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The demand for our workshops continues to be high. So if you've been
delaying registering for that workshop you really want to take, please be
advised that our
workshops are selling out faster than ever before. Our summer print
catalogs were shipped recently, so be sure to order the workshops of your
choice early.
SolFest
XII is only six weeks away (Aug. 18-19). You won't want to miss this
inspiring event. Amy Goodman, Bruce Cockburn, Alice Walker, Dar Williams,
and others are already confirmed for this year. If you want to exhibit at
this year's event, be sure to visit our Exhibitors
page now. We anticipate the few remaining booths to sell out quickly. Tickets
are available for purchase now.
There are some interesting articles included in this issue about 11 new
GE greener products, Berkeley's new emissions measure approved by local
voters, former Institute interns and their involvement in the development
of New York City's first sustainability plan, New Jersey's solar program,
a TV series on peak oil by Yuba Gals, and more!
As always, I want to express my heartfelt appreciation to all of you
for your support. You are very important to us. 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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Register now for the workshop of your choice before it sells
out. Response to our workshop program this year has been
overwhelming. Almost all workshops offered to date have sold out. So
register early.
With over 200 workshop days 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. We are also now offering workshops in Tlaxcala,
Mexico (see below), and continue to offer workshops in San
Francisco, San
Jose, Hopland
here at the Solar Living Center, and other locations.
Select a topic below for a listing of workshops in an area of
interest to you:
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SolFest XII |
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We are already in full swing in preparation for SolFest
XII to be held Aug. 18-19, 2007. Amy Goodman, Alice Walker,
Bruce Cockburn, Dar Williams, and others will appear this year on
the SolFest main stage.
For those of you who want to exhibit at the event this year, we
anticipate brisk booth sales and encourage you to line up your booth
early.
For more information on being an exhibitor at this year's
event, continue to check the Exhibitor
page on our website. To reserve your booth, call Travis O'Guin
at 1-888-821-2132 ext. 113. This year's exhibitor
site map and exhibitor
brochure are downloadable from our website.
Tickets
for this year's SolFest are now available on our website. Get your
tickets
early for SolFest XII which promises to be the best SolFest
yet!
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Our Newest Books |
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In our bookstore we have an area that lists the
latest titles that we have added.
We provide FREE shipping on book and DVD orders totaling $100
or more.
Be sure to check out our books in the following
categories:
Shop with the Solar Living Institute, and help support our
valuable work!
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You Are Invited! |
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The Solar Living Institute invites you to a very special night of
music and celebration, to support our upcoming SolFest, and the
ongoing environmental education work of the Solar Living Institute.
Hosted by The Sebastopol Brewing Company
- Music and Dancing
- Acoustic Musical Treats
- Raffle and Prizes
- SolFest Schwag For Sale
- Locally Brewed Beer on Tap
Headline set by DJ Dragonfly starts at 10 PM
(funky,
groovy, uplifting, globally-driven beats)
Network with fellow Solar Living Institute supporters!
- When: Sat., July 14 -- 8 PM - Close
- Where: Sebastopol Brewing Company, 230 Petaluma Ave. (downtown
Sebastopol, CA)
- Why: To gather together and celebrate!
- Cost: $5-10 Donation requested (no one turned away for lack of
funds)
See you there!! RSVP to doron.amiran@solarliving.org
or 707-744-2017
If you are unable to attend, please consider making a donation.
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Corporate Green |
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General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt spoke about his company's green
successes at a second-anniversary celebration for the
"ecomagination" unit last week, noting that it had sales of $12
billion last year, has back orders for $50 billion more, and will
"blow away" the original goal of $20 billion by 2010. Immelt also
revealed 11 new greener products and services.
Of the 11 new products, services and technologies, one was a
carbon emissions offset partnership with energy company AES Corp. to
produce offsets for 10 million metric tons of greenhouse gases a
year by 2010. "GE will be marketing to airlines, to rental car
companies, and people have the option to offset," AES CEO Paul
Hanrahan told Reuters.
With Union Pacific, GE unveiled its first green hybrid
locomotive that recycles energy and stores in in on- board
batteries. In the automotive sector, GE has also invested in the
battery company A123, which is working on the next generation of
battery technology for hybrid and plug-in hybrid electric
vehicles.
Retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. which says it is the largest
private consumer of electricity in the world, said more than 500
stores will use GE light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to slash energy
consumption in its refrigerated display cases. And oil company BP
Plc said it is forming a global alliance with GE to develop 10 to 15
hydrogen power projects that will cut greenhouse gas emissions from
electricity generation.
"People will look back 20 years from now and see what GE, BP and
Wal-Mart did at this point in time and will say 'That's when it
happened,'" said Wal-Mart VP Charles Zimmerman.
For more information:
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Berkeley: Green Crazy |
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Six months ago, voters in Berkeley, California, overwhelmingly
approved a measure to reduce the city's emissions 80% by 2050. Now
proposals have been laid out to accomplish that goal, including
requiring builders to use green materials, making landlords provide
free bus passes to tenants, informing residents of the size of their
carbon footprint, and helping "sun-ergize" every roof in the city.
The personal behavior of Berkeley residents will also be held to a
high standard, with incentives provided for walking to work, buying
local food, saving energy, and more. Residents may have
underestimated the impact on themselves: people who will gladly
welcome a car-share vehicle on every block may balk at being
required to upgrade appliances and install more-efficient insulation
at their own expense.
For more information:
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SLI Interns: plaNYC 2030 |
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On Earth Day, April 22, 2007, at the American Museum of
Natural History, New Yorkers cheered on Mayor Michael Bloomberg as
he presented PlaNYC 2030, the Big Apple's first ever long-term
sustainability plan.
Former Solar Living Institute interns Brianna Wolf and Jude
Wu participated in the creation of this plan. Be sure to read the
article on this plan and our former Institute interns' involvement
in this important plan.
For more information:
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Support the Institute! |
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Partners,
who support us through annual dues and our
growing continuous-giving program, are essential to funding the
Solar Living Institute. The financial support of folks like you,
which can range from as little as $35 a year to $2,500 or $10,000 a
year, helps us continue to grow and thrive.
The Solar Living Institute is growing rapidly. Your
contributions are critical to help us to continue to grow since our
work is far from over! If you have never been an Institute partner,
or if your partnership has lapsed, won't you please join
us in inspiring and educating people about sustainable living?
Even the smallest contribution can help.
Find out more about our partnerships,
and some of the many thank-you gifts you can receive for your
support.
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Workshops in Mexico! |
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The Solar Living Institute is proud to be partnering with
Proyecto San Isidro, a natural building and sustainable living
school in the Mexican state of Tlaxcala. Join us this year as we
explore sustainability in a fascinating international context.
During the first week of these unique workshops, foreigners
(typically from the U.S., Canada and Europe) convene for an
immersion in regional Mexican culture. The area surrounding Tlaxco,
with its millennia-long history of natural building and cultures
rooted in the land, will be your classroom. Through field trips,
classroom exercises and hands- on "practices," participants will
learn and experience various techniques and get an overview of
regional, Mexican, and indigenous cultures rarely experienced by
visitors. During the second week, participants from México join the
group and the bulk of the coursework focuses on hands-on practices.
For more information about this unique opportunity, visit our
website at www.solarliving.org
or call the Solar Living Institute!
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NJ Solar Program |
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After 18 months of project delays, job cuts and angst about the
future for many businesses in the New Jersey solar industry, the
state's solar program has started moving again as more funds were
released for projects waiting in a queue at the Board of Public
Utilities (BPU). However, there is still some question about where
the program will go next and how upcoming changes to the market
structure will impact the industry.
Because of the high number of applications submitted to the Clean
Energy Program (CEP) for up-front solar rebates starting in 2005,
the BPU quickly exceeded its budget, thus holding up the approval of
many projects. A queue was then created to manage the flow of
applications.
With the release of $47 million for residential and commercial
projects, the queue has moved -- mostly for installations under
10-kilowatts (kW). However, all the money budgeted through 2008 has
been spent, leaving many applicants wondering when they will get an
up-front rebate.
According to a non-scientific survey conducted by the
Mid-Atlantic Solar Energy Industries Association (MSEIA), the
slowdown at the BPU caused some turmoil for the state's solar
industry-resulting in a sharp drop in business, significant job cuts
and loss of investors. The survey results show that "62% of
responding companies laid people off [and] 81% of responding
companies have reduced, and in many cases, eliminated marketing and
sales efforts [and] 77% report a loss of investors over the last
year."
The up-front rebates, which are especially attractive to
residential and small-scale commercial developers, have been lowered
five times over the last two years in order to accommodate as many
applicants as possible. Currently, rebates are $3.80 per watt for
systems under 10 kW and range from $2.75 to $2.00 per watt for
systems over 10 kW.
Currently, there are a number of financing mechanisms under
examination by the BPU. New Jersey's leading electricity provider,
PSE&G, recently proposed a financing model in which the utility
would loan a potential solar system owner the money to cover around
40-50% of an installed system. A bank or investor would fund the
rest of the project. PSE&G would be repaid with SRECs generated
by the system owner over a 15-year period.
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Summer Workshops in NJ |
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Join the Solar Living Institute favorite Andy Black as he
brings Payback:
The Financial Case for Solar and Breakthrough
Solar Sales and Marketing to the East Coast this August 23 and
24! New Jersey is leading the way on impressive rebates and
incentives for solar electric, and the market is taking off. If you
are a sales person, a PV career-seeker, or a business owner, you
won't want to miss this unique opportunity to gain inside knowledge
from the country's leading expert on PV financial analysis and
sales.
Sign up on our website at www.solarliving.org
or call 707-744-2017 for more information.
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Yuba Gals |
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Yuba Gals Independent Media is a very small production company
located in western Nevada County, California. Their digital video
services include live-mix multi-camera videotaping, live video
projection, and post-production services.
Robyn Mallgren and Janaia Donaldson, the Yuba Gals, dropped
by our office last month and let us know about their TV series on
peak oil and positive responses to energy decline -- weekly half-
hour conversations about:
- localizing our communities
- local food production
- renewable energy
- transportation alternatives
- personal and social responses
- and other topics
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GoodSearch.com |
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Now you can give money to the Institute without paying out any
money!
We would like to introduce you to a new online search tool
that raises money for the Solar Living Institute at no cost to you.
It's called GoodSearch, and it is an online search engine that will
donate one cent to the charity of your choice (such as the Solar
Living Institute) for every search you perform.
GoodSearch is partnered with Yahoo, so your searches are as good
as any other. Using GoodSearch is simple - just go to this
page and you will automatically be contributing to the Solar
Living Institute. Make it your homepage, one of your home tabs, add
it to your Favorites, or download it for your toolbar, and it will
be even easier to support our programs.
If everyone who reads our newsletter used GoodSearch for their
online search needs, it could generate over $100,000 for our
programs here at the Solar Living Institute. Thanks for your
support!
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Recruiting Instructors! |
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Do you have a special skill related to sustainability that
you'd like to share with the world? We are actively recruiting
instructors from around the country to add to our database of
top-quality instructors on everything from solar installation to
green building to biofuels.
Please email your resume and description of what types of
skills you have and what courses you'd like to teach to lindsay.dailey@solarliving.org.
We look forward to hearing from you!
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Green Jobs |
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We know many of you are interested in green careers from the
feedback we receive from you. Put our 2007
Green Career Conference in San Francisco on Nov. 17 on your
calendar now.
For energy and environmental positions throughout the world, the
following are some good websites for your review:
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