Piezoelectric is the word to remember

The weight of a footstep is packed with energy – if only this energy could be harnessed.

In fact, there is electric potential within 20 varieties of naturally occurring crystals when force is applied. Piezoelectricity is the word used to describe this process of matching force with a crystal to gain electricity. The electric potential is proportionate to the force exerted upon it.

Today the concept is not just imaginative, but already powering Dutch dance clubs via dancers, Japanese train stations via commuters, and soon, French street lamps via pedestrians.  As futuristic as piezoelectricity sounds, it is the same principle that enables a scanning electric microscope, or ignites a cigarette lighter.

A Netherlands-based company called Sustainable Dance Club offers the world’s first dance floor which converts mechanical energy (the force of dancers’ footsteps) into electricity (though the company website does not name this process piezoelectric capacity.) Sustainable Dance Club’s flagship project is called Watt, a dance club and bar in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The average dancer generates between 5 and 20 Watts – admittedly not enough to stop climate change – but a gesture in the right direction. The floor lights up interactively as club-goers dance. According to the New York Times, the 270 ft2 floor cost $257,000 – an investment that will not be recovered in saved electricity costs. Since this is a first generation prototype, club owner Aryan Tieleman predicts that costs would reduce once further development of the concept occurs.

In 2009, the Miami Science Museum installed Sustainable Dance Club floor in its permanent collection. Sustainable Dance Club recently installed their floor panels in the sidewalk in Toulouse, France. The modest pilot project there produced energy sufficient to power one street light.

German auto manufacturer, Audi, is testing methods to deploy piezoelectric devices capable of capturing vibration and converting it into energy to run onboard electronics, according to GreenTech Media.

In Japan, the company Soundpower Corp., ran a pilot project in several train stations including Shibuya Station in Tokyo. In December 2008, commuters’ footfalls ran the Christmas lights decorating the station. Likewise, at another pilot site, the electric arrival/departure board was run via passengers footsteps.

Soundpower Corp has an history with a familiar ring: Hayamizu Kohei left graduate school to found his company. Within two years, the startup launched its Power Generating Floor™. The floor is composed of 20 in2 rubber tiles with a piezoelectric element inside. The average person weighing 125 pounds will generate 0.1 Watt in the 2 seconds it takes to cross the rubber tiles of the Power Generating Floor™.

Since electricity turns into sound through speakers, could sounds not be turned into electricity? Soundpower founder Hayamizu Kohei is investigating further innovation to leverage this principle. Proposed applications include a cell phone that can be recharged through conversations, or sound insulating walls that generate electricity from the noise of passing vehicles.

Piezoelectricity was first understood in the late 1800s.  German physicist Woldemar Voigt published his Textbook on Crystal Physics (Lehrbuch der Kristallphysik) in 1910.

It’s appropriate to remember another German physicist, Albert Einstein, who urged using the imagination, believing that creative thoughts might lend more to the advance of progress than academic knowledge alone. 

Solar Club: Giving Micro-Investors a Chance

A solar club provides ownership potential for people who do not own their own homes, have suitable roof space on which to erect solar panels, or who lack significant capital to invest. The Haydern Solar Club in a suburb of Munich, provides local residents the chance to participate in renewable energy generation.

The club works like this: citizens pool small investments and then invest in solar arrays located on the roofs of local, public buildings. The minimum investment is 1,500€, which equals one share. A conservative estimate of investors’ average rate of return is 5%. Investment of the same money in a German mutual fund might earn 7-8%, but as Eugen Kunze of the Haydern Solar Club says, climate protection is the goal, not maximizing the rate of return. The number of investors per installation ranges from 10 to 40. All solar arrays are roof-mounted on public buildings to prevent legal issues should the building owner change hands. Since inception in 2002, a total of 35 projects have been realized under the Haydern Club’s umbrella, with a total installed capacity of 1MW.

The average investor is middle-aged or retired. It is not uncommon for a grandmother to make the investment in the name of a grandchild as a gift. Investments in solar clubs are also tax advantaged. “We’ve found that once someone makes an investment and becomes a member of the club they are really activated for climate protection. One roof becomes not enough and they want to own a share in another roof,” reports Eugen. Kunze.

The maximum investment is 10 shares or 15,000€. According to Mr. Kunze, “We don’t want people with thick wallets coming in and making the whole investment themselves.” To this end, more than 50% of the participants contribute one to two shares. Shares are not managed with elaborate software, but rather an Excel spreadsheet. The investment functions like a life insurance policy payment, returning monthly principle and earnings payments. The term of ownership is limited to 20 years, reflecting the term of the German feed-in-tariff remuneration schedule; thus a portion of principle must be returned with every interest payment. The club carries a 5M€ insurance policy on each solar installation. The insurance protects against risks to people or property as well as protection from hail, lighting, vandalism, etc. The organization is administratively light, run by a 5 person Board of Directors, with an elected president per installation.

Mr. Kunz emphasizes the role of the German Feed in Tariff.  Because of this financial policy, the rate of return on even micro investments is economical.  What is a Feed in Tariff? 

Many people are on the waiting list to invest, so the club has plans to install a 2 Megawatt greenfield array. Greenfield solar arrays are controversial in Germany, given the potential for arable land to become more attractive as solar fields rather than cultivated agriculture. To prevent a food vs. fuel scenario, some regions of Germany prohibit greenfield development. The Haydern club recommends public buildings like local schools or city halls.

The Solar Club concept has expanded to other German cities including Hannover, Berlin, Kiel and Saarbrücken. The Hannover Protestant church community was among the first to adapt the model, and other church communities have raised solar clubs among their congregations.

Whenever a new solar installation is officially opened the ribbon cutting ceremony is instead an Einspeisungsfest. In German, Einspeisung is a play on words between the term for feeding electricity into the grid, and the formal word for eating. The chance for member owners to come together and eat foods from the region underscores the community purpose and path to realizing a solar club.

Marienkoog, in North Germany, offers an example of a citizens’ Wind Club.  The wind developer offered 1/3^rd of the shares in the wind park to locals; 240 residents invested €5 million -- representing 40% of the district’s adult population. It is proven that enfranchising local citizens reduces resistance to new projects dramatically.

In Carbondale, Colorado, the Clean Energy Collective  innovates on the club model, with an ownership structure that offers micro-investment opportunity for citizens, while passing along tax credits and rebates, providing access to bulk purchase of solar panels, and a maintenance contract — yet providing investor autonomy unlike the solar club model. CEC investors receive a direct credit on their electricity bill, proportionate to their investment and the solar electricity generated. Cooperation between CEC and the Holy Cross Electric negotiated a credit at a premium to the standard residential rate to participating citizens. The minimum investment is $3.50 per Watt, and includes an iPhone app to monitor the electricity produced. Their first initiative is a 77 kW project sited adjacent to a water treatment facility. Prospective sites for expansion include a nearby airport and former landfill.

Online Solar Atlas

View of solar potential on downtown Berlin rooftops

One common barrier to solar panel installation has been reduced. The Solar Atlas concept provides  free rooftop analysis of solar generating potential on precise sites, roof by roof, using GIS software. This data then becomes available through an internet portal accessible by any citizen curious about the solar potential of their property.  Using a GIS toolbox, 3D analysis of rooftops’ slope, the square meter area of solar radiation, and buildings’ cardinal orientation is calculated, and then expressed visually. Solar maps bring macro level solar radiation data to the micro, rooftop level. Thus homeowners can visualize their own power production.

The methodology for the Solar Atlas was developed by a graduate student in Basel, Switzerland. A pilot project is now in Berlin.  “With a few mouse clicks,” reads the press release, “one can read whether a rooftop is well suited for solar panels.”

The 3D model depicts the house in question, and all surrounding buildings – but with the twist every building is shown not in its actual height, but rather, taller or far shorter in proportion to their energy generating potential. From this, an investor can determine the potential rate of return on investment in solar panels, and CO2 savings.

Harold Wolf, an elected official tasked with economic concerns, said, “The ‘green economy’ is a key factor for growth and innovation in Berlin. Plus, resource efficiency plays a very important role in terms of our competitiveness. Our goal is to use the potential of ‘green technology’ to strengthen and expand Berlin’s role as a leading location for solar energy.”

The methodology assesses the following parameters:
1)    The roof’s slope in degrees
2)    Roof orientation
3)    Size of useable portion of the roof
4)    Solar irradiation per roof in question, as a percent of total global irradiation
5)    Power output in KWh, assuming a 12% efficiency rating
6)    Overall suitability of the roof , measured in 4 qualitative classes:

1. Very well suited
2. Good
3. Conditionally suited
4. Inappropriate

7)    CO2 saving potential
8)    Estimated investment costs
9)    Annual cost amortization

Informed about power generation potential, investors or building owners are one step closer to engaging a solar firm to audit or ultimately install panels on the roof.
To visit the Berlin site, in English, click here

Meet your Romeo: Ride the Bus?

By Leah Arabella Germer 

"Social well-being and psychological health depend upon community. It is no coincidence that the 'helping professions' became a major industry in the United States as suburban planning helped destroy local public life and the community support it once lent."

    --Ray Oldenburg; American sociologist and father of the theory of Third Place

Buses, trains, subways: public transportation carries us from place to place, but we don’t often recognize vehicles as “places” in and of themselves.  This view of transportation may be changing; urban planners and sociologists consider the advantages of instilling personality, character, even community in nontraditional public places like a bus.

Combining the public with the personal draws on the work of American sociologist Ray Oldenburg, who advocated for the creation of “third place” in urban areas.  Third place, as opposed to the “first” and “second” places of home and work, is designated for the informal public gatherings on which grassroots politics, the arts, and community vitality thrive.  Pubs, cafes and parks can serve as third place as long as they are local and, in Oldenburg’s words, “do not necessitate getting into an automobile.”

Even though Oldenburg excluded transportation from his vision of third space, urban planners today might be convinced to reconsider:  could public transportation become third space? The Berlin Transportation Services (BVG) would likely agree.  Searchable via its homepage Berlin Public Transit Homepage the BVG-sponsored site Meine Augenblicke is an example of the city’s attempt to create third space inside its public transportation system.  

First launched on February 14, Valentine’s Day, 2007, Meine Augenblicke (roughly translated as ´"My Moments") refers to those meaningful exchanges of glances between fellow subway or bus riders who catch each other´s attention but fail to strike up a conversation.  Its mission, translated from the website, reads: 

A shy laugh at the ticket counter or a wink at the last stop is enough to create the single, magical moment that could spark the love of your lifetime.  Weren´t brave enough?  Here´s your second chance!  Take the initiative.

After registering, subscribers to Meine Augenblicke can post to a public forum information about the person they´re seeking and the context of their ´´moment.´´ Best case scenarios involve both passengers consulting the forum and recognizing each other´s posts; worst case scenarios result in unanswered posts but -- due to anonymity -- minimally bruised egos.  Subscribers can also choose to have transportation information sent to their cell phones.
The focus of Meine Augenblicke is primarily romantic.  Illustrations used in the campaign’s advertising portray pairs of passengers experiencing their ´´moment,´´ while depicting successful outcomes brought about by Meine Augenblicke as reflected in the bus window pane. 
                     
The following post dated June 25, 2010, offers an example:

We first bumped into each other because we simultaneously went for the same seat on the train.  I then sat next to the window, facing the direction the train was moving, and you sat down right across from me.  You rode the train from Ostkreuz to Bundesplatz.  At first, it was totally normal: but then we looked at each other – first timidly, in the reflection of the window pane, and then directly.  You flirted with me in an unbelievably lascivious way: I think my pulse reached at least 270… I´d like to experience that again!  P.S.  You: sunglasses, very sweet, womanly figure, I had a book and a pen and was wearing a green t-shirt.

The hundreds of similar posts written since Meine Augenblicke’s inception in 2007 illustrate how third space is expanding into the realm of public transportation in Berlin.  Similar online forums like Craigslist´s ´´Missed Connections´´ http://newyork.craigslist.org/mis/ have existed for some time, but mostly under umbrella services that cover many kinds of personal advertisements.  Meine Augenblicke on the other hand, is sponsored by the Berlin Transport System and explicitly presented as a feature that transcends the “home-to-work-and-back-again” model of transportation.

Why should public transportation double as third space?  The BVG itself certainly has an interest in creating an attractive product for Berliners. Broadly, however, advocates for sustainable mobility everywhere are positioned to benefit from this approach. By building community inside a single train car, the commuter gains a sense of identity in the course of an otherwise indistinctive routine. 

Transportation planners recognize the role that creating a “commuter identity” for their passengers plays in increasing ridership on public transportation. Digital, real-time bus timetable displays, sophisticated iPhone apps, on-board power outlets for laptops, advertising the work productivity gains possible when not driving, are tactics to help passengers identify themselves proudly as commuters.

The more commuters identify with the experience of public transportation, the more people could choose public transportation over individual methods of transit. Connection building initiatives like Meine Augenblicke offers strangers community and camaraderie, and is a balm for lonely lives.     

3.4 MW biogas plant from Berlin's household compost

*

If all trash companies belong to the Mafia, then it shouldn’t be surprising that the Berlin Municipal Waste Management Company wants you to be part of “the family.” Through advertising and corporate strategy, consumers are deliberately enfranchised through advertising that is funny and frank. The latest reason for the family feeling, is a forthcoming  3.4MW biogas plant owned by BSR (Berliner Stadtreinigungsbetriebe – the  Berlin Municipal Waste Management Company) and powered exclusively by household compost.

BSR has collected household compost since 1996. Today 83% of Berlin families participate in the weekly collection of organic household waste; a 30 gallon trash can of compost costs 31€ per quarter for weekly pick-up service. Fifty-two thousand  tonnes of organic waste was collected in 2009 from Berlin households (which does not count restaurants or commercial organic waste).
 

The planned anaerobic biogas digester will run on household compost, which includes urban woody biomass trimmings, Christmas trees, and household organic matter like banana peels and flower bouquets.
The 3.4 MW plant, built on a brownfield site in Berlin, will accommodate 60,000 tonnes of compostable waste, and produce 4.12 million cubic meters of gas / yr. This biogas will then be upgraded to natural gas grade methane, fed into the natural gas grid, and ultimately used across town by BSR to power over 150 compressed natural gas vehicles. This efficiency will save the firm 66 million gallons (2.5M liters) of diesel fuel, and the 6,200 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. The biogas plant will provide 16 full time jobs.
 

BSR scientists say high quality organic waste from home compost bins exceeds other municipal sources, in terms of caloric content. The purer the input to a biogas digester, the more energy comes out. Therefore outreach to potential composting waste-clients is worth the marketing expense.
To advertise for the Compost campaign, BSR partnered with the Berlin City Gallery’s Oil Painting Collection. The resulting billboards edited fine oil paintings to spotlight the pieces of fruit or flowers within them; “Old flowers belong in the bio bin!” was a slogan draped across Hans Hohlbein des Jüngeren’s stunning work “Salesman Georg Gisze” painted in 1535.
 

BSR’S award winning advertising campaign, pictured here, recently put the company’s own trash haulers  as models. It features slogans like “We Kehr for you” where Kehr is a play on words between the German verb to “sweep clean” and the sound of the English verb “Care.” A consciousness of responsibility is BSR’s vision for their marketing, and helps explain the high percentage of customers who separate out their compost.
 

To BSR’S 5,000 employees, their firm is an environmental company, not a waste management firm. Since the caloric value of refuse is roughly equal to that of brown coal, the firm’s 700 MW power plant in a Berlin neighborhood provides garbage-fueled electricity and heat through Combined Heat Power system to the city. Electricity is supplied to 63,000 households and 31,000 households receive heat from this plant. Further, BSR captures and deploys 40M cubic meters of methane from company-operated landfills, offers the full suite of recycling options, runs its operations in energy efficient buildings, and drives its trash collection vehicle fleet with lower carbon fuel sources. BSR serves 3.4M citizens in an 890 Km2 region.
 

According to Dr. Thomas Klöckner, of BSR’s Public Relations, “You can do good things, and you can talk about them, but only in that order,” referencing the firm’s commitment to implement respectable environmental practices, before boasting in their environmentally themed marketing.  Public tours of the recycling center and waste-to-energy facility educated 1,700 people during 2009.
 

In every city, the waste management plan is specific to the waste stream and local conditions. As of 2005, no more waste in Germany may be landfilled, thus providing incentive for waste diversion, energetic use of the trash, and management of multiple waste streams. For BSR, the climate protection potential of the waste management sector is an opportunity they will seize.

* Translation from the German into English: Good for your Circulation!
In the green dot: Through converting your bulky household waste into energy, we are saving 45,000 tonnes of Coal

Architect in the House - bringing good design to the British masses

The value and necessity of architecture is often lost on the layman. That buildings emerge from a skyline, or even in the neighborhood, appears the work of people who sling hammers, not those with sharp pencils. Thus, when costs must be saved – be it in designing the family home or the new civic center – an architect may not be the first call. Several websites report the decrease in pages published by various international architecture journals, and the decline of people choosing architecture as a profession.  So, do we need architects?

An initiative in the United Kingdom aims to heighten the prominence of the profession — one homeowner at a time. Architect in the House offers one free hour of architectural expertise to families considering a remodel or a new build project. In exchange, the family makes a suggested contribution of 40£ to Shelter, a British non profit organization providing for the homeless.

The concept is simple, and organized by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). Now in its 14th year, Architect in the Home pairs RIBA Chartered architects with curious homeowners. The architects provide their time for free, offering design inspiration, green building tips, price-to-value analysis, help troubleshoot existing problems or guidance on steering clear of likely pitfalls. Consultancy beyond the first hour is at the homeowner’s expense. Interested families are asked to sign up by a certain date, then matched with a RIBA Architect in their area, with the consultation following shortly thereafter.  So far, more than 50,000 homeowners across the UK have participated.

Since inception, the initiative has raised 1,000,000£ for the beneficiary charity, Shelter. 105,000£ was raised in 2009 alone.  In 2009, participating architects worked double time: 3,000 families and 1,250 architects participated.

It is uncertain what percent of families who participated in the scheme would otherwise not have called an architect.

One case study on the Architect in the House website identifies a couple who live in a split level terraced house. Approaching retirement, the couple wished to live on one floor – a desire made impossible by the location of the bathrooms, upstairs. The house was redesigned with the help of their new architect.

The American counterpart of RIBA is the America Institute of Architects.

Ecosystem based management meets planning: South Carolina case study

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation has funded PlaceMatters* to run three pilot projects, with the purpose of combining ecosystem-based management (EBM) tools within traditional planning.

Three counties in South Carolina are approaching planning in a new way: the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester region is using new methods to assess their vulnerability to natural hazards, resource conservation, and socioeconomic factors. This analysis will then shape the BCD Council of Governments regional land use and transportation plans.

The approach is to get experts together, identify hazards, areas of biological sensitivity, and economic considerations. Then PlaceMatters worked with local partners to engage the community to come up with an actual plan based on the science. The team hosted a Tools Expo in April of 2008 in South Carolina that brought together regional decision-makers and colleagues who could provide new methods to achieve town goals. As the BCD process goes forward, feedback from stakeholders will be provided via an interactive website that provides feedback to the planning process.

Some key lessons learned and successes in the project to date include:
·    Creation of a Local Project Implementation Team.  This team connected PlaceMatters staff with local experts on biodiversity, sources of hazard data, as well as acting as liaison with local partner organizations. 
·    Biodiversity Expert Group. Initial outreach to biodiversity experts to ask for assistance in gathering data was challenging.  Eventually, a group was gathered for one afternoon to collectively determine conservation goals and discuss available data. 
Some key tools, used by the firm PlaceMatters, are:
·    CommunityViz to analyze various social and economic impacts and create a future build-out scenario
·    NatureServe Vista to analyze performance of the current conditions and two future scenarios with respect to conservation goals
·    NOAA’s Community Resilience and Vulnerability Assessment Tool to analyze hazard risk with respect to vulnerable populations and facilities

The results of the scenario analysis will be shared with the BCD COG and its consultant team in order to successfully integrate this information into the public engagement and planning process.

Project Website: www.resilient-communities.org
--Jacob Smith
Jacob Smith, is a PlaceMatters-Packard Fellow based in Denver, Colorado

* PlaceMatters is an organization that helps citizens visualize and shape the impact of development and changes in land use upon their communities, operating as a 501c3 organization. This section of the Internal Revenue Code denotes an officially recognized, American, not for profit organization.