Techdiplomacy

Solar Power in urban areas is becoming more viable, and therefore more common. The following excerpts from various papers and magazines tell the story of the growth of urban solar power. Expanding America’s power grid to connect wind and solar power plants to the urban areas they fuel will require thousands of miles of transmission lines. Most of it will be built in rural areas where locals are not likely to be very welcoming, since this power will be used in urban areas. 30 June 2009 - 1:00pm The Daily Yonder Getting Solar Power Rolling This profile from Miller-McCune looks at a Berkeley, California official who made use of a 100-year old funding mechanism to take the city solar. 25 June 2009 - 6:00am Miller-McCune Closing the Loop on Energy Use Architect Michael Palwyn is designing sustainable architecture that combines solar power and seawater into an ultra-efficient loop of resource conservation. 22 June 2009 - 6:00am. GOOD Magazine Renewable Energy System is on the Way President Obama plans to spend billions on building an interstate highway-style system for energy. 17 June 2009 - 11:00am. Discover Magazine. Smart Grid for a Smart City Amsterdam has taken its smart grid live, installing solar panels and 300 electric car recharging stations throughout the city. 11 June 2009 - 5:00am. Business Week A Solar Car By 2010? Italian car designer Pininfarina has announced that it will release a fully-electric, partially solar-powered car in Europe in 2010. 9 June 2009 - 2:00pm. Inhabitat Making Brownfield Sunny A manufacturer of solar systems has planned to develop the country’s largest urban solar power plant at a brownfield in Chicago. 5 June 2009 - 9:00am The Architect’s Newspaper Train to Run on Sunshine? An Arizona company is proposing a solar-powered elevated train running between Tucson and Phoenix. 10 May 2009 - 1:00pm Arizona Star Making Clean Energy Reliable Clean energy is a major component of the Obama Administration’s plans for an upgraded electricity grid. But with variable outputs, clean energy generation from solar and wind will need to be augmented, according to this piece from NPR. 1 May 2009 - 10:00am. NPR Building the Smart Grid Smartly In the sixth of a ten-part series, National Public Radio investigates the sustainability of smart grid technology in the places where its likely to be applied. 1 May 2009 - 7:00am National Public Radio Vatican Reveals Solar Plant Plans Vatican City has plans to build the largest solar plant in Europe, which will supply enough power for 40,000 households in a state of 900 inhabitants. 23 April 2009 - 2:00pm. Bloomberg The Planetizen News Brief - 4/23/09 [1pixelout.swf] 4:25 minutes (4.05 MB)Condos converting to affordable housing in New York, bankrupt developments converting to parks in Florida, and solar power heads to the Vatican, all on this week’s Planetizen News Brief, airing weekly on the nationally-syndicated radio show “Smart City”. 23 April 2009 - 5:00am Vatican Embraces the Power of the Sun The Vatican has announced plans to build Europe’s largest solar plant to power the state. 21 April 2009 - 9:00am Bloomberg Solar City in the Works Developers in Florida have announced plans to build a new 17,000 acre city that will run entirely on solar power. 12 April 2009 - 5:00am The Miami Herald California Desert A Hotbed for Alternative Energy On the state’s path towards drawing 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources by the end of 2010, California is focusing on its southern desert as the site of this alternative energy generation.

The final analogy is that we will see solar power being generated in our urban areas more and more. Whar are your thoughts on the subject, submit a comment, let’s talk. See you around the galaxy…

Fluor forms renewable energy business line 15 May 2009. This was the headline from a trade publication. Engineering and construction firm Fluor said it is forming a business line to focus on global renewable energy for clients in the solar, wind and biomass power markets. Fluor said the line will complement its nuclear, gas and solid fueled, and air quality control offerings. It will be led by Brad Friesen, a Fluor executive and former head of the company’s gas fueled line. “Fluor has designed and built renewable energy projects for more than 20 years and we will leverage that expertise for the benefit of our clients,” Friesen said in a statement.

I don’t know much, but I once worked as a consultant for Fluor and I can’t remember them being all that environmentally concerned. I suppose we must give these companies the benefit of doubt, but we must be careful as well. Read on, you’ll see what I mean.

The following comments were written by Jean Jerome Baudry, there is more information concerning Mr. Baudry at the end of his comments.

More than ever before the population wants GREEN! Practices, products, organic food, recyclable packaging, the list is never ending and more than ever, businesses are giving it to them. Businesses far and wide are claiming to go green, to the point where society needs a term to describe consumers being misled by a company regarding their environmental practices. The term ‘greenwashing’ was claimed to have originated from a NY suburban environmentalist named Jay Westerveld in 1986, although the actual practice originated somewhere in the 60s alongside the emerging environmentalist movement. It’s no wonder that greening your business has become so marketable when over half of the baby boomer population – some 40 million – are environmentally conscience consumers. Therefore greening your business can be an all around profitable endeavor from a marketing standpoint as well as a cost savings standpoint. The danger is when it comes to advertising a practice or an approach as green which isn’t reflected in the day to day operations. It’s simply fraudulent or better known as …greenwashing. The Think Green Alliance aims to provide a safeguard against “greenwashing,” which is common in the marketplace today when so few standards and regulations exist for determining whether a company is truly environmentally friendly and if so, just how environmentally friendly they are. The criteria for membership, established by Cybernomics, are simple but telling. Think Green Alliance members (1) must show tangibly that they have incorporated green principles into their business plan, (2) must have a concrete, measurable, and step-by-step approach to integration of these principles, and (3) must be committed to a continuous cycle of improvement. Think Green Alliance members span multiple industry verticals and therefore lend a multidisciplinary approach to companies looking to start adopting green principles into their business plan and operations, as well as provide a benchmark to companies who have already embarked upon a green plan. For more information on the Think Green Alliance, or to apply for membership for your company, please visit http://www.thinkgreenalliance.com. Jean Jerome Baudry founded Cybernomics in 1993 as a Professional IT Consulting, Management, and Support firm. Today, Cybernomics is a leader in Green IT and financially and environmentally sustainable solutions. Mr. Baudry is also the founder of the Think Green Alliance, a green business community dedicated to the promotion, development, and awareness of fiscally sound green business practices. For more information on Mr. Baudry or on Cybernomics, please visit http://www.cybernomics.net.

Mr. Baudry has expressed concern and has provided solutions to keep companies honest with regard to being environmentally friendly. As an environmentalist I applaud these efforts and as a consumer, I vow to investigate claims by companies that claim they are ‘green’. We need to know the truth, therefore avoiding ‘greenwashing’ that is becoming rampant. Anyway that’s what I think, tell us your opinion. In the meantime, see you around the galaxy…

There is some conversation about money when people discuss renewable energy. They want to know if they can in some way profit from the industry.

Renewable energy provides several ways to make an income from this new and vital industry. The opportunities are there, we simply must find an opening. Solar and wind generation devices must be manufactured, and renewable energy must be installed, so to speak.

Wind turbine power is an industry that saw widespread growth last year. How does one make money from any of this? There is a need to seek that which has not been “done to death”. You could invest, or you could involve yourself in the manufacturing/installation end of the business. Once again seek “the road least traveled by.” I will attempt to provide useful information to anyone desiring a way to success in renewable energy.

The branch of renewable energy that is very busy now is wind power. It’s the first source we will investigate. Generation of wind power is usually expedited by the use of wind turbines. The ways to profit from this are infinite. We’ll take a look at all of them, if we can. The obvious ways are not necessarily the best ways. I will take you through the steps that will gain us the best results. I hope you will gain some insight from this post, it is information gleaned from the top marketing and manufacturing experts in the US.

Manufacturing wind turbines is an employee dominated avocation. By that I mean a large number of people are required to manufacture the turbines and to install them. The first thing you have is marketing the product or concept. You advertise and you sell people your idea or product. Renewable energy does not need hard sell tacticts. We’ll stick to the facts. With wind turbines we’ll need to find an acceptable way to present our product to our target group of consumers.

If you want to keep your operation small, then any advertising you do should only include your local audience. By that I mean, use the local newspapers and magazines for your print ads, and call local radio and any TV stations operating in your area.

Before we go any further, let me say that in this post I won’t tell you how to manufacture or install anything. I will provide information that will enable you order inexpensive E-books that will give you that kind of instruction. Otherwise this would go on forever.

When you you advertise make sure that you inform your potential customers who will be responsible for the work. That is to say, you will be responsible for all of the work, it does’nt matter who actually does the work. You will hire private contractors to do your work, just make sure they have good reputations.

Let’s take a look, you may save them a great deal of money, simply by installing a wind turbine . There is not a city in the country that will not grant the permits. That being the case you will have free reign to sell your product. You would be surprised at the number of customers you will have.

So advertise and I guarantee that you will make money. The next step is to educate yourself about your product. The more you know about your product, the better. Don’t assume anything, let everyone know that you are an expert in your field. People will have faith in your product and make a purchase if you seem to be an expert.

The next step is to network, you’re offering a product will save money for those that choose to use it. Most cities have sites on the web geared to report on local events. This is not advertising that will cost you money. This is ‘free’, and will not cost you anything. The writers for these entities will seek you out if you can generate interest in your product(s). Press releases, social media, word of mouth, are all legitimate ways to generate interest. Once again, I will provide links to material that will help you in these areas at the end of this post.

This post is not finished, it will be continued at a later date. Anyone desiring the links I referred to iin this post may write their requests in the comment area of this post. I will get them to you ASAP, see you next time. Please remember, this is the end of the beginning.

The smokestack crew would like to share in the stimulus citing rising demand for electric power.
This group includes coal fired power stations, the oil industry, and all fossil fuel power plants. They are mobilizing their collective might in order to propogandize their Industry. Never mind the carbon dioxide emissions caused by their efforts.

We cannot forget the coal industry`s effort to market ‘clean’ coal which simply does not exist. The president once mentioned this myth while campaigning, he has not mentioned it since. I’m sure he was advised of the lack of veracity concerning ‘clean coal’. This effort by the coal industry shows the lengths they will go to in order to keep destroying our environment.

This industry has made some half hearted attempts to clean up some of their CO2 emmisions to no avail. There is no Incentive for them to do so. This is the problem, they have held sway for so long. Let me explain.

Coal fired power plants are not labor intensive, they are usually powered by a device called a programmable logic controller. This device is operated by one man in a control booth. Therefore the entire plant is operated by a single person. Not inducive to full employment is it? The power company charges top dollar and they have a small payroll to meet.

The renewable energy Industry is labor intensive. It has been shown that investing in renewables will create millions of jobs. The president has signed the stimulus and with help from a Colorado solar business operator has urged Americans to embrace renewable energy resources. We have no choice, we need to embrace solar, wind, and geothermal energy to power our society. There would be a resurgence of American pride in our accomplishments. Jobs would be created. Global warming could be stopped and the effects perhaps reversed. Careers could be made as we perfect this technology. The possibilities are limitless.

In order to get to the point, (I know it’s too late) I will paraphrase my title. The fossil fuel Industry will try to get a share of the stimulus package, and we should oppose that notion. They are desperate to maintain their windfall profits in the face of legislation requiring lower carbon emissions. We as a people need to keep this industry from benefiting from the stimulus package, fossil fuels are not the answer. Renewable energy is the only answer to America’s energy and economic needs. Write your elected officials!