Biocentric Cities: solar groves

“Parking lots are this wasteland – they’re the last thing that gets attention,” Mr. Noble said in an interview. “Here’s a market the size of Alpha Centauri that’s never been tapped.” In 2005, Mr. Noble founded Envision Solar, now the country’s leading developer of solar carports. The company’s signature product is “solar groves,” 1,000-square-foot canopies that shade parking lots while generating clean power from an array of photovoltaic panels. 

The company is now branching out into electric car generation by outfitting its solar canopies with charging stations for plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles. It has developed a pilot project with the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, Colo., while also working with Coulomb Technologies, a developer of electric vehicle charging stations. 

Read the full article here:
The Parking Lot as ‘Solar Grove’
By JOHN COLLINS RUDOLF
New York Times - Green Section


D & C's Biocentric Cities post is a monthly post that features options for energy and heating systems that would reduce our demand on natural and non-renewable resources outside the city.  A city's consumption is many times its city limit size and impacts nature that we don't even see. My hope is that a city can produce its own energy, heat and clean water within its city boundaries.

Biocentric Cities: Bicycle Power Generated at Gyms

Fortum Active - an energy generation idea from Scandinavia.  Check it out on You Tube:



They are also doing this in Philadelphia - check out Green Revolution!


D & C's Biocentric Cities post is a monthly post that features options for energy and heating systems that would reduce our demand on natural and non-renewable resources outside the city.  A city's consumption is many times its city limit size and impacts nature that we don't even see. My hope is that a city can produce its own energy, heat and clean water within its city boundaries.

Biocentric Cities: poop power in dog parks

 From Wired Science:

"Conceptual artist Matthew Mazzotta is using dog feces to power lampposts in a park in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (His "art" comprises) a special “methane digester” that converts freshly scooped poop into methane.  Dog owners collect their dog waste in a special biodegradable bag and throw it into the digester –- an air-tight cylindrical container, where the dog feces are broken down by anaerobic bacteria. A byproduct from that process is methane, which can then be released through a valve and burnt as fuel. In this case it is being used to power an old-fashioned gas-burning lamppost in a park."

Read more about it here: Park Spark Project.

Image: Park Spark Project. 

D & C's Biocentric Cities post is a monthly post that features options for energy and heating systems that would reduce our demand on natural and non-renewable resources outside the city.  A city's consumption is many times its city limit size and impacts nature that we don't even see. My hope is that a city can produce its own energy, heat and clean water within its city boundaries.

Biocentric Cities: constructed (sewage treatment) wetlands

In my first semester Ecology and Environment text book, this picture of John Todd's "neighborhood sewage treatment facility" is an incredible design for a biocentric city.  I love that it's shown right against a sidewalk in between pedestrians and the street.

The description reads: "Water trickling through the containers of aquatic plants is cleaned and purified by biological processes.  Under optimal conditions, both odours and costs are minimal."  John Todd and his partner Nancy Jack Todd run Ocean Arks International.  Some of their other design concepts show how these systems "harnesses the biological processes that operate in nature within the form of an engineered treatment system to successfully meet discharge standards and permitting requirements"  and they are easily integrated into cityscapes.  Follow the link to see the concepts: "sustainable water management".

Here's an article on these living eco- machines: "Clean Green Waste-water Recycling" from Inhabit:

"Converting sewer sludge to fresh water is no easy job; traditional treatment plants consume massive amounts of money, energy, and resources. John Todd’s innovative solutions for waste-water management re-envision the process as an eco-conscious endeavor, conserving water and reducing overall treatment costs with minimal sludge disposal, water purchases, sewer surcharges, and chemical use."

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D & C's Biocentric Cities post is a monthly post that features options for energy and heating systems that would reduce our demand on natural and non-renewable resources outside the city (or in this one case - save energy).  A city's consumption is many times its city limit size and impacts nature that we don't even see. My hope is that a city can produce its own energy, heat and clean water within its city boundaries.