Thursday, April 28, 2011

"We were spending $4 in energy for every soda sold from our vending machines"

The quote above from Coast Guard Commander Steve Raney. See below.
[Notes are pretty rough, but that's the tradeoff for doing this in almost real time.]



Jes. B. Chrisensen,
Managing Director,
Danish Board of District Heating,
Copenhagen, Denmark
"Shaping a Low-Carbon World:  Lessons from Denmark"

1979 - Denmark told all

Waste to energy

Denmark is the only country in the EU that is energy independent.  Very conscious of energy efficiency, lowest energy consumption per capita.  Expensive?  It's an investment, but not expensive in the long run.  We've grown economically since 1980 grown about 70% and kept our energy consumption fixed.  And reduced 02 emissions.

In order to go this way to decentralized solutions, it had to be cost effective.  Business has grown with net reduction in energy consumption.  Doesn't have to be ugly or expensive.

Use less
Recycle what's out there
Replace it with renewables


Smart Grid - not just electricity, including thermal load.  Smart Energy Infrastructure.

This guy is way beyond the previous speakers in terms of the kinds of savings he's talking about.  District energy systems
In Copenhagen, 30% of the heat demand is from Municipal waste.  Paris it's about 50%.  In Iceland they use geothermal.  The best part is that you make money doing this.  Greening the economy will create huge export opportunity.  Less hit by recessions.  And we're still green and competitive.  And we're happy.  (Slide showing Denmark is the happiest nation.)


Juergen Korn
Research & Development Project Manager
Yukon Housing Corporation
Whitehorse, Yukon Territory

"The Road to More Efficient Housing in Yukon"

A rough road so far, but we're making headway.  I work in the intersection of Policy, Planning, Good Intentions, and Reality.  I'm passionate about housing.  Not all positive, but a reality check.   We only have 30,000 people in Yukon.  Lots of space and have to rely on each other.
Yukon Housing Corp.

Housing biggest problem in the north.  Mold and moisture big issues.  Mandatory new home certification problem has been a problem.  R2000 issues from past we are still fighting.  We launched our own program - Green Home - provided low interest financing, energy auditing - for existing and new housing.  Federal grants.

Graph of rising energy costs.  Oil going up and people coming to us - what do I do?  I can't afford to heat AND feed kids.  We were worried people would walk away from homes because of heating costs.  Would cause our own housing crisis.  We looked at heating costs of different kinds of homes.  Graph of heating costs of different types of construction.  People in 2x4 and 2x6 home paying $4 - 6,000 a year to heat.  Most effective approach is add good insulation.  Looking at cost of constructing energy efficient housing, increased mortgage cost - $20,000 more - but energy cost way down.

Turns out that better off from day one to put in huge amounts of insulation - energy costs are so much less.  Now homeowners are demanding that we only do super energy efficient houses.  City of Whitehorse is now commited to Energy Bylaw - requirements for insulation, windows, ventilation, etc.  City has lack of inspection resources.  Work with them to develop checklists and train inspectors so that no moisture problems in highly insulated houses.

Lessons Learned
1.  Tremendous economic opportunities for energy efficient homes
2.  Time is running out.  Feel great urgency.


Steve Raney
Commanding Officer
US Coast Guard Civil Engineering Unit
Juneau

"Powering Forward:  Coast Guard Strategies for Energy Security"

[What I got out of this once more - we waste a ton of energy and there are lots of easy ways to make buildings and cities way more efficient and save lots of energy.]

Federal Mandates Coast Guard must meet.
Advanced metering.  First just electricity, but other sources now.
Obama - EO 13514 -  Got attention of Senior Officers
Apoint Sr. Sustainability Officer,
Strategic SustainabilityPlans,
Operational Sustainability Plans
Greenhouse Gas Inventories and Reduction Goals

2007 - moved to Honolulu - reduced consumption by 14%, but because of increasing fuel prices, costs still increased 28%.  Water costs up 250%

Demand Response:  We'd disconnect four ship when grid was in trouble.  Incentivized us 25% and only one event, so great deal for us.  Since then more incidents.

Relamping of ships and delamping.  Efficiency.  Replace lighting in boat house, cut power needs in half and got better lighting.  Reduced power requirements by 80%.  I'm sure those numbers are right.  Used saved money for training  - vending and water conservation.  Put data on vending machines.  We were spending $4 in energy for every soda we sold.  Got rid of underutilized machines, delamped them.  Saved $10K a year just on vending machines in one base in Honolulu.
Water savings in shower heads.

Persistence in savings.  Retro Commissioning.  14 contracts, $100 million invested.  Kodiak, $26million invested.  Heating plant system - optimization of boiler.  Residential housing boiler replaced.  Water treatment plant.  Finished before sedimentation issue and could survive that contamination problem.  Performance contracts underway. 


QA:  From Alaskan Housing person:  We have infrastructure of Yukon and would like the cogeneration of Denmark.  How do we do cogen.
Christensen:  We went from very centralized to decentralized.  We calculate you can go down to 200 single family homes.  You don't need the dense, highly populated system.  That's our experience, can't say it will work here.  Went from 30% market share to 60% market share, because government mandated efficiency levels.  We did make mistakes.  Installed in places where they shouldn't have been installed.  Very important to include building codes. 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments will be reviewed, not for content (except ads), but for style. Comments with personal insults, rambling tirades, and significant repetition will be deleted. Ads disguised as comments, unless closely related to the post and of value to readers (my call) will be deleted. Click here to learn to put links in your comment.