Green Energy

One of the defining features of the 19th and 20th centuries was the increasing use of fossil fuels such as coal and oil to power the rise of the modern world.

This was a good thing because the power provided by fossil fuels transformed society, increasing the wealth, power, and creature comforts available to the American people and the rest of humanity. Fossil fuels powered the revolutions — Industrial, Scientific, Technological, and Information — of the past two centuries and so humanity’s embrace and use of them made sense. To have rejected fossil fuels would have been to reject the improvements in the human condition they have made possible and would have deprived the human race of the opportunities it has enjoyed over the past 200 years.

Unfortunately, for all the positives that have resulted from humanity’s use of fossil fuels there have been negatives as well. The worst of these is the damage done to the environment in the form of polluted air, polluted water, and polluted land, pollution that is a by product of fossil fuel use. Then there is the danger of war growing out of the fact that so much of the world’s supply of oil is located in unstable regions of the world like the Middle East and other parts of the Third World and under the control of despotisms like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Venezuela, and Russia whose control of such a valuable resource makes them powerful and dangerous players on the world stage.

So for all the good that the use of fossil fuels have make possible, the unfortunate side effects resulting from their use threatens to not only undo the benefits of their use but to visit upon the world catastrophic destruction.

With this in mind it is now more clear than ever that humanity must find alternatives to fossil fuels that will enable the modern world to continue while mitigating and hopefully eliminating the dangers created by two centuries of fossil fuel use.

In Union County, steps are being taken to do just that, with the latest step being taken Thursday (November 1) with the “rebranding” of the county “Electric Vehicle Charging Stations.”

Thursday’s ceremony was held at the Timken Sports Complex where two of the county’s 10 Electric Vehicle Charging Stations are located. Taking part in the ceremony were City of Union Mayor Harold Thompson, Union County Supervisor Frank Hart, and Lockart Power Chief Operating Officer Bryan Stone. Their presence was a sign of the collective and cooperative nature of the move from fossil fuels to more environmentally-friendly or “green” alternatives, a move that, if it is to truly succeed, must occur at the grassroots.

Also taking part in the ceremony was Landon Masters of the Palmetto Clean Fuels Coalition, a US Department of Energy Clean Cities Coalition, which promotes initiatives designed to reduce the use of petroleum. The initiatives promoted by the PCF included the replacement of petroleum powered automobiles with electric ones and that’s why the organization was at the Timken Sports Complex last Thursday.

Masters explained that by taking part in the rebranding of their Electric Vehicle Charging Stations, the City of Union and Union County are the “first local governments in South Carolina to adopt standardized electric vehicle signage.” That signage includes general service signs that direct motorists to the charging stations, parking signs stating that the spaces are only to be use by cars being charged, pavement markings including the “Plug In SC ” logo. The goal is to make sure all electric vehicle infrastructure like the charging stations in Union County are visible and recognizable.

Thursday’s rebranding is the latest step in Union County’s efforts to embrace and promote the growth of the use of electric vehicles that are not only more environmentally-friendly in and of themselves, but are powered by electricity generated from environmentally-friendly sources. Thompson pointed out that those efforts began eight years ago as the community committed itself to going “green” by supporting and encouraging the use of electric vehicles.

“We got on board early about eight years ago with vehicle charging stations,” Thompson said. “We’d been talking about going green as much as possible. This is an opportunity to start going green. Electric vehicles are going to be the wave of the future. We’re just doing our part to try to save the environment.

Stone pointed out that the charging stations — which are located at Timken Sports Complex, the City Union Municipal Building, USC Union, the Spartanburg Community College Union Campus on US 176, and at Lockhart Power in Lockart — were installed eight years ago in order to address the “chicken and the egg” problem that was helping to limit the growth of electric vehicle usage.

“Eight years ago there were very few electric vehicles around and even fewer charging stations,” Stone said. “One of the barriers at the time was how do we convince people to buy electric vehicles if they have so-called range anxiety, if they are worried about running out of electricity before they can get home and recharge. That was a barrier to widespread adoption of electric vehicles.”

The intervening years have seen the situation change with electric vehicles now able to travel further on a charge, and more electric charging stations like those built eight years ago now available.

“Electric vehicles are becoming more mainstream, there are now dozens of models of electric vehicles,” Stone said. “Some of the challenges still exist (but) the range anxiety is much less than it used to be. Now you can go hundreds of miles with some of those vehicles with a single charge. Having electric vehicle charging stations in the public eye, those have grown in number.”

While those stations are in place, Stone said the challenge now is to make the public more aware of them and their locations and their availability. Stone said this is especially important for persons who live outside a community and don’t know where the local charging stations are. He said this can make them hesitant to drive their electric vehicles into places like Union County. By having signage in place at the recharging stations and elsewhere to make their presence known, Stone said this could remove a major barrier to increased use of electric vehicles.

Hart also welcomed the changes, saying that the county “is excited to be part of the initiative” and get prepared along with the rest of South Carolina to take advantage of the growing use of electric vehicles.

“Electric vehicles are coming,” Hart said. “They may not have penetrated the market to the extent that we’d like to see them in South Carolina, but according to the data I’ve seen within the next 10 years 15-25 percent of the light duty vehicles in the US will be electric vehicles.”

Those vehicles will need electricity, preferably from sources that are “green,” that is environmentally friendly and renewable and that’s just what Lockhart Power has to offer.

Lockhart Power supplies much of the power used at the charging stations, making the electric vehicles charged on them even more environmentally friendly. That’s because Lockhart gets 99 percent of its power from environmentally friendly or green sources. Those renewable sources include hydroelectric power generated by three dams including Lockhart Dam and methane gas recovered from the Wellford Landfill.

“Green power for green cars,” Stone said. “It just doesn’t get any better than that for a society trying to wean itself off fossil fuels.”

‘Rebranding’ Electric Vehicle Charging Stations

With energy costs on the rise and climate change on the horizon, the need for renewable energy has never been greater.

Norwegian startup Otovo is making green energy more accessible for residents in Nordic states by helping them to easily install solar panels on their roofs. The startup was the winner of the Oslo Innovation Award 2018, and recently raised €10.5 million from investors KLP Liv / KLP AksjeNorge and Nysnø to expand its solution across Europe.

Founded in 2016, Otovo has created unique platform that sells solar panels, simplifies installations, and compares the costs of dozens of local installers in a moment. Otovo’s solar panels generate clean energy for 25 years, and the startup buys back any extra energy produced. The startup’s planned European expansion will help accelerate the transition to a greener economy across the continent.

Otovo founder Andreas Thorsheim told Shifter: “We believe our system is superior to other ways of selling and installing small renewable energy components. Now it’s time to use what we’ve learned in the tough markets in Norway and Sweden – for use on land further south, where the sun is more abundant and the electricity prices are typically higher.”

Nysnø investment director Eivind Egeland Olsen said: “Nysnø aims to invest in companies with the smartest solutions to the challenges of climate change. Nysnø has a long-term perspective and will invest in companies and funds, together with private investors, to accelerate the green transition globally.”

The UK now draws more electricity from renewable energy sources than from fossil fuels. In a national first, the UK’s capacity for renewable energy is greater than that of coal and other fossil fuels, marking a significant step towards building a clean energy nation. I don’t know about you, but with fracking – the bond villain’s means-to-power made real – back on the table, this is a welcomed breath of fresh air, literally.

The current split between fossil fuels and renewable energy generation is pretty much 50/50. However, renewables have just tipped it, taking claim to 41.9 gigawatts compared to the 41.2GW produced by fossil fuels. These statistics, compiled by Imperial College London, reflect the consequences of two factors.

Firstly, green energy is on the rise in the UK. We’re home to two of the world’s largest wind farms, and will welcome a third and even larger one after the completion of Scottish Power’s East Anglia One project, set to open in 2020.

Secondly, fossil fuels are seemingly on the out. The UK government is seeking to completely phase out coal by 2025, making it no surprise that coal capacity has dropped by a quarter over the last year. It may also have something to do with the UK’s six-remaining coal power stations dating as far back as the sixties, highlighting that power companies would rather gradually decommission the stations instead of shouldering expensive short-term renovation costs.

The victory of renewable power-generation is impressive, however, it’s important to remember that this only accounts for electricity; the UK still relies on gas for 85% of its heating. Nonetheless, significant progress is being made. Notably, 30% of heating now comes from wind energy during peak usage and, with the recent opening of the Cumbria wind farm (the largest on the planet), this percentage is only likely to increase.

A trend is being set, and it looks like it’s sticking. Only last month Scottish Power sold its last gas-powered electricity stations to Drax for £700m. By the end of 2018, when the deal is due to conclude, Scottish Power’s electricity will be generated entirely by wind.

There’s still a long way to go, though, and other nations are certainly ahead of us in this effort. In 2017, Costa Rica’s electricity supply came entirely from renewable energies for 300 days and the Central American nation is aiming to be completely carbon neutral by 2021 – four years before the decommissioning of coal power stations in the UK.

Whether large power companies are moving to renewables simply to combat climate change is still to be known – after all, they are opting for the semi-free acquisition of energy instead of the costs of mining fossil fuels. Nevertheless, this is a step in the right direction, so I’ll take it.

CGN Europe Energy has chosen renewable energy management system Greenbyte Energy Cloud for their wind and solar PV farms.

Greenbyte will be integrating CGN EE’s wind and solar assets in Europe and Africa, amounting to a total of 900 MW. The collaboration will be ongoing for CGN EE’s future investments.

The French-based and Chinese-owned company is managing a portfolio of 130 wind and solar farms in the UK, Ireland, France, the Netherlands, Senegal and Belgium and continues to grow on and offshore.

Greenbyte Energy Cloud succeeded in meeting the expectations for best technical grade and high quality of support. CGN EE’s global portfolio will be managed through Breeze and Bright, the two specialised components of Greenbtye Energy Cloud for wind and solar farms.

Olivier Texier, head of engineering and O&M at CGN Europe Energy, said, “Greenbyte stood out for their service availability, their specialised features and lastly, for their long-time and worldwide vision, which is in accordance to our global mission.”

“We are very happy to welcome CGN EE as a customer of Greenbyte. CGN EE has a strong commitment to renewable energy and we are excited and humbled by the opportunity to support CGN EE in their growth journey from today’s 900 MW portfolio of renewable energy towards 3 GW in 2020 and beyond,” commented Jonas Corné, CEO of Greenbyte.

Babcock Ranch looks like any other comfortable Floridian town. Bright homes with pitched roofs, wooden panels and large front porches form neat neighborhoods on a flat landscape. Native palms decorate manicured gardens.

While the architecture looks similar to elsewhere in Florida, the town’s homes — built to Florida Green Building Coalition standards — are high-tech and eco-friendly.

The roofs are metal to reduce heating and cooling costs and have extended eaves to create shade. The garages have charging facilities and the gardens are only 30 percent lawn, leaving the rest for less thirsty native plants. “Gray water” reclaimed from the town’s on-site treatment plant and rainwater runoff — the streets have no drains or curbs — is used for irrigation and to top up lakes.

This mix of modern and traditional is partly what cemented Richard and Robin Kinley’s decision to move to the new town, located just northeast of the sprawling gated communities, golf courses and strip malls of bustling Fort Myers.

“It is all the tech that is hidden, like the huge solar field down the road and the fact that all of the houses have fiber internet,” Richard Kinley told DW. “It was a really nice mix for us, all of the technology for me in an old Florida-style home that Robin appreciates.”

The other reason, according to Robin Kinley was to escape the gridlock of Atlanta and to enjoy a cleaner environment, as they embarked on their retirement.

“I kind of like it a little slower paced now,” she told DW.

Getting a solar city off the ground

The Kinleys were among the first residents to move to Babcock Ranch in January 2018. The town is being built in stages and as the weeks pass, the street is taking shape around the Kinley’s residence as more houses go up. The 18,000-acre site (about 7,200 hectares) should eventually house 50,000 people in 19,500 homes.

So far, the developers are on track to sell a total of 250 homes by the end of the year. But even to get that far has been difficult, said Syd Kitson, the man behind the project.

The professional American footballer-turned-real estate-developer started thinking about making a sustainable, totally solar-powered town back in 2005.

“We wanted Babcock Ranch to be the first solar-powered town in the United States, maybe the world,” said Kitson, a towering former National Football League (NFL) guard.

So Kitson purchased a 91,000-acre ranch in the Sunshine State. And in Florida’s largest ever environmental real estate deal, he sold 73,000 acres to the state, which has designated the land as a nature reserve.

Still, it wasn’t plain sailing.

“What we didn’t realize, this was back eight or nine years ago, is how difficult that would actually be, to convince people that it’s the right thing to do,” recalled Kitson.

What he had not factored into his vision was how many people might be put off by the $20,000 (€17,500) average price tag on installing home solar panels in Florida.

He needed an idea to kick-start his solar development in a state largely dependent on fossil fuels.

Solar deal with a drawback?

Kitson’s solution was to donate 440 acres of ranch land to Florida Power & Light (FPL), a utility company with over 10 million customers.

In return, FPL installed 340,000 solar panels with a generating capacity of 75 megawatts — their largest installation to date. There are plans to double the size of the solar park by early next year, making the town a net producer of solar energy, and, in the longer term, to install battery storage.

The deal means the town runs on energy from the power company’s solar farm, so residents don’t have to pay up front costs for switching to the renewable energy source. They will, however, have to continue paying standard rates for their electricity.

This could prove to be a drawback down the line, says Jody Finver, the program coordinator for Solar United Neighbors, a nonprofit helping homeowners switch to solar energy.

“I want to see more homes within the community have rooftop solar,” said Finver. “With rooftop solar, one of the motivating factors is that your electricity bills would go down, anything you offset by putting more into the grid would bring economic benefit to the homeowners.”

Theoretically at least, Babcock Ranch could become more independent of their local solar farm in the future. Every home is structured to enable retrofitting of rooftop solar. Downtown each building already has rooftop solar panels and tree-like solar structures dot the parks and malls.

Even if his formula isn’t cutting edge from a global perspective, for Kitson it made sense to partner with a power company with deep pockets in order to strike the right note with American buyers.

Not just for retirees

Kitson hopes those buyers will be of all ages — something he recognizes as central to creating a vibrant town.

“When most people think of Florida, they think retirees. They say, ‘wow, that is a great place to go and retire.’ Well, guess what, there are a lot of young people living here too,” Kitson said.

To get the right mix of ages, the developers have created recreational facilities with swimming pools, nature trails and lakes for fishing and boating. They’ve also got exercise machines that generate power when they’re used.

The neighborhood school offers an environmentally focused educational program they call “greenSTEAM” that integrates science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics.

Residents can also use an app to arrange local transport in autonomous vehicles and electric buses will soon transport students to the town’s schools.

For those already living in Babcock Ranch, like Richard Kinley, it’s a way to take some responsibility for the environment.

“As I’ve aged, I’ve gotten more and more conscious of sustainable living,” he said. “So, the way I describe it is as guilt-free as I can imagine. Just the fact that I have an electric car that I am literally driving on solar power.”

When you think of solar panels, you probably think of them as producing clean, renewable energy.

But researchers at Oregon State University have found another, very different use for the panels- to help grow food.

In 2013 the school installed a 6-acre solar array on the west end of campus. Its initial purpose was to produce renewable energy for the university. It produces enough energy to power three buildings on campus.

But researchers also found it did something else, something that had nothing to do with electricity.

They found the panels actually helped plants grow better.

It all started when the researchers noticed a big difference in the grasses that were growing in the shade of the solar panels.

They grew about twice as tall and thick as those not underneath the panels, despite the fact that they did not receive any irrigation water.

So, the researchers put out testing equipment to measure the moisture in the soil and grasses.

They found the grass that was shaded by the solar panels used up water much slower and therefore kept on growing.

They believe the same would happen with crops like berries or vegetables.

The researchers say their next step is to design solar panels that allow farming beneath them.

“Our current vision is to have them on a single post that rotates so that when a tractor comes they rotate up and out of the way and doesn’t impede the tractor and then they rotate back in place when they are done,” said Chad Higgins, an associate professor in biological and ecological engineering.

The researchers are currently working with solar companies and landowners on such a design.