Newsletter
December, 2004

THANKS FOR A BANNER YEAR FOR NJHEPS

Donald Wheeler, Executive Director
We owe deep gratitude to the life-blood of NJHEPS: compassionate, committed, wise people. Seasons greetings and best wishes for the New Year! Please join us in future sustainability endeavors.

In this issue:

NJHEPS Energy Workshop:
Strategies for Energy Effectiveness
Hosted on Dec. 3, at Brookdale Community College


The beautifully wooded campus of Brookdale Community College hosted the NJHEPS Fall Energy Workshop on December 3rd. Attendees listened to presentations on a variety of energy topics, ranging from offshore wind resources and Biodiesel, to the progress campuses are making in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, to energy management systems.

Dr. Richard Dunk from the Coastal Ocean Observation Lab at Rutgers began the morning with a discussion of the location of wind resources in the State of New Jersey. Dr. Dunk showed that the optimal locations for wind energy development are offshore and along the Jersey coast. Bob Gray of World Energy Solutions discussed an energy source of a different kind, Biodiesel. Gray described the versatile nature of Biodiesel, from its various types to its applications as well as Biodiesel’s attractive environmental profile. Gray also stated that federal tax incentives are making Biodiesel more competitive with conventional petroleum.

Cameron Johnson from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities described the programs available to NJ’s colleges and universities who are seeking to improve energy efficiency and implement renewable energy projects on their campuses. Lisa Westerfield from the NJ Chapter of the USGBC described the LEED program for Existing Building (EB), and the benefits of pursuing LEED Certification for buildings that already exist on campuses.

The discussion of college and university campuses continued as Lori Winyard from The College of New Jersey explained the importance of creating an Energy Master Plan for each college and university. Ms. Winyard stressed that a comprehensive approach to energy planning must integrate supply-side and demand-side issues along with the Capital Construction Master Plan in order for campuses to best meet their growing energy needs. Dr. Lynn Stiles from Richard Stockton College described how his college is reducing greenhouse gas emissions through the implementation of new technologies. Dr. Stiles also described the implementation of the new Aquifer Thermal Storage project, one that is important for the long-term sustainability of their Geothermal Heat Pumps. Gerald Portee from UMDNJ presented the progress his university is making to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Mr. Portee credited the progress due to a variety of energy efficiency projects, such as the installation of three solar cogeneration units and the University-wide Metasys energy management system.

The discussion of management systems continued into the afternoon. Mike Webster from Icetec described how energy management systems could be used to take advantage of the hourly fluctuations in the cost of electricity. Mr. Webster illustrated how the energy management system at Princeton was able optimize their Cogeneration plant production during periods when electricity was expensive. Kent Dunn from the Verdiem Corporation showed how information technology equipment such as computers are increasing the demand for electricity, and how network energy management systems can reduce this electricity demand by scheduling shutdowns of computers throughout the network during off hours as well as enabling low-power settings during non-peak use hours. The network energy management systems are flexible, versatile, and can be used in ways that balance the needs for network productivity and energy efficiency.

Richard Frank, Director of Facilities at Brookdale hosted the event.

Union of Concerned Scientists Releases New Study
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has released a new study that quantifies the savings and job creation a national renewable portfolio standard (RPS) could bring to the U.S.

"Renewable energy can create good jobs and save consumers money while reducing our growing dependence on energy imports from politically unstable regions around the world," said Alan Nogee, UCS clean energy program director. "It is time our elected officials free us from being hostage to energy resources of the 19th century, and switch to advanced clean energy technologies. The technologies are ready. All it takes is the political will."

The study finds that more than 355,000 jobs would be created if the U.S. obtained 20% of its electricity from wind, solar, and other renewable energy sources. This total is nearly double the number of jobs that would be created from generating the same amount of electricity from fossil fuels.

A national standard would also provide new income from capital investment and direct payments to rural communities. A RPS could also reduce America's increasing dependence on importing natural gas from the Middle East and former Soviet states.

The study goes on to show that a 20% RPS would also save consumers more than $35 billion on their electricity bills through 2020, and another $14 billion in lower natural gas bills. Renewables achieve these savings primarily by reducing the demand for - and the price of - natural gas.

The analysis found 20% renewable electricity by 2020 would boost the U.S. economy with benefits such as:

A net gain of more than 157,000 new jobs in manufacturing, construction, operation, maintenance, and other industries;
$73 billion in capital investment;
$16 billion in income to farmers, ranchers, and rural landowners for biomass energy supplies and wind power land leases; and
$5 billion in property tax revenues for rural communities.

"Renewable energy provides economic benefits without producing the harmful pollution generated by coal-fired power plants," said Steve Clemmer, UCS energy research director.

"Instead of losing almost 80,000 jobs from chemical companies moving plants overseas to escape high natural gas prices, the U.S. could be creating highly-skilled renewable energy jobs," said Clemmer. "Installing and operating wind turbines and solar panels and growing energy crops are jobs that cannot be outsourced."

U.S. power plant carbon dioxide emissions - a major contributor to global warming - would be also 15% lower in 2025 with a 20% RPS in place. The same policy would reduce other pollutants from burning fossil fuels such as nitrogen oxides that produce smog and mercury that harm human health.

A full copy of the report can be downloaded at http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy .

Coloradans Vote to Embrace Alternative Sources of Energy
Colorado utilities will have to sell a lot more electricity from wind power in years to come under a statewide ballot initiative approved by voters on Nov. 2, and if they want some pointers they might talk to Adam T. Kremers, a 19-year-old sophomore at Colorado State University here. He has been there and done that.

Mr. Kremers sold wind power to the occupants of individual dormitory rooms this fall, under an agreement between the university and the local utility that environmentalists describe as one of the first such programs in the nation.

Mr. Kremers, an environmental engineering major and the associate director of environmental affairs in the student government, gave out stickers and pinwheels shaped like turbines and threw a "wind power party" to celebrate clean energy, complete with a cake connived from the dining hall.

He ultimately got 187 students - nearly 4 percent of the university's residence-hall population of 5,000 - to sign up, paying an additional $17 to $52 a year to buy green power to run their computers and lava lamps.

Please click here for full story.

Kyoto Gets A Kick-Off Date

After nearly seven years of doubt and often rancorous debate, the Kyoto Protocol has an official start date: Feb. 16, 2005, at which point the treaty will become binding. The 90-day countdown period begins tomorrow, thanks to the handover of official documents from Russia to the U.N. at a ceremony in Nairobi, declaring its ratification. Only four industrialized countries now remain outside the treaty: the U.S., Australia, and global powerhouses Liechtenstein and Monaco. The U.S. bailed on the treaty shortly after George W. Bush came to office in 2001, claiming it represented too great a burden on the economy, and that it was unfair, imposing specific targets only on developed countries and not on rapidly developing (and polluting) countries like China and India. Despite U.S. intransigence, many U.S. companies are pushing to meet Kyoto targets anyway, leery of losing their ability to operate factories in signatory countries. For Full Story

California Commits to LEED Silver
On December 14, 2004 California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed an executive order requiring LEED Silver for all new state-funded buildings. Declaring that “the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) [is] the nation's leading green building rating system,” the Governor is requiring LEED Certification for state-owned buildings as a key part of his plan “to reduce grid-based energy purchases for state-owned buildings by 20% by 2015, through cost-effective efficiency measures and distributed generation technologies.”

Please see http://www.usgbc.org/Docs/News/News1217.pdf for the full Executive Order.

AROUND THE CAMPUSES

Princeton University Establishes Solar Award

The Princeton University's Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials (PRISM) teamed up Global Photonic Energy Corporation (GPEC) and The Princeton Environmental Institute (PEI) to offer a thesis-level prize for budding solar PV developers.

"The Global Photonic Energy Corporation, Edith & Martin B. Stein Solar Energy Innovation Award" is being established to encourage and recognize young innovators at both the undergraduate and graduate levels at Princeton University.

With global demand for electricity continually expanding, oil prices setting records and broad recognition of the environment and geopolitical implications of deploying fossil fuels (coal, natural gas and oil) to power generation plants, solar energy has emerged as an extremely promising and underutilized source of clean, infinite and renewable energy.

The full story is available at http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=19067

Harvard Makes 3rd Largest Green Power Purchase of U.S. Universities

The Harvard Green Campus Initiative (HGCI) recently assisted the historic purchase of renewable energy certificates representing clean, renewable wind energy generated on behalf of Harvard Real Estate Services, Harvard University's School of Public Health and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. According to the EPA, the combined purchases of these new Harvard Partners represent the third largest green power purchase in the country by a higher education institution.

For full story, please see: http://www.greencampus.harvard.edu/newsletters/rv2.php?d=newsletter2004_06.pdf&a=harvards_green_power

Grassroots Climate Action Conference at MIT Discusses Post-Election Strategy
On November 14th, the 4th Annual Grassroots Climate Action Conference was hosted at MIT at the Frank Gehry designed, LEED-Silver Stata Center sponsored by the Massachusetts Climate Action Network. The conference focused on how grassroots efforts in cities, towns, and states in New England are making progress towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions. 270 attendees with 19 workshops and plenary speakers discussed subjects ranging from influencing the private sector to address global climate change to the importance of supporting the controversial off-shore wind farm project.

Workshops covered climate science, green power, sustainable transportation, and university actions and campaigns. Universities have been leaders in tackling the issue of global climate change, as Sarah Hammond Creighton illustrated in her description of Tuft’s Climate Initiative. Ms. Creighton distinguished between two types of environmental projects - the “glory” and the “guts”, and stressed the importance of choosing projects that actually make a difference in reducing CO2 emissions, rather than projects that are simply good PR. Steven Lanou informing the audience that M.I.T. has mandated that all new buildings will meet LEED-Silver standards or better.

The evening plenary session focused on the Cape Wind project controversy, a large wind project planned for the waters off the Nantucket shore. The session addressed the Draft Environmental Impact Statement that supports the project. The future of the project has been receiving national attention and has implications for New Jersey given that the State’s wind resources are also located off shore.

UPCOMING EVENTS

ANJEE (Alliance for New Jersey Environmental Education) Annual Conference
Jan 6-8, 2005
Rider University, Bernardsville NJ
Further information: www.anjee.net/conference/

Includes workshops on "Environmental Education in College," "The New Jersey Farmer," highlighting use of local farms for educative purposes; "Native Plants for Schools and People;" and "Exploring Environmental Issues in the Places We Live," the latest Secondary Module from Project Learning Tree (with a focus on sustainability, community planning, and sense of place).

Upcoming AEE Telecourses

Complete Course Offerings (including sessions on Strategic Energy Planning and Performance Contracting): www.aeecenter.org/realtime/.

***
NJHEPS
Dr. Donald Wheeler, Executive Director
Dr. Daniel Watts, President

Want to share progress towards sustainability on your campus? Please send news items to Terra Meierdierck (973-642-7848; tmeierdierck@njheps.org) for inclusion in our newsletter.

NJHEPS gratefully acknowledges the support of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the Educational Foundation of America, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, the AT&T Foundation, AT&T, Inc., and the NJHEPS 40 Member Institutions.

This newsletter is available online (from www.njheps.org/press.html). This newsletter is sent out twice a month by NJHEPS via an announcements-only listserv, NJHEPS-news@listserver.njit.edu. If you no longer wish to subscribe to this listserv, please use the tools available on the listserv's homepage, at http://listserver.njit.edu/mailman/options/njheps-news/* (replace the "*" with your email address), or notify Terra Meierdierck, NJHEPS Program Assistant.