Newsletter #11, June 2008: Cities and Solar

Post Carbon Cities :: Newsletter #11, June 2008

June 2008: Cities and solar

1. Promoting solar with policies and projects

Sure, it helps to be in a sunny climate like Cloncurry, Australia, which aims to go 100% sun-powered in two years. But today's solar technology can capture a lot of energy even in relatively cloudy climates. Just look at cities like Freiburg and Ulm in famously gloomy Germany, which has long been a global leader in solar energy. Here are some other cities --sunny and otherwise-- that are paving the way for solar:

• This September, Berkeley, California will be rolling out a small pilot of a program in which they will finance residential solar panels, allowing the owners to repay the cost of the course of 20 years.
• Portland, Oregon is adjusting its building codes to streamline and simplify the permitting processes for solar installations.
• Kyoto, Japan has started a green power certification system to promote "local production for local consumption" of solar-produced electricity. The certificates help fund new photovoltaic power plants.
• Barcelona, Spain has a policy requiring new and refurbished buildings to save energy by using solar thermal hot water. Solar hot water heaters are also being promoted by cities in India.
• Australia's $75 million AUD ($67 million USD) Solar Cities program shows what just a little national-level effort can do. It's helping 13 Central Victoria towns establish two solar parks and install over 300 photovoltaic systems and 700 solar hot water systems on residences.

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2. New videos for policymakers

A video can be a good way to easily share information with colleagues. Add these videos from Global Public Media to your toolchest.

	Peak Oil and Energy Uncertainty: Challenges for Local Governments In this 10-minute video, Post Carbon Cities program manager Daniel Lerch explains how peak oil is creating new challenges of uncertainty for governments even at the most local level (excerpts from a November 2007 presentation).
	Peak Oil for Policymakers Need a quick introduction to the issue of peak oil for your government colleagues? Post Carbon President Julian Darley and Post Carbon Senior Fellow Richard Heinberg give an executive summary of the science behind peak oil and the challenges it poses in this new 12-minute video. Addressed to policymakers at all levels, from town hall to national assembly.

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3. Powering affordable housing

Green technologies have a certain cachet these days, and may seem like they're solely the province of upscale developments. But green building can be quite thrifty when long term costs are considered. A developer outside Philadelphia is already proving this by selling market-rate houses so energy-efficient that they essentially have no heating or cooling costs -- and low-income housing developers are starting to follow suit:

• The cities of Richmond and La Quinta, California are installing solar on their affordable housing projects to meet greenhouse gas goals and control utility costs.
• Energy efficiency features in the Worthington, Minnesota housing complex of Viking Terrace reduced residents' utility bills by more than a third. Minnesota will see more of these stories, due to the state's policy requiring green construction for all new affordable housing built there.
• Passive solar heating is taking off in Europe, especially as zero-energy and passive house building techniques become more widespread. The widely-admired Vauban housing development in Freiburg, Germany is an excellent example of using green building techniques to create affordable, sustainable housing.

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4. Urban appliances

Looking to keep the (city's) energy bills down? Check the appliances. Here are a few urban appliances that work off the grid with solar power. Some are more widely installed than others, but all are in use in real urban situations:

• Solar-powered parking meters can now be spotted in many cities, including in Portland, Seattle, Chicago and New York City.
• Solar-powered bus stops help make transit safer in Tempe, Ariz.; Edinburgh, Scotland; and yes, Portland, Ore.
• LED traffic lights are increasingly common in North America, but solar-powered traffic lights are virtually unknown. They exist, though, and they've been installed in Nodia in India, and in Cape Town and Johannesburg in South Africa.
• Solar street lights likewise haven't gotten much North American press, but they're being installed in Abu Dhabi, Baghdad, and Tanzania. The website solar-street-lighting.com gives a good overview of their pros and cons, stressing that they are not an "off the shelf" kind of product.
• A solar-powered compacting trash can reduces the need for frequent garbage collection while decreasing litter and scavengers. Expensive, but maybe as diesel gets really costly...

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5. Recent News

	The United States' first carbon tax Published 22 May by ABC News "Science and Society" blog Not content to wait for federal carbon regulation, San Francisco's air quality authority is putting in place the U.S.'s first carbon tax. They decided on 20 May 2008 to place a price of 4.4 cents per ton of CO2 released into the atmosphere -- which is not much, as some have pointed out, but a start.
	After cheap oil: soaring energy costs are about to change everything Published 28 May by Macleans It's impossible to understate how crucial cheap oil has become to our way of life. It's shaped how we get our food, what we buy, where we live, how we work, and the way we play. Cheap oil allowed thousands to buy their first homes in sprawling suburbs, and enabled consumers to get their hands on ever cheaper goods, shipped just in time, from around the globe. Now economists say all of that is at risk.
	Rising gas prices forcing some cops out of cars, onto feet Published 23 May by Associated Press With gasoline climbing toward $4 a gallon, police officers around the country are losing the right to take their patrol cars home and are being forced to double up in cruisers and walk the beat more. Some police think it helps them do their job better.
	Oil prices seep into asphalt costs, detour road work Published 6 June by USA Today Some are reducing paving; others reverting some roads to gravel. Cities pool purchasing power, raise bond money, try new techniques to stretch their road repair budgets as the price of asphalt, a petroleum product, rises.

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Photo credits:
Here comes the sun by Mike
Universal Playground by Bart Hoffstein
Warning Yellow Flash Light by Shenzhen Fama Technology Co., Ltd
Credits for recent news photos can be found on the article pages.