Efficiency

Bipartisan Efficiency Bill Promotes Efficiency Standards

Philip Proefrock

A bill recently introduced in the Senate would improve the efficiency of homes and commercial buildings, advace the adoption of improved building codes with greater efficiency requirements, and require the federal government facilities to adopt efficient measures and require new federal buildings to meet the highest efficiency standards.

The Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act of 2011 (Bill S.1000) would promote greater efficiency for buildings and appliances as part of a national energy efficiency strategy.

The aim of the bill is to use "a variety of low-cost tools to reduce barriers for private sector energy users and drive adoption of off-the-shelf efficiency technologies that will save businesses and consumers money, make America more energy independent, and reduce emissions." It would also create a goal of achieving net-zero-energy building by 2030. The "bill recognizes a fundamental reality: the best and cheapest energy available is the energy we don’t use."

Although the bill has bipartisan support (Senators Jeanne Shaheen [D-NH] and Rob Portman [R-OH]) and is also supported by many industries, it still has to make its way through the legislative process.

image: CC BY 2.0 by Will Palmer

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Federal Fleet Slashes Fuel Use with More Efficient Vehicles

Megan Treacy

The Government Services Administration (GSA) -- the agency that buys vehicles for federal agencies to lease -- has announced that the new cars purchased so far in 2011 use 21 percent less fuel than the cars they replaced. The average MPG for the new vehicles has gone from 19.1 last year to 23.4 this year.

President Obama signed an executive order in 2009 that mandated a 30 percent decrease in fuel consumption by the U.S. government's fleet by 2020 and it looks like the administration is well on its way to meeting that goal -- fuel use across the entire fleet has dropped 22.5 percent compared to 2005, which is the baseline year..

So far this year, the GSA has replaced 35,000 vehicles with more efficient models, with 22,000 of those being advanced technology vehicles (EVs, hybrids, fuel cell vehicles and E85 vehicles). By 2015, all vehicles purchased for the federal fleet will have to be advanced technology vehicles. The GSA typically purchases about 60,000 vehicles a year.

An average of 23.4 MPG seems low when there are several vehicles out that can get 40 MPG and greater, but this huge fleet includes military and delivery vehicles which are typically less efficient and that increase will make a big impact. The new cars will save 2.4 million gallons of fuel and $9 million taxpayer dollars annualy.

This is a step that deserves some cheering. After all, the U.S. government is the world's largest consumer of oil and the nation's greatest energy user. The more we can reduce those numbers, the better.

via Detroit News and Autoblog Green

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Electronic Health Records Could Cut Carbon Emissions by 1.7 Million Tons

Megan Treacy

The health care industry is responsible for up to eight percent of our country's annual CO2 emissions, but a full transition from paper to electronic medical records could take the industry from major emitter to minor emitter. A new study by Kaiser Permanente found that if electronic health records were implemented across the entire U.S. population, it would reduce CO2 emissions by 1.7 million tons.

Kaiser Permanente, along with the rest of the top five medical groups, have created a patient information exchange that uses only electronic medical records, but across the country, adoption of the technology has been low. On Kaiser's part, digitizing their records has saved the company 1,044 tons of paper and reduced toxic chemicals from X-ray machine scans by 33.3 tons. The implementation of virtual doctor-patient visits has saved 92,000 tons of CO2 emissions.

To help spur more physicians, practices and medical groups to make the switch, the federal government is offering $44,000 in incentives per physician for adopting electronic records. Widespread adoption of better health IT systems could save the U.S. healthcare system $81 billion a year.

via Earth 911

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Hybrid Bulbs Combine CFL and Halogen Bulb Features

Philip Proefrock

Another complaint against compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) will have to go by the wayside with the introduction of a new hybrid bulb from GE that is able to come to immediate full brightness as soon as it is switched on. As with cars, where hybrids combine the best properties of two transport technologies, hybrids are now an option for light bulbs, combining immediate brightness of halogen with the energy savings of a compact fluorescent.

The bulb itself is in a conventional incandescent-shape. Inside that is a now-familiar coil of compact fluorescent tubing. But, at the center of that is a small halogen capsule. When the light is turned on, both the halogen and the CFL come on, so that the bulb has full brightness immediately available. Once the CFL has reached its full brightness, the halogen portion automatically turns off, so that the life of the bulb is conserved.

The hybrid bulbs have an expected lifetime of 8,000 hours, about 8x as long as incandescent bulbs, and close to the expected life of regular CFLs. Additionally, these hybrid bulbs have a lower level of mercury than most currently available CFLs. The hybrid bulbs contain just 1 mg of mercury, while most current CFLs have 1.5 to 3.5 mg of mercury.

The hybrid bulbs are available for 60- and 75-watt replacement and should now be starting to appear in retail stores, with an expected price range of $5.99 to $9.99.

via: GE Hybrid Halogen

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Study Says More Time at the Gate Equals Less Airplane Emissions

Megan Treacy

planes-at-gate
We recently told you about how new guidelines for streamlining flight paths and landings could cut fuel use by 15 percent and result in a nice decline in emissions. Now, researchers at MIT say that more time at the gate could also slash fuel use and emissions from aircraft.

The study, funded by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, was carried out at Boston Logan International Airport where the researchers found that if planes were held at their gates for an average of four minutes and 18 seconds, runway congestion cleared up. That lead to 20 percent less taxiing time for the planes, which reduced fuel use by 75 liters per plane. As a bonus, even with the wait time, planes were actually up in the air more quickly without the traffic jam on the runway.

Taxiing accounts for the emission of 6 billion tons of CO2 a year in domestic U.S. flights with European flights emitting a similar amount of greenhouse gases from taxiing. If the new flight path and landing guidelines were paired with four minutes wait time at the gate, aviation emissions could be reduced by millions of tons a year.

via New Scientist

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