A novel use for used rail tracks.

Here's a man in the Bronx who looks at abandoned rail yards as a park rather than a place to leave graffiti. With $3,500, Justin Fornal and his father bought a used rail car and are planning on driving it around old rail tracks, encouraging investment and public use and converting these areas into parks. There is a lot of green and Justin envisages a version of the Highline but with passengers riding on trains.

 



 Justin is taking this plan seriously and invited William Goetz, a vice president of CSX Transportation, one of the nation’s largest freight railroad companies, along for the inaugural ride. 

 

Justin is asking CSX for assistance in riding his car on the rails across the country mostly on unused tracks to raise awareness for his plan. Goetz is skeptical but has not ruled out the plan. 

Spain reneges on Solar Power guarantees

Spain was once one of the bright spots (pun intended) in the solar power generating world. Generous guarantees by the goverment brought it close to 20% reliance on renewable energy. Investors big and small poured money into solar power projects. Only one thing was missing: the money to pay for all this.

When the federal goverment guaranteed men like Justo Rodriguez that it would buy the electricity he generated at a fixed price for the next 25 years, he mortgaged two houses and his workshop to buy the equipment. He, in turn, guaranteed his banks that he would return the money they lent him.

Justo Cruz Rodríguez faces ruin after investing in solar power in the Spanish town of Águilas. Samuel Aranda for The New York Time

Abruptly, the Spanish govenment told him that they would not pay anywhere near as much for the power he generates and, to add insult to injury, wants to charge him for the power he generates and uses himself.

Countries must operate on a rule of law and gurantees made by the government cannot be withdrawn when people are investing based on those guarantees. This is just one more step into anarchy that the PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain) countries are falling into.

Read the details in this article.

New Solar Battery Method

 As Solar Power becomes more prevalent, there is a push to store this energy for night-time use. I've posted before about storing wind energy in people's water heaters and electric cars. Here is a new method that stores heat in salt which melts until it is needed again. The system is small now but can be expanded. Currently the Arizona utility buys all the energy produced by this method.

NYC Bike Program kicks off

Finally! New York City's bike program has started and it seems to be a success. For now it is only open to the annual subscribers and only 6,000 bicycles are deployed but it will soon expand to the general public and boast 10,000 bikes.

Michael Appleton for The New York Times

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and his transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan, left, on Monday morning with Michele F. Imbasciani of Citibank, a sponsor of New York's new bike share program.

Times reporters raced around the city to see which was faster: bike, subway, cab or bus and the results are posted here:

Spoiler alert, the bike beat the subway and bus almost every time, and often the cab.
I've given Bloomberg his share of poor reviews in this blog but, to give the man credit, he pulled off this project and I wish it nothing but success.

Efficiently turning Garbage into Energy

Brian Cliff Olguin for The New York Times

Trash piled nine yards high is converted to heat and electricity at a waste-to-energy incinerator in Oslo. By JOHN TAGLIABUE  Published: April 29, 2013

Oslo is so efficient in converting garbage to heat and energy that it is importing garbage from Sweden, England and Ireland and is even looking to import it from the US.

Why don't we import their technology and burn our own garbage?

Electric car batteries smooth out power distribution

In a previous post I discussed the use of home water heaters to store excess electricity generated by wind farms. The problem is simple, Electric companies want to deliver to a constant demand of power at 60 cycles per second. But with wind and solar power generation being up to the whims of mother nature, supply is not so constant.

An unexpected solution to this is the growing numbers of electric cars that are plugged in to charging units during this unstable time. With the addition of a small gadget, these cars can send electricity back into the grid when needed. While the cars will still charge, they will do so in fits and starts, evening out the peaks and valleys of the power supply.

Why should electric car owners do this? Presumably it would take a little longer to bring the cars up to full charge and, if you unplug it after it has just discharged some power, you may be starting off with less than a full charge. The answer, as always, is money. Cars with the gadget added will earn $5 a day. That adds up to $1,800 a year for a gadget that costs $400.

This won't work until there are a lot of electric cars out there with this capability but pilot programs are starting up. Pretty cool, huh?

Electric Cab Project in New York

New York want to experiment with replacing their fleet of yellow cabs with electric versions in a continuing effort to make the city greener. As this article presents, they will start this week with six but hope to convert 1/3 of the fleet by 2020.

Since NY cabbies want to maximize the time they spend driving during their shift, the Limousine commission needs to encourage these drivers to make up for the 60 - 90 minutes they will be charging their cabs. They have done that by reducing the daily rental rate and allowing them to decline fares that put them out of range of charging units when they are nearing the end of a charge.

The big surprise I received when reading this article is that a typical cab only drives about 100 miles in a typical day. Since the car goes 80 miles on a charge, only one charge a day is expected.

One cabbie suggested placing charging units near restaurants with bathroom facilities so that the drivers can be efficient during their charging times.

It seems like a better solution would be to have 23 cabs for every 24 drivers and allow them to switch out one per hour with the car they are driving on a regular schedule. But maybe drivers are particular about which car they use.

Seattle's Big Dig

Just as Boston was cut off from the harbor by a freeway, Seattle has long been cut off from the Puget sound by the Alaskan Way Viaduct. After the big 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, this elevated highway was assessed and declared unfit to survive a large local quake. Since then, even after being retrofitted for additional strength, there have been many plans to replace it which are finally coming to fruition. And what a project it is!

They are tunneling 200 feet below the surface to replace the through traffic with a highway, redoing the 80 year old sea wall, creating a fish-friendly beach and replacing the old highway with a tree-lined surface street for local traffic. In a lot of ways it should resemble the new Boston whose project, while way over budget and time, revitalized the downtown area and reconnected it with the waterfront.

There are lots more photos of the project on this website:

Here's a link to the construction cam if you want to see what's happening in real time.

And here's a picture to make Tim Taylor grunt in appreciation. The cutter bit for the tunnel boring machine is 55 feet in diameter and the Seattle citizens are going to name it:

Free mobile neighborhood library

The Little Free Library on St. Marks Avenue in Prospect Heights aroused the curiosity of Elinor and Evan Bither.

By ERIC P. NEWCOMER

Here's a cute idea, especially with bookstores and libraries being inundated with unwanted books these days. Give them away to neighborhoods for use as book-swaps. Using the 'Leave a book, take a book' process, people swap out books at hundreds of neighborhood book boxes built by volunteers.

According to this article, the box's housing was provided by the National Little Free Library organization, which estimates that there are 2,200 such places, across almost every state and about 30 countries. Each local library pays $25 to register with the group. About 20 percent buy the wood box from the national organization, which can cost a few hundred dollars. The rest, using materials like canoes or ovens, make them for themselves.

Another man is filling New York City phone booths with mobile libraries. Read his story here:

Christopher Gregory/The New York Times

Bicycle Superhighway in Denmark

Jan Grarup for The New York Times

With the delay of New York's bike sharing experiment, it's nice to see progress in other countries. Copenhagen, already boasting some of the highest bicycle commuting in the world has expanded its efforts. One of the organizers asked a very compelling question that all project managers should ask themselves: "How can we do better?"

“We are very good, but we want to be better,” said Brian Hansen, the head of Copenhagen’s traffic planning section.

He and his team saw potential in suburban commuters, most of whom use cars or public transportation to reach the city. “A typical cyclist uses the bicycle within five kilometers,” or about three miles, said Mr. Hansen, whose office keeps a coat rack of ponchos that bicycling employees can borrow in case of rain. “We thought: How do we get people to take longer bicycle rides?”

The answer was to build bike lanes that mimic some of the properties of freeways with right-of-way extended to the cyclists. Read the full article for all the great details of how they encourage bicycle commuting here. Solar-powered lights in forested trails, angled garbage bins, bike 'buses' to share the burden of blocking the wind, chocolates distributed to reward good bicycling habits.

It all makes me sad to have left bike-friendly Oregon for car crazy New Jersey.

Kiwi invents wind power improvement

A New Zealand invention, designed to make wind power more efficient and cheaper, has been singled out by a renowned wind technology expert as one of the world’s leading new innovations.
The invention, Gyroscopic Variable Transmission (GVT), is the brainchild of New Zealander Mr Jega Jegatheeson. Mr Jegatheeson, previously an engineer with the former Electricity Corporation of New Zealand, has been working for over 15 years to solve the problems faced by the wind power industry of gearboxes breaking as a result of the massive wind gust forces they are subjected to.

“It’s widely recognised in the industry that the gearboxes cannot stand up to the incessant forces over time and many fail within as little as five to seven years. The costs of repairs and also the downtime are very significant and alternatives such as direct drive create other expensive problems,” says Mr Jegatheeson.
“Unlike traditional wind turbine gearboxes around the world, GVT technology doesn’t rely on gears and expensive electronics. It instead uses gyroscopic reaction forces to transfer the power from the blades to the generator with less stress on the turbine. This will significantly reduce costs – possibly as much as 50% compared to existing systems.”
Another feature of GVT is that it can handle more turbulent air. This means that wind turbines equipped with the GVT technology could be built on the edges of existing wind farms in places previously thought unsuitable. The result would mean significant increases in energy generated from an existing wind farm using the same infrastructure.
“We are currently trying to raise funds to build a large GVT transmission and test it in a full size working wind turbine. A major New Zealand power company has offered us a turbine for the trial, but the problem, as always, is the funding. We now have to look overseas and have interest from China and the UK at present. That’s the reality of developing such challenging technologies in a small country,” says Mr Jegatheeson.
“Wind power is growing at a phenomenal rate worldwide and it would be nice if a New Zealand invention could be powering the wind turbines of the future.”

Read the full press release

Tappan Zee Bridge Park

The Tappan Zee bridge across the Hudson has reached the end of its life and will be replaced soon. A few groups have sprung up to turn it into a park. Just like those who have created other walking trails and parks out of abandoned railroad lines and bridges, this ambitious plan envisions a park stretching over three miles across the Hudson with magnificent views of the Palisades, Manhattan and the mansions lining the river.

Se the full slide show in much greater detail in the website for this group.

This all sounds lovely but I hope it becomes a reality. In this Times article, the author explains all the difficulties facing the project: The bridge needs $50 million in maintenance annually and has serious long-term structural and seismic concerns, including the threat of marine borers eating into the underwater wooden pilings that support the bridge.

What do you think of the plan? Will you walk it when it's done? I will.

Another great project to make a park out of unused public space

After the phenomenal success of New York's Highline park, pictured below, other cities have been looking to copy the success.

The formula is pretty simple: Find some land that used to be used by the city but is falling into disrepair, repurpose it as a park, get some public funding, some donations, get some corporate sponsors and some restaurants to open nearby and voila: a public park in an unexpected space.

The Highline park, for those who don't know, took an old elevated rail line that used to run along the west side of Manhattan that was used in the meat-packing industry, and added stairs, soil, plants and walkways, built in a few benches and turned it into a quiet oasis above the streets.

There's a new project being proposed that is even more interesting. According to yesterday's Times article, there is a three block area close to the Williamsburg bridge with 20 foot ceilings that is lying disused right now.

It used to be a trolley terminal but with light gathering techniques, it can be turned into an underground park with grass and trees.

The two men with the idea have experience with these light gathering techniques, taken from their colleges, (Yale and Cornell) and jobs, (NASA and Google) and are serious about it.
Check out the project's website for some cool pictures of their concept.

Four Wins for this project

Imagine starting a company where you were paid to have your raw materials dropped off at your dock, where your workers were supplied free as part of a training program for the unemployed, where your rent was subsidized as part of a community redevelopment program yet you could sell your final product at high prices because of its ‘green’ value. Now that’s worthy of the term WIN WIN WIN WIN.

Check out the business model of Big City Forest, based in the Bronx, New York. I read about these people over ten years ago in an article in the Times and hope they are still going strong.

New York City sees thousands of full pallets entering every day and being discarded. Landfills won’t take them so trucking companies will charge for their removal. But these are usually turned into wood chips, a pity for the strong wood they are made from. Big City Forest charges people 75 cents for each pallet dropped off at their loading dock.

 

Unemployed people need experience and new skills. The governments, rather than simply pay for unemployment benefits, would prefer to see them learn these skills. So the workers are given to Big City Forest where they trade free labor for furniture-making experience and skills.

The South Bronx has a lot of abandoned buildings subject to drug use and other crimes. It is in the community’s best interest to have viable businesses operating in these buildings so the borough substantially subsidizes the rent on these buildings to Big City Forest.

Pallets turned into wood-chips, burned or thrown into landfills mean other trees need to be cut down to make furniture. And pallets are usually made of excellent wood like rosewood, cherry, oak, mahogany, maple. So here is the ‘Green’ hook for this company.

As chips, the wood is worth about $30 a ton. As flooring, the value rises to $1,200 a ton, and as furniture, the wood in pallets is worth $6,000 a ton.

This wood makes excellent furniture. Butcher-block tables and benches with the company's logo are sold to institutional clients like foster-care centers and Cornell University -- ''they're frat proof,'' Ms. Dimino said -- but are also showing up in chic shops like Terra Verde in SoHo.

Customers happily pay $750 for a five-foot table, said the shop's owner, Katherine Tiddens.

''They're like a rock,'' Ms. Tiddens said, ''like a lesson in wood.''

Clever solar power project

We all know that adding solar panels to buildings can result in huge electricity savings but the initial investment is so huge you need to help over that first hump. Governments have provided incentives up to about 70% in the past but money is tight now. I looked into a company that would buy and install it for free for me and take 90% of the savings for the first ten years until they had recouped their investment and then I would own the panels. (Unfortunately, I had too much shade on my roof to qualify)
One of my friends bought the units outright (After the 70% rebate) and expects to pay it off within seven years.

But look at this new project being financed by the likes of Richard Branson. It was detailed in this recent article in the Times. The process is complicated: read below for how it works. Essentially, the owner of the old building gets a loan for upgrades that result in energy savings. The building is worth more so property taxes are raised. The interest in the loan plus the additional property taxes are less than the savings he recoups. Pretty simple, huh?

Ygrene and its partners will gain exclusive rights for five years to offer this type of energy upgrade to businesses in a particular community. They will market the plan aggressively, helping property owners figure out what kinds of upgrades make sense for them. Lockheed Martin is expected to do the engineering work on many larger projects.

The retrofits might include new windows and doors, insulation, and more efficient lights and mechanical systems. In some cases, solar panels or other renewable power might be included. For factories, the retrofits might include new motors or other gear.

Short-term loans provided by Barclays Capital will be used to pay for the upgrades. Contractors will offer a warranty that the utility savings they have promised will actually materialize, and an insurance underwriter, Energi, of Peabody, Mass., will back up that warranty. Those insurance contracts, in turn, will be backed by Hannover Re, one of the world’s largest reinsurance companies.

As projects are completed, the upgrade loans, typically carrying interest rates of 7 percent, will be bundled into long-term bonds resembling those routinely issued by governmental taxing districts. Barclays will market the bonds. Retirement funds have expressed interest in buying these bonds, which will be repaid by tax surcharges on each property that undergoes a retrofit.