Green Power Marketing in the United States: A Status Report (2009 Data)

This report documents green power marketing activities and trends in the United States. Aggregate green power sales data for all voluntary purchase markets across the United States are presented for 2009. The data presented in this report are based primarily on figures provided to NREL by utilities and independent renewable energy marketers. Because data cannot be obtained from all market participants, the estimates presented here likely represent an underestimate of the market size. Key trends identified in this year’s report include:• In 2009, total retail sales of renewable energy in voluntary markets exceeded 30 million MWh, an increase of 17% from 2008. The increase was dominated by renewable energy certificate (REC) sales, primarily to nonresidential consumers, which increased by about 20% from 2008 (see Figure ES-1). REC markets now represent 62% of total voluntary green power market sales.• Utility green pricing programs in regulated electricity markets continued to grow on a sales basis but at a slower rate than in previous years, with sales volume increasing by about 7% in 2009. A relatively small number of utility programs continued to dominate sales and customer numbers. Utility premiums for green pricing continued to fall due in part to the increased cost competitiveness of renewable with conventional generation.• Wind energy provided 73.7% of total green power sales volume, followed by biomass energy sources including landfill gas (10.0%), hydropower (9.9%), geothermal (0.2%), and solar (0.1%), with the remainder unknown (5.9%).• Overall, the total number of customers purchasing green power increased by 44% in 2009, which is a higher rate than in previous years and with gains coming primarily from a competitive offering in Texas introduced in 2009. Utility green pricing program participants remained essentially flat in aggregate from 2007 to 2009, with some programs continuing to report customer losses in 2009.• In 2009, nearly 340,000 metric tons of avoided CO2e from renewable energy facilities were marketed as offsets, an increase of approximately 39% from 2008. This is the equivalent of about 485,000 MWh of renewable energy generation

Using Renewable Energy Purchases to Achieve Institutional Carbon Goals: A Review of Current Practices and Considerations

With organizations and individuals increasingly interested in accounting for their carbon emissions, greater attention is being placed on how to account for the benefits of various carbon mitigation actions available to consumers and businesses. Generally, organizations can address their own carbon emissions through energy efficiency, fuel switching, on-site renewable energy systems, renewable energy purchased from utilities or in the form of renewable energy certificates (RECs), and carbon offsets. This paper explores the role of green power and carbon offsets in carbon footprinting and the distinctions between the two products. It reviews how leading greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting programs treat green power purchases and discusses key issues regarding how to account for the carbon benefits of renewable energy. It also discusses potential double counting if renewable energy generation is used in multiple markets

Voluntary Green Power Market Forecast Through 2015

Voluntary markets for renewable energy in which consumers purchase renewable energy from their electricity providers or from renewable energy certificate (REC) marketers have existed for more than a decade. Going forward, various factors will influence the development of these markets, including potential climate policies, state and federal renewable portfolio standards (RPS), renewable energy prices, the level of consumer interest in purchasing green power, and the interest on the part of utilities in offering new green options and in continuing to promote existing programs. This report presents estimates of voluntary market demand for renewable energy or green power through 2015. The forecast relies on historical data, including market sector sizes and growth rates, to inform our assumptions. Though we adjusted growth rates as discussed in the report, they remain the starting point for our analysis. Because of the different factors that affect utility programs, REC markets, and competitive electric markets, separate assumptions and methods are used to project demand for each submarket

Residential Green Power Demand in the United States

This paper investigates the demand determinants of green power in the U.S. residential sector. The data employed were collected by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and consist of a cross-section of seven utilities observed over 13 years. A series of tests are performed that resulted in estimating a demand equation using the one-way cross-section random effects model. As expected, we find that demand is highly price inelastic. More interestingly though, is that elasticity with respect to number of customers is 0.52 leading to the conclusion that new subscribers tend to purchase less green power on average than the existing customers. Another compelling finding is that obtaining accreditation will have a 28.5% positive impact on consumption. Knowing that gaining green accreditation is important to the success of programs, utilities may want to seek certification and highlight it in their advertising campaigns

Wetlands in changed landscapes: the influence of habitat transformation on the physico-chemistry of temporary depression wetlands

Temporary wetlands dominate the wet season landscape of temperate, semi-arid and arid regions, yet, other than their direct loss to development and agriculture, little information exists on how remaining wetlands have been altered by anthropogenic conversion of surrounding landscapes. This study investigates relationships between the extent and type of habitat transformation around temporary wetlands and their water column physico-chemical characteristics. A set of 90 isolated depression wetlands (seasonally inundated) occurring on coastal plains of the south-western Cape mediterranean-climate region of South Africa was sampled during the winter/spring wet season of 2007. Wetlands were sampled across habitat transformation gradients according to the areal cover of agriculture, urban development and alien invasive vegetation within 100 and 500 m radii of each wetland edge. We hypothesized that the principal drivers of physico-chemical conditions in these wetlands (e.g. soil properties, basin morphology) are altered by habitat transformation. Multivariate multiple regression analyses (distance-based Redundancy Analysis) indicated significant associations between wetland physico-chemistry and habitat transformation (overall transformation within 100 and 500 m, alien vegetation cover within 100 and 500 m, urban cover within 100 m); although for significant regressions the amount of variation explained was very low (range: ∼2 to ∼5.5%), relative to that explained by purely spatio-temporal factors (range: ∼35.5 to ∼43%). The nature of the relationships between each type of transformation in the landscape and individual physico-chemical variables in wetlands were further explored with univariate multiple regressions. Results suggest that conservation of relatively narrow (∼100 m) buffer strips around temporary wetlands is likely to be effective in the maintenance of natural conditions in terms of physico-chemical water quality

Feel My Pain: Design and Evaluation of Painpad, a Tangible Device for Supporting Inpatient Self-Logging of Pain

Monitoring patients' pain is a critical issue for clinical caregivers, particularly among staff responsible for providing analgesic relief. However, collecting regularly scheduled pain readings from patients can be difficult and time-consuming for clinicians. In this paper we present Painpad, a tangible device that was developed to allow patients to engage in self-logging of their pain. We report findings from two hospital-based field studies in which Painpad was deployed to a total of 78 inpatients recovering from ambulatory surgery. We find that Painpad results in improved frequency and compliance with pain logging, and that self-logged scores may be more faithful to patients' experienced pain than corresponding scores reported to nurses. We also show that older adults may prefer tangible interfaces over tablet-based alternatives for reporting their pain, and we contribute design lessons for pain logging devices intended for use in hospital settings

Adverse Events during Intrahospital Transfers: Focus on Patient Safety

Intrahospital transport of patients constitutes an integral part of care delivery in the complex environment of modern hospitals. In general, the more complicated and acute the patient’s condition is, the more likely he or she will require both scheduled and unscheduled trips. The purpose of this chapter is to highlight the potential adverse events associated with intrahospital transfers (IHTs), to discuss the interdepartmental handoff process when patients travel within the walls of a single institution, and finally to provide strategies to prevent adverse events from occurring during the IHT process. A comprehensive literature review, covering some of the most recent developments in this area, has been included in this manuscript. Aspects unique to this presentation include sections dedicated to risk assessment, commonly seen patterns of transfers and complications, as well as the inclusion of family communication as a core component of the process. The overall goal of providers and patient safety champions should be the achievement of “zero incidence” rate of IHT-related events. We hope that this chapter provides a small, but significant, step in the right direction

Econundrum:Visualizing the Climate Impact of Dietary Choice through a Shared Data Sculpture

While there is a strong relationship between climate change and human food consumption, it is challenging to understand the implications and impact from an individual perspective. The lack of a shared frame of reference, that allows people to compare their impact to others, limits awareness on this complex topic. To support group reflections and social comparison of the impact of people’s food consumption on climate change, we designed Econundrum, a shared physical data sculpture that visualizes carbon emissions resulting from dietary choices of a small community. Our three-week field study demonstrates how Econundrum helped people (i) understand the climate impact of various food types, (ii) reflect on the environmental impact of their food choices; and (iii) discuss the relation between climate impact and food consumption with others. Our study shows how a shared physical data sculpture mediates a complex topic to a community by facilitating the social dynamics in context

Electronic data capture in a rural African setting: evaluating experiences with different systems in Malawi

Background As hardware for electronic data capture (EDC), such as smartphones or tablets, becomes cheaper and more widely available, the potential for using such hardware as data capture tools in routine healthcare and research is increasing. Objective We aim to highlight the advantages and disadvantages of four EDC systems being used simultaneously in rural Malawi: two for Android devices (CommCare and ODK Collect), one for PALM and Windows OS (Pendragon), and a custom-built application for Android (Mobile InterVA – MIVA). Design We report on the personal field and development experience of fieldworkers, project managers, and EDC system developers. Results Fieldworkers preferred using EDC to paper-based systems, although some struggled with the technology at first. Highlighted features include in-built skip patterns for all systems, and specifically the ‘case’ function that CommCare offers. MIVA as a standalone app required considerably more time and expertise than the other systems to create and could not be customised for our specific research needs; however, it facilitates standardised routine data collection. CommCare and ODK Collect both have user-friendly web-interfaces for form development and good technical support. CommCare requires Internet to build an application and download it to a device, whereas all steps can be done offline with ODK Collect, a desirable feature in low connectivity settings. Pendragon required more complex programming of logic, using a Microsoft Access application, and generally had less technical support. Start-up costs varied between systems, and all were considered more expensive than setting up a paper-based system; however running costs were generally low and therefore thought to be cost-effective over the course of our projects. Conclusions EDC offers many opportunities for efficient data collection, but brings some issues requiring consideration when designing a study; the decision of which hardware and software to use should be informed by the aim of data collection, budget, and local circumstances