LORENZO ARVANITIS & SERENA CHO 7:55 PM, DEC 08, 2018
STAFF REPORTERS
The Yale Police Department arrested 48 people — the vast majority of whom were Yale undergraduates — on Friday, ending a five-hour sit-in at the lobby of the Yale Investments Office. A coalition of student groups, including Fossil Free Yale and Despierta Boricua, organized the event to protest Yale’s holdings in the fossil fuel industry and Puerto Rican debt.
Forty-three students, two graduate students, two New Haven residents and one faculty member — history professor Jennifer Klein — were cited for trespassing after refusing to leave the lobby of the Yale Investments Office after 5 p.m. — the time the Investments Office closes. In an interview with the News, University spokesperson Tom Conroy said police officers informed the students that the building was closing at 5 p.m., and that they would be given a ticket if they chose to remain in the lobby.
Is it a grammar thing? Or is it a laziness thing? Or is it just plain stupidity?
Climate change or climate science “denier” gets shortened to climate denier.
Fossil fuel “free” gets shortened to fossil free.
In both cases, the shortened phrase makes the person uttering it look like a total moron.
Of course, anyone who thinks that student protests are going to have any effect on this…
Source: BP 2018 Statistical Review of World Energy
Is dumb enough to think that government bureaucrats can amend the laws of physics.
For that matter… Do any of these Yalie geniuses have the slightest clue as to where their heating, cooling, hot water and electricity come from?
Energy Management at Yale University
Thermal energy for most buildings in the Central and Science areas of the Yale campus is produced in the Central Power Plant. The Sterling Power Plant serves the Medical School Area and Yale New Haven Hospital. Steam and chilled water produced in the plants are distributed to the buildings in underground tunnels or in direct buried pipes. Electricity is either purchased from the utility company or generated in the Central co-generation plant and distributed for the central and science areas of the campus.
[…]
Production & Distribution of Energy
Steam is produced in the power plant burning either natural gas or oil with maximum efficiency and minimum pollution. It is distributed underground to the buildings where it is used for either direct heating, for re-heating of hot water for heating, and use in the showers, bathrooms, etc., or as process steam used in the kitchen, laboratories, etc. Steam releases its energy (in radiators, heat exchangers, etc), and is returned to the power plant as the most efficient feed water for the boilers, since it retains its thermal energy (120-180 °F), and is chemically treated.
It doesn’t help that Yale’s management is almost as dumb as the students…
Energy Initiative
Turbines atop Becton Center
The production and use of energy from fossil fuels impacts our climate and community, and has become increasingly expensive as resources become scarcer. As a result of these impacts, in 2005 Yale President, Richard Levin, committed the University to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 43% below 2005 levels by 2020. Further, the Sustainability Plan 2025 Climate Action Ambition commits Yale to carbon neutrality by 2050. To accomplish this ambitious goal, Yale University has embarked upon an ambitious energy program improving the efficiency of its power plants, updating buildings, utilizing emerging technologies, searching for clean energy alternative sources as part of its energy use portfolio, and investigating the use of carbon offsets. To learn more about how Yale is progressing toward its goal click here.
Equally important, however, are the patterns and habits of energy use by students, faculty, staff and administrators. The example we set, as individuals and as a community, is also important as the rest of the world tackles its own energy challenges.
Further, the Sustainability Plan 2025 Climate Action Ambition commits Yale to carbon neutrality by 2050. To accomplish this ambitious goal, Yale University has embarked upon an ambitious energy program improving the efficiency of its power plants, updating buildings, utilizing emerging technologies, searching for clean energy alternative sources as part of its energy use portfolio, and investigating the use of carbon offsets.
As a higher education institution with a global presence, Yale is committed to sustainability planning and actions that forge new paths. The nine ambitions described in the Yale Sustainability Plan 2025 offer a set of unifying priorities to help foster academic exploration, encourage dialogue that spans academic disciplines, and create new ties between Yale’s operations and its teaching and research mission.
Yale is committed to academic leadership in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities, and to providing a campus learning environment that cultivates innovators, leaders, pioneers, and entrepreneurs in all fields and for all sectors of society. This plan outlines programming and priorities related to academic exploration, diversity, and collaboration—all vital components of the vision for a more unified and interconnected Yale.
In 1716 Yale University moved to New Haven, Connecticut. As we commemorate this tercentennial, it is extraordinary to consider what New Haven and Yale will be like three hundred years from now. This plan—with its nine ambitions and nine-year time frame—is the first step of what we hope will be a remarkable journey.
Peter Salovey, President and Chris Argyris, Professor of Psychology
Maybe my eyes were rolling too much, but was there anything in A New Sustainability Vision related to energy? And WTF would a psychology professor know about energy infrastructure?
So… Yale’s pathway to carbon neutrality is:
Improving the efficiency of its power plants, updating buildings, utilizing emerging technologies, searching for clean energy alternative sources as part of its energy use portfolio, and investigating the use of carbon offsets.
Basically, waiting for Unicorns and paying for other people to decarbonize… Don’t they still teach engineering at Yale?
Apparently they do, or at least did as recently as 2010…
Becton windmills raise quixotic questions
KATIE FALLOON 4:10 AM, APR 06, 2010
Last May, 10 one-kilowatt wind turbines were installed on top of the Becton Engineering and Applied Science Center to remind passing Yalies of the University’s sustainability efforts. But almost a year later, the turbines’ actual economic and energy savings value is still unclear.
While Tom Downing, the Office of Facilities’ senior energy engineer, said the turbines will pay for themselves, not including the cost of installation, in about eight years, two Yale engineering faculty members interviewed said they are skeptical the small turbines can generate enough electricity to be cost-effective.
The turbines — meant to serve as a sign of Yale’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 43 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 — were built by the energy firm AeroVironment, Inc., and cost $5,000 each, Downing said. He said the manufacturers estimated the turbines would generate about 26,000 kilowatt hours of electricity annually, which is equal to or about half of 1 percent of the Becton Center’s annual electricity needs and will reduce the University’s carbon dioxide emissions by about 20,000 pounds. (This data is based on the assumption that the turbines will be spinning about 30 percent of the time over a one-year period, Downing said.)
But engineering and applied physics professor Paul Fleury and engineering design advisor and lecturer Glenn Weston-Murphy said they are skeptical about the turbines’ efficiency. To have an energy-saving impact, there would need to be many more small turbines on top of Becton Center, which is not feasible because of limited space and zoning issues, Fleury said.
“I don’t know where the 26 megawatt hours came from, but it is at best very optimistic,” Weston-Murphy said, adding that he did not know whether the turbines would ever pay for themselves completely.
So far there have been no reliable data on the electricity actually generated by the turbines, Downing said.
A Google for the Becton Center wind turbines took me to Yale’s functioning sustainability page… And it’s a HOOT! There’s not a lot of detail on Yale’s energy infrastructure; but there’s enough to determine that Yale is about 97% fossil fueled…
Capacity MW
MWh/yr
Capacity Factor
Central Power Plant
38.60
Gas turbines (3)
18.30
Diesel generators (3)
4.50
Combustion turbines (2)
15.80
Sterling Power Plant
15.00
Co-generation
15.00
Fossil Fuel
53.60
Becton Micro Wind Turbines
0.01
25
29%
Fisher Hall
Soalr PV
45
Kroon Hall
Solar array
0.10
West Campus Solar Array
Solar array
1.34
1,600
14%
Renewables
1.45
The much ballyhooed Becton Center wind turbine installation has an installed capacity of 0.01 MW… But it does appear to deliver nearly a 30% capacity factor. From my recollection of my years in New Haven, it was always windy… But not that sunny. The YUGE 1.34 MW West Campus Solar Array rates a 14% capacity factor.
West Campus Solar Array
Location: 750 West Campus Drive, West Haven, CT 06516
Description: A solar array atop the Storage and Receiving Center generating 1/5 of West Campus’s energy demand
Did you know? The Solar Array includes 4,400 panels covering close to 2 acres of roof top
1.34 megawatt solar installation
Generates 1.6 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually
Offsets the equivalent of more than 16,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide over the life of the system
Delivered an eight-fold increase in the university’s on-site renewable energy generation
An eight-fold increase over slightly more than zero-point-zero is not exactly something to brag about. The highlight of Yale’s first solar installation, Fisher Hall, was that it delivered “17% of [the single] building’s energy demand.”
00votes
Article Rating
81 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Marcus
December 12, 2018 5:26 pm
David
“In both cases, the shortened phrase makes to (the?) person uttering it look like a total moron.”
What happened to the rebelliousness of youth? They seem to be in support of the current paradigms, not opposed to them. I find that very strange. One thing is clear though, they are willing to sacrifice their standard of living to their earth rock god… then put on a yellow vest and protest themselves.
If people believe that the burning of fossil fuels is bad then they themselves should stop making use of all goods and services that involve the use of fossil fuels. After all it is their money that is keeping the fossil fuel companies in business. The building they were in was make by the use of fossil fuels so they should not have been in the building in the first place.
WXcycles
December 13, 2018 3:50 am
“Turbines atop Becton Center”
That’s in the running for the ultimate in virtue signalling.
How shameless.
AGW is not Science
December 13, 2018 12:48 pm
Each of the Eco-Idiots in the “Keep it in the ground,” “Divest,” Climate Action,” etc. ad nauseum camps should have their own personal “Carbon Nazi” that follows them around, preventing them from using, consuming, or enjoying ANYTHING that consists of, is produced or transported through the use of, or exists thanks to, fossil fuels.
First their “Carbon Nazi” can strip them naked (not a fiber of their clothing that isn’t made from, or harvested, manufactured and transported with, the use of fossil fuels!), then snatch away any food they may be trying to eat (no hamburgers, vegetables, or other food raised, grown, slaughtered, packaged, or transported using fossil fuels for you!), then swipe any and all electronic devices (not only the devices themselves are fossil fuel havens, but they use fossil fuel provided electricity as do the millions of cell towers and servers they “connect” with to do anything useful), kill the heat, A/C and lights wherever they go (no energy consuming “spaces” fro you!), toss them out of BUILDINGS while we’re on that subject, and keep it up until they realize that LIFE simply REQUIRES fossil fuels.
Is it a grammar thing? Or is it a laziness thing? Or is it just plain stupidity?
Climate change or climate science “denier” gets shortened to climate denier.
Fossil fuel “free” gets shortened to fossil free.
In both cases, the shortened phrase makes the person uttering it look like a total moron.
Well, when you shorten it to where it no means what the original meant then it’s easier to get the easily agitated to join your “cause”.
They don’t know what you’re really promoting anymore. They can’t even “check it out”.
Prime example: CAGW where the “A” has become Carbon Dioxide which has become CO2 “pollution” which has become “Carbon Pollution” where the carbon-based minions that have joined don’t realize that they are “pollution” they protest.
“We have met the enemy and they are us!”
Gamecock
December 13, 2018 4:29 pm
I bet daddy is going to be happy, spending $50,000 a year to turn their kid into a Cultural Marxist.
Johann Wundersamer
December 25, 2018 9:15 pm
Paleontology
Is it a grammar thing? Or is it a laziness thing? Or is it just plain stupidity?
Climate change or climate science “denier” gets shortened to climate denier.
Fossil fuel “free” gets shortened to fossil free.
In german the terms are Energie Wende,Klimawandel and Verkehrs Wende –>
sounds as
responsible sustainable car drivers should immediately go against the one-way traffic.
Johann Wundersamer
December 25, 2018 9:25 pm
“Further, the Sustainability Plan 2025 Climate Action Ambition commits Yale to carbon neutrality by 2050. To accomplish this ambitious goal, Yale University has embarked upon an ambitious energy program improving the efficiency of its power plants, updating buildings, utilizing emerging technologies, searching for clean energy alternative sources as part of its energy use portfolio, and investigating the use of carbon offsets.”
That’s why Yale stinks from a distance – the toilets are equipped only with water-saving buttons.
Johann Wundersamer
December 25, 2018 9:36 pm
So Yale got to the light fire in the surrounding dark.
David
“In both cases, the shortened phrase makes to (the?) person uttering it look like a total moron.”
Thank God for Marcus… I hate typos!
What happened to the rebelliousness of youth? They seem to be in support of the current paradigms, not opposed to them. I find that very strange. One thing is clear though, they are willing to sacrifice their standard of living to their earth rock god… then put on a yellow vest and protest themselves.
Is that feng shui or yin-yang?
hocus-pocus
If people believe that the burning of fossil fuels is bad then they themselves should stop making use of all goods and services that involve the use of fossil fuels. After all it is their money that is keeping the fossil fuel companies in business. The building they were in was make by the use of fossil fuels so they should not have been in the building in the first place.
“Turbines atop Becton Center”
That’s in the running for the ultimate in virtue signalling.
How shameless.
Each of the Eco-Idiots in the “Keep it in the ground,” “Divest,” Climate Action,” etc. ad nauseum camps should have their own personal “Carbon Nazi” that follows them around, preventing them from using, consuming, or enjoying ANYTHING that consists of, is produced or transported through the use of, or exists thanks to, fossil fuels.
First their “Carbon Nazi” can strip them naked (not a fiber of their clothing that isn’t made from, or harvested, manufactured and transported with, the use of fossil fuels!), then snatch away any food they may be trying to eat (no hamburgers, vegetables, or other food raised, grown, slaughtered, packaged, or transported using fossil fuels for you!), then swipe any and all electronic devices (not only the devices themselves are fossil fuel havens, but they use fossil fuel provided electricity as do the millions of cell towers and servers they “connect” with to do anything useful), kill the heat, A/C and lights wherever they go (no energy consuming “spaces” fro you!), toss them out of BUILDINGS while we’re on that subject, and keep it up until they realize that LIFE simply REQUIRES fossil fuels.
Might be one “reality show” I’d actually watch!
Well, when you shorten it to where it no means what the original meant then it’s easier to get the easily agitated to join your “cause”.
They don’t know what you’re really promoting anymore. They can’t even “check it out”.
Prime example: CAGW where the “A” has become Carbon Dioxide which has become CO2 “pollution” which has become “Carbon Pollution” where the carbon-based minions that have joined don’t realize that they are “pollution” they protest.
“We have met the enemy and they are us!”
I bet daddy is going to be happy, spending $50,000 a year to turn their kid into a Cultural Marxist.
Paleontology
Is it a grammar thing? Or is it a laziness thing? Or is it just plain stupidity?
Climate change or climate science “denier” gets shortened to climate denier.
Fossil fuel “free” gets shortened to fossil free.
In german the terms are Energie Wende,Klimawandel and Verkehrs Wende –>
sounds as
responsible sustainable car drivers should immediately go against the one-way traffic.
“Further, the Sustainability Plan 2025 Climate Action Ambition commits Yale to carbon neutrality by 2050. To accomplish this ambitious goal, Yale University has embarked upon an ambitious energy program improving the efficiency of its power plants, updating buildings, utilizing emerging technologies, searching for clean energy alternative sources as part of its energy use portfolio, and investigating the use of carbon offsets.”
That’s why Yale stinks from a distance – the toilets are equipped only with water-saving buttons.
So Yale got to the light fire in the surrounding dark.