What of people just walking at the mall or around your property could generate electricty/- green sidewalk makes electricity in UK http://bit.ly/tRIWaE
Cogeneration is the sumultaneous production of two forms of energy from a single fuel source. In our case, we will be using natural gas to make electricity and hot water for heat and domestic hot water for the Inn. The system will be located in Catherine’s pottery studio and will be able to be viewed by guests at the Inn and for tours. The energy production will be avilable online as well.
The typical power plant generates electricity at a 35 to 40% efficiency and dumps all the rest of the heat to the atmosphere or to a body of water (casuing other issues in the lake) so for 10 units of fuel you get 3.5 to 4 back in usable energy. This is partly due to the fact that everyone wants to power plants burning dirty coal to be located far away so it is impossible to use the heat energy that could be captured.
With smaller scale distributed energy and using cogeneration , for every 10 units of fuel, we can get back 9 units of usable energy in the form of electricity and hot water thus benefiting the environment. Europe generates 35% of the energy by cogneration while it is only about 8% in the US.
Even in preparation for full construction and renovation, we greened up 100% of our electricity through RECs (100% wind green-e energy certified) as a demonstration of a sustainable and responsible company. Cost Containment Intl, a member of our project team handled the procurement process. (www.c2intl.com )
Our site had many issues to deal with and soil type was a major one. While heavy clay content can be great for conductivity for a geothermal system and good compressive strength for wind turbine foundations, it is terrible for onsite waste water treatment. City sewer is many years off so off to the engineering specialists for a solution. In fact, at the town planning commission one resident questioned how we coujld even do a septic and a farmer asked where are we going to get the water for all the hot tubs. Town meetings bring up questons you just can’t make up on your own.
A typical WI mound system is an anaerobic system that treats the effluent in a septic tank to partially break down the waste and then the water with some suspended solids go out to the mound for final treatment and returning the water to the aquifer. An aerobic system treats the effluent in an oxygen enriched chamber with much more aggressive bacteria that when the fluid is ready to go out to be filtered in the mound system, it is basically already clean water. With some additions we could have go to a toilet to tap system. Aerobic systems cost more to build and more to operate but they are much better for the environment. In fact, aerobic treatment can be used to save a failing anaerobic septic field.
With water becoming an important resource all over the world, managing storm water and waste water is a very important planning issue. We will be doing rainwater capture and reuse for landscape watering and for toilets. When you think about it, it doesn’t make sense to pump clean treated water only to flush it down the toilet. The rainwater still has some treatment but it saves water and energy (3% of all energy used in the US is for pumping water and waste watrer treatment. Dual flush toilets, living roof on the conference meeting center and rain gardens.
Wow- didn’t see that one coming and I have heard a lot of them. Conditional Use Permit public discussion gives everyone a chance to voice their opinions and feelings. The letter the town sent out had this project involves a wind turbine in extra large bold print so I guess we could have expected something. In reality, the person was upset because he bought a piece of property and thought the world would never change around him- then he gets a notice that the hwy 50 will be expanding in several years to 4 lanes and the road will wipe out all of his trees blocking the road and basically allow him to hand a cup of coffee to someone driving down the road. A car at 300 feet at 40 mph is 55 db and since their house will be 20 feet off the hwy, those bumble bees could be used to drown out the noise of the traffic. And then they realize our project is moving ahead.
We had been pretty upset about the hwy 50 expansion notice and then one member on the town board said that hwy 50 corridor was meant to go all commercial as part of the town’s long term land use plans. We got handed a lemon and decided to make a lemonade stand called The Green Leaf Inn.
We had the pleasure of being interviewed by Kayla at the Gazette. The article featured our plans for the Green Leaf Inn.
http://www.gazettextra.com/news/2009/feb/28/couple-planting-seeds-green-inn/
Catherine and I spoke on going green, renewable energy and developing our net zero energy hotel at the Women’s Resource Fair in Lake Geneva and The Smart Growth and Going Green sponsored by the Walworth County Realtors Association. The realtors show was great for some contacts since we are planning on condo-teling or selling the hotel rooms to investors including a fractional ownership in the wind turbine, solar, CHP unit etc for the income and tax benefits through real esatte brokers. Of course we are looking at using realtors that have their green certification.
March 25th we are presenting at the Renewable Energy Summit up in Milwaukee. More info at the Renew Wisconsin website.
I am constantly reminded by my partner and wife Catherine that the experience people have staying at the inn will determine our long term success. And being as consistent in our messages and actions we take regarding the environment. We will be providing boat tours on our pntoon boat (no doubt including wine and appetizers) which has a 4 stroke engine. Since we already are planning a propane fueled lawnmower and weed whacker (Catherine is looking at a Ford truck that runs on propane) there must be a way to convert the gas engine to propane. That would be environmentally much less polluting and remove the few drops of gasonline that you often see riding on the surface near the docks on lakes. Now the big question is does any one know someone that can do that?
Before you just stick up a wind turbine, you need to see whether it makes sense and in WI, you have to have an assessment to qualify for state rebates.
Randy Faller with Kettle View Renewable Energy (certified by the MREA for commercial wind site assessment) came out this Sat morning at 8AM. After discussing our goals and questions about the Green Leaf Inn project over a pot of coffee, we headed out to walk the property. Critical items and questions included soil types (towers and turbines are heavy and awkward) for town stability, prevailing winds throughout the year, access for a crane for the installation, and tree height. We have a lot of trees over 70 feet high: to humans, these are beautiful, but to wind turbines, these are simply obstructions.
I had just finished writing an article about renewable energy for urabn areas. We stressed that the three main problems for wind projects are: tower height is too low, tower height is too low, and tower height is too low. So with our tree height it looks like a 120 foot tall tower will be necessary. The full wind assessment report should be available in early September.
I would love to develop a wind farm in Walworth county. The wind maps show some good resources here. Renewable energy is homeland security.
Apparently the Delavan waste water treatment plant is having huge problems in handling the treatment because 50% plus is clean storm water that shouldn’t be in the mix with the sewage. We have had so much rain this year that this has been a big problem.
It is interesting meeting the various groups and politics that have an impact on getting a zoning change and a use permit. Gail (administrator for Delavan Lake Sanitary District) said a major issue for her is the Delavan Lake watershed and sewer lines have been put in over the years to make sure all the homes around the lake have sewer to minimze the impact on the watershed.
Gail showed us on the maps where our property was. We are in the Delavan Lake watershed, which means that water from our land ends up entering the lake. With all the building and retail expansion, storm water carrying oil, gasoline, and fertilizer is a huge issue in trying to keep the lake clean.
The Green Leaf Inn property does not have great soils for helping the filtration process and we also have the draining of the 84 acre farm all coming through our property headed to Delevan Lake (when it rains a lot, it’s like the farm flushed its toilet and all the rain landing heads to our property). As part of our engineering process in preparing for the zoning change, we had to prepare a design on how we would handle storm water so we don’t add to the problem.
