Big Brother is watching… your energy efficiency

There are plenty of ways to check your energy efficiency. In Ontario, for example, you can book a Home Energy Audit, saving up to $150 on the audit itself. The federal ecoENERGY program used to offer pre-retrofit evaluations that provided rebates on energy-efficient appliances, but the ecoENERGY Retrofit program was cancelled effective March 31, 2010. And, audits or no, you can always buy more efficient appliances and ensure that drafts and other gaps in your home’s insulation are taken care of.

Still if home audits are too costly, and you don’t like the idea of someone poking around your home, perhaps you’d be more interested in a plane taking infrared photos of your house. Live like you’re in 1984… in 2010!

All right, it’s not really as frightening as George Orwell’s dystopic vision of the future, but a Belgian company has successfully used thermal maps taken by a plane flying over Antwerp to measure the heat loss from houses’ roofs. It’s an unobtrusive way of measuring the amount of energy being lost by a house, and given our existing comfort with public satellite data like the kind found on Google Maps, it’s not hard to imagine that we might eventually be able to access this kind of image from the comfort of our computer. At the same time, it begs the question of just how public we want our energy consumption habits to be.

It might not be double plus good, but it’s certainly not bad either.

Via Popular Science

M-m-m biomass

We don’t like generating biofuel from our food, but what about a worker whose food is our waste? That’s exactly what Bristol Robotics Lab in the UK has been doing with a sewage-scavenging robot that metabolizes waste in its artificial gut.

The robot, the Ecobot III, can survive by itself for up to seven days by consuming organic material for its microbial fuel cells (MFCs), bio-electrochemical devices that use bacteria to break down food and generate power. Since, unlike a human digestive system, this organic material could be anything, including sewage (the sewage that the Ecobot III is being fed has already been partially processed). When the waste needs to be expelled, it’s sent out of a gravity-fed peristaltic pump that squeezes unwanted matter out of a tube. That way, the robot’s processing system doesn’t become clogged by unused fuel.

It’s a little gross, but hey: Isn’t the future worth it?

But a robot that eats waste like animals eat food isn’t the only option for autonomous robots powered by biomass. As the New Scientist article linked above mentions, the U.S. military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is developing a similar robot powered by an internal combustion engine. Rather than digesting biomass, these robots would take in organic matter and burn it. Though, in an age where we’re increasingly concerned about greenhouse gases, and with a robot that could consume our waste, it seems odd to propose a new model that’s certainly going to release even more emissions.

Either way, the idea of tiny robots scurrying around and taking care of our waste, without so much as a finger lifted by their owners, is definitely appealing. A trash-removing robot powered by the very trash it removes? My apartment could probably use two.

Via New Scientist

Planting the Seeds of Opportunity

Image: Cover page for The Enchanted Drill Bit written, illustrated and published by grade three and four students at Tilley School with support from Enerplus. Cover illustration by Delaney Tateson, grade four.

Elementary school teacher Janice Jensen and her students at Tilley School in Tilley, Alberta have taken environmental sustainability to a new level since the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers’ (CAPP) Energy in Action program visited their community three years ago.

On Tilley’s Energy in Action day in May 2007, students and oil and gas industry volunteers built indoor greenhouses that they use to grow food and flowers to raise money for the local food bank. The event also sparked a long lasting relationship between the school and companies that operate in the area.

Jensen saw the Energy in Action program as a window of opportunity. “A strong relationship with Enerplus and BP Canada was built that day and it has continued to this day,” she said. Since Energy in Action, Janice has worked closely on a variety of projects with BJ Arnold, Stakeholder Relations Advisor, and Lorne Schmidt, District Foreman, both of Enerplus. “It wasn’t just a one day event for them, they have stayed actively involved. The students get very excited when Lorne and BJ come to visit.”

Lorne and BJ have judged the school energy fair, spoke to the grade 3 and 4 class every year about oil and gas in the Tilley region, and they have continued to support the school’s environmental projects supplying donations for rechargeable batteries, greenhouses and compost bins.

Most recently, with advice from CAPP’s Energy in Action program, Janice and her students took advantage of BP Canada’s A+ for Energy grant and got more support from Enerplus to write, illustrate, and publish “The Enchanted Drill Bit,” a children’s book about the oil and gas industry and its products. The school will continue to seek industry support for environmental initiatives such as installing low-flow faucets and toilets in the washrooms so teachers, parents and students can learn more about the decisions everyone can make to reduce water and electricity use.

“These students are educators and mentors and it’s a privilege to work with a school that has such a passion for learning,” said Enerplus’ Arnold. “Enerplus is looking forward to continuing its relationship with the entire Tilley community for many years to come.”

Since 2004, 52 companies and more than 1,629 company volunteers have participated in Energy in Action events in 49 communities across Canada. Together they have planted nearly 4,700 trees and shrubs, and taught close to 5,000 students about energy resources and the benefits of careful resource development.

Burning Food And Fuel

Two hungry, hungry sources are responsible for most of the world’s environmental impacts: our mouths and our gas tanks.

According to a report prepared for the “International Panel for Sustainable Resource Management,” convened under the United Nations Environment Programme , food and fuel consumption are taking considerable tolls on the environment that include reducing freshwater supplies, destroying ecosystems and intensifying disease and death rates. It’s not a rosy picture, and one of the report’s more interesting recommendations isn’t any more pleasant for meat eaters: switching to vegetable-based foods over animal-based proteins. (Of course, as far as carbon intensity, not all plants are created equal either).

In Canada, agriculture contributed 8.5 per cent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2008, but energy provided the lion’s share, with 81 per cent. Changing the way we use energy is at the heart of everything we write here at Flow, so there are clear indications across the board that Canadians and Canadian industry are willing to take steps to improve their energy use. From energy efficiency to renewable energy projects, provincial energy strategies show that the entire country recognizes the importance of our energy.

And the agricultural industry has taken notice of its environmental footprint as well. In addition to projects like farm-based methane capture that make better use of existing emissions, techniques like no-till farming are designed to reduce the volume of total emissions by reducing the disturbance of soil. And even more basic methods, like using straw residue to keep nitrogen from escaping into groundwater, are aimed at reducing farming’s environmental impact.

Whether or not the report’s recommendations are followed to the letter, the way the world uses energy and grows its food will certainly change. But it’s also an uphill battle — there aren’t many things we need more than fuel and food.

Via Science Blog

Solar for those who can’t

You like the idea of a solar photovoltaic array providing electricity for your home. But there’s a problem. Your house is on a lot with many tall, stately conifers that completely shade your roof all year long. Cutting a couple down would be counter productive to your green aspirations.

Or maybe you live in an apartment where there is no place to install solar panels.

Or you have a lovely sun-lit townhouse with a south-facing roof but the condo board says “No solar panels. They ruin the aesthetics of our community.”

But don’t despair. You can participate in a community solar farm similar to ones in Falmouth, Massachusetts, Sacramento, California; St. George, Utah.

The concept is simple. In Falmouth, the solar farm is owned by a co-op which sells the solar-generated electricity directly to the local distribution company. Co-op members take equity positions in the co-op, and revenue from electricity sales, tax credits and incentive program funding is distributed to the members proportional to their equity stake.

In Sacramento and St. George the program is run by the local utility and the electricity goes directly to the grid. Participants in Sacramento pay a customized monthly fee based on historic electricity use and the portion of the system the participant chooses to “own”. Ownership options are 1.0, 1.5, or 2.0 kilowatts installed capacity. The power generated by a participant’s portion shows up as a credit on her/his electricity bill.

In St. George, the cost to participate is $3,000 per half unit (0.5 kilowatts installed capacity) or $6,000 per full unit (one kilowatt installed capacity) up to a maximum of four units. Again, participants are credited on their monthly bills for the electricity generated by their units.

The solar arrays in a community solar farm are not connected directly to the participants’ homes, but unlike other solar electricity programs, the participants “own” part of the array, either through up front payments, such as in Falmouth and St. George, or through monthly fees, such as in Sacramento.

Participants, and others, still benefit from the solar power generated by the farms because the electricity delivered to the grid reduces the need for electricity from coal or natural gas fired generation.

So, even if you live in the dark, solar can be a part of your household electricity profile.

Efficiency labelling for water fixtures

The Speech from the Throne, opening a new session of the Ontario legislature was delivered March 8, and among the new programs announced is the Water Opportunities Act.

The Act is envisioned as a vehicle to make Ontario “the North American leader in the development and sale of new technologies and services for water conservation and treatment.”

Generally speaking, when government comes out with a new program related to conservation and the environment, stakeholder groups are quick to lament that the program doesn’t go far enough or that it completely fails to address the problem. However, this time water conservation groups were generally positive. In a media release, Great Lakes United even suggested some strategies the Ontario Government may wish to pursue, one of which was to launch an efficiency labelling program for water fixtures.

However, a quick visit to the Web would indicate that such standards are already in place. Natural Resources Canada’s water conservation Web page suggests that low-flow showerheads are those that deliver less than 9.5 litres per minute compared to older models that use 14 litres per minute. Similarly, low-flow toilets use six litres per flush or less.

These may not be hard and fast definitions, similar to the Energy Star® program wherein products must meet certain energy use and efficiency criteria before they can display the Energy Star® symbol. However, if they aren’t hard and fast, then establishing such a program would be in the best interests of water conservation.

A solar roof that’s working harder and smarter

Let’s face it, roofs are pretty lazy. They just lay around above us all day and night without moving an inch, and you can be sure that when winter hits won’t knock the snow off themselves. And the eavestroughs? Forget about any help with those.

Maybe that’s why a team of American scientists funded by the Department of took it upon themselves to create a bona fide “smart roof” that refracts heat during the summer and retains it during the winter.

“White” roofs are already capable of refracting sunlight, while darker roofs retain its heat. But by enabling a roof to switch between the two states at a preset temperature, researchers are hoping to create a more robust solution to so-called “passive” solar energy. Here, the change was made using a coating applied to a roof’s shingles. The developers of the coating found that they could either reduce roof temperatures by about 50 – 80 percent in warm weather, or increase roof temperatures up to 80 percent in cooler weather.

What’s more, the roof’s not just smart, it’s also responsible. Created using leftover cooking oil from fast food restaurants — a waste product that’s already being used in the production of biofuel  —  the “bio-based” material coating these new roofs wouldn’t require us to do anything more than continue to eat the fatty, fatty foods we already love.

Hey, if we’re making our roofs work harder, why shouldn’t we get to kick back a little ourselves?

Making the grade on energy

It’s easy to lose sight of our energy. After all, it’s invisible. Whether we’re silently fuelling our cars or turning on a light switch that allows current to flow, we use energy every day without actually seeing its source. But in a world that calls for increased energy efficiency and alternative approaches to the sources we’re used to using, losing sight of our energy just doesn’t work anymore.

In 2009, The Canadian Centre for Energy Information conducted a poll (376KB PDF) that found a full 59 per cent of respondents felt disconnected from energy policy-making decisions and only about half felt informed about energy issues in their country. This, despite the fact that a slate of (sometimes bizarre) technologies, alternate sources of transportation, and fundamental changes in the ways we use energy are changing our lives every day. Energy is changing, which means that our education has to keep pace.

Provincial and territorial energy strategy documents have consistently identified energy awareness as an important factor in any future energy plans. Alberta, for example, identifies awareness as one of its “Desired Outcomes” in its 2008 energy strategy document, while the Government of the Northwest Territories calls for “provid[ing] information and research on emerging technologies, their potential application in the NWT, and develop Alternative Energy Demonstration Projects” as one of its main energy strategy objectives.

To raise this awareness, governments have tried to educate energy consumers both on the way they already use energy — though energy efficiency campaigns, such as those produced by Quebec’s Agence de l’efficacité énergétique — and the ways in which energy is changing — such as demonstration projects like Nova Scotia’s Fundy Tidal Energy Demonstration Project. Government programs run the gamut from awareness campaigns to simple changes in existing programs, like Quebec’s resolution to provide efficient driving techniques as part of driver training, but they aren’t the only ones set to educate consumers. The energy sector, with its literal investment in the energy you use, regularly provides educational opportunities for consumers.

Among energy providers, energy conservation campaigns, like Enmax’s “GreenMax”, provide material benefits to consumers. Use less, they suggest, and pay less. Other outreach efforts, however, provide more direct educational programs. Here are three upcoming events produced by the private sector to educate Canadian consumers.

While new, more compact generating technologies provide an ever-increasing number of options for decentralizing our power, the electricity grid continues to play an essential role in our day-to-day lives. Presented by Inside Education, an upcoming Electricity Education Tour (April 22 – 24) will help participants take a look at the seemingly invisible net of electricity that powers Canadian homes.

Energy in Action (May 3 – May 28), produced by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, has been providing community programs on energy since 2004. Its activities, designed to showcase the organization’s environmental stewardship — a common goal of industry outreach — will take place in schools across eight Western provinces this year.

GeoCanada 2010 (May 10 – 14), a conference that invites a raft of energy professionals will also include an educational component for the public. Five of them, in fact. From a poster competition designed to encourage students to consider geology in their communities to a full two-day program with hands-on exhibits, these GeoCanada Community initiatives are designed to share professionals’ knowledge with the general public.

N-e-at! The coolest new technology of 2009

Some of them are likely to find their way into your home; others are just nice to have around. In either case, here are some of the most interesting technologies that Flow covered in 2009.

Turning sea water into jet fuel

US Navy scientists have found a way to turn sea water into jet fuel by extracting carbon dioxide and then refining the resulting product. Not exactly a water-powered car, but there’s always 2010, right?

Software

Science fiction’s taught us to be wary of robot intelligences, but a little help in being more energy efficient can’t get too evil, right? Take PecoBOO, a program that uses face detection software to turn off your monitor when you’re not at your desk, or Microsoft’s Hohm, a more general home energy monitoring tool. So long as neither of them starts saying “I’m sorry, Dave,” it’s just a good idea.

Biodegradable computers

We looked at iameco’s biodegradable computers as part of a larger trend toward more environmentally responsible systems. With most computers full of (often toxic) components that otherwise end up mouldering in landfills, it’s comforting to know that our web-surfing ways can also be more eco-friendly. And while those greener computers are still operating, this algorithm will allow smart power strips to shut off electronic devices in standby mode. Double smart.

Low carbon ice cream

Lower your carbon footprint by increasing your calorie intake. Ben & Jerry’s has created an ice cream that doesn’t have to be frozen until it’s brings home, meaning it needs less time being cooled in store freezers. If only all new technology were delicious.

Smart fridges

If you need a place to store your many, many cartons of low-carbon ice cream, consider a smart fridge capable of using “dynamic demand” technology to “automatically adjust [its] power consumption to account for second-by-second changes in demand on the national grid.” Of course, the fridges in question are still being used on a trial basis in the UK, but it’s only a matter of time before every appliance we use here gets smarter.

Air conditioning with ice

Speaking of keeping cool, Canadians should appreciate an air conditioning unit that uses dynamic changes in the electricity grid’s to keep a block of ice frozen as a kind of frigid backup (you can’t store “cold,” of course, but it’s close enough). After all, what’s more Canadian than spending half your time freezing and the other half thawing out?

Solar, solar and more solar

There’s always a flurry of interesting solar gizmos being released, and this year we looked at a few including the smallest ever solar cells, a method of solar cooking that you can potentially build yourself and using molten salt to store solar energy. In fact, let’s go a step further and design the world’s smallest solar oven that stores its energy in the same seasoning you use to cook your tasty treats. We have the technology!

Computer programs that mimic genetics to provide the optimal solvent-steam recipe

All right, the heading doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) is an essential part of the heavy oil extraction process. The carbon intensity of the process, though, is a consistent sticking point. By improving the efficiency of the process, Genetic Algorithms (GA) programs reduce the carbon footprint of the process while also making the process more cost-effective. Cheap and efficient: now that does roll off the tongue.

What’s new in tidal power?

Canada currently has North America’s only tidal generating station, but the possibilities of Dartmouth Wave Energy’s Searaser, which is designed to make the intermittent power source more predictable, are still exciting. Add to that the possibilities of integrated wind and tidal generation and you’ve got one exciting set of technologies.

A piezoelectric cell phone

We didn’t know what “piezoelectricity” meant either until we tackled this story on technologies that can covert kinetic energy into electricity. Is your battery indicator only showing a few bars remaining? Just talk up a storm.

PecoBOO watches you

You know you should be saving energy, and that every little bit helps. But sometimes you just plain forget to turn things off.

If only there was something to remind you…

Very PC understands and has developed software that will do the remembering for you. The program is called PecoBOO (that’s p-ECO-boo, get it?) and it’s designed to save energy every time you get up from your computer.

Using face detection software in combination with your webcam, PecoBOO will actually turn off your computer monitor when you’re not using it. You can set it to sleep or hibernate whenever you get a coffee, go to the bathroom, or chat with co-workers down the hall.

When you return, PecoBOO can tell you’re ready to get back to work, and will turn the monitor back on for you. You could call it a no-brainer. You could also call it lazy – but be realistic: who turns off their monitor every time they step away?

This simple and automatic way to save energy comes from Very PC, a computer company known for manufacturing low-energy desktop computers. They understand that computers are just a fact of life, but they have a huge environmental impact, especially with everybody using them.

Very PC does their bit to reduce the energy requirements in as many ways as possible. The developers at the company came up with PecoBOO when they began to think of the lights in their refrigerators – it’s only ever turned on when you need it.

You certainly don’t need to remember to turn that off.

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