Two Visionaries In Vertical Farming Plan Project In New Jersey

Adam Stein once wrote dismissively of vertical farming: "the notion of spending "hundreds of millions" of dollars to build weird, poorly sited temples of food production in areas much better suited to dense, green residential and retail space.... Local food has its merits, but that's what New Jersey is for."

I wonder what he would think of Dr. Dickson Despommier's collaboration with Architects Weber Thompson to build the Newark Vertical Farm - in New Jersey.

Pyramid farm by Eric Ellingsen and Dickson Despommier from The Vertical Farm

Dr. Despommier of Columbia University coined the term "vertical farm" and has been at the center of the movement since it started. He has a terrific website showing many different designs for vertical farms. The press release sums up their purpose nicely:

The vertical farming concept begins with a simple idea: grow food in a climate-controlled multistory building free of pollutants, pesticides and seasons while producing the highest-quality produce in an urban environment. The Vertical Farm, designed to supplement the existing food supply while bringing more healthful products to our cities, is but one of a host of solutions needed to address the complexities of bringing food to people. Despommier envisions buildings filled with stacked soil-less growing systems designed to produce the maximum yield and eliminate contamination

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(You can read much more about the benefits in Dr. Despommier's essay on vertical farming by clicking on link) 

Eco-Laboratory by Weber Thomson

Weber Thompson is one of this writer's favorite architecture firms, primarily because of their office building, Whole Earth Catalogue of green systems." but also for their approach to vertical farms, their integration of the concept into the south face of their eco-laboratory. 

Dan Albert, the ecological designer at Weber Thompson, describes the new collaboration:

The Newark Vertical Farm represents not only the next generation for Urban Agriculture and Vertical Farming but also an approach to design which incorporates integrated and overlapping sustainable design features. More than just a Vertical Farm, it is a research and development program for sustainable design in an urban context.

The greenhouse space contains high intensity soilless growing systems and is designed to be flexible and adaptable. The ground floor showcases a demonstration green house for public interaction while the upper floors serve as an agricultural laboratory. The purpose of the building is to develop, test, and educate with the ultimate goal of a commercially viable building type.

Some have noted that vertical farms don't make a lot of sense, primarily because of the cost of construction, artificial lighting and all of the other costs resulting from building a single purpose building for farming.

But Dan Albert and Weber Thompson take a different approach that addresses those problems, by integrating the vertical farm into the face of a building that serves other functions as well.

The buildings and the site are oriented to maximize solar exposure, with the Vertical Farm green house section facing due south and the more conventional urban agriculture plot with south to north rows. The spaces are arranged in a series of overlapping rooms that allow both observation and function to coexist.

Whether it makes economic sense to put this in Newark, where there is probably a lot of room for horizontal farming, in the middle of what is still described as "the Garden State" is still a question. But it does look like a great opportunity to find the answer.

Article by Lloyd Alter, Treehugger

Energy Secretary Chu's Vision of Coal

America's Energy Czar Is Taking a New Look At Coal Technologies. 

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu is really an academic. But he's is learning the art of politics while on the job. The Nobel-prize winning scientist, who had once called coal his "worst nightmare," spoke to a largely pro-coal audience in West Virginia.

Chu, who was tapped by President Obama to serve, has never shied away from his belief that coal is largely responsible for creating climate change. His views have evolved, however, to the point where he realizes that the nation - indeed the world - is not going to just replace the preponderance of its generation supplies overnight.

That's why he has subscribed to the White House's position that the U.S. will become a leader in the development of clean coal technologies and specifically carbon capture and sequestration. With financial assistance from the federal stimulus act, the secretary said that as many as 10 projects could be commercialized within 8-10 years and that electric prices would only increase 10-20 percent because of it.

He went on tell the audience in Charleston, WV that the level of heat-trapping emissions has increased by 40 percent since the start of the industrial revolution. However, the White House has allocated $3.4 billion to clean coal technologies that will help keep coal relevant. Without that, it would lose ground to higher-priced natural gas.

Climate change is "man-made" and "human fingerprints are all over it," intoned Chu. But he then repeated the administration's official position, saying that "these new technologies will not only help fight climate change, they will create jobs now and help position the United States to lead the world in clean coal technologies, which will only increase in demand in the years ahead."

The energy secretary was joined on stage by U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller, D-WV, who has proposed legislation to block for two years efforts by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to write regulations that would curb carbon dioxide emissions - a right bestowed on it by the U.S. Supreme Court a couple years ago. But while Rockefeller said that such rules would likely be delayed, they could not be stopped. 

Rockefeller, who said he was in the business of preserving jobs for coal miners, referred to EPA regulations that are set to take effect early next year as "harmful regulations." At the same time, he said he was not one of those who believed that global warming was a myth and then went on to urge those who espouse such thinking to quit "burying their heads in the sand."

"I agree with the science of climate change," Rockefeller told the audience. "Greenhouse gas emissions are not healthy for the earth. It will not go away if we ignore the issue. There will be some additional regulations within a couple years."

Commercializing Technologies

With the EPA's newfound authority, it holds the bargaining power. And it is under pressure from green groups and some Democratic lawmakers to exercise its rights and to enact tougher restrictions on carbon emissions. Others, though, think it is simply trying to use its authority as a lever to force Congress to write its own rules.

As it stands now, power plants and other factories that emit 25,000 tons or more of carbon dioxide a year will operate under the new rules. If such facilities are modernized, or if new ones are built, they would then be required to install "best available technologies." EPA estimates that 10,000 plants would be affected -- units that produce about 85 percent of all emissions.

An earlier but similar rulemaking also requires the formation of a registry to force the same industrial concerns to not just tabulate their heat-trapping emissions but to also consider ways to reduce them. In effect, what gets measured gets managed. That, in turn, would make it more feasible to enact national policy that would require cuts in those releases and could facilitate the implementation of a cap-and-trade system.

While the U.S. Senate seems unable to muster the super-majority needed to pass a climate change bill, it does seem poised to block EPA's latest rulemaking. The U.S. House, by comparison, has passed an energy bill that would enact a cap-and-trade program that sets emission limits for carbon. Industries that exceed those requirements could then acquire credits and either bank them or sell them to those that are unable to meet those goals.

Supporters of cap-and-trade that include the Obama administration say it will work. The best example of just how effective the strategy can be is the program used to reduce sulfur dioxide, or acid rain. Since the measure was enacted as part of the Clean Air Act of 1990, such pollutants have fallen by 50 percent from 1980 levels while the benefits of the program are four-to-five times greater than the costs.

But Secretary Chu focused his talk on carbon capture and sequestration. He pointed to the 10-megawatt trial by American Electric Power at its Mountaineer plant in WV - a project that got $334 million in federal funds. If it is successful at burying the carbon, the utility will then try a 200-megawatt project in Oklahoma. And if that works, proponents say that the technology that uses chilled ammonia could be commercialized by 2015.

Making carbon capture and sequestration commercially viable and widely deployable may be crucial to the future of coal, says Charles McElwee, a West Virginia-based attorney, and Gary Spitznogle of AEP. West Virginia, they say, is dependent on such progress; it has the fourth largest recoverable coal reserves in the country and it generates 97 percent of its electricity from coal.

With such forces coming at him, Secretary Chu has pulled back from his earlier views on coal. Now, the secretary is part of an administration that is committed to reducing carbon emissions while also commercializing the technologies to enable such progress.

Article by Ken Silverstein, EnergyBizInsider

Farm Fresh Produce Headed to San Diego Schools (Video)

The program is called Farm to School.

 

A newly hired Sustainable Agriculture Specialist wants the San Diego Unified School District to get a bigger share of its fruits and vegetables from local and organic farms. In these days of budget concerns, the Specialist didn't cost the School District a dime.

Farm to School Specialist Vanessa Zajfen is picking fresh produce, with grower Robin Taylor, at Suzie's Organic Farm in Imperial Beach. In a few hours, the fresh organic produce will be served to students.

"We want kids to know how tasty fresh fruits and vegetables can be, specifically those that are grown in their own backyard," Zajfen said.

Zajfen has a Master's degree in Sustainable Agriculture from Iowa State University.

She was hired with Federal Stimulus money, at no cost to the school district, to help fight childhood obesity and educate students.

"Food doesn't just come from the grocery store, it doesn't just come from a plastic and paper bag, there is a whole other side to it that I think kids are not exposed to," Zajfen said.



But on this day, students will be exposed to produce picked that morning. Zajfen and Food Services Director Gary Petill prepared the first locally grown organic salad bar, at Kearney High School.

Going with all local produce at every school will take time, but that is their initial goal.

"We want to be at about 25% of all of our produce to be locally grown from our farmers and growers," Petill said. We think that's aggressive, but we think it's also achievable."

On the first day, Petill stood behind the salad bar welcoming students, "Welcome to the organic salad bar."

"Try some of the organic lettuce, it came out of the ground this morning," Petill exclaimed.

Students load up, and dig in. What do they think of the organic salad bar?

"It was more fresh that the ones we usually have," one of the students said.

"It was nice to have something pesticide free, you know, something real, you know," another student explained.

Food Services wants to keep it real and get more local growers involved with the Farm to School program.

Eventually, Food Services would like to take on the responsibility of processing and delivering local produce to all San Diego Unified Schools.

Petill says it would be cheaper for the District, instead of having produce shipped in from other countries or driven in from other states.

"We want to actually take it from the farm to our table and to wash it and bag it and send it off to our schools with our own drivers and it keep all of our work in house, so we're in-sourcing our own people to do the work," Petill said.

Zajfen says these changes will hopefully change eating habits.

"Being able to influence them when they're young and continue to nurture them and expose them to these amazing programs and good foods, fresh fruits, and vegetables and actually watch them grown and mature into good healthy eaters, is really what we're trying to do here with our Farm to School Program," Zajfen said.

Beginning in October, Food Services will also feature a "Harvest of the Month." Every Wednesday, for a month, a local grower's produce will be featured at every school's salad bar. Next month, it will be locally grown organic Valencia oranges.

Article by Jack Gates, NBCSanDiego.com

Nuns Running Charitable Organic Farm (Video)

The Sisters of Villa Maria farm for ministry and service.

 

 

GOOD EATS: The Sisters of Villa Maria donate their organic produce to local food banks.

With so many news reports about crime and destruction, it's easy to forget that there are good people quietly doing good deeds. A tiny farm called Villa Maria straddles the Pennsylvania/OhioThe Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that the small convent is home to a 300-acre organic farm that supplies produce for local charities.

 

According to the Post-Gazette, five paid employees and "an army of volunteers" work to "help the sisters accomplish their mission of feeding the poor and teaching how to live in harmony with God's creation." The nuns have been on the site since 1864, when they founded a hospital to treat smallpox victims with herbs. The sisters have been farming the land ever since.

 

Originally, the land was unwanted, supposedly unusable wetlands transformed under the careful, patient hands of the French sisters, according to the newspaper. The article mentions that until the '60s, the nuns raised livestock and produce, with the farm supporting 600 sisters. Villa Maria stopped these practices when crises struck both the American Catholic Church and agriculture industry.

 

So currently, the farm operates under land manager emeritus Frank Romeo, who has worked there for nearly 70 years. Romeo has seen the farm transform from its heyday to its current status, and saw the beginning of the outreach in which the sisters give food to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.

 

 

In addition to physical food donations, the Villa specializes in educational programming. Led by Sister Barbara O'Donnell, the Education for the Earth campaign unites the sisters' "mission of cultivating the virtue of humility ... to their cultivation of the land." 

 

The article quotes O'Donnell saying, "We want to care for [this Earth] in a sustainable way, so that we can have a healthy habitat and healthy soil for healthy food for future generations of all species."

 

Educational programming at Villa Maria teaches visitors how some critters, like praying mantis, eat harmful pests that might destroy the crops. But it also focuses on the union of environmentalism and faith. Visitors learn how gardening is a spiritual act and how to use organic methods. The Post-Gazette mentions that the farm is not certified organic because the sisters cannot afford the certification fees, but Romeo insists their methods have been organic since the beginning. 

 

The story mentions USDA Natural Resources Conservation Services employee Ed Petrus, who talks about the sisters' eagerness to adopt the new regulations from his organization. Petrus hosts retreats at Villa Maria to demonstrate practices for other growers.

 

Another employee of the Villa, John Moreira, is director of the farm's operations and specializes in maintaining the old-growth forest on the property. The story describes how Moreira uses his education and experience to ward off blight and preserve chestnut and hickory trees throughout the Villa. His work has proved to be especially important the past two years because tomato blight struck the region so heavily.

 

The article mentions that potatoes are the largest donation crop for the sisters and, since this vegetable is susceptible to the same blight as tomatoes, Moreira has his work cut out for him using organic farming techniques - in this case, crop rotation and planting the potatoes a mile away from last year's location — to save the harvest.

 

The service aspect of Villa Maria comes not only from the donated food but also from the service retreats hosted on the land. Volunteers use their vacations to farm for 10 or more hours per day while they study with O'Donnell. The sisters also work with youth offenders from the inner city as an alternative to incarceration and trade other volunteers food and housing for their work laboring on the land.

 

Each season, the results are thousands of pounds of food donations and hundreds of lives enhanced by service in the Villa's fields. The article ends by describing the sisters' concerns for the land after they pass away. According to the article, "they want to ensure that others — even if they aren't sisters — will carry on their legacy."

 

The Villa has a market barn where visitors can purchase produce as well as wreaths or hand-made oils produced by the retired sisters. Additionally, more than 1,200 people attend their annual Harvest Day Celebration on Oct. 2 to "thank God for the harvest and to thank the volunteers for their labor" over a meal produced entirely on site. The article ends by saying the sisters love this annual celebration because it allows them to demonstrate how the land, which was a gift to them initially, can continue to give gifts to everyone.

 

Article by Katy Rank Lev, MotherNatureNetwork

Machine Turns Plastic Into Oil (Video)

The Japanese company Blest has done something truly astonishing.  They have created a machine which converts plastics back into oil.  To be more accurate, they have developed several such machines, in varying sizes, from a home table top model to larger industrial scale versions meant for continuous use.

Watch Blest CEO, Akinori Ito, explain the machine in this video.  

According to what is shown in the subtitle clip, any type of plastic, including styrofoam, plastic bags and bottle caps, can be converted back into oil.  The oil can then be converted into gasoline and other oil by-products.

I don’t know why we haven’t been hearing about it before now, since the technology has been around for over a year, but the $10,000 price tag does make it less than accessible for most people.  Fortunately, it is Blest’s goal to continue to work on the technology and eventually create a machine that will be affordable for everyone.

In the meantime, perhaps it is time for businesses with a large need for oil and gasoline to invest in the continuous use versions.  How fast could we clean up the planet if one large shipping company fueled their trucks on recycled plastic?  Or how about if one of the major oil companies bought one of these machines?

Article by Eloah James, Got2BeGreen

Women In Green

Last year, multiple reports were released suggesting that women lead their households in green. They are “recycling enforcers” and “out green” men in practices such as reusable shopping bag use and the desire to reduce energy consumption in their homes.

They are “recycling enforcers” and “out green” men in practices such as reusable shopping bag use and the desire to reduce energy consumption in their homes.

Studies by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have found that women are more likely than men to buy eco-oriented, recyclable or energy-efficient products.

However, this leadership in the home does not often translate to the workplace, and jobs in the green economy are being created in fields predominantly populated by men (think: engineering or construction).

Indeed, the Women’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor notes that “Green jobs are diverse, rewarding, and overwhelmingly nontraditional to women.”

These trends, on the other hand, present both a challenge and opportunity that many inspiring women have gladly taken on. Highlighting this enthusiasm was the recent Women In Green Forum, which gathered “an international audience focused on environmental issues, including academic researchers, business experts, energy analysts, and technology developers.”

To get the scoop on Women In Green (and women in green, for that manner), Earth911.com reached out to the forum’s emcee, Sarah Backhouse. A mainstream TV writer, producer and host gone eco, Backhouse has worked for Planet Green, Mother Nature Network, PBS and Discovery Channel, among a number of significant accolades.

A gal who knows a thing or two about transitioning into the green sphere, she explained not only how women can get involved in green right now, but also why the time’s never been more ripe.

The Forum

A model walks the expo floor during the Eco Fashion Walk-a-Bout.

According to Backhouse, Women In Green was essentially created when Jamie Nack, president of Three Squares Inc. was attending an environmentally oriented conference and asked her friend, noted green architect and leader John Picard, why there were not more women at the conference.

“John replied, ‘Well, if you’re complaining about it, just set up your own event,’” Backhouse recalls with a laugh. And essentially, that’s what Nack did. “She’s a doer.”

The forum brought together experts from fashion, finance, journalism and more to discuss a variety of topics affecting sustainable industries.

For example, a panel (moderated by Backhouse) that included Meaghan O’Neill, editor-in-chief of Treehugger.com, and Jen Boynton, managing editor of Triple Pundit, brought together movers and shakers in eco-media. The panel discussed why green is finding a “natural home online” versus traditional print media and how social media is intrinsic in the development of green media itself. “We also discussed how we work under this ‘green’ umbrella, and really, in the future [...] green will diversify in all these verticals and every single area will become more green in and of itself,” said Backhouse.

The forum even included an “Eco Fashion Walk-a-Bout.” The original concept, developed by the Women In Green Advisory Board, featured models sporting environmentally conscious designs strolling the expo area for an up-close look at the garments.

Overall, the event proved a success. “We see the first annual Women In Green Forum as a starting point that will lead to future collaboration among female leaders in sustainability and the formation of a community which will open doors for women to pursue careers in the expanding green workforce,” said Jenna Peterson, project coordinator of Three Squares Inc.

Why Ladies, Why Now

A dress made of recycled materials by the Sustainable Sirens.

For Backhouse, the transition of her career from mainstream to green has provided her a unique perspective on how industries are evolving and how women “have a strategic advantage” moving forward.

“I think women are more adept, they have the skill set that’s required to face the particular challenges we’re in,” says Backhouse.

Recent research echoes these opinions. According to a survey by Tiller, LLC, “The environmental sensitivities of women seem to be more finely tuned than those of men.”

“Since the Industrial Revolution, the focus has been on a short-term, profit-driven model, and men have really ruled that space,” says Backhouse. “We’re going to have take a longer view.”

Comparing the historical roles of men as hunters and women as gatherers and managers of the household, Backhouse says that women are “much more pragmatic” and utilize “long-term, strategic thinking.”

Beyond their inherent skills, education rates for women are steadily climbing. “For the first time now, women have overtaken men to make up the majority of the workforce,” she says. “We’re not as equally represented as men, but women are being educated at higher rates than men for the first time.”

In fact, according to Atlantic Magazine, “for every two men who get a college degree this year, three women will do the same.”

In reality, it will require a combination of a number of factors for women to achieve success in sustainability. “It takes collaboration, communication and compassion [...] In those ways, women are really in a good position to capitalize and move forward,” Backhouse adds. 

You Don’t Need a ‘Green’ Career

Moving forward, Backhouse hopes to continue to inspire women to make strides in sustainability. “It’s been a funny few months while this whole talk of women in green has been on my radar, so I’m planning on writing a book about it, how it’s essential and inevitable that women have to take charge and lead sustainability,” says Backhouse. She also hopes that her news show with Discovery, Planet 100, continues to grow. “I want to make eco-news a really big deal.”

But, if being a television host or installing solar panels or designing the next fuel-efficient car isn’t exactly your cup of tea or align with your current field, that’s no problem according to Backhouse. There is no need drop a job you may love, just because there aren’t any environmental perks (yet!).

“I don’t think there’s necessarily something as a ‘green career path,’” she says. “Stay in the industry you’re in, and green that.”

Backhouse suggests looking around at where you already work and making strides from within. For example, lawyers can start by working to reduce the overall paper usage and energy consumption at their office by turning off lights and computers and recycling. Waitresses can make efforts to green a restaurant’s operations by advocating to reduce the use of disposable to-go ware and plastic bags and forks.

“Whatever industry you’re in, you have a special skill set and know it best. If everyone was working in non-profits it would be all out of balance,” says Backhouse.

“I did the same from mainstream media to green media. Don’t throw out your skill set and training (unless you hate your job, obviously!) but just find ways to make it greener.”

Article by Jennifer Berry, Earth911

China Leading Global Race to Make Clean Energy

China vaulted past competitors in Denmark, Germany, Spain and the United States last year to become the world’s largest maker of wind turbines, and is poised to expand even further this year.

 A worker inside a wind turbine at a factory in Tianjin, China.

China has also leapfrogged the West in the last two years to emerge as the world’s largest manufacturer of solar panels. And the country is pushing equally hard to build nuclear reactors and the most efficient types of coal power plants.

These efforts to dominate renewable energy technologies raise the prospect that the West may someday trade its dependence on oil from the Mideast for a reliance on solar panels, wind turbines and other gear manufactured in China.

“Most of the energy equipment will carry a brass plate, ‘Made in China,’ ” said K. K. Chan, the chief executive of Nature Elements Capital, a private equity fund in Beijing that focuses on renewable energy.

President Obama, in his State of the Union speech last week, sounded an alarm that the United States was falling behind other countries, especially China, on energy. “I do not accept a future where the jobs and industries of tomorrow take root beyond our borders — and I know you don’t either,” he told Congress.

The United States and other countries are offering incentives to develop their own renewable energy industries, and Mr. Obama called for redoubling American efforts. Yet many Western and Chinese executives expect China to prevail in the energy-technology race.

Multinational corporations are responding to the rapid growth of China’s market by building big, state-of-the-art factories in China. Vestas of Denmark has just erected the world’s biggest wind turbine manufacturing complex here in northeastern China, and transferred the technology to build the latest electronic controls and generators.

“You have to move fast with the market,” said Jens Tommerup, the president of Vestas China. “Nobody has ever seen such fast development in a wind market.”

Renewable energy industries here are adding jobs rapidly, reaching 1.12 million in 2008 and climbing by 100,000 a year, according to the government-backed Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association.

Yet renewable energy may be doing more for China’s economy than for the environment. Total power generation in China is on track to pass the United States in 2012 — and most of the added capacity will still be from coal.

China intends for wind, solar and biomass energy to represent 8 percent of its electricity generation capacity by 2020. That compares with less than 4 percent now in China and the United States. Coal will still represent two-thirds of China’s capacity in 2020, and nuclear and hydropower most of the rest.

As China seeks to dominate energy-equipment exports, it has the advantage of being the world’s largest market for power equipment. The government spends heavily to upgrade the electricity grid, committing $45 billion in 2009 alone. State-owned banks provide generous financing.

China’s top leaders are intensely focused on energy policy: on Wednesday, the government announced the creation of a National Energy Commission composed of cabinet ministers as a “superministry” led by Prime Minister Wen Jiabao himself.

Regulators have set mandates for power generation companies to use more renewable energy. Generous subsidies for consumers to install their own solar panels or solar water heaters have produced flurries of activity on rooftops across China.

China’s biggest advantage may be its domestic demand for electricity, rising 15 percent a year. To meet demand in the coming decade, according to statistics from the International Energy Agency, China will need to add nearly nine times as much electricity generation capacity as the United States will.

So while Americans are used to thinking of themselves as having the world’s largest market in many industries, China’s market for power equipment dwarfs that of the United States, even though the American market is more mature. That means Chinese producers enjoy enormous efficiencies from large-scale production.

In the United States, power companies frequently face a choice between buying renewable energy equipment or continuing to operate fossil-fuel-fired power plants that have already been built and paid for. In China, power companies have to buy lots of new equipment anyway, and alternative energy, particularly wind and nuclear, is increasingly priced competitively.

Interest rates as low as 2 percent for bank loans — the result of a savings rate of 40 percent and a government policy of steering loans to renewable energy — have also made a big difference.

As in many other industries, China’s low labor costs are an advantage in energy. Although Chinese wages have risen sharply in the last five years, Vestas still pays assembly line workers here only $4,100 a year.

China’s commitment to renewable energy is expensive. Although costs are falling steeply through mass production, wind energy is still 20 to 40 percent more expensive than coal-fired power. Solar power is still at least twice as expensive as coal.

The Chinese government charges a renewable energy fee to all electricity users. The fee increases residential electricity bills by 0.25 percent to 0.4 percent. For industrial users of electricity, the fee doubled in November to roughly 0.8 percent of the electricity bill.

The fee revenue goes to companies that operate the electricity grid, to make up the cost difference between renewable energy and coal-fired power.

Renewable energy fees are not yet high enough to affect China’s competitiveness even in energy-intensive industries, said the chairman of a Chinese industrial company, who asked not to be identified because of the political sensitivity of electricity rates in China.

Grid operators are unhappy. They are reimbursed for the extra cost of buying renewable energy instead of coal-fired power, but not for the formidable cost of building power lines to wind turbines and other renewable energy producers, many of them in remote, windswept areas. Transmission losses are high for sending power over long distances to cities, and nearly a third of China’s wind turbines are not yet connected to the national grid.

Most of these turbines were built only in the last year, however, and grid construction has not caught up. Under legislation passed by the Chinese legislature on Dec. 26, a grid operator that does not connect a renewable energy operation to the grid must pay that operation twice the value of the electricity that cannot be distributed.

With prices tumbling, China’s wind and solar industries are increasingly looking to sell equipment abroad — and facing complaints by Western companies that they have unfair advantages. When a Chinese company reached a deal in November to supply turbines for a big wind farm in Texas, there were calls in Congress to halt federal spending on imported equipment.

“Every country, including the United States and in Europe, wants a low cost of renewable energy,” said Ma Lingjuan, deputy managing director of China’s renewable energy association. “Now China has reached that level, but it gets criticized by the rest of the world.”

Article by Keith Bradsher, NYTimes

China Supplants the U.S. As Most Desirable Place for Clean Energy Investments

 The clean energy race is over. At least for now.

A new Ernst & Young report says what many have suspected. China has surpassed the United States as the most desirable place for clean energy investment.

"China invested almost twice as much in clean energy projects compared with the U.S., and has emerged as the world's market leader in installed wind power capacity in 2009," the report said.

Little policy support by the U.S. Congress is the primary culprit. Manufacturers and capital markets look to the 10-year horizon for clean energy support from central governments and the contest isn't close.

The American clean energy industry and affiliated trade groups have been warning for years that the U.S. would fall behind.

What's been clear for some time China doesn't always play fair - check its currency valuation -- so why would manufacturing and export policy be any different?

That's why the trade case the United Steelworkers of America last week asked the Obama administration to pursue seems to have a kind of finger-in-the-dike quality to it. Yes, even if proved, and a quick read of the complaint's highlights looks pretty convincing, then what?

Sanctions from the World Trade Organization - years away, at best - may come, but one can see the lead will be insurmountable by the time the original case gets resolved.

Article by Bill Opalka, RenewablesBiz

Tosan's Solar Power Project Brings Light to 50 Households in Keur Simbara, Senegal

Gannon Gillespie of Tostan's office in Washington, D.C. shares the story of his trip to the Senegalese village of Keur Simbara where the community celebrated the arrival of solar generated electricity.  

It rained all night. A hard rain like one only finds in deserts, rain that seems as if the clouds are falling to earth whole. It is windy, too, and the sound the wind makes it seem identical to that of the cold, dry winds that always came plunging across the plains of my childhood home in Nebraska. Yet the lightning, then thunder (after 6 seconds, for those of us who lie awake, counting), and the moist, stuffy air leave little room for winter fantasies. The deluge stops near dawn, and as I get up, I can hear the trickle of lingering water pattering down from the roof onto the earth outside the window, as the birds venture out to tell the world their opinions of the storm.

My first thought: All this rain is not a good sign for a sun-related project. Today, Tostan and one of our rural community partners, Keur Simbara, have planned to celebrate the launch of the Solar Power! Project. 

 

As we drive, it begins to sprinkle again and as we approach, we start to wonder if the event will even be held at all. Several partners and government officials are coming from Dakar, and the roads can flood at any time. Indeed, they may have already flooded.

 As we approach the rain softens, then stops as our Tostan delegation composed of myself, Tostan's ED Molly Melching, Board Chair Gail Kaneb, Senegal Director Khalidou Sy, our African Communications Manager Malick Gueye, and others, pulls into the village. We roll in behind the representatives from the Government of Senegal, who have been a vital part of this project.

I know this village well, having been here at least three times before. Keur Simbara is quite famous; it was one of the first communities to abandon female genital cutting (FGC), back in 1998. Indeed, Keur Simbara's Village Chief and Imam Demba Diawara came to Molly Melching with the critical insight that to end this practice, communities must engage their extended social networks. As we get out of the car and join the procession entering the village, it is clear that today has nothing to do with FGC. No, today is about power: power in the form of solar-generated electricity that will be coming to 7 villages, and the powerful women who are making it happen.

After we have taken our seats, Dame Gueye of Tostan Senegal steps up as emcee, welcoming everyone and giving background information about the project. Everything that has transpired to bring these solar units to Keur Simbara seems far-fetched when laid out so plainly. Doussou Konate, a local woman leader who participated in Tostan's Community Empowerment Program, traveled to Tilonia, India in 2009, staying for six months, along with six other African women. Doussou trained at the Barefoot College where she became a solar engineer. The Barefoot system works only with mothers and grandmothers, and uses an all-picture-based training system to overcome language barriers. In other words, Doussou was trained to become a solar engineer without being able to speak to her teachers. After her training was complete, Doussou packed up the materials she would later use to install solar panels on fifty households in Keur Simbara and surrounding communities, and returned home. This event--moreover, these women's accomplishment-- is even more remarkable in a place where women aren't normally allowed to travel to neighboring villages, let alone India.

 

To find out more visit http://www.tostan.org