Rob AriasIn honor of the forthcoming 2015 Earth Day celebration and shoreline cleanup event, we thought it a good time to spotlight a few good things happening in the community that will hopefully make a dent in our City’s carbon footprint. As part of the East Bay’s BikeShare expansion program, Emeryville will be doubling the amount of bikes proposed from 50 to 100 (installation of the first 50 that we previously reported is supposed to happen sometime this year). In addition, the Emeryville IKEA will be the first store globally to install a fuel cell system to convert biogas into electricity through a clean electro-chemical process.
The City will also be holding a special “Climate Action Plan” Study Session on Tuesday at 6:30pm prior to the Regular City Council Meeting. Mayor Ruth Atkin hinted developing a plan for our city would be a signature part of her 2015 term in her recent State of the City Address. The Shoreline Cleanup volunteer event begins this Saturday 4/18 at 9am in the Chevy’s Parking lot. More information can be found on our free community calendar.
Bay Area BikeShare Would Reach East Bay Under Big Expansion Plan
Kiosk’s like this one at 4th & Townsend in SF will soon be making their way to E’ville
Bay Area Bike Share would expand to the East Bay under a proposed expansion of what’s been a successful pilot program. In addition, the number of bicycles would increase tenfold — from 700 to 7,000 — by late 2017 if the plan unveiled this week becomes a reality.
“When we launched Bay Area Bike Share nearly two years ago, we saw a transformation in the way that residents and visitors moved around the Bay Area with an easy, convenient, affordable and healthy transportation option in our world-class transportation network,” San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said in a statement.
Lee and the mayors of four other Bay Area cities — Oakland, San Jose, Berkeley and Emeryville — announced an ambitious growth plan that would take the form of a public/private partnership with Motivate, the country’s biggest bike-share company, at no cost to taxpayers.
Read More on KQED News Fix →
IKEA To Expand Renewable Energy Portfolio with Fuel Cells to Generate More Onsite Power
Fuel cells like these manufactured by Bloom Energy will make their way to E’ville IKEA
The world’s leading home furnishings retailer, today announced plans to install a fuel cell system manufactured by Bloom Energy at its location in Emeryville – one of two San Francisco-area stores for the Swedish company. Consistent with the IKEA focus on emerging energy technologies, this project represents the first IKEA endeavor globally to convert biogas into electricity through a clean electro-chemical process. The fuel cell system will be installed, commissioned and activated by this summer, 2015.
Slightly larger than the physical size of a commercial back-up generator, the 300-kW system will operate on biogas and produce approximately 2,497,651 kWh of electricity annually for the store, the equivalent of reducing 1,304 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) – equal to the emissions of 249 cars or to providing electricity for 163 homes yearly (calculating clean energy equivalents). Combined with the solar energy system installed atop the store in 2011, these fuel cells will help generate more than a majority of the store’s energy onsite.
Read More on IKEA.com →
Feature Image: Employees of Gracenote from a previous Shoreline Cleanup event.
