Energy Efficiency In The Big Apple

Since the beginning of this blog’s run, I have talked a lot about alternative energy and all the promising things it has to offer. It is an area that is constantly seeing new growth, and I hope to work within one day (hire me).

However, many of the big changes in alternative energy are still off in the distance meaning that in order to make an impact on energy consumption and carbon emissions people will have to attack on different avenues.

One of these avenues is energy efficiency.

By creating more efficient energy consuming products and implementing more efficient means of using these products, energy consumption can be greatly reduced without actually have to sacrifice functionality.

A very large-scale example of efficiency can be seen with the renovations being planned for the Empire State Building in New York City:

The New York Times gushes:

Owners of the New York City landmark announced on Monday that they will be beginning a renovation this summer expected to reduce the skyscraper’s energy use by 38 percent a year by 2013, at an annual savings of $4.4 million. The retrofit project will add $20 million to the $500 million building makeover already under way that aims to attract larger corporate occupants at higher rents.

The main areas of focus for these renovations will be the lighting, heating, and water systems that haven’t really changed since the buildings original construction in 1931.

A Google Image Search revealed that there were large gorillas climbing the ESB in the old days... different times.

The NY Times makes an interesting statement saying that “While the energy-saving improvements will be substantial, no one visiting the building is very likely to notice them — most involve slight changes or will be hidden in the building’s innards.”

This is wonderful because many people believe that these projects sacrifice aesthetic value. This simply is not that case, and hopefully other cities will see the Empire State Building’s example and decide to make the investment to save millions of dollars on energy bills annually.

Wind Turbines Eating Entire Bird Populations?

During my last semester at school, I got to write a fairly enjoyable paper on the dangers that wind turbines pose to bat populations.  To make a long story short, bats are getting killed by wind turbines as their navigation systems are "jammed" by the noise created by the rotating blades.

A "similar" event is happening with wind turbines killing birds as they migrate. I place similar in quotations because birds do not use sonar to navigate, and to be completely honest these birds aren't presenting as challenging of a problem as the bats.

A spokeswoman for the American Bird Conservancy rants:

Golden eagles, whooping cranes and greater sage-grouse are likely to be among the birds most affected by poorly planned and sited wind projects.

Because these birds are migrating, a simple solution to the bird kills is to shut off the turbines during migration season.  This isn't that difficult to do because migration patterns are relatively predictable and fall along pretty standard paths.  Obviously it isn't perfectly mechanical and there will be variability in how birds actually do migrate, but shutting off certain turbines makes more sense than just abandoning construction of clean energy entirely in these areas.

Sunday Comics

Something to think about when using chemicals on your lawn.
The New Yorker

Welcome to 2011. Be brilliant.

Site News: New Years Edition

We did it. We made it to 2011.

Starting this Monday, Sustainabili-City is going to be moving to a new posting format.  Instead of being a daily blog, I am not going to be posting articles every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Seeing that I am now job searching around the clock, it only makes sense that I spend a little less time trying to write on a topic every day and instead focus more on the job market.  I think this will be better in the long run because now my articles won't feel as rushed as they have lately and once I do get a job, I find it hard to believe that I would be able to keep up with a daily blog.

Before you all start emailing me, I will also still post comics on Sunday since I'm pretty sure that is what keeps the majority of you coming back to the blog anyways.

Hope you all had a great NYE celebration and you haven't been taking too many ibuprofen today.  Happy New Year!