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Community Energy Systems Newsletter Archive2008 ArticlesMarch, 2008 March, 2008: Illinois Municipal Electric Agency Shows Off New Home By TIM LANDIS, BUSINESS EDITOR, State Journal-Register 2008, tim.landis@sj-r.com. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning
Parking spaces for environmentally friendly vehicles and car pools are only the outward signs of a green building that relies on nine miles of underground piping for geothermal heating and cooling, reduces water usage by 30 percent, and adjusts its own lighting based on natural lighting available and the number of people in the room. The headquarters off Old Jacksonville Road, just west of Veterans Parkway, is on a bus route. There are storage and shower facilities for employees who ride bicycles to work, and even the plants are environmentally correct. "All of the plants are native to this area," said T. David Parker of Melotte Morse Leonatti, the Springfield firm that designed the Prairie-style building. The Dana-Thomas House designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright also served as a model. While the green construction cost about 5 percent more than a conventional design, association executives said savings would more than pay for the building, including $6,100 a year on energy bills alone. "We believe this will become a model for people from around the state," said general manager and CEO Ronald Earl, adding that the "real-time" power purchases in the high-tech control center would help keep costs down at a time of unpredictable energy markets. Another simple feature of the building is that the windows have adjustable shades. Yes of course they are double painted gas sealed low-e coated gasket fitted windows. In other words more energy conscious then most glass in most buildings in Illinois, but when you don't want light, you can block it out entirely and when you want light or heat you can let it in through 12 ft. windows with the pull of a string. -- CENSYS President, Doug Nicodemus "We believe this will become a model for people from around the state," said general manager and CEO Ronald Earl, adding that the "real-time" power purchases in the high-tech control center would help keep costs down at a time of unpredictable energy markets. "It's not about the electrons anymore, it's financial. It's just like playing the stock market," he said. The control center is housed in a steel and concrete-reinforced room built to with¬stand an F5 tornado (winds of 261-318 miles per hour). The windows also have "hurricane shutters" that can be lowered during threatening weather, a feature used when severe thunderstorms hit the area earlier this month. Earl recalled that one of two tornadoes that hit Springfield in March 2006 passed just a few blocks south of the former headquarters at 919 S. Spring St. "We were on a concrete slab there, and our engineers told us if the tornado had come two blocks north, it would have wiped it clean," he said. Both Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn and Mayor Tim Davlin pointed out the IMEA headquarters likely would become the first Springfield building to receive the "Leadership in Ener¬gy and Environmental Design" certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. LEED certification is based on stringent national guidelines for environmentally friendly construction and restoration designs. "We have to be more efficient in the use of electricity, and that is what this is all about," Quinn said.
Ron Earl, the CEO and President had this to add in a Letter to the Editor in the SJ-R: The work of the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation was invaluable to us in the planning, financing, and construction of our building. Since its creation in 1999, the ICECF has invested in clean energy development and land preservation efforts throughout Illinois and has worked with many communities and citizens to improve environmental quality in Illinois. In our case, the foundation provided grants to IMEA, which made it possible for us to install our state-of-the-art geothermal heating and cooling system. The grants included funds for the system itself and funds to commission the building after installation. The commissioning process takes a holistic look at all the building's systems and makes certain that they are operating in the most efficient manner possible. The grants were also instrumental in our ability to apply for certification as a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) building.
To see the specifications that CENSYS President Doug Nicodemus posted at the CES website, go to: http://censys.org/blog/?p=195.
March, 2008: LEGISLATIVE UPDATE FOR 2007 HB0285 HB0295 HB0351 HB0825 HB0894 HB1460 HB3394 SB0135 SB0680 SB1592 SB1704 2007 ArticlesFall, 2007: Putting the E in dream home By SANDY MCCOLLUM, STAFF WRITER State Journal-Register Friday, September 28, 2007 Harvey Koplo and Annette Chinuge of Chatham discovered that they had extra money after their last child graduated from college. They decided to use that money for their dream home, one that wouldn't consume a lot of the earth's resources. Thus began an adventure and learning process, a green home that uses solar energy, collects water and doesn't waste much fossil fuel.
The couple bought a home on Spaulding Road with the intention of remodeling. When it became apparent that the improvements would be too expensive, they decided to start fresh. Down came the old home, replaced with a thoroughly-researched and planned home designed to leave just a small footprint in the environment. Harvey, owner of Avrom System Technology Services, used the Internet to investigate every aspect of the home, from foundation to heating, lighting and materials, and used state-of-the-art techniques for green-building construction. Harvey designed the outside; Annette designed the inside. Together they used eco-friendly design techniques and electrical power generating photovoltaic solar cells and, whenever possible, they used recycled or renewable resources. "Before we get into all the messy details of the HOUSE, the more important things about Harvey and Annette's house you can not see no matter how hard you look. First, they realized that the previous house on the property could not be made efficient as they wanted so they tore it down. Environmentalist might squawk, but trying to make things work in a "space in which they won't" has been one of the banes of energy conservation. In fact the Energy Industry has produced such failures on purpose so that people would believe that energy conservation does not work. The Industry called that process inoculation therapy. The other thing that they did was they left all of the old Trees in place. I don't know what developers have against trees but they always tear them down. That they left the trees up is maybe the most stellar part of the project for me." -- Doug GREEN HOME SPECS
COMMUNITY ENERGY SYSTEMS SEEKS DONATED BUILDING Community Energy Systems (CES), a Springfield nonprofit organization dedicated to new methods of energy generation and conservation, is seeking a donated building for a green rehabilitation project. The renovated building will be used as office space for CES, and as a demonstration model for several new and innovative energy technologies. "The concept of a green rehab is pretty straight forward.", said Doug Nicodemus, President of the organization. "All of the materials taken out of the building would not go to a landfill, and everything that goes into the building would be recycled, or at the very least, recyclable". Once the renovation is complete, Nicodemus intends to use the latest in green technology throughout the building. Current plans call for the building to be an environmental education and awareness center. "We are hoping that our partner, Sustainable Springfield, Inc., and other groups like the Sierra Club, Friends of Sangamon Valley, and Clean Energy Springfield will use the structure for offices and meeting rooms. Dave Fuchs, Vice President and Political Liaison for CES, sees it as an energy beacon. "We want to put in place amorphous photovoltaic panels, light tunnels, and geothermal heat pumps. My personal favorites are the smaller wind turbines that have recently come to market." According to Fuchs, new turbines come in all shapes and sizes, including a vertical turbine that can go directly on rooftops, and fixed blade traditional turbines that mount on 50 to 90 foot poles. "I like the vertical blade turbines because the manufacturers claim that they are bird proof. That is something we would like to test". "CES is looking for a light commercial or residential building in or around Springfield ", said Shane Bumgarner, Secretary for the organization. Bumgarner pointed out that CES thinks a residential building in an older neighborhood would be ideal. The donated structure would give the group an excellent opportunity to demonstrate current green rehabilitation strategies, and focus community attention on energy conservation, and environmental impact. Bumgarner noted, "When you drive around town and see construction dumpsters and realize all of that is going to the dump, you begin to understand it is a huge waste of energy and resources." "We have already addressed the Enos Park Neighborhood Association, and hope to talk to the Vinegar Hill and the Near West A ssociations, as well," said Nicodemus. CES believes its real hope may come from real estate agents. Sometimes, a property becomes an albatross for an owner, and donating it is the perfect solution. But, oftentimes, they don't realize the option exists. "Ideally, the building would have to be structurally sound." said Nicodemus. "We are not in a position to replace a roof, a foundation, or repair major structural damage, but, like Shane said, we're keeping all our options open". Community Energy Systems Looking for the Future Today CES is looking for people in central Illinois but particularly in Sangamon County who are practicing future energy activities in their homes or businesses today. "We know that there are people out there who are cutting their utility bills by using devices and practices that everyone in the future will use", said Doug Nicodemus President of the Board. CES would like to create a catalogue of those people and their places in the up-coming months. If you are using any of the following please let us know: Photovoltaics of any kind, wind or hydro generation of any kind, super insulated or rammed earth (underground) housing or business, solar water preheat systems, tank less water heaters, geothermal heat pumps, and anything else you may consider earth friendly energy services. "This is not a definitive list, said Dave Fuchs CES's Vice President and Government Liaison said, "We encourage anybody being inventive, like making their own biodiesal, using stoves that burn corn, doing green rehabilitations of buildings to get a hold of us. Also if people know of people doing this please contact us. We can contact that person and put them in the catalogue anonymously. Some people are shy about publicity or tooting their own horns. We respect that." CES is excited by this project. We hope to be able to post the results on our website and in the newsletter in the future. The Freeze Our legislative update should look like a circus because the people in the general assembly have been putting on a show. First Emil Jones strips Commonwealth Edison from a bill using an arcane parliamentary move that was shelved in the early 1970's because it so impeded getting any legislation passed. Then the house uses that same "Resolution to Reconsider" to hold the budget until rate relief is passed. That same Bill that Emil had his way with has had Commonwealth Edison added back to it and so much else that the bill is 250 pages long. My brother Mike tried to read it all, got a headache, and had to quit. Nobody has read the whole thing, not even the people that voted for it. Here then are the two bills and briefly what they purport to do followed by recent gossip about what will actually be passed. HB 1750 is on third read in the Senate and is so straightforward that at this point it's a little embarrassing to think that this would never pass. It does two things: it requires a rate freeze for 3 years; it makes that freeze retroactive to December 31 of 2006. SB 1592 is on third read in the House. Originally I thought this was the bill to watch, mainly because the Utility Companies hated HB 1750. When it stated in February it was a straightforward one-year retroactive freeze with years of modest rate increases to something like 42%. But now it includes:
The likely solution shaping up behind closed doors is rumored to involve 1 - 1.5 Billion dollars for rate relief most of it coming in this year but the rest stretched over 3 - 5 years. Some rise in rates will occur in the next three years, though the exact nature of that increase is elusive. Senator Forby has said it will be reasonable. There is good news on the utility front, Senator Bond's net metering bill has past both chambers and is on the way to the governors desk. It allows independent generators small and large to store their power on the grid. This clears the way for wind generators and photovoltaic owners to sell their excess capacity to the power companies at retail rates. This is very good news for those of us who want alternative energy to help homeowners with electric rate increases. Contacts can be reached through the organization's website at www.censys.org and by telephone at 217-629-7031. |
