Chicago seeks private money to fund retrofits of public buildings

Drew Ballensky writes, “Chicago seeks private money to fund energy retrofits on public buildings | Wednesday, July 20, 2011 - 10:53.”

Helge: What are we doing in the field of energy efficiency in our cities?

The City of Chicago is attempting to attract private funds to pay for energy efficiency upgrades of nearly 100 public buildings. The buildings that together have more than 6.5 million square feet of space would be retrofitted at a cost of about $40 million, reports the Chicago Sun-Times.  (http://www.suntimes.com/6474753-417/rahm-emanuel-promises-to-make-buildi...)

Helge: We tend to think in terms of what is the government doing to boost investments in energy conservation and efficiency.

Projected energy savings on the city-wide retrofit program would be used to secure private financing. Annual energy savings is estimated to be $5.7 million, and the project is expected to create 375 jobs.

Helge: Is there a bigger saving potential in USA? I guess so.

The project will be modeled on the retrofit of the Richard J. Daley Center. That effort included an energy audit, followed by conservation measures including lighting upgrades, water conservation modifications to public restrooms, new boiler controls, and variable air boxes for a pair of fan systems serving the building’s first eight floors. The Daley Center upgrades have cut $600,000 from the building’s annual utility bills.

• Magazine
• Building Team Firms
• Building Types
• Products & Systems

We need to understand energy and environment better than before

Finland is an energy intensive and very northern country. There are months and times when I’d like to live in France, Spain, Portugal, Italy or Greece. South America might be a great alternative.

But, we should be speaking about energy. Finland wants more nuclear power plants. What should I say? Should I take a position “for” or “against”?

I don’t oppose nuclear power plants. I’m a pragmatic person, even though I understand the problems of nuclear waste handling. Not all the aspects of it, but it’s a problem we leave unresolved for our children.

Bioenergy is less complex. It’s a perfect distributed energy solution, but we’re not living in the villages – not even in Finland. The urban lifestyle adapts very well to large scale, centralized nuclear energy. Should we move back to the village? Many problems could be handled in a small is beautiful environment with less centralized decision making.

We’re not ready for such a change. Digital Villages might be the best thing for global development, but the concept has to be promoted much better than before.

Inhabitat Great Design

Helge: Great design!

cervus @digitalvillages but but but it's pre-fab friday over at http://inhabitat.com/ — i wanna live large with a tiny footprint. deal? :)



October 19, 2007

SOLAR DECATHLON 2007: Technische Universität Darmstadt

by Jill and Emily

Inhabitat: "Combining the manufacturing expertise of Volkswagen with a stunningly modern design sensibility, the Technische Universität Darmstadt’s wowed the crowds this week at the 2007 Solar Decathlon with their gorgeously innovative Solar Decathlon home.

The Darmstadt home combines both high-tech active solar and low-tech passive solar components into smart operable building envelope of movable photovoltaic shutters.

This clever solar shutter system bears more than a passing resemblance to old school German wooden shutters — only writ large, spanning every exterior surface of house and covered with photovolaic panels that generate electricity while they are simultaneously shading the house from the sun."