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First Aired - 09/13/2010 12:00PM
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This week on The Naturalist Bernie speaks to Pierre Bull of the Natural Resources Defense Council about solar energy. The NRDC has 1.3 million members and advocates for everything from saving the ocean to renewable energy and fixing climate change. Bull works on making buildings more energy efficient and making solar energy a more viable solution for New Yorkers. Tune in to hear why advancements in solar panel technology means solar energy is now a more realistic way to supply the energy grid sustainably. This episode was sponsored by Whole Foods Market.
Photo 1: Museum of Jewish Heritage, Photo 2: New York Solar Billboard-Albany, Photo 3: Solar Energy Chart
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Pierre Bull and the NRDC (18:32)
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Whole Foods, Pierre Bull, Natural Resources Defense Council, 350 Offices with 1.3 million members, address oceans land water energy climate change etc, Pierre's area of expertise is global warming in the Air and Energy Program, the 70s energy crunch, Heat Guns that detect UV energy, detecting bad insulation in homes, insulation in the 70s was horrible, 2007 oil price increase and recession helped grow awareness of global warming, China and India and Europe are putting policies in place to improve efficiency, thin film is newer and gathers more energy vs photovoltaic, Pierre is from Kansas City, University of Illinois, the coasts seem to be moving ahead in stopping climate change than middle america, KC is finally catching on to solar energy, the recession is slowing down renewable energy growth, in 2003 NY State through a regulatory process put forth an investigation to create NY States Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), this called for 25 percent renewable energy in NY State by 2013, they're counting hydro electric, nearly 20 percent of NY States energy comes from the hydro plants at Niagra falls, therefore the 25 percent number is really 5 percent, we have a lot of transmission lines that carry from upstate to downstate, we have to update the distribution grid, electricity needs to be on lines at all time, like water pressure in a hose the pressure needs to be online at all time, voltage works the same way in that its all or nothing, the grid has been built out over almost a century, the first electrical grid in NYC was created by Thomas Edison, original grid was DC which was cumbersome and required bigger equipment, we need to upgrade the grid because its aging and we need to add capacity for solar and wind and a smarter grid to provide added firmness so electrons can be on it at all times,Solar Energy and The Grid (26:11)
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Megagrids, the NYC grid is part of the NY State Grid, the Independent System Operator or ISO, the Continental US has five or seven grids that are policy orginizations that oversee how the grids are technically operated, if there is a power failure in Ohio it could affect us, the grid is really three portions of the US, the whole state of Texas has its own grid, the eastern half is from the rocky mountains clear east, the western half is the continental divide west and clear up into Canada, West Virginia is part of the PJM, wind is a variable supply, the wind farm owner has to have a sense of the weather coming and tell the grid operator the output may be low and electrons can't come from him that day, will this grid update be fast or slow?, there is a lot of great work to plan for all that, is NY ideal for solar energy at this lattitude?, Germany has the highest number of solar installed per mega watt hour and more than what the US has in total, Germany's solar potential is on par with Alaska due to lattitude, NY gets more insulation frmo the sun than Germany, why not put solar collectors on all the flat roofs in the city?, net metering is when home solar users that can push new energy onto the grid get a check from Con Ed in return, The Recovery Act includes a segment wherein The Department of Energy demands the cost of solar goes down, solar shingles, within NYC there is a set of photovoltaic arrays on the Staten Island Ferry, has the Oil Industry slowed the developement of Solar Energy?, Bloomberg's 2030 plan is to reduce all of NYC's greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent meaning EVERYTHING, this includes a lot of mini-plans within it to get the job done, Bloomberg's camp really understands the need for alternative energy, New York State Energy and Research Development Authority, Solar Empowerment Zones are specific geographic locations that could potentially be places to gather solar energy, if you call your utility they can guide you to someone at NYSERDA for state incentives and applications for solar energy, tax breaks and credits for installing solar energy in your buildings, why don't more buildings have solar panels?, will it become easier to install solar panels with less red tape in the future?, NRDC has a very well established energy solutions team in NYC,To comment on this episode click here. There are currently Comments
