Energy Newsbriefs
Articles for June 27, 2011
ENERGY NEWSBRIEFS is a weekly current awareness service provided by the WSU Extension Energy Program Library and written by Angela Santamaria, WSU Energy Library Manager, to assist users in tracking developments in the energy field. To view past issues or to subscribe to receive an email notification of the publication of a new issue, go to the Energy Newsbriefs home.
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BUILDINGS
"On the Road to Green," by Mike Nicklas, FAIA, President, Innovative Design, appeared in the May 2011 issue of Solar Today. It is a case study of the Northwest North Carolina Sustainable Visitor Center, a facility of the state's Department of Transportation. The facility serves two functions, a roadside rest area and a visitor center for tourists. The true-south-facing structure includes rainwater collection, daylighting, solar water heating, and more.
The following three articles were published in the May 2011 issue of Engineered Systems (ES):
1. "Building Automation: Integration: Myths, Lies, and Misconception" was jointly written by Paul Ehrlich, PE, and Ira Goldschmidt, P.E., both of Building Intelligence Group. The authors do not mince words in the text of this article any less than they do in the article title. This is a brief, no-nonsense document that may save the facilities manager time and money.
2. "Commissioning: ALL-Access Pass," was authored by Rebecca Thatcher Ellis, PE, President, Questions & Solutions Engineering, Inc. Good equipment that is installed properly cannot make up for the failure to design the installation so that the equipment and its parts are readily accessible for maintenance and testing. This article offers ways to ensure that the design includes accessibility.
3. "Energy Savings Give Bank a Higher Rate of Return," by staff, is a case study of the Rockport headquarters of an Illinois bank in an older building that was "bleeding" energy. A recommissioning project, largely subsidized by a local utility's energy-efficiency program, preceded a major retrofit. The company is saving enormous amounts of energy made more attractive by a short payback period. The retrofit is well-described.
DAYLIGHTING
"Daylighting a Car Repair Facility," by Richard Reis, PE, Principal Engineer, Conservation Engineering, was published in the May 2011 issue of Solar Today. This large, one-storey structure went through a lighting upgrade which included the addition of 22 light pipes. The payback for this project is four years.
RESIDENTIAL EFFICIENCY STRATEGIES
EnergySavers.gov: Stay Cool, Save Money is a website, revised (and re-named) seasonally, from the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office of the U.S. Department of Energy. The site is now offering many tips for energy savings for the warmer months.
SOLAR
"Interest, Funding Buoys Floating Solar Power Plants," by Sonal Patel, Senior Writer, Power, appeared in the May 2011 issue of that journal. This article describes how such concentrating solar plants, which are in the prototype stage, would work. They would be low maintenance since cells are constantly water-cooled, and they would have a much reduced footprint compared to on-land solar farms.
"Modern Communal Solar," by Noel White and Johanna Wilson-White, is an in-depth description of a solar project for nearly 30 homes in New Hampshire; it was posted on a Solar Today page on the American Solar Energy Society website on April 26, 2011. This cohousing community co-planned, co-financed, and co-installed PV panels at a considerable savings.
Following are three case studies, published in the June/July 2011 issue of Home Power:
1. "Solar Energy Supports Clean Water," by William Behrens, describes the new water filtration system that relies on two technologies, solar-thermal and photovoltaic, working together on a rooftop system for a water company based in Rockport, Maine.
2. "Solar Gardens a Growing Trend" was written by Kelly Davidson, Associate Editor, Home Power. The solar garden is a community-based approach to harnessing the sun's energy, differentiating itself from large-scale (generally, commercial) solar farms and from the rooftop systems on individual homes or on commercial or industrial buildings. In Ellensburg, Washington, a community group, the Ellensburg Community Renewable Park, has a solar power plant that was built to serve its members. The group hosts the solar array, with room to grow as membership grows. As other communities in other states attempt the same approach, some run into legal difficulties which are discussed in the article.
3. "The Solar Women of Totogalpa" was authored by Laurie Guevara-Stone, International Program Manager, Solar Energy International. This case study features a solar-powered restaurant that developed out of the need of a cooperative that sold solar products such as solar ovens in Nicaragua. The co-op members needed a restaurant to display the ovens and the results – the food cooked in them. The article tells the story of how the restaurant was financed, designed, and built in the rural north of the country.
WASTE HEAT-to-ENERGY
"Performance Enhancement of a Thermally Activated Cooling System Using Microchannel Heat Exchangers" is a 26-page scholarly paper by Hailei Wang and Richard B. Peterson, both of the School of Mechanical, Industrial, & Manufacturing Engineering at Oregon State University; the paper is recent, but undated. A cooling system combines two processes, organic Rankine cycle and compression cooling cycle. It is shown in laboratory testing to successfully use heat sources, including waste heat, for cooling. "Using Waste Heat from Automobile Exhaust," by staff, is a June 12, 2011, article, published in Science News about the research reported in the paper.
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