Life Alternate » Buildings

A Greener Empire State Building

Wispa — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 07:58:37 +0000

The tallest building in New York City will soon be completely powered by renewable sources. Wind Energy will be powering the Empire State Building

Before everybody starts to freak-out at the idea, the Skyscraper is not going to be covered in wind turbines. Instead this is being supplied with energy that is being produced by renewable sources.

A two year contract to supply the building has been signed with Green Mountain Energy to provided around 55 million kWh of electricity each year.

Measures have also been taken to make the building more efficient and thus consume less energy. This has included replacing all of the windows, there are 6,500 of them, to reduce the loss of heat. Improvements in the ventilation system and the buildings insulation.

All this may sound good and it does in a way. Green Energy Suppliers already supply Energy which ends up sizzling on the electricity grid. This energy ultimately is used by us all including the Empire State Building. When a light is turned on someplace in the skyscraper you cannot tell if the energy came from green, nuclear or coal power stations.

The positive aspect here is the the contract for Green Mountain Energy and other renewable energy producers to sell their power. This will allow those companies develop and expand with more cleaner energy being generated and used rather than dirty energy.

Philadelphia Eagles Convert to Renewables

Wispa — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 13:20:00 +0000

The Philadelphia Eagles football team are used to running around on the green grass and using a lot of energy. Now they are about the change the meanings of green and energy.

In a move to be more energy efficient the home stadium, Lincoln Financial Field, is to be fitted out with a renewable energy makeover. Covering the stadium with around 2,500 Photovoltaic Solar panels to capture some of that solar energy to produce electricity will be quite a large task for some projects. But the Eagles are not stopping there, along with the solar they plan to harvest the wind with the installation of 80 wind turbines.

To complete the project generators will be fitted that can run both on natural gas and biodiesel. For all this the cost will be around US$30 Million which is quite a large sum, but they expect to save double that amount (US$60 million) in energy costs over the next 20 years.

The Solar and Wind energy generated will be around 25% of the stadiums needs with the remainder being produced by gas/biodiesel generators.

Largest Solar Powered Office opens in China

Wispa — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 07:03:58 +0000

November the 27th has seen the opening of the worlds largest solar powered office building. The massive complex has been built in Dezhou, China and covers an area of 75 thousand square meters.

Facilities incorporated into the structure include an exhibition center and hotel along with scientific research facilities. Environmental aspects have been used throughout the construction of the building and can achieve a energy saving of 30 percent more than the national energy saving standard.

Mounted on the roof of the building are around 4,500 square meters photovoltaic solar panelling which will help provide nearly all the electric needs of the facilities. In addition water usage will be generated from Solar desalination.

The Building will hosts The Fourth World Solar Cities Conference which takes place next year (2010) in September.

China is a fast developing country and has a desperate need for electrical generation. While fossil fuelled power stations will produce a large portion of this energy the country is embracing renewable forms of energy production such as solar and wind. This maybe much easier than other countries where unclean methods have already been established and are proving hard to move aside.

Hanshin Koshien Stadium Turns Solar

Wispa — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 08:45:49 +0000

The Hanshin Koshien Stadium in Kobe , Japan, has turned to the benefits of solar energy. The home of Hanshin Tigers baseball team has installed 1,600 photovoltaic solar panels on the stadiums roof which combined would produced 193,000 kilo watt hours of green and free electricity each year.

The energy is equivalent to more than 5 percent of the stadiums electrical usage and naturally will equal a cost reduction for power by the same amount. For the greener baseball fans in Kobe they will be able to watch the games knowing that their stadium is now saving over 130 tons of the harmful carbon dioxide (CO2).

Sports stadiums are ideal locations to embrace solar energy. Installing solar panels on these buildings not only helps reduce their running costs but can also be a source of income. The locations are already connected to the grid and the solar energy generated while the sports arena is not in use can be sold and act as a profitable extra income for the facilities. This is a double bonus, reducing power costs and increasing income provides much needed money that can improve the events for the spectators.

The stadium was built in 1924 and has no parking for cars. This promotes the sports fans use of public transport and is another bonus to reducing the demand for fossil fuels and reducing pollution. It is currently the home of Hanshin Tigers

No limiting to sports stadiums, any large building could have the potential to utilize the unused spaces on rooftops to proved an extra income and reduce costs. The reduction in energy consumption, no matter how little, can add up to large reduction in harmful gasses released into the atmosphere.

Dell’s Solar Parking Lot

Wispa — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:50:41 +0000

Solar Trees are starting to sprout around the world in a new era of forestation. The latest plantation of these Photovoltaic saplings have been spotted in Texas. Dell, or more exactly, The parking lot of Dell`s headquarters in Texas has seen the growth of a small forest of Solar Panels disguised as shading carports.

Over 500 solar panels have been cultured here to provide shelter for 56 cars for the Dell employees. As these are of the genus “solaritius” they have qualities that are not found in other carports. As an added benefit to mankind these are capable of being harvested of 130,000 kilowatt hours of solar energy each year. This can be used to supply solar powered or hybrid cars in the parking lot.

The carports do not cover the entire lot so there might be some car owners who are left without shade in the summer heat. This might also be a slight ploy by the Dell corporation to encourage employees to arrive early for work and occupy the best spots. According to Dell the solar panels in the carport could reduce the toxic carbon emission to the atmosphere by 145,000 pounds of CO2.

Like many companies around the world, Dell are incorporating solar and other forms of renewable energy in their companies to supplement they or replace some of their energy requirements. The vast majority of power used is still generated by traditional unfriendly methods, such as coal or gas. But whatever we think of those companies, some are at least starting to use solar energy.

The photovoltaic solar trees were built by Envision solar with BP Solar and Coulomb Technologies also playing their parts in the development of this project. Envision Solar had previously equipped Google (some internet search company apparently) with their green solar projects.

When we get down to figures and dollar costs the benefit of this projects may not seem much, but utilizing all those spaces of car parks around the country and incorporating a secondary purpose is removing the need for solar panels to be placed in, sometimes controversial , locations.

Crayola Solar Powered Crayons

Wispa — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 04:17:14 +0000

Our children are going to inherit this planet from us at some point in the future and it is our duty to try and keep it as clean as possible. From an early age our kids should realize the power and benefit of clean energy.

A favourite of every kid and some adults is coloring books and for that we need crayon. Everybody is quite familiar with the brand Crayola and it is somewhat fitting that they should embrace renewable energy.

In Forks Township, Penn. – USA. The headquarters of Crayola is hoping to go solar powered with a 1.5 megawatt solar energy park. This small, but hopefully first, step in to clean energy will power around 10% of the energy needs. This is roughly equivalent to the power needed to create 1 billion crayons each year.

The park will comprise of 26,000 photovoltaic solar panels and will cover and area of 15 acres.

Crayola has in its drive for efficiency managed to reduce its energy use in its manufacturing plants. By Using 19 percent less electricity and 11 percent less natural gas along with recycling up to 70 percent of its waste . Whether this was driven by economics or going green the environment is slightly less abused.

Included in the development is a US$1.5 million grant, some of which will fund an educational display of solar energy at the Crayola factory in Easton, Penn. which hosts around 300,0000 visitors each year.

In the near future your children will be having fun with solar powered crayons and hopefully be a little bit more educated than we were.

Solar Panels For Obama – Kenya

Wispa — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 04:43:01 +0000

In 1979, the then president of The United States, Jimmy Carter had 32 solar panels installed on the roof of the Oval Office. This was part of the initiative called “Solar America” was an early attempt of the drive for cleaner energy which the current Obama administration is hoping to promote.

Unfortunately President Carter tenure in office came to an end and the new resident of the White House, a Mr. Ronald Regan, promptly tore down the clean energy producing solar panels.

The panels themselves were passed around various institutions over the years including Unity College in Maine. Today one of those panels have been donated to the Smithsonian Nation Museum of American History as a lasting legacy of foresight of the Carter Administration.

At the moment there are no plans for the Obama camp to install solar power in the while house. But in 2003 there was a little solar installation sneaked in to heat the presidential spa.

But take a trip to another Obama Residence, in another continent and there is a different story.

Kenya, Africa, Mama Sarah Obama who is the current presidents step grandmother, lives in her very own white house. Solar panels were donated by a Kenyan airline executive and installed on her little mud hut. In the village where she lives there is no electricity. Along with a donated television set, Sarah Obama followed the election in America of her Step Grandson.

In on part of the world we have an Obama living completely on clean energy. To me it seems somebody needs to take her Grandson aside and explain the benefits to solar energy. Maybe that will restart Jimmy Carters ideas that will not be torn down by the next resident.

Ponoco NASCAR goes Solar Powered

Wispa — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 05:29:15 +0000

In the continuing trend for sports facilities to turn to solar power to supplement their energy usage, motor sports does not want to be left way behind on the racetrack.

NASCAR takes a position on the grid in the solar energy staked with Pocono Raceway setting up a solar farm to help power their stadium. With the installation of around 40,000 solar panels the track hopes to generate at least 3 megawatts of power from clean sources. The site which is being developed on a former parking lots will cover an area of 25 acres.

The track, with ever increasing energy costs, was facing a US$500,000 dollar electrical bill for a years running and looking at ways to offset the cost they came up with solar.

Buildings like sports arenas and racetracks are the ideal type of building to implement solar energy as they are not always running events or being used to their full capacity. The solar installations work producing electricity during those quite spells and this allows the facilities to sell the excess electricity back to utility companies and giving the stadiums a nice extra income.

The initial upfront costs and many people always bring this up as a negative aspect of going solar is quite a large sum. For Ponoco Raceway this will set them back US$17 million for the project but with the savings on utility expeces and extra income selling the generated electricity it wont take long to break even. In addition as always the most important aspect here is the energy is clean and you can`t really put a cost on the benefits of reduction pollutants.

I’m sure NASCAR fans would like to know that the gas guzzling CO2 emitting race cars will not be going solar powered ….. just yet. The typical car on the track will get around 3 or 4 miles per gallon of fuel and over all the sport is not very environmentally friendly. Every little bit of green thinking helps and this one can be welcomed without spoiling anybodys fun.

Racing first took place at Ponoco in 1968 and throughout its history has had a few financial problems that nearly forced the end of racing. This new cost saving project could see the tracks future a lot brighter for many years to come.

Philadelphia`s BigBelly Solar Trash Compactor

Wispa — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 12:34:37 +0000

Philadelphia is the latest city to go solar trash. BigBelly Solar is placing 500 new solar trash compactors in the city streets. The solar devices have already been installed in cities throughout the USA and so far Philadelphia is the largest installation so far.

The city estimates that it will save US$875.000 by replacing 700 standard trash baskets with 500 of the new solar powered trash compactors.

Currently each trash can is emptied around 19 times each week, with the new solar compactors this can be reduced to around 5 times and thus around 75% savings can be made on the cost of running around emptying bins.

As the containers fill up with trash, an electron beam detect the level and decided when its time to compact the trash allowing the unit to be used for longer. The BigBelly also detect when it is full and using a wireless network alerts the city collectors to come around and service the unit.

All this is completely powered by solar energy which the compactor collects with its inbuilt solar array.

Philadelphia Eagles Convert to Renewables

Solar Cemetery Santa Coloma de Gramenet

Wispa — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:24:59 +0000

The Spanish town of Santa Coloma de Gramenet, just outside Barcelona, has installed a solar photovoltaic plant in the most deadest of places. The towns cemetery has been installed with over 400 solar panels covering and area of roughly 10,700 sq. ft. (1000 sq. m.). The town which is densely packed with tall apartment buildings and a population of around 124,000 people, has a lack of suitable sized open spaces to install their solar arrays. One area that is ingeniously developed was the local cemetery. With the parted entombed in walls and mausoleums, solar panels were mounted above the walled graves causing no hindrance to those visiting their loved ones.

The cost of installation of the solar panels of around $935,000 would be met by a major power company, Conste and Endesa, and is estimated to be able to provide enough energy for powering up to 6o homes. Further to reducing CO2 emissions of 62 tonnes each year.

There are plans to install more solar panels in the cemetery, and other cities in Spain and Mexico have expressed interest in using this novel idea of their own places of rest.

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