Posts tagged Berkeley

Learn from Germany- Passive Housing Construction

December 28, 2008 · Filed under business, development, economics, green living, politics, renewable energy, solar energy · Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Super sales people become great by stealing.  Stealing the greatest, most profitable ideas and executing on them immediately to change, enhance, our own profit margin in whatever sales game we’ve got going.  Not a difficult concept and it makes a lot of sense – find out who is doing what better and then do it too.  If you get in on it fast enough, the saturation point will be a delayed concern.  And Germany seems to have all the best ideas at the moment.  Simplified solar lending, feed in tariffs, since 2004 Germany has endorsed solar energy as the new way and society’s climbing on board, and Italians and Spanish citizens are coming along, following their lead.  America woke up from Bush inspired dormancy, Berkeley First, the state of Connecticut and according to IREC, the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (celebrating 26 years, sends out emails if you want to update yourself firsthand), other states are coming along with market provisions for greater renewable energy endeavors here in the US. Slow progress but thankfully, we’re coming along.  Obama and his ‘cusper’ crew are going to show us the way and if we’re smart, we’ll all move forward, fast, thanks to their visionary leadership.

Back to Germany, because they’ve been taking action and leading the pack.  Elizabeth Rosenthal’s article on the New York Times (she is decidedly green and a great writer) put out a fantastic piece on passive houses.  Passive housing construction really is the ultimate in green development as it uses minimal energy input to maintain perfect indoor temperatures no matter the weather.  (The new renewable energy movement would be the penultimate solution, needing no energy for daily life being and even greater achievement.)  The first physicist to develop the idea of warm houses without energy demand was Wolfgang Feist.  As a German intellectual, he wrote in German, preventing **Americans** from being included in the dialog.  Wolfgang  Hasper of the Passivhaus Institut is publicizing the idea with his website, although written in German, has buttons for  English and French translations of this brilliance.  The idea is an airtight house with mechanical ventilation to create air flow in the home without heating or cooling, breezes or air recirculation resulting in 80% less energy consumption for comfortable living.  Supposedly, the ventilation system is Swedish (where old people use kick sleds to carry their groceries over ice and snow to and from their walk to the markets and the sun shines infrequently in winter yet they have a huge FREE solar engineering school in Borlange).  Go Sweden!

Now let’s talk visionaries.  Nabih Tahan brings passive housing construction to the US from Europe and sets up shop where?  Berkeley.  Go California.  For more information, check out any of these links. Green ideas are a go.  Better to inform yourself on next wave ideas than check out Obama without his shirt (hot).  If the media stays focused, we can all move forward together.

**What do you call a person who speaks three languages?  Trilingual. (A regular Montrealer…)

**What do you call a person who speaks two languages?  Bilingual.

**What do you call a person who speaks one language?  You guessed it.  American.

Leave a comment »

Citywide Solar Growing

October 22, 2008 · Filed under business, development, economics, politics, solar energy · Tagged , , , ,

Just as I predicted, the Berkeley/Connecticut model of city-sponsored infrastructure development is spreading out from its point of origin to other neighbourhoods.  Thank goodness, it’s a great idea.

New Hartford, Connecticut has agreed to purchase 20% of its energy needs via renewable methods by 2010.

Also the town of Pomfret in Connecticut.  Anyone seeing a Connecticut connection?  For more on Connecticut’s solar crusade check out this link to the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund.

It begins.  I’ve decided that I’m going to wager on the fact that solar energy is going to change American consumption habits before the Volt goes into production on a large enough scale to change American driving habits.  How do you like them apples GM?

Leave a comment »

Berkeley Goes Solar FIRST

October 10, 2008 · Filed under business, development, economics, green living, politics, renewable energy, solar energy · Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The headline says it all:  “Berkeley Going Solar-city pays upfront, recoups over 20 years.”  Brilliant piece of work there.  Let’s discuss the brilliance:

First, congrats to the government for doing something useful, I didn’t believe that was even possible.  The city of Berkeley made a goal of reducing it’s greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050 and they are on their way to actualizing success.  (We’re all hopeful that the planet will still be functional in 2050.)  I was thrilled when the government began contemplating creating the goal in the first place.  This is quite a few steps forward in the process.  They’ve mapped out a way to make it happen.   The city’s going solar, they’re helping to pay for it, Berkeley’s about to get a makeover.

How many people said that solar energy is a great idea but it’s just too expensive?  You who raged about the distance of price parity and the prohibitive upfront expense of solar panels.  You doubting Thomas blog posters who fired up the debate, or took the opposition stance to the possibility of going solar.  Berkeley’s taking a $tand- instead of letting the market take care of this extreme enviropolitical structural change, the city’s financial influence will determine outcome and make it a reality- now.  Looks like Berkeley will be the first of Bush’s smurf blue step children to wise up, take action, make change, and Obama hasn’t even taken office yet.

The state of California pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2020.   If people still inhabit the earth, two pieces of legislation including the California Solar Initiative and the Million Solar Roofs program provide a framework for the coming changes in the state.  The Berkeley FIRST program, the city’s Financing Initiative for Renewable and Solar Technology, will provide funding for a solar panel instillation on household roofs, yours and mine, from a bond or loan fund which will return within 20 years via an adjustment to property tax bills.  The pilot Berkeley FIRST project commenced this summer, 2008.  GREAT news!  American money improving America- what a concept.  (I’d love to hear some reviews from the locals, but more on that later.)

The lack of awareness on this fantastic step in Operation A Better America is due to the distraction of the current election.  My advice for undecideds: Just ask Ken Alex, the California deputy attorney and Berkeley’s Mayor Tom Bates who they are endorsing for President and vote with them.   Those two gentlemen and their teams have enabled the first American structural makeover since all of America’s money got spent blowing things up in Iraq.  Adding solar panels to improve a city in California instead of decimating cities in Afghanistan, or Iraq, is such a fantastically justifiable expense.  With a blown American budget, the American people, myself included, would like to see the action potential of those trillions of dollars that we don’t have that are being spent anyway.

I know what the Red Ones will think, conspicuous government spending, followed by a mighty hand wringing.  Perhaps since money will be spent domestically and we will see the results visually and in a manipulation of the domestic expense matrix, the Bigtime-Haves are going to have to start getting used to hanging with the Haven’t-Had-as-Much-Recently group.  Solar panels:  Call it the first American shopping spree!  Like buying a new outfit.

While the ugly duckling phases makes Berkeley the nearly hot new kid on the block, very shortly, the popular kids will take notice in a big way.   San Francisco, Santa Cruz, hoity toity Santa Monica among other state agencies have already looked into the Berkeley process.  If it goes, it’ll get copied.  By stealing the best working ideas, which include putting solar panels on rooftops, the yellow tinge that hovers just above our heads in LA might just being to break up before I’m dead.  (Yes, I KNOW it’s better than it was 20 years ago.  I lived in Canada, the sky is always beautiful except for Toronto.  The bling hanging in the LA sky is, will be, and always has been completely disgusting.  There can be no arguement.  Make it go away. That, and nothing less, should be the goal.)

Comments (2) »