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Here we go again... I found out about this when the reporter called me
for comments about it. Note that an empty promise of hydrogen is given,
but that the plant will be built to run on fossil fuel...<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/High-tech_underground_power_plant_might_be_built_in_SoMa.html">http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/High-tech_underground_power_plant_might_be_built_in_SoMa.html</a><br>
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<h1>High-tech, underground power plant might be built in SoMa</h1>
<p> <strong>By <span class="name"><a
href="mailto:jupton@sfexaminer.com">John Upton</a></span></strong><br>
Examiner Staff Writer <span class="date">11/17/08</span> </p>
<!--ARTICLE PHOTO--> <span class="img"> <img
src="cid:part1.03010609.03060505@igc.org" alt="" title="" border="0"
height="341" width="512"><!--PHOTO CAPTION--> <br>
<span>Commuters
catch their buses at the Transbay Terminal. City officials are
developing plans for an underground power plant to service proposed
high-rise buildings on the site of the current terminal.</span><!--PHOTO CREDIT--> <span>Cindy
Chew/The Examiner</span> </span> <strong>SAN FRANCISCO</strong>
– As controversy rages about if a power plant should be built or
rebuilt in southeast San Francisco, city officials have quietly been
developing plans for a separate underground plant to service planned
high-rise buildings in SoMa.
<p>Massive
amounts of power will be needed for the planned 1,000-foot Transbay
office tower and rebuilt Transbay Transit Center at Mission and First
streets, and for the thousands of new homes and millions of square feet
of office space expected to be built in the coming decades in the South
of Market neighborhood.</p>
<p>The privately owned
and operated plant would be designed so it could eventually run on
hydrogen fuel cells instead of fossil fuels, Environment Department
building official Mark Palmer said. Hydrogen fuel cells are an emerging
type of technology that can be recharged using renewable or
non-renewable power.</p>
<p>Waste heat from the
plant would be trapped and used to warm water for a combined heating
district, dramatically improving the plant’s efficiency and eliminating
the need for individual heating and cooling systems, which are often
built on rooftops, according to Palmer.</p>
<p>“Instead
of having a boiler and an air-conditioning plant in every building in a
certain district, you could build a central facility that would provide
heating and cooling for all the buildings,” Palmer said.</p>
<p>Combined
heating districts, which are common throughout the world, can double a
power plant’s efficiency by reducing the amount of heat that is wasted,
according to Palmer. The districts also maximize useable space in new
buildings.</p>
<p>About 170 buildings in San
Francisco are already heated and cooled using a similar network of
steam created by non-electricity producing boilers at Jessie Street
between 5th and 6th streets and near the corner of Post and Hyde
streets, according to NRG Energy, which owns the system. The steam can
be seen wafting up from city streets.</p>
<p>Eric
Brooks, chairman of the San Francisco Green Party’s Sustainability
Working Group, pointed to climate change and said The City should spend
generously on a plant that runs on hydrogen cells that are recharged
using renewable energy.</p>
<p>“Building any fossil fuel power plant — even if it’s really
efficient — is a bad idea,” Brooks said.</p>
<p>A
feasibility study, expected to be published within eight weeks, will
determine how much power and heat will be needed by new SoMa buildings
and whether it could be provided by a subterranean natural gas-burning
power plant, according to San Francisco Redevelopment Agency Project
Manager Mike Grisso.</p>
<p><a href="mailto:jupton@sfexaminer.com">jupton@sfexaminer.com</a><br>
</p>
<h3>By the numbers</h3>
<p>40 acres Former freeway land to be redeveloped around Transbay
Transit Center<br>
3,450 New homes planned in redevelopment area<br>
6 million square feet New office space expected near Transbay Transit
Center<br>
1,000 feet Proposed height of Transbay Tower<br>
800 feet Maximum proposed height for some buildings near the Transbay
Tower<br>
850 feet Height of the Transamerica building — currently The City’s
tallest<br>
2014 Expected opening of new Transbay Transit Center</p>
<p><em>Sources: San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, San Francisco
Planning Department</em></p>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
"I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." – Che Guevara</pre>
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