Renewable Energy, the Star of the Show

Renewable Energy has been the step-child of energy policy, which has been dominated by Energy Efficiency (EE). This emphasis on EE is really a relic of the energy crises of the last century, when it was thought the cost of energy and energy independence were the issue, and not so much the environmental dimension. Times have changed. Reducing Green House Gas emissions (GHG-emissions) now has taken center stage. Renewable Energy (RE) is the only path that will get us the reduction in GHG-emissions which are now generally seen as a priority. The simple truth is that Energy Efficiency is not a generating technology, it only improves the performance of whatever system you have, be it based on fossil fuels, or based on renewable energy, therefore, it is equally applicable to both. The only real choice is between Fossil Fuels (FF) and Renewable Energy (RE), and RE is what we want, not more FF, or for our addiction to FF to last longer.

In the public dialog, and in public policy, EE is mostly treated as an end in itself, which results in policies that achieve the opposite of what we want to achieve, assuming that a reduction of GHG-emissions is really our goal. The reason for this is simple. Our existing systems are overwhelmingly based on Fossil Fuels, and if you improve them with EE, you are throwing good money after bad by making FF economically more attractive. If we make fossil fuels cheaper to use, people will use more of them and will use them for a longer time, which is strongly regressive for climate risk. If the government is subsidizing EE without further qualification, they are subsidizing the fossil fuel industry, which is the opposite of what they want to do.

The only rational policy towards GHG-reductions is one that minimizes GHG-emissions through Renewable Energy, and leaves it to the Fossil Fuel industry and their customers to make their systems as efficient as possible. It is not rational to subsidize Fossil Fuels indirectly by subsidizing Energy Efficiency without qualification.

Renewable Energy Failure in NYC

Despite many signature projects that demonstrate what's possible, New York City overall has fallen into the trap of prioritizing EE, hand in hand with state programs like NYSERDA, as well as various federal programs. Even worse, the NYC Clean Heat program diverted a large portion of the housing stock to natural gas for heat, in a laudable attempt to reduce particulates emissions and GHG-emissions, but by doing so missed the opportunity to begin the serious conversion to RE, which would have produced quantum advances in reducing GHG-emissions. As we now know, the switch from coal to gas, and from heavy fuels to gas, yield no reductions in GHG-emissions, except a displacement. So nominally NYC wins a little in the short run, but in the long run it is meaningless.

Typical EE projects yield 15-25% reductions in energy costs, mostly "savings" on fossil fuel bills, and these seem easily justifiable, however in many cases we are missing the opportunity for radical conversions to RE, which could easily produce over 50% reductions in GHG-emissions, and be financially successful for building owners, far more so than the EE projects that are now the norm. If proper capital budgeting were utilized throughout, it would become quickly apparent that in many cases integrated RE solutions for buildings have superior long-term economics, and PACE financing is a readily available vehicle to address the heavy up-front capital investment required for these projects. Simply put, every RE component we can retrofit in a building comes with a lifetime of no energy bills equivalent to the amount of energy it provides.

In the winter of 2014 New Yorkers paid the price for the massive shift to natural gas. Electricity in January 2012 was 7 cents/kWh (ConEd), in 2013 it was 13 cents and in 2014 it was 22 cents. Winter normally had low electric rates, now it has some of the highest rates of the year. New York City has become massively, recklessly and unnecessarily dependent on a single fuel: natural gas. Building resilience has been made infinitely worse as a result, while at the same time we're spending money on improving building resilience. The single biggest thing we could do for building resilience is to stop converting buildings to natural gas, and encourage them to switch to renewable energy instead.

It's all economics and finance

The problem is not technology, there are more options every single day, The big things that are holding us back are practicing proper economic and financial analysis, to understand how rewarding RE retrofits really are. Thirty years worth of free energy will beat out 15-25% energy savings in most projects, especially if there are integration opportunities that produce legitimate engineering synergies which compound the returns from individual technologies. That geothermal heat pump combined with a wind turbine, or solar PV, becomes an energy harvesting system, and hot water storage tanks are cheaper and more environmentally friendly than batteries.

The primary importance of economics and finance is driven home forcefully by the fact that the 2014 Draft New York State Energy Plan cites the inroads of solar PV on Long Island as a success.  This is a success that is driven by Asset Backed Lending/Leasing based on marginal energy savings, and achieves shallow results, compared to what could be done if financial analysis were done right, and projects were engineered for the long-term. If property owners were to use proper capital budgeting techniques and did 30 year models, there is no way that 17% efficient solar PV should win over 98% efficient solar thermal installations. People are saving 10% on their electric bill, when with the same roof space they could do central HVAC and Domestic Hot Water for their entire property. This approach is more work, so it does not get done, but we as a society lose. Property owners who sign for these solar panels in most cases miss an opportunity for a major value enhancement to their properties.

C40Cities needs to prioritize renewable energy

I have submitted an Open Letter to C40Cities in hopes that this group will start addressing these issues, and not have the rest of the world repeat the mistakes that were made in New York. Appearances always deceive, and this case is no different: in the short run some reductions in GHG-reductions were realized, but because it all came from EE and from fuel switching, it merely extends the reign of fossil fuel and is therefore regressive with respect to climate risk in the long run.

Will New York become a leader in renewable energy?

Recently, I submitted an open letter to Governor Andrew Cuomo pertaining to the Green Bank. The Green Bank initiative could be coming at the right time for Mayor de Blasio, who has an interesting challenge. To his eternal credit, Mayor Bloomberg got climate change and energy policy the attention it deserved, but some key programs have been counterproductive, even if that is not widely recognized as yet. I have documented these issues with an open letter to Mayor de Blasio. Further clues are in my letter to C40Cities. Clearly, there is a big opportunity for the de Blasio administration to change course with some of the programs that have us going backwards instead of forwards. The opportunity for New York City to become a leader in this area is certainly there. Our infrastructure lends itself to rapid progress, but it will require the necessary regulatory changes to enable such developments, for besides bad financial analysis, regulatory hurdles are the principal brake on a breakthrough to clean energy.

Conclusion: Lasting Reductions in GHG-emissions from Renewable Energy

It is time to break the stranglehold of the fossil fuel era by pursuing renewable energy breakthroughs that are well within reach, but often ignored, because EE seemed "cheaper" and "easier." Heretofore, we did not realize that the short-term reductions in GHG-emissions from Energy Efficiency would ensure long-term losses. Therefore, the time has now come to focus on creating the breakthroughs in renewable energy with projects that achieve in excess of 50% reductions in GHG-emissions, and New York City can certainly become a leader in the context of the C40Cities, much to the benefit of its citizens.

NYC Energy Efficiency Paralysis - Open Letter to Mayor de Blasio

Energy Efficiency (aka EE) is the most confusing issue in the entire green dialog. It is about time that the FTC took action against anyone claiming that energy efficiency is green all by itself. It depends. If you make a fossil-fuel-based system more efficient, arguably you are reducing GHG-emissions somewhat, but that is seriously deceptive: you are simply extending the competitiveness of fossil-fuels, which is the opposite of what we want to achieve, if reducing GHG-emissions is the objective. If reducing GHG-emissions is what we want, that should be the focus, and Site Derived Renewable Energy (SDRE) is the only real answer.

Most programs nationwide are still stuck in the 1970's energy crisis. At that time, it was thought the issue was simply energy economics, which could be addressed by cleverly realizing that a dollar spent on reducing demand had more of an effect than a dollar spent on increasing supply. The environmental dimension, Green House Gas-emissions was not really on the radar yet. Also, there were not as many building-mounted renewable technologies available as there are today. But efficiency of fossil fuel systems has overstayed its welcome, and is not a major concern for a "green" future. Local Laws 84/87/88 need an overhaul for shifting the focus to SDRE, based on proper capital budgeting for energy infrastructure, not incremental spending on marginal efficiency of fossil fuel-based systems, which leads to capital destruction, not building appreciation--as explained in many ways on this blog.

PlaNYC was a Breakthrough of Sorts

PlaNYC was a breakthrough in beginning to take these issues seriously, but it was heavily compromised by the old efficiency paradigm, and ended up putting marginal energy savings front and center. At some point particulates emissions from #6 and #4 oil became another bad proxy for GHG-reductions. This was merely another diversion from the real issue, and the NYC Clean Heat program was the result, causing a rapid shift to natural gas, resulting in an ominous city-wide dependence on a single fuel. Moreover, by the time of this writing it is accepted wisdom that natural gas is about as polluting as coal, when you add in the losses of methane in production and transportation.

Renewable Energy in NYC under Mayor de Blasio?

We can only hope so. The time has come. I come from the school of hard knocks, having learned as a home owner that I unthinkingly spent myself silly on energy efficiency for two decades, without accomplishing anything. At long last, in recent years I finally began to think about the problem more seriously, and since then the issues have become clear to me. NYC has another chance with another administration. Will we move to the new paradigm? I decided that at the very least I should throw in a suggestion or two in the form of an Open Letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Alternatives to PLaNYC: Pushing Renewable Energy

The open letter to Mayor de Blasio focuses primarily on the NYC Clean Heat program, and the very deleterious spate of natural gas conversions it has brought about. It touches upon the mistaken economics that have driven other elements of PlaNYC, such as Local Law 84 (actually, both LL84 and LL87). These regulations simply push efficiency, and thereby assure the opposite of what they would accomplish: they serve to extend the rule of fossil-fuels with marginal energy savings, and have building owners fritter away capital on incremental improvements, instead of investing it in SDRE.

Energy efficiency is mostly about guilt-free shopping, which is why manufacturers love the Energy Star label, but it does nothing to solve the GHG-emissions problem. Instead, it makes it more intractable by making fossil fuels economical longer. Below I am providing a series of explanatory notes to the Open Letter, some additional comments, and some references that may be helpful.

Notes and References for Open Letter

1. NYC Clean Heat is regressive: By now even the Sierra club is coming back from its advocacy for natural gas over coal (remember Bloomberg donated $50mln for that campaign in 2011?). The evidence is overwhelming that switching to natural gas is regressive for climate change. So converting buildings from #6 and #4 oil to natural gas was a subsidy to the gas industry, and capital destruction for the owners of buildings. SDRE retrofits could have given building values a serious boost, instead of just some small time energy savings at best.
2. The DaBX PlaNYC2020 report was an alternative plan to maximize Site Derived Renewable Energy, and make real reductions in GHG-emissions. We focused on NYC's old line C- and D-class apartment buildings, all in all some 15,000 buildings, a large percentage of which might be able to do such retrofits. We pointed out that these conversions should be done over 5-10 years to maximize the value of existing plant. We emphasized proper capital budgeting techniques to make the right long-term economic decisions.
3. The Urban Green Council later made a more general case with their 90 by 50 report describing generalized solutions across all major building types in the city. The report reinforced the important point that the optimal way of implementing retrofits is over time, by leveraging the economic life-cycle of building energy infrastructure components. Forcing everything to be done at once makes projects uneconomical. The report emphasizes generating renewable energy on site as well, but fails to understand the deleterious economics that result from the focus on marginal energy savings.
4. Geothermal energy is strategically important. It is in fact the single most powerful SDRE option for energy retrofits in NYC. New York's bedrock is an ideal substrate, and with 400% efficiency, nothing beats it: 1 joule of energy in (electrical) yields 4 joule output (heat). At a minimum, buildings can do a Domestic Hot Water solution, but the design needs to be optimized for harvesting of energy, either from time of use metering, or from wind turbines or solar PV. Whenever feasible, it should be part of energy retrofits because of the energy storage capability. In exceptional cases (if there are sufficient grounds), it may be able to provide the total BTU load for buildings. Remember insulation helps too!
5. Solar thermal is a hands down winner at 98% efficiency, and no PV should ever be considered (17% efficiency) if you can do solar thermal at all. The point of generating electricity is that it can be easily transported, but when generating renewable energy on site, you don't have a transportation problem, and retrofitting is becoming easier all the time, although on balance a thermal retrofit is harder than PV. There are many ways conversions can be done towards integrated HVAC even in older buildings, given today's hydronic air handlers, etc. With the forecasts of 3x more 90 degree days in summer by 2050, the time is now to start planning that transition, for buildings that don't offer centralized HVAC will be marked for demolition sooner or later. The old model based on window air conditioners is past its prime.
6. Hydronic heat is more energy efficient. Yet with the NYC Clean Heat program, in most cases, buildings have just switched from oil to gas, and continue to heat with steam. What is needed is a thorough understanding of the economics of conversion to hydronic systems, which in turn ties in with the potential for solar thermal and geothermal. Here is a report from NYSERDA, documenting up to 40% energy savings by switching from steam to hydronic systems.
7. Building mounted wind turbines are coming of age and typically offer more bang for the buck than solar PV, if the building has the right location to use wind energy. Then, there are hybrid solar PV/Thermal (PVT) systems which leverage the best of both solar technologies. In other words, SDRE, Site Derived Renewable Energy, is becoming increasingly realistic for retrofits, especially when considering that in a building you can harvest thermal energy in a variety of ways, as pre-heated hot water from geothermal or as high temperature process heat from solar thermal. All such designs solve the biggest problem of renewables, energy storage. Within a building, bridging the daily cycles does not need to be a problem.
8. Along the fourth dimension: timing is everything. One of the ways NYC Clean Heat is very regressive, is because it once more ignores the factor of time, and aims for a one time conversion for a short-term goal, which moreover now proves elusive, once we realized that the environmental benefit of natural gas is nil. The tie-in of this program with the NYSERDA MPP reinforces that short-term orientation. Long-term building economics dictate that you should generally not replace things before their time. What should be done is long-term planning for an SDRE retrofit, so that at every step of the way, you can pre-engineer the next steps. Both our DaBx PlaNYC2020 and the UGC 90 by 50 report advocate this longitudinal approach, but you need to make the plan first, otherwise you will be designing yourself into a corner.
9. Exemptions from NYC Clean Heat. Once it is understood that far greater advances in the reduction of GHG-emissions are possible with onsite renewable energy, the city should encourage exemptions on that basis, and give buildings 10 or 20 years to comply, provided they start out with a project that yields at least 30-50% reductions in GHG-emissions. Anything above 30% GHG-reductions can generally not be done with energy efficiency alone. The beauty is, that if it's planned right, SDRE will yield superior building economics, and thus increase building values, so that building preservation is ensured with SDRE conversions.
10. Building resiliency is a central point. In the new flood zones, building resilience is mandatory, and in a much more profound way than discussed here. Resilience is a value that ensures buildings can stay at least partially functional in an outage. The switch to natural gas has undermined building resilience in a disastrous way, and it should be reversed as soon as possible.
11. The disaster of becoming overly dependent on natural gas was amply demonstrated in the winter of 2014. Not only were heating bills going up, but more and more electricity is generated with natural gas also, and while january in the past was normally the low season for electrical rates, in 2014 rates were at an all-time high. For my own apartment the ConEdison (spot/variable) rates were ca 7 cents/kWh in 2012, 13 cents in 2013, and 22 cents in 2014.
12. NYC did not have any pipeline ruptures in 2014, as happened in the Midwest. But the city has a very constrained gas distribution system, depending on a few major pipelines, and there are no backup storage facilities (off-shore LNG anyone?). New York production of natural gas is also coming to a stand-still because of environmental concerns.
13. PACE financing is the obvious means that is in place already, and NYC will need it. It is politically a worthwhile project to support as long as it is tied to projects that accomplish at least 30-50% GHG-reductions initially. Once owners have the taste, and make proper long-term capital plans for energy, the potential for building appreciation is enormous. For at every level, if you can generate your own energy on site, that investment in SDRE is a permanent energy price hedge. 50% is really the optimal point to strive for in the initial project, since then the building is "over the hump" with dependence on fossil fuels.

Converting PlaNYC from communism to capitalism

PlaNYC as is, as well as other similar plans everywhere, operate in the central-planning style of the infamous 20 year plans of the former Soviet Union, which were designed to fail, as I've argued here. The mistake is to take the macro view of "energy efficiency" and then ram it down to the micro level with laws and incentives, instead of to engage the economic self-interest of property owners. Property owners should be in the business of maximizing property values, and government- the public interest- should incentivize reductions in GHG-emissions. Energy efficiency is not a proxy for GHG-reductions. Energy efficiency of fossil fuel systems makes GHG-emissions more intractable, so if we subsidize it, we indirectly subsidize the fossil fuel industry.

The energy benchmarking and audits of LL84/87 are a positive. The requirements to tinker with marginal efficiency improvements without totally rethinking the system is regressive, and bad policy. The market might take care of it - or at least need a lot less help than we're spending now on making building owners do things they don't want to do. Net zero construction has been healthier than any other area of construction for many decades, net zero or near zero buildings keep their values better than anything. Once we get building owners to perform serious renewable retrofits, the economics will force others to comply, or die. The simple fact is that with today's technology, 80-90% reductions are possible in many existing buildings, if the buildings follow a deliberate renewable retrofit strategy--the 90 by 50 report from Urban Green Council demonstrates the point. The first project should be in the 30-50% (GHG-reductions) range, and that is more than any energy efficiency project can do. Competitively, the pressure will be on.

Conclusion: Renewable Energy over "Energy Efficiency"

Once more, energy efficiency tends to mean making fossil fuel systems more efficient, and that is not a worthwhile goal for public support. PACE finance is an option that will enable the massive capital investments needed, to facilitate moving energy from liabilities to assets by means of SDRE. The focus needs to shift from energy efficiency of fossil fuel systems to site derived renewable energy and the city can exceed the parameters of PlaNYC completely if it does so.

Compound Returns from Renewable Energy

There are many ways to look at our energy conundrum, and to understand why we're so dysfunctional, and not getting the job done with renewable energy. As argued here repeatedly, one of the primary obstacles is putting the cart before the horse with honorable sounding secondary objectives, which obfuscate sound financial decisions. Energy efficiency, energy savings and clean air standards are examples that cause such distortions, and lead to policy failure. They are secondary objectives, not primary ones. The worst policy failures are resulting from confusing energy efficiency with renewable energy, and treating them as if they were interchangeable, or worse yet, additive, when they are often mutually exclusive in practice.

The effect of majoring in a minor by putting these secondary objectives first, is to postpone the switch to renewable energy indefinitely, and to subsidize the fossil fuel industry at the expense of property appreciation. Therefore it produces the opposite of energy independence and undermines any attempts to ever meet Clean Air standards, such as New York City pretends to want to do. Energy Star, NYSERDA MPP, NYC Clean Heat, PlaNYC, various tax incentives, are all examples where false priorities foul up sound financial decision-making about renewable energy. Collectively they have more to do with why we are not making the progress that we claim to want than anything else. They are examples of policy failures. Their ally is the fallacious financial practice of property owners making energy decisions based on payback of equipment, instead of net present value add to property values.

In short, government incentives have assisted property owners in making more bad decisions about energy faster, by rewarding them to ensure they keep making the wrong decisions, and the beneficiaries are the fossil fuel industry primarily, and to a lesser degree the manufacturers of energy efficiency equipment. It all comes at the expense of property values, so owners of real estate are destroying their capital asset base, to the extent that there are renewable alternatives that make economic sense, and in many, if not most cases, there are. False priorities supported with government incentives amount to government sponsored capital destruction in our economy, and serve to prevent the switch to sustainability. In NY State there is even an Energize New York Finance Handbook, and an exam to make sure you learn how to destroy your property values even quicker, using other people's money (but you're still liable). There is even an entire not for profit industry to help you manage your property into the toilet, such as "Energize New York, comfort and savings for your home."

Sustainability is only sustainable if it is also profitable

Adam Smith's invisible hand arguably does not always work, but sometimes it does. And here we have a capitalist society, embracing soviet style 20-year plans to make sure we prevent the invisible hand from working... But the good news is, there is a way to sort it out on an individual level, though eventually the whole structure of false incentives will have to be revised.

Every property owner can, with a simple spreadsheet make a 30 year energy plan for their property. And if you are lazy, you can make it a thesis project for your kid. It does not matter if you're going to sell it sooner than that or not, for if you invest wisely, it will come back to you when you sell it. After all, real estate simply has a long economic life, but if your analysis shows that your property is a wreck, and incapable of being made somewhat energy independent, sell it quickly while the going is good. The energy companies and the government will keep you in the poor house by confusing your decision-making and keeping you a slave to the energy companies longer than you have to be. Proper financial modeling is the way out, he process is a simple 30-year NPV analysis of all energy decisions about your property. Do not ever give in to the energy efficiency argument, it will keep you in bonds to carbon energy forever. Salesmen of energy efficiency and Solar PPAs are stealing appreciation of your property from you.

If you do that 30-year CAPM model, you will not easily make wrong energy decisions again. Never allow yourself to be seduced by the sellers of energy efficiency, and any government incentives, or subsidized finance from your energy company (talk about the fox watching the chicken coop). Remember always: Good financing or incentives can NEVER make a bad project good, it can ONLY make a good project better.  Hang that on your kitchen wall before you start talking about anything to do with energy in your property. Now for the good news: Renewable energy pays, because of compound returns.

Compound Returns from Renewable Energy Make Sustainability So

Payback of a piece of equipment may be useful as a quick and dirty calculation to see if it could have promise, but you need to have a coherent, holistic energy plan first, or else you will be cheated out of your money, and squandering it. The obvious mistake is if you start using equipment payback for your actual energy plan, such as models from NYSERDA and similar organizations elsewhere tend to do. Incentives are then added to the mix to make other objectives more attractive to property owners, either from a societal standpoint (and most often indirectly benefiting the energy companies and/or the manufacturers), or for the energy companies directly, and then if you add up all these wrong decisions and you score enough points in their system, you are rewarded with subsidized finance to help you destroy the value of your property faster. The shareholders of the energy companies thank you.

But now you know. And armed with your 30-year energy plan for your property, here is what you do: You do your model first. You focus on selecting the technologies that make the most long-term sense for your property. And next you figure it out with the NYSERDA MPP model, or your Energize New York application, or whatever is appropriate in your case, and you now figure out backwards how to maximize your use of incentives, and how to exceed their standards so that you do qualify for the subsidized financing, including PACE bonds. But never follow the methodology of these institutions, for it will destroy your property value. Your own economic energy plan must be king, meeting their objectives is a secondary criterion that gets you the financing you want, but you must take ownership of the plan.

Here's the payoff: on your list of potential things to do you might have a geothermal heat pump and a wind turbine, with paybacks of 8 and 7 years respectively, and they are kind of at the bottom of your list. But then you find out, when you integrate it in your model, that the heat pump allows you to store output from your wind energy in the form of pre-heated hot water. By doing so, you no longer have to sell excess energy back to the grid at wholesale rates, so you are now improving the payback on your wind turbine. Put together, they might have a 6 year payback, but again, the 30-year projection tells all.

Or, you were evaluating a tankless hot water heater with a 3-year payback and a solar thermal system with an 8 year payback, but your thirty year model reveals that the solar thermal system works out better in the long run, in part because with solar thermal you can harvest process heat, and if you take that effect into consideration, it may turn out that it's a better investment than tankless hot water heaters. Thirty years of no energy bills beats 30% energy 'savings' hands down. And of course solar thermal beats out solar PV because it produces 5x more energy per square foot, and on top of that allows storing process heat. All of which you would never see in a payback analysis, but you will see it in your 30-year model.

Or, you were evaluating a geothermal hot water against solar thermal hot water, and it turns out that on a payback basis solar thermal won, but then you started to look at your integrated model, and you could put your geothermal heat pump on a time of use meter, and integrated it with self dimming LEDs (100% dimmable!) for premises/common area lighting, and suddenly the geothermal hot water system won, and now you could look if you could drive your HVAC from geothermal also.

Sustainability through compound returns

Examples abound where the thirty year model shows you synergies of two (or more) technologies that you would not otherwise figure out, but most importantly it is the time value of money that allows you to see that 30 years of no energy bills beats 30% reduction in energy consumption most of the time, and a bigger capital outlay is warranted, and feasible if you can access subsidized financing. Such compound returns through synergy are worth gold.

Conclusion:

Renewable Energy done right produces compound returns through integrating several Clean Energy technologies at once. Energy Efficiency of a fossil fuel system produces strongly diminishing returns after you hit about 30% 'savings,' which is literally fool's gold. Only energy-efficient renewable energy gives you financial sustainability.

NYC Clean Heat Destroys Property Values

PlaNYC Heating Oil Regulations are pushing buildings from #6 and #4 oil to #2 oil, natural gas, or biodiesel. Conversions are in full swing. Sadly, many of the buildings are suitable for renewable energy conversions which would produce far better results for the environment and for occupants, as well as better long-term financial results for owners. It says on the website that owners can apply for compliance waivers through NYC DEP. Owners should do this if their buildings are suitable and if they have the financial wherewithal to make that transition to a renewable solution. As long as a credible renewable solution can be found, owners are in fact placing a long-term hedge on their energy costs, and will do far better than they would going along with the conversions which the City is pushing. The typical 30% gains in efficiency are too easily wiped out by the next energy price hike.

Compound investment returns from energy independence through renewables

Not only are these conversions counterproductive as long as there is a renewable energy alternative, owners are being offered subsidized financing to make it easier to make the wrong decision, and destroy the asset value of their buildings. Having said that, there may be some buildings that realistically could not make a transition to renewable energy economically, but in many cases it is well within reach to do in buildings that are 40 units and up. (Size matters because of economies of scale). In the long run, this will produce a steady path to asset appreciation.

Presently we are in PlaNYC 2013, but it started in 2007 as Plan NYC 2030, and since then evolved to PlaNYC 2.0. Clearly this is an extraordinarily important plan, and it puts NYC in a very proactive stance with respect to climate change issues, but in this area of renewable energy, not nearly enough is being done. Most of that shortfall rests on the general confusion in our society that energy efficiency somehow is an additive phenomenon and would result in energy independence. In that context renewable energy is then relegated to a marginal role. If you were to actually do a long-term energy plan for a building, you would see this is not so, unless the building is not capable of a renewable conversion. Most of the buildings that burn #6 could do it.

The first issue is a choice of what energy system do I want? Do I make my energy (renewables) or buy my energy (subscription-based, gas, electric, oil). The two paths are to a large degree mutually exclusive, because of engineering interdependencies. One clear example, if I can go the renewable route and perhaps eventually eliminate gas for cooking, and most heating/cooling, I may be able to eventually do centralized HVAC, and choose very different replacement windows, etc.

Most importantly, the path to energy efficiency of my existing fossil fuel system is an investment in becoming a long-term consumer of gas or oil, or even biodiesel, so it is a customer retention program for the energy industry. In this case it is driven by the well intended reduction of CO2 and particulates emissions of gas versus oil, but as long as a renewable alternative exists, the latter would produce greater benefits in the long run. Successive investments in energy efficiency produce strongly diminishing returns, so a property owner paints himself into a corner financially. Once the transition to a renewable infrastructure can be made, the financial future of that building is assured, because subsequent investments will produce compounding results. The transition to renewable energy practically ensures building preservation, because of superior economic performance over time.

Underwriters risk collateral values by underwriting energy efficiency

If you check the website for NYC's Clean Heat program you will see energy efficiency as the sole qualification for subsidized financing. All the usual culprits are there, CPC, NYSERDA et al, many of whom have energy credentials, for this conversion effort is a subsidy to the energy industry to the detriment of building values. Underwriters should learn to test for the difference between energy independence (renewables) vs. energy efficiency of carbon-based energy systems, simply because of the issue of diminishing returns with the former, and compounding returns with the latter. Energy Efficiency loans are riskier than Energy Independence loans, by far. To lump them all into one category is bad for owners and bad for underwriters. Building values for buildings that are 50% or better energy independent would rise strongly over the life of the mortgage, compared to buildings that invested in energy efficiency alone.

DaBx PlaNYC 2020: the Energy independence plan

Windspeeds over NYC are higher than Chicago

With my consulting company DaBx Demand Side Solutions, we offered an alternative model to Mayor Bloomberg on July 4th 2011, which would achieve better results, and faster than the mere conversion from #6 to natural gas, and, as noted above, better financial outcomes for building owners. The plan is within reach for probably at least 50% of the building stock that is now converting to natural gas. It is more capital-intensive at first, but not much so once you evaluate it against the alternative of the forced gas conversion. The outcomes for air quality and building preservation would be far superior, not to mention public safety and national security. The conversion to gas only seems easier and cheaper in the short run, it is not if you do a 30 year energy plan for a building.

The basic model is based on understanding that in C and D class apartment buildings that are usually only 6 stories high, the old steam boilers usually provide Domestic Hot Water (DHW) through a coil in the boiler, and 30-50% of BTU output of those boilers goes to DHW. In those cases, economically feasible solutions can start from providing DHW with renewable energy, either geothermal or solar thermal. This eliminates 25-50% of CO2 and particulates emissions right away, it also gives the boilers the summer off, so it extends their useful life, and then at the time when the boiler dies from natural causes, the conversion to renewable HVAC can be completed. And yes, the famous split incentive between landlords and tenants needs to be cured.

Energy independence, wind and geothermal energy

Energy independence of buildings means the building stays lit during an outage, even if only partially. The two technologies that have been underappreciated so far are geothermal and wind power. In 2008 the press practically ridiculed Mayor Bloomberg about his advocacy for wind power on buildings, but they did not understand that specific wind turbines for buildings where just starting to come to market, and the Mayor was right on target, perhaps without knowing it. Average wind speeds around NYC are higher than in Chicago, supposedly the windy city. Moreover, around buildings, wind speeds pick up dramatically, offering excellent opportunities for wind power especially in the city.

Geothermal is the most strategic technology of them all, and City Hall is only just now starting to research it. Basically a geothermal system gives you a 400% gain in BTUs, and most importantly it can act as energy storage, besides providing domestic hot water. Here is one place where compounding returns come in, for energy storage is the single biggest problem in renewable energy, but DHW ends up acting as energy storage for your building. Unfortunately most existing geothermal systems in apartment buildings were wrongly designed, as DHW only, and not for energy harvesting. Buildings need 30 year energy plans, not point solutions.

Conclusion:

PlaNYC can be much more successful if the confusion between energy efficiency and energy independence through renewables is eliminated. Better outcomes for building preservation, air quality, and economic competitiveness of the city would result. Energy efficiency of a building with a carbon-based energy system is financially inferior and prolongs the period of CO2 emissions, energy independence through renewables reduces CO2 faster.