Solar San Diego

Once Again, Yes on Proposition 87, Do Not Believe Oil Company Lies

On Tuesday, November 7, 2006, California voters will have the opportunity to vote for a step toward energy independence and a cleaner environment for all Californians.   Proposition 87 will impose a tax of  1.5 to 6%, on the extraction of oil in California, depending on the price of oil.   Similar taxes are imposed by other states including Alaska, Louisiana, Okalahoma and even Texas.  Other states ask oil companies to pay their fair share, like all citizens do, why shouldn't California be the same.  The Proposition will  fund  a California Energy Independence Fund with the fund of up to $4 billion used for programs to be administered by new California Energy Alternatives Program Authority.  The Authority will be composed of nine members from the environmental, business, health and energy fields.  The Authority will be tasked with (from the legislative analysis of the Proposition [PDF]):   

• Gasoline and Diesel Use Reduction Account (57.50  Percent)—for incentives (for example, consumer loans,  grants, and subsidies) for the purchase of alternative fuel  vehicles, incentives for producers to supply alternative  fuels, incentives for the production of alternative fuel  infrastructure (for example, fueling stations), and grants  and loans for private research into alternative fuels and  alternative fuel vehicles.

• Research and Innovation Acceleration Account  (26.75 Percent)—for grants to California universities  to improve the economic viability and accelerate the  commercialization of renewable energy technologies and  energy effi ciency technologies.

• Commercialization  Acceleration  Account  (9.75  Percent)—for incentives to fund the start-up costs and  accelerate the production and distribution of petroleum  reduction, renewable energy, energy efficiency,  and  alternative fuel technologies and products.

• Public Education and Administration Account (3.50  Percent)—for public education campaigns, oil market  monitoring, and general administration. Of the 3.5 percent,  at least 28.5 percent must be spent for public education,  leaving a maximum of 71.5 percent of the 3.5 percent (or  roughly 2.5 percent of total revenues) for the Authority’s  administrative costs.

• Vocational Training Account (2.50 Percent)—for job  training at community colleges to train students to work  with new alternative energy technologies.   

The cost of the oil tax, will not be able to be passed onto consumers by the oil companies who have fleeced the people of California with some of the highest prices in the nation and taken home record profits.  Through the Proposition, incentives would  lower the  amount of fossil fuel use helping our atmosphere, reducing global warming and impacting public health.  California has an opportunity once again in November to be a leader and a shining example in care for the environment, reducing global warming, and clean renewable energy for the nation and for the planet.  I am sure that by now you have heard and seen many advertisements in opposition to Proposition 87.   Do not believe the lies that are being spread by the oil companies, their energy allies and special interests.  They have sunk to new lows with their deceptive advertising bombarding the airwaves with deception as thick as the oil they pump freely.  Take a stand for energy independence and a cleaner environment and vote yes on Propostion 87. 

Vote Solar Supports Prop. 87

The Vote Solar Initative

The Vote Solar Initiative, "a non-profit organization with the mission of stopping global warming and increasing energy independence by bringing solar energy into the mainstream," in the face of millions of dollars of misleading ads that the oil companies are throwing in opposition, are promoting passage of Proposition 87, a proposition supported by SolarSanDiego.net.  Vote Solar is, according to communicaton sent out to activists,  will be buying airplaine banner ads for viewing by gridlocked rush hour commuters as well as other citizens in the San Francisco Bay Area. Vote Solar will be buying carbon offsets to counter their consumption of oil.  SolarSanDiego.net applauds Vote Solar's efforts to get Prop. 87 passed. 

Groundbreaking Emissions Cap Could Affect Concrete Plants

The Victorville Daily Press reports that concrete plants in their area will have to cut back production to meet emissions goals of the recently passed cap on greenhouse gases. It's a virtual certainty that we will hear more gripes about how this groundbreaking law goes to far, the pundits have already started with one calling the bill "Eco-Suicide."  The end of the article points out that there are novel ways of dealing with the emissions, some of which date back to the 1930's. 

The World's Greatest Green Inventions and Some Cool Gadgets

The Independent out of the UK, has an article concerning the world's greatest green inventions.  Some highlights:

          THE ECO KETTLE                                        

It is estimated that, on average, we boil twice the volume of water needed every time we use our kettles. With a 3kW kettle that's the same as wasting the energy of around 50 light bulbs. And standard kettles are often highly inefficient - a stove-top kettle, for instance, requires energy to heat the handle and shell in addition to the water. But British designer Brian Hartley's Eco Kettle solves....

www.ecokettle.com

GREEN ROOFS

Cities may be losing their green spaces to development, but all is not lost. Look up to the roofs of buildings, especially office blocks, and there, where once there was dead space, you could now find a "sky garden" (Barclays' HQ in Canary Wharf, London, has one). They could be used as community spaces, chill-out areas for hassled workers, or even to grow food....

www.greenroofs.com

FRICTIONLESS WIND TURBINES

The problem with wind turbines? Often, it's just not windy enough to get them turning. It's not really the lack of wind that is the problem, but the friction in the turbines themselves. Chinese scientists may have cracked this problem with the first "magnetic levitation" (or MagLev) wind turbines, which replace ball-bearings with the technology used in advanced monorails, making a frictionless turbine that can generate electricity from winds as low as 1.5m per second. They're ideal for low wind areas, such as mountain regions and small islands. The MagLev wind turbines could also use the airflow caused by passing cars to generate roadside lighting.

SOLAR-POWERED CELLPHONES

Germany's Fraunhofer Institute, an alliance of 50 technology research organisations, is looking at how to integrate solar cells into mobile phones, allowing them to be powered continuously on just two hours of sunlight a day. The big manufacturers are interested, as the more software that's packed into mobiles, the bigger batteries they need.

www.fraunhofer.de

ICE ENERGY

Air conditioning can be a huge drain on electricity supplies. Enter Ice Energy's Ice Bear, which integrates with a standard AC unit. The water in the Ice Bear is frozen overnight when temperatures are lower and electricity, in many countries, is cheaper, and the ice then cools the AC unit's refridgerant during the day. This results in a 30 per cent saving in energy use. An AC unit should last 15 years, by which time the Ice Bear will have paid for itself several times.

www.ice-energy.com

GREENER AIRCRAFT

Conventional airliners are heavy, thirsty, noisy and polluting, despite aeronautical designers' best efforts. But in the future we may be travelling in a flying wing or batwing (in which the entire fuselage becomes the means of lift) - an idea first suggested by Frederick Handley Page in 1961...

Read the entire article, which includes more green inventions, here.

The Red Herring also has a piece in it's September 11, 2006 print issue about "Green Gadgets, " which include the Solar Backpack seen here in May of 2005. 

Solar San Francisco! SF Public Utilities Commision General Manager touts Clean Energy Revolution. New Housing to be Green.

The San Francisco Chronicle's Open Form had a piece by Susan Leal, General Manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission today:

San Francisco is not just "talking the talk," but taking real action to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and power our city through clean, renewable energies...

Hydropower  --  Most people don't realize that the pristine water
delivered through the Hetch Hetchy water system also generates 20 percent of
San Francisco's energy. The SFPUC provides electricity to the city's most vital
public services, including S.F. General Hospital, Muni Railway, our schools,
fire stations, the airport and streetlights. Decades before global warming
focused our attention on reducing emissions, San Francisco developed a
renewable source of emissions-free energy.

Solar power  --  We are already a national leader in solar energy, with
the nation's largest municipal solar facility atop the Moscone Convention
Center, as well as major new facilities at the Southeast Wastewater Treatment
Plant, the Norcal Recycling Plant at Pier 96, the airport and other locations.
A new bill (AB2573) sponsored by Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, will
open the door to the development of up to 30 megawatts of new solar projects
atop our large reservoirs by 2010. The SFPUC is also moving to adopt the latest
solar innovations, such as "thin film solar" technology, which will allow for
cheaper, more rapid expansion of our ability to capture the power of the sun.

Biofuels  --  Every year, thousands of gallons of oil and grease are
dumped by residents and businesses down the drain, blocking sewer lines and
creating backups during major rainstorms. Instead, we can collect that grease
directly from restaurants and process it to prevent sewer blockages and produce
a major source of renewable "biodiesel" for city vehicles. The new SFPUC
biofuel program will help the city meet the mayor's challenge to fuel the
city's fleet vehicles with biodiesel by late 2007.

Fuel-cell technology  --  We are also moving now to convert digester gases
at our wastewater-treatment plants into electricity and heat for use onsite.
This fuel-cell technology will turn noxious gases that would otherwise be
burned and dispersed into the neighborhood into a source of renewable power
instead.

Tidal and wave power  --  Working with the mayor, the San Francisco
Department of the Environment and private organizations such as the Electric
Power Research Institute (EPRI), San Francisco is exploring the potential of
waves and the tides to generate clean power. SFPUC-funded studies show that,
with our powerful tides under the Golden Gate and with the mighty waves of the
Pacific, San Francisco is in an ideal location to harness a new hydropower  -- 
that of the seas.

Community-choice aggregation  --  In the coming months, with the full
cooperation of the SFPUC and many clean-energy advocates, the S.F. Board of
Supervisors will consider a plan called Community Choice Aggregation that will
give city residents and businesses the chance to choose reliable, cleaner,
affordable power procured by the city over traditional fossil fuel and
nuclear-powered energy delivered by traditional investor-owned utilities. The
private sector, too, is getting on board, with the announcement last week that
PG&E would dramatically increase development and deployment of renewable
energies in California. 

An audacious last parapaph gives hope to many advocates of clean and renewable energy:

A city-powered entirely by clean energy from the sun, wind, water and
waste  --  what may once have seemed an excerpt from science fiction could well
become reality in San Francisco. Certainly, there will be unexpected costs,
setbacks and bumps along the road. But the path towards a brighter future of
renewable energy is clear. The clean energy revolution is here, and for San
Francisco, there's no turning back.

Read the whole article here.   I hope that Ms. Leal  is correct and that these steps by San Francisco will result in a forward press toward clean and renewable energy, perhaps standing as an example for other California cities and our nation.

The San Jose Mercury News had a small blurb about a "housing and commercial property development planned for "a notoriously polluted neigborhood:"

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A new housing and commercial property development envisioned in a notoriously polluted neighborhood would be the first here to run entirely on renewable solar and hydroelectric power.

The energy power provided by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission would run 1,600 new housing units and 300,000 square feet of commercial and retail space going up on a 93-acre site in the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, under a proposal announced by city leaders Friday.

Until this spring, the Hunters Point community was home to an air-polluting Pacific Gas and Electric Co. power plant.

"Here's an opportunity to deliver power that is 100 percent renewable," Mayor Gavin Newsom said. "Here's an opportunity to deliver power to a community that's been ravaged by environmental injustice."

The developer, Lennar Corp., will ultimately decide whether it wants the PUC to supply the renewable power to the new neighborhood or whether PG&E will get the bid.

Supplying hydro and solar power to a residential community would be a first for the agency. The power that could go to Hunters Point would come from a reservoir and solar panels in the Portola District.

In a separate development, PG&E has signed plans with Luz II LLC, a solar energy development firm, to purchase a significant quantity of solar energy beginning in the spring of 2010.

The energy will be produced through a hybrid solar-gas design, which Luz II says is more efficient in converting sunlight to electricity than previous designs. The deal requires regulatory approval, and the site for the plants has not been determined.