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Keeping the Lights on in California Amidst 33% Renewables and Environmental Rulings

Monday, February 27, 2012

California’s 2020 goal of generating a third of its power from renewables will be more complicated than just building enough solar power plants, utility-scale wind projects, and geothermal facilities.  

Renewable energy, much of it variable, must be delivered to and integrated in the state’s transmission system. Responsibility for 80 percent of the state’s power falls to the California Independent System Operator Corporation (the ISO). The ISO has to meet the goals set by the state’s political leaders, its energy commission, and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) while adhering to regulation by federal and regional authorities that focus on grid reliability.

Decision-makers at the ISO are preparing for the big changes necessary to achieve the 33 percent renewables goal without forgetting their experience in the 2000 and 2001 energy crisis, when multiple outages cost the state $40 billion to $45 billion and the sitting governor was recalled.

“I was Director of Grid Operations, so I was in the control room pretty much for the duration,” said ISO Executive Advisor for Operations James McIntosh. “Renewable energy had nothing to do with that.”

But there are parallels between those events and what could be coming.

“The challenges that we had were many,” McIntosh explained. “Demand was outpacing supply, dry winters caused low hydro conditions, natural gas prices were skyrocketing and market abuse mitigation was not at the level it is today.” But what could be in store for California, reminiscent of that time, he added, was the fact that “there was a capacity shortage as the result of 33 plants going off-line for emissions standards upgrades required by California’s air quality authorities.”

McIntosh said he has no doubt that “we have the technology and the means to make the policy goals happen, and the ISO is working hard to prepare for successful achievement of important environmental goals. But there are going to be challenges as we get to increased penetration levels of wind and solar.”

“At all levels of the ISO,” McIntosh said, there is attention to the state’s readiness to apply the newest grid dynamics to cope with wind and solar variability and the fact that, without energy storage, there is no way to use their off-peak capacity to meet peak demand.”

But, once again, imposed mandates could induce a capacity shortage. “Probably the biggest challenge is maintaining the ramping capability and ancillary services capability,” McIntosh said, because the state has mandated that, as of 2017, power plants using coastal and estuary waters for cooling be retrofitted, repowered or retired. This “once-through cooling mandate” affects 11 natural gas plants accounting for up to 12,000 megawatts of capacity on the ISO grid by 2020.

Determined not to let history repeat itself, the ISO has asked the Federal Energy Commission (FERC) for a waiver on the retirement of Calpine’s eleven-year-old gas-fired Sutter Energy Center. “We’re trying to keep the grid reliable by keeping this supply source available to us,” McIntosh explained. “We’re kind of putting a stake in the ground and saying we need this plant to be there to handle the risk of the once-through cooling plants going away.”

Federal (FERC) and state (CPUC) regulators are tussling over the Sutter plant waiver, said Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies Executive Director V. John White. “The good news is that the ISO is thinking about more than natural gas,” he added.

“The problem is the CPUC is looking at resource adequacy as just keeping the lights on,” White explained. But the challenge is very different now. “As variability is introduced on the generation side, we need more gas — but as capacity. We want to pay for it to be available but not to run.”

McIntosh had a similar take. California’s combined-cycle gas-fired plants, which do not use controversial water sources for cooling, will become progressively more important for grid reliability. As the penetration of variable renewables grows, he said, they will be vital for ramping and other forms of flexibility.

Uncertainty is accentuated, he added, by the unknowns associated with integrating distributed renewables and the coming plug-in vehicle fleet.

“What the ISO is concerned about is time,” White explained. Without resource planning, there may not be adequate replacements for the plants that must be closed by 2017. The CPUC, he added, should design its Resource Adequacy program, which determines what generation the state will need, with a five-year planning perspective instead of its present “one-year snapshot.”

A broader perspective was also McIntosh’s prescription. “It’s not just one thing that has to happen” to achieve the 33 percent renewables target,” he explained. “It’s a number of things. And a lot of players will have important roles in making this happen.”

“We want to keep the grid reliable, address the policy issues, and do it at the least cost. Every time we make a decision, we think about all those things,” McIntosh said. But, he added, “There will be a cost. Nobody said it would be free.” The job of the ISO, he said, “is to make sure we keep that cost as low as we possibly can.” (link)

Energy, Energy Efficiency/Conservation, Innovation, Policy Initiatives: The States | Comments (0)

Gathering Low Hanging Fruit is Not Enough to Green Industry

Monday, February 27, 2012

America’s industrial sector generates more than 40 percent of the country’s GDP and employs almost 20 million people in refineries, paper mills, chemical plants, smelters and countless other facilities. This mighty engine consumed one-quarter of all U.S. energy in 2010 — 91 percent of which came from fossil fuels — in many diverse segments, in a dizzying array of complex processes.

If we are to move off of fossil fuels, U.S. industry must lead with investment and innovation. This is not only possible, but critical to capturing durable competitive advantage, according to Rocky Mountain Institute’s Reinventing Fire — a blueprint to a 2050 U.S. economy powered by efficiency and renewable sources of energy.

Eliminating the use of fossil fuels will result in a healthier environment by reducing toxic air and water pollution while stabilizing CO2 emissions at levels that avoid the most damaging impacts of climate change. In addition to improving the environment and stabilizing the climate, Reinventing Fire is also an enormous business opportunity.

Firms that lead this transition will benefit from reduced operating costs, improved profits and product quality, reduced fuel price volatility and supply risks, the creation of new markets and a competitive edge at home and abroad. While the work is not easy, one key technique can help industry make fast strides: energy management systems.

To capture energy savings in industry, it is not enough to merely gather up low-hanging fruit either when capital is available or cost-cutting is required. Leading firms are attaining dramatic results by pushing far past that opportunistic paradigm, establishing a continuous improvement mindset to monitor and manage their energy use in good times and bad.

For example, Frito-Lay cut its electricity energy intensity by 25 percent, natural gas intensity by 33 percent and water by 41 percent from 1999 to 2008. These energy savings investments not only brought a financial benefit, with an IRR of 25 percent and $55 million added to the bottom line, but they also reduce risk. These investments have even generated marketing benefits, especially as consumers get more savvy about where their products come from and how they are made. The installation of solar thermal power at Frito-Lay’s Modesto, Calif., plant enabled the use of the tagline “Sun Chips are now made from the sun.”

The key to Frito-Lay’s success was not some breakthrough manufacturing innovation, but simple, fundamental business strategies applied to energy use. The energy management strategy could be implemented in a number of ways, but all methods can be boiled down into a simple “plan, do, check, act” structure. To execute effectively, several key elements must be in place:

  • A measurement and reporting structure will accurately assess energy use at the scale required, whether that be the plant, process or equipment level, and will clearly report that use in consistent terms that management can track across different facilities.
  • The right organizational structure must align stakeholders from the boardroom to the shop floor. Creating cross-functional teams tasked with saving energy can help a production manager see how energy-saving projects could boost productivity and not add risk, or help a maintenance manager understand how a steam leak harms the bottom line.
  • Leadership must set bold goals and provide necessary resources. The goals should be aggressive to unlock innovation. If it is already clear how to achieve them, the goals are probably not strong enough. Energy performance should be a component of employees’ performance reviews both to reward good work and create a culture of shared responsibility. Capital should be dedicated to efficiency projects — perhaps each year’s savings can be reallocated to create a self-sustaining funding source — so they don’t compete with fundamentally different types of projects.

The fundamental steps used within an energy management system also happen to be the tenets of good management in general. It is not surprising, then, that instituting an energy management structure would have spillover benefits into product quality, productivity, innovation, risk reduction, brand health and human capital value. The firms best known for their energy management accomplishments — Dow Chemical, Toyota, Nucor, Pepsi Co. — also happen to be leaders in their market segments

While the implementation details of an energy management plan might look very different at a Dow Chemical, where energy is 16 percent of costs, than it would at Pepsi where it is 2.5 percent, all industries and firms can benefit from applying an energy management system.

Each plan must be tailored to the unique culture and operating requirements of each company, but plenty of resources can help customize your own structure. The EPA’s ENERGY STAR program has a set of guidelines. The DOE’s Superior Energy Performance (SEP) program provides resources and pilot programs to plants across the country. The SEP program has also supported the development of the international ISO 50001 energy management standard released in June 2011.

Like 9001 for quality and 14001 for environmental management, ISO 50001 will provide independent verification of energy management practices that can be communicated to customers, suppliers, governments and the public.

The drumbeat of plant closings and outsourcing might create the impression that U.S. industry, facing low-cost overseas competition and ever-tightening regulation, is doomed to an eventual extinction. But this sector still accounts for 40 percent of U.S. GDP and employs 20 million people.

It is true that production of many lower-value products have moved to low-wage countries, but this recent past is not destined to be our future. Industry thrives in places such as Germany and Japan with high wages, high energy costs and strict environmental standards. It can continue to thrive in the U.S., too, particularly if we are able leverage one of our country’s greatest assets: innovation.

Aggressively deploying energy management structures can harness this innovation to save energy and costs — and help industry become more productive, make better products, become a better neighbor and create jobs. (link)

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Renewables Almost Competitive With Fossil Fuels Even Without Subsidies

Friday, January 27, 2012

Renewable energy companies are approaching the point where they can generate electricity at a price competitive with fossil-fuels without subsidies, the biggest wind and solar manufacturers said.

Suntech Power Holdings Co. Chief Executive Officer Zhengrong Shi said solar will reach parity with fossil fuels on electric grids by 2015. Vestas Wind systems A/S expects its turbines to compete without incentives “in the coming years,” said Peter Brun, head of governmental relations.

“Wind in some cases already is, or can in coming years, be fully cost-competitive with fossil fuels,” Brun said yesterday by e-mail from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “Fossil-fuel prices will continue to rise, and that increases the competitiveness of new technologies. We are preparing the whole industry for getting off the subsidy-need.”

Caught between oversupply and tumbling prices, the companies are reminding governments that their products are taking the biggest share of new power generation and increasingly rivaling oil and gas. That’s pushing green growth up the agenda as Germany and Japan close nuclear reactors and President Barack Obama defends U.S. support for renewables.

Renewables Boom

New electricity generation from the wind, sun, waves and biomass drew $187 billion in 2010 compared with $157 billion for added capacity from natural gas, oil and coal, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the first time investment in renewables has exceeded that of fossil fuels.

“Renewables are the energy of the future, and there’s been a larger investment in renewable energy than conventional energy,” said Steve Sawyer, secretary-general of the Global Wind Energy Council in Brussels, who first attended Davos in the early 1990s as a lobbyist for Greenpeace when clean energy companies were tiny.

Subsidies to renewables totaled $66 billion worldwide in 2010, according to the most recent figures from the International Energy Agency. Incentives must be retained to meet existing targets of diversifying the energy supply, the Paris- based group said.

Power from solar panels costs more than triple natural gas, according to levelized cost of energy data from New Energy Finance. Onshore wind is close to parity with coal, and about a quarter more pricey than gas.

‘Very Competitive’

Solar power will be “very competitive” within a decade, and in some places, it’s already near “grid parity,” meaning it can compete without subsidies, Trina Solar Ltd. (TSL) Chief Executive Officer Jifan Gao said in an interview in Davos. He spoke through an interpreter.

“We see costs coming down and manufacturing efficiency being improved all the time,” said Gao, whose company is the fifth biggest maker of silicon-based solar panel. “In places like Australia, this year they will reach grid parity; next year Italy will, and in 2014 regions like California.”

Gao’s comments support those of Suntech’s Shi, who told Bloomberg television that with government support, the industry has made “tremendous progress,” and solar prices have been cut in half in a year.

“We believe that by 2015, there will be around 50 percent of countries where it reaches grid parity,” Shi said.

Vestas Aims

Brun at Vestas said that the cost of wind power is “site- specific” and that the technology may reach grid parity in the breeziest areas by 2020. He declined to say where. Governments and the industry should consider re-allocating subsidies to turbines in areas with lower wind speeds, and offshore, where winds are stronger and costs are higher, he said.

With incentives for wind and solar power under threat in the U.S. and the European Union as governments tighten budgets, Davos serves as a forum for industry executives to remind governments of the need to promote renewables as part of the effort to stem climate change, said Tulsi Tanti, chairman of Suzlon Energy Ltd. (SUEL), India’s biggest wind-turbine maker.

“Davos is the one place the most important decision makers of the world — be it government or business — converge,” Tanti said in e-mailed answers to questions. “The most crucial issue this year will be to argue for policy certainty despite the economic environment.”

In the U.S. the wind industry is threatened by the loss of a tax credit which expires at the end of this year. Vestas has said it may fire 1,600 U.S. workers if the credit isn’t renewed, and Obama in his State of the Union Speech on Jan. 24 urged Congress to “pass clean-energy tax credits.”

“I will not walk away from the promise of clean energy,” Obama said. (Link)

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Why the Big Apple Can Be the World’s First VERGE City

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

As if recent football results weren’t enough to heat up the rivalry between New York, Boston, and San Francisco, add to the contest the quest for title of “greenest city.”

At the GreenBiz Forum 12 in New York City today, this rivalry took the form of a panel question: Can the Big Apple be the first VERGE city in the U.S., or maybe even the world?

Of course, New York has a long history of leadership in finance, media, and fashion. But green? Why not Masdar, or one of the new built-from-the-ground-up green utopias, asked session moderator Andrew Shapiro, co-founder of GreenOrder.

The city’s strength is partly its age, size and complexity. “The reality is that the majority of cities aren’t green field opportunities,” said panelist David Bartlett, IBM’s vice-president of industry solutions during the session. “Old infrastructures are where the opportunity for innovation lies. I think that makes New York the best candidate,” he added.

The city’s aged infrastructure is more opportunity than obstacle, said panelist Steve Cohen, Director and CEO of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, pointing out that the it’s better for a city like New York to have an aged subway, in need of repair, than to have to build a new system from scratch, at nearly insurmountable costs.

“It’d be nice to have a computer controlled subway system, but I’d rather have what we’ve got, than to dig up the whole city today,” said Cohen. That said, the city has a track record of committing to billion-dollar scale green infrastructure, from the 3rd Water Tunnel, to the 2nd Ave Subway line. “This city is used to spending billions on capital. We’re not going to go through the anti-tax disinvestment cycle,” that has taken hold in other areas of the country, said Cohen.

In New York, the political leadership starts with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has led a sweeping effort to ready the city for the stresses of climate change and an additional million residents expected by 2020. The resulting blueprint, PlaNYC (pronounced plan-why-see) points the way to increased building efficiency, higher levels of renewable energy, less waste, cleaner air and water.

The technology tools that will make possible this smarter, more efficient future are entering service today. “There’s a huge proliferation of smart sensor technology where we can see — with much better x-ray vision — what’s happening with our building, with our transport system, with our energy networks,” said Bartlett. “Visibility, control, and automation, they’re the heart of smart.”

“No one is listening holistically to buildings,” said Bartlett. There’s automation device by device, or system by system, but no one is watching the sum of the systems, and doing do can deliver savings of 40 percent or more. “It’s a concept I call ‘the building whisperer,’” he said.

The city’s competitive edge also includes its “brain base”. “Boston is known as a college town,” said Cohen. “But we have more students in New York City than there are people in Boston,” said Cohen, implying perhaps this may a reason the Giants will have an edge over the Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI.

The city is deepening its considerable R&D resources. Cornell University recently beat out Stanford University, winning a beauty contest to build a cutting-edge green campus for a new engineering school on Roosevelt Island.

Uptown, Columbia University is building a new satellite campus in northern Manhattan, which will be home to a brain and behavior research science center, along with additional capacity for engineering, business and continuing education. “The west side of Manhattan used to be full of factories and stevedores,” said Cohen, “And now those stretches are filled with brain workers.”

In many ways, cities offer more fertile ground for VERGE technologies to flourish than national or regional efforts. City mayors are “among the most least ideologically people around because the do real things: making sure the garbage gets picked up,” Cohen said. “The best minds in the world want to be here,” and even if they don’t want to live here, “It’s never hard to have a meeting here,” he added.

The challenges facing cities mirror the larger test facing the nation. At the national level, pragmatism is painfully absent, and has led to the polarization of energy debates into debilitating over simplifications, most recently with the Keystone XL pipeline, about which Cohen writes at his blog at Huffington Post.

“The issue we need to address is America’s role in a sustainable global economy. How do we compete and protect the planet that sustains us? How do we ensure that other nations join us in an effort to achieve global sustainability?”

“We’re talking about a post-industrial way of living. It will require innovation and creativity,” said Cohen today. “This is a little bit like arguing about landlines for telephones 20 years ago.” Energy technologies now on the blackboard may make debates about pipelines quaintly obsolete in the near future.

The rivalry for greenest city continues next week, as the GreenBiz Forum 12 heads to San Francisco on January 30 to ask a similar question: Can San Francisco be America’s first VERGE city?

My friend and GreenBiz impresario Joel Makower suggested the Bay Area may be the natural leader of the greenest city race, at least until the final minutes of the contest, when it fumbles away its lead to lose by a hair to New York.

No hard feelings from here in Giants land: At least in the green race, both cities can be winners. (link)

Energy Efficiency/Conservation, Green Building, Innovation, Policy Initiatives: The Cities | Comments (0)

Earth Networks and EnergyHub Debut e5 Home Energy Demand Response Program Based on Neighborhood-Level, Real-Time Weather

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Earth Networks(SM)the operator of the largest weather, lightning and climate observation networks, and EnergyHub, Inc., a leading provider of home energy management software and systems, announce a new home demand response and energy efficiency program called e5(SM). The patent-pending e5 program, which stands for ease, energy, efficiency, environment and earth, incorporates for the first time live, neighborhood-level weather conditions and forecasts into demand response programs that aim to reduce peak consumer demand to better manage grid load during extreme weather.

The program is designed to provide home energy efficiency without sacrificing comfort, while putting the consumer in control. The program is launching in Texas during the summer of 2012, followed by expanded implementation with additional utilities planned across North America.

The e5 program takes the burden off utilities to supply, install and maintain home thermostats because consumers play an active role in the program. When consumers choose to join, they select and install a program-compatible Internet-enabled thermostat that is available at major home improvement retailers and online. The program is launching with the 3M Filtrete(TM) Wi-Fi-enabled programmable thermostat, which includes EnergyHub’s user-friendly software that guides the consumer through the setup process and provides them with ongoing remote HVAC control.

Based on the consumer’s own selections, the e5 program maintains desired comfort level while optimizing energy use by pre-cooling or pre-heating in response to local weather, and when a demand response event is anticipated by forecasted conditions. Further, the e5 program provides homeowners with a home energy audit, which ranks the efficiency of the house using local weather conditions including temperature, wind and solar fluctuations. From the rankings, e5 provides a customized and prioritized list of recommended steps consumers can take to save energy and reduce costs for their home energy systems, which drive the majority of consumer demand during peak periods.

Weather is the largest variable impacting home energy demand. To maximize effectiveness, the e5 program integrates data from more than 8,000 state-of-the-art Earth Networks weather stations installed at schools and public buildings around the country to provide live, hyper-local weather data for a customer’s location. In contrast, other approaches rely on weather data from an often distant location, such as an airport, with delayed reporting that may not represent actual current local conditions.

In developing the e5 program, Earth Networks and EnergyHub sought to overcome a major factor overlooked by many existing demand response programs — occupant comfort. Unlike existing demand response programs that turn off or cycle home thermostats on a pre-defined schedule regardless of the actual indoor temperature, e5 puts the consumer in control. With e5, users dynamically adjust their comfort settings using EnergyHub’s website and mobile apps.

“Many utilities are interested in rolling out demand response programs, but user adoption is limited because consumers want to retain control of their thermostat and remain comfortable while saving both energy and money,” says Earth Networks Energy Products and Business Development Director Dave Oberholzer. “In addition, utilities are finding the installation and maintenance of thermostats at customer premises to be time consuming and expensive. The e5 program, developed in partnership with EnergyHub, eliminates these concerns and difficulties by placing easy-to-use tools to control comfort settings into the hands of the consumer.”

“For years, we have seen how home energy management software and devices can save homeowners money, while helping utilities successfully initiate demand response programs,” said Seth Frader-Thompson, CEO of EnergyHub. “The e5 program elevates these initiatives to a new level by utilizing neighborhood-level weather data from its network to provide more accurate information about home performance. That intelligence enables greater choice and flexibility for consumers in their energy usage, which encourages program participation. When combined with our existing robust and scalable demand response management system, the e5 program can realize higher yields, better energy efficiency, and improved performance for utilities.” (link)

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http://www.marketwatch.com/story/lg-electronics-brings-new-innovative-energy-efficient-commercial-hvac-solutions-to-us-2012-01-23

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

 LG Electronics, a worldwide award-winning HVAC solutions provider, today announced new energy-efficient products designed to grow the company’s U.S. commercial and residential HVAC business. Leading the 2012 line up of energy-efficient HVAC systems is LG’s new Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) third generation Multi V III commercial air conditioning system for large-scale facilities.

This week at the International Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Expo (AHR Expo) in Chicago (booth #5149) LG is introducing innovative enhancements to its VRF and Duct Free Systems (DFS) lines, as well as new high Seasonal Energy Efficiency Rated (SEER) models for residential and light commercial applications.

“LG is committed to providing innovative, energy-efficient products for our customers around the world,” said Teddy Hwang, executive vice president of the LG Electronics Air Conditioning and Energy Solution Company. “In the U.S., Multi V III with VRF technology is leading the way in energy-efficient solutions. We’re confident that our new products unveiled at the AHR Expo will continue to grow our U.S. business and further establish LG’s leadership in transforming the HVAC landscape in North America.”

Multi V IIIThe third-generation in LG’s popular Multi V series uses next-generation VRF technology that achieves a breakthrough with energy efficiency standards in both Heat Pump and Heat Recovery models. The Multi V III Heat Pump allows occupants to choose either to air-condition or heat all zones in use, while the Heat Recovery model allows for synchronous cooling and heating in different zones at the same time. Units are available from 6-36 tons and 208-230V or 460V. Multi V III is LG’s flagship commercial HVAC system as demand for energy-saving HVAC technology continues to grow.

“Multi V III offers lower lifecycle costs than traditional HVAC systems on the market today, and contributes a number of potential LEED* points,” said Kevin McNamara, vice president, Commercial Air Conditioning, LG Electronics USA. “This week we’re introducing a breakthrough in higher energy efficiency solutions, up to 21.8 IEER, that blends effortlessly into a wide range of commercial and residential environments.”

Citing VRF technology’s “unparalleled advantages over conventional ducted systems,” McNamara explained Multi V III’s key benefits for building owners:

Excellent Energy Efficiency: Strong AHRI Certified® ratings and an Integrated Energy Efficiency Ratio (IEER) of up to 21.8 solidify LG’s position as a market leader.

AHRI Standard 1230 Certification®: Multi V III is one of the first performance certified VRF systems. This ensures building owners receive verified ratings.

Longer Piping Distances: Owners can reach extra zones that are further away from the Multi V III unit. With up to 3,280-feet of total equivalent length, a maximum run length of 656-feet and a height elevation of 360-feet, Multi V III reduces the need to invest in extra systems and saves on installation.

LG Inverter Scroll: A new high side shell innovation offers a more compact size for the same capacity output with greater reliability in cold climates.

Rapid Start Cooling: The fast response cooling or heating feature reaches room set point temperatures faster than previous LG systems.

Compact Footprint: Multi V III supports more indoor zones and takes up less outdoor space. When space or access is at a premium, this equates to significant cost advantages for the owner on large projects.

Engaging EngineersLG has been investing in the U.S. HVAC market for over a decade, delivering award-winning heating and cooling products and training industry professionals at its Commercial Air Conditioning training academies.

At AHR Expo this week, LG announced the Multi V III rollout schedule including engineering, educational and training events across the U.S. The engineer engagement schedule runs from January to April and includes stops in Los Angeles, New York City, San Diego, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Dallas, Washington, D.C., Seattle, Indianapolis, Houston, Boston, St. Louis and Honolulu.

Expanded Product LineHighlighted at AHR Expo here this week is LG’s expanded product line, including the new Multi V Water II, a new high-efficiency inverter water source heat pump that enables capacity to vary based on load fluctuation. This eco-friendly heating and cooling system can also be used in geothermal applications.

LG’s Multi V Mini is a two pipe heat pump system that is available in capacities of 3, 4 and 4.4 tons. This system is best suited for applications with up to 9 zones that require either heating or cooling with indoor units totalling up to 5.7 tons of capacity. Multi V Mini outdoor units are available in 208/230V single phase which suits small buildings and residences.

With today’s concern for maintaining a healthy indoor environment, the new LG Eco V is an integral component of any HVAC system. This high efficiency air-to-air heat exchanger allows introduction of tempered outdoor air to ducted and cassette indoor units or directly to the space while connecting to LG’s controls system or operating standalone.

LG’s high static ducted units offer a full range of capacities from 1/2 to 8 tons. With short supply and return ducts, static pressure losses are minimized when compared to conventional ducted systems. Ducted units can be installed in schools, offices, conference rooms, homes and residence retrofits, hallways and lobbies or anywhere a unit must be concealed.

The popular LG Art Cool Mirror wall mounted units have style to fit any decor. Similar to the standard wall mounted unit, the Art Cool Mirror hangs on an easily installed factory supplied wall bracket, making installation simple. Energy efficiency for the Art Cool Mirror units range from 18.9 SEER to 20 SEER. Also on display this week, LG’s Art Cool Gallery model provides a three dimensional air flow system with the look and feel of a stylish photo frame. More information on Multi V III, VRF technology and additional LG commercial air conditioning solutions can be found at www.LG-VRF.com and www.LG-DFS.com .

Designs, features and specifications subject to change without notice.

*LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is an internationally-recognized green building certification system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). LEED provides building owners and operators with a framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions.

About LG Electronics USALG Electronics USA, Inc., based in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., is the North American subsidiary of LG Electronics, Inc., a $48 billion global force and technology leader in consumer electronics, home appliances and mobile communications. In the United States, LG Electronics sells a range of stylish and innovative home entertainment products, mobile phones, home appliances, commercial displays, air conditioning systems and solar energy solutions, all under LG’s “Life’s Good” marketing theme. For more information, please visit www.lg.com .

LG Electronics USA Air Conditioning The LG Electronics USA Commercial Air Conditioning business is based in Alpharetta, Ga. LG is a leading player in the global air conditioning market, manufacturing both commercial and residential air conditioners and providing total sustainability and building management solutions. From consumer and individual units to industrial and specialized air conditioning systems, LG provides a wide range of products for heating, ventilating and air conditioning.

LG Electronics Air Conditioning & Energy Solutions CompanyThe LG Electronics Air Conditioning & Energy Solutions Company (LG AE) is a complete heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), and energy solution company providing Residential Air Conditioning, Commercial Air Conditioning Solar Energy and LED Lighting around the world. Bringing technology leadership from the worldwide HVAC market and incorporating technologies from throughout LG, LG AE is increasingly expanding into specialized B2B solutions as an integrated energy solutions company. Through its innovative technology, heavy investments in R&D and effective marketing strategies, LG AE has broken its own sales records every year since 2000. (link)

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President Clinton Joins President Obama to Announce New Progress to the Better Buildings Challenge, Including 11 Commitments Made by Clinton Global Initiative Members

Saturday, January 21, 2012

New York, NY – President Clinton joined President Obama today to announce significant new progress to the Better Buildings Challenge and a new $4 billion investment from the public and private sectors dedicated to energy efficient building upgrades over the next two years. Of the $4 billion investment announced, $2 billion is a commitment to energy upgrades of federal buildings using long-term energy savings to pay for up-front costs, at no cost to taxpayers.

The Better Buildings Challenge was a commitment made by the Obama Administration and 14 partners at CGI America in June – a meeting devoted to economic recovery and job creation in the United States. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu and President Clinton announced the commitment, which would make energy upgrades across 300 million square feet, and to invest $500 million in private sector financing in energy efficiency projects.

“Investments in building retrofits and energy efficiency can make a real difference in the American economy, by creating jobs, growing our industries, improving businesses’ bottom lines, reducing our energy bills and consumption, and preserving our planet for future generations,” said President Clinton. “I am proud the Clinton Foundation has been able to help develop and grow President Obama’s Better Buildings Challenge, and that so many members of the Clinton Global Initiative have joined this Challenge. Working together, I am pleased the commitments to the BBC have grown from the initial $500 million and 300 million square feet that we announced in June at CGI America, to the $2 billion investment with over 1 billion square feet of retrofitted space that we are announcing today.”

Presidents Clinton and Obama also announced today that 60 CEOs, mayors, university presidents, and labor leaders, including 11 CGI members, committed to invest nearly $2 billion of private capital into energy efficiency projects and to upgrade energy performance by a minimum of 20 percent by 2020 in 1.5 billion square feet of office, industrial, municipal, hospital, university, and school buildings.

The Challenge is part of the Better Buildings Initiative launched in February by President Obama, and is spearheaded by President Clinton – through the William J. Clinton Foundation, Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) – and President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. The Initiative works to support job creation by catalyzing private sector investment in commercial and industrial building energy upgrades, making America’s buildings 20 percent more efficient over the next decade, and reducing energy costs for American businesses by nearly $40 billion.

President Clinton has long championed energy retrofits to create jobs and protect our environment. As President, he created a multi-year program to capture the economic benefits of energy retrofits in 1993, created a Climate Change Action Plan to stabilize U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 1993, announced steps to decrease energy use in Federal buildings in 1998, and signed an Executive Order on Greening the Government in 1999.

CGI has been an effective forum for mobilizing energy efficiency projects at home and around the world. Since 2005, CGI members have made more than 30 commitments related to building retrofits that are valued at more than $16 billion, and $13.8 billion of that total came in 2011 alone and will be dedicated to programs in the United States. CGI members involved with the Better Buildings Challenge include: Wyndham, Alcoa, the AFL-CIO, Serious Energy, Citi, and Shorenstein, and Abundant Power.

CCI’s Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit Program was created in 2007 and has projects with more than 400 buildings around the world. In the U.S., this includes public buildings in cities such as Houston, Los Angeles, and Chicago; more than 20 schools and universities; and commercial buildings including the iconic Empire State Building. CCI has supported many members of President Obama’s Better Buildings Challenge, including Green Sports Alliance, Transwestern, USAA Real Estate, the city of Los Angeles, and the Houston School District as well as several financial allies: Citi, Metrus Energy, and Transcend Equity.

To watch the Better Buildings Challenge commitment announcement, made by Secretary of Energy Steven Chu at CGI America 2011, please click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxR_ydPhrAo. (link)

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NYT: Climate Change Doubt Is Tea Party Article of Faith

Thursday, October 21, 2010

At a candidate forum here last week, Representative Baron P. Hill, a threatened Democratic incumbent in a largely conservative southern Indiana district, was endeavoring to explain his unpopular vote for the House cap-and-trade energy bill.

It will create jobs in Indiana, reduce foreign oil imports and address global warming, Mr. Hill said at a debate with Todd Young, a novice Republican candidate who is supported by an array of Indiana Tea Party groups and is a climate change skeptic.

“Climate change is real, and man is causing it,” Mr. Hill said, echoing most climate scientists. “That is indisputable. And we have to do something about it.”

A rain of boos showered Mr. Hill, including a hearty growl from Norman Dennison, a 50-year-old electrician and founder of the Corydon Tea Party.

“It’s a flat-out lie,” Mr. Dennison said in an interview after the debate, adding that he had based his view on the preaching of Rush Limbaugh and the teaching of Scripture. “I read my Bible,” Mr. Dennison said. “He made this earth for us to utilize.”

Skepticism and outright denial of global warming are among the articles of faith of the Tea Party movement, here in Indiana and across the country. For some, it is a matter of religious conviction; for others, it is driven by distrust of those they call the elites. And for others still, efforts to address climate change are seen as a conspiracy to impose world government and a sweeping redistribution of wealth. But all are wary of the Obama administration’s plans to regulate carbon dioxide, a ubiquitous gas, which will require the expansion of government authority into nearly every corner of the economy.

“This so-called climate science is just ridiculous,” said Kelly Khuri, founder of the Clark County Tea Party Patriots. “I think it’s all cyclical.”

“Carbon regulation, cap and trade, it’s all just a money-control avenue,” Ms. Khuri added. “Some people say I’m extreme, but they said the John Birch Society was extreme, too.”

Whatever the party composition of the next Congress, cap and trade is likely dead for the foreseeable future. If dozens of new Republican climate skeptics are swept into Congress, the prospects for assertive federal action to control global warming gases, including regulation by the Environmental Protection Agency, will grow dimmer than they already are.

Those who support the Tea Party movement are considerably more dubious about the existence and effects of global warming than the American public at large, according to a New York Times/CBS News Poll conducted this month. The survey found that only 14 percent of Tea Party supporters said that global warming is an environmental problem that is having an effect now, while 49 percent of the rest of the public believes that it is. More than half of Tea Party supporters said that global warming would have no serious effect at any time in the future, while only 15 percent of other Americans share that view, the poll found.

And 8 percent of Tea Party adherents volunteered that they did not believe global warming exists at all, while only 1 percent of other respondents agreed.

Those views in general align with those of the fossil fuel industries, which have for decades waged a concerted campaign to raise doubts about the science of global warming and to undermine policies devised to address it.

They have created and lavishly financed institutes to produce anti-global-warming studies, paid for rallies and Web sites to question the science, and generated scores of economic analyses that purport to show that policies to reduce emissions of climate-altering gases will have a devastating effect on jobs and the overall economy.

Their views are spread by a number of widely followed conservative opinion leaders, including Mr. Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, George Will and Sarah Palin, who oppose government programs to address climate change and who question the credibility and motives of the scientists who have raised alarms about it.

Groups that help support Tea Party candidates include climate change skepticism in their core message. Americans for Prosperity, a group founded and largely financed by oil industry interests, has sponsored what it calls a Regulation Reality Tour to stir up opposition to climate change legislation and federal regulation of carbon emissions. Its Tea Party talking points describe a cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions as “the largest excise tax in history.”

FreedomWorks, another group supported by the oil industry, helps organize Tea Party rallies and distributes fliers urging opposition to federal climate policy, which it calls a “power grab.”

“Any effort to make electricity and fuel more expensive or to cap or regulate CO2 will only exacerbate an already critical situation and cause tremendous economic damage,” FreedomWorks says on its Web site.

The oil, coal and utility industries have collectively spent $500 million just since the beginning of 2009 to lobby against legislation to address climate change and to defeat candidates, like Mr. Hill, who support it, according to a new analysis from the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a left-leaning advocacy group in Washington.

Their message appears to have fallen on receptive ears. Of the 20 Republican Senate candidates in contested races, 19 question the science of global warming and oppose any comprehensive legislation to deal with it, according to a National Journal survey.

The only exception is Mark Steven Kirk, the Republican Senate nominee in Illinois, who was one of only eight Republicans to vote for the House cap-and-trade bill sponsored by Representatives Henry A. Waxman of California and Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, both Democrats. (One of the other Republican “yes” votes was cast by Representative Michael N. Castle of Delaware, who blames that vote in part for his primary election defeat by Christine O’Donnell, the Tea Party candidate and a global warming skeptic.)

A large majority of Tea Party-supported House candidates also doubt global warming science and oppose energy legislation designed to address it.

Mr. Young, the Indiana Republican nominee trying to unseat Mr. Hill for the Ninth Congressional District seat, strongly opposes cap and trade and other unilateral measures to combat global warming. He says he is uncertain what is causing the observed heating of the planet, adding that it could be caused by sunspots or the normal cycles of nature.

“The science is not settled,” he said in an interview in his headquarters in Bloomington, Ind. And he said that given the scientific uncertainty, it was not wise to make major changes in the nation’s energy economy to reduce carbon emissions.

A third candidate in the Indiana Congressional race, Greg Knott, a libertarian, said he accepted the scientific consensus on climate change but opposed a nationwide cap-and-trade system as the answer.

Lisa Deaton, a small-business owner in Columbus, Ind., who started We the People Indiana, a Tea Party affiliate, is supporting Mr. Young in part because of his stand against climate change legislation.

“They’re trying to use global warming against the people,” Ms. Deaton said. “It takes way our liberty.”

“Being a strong Christian,” she added, “I cannot help but believe the Lord placed a lot of minerals in our country and it’s not there to destroy us.”   (link)

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U.S. Plans Inquiry on China’s Subsidies of Clean Energy

Friday, October 15, 2010

The Obama administration announced Friday that it would investigate a complaint accusing China of illegally subsidizing its clean-energy industries, in another sign of its newly assertive posture over China’s trade and commercial policies.

At the same time, according to administration officials briefed on the decision, the Treasury Department plans to announce on Friday that it will delay its semiannual report on foreign-exchange rates, deferring a decision on whether to brand China a currency manipulator. The report was due Friday, but the Obama administration has been pressing China to allow the value of its currency, the renminbi, to rise, so the delay allows those negotiations to continue.

The United States trade representative, Ron Kirk, said his office would investigate a complaint filed by the United Steelworkers, the nation’s largest industrial union, on Sept. 9. The complaint asserted that China had violated its obligations under the World Trade Organization, which China joined in 2001, by supporting manufacturers of wind and solar energy products, advanced batteries, energy-efficient vehicles and other goods.

“This is a vitally important sector for the United States,” Mr. Kirk said. “Green technology will be an engine for the jobs of the future, and this administration is committed to ensuring a level playing field for American workers, businesses and green technology entrepreneurs.”

Mr. Kirk added that the government took the union’s claims “very seriously,” adding, “we are vigorously investigating them.”

The Commerce Ministry press office in Beijing was closed on Friday night when the American announcement came out. Calls to a ministry spokesman and to the press office of the Chinese Mission to the W.T.O. were not answered.

The administration plans to complete the investigation within 90 days and, if a complaint is warranted, to pursue litigation against China through the W.T.O.

Under American trade rules, the United States is supposed to request consultations with the Chinese government to discuss the complaint. But Mr. Kirk’s office said it would delay that request for up to 90 days in order to “seek information and advice” from the steelworkers and other parties.

“The Obama administration is treating the symptom, but not the disease,” Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York and a persistent critic of China’s currency practices, said in a statement. “An investigation into China’s illegal subsidies for its clean energy industry is overdue, but it’s no substitute for dealing with China’s currency manipulation. Democrats and Republicans alike in Congress are prepared to move legislation confronting China’s currency manipulation this year. We hope to have the administration’s support, but will go forward without it if necessary.”

The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly last month to threaten China with tariffs on a broad range of Chinese exports to the United States, and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner has become more pointed in his criticisms of China, warning that China had set off a “damaging cycle” of “competitive nonappreciation” in which countries are aiming to block their currencies from rising in value.

The currency dispute is likely to be a top subject when leaders of the Group of 20 economic powers gather for a summit meeting in Seoul, South Korea, in November.  (link)

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Tom Friedman: Build ’Em and They’ll Come

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Kishore Mahbubani, the dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, is over for tea and I am telling him about what I consider to be the most exciting, moon-shot-quality, high-aspiration initiative proposed by President Obama that no one has heard of. It’s a plan to set up eight innovation hubs to solve the eight biggest energy problems in the world. But I explain that the program has not been fully funded yet because Congress, concerned about every dime we spend these days, is reluctant to appropriate the full $25 million for each center, let alone for all eight at once, so only three are moving ahead. But Kishore interrupts me midsentence.

“You mean billion,” he asks? “No,” I say. “We’re talking about $25 million.” “Billion,” he repeats. “No. Million,” I insist.

The Singaporean is aghast. He simply can’t believe that at a time when his little city-state has invested more than a billion dollars to make Singapore a biomedical science hub and attract the world’s best talent, America is debating about spending mere millions on game-changing energy research.

Welcome to Tea Party America. Think small and carry a big ego.

This may seem like a little issue, but it is not. Nations thrive or languish usually not because of one big bad decision, but because of thousands of small bad ones — decisions where priorities get lost and resources misallocated so that the nation’s full potential can’t be nurtured and it ends up being less than the sum of its parts. That is my worry for America.

But none of this is inevitable. So let’s start with the good news: a shout-out for Obama’s energy, science and technology team for thinking big. Soon after taking office, they proposed what Energy Secretary Steven Chu calls “a series of mini-Manhattan projects.” In the fiscal year 2010 budget, the Department of Energy requested financing for “Energy Innovation Hubs” in eight areas: smart grid, solar electricity, carbon capture and storage, extreme materials, batteries and energy storage, energy efficient buildings, nuclear energy, and fuels from sunlight.

In each area, universities, national labs and private industry were invited to put together teams of their best scientists and research ideas to win $25 million a year for five years, to, as Chu put it, “accelerate the normal progress of science and technology for energy research” and thereby “discover and commercialize the energy breakthroughs we need” and thereby spawn new jobs and industries.

So far Congress has appropriated partial funding — “up to $22 million” but probably less — for three of these hubs for one year. So Penn State and two national labs will develop energy efficient building designs. Oak Ridge National Laboratory will lead a team to model new nuclear reactors, and the California Institute of Technology and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will work on revolutionary ways to generate fuels from sunlight. Chu is now trying to persuade Congress to finance those three again for 2011, as well as at least one more: batteries.

In my view, Congress should be funding all eight right now for five years — $1 billion — so that we not only get graduate students, knowing the research money is there, flocking to these new energy fields but we get the benefit of all these scientists collaborating and cross-fertilizing.

Chu, who holds a Nobel Prize in physics, says he understands and respects that Congress has to make tough budgeting choices today, so I cannot get him to utter one word of criticism about our lawmakers’ spending priorities. But he waxes eloquent about what it would mean for American innovation if we could actually fully pay for this focused moon shot on energy.

The idea behind the hubs, explained Chu, is to “capture the same spirit” that produced radar and the first nuclear bomb. That is, “get Nobel Prize winners in physics working side by side with engineers” — not to produce an academic paper but “to solve a problem in a way that will actually be deployed” and do it much faster than the traditional academic model of everyone working in their own silo.

“We don’t want incremental improvements,” said Chu. “We want real leaps — game-changing” breakthroughs — like a 75 percent reduction in energy used in a commercial building through affordable design and software improvements. “America has shown we can do this,” concluded Chu. “The scientists and engineers see the problem; they see the opportunity; they see what is at stake, and they want to help.” That is why we should fully fund all eight now.

All of this reminds me of my favorite business quote from a consultant who had worked for the German technology giant, Siemens. He said: “If Siemens only knew what Siemens knows, it would be a rich company.” Ditto America. We still have all the right stuff. The president’s instinct to push out the boundaries of energy science is spot on, but Congress has to think big, too, and help unlock and scale everything that America knows. Please, please: Stop lavishing money on repaving old roads and pinching pennies when it comes to pioneering new frontiers. (link)

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