On Saturday May 10th, the I Heart PV Street Team held its very first Brooklyn activity at the Grand Army Plaza Green Market. The group of Manhattan Comprehensive H.S. students provided hands-on solar demonstrations by charging cell phones and laptops, and also briefed passers-by on the legislative goals of the campaign. They were met with great interest and enthusiasm by the crowd.

At the event, the group was greeted by State Senator Eric Adams of the 20th District in Brooklyn (pictured above, center), whose support and enthusiasm for the subject of solar was responsible for the group’s appearance at the market. Senator Adams is committed to making solar more viable in the five boroughs through progressive policy measures, and supports the campaign’s goal of expanding net-metering for solar electricity systems in New York. (Click here to find out more about it, and how you can get involved.)

Solar One thanks him for his support and leadership!

So take forty minutes from your day to visit the distant relatives from which you branched off hundreds of millions of years ago. Tix are $20 for adults, $7 for children, and $18 for students and seniors. You can order online or by calling 718-817-8716 during workweek business hours.

On Saturday May 10th from 10am-2pm, Solar One will be hosting a celebration of Native Plants as part of NYC’s first Wild Flower Week. This free event will focus on educating children on the importance of native plants and to celebrate them through fun interactive activities in Stuyvesant Cove Park. Appropriate for ages 3-12.

Activities include:

Potting up your own native plants to take home

Making seed balls to disperse somewhere in the city

Bingo and crossword puzzles

Worm composting demonstration by The Lower East Side Ecology Center

“Pretend you’re a plant” interactive park tour

Create your own plant hat and/or costume by The New York Restoration Project

Coloring your favorite native plant

All are welcome, please come and join us!

Isn’t it time for such double-dipping to end? While these write-offs are a drop in the bucket compared to company earnings, they could go a long way to easing the burden on the average driver. H.R. 5351, recently passed in the House and now before the Senate, intends to set limits on tax credits for oil companies while at the same time increasing subsidies for renewables. Such subsidies are intended to spur growth in emerging industries seeking a foothold in a competitive market; needless to say, oil companies don’t fall into this category. Recent legislative developments are cause for guarded optimism, however; a similar proposal nearly became law back in December, falling one vote short of overcoming a tortuous fillibuster by conservative Senators that had killed previous reform bills. Notably, Republican presidential candidate John McCain didn’t show up for the vote, though a campaign spokesman has stated that “would not have supported breaking the fillibuster”.

The passage of H.R. 5351 is a necessity if we are to tip the balance away from fossil fuels. Click here and here to read more about oil subsidies.

Last week on Earth Day (April 22) Governor David A. Paterson announced a major alternative energy project that would more than triple the state’s current solar power capacity by adding 50 MW of new photovoltaic generation throughout Long Island. Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) President and CEO Kevin S. Law said LIPA released a Request for Proposals (RFP) to initiate the project last week.

The new capacity would provide enough power to sustain more than 6,500 households and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20,000 tons, and importantly it would add a critical burst of clean power right when the state needs it most - hot, sunny summer days. The solar energy would be produced by one or more developers of solar photovoltaic systems and will be introduced onto the LIPA grid and purchased by LIPA.

The project will meet 50% of a 100 MW-by-2011 goal that was set by Paterson last fall when he headed up the state’s Renewable Energy Task Force as Lt. Governor.

Solar One commends the Governor’s progressive leadership on this issue. The project marks an important step towards making solar a truly viable source in the Empire State over the course of the coming decade. Additional measures in the State Legislator must be advanced, however, for this end to ultimately be achieved. Please visit our I Heart PV campaign page to find out about simple ways in which you can help push for greater political support for solar power in New York today.

(click here for the official press release announcing the Long Island solar project.)

April 26-27 -This past weekend Go Green Expo was held at the Hilton Hotel in New York. Three floors of booths with eco friendly products and non-profit organizations concerned about the environment were host to thousands of visitors.

Chris Neidl, Solar One’s Outreach Coordinator and Director of our I <3 PV campaign gave a seminar to dozens of enthusiastic New Yorkers.

At the booth, a solar powered laptop was running on a mobile charger built by students from Manhattan Comprehensive Day/Night School. (Visitors could charge their iPods, cell phones and computers, as well.)

Visitors were very impressed by the students who were on hand to explain the campaign. And he laptop provided a live link to legislators so that voters could write directly to their elected officials, urging support for solar energy in New York.

Also, Trulight^TM CFL light bulbs were being sold at the booth. We discovered that many attendees have already switched their light bulbs and are part of saving energy in NYC.

Stuyvesant Cover Park was displayed in all its verdant and flowery beauty in a photo power point show enticing volunteers for the Park.

All in all, many more New Yorkers have been informed about Solar One and it’s programs. A great success!

So biofuels apparently aren’t all they were cracked up to be. We shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss biofuels, however. While they make a convenient scapegoat for the current crisis and are clearly deserving of skepticism, they may not be entirely to blame, despite what the energy moguls claim. Biofuels will probably never live up to their original hype, but with continued technological progress and more intelligent legislation, they may still find their niche on a smaller, more sustainable scale. First, while most attempts to produce biofuels utilize processes and raw materials that are inefficient, some alternative methods offer hope. The International Energy Agency (IEA) supports the use of second-generation biofuels, which use non-food crops to produce the fuel. Other methods focus on genetically engineering certain tree species to reduce lignin levels, which prevent researchers from accessing the cellulose needed for ethanol production. Given their high levels of cellulosity, trees are otherwise perfect candidates for biofuels. Such methods are not without their own controversies, however; critics of bioengineering have raised concerns over compromising the structural integrity of these experimental trees, not to mention the threat of cross-fertilization with wild strains. Second, most current subsidy policies do little but promote such inefficiency. Corn-based ethanol - the bulk of biofuel produced in the U.S. - is especially inefficient given corn’s low cellulose content compared to other potential sources. Yet Congress continues to pass bills in favor of greater corn subsidies and cornthanol production. (Click here and here to read our past posts.) At the conference, recently ousted Italian prime minister Romano Prodi astutely commented that “We have to examine very closely subsidy policies so as to avoid distortions in the allocation of resources”. Such a prudent approach may prove better in the long run than the outright dismissal of biofuels, despite the significant limitations born out by recent events.

“Tortillanomics”, a slideshow on Frontline’s website, also explores the effects of biofuel production on corn prices in Mexico. Click here.

On April 23 & 24, Stuyvesant Cove Park was host to a group of volunteers from City Year NYC. City Year is one of the largest youth service corps in the country, with initiatives that focus on community needs. The three areas of service initiatives that City Year focuses on are: School based service which puts corp members in schools as tutors, mentors, and leaders of afterschool programs; youth leadership which teaches elementary, middle, and high school students their ability to make a difference on an individual basis; and lastly, community transformation, where corp members physically help their community by volunteering on-site at local organizations.

The two days of service provided by City Year were a great help to Stuyvesant Cove Park. The first day, volunteers helped finish up mulching park pathways, part of a project started by NY Cares a few weeks ago. This was a large project that, between the two organizations, took 25 volunteers a total of 5 hours to complete. It was a labor intensive project that would not have been possible without the help from City Year NYC. The second day of service by City Year NYC was made up of volunteers cutting back last year’s growth, pulling weeds that have already started growing, and scrubbing soda and juice stains off the park esplanade.

The staff at Solar One would like to thank City Year NYC for their hard work and dedication in helping maintain Stuyvesant Cove Park.

April 18th was the final day of an ongoing education project with Manhattan Comprehensive Night and Day School called the Green Design Lab. Students explored issues of sustainability through green design, using their school building as focal point to develop a school greening strategy that goes far beyond a recycling program. The final sessions was a student exhibition of their final models hosted at the Center for Architecture. Learn more about the program and how to get your school involved in this unique education project here.

And make sure to watch a short video of students involved in the project and their final school greening strategies!

French President Nicholas Sarkozy called for a significant increase in green investment at an international conference on global warming last week in Paris. As much as 90% of the financing that will be necessary to help mitigate climate change must come from the private sector, France’s leader told reporters.

His comments were intended to address the creation of a long-term strategy to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. Sarkozy also called for the establishment of a globally regulated carbon credit market and cited America’s policy of stimulating environmental change through private financing, though he is critical of the American administration’s insistence on voluntary emissions cuts. In the past Sarkozy has openly advocated stricter tariffs and trade penalties on nations that do not actively attempt to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, even going so far as to threaten American imports with stiffer taxation if the U.S. continues to vacillate on the establishment of a mandatory emissions cap.

Ever the diplomat, Sarkozy made no mention of President Bush’s apparently straight-faced attempt at credible environmental policy. Bush’s announcement earlier in the week that the U.S. would reduce its emissions by 2025 was met with harsh criticism at the conference by Germany and other nations; the EU released a subtler but no less emphatic statement that Bush’s plan did “not match the level of ambition needed on the part of developed countries, considering their responsibilities in the challenge we face”.

Despite his seemingly contradictory about-face on climate change, Bush offered no specific suggestions as to how this emissions reduction would be achieved. Skeptical environmentalists claim that the announcement is merely an attempt to establish a less rigorous policy before his successor has a chance to tackle the issue. With the American president’s likely motives revealed, the rest of us can stop looking for further signs of the apocalypse. The world just isn’t ready for a green George W…

On the occasion of Pope Benedict’s visit this weekend, NYC Harbor and Scuba police were patrolling the area near the UN, about 20 blocks north of Solar One, when a beaver graced their view of the East River. Apparently struggling to stay afloat, the four foot-long, 40 lb. rodent was rushed to an UWS animal hospital but unfortunately died en route to a specialist in Utica.

Although the cause of death is still unknown, doctors suspect that she was already in bad shape before hitting the inhospitably salty waters of the East River, a tidal strait connecting the New York Harbor with the Long Island Sound. As beavers are fresh-water creatures, she likely drifted into the estuary from the Bronx River, where beavers may be in the process of re-establishing colonies.

This marked only the second confirmed beaver sighting in New York City since the early 1800s. The first beaver, José (pictured), was photographed in early 2007 after building a 12-foot lodge in the Bronx River. He was nicknamed after US Representative José E. Serrano, who has led a major initiative to revive the health of that river. More information on the efforts of Serrano and others can be found here.

One of the biggest issues with photovoltaic (PV) technology (i.e. - solar panels) has been how to store the energy once it’s generated to meet demand during times of low production, such as at night or on cloudy days. Solar thermal systems avoid this problem because they rely on generating energy from the sun’s heat, which can be more easily stored than the sunlight-generated energy of PV systems. At the core of solar thermal is a surprisingly simple concept: the sun’s rays are used to boil water, which then generates steam to power turbines. The energy is then stored in tanks of molten salt, which can reach about 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit without becoming too pressurized. This allows the energy to be stored for hours, even days, until it is needed. Most current systems achieve this by focusing a field of hundreds to thousands of specially designed lenses on a large water tank or pipe system, then pumping the resulting heat through a closed loop consisting of hot and cold salt tanks, a steam generator and a turbine.

“Nevada Solar One”, the 64 MW Acciona power plant which opened in Boulder City last year and was featured on this very blog just last month, is one such system. The largest solar power plant to be built around the world in the past sixteen years, Nevada Solar One can produce enough energy to power 15,000 households. Now other visionary companies are experimenting with variations of this basic design to further improve efficiency.

Proponents of solar thermal boast other benefits, as well, including greater potential at higher latitudes and other places that don’t get much sun and its greater affordability; solar thermal systems based on a parabolic trough design produce energy at a rate that is 50-75% cheaper than its PV equivalent. As these technologies develop further, different niches may emerge for each. While PV panels may ultimately become the industry standard for individual home-owners and relatively small, off-the-grid systems, solar thermal’s double-barreled promise of storage and price make it a strong candidate for that clean, large-scale power source we’ve all been clamoring for.

Water is heavily utilized in all forms of electricity generation. In fact the cooling needs of nuclear plants use much more water than even a hydro-electric dam. When you conserve energy you save $$, carbon emissions, and water. Win, win, win…. I like it.

Check out a great article on CNet here.

(Caption: Virginia Bluebells, Mertensia virginica)

A native plant of New York, Virginia Bluebells is a wonderful addition to Stuyvesant Cove Park. It is one of just a few plants blooming in the park this week. It usually blooms in early to mid April depending on the weather. Virginia Bluebells is a recent addition to the flora in Stuyvesant Cove park. It was planted in the spring of 2006 with the high hopes that the following spring it would showcase it’s beauty. We waited a whole year and sure enough in spring 2007 we had a modest showing of small but brilliant blue flowers. Once again in the spring of 2007, having had some success with the previous years plants, we decided to plant even more. That ended up being a wise decision because this year they have really flourished. We have large groupings with vivid displays of it’s periwinkle blue flowers, making a striking display at the North entrance to the park.

Mertensia virginica is classified as a perennial. It’s leaf and flowering period are ephemeral lasting only about 2-3 months. After its brief show, the leaves and flowers die back and do not reappear till the following spring. Mertensia virginica typically grows in moist woodland forests and bottomlands, and does fairly well in wetland areas too.

There is not much care required to grow this plant successfully. Moist rich soil, partial sun, and little to no foot traffic. The plant is extremely vulnerable to foot traffic and can result in lost blooms which, considering the length of it’s performance, are very valuable. So it would be best planted away from pathways or edges of flower beds. The plant usually reaches a height of 18 inches.

On April 12, 2008 volunteers from NY Cares, one of New York City’s largest volunteer organizations, came to lend a helping hand in Stuyvesant Cove Park as part of their Hands on New York Day. Hands on NY is an annual event put on by NYCares to assist city parks, community gardens, nonprofit organizations, and homeless shelters revitalize their sites. With over 6,000 volunteers participating at over 100 sites, this years event has been the most successful in the 14 years of hosting the event.

Volunteers at Stuyvesant Cove Park came from Sidley Austin, a large international law firm. The project for the day was to lay down Fibar woodchips on the walking paths throughout the park. Fibar is engineered wood fibers that knit together to form a surface soft enough to cushion falls, yet firm enough for wheelchairs. As part of the original design of the park, all pathways need to be wheelchair accessible so that everyone can enjoy all parts of the park.

The volunteers from Sidley Austin were amazing. The day started at 9:30 with about 15 volunteers hauling mulch into the park. By the end of the day, 2:30 or so, the volunteers completed more than half the park, much more than initially anticipated. Their help and hard work is truly appreciated.

This past Saturday, Solar One was a flurry of solar-building activity. A group of 17 Manhattan Comprehensive High School students, all participants in Solar One’s new I Heart PV street team, assembled three mobile solar chargers. The units are to be used in outreach activities all around the city to help promote stronger solar policies in NYC, as part of Solar One’s new I Heart PV campaign. Mounted on metal hand trucks and small enough to take on the subway, the units will allow the students to give a simple live solar demonstration - cell phone and laptop charging - to interested passers-by in neighborhoods throughout the city.

The students did a phenomenal job assembling the three separate units, and did so with great speed, ingenuity and hard work. For many, it was their first time ever using an electric drill or tape measurer. But you would have never known that by the end of the day, with the students wielding each like seasoned pros. Solar One commends and thanks them!

The charger’s design is the brainchild of Elliott Montgomery, a NYC-based industrial designer and Solar One’s new best friend. Elliott, who holds a BA in ID from Carnegie Mellon University, focuses on projects that use experiential design to investigate and facilitate behavioral change by creating connections between user relevance and physical objects. The PV chargers embody this principle by giving New York pedestrians the opportunity to (serendipitously) interact and test out a functional solar panel, before hearing from our team of Manhattan Comprehensive interns just how well solar could work in the five boroughs. . . . if the right policies are put in place to foster it’s development. Pushing for such policies on the state level is the mission of Solar One’s I Heart PV campaign.

The chargers will make their first expedition this weekend at Grand Central Station’s Earth Day New York festival, and after that, can be found all around the city in busy pedestrian areas throughout the spring and summer. If you are interested in finding out more about the chargers, their comings and goings, the Manhattan Comprehensive street team, or the I Heart PV campaign, please contact campaign coordinator, Chris Neidl.

Taiwan is celebrating the 23rd millionth passenger on their extremely successful bullet train line that connects the capital Taipei to the south of the island.  A large project which, as always, created controversy, the response to its completion has been such that in a little more than a year the amount of trains on the line has been tripled to accommodate demand.

Previously, a trip to Kaohsiung would have taken over four hours.  Now the whole route takes only 90 minutes.  The train has had such an impact that the air-routes now serviced by the train have made significant cutbacks.

Because trains are much more energy-efficient people movers than all other forms, this is a welcome milestone.

Most of the development of Germany’s solar industry has occurred since 1990, when the “Act on the Sale of Electricity to the Grid” was passed.  An updated version, the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) went into effect in 2000. This law, touted by environmental advocates as the best of its kind, relies on generous “feed-in tariffs” to catalyze economic growth. These tariffs establish fixed prices above those currently on the market, essentially guaranteeing profits and creating an otherwise stable environment for investment. Utilities are required to purchase renewable energy at these rates, passing the extra costs on to their customers in the form of higher electric bills, an increase of about 5% a month for the average German household. The hope is that this controlled growth will pay off down the line as the industry is gradually weaned off of these tariffs, which decrease by about 5% a year from initial rates three times higher than retail cost. As technology improves and rates come back to market levels, electric bills will continue to come down, as well.

The effects of this policy have also filtered into other green industries. Germany has become the third largest manufacturer of solar panels behind China and Japan, and analysts are expecting employment in Germany’s renewable sector to nearly triple in the next two decades (from 250,000 to 710,000 by 2030), matching their vaunted automobile industry.

Ultimately, the success of this policy will depend on how quickly the solar industry can stand on its own feet. The German government is currently considering tweaking the EEG to cut feed-in tariffs further — 9.2% next year and 7-8% in following years — and extending it to other renewable industries such as wind power. At the moment these tariffs operate on a 20-year fixed rate contract, though this could change as well.

Whatever the result, this policy seems to be working so far. California has recently approved its own feed-in tariffs and other states are likely to follow. Critics contend that such subsidy programs are not efficient, but conventional energy industries are also heavily subsidized. At the very least, Germany has provided the rest of the world with an innovative model for financing renewable energy. Washington should take note.