Comments Amit Gadkari has made

  • Greening the Capitol

    Thanks Sean for Climate Energy and the thoughts on goal based incentives.

    Other thing that has been hovering in my head, ever since I heard a talk from LBNL, was `Greening the Capitol', the plan to make the Capitol carbon neutral by Dec 2008

    http://speaker.gov/issues?id=0023

    Picking some brains to check my assumptions.....

    33% of the carbon emissions come from `Capitol Power Plant' (CPP). The name `Capitol Power Plant' is a misnomer. This facility does not produce any power. It provides heating and cooling for the 23 buildings on Capitol Hill.

    http://www.speaker.gov/pdf/GTCsummary.pdf

    This has the potential to be a marquee installation for CHP as it will be watched by the world and incorporating this technology for the decision makers to see and feel everyday can change the flow of thoughts.

    Speaker Nancy Pelosi approved the change of the fuel in the boilers to natural gas from coal. This makes waste heat recovery even easier. The incremental heat required for HP steam could be recovered from the waste heat and would still be much more capital efficient than using wind or solar to offset carbon emissions. HP steam could give practically free electricity before we use it for heating. Also it would add to overall grid generating capacity as it would be available during peak periods as opposed to wind which is strongest at night.

    Downside: Per the article below, CPP is over 100 years old and any modification needs act of Congress.

    http://www.capitalcommunitynews.com/publications/hillrag/ ...

    Is it worth pushing for CHP in this installation-
    Pros: High visibility, great application
    Cons: High visibility, too many controls
    On RED positioned to fund $1.5 billion of recycled energy projects posted 1 year, 12 months ago 12 Responses

  • RPS and popular feelings

    Sean, this is a comment related to your RPS blog as well as this one - a roundabout way to influence RPS, but a thought....

    What drives politicians and hence legislation is public feelings - they do the things that large number of people like. Solar has caught up in recent years because global warming is so visible and people see installing solar as a way to do their part. The solar panels on the houses advertise for the technology themselves and solar gets a lot of press.

    Similarly do you think it would be a good idea to push a 5KW CHP for houses which might be subsidized by the government and would drive home the point of heat-first design and the energy savings thereof.  

    This would drive the point that electricity is a byproduct of the `CHP furnace' and we do not need to buy it from the utility. This would get a lot of press and popularity thereby driving the legislation for waste heat and pressure reducing power generation which could truly have an impact on our overall energy consumption.
    On RED positioned to fund $1.5 billion of recycled energy projects posted 1 year, 12 months ago 12 Responses