-- Scotts Contracting - StLouis Renewable Energy: November 2015

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11.30.2015

COP21 StLouis Climate March at the Arch

Here are my 10 biggest takeaways from the #OursToLose Climate March at the Arch in StLouis. In which I was proud participant in last Sunday at the Arch.


The gathering of like minded individuals was an eye opening experience for me to say the least.
#OursToLose Climate March at the Arch in StLouis gathering at the StLouis City Hall
#OursToLose Climate March at the Arch in StLouis

I learned in the brief correspondence while talking to the other participants that:

  1. There were as many older generations ages- 50 plus, as younger generations of less than 30 years old- that care about the health of our Planet and Pollution that is causing world wide climate change from the business as usual approach of the Big Business Polluting Machines 
  2. The participants were interested and knowledgeable to the importance of Energy Conservation as well as generating True Clean Energy
    Scotty at the Climate March #OursToLose StLouis Participants
  3. Climate March #OursToLose StLouis Participants are not happy with the local activities of the Dirty Coal Machine Ameren UE.  
    News Four interviewing #OursToLose StLouis Program organizer
  4. Some of the local Solar Installation Companies in StLouis are not adequately trained in the proper ways of installing Solar Racking on challenging roofs
    Arch Ground Image participants at the Climate March supporting #COP21
  5. Pointing our finger at other countries such as China who is a big polluter, does not help at the Local Level.  I firmly believe that society as a whole needs to: Chop Wood and Carry Water- mankind must not point to another country without taking care of business at home
    Don't be Fooled by the Dirty Coal Plant Misleading Dirty Coal Image Labadie Power Plant
  6. It was great to see a #BlackLivesMatter supporter at the march!  Climate Change affects everyone regardless of Race, Creed, or Community Status- we are all in this together
    #BlackLivesMatter supporter at the march!  Climate Change affects everyone regardless of Race, Creed, or Community Status
  7. People that live around the Labadie Dirty Coal Plant are worried about their Personal and Families Health from the Pollution via the noted 4th Dirtiest Coal Plant in the Entire USA.
    Labadie Dirty Coal Plant 4th Dirtiest Coal Plant in the Entire USA
  8. The boundary line between my activities and what I'm doing needs to be broken in relation to networking with other clean energy and energy conservation promoters and businesses in the St Louis region.  We are all in this together and their is plenty of work and buildings in the StLouis region for everyone.  I personally need to extend the Olive Branch to others in the region to lend my support for their activities as well as letting them know of what I am working on.  I believe in action over inaction and start by listing the information from 2 of the companies working in the area right here that were also proud participants at the #COP21 #OursToLose StLouis Climate March.  Please check out their websites and to give them a call: Aaron Michel Energy Resources Group, inc and Brian Ettling Climate Change Communicator 
    Just like a giant fishbowl with rising tides climate change affects everyone
  9. You will meet some of the nicest people at Social Gatherings and as it was pointed out you can even find love and meet the person of your dreams! 
    Love was in the Air COP21 Climate March at the Arch StLouis MO
  10. I believe to put up or shut up.  And to prove this I will be offering rock bottom prices on any energy conservation activities I will be doing for my StLouis neighbors.  I am going to cut the prices of any and all activities for the remainder of the 2015.  I'm sure this will make the bookkeeper cringe but I will offer a 50% labor discount on any and all green building projects that I bid on for the remainder of the year.

We can build a green St Louis- Join Me in making the world and our region a better place for all.


Thank You for stopping by-Share and Comment below. If additional information in needed or you have a question let me know. Together we can make a difference and create a future that will benefit everyone. Build a Green StLouis Green Building Tips and Resources via: Scotty- St Louis Renewable Energy Green Blog
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11.28.2015

Watch 4:20 video #COP21 #OursToLose

Kool Song to get your attention
 because mankind is on the eve 
of the ‪#‎COP21‬ Climate Talks 
as well as the St Louis
 ‪#‎OursToLose‬ 
Climate March Sunday at 
1:00 at the Arch Grounds.

#OursToLose: Climate Change Affects the Things We Love

Have you watched #OursToLose Youtube Video on Climate Change and how it Affects the Things We Love.  Sound Off and Share because we all have something to lose.

I also encourage everyone to sign the petition


** Climate change 

affects the things we love. But this 


December we have a huge opportunity. 




 Join the Global Climate March in 

St. Louis to march for 100% clean 

energy to protect the future of our planet 

and families! 


Dress warmly and send Devon Rae 

Hartwig a message if you would like to 

volunteer! 


Everyone will be congregating at the 

St Louis Arch

11/29/2015 1:00 pm, 2207 Scott Ave, St Louis, MO 63103, USA

Saint Louis, MO; Google Map Link with Directions


 Thank You for stopping by-Share and Comment below. If additional information in needed or you have a question let me know. Together we can make a difference and create a future that will benefit everyone. Build a Green StLouis Green Building Tips and Resources via: Scotty- St Louis Renewable Energy Green Blog

11.26.2015

MOhemp Energy: Wanted StLouis Grad Student Paper Study

On the advice of a Florida Hemp Business that I have been in contact with about theremediation of the nuclear waste at the Bridgeton Landfill that is causing adverse health issues to the people living and working in the area. 

It was suggested to find a St Louis Grad Student that would take on this enormous task of writing a paper and or conducting a study on the possible ways to remediate the affected areas of the Manhattan Projects Nuclear Waste.

Here are 2 email replies I've received recently and what has prompted me to send this request to the World.

I've been following whats going on I believe I have a possible solution to removing the radiation.  I have contacted a few of the greater minds who have been using Hemp for many things and have been getting a little feedback here is 2 of the latest emails.

  1. As it grows, hemp absorbs heavy metals including radioactive ones and pushes them into its leaves.  If you run a harvester over the plant tops, you can collect the leaves and sequester them.  You will have a large volume of material which must be dried to reduce the volume.  Then it must be bagged/baled for disposal.  I recommend a metal smelter for that.  For this work, the hemp need not grow longer than 75 days and you might get two crops a year.  Winter hemp has been done, but it is dormant in the winter.  Hard freeze kills hemp.
    The stalks might not be very contaminated and might be suitable for animal bedding or hempcrete so you might get something to pay for the work.  It must be studied to be sure.
    Any coal-fired power plant produces radioactive fly-ash so it may be possible to send material there.  Fly-ash containment ponds are radioactive, probably no more so than your leaves.
    Hemp is being used in this way at Chernobyl to remove radioactive Cesium from the topsoil.  Fukushima is said to be studying the method for their solution too.  Notice that both of these are dealing with surface pollution, not buried pollution.  The method could remove any toxins or heavy metals.
    Hemp roots go down 2 feet, sometimes as much as 8 feet.  Below that level, I doubt the method would help.  You would have to study the root depth in your cultivar and soils.
    Paul Stamets is a noted mycobiologist (studies mushrooms).  His book, “Mycelium Running” available on Amazon describes in chapter 7 “Mycoremediation” how mushrooms do much the same thing so you might combine the two methods.  Use hemp to draw it up and use mushrooms to consolidate it from the dried leaf material.
    Paul’s book also describes Mycofiltration in Chapter 5 where he cleaned up a stream runoff, but that was manure.
    It depends on  how deep your material is, but you could concentrate on some water run-off from the land-fill or leachate pumped to a bed of hemp core bedding and mushrooms.
    I am sure some graduate student would love to do that project.
    The Federal Farm Bill of 2014 only allows “research farming” of hemp, but this is clearly a research project of many years’ duration.  I suggest you work with your department of agriculture and its research stations.  Sounds like the feds should pay for it anyway.
    This BTW, is a serious problem at Federal labs at Hanford, Oak Ridge and South Carolina so you might find some help there.
    Good luck in your efforts.

  1. Thank you for reaching out. You are definitely on the right path as hemp has so many benefits. Growing Industrial hemp does help purify the earth it’s grown in. 


 



originally posted at: MOhemp Energy: Wanted StLouis Grad Student Paper Study

Happy Thanksgiving Shareable TurkeyDay Images


Enjoy the Thanksgiving Freeshare Funny Images












Thank You for stopping by-Share and Comment below. If additional information in needed or you have a question let me know. Together we can make a difference and create a future that will benefit everyone. Build a Green StLouis Green Building Tips and Resources via: Scotty- St Louis Renewable Energy Green Blog
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11.23.2015

Congress Lets Dirty Oil Run the Show

BLM Charges Exorbitant Rent, Fees for Solar, Energy Storage Compared to Fossil Fuels By Susan Kraemer, Correspondent

Energy developers on public lands pay rents to the the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). For solar, the 2015 per acre rates range from $16.50 to $6,897.20, and these rates go up every year. A solar project with energy storage can be equally expensive, especially when royalty-like fees are added to the bill. But the nationwide rent for oil and gas leases has been set at only $1.50 per acre per year since 1920.


The irony of the richest industry in the world getting such a sweetheart deal is not lost on Dick Bouts, energy program analyst at BLM.


“It's almost embarrassing what we charge,” Bouts conceded in a conversation with Renewable Energy World. “It's certainly pocket change for these companies that will spend millions of dollars developing a lease to get it in production, and the rent is almost nothing.”


What’s worse; the oil and gas resource can only be extracted from the land one time and it’s gone.


By contrast, any one acre of solar resource on BLM land will never be used up. The land that gathers solar energy could supply the Treasury for centuries.


Congress decides the rates

The oil and gas lease rates were set in law by congress in the 1920s under the Mineral Leasing Act and remain essentially the same today. It was initially $1, then after a token gesture of congressional objection in the 1980s, it was amended to $1.50 per acre annually for the first five years, and $2 an acre after that.


To raise rates for fossil extraction to be comparable with solar or wind rates would take another act of congress.
“It's really Congress that ought to be thinking about these things,” Bouts said. “That there ought to be more consistency. They're both using federal lands and federal resources and there ought to be some comparability.”
Legislation has been offered several times in the last fifteen years, but failed. So unlike with solar and wind, BLM cannot raise the oil and gas rate.


“Even if we were to try to do a rule making and try to raise the rate for oil and gas, BLM would get beat up so bad by the industry and by certain members of Congress,” he said. “That would not be a good thing.”


Congress granted BLM the right to set rates for new energy resources after a period of public comment in which renewable advocates and developers had their say. These much higher rents rise every year, and are based on population and GDP, to encourage renewable development on land with no economic value.


For example, it is much more expensive to develop on land Zoned 12 in Riverside County in Los Angeles – one reason that solar out in the desert produces electricity for so much less, as low as the 3-cents per kWh PPA that FirstSolar has just signed with NV Energy.


Royalties and per-MW fees

In addition to land rent, all energy sources pay a fee. For oil and gas, the fee is 12.5 percent of the cost the oil and gas sells for at wholesale.


Solar pays a per-MW fee, and the more capacity a solar project has; the more it pays for every MW installed. Solar with storage has a higher capacity factor (operates more hours per year than daytime-only solar PV) so the highest amount is paid by concentrated solar power (CSP) with storage.


According to BLM the MW capacity fee is: $5,256 per MW for photovoltaic (PV) solar projects; $6,570 per MW for concentrated PV and CSP (parabolic trough, power tower and solar dish/engine) projects without storage capacity; and $7,884 per MW for CSP projects with storage capacity of three hours or more.


The difference in the MW capacity fee for PV, concentrated PV, and CSP projects is dependent on the differences in the efficiency or capacity factor of each technology. These technologies include PV technologies (20 percent efficiency factor), concentrated PV and concentrated solar power without storage capacity (25 percent efficiency factor), and concentrated solar power technologies with storage capacity of 3 hours or more (30 percent efficiency factor).
Since adding storage adds capacity factor and since storage is the future of renewables, it is easy to imagine what the rates will be once solar PV is backed by batteries or CSP fully exploits its storage in this country.


BLM plans periodic reviews as capacity factors rise for the various solar technologies to update the MW capacity fee to reflect technology advances. It accounts for a normally expected phase-in period over five years similar to conventional power plants.   

          
BLM said that in order to allow for a reasonable and diligent testing and operational period, BLM will provide for a five-year phased-in implementation of the MW capacity fee after the start of generation operations (at the rates of 20 percent the first year, 40 percent the second year, 60 percent the third year, 80 percent the fourth year, and 100 percent the fifth and subsequent years of operations).

An example in Nevada

Two developers with CSP storage in the U.S. – Abengoa and SolarReserve – have much more storage under development in Chile, up to 17.5 hours. SolarReserve’s Crescent Dunes tower project in Nevada, the largest tower CSP to include storage in the world, has been operating since early this year. It has 10 hours of storage for night solar delivery to Las Vegas.


BLM rents are based on a federal mandate to collect a fair return for the public. All rents, royalties and solar capacity fees go into the Treasury.


SolarReserve’s rent for 2015 at 2,094 acres multiplied by their Zone 3 rent rate of $68.98 in rural Nevada is $144,444. When the first year (20 percent) capacity fee is added, it totals $173,448 for 2015. The rate goes up each year.
SolarReserve CEO Kevin Smith was quite surprised to learn that oil and gas rents are so low at $1.50, and that the 12.5 percent royalty is virtually the only return taxpayers get.
“Wow, nice deal for oil and gas,” he said. “So we, the citizens only get 12.5 cents per dollar on the value they extract?”
Land rented for solar could be filling the U.S. treasury for centuries after the oil and gas is gone, because subsequent solar farms could replace current ones.


“Oil and gas companies actually extract something from the ground; oil and gas, that theoretically is owned by the public,” Smith said. “Not only are they using the land, but raiding it of something of value that was previously owned by us. But we are only ‘parking’ on land that likely has other little value; we aren’t extracting the value.”


Taxpayers pay for environmental work for oil and gas
In addition to land rents and capacity fees, environmental permitting is another part of the cost of developing energy. Wind and solar developers routinely pay for the extensive documentation required to get their environmental permits. Permitting a utility scale solar project in California, for example, can cost in excess of $5 million.


Yet here too, the fossil energy industry has had a sweet deal from the start. Traditionally, the BLM paid their way.
“Well it's just the way it's always been done,” Bouts said. “They have been around a lot longer, and this is the way it's always been handled, so that is another thing again that oil and gas does not do.”


Recently however, this practice has begun to wear a bit thin. The GOP congress has cut agency budgets, and with fewer staff, BLM has begun to balk. More frequently, an impatient oil or gas developer might pay for its own environmental review, just as solar and wind developers routinely do, just to get it moving.


“So now the oil and gas guys might pay for the [National Environmental Policy Act review], and we’ll go to a third-party contractor to write the environmental analysis,” he explained. “Just in order to get us to complete the process.”
A possible way to a fairer deal for taxpayers?


As well as per-acre land rents, BLM charges a linear rent for rights-of-way when pipelines, ditches, produced water canals and all other energy pipelines (to deliver oil and gas) or transmission (to deliver solar and wind) cross BLM lands.
That charge is the only one that the BLM has been able to revise to an approximately equal cost for both temporary energies, such as oil and gas, and permanent energies, such as solar and wind; perhaps because the right-of-way till now has been neither a significant cost nor greatly lower.


“In 2008, a pipeline right-of-way was $17.23 per acre and an electrical line is $15.05 an acre,” Jeannie Catellan, Land Law Examiner in Wyoming's BLM office, said. “So energy stuff was always only a little cheaper. But since 2009 now there is no differentiation; it is the same rate for pipelines as for transmission. The big difference is by county. One county now charges $45.90 per acre linear right-of-way, and in another zone just within our office it's only $8.04 per linear acre.”


So at least linear pipeline land for oil and gas yields a rate about the same as transmission line land for solar and wind.
Yet congress continues to allow oil and gas to pay a 1920s era rent;

"There is no free ride for solar or wind,” Bouts said. “You often will hear people say that somehow they get a free ride. Well it is actually the opposite.”

Given that solar, especially CSP, competes with gas for utility contracts, you have to wonder how much gas would sell for if gas paid solar rates for land.


In the face of congressional inaction on this $1.50 rate, BLM appears to be doing what little they can to shift costs from taxpayers to the fossil energy industry, by at least nudging them to cover their own environmental research cost.


How 2016 might end $1.50 rates for oil and gas



In 2016, instead of raising the per-acre solar land rent again based on the same annual increases; BLM plans a change, according to Virginia Hoffman, Budget Analyst at the Idaho BLM.

Next year, the linear right-of-way rate will simply be doubled to become the new per-acre rate for solar.



The full schedule is not published yet, so it's too early to see how the change would affect utility-scale solar nationwide, but Hoffman looked up Zone 3, Nevada and said doubling the linear rate would come to about the same ($60.90) as the current per acre rate ($68.98) next year for Crescent Dunes, as one example.


Since the linear right-of-way rate is now the same for both pipeli....article continues below


http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2015/11/blm-charges-exorbitant-rent-fees-for-solar-energy-storage-compared-to-fossil-fuels.html?cmpid=renewable11272015&eid=289701941&bid=1243013

11.22.2015

According to the emergency plan, if the fire reaches the nuclear waste site, “there is a potential for radioactive fallout to be released in the smoke plume and spread throughout the region. This event will most likely occur with little or no warning,” the plan notes, listing the municipalities directly affected as Bridgeton, Hazelwood, Maryland Heights, the Village of Champ and the City of St. Charles.”County Executive Steve Stenger has promised that the emergency plan is “not an indication of any imminent danger,” but with a fire just 1000 feet away from a nuclear waste site, the danger does seem imminent for many of the city’s residents.“It is [the] county government’s responsibility to protect the health, safety and well-being of all St. Louis County residents. None of this is meant to be alarmist, but you have to be prepared,” Stenger said in a statement.However, this week Koster told the Associated Press that the fire is even closer to the contamination zone than the city officials have even estimated because the radiation extends beyond the walls of the site.The emergency plan provides very basic options for people to either evacuate the city or stay sheltered in their houses. Aside from saying that nuclear contamination can spread through the area in plumes of smoke, there was little mention in the report about what they actually expect to happen. Also alarming, is the fact that while there is an evacuation plan, there has been no plan proposed to actually stop this, or clean the mess up. It seems that the local government and the EPA are just hoping for the best as the fire continues to spread.John Vibes is an author, researcher and investigative journalist

According to the emergency plan, if the fire reaches the nuclear waste site, “there is a potential for radioactive fallout to be released in the smoke plume and spread throughout the region. This event will most likely occur with little or no warning,” the plan notes, listing the municipalities directly affected as Bridgeton, Hazelwood, Maryland Heights, the Village of Champ and the City of St. Charles.” County Executive Steve Stenger has promised that the emergency plan is “not an indication of any imminent danger,” but with a fire just 1000 feet away from a nuclear waste site, the danger does seem imminent for many of the city’s residents. “It is [the] county government’s responsibility to protect the health, safety and well-being of all St. Louis County residents. None of this is meant to be alarmist, but you have to be prepared,” Stenger said in a statement. However, this week Koster told the Associated Press that the fire is even closer to the contamination zone than the city officials have even estimated because the radiation extends beyond the walls of the site. The emergency plan provides very basic options for people to either evacuate the city or stay sheltered in their houses. Aside from saying that nuclear contamination can spread through the area in plumes of smoke, there was little mention in the report about what they actually expect to happen. Also alarming, is the fact that while there is an evacuation plan, there has been no plan proposed to actually stop this, or clean the mess up. It seems that the local government and the EPA are just hoping for the best as the fire continues to spread. John Vibes is an author, researcher and investigative journalist




 Thank You for stopping by-Share and Comment below. If additional information in needed or you have a question let me know. Together we can make a difference and create a future that will benefit everyone. Build a Green StLouis Green Building Tips and Resources via: Scotty- St Louis Renewable Energy Green Blog
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11.19.2015

Energy From Air Experiment

This years Science Project will be generating energy from the Air!  I am as excited to do this project as the kid!


11.18.2015

MOhawk Flooring Project Photos

Lately I've been installing a few rooms of Laminate Flooring by MOhawk Flooring.  Here are a few of the pictures of the rooms.




If you would like a bid on your next flooring job in StLouis email Scotty





If you would like a bid on your next flooring job in StLouis email Scotty

Thank You for stopping by-Share and Comment below. If additional information in needed or you have a question let me know. Together we can make a difference and create a future that will benefit everyone. Build a Green StLouis Green Building Tips and Resources via: Scotty- St Louis Renewable Energy Green Blog
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11.16.2015

Mobile Hemp Decorators For Sale

Mobile Hemp Decorators For Sale.

Two motor options available, or supply your own small engine for power supply.

Additional info soon.

Scottscontracting@gmail

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