URBAN PLANNING AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT January 2012 January NEWS MAGAZINE A Solar Panel is a Solar Panel, Right? Alternative Energy for Economic Development Tourism Planning Tools for Sustainable Economic Development Bad Planning Vs Urban Economic Development A Global Publication VOL 1 A Global Publication In Association with Urban Planning and Economic Development Associates Our Vision is to share a full range of interdisciplinary professional knowledge with community leaders, professional planners, businesses and interested citizens having a commitment to operational excellence in the public and private sectors. Contributions from our constituency will assist in facilitating sound decisions in community and economic development to promote continued commitments in creating quality places to live, work and play. Our goal is to provide educational information and services in urban planning and environmental conservation to an interconnected global community that will both enable in- dividuals and communities to adapt to new holistic techniques and solutions to resolve existing and future urban and environmental issues and foster economic and sustainable development. General Manager/Publisher Pamela Shinn, B.S. URP Editor in Chief David Weinstock, Ph.D Assistant Online Manager Sam Lovall AssistantWeb Design Editor Ronald Hanson, M.A. FS Design Consultant Chantel Martin Cover Photo, “Morning Sunrise at North Hoyle”; North Hoyle offshore wind farm, Liverpool Bay, Irish Sea Courtsey of Arron Crowe, Denbighshire, UK. For more information about Arron Crowe and his work you can contact him at: acrowephotography@gmail. © January 2012 2 “Partnering for a Brighter Tomorrow” FEATURE ARTICLES: Alternative Energy Solutions A Solar Panel is a Solar Panel, Right? A closer look at solar power options for your home, business or public facility. By Clayton T Grow, PE, LEED AP 4 Alternative Energy for Economic Development Implementation of Biomass, Hydro and Solar Power By Alison Bates 39 Transportation Bad Planning Vs Urban Economic Development Why did Cicloparqueaderos bike storage feature not alleviate urban exclusión in Bogota? By Solenne Cucchi 8 Shinn Pamela by Photo Economy Tourism Planning Tools for Sustainable Economic Redevelopment Development By Tracy Mullins, MS, AICP 15 Brownfield Redevelopment in Michigan The forgotten element of community planning Urban Scape By Flo McCormack 32 Is the International Architectual Style Sapping Restorative Development Regulations Urban Soul? By Kaizer Rangwala, AICP, CEcD, CNU-A 36 By Annette Fehr-Stomp 20 Law Credits Photo Credits 47 Redevelopment and Blight in Flux San Diego Superior Court Affirms High Legal Threshold for Municipalities to Declare an Area “Blighted” for Purposes of Redevelopment By Anthony Nash 23 Agriculture Urban Agriculture A growing trend By Beth Hagenbuch, ALSA 26 Photo by Niko Paul Bovenberg Paul Niko by Photo 3 A Solar Panel is a Solar Panel, Right? A closer look at solar power options for your home, business or public facility. By Clayton T Grow, PE, LEED AP Growing Sustainably: Your guide to green building This column, written by an engineer with experi- ence designing sustainable building practices in new construction and renovation projects, will keep you up-to-date on useful strategies to help your building or construction project use energy Image via SunVest Solar Inc. more efficiently, generate less waste, and reduce its impact on the environment. Urban planners, municipality officials, building owners and oper- Thin-film PV panels are considered the “second ators, engineers, and architects will benefit from generation” of solar panel design. The general princi- the sage advice and easily understood explana- pal of converting the sun’s rays to DC electricity and tions of the often confusing, but essential, world then inverting it to AC is the same as standard PV of sustainable construction products and prac- panels, but the materials used to make the panels are tices. drastically different. Manufacturers of thin-film PV’s use nanotechnology to reduce material costs, fabri- A Common Misconception cating these futuristic panels from non-silicon mate- rials, including copper, indium, gallium, and seleni- A design team looking to use green building practices um. The flexibility of the film used to make these in new or renovated buildings will, at some point, innovative panels allows them to be configured in al- consider using solar panels. The idea of solar panels most any size or shape to best meet the needs of a that many people have is one of billboard-like assem- project. blies with sturdy vertical supports that require a sig- nificant amount of rooftop or open area to convert the sun’s rays to electricity. The truth is, there are several different types of solar panels, and one of the most popular types does not convert sunlight to electricity at all. This article will explain the differences, advantages, disadvantages, typical applications, and supplemental information sources of three main categories of solar panels: stand- ard photovoltaic (PV); thin-film PV; and solar ther- mal collectors. Three Categories of Panels Standard PV panels are the prototypical solar pan- el that most people have in mind when they envision solar panels. These panels are often mounted on roof- tops or in open areas, where they convert energy from Thin-film PV panels on a residential roof the sun to DC electricity (#1). This DC current flows in New South Wales, Australia. Image via to the inverter (#2), where it is inverted to AC elec- SolarShop on Flickr. tricity, to be used on-site (#3), with the excess getting sent and sold back to the grid (#4). 4 A Solar Panel is a Solar Panel, Right? A closer look at solar power options for your home, business or public facility. By Clayton T Grow, PE, LEED AP Solar thermal collectors may look similar to stand- Standard PV Panel ard PV panels, but are quite different. The most com- Examples mon form of solar thermal collectors are flat plate col- lectors, which are panels that consist of a transparent cover, a dark-colored flat solar energy absorber, and Standard PV panels are ideal for installation on pro- heat-transport tubing. Instead of converting the sun’s jects that have plenty of would-be wasted space. light directly to electricity, these devices are config- Buildings with extensive roof areas and projects with ured with a series of fluid-filled pipes inside the panel. large open areas are a good fit for a standard PV solar A pumping system circulates this fluid - water or a wa- array. While warehouses, factories, and campuses ter/anti-freeze mix - that is circulated from inside the with large open fields can best benefit from a PV -ar building, through the panel tubing out in, where the ray by generating large percentages of their electricity fluid then transfers the heat it absorbed from the sun use, smaller commercial and residential applications to a hot water storage tank. The tubing in the solar can also achieve significant electricity savings when collectors is very well insulated on the non-sunlight properly configured. side in order to minimize heat dissipation to the out- door environment. Thin-film PV Examples Many properties do not have sufficient area in which to install large supports for a standard PV array, so thin-film PV may be more appropriate. Recent in- creases in efficiency and cost reduction are making thin-film technology viable for more applications. The advantage of installing a thin-film array is that they can be installed with a very low profile, some- times even using a peel-and-stick application. If building owners are concerned with maintaining a sleek aesthetic for their building or if large support structures are infeasible, a thin-film PV system may be most appropriate. Solar Thermal Collector Examples Because solar thermal collectors and PV panels Schematic of solar themal collector and storage tank serve very different functions, a building owner configuration. Image via Inkwibbna on Wikimedia could conceivably install both types to help de- Commons. fray the costs of both electricity and heating. So- lar thermal panels are most cost-effective when used for buildings that have a high hot water de- Less common variations of solar thermal collectors mand, such as restaurants, hotels, laundromats, include: evacuated tube collectors, parabolic troughs car washes, or buildings with hydronic heating and dishes, and solar power towers. These are more systems. While they can be used for essentially complex and experimental technologies and are not any building that uses hot water, the payback pe- commonly implemented, except by large utilities or riod is shorter for buildings with high hot water research organizations. demand. 5 A Solar Panel is a Solar Panel, Right? A closer look at solar power options for your home, business or public facility. By Clayton T Grow, PE, LEED AP Solar LEED Credits If you’re considering LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, solar PV panels and solar thermal panels can help achieve the following credits in the United States Green Building Council’s (USGBC®) LEED Green Building Rating Sodons Energy Solutions by Photo System, version 2009 for New Construction and Ma- jor Renovations (NC+MR): Energy Savings 1. Sustainable Sites Credit 7.1: Heat Island Effect – Nonroof (1 point) The amount of energy you will save each year 2. Energy and Atmosphere (EA) Prerequisite 2: with a solar power system depends on the size of Minimum Energy Performance (required) your building, the size of the system, the climate, the price of electricity, and a slew of other fac- 3. EA Credit 1: tors. For an appropriately sized system, if a Optimize Energy Performance (1-19 points) building owner receives all of the federal, state, and local tax credits and rebates available to de- 4. EA Credit 2: fray a portion of the system installation costs, a On-site Renewable Energy (1-7 points) home or small business PV system can have a payback period as short as 4-5 years.