill Nesmith, Assistant Director for Conservation, Oregon Department of Energy
• Lowell Ungar, Director of Policy, Alliance to Save Energy

In addition to discussing the Solar Decathlon, the briefing will address the role of codes and standards in building energy efficiency. Measures to promote increased residential building energy efficiency are included in the House energy bill HR 3221, Title IX, Sec. 9031. “Encouraging Stronger Building Codes.” The briefing panel will also discuss the solar provisions in the energy bill, including tax incentives for solar energy.

This briefing is open to the public and no reservations are required. For more information, please contact Fred Beck at fbeck@eesi.org or 202.662.1892.

The Solar Decathlon is a competition in which 20 teams of college and university students compete to design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house. The Solar Decathlon is also an event to which the public is invited to observe the powerful combination of solar energy, energy efficiency, and the best in home design.

The event takes place on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., October 12 – 20. The team houses are open for touring everyday, except Wednesday, October 17, when they will close for competition purposes. An overall winner is announced on Friday, October 19 at 2 p.m.

Teams of college students design a solar house, knowing from the outset that it must be powered entirely by the sun. In a quest to stretch every last watt of electricity that’s generated by the solar panels on their roofs, the students absorb the lesson that energy is a precious commodity. They strive to innovate, using high-tech materials and design elements in ingenious ways. Along the way, the students learn how to raise funds and communicate about team activities. They collect supplies and talk to contractors. They build their solar houses, learning as they go.

The 20 teams transport their solar houses to the competition site on the National Mall and virtually rebuild them in the solar village. Teams assemble their houses, and then the active phase of the Solar Decathlon begins with an opening ceremony for students, media, and invited guests. The teams compete in contests, and even though this part of the Solar Decathlon gets the most attention, the students really win the competition through the many months of fund raising, planning, designing, analyzing, redesigning, and finally building and improving their homes. The public is invited to tour the solar homes and event exhibits during much of the competition.

Awards Ceremony – Winner Announced: 2:00 p.m., Friday, October 19

Houses Open for Public Tours The public is invited to tour the houses during the open hours, listed below. Expect to stand in line to tour the houses. If you wish to see all of the houses, plan to spend two days.

• 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., weekends
• 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m., weekdays

Houses Closed Houses will be closed for 1 – 2 hours while jury evaluations are taking place October 13 – 16 and October 18 – 19. Times vary for each house. All day Wednesday, October 17, the houses are closed for controlled temperature and relative humidity measurements.

Consumer Workshops The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and other event sponsors are offering solar energy and energy efficiency workshops for consumers. Workshops will not be offered on Thursday, October 18, during Building Industry Day. See the daily schedule below for workshop offerings.

Ask the Experts Panel Weekends only: 11:00 am – 1:00 pm and 3:30 pm – 5:30 pm.

A group of green-building experts, coordinated by sponsor Blue Egg, will be on hand to answer questions. (Each presentation will be 30 min, with 10 min for Q&A)

Educational Exhibits Two educational exhibits are open during the following times:

• 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., weekends
• 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m., weekdays

A public demonstration of eight solar cookers on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C. from 12 – 6 PM in Upper House of Representatives Park behind the Longworth Building.

On Friday, the demonstration will be held 12 – 6 PM in Upper Senate Park by the fountain.

According to the EPA, almost three billion people still cook every day with traditional solid fuels (primarily wood, charcoal and animal waste). Their numbers are expected to increase substantially by 2020. The vast majority of these people live within thirty degrees north or south of the equator where the sun shines much of the year. The World Health Organization reports that over 1.5 million people die of respiratory disease each year by inhaling the fumes of their cooking fires. In developing nations millions of women and their children (who should be in school) spend hours each day foraging for fuel, resulting in denuded land, soil erosion, flooding and reduction in forest cover.

Solar cooking can dramatically reduce these problems. Solar cooking, when used as part of an integrated cooking program can reduce fuel consumption by more than 75%.

More than one million solar cookers are in use in China and India alone.

For additional information please contact: Pat McArdle at 703-254-8916/703-578-2932 solarwind1@mac.com