Solar Power Heroes

by Deb Powers

When I was growing up, I fell in love with the beautiful Elsa, the lioness star of the movie Born Free. My favorite television series was Daktari, a show about an animal clinic and research center in Africa. I don't remember the names of the human actors, but Clarence the Cross-eyed Lion and Judy the chimp are a part of my childhood. I marveled at the animals, fell in love with the scenery and the land, and never once wondered where the doctors got the electricity to power the electric lights and radio and communications equipment on which their missions relied. If I had wondered, I would never have thought twice about the need to transport kerosene and gasoline into remote areas to power base camps and outlying stations. After all, I grew up in a city where electricity and gas was a given - just flip a switch and it was on.

What's got me musing about this this morning is an article about a solar power hero from the San Francisco Chronicle. Stephen Gold is a San Francisco building contractor who specializes in plumbing and electrical supplies. He is also a long time fan of solar power - his own house sports solar panels. He also feels very strongly about the conservation of the wild habitat for the animals that call it home. As he told a  reporter for the Chronicle, "You go into the bush and look in the eyes of another animal, and it changes you," he said. "I want future generations to see these animals."

A few years ago, he was attending a wildlife conservation workshop and heard one of the researchers complaining about power generation, and how unreliable electricity can make her research work so much more difficult. It occurred to him that kerosene and gasoline power generators might not be the ideal solution for powering research equipment in an unspoiled landscape. That started him on a quest to supply remote research stations with solar-powered generators and equipment.

Working with the National Conservation Society and major solar equipment suppliers, Gold has managed to outfit 11 research projects since 2006 with donated solar power generation equipment. For the past three years, he has used his home garage to store, assemble, package and ship solar power kits out to research projects in such far-flung places as Mongolia, Tanzania and Botswana.

His efforts have a huge impact on the lives of the researchers, who all put reliable power at the top of the list of things required for them to do their work. All agree that solar power is far more reliable than the generators on which they had been depending, and even those who are on the electrical grid find that the solar power is more reliable than grid power.

Solar Aid - Power to the People

Dr. Jeremy Leggett worked in the oil industry in the 1980s, until he became aware of the dangers of climate change and global warming. He left the oil companies to become a chief researcher with Greenpeace, and eventually founded his own company, Solarcentury. Solarcentury was dedicated to helping create a cleaner, safer world through distributed renewable energy. From its beginning, Solarcentury committed 5% of its profits to charity, going so far as to write it into the constitution of the company. In 2006 when Solarcentury made a profit, Leggett's corporation formed Solar Aid as an independent charity dedicated to bringing power to the people of developing nations in the form of distributed solar equipment.

Solar Aid has developed a model that they call microsolar, which the organization claims is more than a way to produce clean energy. It's a model that brings power to the people in more ways than one. According to Leggett, the average family in a developing nation spends up to 20% of its income on fuel for wood fires and power generators, and on batteries to power cell phones and other necessities. By providing individual solar energy generators, Solar Aid not only provides clean, reliable energy for the families, but frees up the income that had been devoted to cooking and powering their homes.

Solar Aid's mission goes much further than putting up solar panels on homes, though. On a smaller scale, the organization makes available solar lanterns with LED lamps, which can free a family from reliance on smoky fires for light at night. By providing solar generators, solar powered cell phones and solar powerd batteries, Solar Aid helps make the environment cleaner and the people safer. The organization works with local entrepreneurs and communities to bring solar power to schools, community centers and clinics in Tanzania, Argentina, Malawi and Zambia.

Powered by a Board of Directors drawn from high profile companies around the world, Solar Aid takes a progressive approach to charity. The organization does not just come in with a team and put up the generators, nor does its work end when the construction phase is complete. Instead, a large part of the mission is working with forward-thinking local entrepreneurs to hire and train workers and create micro-businesses that will survive and continue working and turning a profit even after Solar Aid's role has ended.

Learn more about Solar Aid microsolar solutions for developing nations

These are only two of the individuals and organizations that have stepped up to help bring solar power to places where it's sorely needed - and will do the most good. Do you know of a person or organization that's doing good work in the field of renewable energy and charity? i want to hear about them so that I can start to maintain an honor roll of solar power and renewble energy charities for those who want to put their money where it will serve a greater purpose.

Green Communities Green Economies

by Deb Powers

These days, most discussios of green energy center around one of two subjects - saving the planet and saving the economy. With the economic crisis in full swing - and swinging through to stabilization - the role of green energy in helping to save the economy has taken up a lot of ink space in newspapers and magazines around the world. Green energy projects like wind farms and solar installations are being touted to local governments and residents in terms of how many jobs will be created with the amount of carbon saved taking a back seat. While the focus on green jobs and green economies may be a mixed blessing, there is a lot to be said for the potential of green energy to totally transform our economy.

Being green is something that has always been near and dear to my local community. The picture above is of Elm Park, which is the first official park established in the United States specifically to preserve a natural green space for the enjoyment of area residents. Established in 1852, the park still exists in two parts - a manicured park with carefully tended plantings and walking paths, and a preserve that is allowed to grow wild. While it is small in comparison to the parks of many other cities, it is a point of pride in Worcester.

Worcester established a city-wide recycling program in the mid-1980s, and curbside recycling in 1990. It is home to a major biomedical research park, and to Worcester Polytechnical Institute, where a number of departments are focusing on developing green energy projects - including a parking lot that transforms solar energy into electricity through embedded photo-voltaic cells.

A recent article about green energy in the Worcester Business Journal highlighted how Worcester's and Massachusetts' response to the Green Communities Act of 2007 has affected the local economy. It's interesting in a number of ways, but most especially because the writer takes issue with a recent letter from the Associated Industries of Massachusetts to the state Department of Energy Resources. The letter expresses concerns that the Green Communities Act has resulted in "plethora of uncoordinated, conflicting and experimental programs". The criticism sounds remarkably like criticisms of many efforts toward green energy around the world, and the response from Ian Bowles is enlightening. In many ways, it could be applied world-wide.

After detailing a handful of new requirements, projects and incentives that appear to be unrelated on the surface, Bowles goes on to say:

These are all distinct requirements but they all work toward the same goal: replacing fossil fuels and their volatile prices, which are imported into our state from across the ocean, with clean, renewable energy from homegrown sources that reduces the emission of greenhouse gases associated with global climate change.

We are moving forward on many fronts but toward one goal: an efficient, clean energy economy.

This is true of so many different projects in so many different geographical locations. Too many of us are working with blinders on, seeing only how one part of efforts toward a green economy affects one tiny segment of our world-view. For investors intent on making the most money possible, the idea of a fragmented energy market, where dozens of companies compete to provide green energy through a number of sources is a nightmare. We've grown used to big energy utilities that supply our gas for heat and cooking and our electricity for power. We're conditioned to believe that big is always better and the economy size is both more efficient and more economical.

What if we're wrong about that, though? What if the real route to energy independence lies through many smaller projects and businesses than through huge, centralized energy generation? According to the Worcester Business Journal, these are some of the ways that a number of small incentives are improving the Massachusetts commitment to green energy:

At the same time, the commonwealth is promoting renewable energy in a variety of ways, as specified by the GCA — increasing renewable energy mandates on utilities through the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS); requiring long-term contracts to help wind power developers finance their projects; providing better “net metering” benefits for owners of on-site renewable energy that have excess electricity to sell back into the grid; allowing electric distribution utilities to own solar power that serves their customers and dedicating a portion of the RPS requirement to supporting solar energy installations.

In addition to spreading the responsibility for creating and distributing green energy, the targeted approach also spreads opportunity and incentives around. Continuing, Bowles says:

An efficient, clean energy economy means jobs. Solar power companies doubled their Massachusetts em-ployment from roughly 1,000 to 2,000 between 2007 and 2008, and expect to grow another 50 percent this year, while energy efficiency firms increased their employment more than 40 percent last year, and are projecting 50 percent growth this year, in the midst of the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression.

 The Role of Green Energy in Saving the Economy

Jobs created is only one indicator of the importance of building a new green economy, but it is a vital one. With many different industries and companies participating, the spread of jobs is farflung - from manufacturing jobs for those creating wind turbines and solar mirrors to research jobs for those creating and imagining new ways of making our use of energy more efficient.  While those on the national scene seem to focus on fixing the Gross Domestic Product, smaller projects focus on the domestic product far closer to home. On the local level throughout the country, the focus must be more on creating opportunities within the towns, cities and neighborhoods where the true heart of our prosperity lies.

This true heart has been missing in energy production and distribution for too long. When we put the task of creating and providing energy into the hands of a few big players, we shackled ourselves to their need for profit - becoming, in essence, energy slaves who relied on those that profit from our reliance. By spreading the responsibility for energy generation to a much wider net of utiilities, we loosen those bonds and spread the opportunity to profit from the creation of energy to nearly everyone in the country.

This is, unfortunately, something that many organizations like the Association of Industry in Massachusetts and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, would prefer not to see happen. The more the profit is spread to all who participate in the green economy, the less of the profit there is for the big players. If every homeowner is producing his own energy, after all, who is left to purchase electricity from them?

For the US Chamber, this has extended to almost ridiculous lengths. In July, they proposed that the EPA hold public hearings on the validity of the science establishing climate change. In essence, they are challenging the EPA to a public showdown between the established science supported by nearly every body of scientists throughout the world, and the industry-funded climate change skeptics who would like nothing better than to keep the world shackled to an oil barrel.

In an interesting development this past week, two major US utilities announced that they have left the US Chamber of Commerce specifically because of this extreme view of climate change science. Both PG&E and New Mexico Energy see the writing on the wall - green energy is the future. Development of green energy sources and technology will make power from solar, wind, wave and biomass more efficient and economical than power from coal and oil. It is only the research and development that will be costly. Once local sources of energy are established, the costs of producing and providing that energy will plummet, making it more affordable for everyone in the long run.