Northwest Connvert

03/19/2024

Does anyone still follow this FB site? I'm thinking of using it to share my own adventures and interesting stories regarding energy conservation and lowering greenhouse gas emissions. I hope to get to zero net carbon emissions in my lifetime. My 15 year CT Solar Lease is done this Summer and I will be buying the 30 Sun Power panels and the inverter for about $800.

08/14/2017

Connecticut's Comprehensive Energy Strategy's (CES) purpose is to "... advance the State’s goal to create a cheaper, cleaner, more reliable energy future for Connecticut’s residents and businesses". DEEP has prepared an update to the CES "... to assess and plan for all energy needs in the state, including, but not limited to, electricity, heating, cooling and transportation."
Commenting on the CES gives us an opportunity to state, for the record, what our government's energy policy should be, what direction we need to go, how it should spend our money.
Please go to:
http://www.ct.gov/deep/cwp/view.asp?q=500752
to see what DEEP is proposing.
Please at least skim the 15 page Executive Summary at:
http://www.ct.gov/deep/lib/deep/energy/ces/2017_draft_comprehensiveenergystrategy_execsummary.pdf
and look for energy policies you know are important for our state. You may be encouraged by what you find, you may be disappointed by what is missing. TELL THEM!
http://www.ct.gov/deep/lib/deep/energy/ces/2017_comprehensiveenergystrategy_notice.pdf
gives hearing and meeting schedules (Aug 14, 16, 21, 28, 29, Sep 6, 7, 13) , how to comment in writing (mail, website or e-mailed to [email protected]) by September 25.
A unique aspect of this update process are the technical meetings August 28 at 9:00 a.m., and September 13 at 11:00 a.m in New Britain. Please RSVP and send your questions to
[email protected] three business days prior to the scheduled date if you plan on attending and/or participating in any of the scheduled technical meetings.
DEEP's FB page is at https://www.facebook.com/CTDEEP
I will be posting my ideas for comments on the page called Northwest Connecticut Viable Energy Transition
https://www.facebook.com/NWConnVERT/
over the next week or so. I plan to attend the technical meeting Aug 28 in New Britain, let me know if you want to carpool using my EV. I also plan to attend the hearing Aug 29 in Torrington.

Tony Mitchell
-- an independent, voluntary, energy educator.

Comprehensive Energy Strategy Abstract: The Comprehensive Energy Plan is an assessment and plan for all energy needs, including electricity, heating, cooling, and transportation. It must draw from the conclusions reached in the IRP as well as the findings from the energy efficiency plan and the rene...

07/19/2017

This FB page was created years ago to assist an energy conservation program at the Northwest Conservation District - NWCD, so I have not updated it in a long time. I'm wondering if it will serve its purposes better if it was merged into some other organization's FB page. Or maybe we could revitalize it centered around promoting Northwest Connecticut's Viable Energy Resource Transition to lower and eventually eliminate net greenhouse gas emissions?

05/20/2015

Recently two different people, in different conversations, brought up the old myth of a Prius being worse for the environment than a Hummer. Here are some of the sources available to discredit such nonsense:

http://www.hybridcars.com/dust-to-dust-energy-costs/

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/fuel-efficiency/hybrid-technology/hybrid-cars-cause-pollution1.htm

http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/everyday-myths/does-hybrid-car-production-waste-offset-hybrid-benefits.htm/printable

Disposal of electric vehicle batteries is a related issue. Long term, the total effects of climate change will be far worse than the increased disposal issues from all renewable energy technologies combined by an order of magnitude at least, not even including the huge reduction in adverse ecological and societal damage from reduced fossil fuel consumption.

But people tend to only view the short term. The systems are already in place for proper battery disposal, but yes, they will have to be ramped up as EV batteries begin to go, especially in hot areas. In cool climates, lithium batteries may last decades The useful life of the batteries varies widely, but probably averages longer than most people will own their cars, contrary to the well-funded hype from organizations of dubious credibility, such as http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/02/09/will-battery-recycling-help-tesla-motors-massive-s.aspx, a source of information I used to read until I realized how carefully they were selecting their facts to conceal what their oil company advertisers wanted buried.

The cost issue then is really connected to selling the trade-in. Since the overall cost of owning and operating an EV is so much less than a gasoline vehicle, the loss of value of the trade-in for most people will be already paid for by not having to have bought gasoline.

http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/teslas-closed-loop-battery-recycling-program

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130410103921.htm

http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/mythbusters-part-3-recycling-our-non-toxic-battery-packs

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131030104112.htm

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140827151654.htm

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141013090559.htm

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/11/141106104218.htm

Does hybrid car production waste offset hybrid benefits? Find out if hybrid car production waste offsets hybrid benefits in this article.

05/08/2015

http://www.sci-tech-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=013000QGR8LZ

Advances in technology that have reduced prices and improved efficiency of renewable energy have helped transform the politics around climate change, the U.N. climate chief says.

03/01/2015

Every wastewater treatment plant, farm, sawmill, transfer station, food product factory, supermarket, restaurant, school cafeteria, any place where organic waste material is produced, could be a net energy producer. Biogas not needed for energy at the site could be put into the pipeline system and sold like wind and solar electricity is now sold through the CT Clean Energy Option. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150227112539.htm

Sewage sludge, green waste, production residue from the food industry, straw or animal excrement – with the biobattery‘s modular concept a much larger range of biomass can be utilized for energy recovery than previously. Researchers show that they can convert organic residues into electricity, heat,…

02/13/2015

This article shared by the Connecticut organization Environment and Human Health, Inc. presents important considerations as we struggle to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. Calculations of net long-term effects from burning wood will have to include much more than what goes up the chimney, including not only the energy considerations but also health effects of wood smoke and protection of the myriad benefits that forests provide.

The amount of energy used to harvest, transport and process the wood to be burned can vary widely. One of the linked articles uses information from Danna Smith, the executive director of the Dogwood Alliance an Asheville, N.C.-based forest protection group: "The European Union has mostly exempted biomass from its own climate rules, and Smith has seen the result throughout the South, where nearly two dozen facilities have sprung up to manufacture wood pellets for export across the Atlantic. Once European utilities realized they could meet their climate goals with wood from the forest, they wanted a lot more wood from the forest in a hurry" (see link below).

Grinding wood to powder, heating it to melt the lignin, squeezing it through a screen to make pellets, then shipping it across the ocean uses far more energy than other methods of burning wood. The European experience with co-firing their power plants with wood pellets should be used to guide any consideration of generating power by burning wood here.

Growing trees to burn them for electricity may not be the most efficient way to use our renewable forest resources to decrease greenhouse gas emissions anyway. The wood that is in our buildings, furniture, recycled paper, even artwork, is carbon that is permanently removed from the air.

According to the expert foresters of our Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP), our forests are at a point where the amount of timber in harvestable-sized trees is much more than in the rapidly-growing smaller size categories needed to replace harvested timber (see link below). Converting those mature trees into durable forest products to make room for another generation of trees that remove carbon from the air even faster may be the best use of our forests.

Certainly there is some role for forests as sources of renewable energy. Firewood from forest improvements and tree trimming, (burned locally to avoid spreading insects of course), will clearly reduce greenhouse gas emissions IF the heat replaces terribly inefficient heating by electricity generated by burning fossil fuels.

Replacing oil heat with heat from a woodstove MAY reduce overall emissions IF the woodstove is at the upper end of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's List of EPA Certified Wood Heaters (link below).

Heating with natural gas, though more efficient than other fossil fuels, promotes huge losses of the potent greenhouse gas methane, so replacing that heat with heat from a very efficient woodstove MAY also reduce overall emissions.

No case can be made for ANY net benefit if wood burning delivers huge amounts of particulates into your neighbors lungs.

A careful calculation of carbon cycling MAY show that burning waste wood for electricity may reduce emissions IF it replaces, not supplements, burning of coal from Indonesia in our Connecticut coal-fired power plants, especially if the particulate emissions do not increase.

Links:
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/01/obama-climate-plan-threatens-us-forests-114718.html
http://www.ct.gov/deep/lib/deep/forestry/assessment_and_strategy/part_1.pdf =9
http://www.epa.gov/burnwise/woodstoves.html
http://www2.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2013-08/documents/certifiedwood.pdf

WASHINGTON -- A group of 78 scientists is criticizing an Environmental Protection Agency memo they say may dramatically undermine President Barack Obama's directive to cut planet-warming emissions. In a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, a...

02/13/2015

Be sure to read "Your Old Wood Stove's Dirty Little Secret Brochure (2011) (PDF) (2pp, 3.4MB)"

Today’s wood stove models feature improved safety and efficiency. They produce almost no smoke, minimal ash, and require less firewood. While older uncertified stoves release 15 to 30 grams of smoke per hour; new EPA-certified stoves produce only 2 to 7 grams of smoke per hour. Be sure to look for t…

02/12/2015

"Members of the public who learned about geoengineering were more concerned and less polarized about global warming than those who were told of the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as a way to reduce climate change,"

"This result was consistent with previous research on a dynamic known as "cultural cognition," which describes the tendency of individuals to react dismissively to evidence of environmental risks when that evidence threatens their values or group identities."

Its sad that Americans have to be manipulated to do the right thing: "...people assess information about science based not only on its content but on its cultural meaning or significance," explained Kahan. "The study supports the conclusion that science communicators need to broadcast engaging signals along both the 'content' and 'meaning' channels if they want their message to get through."

"... geoengineering refers to deliberate, large-scale manipulations of Earth's environment in order to offset some of the harmful consequences of human-caused climate change. Potential examples include solar reflectors that would cool global temperatures by reflecting more sunlight away from the Earth and so-called "carbon scrubbers," which would remove CO2 from the atmosphere."

That's pretty scary, that we may have to resort to massive, dangerous and hugely expensive projects to allow people to continue to commute to work alone in unnecessary SUV's and use to electric dryers instead of a clothesline.

The issue of The ANNALS of the Academy of Political and Social Science that this article is in titled The Politics of Science: Political Values and the Production, Communication, and Reception of Scientific Knowledge and is filled with fascinating articles.

Summary article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150210212626.htm
See also: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150210155942.htm
Full paper: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1981907
Clothesline Science: http://www.conservect.org/energy/Conservation/ClotheslineScience/tabid/598/Default.aspx
Some FB pages of the organizations associate with the authors: Cultural Cognition Project at Yale University Law School, Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University, OU Center For Applied Social Research CASR

Geoengineering, an emerging technology aimed at counteracting the effects of human-caused climate change, also has the potential to counteract political polarization over global warming, according to a new study.

02/04/2015

Another reason in a very long list of why we need to stop using fossil fuels.
http://www.livescience.com/49664-deepwater-horizon-missing-oil.html?cmpid=559078

Up to 10 million gallons (38 million liters) of crude oil from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill has settled at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, where it is threatening wildlife and marine ecosystems, according to a new study.

02/04/2015

Joe Scarborough? Who?

Tell Joe Scarborough to stop denying climate science --> http://actionsprout.io/9764D6

On February 3, host of the MSNBC morning show “Morning Joe” Joe Scarborough made the outrageous claim that the science on climate change is still out. Sorry, Joe -- 97% of scientists, NASA, the U.S. military, and experts across the world disagree! Joe Scarborough has a responsibility to his viewership to report on accurate facts, not create a false debate on the settled science of climate change. Send him a message now that his climate-science denying comments are wrong! http://actionsprout.io/9764D6

02/03/2015

"They also clearly showed that the models do not generally overestimate human-made climate change. Global warming is therefore highly likely to reach critical proportions by the end of the century -- if the global community does not finally get to grips with the problem."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150202114636.htm

Sceptics who still doubt anthropogenic climate change have now been stripped of one of their last-ditch arguments: It is true that there has been a warming hiatus and that the surface of the earth has warmed up much less rapidly since the turn of the millennium than all the relevant climate models h…