From the Blog

EnviPark in Turin

About the park

Turin Environment Park was founded in 1996 on the initiative of the Piedmont Region, the Province of Turin, the Municipality of Turin and the European Union. It represents an original experience among the science and technology parks of Europe in the sense that it combines innovation technology with eco-efficiency. As a whole, Environment Park covers an area of about 30.000 square meters consisting of laboratories, offices and service centers in a building environment that uses low environmental impact solutions. (source: www.envipark.com/en)

PDF presentation

Visit EnviPark website

 

Bosco Verticale : The world’s first vertical forest nears completion in Milan

by DIANE PHAM, Inhabitat.com, January 25, 2014

Boeri Studio's Bosco Verticale vertical forest is nearing completion in Milan Photo: Barreca & LaVarra Source: www.inhabitat.com

Boeri Studio’s Bosco Verticale vertical forest is nearing completion in Milan
Photo: Barreca & LaVarra
Source: www.inhabitat.com

Back in 2011 we reported on the Bosco Verticale — a new superstructure designed to bring the world’s first vertical forest to Milan, Italy. While many were skeptical when it came to the feasibility of construction, Boeri Studio reports that the structure is certainly more than just a fantasy — in fact it’s well on its way to being completed this year. The project’s two towers have already reached full height, and since April of 2012, teams have been installing trees on the structure. Though construction has slowed due to rain and snowfall in Milan over the last couple months, things are anticipated to kick up again very soon to meet the late 2013 opening.

Milan is one of the most polluted cities in the world, and the Bosco Verticale project aims to mitigate some of the environmental damage that has been inflicted upon the city by urbanization. The design is made up of two high-density tower blocks with integrated photovoltaic energy systems and trees and vegetation planted on the facade. The plants help capture CO2 and dust in the air, reduce the need to mechanically heat and cool the tower’s apartments, and help mitigate the area’s urban heat island effect – particularly during the summer when temperatures can reach over 100 degrees.

[Read more...]

Le photovoltaïque va dépasser pour la 1re fois les 40 GW en 2014 dans le monde

LeMoniteur.fr, 2 janvier 2014

Les installations de panneaux photovoltaïques dans le monde vont poursuivre une croissance à deux chiffres en 2014, après une année 2013 meilleure que prévue grâce au Japon notamment, selon les prévisions annuelles du cabinet spécialisé IHS.

Selon ce dernier, les nouvelles capacités de production d’électricité photovoltaïque atteindront un nouveau record compris entre 40 et 45 GX l’an prochain. En 2013, le marché a dépassé les 35 GW, soit un nouveau sommet après 31,2 GW en 2012 et 27,5 GW en 2011, souligne IHS.

Et contrairement à ses prévisions de l’an dernier, le marché en valeur ne s’est pas contracté comme en 2012, progressant au contraire de 7 % à 83 milliards de dollars. L’explication, qui est aussi un des enjeux principaux de 2014, vient d’un pays: le Japon, deuxième marché national dans le monde en 2013 derrière la Chine, explique IHS. Quelque 6,3 GW de panneaux solaires ont été installés en 2013 au Japon, un marché tiré par l’arrêt des réacteurs nucléaires dans l’archipel après la catastrophe de Fukushima.

L’an prochain, ce chiffre devrait grimper à 7,2 GW, même si IHS avertit toutefois d’un risque d’explosion de la bulle du photovoltaïque nippon, du fait du récent demi-tour du gouvernement japonais, qui a réduit drastiquement ses engagements en matière de CO2. La Chine, premier marché au monde, devrait-elle poursuivre sa course en avant dans le solaire en installant 9,3 GW, contre 8,6 GW, mais rester donc en dessous de l’objectif officiel des 12 GW pour 2014. Le marché américain, le troisième au monde, devrait également croître lui aussi, à 6,4 GW contre 5,5 GW en 2013.

À l’inverse, l’Allemagne, jadis un leader mondial, restera à une terne 4e place et son marché se réduira de nouveau après des baisses drastiques de ses tarifs de soutien, note IHS, qui prédit 3,7 GW en 2014 après 3,8 GW en 2013. Le pays européen où la croissance du solaire devrait être la plus forte serait, selon ses prévisions, le Royaume-Uni, qui passerait de 1,3 GW en 2013 à 1,7 GW, prenant à l’Italie la cinquième place mondiale.

Le marché français afficherait lui une légère progression à 0,8 GW, et remonterait au 8e rang mondial. Dans les autres tendances, IHS souligne à la fois l’essor du stockage d’électricité photovoltaïque (qui devrait quadrupler à 753 MW en 2014), la stabilisation des marges des grands fabricants chinois de panneaux, qui se sont améliorées ces derniers mois, et l’émergence du marché sud-américain, qui devrait quintupler à 1,4 GW l’an prochain.

Source ENERPRESSE

Lire l’article original

Capitol Hill’s Northwest School unveils new gymnasium +theater +cafeteria +sports field above E Pike

by jseattle, Capital Hill Seattl Blog, January 7, 2014

Rooftop Sports Field Photo: CHS Source: www.capitolhillseattle.com

Rooftop Sports Field
Photo: CHS
Source: www.capitolhillseattle.com

There is a new sports field at the unlikely location of E Pike and Bellevue. Look up.

Monday morning, the 6th through 12th graders at Capitol Hill’s Northwest School explored their new 38,300 square-foot facility at 401 E Pike that somehow houses “a league-size Gymnasium, 175-seat Black Box Theatre, two-tiered Dining Room, and a 6,000 square foot Rooftop Sports Field.”

“We used every inch from basement to roof,” Head of School Mike McGill told CHS as he watched students take their first kicks on the new rooftop turf and cork pellet field.

500 students currently attend classes at Northwest including 50 in the school’s international boarding program, the only one of its kind in Seattle.

The $19 million project designed by Mithun is one of a wave of big-money construction projects planned and underway for the doing very well, thank you roster of private schools on Capitol Hill. The Northwest project broke ground in September 2012 and was completed ahead of schedule and slightly under budget thanks to incentives for contractor Exxel Pacific to bring the job in on time.

[Read more...]

California installed more rooftop solar in 2013 than previous 30 years combined

by KILEY KROH, ThinkProgress, January 2, 2014

2013 was a banner year for clean energy and the U.S. solar industry was no exception. California, the nation’s solar standout, more than doubled its rooftop solar installations last year from 1,000 megawatts (MW) to 2,000 MW. To put this number in perspective, writes Bernadette Del Chiaro of the California Solar Energy Industries Association, it took California over 30 years to build the first 1,000 MW of rooftop solar.

“When utility-scale solar projects are added in, California’s total solar power picture well-exceeds 4,000 MW today — nearly twice as much installed capacity as exists at California’s last remaining nuclear power plant, Diablo Canyon,” according to Del Chiaro.

And California isn’t alone in its rooftop solar surge. “About 200,000 U.S. homes and businesses added rooftop solar in the past two years alone — about 3 gigawatts of power and enough to replace four or five conventionally-sized coal plants,” Bloomberg reported.

As record numbers of homes and businesses decide to go solar, utility companies are growing increasingly uneasy about the threat it poses to their existing business model. If more customers install solar panels or adopt energy efficiency measures, a utility will sell fewer units of energy — especially during peak demand when energy costs are the highest. Therefore, utilities will increase their energy prices to cover costs such as grid maintenance and labor and as prices go up, more customers will look to energy efficiency and distributed energy resources to reduce their energy bills, perpetuating the cycle.

[Read more...]

Analysis: Clouds over Hawaii’s rooftop solar growth hint at U.S. battle

by NICHOLA GROOM, Reuters, via Chicago Tribune, December 16, 2013

A view of houses with solar panels in the Mililani neighbourhood on the island of Oahu in Mililani, Hawaii  Photo: Hugh Gentry, Reuters Source: www.chicagotribune.com

A view of houses with solar panels in the Mililani neighbourhood on the island of Oahu in Mililani, Hawaii
Photo: Hugh Gentry, Reuters
Source: www.chicagotribune.com

(Reuters) – When Gloria Adams signed a contract to install a rooftop solar power system on her Oahu home in late August, she looked forward to lower electric bills and a return on her investment in the years ahead.

She never dreamed that she would have to stop the project, get the Hawaiian Electric Company’s permission before she could proceed, and possibly help pay for any upgrades to her neighborhood’s electricity circuits to handle the extra load.

Her home improvement ran afoul of a rule that went into effect in September.

The regulation requires homeowners on Oahu – Hawaii’s most populous island – to get the utility’s approval before installing photovoltaic (PV) rooftop solar systems.

In areas like Mililani, where Adams lives, the utility’s power circuits have reached a threshold where it would be dangerous to add PV systems without investing in upgrades to the distribution system.

“We didn’t anticipate having to pay HECO when we took this on,” Adams said. “They are acting like they got caught with their pants down, saying, ‘We don’t know how to deal with this.’”

What’s happening in Hawaii is a sign of battles to come in the rest of the United States, solar industry and electric utility executives said. The conflict is the latest variation on what was a controversial issue this year in top solar markets California and Arizona. It was a hot topic at a solar industry conference last week: how to foster the growth of rooftop solar power while easing the concerns of regulated utilities that see its rise as a threat.

[Read more...]