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In this issue we highlight a new photovoltaics manual now available,
creating local currencies for a post- petroleum economy, global dimming
and how it relates to global warming, energy consumption in China and
more.
There is still time to take a workshop this year. Seven weeks remain in
our 2004 schedule. Register soon so you get the workshop you want. Spaces
are filling quickly.
And, in our next issue, we will feature photos from our 9th Annual
SolFest event held Aug. 21-22, 2004. Stay with us....
Bob Gragson, Executive Director
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Workshops |
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Only seven weeks remain in our 2004 workshop season. Be sure to
sign up now. Carpentry for Women is already sold out and some
other workshops are nearing capacity.
Here's a list of our remaining workshops for this year:
All workshops are in Hopland, California, unless otherwise
indicated.
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EcoFest |
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- When: October 2 & 3, 2004 -- 10 AM - 7 PM
- Where: Sebastopol Community Center & Youth Annex, 390
Morris Street, Sebastopol, CA
- Cost: FREE General Admission, Presentations & Workshops $5
per day with kids 12 and under FREE
Representatives from over 60 Bay Area
environmentally-oriented organizations, schools, agencies and local
political offices are gathering on October 2-3 in Sebastopol to put
on the North Bay EcoFest, a weekend focused on sustainability, green
living and the upcoming vote.
Bringing together environmental stewardship, green business
practices, resource allocation issues, ecological educational
programs, and activism under the umbrella of visionary
sustainability, the North Bay EcoFest focuses on solutions for
sustainable living at home and how our community practices and
government policies work in conjunction within the larger ecosystem.
The EcoFest will fill the Sebastopol Community Center and the
surrounding outside area with exhibit displays, workshops, and more
than 30 interactive forums running all weekend long. Richard
Heinberg speaks on his new book, Powerdown,
and the predominant petroleum paradigm while several panels will
focus on alternatives -- transportation options, alternative fuels
(biodiesel and alcohol), and more.
It all kicks off at the Harmony Cabaret on Fri., Oct. 1 at the
Sebastopol Commuity Center with the eco-conscious, politically
inspiring music of Sol Horizon and the Grassroots Movement Dance
Troupe. Doors open at 8:30 and tickets are $12.
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New PV Manual |
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Producing electricity from the sun using photovoltaic (PV)
systems has become a major industry worldwide. But designing,
installing and maintaining such systems requires knowledge and
training, and there have been few easily accessible, comprehensive
guides to the subject.
Now, with Photovoltaics:
Design and Installation Manual, the critical information to
successfully design, install and maintain PV systems is available.
The book contains an overview of photovoltaic electricity and a
detailed description of PV system components, including PV modules,
batteries, controllers and inverters. It also includes chapters on
sizing photovoltaic systems, analyzing sites and installing PV
systems, as well as detailed appendices on PV system maintenance,
troubleshooting and solar insolation data for over 300 sites around
the world. Topics covered include:
- The basics of solar electricity
- PV applications and system components
- Solar site analysis and mounting
- Stand-alone and PV/Generator hybrid system sizing
- Utility-Interactive PV systems
- Component specification, system costs and economics
- Case studies and safety issues
Photovoltaics
guarantees that those wanting to learn the skills of tapping the
sun's energy can do so with confidence.
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The End of Suburbia |
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The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of The
American Dream
AVAILABLE NOW ALSO IN VHS VIDEO!
Order
from us, and help support our work.
The End of Suburbia explores the American Way of Life
and its prospects as the planet approaches a critical era and as
global demand for fossil fuels begins to outstrip supply. World Oil
Peak and the inevitable decline of fossil fuels are upon us now some
scientists and policy makers argue in this documentary. The
consequences of inaction in the face of this global crisis are
enormous. What does Oil Peak mean for North America? As energy
prices skyrocket in the coming years, how will the populations of
suburbia react to the collapse of their dream? Are today's suburbs
destined to become the slums of tomorrow? And what can be done NOW,
individually and collectively, to avoid The End of
Suburbia?
This DVD, or VHS, is an excellent introduction to the issue of
oil and natural gas depletion coming soon to a neighborhood near
you. If you haven't picked up a copy of this rivoting documentary,
do so today! You won't want to miss it!
Regular price is $24. Ordering your copy of this DVD or VHS
from the Solar Living Institute helps support the work that we
do.
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Local Money |
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Local currency will be an important factor in a post- petroleum
economy. Julian Darley, on page 179 of his new book entitled High
Noon for Natural Gas, has this to say about it:
"Unless we begin seriously disconnecting from the debt-based
money system, we shall neither be able to address the problem of
endless growth, nor rebuild our local economies, which is the only
long-term route to using less energy. Rebuilding local economies and
culture on a large scale is the process I have termed 'global
relocalization.' It is imperative that local communities begin to
institute a local-money or community-currency system, and form local
energy banks, designed to make loans to people (in both national and
local currencies) to help them install slow payback, energy-saving
or -making devices, such as home insulation or solar panels, and
buying land for zero-petroleum food production. Developing a local
money system is no small undertaking, but one of the pleasures and
benefits of global relocalization, which involves moving from a fuel
to a foot economy, is that local people will learn how to do things
themselves, work together, and discover their many hidden talents
and old-fashioned human resourcefulness."
To learn more about local currencies check out the following:
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Climate Shift in CA |
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A scientific study released on Aug. 16 presents an alarming view
of climate changes in California, finding that by the end of the
century rising temperatures could lead to a sevenfold increase in
heat-related deaths in Los Angeles and imperil the state's wine and
dairy industries.
The study, published in the online version of the Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences, offers the most detailed
projection yet of changes in California as temperatures rise around
the world because of building concentrations of heat- trapping
gases.
Under one of two scenarios, in which fossil fuel use continues at
its present pace, the study determined that summertime high
temperatures could increase by 15 degrees in some inland cities,
putting their climate on par with that of Death Valley now. That
scenario also foresaw a reduction of 73 percent to 90 percent in the
snow pack in the Sierra Nevada, resulting in disrupted water
supplies from the San Francisco Bay Area to the Central Valley.
Even in the second scenario, which assumed significant increases
in the use of renewable energy like wind and solar power, the study
concluded that fossil fuel emissions could push average high
temperatures up by four to six degrees - the difference, one author
said, between the temperature in Yosemite National Park and downtown
Sacramento.
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Solar in Brockton |
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The City of Brockton, Massachusetts, has unveiled its newest
renewable energy project: a 2.4 kW solar power project on the roof
of Brockton High School. Granted it's not a big project, but it's
just the tip of the iceberg for solar developments in this town.
The high school project is part of a larger effort, the "Brockton
Solar Champions Partnership," which is funded by a US Department of
Energy "Million Solar Roofs" grant. This partnership seeks to put
Brockton in the forefront of solar energy through the development of
a one MW solar power plant on a reclaimed EPA Brownfield site,
called a "Brightfield." Also, there will be an installation of an
additional 100 kW of rooftop solar citywide, including on the high
school.
"This project is just the first in a series that will make
Brockton a regional leader in the use of clean, renewable energy,"
said the town's Mayor John T. Yunits. "By using solar on roofs all
over the city and turning an empty, blighted piece of property into
a 'solar energy park,' the Solar Champions project will place
Brockton among a select few cities in the U.S. to really focus on
providing green power solutions."
The high school's science department will use the installation as
a "living laboratory" to teach students about solar power, and will
integrate a renewable energy curriculum being developed into
classroom instruction. The site will also be featured on an MTC web
site. The Brockton High School installation features 24 Evergreen
Solar panels which will generate about 3000 kWh per year of
electricity or enough to power the science lab classroom.
Installation services and a data acquisition system with weather
station were provided by CSG Services, Inc.
The Brightfield project, in comparison, will include thousands of
solar panels that will span the 27-acre site. Construction is
expected to begin next spring. When completed, it will add one full
MW of installed capacity of clean energy into the local electricity
grid, and will generate approximately 1,200,000 kWh per year of
electricity, enough to power about 120 homes. It is expected to be
New England's largest solar array.
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Global Dimming |
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Scientist Atsumu Ohmura discovered something rather unnerving a
few years ago: Over the past several decades, the amount of solar
radiation reaching the surface of the earth has been declining. In
other words, the globe has been dimming, at the same time it's been
warming. Even more disturbing is Ohmura's latest thesis: If we take
steps to decrease air pollution and thereby increase the light,
we'll also increase the heat.
The going explanation for the loss of sunlight is that
particulate pollution such as soot plugs up clouds, so that "when
it's cloudy, it's darker than before," Cohen says. Ulrike Lohmann, a
climate modeler at Dalhousie University's Physics and Atmospheric
Sciences Department in Halifax, Nova Scotia, agrees with that
assessment. She and colleague Beate Liepert of Columbia University
published a paper in the March 2004 edition of the journal
Geophysical Research Letters outlining the theory.
Lohmann explains that clouds change as we emit more particles
into the atmosphere. Clouds are made of cloud droplets, which form
by latching onto tiny particles called condensation nuclei. These
occur naturally in the atmosphere, but by emitting more particulate
pollution into the atmosphere, humans help make even more
condensation nuclei. The result: instead of fewer, larger water
droplets forming, many, smaller water droplets form. In effect, this
is like the difference between two sieves, one coarse and the other
fine. Like a coarse sieve, the cloud with fewer, larger particles
lets more solar radiation through to the ground, whereas like the
fine sieve, the cloud with lots of very small particles lets less
sunlight pass through. The result is darker days.
Ohmura believes that during the '60s and '70s, global dimming,
caused by particulate pollution, buffered the climate against global
warming, caused by greenhouse gases. As the increasing amounts of
gases warmed the Earth, the increasing amounts of particulate
pollution reduced the sunlight that reached its surface, thereby
cooling the planet. In other words, one form of pollution
counteracted the other. Hence the lower melt rates and stable
temperatures of the 1970s.
But then, scientists realized that particulate pollution was
almost entirely responsible for deaths related to air pollution. So,
wisely, the industrialized world began cleaning up its act,
curtailing emissions of soot and smoke.
But as emissions of deadly particulate matter decreased, so did
their cooling power. Clouds let the sun shine through and -- behold!
-- the greenhouse effect's disguise was cast aside. "Because of this
double punch [of more solar radiation and more greenhouse gases],
the global temperature increased enormously," Ohmura concludes.
Preliminary results of his, based on radiation records from 1992 to
present, support this theory. Key monitoring stations show a
resurgence of radiation levels during the 1990s -- not to pre-1958
levels, but enough to expose the true warming potential of
greenhouse gases.
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Important News on China |
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IT WAS 39C outside, distinctly cosy inside and would be a lot
hotter as the day went on. The lift was not working. The hotel's
emergency generator could, sort of, cool the bedrooms, but not run
the lift and cool the public areas as well. Kizil, a dusty town just
north of the Taklamakan Desert, has ways of making you understand
why Marco Polo took the sea route back rather than retrace this
punishing segment of the old Silk Road.
China's "Develop the West" campaign has barely impinged on this
western corner of the country's northwest, in the great sweeping
wildness of Xinjiang. But that made the power cut unexpected. Rich
in oil and coal and under-industrialized, Xinjiang is supposed to be
one of the few areas of China not affected by the country's
crippling energy crisis, its worst in history.
China is 30-35 gigawatts short of the energy it needs this year,
a gap equivalent to four fifths of the energy Britain generates in a
year. Chinese towns and cities endured 757,000 brownouts between
January and June - even before summer temperatures drove urban
demand up by 40 per cent, as offices, factories and millions of
increasingly affluent consumers switched on the air-conditioning.
Now, in torrid heat, the lights are going out all over China.
"Oil for the lamps of China" is moving world markets in
unexpected ways. Sabotage in Iraq, Yukos-related uncertainty about
Russian supplies and awareness that OPEC is already pumping close to
peak capacity have helped to drive crude prices up, but it will be
China's needs that determine long-term trends. This has happened
fast. It is only 11 years since China became a net oil importer, yet
last year it overtook Japan to become the world's second-largest
consumer of petroleum products. China accounts for at least 40 per
cent of the growth in global oil demand. That may be 50 per cent by
the end of this year.
A report issued in late July by the US Energy Information
Administration shows how the gap between China's production and
consumption has widened since 1980. EIA analysts suggest that we
ain't seen nothing yet. Twenty years from now, they predict, China's
consumption will more than double, to 12.8 million barrels per day,
and it will be hunting for 9.4 million of these on world markets,
nearly three times today's imports.
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Water Racket |
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The world's oceans are getting noisier and it's killing the
creatures that live there, scientists say. One major culprit is oil
and gas drilling, which involves low- frequency seismic pulses used
to survey geologic strata; military sonar and large shipping vessels
also generate their share of racket. The U.K.'s Whale and Dolphin
Conservation Society, which recently launched an Oceans of Noise
campaign, says there is evidence that all the noise is causing
hearing loss, injury, and even death in cetaceans (whales, dolphins,
and porpoises). In some cases, the animals can fail to hear
predators approaching, or fail to hear each other, causing mommy
whales to lose their baby whales. Also threatened is the mysterious
giant squid, unusual numbers of which have been found beached in
Spain recently, some with their organs damaged almost beyond
recognition. Researchers speculate that noise pollution drove them
to surface too quickly, causing air-pressure issues that we don't
even want to think about.
For more information:
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