via City of Austin

Oct. 27 – The City of Austin just rose to the No. 2 slot on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Top 20 Local Government list of green power purchasers. It also ranked No. 7 on EPA’s National Top 50 list, across all categories.

“The City of Austin’s commitment to using green power serves as an example of leadership for others to follow,” said EPA Assistant Administrator Gina McCarthy.

See the lists at http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/toplists.

Local governments in EPA’s Green Power Partnership are ranked by their annual green power usage. The City of Houston ranked No.1, for purchasing 438,000,000 kWh. However, that represents only 34% of that city’s energy usage. Austin’s purchase of 406,000,000 kWh represents 100% of municipal energy usage. The City of Dallas ranked No.3, for purchasing 302,880,000 kWh, representing 40% of its usage.

Only two other communities on the Green Power Partners list made a 100% commitment to Green Power – the far-smaller Forest County Potawatomi Community and City of Santa Monica, CA.

“The City of Austin is helping to grow the nation’s green power market and showing what a difference local governments can make in reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” said Blaine Collison, Director of EPA’s Green Power Partnership.

As of Oct. 1, the City is purchasing 406 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of Green Choice power annually¬ through Austin Energy. Prior to this purchase, Austin ranked No. 9 on the EPA “Top 20” Local Government Partner List.

“Fulfilling a commitment made in the 2007 Austin Climate Protection Plan, the City is showing leadership by supporting cleaner renewable energy alternatives to reduce its carbon footprint,” said Chief Sustainability Officer Lucia Athens, who oversees citywide climate protection efforts.

According to EPA, the City of Austin’s green power purchase of 406 million kWh is equivalent to avoiding the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of nearly 55,000 passenger vehicles per year or the CO2 emissions from the electricity use of nearly 35,000 average American homes annually.

Other benefits of Green Power include cleaner air and helping to accelerate the development of new renewable energy capacity in Austin, Texas, and nationwide.

About EPA’s Green Power Partnership
The Green Power Partnership is a voluntary program that encourages organizations to buy green power as a way to reduce the environmental impacts associated with electricity use. The Partnership currently has more than 1,300 Partner organizations voluntarily purchasing billions of kilowatt-hours of green power annually.

EPA defines “green power” as electricity generated from environmentally preferable renewable resources, including wind, solar, geothermal, biogas, biomass, and low-impact hydro.

Partners include a wide variety of leading organizations such as Fortune 500® companies, small and medium sized businesses, local, state, and federal governments, and colleges and universities.

EPA updates each of its National Top Partner lists quarterly, highlighting some of America’s largest voluntary green power purchasers. Each list highlights EPA Green Power Partner top performers through October 5, 2011. Green power is calculated as a percentage of total electricity use.

For additional information, visit www.epa.gov/greenpower and www.austinenergy.com.

Contact:
Katherine Gregor, Sustainability Office, (512) 974-7901, Katherine.Gregor@austintexas.gov

via KUT

Scattered thunderstorms in Central Texas brought rain to Austin.  The Hill Country could get an even better soaking and many people there will be happy to see it.

Joe Wheeler sells and installs rainwater filters for home use. He was one the vendors at the Rainwater Revival festival in Dripping Springs Saturday.

“We’ve got so many people who are drawing groundwater,” he said. ” Then their wells start going dry and then they have to worry about that sort of thing, so they will install a rainwater system to supplement their well.”

Wheeler said he’s had to truck water in once this year because of the drought. It costs around a $100 to buy 2,000 gallons of water. On average, that would last one person about two weeks. Standing near his demo, Wheeler says the drought increases interest in his rainwater filters.

“In spite of the fact that it is a negative, I think it’s kind of a postivie because in our society we are three generations away from people worrying about their water,” Wheeler said. He believes the drought has made people more aware of what he calls a “precious resource.”

An average rainwater collection system for a home would cost roughly $10,000.

This past legislative session, lawmakers decided that all new large state buildings would use an attached rainwater collection system. Another bill allowed county governments to use public money for rainwater incentives.

Karen Ford is a former Hays County Commissioner. She organized this year’s Rainwater Revival Festival.  She said there’s a pool of money collected from LCRA water line fees.

“I think it would be a great idea to turn around and use that money for rebates or for incentives for folks to help put them over the edge to select rainwater instead of a groundwater,” Ford said.

 Most residents in Hay County are under Stage Three Drought Restrictions. A 30 percent reduction in water use is required.

Residents in Round Rock and Georgetown are also under strict water restrictions. All outdoor watering has been banned for about two weeks until water station pumps that draw water from a lake reservoir can be repaired.

via New Braunfels Herald

NEW BRAUNFELS — Pedernales Electric Cooperative welcomed Co-op members and guests attending the Hill Country Solar Tour on Oct. 1.

The event, held in partnership with the Texas Solar Energy Society, was a first for PEC and featured residential and commercial solar installations in Oak Hill and Dripping Springs, plus educational presentations from Co-op representatives and Cathy Redson of ImagineSolar.

The tour highlighted solar installations at four PEC members’ homes, plus commercial installations at PEC’s Oak Hill Office and the Wesley Gallery in Dripping Springs. The tour kicked off at the Co-op’s Oak Hill Office, where District 4 Director and Board Vice President Chris Perry greeted members and guests.

“With this event, we are continuing the great tradition of electric cooperatives assisting our members,” Perry said.

PEC District Planning Supervisor George Esqueda offered insight into the Co-op’s interconnection process while Redson explained the benefits of solar technology.

“Texas ranks No. 1 in the U.S. in solar energy potential, and I am thrilled as a PEC member to see my Co-op reaching out to educate and support the use of this technology,” said Redson, who gave an educational presentation on the history of photovoltaics and on solar installations. “Solar is reliable, safe and adds value to your home.”

Members and guests then continued on a self-guided solar tour. Ken and Deborah Stedman, whose 6 KW solar installation was featured on the tour, were proud to showcase their conservation efforts.

“Energy conservation is extremely important to us,” said Deborah Stedman. “Reduced energy costs helped make our buying this house a reality.”

Since January, the Co-op has experienced a 33 percent boost in interconnections, with 30 members installing power-generation systems on their properties, 23 of which utilize solar power. This growth mirrors both state and national trends, as individuals look to renewable technology to help reduce their electric demand.

“The Co-op has seen a definite increase in interconnections and member interest in solar technology,” said PEC Communications Manager Michael Racis. “The Hill Country Solar Tour served as a great opportunity to network with industry experts and educate PEC members and the community.”

For details about the Hill Country Solar Tour, visit www. pec.coop/solar..

via ABJ

Austin Energy  is encouraging homeowners to make energy-efficiency improvements with a $200 bonus rebate through the end of the year.

Homeowners who make all the recommended home improvements could receive more than $2,000 worth of rebates when combined with Austin Energy’s regular rebates, Texas Gas Service   rebates and a weatherization bonus. Federal tax credits of up to $500 also are available.

Interested homeowners can contact any Austin Energy participating company and schedule an energy assessment of the home. Assessments for older homes are free. More than 50 local heating and air conditioning companies participate and are listed on Austin Energy’s website.

Homeowners can also call other companies for bids. However, before any work begins, an Austin Energy staff member will meet with the homeowner and the company on site to review and approve proposed energy-efficiency improvements and incentive amounts.

The rebate program ends Dec. 31.

via Solar Industry Mag

The location of this year’s Solar Power International (SPI) conference in Dallas has sparked a great deal of curiosity among attendees regarding the past, present and future of the solar power market in Texas.

Texas’ entrenched fossil-fuel interests, as well as its sizeable utility-scale wind power sector (sufficient to satisfy existing renewable energy mandates), are often viewed as obstacles to the development of PV in the state.

However, a truly vibrant large-scale solar market is finally arriving in Texas, according to industry executives who spoke at an SPI session titled “Utility-Scale Solar – Pioneering Texas Projects and Negotiating the Trail Ahead.”

“We’ve reached that marker of megawatts instead of kilowatts,” said John Hoffner, solar PV program manager at C2M Hill. “It’s an exciting time.”

Hoffner recalled several mini-milestones in Texas over the past few decades – including the introduction of one of the U.S.’ first net-metering rules in 1984.  “We had a few installations then, but it didn’t really help the industry take off,” he noted.

The next few years were characterized as the era of utility demonstration plants, when a 300 kW tracking PV system in Austin, a 100 kW concentrating PV plant in Dallas and other solar projects sprang up as part of electric utilities’ efforts to learn more about various solar power technologies.

The 1990s brought several more small – yet critical – steps for Texas’ solar market: the formation of the Sustainable Energy Development Council and the release of several polls indicating that consumers favored the deployment of renewable energy and were willing to pay a premium for it through their electric bills.

“But the biggest eye opener, from a historical standpoint, is that in the mid-1990s, Texas became a net importer of energy – which was a huge wake-up call for our legislators,” Hoffner said.

The result of this awakening was Senate Bill 7 in 1999. This legislation established an RPS of 2,000 MW of renewable energy by 2009, with additional mandates for the following years.

Unfortunately for solar power stakeholders, without a specific solar carve-out, the RPS led to the development of 10,000 MW of utility-scale wind over the next several years.

“We don’t have a solar-specific program,” said John Lichtenberger, director of utility sales for SunEdison. “We have an RPS, and it’s been filled – and then some – through wind. So, right now, there isn’t a statutorily compelling reason to buy renewables.”

Lichtenberger and the other panelists stressed that they are nonetheless bullish on Texas’ solar power project development market.

Hala Balouz, president of consulting firm Electric Power Engineers Inc., noted that just one year ago, very little of her company’s work focused on utility-scale solar; now, solar projects constitute half the company’s business.

“Most of what we’re working on and what we’ve seen in Texas is solar photovoltaics,” she said. The project pipeline in Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) territory – which covers most of the state – currently includes 1,544 MW of solar PV projects under study.

Technology maturation, favorable pricing trends, rapid deployment capabilities and matching with daily load profiles all attract Texas’ utilities to PV, Balouz said. Additionally, the high-voltage grid work already under way in the state in order to accommodate renewable energy is expected to make PV integration significantly easier in Texas than in other states.

A recently launched nodal market map for the ERCOT area could also help accelerate the deployment of utility-scale solar in Texas.

“It allows you to study the market load by load and point by point,” explained Balouz. “We can decide – at every specific node – what the most cost-effective size solar project will be to make the most money for the developer and provide consumers with the best energy prices.”

Certain challenges now faced by other types of utility-scale power plants may give Texas’ utility-scale solar market another boost, according to Stephen Krebs, vice president of OwnEnergy.

Old fossil-fuel plants risk shutdown under new, stricter pollution rules, and proposed natural-gas plants statewide are under increasing permit-related scrutiny by the Environmental Protection Agency. Some wind power projects in West Texas, meanwhile, have been held up in development.

Solar developers in Texas must still contend with a number of obstacles, including low electricity prices and high property taxes from which utility-scale solar projects are not exempt.

But even now, the state’s utility-scale project portfolio boasts several notable projects: juwi solar’s 14 MW Blue Wing project came online last year in San Antonio, for instance, while Fotowatio Renewable Ventures’ 30 MW Webberville project is progressing in Austin.

Lichtenberger noted that a 60 MW project in Travis County and a 20 MW project in Hays County have yet to generate a great deal of attention, but these projects – and others – merit watching. Existing requests for proposals from several utilities – totaling hundreds of megawatts – will further enlarge the pipeline.

“The amount of activity occurring in the state right now is very healthy,” he said.

via City of Austin

The number of people who attended the City of Austin’s free home composting classes has more than doubled in the program’s second year.

In fiscal year 2011 (October 2010 through September 2011), Austin Resource Recovery taught 1,741 Austinites how to compost at home. Comparatively, 738 people attended the classes in fiscal year 2010 (October 2009 through September 2010), which was the program’s pilot year.

Austin Resource Recovery hosted 41 classes during fiscal year 2011, several of which were taught in both English and Spanish. The classes are part of the City’s composting rebate program, which challenges Austinites to complete a free composting class, downsize to a 32-gallon trash cart and purchase a home composting system. Austin Resource Recovery curbside customers who do these three things are eligible for a rebate of 75 percent up to $75 off the cost of their new home composting system. In addition to receiving the rebate, customers also can save $60 to $200 per year by switching to the 32-gallon trash cart.

Just as the number of class attendees doubled, the number of Austin residents who applied for the rebate in fiscal year 2011 also doubled, when compared to fiscal year 2010.

Austin Resource Recovery scheduled additional composting classes at Austin City Hall in October:

• Oct. 14, 6 p.m.
• Oct. 26, 6 p.m.
• Oct. 27 (Bilingual class – English and Spanish), 6 p.m.

via ABJ

Solar Royal LLC has raised $50,000 of a planned $500,000 equity financing.

The Austin-based manufacturing company collected the capital from a lone investor, according to a Monday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Solar Royal lists as its president Roy Stocker, a Houston native who has operated businesses in Germany, France and Switzerland, according to his online profile

In 1996, he launched MacTell Corp., an Austin-based company that developed computer clones based on Apple Inc.   

via Green Living Tips

LED lighting is fast becoming popular and great outcomes can be achieved in terms of electricity savings and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, but buyers should be aware of certain factors when considering an LED purchase decision.

LED Colour

Home owners looking to retrofit LEDs into existing fixtures typically want to obtain the same look and feel as their existing lamps.

A true warm white colour will range from between 2700K to 3000K (K = kelvin), however cheaper LED lamps tend to just say “warm white” and the colour of the light turns out to be a thick yellow with a mix of green; so be aware of LED globes that do not list a colour temperature.

LED Output

There are many LED lamps on the market today that claim to replace 50W halogens or 60W incandescents, but only a certain few actually do.

Cheaper LED manufacturers often exaggerate what their LED product’s light output is, and in some cases, they can achieve a reasonable output for the same power rating as a quality LED globe…. but at what cost?

Quality LED lights are lucky to achieve 75 lumens per watt in an incandescent warm white, whilst cheaper priced LED lights often boast up to and above 100 lumens per watt.

The warm white color of a burning filament in traditional lighting is hard to achieve using LED but one way of increasing the output of a LED is to use a higher color temperature LED chip and changing the color output of the lamp.

So you really need to ask yourself how they can achieve this when these products are cheaper?

LED Light Quality

Traditional globes are very good at reproducing the color of an object compared to natural sunlight. Quality LED globes can also achieve a similar light quality, but once again, be aware of cheaper LED lamps that do not specify the color quality (CRI/Ra).

Low light quality LED chips can make objects look dull and off color whilst in some cases it can also cause eye strain.

What to look for

When searching for your LED lighting, consider a lamp that has a high color rendering index of 75 and above, maintains a high efficacy of 65 lumens per watt and above, and has the exact color temperature you want.

Quality LED lighting providers should always specify the lumen output, colour temperature and light quality (CRI), without these important details, a bulb you purchase could have you end up looking like the green goblin.

Doing your bit for the environment by choosing more energy efficient lighting doesn’t mean you need to sacrifice light quality!

As a special offer to Green Living Tips readers, you can purchase any CREE LED light products from Lighting Matters and save 10% by entering this coupon code at the checkout – GLT – and yes, Lighting Matters ships overseas.

via ABJ

Microinverter developer SolarBridge Technologies Inc.    SolarBridge Technologies Inc. Latest from The Business Journals SolarBridge, AstroWatt get DOE grantsSolarBridge closes M funding roundXtreme Power top VC getter in ’10 Follow this company has been awarded a $1.75 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy one month after the DOE awarded SolarBridge $2.3 million.

The grant was awarded by the DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency. It was one of 60 research projects funded with a total $156 million, officials said.

Austin-based SolarBridge plans to use the funds to perform research and development for a electronic technique that improves the output of solar panels.

The company, which was founded in 2004 as SmartSpark Energy Systems Inc., develops a microinverter designed to increase solar panel efficiency. The company employs 60 workers.

It moved to Austin from Illinois in 2009. In June, the company completed a $19 million Series C round of funding, increasing to more than $46 million the amount of financing the company received since launching.

In September, SolarBridge received a $2.3 million grant from the DOE’s SunShot Initiative, designed to reduce the cost of solar energy systems by 75 percent by the year 2020.

via the Statesman

PFLUGERVILLE — Some 500 solar panels on the roof and grounds of Pflugerville’s water treatment plant will help power the plant, the city’s largest electricity user, and save the city $415,000 over the 20- to 25-year life of the panels.

A $870,038 renewable energy grant from the Texas Comptroller’s State Energy Conservation Office paid for most of the 141-kilowatt panels. That money came from a federal stimulus grant. Dallas-based Oncor, which operates the electrical infrastructure in the city, covered the rest of the cost, about $174,000.

Work was completed last week , according to Terri Waggoner, public information officer for the City of Pflugerville.

“When the city saves money, we all save money,” Waggoner said. “It’s good for the environment, and it’s good for us to be good environmental stewards. We don’t just say that we’re green. We’re living it.”

RRE Austin Solar, which is building a large solar array in Pflugerville, helped the city get the grant. The Pflugerville Solar Farm will have more than 400,000 solar panels on 720 acres that had been used for farming.