In my recent television interview I mentioned a video of an advocacy group on Vashon Island in Washington State asking the question to their community…. “Would we be willing to become energy independent.” The parallels to Nantucket Island are numerous. This video provides a wonderful resource fot asking the same question to residents of Nantucket Island as well as the rest of the nation!
Peak Moment #29: Rita Schenck and Deirdre Grace of Vashon Island advocate forming a Vashon Island public utility district to produce electricity locally from renewable resources, starting with an aggressive voluntary conservation program to improve building efficiencies.
Bruce Marshall-Jones being interviewed on The Jamie Ranney Show, TV 17, talking about Earth Day Nantucket 2008 and the shift in the solar energy industry with The Citizenre Corporation. A new company offering a solar rental program to give power back to the home owner, save money and green the planet all at the same time… all for no upfront cost.
——————————–
Part Two
Here is a sampling of some of the organizations presenting at Earth Day Nantucket 2008. Many thanks to all those wonderful folks who helped make this community celebration, fun, memorable and educational.
It is critical that we as a nation upgrade to solar power now! Imagine our country moving toward energy independence with benefits so deep it will change the environmental, economic and political landscape. It crucial that we as humans evolve into the stewardship of this planet and to look after the quality of all life and species… we are the only species who can.
-Special Thanks to Geno Geng of GenoTV.com for the filming!
In this video I am talking about the Earth Day Nantucket 2008 Celebration with Energy Independence Today and the paradigm shift The Citizenre Corporation is making in the solar energy industry. With all the news of increasing electricity prices and dramatic world wide increase in demand, many have been looking for a better, greener solution. Now a better solution is available!
It is critical that we as a nation upgrade to solar power now!
Imagine our country moving toward energy independence with benefits so deep it will change the environmental, economic and political landscape. It is crucial that we as humans evolve into the stewards of this planet and look after the quality of all life and species… we are the only species who can.
It is important to focus on solutions and get away from the “gloom and doom” of global warming. Our generation has the potential of providing the heroes of our time. The climate crisis at hand will bring out the best in all of us!
Let’s rise to the occasion, find ways to be inclusive of each others beliefs, and have a good time doing it!
As an added bonus, below is the interview on the local television station about Earth Day and Citizenre:
Adrian Tierney-Jones cheers on the leading lights of a great adventure - crossing Britain in solar-powered wheelchairs
The SolaRola Adventure is a rally with a difference. There are no souped-up Skodas, no over-revved Renaults with screaming engines and screeching brakes. This rally will pass silently through sun-dappled woods, fields serenaded by larks, quiet leafy bridle paths and country lanes.
‘This event is about showing that we are active and that we are thinking about the planet’
It will head peacefully through small sleepy villages such as St Mary Bourne and West Chisenbury on its route from central London to the West Country. The only sound you’ll hear, apart from the birdsong and the rustle of leaves, is the occasional laughter and quiet conversation of the drivers. Drivers such as Annie Maw, who is quite literally running on sunshine.
I would like to draw your attention to a term called “Open-source.” Most of you that are familiar with the term think of the collaboration and cooperation that is part of software development. It has been a MAJOR player in the development of our current software and hardware computer technologies. It has now evolved into much, much more than that. We have shifted into a time where “people” (collective masses) now have more power than the giant corporations… through collaboration and synergies.
What I would like to submit to you, is that an amazing new company has utilized this concept of “Open-source” to bring about a paradigm SHIFT in the energy industry through decentralized cooperation and collaboration. We are talking about a group of passionate and caring individuals that are dedicated to a mission much greater than themselves. Why? Is it the money? Is it the fame? ……… or is it to be part of something that has the POTENTIAL to SHIFT our experience of business as usual on it’s head. Could it be a worth the risk of time and personal energy to contribute toward part of the solution for the biggest challenge of our time? Both economically and environmentally?
We are on an adventure… if it were easy, it would not be called an adventure. If there were no challenges there would be no learning. We are breaking ground with not only a business that has not been done before… but even more importantly, with a collective energy of people that will rival the likes of Google, Wikipedia, and SETI. Citizenre will become not only a household name… it will become “THE” company to emulate in the new “green” age. Life is not an accident. Everything has it’s ultimate purpose and each and everyone of us has a part to play.
I am very happy to be part of this process and find the process a joy. Sure results are what counts in the end… but the end is not all it is cracked up to be…. Smelling the roses along the way, while not being to worried about a few thorns, makes for a happy solar traveler…
I would like to share three videos with you to illustrate these points… hope you enjoy them and find inspiration in them.
Tech firm SUNRGI says its “concentrated photovoltaic” system could revolutionize the solar power industry.
By Paul Davidson, USA TODAY
A Silicon Valley start-up says it has developed technology that can deliver solar power in about a year at prices competitive with coal-fired electricity, a milestone that would leapfrog other more established players and turbocharge the fast-growing industry.
SUNRGI’s “concentrated photovoltaic” system relies on lenses to magnify sunlight 2,000 times, letting it produce as much electricity as standard panels with a far smaller system. Craig Goodman, head of the National Energy Marketers Association, is expected to announce the breakthrough Tuesday.
Also pushing down costs are a highly efficient semiconductor that converts 37% of the sunlight to electricity, more than double the industry average. The unit’s compact size allows it to be made at electronics or PC factories, avoiding the need to build new plants.
“Moving from the lab to the market in two years is typically not what happens,” says Stow Walker of Cambridge Energy Research Associates. Yet, he adds, the semiconductor market “moves much more quickly than power technologies.”
Even though our government has chosen to subsidize the Ethanol from Corn technology there are some major questions as to why this was passed. Turns out the net energy to create the Corn based ethanol is no more than what you yield from it…. no net energy.
There are a couple of attractive alternatives that are not getting the support they should.
The first alternative bio-fuel is Switchgrass Ethanol…
Here is a report by Scientific American on a 5 year study…
“switchgrass ethanol delivers 540 percent of the energy used to produce it, compared with just roughly 25 percent more energy returned by corn-based ethanol according to the most optimistic studies.”-USDA plant scientist Ken Vogel
“”Cellulosic ethanol contains more net energy and emits significantly fewer greenhouse gases than ethanol made from corn.”-DOE Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman.
But even a native prairie grass needs a helping hand from scientists and farmers to deliver the yields necessary to help ethanol become a viable alternative to petroleum-derived gasoline, Vogel argues. “To really maximize their yield potential, you need to provide nitrogen fertilization,” he says, as well as improved breeding techniques and genetic strains. “Low input systems are just not going to be able to get the energy per acre needed to provide feed, fuel and fiber.”
“That’s a key concern with using corn for ethanol because some of the genes being engineered into corn to make it a better source of ethanol aren’t genes we want in the food chain. And without confinement, such as plant sterility, those genes could find their way into the corn that we eat.”
“It won’t entirely solve the problem, but it sure will help,” said Kausch. “And the reduced CO2 that comes from your tailpipe is then absorbed by the plants that are then turned into ethanol again, so it becomes a natural cycle.”
– Albert Kausch, University of Rhode Island, plant geneticist
Second alternative bio-fuel is Ethanol from Hemp…
Hemp: the New Soy The THC in this food is so minuscule it is like comparing poppy seeds with heroin.
The Declaration of Independence was printed on Hemp!
">/0.jpg" alt="YouTube Preview Image" />
Jack Cashin on hemp -Libertarian candidate for Georgia Agriculture Commissioner advocates Hemp as the billion dollar cash crop that will save Georgia’s farmers.
Could this all be about the control of the oil industries… or the fear of ???
Why are we kept in the dark about this particular plant? Who has the most to loose if we start to utilize this fiber the way our ancestors did? Good questions to answer.
The old stigmatism about Hemp needs to change, or at least soften. The “medicinal” pot is a distant relative of the other varieties of Hemp. You could eat a life time of the new “healthy” hemp seeds and never get high… instead you would just suffer from better health…. darn.
Is ‘Hemp’ The Right Thing to Do?
Are there better options for fiber? super foods? better sources of ethanol? Maybe. There are better ways to harvest energy. How about Solar Energy? One onethousandth of one percent of the solar energy reaching the earths surface can satisfy all of the earths energy needs. In fact, in just one hour the Sun provides enough energy to supply all our needs for an entire year… There is a better way… like the solar rental REnU from Citizenre! We could even use this energy to make methanol out of carbon dioxide and not only do we have a superior fuel but we stop and possibly reverse global warming.
SolarEnurgy.net is powered completely by solar, wind and renewable energy to the tune of 130% of the data center power consumption, so we're not only neutralizing our carbon footprint, but also pumping an extra 30% of green energy back into the power grid! A light footprint.
Smelling the roses along the way, while not being to worried about a few thorns, makes for a happy solar traveler… 
/0.jpg" alt="YouTube Preview Image" />
Entries (RSS)