If you read our blog regularly, you might have noticed that I’m always ranting about how solar needs to be popularized before it will really sweep the nation. Well, it’s not there yet, but the last couple of weeks have given me a bit of hope. For one thing, last week’s Democratic National Convention in Denver saw solar showcased in a couple of different ways: a temporary solar installation of 18.2kw, cosponsored by three different solar installers (AeonSolar, Evergreen Solar and PV Powered), offset the energy drain of the convention; an indoor display; REC Solar and MySpace teamed up to provide a solar-powered recharging station for conference attendees’ cell phones, iPods, and whatnot; and the Denver Airport, where the convention was hosted, saw the dedication of its brand new permanent 2MW solar array. At this point I will avoid the temptation to make the obvious pun about blue going green…
And speaking of MySpace: competitor Facebook has, as I’m sure you all know, lots of little applications users can play with. Some are actual games, some are more like an exchange of virtual trinkets, some aspire to be something a bit more. A new one, called “Green my Vino“, rewards users for sending 1, 5, or 10 minute chunks of “energy” by actually purchasing RECs based on the number of minutes exchanged. Four of the wineries involved made a commitment to convert to renewable energy–solar being the most logical technology considering their location–if Facebook users managed to donate 10,000 minutes, a goal exceeded by 4 times in the debut month of use. The wineries have publicly stated they will follow through on their promise.
REC Solar is continuing its community solar purchasing plan, in which groups of homeowners receive discounts on solar installations by making a community commitment, in Monterey, CA. Also on the home front is October’s upcoming National Solar Tour, arranged by the American Solar Energy Society (ASES). Concentrating on the first weekend in October, solar homes across the country will be open for tours, homeowners in attendance to answer questions about the process of going solar, and in some cases local solar education centers will be open as well.
And finally, the DOE has announced it will dedicate up to $24 million (“subject to the availability of funds”, so who knows what that means) to speed up solar power integration into the homes and businesses of the US. Considering that one day of the war in Iraq is costing us about $700 million more than that, I for one am not completely overwhelmed at the generosity of the figure. But something is better than nothing, and the DOE has been doing what it can to push solar into American awareness, and kudos to them for that.
So I’ll stop my complaining for the time being. It’s good to see progress is, in fact, being made. Try to get out to the solar tour (I’ll remind you as it draws closer): there’s no better way to learn about solar than to look at the process of installing it first-hand, and to hear what homeowners have to say about the benefits after having lived with it.
Great article about the potential for solar energy. Just wanted to comment on the paragraph regarding the new Facebook application, “Green My Vino”. You are correct that the first winery converted to renewable energy once the 10,000-minute goal was reached. And you are also correct that the three other initial wineries made the same commitment as higher goals were reached.
However, you have underestimated the success of Green My Vino to date. In addition to the initial four wineries, five other California wineries have converted to clean energy through Green My Vino. This has been done with the tremendous support of the application users, who have sent a total of 540,143 minutes of renewable energy in less than one month’s time!
To put this in perspective, this equates to approximately $36,000 being raised for renewable energy generation in California.