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 carrick. Show all posts
Showing posts with label carrick. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Monday, July 5, 2010
ORN#9 Hydropower at Hoover Dam
Hi friends,
Our latest video, ORN#9 Hydropower at Hoover Dam, is now online and ready for your viewing pleasure. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NvyAlSeZFc
We visited Hoover Dam in Boulder City, Nevada (pronounced Nev-aaaa-da) to get an up-close example of big hydroelectric power. Hoover Dam is one of the largest hydropower dams in the U.S. and a national landmark…plus it was on the way.
I didn’t want to just show up with a video camera and try to interview someone there, so I called ahead to set up something official. The contact I spoke with told me about the filming fee for Hoover Dam, which was…significant to say the least. That wasn’t going to work. Fortunately, I contacted several different people and got a reply from someone else there who gave us the in, and we interviewed one of the tour guides for Hoover Dam which worked out great! We got to tag along on the tour and film inside the dam, which is a rare treat.
Hydroelectric dams produce most of the renewable electricity in the U.S., and Energy Secretary Steven Chu said that we could easily double the hydropower in this country by replacing older inefficient turbines and adding new capacity to existing dams. In fact, only 3% of the country’s 80,000 dams produce electricity – most are used for irrigation, flood control, and water treatment.
Hoover Dam produces 2,080 megawatts of electricity every year – that’s an incredible amount of power. That’s three times more power than the world’s largest wind farm we visited in Roscoe, Texas, and it’s a constant base-load source of electricity. It’s enough to supply 1.3 million homes with power!
There are very real environmental impacts for hydroelectric dams. Dams can greatly affect the ecology of a river system. Some dams build up lakes as storage behind the dams and others are run-of-river dams that let the water flow through. While flooding areas to become lakes behind the dams dramatically changes the ecosystem, some people argue that harnessing and controlling the river flow offsets the damage that comes from seasonal flooding. Of course, that’s a natural cycle too. There are lively debates on the environmental impacts of hydroelectric dams.
I included an internet-only video extra that is just for a bit of fun, ORN Extra: Bodies in Hoover Dam. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4teeOCLqxs)
While on the tour, the guide addressed the old rumor that there are bodies buried in Hoover Dam. There were, in fact, 96 men who died on-site during the construction of the dam between 1931 and 1936, but beyond that I’ll let the video give you the answer. This video extra is not going to be included in the DVD to distribute to schools – it’s a bit dark and off-topic for that. I included it online because it’s an interesting snippet about the dam, and it may be the kind of short video that gets passed around and generates a lot of hits - we’ll see.
Be well,
Colin
Our latest video, ORN#9 Hydropower at Hoover Dam, is now online and ready for your viewing pleasure. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NvyAlSeZFc
We visited Hoover Dam in Boulder City, Nevada (pronounced Nev-aaaa-da) to get an up-close example of big hydroelectric power. Hoover Dam is one of the largest hydropower dams in the U.S. and a national landmark…plus it was on the way.
I didn’t want to just show up with a video camera and try to interview someone there, so I called ahead to set up something official. The contact I spoke with told me about the filming fee for Hoover Dam, which was…significant to say the least. That wasn’t going to work. Fortunately, I contacted several different people and got a reply from someone else there who gave us the in, and we interviewed one of the tour guides for Hoover Dam which worked out great! We got to tag along on the tour and film inside the dam, which is a rare treat.
Hydroelectric dams produce most of the renewable electricity in the U.S., and Energy Secretary Steven Chu said that we could easily double the hydropower in this country by replacing older inefficient turbines and adding new capacity to existing dams. In fact, only 3% of the country’s 80,000 dams produce electricity – most are used for irrigation, flood control, and water treatment.
Hoover Dam produces 2,080 megawatts of electricity every year – that’s an incredible amount of power. That’s three times more power than the world’s largest wind farm we visited in Roscoe, Texas, and it’s a constant base-load source of electricity. It’s enough to supply 1.3 million homes with power!
There are very real environmental impacts for hydroelectric dams. Dams can greatly affect the ecology of a river system. Some dams build up lakes as storage behind the dams and others are run-of-river dams that let the water flow through. While flooding areas to become lakes behind the dams dramatically changes the ecosystem, some people argue that harnessing and controlling the river flow offsets the damage that comes from seasonal flooding. Of course, that’s a natural cycle too. There are lively debates on the environmental impacts of hydroelectric dams.
I included an internet-only video extra that is just for a bit of fun, ORN Extra: Bodies in Hoover Dam. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4teeOCLqxs)
While on the tour, the guide addressed the old rumor that there are bodies buried in Hoover Dam. There were, in fact, 96 men who died on-site during the construction of the dam between 1931 and 1936, but beyond that I’ll let the video give you the answer. This video extra is not going to be included in the DVD to distribute to schools – it’s a bit dark and off-topic for that. I included it online because it’s an interesting snippet about the dam, and it may be the kind of short video that gets passed around and generates a lot of hits - we’ll see.
Be well,
Colin
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
A Final Ask Before We Go
Hi friends,
Next Monday morning we head out on our cross-country journey, with a full video itinerary that you saw in yesterday's message.
Many of you have been so generous to support our eco-video project with a donation, and we are truly grateful for that! When we began planning this project last June I was expecting our funding to come largely from companies sponsoring us, those many 'green' companies that support eco-actions. When the economy took a turn for the worse last fall the money companies spent on supporting eco-projects disappeared. Fortunately for us several companies/groups have supported us regardless, including Verenium and Sudbury Earth Decade. So Carrick and I have hit the road over the last 9 months giving presentations about our upcoming project and handing out fliers at fairs and conferences. We collected names and emails from hundreds of people who want to follow our cross-country video adventure.
If you haven't done so already, I'm asking you now to please consider donating to support our cross-country eco-video project. It is only with the support of people like you that we will be successful! Since we began planning for this last June we have been so fortunate to receive much great promotion in the media - locally, regionally, and nationally. With days left before we leave we have a huge momentum of publicity and supporters for what we're trying to accomplish.
I hate asking for money. I'm no salesperson. No doubt you are feeling the effects of the economy like everyone else. All I can say is that this is the most important action I have taken on in my lifetime, we are in the position to make a tremendous impact in a way that nobody has done before, and we need your support to be successful. I'm not asking for you to give us money to go on a 2-month vacation. Yesterday's list of destinations makes that very clear - we will be working hard for 2 months to create our eco-video series! What I didn't mention in that destination list are all the presentations we are giving along the way in addition to the video work. At some point we'll need to get some sleep :)
So here is where we stand, financially. With the generous support of many family and friends, we have raised at this point $9,000. I was originally shooting for $20,000 as a fundraising goal. Our absolute bare minimum that we need for the two months is $14,000. We'll raise part of that through donations at presentations on the road, but I know we will still come up short. I have to stress that we are not profiting from this eco-video project, that we are distributing our videos free to schools and of course all available online free as well. The people and ideas, renewable energy and sustainable living, are too important not to get out into the mainstream in as big a way as possible.
If you are willing to make a donation to support our project, you can do so in two ways. First, if you go to our website, www.OurRenewableNation.org, you can make a donation online through PayPal. It's easy and safe to do. If you would feel more comfortable sending a check by mail instead, please make out the check to my name at:
Colin McCullough
66 Buttonwood Avenue
Sutton, MA 01590
My in-laws live closeby and will be taking care of the mail for us, so if you send a check and we've left on our journey already then they'll be able to deposit the check in the bank for us.
Believe me, I've been really worried all along that the financial part of this project would keep us from moving forward. Jen and I talked about a number of different possibilities, like doing half the trip one year, then the other half the next, etc. In the end we decided that what we're doing is too timely to delay - this kind of thing needs to happen sooner rather than later. So we are going on faith that it will all work out. Faith and the support of many, many generous people. Any donation, big or small, will help us.
Many thanks to you for your continued support,
Colin, Jen, Carrick, and Gareth McCullough
www.OurRenewableNation.org
Next Monday morning we head out on our cross-country journey, with a full video itinerary that you saw in yesterday's message.
Many of you have been so generous to support our eco-video project with a donation, and we are truly grateful for that! When we began planning this project last June I was expecting our funding to come largely from companies sponsoring us, those many 'green' companies that support eco-actions. When the economy took a turn for the worse last fall the money companies spent on supporting eco-projects disappeared. Fortunately for us several companies/groups have supported us regardless, including Verenium and Sudbury Earth Decade. So Carrick and I have hit the road over the last 9 months giving presentations about our upcoming project and handing out fliers at fairs and conferences. We collected names and emails from hundreds of people who want to follow our cross-country video adventure.
If you haven't done so already, I'm asking you now to please consider donating to support our cross-country eco-video project. It is only with the support of people like you that we will be successful! Since we began planning for this last June we have been so fortunate to receive much great promotion in the media - locally, regionally, and nationally. With days left before we leave we have a huge momentum of publicity and supporters for what we're trying to accomplish.
I hate asking for money. I'm no salesperson. No doubt you are feeling the effects of the economy like everyone else. All I can say is that this is the most important action I have taken on in my lifetime, we are in the position to make a tremendous impact in a way that nobody has done before, and we need your support to be successful. I'm not asking for you to give us money to go on a 2-month vacation. Yesterday's list of destinations makes that very clear - we will be working hard for 2 months to create our eco-video series! What I didn't mention in that destination list are all the presentations we are giving along the way in addition to the video work. At some point we'll need to get some sleep :)
So here is where we stand, financially. With the generous support of many family and friends, we have raised at this point $9,000. I was originally shooting for $20,000 as a fundraising goal. Our absolute bare minimum that we need for the two months is $14,000. We'll raise part of that through donations at presentations on the road, but I know we will still come up short. I have to stress that we are not profiting from this eco-video project, that we are distributing our videos free to schools and of course all available online free as well. The people and ideas, renewable energy and sustainable living, are too important not to get out into the mainstream in as big a way as possible.
If you are willing to make a donation to support our project, you can do so in two ways. First, if you go to our website, www.OurRenewableNation.org, you can make a donation online through PayPal. It's easy and safe to do. If you would feel more comfortable sending a check by mail instead, please make out the check to my name at:
Colin McCullough
66 Buttonwood Avenue
Sutton, MA 01590
My in-laws live closeby and will be taking care of the mail for us, so if you send a check and we've left on our journey already then they'll be able to deposit the check in the bank for us.
Believe me, I've been really worried all along that the financial part of this project would keep us from moving forward. Jen and I talked about a number of different possibilities, like doing half the trip one year, then the other half the next, etc. In the end we decided that what we're doing is too timely to delay - this kind of thing needs to happen sooner rather than later. So we are going on faith that it will all work out. Faith and the support of many, many generous people. Any donation, big or small, will help us.
Many thanks to you for your continued support,
Colin, Jen, Carrick, and Gareth McCullough
www.OurRenewableNation.org
Friday, April 24, 2009
Post Bonnie Hunt, Earth Day
Hi friends,
What a week! I'm going to have to do 2 separate posts here because there is so much to cover and it keeps going! 9 days left until we depart for our cross-country eco-video project and it's moving very fast now.
Carrick and I flew out to Los Angeles on Monday morning from Boston for the Bonnie Hunt Show, which taped on Tuesday afternoon. We got in at 6:00pm Monday night, sunny and beautiful at 90 degrees of course. We stayed closeby the studio where the show taped and went over for the taping at 2:00pm, and Carrick's segment was about halfway through the show. Several friends recorded it and I am working on getting a copy to upload to YouTube so everyone can see it. We haven't seen it ourselves, actually! Here is a pic from the segment:
Carrick did a great interview with Bonnie and had a wonderful time! She gave him a digital video camera and invited him to send in some video from our cross-country journey, so we'll make sure to do that! We flew out soon after the show was over, taking off at 6:00pm, because we had Earth Day events back home we didn't want to miss!
So, we landed in Boston on Wednesday morning at 5:00am, then drove to Southboro for a quick nap and then did a presentation at Fay School for 400 kids at 8:00am. From there we drove over to UMass Medical School for their Earth Day Fair, giving a presentation at lunchtime and handing out fliers for the afternoon. We were so very fortunate to have two great media stories done! Worcester News Tonight did an interview with Carrick and me, which broadcast on Channel 3 then was rebroadcast on New England Cable News that night, all over New England! Here is the link for the video, and I'll try to embed it here as well:
http://www.necn.com/Boston/New-England/2009/04/22/Father-son-to-cross-country/1240442649.html
The Worcester Telegram and Gazette also did an interview with us:
http://www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090423/NEWS/904230630/
We left the fair in the mid-afternoon and came back home, 3 days gone and needing sleep! Speaking of sleep, it's almost that time...
Be well,
Colin
www.OurRenewableNation.org
What a week! I'm going to have to do 2 separate posts here because there is so much to cover and it keeps going! 9 days left until we depart for our cross-country eco-video project and it's moving very fast now.
Carrick and I flew out to Los Angeles on Monday morning from Boston for the Bonnie Hunt Show, which taped on Tuesday afternoon. We got in at 6:00pm Monday night, sunny and beautiful at 90 degrees of course. We stayed closeby the studio where the show taped and went over for the taping at 2:00pm, and Carrick's segment was about halfway through the show. Several friends recorded it and I am working on getting a copy to upload to YouTube so everyone can see it. We haven't seen it ourselves, actually! Here is a pic from the segment:
Carrick did a great interview with Bonnie and had a wonderful time! She gave him a digital video camera and invited him to send in some video from our cross-country journey, so we'll make sure to do that! We flew out soon after the show was over, taking off at 6:00pm, because we had Earth Day events back home we didn't want to miss!So, we landed in Boston on Wednesday morning at 5:00am, then drove to Southboro for a quick nap and then did a presentation at Fay School for 400 kids at 8:00am. From there we drove over to UMass Medical School for their Earth Day Fair, giving a presentation at lunchtime and handing out fliers for the afternoon. We were so very fortunate to have two great media stories done! Worcester News Tonight did an interview with Carrick and me, which broadcast on Channel 3 then was rebroadcast on New England Cable News that night, all over New England! Here is the link for the video, and I'll try to embed it here as well:
http://www.necn.com/Boston/
The Worcester Telegram and Gazette also did an interview with us:
http://www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090423/NEWS/904230630/
We left the fair in the mid-afternoon and came back home, 3 days gone and needing sleep! Speaking of sleep, it's almost that time...
Be well,
Colin
www.OurRenewableNation.org
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