Green

GROW closes

Local nonprofit GROW—Gardeners Reclaiming Our Waysides—concluded its decade and a half of activism beautifying Nevada freeways.

Fifteen years ago, Nevada resident Mary Fischer started GROW as a way to green up the slopes along the sides of the freeways. Fischer is a master gardener, and recruited members for GROW through a gardening class, where she pitched her idea. According to a statement, “As a nonprofit organization, GROW’s mission was to ensure the establishment of a low-maintenance, water-efficient landscape on the slopes, interchanges, and gateways of the Carson City Freeway using native plants.The vision also grew into including steel statuary and artistic enhancements.”

GROW was also involved in several legislative efforts for freeway improvement projects. Spokespeople for the nonprofit said that GROW had accomplished its goals, and that further freeway garden maintenance will be funded by the state.

The organization was honored last weekend at the Governor’s Mansion in Carson City for its contribution to the community.

Ban in the bag

A five-year extension has been approved by the Superior Court of California for San Francisco’s ban on plastic bags, but not without opposition. The Save the Plastic Bag Coalition, a plastics industry group, is appealing the decision after the court turned down the coalition’s efforts to remove the ban, and on the claims that the court did not conduct an environmental impact report (EIR). Save the Plastic Bag Coalition’s full appeal can be read at http://bit.ly/OXY7M7.

The ban prohibits stores from using plastic bags, and will extend to all restaurants in summer of 2013. The coalition has been active in other California cities, trying to overturn existing bag bans in cities like San Luis Obispo and Santa Cruz.

Other cities with plastic bag bans include Seattle, Portland, Ore., San Jose, Calif., and Austin, Texas. An effort to ban plastic bags in Reno is underway, starting with a Facebook page called the “Reno ‘Plastic’ Bag Ban,” found at http://on.fb.me/Shpq4A/.

—Ashley Hennefer

ashleyh@newsreview.com

ECO-EVENT

Urban Roots Garden Classroom will host a Harvest Festival on Oct. 5, 6 and 7. Music, food, food workshops, baking competitions and locally grown cuisine will be offered. Free, but tickets must be purchased for workshops. Oct. 5, 6 p.m.-late, Oct. 6 and 7, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. West Fourth Street. For more information, email info@urgc.org.

Got an eco-event? Contact ashleyh@newsreview.com. Visit www.facebook.com/RNRGreen for more.

PHO TO/A SHLEY HENNEFER

The REEF, left, resembles a real house, with the workshop to its right.

Smart house

Renewable Energy Experimental Facility

Now that building the alternative power resources at the Renewable Energy Experimental Facility (REEF) is nearly complete, the fun begins for by scientists at the Desert Research Institute—fun as in data collection

Ashley and a quest to prove that sustainable homes are possible and a realistic

Hennefer goal for housing of the future. ashleyh@ “We’re trying to show how all of these energy needs—heating, coolnewsreview.com ing—can be met through renewable energy,” said Curt Robbins, research engineer. “We want to demonstrate that this can be done with commercially available products.” The REEF, constructed in early 2011, is 1,400-square-feet and resembles a standard house, complete with a living room and kitchen, two bedrooms, one bathroom and a utility room. A separate 600-square-foot workshop sits next to it. The facility is powered mostly by solar resources, including solar thermal panels, solar air roof and photovoltaic panels. Abiomass reactor used for biofuel production is studied in the workshop, and the facility also has two wind turbines. Hydrogen power—generated by wind and solar, stored in batteries, and transformed into alternating current electricity—is used to power the workshop, including a motor designed to run off of different For more information gases. The hydrogen power also powers an electrolizer, which in turn on the REEFand produces more hydrogen. other DRI research, visit www.dri.edu. “We’re testing out a few different solar applications, like solar air collectors, hydrogen production, solar air conditioning,” said Robbins. “We’re looking at how the integration of all these resources complements this facility.” The project’s aim is to be a “net zero” facility, which means that it strives to produce more energy than it consumes throughout the year, or to at least break even. It is also intended to be an example for off-the-grid homes made for people who live in rural locations. According to the project’s website, “It can cost up to half a million dollars to extend power lines out to very rural locations, whereas the installation of a sustainable energy system of solar panels and wind turbines is more cost effective at around $20,000-$30,000.” The systems tested are from various businesses, including solar thermal panels from Sunvelope, a Sparks-based company (“In hot water,” April 19). Robbins says that having local products to test would be ideal because the REEF would provide a place to test and collect data on new projects. “We’d love to have locally made resources, so they can come here and check out how their systems are working,” he said. “We test conventional systems against these to see how they compare.” An open house was held on Sept. 21 for researchers but was closed to the public. Apublic tour has yet to be announced. However, Robbins says that those interested in seeing the data from the renewable energy sources can contact DRI. The timeline for data collection is “indefinite,” for now, according to Robbins. “We had funding to build it,” he said. “Now we have to find funding to keep it going.” The facility was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, and also serves as the home for DRI’s GreenPower education and outreach program. Ω