Emergent Energy Group» Renewable Energy – Emergent Energy Group

Jared Talks Wind on WJFF Radio Catskill

jared — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 02:14:51 +0000

While I figure out how to post an audio MP3 file that’s larger than 2MB, please visit WJFF’s web site to listen to the radio show. The radio show is powered entirely by a hydroturbine located adjacent to the radio station building and a fairly large dam.

I’d like to thank Mr. Dick Riseling for having me on the show and introducing me to his incredible sustainably operated farm in Sullivan County, New York. Please, check out his farm’s website at http://www.applepondfarm.com/ . The farm acts as a working renewable energy education center to demonstrate that renewable energy technologies and sustainable living scenarios are practical in the world we live in today.

Politicians and Science, Like Oil and Water

jesse — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:42:11 +0000

In a recent Op-Ed for the New York Times, Paul Krugman discusses the Waxman-Markey climate bill we’ve all been hearing so much about. Krugman notes that it’s not the barely passing margin the bill received but the 212 representatives, democratic and republican, who voted no. The climate change conversation should be one of whether the glass is half empty or half full; how do we address the potential dangers of human-induced climate change? Instead, almost half of our legislature refuses to acknowledge there is a glass on the table in the first place!

We started with a dearth of climate science completely and utterly backing up the assertion that humans are changing the climate of the earth. What we didn’t know was how much. Now, evidence is surfacing that the changes we’re having on our environment are potentially even worse than the pessimists predicted. Krugman notes a study by M.I.T. (it’s a college in Boston. I hear it’s hard to get into) which more than doubled the expected rise in temperature by the end of the century from 4 degrees to 9 degrees. I don’t know about you, but I plan on being around for at least another 60 years. And I don’t want to move to Florida when I retire. Nor do I want Boston to turn into Florida.

The evidence is out there. The conversation should be, how much is it going to cost us to mitigate the changes and potentially halt human-caused climate change. Instead, 212 members of our legislature refuse to acknowledge the glass on the table and have a productive debate. One called climate change a hoax, saying there is no scientific consensus. He received applause. Then he misquoted numbers on the cost of the bill to American families.

I have issues with the cap and trade bill. I have issues with some of the proposed ‘fixes’ to the climate crisis. But until we all agree that there is a big ol’ glass of water on the table, this conversation and the subsequent action, in whatever form it may take, will keep getting pushed to the next generation. I just hope I have time to teach my kids how to swim. Because the glass is getting bigger. And sooner or later the levees are going to break.

Indian Innovators Solving Energy Issues Independently

sara — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 21:59:03 +0000

If you read any sort of energy or environmental news these days, you are certainly aware that government initiatives to combat climate change are taking place from the local to state to federal level. These laws and incentives offer great hope that renewable energy could serve a much larger portion of our energy needs in the years to come. While large scale energy projects offer us great hope in making a sizeable impact in our energy dependence, we should not forget all the small projects that together will make a huge change. Today I’d like to give a shout out to International Development Eneterprises India, who is creating home-grown solutions to traditional irrigation for agriculture. The company “ has developed human/gravity-powered irrigators, water storage systems and treadle pumps that consume no electrical power, use far less water than current irrigators (hence requiring less storage to start with), and are most importantly simple, low cost and user friendly.”* On the surface, this is great technology because it requires no electrical power. This technology is however much more than that – it offers independence to small users of energy, the farmers of India. They are taking control or their own access to water and finding that independent systems do not have to come at a cost – most of the time they are even cheaper. This is just one story of innovators in India creatively meeting their energy needs, even without the government initiators such as those existing in the West. To read more about Indian climate change innovators, visit: http://www.indiaclimatesolutions.com/

*http://www.indiaclimatesolutions.com/pump-sets-irrigation-and-human-power

Middle Schoolers React to Peak Oil

ryan — Mon, 04 May 2009 22:41:28 +0000

As you all might know, our Citizens Schools sixth and seventh graders have been learning about sustainability, renewable energy, and also have been building solar cars to race at the Junior Solar Sprint at MIT in a few weeks! In our last class, we focused on sustainability, in which we did a “web of resilience” exercize and then we finished off by discussing Peak Oil. Jared helped the kids out by drawing the infamous Peak Oil “Peak” on the white board in the front of the classroom. The kids took the liberty to erase some things and write in and comment on the diagram:

Wanna be in our Posse?!

jared — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:17:33 +0000

We’re starting a movement. The Emergent Posse is an online group/movement/community of highly-motivated community activists spread across the nation working to educate and empower communities and community leaders in order to implement real sustainability programs and projects. We’ve hit a paradigm shift: oil isn’t cheap, the planet has a fever, and the economy is in the toilet. I’ve heard smart people calling for BIG government intervention and Europe-styled Socialism. That’s not the answer here in America. The biggest problem is that most of us, including our politicians (local, state, national) and our business leaders haven’t yet “seen the light.” There are ways to get ourselves out of this mess – it’s right under our nose in the wind, the sun, soil, and water. It starts with our communities, not the White House or the Capitol. It starts with us! Let us help you help your community and your friends – join our Posse. We are the answer.

Here’s what to do – and there’s a lot of different ways to get in touch with us:

Our website: http://www.emergentgroup.com/posse/

Join us on Facebook @ The Emergent Posse : http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=80673874691

Twitter us @EmergentEnergy : http://twitter.com/EmergentEnergy

On your phone: Text ‘empower’ to 68398

Wind Webinar on March 25th!

jared — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 23:54:47 +0000

Emergent’s holding a webinar on March 25th at 10:00am to discuss the changes in federal legislation that affects wind power, and how the recent Stimulus Bill has increased the feasibility of wind power project development. We’ll also be discussing ways in which communities, schools, and other agencies can prepare for private wind power development or take advantages of the benefits of wind power.

Preparing for Wind Power:

How the new Federal Legislation Affects You

With the introduction of new incentives by the federal government as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, wind power is becoming more and more financially feasible in the Northeast and throughout the US. Attend our webinar to learn more about the ways these new incentives are affecting wind power development and how to prepare for future wind power development in your community.

When: Wednesday, March 25th at 10AM
Where: online! register at www.emergentgroup.com/webinar

For more information

Phone: (617) 764 – 0206
Email: Jared Rodriguez at jrodriguez@emergentgroup.com

www.emergentgroup.com/webinar

Emergent Mentors Middle Schoolers on Solar Power

Jayson — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 23:47:05 +0000

Emergent Partners Jesse Gossett, Jared Rodriguez, and Jayson Uppal have joined the Citizens School program in South Boston to counsel and prepare 14 Middle School students for the Junior Solar Sprint in May. Jesse, Jared, and Jayson will be teaching at the Gavin Middle School in an 80 minute after-school program once a week (Thursday afternoons).

The Junior Solar Sprint is a city-wide miniature solar-powered car race for students in grades 6 – 8 sponsored by the Boston Area Solar Energy Association. The cars are judged based on technical merit, creativity, performance, and craftsmanship. The top 20 cars from the race move up to compete in the New England Regional Race.

Through the 10 week program, Jesse, Jared, and Jayson will be teaching the basics of solar energy and car mechanics, and will be training the kids to successfully design, build, and operate a model solar car. Three weeks into the program, the students have learned about how energy from the sun can be converted to run an electric motor, how to build a sturdy and efficient car using the given materials, and how gear ratios affect the car’s speed and acceleration.

The final date for the Junior Solar Sprint is still TBD, but check the website for updates. If you are in the Boston area, come out to cheer for the Gavin School Solar Car Team!

WindPole Ventures into the National Spotlight

jared — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:12:19 +0000

WindPole Ventures LLC created by Mr. Steve Kropper of Massachusetts has set out to do something no other wind power company has aimed at doing – set up a system to quickly develop hundreds of wind power projects across the entire nation.

WindPole has obtained control of over 1,200 AT&T microwave towers from the Cold War era, some of which reach over 120 meters in height. These towers become the perfect support for meteorological devices that can accurately measure wind speeds at the actual heights of wind turbines. Currently, most wind power developers and consultants measure wind speeds at lower heights (on meteorological towers with anemometers) and then statistically extrapolate upward to predict the wind speed at the height of the rotor of the wind turbines (usually 80m or 100m). With WindPole, hub-height wind speeds are available with little to no error in statistical extrapolation.

Emergent is proud to work with WindPole Ventures to identify which tower sites are suitable for wind power development and how to move forward on rigging these towers with MET devices to begin measuring the wind. Please, visit WindPole Ventures here for more information.

http://www.windpoleventures.com/

Detroit Races to the Outlet

jared — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 03:16:46 +0000

In Detroit, amidst the 2009 North American International Auto Show and almost impending economic doom, American and foreign automakers are racing to deliver the first fully electric automobile to the masses. We’ve been hearing about, and teased about, electric cars for years and all we’ve seen is inaction on the part of all automakers. Today is a different story, however. All car manufacturers in the world, especially General Motors and Chrysler, are facing true difficulty in their ability to stave off insolvency. The NY Times recently covered all the new auto models that will debut over the next few years boasting either fully electric motors, new hybrid systems, and other non-fossil fuel driven modes of propulsion.

Some models to look out for are the Chevy Volt (G.M.), which is due to arrive in showrooms in 2010 – the propulsion system (electric and gasoline-driven electric turbine) will also be featured in a wide range of truck and car models at the same time. The long awaited Prius and Insight models will also be unveiled by Toyota and Honda respectively. For the full list of new technology being introduced visit the previously mentioned article. The amount of new vehicles unveiled at the show is impressive. At this point, it seems that we could definitely see all-electric vehicles on the road by at least 2011. We’ve reached a very excited point in the automobile age.

The Green Communities Act of Massachusetts: Net Metering as an Incentive for Distributed Generation

jesse — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 19:42:45 +0000

The Green Communities Act of Massachusetts is a sweeping piece of legislation slated to fully take effect in the coming months. Passed in 2007, this energy and environmentally focused act promises to make Massachusetts a leader in addressing climate change and energy independence. All of the regulations are currently being hashed out by the public and other stake holders with the goal being to have all the nuances of the act agreed upon so the regulations can be put into practice in the new year. While we could write a book on all the great, good and (few) not so good aspects of the act, for this series of posts we are going to focus on the changes to Net Metering as it pertains to distributed generation. Net Metering itself is a dense subject, so this first post will deal only with the definition. (in depth: Net Metering at a national level)

Net Metering is a concept that has been in practice to varying degrees for many years in many states. The concept is simple in theory. A customers electricity meter has the ability to spin backwards when generation on site exceeds use and electricity is flowing backwards onto the grid. Let’s use a school with a wind turbine as an example. The school has a large ‘load’ (electric use) during very specific times of day, month, and year. During the weekends, summer months, and night time there is very little usage. But when school is in session or there is a football game and all the stadium lights are on the electric meter is spinning very quickly as a large amount of electricity is being used. Then, during a quiet but gusty evening during Christmas break, the wind turbine is generating at full capacity but there is no use at the high school. So this electricity goes back onto the grid and the electricity meter spins backwards.

Before Net Metering this electricity would be purchased by the utility who owns the lines in the area at the whole-sale rate or some other agreed upon (but low) rate. And to receive even this low price there were many hurdles to jump through, many of which were too high for small-scale generators like residential wind and solar owners. With Net Metering in Massachusetts each kilowatt hour of electricity generated but not used on site creates a net excess generation (NEG) credit. These credits can be used to cancel out electricity purchased when the wind turbine is inactive. So at the end of the year (or month, as is the case in MA) the amount you use is counterbalanced by the amount you generate. So the intermittency of solar and wind generation is no longer a disadvantage. If your wind turbine only spun at night while you had zero electric use but over a year it produced exactly the amount of electricity you used, your bill would be zero.

Considering the old method of recieving the wholesale rate for power generated, which is often under 30% of what someone pays at the outlet, Net Metering promises to make many renewable energy projects economically feasible in Massachusetts as each NEG credit has the worth of what you pay at the outlet. In later posts we’ll discuss why the Net Metering regulations must have system size caps as well as some of the innovative structures promoted in the Green Communities Act such as Neighborhood Net Metering.

- Photo Credit: Sunrise at Hull 1, Photo by Nantaskart!