American Solar Energy Society » green building

The Northeast Sustainable Energy Association Receives Grant to Catalyze the Market for Zero Net Energy Homes!

Chelsea Dunbar — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 23:01:38 +0000

The Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA) has a mission to advance the adoption of sustainable energy practices in the built environment. The organization was awarded a $125,000 grant by the Boston-based Barr Foundation last month to catalyze the market for “zero net energy homes”- which actually generate more energy than they use. In Boston, the release of greenhouse gas emissions from buildings accounts for 74 percent of the city’s carbon footprint. The building of these homes and encouraging the adoption of techniques of extremely energy efficient building can substantially reduce building related GHG-emissions. This type of work is not only cost effective, but it also improves indoor air quality and associated health outcomes, and it a generator of local jobs that cannot be outsourced.

More than five years ago NESEA introduced its annual “Zero Net Energy Building Award”, which offers a $10,000 prize for the best example of a building in the Northeast that produces more energy than it consumes. Since then nearly 30 applicants from seven states have been eligible for this prestigious award. With this grant, NESEA plans to tackle three barriers to the widespread adoption of zero net energy buildings: lack of access to examples of successful projects, lack of widespread technical knowledge with respect to how to complete these projects, and perceptions that zero net energy construction is not cost effective. NESEA is taking action by creating a database of zero net energy homes in the Northeast, with a goal of at least 30 case studies by the end of the grant in June 2014. NESEA will also produce a white paper to share the best practices learned from the examples that populate the database and provide training, via a 10-week online course. Participants in the course will learn how to model and undertake a residential zero net energy project. Students who complete Rosenbaum’s course and subsequently undertake a net zero project will be eligible for tuition reimbursement, as well as an additional stipend if they submit their project into the NESEA database. These efforts have great potential to deliver a substantial decline in GHG-emissions from buildings in the Northeast.

Source: Press Release: Breaking- We’re Going To Catalyze The Market for Zero Net Energy Homes

National Solar Tour: First Stop- Anchorage, AK

Ariel Braude — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 19:47:06 +0000

Photo Credit: Doolen Residence by greenmommaadventures.wordpress.com

The first tour to take place on the annual ASES National Solar Tour event was located in Anchorage, Alaska on June 9th, 2012. This was a free, self-guided tour that looked at installations of Solar Thermal, PV, and other Renewable Energy and Green Building technology at seven different locations, both commercial and residential. The goal of this tour was to show local neighbors how to be sustainable by cutting their energy bills and generating their own electricity. The tour taught that it is possible to save up to 70% in water heating bills by using solar collectors as well as saving 20% on your electric bills.

The tour organizer, Andy Baker, led a group throughout the tour as well as informed them on some of the prevalent technologies at each location. He states that:

“Solar is the most accessible energy we have. The cost of energy is going to continue to increase in the future, but the sun will still be free. So the more we learn to use this and bring the cost down, the greater the future we can expect from it.”

To see more details on the sites on the Anchorage Solar Tour, click here. Alaska’s local news source, KTUU, did a feature on the Solar Tour. If you want to view this, please click here and go to 7:15 seconds.

Photo Credit: Solar Building by greenmommaadventures.wordpress.com

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ASES will hold numerous Solar Tours this fall throughout the country where you can show your home, host a tour or go on a tour. If you’d like to donate to support ASES in its mission to promote solar, please click here. If you’d like to learn more about putting solar on your home or to find a local solar professional, click on the Find a Solar Installer Near You on the right side of ASES.org.

Is Green Affordable? It Is Now.

Collin Tomb — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 19:32:32 +0000

Most of us in the field of green building have been asked at one time or another that critical question: “Is green affordable?” This question was soundly answered in the WREF 2012 Built Environment Forum “Housing that Merges Sustainability and Affordability” – presented by a unique partnership between the Denver Housing Authority and B+Y Architects. The project presented here comprises 89 units of mixed-income housing in downtown Denver, and it is an architect’s dream – sustainable design, high technology, great urban planning and gorgeous landscaping.

Benedict Park Place 5B [Photo Credit: B+Y Architects

The mission of Denver Housing Authority is to provide “safe, decent and affordable housing in a manner that promotes thriving communities.” In this project, the design team has extended this goal to its modern conclusion, ranging the interpretation of public welfare from the residential to the global scale. Their budget matrix incorporates nontoxic materials as well as energy-saving features in recognition that no one of any income should be exposed to toxicity or the effects of environmental degradation. By treating “green” features as standard specifications, and by bringing them to an affordable market, this project moves one step closer to positioning them in the mainstream.

Benedict Park Place street view [Photo Credit: B+Y Architects

The Benedict Park Place 5B projectis a checklist of sustainable building features more often seen in high-end residential buildings. Much of the effort goes to lowering energy bills for tenants. The envelope is sealed and blown full with insulation; Energy Star appliances are standard. The lighting design lowers lighting loads by 75% while daylighting (with high-performance windows) brightens the space. Low electric loads are backed up by a highly efficient, all-electric mechanical design rooted in a ground-source heat pump. This type of deep investment is frequently passed over on more high-budget projects, but here it is even partnered with a nearly 100kW photovoltaic system covering common area electric usage plus 15% of needs in the units. This design achieves 54% energy cost savings relative to an ASHRAE 90.1‐2004 baseline. The Benedict Park Place portion of the project claimed a LEED Platinum certification for these and other achievements, with the highest score in the area of Energy and Atmosphere. The project is currently performing very close to design values.

Bridges over the detention system buffer ground-level units from the street [Photo Credit: B+Y Architects

The team does not work the project around these features, but takes their many advantages to create a space that is a pleasure to live in. They color outside the property lines by aligning circulation routes to reestablish pedestrian routes and reintegrate the area into the surrounding urban fabric and light rail transportation. The site work is part of the comprehensive sustainability package, incorporating native landscaping. Drainage swales are bridged by walkways, creating a graceful entryway to each unit.

14 rowhouses used modular construction; they were transported only 46 miles, and set up in 6 days. [Photo Credit: B+Y Architects

How does a dream project like this come together for the affordable market? Public-private partnerships and incentive savvy are the key. DHA leveraged applicable grant and loan funds, tax credits, as well as rebates available to the general market, such as Xcel Energy’s Energy Design Assistance and rebate programs. Ultimately, the project pays for itself in record time. The team figures that the “green” premium is around 6%. This includes the PV system, which will pay back in 7 years, and thereafter an reap an internal rate of return of 14%. Most measures are under 25 cents per square foot. In their detailed ranking of the sustainable options they considered, the highest-cost measure was not for high technology, but to go from low-VOC paints to no-VOC paints.

As technology matures, it slips into the mainstream in price as well as in practice. The design team cited Ed Mazria’s Architecture 2030 prediction that much of our building stock will be new or retrofitted by the 2030 goal, making new construction essential to the broader goal of – retrofitting the urban fabric block by block. Denver Housing Authority will reinvest their profits in their next piece of the urban puzzle: “We must develop green communities, not just green buildings.” Having put my own heart into the architecture of some low-energy affordable projects, I am thrilled to see a project of this quality, on this scale. The design team prefaced their presentation with a quote from the heart: “Architecture is a concrete reflection of our ethics and aesthetics.” If this project is any indication, we are in good hands.

Efficiency Is No Waste of Energy

Justin Rickard — Tue, 22 May 2012 17:46:20 +0000

In the opening plenary session at the World Renewable Energy Forum, Dr. Dan Arvizu, Director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory said it makes no sense to shove green electrons into an inefficient system. This is sage advice. Most of our residential and commercial structures across the globe are quietly consuming copious amounts of energy to keep computers and lights on and to heat and cool indoor spaces. Whether the energy is green or not, it behooves us to identify ways in which homes or commercial buildings can consume less energy to reduce each structure’s carbon footprint and to save money. Thankfully there are methods that can be incorporated into new building design or into existing building retrofits that can save energy.

Freiburg Heliotrop. Photo Credit: Andrew Glaser, Wikimedia Commons

The Ignite session I attended on building design provided a glimpse into strategies to attain zero-energy buildings. Whether it was rebuilding a safe and eco-friendly city in Kaimishi, Japan; retrofitting a cooling-intensive ice cream shop; or students building a passive solar residential home with solar PV, solar thermal, and geothermal we learned the techniques to make existing structures or even new construction energy efficient. Key highlights from the session included:

Thomas Spiegelhalter’s “Designing Carbon Neutral Plus Energy Buildings With Site Adaptive Heliotropism Cycles”: I must admit I had to look up heliotropism but this was by far the most interesting presentation since it involved a bit of biomimicry, a subject close to my heart. These German presenters studied how native plants in the area used their flowers or leaves to follow the sun (heliotropism). The engineers then incorporated the physics of this motion into the building design. Essentially, the building’s solar PV module on the roof mimicked the motion of these native area plants through the day to maximize the capture of solar radiation. The building ends up with a surplus of energy at the end of the year.

Dan Staley’s “Trees and Solar Power, Coexisting in Urban Forest Near You”: We all know solar PV’s nemesis is tree shading. However, trees are an effective means of cooling, air cleaning, storing carbon, and providing natural beauty to the urban environment. How can we solve this dilemma? Through cooperation of course. Staley provided a blueprint of how arborists and solar providers can work together and plan an urban environment so that structures receive maximum benefit from trees and solar radiation. Staley suggested designing houses and tree placement before the lots are built and also changing street orientation for optimum solar gain. And he advised that there should be plant lists for neighborhoods with information on how fast they will grow and the canopy size as well as training arborists on solar smart pruning.

We all know the importance of making our buildings more energy efficient first and then adding renewables second and from the sound of it these presenters not only did it in that order, but it seemed like they came up with some unique methods in the process. What are others doing to make buildings more energy efficient?

Sustainability Park: a new twist on the “park” paradigm

Carolyn Beach — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 17:21:44 +0000

Schematic drawing of plans for Denver's new Sustainability-Park

CRES (the Colorado Renewable Energy Society) has formed partnerships with the Denver Housing Authority (DHA) and Urban Farmers Collaborative to develop a 2.5 acre site in east Denver, into a cutting-edge sustainability park.

What’s a sustainability park? In this case, it’s a showcase of many different renewable energy and sustainability technologies. From solar panels to wind mills, landscaping materials to urban gardening, green building techniques to alternative transportation, this park will be a demonstration mecca.

The park itself will have solar-powered street lights, electric-car charging stations, a shared bicycle station and sustainable rain-water handling. In addition, there will be a community garden, demonstration sites for many different solar technologies, an amphitheater for education and and entertainment and much more.

CRES is a chapter of the American Solar Energy Society and offers a tour of the park as part of their “Showcase Colorado” at the ASES annual conference, WREF2012. The tour will be 1:30 to 5 pm on Tuesday May 15. For more information, contact CRES.