Between the Poles

Autodesk Announces AutoCAD Freestyle

Back in October, I blogged about an Autodesk Labs project called Cooper, which was a new drawing software application for those users who don’t need full AutoCAD, but still want to create precision drawings.  Project Cooper was targeted on interior designers, landscapers, furniture providers and do-it-yourselfers.  Project Cooper was aimed at quick design work and allowed you to use a sketching approach to draw precision plans and layouts to scale using simple 2D drawing tools, predrawn symbols, and sample drawings in AutoCAD drawing files (DWG).  

Project Cooper has graduated and Autodesk has announced AutoCAD Freestyle, an easy-to-use application for 2D drawing and sketching for specialty contractors and do-it-yourselfers that you can use to create industrial-strength drawings, layouts and plans.  It's designed for tasks that require accurate plans, such as home renovations, gardening or landscape design.  AutoCAD Freestyle is also intended for non-CAD employees who work with architects and engineers, enabling markup and annotation of designs created with AutoCAD.  AutoCAD Freestyle is built on the AutoCAD platform and supports Windows 7 multitouch, including panning, zooming, rotation and flick functionality.

Worldwide Feed-in-Tariff Programs

Recently I blogged about Ontario's microFIT (feed-in-tariff) program.  As of 2009, feed-in tariff programs have been implemented in over 60 jurisdictions around the world, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iran, Republic of Ireland, Israel, Italy, the Republic of Korea, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, some states in the US, and the UK as of April 1 of this year.

Germany's 2000 Feed-in Law Act ("Erneuerbare Energien Gesetz") appears to be the standard against which other countries feed-in-tariff programs are measured. This law established some basic principles of feed-in-tariff programs. 

• Guaranteed grid access.
• Power purchase prices are based on the cost of generation from different renewable energy sources.
• Power contracts are long term, typically 20 years, but sometimes longer.

A feed-in tariff typically obliges the local electric utility to buy renewable electricity from all eligible participants.  In Ontario typically renewable energy projects under 10 MW connect to the local distribution system.  Projects over 10 MW connect to the transmission system.

In 2008 an analysis by the European Commission compared different programs in the EU to increase renewable power generation.

• Quotas - used in seven EU States. Governments impose an obligation on consumers, suppliers or producers to source a certain percentage of their electricity from renewable energy.
• Tendering - used in three EU States.  A tender is announced for the provision of a certain amount of electricity from a specific renewable energy source, and the lowest bidder wins the contract.
• Feed-in tariffs and premiums - used in 18 EU States.  The premium payment is designed to encourage competition between power producers. in the electricity market.
• Tax exemptions or reductions - used in two EU States and used as supplementary in others.

The report concluded that "well-adapted feed in tariff regimes are generally the most efficient and effective support schemes for promoting renewable electricity."

There is a very worthwhile blog Global Feed in Tariffs committed to monitoring feed-in-tariff programs worldwide.

OpenLayers 2.9 Released

OpenLayers 2.9, the latest stable version of OpenLayers, has been released.  OpenLayers is used by many applications including MapGuide Open Source.  The 2.9 release adds a number of important features, the full list of which can be found in the Release Notes.

Deadline for Proposals for Autodesk University 2010 Is Approaching

Autodesk University 2010 User Conference and Exhibition will take place from November 30 through December 2 at The Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas.

At the same time, people from around the world will have the opportunity to attend Autodesk University Virtual 2010.  AU Virtual will be held from Monday, November 30 through Tuesday, December 1, 2010.  AU Virtual classes will be recorded and broadcast via the Internet to technical professionals worldwide from the AU 2010 conference in Las Vegas. Many of those classes will be offered exclusively on AU Virtual. This year virtual classes will be presented in Spanish, Portuguese, German, and English.  Last year over 20,000 people participated in AU Virtual.

If you’d like to teach a course, it is time to submit a proposal.  To get information on speaker benefits and deadlines, please visit the Call for Proposals website.  The deadline for submissions is May 14, 2010.

To see some of the classes and content offered at Autodesk University last year, visit the Autodesk University website where you'll find class handouts, datasets, and presentations, including screencasts.

New Autodesk Sustainable Design Center Announced on Earth Day

On Earth Day 2010, Autodesk has announced the new online Autodesk Sustainable Design Center. It provides a one-stop shop to find the most current and up-to-date news about Autodesk’s sustainability performance and accomplishments.  The new Autodesk Sustainable Design Center will focus on the most pressing sustainability issues;

1. Clean tech development
2. High performance buildings
3. Teaching sustainable design
4. Green manufacturing
5. Greening government
6. Sustainable urban development and design
7. Green consumer products
8. Smart utilities
9. Better roads and transportation
10. Green vehicles

The Autodesk Sustainable Design Center will provide global facts, figures, and trends about these issues and most importantly, it will report how technology and people around the world are solving these issues. Sustainability is happening so rapidly that an online sustainability center seemed the best way to help people stay current with what is happening in this area.

As an example of things you can find on this site, Autodesk has reported on its own efforts to reduce its carbon footprint.

Autodesk's Carbon Footprint

Over the past 3 years, Autodesk has made a serious effort to do business more sustainably.  Two important objectives were to measure carbon footprint consistently and to become a more carbon-efficient company by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per revenue dollar.

Last year (February 2009-January 2010), Autodesk reduced its carbon footprint over the prior year by 33% to 51,540 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e).  On a per employee basis, Autodesk decreased carbon emissions by 24%.  On a per revenue dollar basis, GHG emissions decreased by 10% over the prior year.

Autodesk reduced emissions from travel by 44%, primarily through using virtual meeting technology, from facilities by 10% through energy efficiency retrofits, operational changes in facilities, better space utilization at major offices, and divestiture from smaller sites,  from employee commuting by 46%, and from major events by 31%.  For example, for Autodesk University (AU), AU Virtual was a virtual program that enabled over 20,000 participants to be at AU without having to travel. 

Autodesk's carbon footprint process has been recognized by the Carbon Disclosure Project.

Ontario's micro Feed-in-Tariff Program

There is a program in Ontario run by the Ontario Power Authority called microFIT (micro feed-in-tariff) that is designed for homeowners, farmers, small business owners, schools, and religious institutions that allows them to develop a small (10 kW or less capacity) renewable electricity power generation project and get paid for the electricity generated at very favourable rates for the next 20 years.  Technologies include solar photovoltaic (PV) cells, wind, water power, biomass, bio gas, and landfill gas.  Most of the 1,394 licenses approved since December have been for solar projects.  At the end of 2009, Canadian solar installation capacity was about 100 MW. But primarily as a result of the Ontario program Canadian solar capacity is expected to increase to nearly 700 MW Within the next three years according to the Canadian Solar Industries Association.

The rate for electric power from solar PV is 80.2 cents per kWh, much higher than the current rates for electric power in Ontario.  The Ontario Energy Board (OEB) has recently released new electricity commodity prices that will take effect May 1, 2010 under the Regulated Price Plan (RPP).

• Off-peak 5.3 cents per kWh
• Mid-peak 8.0 cents per kWh
• On-peak 9.9 cents per kWh

As an example, a group of farmers called Farmers for Economic Opportunity applied for and got licences from the OPA for small solar installations. These arrays are small, on the order of 10 m² and cost in the range of $60,000-90,000  They are expected to generate an annual return of 15-20% on the initial investment.

Generation X, Y and the Sustainable Workplace

For several years Johnson Controls has been sponsoring a survey of younger generations and their workspace requirements.  The most recent results have been released as a report Generation Y and the Workplace Annual Report 2010.  It includes results for Generation X and Y and some for Baby Boomers.

Generation     Age Group

Gen Y               15-29 yrs

Gen X                30-44 yrs

Baby Boomers   45 - 64 yrs

Traditionalists     65-74 yrs

It is also multi-national including respondents from the US, Germany, the UK, India and China.

The survey cites a couple of reasons for the importance of understanding Generation Y.

• Aging/Shrinking workforce - In the US and Europe as the Baby Boomers retire, there are millions fewer young people to replace them. 
• Generation X, Y is a technology savvy generation, the report calls them "furious digital innovators".  They have grown up with 3D gaming technology, the internet, and for the youngest among them social networking.  Generation X and Y technology skills are crucial to keep our economies going.

One of the most interesting conclusions of the report is the importance of sustainability to the 18-45 year old age group.  About two thirds of respondents in this age range require an environmentally friendly, as opposed to just an environmentally aware, workplace.

• 57% of respondents aged 18-25 
• 67% of respondents aged 26-35
• 74% of respondents aged 36-45

But it is also interesting to note that a sustainable workplace is significantly more important to the oldest respondents than to the youngest.

It found it intriguing to see that an environmentally friendly workspace is more important to respondents from China, India, and the UK than to the US respondents.

The survey also asked respondents to select their preferred mode of transport for getting to and from work.  I found it interesting that the automobile was far and away the top choice for the youngest age group and decreased with increasing age to where for  the eldest age group, 55-64 year olds, the top choice was walking.

ARRA "1603" Renewable Energy Grants Reach $3 billion

The ARRA created a renewable energy grant program, often referred to as "1603 grants", that is administered by the U.S. Department of Treasury.  Grants are available for renewable energy sources put in service in 2009 or 2010.  Eligible renewable energy include

• Solar - equipment that uses solar energy to generate electricity, to heat or cool (or provide hot water for use in) a structure, or to provide solar process heat.
• Fuel Cells - capped at $1,500 per 0.5 kilowatt (kW) in capacity.
• Small Wind Turbines - up to 100 kW in capacity. 
• Qualified Facilities - include wind energy facilities, closed-loop biomass facilities, open-loop biomass facilities, geothermal energy facilities, landfill gas facilities, trash facilities, qualified hydropower facilities, and marine and hydrokinetic renewable energy facilities.       
• Geothermal Heat Pumps     
• Microturbines - capped at $200 per kW of capacity up to two megawatts (MW) in capacity 
• Combined Heat and Power (CHP) - up to 50 MW in capacity

The total amount of money disbursed has reached $3 billion.  Most of the money has gone to large, utility scale wind projects.  56 wind projects have averaged $47 million each, or more than $2.6 billion in total.  385 projects are for solar electricity or solar thermal and average $400,000 each or $156 million in total.

Panels on Sharing Geospatial Data at GITA 2010

There are some fascinating panel discussions on the agenda at next week's annual Geospatial Infrastructure Solutions Conference in Phoenix.

• Peter Batty will be moderating a panel discussion at GITA 2010 in Phoenix next week that will discuss new ways of creating and sharing geospatial data such as crowdsourcing, the best known example of which is OpenStreetMap.   
• Dr Bob Austin will be moderating a panel that will discuss the alternatives of free vs fee for spatial data.
• Justin Sherin will moderate a discussion of how to share geospatial information in emergencies.

Breaking News Panel: Not Your Father's Approach to Geodata Creation and Sharing

Moderator:  Peter Batty, Ubisense

Speakers: Andrew Turner, FortiusOne; Ron Lake, Galdos Systems; James Fee, WeoGeo; Steve Coast, OpenStreetMap

This panel will look at new approaches to geodata creation and sharing that have emerged in the past few years, and consider how they apply to infrastructure related problems. Crowdsourcing has grown dramatically as a mechanism for creating geospatial data, and has the potential to dramatically reduce the costs associated with geodata creation and maintenance, which of course have traditionally been very high. One of the best known initiatives in this area is OpenStreetMap, and the crowdsourcing approach is also being used by a number of commercial companies including Google, TomTom and others, as well as some government agencies. Crowdsourcing has huge potential in emergency response, and the panel will include a look at how OpenStreetMap contributed enormously to the response to the Haiti earthquake. The panel will also consider approaches to sharing geodata. New lightweight standards like GeoRSS and KML have arguably done more to facilitate sharing of geodata in practice than longer standing more heavyweight standards. Techniques for making geodata accessible to search engines like Google, rather than being hidden behind portals, have also contributed to our ability to easily share data. These and other developments will be discussed by the panel.

Panel Discussion: Driven by Data: Who Pays, Who Plays?

Moderator:  Robert F. Austin, City of Tampa and President-Elect, GITA

Panelists:  James Fee, Editor, The WeoGeo Blog; Robert L. Young, RPLS, Young & Associates; Rudy Stricklan, RLS, AMEC Earth and Environmental

In a world where digital data paid for by taxpayers is driving navigation systems and other consumer and commercial uses, what is the right balance of free vs. fee?  Should cities that built the land bases used by mapping systems provide the data for free or should they be expected to at least cover their initial investment by charging a fee? And, should the fee be minimal or what the commercial market will bear?   The panel will debate these and other issues related to data sharing, including Homeland Security concerns, in the context of state law in Arizona as well as on a national and international level.

Power Panel: A Unified Federal Approach to Geospatial Technologies in Times of Crisis

Moderator: Justin Sherin

The role of geospatial technology, information and data continues to be of critical importance in supporting Homeland Security, Emergency Preparedness, and Response and Recovery Operations. This panel will address the continuing evolution of the individual and coordinated efforts of a number of key federal agencies.  Panelists will also share insights for improving information collection for Homeland Security Infrastructure Programs and the vital role of utilities and other public and private infrastructure organizations in meeting common objectives.

Industry Trends Analysis Group Meeting at GITA Geospatial Infrastructure Solutions Conference 2010

You're invited to participate in the 2010 Industry Trends Analysis Group (ITAG) Meeting, which is a critical part of GITA's annual strategic planning process.  GITA's Board of Directors relies on ITAG to be "the eyes and ears" of the association. This year's ITAG meeting will focus on the geospatial dimensions of intelligent infrastructure for electric, gas, telecommunications, water/wastewater, public sector, transportation, and pipeline vertical markets.  The meeting is free and will take place on Monday, April 26, 2010, from 8:00-Noon at the Phoenix Convention Center. A continental breakfast and post-meeting lunch will be provided.  The meeting will be over in time for you to attend the Opening Session of the GITA conference at 1:30 p.m.

I would encourage you to become an ITAG Advisor to participate in helping all of us better understand the implications of the new intelligent infrastructure we are in the midst of developing.  If you are interested in contributing as an Advisor, choose your vertical market

• Electric
• Gas
• Telecommunications
• Pipeline
• Water/Wastewater
• Public Sector
• Transportation

and contact Lisa Connor at GITA Headquarters, (303) 337-0513, or [email protected].