June 9-11 in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos Areas

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) New Mexico Chapter and GreenBuilt Tour Committee are hosting the 13^th Annual GreenBuilt Tour, June 9-10 from 10 am to 4 pm in the Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos areas. Twenty-one homes are participating, and 120 volunteers are helping make the tour possible. It all kicks off with a reception on Friday, June 8 from 6-8:30 pm in Algodones, at the first modular home to be included.

GreenBuilt 2012 is designed to showcase sustainable building practices that are healthy, attractive, practical and affordable.

“The tour puts current challenges to our vision to create a vibrant and sustainable built environment within a generation in the forefront of our attendees’ minds,” says USGBC-NM Chair Lemoyne Blackshear.

The homes were selected for their uses of renewable energy, high indoor air-quality, water preservation, energy efficiency, retrofitting, re-use of materials, xeriscaping and environmentally friendly products. Many need very little energy to keep them comfortable year round and produce more energy than they use. Some have Build Green NM, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), ENERGY STAR, Passive House ratings, or are awaiting certification.

Innovations on the high-tech side include NM’s first residential use of a thin film PV system. On the low-tech side, you can see a 3,000-gallon cistern built from earth-filled tires and a modern take on earthen building that uses local earthen plasters inside and out.

“You will see some very creative salvage and recycling ideas come to fruition,” said Kent Gurley, co-chair of the tour committee. “How about taking old barn wood and making it into a dance floor for your home? Now that’s what we call “repurposing.”

Free guidebooks are available at Whole Foods and La Montanita Co-op locations in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, The Merc in Placitas, BookWorks, 4022 Rio Grande in Albuquerque and the Taos Food Co-Op (in OptiMysm), 314 G Paseo del Pueblo Norte. The guidebook is also available online at www.usgbcnm.org/gbt2012.

The entry fee for the tour is $2 per person per home. Visitors can pay at the door of each home or a two-day tour pass can be purchased in advance for $15 at www.usgbcnm.org. For reservations to the reception, go to www.usgbcnm.org, click on chapter events and select June 10. The cost is $35 for USGBC-NM members and $40 for non-members. Food, drinks and live music will be provided.

GreenBuilt 2012 is sponsored by Wells Fargo, Build Green NM, PNM, Davis Kitchens, Construction Reporter, CASA, Affordable Solar, the Alibi, KUNM and Green Fire Times. For more information, call 505.227.0474 or visit www.usgbcnm.org.

Here are a few examples of the homes:

The Kennison Casita, in NE Albuquerque, is a 1,100 SF/700 retrofit built in 1932. The renovation slated to be completed this year features an ENERGY STAR water heater, compact fluorescent light(CFL) light fixtures, solar tube skylights and CFL bulbs for nighttime lighting. It also has a reflective roof, garage walls made from tires filled with compacted earth and covered in El Rey Stucco, and Papercrete used for triangle block wall extension. The existing mature landscape has been preserved. Specific “Healthy Homes” attributes include cork flooring in the bedroom, and original hardwood floors sealed with low-volatile organic compound (VOC) water-based sealer. In addition it has gypsum plaster walls finished with American Clay, and cotton denim insulation in the interior walls.

The Balance Project passive house in Santa Fe, owned and designed by Jonah Stanford of Mojarrab Stanford Architects, is the first Passive House in NM. A Passive House features highly energy-efficient design and is computer modeled using the Passive House Planning Package to optimize the structure for energy savings. Paint has not been used in the building; factory finished finishes have low- or no-VOC treatments and provide fresh air ventilation. Other key traits are solar heating, night-sky cooling through the Energy recovery ventilation (ERV) and triple pane windows with a U-.11 and SHGC .63. Certifications include Passive House and Build Green NM Emerald.

The Barton Studio & Retreat owned by John and Polly Barton in Ojo Caliente was designed by AIA Architect/Planner John Barton, with an emphasis on landscaping to preserve existing vegetation, and includes xeriscaping, native plants and grasses. The design uses a roof rainwater catchment system with filtration and UV treatment for the main water supply, as well as more water that can be delivered to below-grade cisterns. The house also uses a greywater system that recycles wastewater generated by laundry, dishwashing and bathing, which can then be used for irrigation. The “Healthy Homes” emphasis is on low-VOC products, solar tubes for interior spaces, no carpeting or synthetic flooring and natural ventilation with operable openings.

“We love this spot on a high desert plateau of northern NM. Temperature extremes here are taken advantage of with the use of a traditional adobe construction and a passive solar design, which keeps the house cool in summer and warm in winter, blending the home into the surrounding earth.

• John Barton, AIA: Architect and Planner

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Jonah Stanford

The first generation of certified Passive Houses has been completed in Santa Fe. Optimizing the economic advantages of the Passive House approach, these projects establish the cost competitiveness of Passive House construction when compared with typical regional construction projects.

The American Southwest has a long history of environmentally based architecture. However, the typical approaches to sustainability, such as earthen or straw-bale construction, are extremely labor intensive and therefore can be quite expensive. The associated passive-solar designs follow an energy model of high thermal losses balanced by high solar gain—a model requiring sustained solar exposure that is not often available.

The following case studies demonstrate that the Passive House approach can meet the demand for both affordability and energy-use reduction.

Passive House Project One: BALANCE HOUSE

The first Passive House—Balance House—was completed in April 2011. With a construction area of 3,313 sq.ft. measured from the exterior thermal envelope, Balance House includes two units: a 2,590 sq.ft. residence and a 723 sq.ft. office building. The final construction cost was $451,406 for 3,313 sq. ft. This results in an amortized construction cost of $135 per sq. ft.

Passive House Project Two: VOLKSHOUSE

The second Passive House project—VolksHouse—was designed to introduce a Passive House product to the Santa Fe housing market and, as such, was designed to meet standard market expectations for size, program and cost.

Additionally, VolksHouse is intended to serve as a model for Passive House construction techniques that are allied with standard US design and construction sequencing and practices. A successful Passive House model in the US must adapt standard construction practices, since, unlike our European counterparts, project architects in the US often have little or no role in the construction process of smaller scale affordable or production-home projects. This break in continuity can lead to the failure of a project’s final performance, especially in terms of airtightness and thermal-bridge elimination. These elements, central to the Passive House approach, are currently undervalued in the US design and construction industries.

VolksHouse was completed in February 2012. Its basic design follows a typical, detached single-family residence pattern with three bedrooms, two baths and a two-car garage. The residence is 1,700 sq. ft. measured from the thermal-envelope exterior, with an additional 560 sq. ft. of unconditioned space for storage and vehicle parking.

The final VolksHouse construction cost was $259,799 for 1,700 sq. ft., resulting in an amortized construction cost of $153 per sq. ft.

PROCESS, LESSONS & MODIFICATIONS

VolksHouse was designed concurrently with the construction of Balance House, and we modified the thermal envelope and system designs in response to lessons learned through the Balance House construction process.

The primary modification was to the VolksHouse thermal envelope. By simplifying critical details and systems—foundation forming, air-tightness detailing and materials, thermal envelope, and the mechanical system—we increased the project’s air-tightness, decreased thermal bridging and improved the performance consistency of the completed building.

Foundation Forming

The perimeter-insulation design for Balance House incorporated several small sections of rigid EPS insulation based on Passive House thermal-performance requirements. This sectioned-EPS approach minimized material usage; but it proved difficult to implement with consistency and was labor-intensive. For the VolksHouse, we simplified the foundation system and thereby eliminated much of the forming and rigid-insulation installation labor.

Airtightness Detailing & Material

The airtightness layer on the Balance House used plywood that was fully taped from the exterior. The Larsen Truss detailing around the windows did not, however, allow window installation to align with the airtightness layer, a condition that required subsequent labor-intensive air-tightness detailing and resulted in higher air-infiltration levels. Additionally, the material inconsistencies of the plywood led to air leaks that required patching. The leaks were confirmed during positive pressurization testing using smoke to locate air leaks.

Although Balance House passed the Passive House requirements for airtightness (0.47 ACH @ 50 Pa.), we felt that the process was not replicable with quantifiable results. The airtightness detailing for VolksHouse was changed to address these issues. VolksHouse windows and doors were aligned directly with the air barrier without any exceptions, and the project employed a zip-panel as an alternative airtightness material. The zip-panel included a simple overlay component and provided a very consistent surface for air-sealing-tape application and easy inspection. Labor for air sealing was consequently reduced, and the blower-door test resulted in a 0.25 ACH @ 50 Pa.

Thermal Envelope Design

Balance House utilized all-cellulose insulation for the walls and roof—a material we selected for its relatively environmentally friendly characteristics. However, during installation, it became apparent that the regional quality control and installation standards for cellulose did not meet the standards required for Passive House durability and gap elimination. A significant number of inspections, reviews and contract revisions were ultimately required to achieve our desired results. As it was our intention that these projects create a repeatable model for Passive House construction, we revised the thermal envelope for VolksHouse to a continuous layer of rigid EPS insulation.

Mechanical System

The solar-thermal system for Balance House was successful, but the project’s greater scale informed the cost benefits of the system design since its cost is amortized across a large conditioned floor area. VolksHouse is roughly half the size of Balance House, and installing a similar, yet smaller, system would have been financially inefficient. Also, since we wanted VolksHouse to meet market norms, we reanalyzed the mechanical system in terms of the level of interaction that environmental controls would require of the owner.

Balance House primarily uses manual shading to control over-heating, but there were concerns that manual controls would hinder market penetration and create an inappropriate association between Passive House construction and owner inconvenience. We therefore decided that a cooling system would bolster the overall success of a repeatable project. VolksHouse uses a ducted mini-split heat pump and relies on the ventilation ducting to distribute heating and cooling loads.

CODE BUILT HOUSE COST COMPARISON

In order to compare the construction cost of VolksHouse with that of a similar home built to regional building codes (Code Built House), we cost-modeled VolksHouse using RS-Means estimating software. This software uses industry-standard and regionally specific construction costs based on assembly type. The assembly types we used reflect Santa Fe’s current local building code, which requires compliance with IECC (International Energy Conservation Code) and U.S. Energy Star Certification with a HERS (Home Energy Rating System) score of 70 or below.

For accuracy in comparing the project costs we matched certain line items, such as builder profit and overhead. Our modeling indicated that the construction cost for a typical residence of identical size and configuration to VolksHouse would be $154 per sq. ft.—an estimate corroborated by the Santa Fe Area Home Builders Association (SAHBA). This number was then used as a baseline for comparison between code-built construction and the Passive House projects.

Comparison Results

Comparisons indicate that both Passive House projects were built for less than the model Code Built House. The modifications to the thermal-envelope assembly of VolksHouse provided significant advantages over Balance House in thermal-bridge elimination and airtightness, which result in reduced energy use. However, the costs were slightly higher. In repeated projects, the environmental impacts of EPS use should be considered, as well.

Simplifying details increased overall performance consistency in all cases. This will be a critical benefit as Passive House construction is introduced to the US, given the industry separation between professional architectural responsibilities and construction management. The US Passive House industry will need to address this gap in responsibilities in order to successfully move Passive House construction into the mainstream.

CONCLUSION

The completion of Balance House and VolksHouse demonstrate that Passive House projects can meet typical US single-family home construction costs. This is especially notable in the Santa Fe area, where construction costs are high relative to other areas in the country. Simple and replicable systems that align with standard US construction sequencing and practices are key to keeping costs in check—and to the eventual mainstream market acceptance of the Passive House approach.

The environmental advantages, lifestyle benefits and cost competitiveness of these projects raise the question of why the Passive House approach is not employed more often in the US We suggest that the answer is primarily a matter of unfamiliarity, and that the solution will require effective contractor and consumer education. Importantly, Passive House education in the United States must address mainstream expectations of building performance, which are chronically low.

Jonah Stanford is a Certified Passive House Consultant and a principal partner at MoSA – Mojarrab Stanford Architects. 505.577.4295 jonah@mo-s-a.com, www.Mo-S-A.com

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Alan Hoffman

How is it possible to build a home with little or no annual utility costs at the same price as a conventional home?

In 1974 I built my first passive solar home and saved 80 percent on heating costs just by taking into account the orientation of the structure and improving insulation values. As the Pueblo Indians have long known, orienting a home with openings to the south uses the sun to help make a home more comfortable year-round. As the years passed, we worked to further reduce both our heating and utility bills.

New technology has made it possible to reduce all energy inputs to the modern home. In the past three years, with the support of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, four significant technological breakthroughs have made it possible to construct a home with annual utility bills of almost zero. Contemporary designs such as LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) have provided ways to build a certified energy-efficient, safe and healthy home for about the price of a conventional home. In this article I will focus on the application of these breakthroughs in the construction of the Net-Zero-Energy Home.

Design

The design of a modern LEED-certified home, as well as New Mexico BGNM (Build Green New Mexico)-certified home requires extensive energy analysis prior to construction, as well as reduced water use and healthy air quality. I have been working with Renaissance Builders of Santa Fe. After preliminary plans are generated with advanced construction techniques in mind, the plans are delivered to a certified HERS Rater for analysis. HERS (Home Energy Rating System) analyzes energy use, with HERS 100 equaling the energy use of a home built using the present building code, which in NM is the IECC (International Energy Conservation Code). If a home is designed to use half the energy of the IECC home, it would have a HERS rating of 50. The energy-efficiency goal for Renaissance Homes is HERS 55 through efficiency alone, which means that it is designed to use 45 percent less energy than a home built using the IECC code. Generating electricity with solar panels, usually on the roof, further reduces energy use.

Innovations in Construction

Four significant differences exist between certified energy-efficient building techniques and conventional construction. These differences dramatically reduce energy use and improve indoor air quality.

1. Advanced Framing Techniques. The envelope of a certified home is robust, completely encircles the house and avoids leaks known as “thermal bypass.” These homes are insulated under the entire floor (see photo 1), with the floor insulation overlapping the wall insulation, allowing no place for heat loss. The wall and ceiling sections utilize advanced framing techniques (see photo 2), which use less wood, and eliminate places where insulation cannot be properly placed. Advanced framing leaves all corner, headers and ceiling assemblies open for the proper installation of insulation, and in the case of Renaissance Homes, the entire wall assembly is then covered in over an inch of soy-based urethane foam. The foam insulates the wood in the structure, sealing most potential air leaks.

2. Heat Recovery Ventilator. Certified homes are just about airtight as a result of advanced framing and insulation techniques. Upon completion of the home, the tightness is verified with a blower door test (see photo 3). The HERS rater is required to temporarily install a special door equipped with a fan and sensors to pressurize the house and then calculate how quickly the air escapes. Because of the increased tightness of these homes, it is necessary to properly ventilate the homes to prevent indoor air from becoming toxic, stale and unhealthy. Each certified home is built with a Heat Recovery Ventilator (see photo 4) that takes in fresh air from outdoors and expels indoor air. In the winter it transfers heat from the expelled air to the incoming fresh air.

3. Super Efficient Appliances, Equipment and Lighting. In Renaissance Homes, condensing modulating gas boilers are used to provide heat for the in-floor radiant heating system and the domestic hot water for showers and cooking. Between proper solar orientation, robust insulation and the super-efficient boiler, minimal natural gas is used to heat the home in the four months of winter. Energy Star appliances and compact fluorescent and LED (light emitting diode) lighting further reduce electric use.

4. Solar Electric Panels. With increased production of solar electric panels around the world, the price has dropped by more than half. Even without the 30 to 40 percent tax credits, it is still financially beneficial to load future energy use into today’s mortgage by installing solar panels during construction to offset the much-reduced energy use.

The modern certified energy-efficient home is a true breakthrough, but it is no guarantee of energy reductions. No matter how efficient a home, if the residents are not aware of their energy use and leave lights on, open windows in the winter and otherwise waste energy, the home will not perform. One couple living in an energy-efficient home knew how to do it. After installation of their solar equipment they achieved a net profit of $80 a year on their energy costs. That is a true Net-Zero-Energy Home.

Alan Hoffman has designed and built passive solar homes in Santa Fe since 1977. He also helped create the neo-traditional villages Aldea de Santa Fe and Oshara Village. Hoffman is a member of the Congress For the New Urbanism and a contributor to the Best Practices Guide of New Urbanism. For a tour of Zero-Energy Homes, call him at 505.316.0449.

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Tom Wehner, Ph.D.

Why wait? Your home’s energy efficiency measure is an important piece of information in your decision on whether to invest in more insulation, air sealing, duct sealing, new thermostats, new furnace or maybe better windows. Calculate your home’s Home Heating index, or HHI, yourself, today and see how your home ranks. You may want to start energy efficiency improvements in the spring or summer when it’s easier to do yourself or when contractors are more available.

What is the HHI? The HHI is the amount of heat energy occupants of a house use to keep their home warm in winter, taking into consideration the size of the house and how cold it gets. Quantitatively, the HHI is the amount of energy purchased (and generated on site) for heating during the year divided by your home’s square footage and by the number of annual heating degree days (HDDs) for your home’s location. The HHI is expressed in BTUs (sq. ft.*HDD65), where BTU is British Thermal Units and JDD65 is about 4,400 degree days, and Santa Fe’s HDD65 is about 6,100 degree days, average historical figures that come from weather station measurements.

How do you calculate the HHI? Here’s how. First, for a home heated with natural gas or propane alone, gather your receipts or go online to obtain your usage. Write down the number of therms you used each month over a 12-month period. (If you need to convert, there are about 0.9 therms per gallon of propane, and about 0.01 therms per cubic foot of natural gas or about 1 therm per CCF (100 cubic feet). Divide the 12 statements into heating season and non-heating season. The heating season is typically October through April. Average the usage over the non-heating months. Subtract this figure from the monthly usage over the heating months to obtain the monthly heating-only usage during the heating months.

Add these. Multiply the sum by 100,000 to convert therms to BTUs. Divide that figure by the square footage and by the HDD65 value. You now have your HHI! (See example) A similar technique is used for a house heated with electricity.

What does that HHI value mean? Look at the adjacent table to see where your home’s HHI falls. The HHI of 3.9 in the example puts this Santa Fe home in the “good” efficiency range. Energy efficiency improvements for a house with a HHI in the “good” range are most likely costly with a long payback time. In general, higher HHIs for existing houses mean shorter payback times, sometimes just a few years. Likewise, lower HHIs for existing houses mean longer payback times. However, for new homes, the incremental cost of designing and building in the “very good” energy efficiency range is minimal, and the lowest practical HHI should be the goal for architects, designers and builders.

What energy efficiency improvements should I do first? Good question. If your home has an HHI of 10 or more, a visual inspection is usually all you need. Almost anything you choose to do; insulation, air sealing, replacement windows, duct sealing, higher energy efficient furnace, will pay back the investment quickly. Let your budget be your guide. For other categories in the energy-efficiency range or if you want a quantitative assessment, you should consult an energy expert.

A little background. There are actually several HHIs that characterize a house and give additional, more detailed information. There are HHI-OCC™, HHI-MECH™ and HHI-SHELL™. The HHI above is more formally called HHI-OCC™, the heating energy the occupants of the house use. This is compared with HHI-MECH™, which is the heating energy that must be input to the mechanical systems in the house to keep the house at 65 degrees F. in winter. An energy expert is needed to calculate the HHI-MECH™ value. When HHI-OCC™ is lower than HHI-MECH™ it means that the occupants are energy-efficient in their occupation of the house: they are using less energy than the required amount. They may be setting the thermostat lower, wearing sweaters more, setting the thermostat back at night, opening curtains to let the sun in during sunny days and closing them at night. Should the HHI-OCC™ be higher than the HHI-MECH™, the occupants are not being as energy efficient as they could be. So, a comparison of the values for HHI-OCC™ and HHI-MECH™ can tell homeowners if they are being energy efficient and how they operate the house.

HHI-SHELL™ is the amount of energy the house shell, or the structure itself, requires. An energy expert is needed to calculate the HHI-SHELL™ value. HHI-SHELL™ is slightly less than HHI-MECH™ because some of the energy input to the furnace or boiler is lost up the stack, and doesn’t go into the house. A comparison of HHI-SHELL™ and HHI-MECH™ can tell you if replacing your furnace or boiler is the right thing to do. Further, an energy expert can dissect HHI-SHELL™ to determine where the home’s major heat losses are, and recommend specific energy efficiency improvements.

HHI-MECH™ and HHI-SHELL™ can be used directly to compare the energy efficiencies of two homes anywhere in the country. If the HHI-SHELL™ for home “A” is lower than the HHI-SHELL™ for home “B”, then home “A” is just designed and built better with respect to energy efficiency.

How about cooling energy efficiency? There is a corresponding HCI, or Home Cooling Index. The HHI and HCI are highly correlated, so it is only necessary to do one to come up with a good assessment of the home’s energy efficiency. If the home is energy efficient, HHI is low, and the HCI is low also.

What about HERS? HHI does not replace HERS, the Home Energy Rating System. The two indices quantify different things. HERS is the percentage of the total purchased energy usage of standard occupants in a standard house (2009 International Conservation Code). If two people live in a house with three bedrooms, they will almost always be using less energy than HERS indicates because HERS assumes six people in the house, two people per bedroom, and the resulting higher hot water usage, etc.

HERS does not let you compare two homes’ energy efficiencies. If home “A” and home “B” both have a HERS rating of say 75, you don’t necessarily know which one is more energy efficient. Home “A” might be very energy efficient, while home “B” might be far less energy efficient but have solar panels or a whole house fan or more efficient lighting or equipment. The homes score the same on the HERS Index, but their energy efficiencies and HHIs can be very different.

If you are serious about energy conservation, in the market for a new home, and got your choices down to a few, here’s your mantra: “If you’re going to buy, choose the lowest HHI.” Choose the one with the lowest HHI-SHELL™ and HHI-MECH™ for the best energy efficiency.

Tom Wehner, Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering is with SolarSPOT, LLC, Solar and Building Energy Consulting, Santa Fe, NM. 505.984.0101, SolarSPOT@q.com

HHI-OCC™, HHI-MECH™ and HHI-SHELL™ are trademarks of SolarSPOT LLC.

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Does the Consumer Really Have a Choice or Not?

Gerald B. Ansell

I have just listened to/watched yet another Presidential Address apologizing/justifying the ever-increasing gas and oil prices our energy guzzling and materialistically over-consuming nation are paying. The address was then responded to, literally within seconds, by equally short-time-frame responses from his “other wing” political opponents. It all reminded me of Harold Morgan’s recent syndicated “New Mexico Progress” articles. One entitled “PNM Turns Profitable” raised interesting, highly political and economically extreme concerns about what the truly long-term future energy supplies for the Southwest and indeed our nation’s and the whole vulnerable planet’s population and fragile ecosystem really are. Whether one is politically Right, Left or Extreme, it is certainly good news to hear that one of our major NM electricity and energy suppliers is profitable again. As Morgan aptly points out, it is extremely difficult and costly—technically, environmentally and politically—to supply enough electricity/energy for the wants and needs of NM’s population, service, manufacturing and agricultural industries. If we can be absolutely non-political, scientific, realistic and mindful of who and what America is supposed to be all about, any company and its investors that take on such a huge job, obviously do deserve to make a profit.

Upon reviewing PNM’s recent profitability data, it’s worth studying the historical DOW indexes for the past 50 years of the share values and profits for all of the world’s major energy producers. They are very, very cyclical, rising and falling frequently by as much as 50 percent or more. Over the long run of 1-15 years or so, because of the commercial importance of what these companies market, they invariably trend upwards. This may be attributed to several closely related reasons. The main one is that in the past, most were relying on non-sustainable but readily available energy resources such as coal, oil, natural gas and apparently sustainable ones such as hydroelectric and nuclear power.

Unfortunately, during the same period, the world’s population has steadily increased, and with it, our demands for more energy, food supplies and the other necessities of life. We complex and occasionally even quite sensible humans, have also become far more aware of our own and the energy supply industry’s demands and effects upon the environment. At some time during the past few years all the truly readily available non-sustainable energy resources have started to become rapidly depleted. The nuclear industry is now beset by problems associated with storage of its waste products as well as the historic and highly complex political and religious associations with weapons production, terrorism and other threatening human behavior patterns. The oil and gas industry is drilling (fracking) deeper and deeper into the earth, often through fragile water tables on land, or thousands of feet below ocean beds, or extracting oil and gas from vast oil shale deposits in various parts of the world. The latter task is extremely complicated engineering-wise, utilizes enormous quantities of water, and it is almost impossible to not environmentally decimate the areas from which it is extracted.

Therefore, in spite of mankind’s wars, political, economic and social upheavals, and now powerful environmental demands, like-it-or-not, the price of all energy supplies, gas/oil/energy priceswill continue to rise in the future and the consuming public needs to get it.

However, as the US is currently the world’s largest energy consumer and concurrently also its largest extractor, producer and exporter of energetic resources, the future for this country and the rest of the world need not be entirely bleak. But it will require truly long-term, scientifically based planning and a realistic set of energy and materialistic expectations from the population.

In Europe, where energy prices have always been considerably higher than here, many energy-saving adjustments in lifestyle, such as house sizes, the size of cars, public transportation, etc. have always been applied. For example the highly pragmatic Danes have a population considerably greater that NM’s, live within a significantly smaller area and have a very high standard of living. They only have wind, spasmodic sunshine and possibly hydro-generated electricity as sustainable, readily available energy resources. Even so, they have already decided, both politically and by general public support, to become 100 percent dependent upon these seemingly meager sustainable energy resources by 2050.

Whilst visiting Iceland recently it was also fascinating to observe public transport buses being filled at the roadside with hydrogen gas that had been produced by electrolysis of water utilizing electricity generated by their abundant geothermal sources.

In Germany, Austria and several other European countries, small farmers and land owners have now been saved from extinction by selling back electricity from solar installations, often provided by the utility companies. Shortly after Japan’s disastrous 2011 Fukushima nuclear-power facility experience, Germany also abandoned plans for any further nuclear generated energy supplies.

In spite of their energy conservation efforts over the past years, numerous European countries still seem to be able to generate many, many Happiest National Populations votes in most world surveys.

Thankfully, in our sunny/windy NM, and yes, with the help of PNM, sustainable energy sources are being utilized and are expanding. They are being derived from solar, passive solar, wind-generation and recycling. Globally, one can add tidal and geothermal generation to this list. Liquid biofuels are also being generated in growing quantities utilizing both algae grown in ponds, and fermenters and cellulosic materials such as wood and paper waste, etc.It should be carefully noted that even the USA’s ExxonMobil, the world’s largest oil company, has recently committed over $600 million plus towards such biofuel efforts. The automobile industry has already gotten on board by utilizing these rapidly emerging sustainable electrical and biofuel sources. As I travel through so many of NM’s dead and dying rural areas, I wish they received the help the German small farmers and landholders mentioned above get from their public and private utility companies.

New Mexico’s Los Alamos National Laboratory also has highly successful multi-million-dollar-funded algae programs that are already generating patents and pilot plants for biofuels/protein large-scale manufacturing potential.

The hidden messages from these organizations and several similar ones should be pondered deeply.

Whilst still in NM, one of the most exciting future sustainable fuel-energy projects has already been demonstrated and patented by a local company, Los Alamos Solar Energy LLC, in Española. Their process enables differing gas mixtures containing carbon dioxide, moisture and/or methane to be heated in air up to 2000+ deg. C. by NM’s 25+ year-old focusing solar-reflector technology. By selection of different catalysts, various gaseous mixtures containing carbon monoxide, hydrogen and/or oxygen can then fuel cars, buses, trains, planes, gas turbine engines and manufacturing facilities, utilizing technology that has been well proven and in use for over 80 years.

The energy storage problems needed to facilitate a 24-hour supply from the above sustainable solar electrical energy-resources are currently being fulfilled mainly with relatively simple battery and heat storage devices (sodium/sodium sulfide/molten salt, etc.), improved transmission lines and burning hydrogen generated by electrolysis of water.

The future for electricity generated by coated-glass/plastic windows and even paint and cladding is also potentially mind-boggling. It has the potential for most home residences to supply significant electricity to the public companies. One can envisage lots of exciting research and sustainable work generation in this area.

Laser-driven, etc. atom/particle accelerators that can create/generate more transmuted atoms/particles, fusion/fission/inertial as energy sources, are also being actively researched. However, it is exceedingly difficult to accurately predict the related nuclear industry’s future. On the one hand, very small compact generating stations are being developed, and thankfully serious attention is now being paid to siting future conventional generators. Its associated medical isotopes industry is vital too. Being brutally realistic however, on the other hand, cancer-causing nuclear waste storage and nuclear weapons/materials getting into irresponsible hands are of global concern.

Throughout the Southwest, abandoned Navajo tribal land’s Cold-War-era uranium mines are still accompanied by their future-centuries legacy of cancer-causing piles of tailings. They serve as a grim warning about future similar mining exploitations currently touted by the mining industry, politicians, governments and investors globally.

Research and scientifically impartial analysis of all the above nuclear-related areas could promise greatly increased efficiency and productive/sustainable employment generation for the foreseeable future. The associated nuclear research does however need to be conducted in more isolated environmentally safer areas than are often currently used.

When Harold Morgan decries Al Gore’s cautioning comments concerning all the above sustainable energy matters, he should respect Al’sformal education and vast experience in such areas. After all, Al was educated at Harvard, one the USA’s most prestigious universities. In 1969, in spite of being eligible for deferment, he was drafted into the US Army and in 1971 spent a period in Vietnam. From 1977-85 he represented the highly discerning state of Tennessee in the US House of Representatives and from 1985-93 served the same state in the US Senate. While there he was always well respected and listened to by a majority of voters and colleagues. From 1993-2001 he was the nation’s vice-president. Amongst his many achievements during that time is wide credit with working with often-fractious Republican and Democrat Congress members to create the federal budget surpluses that were handed on to the Bush Administration in 2001. In 2001 he was voted by the nation’s popular vote, but not the Electoral College, to be the next President of the US. Since then he has turned his energies towards environmental improvement efforts, sustainability and the understanding our planet’s exceedingly complex weather patterns. He published the scientifically based best seller, An Inconvenient Truth, won the 2007 Nobel Peace, Grammy and Emmy awards and a Webby Award in 2005. Obviously many, many well qualified people from science, the media, politics and industry support his views and predictions. Al Gore obviously envisages environmental situations on Earth in the far, far future that will be what its generations will have-to-cope-with. Enough said.

Gerald B. Ansell, PhD. is a retired materials scientist, program manager and teacher who spent 52 years working with major government agencies in universities and industrial companies in both the US and England. He is currently an environmental consultant. Email: greener-research@hotmail.com

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Diverse groups collaborate to boost industry while protecting wildlife

After two years of work, nine leading wind energy companies and seven conservation groups in New Mexico, along with various state agencies, private and public stakeholders, have developed Best Management Practices (BMPs) that will be used to ensure wind farms and nature can coexist. The NM Wind and Wildlife Collaborative (NMWWC) will help NM meet its renewable energy goal of obtaining 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020, while protecting wildlife in the process. This collaborative effort of different interests affected by wind development came together to help preserve existing habitat and species while furthering societal goals for the development of green energy.

“The BMPs were written using the best available science to guide conservation actions,” says Christopher Rustay, Conservation Delivery Leader for Playa Lakes Joint Venture, who facilitated the process. “These BMPs were developed over two years, and a lot of time was spent building trust and learning about our partners’ objectives so we could develop balanced practices that both industry and the conservation community could support,” added Matt Desmond, NM Development Manager for First Wind.

“Wind power creates unique threats to birds and, more specifically, wind development threatens vital grassland habitats in eastern NM,” says Karyn Stockdale, Executive Director of Audubon New Mexico. BMPs were developed for 12 wildlife species or habitats of concern, including raptors, long-billed curlew, bats, lesser prairie chickens, reptiles, amphibians and playas. The BMPs are intended to help guide the placement of renewable energy facilities and the transmission of that energy. 

New Mexico is the second state, following Colorado earlier this year, to have developed BMPs to address conservation concerns related to renewable energy development. Both states followed a similar collaborative process, with some of the same industry partners participating in the two groups.

“Wind energy can provide a tremendous economic boost for rural communities along NM’s eastern plains while offering significant savings to urban consumers,” says Craig Cox, Executive Director of Interwest Energy Alliance. “Now that we have Colorado and NM using this collaborative model, we will be able to expedite wind energy development while creating new jobs across both states.”

To make these guidelines more widely available, the NMWWC developed a website where visitors can download the BMPs. The website provides important information to developers by identifying what resources of concern might be affected by wind development, where developers might encounter conflicts with those resources and appropriate minimization or mitigation of potential impacts if avoidance is impractical. As new science and technology emerges, the BMPs will be reviewed and updated by the group.

While the BMPs are not binding or regulatory in nature, the NM Renewable Energy Transmission Authority will be linking to the NMWWC’s website in an effort to encourage voluntary participation by prospective developers of wind, solar and geothermal energy projects. 

For details about the BMPs as well as information on all of the partners, visit www.pljv.org/windandwildlife/nm

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Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM), the Renewable Energy Transmission Authority and Power Network New Mexico have filed a request with federal regulators to develop a new 200-mile transmission line to transport solar- and wind-generated power from an area near Torrance County to PNM’s Rio Puerco station northwest of Albuquerque and then north to the Four Corners region. From there, the power would go to western markets.

The $350 million project “represents a practical near-term solution for addressing the lack of transmission needed for additional NM renewable energy development,” says Jeff Mechenbier, PNM’s director of transmission. Los Alamos National Laboratory, in a study, found that new transmission in NM would enable the development of about 5,200 megawatts of renewable energy projects that could exceed $1.8 billion.

Developers hope to have the transmission line functioning by 2015. They are seeking a waiver from the Federal Regulatory Commission to allow “first ready, first served” energy producers to connect to the line. This would replace the current first-come, first-served approach, which PNM says has resulted in lengthy waits.

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Luke Spangenburg

In the time it takes most people to read this sentence, the world will have used up about 8,000 barrels of oil—336,000 gallons; at 1,000 barrels per second. The fact is, global demands are rising while petroleum is diminishing. Sure, we can drill deeper or convert tar sands to fuel as a band-aid solution while we irrevocably damage our ecosystem. We can continue to occupy nation states in attempts to control the flow of resources as we undermine cultures and sacred places. Yet where will this lead? We all share the same planet.

What must we do to solve this problem? One solution is to find a drop-in fuel that replaces our current petroleum addiction, an energy source that can meet the current transportation and industrial demands. How about something that uses solar energy and consumes carbon dioxide while emitting oxygen? Something that grows in non-potable water, that can also make food, fuels and medicines? What about a crop farmers and ranchers can produce globally that could allow them to reestablish their stature in society?

Looking to the past, we can find our answer for the future. About 3.7 billion years ago, the Earth was devoid of life as its surface was extremely hot and lacked oxygen. The early atmosphere was composed largely of heat-trapping CO2 and deadly methane gas. About 2 billion years ago, algae transformed the atmosphere to one rich with oxygen, allowing a vast amount of oxygen-breathing life to exist and evolve. Algae also provided many of the new organisms with Earth’s first food source. Might algae come to the rescue once again?

Our atmosphere is currently overloaded with CO2, which is naturally recycled or sequestered by algae as it grows. Algae consumes 1.8 tons of CO2 per ton of biomass produced and can replicate itself rapidly, thus creating a perpetual crop.

Globally, societies are experiencing shortages of fresh, clean water. Fortunately, algae can flourish in waste, brine, non-potable or salt water. Algae are often used to remediate contaminated wastewater. Algae cultivation can produce valuable biomass that does not depend on using fossil resources. And algae do not require fertile soils for growing.

Agricultural or municipal waste sites commonly utilize algae to perform wastewater remediation cost-effectively. Co-locating algae production near carbon sources such as power and industrial plants offers potential solutions to pollution in addition to biomass production for biofuels and valuable co-products. While algae are busy cleaning the air and water, algae biomass can transform CO2 and waste nutrients into valuable sugars, proteins, lipids, carbohydrates and other organic compounds.

The current industrial food and transportation systems are massive polluters of air, soils and water. Algae growing systems can be designed to produce carbon-neutral food and fuel, while providing ecological benefits to the environment. Algae fuels are cleaner than fossil fuels and produce lower levels of emissions when combusted. Experts say we have already passed the point of global peak oil. Fortunately, algae has the potential to provide liquid transportation fuels at a lower cost than with the extraction and processing of crude oil, especially when the true environmental costs of petroleum production are included. In addition, algae can replace almost all products currently made from fossil fuels.

Algae is liquid solar energy. It can produce energy rapidly and efficiently. Scientific studies and initial demonstration projects have shown that properly designed and managed algae-growing systems can produce 5,000 gallons of oil per acre, per year. The algae can then be processed into high-quality biodiesel or ethanol fuels for use in standard gasoline and diesel engines. Just 15,000 square miles of algae could replace all the petroleum used in the US in one year, according to the Department of Energy. To translate, that’s an amount about one-sixth the size of Minnesota.

New Mexico is one of the prime global locations for algal production. We have abundant high quality light, a sea of underground brackish water, along with other viable sources for production. We have communities and families with generations of experience working this land. With algae production we have the opportunity to offer a greener and cleaner environment to the next generation.

What is the next step? Get educated and understand the alternatives to petroleum-based economy and the barriers we must overcome to convert to renewable energy. Access your local renewable energy hubs and programs such as the Santa Fe Community College environmental technologies programs and Biofuels Center of Excellence. These programs offer subsidized training to the general public in renewable energy resources of all kinds.

Luke Spangenburg is the president of New Solutions Energy Corporation, a privately owned company headquartered in Santa Fe. NSE manufactures versatile all-weather closed-loop algae growing systems and provides technical support to promote sustainable energy and food production. NSE also collaborates with SFCommunity College and the Biofuels Centers of Excellence to promote education and training. 505.795.2081, newsolutionsenergy@gmail.com

• http://www.NewSolutionsEnergy.com

• http://greentraining.sfcc.edu/

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Gerald Ansell

Senator Tom Udall and Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Charlie McMillan attended the New Mexico Consortium Inc.’s (NMC) groundbreaking ceremony for LANL’s research and development facility at Entrada Research Park in Los Alamos on May 18^th. The consortium is comprised of university faculty, scientists, engineers, administrators, planners and other contributors from the University of NM, NM State University, NM Institute of Mining and Technology, LANL and Los Alamos County.

The NMC has obtained a $2 million economic development grant from the county towards construction of the new facility, plus a lot-grant (estimated value: $640,000) at Entrada. Recruiting efforts of LANL Biochemistry’s Dr. Jose Olivares and NMC Executive Director Katharine Chartrand, plus significant grants from several federal and industrial funding resources and Los Alamos National Bank, facilitated recruitment of one of the world’s leading researchers in algae and plant cell metabolism, Dr. Richard Sayre, who joined the consortium in October 2011. Sayre was accompanied by his team of 10 post-doctoral research Fellows from the Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, where he directed the Institute for Renewable Fuels. Sayre was also Chair of the Department of Plant Cellular and Molecular Biology at Ohio State University and a Fulbright Scholar at the University of São Paulo, Brazil. He has also been Chief Technology Officer for Phycal, Inc., a start-up biotech company in Highland Heights, Ohio that develops microalgael-based biofuel production systems.

Initial construction at the Entrada Research Park will consist of unique biological laboratories, glass houses, ponds and other plant/algae growth-related facilities. It will cover about 24,000 sq. ft. The total project cost is $12.25 million. Wages in the first year will be around $6 million. NMC already has over 20 employees. The consortium is predicted to be a $50 million+ a year enterprise with 100+ employees within 5 years.

The leading-edge biological and academic research will be in areas that include algae growth for long-term sustainable production of biofuels and food proteins, vaccine delivery, the control of mosquitoes that carry malaria, and above all, sustainable cost-competitive solutions to bio-energy and food production challenges. These efforts are showing progress in coordinating with NM’s impressive biofuel/food research and production activities in the Santa Fe, Albuquerque and southwest NM Energy-Plex areas.

It can be confidently predicted that NMC’s research and development, along with NM’s unique climate and political support will likely make NMC a world leader in addressing our planet’s ever-increasing sustainability-related scientific, engineering and materialistic challenges.

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Sapphire Energy, Inc. has received $144 million from investors to build a demonstration plant in Luna County, NM for the production of crude oil from algae. Oil from the algae will be refined into diesel and jet fuel.

The US Dept. of Energy has provided a $50 million grant, and the US Dept. of Agriculture is providing a $54.4 million loan guarantee to the San Diego-based company. Backers of the project include Monsanto, which is interested in a project to identify genes that stimulate algae growth. Investors also include Bill Gates’ Cascade Investment, LLC and Venrock Associates, the venture capital company of the Rockefeller family.

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