sandy salads

On October 30th, while we were busy removing flood water from the Financial District after Hurricane Sandy, the tiny islands of Tokelau transitioned to being the first completely solar powered country. Tokelau consists of three small atolls; Atafu, Nukunonu and Fakaofo out in the South Pacific, halway between New Zealand and Hawaii. They only have a population of 1,411, which has been declining ever since Hurricane Percy in 2005, which left most of its cities under a meter of water and damaged many of the crops. Most of the population works as subsistence farmers, although each atoll does have its own hospital and school.

Tokelau started out as a British Protectorate in the late 1800s until 1926, when New Zealand took responsibility to administer the country. It identifies itself as a non-governing territory. Citizens are afraid if they become independent, they will lose their funding from New Zealand, which currently covers 80% of their expenses. New Zealand paid for the 7 million dollar solar power installation, which they believe will relieve Tokelau of its dependency on diesel generators, that require about 200 liters of diesel per day. Currenty the territory relies on radio transmission to learn the weather and shipping status. As there is no airport on the island, the only way to reach the nearest land is by a day boat ride to Samoa.

SMA Solar Technology, the leading solar installation company in Germany, supplied and installed the solar technology used in Tokelau. The installed 93 sunny island interverters for stand alone use and 205 sunny boy inverters that change the electricity in the PV panels into alternating current which can be used on electrical appliances. They also installed over 4,000 panels, and had a technician train the islanders on how to use the equipment, and will remain in contact to consult as needed.

As a country that relies so heavily on New Zealand, the solar power installation marks a great opportunity for them to become more financially independent. In the past decade they have raised their GDP by over 10% through the sale of fishing rights and use of its internet domain (.tk). By alleviating expenses on diesel fuel islanders hope to be able to spend more money on their school system and hospital reform.

Can you imagine living in upstate New York, where the average low temperature in January is 13 degrees, and only needing to use your heat once a year for 30 minutes? Dennis Wedlick LLC, an architect firm, has designed five houses in Columbia County that barely use heating or cooling systems. 

The idea of passive houses, or “Passivhaus”, started in Germany in 1988, with the construction of four row houses that used 90% less heat than the average home.  Today, there are over 25,000 structures in Europe built by this standard.  The original idea was to design a home “which assures a comfortable climate in summer and winter without needing a conventional heating system”. 

If you are looking into building a “green” home, or even just a custom house, it can be built as a passive house for practically the same price just based on the design.  By using thermal model software, they can test and analyze for the environment and find the exact materials, window and door placement that will decrease the energy usage by 90% of that of regular buildings. 

At his presentation for the Emerging Professionals Group of Urban Green Building Council, Mr. Wedlick explained that the greatest impact was the economic certainty of the buildings.  Currently, one of their clients, Habitat for Humanity, is using a passive house design for one of their projects.  It makes the most sense for the future inhabitants, that way they are never hit with an astronomical heating or cooling bill in January or July, that requires them to dip into their extremely limited disposable income.

Mr. Wedlick emphasized that these projects are not passive solar.  He defined passive solar as being calibrated to collect, store and distribute solar, while the passive houses he creates are designed to minimize any type of energy use, saying you must put aside thoughts about alternative energy. 

Passive house works based on its compact shape, thermal boudary, fenestration, airtight construction, conditioned air and fresh air systems.  Through testing with thermal modeling software, they are able to fenestrate, or optimal place the windows where they will provide a net gain in heating/cooling the house.  The thermal boundary works to stabilize the indoor temperature. 

The most difficult challenge with the design is making it airtight, to fight drafts, while keeping the air fresh.  Their answer to this is by using heat recovery ventilators. 

The house they just finished in Columbia County is the 11th in the United States.  Mr. Wedlick notes that currently this is still a very grassroots organization.  While they do qualify for NYSERDA grant money, and Energy Star III, and LEED, it takes administrative talent and time to chase that money for the company.  Right now, for the firm, the best case is to have a client already interested in a custom home, that is willing to try out a passive house design, since it costs about the same amount.  Hopefully, we will start to see a lot more of these houses soon.