Green Building : Jetson Green

Portland's First Rooftop Wind Turbines

Over the weekend, Hoffman Construction lifted four Southwest Windpower turbines into place on top of a new building, Twelve West.  Located at Southwest 12th Avenue and Washington Street, Twelve West includes a mixture of office and apartment spaces and was designed by Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects to achieve LEED Platinum certification.  ZGF included the turbines in early renderings, and developer Gerding Edlen, probably the foremost green developer on the West Coast, determined to give the turbines serious chance.

Honeywell Wind Turbine to be Sold at Ace Hardware Stores for $4,500

Last week, we mentioned that the small wind market is growing like crazy, and if things go as planned, there could be another turbine company to watch.  The Honeywell Wind Turbine from EarthTronics, according to Martin LaMonica of CNET, will be sold in participating Ace Hardware Stores starting this October.  EarthTronics claims the turbine can generate power at wind speeds as low as 2 mph.  With Class 4 winds, the turbine can generate about 2,000 kWh per year, which is roughly 15-20% of an average home's electricity needs. 

Simple DIY Rooftop Solar Clover

Greentech Media broke news today of a prototype rooftop solar system made for simplicity, shipability, and affordability.  The system is being developed by Armageddon Energy and is aptly called a "clover."  The clover includes three hexagonal solar panels, a micro-inverter, and a triangular frame.  It's lightweight (check out the regular folks below doing installation work) and can generate roughly 400 watts.  The company just finished early stage testing and is readying a beta program for further testing. 

Living in a Tesla World [Video]

Transportation is inextricably linked with (green) buildings.  And for a number of reasons -- peak oil, national security, price gouging, and concern for the environment -- the current oil-based transportation system is dying.  Its death started with hybrids, and to a certain extent, continued with natural gas vehicles.  With the advent of electrical vehicles, we will all witness the slow, prolonged, and painful death of oil-based transportation.  Tonight Dateline NBC gave us a glimpse of the next generation of transportation in Tesla Motors.  The future of electrical cars is bright, but let's be clear: it's complicated, too.

Future Now: Solar Plug-in Stations

This is ChargePoint, an electrical plug-in station that’s powered and monitored through a smart network. It was developed by Coulomb Technologies, who recently teamed up with Carbon Day Automotive to add a new little twist. Coulomb and CDA coupled the ChargePoint with a solar photovoltaic array to create one of the nation’s first Solar Plug-in Stations. These pictures show a Solar Plug-in Station provided for the City of Chicago. You may be interested in knowing that this Solar Plug-in Station was designed by Chicago’s own Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (you know, the Eco-Bridge and Clean Technology Tower).

St. Louis Chouteau Crossing Pursuing LEED Platinum Overhaul

With the glut of commercial space available today and the promise of stimulus money, some developers are looking at green building as a way to stand out.  Brushing up on catch-phrases just isn't going to cut it; in the new construction space, they're competing with early adopters who have already embraced sustainable design, energy efficiency, and LEED and the like.  They'll be competing with commercial projects like this. 

Mag-Wind New Wind Turbine [Video]

Jay Leno's all about the green tech, I mean, his garage is running on wind and solar, and it powers approximately two-thirds of the place.  So recently, he just put up this video demonstrating a new technology for rooftop wind applications.  The Mag-Wind turbine is made by Enviro Energies and both Jay Leno and Ed Begley Jr. have their own versions on order.  Naturally, Leno was excited to point out that his turbine will be bigger than Begley's, but in addition to that, you'll get an idea from the video how interesting the technology actually is.  It's built using magnetic levitation technology that reduces friction, noise, vibration, and energy loss.  Some other interesting aspects of the Mag-Wind System include:

Inventor Creates Net-Zero Energy Island

Dean Kamen is a well-known entrepreneur and inventor of various technologies, including the Segway, Project Slingshot, and a hybrid electrical car with a Stirling engine.  He's also trying to establish an independent, net-zero energy island off the coast of Connecticut.  The three-acre private island is called North Dumpling, and if granted his wishes, it would have its own constitution, flag, and national anthem.  Kamen's attempts at secession haven't been successful yet, but that's no surprise given the South wasn't able to do it either.  He has found success installing LEDs and saving energy, though. 

Vatican Gets Serious with Solar

Maybe Samsø started a trend in becoming a net exporter of renewable energy because it appears that the Vatican is thinking about doing something similar.  The curvacious roof of Paul VI Audience Hall, a building that's located right by the famous St. Peter's Basilica, has been topped with 2,400 photovoltaic panels to source energy for lighting, heat, and air conditioning.  The 5,000 m2 (54,000 sf) roof will produce ~300 megawatt hours of energy and cost approximately $1.6 million (donated by SolarWorld and SMA Solar Technology).  With the addition of this massive solar roof, the sovereign city-state will cut CO2 emissions by about 225 tons.  But that's not all:

Thoughts on Al Gore's Five-Part Plan to Repower America

I've always been kind of irked by the fact that President Reagan, after having the White House's leaky roof fixed, never replaced the solar hot water panels installed by President Carter.  But it's hard to judge him because I was barely crawling at the time -- I have no idea what was going on in the collective conscious of that generation.  I mean, Al Gore mentions in Sunday's Op-Ed in the NY Times that President Nixon established Project Independence 35 years ago with a goal to, in seven years time, develop the potential to meet our country's energy needs without having to rely on any foreign energy sources.  Yet, that never happened and Reagan's act, the way I see it, symbolically shut the door on the possibility of American energy self-reliance.  At least for the time being.