Urban Renewable Energy Research (URER)
Adonis Eco-Housing has initiated a project called Urban Renewable Energy Research (URER) - an effort to mitigate the current urban energy use and bring carbon free energy sources to the mainstream. We are working toward a sustainable green future that includes economic equity and social justice through the implementation of microgrids (local energy networks). The best vehicle that we have found for implementing microgrids is through the use of Hybrid systems (photovoltaic solar, geothermal, wind and greywater harvesting) on a readily available commodity in our current housing market, the vacant house. We individually retrofit vacant housing with a system of photovoltaic solar, geothermal, wind and greywater harvesting. The process is very site specific. The property’s position to the sun, the area’s wind patterns, mature growth trees and other landscape obstacles become relevant in determining the size of the PV solar or wind turbine. With regards to geothermal, a core sample is taken. And greywater harvesting can be applied to almost all applications from whole house to individual elements. These Hybrid systems are designed to mitigate 40-70% of a property’s energy needs (note that this percentage is set to allow the property to remain affordable, with future goals of producing a net zero product and retaining affordability), along with more conventional applications such as modern insulation (spray foam), lighting (LED, CFL) and energy efficient appliances and heating sources. After the Hybrid system is in place, the house becomes the next unit in a series that produces the microgrid. As an example, if three houses on a city block were each retrofitted with a Hybrid system, this would be called a microgrid.
From Anya Kamenetz’ article, Why the Microgrid Could be the Answer to our Energy Crisis: “The scale of the microgrid can deliver unforeseen benefits, too. Amory Lovins, the green wise man of the Rocky Mountain Institute, is among the biggest and most influential fans of micropower; he's written a book, Small Is Profitable, laying out 207 reasons why. Among them: "Distributed generation" means a redundant, resilient, secure infrastructure -- that's why military bases and hospitals have their own power plants. Micropower can be more reliable, given that 98% of all blackouts originate in the grid. And it creates thousands of local jobs near population centers in design, installation, and maintenance. "Micropower, as of three years ago -- the latest global data -- was a third of the world's new electricity and one-sixth of the world's total," he tells Fast Company in his trademark pressure-wash style. "Micropower growth is very rapid, and it's [currently] almost wholly financed by private capital. Distributed renewables in 2007 got $91 billion of new private investment... . There are several quite distinct reasons for thinking that these stats I've just given you are the leading edge of a tsunami of change in the power sector." Small Is Profitable concludes that because the scale lowers capital risk, the economic benefits of a dollar invested in distributed renewables can be an order of magnitude (factor of 10) greater than the same dollar invested in conventional power plants.”.
Adonis Eco-Housing has a ten-year goal of implementing a Direct Current (DC) house from the ground up. With sustainable energy created in DC and the majority of our household electrical usage in DC, we see the need to cut out the AC component completely. The only exception would be the grid, which can be converted either at the breaker panel altogether or out to individual circuits.
Ian Houmas AEH@q.com 612-774-5456
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For questions regarding A.E.H. and our programs, please contact Ian Houmas at 651-774-5456 or AEH@q.com.
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Margaret Mead
