BY SUSAN WEST SENTINEL STAFF
Construction of a demonstration wind energy project in Pamlico Sound could begin as early as next year, according to state officials who met with Outer Banks residents to discuss offshore wind energy Friday.
Governor Beverly Perdue, Senate President Pro Tempore Marc Basnight, and Representative Tim Spear hosted the meeting at Cape Hatteras Secondary School.
"If water levels are rising as predicted and we take no action, we will have made a terrible mistake for the people who come after us," Basnight said in opening remarks to a crowd of more than 250 people assembled in the school auditorium.
Perdue told the audience that the state could position itself as a leader in "green energy," developing innovative ways that would help the environment and also create jobs.
"Make no mistake though, every governor in America is thinking about this. North Carolina has to do as much as we can do safely or we will fail," she said.
The Pamlico Sound demonstration project would be located seven to 10 miles offshore between Avon and Buxton and would consist of as many as three turbines, explained Harvey Seim, a marine science professor at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
Duke Energy and UNC-Chapel Hill are putting the final touches on a contract for the energy company to build the towers. Officials said they still need to determine what permits would be needed for the test site because the state has no regulatory framework for development of wind farms.
The project would provide researchers with more information on environmental impacts, operation and maintenance, and other issues, and could lead to full-blown farms in the sound or in the ocean.
A UNC-Chapel Hill feasibility study released in August found that large areas of Pamlico and Albemarle sounds and some parts of the ocean are incompatible with wind farms due to limited wind resources, ecological impacts on birds, fish and critical habitat, close proximity to cultural artifacts such as shipwrecks, or conflict with military operations, commercial fishing and recreational activities.
Seim said the wind resource over the ocean waters off North Carolina "is among the best along the eastern seaboard."
Frisco resident Johnny Baum urged researchers to pay heed to the weather conditions that can strike the Cape Hatteras area.
"Hurricane resistance is very important here," he said, during the public comment period of the meeting.
Seim said the UNC-Chapel Hill study found that an offshore wind farm might create 9,000 permanent jobs.
But Ted Vogel who developed the state's largest wind turbine located in Camden County, cautioned that North Carolina doesn't have enough workers trained in turbine technology and would end up importing workers.
"I'm worried about the visible pollution of these sites, " said Stewart Couch, owner of Hatteras Realty. Couch urged the state to study the economic impact of wind farms on tourism and on property values.
Some members of the audience raised concerns about the cost of electricity supplied by wind farms.
"Offshore wind power will cost more, and the economy here is already hurting," said Frisco resident Virginia Luizer. She also said any further studies should be put on hold until the state received assurance that environmental groups and federal agencies would not protest development of wind farms due to habitat protection concerns.
But William Howard of Ocracoke disagreed.
"The cost of investment is far less than the cost of inaction. We must change the way we think and account for all costs, including environmental degradation and war and protecting areas overseas," Howard said.
Jim Kinghorn, general manager of Cape Hatteras Electric Cooperative, said wind farms might lower the cost of electricity on the island very slightly. He said they could help the cooperative come into compliance with a state law requiring utilities to buy 10 percent of their power from renewable energy sources by 2018.
Most speakers indicated that they supported the concept of developing renewable energy sources, but they still had many questions for state officials.
Rom Whitaker, a Hatteras charter-boat captain and avid hunter, said he wanted to know whether access to areas around turbines for fishermen, hunters and other traditional users would be restricted.
Pete Peterson, a UNC-CH scientist who worked on the feasibility study, said access for fishermen would be regulated by the state Marine Fisheries Commission. He said judging from experiences in other places, trawling, gill neeting, crab potting, and recreational fishing shouldn't be impacted, but long hauling and dredging could be restricted in the area.
Allen Burrus, member of the Dare County Commissioners, urged the state to make wind energy development a transparent process with information easily available to the public.
Elfland, the demonstration project manager, said the meeting Friday was only the first step in actively engaging stakeholders.
The Coastal Wind Study report is available at http://www.climate.unc.edu/coastal-wind.
ridgeroad@earthlink.net
http://obsentinel.womacknewspapers.com/articles/2009/10/07/top_stories/tops0931.txt
Showing posts with label Wind Energy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wind Energy. Show all posts
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
New business focuses on green energy
Workers prepare the tower for a wind turbine just south of Safford on Power Line Road. Photo by Brian Wright
Comment: People want clean and green power, like wind or solar! People do not want Nuke plants and No to uranium mining!
By Brian Wright
Staff Writer
Electric bills are skyrocketing across the country, but one Gila Valley resident has opened a business that could help.
Cory Hoopes started Environmental Friendly Electric in May after working as an electrician for 23 years. Hoopes runs the business with three other employees, two of whom are full-time.
“We started (the company) up because of growing demand for greener energy,” Hoopes said.
EFE uses wind and solar technologies. Hoopes said he had the idea for the business a long time before he finally went about receiving his state electric license.
He also does residential, commercial and industrial electrical work in addition to green energy.
On Friday, Hoopes and his crew finished installation of EFE’s first wind turbine in the Gila Valley. It’s an 80-foot wind generator on Power Line Road, which is just south of Safford.
Hoopes said the Gila Valley is conducive to wind turbines because of strong average wind speeds in the area. Winds in the Valley average more than five meters per second.
Customers can potentially see a drastic reduction in their monthly electric bills, which is especially helpful in today’s economic climate.
“It should put a pretty good dent in (a customer’s) bill,” Hoopes said.
Hoopes did a lot of research on wind studies and said the average Gila Valley residents would save $200 a month on their electric bill with a 10-kilowatt wind generator. He also said a lot of factors determine how much one will save, including how much power the household uses and the amount of wind.
“It’s an investment that pays for itself,” Hoopes said.
EFE is putting up two more wind generators in Central and another in between Central and Pima. The company is also installing several more in Willcox.
EFE’s physical location isn’t open for business yet, but Hoopes expects to be open by mid-September. It will be located at 604 S. Central Avenue in Safford.
“I make sure my customers are satisfied with what they get,” Hoopes said. “We’re not just in it for the money.”
For information or estimates contact Hoopes at 928-792-8898.
http://www.eacourier.com/articles/2009/08/26/news/doc4a948bcf39a9c562027732.txt
By Brian Wright
Staff Writer
Electric bills are skyrocketing across the country, but one Gila Valley resident has opened a business that could help.
Cory Hoopes started Environmental Friendly Electric in May after working as an electrician for 23 years. Hoopes runs the business with three other employees, two of whom are full-time.
“We started (the company) up because of growing demand for greener energy,” Hoopes said.
EFE uses wind and solar technologies. Hoopes said he had the idea for the business a long time before he finally went about receiving his state electric license.
He also does residential, commercial and industrial electrical work in addition to green energy.
On Friday, Hoopes and his crew finished installation of EFE’s first wind turbine in the Gila Valley. It’s an 80-foot wind generator on Power Line Road, which is just south of Safford.
Hoopes said the Gila Valley is conducive to wind turbines because of strong average wind speeds in the area. Winds in the Valley average more than five meters per second.
Customers can potentially see a drastic reduction in their monthly electric bills, which is especially helpful in today’s economic climate.
“It should put a pretty good dent in (a customer’s) bill,” Hoopes said.
Hoopes did a lot of research on wind studies and said the average Gila Valley residents would save $200 a month on their electric bill with a 10-kilowatt wind generator. He also said a lot of factors determine how much one will save, including how much power the household uses and the amount of wind.
“It’s an investment that pays for itself,” Hoopes said.
EFE is putting up two more wind generators in Central and another in between Central and Pima. The company is also installing several more in Willcox.
EFE’s physical location isn’t open for business yet, but Hoopes expects to be open by mid-September. It will be located at 604 S. Central Avenue in Safford.
“I make sure my customers are satisfied with what they get,” Hoopes said. “We’re not just in it for the money.”
For information or estimates contact Hoopes at 928-792-8898.
http://www.eacourier.com/articles/2009/08/26/news/doc4a948bcf39a9c562027732.txt
Friday, July 3, 2009
Op-ed Series - Scott Sklar: What is all this "Green" stuff, and does it matter to me?
Comment: Everyone should reduce the amount of electricity we use every day, therefore, we will not have to hear the Power Companies crying for new Coal and Nuclear Plants! If you want, a big house and you can afford the McMansion put in solar and wind power! We all need to go off the grind! If we all go off the grind, No more Blowing up Mountains and open pit uranium mining or we will know the real facts about our government, they are just ruining our world for greed! Oh, by the way, Hang out the clothes and save a lot energy!July 2, 12:02 PM · Matt Roberts - DC Green Business Examiner
Scott Sklar, President, The Stella Group, Ltd.This article is next in the continuing summer op-ed series which asks leaders in the renewable energy and sustainability industries to speak about where we are today, and where we will be going tomorrow.
By: Scott Sklar, President, The Stella Group, Ltd.
In August of 1993, without anyone’s knowledge, a tree limb fell in Ohio which knocked out the electric power in 12 States and parts of Canada. Electricity outages ranged from days to weeks for millions of people. In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the southeast and knocked the electric grid and natural gas pipelines down in six states from Florida to Texas. Intense weather patterns tied to an aging electric and natural gas utility network and the result is outages, higher costs, and loss of reliability.
While American’s fixate on the upward and downward trends of gasoline, the same is true for natural gas. Uranium and coal costs have also increased significantly, and State electricity regulators have been slowly allowing electricity rates to reflect the ‘real’ price of fuels. Maryland and Virginia have seen electricity prices spiral upward and no one thinks it will abate. In fact, if the region’s electrical utilities have their way – upgrading transmission and distribution lines along with substations – and then adding new electric generation plants – whose billions of dollars of new costs will have to be embedded in the electric rates by all customers for decades to come.
Not only do we face increasing power costs for our homes and businesses but we must pay for the lack of reliability and electric power quality ourselves. According to an Environmental Defense Fund report, stationary diesel engines are used in many applications including: compressors, back-up electricity generators, and to power pumps. There are more than 900,000 of these engines in-use nationwide and at the same time, the exhaust they emit is among the most dangerous and pervasive sources of air pollution. The US market for UPS and other backup power systems has grown over seven percent annually through 2005 with a $6.5 billion US uninterruptible power supply industry in 2007 in the US alone.
I am here to tell you what you know already, and I will be willing to proclaim it on a stack of bibles – “electricity and natural gas costs will go up, not down, in your lifetime”.
Energy efficiency is the fastest, most cost-effective and quickest payback set of applications, you as a business owner or homeowner or renter, can do. For quality lighting, aside from compact flourescents, lighting timers, you can also move to LED lighting and solar light tubes and daylighting. Nearly a third of your energy is for lighting and it is the easiest to address. Make a visit to area specialty stores AmicusGreen in Kensington or EcoBeco in Silver Spring, or jump on the web to area vendors www.betterbulb.com or www.huvco.com or www.newtech.com.
Maybe you don’t know what to do, call in an energy audit for a low cost review. You can reach them at the stores above or contact TerraLogos in Maryland. They’ll also recommend water saving shower heads, programmable thermostats, and caulking.
Cut your energy loads and vampire losses – insulate your walls. your water heater tank and your attic. Replacement windows should be triple pane with lowE coatings and thermal barrier paints should be added in unimproved attics. Photovoltaic attic vent fans should be used in summer and ceiling fans in both summer and winter to improve comfort but seriously lower heating and cooling bills. Did you ever ponder that we heat the top third of the rooms in buildings while we spend most of our time in the bottom third? Ceiling fans at slow speeds drive the warmth downward in winter and at higher speeds move and cool the air in summer. Put chargers for power tools, cell phones, PDAs, toys, and appliances with remotes on power strips with switches. Vampire losses use ten percent of our nation’s electricity while drawing electric power for NO reason. So turn them off when you don’t need them – from the TV in your guest room to the chargers for your cell phone in the kitchen – they draw power when not in use.
And finally, reacquaint yourself with EnergyStar appliances – washers and dryers, refrigerators, and air-conditioners use mucho power. My new high efficiency washing machine not only uses 67% less electricity than a standard washer, but 40 percent of the water of a regular washer at its lowest setting. I save electricity and water – and here in Arlington County, that’s big money.
Once you’ve shrunk your energy appetite – you can think energy production. The easiest is solar water heating when your existing water heater dies. My solar water heater added $8 per month to my second mortgage and saved me $25 per month in energy costs, Now it’s paid for and I have a 15 year old daughter, so my savings have doubled !!! Contact the local Solar Energy Industries Association for referrals www.mdv-seia.org. Make sure you buy an SRCC-certified solar system. By the way, solar for pool heating is also cost-effective with an 18-month payback whether you use electricity, propane or natural gas for extending your swimming season.
For space heating and cooling I am a big fan of ductless heat pumps which not only use less energy to heat or cool, but being ductless lowers respitory diseases. I have the Sanyo system in my VA office building for the last 10 years. The most efficient way to heat and cool a building is ground-coupled heat pumps, also known as geoexchange or geothermal heat pumps. For new construction, a loop of water tubing circles the building or yard 10-feet underground. For existing buildings, small bore holes are drilled slanting down from 100 – 400 feet underground. The static underground temperature of 55 degrees requires so much less energy to heat or cool, you wonder why the US only has it in 900,000 buildings. Note the water never the leaves the tube and can be integrated into radiant floor systems or radiators. And the newer direct-exchange heat pumps use greenhouse gas friendly refrigerant in special air handlers on the walls, which is what I use in my home. There are three great GCHP companies that I have met in the Washington, DC region: SKS of Bethesda, Geothermal Options of Fairfax, and Harvey Hottel in Washington, DC., among others. Geothermal is cost effective, but be very selective of your drilling or ditching companies, which can the biggest cost of any geoexchange system. Get multiple bids from drillers and contractors and references – and call the references and possibly meet them in person.
Now for renewable energy electric systems, I wish to point out that I have photovoltaics on my DC and VA office buildings and also on my home. I have a small wind turbine on my VA office building with a smart, web-enabled batttery bank by GridPoint. My home photovoltaics (solar electric) system also has a larger battery bank and is web-enabled by Locus Energy. If you have a building off-the-grid, photovoltaics or small wind make sense. If you live in the Caribbean or have high electric rates for your business (expressed as demand charges, peak or seasonal charges, or ratchet rates), an appropriately-sized photovoltaics system can surely be cost-effective -- especially if you you do not need surge protection (for power sags, surges and transients) for digital equipment such as computers or back-up power UPS or generator systems. In fact, a small-wind or photovoltaics/battery system could be the most reliable, least expensive option for you now.
For most of us homeowners though, PV will cost more than standardized electricity from the electric grid. Now my $15,000 PV/battery home system (installed in 1985) now would be eligible for a 30% tax credit ($4,500) and the remainder on a 15 year second mortgage at 8.5% interest would cost my $98.47 per month, which due to the energy efficiency measures I described above, meets most of my electrical needs. So while a solar PV system is capital intensive, it does not have to be seen as a giant black hole. The electricity price does not increase, maintenance is minimal (especially if you web-enable), and of course you add no pollution or greenhouse gases to the planet.. If you are able to zone for small wind, wind energy is half the cost (if you have wind). My wind turbine spins reliably at night. Could it be the hot air generated on Capitol Hill? (there seems to be some disagreement by some of the experts on this issue). I have used almost every model by SW Windpower which has over 100,000 turbines worldwide including one at the base of the US Capitol at the US Botanic Gardens (www.wind-energy.com).
But the question I posited at the beginning is “Why does it matter?”
The extraction, conversion and use of energy is the single largest contributor to emissions causing changes in our global climate. And Boone Pikens is right, that importing energy (petroleum, natural gas and uranium) is causing the single largest transfer of wealth in history (and in many cases, from those who wish to harm us). Energy costs will rise, and energy efficiency and renewables are stable, reliable, long term investments. Emissions from energy not only emit greenhouse gases and level mountain tops and ruin streams and farmland, but emit regulated emissions (sulfur oxide, NOx and particulates) but also mercury and carcinogens.
Whether your concerns are national security, economic stability, environmental survivability or just good ole common sense – it’s time to put your money not only into being green, but in being smart.
While American’s fixate on the upward and downward trends of gasoline, the same is true for natural gas. Uranium and coal costs have also increased significantly, and State electricity regulators have been slowly allowing electricity rates to reflect the ‘real’ price of fuels. Maryland and Virginia have seen electricity prices spiral upward and no one thinks it will abate. In fact, if the region’s electrical utilities have their way – upgrading transmission and distribution lines along with substations – and then adding new electric generation plants – whose billions of dollars of new costs will have to be embedded in the electric rates by all customers for decades to come.
Not only do we face increasing power costs for our homes and businesses but we must pay for the lack of reliability and electric power quality ourselves. According to an Environmental Defense Fund report, stationary diesel engines are used in many applications including: compressors, back-up electricity generators, and to power pumps. There are more than 900,000 of these engines in-use nationwide and at the same time, the exhaust they emit is among the most dangerous and pervasive sources of air pollution. The US market for UPS and other backup power systems has grown over seven percent annually through 2005 with a $6.5 billion US uninterruptible power supply industry in 2007 in the US alone.
I am here to tell you what you know already, and I will be willing to proclaim it on a stack of bibles – “electricity and natural gas costs will go up, not down, in your lifetime”.
Energy efficiency is the fastest, most cost-effective and quickest payback set of applications, you as a business owner or homeowner or renter, can do. For quality lighting, aside from compact flourescents, lighting timers, you can also move to LED lighting and solar light tubes and daylighting. Nearly a third of your energy is for lighting and it is the easiest to address. Make a visit to area specialty stores AmicusGreen in Kensington or EcoBeco in Silver Spring, or jump on the web to area vendors www.betterbulb.com or www.huvco.com or www.newtech.com.
Maybe you don’t know what to do, call in an energy audit for a low cost review. You can reach them at the stores above or contact TerraLogos in Maryland. They’ll also recommend water saving shower heads, programmable thermostats, and caulking.
Cut your energy loads and vampire losses – insulate your walls. your water heater tank and your attic. Replacement windows should be triple pane with lowE coatings and thermal barrier paints should be added in unimproved attics. Photovoltaic attic vent fans should be used in summer and ceiling fans in both summer and winter to improve comfort but seriously lower heating and cooling bills. Did you ever ponder that we heat the top third of the rooms in buildings while we spend most of our time in the bottom third? Ceiling fans at slow speeds drive the warmth downward in winter and at higher speeds move and cool the air in summer. Put chargers for power tools, cell phones, PDAs, toys, and appliances with remotes on power strips with switches. Vampire losses use ten percent of our nation’s electricity while drawing electric power for NO reason. So turn them off when you don’t need them – from the TV in your guest room to the chargers for your cell phone in the kitchen – they draw power when not in use.
And finally, reacquaint yourself with EnergyStar appliances – washers and dryers, refrigerators, and air-conditioners use mucho power. My new high efficiency washing machine not only uses 67% less electricity than a standard washer, but 40 percent of the water of a regular washer at its lowest setting. I save electricity and water – and here in Arlington County, that’s big money.
Once you’ve shrunk your energy appetite – you can think energy production. The easiest is solar water heating when your existing water heater dies. My solar water heater added $8 per month to my second mortgage and saved me $25 per month in energy costs, Now it’s paid for and I have a 15 year old daughter, so my savings have doubled !!! Contact the local Solar Energy Industries Association for referrals www.mdv-seia.org. Make sure you buy an SRCC-certified solar system. By the way, solar for pool heating is also cost-effective with an 18-month payback whether you use electricity, propane or natural gas for extending your swimming season.
For space heating and cooling I am a big fan of ductless heat pumps which not only use less energy to heat or cool, but being ductless lowers respitory diseases. I have the Sanyo system in my VA office building for the last 10 years. The most efficient way to heat and cool a building is ground-coupled heat pumps, also known as geoexchange or geothermal heat pumps. For new construction, a loop of water tubing circles the building or yard 10-feet underground. For existing buildings, small bore holes are drilled slanting down from 100 – 400 feet underground. The static underground temperature of 55 degrees requires so much less energy to heat or cool, you wonder why the US only has it in 900,000 buildings. Note the water never the leaves the tube and can be integrated into radiant floor systems or radiators. And the newer direct-exchange heat pumps use greenhouse gas friendly refrigerant in special air handlers on the walls, which is what I use in my home. There are three great GCHP companies that I have met in the Washington, DC region: SKS of Bethesda, Geothermal Options of Fairfax, and Harvey Hottel in Washington, DC., among others. Geothermal is cost effective, but be very selective of your drilling or ditching companies, which can the biggest cost of any geoexchange system. Get multiple bids from drillers and contractors and references – and call the references and possibly meet them in person.
Now for renewable energy electric systems, I wish to point out that I have photovoltaics on my DC and VA office buildings and also on my home. I have a small wind turbine on my VA office building with a smart, web-enabled batttery bank by GridPoint. My home photovoltaics (solar electric) system also has a larger battery bank and is web-enabled by Locus Energy. If you have a building off-the-grid, photovoltaics or small wind make sense. If you live in the Caribbean or have high electric rates for your business (expressed as demand charges, peak or seasonal charges, or ratchet rates), an appropriately-sized photovoltaics system can surely be cost-effective -- especially if you you do not need surge protection (for power sags, surges and transients) for digital equipment such as computers or back-up power UPS or generator systems. In fact, a small-wind or photovoltaics/battery system could be the most reliable, least expensive option for you now.
For most of us homeowners though, PV will cost more than standardized electricity from the electric grid. Now my $15,000 PV/battery home system (installed in 1985) now would be eligible for a 30% tax credit ($4,500) and the remainder on a 15 year second mortgage at 8.5% interest would cost my $98.47 per month, which due to the energy efficiency measures I described above, meets most of my electrical needs. So while a solar PV system is capital intensive, it does not have to be seen as a giant black hole. The electricity price does not increase, maintenance is minimal (especially if you web-enable), and of course you add no pollution or greenhouse gases to the planet.. If you are able to zone for small wind, wind energy is half the cost (if you have wind). My wind turbine spins reliably at night. Could it be the hot air generated on Capitol Hill? (there seems to be some disagreement by some of the experts on this issue). I have used almost every model by SW Windpower which has over 100,000 turbines worldwide including one at the base of the US Capitol at the US Botanic Gardens (www.wind-energy.com).
But the question I posited at the beginning is “Why does it matter?”
The extraction, conversion and use of energy is the single largest contributor to emissions causing changes in our global climate. And Boone Pikens is right, that importing energy (petroleum, natural gas and uranium) is causing the single largest transfer of wealth in history (and in many cases, from those who wish to harm us). Energy costs will rise, and energy efficiency and renewables are stable, reliable, long term investments. Emissions from energy not only emit greenhouse gases and level mountain tops and ruin streams and farmland, but emit regulated emissions (sulfur oxide, NOx and particulates) but also mercury and carcinogens.
Whether your concerns are national security, economic stability, environmental survivability or just good ole common sense – it’s time to put your money not only into being green, but in being smart.
For more info: You can leave your questions in the comment section, or forward them to me at DCGreenExaminer@gmail.com.
About the Author:
Scott Sklar is President for the last 10 years of The Stella Group, Ltd..a strategic marketing and policy firm for clean distributed energy users and companies, and Scott Sklar, the Group's founder and president, lives in a solar home in Arlington, Virginia and his coauthored book, A Consumer Guide to Solar Energy, was re-released for its third printing. Scott Sklar is Chair of the Steering Committee of the Sustainable Energy Coalition and serves on the Boards of Directors of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy, and the Renewable Energy Policy Project, and CoChairs the Policy Committee of the Sustainable Buildings Industry Council, Sklar was also appointed in April 2007 onto National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy & Technology (NACEPT) of USEPA.
For 15 years he was simultaneously the Executive Director of the Solar Energy Industries Association and the National BioEnergy Industries Association. For two years prior, he was Political Director of the Solar Lobby formed by the national environmental groups, after 3 years at the National Center for Appropriate Technology as alternatively RD&D and Washington Directors. Scott served for nine years as an energy and military aide to Senator Jacob K Javits (NY) and was cofounder of the Congressional Solar Coalition - the group that drove the early 1970's legislation for renewables.
http://www.examiner.com/x-4230-DC-Green-Business-Examiner~y2009m7d2-Oped-Series--Scott-Sklar-What-is-all-this-Green-stuff-and-does-it-matter-to-me
About the Author:
Scott Sklar is President for the last 10 years of The Stella Group, Ltd..a strategic marketing and policy firm for clean distributed energy users and companies, and Scott Sklar, the Group's founder and president, lives in a solar home in Arlington, Virginia and his coauthored book, A Consumer Guide to Solar Energy, was re-released for its third printing. Scott Sklar is Chair of the Steering Committee of the Sustainable Energy Coalition and serves on the Boards of Directors of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy, and the Renewable Energy Policy Project, and CoChairs the Policy Committee of the Sustainable Buildings Industry Council, Sklar was also appointed in April 2007 onto National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy & Technology (NACEPT) of USEPA.
For 15 years he was simultaneously the Executive Director of the Solar Energy Industries Association and the National BioEnergy Industries Association. For two years prior, he was Political Director of the Solar Lobby formed by the national environmental groups, after 3 years at the National Center for Appropriate Technology as alternatively RD&D and Washington Directors. Scott served for nine years as an energy and military aide to Senator Jacob K Javits (NY) and was cofounder of the Congressional Solar Coalition - the group that drove the early 1970's legislation for renewables.
http://www.examiner.com/x-4230-DC-Green-Business-Examiner~y2009m7d2-Oped-Series--Scott-Sklar-What-is-all-this-Green-stuff-and-does-it-matter-to-me
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Environmental groups back wind farm
Published: June 9, 2009
A coalition of environmental groups opposed to Dominion Resources Inc.'s coal-fired power plant in Wise County said they support the utility company's proposal for a wind farm in the county.
Richmond-based Dominion and BP Wind Energy are considering building wind energy projects in Wise and Tazewell counties in Southwest Virginia.
"We're often criticized as being opposed to everything," said Glen Besa with the Sierra Club's Virginia Chapter, "and we wanted to make it clear that we are in favor of clean energy projects."
Appalachian Voices, Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, the Sierra Club, the Southern Environmental Law Center and The Clinch Coalition joined in backing the Mill Creek wind project in Wise.
Four of the groups -- Appalachian Voices, Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network and the Sierra Club-- are opposing Dominion's Virginia City coal plant in court.
Although the coal power plant is under construction, a challenge to the facility's air permit is set for trial in July.
"We appreciate the support we're receiving for our proposed wind-energy project in Wise County," said Dominion spokesman Ryan Frazier.
"The support has been broad, coming from the environmental community, the coal industry, and county citizens and elected officials," Frazier said. "BP Wind Energy and Dominion believe Mill Creek would be a great asset to the county and the region."
The environmental groups did not take a position on the Tazewell proposal. "We haven't had a chance to review it in as much detail," Besa said, noting that each such project is unique in its impacts.
Though Dominion has said the size of the projects has not been determined, the environmental coalition said the proposed Wise County wind plant could generate as much as 150 megawatts of electricity.
Contact Peter Bacqué at (804) 649-6813 or pbacque@timesdispatch.com.
http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/business/energy/article/B-WIND09_20090608-220002/272666/
A coalition of environmental groups opposed to Dominion Resources Inc.'s coal-fired power plant in Wise County said they support the utility company's proposal for a wind farm in the county.
Richmond-based Dominion and BP Wind Energy are considering building wind energy projects in Wise and Tazewell counties in Southwest Virginia.
"We're often criticized as being opposed to everything," said Glen Besa with the Sierra Club's Virginia Chapter, "and we wanted to make it clear that we are in favor of clean energy projects."
Appalachian Voices, Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, the Sierra Club, the Southern Environmental Law Center and The Clinch Coalition joined in backing the Mill Creek wind project in Wise.
Four of the groups -- Appalachian Voices, Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network and the Sierra Club-- are opposing Dominion's Virginia City coal plant in court.
Although the coal power plant is under construction, a challenge to the facility's air permit is set for trial in July.
"We appreciate the support we're receiving for our proposed wind-energy project in Wise County," said Dominion spokesman Ryan Frazier.
"The support has been broad, coming from the environmental community, the coal industry, and county citizens and elected officials," Frazier said. "BP Wind Energy and Dominion believe Mill Creek would be a great asset to the county and the region."
The environmental groups did not take a position on the Tazewell proposal. "We haven't had a chance to review it in as much detail," Besa said, noting that each such project is unique in its impacts.
Though Dominion has said the size of the projects has not been determined, the environmental coalition said the proposed Wise County wind plant could generate as much as 150 megawatts of electricity.
Contact Peter Bacqué at (804) 649-6813 or pbacque@timesdispatch.com.
http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/business/energy/article/B-WIND09_20090608-220002/272666/
Friday, June 5, 2009
Governors to fight pollution with renewable power sources
Comment: A certain people in Virginia is a hypocrites! He wants Wind mills of f VA coast but allows Mt. Top Removal. Will allow Wind Mills but want to mine uranium all over Virginia!! Other Virginia leaders says the local leaders of Pittsylvania County cannot protect their people against uranium mining and milling with a ban because of Dillion Rule (which is a joke!!) So again the State leaders are hypocrites!
ALBANY, N.Y. — Governors of five states promised Thursday to work together to protect the Atlantic coast and collaborate on developing offshore wind farms for renewable energy.
The agreement established the Governors Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on Oceans with New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.
"For centuries, New York and the region have relied on the ocean to provide services like food, commerce, recreation and transportation,” New York Gov. David Paterson said.
They now face a new generation of issues to keep the sea healthy, he said. Problems include more beaches closed by pollution, depleted fisheries, rising tides and warming waters.
The governors committed to encouraging wind energy developments.
From Staff and Wire Reports
http://newsok.com/plugging-in/article/3375242
ALBANY, N.Y. — Governors of five states promised Thursday to work together to protect the Atlantic coast and collaborate on developing offshore wind farms for renewable energy.
The agreement established the Governors Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on Oceans with New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.
"For centuries, New York and the region have relied on the ocean to provide services like food, commerce, recreation and transportation,” New York Gov. David Paterson said.
They now face a new generation of issues to keep the sea healthy, he said. Problems include more beaches closed by pollution, depleted fisheries, rising tides and warming waters.
The governors committed to encouraging wind energy developments.
From Staff and Wire Reports
http://newsok.com/plugging-in/article/3375242
Friday, May 29, 2009
German City Emerges as a World Class Energy-Saver
Comment: State of Virginia, we need to go the true Green Way for energy, not the dirty coal, Nuke way, the old fashion ideas, get with the program!! No to Nuke Plants and uranium mining & milling!!
For Release Sunday, May 31, 2009
FREIBURG — Tucked into a sunny corner of southwestern Germany, this old university town was best known until the 1970s for its massive cathedral dome, its tie to the Black Forest, and its craft of intricately carved cuckoo clocks.
Who would have thought then that early 21st century Freiburg could claim to be a world-class eco-city, leading in solar and wind power, energy-conserving home construction, rain-water management, public transit and carless neighborhood development?
Blame, if you will, authorities of the regional (state) government of Baden-Wuerttenberg. In 1975 they announced they’d build a nuclear power plant near Freiburg. No choice, they decreed, the power was needed for growth, and nuclear power was the smart modern choice.
The government had failed to reckon with local opposition — not just university faculty and students, but denizens of all ages, as well as local farmers, residents of nearby small towns. They mobilized around the construction site, tore down perimeter fences, used church bells to warn when the police were coming.
Even after the plant was cancelled, they stuck together, agreeing it wasn’t enough to say what they opposed — they had to explore where they would get their future electricity, power, heat. Would it be solar, or wind, or geothermal? Could it happen with no nuclear power, with radically less oil and coal?
It was an open debate. Professors came to the town plaza to discuss arrays of energy strategies. Special research institutes were founded — among them an EcoInstitute to look into such issues as reduced household consumption through energy-efficient construction and appliances. Also founded in Freiburg: the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, now Europe’s largest solar research energy body with a 500-person staff.
A visitor is exposed to exciting solar razzle-dazzle in Freiburg today — some 1,000 solar panels on building rooftops and facades, 2,400 square meters of solar cells atop a city stadium, and a solar tower at the railway station, its mixture of glass and 240 embedded solar panels glistening in the sun.
It’s taking time for solar to satisfy more than a fraction of Freiburg’s city energy demands. But it keeps growing because of a crucial incentive — the legal right of homeowners and businesses to feed excess power back into the local power grid, at an attractive rate of return, on a multi-year basis.
Germany as a whole is following the Freiburg lead, investing billions in photovoltaic research to become one of the world leaders in solar panel production and installation.
“We do trips into the future,” says Juergen Hartwig, a founding partner of “Freiburg Futour” which explain’s Freiburg’s breakthroughs to visitors. Environmentalists like himself, he notes, are no longer scoffed at as impractical idealists who wear two sweaters in winter; today not only Germany’s “Greens” but the main political parties have come around to support solar and other energy alternatives, because they’re profitable, and because they provide the county with some 250,000 jobs.
Freiburg keeps expanding its energy saving alternatives. Town center is an expansive vehicle-free pedestrian zone, one of Germany’s first, with refreshing foot-wide fresh water canals running along the streets to provide natural cooling and add ambiance. There’s a robust, growing public transit system of electric trams and buses. The city’s advanced water systems include grassy swales to percolate rain water into the aquifer while sewage waste is collected in a biogas plant together with organic household waste for electric power generation.
But perhaps the biggest wonder is Freiburg’s Vauban district — site of post-World War II French military barracks that’s been transformed into the world’s model for a zero-street parking, totally eco-friendly neighborhood or suburb.
Solar power, streets downsized to accommodate people instead of cars, cycling paths, rain water management — Vauban has them all. Seventy percent of Vauban’s 5,000 residents don’t own an automobile at all; many sold a car to move into the neighborhood and now rely on a car-sharing scheme (like ZipCar in the United States) for excursions.
Vauban’s theme is walkability — not just auto-free walkways but a variety of stores a stroll from home. There’s a tram direct into the center of Freiburg. Residences consist of a series of handsome four-story buildings, attractively detailed with balconies — all designed to maximize energy efficiency. Free-standing homes, our American model of the four-walled house with yard around, simply aren’t permitted.
Could this be the model of future development in the United States and elsewhere? The break from our generally broad streets and minimum parking requirements is dramatic. Few American zoning laws would tolerate such a development. But the convenience, the freedom for children to wander about, the informal and livable atmosphere, provide high quality of life.
Combine that with world-standard energy efficiency — standards that may become mandatory in a post-oil, carbon-strained world — and the Vauban art of development may spread a lot more rapidly than anyone would now predict.
Neal Peirce’s e-mail is npeirce@citistates.com.
http://citiwire.net/post/973/
For Release Sunday, May 31, 2009
FREIBURG — Tucked into a sunny corner of southwestern Germany, this old university town was best known until the 1970s for its massive cathedral dome, its tie to the Black Forest, and its craft of intricately carved cuckoo clocks.
Who would have thought then that early 21st century Freiburg could claim to be a world-class eco-city, leading in solar and wind power, energy-conserving home construction, rain-water management, public transit and carless neighborhood development?
Blame, if you will, authorities of the regional (state) government of Baden-Wuerttenberg. In 1975 they announced they’d build a nuclear power plant near Freiburg. No choice, they decreed, the power was needed for growth, and nuclear power was the smart modern choice.
The government had failed to reckon with local opposition — not just university faculty and students, but denizens of all ages, as well as local farmers, residents of nearby small towns. They mobilized around the construction site, tore down perimeter fences, used church bells to warn when the police were coming.
Even after the plant was cancelled, they stuck together, agreeing it wasn’t enough to say what they opposed — they had to explore where they would get their future electricity, power, heat. Would it be solar, or wind, or geothermal? Could it happen with no nuclear power, with radically less oil and coal?
It was an open debate. Professors came to the town plaza to discuss arrays of energy strategies. Special research institutes were founded — among them an EcoInstitute to look into such issues as reduced household consumption through energy-efficient construction and appliances. Also founded in Freiburg: the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, now Europe’s largest solar research energy body with a 500-person staff.
A visitor is exposed to exciting solar razzle-dazzle in Freiburg today — some 1,000 solar panels on building rooftops and facades, 2,400 square meters of solar cells atop a city stadium, and a solar tower at the railway station, its mixture of glass and 240 embedded solar panels glistening in the sun.
It’s taking time for solar to satisfy more than a fraction of Freiburg’s city energy demands. But it keeps growing because of a crucial incentive — the legal right of homeowners and businesses to feed excess power back into the local power grid, at an attractive rate of return, on a multi-year basis.
Germany as a whole is following the Freiburg lead, investing billions in photovoltaic research to become one of the world leaders in solar panel production and installation.
“We do trips into the future,” says Juergen Hartwig, a founding partner of “Freiburg Futour” which explain’s Freiburg’s breakthroughs to visitors. Environmentalists like himself, he notes, are no longer scoffed at as impractical idealists who wear two sweaters in winter; today not only Germany’s “Greens” but the main political parties have come around to support solar and other energy alternatives, because they’re profitable, and because they provide the county with some 250,000 jobs.
Freiburg keeps expanding its energy saving alternatives. Town center is an expansive vehicle-free pedestrian zone, one of Germany’s first, with refreshing foot-wide fresh water canals running along the streets to provide natural cooling and add ambiance. There’s a robust, growing public transit system of electric trams and buses. The city’s advanced water systems include grassy swales to percolate rain water into the aquifer while sewage waste is collected in a biogas plant together with organic household waste for electric power generation.
But perhaps the biggest wonder is Freiburg’s Vauban district — site of post-World War II French military barracks that’s been transformed into the world’s model for a zero-street parking, totally eco-friendly neighborhood or suburb.
Solar power, streets downsized to accommodate people instead of cars, cycling paths, rain water management — Vauban has them all. Seventy percent of Vauban’s 5,000 residents don’t own an automobile at all; many sold a car to move into the neighborhood and now rely on a car-sharing scheme (like ZipCar in the United States) for excursions.
Vauban’s theme is walkability — not just auto-free walkways but a variety of stores a stroll from home. There’s a tram direct into the center of Freiburg. Residences consist of a series of handsome four-story buildings, attractively detailed with balconies — all designed to maximize energy efficiency. Free-standing homes, our American model of the four-walled house with yard around, simply aren’t permitted.
Could this be the model of future development in the United States and elsewhere? The break from our generally broad streets and minimum parking requirements is dramatic. Few American zoning laws would tolerate such a development. But the convenience, the freedom for children to wander about, the informal and livable atmosphere, provide high quality of life.
Combine that with world-standard energy efficiency — standards that may become mandatory in a post-oil, carbon-strained world — and the Vauban art of development may spread a lot more rapidly than anyone would now predict.
Neal Peirce’s e-mail is npeirce@citistates.com.
http://citiwire.net/post/973/
Sunday, May 17, 2009
CHAT WITH A FIRE TOWER
Comment: thought was a interesting article and here we 30 something years later still not changing energy needs, oil, nuke plants still leading the way with their greed, come on America, we need True Green Energy, Wind, Solar, Tide, Thermal - NO NUKE POWERS, NO URANIUM MINING!!!Published on May 17, 2009 in environmental technologies.
The article below appeared in a 1973 issue of “Forest notes,” as well as the Waterville Valley “Wig Wag.” While a quarter century has passed, Hans’ story is as relevant ever. Why didn’t we listen then?…
Some people are given to day-dreaming. I am one of them. My latest daydream had to do with the fire tower on top of Mt. Osceola and a chat I had with that old lady (like ships and railroad engines, a fire tower is a “she”).
You look unhappy, I said to her.
I am, said she. People think I am useless. They don’t need me anymore. And yet I could be useful. Not by watching out for forest fires — airplanes do a better job of that nowadays. They have wings. Now, if I had wings…
Good heavens, I said, you don’t want wings to fly away with?
O no! not that kind of wings, but wings such as windmills have. I could be a WINDMILL.
A windmill? What for? Windmills went out of fashion fifty years ago.
Some fashions have a come-back, she said. 1 could be a modern windmill with big aerodynamic wings. I would drive a generator and produce hundreds of kilowatts of electricity. Clean, too: no fuel to foul up the air. And FREE, almost. No costs except for construction, amortization, and maintenance.
You talk like an engineer, or an economist, or both, I said.
Well, I have lots of time, so I keep busy solving problems: science, technology, ecology, and so on. Take ENERGY, for instance. What you people mainly use for energy is FOSSIL FUEL: oil, coal, natural gas. It’s all getting terribly expensive. Worse: there will be less and less of it as you need more and more, for more and more people. No end in sight.
And the POLLUTION! Strip-mining … oil spills … it’s a nightmare! You can’t keep this small planet of yours livable that way. Besides, fossil fuel is a “nonrenewable resource.” Once it’s gone, it’s gone for good. Using up fossiI fuel means living off your CAPITAL. Very bad practice, my dear. What has become of the famous Yankee thrift?
I know it’s a problem, I said, but do you have a solution?
I do indeed, It’s the WIND.
I know it’s a problem, I said, but do you have a solution?
I do indeed, It’s the WIND.
People consider wind outmoded as an energy source — it’s just good enough for recreation, for small sailing boats. That’s a mistake. Wind is the greatest natural energy source on earth, ready for use, if you will only put your minds to it. It’s INEXHAUSTIBLE, and it doesn’t pollute.
Remember: WIND drove your New England Clipper Ships across the oceans. They could make 18 knots — not bad even compared with modern oil-driven freighters. About the same time — around 1850 — there were thousands of windmills in the U. S., producing almost a billion and a half horsepowers a year. As recently as fifty years ago the windmills on your farms were still pumping water and driving electric generators, untill the· Rural Electrification Program (based mainly on fossil fuel) made them expendable.
Of course you’ll say: wind is unreliable it isn’t always blowing. What then?
Well, the answer is you STORE ENERGY. You store it while the wind blows, so you have it when it doesn’t. So far there have been mainly two ways to store energy: storage batteries like the ones in your car; or storage reservoirs: you pump water into a reservoir while the wind blows, and release the water to drive turbine generators when it stops. Both ways have drawbacks: batteries are not too efficient, water may be scarce, and reservoirs are expensive to build. But there is now another way: modern FLYWHEELS.
Read about Flywheels in the December, 1973, issue of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN. It’s fabulous what ultra-modern flywheels can do. Traditional flywheels are clumsy and heavy. The modern ones are light they substitute whirling speed for weight. They can store energy several times as economically as batteries, and they can be made to run for weeks, even months, once they have been set whirling by wind of any other power. Unlike water reservoirs you can put them up anywhere, and they don’t take much space. One can make them so small and light one can install them in a compact electric automobile and make it run 200 miles at 60 m.p.h. on ONE charge.
Sounds incredible, doesn’t it?
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN is a trustworthy publication, and so is SMITHSONIAN magazine which carries a fascinating article on WIND POWER, in its
November, 1973, issue: a committee of experts from N. S. F. (National Science Foundation), and from N. A. S. A. (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) have figured out that with a major WIND POWER PROGRAM the U. S. could produce, within 25 years or so, the installations to generate 1.5 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year equal to the total consumed in the whole country in 1970. The people from N. S. F. and N. A. S. A. should know what they are talking about. After all, they are the ones that sent men to the moon.
They suggest huge wind-driven generators, arranged in widely extended GRIDS, so when some of those “super windmills” are becalmed, the others take up the slack. Such arrangement would take care of most of your nation’s energy needs, stretch your dwindling fossil fuel supplies many times over, protect you against blackmail from oil suppliers abroad, and help preserve your environment. Some of those grids could be built on platforms in the ocean, off the
Atlantic and Pacific coasts, with double advantage: sea winds blow strong most of the time, and you could use some of the energy to produce HYDROGEN from sea-water, by electrolsis. That would mean one more way to store energy: hydrogen can drive combustion engines such as automobile motors, and it is a clean fuel; when you burn it the result is WATER.
And one more word about that storage problem: you can avoid it altogether, in many cases, by feeding the electricity produced by windmills into an existing
power system. Remember the giant windmill on “Grandpa’s Knob,” near Rutland, Vermont, more than thirty years ago? It was the largest windmill ever built, 175 feet across. It could, and did, generate 1250 kilowatt of electric energy (enough to light a town) which was fed into the network of the Central Vermont Public Service Corporation: no storage problem, you see! It was an experimental machine which was dismantled after one blade broke off in March, 1945, and war-time shortages made replacement impossible, but it showed how one could use wind energy on a large scale.
To sum it up: what you need is a CRASH PROGRAM TO HARNESS WIND POWER. I’d be glad to help if I can.
It sounds convincing, I said, but I have three questions: 1) how about ATOMIC ENERGY; 2) in the daily papers one hardly ever reads about WIND as energy source: Why? 3) if wind power is all that promising, why doesn’t our government take the lead and start a CRASH PROGRAM?
The answers aren’t easy, she said, but I’ll try.
Remember: WIND drove your New England Clipper Ships across the oceans. They could make 18 knots — not bad even compared with modern oil-driven freighters. About the same time — around 1850 — there were thousands of windmills in the U. S., producing almost a billion and a half horsepowers a year. As recently as fifty years ago the windmills on your farms were still pumping water and driving electric generators, untill the· Rural Electrification Program (based mainly on fossil fuel) made them expendable.
Of course you’ll say: wind is unreliable it isn’t always blowing. What then?
Well, the answer is you STORE ENERGY. You store it while the wind blows, so you have it when it doesn’t. So far there have been mainly two ways to store energy: storage batteries like the ones in your car; or storage reservoirs: you pump water into a reservoir while the wind blows, and release the water to drive turbine generators when it stops. Both ways have drawbacks: batteries are not too efficient, water may be scarce, and reservoirs are expensive to build. But there is now another way: modern FLYWHEELS.
Read about Flywheels in the December, 1973, issue of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN. It’s fabulous what ultra-modern flywheels can do. Traditional flywheels are clumsy and heavy. The modern ones are light they substitute whirling speed for weight. They can store energy several times as economically as batteries, and they can be made to run for weeks, even months, once they have been set whirling by wind of any other power. Unlike water reservoirs you can put them up anywhere, and they don’t take much space. One can make them so small and light one can install them in a compact electric automobile and make it run 200 miles at 60 m.p.h. on ONE charge.
Sounds incredible, doesn’t it?
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN is a trustworthy publication, and so is SMITHSONIAN magazine which carries a fascinating article on WIND POWER, in its
November, 1973, issue: a committee of experts from N. S. F. (National Science Foundation), and from N. A. S. A. (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) have figured out that with a major WIND POWER PROGRAM the U. S. could produce, within 25 years or so, the installations to generate 1.5 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year equal to the total consumed in the whole country in 1970. The people from N. S. F. and N. A. S. A. should know what they are talking about. After all, they are the ones that sent men to the moon.
They suggest huge wind-driven generators, arranged in widely extended GRIDS, so when some of those “super windmills” are becalmed, the others take up the slack. Such arrangement would take care of most of your nation’s energy needs, stretch your dwindling fossil fuel supplies many times over, protect you against blackmail from oil suppliers abroad, and help preserve your environment. Some of those grids could be built on platforms in the ocean, off the
Atlantic and Pacific coasts, with double advantage: sea winds blow strong most of the time, and you could use some of the energy to produce HYDROGEN from sea-water, by electrolsis. That would mean one more way to store energy: hydrogen can drive combustion engines such as automobile motors, and it is a clean fuel; when you burn it the result is WATER.
And one more word about that storage problem: you can avoid it altogether, in many cases, by feeding the electricity produced by windmills into an existing
power system. Remember the giant windmill on “Grandpa’s Knob,” near Rutland, Vermont, more than thirty years ago? It was the largest windmill ever built, 175 feet across. It could, and did, generate 1250 kilowatt of electric energy (enough to light a town) which was fed into the network of the Central Vermont Public Service Corporation: no storage problem, you see! It was an experimental machine which was dismantled after one blade broke off in March, 1945, and war-time shortages made replacement impossible, but it showed how one could use wind energy on a large scale.
To sum it up: what you need is a CRASH PROGRAM TO HARNESS WIND POWER. I’d be glad to help if I can.
It sounds convincing, I said, but I have three questions: 1) how about ATOMIC ENERGY; 2) in the daily papers one hardly ever reads about WIND as energy source: Why? 3) if wind power is all that promising, why doesn’t our government take the lead and start a CRASH PROGRAM?
The answers aren’t easy, she said, but I’ll try.
1) You already have quite a few nuclear power plants, and many more under construction, but there are serious problems: HEAT POLLUTION; RADIOACTIVE WASTES; URANIUM getting scarce; danger of sabotage. If a fanatic should succeed in blowing up an atomic plant, you’d have a home-made Hiroshima right in the U.S.
2) The silence about WIND POWER puzzles me too I can’t answer that. Perhaps YOU can do something about it: write a letter to your hometown newspaper, talk about it with your friends.
3) Here things get complicated. You have, as Mark Twain put it, “the best government money can buy,” but that isn’t good enough.
You see, there are billions and billions invested in the Oil, Coal, Gas and Atomic business.
You see, there are billions and billions invested in the Oil, Coal, Gas and Atomic business.
It’s extremely profitable, and many corporations in this field are international. That’s important. In business profits come first. The nation’s interest is a poor second, especially with an international outfit.
You may not like this set-up but there it is. And it’s only human that those who reap enormous profit from this set-up will hold on to it with all their might, which is plenty. When they speak, the government listens.
But nobody owns the wind. There’s no money invested in it, so there is no “wind lobby,” and nobody speaks to the government for the wind. Nobody, that is, except scientists, and to them the government hardly listens. Yet the best of your scientists have people’s interest in mind rather than the profits of giant corporations. In· the present crisis you need scientific advice more than ever, but President Nixon has unfortunately abolished the “White House Office of Scientific Advisors.”
And note this: your government’s budget for 1974 foresees $618 mill ion for atomic research: 170 million for research in fossil fuel - mainly coal; 24 million for research in geothermal and solar energy; and aII of 1.25 million for WIND RESEARCH. To put man on the moon cost 25 billion ~ that’s two thousand times as much as the government plans to spend on wind research …
Speaking of MONEY, the oil-producing countries are wading in cash already. Within a few years they’ll have hundreds of billions of dollars to dispose of — more than they can ever use at home. So what will they do with those billions? You yourself showed them: invest in real estate and industry, not in their own countries but abroad. Right here in the United States, for instance. If you don’t watch out they could, before long, turn your proud independent country into one gigantic “Banana Republic.” How would you like that? How can you avoid it? Not by draining your own fossil fuel (and in the process destroying your environment)nor by building hundreds of nuclear reactors, accumulating unmanageable masses of deadly poisonous radio-active wastes - but by turning back to that old, tested, clean standby: the WIND.
I could go on and one, she said, but let me mention just one more point: not all nations ignore the “wind challenge.” The Germans, for instance, are constructing DYNA-SHIPS, as they call them. Big wind-driven freighters of 17,000 tons, with computer-controlled sails, designed to make 20 knots. They’ll have auxiliary motors, of course, but even so, they’ll use only 5% as much fuel as oil-driven freighters of that size. And now I’ll shut up.
She was as good as her word. Maybe she was a bit single-minded — wind is one way, but not the only one, to replace fossil fuels. Nevertheless, her facts and figures were true, and they set me thinking.
There was a fellow once, so they say, who fought against windmills, on horseback, with his lance. We still call a senseless undertaking “a fight against windmills.” It seems to me we’ll have to do the opposite: we’ll have to fight FOR WINDMILLS!
Sidebar notes from the original article:
H. A. Rey, who wrote this “Chat With A Fire Tower,” is an old·timer. Born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1898 and a veteran World War I, he lived for twelve years in Brazil and four years in France before coming to the U. S. in 1940. He is known to millions, here and abroad, as the author-illustrator of the books about a mischievous monkey named CURIOUS GEORGE and of two very popular books on astronomy.
Mr. Rey and his wife Margaret (an author in her own right) live in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the winter and spend their summers in Waterville Valley. From their front yard they can see an abandoned Fire Tower on the top of Mt. Osceola. In days gone by, before airplanes took over, a guard in the tower used to watch out for forest fires, during dry spells.
The Reys are life members of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests.
http://reycenter.org/?p=4126
But nobody owns the wind. There’s no money invested in it, so there is no “wind lobby,” and nobody speaks to the government for the wind. Nobody, that is, except scientists, and to them the government hardly listens. Yet the best of your scientists have people’s interest in mind rather than the profits of giant corporations. In· the present crisis you need scientific advice more than ever, but President Nixon has unfortunately abolished the “White House Office of Scientific Advisors.”
And note this: your government’s budget for 1974 foresees $618 mill ion for atomic research: 170 million for research in fossil fuel - mainly coal; 24 million for research in geothermal and solar energy; and aII of 1.25 million for WIND RESEARCH. To put man on the moon cost 25 billion ~ that’s two thousand times as much as the government plans to spend on wind research …
Speaking of MONEY, the oil-producing countries are wading in cash already. Within a few years they’ll have hundreds of billions of dollars to dispose of — more than they can ever use at home. So what will they do with those billions? You yourself showed them: invest in real estate and industry, not in their own countries but abroad. Right here in the United States, for instance. If you don’t watch out they could, before long, turn your proud independent country into one gigantic “Banana Republic.” How would you like that? How can you avoid it? Not by draining your own fossil fuel (and in the process destroying your environment)nor by building hundreds of nuclear reactors, accumulating unmanageable masses of deadly poisonous radio-active wastes - but by turning back to that old, tested, clean standby: the WIND.
I could go on and one, she said, but let me mention just one more point: not all nations ignore the “wind challenge.” The Germans, for instance, are constructing DYNA-SHIPS, as they call them. Big wind-driven freighters of 17,000 tons, with computer-controlled sails, designed to make 20 knots. They’ll have auxiliary motors, of course, but even so, they’ll use only 5% as much fuel as oil-driven freighters of that size. And now I’ll shut up.
She was as good as her word. Maybe she was a bit single-minded — wind is one way, but not the only one, to replace fossil fuels. Nevertheless, her facts and figures were true, and they set me thinking.
There was a fellow once, so they say, who fought against windmills, on horseback, with his lance. We still call a senseless undertaking “a fight against windmills.” It seems to me we’ll have to do the opposite: we’ll have to fight FOR WINDMILLS!
Sidebar notes from the original article:
H. A. Rey, who wrote this “Chat With A Fire Tower,” is an old·timer. Born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1898 and a veteran World War I, he lived for twelve years in Brazil and four years in France before coming to the U. S. in 1940. He is known to millions, here and abroad, as the author-illustrator of the books about a mischievous monkey named CURIOUS GEORGE and of two very popular books on astronomy.
Mr. Rey and his wife Margaret (an author in her own right) live in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the winter and spend their summers in Waterville Valley. From their front yard they can see an abandoned Fire Tower on the top of Mt. Osceola. In days gone by, before airplanes took over, a guard in the tower used to watch out for forest fires, during dry spells.
The Reys are life members of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests.
http://reycenter.org/?p=4126
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Win-Wind: Nuclear Power Setback Could Be Windpower's Gain
Comment: Attention, Corporate Virginia, NO URANIUM MINING, NO NUKE POWER, GET WITH THE GREEN WORLD, NOT THE OLD WAYS OF DURING THINGS!!!Saturday, May 09, 2009 5:52 PM
(Source: Claremore Daily Progress)By Joy Hampton, Claremore Daily Progress, Okla.
May 9--U.S. Senator Harry Reid (D-Nevada) announced Thursday the budget slash delivered by President Barack Obama to the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in Nevada means the project will be shut down.
"It's over," said Reid in a video posted to the senator's Web site. In that video, Reid commends Obama for staying true to his word. "The only monies used now will be to terminate the project."
Opponents of nuclear power cite the issue of waste disposal as a primary concern. Proponents have pointed to Yucca Mountain as the solution. That's a solution Reid has opposed for two decades. The proposed nuclear waste dump is 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
If the Yucca Mountain project is indeed dead, that could be a setback to future development of nuclear energy.
(Source: Claremore Daily Progress)By Joy Hampton, Claremore Daily Progress, Okla.
May 9--U.S. Senator Harry Reid (D-Nevada) announced Thursday the budget slash delivered by President Barack Obama to the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in Nevada means the project will be shut down.
"It's over," said Reid in a video posted to the senator's Web site. In that video, Reid commends Obama for staying true to his word. "The only monies used now will be to terminate the project."
Opponents of nuclear power cite the issue of waste disposal as a primary concern. Proponents have pointed to Yucca Mountain as the solution. That's a solution Reid has opposed for two decades. The proposed nuclear waste dump is 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
If the Yucca Mountain project is indeed dead, that could be a setback to future development of nuclear energy.
The current "green" push is for renewable energy sources including wind, a developing industry in Oklahoma.
"The WINDPOWER 2009 Conference in Chicago is wrapping up today," said DMI General Manager Gary Williams on Thursday. The Catoosa factory manufactures wind towers. Williams attended the conference on Wednesday which saw notables such as T. Boone Pickens.
"We need a national renewable plan," said Williams. He said Obama has been helpful and the current administration has adopted elements of Pickens's plan.
"Transmission lines are a big part of that," said Williams. He, like other energy industry officials, say the government should invest in a national transmission system similar to the investment made in the highway system.
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has said renewable energy will take high priority under the current administration.
Last month, Reid introduced the Clean Renewable Energy and Economic Development Act which is intended to promote investment in the transmission of electricity with the lion's share of that transmission capacity reserved for renewable sources such as wind and solar power. The proposed bill also addresses nation-level transmission planning.
According to the American Wind Energy Association, the Clean Energy Aspects of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act sign by Obama Feb. 17 represents "significant and positive benefits for the renewable energy industry."
Highlights of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 as it affects renewable energy include tax credits, grants, a new Department of Energy loan guarantee program directing $4 billion to promote renewable energy and $2 billion to promote transmission, and other incentives.
Williams said support for wind energy will have a positive trickle-down effect in Oklahoma.
"It will benefit the supply chain," said Williams. Additional transmission and wind farms means more business for DMI, and more production at DMI means local employment and the purchase of other goods and services from area business.
Affordable, renewable energy and a decreased reliance on foreign oil is part of the goal proposed by renewable energy proponents. Though wind energy is only expected to comprise a small percentage of Oklahoma's overall energy portfolio, it is an important part of a diverse folder of options for the windy state. The Oklahoma Wind Power Initiative, a collaborative project between the states two major public universities, is devoted to the investigation and promotion of wind energy in Oklahoma.
Rural states like Oklahoma, Texas and Nevada are likely to be some of the biggest winners if wind energy continues to grow.
Reid's bill, if passed into law, is certainly designed to benefit Nevada with the state's potential for solar, wind and geothermal renewable energy resources.
Critics say Reid's bill would give too much power to the federal government to establish "green zones," requiring states to comply by building transmission lines that must transmit high percentages of renewable energy.
Proponents say the bill is intended to promote investment in transmission.
Power industry officials in Oklahoma have long said transmission is an issue of growing concern. In the case of wind generation, it is critical.
Wind farms are often located in remote areas. Without transmission lines, there is no way to get the power generated by those wind turbines to customers who need the power.
Transmission is a factor in traditional energy generation as well.
Currently, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is working on the issue. As of mid-March FERC accelerated the development of a "Smart Grid." The primary effect of the gird would be more efficient transmission with less loss of energy along the way.
"By minimizing line losses, Smart Grid technologies will allow generators to produce less energy and less pollution, while delivering the same amount of electricity to customers," said FERC Commissioner Philip Moeller in a March 19 press release.
Meantime, the wind power industry has suffered along with the rest of the nation.
"The general industry thinking is that 2010 will be much better than 2009," said Williams.
He said current politics will set policy that affects the industry.
"We need our legislators to keep the ball moving. We're positioned well here in Oklahoma to profit by wind."
http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/3225532
"The WINDPOWER 2009 Conference in Chicago is wrapping up today," said DMI General Manager Gary Williams on Thursday. The Catoosa factory manufactures wind towers. Williams attended the conference on Wednesday which saw notables such as T. Boone Pickens.
"We need a national renewable plan," said Williams. He said Obama has been helpful and the current administration has adopted elements of Pickens's plan.
"Transmission lines are a big part of that," said Williams. He, like other energy industry officials, say the government should invest in a national transmission system similar to the investment made in the highway system.
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has said renewable energy will take high priority under the current administration.
Last month, Reid introduced the Clean Renewable Energy and Economic Development Act which is intended to promote investment in the transmission of electricity with the lion's share of that transmission capacity reserved for renewable sources such as wind and solar power. The proposed bill also addresses nation-level transmission planning.
According to the American Wind Energy Association, the Clean Energy Aspects of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act sign by Obama Feb. 17 represents "significant and positive benefits for the renewable energy industry."
Highlights of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 as it affects renewable energy include tax credits, grants, a new Department of Energy loan guarantee program directing $4 billion to promote renewable energy and $2 billion to promote transmission, and other incentives.
Williams said support for wind energy will have a positive trickle-down effect in Oklahoma.
"It will benefit the supply chain," said Williams. Additional transmission and wind farms means more business for DMI, and more production at DMI means local employment and the purchase of other goods and services from area business.
Affordable, renewable energy and a decreased reliance on foreign oil is part of the goal proposed by renewable energy proponents. Though wind energy is only expected to comprise a small percentage of Oklahoma's overall energy portfolio, it is an important part of a diverse folder of options for the windy state. The Oklahoma Wind Power Initiative, a collaborative project between the states two major public universities, is devoted to the investigation and promotion of wind energy in Oklahoma.
Rural states like Oklahoma, Texas and Nevada are likely to be some of the biggest winners if wind energy continues to grow.
Reid's bill, if passed into law, is certainly designed to benefit Nevada with the state's potential for solar, wind and geothermal renewable energy resources.
Critics say Reid's bill would give too much power to the federal government to establish "green zones," requiring states to comply by building transmission lines that must transmit high percentages of renewable energy.
Proponents say the bill is intended to promote investment in transmission.
Power industry officials in Oklahoma have long said transmission is an issue of growing concern. In the case of wind generation, it is critical.
Wind farms are often located in remote areas. Without transmission lines, there is no way to get the power generated by those wind turbines to customers who need the power.
Transmission is a factor in traditional energy generation as well.
Currently, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is working on the issue. As of mid-March FERC accelerated the development of a "Smart Grid." The primary effect of the gird would be more efficient transmission with less loss of energy along the way.
"By minimizing line losses, Smart Grid technologies will allow generators to produce less energy and less pollution, while delivering the same amount of electricity to customers," said FERC Commissioner Philip Moeller in a March 19 press release.
Meantime, the wind power industry has suffered along with the rest of the nation.
"The general industry thinking is that 2010 will be much better than 2009," said Williams.
He said current politics will set policy that affects the industry.
"We need our legislators to keep the ball moving. We're positioned well here in Oklahoma to profit by wind."
http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/3225532
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Our Current Sources of Energy and Why We Need Alternatives
Comment: save energy, turn off your lights, hang your clothes in the wind, turn down hot water tank, simple, will save on your electric bill!
By Joshua Vadney
Do you realize that one of the most common contributors to how much carbon dioxide in our air is the production of the energy we use every day? Everyone uses electricity every day and in fact we take it for granted, just flicking a switch or pushing a button to turn on the lights, watch television, or turn on our computer but have you ever considered where that electricity in your home is coming from? You might not be aware that almost all of our energy needs are provided by fossil fuels such as oil and coal. These energy sources are the blame for most of the toxic carbon dioxide in our atmosphere and scientists are growing increasingly alarmed with the impact these emissions are having on the environment.
Most people don’t realize is how using their normal appliances in their home or at work can affect our climate so strongly so they aren’t worried about finding alternative fuel sources. But the importance of finding renewable clean energy sources has never been so important as it is right now. Besides the fact that our current energy sources are harming our atmosphere, it is a fact that they will eventually run out since they aren’t renewable. This is one of the most important reasons, aside from keeping our environment clean, we need to find alternative sources for our energy needs.
Many energy companies have been exploring the possibilities of using solar panels and windmills (solar and wind energy) on a widespread basis, bringing production costs down and making them more efficient so they can be readily available. Hydro power, using dams to harness the energy from moving water with turbines, is also a good alternative source but it can only be used in area with rivers and large bodies of water. The downside of wind energy is that it can only be used in areas that have consistent wind so it can’t be used in a lot of areas as a stand alone sole energy source.
Researchers all around the world are currently trying to discover sources of alternative energy right now. One of the most common energy sources that doesn’t emit carbon dioxide is nuclear power but it is also one of the most controversial as well. Concerns about the dangers of a meltdown and contamination of the environment have kept nuclear power from being developed large scale in the United States but other countries are using nuclear power to their benefit. It is one of the most widespread uses of clean energy but the biggest downfall of using nuclear energy is the nuclear waste it produces, which can take millions of years to become inert and has to be stored. The main problem with this is that we only have so much space for storage and eventually it could leak into the environment, causing more environmental concerns.
Until we discover a clean source of energy that is more commercially available and solves our current issues with our current power power sources, the best thing we can all do to help is try to limit our our energy usage daily by being consistent. Researchers have shown that if everyone always turned off the lights when not in use in their homes and offices that it would reduce our energy usage by up to twenty percent.
Seems simple, doesn’t it?
Click Here to discover more ways you can help the environment and save money.
Have you ever considered building your own solar panels or a windmill to slash your electric bill in half or even eliminate it altogether? You don’t have to be a construction worker to make your own power! I reviewed the top three do it yourself solar panel/windmill guides on the internet today and you can find out more by going to http://www.diysolarwind.org
http://www.ebioant.com/archives/7421
By Joshua Vadney
Do you realize that one of the most common contributors to how much carbon dioxide in our air is the production of the energy we use every day? Everyone uses electricity every day and in fact we take it for granted, just flicking a switch or pushing a button to turn on the lights, watch television, or turn on our computer but have you ever considered where that electricity in your home is coming from? You might not be aware that almost all of our energy needs are provided by fossil fuels such as oil and coal. These energy sources are the blame for most of the toxic carbon dioxide in our atmosphere and scientists are growing increasingly alarmed with the impact these emissions are having on the environment.
Most people don’t realize is how using their normal appliances in their home or at work can affect our climate so strongly so they aren’t worried about finding alternative fuel sources. But the importance of finding renewable clean energy sources has never been so important as it is right now. Besides the fact that our current energy sources are harming our atmosphere, it is a fact that they will eventually run out since they aren’t renewable. This is one of the most important reasons, aside from keeping our environment clean, we need to find alternative sources for our energy needs.
Many energy companies have been exploring the possibilities of using solar panels and windmills (solar and wind energy) on a widespread basis, bringing production costs down and making them more efficient so they can be readily available. Hydro power, using dams to harness the energy from moving water with turbines, is also a good alternative source but it can only be used in area with rivers and large bodies of water. The downside of wind energy is that it can only be used in areas that have consistent wind so it can’t be used in a lot of areas as a stand alone sole energy source.
Researchers all around the world are currently trying to discover sources of alternative energy right now. One of the most common energy sources that doesn’t emit carbon dioxide is nuclear power but it is also one of the most controversial as well. Concerns about the dangers of a meltdown and contamination of the environment have kept nuclear power from being developed large scale in the United States but other countries are using nuclear power to their benefit. It is one of the most widespread uses of clean energy but the biggest downfall of using nuclear energy is the nuclear waste it produces, which can take millions of years to become inert and has to be stored. The main problem with this is that we only have so much space for storage and eventually it could leak into the environment, causing more environmental concerns.
Until we discover a clean source of energy that is more commercially available and solves our current issues with our current power power sources, the best thing we can all do to help is try to limit our our energy usage daily by being consistent. Researchers have shown that if everyone always turned off the lights when not in use in their homes and offices that it would reduce our energy usage by up to twenty percent.
Seems simple, doesn’t it?
Click Here to discover more ways you can help the environment and save money.
Have you ever considered building your own solar panels or a windmill to slash your electric bill in half or even eliminate it altogether? You don’t have to be a construction worker to make your own power! I reviewed the top three do it yourself solar panel/windmill guides on the internet today and you can find out more by going to http://www.diysolarwind.org
http://www.ebioant.com/archives/7421
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