Tag: renewable-energy
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Rural Renaissance
Book Review The March 12th episode of Booked on Planning featured author Michelle Moore, an advocate for sustainable energy solutions in rural America who recently published Rural Renaissance. Moore shared her wealth of knowledge on the subject, emphasizing the vital role that rural cooperatives and public power companies play in rejuvenating America’s heartland. With a…
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Is Renewable Energy Better for the Environment?
I saw a post on social media recently that showed the massive battery system required to power a Tesla and listed out all the environment downsides that go into the extraction. The article estimated that it takes 7 years of driving the electric vehicle before it starts to pay off the environmental harms caused by…
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People, Planet, Design
Book Review The world of design and architecture holds untapped potential for promoting sustainability, a topic we dove into with author Corey Squire, of “People, Planet, Design: A Practical Guide to Realizing Architecture’s Potential,” in our latest Booked on Planning episode. In the episode coming out in a few weeks, we discussed how design choices…
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The Net Zero Home: Eliminating an Energy Bill
Net zero homes produce as much energy as they use. A net zero home is not only great for the environment, but your wallet and health as well. While net zero is a method unto itself, similar programs that work towards reducing energy use and leakage in a home include Passive House, Energy Star, National…
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The Eco District
Scaling down further from my last post on the ecocity, this article dives into the ecodistrict. The ecodistrict, a concept that started in Europe, is based on the idea of achieving greater sustainability impacts through a district scale approach. These districts focus on the relation of energy, transportation, water, and land use and the most…
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The Eco City
Similar to my last post on sustainable cities, an ecocity is one that strives for sustainability and a healthy environment for its citizens and is modeled after the structure and function of natural ecosystems. Cities that strive for this label provide transportation networks for all travelers (transit, bike, pedestrian, and cars), integrate greenspace into the…
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Key Factors in Building Sustainable Cities
What makes a city sustainable? To me a sustainable city depends on a number of factors including land use patterns and growth, transportation, building reuse, energy and building code adoption, and green energy production. The most sustainable city would be one with a dense, urban fabric that supported public transportation as well as bicycle and…
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Solar Power Myths Dispelled
A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to tour a large scale solar power array on the western edge of Lincoln, Nebraska. I have read about projects like this and have heard just about every negative misconception, but never have stood in front of one to see for myself. It turned out to be…
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Utility Scale Solar: A Nebraska First
Located north of Interstate 80 just west of Lincoln on a dirt road is Nebraska’s first utility scale solar system. To be classified as utility scale a system has to produce at least 2 megawatts of power which is roughly enough to power between 300 and 420 homes. The system was the first of its…
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Mitigating Climate Change through Preservation
This week I spent my days in virtual sessions for the PastForward conference hosted by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. While I’m not a fan of virtual conferences, like most people, I was excited to see this conference go virtual because it gave me the opportunity to attend for the first time. This years…
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The Planning Lady 