SolaRoof | Hot Climates

Hot Climate Projects:

1. Agro Best

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Discussion:

How does our "Blue Green Building" concept apply to the serious electrical supply shortfall developing in California (and to the West Coast in general on account of the drought in the northwest)? I believe our powerful new construction technologies for building sustainable communities will be central to winning a victory for both the people of California and for the environment. We need a win-win.

What I find very disturbing is the temptation to abandon the clean air regulations in the face of this crisis. If this happens the path is opened to simply increase the electricity supply by building many more thermal power plants. I believe that this battle must be won by achieving a substantial improvement in the energy efficiency of cooling and lighting buildings because this where the majority of the demand (I estimate a peak-load near 25,000 Mw ) for electricity originates.

I am urging a Green Energy solution obtainable through the use of advanced Green Building technology that provides for economic growth free from the problems that are now restricting our individual and collective development. These limits to growth and economic expansion have been reached because our lifestyle is out of balance with the natural environment. For this situation to change, our homes and communities should reflect a deeper harmony with nature. Green Buildings and Green Communities are a new way of living that can renew and enrich our lives by applying technology solutions that benefit environment and can help restore and heal the planets’ damaged ecology.

Conventional buildings have a greater energy demand and environmental impact than the transportation sector but there is little effort to advance the technology of building design. They are our largest possessions and investments yet they produce no yield, return or benefit other than shelter (and sometimes – comfort – depending on our level of spending). The solar energy that is received by the roof areas of buildings on the average exceeds by about 8 times the energy consumed for a building’s heating cooling and lighting. But buildings are not adapted to harvest this energy. The roof construction is generally opaque although artificial lighting is exclusively dependent on electricity – our most costly form of energy. Water is precious, yet rarely is there any urban or building design priority given to the efficient collection of rainfall. Food in cities is in great demand but the urban landscape is bare roofs, concrete and asphalt – a desert that overheats in the sun. The urban rooftop space is a resource that is unused, close at hand and of great value.

I would like to share with you my insight in relation to the above that may provide some answers by means of a new and advanced construction technology, which I call the SOLAROOFGARDEN. This is a transparent roof construction method that, while it provides shelter and daylighting to buildings and ground level spaces beneath, also is equipped to grow an extensive plant leaf-canopy at the roof-level to capture and transform the sunlight for various uses. The urban landscape would be transformed by this technology into vibrant, productive, cool and verdant garden-like spaces.

Perhaps you share my concern that the timing of these electric power blackouts occurring in California is very important. Though they may appear relatively minor and unimportant - these events can be early warnings of bigger problems ahead. I hope they can heighten our awareness to issues that have been long avoided. Let us face the problem squarely and find real solutions before larger crises overtake us. Solar energy and other alternative energy (electrical from wind as well) technologies have not yet delivered on their great potential. The current volume of production of these new products results in unit costs that are still too high and this situation seriously limits any expansion (installed capacity is less than 1% of the energy demand). We have at present no viable, large-scale (manmade) solar energy conversion systems that are cost effective.

But wait! What if we adopt the massively successful ecological mechanisms of the natural world? Though they are not manmade - plants are responsible for the proper function of the world ecology. Why not use plant based technology to provide the solar processes that we need? This is the intent of the SOLAROOFGARDEN – and the large demand reduction for building cooling is due to the thermal efficiency and low cost of employing plants in what I refer to as “Phytotechnology”.

Photosynthesis (depending on the crop and the level of CO 2 enrichment) can reach efficiencies of 3 to 30% in the conversion of the solar radiation to hydrocarbon. In this process CO 2 is sequestered in the Biomass that is produced. PV and other solar devices do not create hydrocarbons (which we know and understand so well). A leaf canopy can be grown hydroponically (low cost mass production) within the SOLAROOFGARDEN superstructure, which can span over the vast areas of unused roofs throughout our cities with many benefits that include efficient solar energy conversion and load reduction for the cooling of buildings located beneath the leaf canopy. These are the truly “Green Communities and Buildings” of the future.

Look at Phytotechnology this way: sunlight is clean energy for plant growth but CO 2 is the input that most limits their efficiency in the production of hydrocarbon. In a closed atmosphere controlled environment we can use elevated levels of CO 2 in the range from 1000 to 3000 PPM (several times the normal atmospheric levels). Not only food and horticulture crops but also algae can be produced (in a CO 2 enriched atmosphere) at greatly enhanced rates of growth compared to field conditions.

I believe that the 21st century can be the beginning of a Green Millennium that will rely upon plants for the production of biomass and bacteria for the conversion of this hydrocarbon to methane (and nitrogen rich nutrients for plant root-zone fertilizer). The methane so produced can be processed by steam reformation into hydrogen rich gas that is then used to feed fuel cell reactors that will chemically produce electrical energy. The CO 2 that would be emitted by the fuel cell can be delivered to a CO 2 enriched atmosphere plant production system (like our SOLAROOFGARDEN). New (high-pressure) clean coal combustion technologies or gasification/fuel cell systems will produce both clean electric power and liquid CO 2 that is a resource to be bottled and shipped to the Phytotechnology crop production systems.

The SOLAROOFGARDEN is a new style of "Green Building" that would produce food and horticultural products as well as environmental benefits. But, also the solar energy received through the transparent roof cover is transformed by the plants into useful energy products – cold water & hot water, comfortable and productive living/working/recreational space, pure water (from condensation), rainwater collection and Biomass production for Biofuels, Biochemicals and Biopharmaceuticals. We will also develop the most efficient design to integrate direct photovoltaic electrical energy production that will harmonize with plant photosynthesis – since plants use mostly red light while solar cells absorb towards the blue spectrum. At the same time we will achieve the objective of having sufficient daylight filtering through the SOLAROOFGARDEN to provide adequate natural light for the sheltered (shaded and cool) spaces below.

Together we can build the Blue Green revolution

I would like you to please consider how you might respond to an invitation to work with me to further develop these concepts and work together for the provision of this know-how into the USA markets. The California energy crisis offers us an exceptional opportunity to work with the market needs for real solutions that can be delivered immediately. It is estimated that at least 50% of the 35,000 to 50,000 Mega Watts peak power demand in California is for building air-conditioning and lighting. This enormous expenditure of energy (~25,000 Mega Watts) and money could be reduced by a factor of more than 50 times by the simple expedient of cooling the building envelope with California’s easily accessible cold coastal Pacific Ocean water. Of course the Solaroof technology is specifically designed for this water cooling process and provides at the same time natural daylight within the structure. Additionally, roof areas with our integrated hydroponic crop production system -- the SOLAROOFGARDEN -- can produce a very exceptional income in addition to the savings on air-conditioning costs.

One must understand the vast potential of tapping into the infinite cooling capacity of the Pacific Ocean. Consider this: electrical power plants are built on the coast where the steam turbine cycle can easily use the ocean as a heat sink. For every Watt of electrical power produced for distribution to homes and commercial buildings for cooling and lighting, two Watts of energy are rejected as waste heat into the ocean. Only one-third of the energy consumed (and releasing CO 2 to the environment) at the powerplant is actually delivered to the end-user. Then this on-site electrical energy is converted to mechanical energy (using ozone destroying CFC vapor compression air-conditioning) and finally converted to cold air or cold water that is about the same temperature as Pacific Ocean’s cold coastal water.

By comparison the energy cost of simply pumping cold ocean water to building developments built in proximity to the coastline is 50 times more efficient than the electricity/air-conditioning scenario described above. We must remember that 80% of the population live on the coastal plains. Using the cooling water resource directly simply requires building envelopes (especially roofs) better adapted to liquid cooling. Our SOLAROOFGARDEN technology is designed with this capability to build the Blue Green revolution (See the "energy solutions" page and the "district cooling" link to learn about the Hawaiian origins of Deep Ocean Water cooling). Not only does this roof system not overheat -- but additionally it provides cool, modulated daylight under a leaf canopy and transparent membrane -- which is stripped of the heat producing infrared radiation and the damaging ultraviolet radiation.

This concept will blow the lid off the constraints on economic growth in California. Can you picture the extent of the Green Communities and sustainable building developments that could occur inland of the coast between LA and San Diego? Instead of massive new thermal power plants along the coastline there would be much smaller electric powered (no air pollution) ocean water pumping stations (district cooling) to supply the air-conditioning needs of these communities. Publicly financed residential developments could draw away development pressures from older, in inefficient city centers. Additionally, our SOLAROOF structure systems are extremely resistant to earthquake and the structures pose no collapse risk whatever. I believe we only need a couple of well-placed demonstration projects to trigger a massive interest in our products this summer.

I look forward to receiving your thoughts on the above.

Working together to build a sustainable future – I remain yours truly, Richard Nelson

1. No Name Yet

A project to build a human comfortable residence in a hot desert.