Shortly after the 2001 inauguration of George W. Bush, the U.S. formally withdrew its support for the Kyoto Protocol, saying that a mandatory reduction in carbon dioxide emissions was not worth the potential impact on economic activity.
It was a different story in Mountain View, where rolling blackouts and soaring electricity prices were spurring the city government and several large companies to get serious about cutting back.
Since 2000, the city has reduced its electricity usage by 15 percent and natural gas consumption by 26 percent.
“We started to do some very aggressive things to reduce consumption across the city,” said Gregg Hosfeldt, business manager for the public works department. “It takes a whole bunch of different measures to get to where we’ve gotten.”
Those measures included simple ones, especially at first: turning off lights and computer equipment when not in use, starting city council meetings earlier and easing back on the air conditioning in the summer. Further success came from replacing aging equipment with more energy efficient technologies, such as LED stoplights and computer-controlled heating and cooling systems.
Current initiatives include purchasing hybrid vehicles to replace the aging cars in the city’s fleet and automating the irrigation system for the city’s parks.
Hosfeldt said the city will continue to make energy efficiency a priority in its construction projects. But even though making comparably large reductions in the future could be more difficult and more expensive, city leaders say they want to press forward. The council recently approved plans for a 90-kilowatt array of solar panels on the roof of the new downtown parking garage, even though the system is unlikely to provide enough electricity to ever make up for the cost of installing it.
“I just feel very strongly that local government needs to set the pace and show by example what should generally be accepted in the community in trying to set these conservation measures,” said Mayor Nick Galiotto.
Local businesses, meanwhile, have managed to make large reductions in electricity demand and improve their bottom line at the same time.
Alza Corporation has already begun converting the methane gas that was escaping from the Shoreline landfill into electricity, as part of parent company Johnson and Johnson’s effort to comply with Kyoto.
For Alza, that means a 90 percent reduction in energy demand.
“You can’t conserve your way into that,” said facilities manager Scott Colpitts, who said Johnson and Johnson has an internal company checklist of 250 actions aimed at reducing environmental impact. “You need to buy offsets or build renewable projects.”
The last of its three 1-megawatt generators should be up and running by early June. Together, they will account for 70 percent of the electricity use at Alza’s 11 buildings, according to Colpitts.
Last week, Microsoft got in on the act, unveiling a new 480-kilowatt solar panel array — the largest in Santa Clara County — on the rooftops of its Mountain View campus. The system will provide an average of 15 percent of the electricity for the campus. With the help of state and federal subsidies, Microsoft will cover the cost of installation within nine years.
“It’s not really about the money,” said site manager John Matheny, soon after flipping a ceremonial switch along with Vice Mayor Greg Perry, who had arrived on his bike. “It’s about Microsoft’s commitment to the environment.”
The project, installed by Berkeley-based PowerLight, comes with a 25-year warranty. It will produce enough power for 500 homes and reduce 800 cars worth of emissions.
Microsoft has taken other steps as well, scaling back its use of heating and cooling systems and replacing lighting systems with higher efficiency units. The company has also incorporated recycled materials into construction projects and cut back its water use through the planting of drought-tolerant plants and a computer-controlled irrigation system.
E-mail Jon Wiener at jwiener@mv-voice.com
