solarincome.com Sunshine is the only income we’ve got.

solarincome.com

Sunshine is the only income we’ve got.

GreenShade Energy Systems respond to the electrical demand

that is created by direct solar radiant heating of our built environments. Reducing our electrical usage reduces carbon emissions as it reduces our utility bills.

It has been reported that reflective roofs and pavements “may be the single most cost effective energy and climate strategy” by climateprogress.org

We can go a step beyond reflective materials with photosynthetic materials that reduce the heating by direct solar radiation while removing CO2 from the atmosphere in the process.

GreenShade Energy System Benefits:

1. KEEPING THE LIGHTS ON.

Electric grid reliability is essential to our personal and national security. Modern society requires an operating electric grid to maintain order. Food distribution and refrigeration, communications, and transportation are essential to american daily life and they all require electricity. Difficult as it may be, we can make adaptations to reduced oil supplies but we can not adapt to a lower supply of electricity than what is required to keep the grid from crashing.

When we consider grid reliability, using less electricity or producing more electricity has the same effect as we try to stay below the critical level of overload and blackout.
Historically, electrical demand has dictated our supply side management practices. As demand grew we produced more power to meet that demand.

With the current uncertainties of future fossil energy supplies and increasing environmental concerns about burning fossil fuels, coupled to the large capital requirements of building more power plants, we are forced to look to the demand side for solutions. This is the opposite perspective from our historical response. We are entering an era where we will no longer be able to balance the supply/demand equation by simply increasing supply. The product of this new perspective is commonly termed Demand Response.

The “Smart Grid” is probably the most widely publicized element of our current demand responses. Smart Grid refers to a range of actions but the primary focus is on controlling demand by disconnecting users of electricity through signals from grid control points. The industry calls this “load shedding”. Load shedding includes rolling blackouts. Billions of dollars are being invested in technologies that manage rolling blackouts. Rolling blackouts that are used to avoid grid collapse are essential, but they’re not good when the blackout rolls around to your house.

GreenShade is a demand response aimed at reducing peak electrical demand and thereby minimizing the necessity for rolling blackouts. Peak electrical demand is historically on the hottest days when there is maximum use of air conditioning.

A study at the Univ.of Maryland concluded that model experiments with vine shaded structures showed a 73% reduction in cooling energy costs over structures in full sun.
This reduction of energy cost is a direct reflection of the reduction of energy use.

Any assessment of peak electrical demand has air conditioning as a major factor. Any assessment of air conditioning requirements will have a factor for heat gain from direct solar radiation. GreenShade can reduce that factor from direct solar radiation to near zero.

2. REDUCES AIR CONDITIONING COSTS

For a quick experiment to illustrate the effects of shading on your air conditioning bill, locate a nice shade tree, Stand out in the July sunshine for a few minutes. Walk into the shade of the tree. The difference that you feel is similar to the difference in load on your air conditioner if your house is in the shade as opposed to sitting in the sun. Savings estimates range from 25% for shade on the west side of the structure to over 70% for full green roof retrofits. The same measures that contribute to increased grid reliability contribute equally to decreased electricity bills.

3. PASSIVE SURVIVABILITY

Passive Survivability is an architectural term referring to the habitability of a building when there is an interruption of utility service. Electrical outages from equipment failure and overload conditions are not the only dangers. In hurricanes and tornadoes many more homes are left with out electricity than are destroyed by the extreme weather. Most homes today do not have adequate window openings to provide enough ventilation to remove heat when the A/C is off. Homes sitting in the sun can reach temperatures that are a danger to health and well being. Homes that are shaded can continue to provide shelter and reduce stress on an already over stressed situation.

4. COOLS NON AIR CONDITIONED STRUCTURES

There are millions of sq. ft. of commercial and industrial buildings in this country where people are working in high temperatures that negatively effect their productivity. GreenShade Systems applied to these buildings can improve the quality of life for the workers and improve the bottom line for the owners.

REDUCES URBAN HEAT ISLAND EFFECT

Every square foot of GreenShade is a square foot of asphalt, concrete, masonry or
steel that is not absorbing solar radiation and turning it to heat in our environment.

If growing vines on buildings to make shade seems kind of crazy, consider the situation described by John McPhee in his book, UNCOMMON CARRIERS. In the chapter “Coal Train” it states that the largest coal fired power plant in the western hemisphere, located near Macon Ga. burns almost three complete train loads of coal per day. It has thirty five dedicated trains in route at all times. That is two thousand miles of coal cars carrying twelve million tons of Wyoming Coal to Georgia each year.
All that coal is being mined, hauled, and burned to provide electricity for, among other things, millions of air conditioners that are removing heat that would have never gotten into the building in the first place, if the building had been in the shade.

demand response - Google Search.webarchive

demand response - Google Search.webarchive