Authored by Robert Graff, Manager, Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission

As manager of DVRPC’s Office of Energy and Climate Change Initiatives, my eye is always drawn to events that address both issues.  Thus, I was excited to be invited to attend Energy and Climate: One Day Two Great Events, an all-day event on May 4^th at Rutgers University, sponsored by Rutgers Energy Institute, Climate Institute, and School of Arts and Sciences.  The morning was billed as the Eleventh Annual Rutgers Energy Institute Energy Symposium, and the afternoon as Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability:  From the IPCC to New Jersey Practitioners.[1]  The presenters included national and global experts on energy and climate change, including the both current chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and a former IPCC chair.

Among the speakers was Dr. Richard Newell, Founding Director of the Duke University Energy Initiative, and the former Administrator of the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the agency responsible for official U.S. government energy statistics and analysis.  Rich and I were friends in grad school, so I was particularly interested in hearing him speak.

Dr. Newell’s talk was wide-ranging, sharing his thoughts on global energy supply and demand over the rest of the century, with attention to the impacts of that energy on global warming.  He summarized the dilemma we face: meeting energy demand is core to economic improvement, yet both the production and use of energy harms the environment.  While U.S. coal and oil use peaked in 2005, the big drivers in the global energy technology and fuel market is new demand from developing countries as their citizens’ demands for improved standard of living begin to be met.  This demand for energy is growing so rapidly that it outstrips the growth in clean energy, so it will of necessity be met largely by fossil fuels—coal in electricity generation and oil in transportation.

Dr. Newell provided some hope: there is tremendous progress being made to reduce CO₂ in energy production—low-carbon electricity is the fastest growing sector of new electricity generation in the U.S.  And the use of energy has become much more efficient, both in stationary applications (buildings and equipment) and in transportation—progress in electric vehicles and in the fuel efficiency of internal combustion engines, not to mention the progress being made in distributed generation, energy storage, and demand response.  Greater Philadelphia could be doing much more in this area—increase the solar requirements in the AEPS, change regulations to encourage distributed generation, etc.  We need to continue to appeal to PJM, PECO, the PUC, the Wolf administration, and the legislature to do what is needed to help speed the transition to low- and no carbon energy.

However, the magnitude of the transformation required is daunting.  Energy-producing and energy-using capital stock is widely distributed and generally privately owned.  This capital will be replaced with cleaner, low- or no-carbon production of energy, more efficient energy-using capital.  However, this transition will take time, and will not happen globally at a rate fast enough to meet rising global energy demand.  Dr. Newell estimated that if all the technology and policy stars align to make the global transition to cleaner energy as easy as possible, global CO₂ emissions would level off and start to decline by 2030 or so, reaching zero by late in the century, leveling off with a global atmospheric CO₂ concentration on the order of 500 ppm.

Dr. Newell highlighted three areas where we need to focus our national and global policy efforts to assure we move as fast as possible to a low- or no-carbon global energy system.  They are:

• Fundamental Research: Public support is needed for fundamental research, as it is difficult for private industry alone to sustain these efforts.
• Inducing Demand for Clean Energy: In its use, renewable energy delivers more or less the same direct services as does non-renewable energy – light, heat, transportation.  It is essential to change the price signals (e.g., with a price on carbon) to move consumers to shift to clean energy.
• Vibrant Competition: An XPRIZE like competition to reach certain renewable energy goals, such as cost per kWh of electricity storage, could spur needed technology innovation.

In a later session, Sir Robert Watson, PhD, Director of Strategic Development at the Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia, and Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from 1997 to 2002, among many distinguished positions, presented his views on the prospects for global action to be taken on reducing GHGs, and the future global climate we can expect given those prospects.

Sir Robert said that his most optimistic view is that end-of-the-century global warming—requiring, for instance, that the $100 billion dollars per year investment in helping developing countries reduce their GHG emissions promised in Paris actually occurs—will reach 3°C to 4°C, or 4°F to 7°F.  Sir Robert noted that this level of global temperature rise will mean higher temperature over land.  The impacts on ecosystems and economies are difficult to grasp.  Unfortunately, my own reading on global climate change indicates that Sir Robert’s optimistic outcome—as stark as it is—are indeed a best case. Hence the importance DVRPC is giving to helping prepare our region for the impacts of climate change.

The day left me with a sense of the stark challenge we face as world, and the deep importance of doing everything we can to wean the world off of fossil fuels.  As Dr. Newell noted, the challenges of climate change and energy can be overwhelming, and require mental resilience.  However, it also left me with a lot of hope.  The issues of clean energy and climate change are no longer fringe issues.  They are at the center of national and global conversations.  The Paris agreement is a step in the right direction, albeit not far or fast enough.  Progress is being made on the technology, the policies needed to help that technology are being adopted more rapidly than many thought, and the economics are moving rapidly in the right direction.  We have a long way to go, and we will have to prepare for climate change as we transition our energy system.  But the work is essential and worth all the effort we can give it.

[1] For details on the program, please visit http://ruenergyandclimate.weebly.com.

Rob Graff, Manager, Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission- Mr. Graff manages the Office of Energy and Climate Change Initiatives for the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC), the MPO and regional planning forum for the nine counties and 5.5 M people of Greater Philadelphia. Prior to joining the Commission in 2007, Mr. Graff was an Associate Scientist at Tellus Institute in Boston, where he helped create the Global Reporting Initiative, now the global standard for corporate sustainability reporting. He earned a Master of Public Affairs and Urban & Regional Planning degree from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) today announced up to $25 million in funding for a new program focused on creating innovative components to increase the energy efficiency of datacenters. ARPA-E’s ENergy-efficient Light-wave Integrated Technology Enabling Networks that Enhance Datacenters (ENLITENED) program seeks to double datacenter energy efficiency by using innovative data-communications network designs and methods.

The explosive growth of the internet has led to an increase in energy consumption by the Information Communications Technology (ICT) sector. A recent estimate reports that datacenters consumed an amount of electricity sufficient to power every household in New York City twice over. This amount is projected to double in about eight years. There are many approaches to improve energy efficiency in data centers, but ultimately the metal interconnects currently used to transmit information between the devices within a datacenter will limit efficiency gains. ENLITENED seeks to overcome the limitations of these interconnects and to prioritize overall datacenter energy efficiency. To achieve this, high density, energy-efficient photonic interconnects and related switching or connecting technologies, will be used to develop transformational efficiency improvements.

The ENLITENED program will focus on four main areas: overcoming the challenges associated with integration and packaging of photonic interconnects, high radix photonic switches (computer network devices that connect and route data to other devices), creating new datacenter network architectures using these innovative components, and modeling and simulation of new datacenters to demonstrate a pathway to commercialization. If the technical targets of ENLITENED are achieved, ARPA-E estimates the deployment of these technologies will double datacenter energy efficiency in addition to what is already possible using existing methods.

ARPA-E is encouraging outstanding scientists and engineers from different organizations, scientific disciplines, and technology sectors to form new project teams for the ENLITENED program. The agency believes that interdisciplinary and cross-organizational collaborations can facilitate scientific and technological discoveries that a single group alone would not be able to achieve.

The deadline to submit a Concept Paper for ENLITENED is 5 p.m. ET on July 25, 2016.  More information on the ENLITENED Teaming Partner Arrangements can be found HERE, and the full ENLITENED Funding Opportunity Announcement can be found HERE.

~ Solar Farm to produce back-up electricity for area’s emergency needs
~ Battery-storage of energy, noted as key
~ Locally produced, locally distributed energy in a natural disaster

 
Exton, PA June 20, 2016 The closed Knickerbocker Sanitary Landfill could be the first
Microgrid in Chester County.The group projects to have system operational by 2nd Quarter 2017. A “Microgrid” is essentially an island of energy distribution tied into the main grid, which is capable of operating independently should the need arise. The grids can be switched on and off manually or automatically, and can be used to ensure essential services like hospitals and fire stations remain functional during an outage.

 
Bob Keares, of Microgrid Energy Partners of Great Valley, LLP and Managing Partner of
Coatesville Solar Initiative (CSI) have proposed building a 6-7MW Facility on the
Knickerbocker landfill on Rt 29 & Rt 202. “Think of it like we think of locally-grown
produce, ” says Bob Keares. “When the East Whiteland Solar Farm goes live, it will, by
regulation, become a microgrid for part of the area literally harvesting electricity, on a
local basis.”

 
The benefit (and strength) of the solar farm is not only illustrated in the production of
total renewable energy for local Business. It will also be demonstrated in the case of an
“event”, for example, Hurricane Sandy or even a Storm that just hits the county, with our
microgrid in place, power (reserved in batteries) will be available for local use. Our
microgrid will be on call 365 days a year, and 24 hours a day, ready with the clean,
renewable power the solar farm produces.
This has become a very viable solution to redundancy for Emergency Services
preparedness as well as corporate redundancy for computer rooms or ability to maintain
“normal” business. Our East Whiteland Project is very synergistic in what we are doing in
Coatesville said Keares. “We are building a niche for the County with real viable job
creation”. Keares’ group has worked on a projects in Caln Township, City of Coatesville,
and Berks County. These (4) projects represent approximately 30 MW of solar power
generation.

 
The power is not yet committed for the East Whiteland plant, we remain hopeful that one
of the many great companies in Great Valley will want to buy discounted renewable
electric generated in their backyard.

Ed Simpson, development partner in the project, believes solar & Microgrids are a solution to our energy needs not only locally but also globally. “Projects like this will benefit my grandchildren for generations to come,” said Simpson.

David Ferris, of Forbes Magazine (July, 31, 2013) explains it in this way, “A microgrid is a
lot more than just backup power… It is a system that blends power from the utilities with
local power whether there is an outage or not. Few large-scale examples of microgrids yet
exist, but here is what one is intended to do. It reduces emissions by scaling down the
power arriving from faraway, carbon-spewing coal or natural-gas plants, while adding in
local sources like fuel cells, biomass plants, and solar and wind power installations. It
prioritizes power needs so that during a blackout, the most crucial elements stay on (like
data centers) while the less important ones (like coat closets) are let go. It gives a user
some control over the power supply instead of just begging to the power company. And it
does all this autonomously and without a flicker in the lights.”

In addition to serving as a microgrid, the Microgrid Energy Partners of the Great Valley
project, is hopeful in attracting even more business to the County by building this type of
system. “Our County, Chester County is the best” said Keares “we bring so much value to
our residents from history, jobs to shopping to entertainment why not give our residents
the cleanest power source known to mankind.”

The project will bring about $15MM of Construction to the
Landfill site and potentially attract other like uses that would complement the great use of
Solar.

Keares is part of the SEI Board and this project brings great news for renewable energy advocates and also  for job creation and energy industry sector business growth in the region.

For information on this project, kindly contact the Coatesville Solar Initiative at
Keares Electrical Contracting at 610-363-8160 or visit http://www.gogreencsi.com/

The Energy Department (DOE) announced $22 million to support research, development, and demonstration of innovative plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) and direct injection propane engine technologies, as well as community-based projects to accelerate the adoption of light, medium, and heavy duty vehicles that operate on fuels such as biodiesel, electricity, E85, hydrogen, natural gas, and propane.

DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy seeks cost-shared projects across three areas of sustainable transportation technologies. A new “plug-in electric drive vehicle program” focuses on research, development, and demonstration of medium and heavy duty PEVs, from class 3 to 7, including vehicles that can use their onboard energy storage to provide power to electrical loads external to the vehicle. Once adopted by the market, these vehicles will significantly reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Also, DOE seeks cost-shared projects for the research, development, and demonstration of direct injection propane engines for on-highway vehicles that could result in substantial reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.

Lastly, as part of this funding opportunity, DOE seeks highly leveraged Alternative Fuel Vehicle Community Partner Projects that will significantly accelerate the use of light, medium, and heavy duty vehicles that operate on fuels such as biodiesel, electricity, E85, hydrogen, natural gas, and propane as well as the fueling infrastructure needed to support them. Led by community-based partnerships between state and local governments and key private sector stakeholders, these projects will help catalyze alternative fuel use nationwide through the collection and sharing of best practices and lessons learned.

Learn more about this funding opportunity. The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy accelerates development and deployment of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies and market-based solutions that strengthen U.S. energy security, environmental quality, and economic vitality.

The Department of Licenses and Inspections (L+I) is growing! Committed to making Philadelphia the nation’s leader in building safety, L+I is improving and evolving internally with the addition of 25+ building inspector jobs.

Now through July 1, 2016, L+I is accepting applications for building inspectors. In this role, individuals will be responsible for conducting building site inspections for conformance with all construction and zoning codes and applicable ordinances, keeping with L+I’s mission of helping to keep building projects on track, up to code and safe for all concerned.

Below you will find additional information about the position, as well as a link to the online application.

We encourage you to share this opportunity with your members, and assist us in making strides to strengthen the City of Philadelphia.

If you have any other questions about the position, please do not hesitate to reach out.

Position: L+I Building Inspector

Salary Range: $46,500 – $55,985 with opportunities for further advancement

Benefits: Vacation, Sick and Administrative Leave; Generous Pension Program; Comprehensive Health Benefits; Paid Life Insurance

Minimum Requirements: Six years of building trades experience in one of the following recognized trades: Boilermaker, HVAC mechanic, carpenter, electrician, glazier, ironworker, skilled construction laborer (skilled in using pneumatic tools, hand tools, blasting, and smaller heavy equipment), mason (brick, block, stone, concrete), pile driver, plumber, pipefitter/steamfitter, sheet metal worker, fire sprinkler installer, water proofer or welder.

Philadelphia residency required within six (6) months of hire.

URL: https://phila.peopleadmin.com/postings/30988

Harrisburg, PA – Governor Wolf released the following statement after he was notified by Shell that they would build their ethane cracker plant in Pennsylvania:

“Over the past four years, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has worked with Royal Dutch Shell to finalize plans to construct an ethane cracker plant in Western Pennsylvania, and this morning I was notified that Shell has taken the final step to move ahead with this game-changing plant and create thousands of jobs in Pennsylvania.

“The commonwealth began its efforts on this project in 2012, and I would like to thank former Governor Tom Corbett and his Secretary of Community and Economic Development C. Alan Walker for all of their efforts to bring the plant to Western Pennsylvania.

“Since first taking office, I have worked in close collaboration with my Secretary of Community and Economic Development Dennis Davin, the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance, local officials in Western Pennsylvania, and Royal Dutch Shell to make the proposed plant a reality. The commonwealth engaged the company with the goal of creating jobs, spurring economic development, and taking the next steps to connect the energy industry with long-term, sustainable economic growth.

“My administration is committed to creating jobs in the energy industry through responsible, well-regulated extraction and long-term, creative industrial growth. We have worked to develop strategies for safe and responsible pipeline development that brings resources to markets and facilities and we have prioritized the Shell plant to show the world that Pennsylvania is a leader in energy manufacturing and downstream production.

“The success of this project is part of a much-needed, longer term plan to translate our abundant resources to make Pennsylvania a leader in downstream production. The commitment of the Shell cracker plant in Western Pennsylvania is an important step toward this goal.

“This critical effort spanned four years, and two administrations, and today I want to congratulate all of those involved, including both Republican and Democratic officials, and thank Royal Dutch Shell for providing this unique and exciting economic development opportunity to the people of Western Pennsylvania.”

MEDIA CONTACTS:
Jeff Sheridan, 717.783.1116

From PIVOT Today:

PECO is planning to solve the issue of frequent power outages in Concord Township by installing a self-sustaining ‘microgrid’, writes Andrew Maykuth for Philly.com.

PECO Energy Co. has already asked the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission for authorization to invest close to $35 million in an experimental microgrid, along the Route 1 corridor in Concordville.

The microgrid would work independently of the regional power grid to ensure that the area, which includes the Concord Township Municipal Complex, the fire station, a sewage-treatment plant, two medical facilities, and a retirement community, would still get power during an outage.

The newly installed system would consist of five two-megawatt natural-gas power generators, a 500-kilowatt solar array and two 100-kilowatt lithium-ion battery arrays. These would be placed at the township building and Concordville Fire Station with plans to also include an electric-vehicle charging station.

In addition to the microgrid, the utility will also upgrade the local distribution network to insure the grid can operate independently. As part of the project, existing power lines will be hardened to make them more resistant to storm damage.

Concord Township was selected for the pilot project due to its diverse customer base. PECO plans to recover the estimated $35 million cost through an increase of around 29 cents a month for residential electrical customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours.

Read more about the proposed microgrid at Philly.com by clicking here.

SEI recently attended the “Zero Waste Presentation & Clean Energy Tour” hosted by the Delaware Valley Green Building Council and Delaware Nature Society. The group toured two of the Delaware Nature Society’s four locations: the Ashland Nature Center in Hockessin and Coverdale Farm Preserve in Greenville, Delaware.

The tour started at Ashland Nature Center with a presentation on “zero waste.”  Eric Long, a Wilmington Charter High School student, presented his recent project exploring the concept of converting food waste to energy. A few years ago, Eric successfully collected food waste within his own neighborhood and transported it to the Peninsula Compost Facility in Wilmington, Delaware. Unfortunately, this facility was closed in January 2015. There were many reasons for the closure; time needed to produce finished compost taking longer than originally planned, waste or finished compost having been stored onsite above approved quantities, and frequent odor complaints. In order to find another solution, Eric researched methods of anaerobic digestion. Eric described the basics utilizing a biodigestor system to produce energy in the form of biogas.  He spoke with managers of both Canadian and U.S. biodigestor facilities and developed a proposal for the concept in Delaware. The proposal was presented and submitted this past March to members of Delaware legislature in Dover.

To learn more, check out the following articles on food waste and digestor technology:

“So Much Wasted Energy – Rethinking food waste” by Philip Ackerman-Leist

“Food Waste Factors” by Christine McKiernan

Delaware Nature Society’s Ashland Nature Center utilizes a geothermal system for heating and cooling. In addition, all of the buildings on site are powered through a rooftop solar system.  Excess energy is sold to Delmarva Power. Coverdale Farm also utilizes solar energy in a variety of ways on the farm. While the farm has one rooftop solar installation, it also has a separate field installation site. The field location was specifically selected because the area was lower lying and hence too wet to be suitable for farming. As you can see from the photos, the sheep provide the maintenance to the site through rotational grazing. The solar panels also provide much needed shade throughout the spring and early summer when grazing is the best.   The solar power also supports electric fencing on some of the property for additional livestock and is also utilized by the mobile chicken wagon to open and close the entry doors, keeping the chickens safe from ground predators at night!

Pictured above: Scott Heck, Facilities Manager (left) talking to the group about geothermal and solar applications at Ashland Nature Center.

Pictured above: Sheep grazing in solar panel field at Coverdale Farm.

For more information on Ashland Nature Center or Coverdale Farm, please visit http://www.delawarenaturesociety.org/

An Editorial Article: A Marriage of Convenience – Electric Vehicles and Solar Energy

By: Anthony Cotton, Energy Conscious, LLC, Connecting the Dots…

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Situation

Solar has been gaining ground at an accelerating pace. Electric Vehicles (EV’s) are poised to do the same. Utilities and other change adverse entities are starting to push back hard.

One significant battlefront is net metering… a mechanism where the grid acts as a balancing agent for intermittent Solar production.

Although in the past the grid was for many considered the source of power, the grid also acts as a very important balancing agent. This balancing operates across a number of time scales;

• immediate (minutes)… balancing thousands of devices switching on and off
• daily (hours)… balancing typical peaks in morning and evening with very low loads late at night
• seasonal (months)… balancing seasonal shifts between winter heating load transitioning to summer air-conditioning (AC) load

Now the grid has to balance both variable loads AND variable sources. They have a very real and legitimate concern.

We all need to be “good grid citizens”… but how?

Solar (Photovoltaic PV) Limitation

Market penetration for unmanaged solar is” guesstimated” to be about 15% due to the grid instability impacts of intermittent production. Sun is out= full production,  clouds appear = full production can drop off significantly. This is not an issue when Solar installations are few and far between.  But what if they start to take off, like in mature markets such as California and Hawaii?

If only there was a way to economically buffer this free intermittent resource.

Electric Vehicle (EV) Limitation

Electric Vehicle adoption is currently minimal, but signs of material growth are on the near term horizon (i.e., Tesla’s recent 400,000 sight unseen orders for the Model 3). Some utilities have a program where they will pay you $50 to “register” your new EV with them. They are watching for a situation known as “clustering”… multiple neighbors getting EVs in quick succession. That can represent a significant new load in one specific location.

Moving this charging load to the quiet early morning hours can help significantly. But as adoption levels increase there may be a point where a capacity upgrade (transformers or residential lines to support them) is needed… but then the question is . . .  who will pay?

If only there was a way to adopt this much cleaner mode of transport without costly facilities upgrades.

A Systems Approach…”A Marriage of Convenience”

Photovoltaic (PV) and Electric Vehicles (EV) not only need each other… they were made for each other. Only together, can they move past their individual market penetration limits.

Consider:

1. PV growth needs a way to buffer the intermittency of local production…. but it can’t add expense without value (i.e., it cannot negatively impact its current ROI)
2. EV growth needs a way to support substantial increasing loads without materially impacting the existing distribution network.

It is generally accepted that local storage is the answer to item #1 above. The closer to the source of production, the better.

Some have made the connection that distributed production (local) can address item #2. Again, the closer the source of PV production is to the EV load, the better.

But here is something that is not generally recognized:

“Re-purposed” EV packs (i.e. after they have achieved their ROI in the vehicle, they are now candidates for hanging on a wall in your garage (a.k.a Tesla Powerwall). They are now fully recovered (economically) resources serving a second and substantial economic life in buffering Solar AND storing local production to charge the EV rather than having to pull that load thru the distribution network… a Marriage of Convenience!

Vision

Looking forward we see PV and EV tightly coupled both physically and economically.

PV is locally deployed along with EV’s and their second life packs now hanging on the garage wall. The re-purposed packs are buffering the intermittent solar and load shifting the daily peaks to the later night time loads (primarily recharging the EV for the next day’s travel). This stable and predictable load profile, paves the way for unlimited PV adoption moving forward.

At the same time, people start to recognize the significantly stronger value proposition of PV offsetting $2.50-$3.00/gal gasoline rather than $0.15/kWh electricity.

The final piece is the intelligent power electronics needed to orchestrate all these major new power flows in the home. The emerging IoT (Internet of Things) promises to organize these new power producers and consumers into autonomous and resilient “Enernet” nodes.

Clean energy AND grid stability will grow in from the edges by entrepreneurial entities with the vision to “…connect the dots”.

Note: Since this article was drafted, there have been several significant announcements establishing re-purposed EV packs as a target for supporting growing levels of intermittent renewables.

Link 1 – Nissan and Eaton introduce home energy storage system with second-life EV batteries

Link 2 – “We believe electric vehicles can become a mobile power unit,”