Judy Dorsey

Speaking at the Net Zero Cities Symposium in Fort Collins, Colo., Oct. 16 and 17, Brendle Group President and Principal Engineer Judy Dorsey noted the similarities between delivering clean, safe and affordable water and delivering clean, safe and affordable energy. More people in the world have a cell phone than have access to sanitary toilet facilities, she said. This lack of access to clean water and sanitation kills children at a rate equivalent to a jumbo jet crashing every four hours.

Here in the United States, 70 percent of water use is for agriculture, yet half of the food produced is wasted. One-fifth of the water we distribute is lost to leakage. Almost all of our energy is produced from thermoelectric (89 percent) or hydroelectric (9 percent) systems — systems that, combined, use roughly 2 gallons of water per kilowatt-hour of energy produced. Dorsey described Brendle Group’s work to develop solutions to these problems. She has led the Fort Collins-based firm in more than 200 sustainability projects, and demonstrates on their LEED Gold headquarters many of the technologies Brendle Group investigates.

The group’s activities include combined energy/water audits, developing water footprints and pushing for net-zero planning for both water and energy. A water footprint analysis considers both the water quantity (e.g., consumption) and water quality (e.g., stormwater runoff) impacts for an entity (facility, district, city, etc.). The quantity portion of the footprint involves establishing both the regional annual average precipitation and the annual minimum precipitation (the “dry” years), then determining the existing “business as usual” water usage for the entity over a specified planning horizon (see chart, below, water quantity makes up 60 percent of the total water footprint for this entity). The impact on usage can then be evaluated across various measures, including improved conservation, grey water, landscaping, rainwater harvesting and even water supply credits. These impacts are plotted on the footprint plot to determine which measure has the biggest or most immediate impact, when the cumulative effect of these impacts will result in a usage number below the minimum annual average supply level, and when the facility would reach net-zero water consumption. A similar method is also used for addressing the quality portion of the footprint and could include measures such as reduced impervious area and onsite stormwater management.

Source: Brendle Group

The Net Zero Cities Symposium focused on systems thinking about a community-based approach to carbon emission reduction by investigating the two major sources of carbon emission: energy and transportation. Working sessions allowed the sharing of business and community strategies associated with the gradual transition from largely coal and oil-based fuels to those of conservation and alternative modalities. For more information, visit netzerocities.net.

Solar Houses come in all shapes and sizes.

If you’re reading this then you might be interested in the American Solar Energy Society’s (ASES) Technical Divisions. People join ASES for many reasons, but Professional members often join to achieve professional advantage through education, sales, training and networking. The hub for these activities is attendance at the annual ASES conference World Renewable Energy Forum 2012, participating in the review of conference technical papers, and membership in the technical divisions. ASES’ divisions serve as the focal point for Professional members to interact with professionals with similar interests. If your livelihood depends on renewable energy, then ASES Professional and division membership is for you. As a Professional member you can participate in up to nine divisions depending upon you areas of interest.

What is an ASES Division?

Technical divisions exist to support the interests of the Professional members. ASES’ technical divisions include Solar Electric, Solar Buildings, Sustainability, Solar Thermal, Resource Applications, Clean Water and Energy, Sustainable Transportation, Concentrating Solar Power and Small Wind.

Small wind turbines can help power any size building.

Division activities include:

• Publishing division newsletters
• Contributing to ASES publications including SOLAR TODAY, Solar@Work (e-newsletter for professionals), policy papers and other educational materials
• Providing technical expertise to ensure papers presented at the annual conference are of the highest quality
• Providing webinars and conference calls on topics of interest to the divisions, chapters and the general membership.

In addition, many states have decided to move ahead of the federal government in the development of renewable energy policy. ASES’ Chapter leadership can call on the divisions for technical information to help draft a policy position on a state issue.

While membership in technical divisions is open to all Professional members, the divisions are designed for those with a stake in the outcome of the field. If you’ve read this far you may be a good candidate to become a Professional member of ASES and join a technical division.

Click here to begin the joining process and become a Professional member so you can participate with the Divisions and gain the advantages they offer.

SOLAR TODAY magazine is published in a digital version as well as hard copy.

Click here to see the latest edition of Solar@Work.

Photos compliments of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.