456% Renewable!

Last week, I talked about the three issues our video project revolves around: renewable energy, sustainability, and individuals making a difference. I want to dive a little further into the renewable energy focus here.

One of the questions we'll be asking in our video project is: what is the potential for each renewable energy technology we visit around the country? If we as a nation really drove to make it happen, Apollo-style, what percentage of the country's electricity could each renewable energy technology provide? Many Americans don't believe it's possible to have 100% renewable energy. After all, the wind doesn't always blow and the sun doesn't always shine, right?

I'm fascinated by renewable energy technologies, and if I had to be a dork about something it would be that. I read enough to know that, if we wanted to, we could supply 100% of our nation's power from commercial land-based and offshore wind. Of course, that comes with a lot of "if's", like a whole lot of wind turbines in a whole lot of places, upgraded transmission lines, unprecedented capital investment, political support, etc., but fundamentally it is possible if we wanted it to happen. And that's just commercial wind. Solar thermal technologies like those at Nevada Solar One (it's on the list of destinations) could produce 100% of our electricity, IF we wanted it to. So I took each renewable energy technology that we are visiting on our travel project and contacted the industry advocate organizations, like AWEA - American Wind Energy Association, etc., and asked them what the potential of their technologies were. Here's what I found:
Solar photovoltaic - 100%
Solar thermal - 100%
Tidal power - 3.5%
Wave power - 6.5%
Land-based and offshore commercial wind - 100%
Residential, backyard turbines - 20%
Geothermal electricity - 100%
Biogas from waste sources - 10%
Hydroelectric - 16%

Added up, we're able to produce 456%, or four and a half times the amount of electricity we need in the U.S. with renewable sources. And yet, the politicians and pundits continue to insist that we will continue to rely on coal, nuclear, oil, and gas to provide electricity no matter how much we invest in renewable energy. WHY? We need to be asking them why! Our country has an amazing abundance of natural resources for renewable energy. We'll show each technology in action and explain how they work. We want people to see what's real and available, then when they hear people insisting it can't be done, to question those assertions! Who and why do people insist it can't be done?

We put this message into video for the Climate Matters video contest on Vimeo.com:

456% Renewable! from Colin McCullough on Vimeo.
The more views our video gets, the better chance it has to win! Please visit http://www.vimeo.com/climatematters to see our two videos in the contest, '456% Renewable!' and 'An Inconvenient Youth'.

Be well,
Colin

Focusing on Mission and Vision

First, great news! I got the email congrats today for coming in 2nd place in the US PIRG video contest on sustainable transportation in the future! Our prize is $250, which we'll put right into the travel project account. We are currently finalists in the Earthkeepers/Timberland video contest, and we'll be entering the Climate Matters video contest very soon as well.

Carrick and I were interviewed on the EVCast podcast on Monday, talking about our green videos and our travel project. The EVCast is a daily podcast focusing on electric vehicles, which we've talked about in some of our videos. Our travel project will include video profiles of several electric vehicle companies, including Aptera, Tesla Motors, GM (Chevy Volt), Zenn Motors, and Poulsen Hybrid. You can hear our interview at www.EVCast.com, and we're in Episode #58.


From the very beginning of creating our cross-country eco-video adventure, our mission has been to inspire and empower kids to create a renewable and sustainable future. I've been focusing more on our vision lately, which is more of the 'how', and speaks more specifically about what we're trying to accomplish. I've broken our vision for the project down to 3 parts:

1. Focus on renewable energy: We'll be visiting examples of different types of renewable energy in the U.S., including wind, solar, hydroelectric, wave power, tidal power, geothermal, and biogas. By showing examples of existing and proven renewable technologies, we want to show people how abundant our natural resources are in this country, and how very possible it is to achieve 100% renewable energy.

2. Focus on sustainable design/living: We'll be showing examples of many aspects of sustainability including: zero waste, pollution-free transportation, sustainable design, green cities in the U.S., and sustainable companies and products. For most Americans, sustainable living means sacrifice and compromise - put on that extra sweater and suffer! We'll show that with a whole-systems approach including smart design, manufacturing, transportation, and zero waste, our country can make a tremendous leap forward in sustainability, with an exciting future of possibilities!

3. Individuals making a difference: Our time is not only unique in history because of our access to information, but also our ability as individuals to make our voices heard and create real change. We'll be interviewing inspiring people who used their passion on issue to make a positive difference. Our travel project itself is a testament to that: after almost 2 years of making green videos with our old camcorder, our videos have been seen by over 200,000 people, and our cross-country eco-video project will bring our message of sustainability to a much wider audience.

So now we're focusing on speaking with companies that support our mission and will sponsor our project. I'm also busy lining up speaking events for the fall and winter, where Carrick and I will show some of our videos, talk about our work, and tell people about our upcoming travel project. Plenty of work yet to be done!

Be well,
Colin

Thank Goodness for Libraries

Here's a truth: without the use of public computers at libraries, this project would not be happening. Much of the research and emailing involved is being done in between work appointments, so the public library system of central Massachusetts will have to get a big thanks in our video credits!

More good video contest news! Our video 'Our Renewable Nation' is now one of the finalists in the Timberland/Earthkeepers video contest. There were some great submissions to the contest so all best are off. The grand prize is $5,000, which would go a long way in getting us across the country next May/June.


We picked up a great endorsement for our project from Bill McKibben, eco-author and activist:
"Never doubt that one family with a lot of sweat and inspiration, and a high-speed internet connection, can save the world. These guys are doing it!"

I also added a new feature to our website called 'Your Renewable Nation', where everyone is encouraged to let us know what green things people are doing in their won communities. We'll post the submissions on the 'Your Renewable Nation' Google map so people can see what individuals are doing across the nation to be green.

Be well,
Colin

My Endorsement Wishlist

Now that we're wrapping up the confirmations for places and people to visit, the next step in project planning is to get some endorsements for our project! Having some well-respected and recognized names in the field of sustainability to publicly endorse our eco-video travel project would go far in gaining much-needed publicity and would help in trying to get sponsorships. One thing I've been trying to get across when I've been emailing with people to interview is that this project is very real and we're quite serious. This is no 3rd grade science fair project. It's worth their time and participation.

So while I'm free to dream big, I came up with a Top 10 list of people that I would love to get endorsements from:

1. Paul Hawken, author
2. Bill McKibben, author
3. Fred Krupp/Miriam Horn, authors of Earth, The Sequel
4. Steve Curwood, host of Living On Earth
5. Daryl Hannah, actress and activist
6. Al Gore, hmmm....
7. Ed Begley, host of Living With Ed
8. Bill Nye, arch-nemesis of Ed Begley
9. Orli Cotel, host of Sierra Club Radio
10. Jack Johnson, musician extraordinaire

These people must have many layers of people in between me and them, but it's worth a shot. We've been invited to be interviewed about our travel project on two podcasts coming up, and I haven't even really begun the publicity push yet. Enthusiastic responses and support all around, so why not shoot for the top? Wish us luck...

Be well,
Colin