|
April 28, 2008
Apollo Feedback
Oregon's new biofuel crop, T. Boone Pickens on wind and gas
This second edition of reader Feedback includes an intriguing sampling of inventions, personal stories, questions, and news of independent clean energy media developing around the country. Send your Feedback dispatches to Keith Schneider, keith@apolloalliance.org. We'll post them early next week.
Oregon Discovers New Biofuel Crop – Camelina
I live in Central Oregon. The cities here -- Bend, Redmond, and Prineville -- were built because of good trapping and marginal farming. During World War Two, a series of dams were built to irrigate land for the war effort. The soils are poor, the growing season is short, and the farm yield has always been very poor. Farmers grow hay, raise cattle, llamas and emus, and manage to use nearly every drop of our precious river water, which has displaced salmon, steelhead and lots of other fish, birds and other critters.
See this Purdue University assessment: http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/
proceedings1993/V2-314.html
Lately, area farmers have begun growing Camelina for biodiesel. The oil yield from the tiny Camelina seeds is about 48% to 58%, and the mash left over when the oil is extracted is a very high quality feed stock for poultry, cattle, pigs or people.
It is very high in Omega 3 fatty acids, and is very high in protein. The best thing about Camelina is how hearty it is. It can be planted on snow in mid-March, and will grow to maturity in August without being watered or fertilized. It is extremely pest resistant, and can grow in the poorest of soils.
Farmers here can turn off their irrigation pumps and grow Camelina using the small amount of rainfall we have here to grow a fuel and food crop, while letting the river return to its natural state. The dams could be operated in a near free-flow manner, and we can become more energy independent.
There is a great deal more marginal land in Oregon's high desert that is suitable for Camelina, including the hundreds of square miles under the wind power generators in northeastern Oregon. The seeds don't spread, and cross pollination is not a problem, so we won't have to worry about Camelina taking over. In the fall, the plants can help to nourish our struggling elk, deer and antelope populations, which will also help carnivores like coyotes and cougars.
I'll keep you posted on the progress of this first crop of Camelina in Central Oregon!
Jim Guy
jamesguyconstruction@msn.com
T. Boone Pickens: More Wind, More Gas?
I heard T. Boone Pickens describe his ideas for dealing with our foreign oil dependency problem recently. He said that the U.S. currently spends $600 billion for foreign oil each year. His suggestion is that we make a transition to CNG for transportation fuels as quickly as possible, citing the vast quantities of natural gas that is now recoverable in the shale deposits in Texas and other states. Substituting this domestic energy for imported oil would enable the U.S. to quit exporting so much money to foreign oil producers.
He also thinks that a large number of windmills should be built along a line between Sweetwater, Texas and the Canadian border - and a large number of solar collectors should be built along a line between Sweetwater and San Diego.
Pickens owns a company that is in the natural gas business: www.cleanenergyfuels.com and also owns a lot of land in Texas that could supply lots of natural gas. The Barnett Shale area near Ft. Worth is an example of this resource and there is a Wiki article that describes it.
Does this idea make sense in relation to a broader evaluation framework -- e.g. emissions, mileage, conversion, producing new vehicles?
Jerry Schneider
Email: jbs@peak.org
Web site: http://faculty.washington.edu/jbs/itrans
Energy Efficiency in Jersey
I live in New Jersey. A program aired on the PBS station in New Jersey, over the weekend, on the variety of green building projects -- homes, businesses, schools, and universities -- in the state.
View a slideshow of energy efficient homes and buildings in New Jersey here:
http://www.njn.net/television/specials/greenbuilders/
slideshow.html
Larry Siegel
lrrysgl@aol.com
Santa Barbara Hosts A Clean Tech Venture Forum
I would like to inform Apollo supporters of the CA Coast Venture Forum on clean tech on May 16, 2008 at the Four Seasons Biltmore in Santa Barbara. Green2Gold is a sponsor of the event. It's a prime opportunity for the investment community and the entrepreneurs shaping the face of tomorrow's clean tech to network. If you'd like to know more please feel free to contact our director, Alan Tratner, at 805-879-1729.
See: http://www.ccvf.org/
Derek Casari
dcasari@green2gold.org
www.green2gold.org
Energy Suggestion From Germany
Here is a suggestion: Encourage public policy to adopt "FITS" - as in Germany. It is a program widely adapted in Germany that allows and encourages individuals to generate their own electricity and sell it back to the grid much more favorably than current U.S. practice. I read about it in the WorldWatch magazine for May/June and mailed it to my Congressman Jay Inslee who, as you well know, is a very active member of the New Apollo Alliance.
See: http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5688
Sincerely,
Sara Bhakti, Ph.D.
Kirkland WA
sarabhakti@yahoo.com
Most Successful Green Power Utility Programs
The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) announced its list of the most successful green power utility programs in the country. The list ranks the top ten programs in a variety of categories.
Three partners of Community Energy made the top ten in three of the lists: total renewable energy sales, total number of customer participants, and customer participation rate. As a supplier or marketer to 17 different electric utility or competitive electric supplier programs, Community Energy serves over 130,000 clean energy customers around the country.
NREL highlighted the following Community Energy-affiliated programs in their rankings for 2007:
The PECO Wind Program in Pennsylvania
5th in total number of customer participants with 38,548
10th in total sales with 160 million kWh sold
The City of Naperville in Illinois
6th in customer participation rate 6.7 percent
National Grid’s GreenUp program in New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts
9th in total sales with over 180 million kWh sold
7th in number of participants with 24,429
View the complete lists and rankings here: http://www.nrel.gov/news/press/2008/348.html
Roy Grundy
Naperville, IL
Phone: 630-355-1144
Email: rgrundy@wideopenwest.com
Web site:
http://www.wideopenwest.com/~rgrundy
Independent Sustainable TV in Oregon
I am on the board of a non-profit based near Portland, Oregon. We produce a monthly program that provides education, information, and examples of practices available today in the Portland area, to encourage viewers to live more responsibly and sustainably. Back issues are available on our Web site. The show is distributed on Oregon Public Broadcasting’s ‘The Oregon Channel’, on a public affairs channel used for the state legislature, and in Hawaii.
If you’re interested, please contact our board chairman, Tom Hopkins, 503-723-6456, tom@approd.com, website www.approd.com.
See: www.sustainabletoday.org
Levin Nock
Email: Lnock@comcast.net
Web site: www.LinkedIn.com/in/levinnock
Independent Media on Wind Systems in North Carolina
I have about 25-30 hours of footage (HD) already shot on small scale wind systems in the southeast. It includes classroom material from Appalachian State University Renewable Energy Initiative Director Brent Summerville, tower climbing, wind system installation and raising (step by step), site visits, interviews with AWES past President Dave Blidendorf, BackHome publisher (and former Mother Earth News tech editor) Richard Fruedenberger on build them at home units (cool stuff), and more. Needs editing and final voice overs or 'hosting', but about 90% complete footage.
Interested?
Ned Ryan Doyle
info@seeexpo.com
Producer "Our Southern Community" weekly 1/2 hour public affairs radio feature on energy, environment & economics, 5 years
Web site: www.wncw.org
Producer and writer "News from BackHome" from Back Home Magazine
Web site: www.backhomemagazine.com
Co-Host "Green Radio Bistro"
Web site: www.sustainablenow.us
Biking With Family Cross-Country
Last summer my wife, two sons (ages 9 and 13), and I rode our bikes from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., to deliver a petition on global warming to Congress. The petition spoke of creating jobs in renewable energy. The experience of traveling across country and meeting people was incredible. If your interested in hearing details, just let me know. I'm also writing a book about the experience which I hope will be out a year from this summer.
Matt Biers-Ariel
ariel@dcn.davis.ca.us
Energy Invention Suppression
The 123-page fourth version of my compilation of energy invention suppression cases is available at the bottom of http://green-salon.com/presentations.htm and also at www.energysuppression.com. A continuously running update of energy invention suppression cases and activities is maintained by Sterling Allan and his friends.
The file is also accessible at www.byronwine.com. Other sites can be found by entering in Google “Vesperman suppression.”
Additional energy suppression information is in http://www.commutefaster.com/klooz.html and
http://blog.hasslberger.com/2007/03/
pogue_hydrogen_stories_of_supp.html.
Gary Vesperman
Chief Operating Officer and Director of Research
Blue Energy Corporation
3133 La Mesa Drive
Henderson, NV 89014-3649
Phone: 702-435-7947
Email: garyvesperman@yahoo.com
.
|
