Category Archives: Energy Storage

USGBC Green Building Tours – October 3-8, 2016

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GREEN BUILDING TOURS

Green Building tours are one of Greenbuild’s most popular and exciting features, providing the opportunity to explore green buildings ranging from government facilities to zoo exhibits. This year in Los Angeles, Greenbuild tours will help attendees learn outside the convention center walls and present the best of the area’s sustainable buildings and neighborhoods.

The Greenbuild Tours Program is developed by the Greenbuild 2016 Host Committee, USGBC-LA.


Descanso Gardens

About Greenbuild International
Conference & Expo – Oct. 5-7, 2016

 Greenbuild is the world’s largest conference and expo dedicated to green building. The ideals and passion of the green building community come alive at Greenbuild. The buzz is contagious.

Greenbuild brings together industry leaders, experts and frontline professionals dedicated to sustainable building in their everyday work, and a unique energy is sparked. Participants are invigorated. Inspired. They find themselves equipped to return to their jobs with a renewed passion and purpose.

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LADWP SummerShift Program Increases Incentives July-September 2016

Screen Shot 2016-07-03 at 7.59.41 PM“With the current moratorium on new injections of natural gas from Aliso Canyon there is a heightened threat of outages this summer, especially during times of extreme heat when gas and electricity are in higher demand. Customer participation in SummerShift will help minimize the risk of rotating outages, which could result in serious health and safety risks, as well as create financial impacts to our customers.”  – Board President Mel Levine.

To avoid power outages this summer, LADWP has announced that the incentives for large commercial customers who decrease their summer demand for energy  has been greatly increased.  The first-of-its-kind program is effective immediately until the end of September 2016.

SummerShift (flyer) is just one of several measures being undertaken by the utility to mitigate the risk of outages caused by the moratorium on gas injections into Aliso Canyon.

SummerShift benefits include:

  1. Receive significant incentives (through a bill credit) of $10 per kW for energy saved or shifted away from the peak period
  2. Avoid cost impacts and inconveniences of electrical service interruptions
  3. Partner with LADWP in preventing power outages this summer affecting all customers

Other measures include:

  • Making operational changes to maximize flexibility of gas-fired power plants to preserve natural gas for critical periods.
  • Maximizing use of alternative fuel sources, including renewable energy.
  • Public outreach to residential customers to reduce their energy use, and participate in Flex Alerts, such as the one issued Monday.
  • Expanding Demand-Response Programs to provide discounts for participating large commercial and industrial customers to reduce and shift their energy use away from peak periods.

To participate in LADWP’s Demand Response Program, businesses must meet these criteria:

  • Have an existing Building Energy Management System
  • Be able to curtail load by 100 kilowatts (kW) for each DR event
  • Be able to adjust operations to participate during the DR season – June 15 to October 15
  • Be able to adjust operations between 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. PST
  • Be able to participate with day-ahead or two hour advance notification

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L.A. Natural Gas Leak Leading to Power Blackouts?

Screen Shot 2016-07-02 at 10.19.50 PMAs early as April of this year, speculation was being widely reported that Los Angeles may suffer numerous blackouts because 17 local natural gas power plants are having a difficult time sourcing sufficient fuel for generating electricity.

Normally, a significant percentage of their natural gas is stored at the Aliso Canyon facility. When the facility sprang its massive,  four months-long leak polluting the air in the north portion of the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles County it also depleted the storage tanks that were stockpiling fuel for the peak energy usage months of July through October. They now contain only 20% of what is normal for this time of year!

“How do we make sure we are building the most sustainable city possible?” – Nancy Sutley (LADWP)

As a result, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is scrambling on two fronts to lessen the impact on their ratepayers. First, they are trying to arrange new sources of fuel from neighboring regions. Second, they are appealing to their commercial and residential customers to voluntarily reduce their consumption of power.

Last Thursday (6/30/16) the LADWP hosted a roundtable discussion of their options at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) at their new La Kretz Innovation Center in downtown Los Angeles. LADWP and Southern California Gas each have aggressive incentive campaigns to encourage ratepayers to conserve electricity. In addition, David Hodgins of the Los Angeles Better Buildings Challenge helped address the key question of the discussion posed by Nancy Sutley (LADWP’s Chief Sustainability and Economic Development Officer) – “How do we make sure we are building the most sustainable city possible?”

This crisis is a wake-up call – a wound that must not be allowed to go untreated or to infect other utility assets. It makes it clear that more preventative solutions must be adopted so we are better prepared for future droughts, heat waves, and infrastructure disasters.

The Mayor’s office has already put into place policies (through his Sustainability pLAn and special office) that help guide Los Angeles to develop a sustainable energy system. Installing innovative energy efficiency technologies in commercial and residential structures must continue to be developed to mitigate the demand growth of the region. At the same time a planned approach must feature: consumption monitoring systems, more incentives for better LEED Certified investments, solar installations and storage expansion, and flexible infrastructure encouraging the new decentralized power generation and storage.

 

 

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USGBC Build SMART Trailer Tours Los Angeles

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Juliana Luz, Scott Miller, and Fernanda Zuin invite visitors to learn more about sustainable building materials, water conservation, and energy saving innovations in the Build SMART trailer.

What has four wheels, 3 solar panels, a dual flush toilet, and is full of the latest sustainable innovations used in building construction?

The BuildSMART (Sustainable Materials And Resources Trailer) mobile learning exhibit, of course! On loan from the USGBC Central Coast Chapter who constructed it (with the assistance of CalPoly San Luis Obispo and sponsors) it is touring various parks and schools around Los Angeles County between April 2016 and 2017.

The trailer demonstrates sustainable living/working environments, illustrating best practices for green building. BuildSMART is outfitted with a variety of materials and systems, including sustainable flooring, recycled countertops, non-toxic insulation, anti-microbial wallboards, solar PV, tankless water heating, among other efficient energy and water conservation methods.

Screen Shot 2016-06-05 at 4.52.18 PMThe community interest has been very strong and positive serving an estimated 40,000 visitors per year! It is the first exposure many have had to the USGBC, LEED Certification, and many of new technologies  that might motivate students to pursue careers in the industry.

LEED PlaquesBuildSMART is supported by a Community Partner Grant funded by the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power. A YouTube video is available to tour the trailer online.

Contact Fernanda Zuin to schedule a visit: fernanda@usgbc-la.org or call 213-689-9707.

 

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Triple Pundit: Energy Storage is Coming Home

TeslaBatteryWhen Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk tweeted earlier in April that the automaker would soon release a power storage product, the Internet went into a flurry of speculation.

Energy storage is becoming a wild card option that must be on the radar of  ESCOs (Energy Service Companies), utilities, commercial property managers, and residential customers. When Tesla’s Elon Musk announced the Tesla PowerWall options that are on slated to become available this Fall, a new vision of what renewable energy generation, storage, security, economics, and management might be like in the coming decades began to unfold.

The benefits of energy storage are many for those that learn how to market, buy, sell, and install it. That is, assuming that the host of federal, state, and utility policy issues stay relatively supportive or, at least, non-threatening. One thing is for sure. Battery manufacturers like Tesla, Panasonic, and Enphase will not only ramp up market supply (dropping production costs) but they will begin to strike up partner package offers to entice customers to buy. Not only will Tesla co-market with their sister company, SolarCity, but they are already planning a DC coupled solution linking their Powerwall with SolarEdge inverters.

Max Bloom, a Renewable Energy Marketing Communications Director in the San Francisco Bay Area posted an article on Triple Pundit that sheds more light on the current state of the market for this rapidly evolving paradigm. Titled “Energy Storage is Coming Home” he cited a recent GTM research report that predicts “behind-the-meter storage (residential, commercial, education, military or nonprofit) will account for 45 percent of the (electricity storage) market by 2019.”

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Why Architects Must Lead on Sustainable Design

 ArchitectsLEEDdesign
Not a single school of architecture requires every student to be fully trained in the principles of sustainable design. The report offered recommendations for transforming education that included the “Sustainable Environmental Design Education” model curriculum, but to my knowledge, no school has adopted these or similar guidelines.

Architecture is an essential arena for sustainable innovation. Buildings represent about half the annual energy and emissions in the U.S. and three-quarters of its electricity. With the built environment growing — the U.S. building stock increases by about 3 billion square feet every year — architects have a historic opportunity to transform its impact for the better.

In 2006, the American Institute of Architects wisely adopted Architecture 2030’s “2030 Challenge,” an initiative seeking carbon neutrality in the industry by 2030. “[W]e believe we must alter our profession’s actions,” the AIA 2030 Commitment says, “and encourage our clients and the entire design and construction industry to join with us to change the course of the planet’s future.”

The AIA, however, recently removed sustainable design from members’ annual continuing education requirements: “Recognizing that sustainable design practices have become a mainstream design intention in the architectural community, the board of directors has voted to allow the sustainable design education requirement to sunset at the end of calendar year 2012,” the institute reports. Other kinds of continuing education credits remain mandatory.

In the culture of design, innovation often means little more than aesthetic novelty. Google the phrase “innovative architecture” and you find a lot of provocative geometry, but few if any groundbreaking solutions to the most serious problems. Design can be a powerful agent for change, but design awards and media attention generally celebrate imagery over innovation.

Six steps to change:

  1. Immediately, every organization that gives design awards to architects can begin rewarding only structures that meet at least a minimum standard of sustainable performance.
  2. Within six months, every design magazine can begin featuring only buildings that meet at least a minimum standard of sustainable performance.
  3. Within one year, every public agency, including federal, state and local governments, can require every project beginning development in that year to meet current targets for the 2030 Commitment.
  4. Within two years, every American architecture firm can adopt the 2030 Commitment and meet current targets for all projects begun that year.
  5. Within three years, every American licensing agency can require that every architect demonstrate a minimum level of competency around sustainable design in order to maintain a license to practice.
  6. Within four years, every school of architecture can transform its curriculum to ensure that every graduating student is fully trained in the principles and practice of sustainable design.

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