You can make a difference to the hurt being caused by climate chaos and the great extinction event, in your town or your city! How? Reuse, repurpose, and recycle this information.
This is the letter for week 39 of a weekly climate strike that went on for 4 years in front of San Francisco City Hall, beginning early March 2019. For more context, see this story. For an annotated table of contents to see topics for all the strike letters, see this story.
STRIKE FOR THE PLANET
Because it is impossible not to act and survive, you must act. Now.
This week’s topic is ENERGY — THE DETAILS.
In the next 9 years, San Francisco must have switched to 100%, zero-net-carbon-emission, renewable energy. How?
Divide and Conquer
Independently examining and working on energy for buildings, energy for transport, and the creation of an integrated urban energy system makes identification and rapid implementation of solutions in each sector easier.
For example, prohibiting the use of CH4 in new construction (an energy in buildings solution) needs to include assuring chefs they are good enough to cook on electricity, and that doing so will help the planet survive so they will continue to have jobs. As we must transition all methane to electricity in all businesses, homes, and locations in SF asap, we need to address all areas that might prevent quick action, such as chefs.
How do we figure out solutions?
We need to look at how our energy is produced, change how our energy is used, and change who controls our energy.
Change how our energy is produced
This involves legislating for, investing in, requiring via city codes, and maximizing:
- SOLAR
- WIND
- TIDAL
- CONSERVATION
- GROUND SOURCE HEAT PUMPS
- HARVESTING OF FREE ENERGY GENERATION
- SOLID BIOMASS
1. SOLAR
Other cities that have or are switching to solar can help SF with identifying issues and solutions to implementation.1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Cities doing large scale solar include Fremantle and Sydney6 and, according to Stanford, should include us.7 Once again, San Diego is the leader among cities in California8 but we can catch up.9 Cities are better locations for large scale solar generation than places that are both distant from end users and already being used for other purposes (including ecosystem/biosphere uses).
2. WIND
There are multiple styles of vertical wind generators.10, 11 There are inexpensive, innovative designs coming online12 that reduce bird deaths and noise. Every building more than 5 stories tall, especially in the downtown wind corridors, needs vertical wind generators.
3. TIDAL
SF took part in a tidal energy study in 2005 conducted by the Electric Power Research Institute.13 We have data for some locations and some types of local tidal energy capture14, we officially committed to building a 1 MW tidal power station by 200615, advancements have been made in the decade plus since the study that make it even more feasible and affordable16, 17, SF and Santa Cruz were using tidal energy over a century ago18, and our ability to harness this clean energy gives us more reason to fight against a Delta Tunnel and the tar sands ships proposals being pushed by Gov. Newsom and the Trump administration.
4. CONSERVATION
SF still wastes enormous amounts of energy. Energy conservation is a health issue19, a neighborhood equity issue20, and an environmental survival issue.
5. GROUND SOURCE HEAT PUMPS
These systems are relatively cheap, passive, and they work with the earth instead of against it.21
6. HARVESTING OF FREE ENERGY GENERATION
Humans produce a lot of energy that can be turned into electricity, whether it’s in fitness facilities22, dance halls23, or just walking24 or riding.25
7. SEA WATER DISTRICT HEATING AND COOLING
This has been done in multiple locations worldwide.26, 27, 28 A local example is at The Exploratorium, where the entire system is visible and well labeled, and where they’ve been collecting data on it since they opened at their current location.
Change how our energy is used
This means conservation which means:
- changing building design and allowed materials
- excising fossil fuels and private cars from our transport system, and
- changing legislation regarding appliances/machines, allowing for maximum conservation
Change who controls our energy
1. It is long past time to municipalize the power grid.
2. We must change how we plan, inventory what we own, examine where we buy renewable energy from, rethink how we regulate energy and the ways in which we aggregate demand for energy, change how we finance renewable projects, and push at the regional and state levels for rapid change starting now.
Why?
The biosphere that created and sustains us is dying29 and we will die with it, unless we act now and keep acting as long as needed. You’ve declared we’re in a climate emergency so you need to start acting like we’re in a climate emergency. Because we are.
There are only 49 weeks left.
FOOTNOTES
1. Alex Burch. “City of Hot Springs going 100-percent solar”. KATV. 18 September 2019. https://katv.com/news/local/city-of-hot-springs-is-going-100-percent-solar.
2. Anastasia Pantsios. Top 10 Cities Embracing Solar energy — Did Your City Make the List? EcoWatch. 26 March 2015. https://www.ecowatch.com/top-10-cities-embracing-solar-energy-did-your-city-make-the-list-1882023206.html.
3. Solar PV Battery Installations in Honolulu: 2018 Update. Research Economic Analysis Division. August 2018. http://files.hawaii.gov/dbedt/economic/data_reports/reports-studies/Solar_PV_Battery_Installation_2019Aug.pdf.
4. Pete Danko. How Indianapolis (of All Places) Became a Solar Powerhouse. Breaking Energy. 10 June 2014. https://breakingenergy.com/2014/07/10/how-indianapolis-of-all-places-became-a-solar-powerhouse/.
5. Greensource Gets Cleaner in 2020, Rates Remain 1% Below PG&E. San Jose Clean Energy. December 2019. https://www.sanjosecleanenergy.org.
6. Jason Byrne. “What’s wrong with big solar in cities? Nothing, if it’s done right”. Phys Org. 1 August 2018. https://phys.org/news/2018-08-wrong-big-solar-cities.html.
7. Alissa Walker. This Is How Easily Our Cities Could Become High-Density Solar Power Plants. Gizmodo. 17 March 2015. https://gizmodo.com/our-cities-could-become-high-density-solar-power-plants-1691936276.
8. Elisa Wood. Study Finds Large Potential for Solar and Community Microgrids in San Diego. Microgrid Knowledge. 15 January 2019. https://microgridknowledge.com/community-microgrids-solar-san-diego/.
9. Aneta Strzalka, Nazrul Alam, Eric Duminil, Volker Coors, and Ursula Eicker. “Large scale integration of photovoltaics in cities. Applied Energy. 9 December 2011. https://architecture.mit.edu/sites/architecture.mit.edu/files/attachments/lecture/large%20scale%20integration%20of%20photovoltaics.pdf.
10. Logan Ward. Windbetl, Cheap Generator Alternative, Set to Power Third World. Popular Mechancis. 1 October 2007. https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a2152/4224763/.
11. Mat Mcdermott. Windbelt, Turbine-less Wind Power Device, Finalist For Curry Stone Design Prize. Treehugger. 12 September 2008. https://www.treehugger.com/renewable-energy/windbelt-turbine-less-wind-power-device-finalist-for-curry-stone-design-prize.html.
12. Paul Dvorak and John Yan. “Vertical axis wind turbine technology continues to improve”. Windpower. 7 August 2017. https://www.windpowerengineering.com/vertical-axis-wind-turbine-technology-continues-improve/.
13. Tidal Power Feasibility Study. San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. March 2008. https://sfwater.org/ftp/large-documents/SFPUC-587377v.pdf.
14. Exploring Tidal Power in the San Francisco Bay. PG&E. https://www.pge.com/myhome/environment/pge/features/tidalpower.shtml.
15. Tidal Power for San Francisco: Conference Paper. OCEANS 2003 Conference Proceedings, Volume 1, ResearchGate. February 2003. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/4066168_Tidal_Power_for_San_Francisco.
16. “The potential of tidal energy production”. GreenFacts. 2020. https://www.greenfacts.org/en/tidal-energy/l-2/index.htm.
17. Ruud Kempener and Frank Neumann. Tidal Energy: Technology Brief. IRENA. June 2014. https://www.irena.org/documentdownloads/publications/tidal_energy_v4_web.pdf.
18. Christine Miller. Wave and Tidal Energy Experiments in San Francisco and Santa Cruz. OutsideLands.org. August 2004. http://www.outsidelands.org/wave-tidal.php.
19. See the strike letters on Light (week 12), Environmental Justice (week 15), Examples pt 1 (week 22), Examples pt 2 (week 23), and Transit (week 29)
20. Nancy Thompson. Communities Work Best When They Foster Energy Conservation. Useful Community Development. 2020. https://www.useful-community-development.org/energy-conservation.html.
21. Ground source heat pumps. Energy Saving Trust. https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/renewable-energy/heat/ground-source-heat-pumps.
22. Tom Gibson. These Exercise Machines Turn Your Sweat Into Electricity. IEEE Spectrum. 21 June 2011. https://spectrum.ieee.org/green-tech/conservation/these-exercise-machines-turn-your-sweat-into-electricity.
23. Piezoelectric Flooring: Harvesting Energy Using Footsteps. CleanTechies. 8 July 2015. https://cleantechies.com/2015/07/08/piezoelectric-flooring-harvesting-energy-using-footsteps/.
24. Luis Patron. Let’s Generate Electricity by Walking! Our World. 15 December 2008. https://ourworld.unu.edu/en/lets_generate_electricity_by_walking.
25. Ben Coxworth. “Low-cost system uses passing vehicles to generate electricity”. New Atlas. 02 December 2013. https://newatlas.com/vehicle-road-weight-electricity/29990/.
26. Allan Hani and Teet-Andrus Koiv. The Preliminary Research of Sea Water District Heating and Cooling for Tallinn Coastal Area. Smart Grid and Renewable Energy. August 2012. https://file.scirp.org/pdf/SGRE20120300011_19171139.pdf.
27. Sea Water Air Conditioning. Makai Ocean Engineering. 2020. https://www.makai.com/sea-water-air-conditioning/.
28. Sam Foster, Jenny Love, Ian Walker, and Martin Crane. Heat Pumps in District Heating: Case Studies. Department of Energy & Climate Change. 2016. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/489605/DECC_Heat_Pumps_in_District_Heating_-_Case_studies.pdf.
29. Tom McKay. Scientists Gauge How Fast Earth’s Ecosystems Are Dying, and It’s Not Looking Good for Us. Mic. 24 June 2015. https://www.mic.com/articles/121209/scientists-gauge-how-fast-earth-s-ecosystems-are-dying-and-it-s-not-looking-good-for-us.