[Note from Editor: We love this story of powerful environmental leadership
born out of bottom line objectives, and morality. Whatever road gets us
there...]
The rising cost of oil isn't just a hit to the family budget. Businesses are
hurt, too. Few are more affected than firms like FedEx. It deploys nearly
700 planes and tens of thousands of trucks and vans every day to deliver
packages around the world. And few business leaders are more focused on
finding alternatives to petroleum-based fuels than FedEx CEO Fred Smith.
Shortly after Smith founded Federal Express, the 1973 Arab oil embargo
almost killed it. The experience imprinted Smith with a keen interest in the
price and availability of oil.
"That would be an understatement," Smith laughs. "For sure."

FedEx now burns 1.5 billion gallons a year of petroleum-based fuels, and,
once again, the potential for conflict in the Middle East, specifically with
Iran, has boosted prices and raised fears of a supply disruption. Smith says
keeping the supply of imported oil flowing has cost the U.S. dearly over the
past 40 years.  "We spend about $70 [billion] to $80 billion a year as a country,
not just for ourselves, but for the rest of the world as a whole," Smith
says. "And that's even before we get to the $1.3 trillion we've spent on
Afghanistan and Iraq, and as Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the
Federal Reserve, said pretty plainly, 'Iraq was about oil.' Not totally, but
... so these are very big issues."

Smith, a former Marine, has tried to address those issues, advocating
strategies for the country through his seat on the Energy Security
Leadership Council , a group of CEOs
and retired generals and admirals. He has also developed a corporate plan to
reduce the use of petroleum at FedEx. It includes three strategies - one for
its light vehicle delivery vans, another for its heavy trucks and a third
for its planes.

For delivery vans, says Smith, FedEx is betting on electric or hybrid
vehicles. "An all-electric pickup and delivery van will operate at a 75 percent less
per-mile cost than an internal combustion engine variant," he says. "Now, I
didn't say 7 1/2 percent - [I said] 75 percent. These are big numbers."
Smith points out that the vehicles would be charged in off-peak hours,
minimizing the need for additional power plants. Battery life and cost
remain a challenge, but Smith is optimistic. In FedEx's fleet of over 90,000 vehicles, 408 are hybrid or electric, and 4,000 are fuel-efficient, lower-emitting "Sprinter" vans.
"I think in three or four years you will have a battery vehicle with a range
that's probably double what it has today - a couple of hundred miles versus
a hundred miles - and it'll probably be 25 percent to 40 percent cheaper
than [it] currently is." Smith says he believes that six years from now, electric vehicles will be in
wide commercial use, transporting everything from FedEx packages to plumbers
and pizza.

For FedEx's fleet of nearly 700 planes, Smith says biofuel, probably
produced with algae, will replace much petroleum-based jet fuel. The
technology has already been proven, but breakthroughs are needed to produce
the fuel on the scale that's necessary.
FedEx's Fuel Efficiency Improvement

For larger trucks, Smith says, the alternative energy answer is liquid or
compressed natural gas. He says companies like Navistar and Cummins are
developing new engines to power those trucks on natural gas, at savings of
about 40 percent compared with diesel at current prices.

"As Cummins and Navistar and these folks put these engines out there,
anybody that makes their living driving long-haul trucks or locally fueled
trucks or buses is going to have a powerful incentive," he says.
While natural gas refueling stations are a hurdle, Smith thinks an adequate
number, as few as 700, could be quickly installed along the interstate
highway system to make long-haul trucking with natural gas viable within a
few years.

Smith says the discovery and unlocking of the vast amounts of natural gas in
shale formations is a game changer.
"For the United States, it's been near providential," he says. "I think it
offers us an opportunity to deal with a lot of issues that have been very
difficult."

That includes America's reliance on coal to generate electricity. If natural
gas were used instead, harmful emissions could be cut 50 percent.
Smith believes the country's immense shale gas resource, along with shale
oil deposits in places like Texas and North Dakota, could help make the U.S.
energy independent for the first time since he founded FedEx. But, he says,
only if these resources are coupled with conservation and a move to
alternative fuels.

"You gotta do all of them. You can't sit on the left or the right of this
issue," Smith says. "You've got to be willing to maximize our resources, and
you've got to be willing to conserve and transition to nonpetroleum-based
transportation."

That would be a big change from the way things were when FedEx began.
"To me, the most tragic thing is to think about these families that lost
these 5,000 wonderful young men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan," he says.
"The human cost of this reliance on petroleum from unstable and unfriendly
parts of the world has cost this country dearly, and we need to work as hard
as we can to solve this problem."

Reposted from npr.org - written by John Ydstie

 

Right now, designing a solar power installation generally means figuring out how to orient flat or angled panels so that they’ll capture the most light. Or the panels are put onto expensive, swiveling mounts, which move the panels over the day to track the sun. [The PHATport, a solar carport structure, is designed so that its rigid structures has only a slight tilt for maximum orientation options.]  But a team of researchers at the   Massachusetts Institute of Technology  has a different theory about how to best design solar power systems—by using solar panels to build three-dimensional structures.

One of the models the team constructed is an open-ended cube. It’s made of nine solar panels—four exterior walls, four interior walls, and the bottom inside. Another, an open parallelepiped, took 17 panels to make. The accordion-like towers, with their ridged faces, contain 32 panels.

These 3D structures don’t look like the rooftops and fields of solar panels being erected all over the world. And they don’t behave quite like them, either. For a given base area, they’re up to 20 times more effective at capturing solar energy than a flat solar panel. They also capture more energy when the sky is overcast, and they produce energy at a more even rate throughout the day.

The MIT team designed and tested these models as part of  an experiment exploring the possibility of collecting solar energy in three dimensions. Nature collects energy using three-dimensional systems, an inspiration for this project, say team members Nicola Ferralis and Marco Bernardi. Their team had an advantage over nature, though: They could optimize particular designs to access these systems’ potential advantages. They tested those designs both in computer simulations and, using models, in the real world.

The team starting experimenting with 3D shapes with the idea that increasing the efficiency with which solar panels convert sunlight into power—a measure the solar industry has been regularly pushing upwards—isn’t the only way to improve solar systems. "Efficiency improvements can only partially reduce the installation costs and cannot change the pattern of solar energy generation,” they write in the article reporting their results,  published this month.

In the past, installing a cube of solar panels wouldn’t have made much sense. In the 3D structures that the MIT team designed, panels shade each other, blocking access to sunlight, and each solar panel generates less energy than it would if it were installed separately. The advantage that the 3D structures have is in energy generated in a given base area, in the consistency of energy generated, and in energy generated on cloudy days. In some situations, these advantages might make the cost of additional solar panels worthwhile. Since the price of solar panels  has dropped so rapidly, installation costs make up more than half the cost of a system, anyway, Ferralis and Bernardi point out.

They imagine that 3D structures might be particularly useful in urban environments, where space is at a premium. A solar tower might sit on top of a parking garage and provide power for EVs, for instance. (Or perhaps urban rooftops could do double duty as sites for solar power generation and as green roofs.) With semi-transparent panels (which exist), the structures could be used more effectively in the windows of building than flat solar panels. They also imagine that 3D solar structures could be designed to make optimal use of sunlight at different places around the world, since the same shapes won’t perform identically everywhere. The structures, they say, could potentially be folded up, like origami, and shipping in flat packages, to be unfolded and erected once they reach their destination.

Reprinted from www.good.is - written by Sarah Laskow - Re-Edited for PHAT Energy News.

A solar industry-wide commitment of environmental and social responsibility
released by the USA's Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA
) aims to ensure its members 'spread the love'
throughout the sector by applying the principals of sustainability and
respect for human rights to the workplace.

"Solar is the cleanest, safest source of energy and the solar industry is
committed to ensuring social and environmental responsibility for our supply
chain," said Rhone Resch, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries
Association. "The release of SEIA's Solar Commitment marks an important,
proactive step toward a sustainable future for solar."

Although the solar industry employs an estimated 100,000 people in the U.S.,
the SEIA still considers it a burgeoning field, allowing members to
integrate the most efficient and effective approaches to sustainability
management into their business practices while the sector is still young and
flexible. The "Solar Industry Commitment to Environmental and Social Responsibility,"
(the Commitment) is based, in broad terms, on America's Electronic Industry
Citizenship Coalition's Code of Conduct but is tailored specifically for the
solar market. It urges members to go above and beyond the letter of the law
in regard to: - establishing appropriate policies and processes to avoid infringement on
human rights;
- complying with electrical design and installation standards to ensure
electrical safety, including when systems are installed in ground-mount
(free-field) or rooftop environments, and;
- reducing the consumption of natural resources including raw materials,
water, and energy taking into consideration the entire product life-cycle
from raw material sourcing through end-of-life;
- transparency in financial reporting. SunPower
senior-vice president and Chair of SEIA's Environment, Health and
Safety Committee, Julie Blunden said the Solar Commitment received unanimous
support from the lobby group's Board. An independent advisory group will be
established to help guide participant solar companies through implementing
the new measures.

"We applaud the founding participant companies, including my own, that have
already endorsed the Solar Commitment and are actively working to develop a
governance model and accountability mechanisms," Blunden said.

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 The first all electric vehicle finally arrived at   PHAT Energy, with the delivery of General Manager Philippe Hartley’s   ActiveE BMW.  The vehicle is a limited production model meant to give BMW some feedback on electric driving habits and metrics, and the 700 or so “electronauts” which rushed the Southern California dealerships to sign-up are now getting their new wheels.  Pictured here, in front of the car, are PHAT Energy’s most enthusiastic EV proponents Bob Matteson, Matthew Tiffany, David Jones, and Philippe Hartley.  The PHAT Energy office does not have a public charger, however, but that is being worked on.  “It’s been a dream to drive a car powered by the production of my solar panels” says Hartley,”there’s an awsome feeling of empowerment each time I plug in.”  PV to EV, as it’s known in the industry, is the way of the future, and PHAT Energy invites any customer or solar prospect wishing for a test ride to contact 818.249.PHAT to arrange for one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  (Note from Editor:  While we find this article heartening   and worth reprint  , we cannot help but wonder if CNN looked for the worse looking   installation  in the US to feature for this article.  It makes us at PHAT Energy proud of our commitment to aesthetics in solar.)

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- When it comes to solar power, more and more Americans are seeing the light. Solar photovoltaic systems were installed in 51,176 U.S. homes in 2011.   Installations of solar energy systems in the U.S. more than doubled in 2011, according to a new report, fueled in part by declining solar panel costs. The U.S. added a record 1,855 megawatts of photovoltaic capacity in 2011, a 109% increase versus the year prior, said GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association, a national trade group.

The report projects that new installations will increase further to more than 2,800 megawatts in 2012.  Average photovoltaic system prices fell 20% last year, with a glut of solar panels hitting world markets.   For the continuation of this article: http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/14/news/economy/solar-energy/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Members of the PHAT Energy Sales Team working the San Fernando to Santa Clarita areas have been infused with new direction following the promotion of Robert Matteson to the position of Territory Sales Manager. Pictured here, Bob Matteson works with teammate James Jang preparing for a customer presentation. PHAT Energy's Sunpower Lease program is gaining traction in multiple communities, including the Korean community, which Mr. Jang is focused on servicing.

PHAT Energy congratulates JPL and wishes it great success during its NASA GRAIL Mission.  Our friends at JPL, where we have many customers, are now orbiting the moon via NASA's Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft and have officially begun their science collection phase.  During the next 84 days, scientists will obtain a high-resolution map of the lunar gravitational field to learn about the moon's internal structure and composition in unprecedented detail. The data also will provide a better understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system formed and evolved.

Read more from La Canada-Flintridge Patch.com:  http://lacanadaflintridge.patch.com/articles/jpl-lunar-probes-begin-collecting-data

<<...>>

As the nation's power system ages and grows insufficient, University of California researchers are building a smarter, greener electric grid for the future, which will enable drivers to power up their cars by plugging them in to a grid predominately powered by solar, wind and other renewable energy sources.

As the University of California points, expanding such a model to the US’s current electrical grid is challenging and a renewable energy-based system will require new technology to facilitate the large-scale transmission and storage of solar and wind power. “As more electric cars hit the road, a new system is needed to handle all the motorists trying to charge up at the same time,” they say.

Researchers at University of California campuses and labs are therefore working on a myriad of projects to develop and deploy systems to modernize the nation’s electrical system into one that relies on renewable energy and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. The so-called smart grid is part of President Obama’s clean energy initiatives and is needed to implement Gov. Jerry Brown’s call for installing 12,000 megawatts of renewable power generation in California by 2020.

Much of the nation’s power system was designed more than 100 years ago and many of its parts are more than 50 years old.

“One of the major challenges we face and one of the reasons we need a smart grid is the introduction of renewable power,” said Jack Brouwer, lead researcher on the Irvine Smart Grid Demonstration Project, which is using campus housing at UC Irvine as a testing ground. “So, we need something that’s smarter than what we’re doing now.”

Read full article at:

http://www.renewableenergymagazine.com/energias/renovables/index/pag/panorama/colleft/colright/panorama/tip/articulo/pagid/19435/botid/47/

Residents and business owners often believe that living and working in a city that generates its own electricity offers substantial benefits, including lower rates to its users. Utility users might also assume that the rates of homegrown power in one city would be equal to the homegrown rates of other cities. However, a survey of average electricity rates found on the Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFR) of Los Angeles, Burbank, Glendale, and Pasadena show a very large disparity of rates between cities. Residents and businesses seeking to relocate to cities with reliable and affordable energy supplies would benefit from researching those reports.

 

If you are a smart apartment building owner interested in managing costs, you will want to leverage solar investment tax credits to secure a generation's worth of electric production, or more.  This is what the owners of Acre apartments in Hawthorne have understood, and PHAT Energy is the proud installation partner.  In the course of the installation, we were pleased to educate the curious residents on the fact that their lights and stereos would now be running on the sun's energy. "That's very cool" was one resident's reply.  "That's hot", said another...