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We launched our
new website on Dec. 12 to better serve and inform you. Be sure to
check out our
2007 workshops and our book
sale this month. Please feel welcome to provide us feedback.
We depend upon your comments.
As we begin a new year, I would also like to encourage you to support
us continue to support our work. Your generosity at the beginning of
last year after we were devastated by a 75-year flood helped us get back
on our feet. We couldn't have done it without you. Now it's time to make
2007 an even better year. To do that we continue to need the support of
your donations
and partnerships.
Thanks to all of you for your support and caring in 2006. It was a
truly incredible year here. As always, together we not only can make a
difference, we are making a difference!
Bob Gragson, Executive Director
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Workshops 2007 |
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Sale
on all 2007 Workshops until March 1!
You'll be pleased to know that our entire 2007 workshop
calendar is now posted online. Favorites such as the "PV Design
& Installation Boot Camp for Beginners," Andy Black's "Payback:
The Financial Case for Solar," and Jason Bradford and Brian Weller's
"Organizing Sustainable Communities" are back and better than
ever!
We have also responded to the suggestions of our students and
added many exciting new courses, like "Investing for a Green
Economy," "Old Ways Survival Skills," and "PV for Homeowners." Visit
our beautiful, newly redesigned website
for a full listing of workshops, where you can now search for
workshops by date, location, or topic by selecting from the dropdown
menus at the top of the page.
Plus, we have worked hard to lower the prices on many of our
workshops so that they are more accessible to our students. New low
prices on many courses coupled with a 10% discount on all workshops
make today the best time to fulfill your New Year's resolution of
finding a green career, learning how to build with straw bales, and
much more!
With over 200 workshops offered in 2007, our program has
grown substantially. We are offering a variety of workshops in
Southern California in both Los
Angeles and San
Diego, and we have started to expand to the East
Coast where new incentives are making solar an attractive
investment.
Hurry and sign
up today to take advantage of this special offer and ensure your
seat in our popular workshops. Classes will sell out early.
We hope to see you at an upcoming workshop!
Select a topic below for a listing of workshops in an area of
interest to you:
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Workshop Catalog |
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Our 2007 Workshop Catalog arrived this week from the printer.
If you are not on our mailing list, but would like to receive a free
hard copy of our workshop catalog in the mail, please send your name
and complete mailing address to sli@solarliving.org with the
words "WS Catalog Request" in the subject heading. You can also download
the print edition of the workshop catalog from our
website.
You won't want to miss this information-packed publication
with useful articles, information on the Solar Living Center, and,
of course, over 200 inspiring workshops on renewable energy and
sustainable living education!
You can also visit our
website for a full listing of 2007 workshops.
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New Website! |
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On Tues., Dec. 12 at 3:40 PM, our
new website was launched. It's the culmination of weeks of
planning and design to bring you, our customers and supporters, a
better and more vibrant experience. We hope you enjoy it.
Our new site is not only better organized so you can find what
you want more quickly and easily, but also includes numerous photos
of our programs and the Solar Living Center. Our
new site completely integrates our webstore into our website
making it a better shopping experience with real time shipping
calculation and easier search. It also provides an automated listing
of our upcoming workshops and a "what's new" section on our home
page. Our 2007
workshops are now completely searchable by month, topic, or
location making it easier and faster for you to find a workshop that
meets your needs. New features on the site include a FAQ,
a SolFest
photo gallery, a Solar
Living Center photo gallery, a forward-a-web-page feature, and
much, much more. In the future, we will be bringing you a virtual
tour of the Solar Living Center, streaming video, and more.
So please spend some time with us on our
new website and feel welcome to let us know what you
think!
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Book Sale! |
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All
books and DVDs and videos are 10% or more off with FREE SHIPPING
for purchases of $100 or more.
Take advantage of these savings now. This is a limited time
offer so order now and support the Solar
Living Institute at the same time!
Be sure to check out our books in the following
categories:
Some book categories have more than one page, so be sure to
use the next arrow at the bottom of the page.
Shop with the Solar Living Institute, and help support our
valuable work!
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Support the Institute |
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While you are checking out our new website, please support
our work and our vast array of programs with a
one-time or monthly donation, a gift to our endowment fund, or
becoming a partner.
We continue to strive to provide an exemplary learning experience
for you and others promoting sustainable living through
inspirational environmental education.
Make a gift to the Solar Living Institute - an independent,
educational tax-exempt nonprofit organization - and you help educate
thousands of people each year with the skills necessary to make a
sustainable future a reality.
It is your generosity that makes the Solar Living Institute work
for all of us. Your gift will enable us to add more educational
offerings, produce SolFest
XII in 2007, educate 500 school children on Earth
Day for Kids at the Solar Living Center, feed our interns,
add more interactive displays on site, expand our biodiesel
education program, further develop our organic farm project, and
more.
Please give generously. Your gift is so very important for us
to continue making more people aware of the critical importance of
renewable energy and sustainable living for our survival and the
health of our planet.
Please don't delay. Send your end-of-year contribution TODAY.
Thank you for your support!
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Grain Demand for Cars |
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Investment in fuel ethanol distilleries has soared since the
late-2005 oil price hikes, but data collection in this fast-changing
sector has fallen behind. Because of inadequate data collection on
the number of new plants under construction, the quantity of grain
that will be needed for fuel ethanol distilleries has been vastly
understated. Farmers, feeders, food processors, ethanol investors,
and grain-importing countries are basing decisions on incomplete
data.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) projects that
distilleries will require only 60 million tons of corn from the 2008
harvest. But at the Earth Policy Institute (EPI), they estimate that
distilleries will need 139 million tons -- more than twice as much.
If the EPI estimate is at all close to the mark, the emerging
competition between cars and people for grain will likely drive
world grain prices to levels never seen before. The key questions
are: How high will grain prices rise? When will the crunch come? And
what will be the worldwide effect of rising food prices?
This unprecedented diversion of the world's leading grain
crop to the production of fuel will affect food prices everywhere.
As the world corn price rises, so too do those of wheat and rice,
both because of consumer substitution among grains and because the
crops compete for land. Both corn and wheat futures were already
trading at 10-year highs in late 2006.
The U.S. corn crop, accounting for 40% of the global harvest
and supplying 70% of the world's corn exports, looms large in the
world food economy. Annual U.S. corn exports of some 55 million tons
account for nearly 25% of world grain exports. The corn harvest of
Iowa alone, which edges out Illinois as the leading producer,
exceeds the entire grain harvest of Canada. Substantially reducing
this export flow would send shock waves throughout the world
economy.
Robert Wisner, Iowa State University economist, reports that
Iowa's demand for corn from processing plants that were online,
expanding, under construction, or being planned as of late 2006
totaled 2.7 billion bushels. Yet even in a good year the state
harvests only 2.2 billion bushels. As distilleries compete with
feeders for grain, Iowa could become a corn importer.
With corn supplies tightening fast, rising prices will affect not
only products made directly from corn, such as breakfast cereals,
but also those produced using corn, including milk, eggs, cheese,
butter, poultry, pork, beef, yogurt, and ice cream. The risk is that
soaring food prices could generate a consumer backlash against the
fuel ethanol industry.
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Feature: Steve Heckeroth |
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Steve Heckeroth, electric car pioneer and Solar Living Institute
Board Member and Instructor, has recently been featured in Mother
Earth News and Solar Today.
Follow the links below to read the articles:
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WIREC 2008 |
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The U.S. capitol will be the site for the 2008 Washington
International Renewable Energy Conference (WIREC 2008).
Approximately 5,000 attendees are expected to take part in the
international event, including delegates from 150 countries.
Planned for March 1-7, 2008, the conference will be produced
as a public-private partnership. Conference management is being
coordinated by ACORE, which is raising $10 million to fund the cost
of the conference, in accordance with a December 13, 2006 letter
issued to ACORE by the U.S. Department of State expressing the
government's interest in hosting the event.
The global conference will build on similar conferences held
in Bonn, Germany in 2004 and Beijing, China in 2005. Those landmark
conferences focused on national Action Plans, with respect for
sovereignty, independence, and voluntary collaboration among
nations. WIREC 2008 will continue that theme, encouraging continued
voluntary collaboration among nations.
In addition, Power-Gen Renewable Energy & Fuels trade
show will be co-located with WIREC 2008, and it is anticipated that
50 to 100 official side events will be held by States, foreign
governments, non- governmental organizations (NGOs) and
multinational organizations.
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Solar Power to Campus |
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The eight solar panels hang conspicuously upon the brick surface
of the Mechanical Engineering Building (MEB) of the University of
Washington (UW), glinting with a silver-blue sheen which clashes
with the traditional architecture.
High visibility, however, was exactly the point, explains
Nathan Miller, recent graduate from the UW mechanical engineering
(ME) department. Like a billboard without words or images,
strategically placed in sight of high-traffic walkways, the panels
serve to grab attention. The impact, Miller hopes, will generate
awareness of the promise of solar energy, one passerby at a
time.
In 2002, then a junior in the ME department, Miller led a small
group of students in applying for the funds and equipment which now
constitute the MEB photovoltaic (PV) project. Half of the panels
were mounted on the roof of the building, where the sun's rays are
most direct, and the other panels were placed with visibility in
mind.
Down in the lobby of the building, the project is showcased in a
prominent glass display case. A large computer screen contributes
both images and information. A continuous PowerPoint presentation
outlines the history of the project and teaches some basics about
solar power as well as renewable energy in general; it also provides
a live-update summary of the amount of energy being generated by the
solar panels.
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Green Jobs |
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We're hiring here at the Solar Living Institute. We have one
position opening:
Administrative Assistant: This position reports to our
Executive Director. Review the job
description for the Administrative Assistant position and
send your cover letter and resume to our Executive Director, Bob
Gragson, at bob.gragson@solarliving.org.
The position is open until filled.
For other energy and environmental positions throughout the
world, you might also check out these websites:
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