Milwaukee Shines Solar Loans

I had the pleasure of sitting in on a webinar about the Milwaukee Shines Solar Loans Program, where folks with Milwaukee Shines and the Midwest Renewable Energy Association discussed the pilot program implemented through the summer of 2012, lessons learned, and upcoming replication of the opportunity.

Milwaukee has been named a US Department of Energy Solar America City, and in 2012 the city became a part of DOE’s Sunspot rooftop solar program. Through the Sunspot Rooftop Solar Program, Milwaukee has promised to reduce the cost of photovoltaic panels, including the permitting process, financing, net metering and interconnection processes and zoning.

To achieve these ends, Milwaukee introduced the solar purchase program, Solar Power Pack (SPP). The goals of the SPP are to

1) Educate customers

2) Create a lower cost for customers

3) Create more jobs and sales leads for local solar industry

4) Create more business for local industry

Read more after the jump for a full summary of the webinar and additional contact information for further follow up!

Water Food Energy Nexus

how water, food and energy are interconnected in a 4 minute video. 

why we should care about food security

as I'm sure you've noticed, the focus of this blog thus far has primarily been energy. the goal is to share developments in renewable energy markets, policy and research both domestic as well as abroad. but if you take a step back, you can see that the underlying interest in renewable energy is really based in an inherent desire to thrive as a humanity in a sustainable fashion. we see a major solution to that end goal- as renewable energy.

but i'd like to venture away from energy for a second and talk about food security. surprisingly enough, however, i'm not venturing very far. folks focused on the various issues like energy, water conservation, food security, etc are consistently seeing connections in each others work. and as we keep learning it is becoming clear that only by approaching all of these issues can we find sustainable solutions to any one of them.

Rufo Quintavalle writes about this trajectory for food security in his article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review titled, Food Security 3.0: The environment is the fifth pillar of international food security.

Quintavalle explains that originally food security was thought of simply as "we must produce more food." He calls this Food Security 1.0. Recently, however, the international community acknowledged that food security was actually a more complex issue. They decided that there are actually four pillars to food security, and Quintavalle calls this Food Security 2.0:  1. availability: food must be available 2. accessibility: people must be able to access the available food 3. utilization: people must be able to utilize the food through adequate infrastructure for cooking, cleaning and preparing 4. stability: these things must be true at all times- even through times of crises.

And now a new element is starting to be understood by those focused on food security, a development Quintavalle calls Food Security 3.0. Food security depends on environmental preservation. As land becomes eroded with chemicals and farming, and water becomes scarce- overproduction is threatening the environment. and as much as underproduction threatens humanity, so will a depletion of resources. and thus a new movement to incorporate environmental consideration in food security measures is borne.

as policy makers, voters and global citizens, we can no longer ignore the interconnectedness of our environment, our energy needs and our food security. which means, as someone interested in energy access and environmental stewardship, i just might wander into food security issues a couple more times in the near future. hope you'll follow!

Sustainable Energy for All

(via UN Foundation's Sustainable Energy for All initiative)

Prison Cells Host Solar Cells

"The Rock" is famous for being inescapable. But now it has a new claim to fame. It's the newest success of the National Park Services and US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory joint effort to bring clean energy to national parks and landmarks. Alcatraz Prison has gone green.

For the past 75 years the prison has been powered by diesel fuel ferried across the bay. But this year, Alcatraz installed 1,300 solar panels to power the tourist attraction. The roof of the main Cellhouse building is now home to a 307 kW photovoltaic array and two 2,000 amp hour battery strings and an inverter plant. The system will produce close to 400,000 kW a year and will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 337,000 kilograms a year. And as if that wasn't enough, the pv project only costs about 71 cents a kW hour- including the captial costs of buying and installing the solar panels.

Read more about the installation and the process in any of the articles listed after the jump.

New Jersey passes encouraging legislation

Governor Christie signed Assembly bill A2966 into law this week to diversify New Jersey's energy supply and encourage the solar industry's role in energy production. Renewable energy advocates hope that more states will adopt more aggressive legislation like this to address oversupplies of solar renewable energy credits, stabilize solar markets and incentivize the infant renewable energy industry. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), this particular legislation will address:

1. Accelerate the Solar RPS requirement
2. Reduce the solar alternative compliance payment
3. Defines program eligibility for grid-connected projects
4. Establishes SREC program eligibility for grid-connected projects
5.  Promotes development of projects located on brownfields and landfills
6. Authorizes aggregated net metering for certain public entities
7. Extends the shelf life of SREC's

Read more about this legislation and the issues it will specifically address in this article on the SEIA's website.

International Collaboration

Jon Woodhead over at the Guardian wrote a nice piece this week about successful collaborations of Governments, NGOs and leading companies teaming up together to promote sustainable energy. Woodhead points out the massive commitments the international community has made towards providing access to modern affordable energy. As he say as he says “providing universal energy access by 2030 is estimated to increase global energy demand by 179m tonnes of oil equivalent with 54% of this increase based on fossil fuels.”

But what if that new demand was met with renewable energy? Woodhead points to the UK based organization SolarAid which is using solar light to reach unelectrified communities. Read Woodhead’s whole article, Joining forces to achieve sustainable energy for all, to learn more about the global goal of providing modern affordable energy to everyone and the cutting edge collaborations that are working towards fulfilling that heroic commitment.