California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislature recently to increase incentives for home solar arrays. The legislation written by Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) will double the amount of energy that residents are able to sell back to the Golden State’s investor-owned utilities.
This increase in net-metering contracts from 2.5% to 5% of the energy load will allow consumers to recoup their investments in solar cell’s quickly and help reach California’s goal of installing a million rooftop solar systems by 2017.  This cap is supported by the state’s major investor-owned utilities.

California is the nation wide leader in solar energy and accounts for 65% of all solar installed in the U.S. and Net-metering is key to the success of this program.  Net metering is a metering and billing system for consumers who generate renewable energy, allowing consumers that generate energy on-site to send excess electricity flow  back to the regional power grid.  

The program allows the system owner to receive credit for a portion of the electricity they generate. Net-metering varies by county, city, state, and whether or not the utility is publicly or privately owned.  Net-metering allows kWh credits during the day and then the traditional pull from the grid at off peak hours.
While this is good news for certain residences, but where I live I still don’t have the option for any buy back program, which I feel is key to the success of renewable energy goals.  

I would love to hear about what buy back programs you have in place where you live and whether or not you feel this is a financially feasible program?

Just a few weeks ago I had the opportunity to join a group volunteering their time to LEED certify a building here in Santa Barbara. The structure in question is the Built Green Resource Center, a community education building staffed by members of the Santa Barbara Contractors Association. Originally an artist studio built in the 1920’s, it received top-notch green and sustainable rehabilitation and is now being used to teach residents and professionals about sustainable building practices.

The volunteer group is headed by a local architect, Paul Poirier, and the goal is to attain the highest rating we can under the LEED v2.2 Operations + Maintenance rating system. The project itself was registered before LEED v3 came out, so we are working with a 92 point system instead of 100 and will not work with regional credits. It’s exciting to be involved with such a project because of my interest in the LEED rating system and goal of becoming certified with the Operations + Maintenance specialty. I get the opportunity to work with local architects, engineers, designers, and students who all want to see this project succeed.

Ausra, a solar start up located in California just announced it’s purchase by French Nuclear energy giant Areva.  This jump into the US renewable energy market is another step for competition in the green tech race to the top.  While terms of the deal were not disclosed, rumor has it that the sale price was in line with the $418 million that rival Siemens of Germany spent last year to acquire an Israeli solar power plant builder. Over the past few years, Paris based Areva has branched out into designing biomass power plants and wind farms, so the Asura acquisition is key to forming a solid foundation in alternative energy.  

Ausra relocated to Mountain View, California from Australia in 2007, following their announcement of plans to build a gigawatt’s worth of solar thermal power plants.  After receiving their initial venture capital, they managed to raise over $120 million to build solar projects, but changed track to become a supplier to other developers of solar energy. According to Areva spokesman Jarret Adams, Areva’s plan is “In line with our broader renewable energy strategy, is to build concentrated solar power plants.”

The LA Times reported that Areva is also also looking to gain a foothold in the U.S. wind and biomass power sectors.

The company, which is majority-owned by the French government, recently completed its first offshore wind farm, along Germany's northern coast. Officials hope to build similar wind farms with Areva-built turbines in the United States, according to Adam’s.

Areva recently announced plans to build its first U.S. biomass power plants -- two of them in Florida, the third in Washington state. The power plants would use wood chips as feedstock.

The market for concentrated solar power plants is expected to grow substantially in the next decade with an average annual growth rate of 20% and should reach an estimated installed capacity of over 20 GW by 2020. With this acquisition, Areva is poised to capture the leading position of this attractive and growing market.

Strata Int. Group Inc. on Stage

Have a goal for zero waste at your job site? Diverting waste from the landfill and practicing recycling can pay off by lowering energy, material and disposal costs. Here are 5 steps to overcome some common challenges that you may face as you implement a recycling program:

Find and Setup Adequate Space
Recycling and reuse efforts require space and space is at a premium at most sites. Work to set aside an area of the jobsite to store salvaged building materials and store recycling containers or rolloffs for either commingled or source-separated loads. If you cannot get enough space at the job site – see if you can set up a remote site for the materials.

Are you contemplating a “green movement” with your organization? The sustainable shift has outlasted fad status and proven that green practices make sense for healthy living, environmental stewardship and improving a business’ bottom line. If you’ve not stepped into the green world, now is a great time to consider what strides you can make to create a greener company.

Browsing the web this morning brought two important news items to my attention. The first covers a recent news release by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) concerning their Energy Star Leaders program. Last year the 'Leaders' prevented over 220,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions and saved over $48 million across their commercial building portfolios. According to the EPA these savings have quadrupled since 2008 and make this past year the most successful since the program's launch in 2004. This is wonderful news! 

According to the EPA, these emissions are equivalent to those from the electricity use of almost 39,000 homes annually. With success like that it will be exciting to see the numbers from 2010. It should be noted for those that don't know, that the EPA labels any organization an Energy Star Leader that cuts its energy use by 10 percent across its entire building portfolio. Those aspiring to become a "top performer" must perform on average in the top 25 percent of similar buildings nationwide.

Waste management at the construction site isn’t a new concept, and is in place all over the country. However most of these efforts are voluntary and easy to overlook when landfills keep piling up. It’s estimated that more than 325 million tons of construction and demolition (C&D) waste material is generated in the United States every year. The average home is estimated to produce 2.5 to 4 tons of waste during its construction. This accounts for materials such as lumber, drywall, masonry, cardboard and metals. It’s not rare for all of this to be piled into a single bin and driven to a landfill to be disposed of. Especially when it’s cheaper to do that than separate the materials onsite or go through a recycling authority.

With rating systems like LEED and the National Green Building Standard gaining momentum, more emphasis is placed on waste diversion and management plans. They're both needed if a building is to be certified under these systems. Even the State of California, with its recent adoption of the CalGREEN standard, requires at least 50% waste diversion from the job site. This will reduce the amount of construction waste flowing to landfills and get everyone to think about how to control and reduce waste generation.

A new proposal that was approved last month by the Department of Public Works in Los Angeles, CA will require new homes, large developments and some redevelopments to capture, reuse or infiltrate 100% of water during rainstorms.  Those not in compliance will be required to pay a storm water pollution mitigation fee that will fund off-site, low impact public developments. 

This is a much needed approach to manage storm runoff that pollutes the ocean and an innovative way to use grey water to maintain LA’s love of green lawns in an area facing severe droughts.