The journey from "Net- Zero Energy" to "Energy Independence" for sustainable Green Coomunities

Tweet

Does  Net-Zero Energy  mean Energy Independence?

The answer depends on the various forms of energy that are addressed by the User. This includes Electrical Energy, Thermal energy for Heat and Fuels for Transportation.

Normally these energy improvements depend on the incentives offered by the state or Federal Agencies. For example, currently New York State has very attractive grants and tax incentives for electrical power generation and energy efficiency retrofits. Some of our Municipal clients are now implementing projects to produce large scale solar PV system to produce as much power over the Year as they consume in their multiple buildings. They plan to achieve the first step of Net-Zero Energy  by 2014. We are proud to have these visionary Village and Town leaders in Finger Lakes region that have made the decision to do so.

So where do they go from this stage onwards?

Upgrade of the HVAC system would be next as the funds are available and long term financing of Geothermal and/or solar thermal systems may be the technologies to provide very efficient green system to replace non-renewable fuels and reduce their carbon foot print.

So what is the next step after they achieve this goal?

Transportation is key to our energy independence and finding alternative fuels for transportation and having the refueling infrastructure would be the next opportunity. CNG,  hybrid gas & Electric vehicles, and Electric Vehicles are the possible options to replace expensive gasoline or diesel with new cleaner fuels. This step will keep the money in America and avoid importing oil from overseas.

When all of these steps are completed the community will truly become an Energy Independent community. In Europe such communities exist now. It is time that America takes the lead and helps develops such examples of energy independence. It will be a dream come true. Hopefully in next 10 years.

Ram

Celebrate July 4th with enhanced conservation

Tweet

It felt so good to see gasoline selling for $3.35 in New York. The price drop over last month shows that if speculators are not playing commodity games and consumer is buying more efficient technology, then energy costs can be controlled. Energy independence must be our goal and we must do everything to first reduce the energy consumption and then produce new green energy to avoid using oil based products. Fortunately there is abundant supply of domestic natural gas that will help us shift to this cleaner fuel in the transition period.
Happy July 4th as we move to newer Green future.
Ram

Happiness and Energy Independence

Tweet

If you have not heard about Zappos then please do go to their web site and learn about how Happiness matters. This innovative and visionary company is making a difference by first taking care of their people and then taking care of the community. Imagine a large company moving their head quarters to Las Vegas downtown and making the commitment to revive the community.They are setting a great example for public - private sector to get engaged and help in sustaining our communties with economic development.

The interesting fact is that Zappos makes more money and many other large corporations are now learning from their experience and adopting the same philosophy.

Who does not want to be Happy? So why not focus on making your staff happy by giving them a great purpose to work for and resources to make a contribution.
Energy Independence is a great cause and we should focus on conservation and Green power generation in our facilities and communities.

Every individual effort counts as it brings you the feeling of Happiness. Take my example of recently buying a plug in Prius. The additional cost of about $8,000 may only give me annual gas savings of 150 gallons worth $500.00. It is clearly a bad economic decision if you only consider dollars and cents. What about the value of 7,500 miles per year  of driving on battery power, with smile and satisfaction that I am not using any gas and not polluting the air for others to breath. For me, every day of this experience is worth every penny of the additional cost.
Hopefully the demand created by buyers like me will help reduce the cost to produce such cars and soon we will have bigger battery power range at lower cost for more people to buy such cars. My last hybrid Prius has 232,000 miles and I look forward to having a similar "smile filled" experience with this "plug in hybrid".
Ram

Plug in Hybrid- Buy now or Wait?

Tweet

So why should we buy a plug in hybrid?

Most of the buyers may be doing it because their heart says it is right thing to do. The mind  and most auto review experts say that  you will not get the return on investment for high cost of storage battery.  If it is all about money than stay with old technology and by a regular car that gives 40 miles per gallon. If you crave for energy independence some day than do it for the experience of joy of not using gasoline. With cost of storage batteries high most cars have small range. My Prius" plug in" takes me about 12 miles of pure pleasure of "Zero gasoline" range. I charge the car again at the office and then return home with zero use of gasoline. How do you price this feeling? The money saved from gasoline may only be worth $2.00 each day assuming the 50 miles per gallon for Prius. One has to experience the feeling as you see the gauge and find out that you reached the office in EV range and still have left over miles. Although I must admit that I wish it had the minimum 30 miles per charge range.

Each buyer should be considered as an investor in our future by creating the demand for these expensive cars.Some day the new battery storage technology will give us 300+mile range and filling station that can recharge in 15 minutes. That will be the day when Americans would not have to look at the gas stations price tags and just go past these conventional stations to parking lots, where electric charge station will do the job while you have lunch or shop in the store.

It is this dream that inspires the initial buyers of these hard to justify cars with the decision whether to buy the plug in or EV car?

Some decisions are made with passion in your heart and overlook the money calculations that shows how many years it takes to recover the extra money you paid for the plug in hybrid or EV technology. How do yo measure the Happiness in your heart or value of smile when you experience this new technology. I am loving it. Do not postpone to experience this for future.. It is only the present that counts.
Ram

Energy Independence is Earth day message!

Tweet

Earthday 2012 has special message and hope for America to seek energy independence. Let us resolve to make our oil import zero by 2020. New cars running on natural gas are coming to help live with our own resources and not use gasoline.
I have driven my 2004 Prius for over 230,500 miles. Now I am ready to take delivery of my plug in hybrid Prius next week. Hopefully my commute to the office will be on electric using the night time recharging. Better days are ahead for us as we learn to conserve energy and develop new green power sources at the consumer sites.
Earthday 2013 will be better with application of Green technologies in sustainable green communities.
Ram