(Hint: It’s behind Building 25 and was temporarily enlarged on Thursday.)
Rain on Thursday, December 11, led to flooding on three sides of Building 25 at 1951 Monarch Street, as well as on the south side of the Control Tower. Building 25 is adjacent to the wetland on federal VA property called Runway Wetland.
Flooding next to Building 25 (behind camera), looking toward Control Tower and Port of Oakland. VA federal property on the left.
Building 25 was slated for removal in the original Waterfront Town Center conceptual drawing to make way for a wetland park called De-pave Park. By early 2014, city staff decided instead to lease the building, convincing the city council to follow. The plan now calls for protecting the building with a levee, which could be decades away. Continue reading “Find the wetland near Building 25 at Alameda Point”
A photo gallery of birds sighted at Alameda Point during the Fall of 2014. They include: Black-necked Stilt, Red-shouldered Hawk, Northern Flicker, White-crowned Sparrow, Cedar Waxwing, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Northern Shoveler, Black-crowned Night Heron, and Western Bluebird.
Navy environmental cleanup operations at Alameda Point ran the gamut during the summer and fall of 2014.
Operations included using bacteria to clean up groundwater, grinding radium out of a building floor, digging up lead-contaminated soil, constructing a metal shoreline waste barrier, digging up shoreline waste, preparing to install a 30-acre soil cover, constructing a new shoreline wetland, checking drain lines for contamination with cameras, and demolishing a several-acre temporary concrete drying pad near the old Control Tower.
Aerial view of Site 1 cleanup area at northwest tip of Alameda Point, showing newly installed waste isolation barrier along Bay shoreline, piles of contaminated soil in horseshoe shaped area that were excavated from watery pit on right, and stockpiled soil on old runway to be used for soil cover. A wetland area will be constructed on clear strip on left along Oakland Estuary. Navy photo.
Alameda’s nesting colony of endangered California Least Terns has a new government landlord – and a secure home for the future. After years of negotiations, the U.S. Navy transferred 624 acres of its former airfield at Alameda Point to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) on Monday, November 3.
Least Tern chick, adult with fish, and resting adult, next to tile used for shelter, June 2014.
The transfer includes the former airstrip that was adopted by Least Terns for nesting in the 1970s and that has become the most productive breeding site in California for that species. More than 500 acres – including the area used by the terns – will be preserved as a wildlife reserve.Continue reading “Endangered Alameda least terns get a secure home”
An old aircraft hangar at Alameda Point will become the first production facility in the world for an innovative hydropower turbine. After two years of testing and design work, Natel Energy began outfitting the hangar this summer, which is just a few hundred yards from their headquarters in the former Control Tower for the Navy airfield. “By 2016 we expect to be producing 75 units a year,” said Chief Executive Officer Gia Schneider, “and reach 200 units a year by 2017.”
HydroEngine drive system called a cassette. Blades connected to conveyor belts are moved by water guided by fins called guidevanes (not shown). As water contacts first set of blades, the belt is moved upward, while exiting water drives the rear set of blades downward. Natel Energy photo. Used by permission.
Formed by alumni of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Natel Energy set out to create a utility-scale hydropower system without the costs and environmental consequences of hydroelectric dams.
Natel Energy touts their turbine system, trademarked EcoSmartHydro™ Power, as an environmentally superior method of watershed development because it does not require flooding an entire ecosystem to drive an electric hydropower generator at a dam.
“Whereas conventional hydropower is characterized by a centralized approach to project planning and large environmental footprint, EcoSmartHydro™ Power is distributed, low-impact, yet still successful at the utility scale,” proclaims the company’s website. “Conventional hydropower plants are designed solely to maximize power output. EcoSmartHydro™ Power plants are designed to maximize power output while maintaining the health of watershed ecosystems.”
When installed in streams and small rivers, the system allows for young fish to travel downstream and through the system unharmed. Traditional fish ladders can be installed for spawning fish travelling upstream.
The heart of the system, called a cassette, is about the size of a king size bed. It consists of a conveyor belt of blades that are moved as water flows through. A generator connected to one or both of the conveyor shafts generates electricity.
The system can be installed virtually anywhere there is flowing water, such as irrigation canals, water supply channels, thermal power plant water outfalls, and existing non-hydroelectric dams. The Natel Energy system is able to generate electricity with relatively small drops in elevation because it’s based solely on water flow, not water pressure.
Water canal shown as an example of existing water flow where Natel Energy hydropower system can be installed. Natel Energy photo. Used by persmission.
In December 2013, Natel Energy got a boost from the U.S. Department of Energy with a $2 million tax credit under the Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit program. The money for product development and manufacturing, however, is coming solely from investors. “We don’t get any benefit from the tax program until we start selling our product,” said Schneider.
“The company currently has 14 employees, and we will be adding 80 to 90 people as production grows at Alameda Point, with up to 35 of those in manufacturing,” said Schneider. “Our goal is to give special attention to hiring and training of veterans and to make use of Department of Energy vocational training programs.”
Employees assembling gearbox at Alameda Point hangar. Natel Energy photo. Used by permission.
All of the parts and components of the turbine are manufactured in the United States. Schneider said that working with parts suppliers in the U.S. during the product-development phase made the process logistically less stressful and time-consuming. For some of their parts, the company would not have gained any cost advantage by going outside the U.S., according to Schneider. She said that once production levels reach the point where new production facilities are being added elsewhere in the U.S. or the world, some parts may be sourced from outside the country.
Assembling cassette drive belt. Belt connectors underwent testing and re-working at Alameda Point. Final product surpassed 60 million cycles without failure. Natel Energy photo. Used by permission.
Videos made by Natel Energy this year offer a look into the elaborate parts testing program the company has been running at their Alameda Point headquarters, as well as a look into the process of setting up their production facility. An animated video shows how their system works in the field.
Example of flowing body of water where Natel Energy system can be installed to create energy with minimal civil engineering. Natel Energy photo. Used by permission.
Water canal – example of where Natel Energy’s turbine can be easily installed to create electricity. Natel Energy photo. Used by permission.
Employees moving HydroEngine component at Alameda Point production facility. Natel Energy photo. Used by permission.
Gearbox for HydroEngine. Natel Energy photo. Used by permission.
Water testing unit set up next to Control Tower. Natel Energy photo. Used by permission.
Employees moving the cassette in new production facility. Natel Energy photo. Used by permission.
Employees moving HydroEngine components in hangar production facility. Natel Energy photo. Used by permission.
Employees assembling HydroEngine at Alameda Point. Natel Energy photo. Used by permission.
Shipping container rigged up with scale model of HydroEngine turbine for testing. White pipe circulates water. Control Tower on right. Natel Energy photo. Used by permission.
Employee checking specs as HydroEngine cassette is being set up. Natel Energy photo. Used by permission.
Employee testing the cassette. Natel Energy photo. Used by permission.
Building 400A production space. Natel Energy photo. Used by permission.
Building 400A, former aircraft hangar at Alameda Point. Control Tower in background.
A small company based in Union City is quietly conducting underground field tests of their flywheel energy storage system at Alameda Point. The mechanical device seeks to accomplish the same result as battery storage, only cheaper and with completely recyclable materials. The system is ideally suited for storing electrical energy created by commercial size solar facilities.
Alameda Point test site
Working with the City of Alameda, Amber Kinetics is leasing space on an old tennis court next to the O Club at Alameda Point. The two concrete vaults that they installed in the ground to house their flywheel system go down seven feet. That’s how far they were able to dig before hitting the layer of hydrocarbon residue called the Marsh Crust. Digging into the Marsh Crust would have complicated the testing and created added expense. Since there is no electrical service at the site, they brought in their own generator to perform the tests, which they store in a shipping container.
Their test is being partially funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under the Smart Grid Demonstration Program. The DOE Project Description says in part: “The goal is to deliver a cost-effective prototype flywheel system that can be grid connected and electrically charged and discharged. The flywheel stores energy in a spinning rotor that is connected to an electric motor that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. To recover the energy, the motor is electrically reversed and used as a generator to slow down the flywheel converting the mechanical energy back into electrical energy. Amber Kinetics will improve the traditional flywheel system by engineering breakthroughs in three areas, resulting in higher efficiency and radically reduced cost: bearings, low-cost rotor, and high-efficiency motor generator. This technology can also be used to optimize existing infrastructure.”
According to aDOE report on energy storagefrom December 2013, so-called distributed storage facilities like the type being tested at Alameda Point can improve the efficiency and reliability of high power transmission lines. They would do so by reducing “line-congestion and line-loss by moving electricity at off-peak times, reducing the need for overall generation during peak times. By reducing peak loading (and overloading) of transmission and distribution lines, storage can extend the life of existing infrastructure.” The report also notes the value of distributed electrical storage for emergency preparedness.
According to the company, benefits of their system would be:
“Demilitarized Landscapes” is a nine-minute film about three San Francisco Bay Area communities in which the military has played a major role: San Francisco’s Bayview Hunters Point, Alameda Point, and the Richmond waterfront. The film was featured in a special exhibition called “Above and Below: Stories From Our Changing Bay” at the Oakland Museum of California. The exhibition, which ran from August 31, 2013 to February 23, 2014, explored the impacts of humans and natural forces on San Francisco Bay over the last 6,000 years.
The film played continuously in a special display area titled “Military Landscapes – Demilitarized Landscapes” and shows the transitions being made today. The Alameda Point segment focuses on the Nature Reserve and the recovery effort for the endangered California Least Tern.
Alameda Point Environmental Report 