Renewable Energy Roundup 2009

Would you like to actually see a solar panel? Have you wondered how a solar water heater works? How about a solar powered air conditioner?

There is a great event coming where you can learn how to use solar energy in your home. The 10th annual Renewable Energy Roundup 2009 is coming September 25-27, to Fredericksburg, Texas.

Free workshops, speakers, and exhibits cover topics such as:
·    Solar
·    Wind
·    Geothermal
·    Transportation

If you’re anywhere near Central Texas in September, plan to stop by. You enjoy hanging around a group of renewable energy enthusiasts.

Sun Volt Solar Asks an Interesting Question

The folks at Sun Volt Solar asked an interesting question on their blog just over a week ago.

Here’s the question: Where are those guys in their garages?

The guys in garages refers to those tinkering folk among us who come up with remarkable, useful, innovations just tinkering in their garages. One of many such innovations is our modern computer.

So where are the renewable energy innovations?

Find out here: Sun Volt Solar’s blog.

Why Solar Energy Use Matters

Sometimes we need the occasional reminder that our small energy decisions do indeed amount to a collective whole.

My hiker husband and I just returned from a trip to Big Bend National Park.

Above is a photo taken near the summit of Emory Peak, looking toward the Southeast. Notice the haze of air pollution obscuring the distant hills.

The park ranger I spoke with told me the air pollution hangs over the park most days.With good wind blowing through in the right direction, the pollution is blown to other places, giving the park a rare day of clear air and greater visibility.

While the air was not clear during our visit this time, what was clear was the fact that individual energy use matters.

In the day-to-day activities of our individual lives, it’s hard to believe our small activities make any contribution to the environmental crisis. One family’s daily contribution to the collective carbon footprint seems insignificant.

Global warming, climate change, and carbon footprints seems like nothing more than fodder for political banter.

So if you need a reminder that your choices matter, visit one of our National Parks on your next vacation.

Somehow, away from the daily routine, away from the noise and busyness of making a living, things are so much clearer.

Home Energy Utilities to use Renewable Sources

My home energy provider, Pedernales Electric Cooperative, www.pec.coop passed a resolution “to purchase or generate up to 30 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020.”

Our goal to be a net ZEH home has not changed. But while working toward to ultimate goal, it does make me happy to know the energy I buy is at least partially from renewable energy sources.

If PEC manages to do this without increasing our cost per kilowatt-hour we would be ever so grateful!

Thanks, PEC.

Solar Farm Energy Facts

Solar energy, as other forms of alternative energy, is relatively new to everyday conversation. Energy prices and environmental conditions being what they are, everyone is trying to learn the facts.

LiveScience.com posted a wonderful article today discussing the pros and cons of solar energy farms.

It is an informative article but I am disappointed that solar use for individual homes was not addressed. If every home generated all the energy it required, then the energy required from solar farms would be reduced.

If you bought your electric energy from a solar farm, you would be doing a good thing for the environment and supporting energy independence. Both these ideas are good and necessary in these times.

But if your home generated it’s own energy requirements, you wouldn’t have an electric utility bill.

Think about it.

Building a Solar Home

Going solar for us means retrofitting our existing home to use solar energy. However, the least expensive way to “go solar” is to build an energy efficient/solar home from the ground up.

If your interested in building a new home. I found these house plans. Check them out.

ZEH House Plans

Sustainable Future would like to work with customers and builders to get several Zero Energy Houses built.  The passive solar designs below come from the Appalachian State University Building Science Program.  By adding PV and solar hot water systems these houses can become ZEHs.  Such is the case with the Catawba Valley plan that was built as a ZEH for Habitat for Humanity.   If you are interested in building a ZEH please contact David Bolt at Sustainable Future.

	The Sun Ray (3 BR, 2 BA, 1188 sq. ft.) Floor Plans House Plans 5.8 mb
	The Mountain Laurel (3 BR, 2 BA, 1150 sq. ft.) Floor Plans House Plans 6.9 mb
	The Orion (3 BR, 2 BA, 1176 sq. ft.) Floor Plans House Plans 5 mb
	The Baby Cape (3 BR, 2 BA, 1286 sq. ft.) Floor Plans House Plans not yet available
	The Cardinal (3 BR, 2 BA, 1200 sq. ft.) Floor Plans House Plans 4.9 mb
	The Catawba Valley (3 BR, 2 BA, 1132 sq. ft.) Floor Plans House Plans 4.9 mb
	The Garden Window (3 BR, 2 BA, 1140 sq. ft.) Floor Plans House Plans 8.5 mb
	The Bay Breeze (3 BR, 2 BA, 1166 sq. ft.) Floor Plans House Plans 6mb
	The Hide-Away (2 BR, 1 BA, 960 sq. ft.) Floor Plans House Plans 6mb
	The Dogwood (3 BR, 2 BA, 916 sq. ft.) Floor Plans House Plans 6.5mb
	The Blue Ridge (4 BR, 2 BA, 1208 sq. ft.) Floor Plans House Plans 6.7mb
	The Cottage (3 BR, 2 BA, 1186 sq. ft.) Floor Plans House Plans 5.8mb

Information provided by Sustainable Future, LLC.
For most current information refer to http://SustainableFuture.biz.

Why I Want Solar Energy for my Home

This quest to use solar energy to power my home leads through a scintillating labyrinth of alternative energy issues. The more I learn about energy in general and alternative energy in particular, the more I love solar.

Browsing through a local bookstore, my husband came across an interesting book, Physics for Future Presidents: The Science Behind the Headlinesby Richard A. Muller. What you might not gather from the title is that the book is a briefing on the current state of worldwide energy and environmental problems.

I have yet to finish the book but what I have learned thus far from Muller is:
•    The world is NOT running out of fossil fuel—but only out of oil
•    Coal supplies will last for centuries (let me say that again—centuries)
•    Coal is cheap
•    We can make oil out of coal (via the Fischer-Tropsch process)

Why does this matter?

Here’s the other important piece to the energy puzzle—OPEC.

OPEC sets the price for oil.

When OPEC oil prices go higher than $50 per barrel, it makes more economic sense for us to make our own oil from our own coal. You see, a barrel of oil made from coal—using the Fischer-Tropsch process—costs $50 per barrel.

If OPEC’s oil is $100 per barrel we can say, thank you very much, but we’ll make our own oil from our own coal.

If oil prices are below $50 per barrel, it is cheaper to buy OPEC.

However…coal is not good for the environment!

So I am an advocate of solar (and other alternative) energy.
•    Because I care about the environment
•    Because I do not like being yanked around by OPEC
•    Because I do not want my energy dollars funding terrorism

Nature lovers that we are, my husband and I just returned from three days of soaking up the sun. We were not at the beach. We were in the desert; the Chihuahuan Desert to be exact.

Three days of hiking in the sun drenched Guadalupe Mountains invigorated and heightened all senses.  Maple, oak, and aspen shimmered in colorful fall array. Ponderosa pine, Texas Madrone, and Mountain Mahogany offered intriguing texture, pleasing both the visual and tactile senses.

But I’m wondering…

…with all the concern around environmental conditions, peak oil, and energy independence, why are we not harvesting energy from this perpetual sunshine?

Maybe one of the problems is the national power grid. Look closely at a map of the Texas Interconnection Grid and you will notice something about west Texas. There’s no grid out there!

Solar thermal and solar electric can and is used on a small, individual scale. But before we can harvest the Chihuahuan Desert sun for national energy use, we have to make a way to carry that energy to consumers.

Until the power grid comes to west Texas, harvesting renewable energy for the masses will be impossible.

Solar Energy: Protecting and Preserving the Natural World

Politicians juggle several hot potatoes this election year. Energy and the environment are just two of many. Since I have yet to vote myself, I still search the news for the latest political news related to solar energy.

While searching I came across an article by Christopher Hitchens in which he rails against Sarah Palin and her comments in an October 24th speech regarding fruit fly research.

What bothers me about Mr. Hitchens article is that he suggests that Christians are a group “who believes that there is no point in protecting and preserving the natural world, since the end of days will soon be upon us.”

I want to say two things here.

First, I know non-Christians who see no point in protecting and preserving the natural world. This self-centered, live-for-the-moment, attitude is held by various people from all walks of life and religions.

Second, some Christians do care about protecting and preserving the natural world.

I am one.

Solar energy—and all renewable energy resources—are gifts to us from a generous Creator, to use for the good of the earth and humanity.