Comments davidjacot has made

  • Reality check...

    Let's not get too carried away praising this project. Yes, it may help develop the market for renewable energy source harvesters, such as solar panels and wind turbines. And, as a showcase, it will have a high educational value, including  lessons learned during construction and ongoing maintenance and operations costs.

    But it's still a big mall; meaning the vast majority of patrons will arrive and depart via private automobile. Remember that the auto is what makes big box retail stores and malls possible in the first place; the larger the development, the large the geographic area it must draw customers from to maintain sales volume. Where's the residential component? Where's the office component so that the parking can be shared (office during the day, mall in the evenings and weekends)? At least it's on a brownfield, which implies a more central location than a green field.

    Further, lets look at the sources of energy the mall will be using. Solar and wind; great. Fuel cells, if the hydrogen truly comes from renewable energy sources; great. But slightly over half (53%) of the energy needs of the project are scheduled to be met with biodiesel and biomass. Biofuels only make sense as long as they are sourced from the waste stream of another process; i.e. agriculture. Once you start growing the biomass for the sole purpose of generating energy, it becomes energy negative. The energy inputs of tilling the ground, planting seeds, fertilizing, harvesting, and processing into fuel consumes more energy than the resulting fuel provides. So, biofuels are inherently limited in their ability to ever supplant more than a small fraction of the fossil fuels we use today.

    So, as showcase for the potential of solar, wind, and renewable hydrogen powered fuel cells, the project has considerable merit. But let's not go overboard and say this project represents the future of sustainable development.On Mega-mall in upstate New York could give birth to a clean-energy awakening posted 4 years, 6 months ago 9 Responses