Green Business in Washington

President elect Barack Obama has gone public with plans to stimulate the economy by creating 2.5 million new jobs over the upcoming years. The Green Industry such as solar and wind panel production and installation have been named as part of the stimulus plan. The plug in electric hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles are also on the list of new jobs.

This influx of government money if properly used could turbo charge America's eco-friendly businesses. It is not just the stimulus package that may help. There has been a 45% growth in installed solar electric panels and a 43% rise in new energy generated by wind power from 2007-2008 without any stimulus package.

There are concerns among the economists that jobs that are started here in America may be outsourced in the near future to countries with larger renewable industry production capabilites. Fear of the enriching of overseas companies is the primary reason that I belive it is imparitive that we continue to establish ourselves here in America as having top production capablities to compete in an industry that is gaining momentum and is the future of energy production.

Just how far Obama and America are willing to take Green Business is a waiting game. Wasting no time implementing solutions is our generation of business students domestically and abroad who are looking at renewable energy as a necessity to a sustainable future. They are focusing on ways to create interesting jobs where they feel they can make a difference in the competitve energy industry. Giving these future business leaders the opportunity to have industry leading technolgy and a solid job core could prove to be a very profitable investment of our American tax dollars.

The Value and Return of a Solar System

People I speak to about solar-electric systems are always complaining about the high cost. One person complained, "26 years to make your money back." Well breaking even sounds good to me. This is a better return than almost everything else we spend money on. Only financial instruments and real estate may do better and right now most people are losing with those investments. All other purchases we make are a continual loss.

It's strange that the purchase of clean energy systems is often viewed purely as a financial investment when almost none of our other purchases are defined that way. With most of our investments and everyday purchases, we typically decide what we want, need, value, and enjoy.

I wonder why we expect more out of renewable energy systems than we expect out of our cars, furniture, clothing, entertainment, and vacations. None of these things have any financial payback, and yet they are valuable to us. If you asked a car salesman what the payback on a new truck is, they might say, "huh? You want transportation, right?" With renewable energy systems, the corresponding answer is, "You want clean energy, right?"

Any talk about "breaking even" essentially pits solar energy against a system of aggressively subsidized dirty energy. Suppose the governent subsidized poisoned milk, and let dairy farmers dump their manure into streams, fouling the environment while selling the bad milk at $3 per gallon. Your neighbor's whole, organic milk, selling for $7 per gallon, might seem expensive. But once you factor in all the costs and effects on your health, the environment, and your community, your neighbor's milk might seem like a much better deal. The true value of renewable energy cannot be measured by dollars alone.

Solar energy systems are a great buy if designed and installed well. Only when you take the long view and focus on the full importance, will you see the true value of solar investments.

Save money and energy by conserving!

In today’s fast paced throw away materialistic American society the events unfolding due to the recent mortgage crisis are creating economic uncertainty. Some Americans are losing their jobs, taking in less pay, and anyone with investments tied to real estate or the stock market are seeing losses. At the same time gasoline prices are driving the cost of goods up. The average American has a lot of debt also with monthly payments that can be a large percentage of their income. With all of these financial woes present it is time Americans tighten up their budget and conserve to improve their quality of life. In this document I will show how to help out your bottom line by implementing a few easy conservation techniques.

• Set your thermostat comfortably low in the winter and comfortably high in the summer. Install a programmable thermostat that is compatible with your heating and cooling system.
  
• Use compact fluorescent light bulbs.
  
• Air dry dishes instead of using your dishwasher's drying cycle.
  
• Turn off your computer and monitor when not in use.
  
• Plug home electronics, such as TVs and DVD players, into power strips; turn the power strips off when the equipment is not in use (TVs and DVDs in standby mode still use several watts of power).
  
• Lower the thermostat on your hot water heater to 120° F.
  
• Take short showers instead of baths.
  
• Wash only full loads of dishes and clothes.
  
• Drive sensibly. Aggressive driving (speeding, rapid acceleration and braking) wastes gasoline.
  
• Look for the ENERGY STAR® label on home appliances and products. ENERGY STAR® products meet strict efficiency guidelines set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy.

Toyota's new hybrid

West Ashley Toyota salesman Rodney Lewis announced today that Toyota has developed a Lithium Battery that will allow for their hybrid cars to get up to 80 miles per gallon. When the vehicle will become available is not yet known.

Simple Process of Coal Production and its Effects

Coal is a fossil fuel that has been formed over millions of years of heat and compaction of organic material under layers of rock. Miners use a process called mountain top removal to get to the coal. They strip the layers of mountain to get to the underlying coal. They then clean the raw coal through water and chemicals to remove unwanted materials until all that is left is good burning coal. They then load the coal onto a train and send it to a coal-fired energy plant. At the coal-fired energy plant turbines are used to produce energy by burning the coal, making electricity. The turbines are cooled by water so coal plants are usually by a lake or waterway.

The process of mining coal is detremental to the mountains as well as the people and wildlife that live around the mountains. I attended a meeting recently of the Sierra Club Lunz Group where Dave Cooper, a retired engineer who has dedicated his life to research and preservation of the Appalachin Mountains, showed a slideshow of how big coal is affecting the state of West Virginia. The mountains are drastically transformed by the coal group's excavation efforts. There are tremors and landslides due to the process. The wildlife in West Virginia has been adversely affected due to the changes occuring to their habitats. People are also affected. The by-products of cleaning the coal consist of water and chemicals termed "slurry". The slurry is pumped into the large craters in the mountains where the coal was previously removed. From there the slurry has been leaking back into the water table of West Virginia making water unsanitary. This water is causing many people to become sick and people are being diagnosed with cancer at an unusually high rate.

The effects of coal on West Virginia is one reason to use electricity efficiently. More than 80% of our energy here in South Carolina comes from coal and West Virginia supplies some of that coal. Our electricity here in South Carolina is some of the cheapest in the world right now but the environmental and human effects could prove to be a high cost in the future.

Blackbaud Stadium Goes Solar!

http://argandenergy.comBlackbaud Stadium Installs a 10.8kW PV System
Across the Cooper River in Charleston, SC, at the far end of Blackbaud Stadium, Andrew Bell squints at 60 new solar panels Argand crews put up the day before. "We live in a sunny place," says Bell, director of public relations and marketing for the Charleston Battery soccer team. "Why not have the sun beat down on solar panels?" Argand recently installed a 10.8kW, grid-tied photovoltaic (PV) system that includes 60 Evergreen 180W panels. The panels are pole mounted with each array consisting of 12 panels mounted on each pole. The system uses a Solectria 13kW inverter. CO2 reduction from the system is estimated at 7.5 tons.