Solar Decathlon 2011: Shout Out for Two New York City Teams Competing in the Upcoming U.S. DOE Solar Decathlon

by Paul E. McGinniss


The public takes a first look at the solar-powered houses on the first day of the 2009 U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon. Photo Credit: Stefano Paltera/U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon

The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon takes place every two years and challenges 20 collegiate teams from around the globe to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective and energy-efficient. Anyone wanting to check out cutting edge home design and how to live 21st century style needs to check out what the student teams are up to. Two NYC teams are competing in this year's decathlon which takes place September 23rd to October 2nd on the National Mall in Washington, DC.

This New Yorker is excited to have two local student teams going down to Washington D.C. to build their prototype homes on the National Mall; even if neither team takes first place in the competition, they will be winners for New York and show the rest of the world their innovative, smart dwellings and highlight NYC as the hot bed of green activity that it is has become.


Students and faculty from the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture and the Grove School of Engineering, of the City College of New York, comprise the culturally diverse and interdisciplinary called: Team New York.

One NYC team participating is called Team NYC and is from the City College of New York. Team NYC at CCNY is interdisciplinary, comprised of creative minds from architecture, engineering, and the arts. The students, were engaged in all the project phases, from initial concept design to through to the fabrication of cabinetry. Their Solar Decathlon entry is called “The Solar Roofpod.” It is designed for the most underutilized real estate in the city: the flat rooftops of existing mid-rise (4 to 10-story) residential or commercial buildings.


Picture of the “The Solar Roofpod.” which was designed by Team New York, comprised of students from the Spitzer School of Architecture and the Grove School of Engineering at The City College of New York

The Team NYC web site states: "These roofscapes offer tremendous potential as living space because of their direct access to solar energy, ventilating breezes, and nourishing rain. Team New York’s Solar Roofpod is designed to enable eco-conscious urban dwellers to live lightly, as stewards of a more resilient urban environment, cost-effectively producing solar power and heat, cultivating roof gardens, and retaining and recycling stormwater."

The second NYC team participating in the upcoming Solar Decathlon is a team comprised of students from a consortium of New York institutions and was designed through a collaboration between Parsons, The New School for Design, The Milano School of International Affairs, Management and Urban Policy at The New School, and the Stevens Institute of Technology.

The Parsons, the New School for Design and Stevens Institute of Technology Solar Decathlon team (Courtesy of the Parsons the New School for Design and Stevens Institute of Technology Solar Decathlon team)

The house by the consortium is called Empowerhouse, and will consume up to 90% less energy for heating and cooling than a typical home in Washington, D.C., with its use of passive house technologies.

By working in collaboration with Habitat for Humanity, the team has arranged so Empowerhouse will eventually be moved and serve as a future residence for a family in the historic Deanwood community of Washington, D.C. The team web site explains: "Empowerhouse embodies Habitat for Humanity's vision that all people deserve safe, comfortable, affordable homes. The compact 1,000 sf one-bedroom structure showcases the whole-life approach while being sensitive to the existing urban fabric. The shape, building envelope, window placement, and shading were optimized through feedback from energy modeling. In addition, sustainable materials reduce maintenance costs and create a healthy environment."

A computer-generated rendering of Empowerhouse, the house of Parsons, The New School for Design and Stevens Institute of Technology (Courtesy of the Parsons the New School for Design and Stevens Institute of Technology Solar Decathlon team)

New Yorkers should consider heading down to D.C. to see all the homes that are part of the 2011 Solar Decathlon and support our teams from NYC. This writer is headed down to D.C. for a few days on the convenient, low cost bus that leaves from Chinatown in NYC and costs only $35 round trip.

You can hop on the bus in the morning and by afternoon meet the Solar Decathlon students as you tour the Solar Decathlon homes which will be on he National Mall between Sept 23rd and October
2nd.

These clever, inspiring students are leading our city and country by building with their own hands, in a spirit of collaboration, homes that are designed to generate all their own energy, be affordable, practical and beautiful. They are showing us that clean energy for all is possible right now, and not at some far off place in a fossil free future. I for one am inspired to "hop on the bus" and head down to D.C., eager to learn from all their hard work.

Copyright Paul E. McGinniss 2011

Nick Rosen: Man on a Mission

Help Fund Nick's New Film About Worldwide Movement Of People Going Off Grid

by Paul E. McGinniss

Confession: I am a big fan of Nick Rosen. He's raising money to support a new film called "Off the Grid and on the Cloud" and everyone should check out info about it on indiegogo and support the film. It's actually planned as a series of stories about a dozen efforts around the world to "go off grid" and become totally self reliant.

I just had the chance to do a phone interview with Nick while he was in the UK after getting back from China where he is filming a documentary on billionaires in China. When we spoke Nick reflected on the dramatic changes going on in China. Despite increased awareness, he explained how little is still understood by the general public about what is happening there and how it affects us in the west. He said: "A lot of people talk about the great Chinese economy and how it's going to be the number one economy in ten years time, but basically it seems for everybody like a black box."

Nick also reaffirmed what I have seen reported elsewhere, that despite the massive environmental problems resulting from China's incredible, fast paced development, the Chinese are actually at the forefront of renewable energy technology production and use of renewable energy. Clearly, development in China is interconnected with the world economy and environment. Nick reported: "In a way China is a very interesting example of the sort of reason that we are all going to have to make a radical change in our lifestyle."

Luckily, Nick's journalism and exploration of the Chinese economy, which is delicately intertwined with ours, will help shed some light on the good and bad of what is happening there, and help us determine the best steps for the world to take, collectively, as it is hurled into the 21st century.

During our dialog I asked Nick what he meant by the title of the film "Off the Grid and on the Cloud" and he said: "On the Cloud is partly about using mobile Internet - also about floating free as a cloud."


In 2003, the power grid failed in NYC, and residents were left without basic services and commuters were left stranded unable to travel. Picture Courtesy LightRailNow.org

Nick has written two books about living off the grid. His first was: "How To Live Off Grid", which was about people in the UK. His second book on the subject was: "Off The Grid: Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government and True Independence in Modern America", which is about people in the USA. Interestingly, his idea of writing both these books grew out of him being in NYC during the huge blackout in 2003 where power in many parts of the USA shut down. A few years after experiencing the massive power failure in NYC, Nick drove across the UK and then the USA to document the stories of people who have gone off grid.

The book "Off The Grid: Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government and True Independence in Modern America" has an excellent history of the American "back to the land" movement that started back in the 1960's and brings us into the present time. There's a great chapter in that book too which explains how the power grid came into being in the first place and the entire book is worth buying just to open
your eyes with the history of the grid and how and why it came to exist. (Another great book to read that explains a lot about the history of the grid is Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future.

Nick Rosen also started an excellent web site - www.off-grid.net that is creating a global community of people who want to go off grid or already are. I read it regularly and consider it a must read.



Picture of pedestrians in NYC literally taking over the Brooklyn Bridge in attempts to get out of the city during the 2003 Power Failure. Because of subways and trains being shut down millions of people trying to exit the city blocked traffic causing massive traffic jams. Picture Courtesy LightRailNow.org


Personally, my goal is to become independent from the grid in the near future and it's totally inspiring to see people across the world all unifying in the common goal of being more independent and more resilient. The "grid" was invented only 125 or so years ago so this avant garde concept of living "off grid" i.e. not relying on centralized energy sources (or food sources or other fragile networks) is really, going back to the future.

To conclude, I have to add, I'm excited that Nick will be part of my upcoming Ebook, Survival Cool, which includes information from stimulating talks I've had with some other really awesome people like Sylvia Earle, Fabien Cousteau and Ray Kurzweil, all of whom are part of the change agents who are actively trying to make the world a better place.

Copyright Paul E. McGinniss 2011

Click on the image below to see info about how to support the film "Off the Grid and on the Cloud" and help support this film which will capture the worldwide movement to go off grid.

City Inspired: Green Seeds Sprouting Up Throughout Toronto

Picture of James Thoem from Walk T.O. (in white T shirt) with my awesomely cool fellow journalists on top of the Green Roof at the Robinson Building in Toronto. Left to Right: Francisco Frausto, James Thoem, Raquel Manero and Lisa Davis.

I had some doubts about the greenness of Toronto while entering the city for the first time from Pearson International Airport. I was invited by Tourism Toronto with four other journalists to cover "Living Green In Toronto" and the weather on arrival was gray and dreary. As I was whisked by car into the city, the blah weather seemed to be an appropriate back drop for the many new, generic, glass box condo towers I saw on the Toronto horizon that my driver melancholicly told me popped up in Toronto in a rash of development over the past ten years. At first glance upon entering downtown Toronto, thinking about the former, natural waterfront landscape lost to growth, there seemed to be a kind of urban sterility to the skyline and the highways. On the thoroughfare entering Toronto, amidst all this new development, I hardly noticed Lake Ontario off in the distance or observed any trees or vegetation anywhere.



View of Downtown Toronto from Ward Island, an aquatic oasis that is part of a growing park system within the city.


Luckily, first impressions are not always correct. I learned during my recent trip that Toronto is, step by step, transforming itself, bringing nature back to urban development. A range of green initiatives are, literally, growing from the ground up, as well as being initiated from the top down. One transformative initiative coming from the top down is Toronto's Green Roof By Law, the first local bylaw in North America to require a green roof on all new development. Another city initiative by the Toronto Environment Office is the Eco-Roof Incentive Program which provides grants to promote green and cool roof retrofits on Toronto’s existing industrial, commercial and institutional buildings. (50% of green or cool roof costs, up to $100,000, can be given to building owners who take the plunge.) According to the Toronto Environment Office, the City is also actively planting trees. Torontonians have planted over 400,000 new trees over the last seven years with a goal to double Toronto’s tree canopy to 34% coverage.


Looking at Toronto Skyline from a corner of the Green Roof at the Robinson Building located at 215 Spadina Avenue in downtown Toronto.



From the ground up, grass roots sustainability initiatives include those by Transition Toronto which is part of the world-wide Transition movement. One of the community programs Transition Toronto offers to help make Toronto more green and resilient is a workshop on organic gardening and permaculture. It includes hands-on teaching that introduces permaculture theory while showing how to apply the concepts to your home or community garden.
 
So, despite perhaps not being so obviously green upon first glance, by the end of my trip I found myself inspired by the green wave washing over Toronto. And, with so many more trees being planted on the ground and so many more green roofs coming to the city, Toronto could blossom fully into a lush, green urban landscape that could rival the sustainability of any of the other world cities which are also trying to balance economic growth and development with a healthy, sustainable, locally-powered resiliency.


Picture of the Grande Dame, Fairmont Royal York, in the heart of downtown Toronto. This famous hotel was one of the first buildings in the city to grow food on the roof. It has bee hives along with an herb and vegetable garden on a 14th floor rooftop.

What's cool about Toronto's green wave is that visitors to the city can easily explore and see first hand what is going on. Here are two suggestions for green minded trekkers heading to Toronto:

**Fairmont Royal York Hotel offers an Urban Forest Excursion package that includes a walking tour with arborist, Kent Nielsen. It's a fantastic way to learn about different kinds of trees and the importance of caring for them, all the while enjoying the streets of the city. The package also includes a tour of the hotel's rooftop herb and vegetable garden on the 14th floor of the hotel. (FYI: There are awesome views to enjoy.)

**And, if green globe trotters want to see some of the inspiring green roofs popping up in Toronto, you should definitely seek out James Thoem at Walk T.O. He does a great Green Walking Tour and can get you up on hidden green roofs with spectacular views of the city. James was passionate, yet fun, and by the end of the tour we all felt like we had met a new school chum. Check out the video of James below as he talks about green roofs in Toronto.
 
Copyright 2011 Paul E McGinniss