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Quote/Unquote:

"We aren't passengers on spaceship Earth, we're the crew. We aren't residents on this planet, we're citizen's. The difference in both cases if responsibility."
- Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweikart

Issue 11      October 2007
( Download PDF - 517kB)

A Publication of Sustainable Solutions for all of BC’s Energy Needs

Transition Towns Plan for a Better Future With Less Oil
By Mary Sturgeon

In 2004, while teaching at Kinsale Further College in Ireland, permaculture instructor Rob Hopkins was given a DVD of The End of Suburbia, a Canadian documentary film written and directed by Toronto-based filmmaker Gregory Greene. This film would play a key role in helping Hopkins begin to envision the Transition Culture movement.

Focusing on the implications of peak oil on our way of life, the film features extensive interviews with, among others , the man widely considered to be the key figure in peak oil science, Dr. Colin J. Campbell, founder of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas (ASPO) (www.peakoil.net).

As it happened, Mr. Campbell lived close to Kinsale, so Hopkins decided to play the film for his students during the opening class, and invite Campbell to speak. After watching the film and hearing Campbell speak, Hopkins and his students began to think about what peak oil meant to Kinsale and how the small Irish town would adapt in an oil-depleted world.

Rather than feeling discouraged by what the future might hold for Kinsale and doing nothing, Hopkins and his students began to think about how their community might be better - not worse - in a future with less oil. In a videotaped interview with American interviewers Mary Beth Brangan and James Heddle from the Ecological Options Network, Hopkins describes how he viewed the challenge of peak oil.

"We could just sit here, not do anything, let this unfold as a series of lurching crises; or we could actually try to pull together all the different aspects of the town and really, really look at this," he said. "Because if we're able collectively to design a way through this using our intelligence, our ingenuity, our creativity, then there's no reason why the future with less oil couldn't be a preferable place to the present."

In that moment of clarity and vision, the Transition Culture movement was spawned.

It is the goal of Transition initiatives to formulate a plan that will help communities be more resilient to a future with less oil. These plans are called Energy Descent Action Plans, and the implementation of them are the ultimate outcome of the Transition process.

Hopkins realized that to create and build a vision for a future with less oil - or what is referred to as the post-peak energy descent - he needed to understand the positive aspects of life before cheap oil. He recognized that many people in western societies and even in emerging economies like India actually disparaged a simpler, local, and less oil-dependent way of life.

For a different perspective, Hopkins sought out the views of older generations, who could tell their personal stories about the positive aspects of life pre-1950s, prior to cheap oil becoming abundant and changing the industrial, economic and social structures of our world.

What emerged from those stories was a strong sense of interdependent community spirit and resilience; people living between the 1930s and 1950s worked together and had, as Hopkins describes, "skills they could turn their hands to."

Avoiding romanticizing the past, Hopkins recognized that the ideal approach would be to take the best of the past and combine it with the best of the present. That year at Kinsale, Hopkins and his permaculture students developed the first Energy Descent Action Plan (EDAP) for the community (to read this plan, visit Hopkins' web site at http://transitionculture.org/pdf-downloads/kinsale-energy-descent-action-plan-2005/).

In September of 2005, Hopkins moved to Totnes, in Devon, England, to complete his PhD, which looked at Energy Descent Action Plans. It was there that the first 'official' Transition Town project, Transition Town Totnes, began.

Today, there are more than 19 official communities, villages, towns and cities across the UK and in Ireland that have begun Transition processes and more than 175 others currently considering Transition initiatives. All in various stages of the process, these 19 towns collaborate, share knowledge and best practices using a wiki, at www.transitiontowns.org.

In working toward developing their own Energy Descent Action Plans, Transition Towns follow a 12-step process:

1. Form a short-term, four- or five-person steering committee that will get things underway, but that also agrees to disband once sub-committees are formed. At that time, one steering committee member may join each sub-committee, or choose to step aside.
   
2. Educate and build awareness so that community members understand the potential effects of peak oil. This step also helps to identify allies, build networks and build excitement toward the official launch of the Transition initiative. Film screenings, expert talks, news articles, etc. are all effective tools.
   
3. Network with existing groups that are working toward similar or complementary goals; you can tap into work that has already been done, as well as uncover local expertise that may provide help.
   
4. Launch the Transition initiative through a positive and inspiring community event. The idea is to create an event so that people feel its significance, and understand they are part of an historic beginning.
   
5. Allow Transition subgroups to naturally form by the collective energy, interests and passions of the people who want to get involved.
   
6. Use collaboration tools and methodologies (such as Open Space Technology) to bring people together to brainstorm, problem-solve and create solutions.
   
7. Create community initiatives that demonstrate things are happening. For example, organize a community tree planting day or create a central community garden; the idea is to show that the Transition initiative is not just about talk, but also about action.
   
8. Provide relevant skills training (such as gardening or home energy efficiency improvement workshops, for example), so that people can contribute, solve problems and achieve practical results.
   
9. Forge links with local government. According to the Transition Towns wiki, "however many practical projects you've initiated and however wonderful your Energy Descent Plan is, you will not progress too far unless you have cultivated a positive and productive relationship with your local authority."
   
10. Listen to community elders. Much can be learned from how things were done prior to abundant and cheap oil.
    
11. Remember that wherever things go, that's where they are supposed to go. As explained on the Transition wiki, "Your role is not to come up with all the answers, but to act as a catalyst for the community to design their own transition. If you keep your focus on the key design criteria - building community resilience and reducing the carbon footprint - you'll watch as the collective genius of the community enables a feasible, practicable and highly inventive solution to emerge."
    
12. Create the Energy Descent Action Plan. According to the Transition Towns wiki, "Each subgroup will have been focusing on practical actions to increase community resilience and reduce the carbon footprint. Combined, these actions form the Energy Descent Action Plan. That's where the collective genius of the community has designed its own future to take account of the potential threats from Peak Oil and Climate Change."

As more UK towns and villages join the Transition Culture movement, scores of communities across Europe and in North America are taking notice. Hopkins may have indeed given the rest of the world the framework to create a better future with less oil.

Kinsale, Ireland, birthplace of the Transition Culture movement

My Experience with Conversion to a PHEV
By David Moore

My name is David Moore. I am a Research and Technology director at a local company in Seattle. I have been doing technology and software development for almost 30 years at a number of Seattle area companies. I have worked on many diverse technology projects ranging from software development and computer hardware development to commercial aircraft and spacecraft designs.

I live north of Seattle and commute 60 miles round trip to work during the week. Five or six years ago I started learning more about climate change and started trimming my carbon footprint. I got my first Toyota Prius five years ago, shortly after they became available in the US.

I first learned about Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) a couple of years ago, and began researching PHEVs in more detail last year. I talked to a number of the companies developing the technology, including Edrive, Hymotion and Hybrids Plus. When Hybrids Plus told me they would do a conversion on my car I went for it, and in May of this year I upgraded to a 2007 Prius and had it converted to a PHEV by Hybrids Plus.

A PHEV Prius is a 2004 or newer Prius that has had its battery capacity increase by replacing the existing battery or by adding a larger battery. In my case I had the small capacity Prius battery replaced with a very large capacity battery. Hybrid Plus uses the fire resistant A123 system batteries in their conversions.

These batteries provide substantially more power with very little weight gain. They increased my battery capacity nine times but only added about 80 pounds to the weight of the car. The new batteries fit nicely under the rear cargo area and I still have a spare tire under there as well. The car drives, accelerates and handles like a standard Prius. The cool thing about a PHEV car is that you can recharge the battery at home and possibly at work. All you need is access to a 110 volt outlet. The battery enables my Prius to go about 40 miles on an electric charge alone - if I stay below 40 miles per hour. Above 41mph the gas engine will kick in. At these higher speeds the electric motor is still working and with the large battery the gas mileage at freeway speeds is two to three times higher (75mpg to 180mpg) than a standard Prius.

You are probably wondering how much it costs to charge the car up each month. I charge the car at home each night and at work each day. At work they have spaces reserved for electric and PHEV cars. My charging at work is free. I checked with the building management and their utility charges are half what I pay at home. They estimated that my monthly charging would cost them $4. They jokingly said they would unplug a light bulb somewhere to cover the added cost of providing a free charge to me. If I drive 1000 miles each month I estimate that the increase in my monthly electric bill is about $8. It would be about $16 dollars if I did not get the free charge at work.

There is nothing that I don't like about the car. The Prius is a great car. It's a great commute car and with the PHEV conversion it's an awesome commute car. On my first tank of gas I got 123mpg. The car has plenty of room, good performance, and lots of storage space. Just yesterday I gave a ride to four other people in downtown Seattle. They were all able to get in the car (three is tight in the back, but it can be done) and we drove around Seattle completely on electric mode. I didn't burn a single molecule of gas the entire drive, despite going up a few of the steep hills.

These cars are very rare. I know of only about 50 that are in existence in the United States. The cost of the best battery technology right now is too high to enable low cost conversion kits. I expect the price for these conversions will come down over the next few years. If gas prices stay high, we should see a lot more of these cars on the roads in the coming years.

Here are some resources where you can learn more about PHEV cars:
Electric Auto Association : www.eaa-phev.org
Plug-In Partners: www.pluginpartners.com
Plug-In America: www.pluginamerica.org
CalCars: www.calcars.org

You can find a video log about my initial PHEV experiences attached to the Hybrids Plus website at www.tinyurl.com/ytv4ch Follow the links at the top of the page to learn more about Hybrids Plus.

Building a Solar Toilet and Shower in the Kootenays
By Tom Anderson

The best way to utilize the free energy provided by the sun is to build solar receptivity right into your house. It doesn't require complicated technology, it doesn't need to be expensive, and it doesn't need to make your house look weird. One of the simplest and quickest ways to start drawing energy from the sun is to build a solar wall to heat water. Such a wall can be added to any home.

When I first moved to the Kootenays, I needed hot water for a toilet and outdoor shower. The toilet was designed to use a jet of warm water in place of toilet paper. It was completely odour free and self-cleaning as well. The waste material was automatically composted with straw, chicken droppings and other materials, and eventually returned to the land. The shower was situated outside of the same end of the building, in a sunken area open to the sky but sheltered from breezes. The water for both toilet and shower was heated by a collector I had built onto the south-facing wall of the building.

I started constructing this solar collector by covering the wall with reflective foil, then installed heavy-duty flexible plastic pipe over the foil in the form of a large spiral, using loose clamps to allow for expansion and contraction. The whole wall was then covered with black plastic sheeting, stretched tight over the pipe, and a selection of flowers was planted along the bottom. This design worked beautifully! Because the wall was vertical, rather than being sloped towards the sun, it picked up heat very nicely in the spring and fall, when the sun was at a low angle, but did not get too hot during summer. The flowers shaded the wall during the hot months as well, so overheating was never a problem.
This solar wall provided all the hot water I could use from March through October, and provided the most enjoyable showers anyone could ever hope for. I used the idea again when I built my new house, both for cooling walls and warming floors, in addition to simply bathing. There too it worked beautifully. The best part is, anyone can do it and it costs almost nothing!

Tom Anderson's homemade solar wall

CLIMATE SOLUTIONS PORTFOLIO

The BCSEA's Climate Solutions Portfolio is a series of concise one-pagers outlining sustainable energy initiatives relevant to British Columbia, researched and written by Guy Dauncey, Tom Hackney and others.

Upgrade Buildings for Energy Efficiency at Point of Sale

Proposed Measure
A commitment to introduce a Green Building Code was made in the Throne Speech, and is being developed through the office of Housing and Construction Standards. An equally important challenge is how to make BC's existing building stock more energy efficient.

In 1982, San Francisco introduced a Residential Energy Conservation Ordinance (RECO), under which a seller, before transfer of title can occur, must have an energy inspection verifying that all applicable conservation applications have been installed to meet or exceed California's Title 24 Energy Codes.

Sellers are not required to spend more than 1% of the purchase price or assessed value, and buyers and sellers may negotiate the responsibility for the upgrade, as long as the changes are made within 180 days of transfer of title. RECO's mild regulatory approach has been successfully normalized in the Bay Areas housing market, and has been highly effective at reaching older housing stock and marginal elements of the private rental market. Using RECO, since 1987 Berkeley (pop'n 104,000) has reduced its residential energy consumption by 13%, saving 5,098 tons of CO2 a year, saving households up to $450 a year on their energy with payback in two years.

To accelerate the energy efficiency upgrading of BC's existing building stock, the BC government could:

1. Phase in a province-wide RECO, making the energy/water efficiency aspects of the Green Building Code mandatory for all residential and commercial buildings upon sale, transfer, or renovation exceeding a total permit value of $20,000. Start in CRD, GVRD, FVRD, Nanaimo, Kelowna, and Kamloops.
   
2. Make the RECO performance-based as well as prescriptive, allowing the use of EnerGuide as a tool.
   
3. Match all federal ecoENERGY grants, as in Ontario, where (eg) the installation of a ground-source heat pump earns a grant of $7,000. Do not limit the investment to 1% of the assessed value (as above)
   
4. Extend the PST exemption on alternative energy equipment to equipment associated with an upgrade.
   
5. Create a loan guarantee fund enabling private financial institutions to offer energy upgrade loans.
   
6. Empower BC Hydro to issue energy upgrade loans.
   

Benefits

1. Greenhouse gas emissions associated with buildings would be steadily reduced.
2. BC businesses offering building efficiency technologies and services would expand to meet the demand.
3. Home-owners and landlords would feel supported in the process of upgrading, and enjoy lower energy bills following the upgrade.
4. Businesses would have lower ongoing fuel costs, allowing them to be more successful in the market.
5. The RECO itself carries no cost to government.
   

Execution Plan

Actions by staff:

• Building and Safety Policy Branch: Study Berkeley's RECO, and prepare recommendations for Cabinet.

Areas for Cabinet approval:

• Agreement in principle that this approach should be supported.
  
• Empower BC Hydro to issue energy upgrade loans.
  

Resources: www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/sustainable/residents/ResSidebar/RECO.html
                 www.nycclimatesummit.com/casestudies/building/bldg_berkeley.html

Millijoules
by Guy Dauncey, BCSEA President

Have You Driven a Fjord?

Stand by for a revolution in the way we think about a car - the iCar, as in iPod and iPhone. The story starts with the Norwegian Think City, an electric car from the 1990s. When the US car industry killed off California's regulations that favoured clean air vehicles, the Think's company went into bankruptcy - but like the phoenix, it has remerged transformed. The new Think EV will be sold on-line, not through dealers. It will be Internet and Wi-Fi enabled, so the car can send you an email if it's battery is getting low, or if it is good to sell some power to the grid. The company is selling mobility - think "Web 2.0 on wheels", as CNN Money reported (www.tinyurl.com/ywo8s9). It will do 100 kph, with a range of 180 km on a single charge, and when the batteries need replacing, a power company might buy them to store intermittent green energy, for which they are still good. The owner and CEO, Jan-Olaf Willums, is planning to produce 20,000, initially for sale in Norway in 2008, where it will sell for $34,000 US. If the battery is leased, however, the car will sell for $16,000, with a monthly "mobility fee" of $100 to $200 that might include the battery, insurance and Internet access. The concept draws a lot on car-sharing, where you own a share in the mobility that car sharing provides, and pay a fee for use. It may also appear with a Stirling engine that can run on biofuels to recharge the battery en route, eliminating the range limit.

Växjö's Green Power Plant

Since 1993, the southern Swedish city of Växjö (pop'n 80,000) has decreased its CO2 emissions by 30% per capita. In 1996, the city leaders decided that they should reduce the city's CO2 emissions by 50% by 2010, 70% by 2025 and 100% by 2050. The main change has been the use of wood-wastes from the town's sawmills in the power plant, instead of oil. The gases that are produced as the wood burns are condensed into liquid form, then purified. The hot liquid is then pumped around the town, producing heat and hot water. With oil-fired power, it used to cost 16,000 kroner ($2888) a year ($240 a month). Using wood wastes, it costs $1900 a year - still very expensive, by ultra-cheap Canadian standards. Växjö has many other environmental goals, including that 30% of the farmland should be ecological by 2015, and that 25% of all food bought locally should be ecological by 2010. See www.vaxjo.se/vaxjo_templates/Page.aspx?id=2780 for more information.

The Paris Freedom Bike

Since July, Paris has been dotted with 10,000 self-serve bicycles, stationed in 750 bike ranks - known as the Velib. You can buy a year's membership from 300 métro stations and 400 pastry shops for 29 Euros ($41) plus a $215 credit card deposit. A one-day card is $1.40, and a weekly card is $7. After buying a card, the first half-hour is free, then it's 1 Euro ($1.40) for the next half-hour, 2 Euros for the next 30-minutes and 4 Euros for each half-hour after that. The bikes have been a huge success - in the first 3 weeks, they were borrowed 1.2 million times - 6 times a day for each bike. By the end of the year, they are planning to have 20,600 bikes, and 1400 parking spots. Paris has 370 km of cycle paths, and is governed by a green socialist Mayor, Bertrand Delanoë. A similar club for city car rentals has also been set up, using low pollution and electric vehicles. See www.velib.paris.fr

The Impact of Meat on Climate Change

• Share of greenhouse gas emissions caused by raising livestock: 18%
• CO2 emissions from producing 1 kg of beef: 36.4kg
• Distance traveled by the average European car to produce the same emissions as 1 kg of beef: 250 km
• Reduction in greenhouse gas emissions if the beef is organic: 40%

Sources:
"Meat is murder on the Environment". New Scientist, July 21 2007.
Livestock's Long Shadow - Environmental Issues and Options. H. Steinfeld et al. UN FAO, Nov 29, 2006.

Mojave Solar Project

Pacific Gas and Electric, one of California's big power companies, has signed a contract to buy power from a 553 MW solar concentrating power plant in the Mojave desert - the future Mojave Solar Park. The technology - from Solel, in Israel - will cover 6,000 acres of desert with 1.2 million parabolic mirrors, which will heat a fluid to run a steam turbine, via 317 miles of vacuum tubing. The project is scheduled to break ground in 2009, and begin operating in 2011, providing enough power for 400,000 homes in northern and central California.

Algerian Solar Project

Algeria, a country that covers 2.4 million square kilometres of sun-baked land (2.5 times larger than BC), could provide 60 times more electricity than Europe consumes if it deployed similar solar thermal technology. To start the process, New Energy Algeria has started on a 150 MW plant at Hassi R'Mel, 260 miles south of Algiers. 25 MW of the power will come from solar energy produced using parabolic mirrors that will cover 2 million square feet (45 football fields). The rest will come from natural gas. The long-term goal is to generate 6,000 MW of solar energy for Europe by 2020. One unknown factor is the cost of the undersea cables to Sicily and Spain. By 2020, the cost of thermal solar will be the equivalent of oil at $15 a barrel. In 2007, it costs 25% more than using natural gas.

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