Hi friends,
Here’s our latest video entry, ORN#11 Big Solar @ Google: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LI_7WlPFNw
In this video, Carrick gets a special tour at Google headquarters of their solar installation. At the time it was built a few years ago, it was the largest solar panel installation in the country by a company. Other companies have since built even larger solar installations, but the point of this video is to show an example of a company that went solar as a business investment, so it makes sense for homes AND for big businesses.
This visit was a hard one to set up – Google probably gets more media requests than they can handle. I read an interview with our tour guide in the video, Anthony, and I was persistent in getting through until I could talk with Anthony directly and he was happy to show us around. They’ve covered pretty much every available rooftop space with solar panels – over 9,000 panels altogether. They even covered the parking lots with solar carports, which charge plug-in electric cars for employees to use.
One of the local private schools in Worcester just added a big solar panel installation on their rooftop; I drove by the other day to have a look and I couldn’t see it. It’s installed on a flat roof so it’s not visible from the road. How many huge buildings with unused, open flat roofs are in your area? All those big-box retail stores are a good example. Even for people who think solar panels on home rooftops look strange, we could cover so many large buildings with flat, open roofs and you’d never even see it. That’s one thing we could do to incorporate renewables, one of many.
Be well,
Colin & Carrick
Showing posts with label renewable. Show all posts
Showing posts with label renewable. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Special Announcement and Our Newest Video
Hi friends,
We just finished and uploaded our latest eco-video, but first I have a big announcement and a request for a little help!
I have set up our eco-video series, Our Renewable Nation, as a video podcast on ITunes. ITunes is the premier online music store and directory for podcasts, so being listed as a podcast there is a BIG DEAL and exposes our videos to a much wider audience, potentially. On ITunes, people can subscribe to our videos to play on their IPods, IPhones, or on their computers, updated as soon as each video is online. There are very few environmental video podcasts listed on ITunes, so we don’t have much competition.
ITunes can give a podcast a lot of publicity by listing it as a featured podcast, but in order for them to notice it the podcast needs to have a lot of good ratings and reviews. If you use ITunes, could you help give us a boost? Do a search in the ITunes store for Our Renewable Nation, and our podcast will come up. A quick rating and/or some comments about the videos would be a big help! If you don’t already use ITunes, you can download it free from www.Apple.com – I very highly recommend browsing through the available podcasts, all free and an endless source of brain food. Really, my IPod was one of the best purchases I ever made; I listen to podcasts for hours every day and learn so much.
OK, now our newest video, ORN#4 Solar Decathlon 2009. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPVyrGeSMLM) We visited the Solar Decathlon in October down in Washington DC; it’s a competition of homes from universities all over the world that are completely powered by the sun. The homes are assembled on the National Mall for 2 weeks and are open to the public to show just what’s possible. When built specifically with renewable energy and energy efficiency in the design, there are amazing possibilities for zero energy homes. For example:
-Team Germany’s house is almost completely covered in solar panels, both traditional PV and new thin-film panels on the siding of the house, which generates several times more electricity than the house uses (selling the rest back to the electric company!).
-The University of Illinois house is so energy efficient that it could be heated with a single hair dryer.
-Team Spain’s house features the first-of-it’s-kind tracking solar roof that follows the sun throughout the day.
-Team California’s house has computerized lighting, heating, and cooling controls that can all be changed on-the-go using an IPhone.
As you’ll see in the video, these are very high-tech houses featuring solar technology for electricity and heating, super-insulation, passive solar heating with south-facing windows, etc. The Solar Decathlon houses stand in strong contrast to the very low-tech zero-energy homes we visited in Taos, New Mexico, called Earthships. Very different approaches to building! Stay tuned for our upcoming video about Earthships!
There were 20 houses at the Solar Decathlon and we filmed each one, but in this video we covered 5 of the most interesting and high-scoring houses. I want to put together a few more videos that cover the other houses but that would take weeks, and I want to move on to the other exciting videos that are next in line. Maybe once the video series is finished I’ll return to these remaining Solar Decathlon houses and make some ORN web extras. In the meantime, you can visit the Decathlon website, www.SolarDecathlon.org, which has plenty of information about all 20 houses, plus lots of pictures and videos of the competition.
In the 2009 Solar Decathlon, there was a focus on how much it would cost to build these houses. For example, Team Germany’s house cost roughly $750,000 to build (it features some very cutting-edge technologies). Some things to consider about the costs though:
1. 1. You’d never have an electric bill or heating bill again.
2. 2. You could get paid for the excess electricity you produce.
3. 3. State and federal credits can make solar technology much more affordable.
4. 4. These are prototype homes; if they were mass-produced the cost would be much lower.
We hope you enjoy our latest video! As always, feel free to leave comments on YouTube and rate the videos.
Thank you everyone for your support!
Be well,
Colin & Carrick--
Our Renewable Nation, A Cross-Country Eco-Video Adventure
www.OurRenewableNation.org
We just finished and uploaded our latest eco-video, but first I have a big announcement and a request for a little help!
I have set up our eco-video series, Our Renewable Nation, as a video podcast on ITunes. ITunes is the premier online music store and directory for podcasts, so being listed as a podcast there is a BIG DEAL and exposes our videos to a much wider audience, potentially. On ITunes, people can subscribe to our videos to play on their IPods, IPhones, or on their computers, updated as soon as each video is online. There are very few environmental video podcasts listed on ITunes, so we don’t have much competition.
ITunes can give a podcast a lot of publicity by listing it as a featured podcast, but in order for them to notice it the podcast needs to have a lot of good ratings and reviews. If you use ITunes, could you help give us a boost? Do a search in the ITunes store for Our Renewable Nation, and our podcast will come up. A quick rating and/or some comments about the videos would be a big help! If you don’t already use ITunes, you can download it free from www.Apple.com – I very highly recommend browsing through the available podcasts, all free and an endless source of brain food. Really, my IPod was one of the best purchases I ever made; I listen to podcasts for hours every day and learn so much.
OK, now our newest video, ORN#4 Solar Decathlon 2009. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPVyrGeSMLM) We visited the Solar Decathlon in October down in Washington DC; it’s a competition of homes from universities all over the world that are completely powered by the sun. The homes are assembled on the National Mall for 2 weeks and are open to the public to show just what’s possible. When built specifically with renewable energy and energy efficiency in the design, there are amazing possibilities for zero energy homes. For example:
-Team Germany’s house is almost completely covered in solar panels, both traditional PV and new thin-film panels on the siding of the house, which generates several times more electricity than the house uses (selling the rest back to the electric company!).
-The University of Illinois house is so energy efficient that it could be heated with a single hair dryer.
-Team Spain’s house features the first-of-it’s-kind tracking solar roof that follows the sun throughout the day.
-Team California’s house has computerized lighting, heating, and cooling controls that can all be changed on-the-go using an IPhone.
As you’ll see in the video, these are very high-tech houses featuring solar technology for electricity and heating, super-insulation, passive solar heating with south-facing windows, etc. The Solar Decathlon houses stand in strong contrast to the very low-tech zero-energy homes we visited in Taos, New Mexico, called Earthships. Very different approaches to building! Stay tuned for our upcoming video about Earthships!
There were 20 houses at the Solar Decathlon and we filmed each one, but in this video we covered 5 of the most interesting and high-scoring houses. I want to put together a few more videos that cover the other houses but that would take weeks, and I want to move on to the other exciting videos that are next in line. Maybe once the video series is finished I’ll return to these remaining Solar Decathlon houses and make some ORN web extras. In the meantime, you can visit the Decathlon website, www.SolarDecathlon.org, which has plenty of information about all 20 houses, plus lots of pictures and videos of the competition.
In the 2009 Solar Decathlon, there was a focus on how much it would cost to build these houses. For example, Team Germany’s house cost roughly $750,000 to build (it features some very cutting-edge technologies). Some things to consider about the costs though:
1. 1. You’d never have an electric bill or heating bill again.
2. 2. You could get paid for the excess electricity you produce.
3. 3. State and federal credits can make solar technology much more affordable.
4. 4. These are prototype homes; if they were mass-produced the cost would be much lower.
We hope you enjoy our latest video! As always, feel free to leave comments on YouTube and rate the videos.
Thank you everyone for your support!
Be well,
Colin & Carrick--
Our Renewable Nation, A Cross-Country Eco-Video Adventure
www.OurRenewableNation.org
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
The Future of Our Renewable Nation
It's worth taking a look ahead to our future plans once we're finished our cross-country journey and have finished our video. Here are some thoughts about the possibilities:
1. Once the video is finished, then the marketing and distribution really begins! Right now we can show some examples and talk about our plans, but the game changes when we can show the finished product.
2. We'll continue to give presentations in schools and to groups, focusing on our cross-country video project. Speaking fees and further donations will go towards DVD duplication and distribution.
3. We'll be developing an in-depth resource for actions kids can take to make their communities more sustainable. Most resources on the web focus on adults, missing a critical segment of the population - the most important for our future! We'll develop the site and actively collaborate with the other adult-focused resources online.
4. Writing a Book - Developing a resource guide on the web for kids focused on renewables and sustainability will give us the opportunity to go more in-depth, writing a book for kids. We can get more into the success stories of kids making sustainable changes in their communities.
5. 'Do-Gooder' is the project I was working out when I had the idea for Our Renewable Nation, and I'd like to get back to it and make it happen. The idea is for a monthly potluck community group that makes no-interest loans to people in the community to help people afford energy efficiency improvements in their homes and renewable energy for their homes. It's all about investing in communities to be more sustainable.
So that's a glimpse of the future possibilities - who knows what will happen! There will be many doors that open up once the video is completed, I'm certain. We have several big events coming up in the next week, so I'll report on those next week!
Be well,
Colin
1. Once the video is finished, then the marketing and distribution really begins! Right now we can show some examples and talk about our plans, but the game changes when we can show the finished product.
2. We'll continue to give presentations in schools and to groups, focusing on our cross-country video project. Speaking fees and further donations will go towards DVD duplication and distribution.
3. We'll be developing an in-depth resource for actions kids can take to make their communities more sustainable. Most resources on the web focus on adults, missing a critical segment of the population - the most important for our future! We'll develop the site and actively collaborate with the other adult-focused resources online.
4. Writing a Book - Developing a resource guide on the web for kids focused on renewables and sustainability will give us the opportunity to go more in-depth, writing a book for kids. We can get more into the success stories of kids making sustainable changes in their communities.
5. 'Do-Gooder' is the project I was working out when I had the idea for Our Renewable Nation, and I'd like to get back to it and make it happen. The idea is for a monthly potluck community group that makes no-interest loans to people in the community to help people afford energy efficiency improvements in their homes and renewable energy for their homes. It's all about investing in communities to be more sustainable.
So that's a glimpse of the future possibilities - who knows what will happen! There will be many doors that open up once the video is completed, I'm certain. We have several big events coming up in the next week, so I'll report on those next week!
Be well,
Colin
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Kid Power - the Ultimate Renewable Energy!
If I had to bet on any form of renewable energy, it would be kid power.
We've all heard people say about kids "Gee, I wish I could bottle some of that energy for myself." If kids learned to harness their energy to create meaningful change, imagine what kinds of real, significant changes they could make in their own communities!
It's no secret that kids are one of the 3 pillars of advertising - people are interested in hearing stories of kids who are doing extraordinary things. We love to root for the little guy, the underdog. Seeing kids successes inspires us, perhaps in part because we adults feel that "hey, if a kid can do it..." That's just the thing though - kids enjoy some unique benefits:
1. They get less criticism - Really, who wants to publicly be seen criticizing a child who is trying to make a difference? The saying "using kid gloves" comes to mind.
2. They're better at getting what they ask for - Similarly, who wants to be seen publicly refusing to help a child who is trying to make a difference? Girl Scout cookies would never so successful if they weren't sold door-to-door by little girls.
3. Kids have the art of surprise - Kids are generally seen as being somewhat lazy, so adults never expect kids to do amazing things. Word spreads quickly when they do - parents tell their kids in an attempt to use some competitiveness to motivate them.
For the most part, kids are unaware that they have this ability to get people's attention and create meaningful change. It's not a message that is generally heard in school. The stories about kids we see in the media are usually examples of extremes: exceptional athletes, musicians, artists, actors and actresses. These often reinforce the idea that unless you have extraordinary talent, you're incapable of accomplishing extraordinary things.
That's it for now, check out Kid Power, the Ultimate Renewable Energy Part II next week.
Be well,
Colin
We've all heard people say about kids "Gee, I wish I could bottle some of that energy for myself." If kids learned to harness their energy to create meaningful change, imagine what kinds of real, significant changes they could make in their own communities!
It's no secret that kids are one of the 3 pillars of advertising - people are interested in hearing stories of kids who are doing extraordinary things. We love to root for the little guy, the underdog. Seeing kids successes inspires us, perhaps in part because we adults feel that "hey, if a kid can do it..." That's just the thing though - kids enjoy some unique benefits:
1. They get less criticism - Really, who wants to publicly be seen criticizing a child who is trying to make a difference? The saying "using kid gloves" comes to mind.
2. They're better at getting what they ask for - Similarly, who wants to be seen publicly refusing to help a child who is trying to make a difference? Girl Scout cookies would never so successful if they weren't sold door-to-door by little girls.
3. Kids have the art of surprise - Kids are generally seen as being somewhat lazy, so adults never expect kids to do amazing things. Word spreads quickly when they do - parents tell their kids in an attempt to use some competitiveness to motivate them.
For the most part, kids are unaware that they have this ability to get people's attention and create meaningful change. It's not a message that is generally heard in school. The stories about kids we see in the media are usually examples of extremes: exceptional athletes, musicians, artists, actors and actresses. These often reinforce the idea that unless you have extraordinary talent, you're incapable of accomplishing extraordinary things.
That's it for now, check out Kid Power, the Ultimate Renewable Energy Part II next week.
Be well,
Colin
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