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| NPS Pacific West Region Publishes New Issue of GREEN Voice The latest issue of GREEN Voice features an article by Regional Director Jon Jarvis titled "Global Climate Change and the Pacific West Region." New responsibilites for parks resulting from climate change issues are identified, along with climate change effects already occurring in PWR parks. Additional news includes information about alternative energy at Joshua Tree National Park, environmental education at Lake Mead NRA, and greening efforts at San Francisco Maritime NHP. Download GREEN Voice (768 KB PDF) NPS Environmental Leadership Program Produces Greening Poster/Factsheets The NPS Environemntal Leadership Program has produced four Unigrid-style poster/factsheets in collaboration with Green Seal, Inc. under a grant from the National Park Foundation, made possible by Hillyard Industries, Inc. and Wausau paper Corporation. Subjects include Green Cleaning, Park Lighting, HVAC Systems, and Landscaping. Download Green Cleaning (200 KB PDF) Download Park Lighting (212 KB PDF) Download HVAC Systems (235 KB PDF) Download Landscaping (328 KB PDF) Study to gauge greenhouse gas impact of Smokies Associated Press December 9, 2006 KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials expect to have the results early next year of a study aimed at finding out how much the park's visitors and operations contribute to global warming. Park officials have been providing information about vehicle traffic, campfires and electricity use to ICF International, the company contracted by the National Park Service to conduct the emissions study. The study is measuring how much electricity the park purchases as well as the types of transportation used within its borders. Park spokeswoman Nancy Gray said the study is needed to track climate changes or to establish how the changes might be related to emissions. "Scientists are showing that human influences are affecting climate change through greenhouse gas emissions," Gray said. Park officials estimate the park generates the equivalent of nearly 76,000 tons of carbon dioxide each year based on the results of a similar study conducted in 2000. Gray said park officials hope to have the results of the new study by late January. The Smokies, on the North Carolina-Tennessee border, leads other parks in visitor spending and is the most visited in the nation, with 9.2 million visitors spending more than $652 million in the communities surrounding the park last year. Park officials and community leaders have struggled for years to improve air quality and the environmental health of the region. The study is part of the joint Climate Friendly Parks Program by the National Park Service and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The agencies have spent the last two years developing methods that comprise the Climate Leadership in Parks (CLIP) Tool, which several national parks have already used to develop emissions inventories. "We tested it first to make sure that parks could use it, and now we're using it regularly," said Shawn Norton, environmental leadership program coordinator for the park service. "We determined long ago that it needs to be more than just a way of measuring emissions. We need to develop plans to mitigate emissions." A key part of the initiative will be providing information to surrounding communities and educating visitors about ways to reduce greenhouse gases. "As an environmental leader, it's very important to develop outreach both to the visitors as well as to our communities, municipalities and businesses outside the park," Gray said. "We need to understand ways of being better stewards and reducing greenhouse gases, because we can't do it alone." Fuel cell shows potential By Robinson Duffy Fairbanks Daily News Miner Published November 28, 2006 A team of researchers at the Alaska Energy Technology Development Laboratory at the University of Alaska Fairbanks have tested a prototype propane fuel cell, a technology they say could someday be used to create efficient, cleaner energy in rural Alaska. The fuel cell, which uses propane, was installed at the Kenai Fjords National Park's Exit Glacier Nature Center near Seward. This summer it ran for more than 1,100 hours straight, providing electricity for the nature center, located about six miles away from the nearest power line, and which gets over 130,000 visitors each summer. "From a technical point of view, it is an important milestone we have achieved here," said Dennis Witmer, director of the Alaska Energy Technology Development Laboratory. "It is one step closer to these kinds of fuel cells becoming devices that can be useful in remote locations." Witmer said that 1,100 hours of electricity may not seem like much, but that as far as these sort of small fuel cells is concerned it marks significant progress. "What happened in that 1,000 hours is the fuel cell ran so well that it looks like it can run for a lot longer periods of time," he said. "It looks like it's ready to run for years and if we can get a fuel cell that can run for years that has some real advantages." In a traditional combustion generator, the fuel is burned to create heat to make steam to turn a turbine which ultimately creates the electricity. In a fuel cell the fuel - hydrogen, natural gas or, in this case, propane - the electricity is created not by burning the fuel but through an electrochemical reaction. Since the fuel doesn't need to be transformed into heat, a process which greatly reduces the efficiency of the fuel, Witmer said, fuel cells have the potential to produce much more efficient electricity than traditional generators. The Exit Glacier fuel cell is notable for several reasons, Witmer said. Most fuel cells on the market today use pure hydrogen or natural gas as a fuel source. Hydrogen and natural gas can be hard to come by in remote areas such as in the Bush, while propane is easier to transport and store. "In villages in Alaska, propane is frequently the fuel that people use for cooking," Witmer said. Fuel cells are also able to efficiently generate relatively small amounts of electricity. The type of propane cell used at Exit Glacier would be perfect, Witmer said, for producing electricity for a single home. A typical diesel generator, on the other hand, is most efficient when it is generating 100 kilowatts of electricity, which is about 100 times more than a small building would use. Fuel cells are also quieter than typical generators and produce less pollution, although they still release carbon dioxide. Since the fuel is not burned, dangerous particulates aren't released into the atmosphere. In addition, Witmer said, fuel cells do not produce nitrous oxides, one of the so-called greenhouse gasses. "Fuel cells operate well below the temperatures at which nitrous oxides form," Witmer said. "The only thing coming out the tail pipe is pure (carbon dioxide) and water vapor." The ecofriendly side of the fuel cell is what attracted the National Park Service to the project, Jeff Mow, superintendant of the Kenai Fjords National Park, said. Since the nature center was built off the power grid, Mow said, the park has always had to rely on a diesel generator for power. "Exit Glacier is a very spectacular glacier," Mow said. "It's nice to not hear a diesel generator chugging away in the background." Many of the visitors to the glacier, Mow said, are interested in learning more about global warming. "We speak to climate change on a daily basis with our visitors," he said. "The fuel cell has been kind of an impetus for us to show some environmental leadership. It really gives us an opportunity to talk about the things people can do to think about their carbon input." Witmer said the success at Exit Glacier will hopefully lead to additional research into this technology so that they can be used in rural Alaskan villages with rising energy costs. "People have been talking about using these things in rural Alaska for eight years," Witmer said. "Up until now the devices weren't even getting close to being good enough to do that." |
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