Net Zero Carbon Energy -- The 100% Energy-Water Nexus Solution by Net Zero Foundation

Please find below the judging results for your proposal.

Finalist Evaluation

Judges'' comments

Thank you for your contest submission!

The Judges feel that your proposal rests on two things : (a) buildings can cut carbon emissions at zero ro negative costs; and (b) a prominent demonstration of (a) can help build momentum. The proposal could do better to further the first point rather than counting on its general acceptance. However, all the best in your effort to get institutional support from MIT to get on the track to net-zero emissions as soon as possible.

Semi-Finalist Evaluation

Judges'' ratings

•	Novelty:
•	Feasibility:
•	Impact:
•	Presentation:

Judges'' comments

Thank you for your submission to the Climate CoLab. This is an interesting idea which has potential but requires more thorough work on budget estimates and some technical details.

The Judges would benefit from further description of the financial feasibility and policy strategy. In addition, clearer geographic focus would be beneficial.

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Rick Clemenzi

Jun 16, 2016
04:17

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Proposal
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Thank you for your feedback. We have added a "Foreword" addressing administrative issues and the proposal's genesis, plus additions to the "Imperative" and "New Thinking Required" sections. Other sections were also edited for clarity for the "public" round, tuned for accuracy, and emphasis added for novel aspects of the proposal.

We see you have questioned the financial aspect of our Net Zero Carbon proposals, and the Buildings group even questioned our understanding how to integrate with the building's industry. The cited building thermal system experts collectively have over 100 years experience with these systems, and they have developed the means to design and install these systems with paybacks in the 4-10 year range. The systems are almost universally financeable with 20-25 year bond funds. For the extensive experience of our team, please review the listed References and the identified experts' LinkedIn pages. They are fully involved in the building industry, all of them sit on industry boards and committees. Some chair ASHRAE and IGSHPA committees, and all of them served on the new ANSI/CSA Bi-National C448 GHP Standard's Technical Committee. These are seasoned experts with long track records who have and continue to work advancing the state of the art of building thermal technologies. Unfortunately, we may not have fully conveyed that to all readers.

Regarding geographic focus, the proposal is specifically for MIT to become a global Net Zero Demonstration site and Leader. However, successful application of the technologies and techniques involved must be global lest we fail at saving the planet from severe climate damage. While this "competition" is specifically just about Water, the solution is more generally a Water and GHG solution. Global application is essential for its ultimate success.

Thank you for your consideration of our proposal! We apologize for having to truncate the plan to fit this competition's main body 12K character limit, and we do understand that is a mark against us. But, the "New Thinking Required" section does layout all the pertinent information short of the MIT site specific implementation details and site related Research. Those would only fit in the much larger "What actions do you propose?" section in the "MIT Climate Mitigation Solutions 2016" contest (30K characters).

One final point. We will be filing an application for the $100M MacArthur Foundation grant under the Net Zero Carbon for Buildings+ theme as this proposal, and would sincerely enjoy a joint effort with MIT for that. Energy-Water Nexus is a key item that will be included.

Regards, Rick Clemenzi, MIT'81