Tuesday, April 08, 2008
MichiganMall.Com, MITechNews.Com Team Up To Promote Green Companies
ROCHESTER HILLS – MichiganMall.Com has teamed up with MITechNews.Com to offer "Green" builders, developers and businesses a golden opportunity to advertise their products and services to a receptive audience.
MichiganMall.Com has created a “GreenTech” section where Green businesses can advertise at very low rates. The listing includes a logo, phone number and other contact information, as well as links to the company’s web site. MichiganMall.Com will also promote its new GreenTech section to its 40,000 plus unique visitors each month.
What’s more, MITechNews.Com, a Michigan technology news portal site, will promote MichiganMall.Com’s new classified ad section on its new GreenTech section (http://www.mitechnews.com/Articles.asp?sec=104&name=GreenTech) and on its GreenTech podcast channel. MITechNews.Com attracts more than 20,000 visitors each month.
“We’re really excited about this new joint venture with MichiganMall.Com,” said MITechNews.Com Editor and Publisher Mike Brennan. “It seems everyone is looking for ways to help the environment and decrease global warming. There are a lot of Green businesses that can help them do just that and we’ve got a great way to connect both of these audiences.”
A 90-day listing on the new MichiganMall.Com GreenTech section is priced at just $99.95. It can be renewed in 90-day increments for just $89.95. The package includes a 60 pixel square logo, contact information, and links to the company’s web site.
Advertising also is available at the MITechNews.Com GreenTech section and on the web portal site’s GreenTech podcast channel. For advertising information at MITechNews.Com, email Brennan@MITechNews.Com
To advertise on the MichiganMall.Com GreenTech section, email Info@MichiganMall.Com
Author: Mike Brennan
Source: MITechNews.Com
Saturday, April 26, 2008
My Dear IRENA Would You Like To Dance?
Time for an International Renewable Energy Agency?
by Lily Riahi, Contributing Writer
Berlin, Germany [RenewableEnergyWorld.com]
At the invitation of the German Federal Government, representatives from more than 60 countries met in Berlin earlier this month to discuss the founding of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), an intergovernmental organization that will exist to exclusively promote the adoption of renewable energy worldwide.
"Promoting renewables must now become a global and universal priority, and IRENA is a necessary condition for that goal. If we intend to embark on the renewable energy revolution, we cannot do it without IRENA."-- Bianca Jagger, Chair of the World Future Council
Participants expressed a sense of urgency to begin a swift transition to a more secure, sustainable renewable energy economy with the assistance of an international body. A variety of countries have expressed support for IRENA, including Spain, India, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Portugal and South Africa.
During the Berlin meeting on April 10th and 11th, government representatives met to discuss and hone the objectives, activities, finances, and organizational structure of IRENA. A common point of discussion during the workshops was the relationship between IRENA and other existing international bodies that deal with energy issues. Some countries expressed concerns over the duplication of activities or unecessary competition with organizations such as the International Energy Agency.While there were concerns over how IRENA would work alongside other bodies, it was made clear by participants that a strong, independent force for supporting renewables is necessary to realize the full social, economic and political benefits of clean energies. It was generally agreed that most of the existing initiatives lack a focal point. With limited mandates and capacities, current international renewable energy associations, networks and UN bodies cannot fill the institutional gap that IRENA plans to fill, said Bianca Jagger, Chair of the World Future Council.
“Promoting renewables must now become a global and universal priority, and IRENA is a necessary condition for that goal. If we intend to embark on the renewable energy revolution, we cannot do it without IRENA,” said Jagger in a speech.
“IRENA will work toward improved regulatory frameworks for renewable energy through enhanced policy advice, improvements in the transfer of renewable energy technology; progress on skills and know-how for renewable energy; it will be able to offer a scientifically sound information basis through applied policy research; and better financing of renewable energy,” she continued.
Although the International Energy Agency (IEA) established an advisory board on renewables in 1982, the world has yet to see a breakthrough in renewable energy adoption. This proves the need for an exclusive focus on creating the structural changes needed to ensure widespead adoption of renewable energy, said Hermann Scheer, founder of the European Association for Renewable Energies and member of the German parliament.
“The IEA will have to compensate for all of the current energy problems and won’t have time to push for new forms of energy,” said Scheer.
The IEA deals with questions of supply security and the needs of energy markets. This is reflected in its allocation of votes, which are based mainly on the oil consumption of different countries. As a result, it doesn’t cover in great detail the economic, political, and social aspects of renewable energy. In its in-depth country reviews, the IEA analyzes the energy policies of member states without fully recognizing the potential renewable energy, say some critics. The agency's focus remains on primarily on large-scale energy supply and therefore does not offer much needed advice on how to adapt energy markets towards more decentralized energy sources such as renewables. Further, in contrast to IRENA’s proposed global approach and diverse membership, the activities of the IEA are largely limited to countries involved with the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD).
According to conference organizers, IRENA will work alongside the IEA and other international bodies in areas of renewable energy research, similar to the relationship between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the IEA. One of the major reasons for the foundation of the IAEA in the 1950s was the desire to exploit the opportunities offered by what was then a new energy source. The same attention needs to be given to renewables, said Jose Etcheverry, a chair of the World Council on Renewable Energy.
“The world sorely lacks innovative economic, social and political institutional frameworks to provide strong support for renewable energy development worldwide,” said Etcheverry. “Conventional energy sources such as fossil fuels and nuclear power have incredibly powerful lobbyists to ensure that their interests are provided with preferential treatment over the more socially desirable options of renewable energy and efficiency.”
IRENA will address several critical barriers that are preventing the full-scale adoption of renewable energy. It will provide informed policy advice and assistance to national governments that are currently lacking the means and capacity to develop effective regulatory frameworks for renewable energy adoption.To strengthen technology transfer IRENA will combine the various independent projects and optimise synergies between them, focus on knowledge exchange, integrate technical, administrative and financial actions, and create suitable incentives for industry to engage in developing countries. Of course, none of these tasks can be fully accomplished without adequate human capacity. IRENA will provide an inventory of current training activities and provide courses for policy-makers and regulators on how to overcome administrative barriers to renewable energy adoption.
The time to create IRENA is now, said supporters. Indeed, as organizers learn from the decades of experience of other international agencies, they believe they can create of the most innovative, streamlined agenices in the world while helping usher in a new era of clean, sustainable energies.
Lily Riahi is a RenewableEnergyWorld.com Correspondent currently working out of Canada. She is a research intern for the office of Dr. Hermann Scheer and is currently finishing her masters on the socio-cultural barriers to renewable energy adoption.
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Reader Comments (6)
Author:willstedt heikki
Date Posted:April 25, 2008
The world needs a strong and well funded IRENA, a focal point were developing countries can find the assitance needed to leap-frog conventional energy technologies that simply cannot give solutions to the energy deprived billions living in those countries. At the same time it would be a counter-balancing force to the more conservative focus of the IEA and IAEA, which is badly needed if the world is to see future energy scenarios were renewables are more than 20% of the total world energy consumption by 2050. The EU should push for Germany or Spain to host the IRENA in order to keep the momentum for renewables that has been developed in the EU thanks mostly to these two countries.
Comment 1 of 6
Author:Paul Johnson
Date Posted:April 25, 2008
Please, no more ineffective bureaucracies that lack the ability to hold members accountable.
Comment 2 of 6
Author:morty prisament
Date Posted:April 25, 2008
Even if IRENA might start out with limited enforcement capabilities, such an organization would provide a much needed "framework" and "forum" through which information can be shared, issues debated, and policies developed. A comprehensive approach utilizing a central forum will stimulate discussion and actions on one of the most precient and far-reaching issues of our time. Currently, there is a flurry of activity on a multitude of fronts. If such an entity accomplished little more than tracking research, technological developments and trends, provided periodic commentaries on economic, financing, and marketing considerations, and reported on policy developments-all from an international perspective, we would be thereby advancing the transition to renewables.
Comment 3 of 6
Author:william hughes
Date Posted:April 25, 2008
Something a new IREA could tackle immediately is a world wide ban on double metering. Double metering has succeeded in Germany to encourage the massive uptake of Solar Electric which is a very good thing but only because of a totally unrealistic and unsustainable FIT policy. In the long run it exposes the German small generator to income tax on every unit (kwh) they produce and GST (VAT) on every unit they use. Worse still it exposes their power company to the same charges on the same transactions. This will make the power companies much more reluctant to be used as the batteries of the small generators. Single metering with the single metre simply turning backwards when you generate makes you transparent to the tax officials except for your small net buy or sell of power. Even if your present government only looks at the difference between your two metres, what is there to stop a future government from utilizing this 'tax oportunity'. Nothing. If governments are truly serious about weaning their economies off fossil fuels, they will legislate for single metering.
Comment 4 of 6
Author:derek louden
Date Posted:April 26, 2008
Scotland offers a possible future HQ for a world renewables centre. With a core of established energy professionals in nearly all sectors of renewables technologies Scotland is at the cutting edge of offshore wind, wave and tidal current research. Our long history in hydro power is now joined by biomass schemes and crop research. We have many educational institutions who are participating in top-grade research and in Aberdeen have the European oil capital with a world-class centre of engineering innovation and potential finance for new projects.Scotland also plays host to innovative market solutions such as community scale developments which provide potential models for global renewables. Communities such as Gigha offer an economic model capable of global implementation and offering small communities real empowerment. Communities such as Findhorn & their Unitar centre offer a world-leading example of low impact living for a low carbon age.At a macro and a micro level, Scotland offers the best choice to host any new IRENA HQ.
Comment 5 of 6
Author:Jim Bates
Date Posted:April 26, 2008
The most effective place for the headquarters at this time for IRENA is in the frontiers of development and that is where it should always be. That is to say the basis for renewable energy discovery and usage is Life's longing for itself. Our struggle is to comprehend how to do this dance with the natural energies all around us. In order to work with these natural energies we must release people minds from the prisons that have been created by attempting to live by an unnatural system of development. This unatural capitalism has never given true respect or placed a real emphasis on the value of Earth's natural systems. As a Natural Capitalist developer I believe the fastest, most practical and sound policies for accomplishing the goals of IRENA and like minded people is to develop learning environments and pedagogies that empower the children's creative and innovative capacities to think. Not WHAT to think but empower them in HOW to think.This week there was a 12 year old who gave a speech at a press conference in Pigeon, Michigan where he attends the Laker schools and he spoke to why renewable energies are so vitally important to him, his generation and to their childrens, children. The truth of the matter is, the children get it! Because this kind of development is based on the truth! Let's develop true innovation capacity in education worldwide. This is where the headquarters of IRENA will flourish , in the minds of people around the globe that have made a new agreement to support life in it's infinite wisdom and to join this global dance towards recreating and appreciating a truly sustainable Global community.
Comment 6 of 6
by Lily Riahi, Contributing Writer
Berlin, Germany [RenewableEnergyWorld.com]
At the invitation of the German Federal Government, representatives from more than 60 countries met in Berlin earlier this month to discuss the founding of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), an intergovernmental organization that will exist to exclusively promote the adoption of renewable energy worldwide.
"Promoting renewables must now become a global and universal priority, and IRENA is a necessary condition for that goal. If we intend to embark on the renewable energy revolution, we cannot do it without IRENA."-- Bianca Jagger, Chair of the World Future Council
Participants expressed a sense of urgency to begin a swift transition to a more secure, sustainable renewable energy economy with the assistance of an international body. A variety of countries have expressed support for IRENA, including Spain, India, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Portugal and South Africa.
During the Berlin meeting on April 10th and 11th, government representatives met to discuss and hone the objectives, activities, finances, and organizational structure of IRENA. A common point of discussion during the workshops was the relationship between IRENA and other existing international bodies that deal with energy issues. Some countries expressed concerns over the duplication of activities or unecessary competition with organizations such as the International Energy Agency.While there were concerns over how IRENA would work alongside other bodies, it was made clear by participants that a strong, independent force for supporting renewables is necessary to realize the full social, economic and political benefits of clean energies. It was generally agreed that most of the existing initiatives lack a focal point. With limited mandates and capacities, current international renewable energy associations, networks and UN bodies cannot fill the institutional gap that IRENA plans to fill, said Bianca Jagger, Chair of the World Future Council.
“Promoting renewables must now become a global and universal priority, and IRENA is a necessary condition for that goal. If we intend to embark on the renewable energy revolution, we cannot do it without IRENA,” said Jagger in a speech.
“IRENA will work toward improved regulatory frameworks for renewable energy through enhanced policy advice, improvements in the transfer of renewable energy technology; progress on skills and know-how for renewable energy; it will be able to offer a scientifically sound information basis through applied policy research; and better financing of renewable energy,” she continued.
Although the International Energy Agency (IEA) established an advisory board on renewables in 1982, the world has yet to see a breakthrough in renewable energy adoption. This proves the need for an exclusive focus on creating the structural changes needed to ensure widespead adoption of renewable energy, said Hermann Scheer, founder of the European Association for Renewable Energies and member of the German parliament.
“The IEA will have to compensate for all of the current energy problems and won’t have time to push for new forms of energy,” said Scheer.
The IEA deals with questions of supply security and the needs of energy markets. This is reflected in its allocation of votes, which are based mainly on the oil consumption of different countries. As a result, it doesn’t cover in great detail the economic, political, and social aspects of renewable energy. In its in-depth country reviews, the IEA analyzes the energy policies of member states without fully recognizing the potential renewable energy, say some critics. The agency's focus remains on primarily on large-scale energy supply and therefore does not offer much needed advice on how to adapt energy markets towards more decentralized energy sources such as renewables. Further, in contrast to IRENA’s proposed global approach and diverse membership, the activities of the IEA are largely limited to countries involved with the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD).
According to conference organizers, IRENA will work alongside the IEA and other international bodies in areas of renewable energy research, similar to the relationship between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the IEA. One of the major reasons for the foundation of the IAEA in the 1950s was the desire to exploit the opportunities offered by what was then a new energy source. The same attention needs to be given to renewables, said Jose Etcheverry, a chair of the World Council on Renewable Energy.
“The world sorely lacks innovative economic, social and political institutional frameworks to provide strong support for renewable energy development worldwide,” said Etcheverry. “Conventional energy sources such as fossil fuels and nuclear power have incredibly powerful lobbyists to ensure that their interests are provided with preferential treatment over the more socially desirable options of renewable energy and efficiency.”
IRENA will address several critical barriers that are preventing the full-scale adoption of renewable energy. It will provide informed policy advice and assistance to national governments that are currently lacking the means and capacity to develop effective regulatory frameworks for renewable energy adoption.To strengthen technology transfer IRENA will combine the various independent projects and optimise synergies between them, focus on knowledge exchange, integrate technical, administrative and financial actions, and create suitable incentives for industry to engage in developing countries. Of course, none of these tasks can be fully accomplished without adequate human capacity. IRENA will provide an inventory of current training activities and provide courses for policy-makers and regulators on how to overcome administrative barriers to renewable energy adoption.
The time to create IRENA is now, said supporters. Indeed, as organizers learn from the decades of experience of other international agencies, they believe they can create of the most innovative, streamlined agenices in the world while helping usher in a new era of clean, sustainable energies.
Lily Riahi is a RenewableEnergyWorld.com Correspondent currently working out of Canada. She is a research intern for the office of Dr. Hermann Scheer and is currently finishing her masters on the socio-cultural barriers to renewable energy adoption.
Previous Article
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Reader Comments (6)
Author:willstedt heikki
Date Posted:April 25, 2008
The world needs a strong and well funded IRENA, a focal point were developing countries can find the assitance needed to leap-frog conventional energy technologies that simply cannot give solutions to the energy deprived billions living in those countries. At the same time it would be a counter-balancing force to the more conservative focus of the IEA and IAEA, which is badly needed if the world is to see future energy scenarios were renewables are more than 20% of the total world energy consumption by 2050. The EU should push for Germany or Spain to host the IRENA in order to keep the momentum for renewables that has been developed in the EU thanks mostly to these two countries.
Comment 1 of 6
Author:Paul Johnson
Date Posted:April 25, 2008
Please, no more ineffective bureaucracies that lack the ability to hold members accountable.
Comment 2 of 6
Author:morty prisament
Date Posted:April 25, 2008
Even if IRENA might start out with limited enforcement capabilities, such an organization would provide a much needed "framework" and "forum" through which information can be shared, issues debated, and policies developed. A comprehensive approach utilizing a central forum will stimulate discussion and actions on one of the most precient and far-reaching issues of our time. Currently, there is a flurry of activity on a multitude of fronts. If such an entity accomplished little more than tracking research, technological developments and trends, provided periodic commentaries on economic, financing, and marketing considerations, and reported on policy developments-all from an international perspective, we would be thereby advancing the transition to renewables.
Comment 3 of 6
Author:william hughes
Date Posted:April 25, 2008
Something a new IREA could tackle immediately is a world wide ban on double metering. Double metering has succeeded in Germany to encourage the massive uptake of Solar Electric which is a very good thing but only because of a totally unrealistic and unsustainable FIT policy. In the long run it exposes the German small generator to income tax on every unit (kwh) they produce and GST (VAT) on every unit they use. Worse still it exposes their power company to the same charges on the same transactions. This will make the power companies much more reluctant to be used as the batteries of the small generators. Single metering with the single metre simply turning backwards when you generate makes you transparent to the tax officials except for your small net buy or sell of power. Even if your present government only looks at the difference between your two metres, what is there to stop a future government from utilizing this 'tax oportunity'. Nothing. If governments are truly serious about weaning their economies off fossil fuels, they will legislate for single metering.
Comment 4 of 6
Author:derek louden
Date Posted:April 26, 2008
Scotland offers a possible future HQ for a world renewables centre. With a core of established energy professionals in nearly all sectors of renewables technologies Scotland is at the cutting edge of offshore wind, wave and tidal current research. Our long history in hydro power is now joined by biomass schemes and crop research. We have many educational institutions who are participating in top-grade research and in Aberdeen have the European oil capital with a world-class centre of engineering innovation and potential finance for new projects.Scotland also plays host to innovative market solutions such as community scale developments which provide potential models for global renewables. Communities such as Gigha offer an economic model capable of global implementation and offering small communities real empowerment. Communities such as Findhorn & their Unitar centre offer a world-leading example of low impact living for a low carbon age.At a macro and a micro level, Scotland offers the best choice to host any new IRENA HQ.
Comment 5 of 6
Author:Jim Bates
Date Posted:April 26, 2008
The most effective place for the headquarters at this time for IRENA is in the frontiers of development and that is where it should always be. That is to say the basis for renewable energy discovery and usage is Life's longing for itself. Our struggle is to comprehend how to do this dance with the natural energies all around us. In order to work with these natural energies we must release people minds from the prisons that have been created by attempting to live by an unnatural system of development. This unatural capitalism has never given true respect or placed a real emphasis on the value of Earth's natural systems. As a Natural Capitalist developer I believe the fastest, most practical and sound policies for accomplishing the goals of IRENA and like minded people is to develop learning environments and pedagogies that empower the children's creative and innovative capacities to think. Not WHAT to think but empower them in HOW to think.This week there was a 12 year old who gave a speech at a press conference in Pigeon, Michigan where he attends the Laker schools and he spoke to why renewable energies are so vitally important to him, his generation and to their childrens, children. The truth of the matter is, the children get it! Because this kind of development is based on the truth! Let's develop true innovation capacity in education worldwide. This is where the headquarters of IRENA will flourish , in the minds of people around the globe that have made a new agreement to support life in it's infinite wisdom and to join this global dance towards recreating and appreciating a truly sustainable Global community.
Comment 6 of 6
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
The Future of Children AND Digital Media and Learning
Children and Electronic Media
Volume 18 Number 1 Spring 2008
executive summary
CONTENTS
Introducing the Issue
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Trends in Media Use
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Media and Young Children's Learning
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Media and Attention, Cognition, and School Achievement
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Media and Children's Aggression, Fear, and Altruism
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Online Communication and Adolescent Relationships
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Media and Risky Behaviors
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Social Marketing Campaigns and Children's Media Use
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Children as Consumers: Advertising and Marketing
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Children's Media Policy
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Volume 18 Number 1 Spring 2008
executive summary
Download a full version of this journal issue
 | Volume 18 Number 1 Spring 2008 (1946K) [download] |
| | Policy Brief (306K) [download] |
| | Executive Summary (114K) [download] |
CONTENTS
Introducing the Issue
Jeanne Brooks-Gunn is the Virginia and Leonard Marx Professor of Child Development and Education at Teachers College and the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University. Elisabeth Hirschhorn Donahue is associate editor of The Future of Children and a lecturer at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
Trends in Media Use
Donald F. Roberts, the Thomas More Storke Professor Emeritus in the Department of Communication at Stanford University, has spent more than thirty years conducting research and writing about youth and media. Ulla G. Foehr is a media research consultant specializing in children and media use behaviors.
Media and Young Children's Learning
Heather Kirkorian is a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Massachusetts–Amherst. Ellen Wartella is a professor, executive vice chancellor, and provost at the University of California–Riverside. Daniel Anderson is a professor at the University of Massachusetts–Amherst.
Media and Attention, Cognition, and School Achievement
Marie Evans Schmidt is a research associate at the Center on Media and Child Health at Children's Hospital Boston. Elizabeth A. Vandewater is an associate professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Texas–Austin.
Media and Children's Aggression, Fear, and Altruism
Barbara J. Wilson is the Paul C. Friedland Professorial Scholar and head of the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is grateful to Kristin Drogos for her research assistance and to Craig Anderson and other participants at the Future of Children conference for their insightful comments.
Online Communication and Adolescent Relationships
Kaveri Subrahmanyam is a professor of psychology at California State University–Los Angeles, and associate director of the Children's Digital Media Center, UCLA/CSULA. Patricia Greenfield is a Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California–Los Angeles and director of the Children's Digital Media Center, UCLA/CSULA.
Media and Risky Behaviors
Soledad Liliana Escobar-Chaves is assistant professor of health promotion and behavioral sciences at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Craig A. Anderson is director of the Center for the Study of Violence and distinguished professor of liberal arts and sciences in the Department of Psychology at Iowa State University.
Social Marketing Campaigns and Children's Media Use
W. Douglas Evans is vice president for public health and environment at RTI International.
Children as Consumers: Advertising and Marketing
Sandra L. Calvert is a professor and the chair of the Department of Psychology at Georgetown University. She is also the director of the Children's Digital Media Center.
Children's Media Policy
Amy B. Jordan is director of the Media and the Developing Child sector of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. She thanks Jordan Grossman and Katlin Esposito for research assistance, Angela Campbell for comments on an earlier version of this manuscript, and the participants at the Future of Children conference for their input and ideas.
TECH TOWN JOB FAIR!
Posted: Wednesday, 23 April 2008 4:46AM TechTown Hosts Job Fair TODAY | ||
| Detroit (WWJ) -- WISH Detroit, a promotional and marketing campaign supporting people to Work Invest, and SHop in Detroit, is hosting the Second Annual Technology & Emerging Sectors Career Fair on April 23, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. "Today Michigan is working hard to attract new industries to the state in order to reduce our dependence on the automotive industry and TechTown epitomizes the new Michigan culture of diversified economy." said William Kaafarani, president of WISH Detroit, in a press release. | ||
| © MMVIII WWJ Radio, All Rights Reserved. |
URGENCY FACTOR? LARGE!
| Report: Michigan Leads Nation In Tech Job Loss |
| Michigan lost the largest number of tech jobs in the country in 2006, but still remained in the 10th spot having the most high-tech positions, according to a recently released survey.
Source: AeA |
| © MMVIII WWJ Radio, All Rights Reserved. |
EXTREME GREENE (Strategic Partner)
The Dickens family of Pigeon, in the Thumb, is one of the state's greenest. Dad Brion, mom Kathy, daughters Aubrey, 7, and Chelsea, 11, and dog Toto show off the electric plug-in car they use for errands.
Brion Dickens makes biodiesel fuel for use in his off-road construction equipment using waste oil that is collected from local restaurants. His company, Woodland Wind, installs wind turbines.
TODAY IS EARTH DAY
Michigan family takes green living to the extreme
They even make own electricity
BY TINA LAM • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • April 22, 2008
PIGEON -- Brion and Kathy Dickens might just be Michigan's greenest couple.
Consider:
• They heat their 4,000-square-foot home with a biomass boiler that is fed with pellets made from wood, corn or sugar beets.
• They have their own windmill to provide electricity.
• Their electric car recharges by plugging into the windmill's turbine.
• Brion makes his own diesel fuel from waste grease to help fuel his Dodge pickup and Oldsmobile and to completely fuel his construction equipment.
• They helped start an annual Earth Day celebration four years ago that now draws about 6,000 people a year.
• They've helped turn their local school district, where Kathy is principal of Laker Junior High, super-green, with three wind turbines that provide about 60% of the elementary school's electricity, a new project to put in biodiesel buses and green energy for the district-owned superintendent's house.
"To me, they're inspiring," said Scott Whipple, math and science codirector for the Huron Intermediate School District, sponsor of the Earth Day celebration. "They're showing others what can be done."
Asked if people think they're weird, Kathy laughed.
"Some couples golf together, some bowl together," she said. "We talk about renewable energy. I guess we're a little obsessed."
Brion and Kathy met 17 years ago as teachers in Lenawee County.
"We hit it off," said Brion, 41.
They were never hippie types. Kathy, 40, said they were raised in conservative homes; their moms washed out plastic sandwich bags and reused paper plates.
"We've always had the like mind-set of trying to do things as frugally as possible," Brion said. "We don't enjoy spending money."
Added Kathy: "We're cheap."
As a general contractor for more than two decades, Brion has tried to design energy-efficient buildings.
"I see where things are going," he said. "The days of cheap gas and electricity are over."
When they added to their Victorian farmhouse surrounded by farm fields outside Pigeon in 2002, they were using propane for heat. Their home is close to Saginaw Bay in Michigan's Thumb. Because they were doubling the home's size and adding Kathy's dream indoor pool, they feared propane costs would be astronomical. Brion looked into alternatives.
He chose a corn-fired boiler because corn was cheap then, at $2 per bushel, and a more efficient fuel than propane.
"We paid back our installation costs in a year" with the savings, he said.
Unfortunately, he didn't foresee the ethanol boom and skyrocketing price of corn, which has lately flirted with $6 a bushel. Now, he's using wood or sugar beet pellets from the local co-op. Local farmers grow sugar beets, and the pellets are made from leftover pulp.
"It's still cheaper than propane," he said.
The boiler heats the indoor pool in the winter; in summer, it's heated by solar panels. They're not off the grid, though; when the family wind turbine is down, as it is now because of a broken blade, they get electricity from DTE Energy. At times, though, they sell electricity back to the utility.
Brion buys biodiesel from the local co-op as a way to support farmers or uses a processor to make biodiesel from french fry grease he rounds up from local restaurants. He estimates he's made 300 to 400 gallons over the past few years and has taught school kids how to do it. This week, he'll be helping students to make biodiesel out of sunflower seeds from a crop the school grew beneath its wind turbines.
Brion is passionate about wind power. His company, Woodland Wind, installs turbines (admittedly few so far in Michigan), and he's a wind educator for the state's Energy Office, driving thousands of miles across the state on his own time to talk to anyone who is interested.
Kathy scours Web sites looking for state, federal and foundation grants. Her grant-writing abilities have brought Laker schools a composter; wind turbines; a science lab where kids learn how to make their own wind turbines; grants for a turbine; solar panels that track the sun's movement; a new biomass boiler for the superintendent's home; processors to make biodiesel and seed oil, and a program to use 20% biodiesel on buses and retrofit old buses with equipment to clean up their diesel emissions.
She just submitted grants for plug-in hybrid buses and biomass boilers for the schools.
"I look for ways to save taxpayers money and for kids to learn something," she said.
She said her community is forward-looking and accepting change. Pigeon is home to the state's commercial wind farm, which farmers have welcomed.
"I've never heard anything negative about any of these things," Kathy said.
The Dickenses' two daughters -- Chelsea, 11, and Aubrey, 7 -- are used to their parents' projects by now. In 2005, just after Kathy learned she'd gotten a grant to put up the school's wind turbines, the family took a road trip to New England. The parents promised their daughters a puppy in exchange for countless stops along the way to see turbines. The girls bit.
On long summer evenings, the couple sits on their wide farmhouse porch thinking of new ways to lower their carbon footprint.
"We're never done," Brion said.
Contact TINA LAM at 313-222-6421 or tlam@freepress.com.
Grow renewable energy on farms
BY RUSSELL LUNDBERG • April 22, 2008
As Michigan debates its energy future, one clear way forward is to build a strong renewable energy industry, which can help our state provide affordable electricity while creating jobs, strengthening our economy, and protecting our land and water.
Twenty six states and the District of Columbia are already demonstrating that the best way to build this new industry is through the adoption of a standard requiring that a percentage of energy come from renewable sources, such as wind, solar or farm-based bio-gas.
A strong renewable energy industry will also benefit farmers, rural landowners and their communities, as we have begun to see in the Thumb.
In Michigan and across the nation, farms and rural communities represent the front lines of the renewable energy industry. Many of these projects, from wind turbines to methane digester, are taking place on Michigan farms, and they're benefiting farm communities.
Take wind energy. Developers are leasing land from farmers and rural landowners so they can install wind turbines. This helps generate income for farmers as well as much needed electricity. So far, renewable energy developers have built 32 turbines in the Thumb. Another 46 are being planned to be built soon, also in the Thumb. Each wind park of about 30 turbines or so can provide enough electricity to power 15,000 homes, thus diversifying our electricity supply.
The extra income helps farmers keep their land and pass it on to the next generation. Furthermore, when farmers have a little bit more money in their pockets, they spend it locally and give back to their communities. Renewable energy also helps us protect Michigan's land, lakes and water, as we burn less fossil fuel.
Despite all these benefits, Michigan's full potential in renewable energy remains unrealized. While the wind energy sector has planted some promising seeds, we can attract even more renewable energy projects. What Michigan needs is a renewable energy standard that will set clear targets and goals, keep costs affordable, and hold energy providers accountable.
For farmers and rural communities, renewable energy represents the winter harvest that protects our family farms in today's economy. Let's build a strong renewable energy sector in Michigan, end our dangerous dependence on fossil fuels, and help local communities at the same time.
RUSSELL LUNDBERG is the building and zoning director for Huron County. Write to him in care of the Free Press Editorial Page, 615 W. Lafayette, Detroit, MI 48226 or at oped@freepress.com.
Take full advantage of wind's potential
BY SARA MARGARET GILBERT • April 22, 2008
The winds of change are blowing strong in Michigan. They are moving over the lakes and across the plains, gusting through depopulated urban centers and ritzy suburbs alike. The problem is that state lawmakers are slow to harness these winds: A clean, endless supply of economic rejuvenation blows right by them.
Michigan possesses tremendous wind energy resources. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory says that we have wind resources that are consistent with utility-scale energy production. We could generate enough zero-pollution electricity to replace or supplement multiple large power plants. What's more, the turbines that capture wind energy can be manufactured in Michigan, creating thousands of jobs and diversifying the state's economy.
But last month, state Senate Republicans said no to large-scale wind energy development. They passed an energy bill that did not include a statewide renewable portfolio standard. An RPS would require that up to 25% of the electricity generated in Michigan come from renewable resources by 2025. It would make Michigan an ideal location for wind developers and turbine manufacturers, because they would have a guaranteed market for their products.
By not passing an RPS, legislators waved off the chance to tell investors that Michigan is a great place to locate turbine manufacturing plants. They passed up cleaner air and reduced dependence on volatile natural gas prices. They let us down.
The Republicans contend that they are taking decisive action and tout their so-called Green Michigan Initiative as proof. Their proposal requires that the state Department of Management and Budget purchase 25% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2025. Sen. Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, pointed out that "state government is one of the largest consumers of electrical energy in Michigan" and that if government leads by example, others surely will follow.
What Richardville and his colleagues should realize is that government's lone demand for renewable energy will not bring clean energy investors to Michigan. Economic transformation requires bold action. The only thing that will kick-start large-scale development of renewable energy here is a clear signal from the state that we are serious about capitalizing on our resources.
Renewable energy is Michigan energy. The systems can be manufactured here, installed here, and produce pollution-free energy here. Why are we letting it go to waste?
SARA MARGARET GILBERT is a graduate student at the University of Michigan's Ford School of Public Policy. Write to her in care of the Free Press Editorial Page, 615 W. Lafayette, Detroit, MI 48226 or at oped@freepress.com.
Summary of Meeting
Posted: Tuesday, 22 April 2008 7:20PM Michigan Alternative Energy: Frustrated Now, Optimistic Long Term | ||
| Members of Michigan’s alternative energy community Tuesday expressed a mixture of immediate frustration and long-term optimism about the future of the renewable power industry in our state and nationally. Skip Pruss, special adviser for alternative energy and the environment to Gov. Jennifer Granholm, urged passage of a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) for the state, which would require power companies to generate or buy a certain percentage of their power output from renewable sources. Speaking at a WWJ Newsradio 950 and University Research Corridor event at Wayne State University, Pruss said it would be irresponsible for Michigan to fail to take advantage of alternatives like wind and solar power. Such power sources, he said, could provide Michigan with the chance to grab a piece of a growing industry, while also limiting its exposure to big fluctuations in the price of fossil fuels. Pruss also said Michigan policymakers have a moral obligation to support energy alternatives, calling global climate change “the mother of all good reasons” to limit carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels. At a panel discussion after Pruss’ speech, James Croce, CEO of Detroit’s Next Energy Center, lamented that while Michigan was once a leader in developing an alternative energy strategy, the state has fallen behind other states in terms of creating the policies needed to make the industry grow here as well as it should. Better Policies Needed However, Croce said, while the state is letting itself become “more and more irrelevant” in terms of energy policy, it is far from irrelevant in terms of resources and talent. He said the level of talent here, the expertise of our manufacturers and capabilities of our universities make him optimistic that Michigan will be able to leverage “our carbon legacy” and become a leader in new energy. Stephen Forrest, a professor and vice president of research for the University of Michigan, said green business has shown that it can be good business. He also said Michigan’s natural on-shore and offshore wind resources, along with its manufacturing capabilities, put it in a good position be a renewable energy leader. He described himself as “extremely optimistic” and Michigan as a place where “transformation is going on.” Randal Charlton, director of Wayne State’s TechTown technology business incubator, said Michigan can be a world leader in the business of combating global warming. But, he added that attitudes have to change and a new sense of urgency is needed. Unlike Europe, Charlton said, the U.S. treats fuels “in an abusive way” and does not do enough to promote conservation and alternative fuels. For that reason, he said, it is not enough for Michigan to make itself a leader among U.S. states when it comes to alternative fuels. He said Michigan needs to start comparing itself to places like Germany, Denmark and Sweden, where the commitment to environmentalism is deeper. Soji Adelaja, director of the Land Policy Institute at Michigan State University said recognizing the importance of alternative fuels is part of recognizing that the world has changed and that Michigan is now part of a “flat world” global economy. Michigan was a technology leader in the past, he said, and is in a good position to be one in the future – if we change the “Michigan mindset” and come to terms with new realities. A good way to show a change in mindset, Adelaja said, would be to adopt an RPS. He said RPS statutes are one big factor that separates states making big progress in alternative energy from those that are making less progress. He also said the state’s universities have a big role to play going forward, in educating the state about the need for sustainable power and helping to develop the technologies that will make it a reality. A second panel at the event featured representatives of Michigan’s traditional industries – autos, steel, glass – and representatives of the emerging energy industry, and how they’re coping with energy changes. Ray S. Siada, corporate energy manager at Guardian Industries Corp., the glassmaker that is a prodigious user of energy, complained that Michigan lacks an aggressive state policy to promote energy efficiency. He also said Guardian invested in a wind farm to provide part of its power needs at a plant in India. Paul Savage, CEO of New York-based Nextek Power, which is manufacturing its distributed power generation accessories in Detroit, said he’d like to work more closely with the auto industry – since his “boxes” are virtually identical in function to the power control boxes in hybrid electric vehicles. Ronald P. Krupitzer, vice president for automotive applications at the American Iron and Steel Institute, pointed out that steel has a lower carbon footprint than producing aluminum, other metals or carbon fiber. Mary Beth Stanek, director of environment, energy and commercialization at the General Motors Corp. Public Policy Center, defended the auto industry against charges of foot-dragging on environmental advances, saying GM now has a large demonstration project of hydrogen vehicles in the field. She also said there are other factors behind ethanol production in recent food price inflation, including poor harvests in some parts of an increasingly food-interdependent world, and a weak dollar. Aaron Crumm, co-founder of Ann Arbor fuel cell maker Adaptive Materials in Ann Arbor, pointed out that he’s helping run the largest fuel cell company in Michigan, with 57 employees making solid oxide fuel cells that run on commonly available fuels like propane. They’re intended as higher-powered, longer-lasting replacements for batteries in high-end applications like the military. For more about the Tuesday event, called “Embracing A Green Michigan - Carbon Culture at the Crossroads,” click here: http://www.wwj.com/Embracing-A-Green-Michigan/2042402 View a video highlighting the event and hear podcasts from the event at this link. Also at the event, Version 2.0 of the Michigan Alternative Energy Directory was released, compiled by the staff of WWJ Newsradio 950 to demonstrate the extensive resources and capabilities of Michigan’s alternative energy industry. View the directory online at this link: http://imgsrv.wwj.com/image/wwj/UserFiles/File/AEDirectoryApril2008.pdf. | ||
| © MMVIII WWJ Radio, All Rights Reserved. |
Monday, April 21, 2008
Sunday, April 20, 2008
How Do You Define Value?
Expensive doesn't mean unaffordable
It is another irony of our modern times, and of our definition of green building, that green is seen by some as a luxury only the wealthy can afford. Two hundred years ago, it was the poorest people who were living the greenest lives. Back then, you needed money not to be green, but to afford the oversize house and the imported marble.
The common argument against green building—that it costs too much—relies on a narrow definition of cost, typically reducing it to the amount of money paid up front. It ignores other costs, those that are less immediate and less visible, and it ignores any possible rewards. Yet the same people who dismiss photovoltaics as too expensive, who say the payback period is too long, happily plunk down money on luxury items—a Porsche, say, or a hot tub—without ever asking, “Where’s the payback?”
But because investments such as photovoltaics or extra insulation really can pay us back (and ultimately save money by reducing energy costs), because this is possible, many people focus only on the financial equation. They consider an investment in energy efficiency like any other investment. If the payback on solar panels is 15 years and they might sell the house in five, they don’t buy the panels. If they plan to keep the house, but the same money invested in the stock market would net a bigger return in 15 years, they buy stock.
Cost is not such a simple issue. What is the cost of your house? Is it the $350,000 price that you agreed on with the seller? Or is it the more than $796,000 you will pay over the course of a 30-year mortgage? And what about fuel bills over 30 years? How do they factor in to the cost of your house? Even these questions, which suggest that cost is more than just a number on the price tag, are still simple financial equations. When you consider the environmental costs of building or operating a house, things become complicated quickly.
"Before we can argue intelligently about whether the benefits of green building are a fair exchange for the price, we have to understand the true cost of building any other way."
Last year, the British newspaper The Observer reported that some clothing sold at Gap stores was being made in New Delhi sweatshops by children as young as 9 years old and working 16 or more hours a day. The Observer referred to this discovery as “the tragic consequence of the West’s demand for cheap clothing.” No one intended this consequence, not even the folks running Gap Inc. No one thought that child labor was a fair exchange for an inexpensive shirt. It happened because in this complex global economy, it is hard to know the consequences of our choices. But once we do know, we can decide for ourselves what is a fair exchange. Once we know that child labor is part of the cost of an inexpensive shirt, most of us will happily pay a little more for a shirt that might otherwise have seemed too expensive.
It’s no great leap for me, then, to wonder about houses, which are considerably more complicated and more expensive to make than shirts. What unknown costs lurk among the wires, pipes, studs, tiles, carpets, and cabinets? In the past, we discovered the dangers of lead-based paint and stopped using it. We learned the connection between asbestos and lung disease and found alternative materials for insulation and siding. Once we understood the importance of our wetlands to surrounding ecosystems, we stopped building on wetlands.
But what hidden costs, what potentially tragic consequences, have we yet to discover? What new ones are we introducing? Before we can argue intelligently about whether the benefits of green building are a fair exchange for the price, we have to understand the true cost of building any other way.
Value: the other half of the equation
When people dismiss green building as too expensive, they usually mean that adding green features—renewable energy, extra insulation, recycled materials—to the house they were already planning to build or remodel requires too much money. But such an evaluation hardly means that green building is too expensive. It simply means that some people value other things more highly. Those other things might be more square footage, extra bathrooms, a lavish kitchen, or a three-car garage. If a 4000-sq.-ft. house with green features costs more than you’re willing to pay, it might not be the green features that make it too expensive. It might be the size of the house.
Helped along by building codes and regulations, we have learned the value of many things that make our houses cost more. We have learned the value of digging foundations below the frost line, of expelling moisture from bathrooms with vent fans, of wiring homes for smoke alarms. And now we readily accept the worth of these additional costs.
Today, more and more people consider the cost of green building to be a fair price for a safe, comfortable, durable house that does less damage to the environment than a typical house. The effects of global warming, and the attention focused on them, make it easier to see the long-term cost of building so many homes that rely heavily on fossil fuels.
Even if you remain focused solely on money, green building’s value equation is constantly changing. With each increase in oil prices, photovoltaics and extra insulation will seem less expensive. I also wonder how soon the resale value of a house will be influenced substantially by its green features.
How much higher do energy costs have to rise before people will pay a premium for a smaller house or one that is LEED-certified? Maybe we’ll reach a point where status is conferred not according to how big a house is but according to the electrical output of the photovoltaic array.
From Fine Homebuilding 195 (Houses), pp. 10-16
April 16, 2008
It is another irony of our modern times, and of our definition of green building, that green is seen by some as a luxury only the wealthy can afford. Two hundred years ago, it was the poorest people who were living the greenest lives. Back then, you needed money not to be green, but to afford the oversize house and the imported marble.
The common argument against green building—that it costs too much—relies on a narrow definition of cost, typically reducing it to the amount of money paid up front. It ignores other costs, those that are less immediate and less visible, and it ignores any possible rewards. Yet the same people who dismiss photovoltaics as too expensive, who say the payback period is too long, happily plunk down money on luxury items—a Porsche, say, or a hot tub—without ever asking, “Where’s the payback?”
But because investments such as photovoltaics or extra insulation really can pay us back (and ultimately save money by reducing energy costs), because this is possible, many people focus only on the financial equation. They consider an investment in energy efficiency like any other investment. If the payback on solar panels is 15 years and they might sell the house in five, they don’t buy the panels. If they plan to keep the house, but the same money invested in the stock market would net a bigger return in 15 years, they buy stock.
Cost is not such a simple issue. What is the cost of your house? Is it the $350,000 price that you agreed on with the seller? Or is it the more than $796,000 you will pay over the course of a 30-year mortgage? And what about fuel bills over 30 years? How do they factor in to the cost of your house? Even these questions, which suggest that cost is more than just a number on the price tag, are still simple financial equations. When you consider the environmental costs of building or operating a house, things become complicated quickly.
"Before we can argue intelligently about whether the benefits of green building are a fair exchange for the price, we have to understand the true cost of building any other way."
Last year, the British newspaper The Observer reported that some clothing sold at Gap stores was being made in New Delhi sweatshops by children as young as 9 years old and working 16 or more hours a day. The Observer referred to this discovery as “the tragic consequence of the West’s demand for cheap clothing.” No one intended this consequence, not even the folks running Gap Inc. No one thought that child labor was a fair exchange for an inexpensive shirt. It happened because in this complex global economy, it is hard to know the consequences of our choices. But once we do know, we can decide for ourselves what is a fair exchange. Once we know that child labor is part of the cost of an inexpensive shirt, most of us will happily pay a little more for a shirt that might otherwise have seemed too expensive.
It’s no great leap for me, then, to wonder about houses, which are considerably more complicated and more expensive to make than shirts. What unknown costs lurk among the wires, pipes, studs, tiles, carpets, and cabinets? In the past, we discovered the dangers of lead-based paint and stopped using it. We learned the connection between asbestos and lung disease and found alternative materials for insulation and siding. Once we understood the importance of our wetlands to surrounding ecosystems, we stopped building on wetlands.
But what hidden costs, what potentially tragic consequences, have we yet to discover? What new ones are we introducing? Before we can argue intelligently about whether the benefits of green building are a fair exchange for the price, we have to understand the true cost of building any other way.
Value: the other half of the equation
When people dismiss green building as too expensive, they usually mean that adding green features—renewable energy, extra insulation, recycled materials—to the house they were already planning to build or remodel requires too much money. But such an evaluation hardly means that green building is too expensive. It simply means that some people value other things more highly. Those other things might be more square footage, extra bathrooms, a lavish kitchen, or a three-car garage. If a 4000-sq.-ft. house with green features costs more than you’re willing to pay, it might not be the green features that make it too expensive. It might be the size of the house.
Helped along by building codes and regulations, we have learned the value of many things that make our houses cost more. We have learned the value of digging foundations below the frost line, of expelling moisture from bathrooms with vent fans, of wiring homes for smoke alarms. And now we readily accept the worth of these additional costs.
Today, more and more people consider the cost of green building to be a fair price for a safe, comfortable, durable house that does less damage to the environment than a typical house. The effects of global warming, and the attention focused on them, make it easier to see the long-term cost of building so many homes that rely heavily on fossil fuels.
Even if you remain focused solely on money, green building’s value equation is constantly changing. With each increase in oil prices, photovoltaics and extra insulation will seem less expensive. I also wonder how soon the resale value of a house will be influenced substantially by its green features.
How much higher do energy costs have to rise before people will pay a premium for a smaller house or one that is LEED-certified? Maybe we’ll reach a point where status is conferred not according to how big a house is but according to the electrical output of the photovoltaic array.
From Fine Homebuilding 195 (Houses), pp. 10-16
April 16, 2008
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Don't worry,I'll take good care of that for you!
Driving home thru Detroit yesterday, I stopped alongside a Brother who had parked his wheelchair under an I-75 overpass at a traffic light. He had no sign, just sitting there pondering life. I had an extra dollar and an apple in my lunchbox, so I handed it to him. As I did I mentioned that I was just going to eat that apple, but I've got more at home still. To that he replied" Don't worry mister, I'll take good care of it for you!"
As I listen to the news reports of food riots around the world , global warming and wars.... I was reminded of my responsibility to my family , the world and at that moment to the man in the wheelchair to tell them, "No, don't You worry, I'll take care of that for you!"
So ask yourself today, is there anything I can do to empower positive change in the world,today? Or are you going to wait for someone else to fix it for you? Guess what, there isn't anybody else stepping up to the plate. Your up to bat, so hit a home run.. Ya' know, one for the Ol' Giffer!
As I listen to the news reports of food riots around the world , global warming and wars.... I was reminded of my responsibility to my family , the world and at that moment to the man in the wheelchair to tell them, "No, don't You worry, I'll take care of that for you!"
So ask yourself today, is there anything I can do to empower positive change in the world,today? Or are you going to wait for someone else to fix it for you? Guess what, there isn't anybody else stepping up to the plate. Your up to bat, so hit a home run.. Ya' know, one for the Ol' Giffer!
Monday, April 14, 2008
Green Currents (RFP)
DTE Energy Seeks Renewable Energy Proposals
DTE Energy has issued a Request for Proposal to purchase Michigan-based renewable energy for the company's GreenCurrents renewable energy program.
GreenCurrents provides DTE Energy's 2.2 million electric customers the option of choosing environmentally friendly renewable energy for their homes and businesses. More than 8,000 customers have signed up for GreenCurrents since its inception last April, making it one of the fastest growing voluntary renewable energy programs in the country.
A key element of GreenCurrents is to encourage the development and operation of new renewable energy projects in Michigan, according to Trevor F. Lauer, vice president of retail marketing for DTE Energy.
"This RFP requires that providers be located in Michigan, and that their renewable energy facilities be newly constructed," Lauer said. "We want the resources for the GreenCurrents program to be homegrown -- and we expect to sign long-term agreements with developers who share that vision."
Renewable energy is power created from sources that can be replenished naturally, including wind, solar and biomass. DTE Energy signed agreements last year with four Michigan-based firms to provide renewable energy for GreenCurrents. The RFP issued today will provide additional renewable energy supply for GreenCurrents in 2009 and 2010.
Under the GreenCurrents program, DTE Energy's Detroit Edison electric customers can select a renewable energy option that best fits their budget. For as little as $2.50 a month, residential customers can purchase a 100 kilowatt hour block of renewable energy that's equal to 15-20 percent of a typical home's monthly electric use. Customers can also choose to match 100 percent of their home's electricity consumption with renewable resources for an additional cost of $10 to $15 per month for a typical household.
Business customers can purchase a 1,000 kilowatt hour block of green energy for $20 a month -- or match all of their electricity usage with renewable power for an additional cost of two cents per kilowatt hour.
Responses to the RFP are due to DTE Energy by May 2. A pre-bid conference, including a question and answer session, will be held at DTE Energy's downtown Detroit headquarters complex on Friday, April 18 at 1 p.m.
Additional information on the RFP is available at www.dteenergy.com/rfp http://www.dteenergy.com/rfp.
© MMVIII WWJ Radio, All Rights Reserved.
DTE Energy has issued a Request for Proposal to purchase Michigan-based renewable energy for the company's GreenCurrents renewable energy program.
GreenCurrents provides DTE Energy's 2.2 million electric customers the option of choosing environmentally friendly renewable energy for their homes and businesses. More than 8,000 customers have signed up for GreenCurrents since its inception last April, making it one of the fastest growing voluntary renewable energy programs in the country.
A key element of GreenCurrents is to encourage the development and operation of new renewable energy projects in Michigan, according to Trevor F. Lauer, vice president of retail marketing for DTE Energy.
"This RFP requires that providers be located in Michigan, and that their renewable energy facilities be newly constructed," Lauer said. "We want the resources for the GreenCurrents program to be homegrown -- and we expect to sign long-term agreements with developers who share that vision."
Renewable energy is power created from sources that can be replenished naturally, including wind, solar and biomass. DTE Energy signed agreements last year with four Michigan-based firms to provide renewable energy for GreenCurrents. The RFP issued today will provide additional renewable energy supply for GreenCurrents in 2009 and 2010.
Under the GreenCurrents program, DTE Energy's Detroit Edison electric customers can select a renewable energy option that best fits their budget. For as little as $2.50 a month, residential customers can purchase a 100 kilowatt hour block of renewable energy that's equal to 15-20 percent of a typical home's monthly electric use. Customers can also choose to match 100 percent of their home's electricity consumption with renewable resources for an additional cost of $10 to $15 per month for a typical household.
Business customers can purchase a 1,000 kilowatt hour block of green energy for $20 a month -- or match all of their electricity usage with renewable power for an additional cost of two cents per kilowatt hour.
Responses to the RFP are due to DTE Energy by May 2. A pre-bid conference, including a question and answer session, will be held at DTE Energy's downtown Detroit headquarters complex on Friday, April 18 at 1 p.m.
Additional information on the RFP is available at www.dteenergy.com/rfp http://www.dteenergy.com/rfp.
© MMVIII WWJ Radio, All Rights Reserved.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
LET'S CLEAN UP OUR ACT AND THE AIR TOO!
The following reprint is a classic tale of natural capitalism and it's struggle to support the natural life systems on Earth against the formidable forces of industrial capitalism. The latter having only the myopic eye for its self existance and money. What is the money worth to you? Will it sustain your offspring and theirs? We are destroying life on this planet at an accelerating rate. This doesn't have to continue. We have the technology available to stop the pollution. What is lacking is the agreements to work together to implement the technologies and to respect life more than inanimate objects and our egos. Let money's value be measured by it's capacity to support earth's life systems. Then it will truly be worth something!
Study: Flowers Losing Smell
LiveScience StaffLiveScience.com Fri Apr 11, 3:25 PM ET
Spring's bloom may not smell so sweet anymore, as pollutants from power plants and automobiles destroy flowers' aromas, a new study suggests.The finding could help explain why some pollinators, particularly bees, are declining in certain parts of the world.Researchers at the University of Virginia created a mathematical model of how the scents of flowers travel with the wind. The scent molecules produced by the flowers readily bond with pollutants such as ozone, which destroys the aromas they produce.So instead of wafting for long distances with the wind, the flowery scents are chemically altered. Essentially, the flowers no longer smell like flowers."The scent molecules produced by flowers in a less polluted environment, such as in the 1800s, could travel for roughly 1,000 to 1,200 meters [3,300 to 4,000 feet]; but in today's polluted environment downwind of major cities, they may travel only 200 to 300 meters [650 to 980 feet]," said study team member Jose D. Fuentes.With flowers no longer advertising their presence over as large an area, pollinators are forced to search farther and longer to pick up the hint of their scent. They may also have to rely more on their sight than what they smell.Bees depend on flower nectar for food, and if they have a hard time finding the flowers, they can't sustain their populations. Other studies, along with the experiences of farmers, have indicated that bee populations are dropping in places such as California and the Netherlands. Fuentes and his team think air pollution may be the reason.The research, funded by the National Science Foundation, is detailed online in the journal Atmospheric Environment.
Top 10 Poisonous Plants
How Flowers Know Spring Has Sprung
101 Amazing Earth Facts
Original Story: Study: Flowers Losing Smell
Study: Flowers Losing Smell
LiveScience StaffLiveScience.com Fri Apr 11, 3:25 PM ET
Spring's bloom may not smell so sweet anymore, as pollutants from power plants and automobiles destroy flowers' aromas, a new study suggests.The finding could help explain why some pollinators, particularly bees, are declining in certain parts of the world.Researchers at the University of Virginia created a mathematical model of how the scents of flowers travel with the wind. The scent molecules produced by the flowers readily bond with pollutants such as ozone, which destroys the aromas they produce.So instead of wafting for long distances with the wind, the flowery scents are chemically altered. Essentially, the flowers no longer smell like flowers."The scent molecules produced by flowers in a less polluted environment, such as in the 1800s, could travel for roughly 1,000 to 1,200 meters [3,300 to 4,000 feet]; but in today's polluted environment downwind of major cities, they may travel only 200 to 300 meters [650 to 980 feet]," said study team member Jose D. Fuentes.With flowers no longer advertising their presence over as large an area, pollinators are forced to search farther and longer to pick up the hint of their scent. They may also have to rely more on their sight than what they smell.Bees depend on flower nectar for food, and if they have a hard time finding the flowers, they can't sustain their populations. Other studies, along with the experiences of farmers, have indicated that bee populations are dropping in places such as California and the Netherlands. Fuentes and his team think air pollution may be the reason.The research, funded by the National Science Foundation, is detailed online in the journal Atmospheric Environment.
Top 10 Poisonous Plants
How Flowers Know Spring Has Sprung
101 Amazing Earth Facts
Original Story: Study: Flowers Losing Smell
Friday, April 11, 2008
EARTH DAY EVENT "GOES GREEN"
Universities, WWJ Event To Help Grow a 'Green Michigan'
The state's top energy researchers, policy-makers and business innovators will come together on Earth Day April 22 to review plans for making Michigan a national leader in emerging green energy technologies.
Michigan's University Research Corridor and WWJ Newsradio 950 will bring together
Michigan's key people in energy innovation, including leading researchers from Wayne State University, Michigan State University and the University of Michigan for ”Carbon Culture at the Crossroads: Embracing a Green Michigan.”
Organizers hope the gathering will provide businesses and citizens a roadmap to achieving alternative energy leadership and sustainability in Michigan.
The special sessions kick off with a keynote address from Gov. Jennifer Granholm's chief adviser on renewable energy and the environment, Stanley ”Skip” Pruss, who will outline ”Michigan's Plans for Alternative Energy” followed by town hall panels comprised of top energy researchers and business leaders.
WWJ will broadcast live from the event, airing special coverage on the topic with interviews running hourly throughout the day at 5:40 a.m. through 7:40 p.m. More information is available at www.urcmich.org and www.wwj.com.
Experts predict that renewable energy and energy efficiency alone will add $4.5 trillion in value to the U.S. economy by 2030. Michigan, with more automotive-related R&D talent than the other 49 states combined as well as an abundance of engineering talent and strong resources in wind, solar, bio-fuels and other energy fields is considered to be well-positioned to be a national leader in new emerging energy industries.
Michigan is also home to the URC, one of the largest clusters of research universities in the nation conducting more than $1.3 billion in research each year. The agenda for the conference includes:
8:45 a.m.: Keynote: Michigan's Plan for Alternative EnergySkip Pruss, Gov. Jennifer Granholm's special adviser for alternative energy and the environment.
9:15 a.m.: Cultural and Policy Impediments to a Green MichiganModerator: Matt Roush, The Great Lakes IT ReportJim Croce, CEO of NextEnergy. Stephen Forrest, University of Michigan vice president for research Randal Charlton, director of TechTown and founder of AsterandSoji Adelaja, director of the Michigan State University Land Policy Institute.
10:45 a.m.: Business Reacts to the Michigan Energy PlanMary Beth Stanek, General Motors Corp. director of energy and environmental policy. Ray Siada, corporate energy manager,
Guardian Industries. Fred Keller, chairman and CEO of Cascade Energy Inc., Grand Rapids.Ronald Krupitzer, vice president, automotive application, American Iron and Steel Institute.Aaron Crum, co-founder of AMI Adaptive Materials Inc., Ann Arbor.
The conference, running from 7:30 a.m. to noon, will be held at Wayne State's Community Arts Auditorium, 450 Reuther Mall. It begins with a special networking breakfast at 7:30 a.m. To register, visit this link.http://www.wwj.com/Embracing-A-Green-Michigan:-Carbon-Culture-At-The-/1958825
The research universities, working together through the URC, are each leaders in different aspects of energy research. WSU attracted NextEnergy to its TechTown research park and established an innovative alternative energy program while MSU opened a new alternative energy center and attracted its largest research grant, $50 million, for developing biofuel technology.
UM is home to the Michigan Memorial Phoenix Energy Institute and is a leader in the development of solar energy, fuel cells, batteries and other technology.
More at www.urcmich.org or www.wwj.com.
More at www.urcmich.org or www.wwj.com.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Listening to the beat of a different Drummer
While you may be working around your computer portal to the world try another kind of connection. Type into your browser window the following http://spectrum.ieee.org/radioonce there you can select from a number of podcasts. All of which seem to illuminate the listener as to fellow travelers of the Eartly realms creative endeavors. Briefly, this morning I listened to a start-up company describe it's linear proggresion of it's urban electric motorcycle program, also interviews about wind turbines (including the Windspire), Math memories about the beauty of using math in everyday practices from your mind as opposed to a computer and a London based company called UVA , or United Visual Artists. They are a collaborative of artists , musicians, Architects and various technicians that have connected LED lighting, music, computers and regenerative feedback to create a public audio/visual experience that is compelling of a similar intent and nature to what we are endeavoring to do here in America. These are all similar because of the Organic nature of learning and creating, it is not only an energy force that comes from somewhere in the realms of the netherworld, more importantly it is the manifest desire for life's longing for itself. One only has to tune their perception and hearing to be able to hear it........Enjoy your journey and add to the creation!
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Great lakes Region- A Jewel in the Universe
The proposition is to develop new visions to see what is before us in the light. To develop new agreements to work collaboratively with each other and the natural resources around us to create opportunity and sustain life in the Great lakes region.
Article published Monday, April 7, 2008
U.S.-CANADALakes region a sleeping powerhouse, scholar says
By TOM TROYBLADE POLITICS WRITER
John C. Austin sounds like an explorer from the 16th or 17th century who has discovered a new continent.Only the continent he has sighted is populated and widely viewed as in decline.The region on whose shores Mr. Austin, a Brookings Institution scholar, has set foot is none other than the Great Lakes region, an area he said is “unrivaled” for its natural resources, educational assets, and industrial know-how.
As Europe has the European Union, this region would have the Great Lakes Economic Region.Anything other than “rust belt,” Mr. Austin said.Last Monday, Mr. Austin of Ann Arbor was the keynote speaker, following Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, at an economic development “summit” sponsored by the Lucas County commissioners.The event drew about 45 local government officials from the Lake Erie counties stretching from Monroe County, Michigan, to Ashtabula County east of Cleveland.Tina Skeldon Wozniak, the president of the Lucas County commissioners, said Mr. Austin provided insight and detail.“What he gave us was an affirmation that we can make this transition, and as we work through it we have everything going for us,” Ms. Wozniak said. “I think he gave us more data to believe and focus and stay on track.”Mr. Austin said the Great Lakes region has or can get the things that attract residential and business development — built infrastructure, historic buildings, waterfronts, civic and cultural institutions, and public transportation.He said if the Great Lakes Economic Region were a nation, its gross domestic product would rank as the world’s second largest.
“Our trade between the U.S. and Canada is the biggest on earth,” Mr. Austin said. “This region is the agricultural-industrial center of the universe.”And while the population of the Great Lakes states is undereducated compared to America in general — because of a legacy of a wealth of factory jobs that didn’t require postsecondary education, its universities educate a disproportionate share of the national population.“Our network of research universities is larger and produces more ideas than any place on earth,” Mr. Austin said.Analogy to the SouthHe cites the South as an analogy to the Great Lakes.“The South was behind. The New South governors got together and said what’s our plan? They have a very similar economic story,” Mr. Austin said.Unlike the South, which has self-identified as a stressed region for about two centuries now, self-awareness is a new feeling for the Great Lakes states.“We have had the luxury of not viewing ourselves as a region. You look around and say why are we losing the manufacturing jobs?” he said. “Why are our young people leaving? So under crisis it begins to hit us in the face.“This business of Ohio versus Michigan or Michigan versus Indiana for the next plant is nonsense. It’s counterproductive. We’ve got to get beyond that,” he said.Last year, Mr. Austin even backed a joint economic development zone between Lucas County and southeast Michigan.Mr. Austin urges his listeners to use their dwindling time in the presidential election to pressure the three candidates to commit to a $26 billion cleanup of the Great Lakes. The money would be spent to upgrade sewer treatment plants, clean up brownfields, and rid the Great Lakes of invasive species.The Brookings study calculated the future benefits from such an investment at $90 billion in increased property values and the values of the jobs created. “This [endorsing the $26 billion Great Lakes cleanup initiative] should be like taking the no-tax pledge in New Hampshire,” he said.“You’re the deciders in another presidential election. And if you don’t use this opportunity … then shame on you, shame on everybody,” Mr. Austin said.A native of Cleveland, where his family ran a successful commercial and industrial construction company, Mr. Austin, 45, graduated from Swarthmore College and Harvard University and worked for the state of Massachusetts before making his way back to the Midwest. He lived in the Flint area, where he served on the Genesee County Road Commission 1997-2001 and now lives in Michigan with his wife of 18 years and three children.Since 2000 Mr. Austin, a Democrat, has been an elected member of the Michigan State Board of Education. His full-time job now is as a fellow of the Brookings Institution and it has taken him to every major city in the Great Lakes region. Those include Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Duluth, Toronto, Louisville, and St. Louis.“I’m a politician first, a public policy wonk a close second,” Mr. Austin said.Patrick Clark, a neighborhood development consultant in Pittsburgh who has worked with Mr. Austin for several projects, said he connects with young people.“Many of these Chambers of Commerce are clueless in getting paths to these young leaders. John got in front of a group of young leaders and threw some stuff out there and kind of challenged them to take a leadership role and some of them stepped up,” Mr. Clark said.Two of the young people he offered a hand to are Abby Wilson, 28, of metro Pittsburgh, and Sarah Szurpicki, 27, of metro Detroit, co-founders of the Great Lakes Urban Exchange (GLUE). GLUE has a Website that serves as a video and audio forum about the Great Lakes region, www.gluespace.org.Meeting setA GLUE meeting is set for 7 p.m. Thursday at Manhattan’s Restaurant downtown and is open to the public.Mr. Austin helped the young women obtain an operating grant from Brookings. “He’s extraordinary. He has infectious enthusiasm and if I do say so myself, sees the value in good ideas in young people,” Ms. Wilson said. “As far as I know I don’t think anybody else is making this argument that we should really view ourselves as collaborators rather than competitors.”But Mr. Austin is no Pollyanna. He said a point made in the updated report is that the Great Lakes region is up against international competition to be the center of alternative energy development, and already may be losing the battle.He said the lakes are the logical place for wind energy to be researched and the products developed and made. But Germany started 10 years ago to have an “energy portfolio standard” — policies requiring a certain percentage of energy to be produced from alternative fuels.“We’re just getting around to it now. I hope it’s not too late,” he said.Contact Tom Troy at: tomtroy@theblade.com or 419-724-6058.
Article published Monday, April 7, 2008
U.S.-CANADALakes region a sleeping powerhouse, scholar says
By TOM TROYBLADE POLITICS WRITER
John C. Austin sounds like an explorer from the 16th or 17th century who has discovered a new continent.Only the continent he has sighted is populated and widely viewed as in decline.The region on whose shores Mr. Austin, a Brookings Institution scholar, has set foot is none other than the Great Lakes region, an area he said is “unrivaled” for its natural resources, educational assets, and industrial know-how.
As Europe has the European Union, this region would have the Great Lakes Economic Region.Anything other than “rust belt,” Mr. Austin said.Last Monday, Mr. Austin of Ann Arbor was the keynote speaker, following Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, at an economic development “summit” sponsored by the Lucas County commissioners.The event drew about 45 local government officials from the Lake Erie counties stretching from Monroe County, Michigan, to Ashtabula County east of Cleveland.Tina Skeldon Wozniak, the president of the Lucas County commissioners, said Mr. Austin provided insight and detail.“What he gave us was an affirmation that we can make this transition, and as we work through it we have everything going for us,” Ms. Wozniak said. “I think he gave us more data to believe and focus and stay on track.”Mr. Austin said the Great Lakes region has or can get the things that attract residential and business development — built infrastructure, historic buildings, waterfronts, civic and cultural institutions, and public transportation.He said if the Great Lakes Economic Region were a nation, its gross domestic product would rank as the world’s second largest.
“Our trade between the U.S. and Canada is the biggest on earth,” Mr. Austin said. “This region is the agricultural-industrial center of the universe.”And while the population of the Great Lakes states is undereducated compared to America in general — because of a legacy of a wealth of factory jobs that didn’t require postsecondary education, its universities educate a disproportionate share of the national population.“Our network of research universities is larger and produces more ideas than any place on earth,” Mr. Austin said.Analogy to the SouthHe cites the South as an analogy to the Great Lakes.“The South was behind. The New South governors got together and said what’s our plan? They have a very similar economic story,” Mr. Austin said.Unlike the South, which has self-identified as a stressed region for about two centuries now, self-awareness is a new feeling for the Great Lakes states.“We have had the luxury of not viewing ourselves as a region. You look around and say why are we losing the manufacturing jobs?” he said. “Why are our young people leaving? So under crisis it begins to hit us in the face.“This business of Ohio versus Michigan or Michigan versus Indiana for the next plant is nonsense. It’s counterproductive. We’ve got to get beyond that,” he said.Last year, Mr. Austin even backed a joint economic development zone between Lucas County and southeast Michigan.Mr. Austin urges his listeners to use their dwindling time in the presidential election to pressure the three candidates to commit to a $26 billion cleanup of the Great Lakes. The money would be spent to upgrade sewer treatment plants, clean up brownfields, and rid the Great Lakes of invasive species.The Brookings study calculated the future benefits from such an investment at $90 billion in increased property values and the values of the jobs created. “This [endorsing the $26 billion Great Lakes cleanup initiative] should be like taking the no-tax pledge in New Hampshire,” he said.“You’re the deciders in another presidential election. And if you don’t use this opportunity … then shame on you, shame on everybody,” Mr. Austin said.A native of Cleveland, where his family ran a successful commercial and industrial construction company, Mr. Austin, 45, graduated from Swarthmore College and Harvard University and worked for the state of Massachusetts before making his way back to the Midwest. He lived in the Flint area, where he served on the Genesee County Road Commission 1997-2001 and now lives in Michigan with his wife of 18 years and three children.Since 2000 Mr. Austin, a Democrat, has been an elected member of the Michigan State Board of Education. His full-time job now is as a fellow of the Brookings Institution and it has taken him to every major city in the Great Lakes region. Those include Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Duluth, Toronto, Louisville, and St. Louis.“I’m a politician first, a public policy wonk a close second,” Mr. Austin said.Patrick Clark, a neighborhood development consultant in Pittsburgh who has worked with Mr. Austin for several projects, said he connects with young people.“Many of these Chambers of Commerce are clueless in getting paths to these young leaders. John got in front of a group of young leaders and threw some stuff out there and kind of challenged them to take a leadership role and some of them stepped up,” Mr. Clark said.Two of the young people he offered a hand to are Abby Wilson, 28, of metro Pittsburgh, and Sarah Szurpicki, 27, of metro Detroit, co-founders of the Great Lakes Urban Exchange (GLUE). GLUE has a Website that serves as a video and audio forum about the Great Lakes region, www.gluespace.org.Meeting setA GLUE meeting is set for 7 p.m. Thursday at Manhattan’s Restaurant downtown and is open to the public.Mr. Austin helped the young women obtain an operating grant from Brookings. “He’s extraordinary. He has infectious enthusiasm and if I do say so myself, sees the value in good ideas in young people,” Ms. Wilson said. “As far as I know I don’t think anybody else is making this argument that we should really view ourselves as collaborators rather than competitors.”But Mr. Austin is no Pollyanna. He said a point made in the updated report is that the Great Lakes region is up against international competition to be the center of alternative energy development, and already may be losing the battle.He said the lakes are the logical place for wind energy to be researched and the products developed and made. But Germany started 10 years ago to have an “energy portfolio standard” — policies requiring a certain percentage of energy to be produced from alternative fuels.“We’re just getting around to it now. I hope it’s not too late,” he said.Contact Tom Troy at: tomtroy@theblade.com or 419-724-6058.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Achieving a sense of place
The following description of NOAA's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratories research project is a great example of how communities and individuals can work together in a creative mix of educational opportunities to understand the world in which we live. It is hoped that the outcomes of these formed associations will lead to the creation of a much more informed and "connected" society. With these understandings we can create not only a healtier place to live in, but also in doing so we can create a new and viable economy, one that will support thriving and sustainable communities, both human and natural.
Jim Bates-SEND LLC
Managing the Impact of Multiple Stressors in Saginaw Bay
Craig Stow, Stephen B. Brandt, Tom Croley, Juli Dyble, Gary Fahnenstiel, Tom Nalepa,Steve Pothoven, Henry Vanderploeg (GLERL)Tomas Hook, Dima Beletsky, Carlo DeMarchi, Tom Johengen, Donna Kashian (University of Michigan)Scott Peacor, Michael Kaplowitz, Frank Lupi (Michigan State University)Peter Lavrentyev (University of Akron)Joe DePinto (Limno-Tech)Chansheng He (Western Michigan University)Tammy Newcomb (Michigan Department of Natural Resources)Jim Bredin (Michigan Department of Environmental Quality)
Funding Agency: NOAA Center for Sponsored Coastal Research (http://www.cop.noaa.gov)
Multiple Stressors in Saginaw Bay: Navigating the IssuesApril 2, 2008Bay City, Michigan.Hosted by the Great Lakes Environmental Research LaboratoryMore information contact:
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Donna.Kashian@noaa.gov
Workshop for managers and agency representatives
Workshop Agenda
Introduction
The NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, in conjunction with several partner agencies and institutions, is just beginning a 5 year project to study the effects of multiple stressors on Saginaw Bay in Lake Huron. Like many coastal areas around the world, Saginaw Bay has been subjected to numerous stressors originating from human activities. These stressors have included toxic contaminants, nutrients, sediments, overfishing, exotic species, and more recently - declining water levels.
The combined effect of these stressors has comprised the health of Saginaw Bay and resulted in the loss of many ecosystem features and services that people value.
Objectives
The goal of this project is to help identify management actions that will improve the health of the Bay and restore the ecosystem services that are important to the population of that area.
To accomplish this goal we will conduct research in the field and the laboratory to study how these stressors interact to influence Saginaw Bay's fisheries and water quality. The information from these studies will be used to guide the development of several mathematical models that will help identify useful management options.
Mathematical models will help researchers to organize what is known about the behavior of stressors in Saginaw Bay and to identify the important processes about which very little is known. Additionally, the models will allow scientists to conduct simulated experiments, such as reducing phosphorus input to the Bay, to evaluate the logical outcome alternative management actions.
Another objective is the development of an "Adaptive Integrative Framework" so that our models and field studies will be used interactively to inform one another. As an important component of this Adaptive Integrative Framework, our research will be conducted in coordination with local stakeholder groups under the guidance of representatives from the Michigan Departments of Natural Resources (DNR) and Environmental Quality (DEQ). This interactive environment will help the public understand the goals and difficulties involved in effectively studying and managing Saginaw Bay. In turn our research will be informed and guided by local knowledge and an enhanced appreciation of the ecosystem services that the public considers most important.
Water Levels
Water levels in Lakes Michigan and Huron began a rapid decline in the late 1990s. A statistical analysis of water level data that corrects for the effect of precipitation suggests that an underlying decline began much earlier, perhaps in the mid-1970s. The reason for this decline is unclear, but may be related to increased evaporation in the watershed, a possible consequence of global climate change. Declining water levels have made Saginaw Bay shallower which may be increasing the influence of the invasive zebra and quagga mussels on water quality.
Citation: Sellinger, C.E., C.A. Stow, E C. Lamon, and S.S. Qian. 2008.Recent Water Level Declines in the Lake Michigan-Huron System.Environmental Science & Technology, 42: 367-373.
Phosphorus
Phosphorus is a nutrient that causes algae to grow. While it is essential to have some phosphorus in the water, too much can stimulate the growth of nuisance and toxic algae. Even though the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement established a target phosphorus load for Saginaw Bay in 1978, inputs of this important nutrient continue to cause problems. Limited monitoring in the Bay makes it unclear if the target phosphorus loads are currently being met.
Total phosphorus data by year. Boxes show upper and lower data quartiles; the central solid line represents the median. Whiskers represent 1.5 times the interquartile range up to the max and min data values.
Invasive Species
Many invasive species have entered the Great Lakes in recent years. Zebra and quagga mussels have been especially important because they filter large quantities of water, removing sediments and contaminants from the water column. As a result the water has generally become clearer since these mussels invaded. However, the bad news is that because the water is clearer, more sunlight reaches the bottom of the shallow Bay causing nuisance algae to grow. These algae accumulate in the shallow areas along the shoreline and decay, resulting in a very unpleasant "muck". Lower water levels make the problem worse by exposing more shoreline. In addition, during the filtration process, some of the toxic or harmful species of algae (cyanobacteria, aka "blue-green algae") are preferentially returned to the water which may promote blooms of these harmful species.
Fishery Impacts
To understand the impacts of multiple stressors on Saginaw Bay’s upper trophic levels, we will focus on yellow perch and walleye. These two species presently and historically constitute the most important fisheries in Saginaw Bay. The feeding ecology of these two species varies ontogenetically: progressing from zooplanktivory to primarily benthivory (yellow perch) and piscivory (walleye). In addition, they can be characterized as cool water species that do not thrive in warm, highly eutrophied waters or cold, oligotrophic waters. The sustained production of these two species likely requires striking a balance between excessive eutrophication vs. oligotrophication and sufficient pelagic vs. benthic prey bases. Thereby, the productivity of these two species represents a useful endpoint for evaluating the interacting effects of multiple stressors (e.g., climate change, invasive species) and the appropriate balance between sufficient and insufficient nutrient loading.
For additional information see:Fielder, D.G. and Thomas, M.V. 2006. Fish population dynamics of Saginaw Bay, Lake Huron, 1998-2004. Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Fisheries Research Report. Ann Arbor.
Information for Project Investigators
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GLERL 2205 Commonwealth Blvd., Ann Arbor, MI 48105-2945 (734) 741-2235Lake Michigan Field Station, 1431 Beach St., Muskegon, MI 49441-1098 (231) 759-7824
Sustainable Energy Legislation
Press Release of Senator Ensign
ENSIGN BILL ENCOURAGES DEVELOPMENT OF RENEWABLE ENERGY
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Washington, D.C. – Senator John Ensign, along with Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), led a bipartisan group of senators today to announce a bill to encourage the development of renewable energy and expand energy efficiency in buildings, homes and appliances.
“Satisfying our energy needs and reducing our reliance on foreign sources is a challenge that we must meet, but that can only happen with the right incentives in place,” said Ensign. “Our bipartisan bill will help put us on a path toward energy independence with American ingenuity leading the way.”
The Clean Energy Tax Stimulus Act of 2008, authored by Ensign and Cantwell, extends incentives to encourage renewable energy. Extending the placed-in-service deadline through 2009 for the Production Tax Credit encourages electricity production using renewable energy resources such as geothermal, wind, biomass, hydropower facilities and much more. These renewable energy plants will have valuable tax stability for 10 years.
Extending the solar and fuel cell Investment Tax Credit for eight years also encourages tremendous development of these technologies.
“Some remarkable energy projects have come online, and with the right tax incentives, they will thrive and help meet our growing energy demands,” said Ensign. “If Congress continues to drag its feet, many projects across the country will be a sad reminder of potential that was never met.”
“We have an opportunity to break the stalemate in the Senate,” Ensign added. “Especially at a time when our economy is struggling, we should not be increasing taxes to pay for incentives. These incentives are necessary for our energy security and to help jumpstart our economy.”
Studies have shown that the Production Tax Credit and Investment Tax Credit for renewable energy projects would help create 120,000 employment opportunities and bring almost $20 billion in economic investment into the country.
Ensign and Cantwell’s bill has 6 Democratic cosponsors and 14 GOP cosponsors in total.
###
ENSIGN BILL ENCOURAGES DEVELOPMENT OF RENEWABLE ENERGY
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Washington, D.C. – Senator John Ensign, along with Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), led a bipartisan group of senators today to announce a bill to encourage the development of renewable energy and expand energy efficiency in buildings, homes and appliances.
“Satisfying our energy needs and reducing our reliance on foreign sources is a challenge that we must meet, but that can only happen with the right incentives in place,” said Ensign. “Our bipartisan bill will help put us on a path toward energy independence with American ingenuity leading the way.”
The Clean Energy Tax Stimulus Act of 2008, authored by Ensign and Cantwell, extends incentives to encourage renewable energy. Extending the placed-in-service deadline through 2009 for the Production Tax Credit encourages electricity production using renewable energy resources such as geothermal, wind, biomass, hydropower facilities and much more. These renewable energy plants will have valuable tax stability for 10 years.
Extending the solar and fuel cell Investment Tax Credit for eight years also encourages tremendous development of these technologies.
“Some remarkable energy projects have come online, and with the right tax incentives, they will thrive and help meet our growing energy demands,” said Ensign. “If Congress continues to drag its feet, many projects across the country will be a sad reminder of potential that was never met.”
“We have an opportunity to break the stalemate in the Senate,” Ensign added. “Especially at a time when our economy is struggling, we should not be increasing taxes to pay for incentives. These incentives are necessary for our energy security and to help jumpstart our economy.”
Studies have shown that the Production Tax Credit and Investment Tax Credit for renewable energy projects would help create 120,000 employment opportunities and bring almost $20 billion in economic investment into the country.
Ensign and Cantwell’s bill has 6 Democratic cosponsors and 14 GOP cosponsors in total.
###
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Wave Energy from the Irish Seas
Preparing the World’s largest wave energy power plant
April 26, 2006 Wave Dragon is an offshore wave energy converter of the overtopping type. In 2003 Wave Dragon was the first wave energy developer to connect a prototype device to the public grid. Operating automatically this device has been online in the U.K. for 15,600 hours. Now, in a Joint Venture with UK renewable energy project developer, KP Renewables, Wave Dragon is to construct and deploy the world’s largest wave energy converter off the Pembrokeshire Coast in Wales, UK. After the initial test period, the test unit will joint 10 new units as a 77 MW power plant around 10 miles south west of initial site.
The first stage of the project will deploy a 7 MW Wave Dragon demonstration unit to be located five miles from Milford Haven and tested for three to five years. The plant consists of two wave reflectors focusing the incoming waves towards a ramp, a reservoir for collecting the overtopping water and a number of hydro turbines for converting the pressure head into power.
Wave Dragon is by far the largest wave energy converter available today. Each unit will have a rated power of 4-10 MW or more depending on how energetic the wave climate is at the deployment site. The utilization of the over-topping principle as opposed to power absorption via moving bodies means that the efficiency grows with the size of the converter. Only practical matters, such as for construction, set limits for the size of this wave energy converter.
Prior to going offshore a comprehensive test program has been carried out in wave tanks in Denmark and Ireland. Further on real sea testing has been going on for more than 3 years with a grid connected prototype of the Wave Dragon in a Danish fjord (a scale 1:4.5 of a North Sea production plant).
The demonstrator device will be located five miles from the South West Wales coast, off St Ann’s Head, north and west of Milford Haven.
Wave Dragon is a large floating barge structure. The main structural parts will be constructed in reinforced concrete with additional structural steel elements. The total design weight of the Welsh demonstrator device is 33,000 tonnes. The geometrical layout of the device will be identical with the tested prototype.
On the device are mounted 16-20 low-head hydro turbines to drain the reservoir, each with a 440kW PM generator. Additional electrical systems, step-up transformers and service systems are placed in closed compartments.
The 7MWe Welsh Demonstrator device will initially be deployed in a wave climate much lower that its rated power and size justifies. This will enable a thorough testing programme. The demonstrator project is linked to a further development of a total 77 MW wave energy farm in the Irish Sea following the successful demonstrator testing. As significant cost saving exists when a series of reinforced concrete structures and hundreds of turbines are to be constructed it has been possible to put together a fully commercial project. The overall total project investment for this 77 MW project is approximately £1,740 per installed kW.
An estimate of the total wave energy resource that is available to be utilised in a short term perspective varies depending on how far offshore it will be technical feasible to deploy devices. As a conservative example the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the World Energy Council (WEC) has estimated the potential world-wide wave energy contribution to the production of electricity could be between 10 and 50% of the world’s annual electricity demand of 15,000 TWh.
A recent study by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and The Carbon Trust in UK (Renewables Innovation Review, 2004) states that 200,000 MW installed wave and tidal energy power by 2050 which with a load factor of 0.35 would result in annual power production of 600 TWh (4% of the electricity demand in the world). Independent of the different estimates the potential for a pollution free energy generation is enormous and the development of a completely new industry is underway. The development can be compared with what has happened in the last 25 years within the wind turbine industry.
The planning process for new technologies like wave energy takes time, so the company already has several projects in the pipeline. The first to follow the Welsh demonstration project will take place in Portugal where a company TECDRAGON Lda has been formed with the purpose of establishing 50 MW by 2009-2010.
April 26, 2006 Wave Dragon is an offshore wave energy converter of the overtopping type. In 2003 Wave Dragon was the first wave energy developer to connect a prototype device to the public grid. Operating automatically this device has been online in the U.K. for 15,600 hours. Now, in a Joint Venture with UK renewable energy project developer, KP Renewables, Wave Dragon is to construct and deploy the world’s largest wave energy converter off the Pembrokeshire Coast in Wales, UK. After the initial test period, the test unit will joint 10 new units as a 77 MW power plant around 10 miles south west of initial site.
The first stage of the project will deploy a 7 MW Wave Dragon demonstration unit to be located five miles from Milford Haven and tested for three to five years. The plant consists of two wave reflectors focusing the incoming waves towards a ramp, a reservoir for collecting the overtopping water and a number of hydro turbines for converting the pressure head into power.
Wave Dragon is by far the largest wave energy converter available today. Each unit will have a rated power of 4-10 MW or more depending on how energetic the wave climate is at the deployment site. The utilization of the over-topping principle as opposed to power absorption via moving bodies means that the efficiency grows with the size of the converter. Only practical matters, such as for construction, set limits for the size of this wave energy converter.
Prior to going offshore a comprehensive test program has been carried out in wave tanks in Denmark and Ireland. Further on real sea testing has been going on for more than 3 years with a grid connected prototype of the Wave Dragon in a Danish fjord (a scale 1:4.5 of a North Sea production plant).
The demonstrator device will be located five miles from the South West Wales coast, off St Ann’s Head, north and west of Milford Haven.
Wave Dragon is a large floating barge structure. The main structural parts will be constructed in reinforced concrete with additional structural steel elements. The total design weight of the Welsh demonstrator device is 33,000 tonnes. The geometrical layout of the device will be identical with the tested prototype.
On the device are mounted 16-20 low-head hydro turbines to drain the reservoir, each with a 440kW PM generator. Additional electrical systems, step-up transformers and service systems are placed in closed compartments.
The 7MWe Welsh Demonstrator device will initially be deployed in a wave climate much lower that its rated power and size justifies. This will enable a thorough testing programme. The demonstrator project is linked to a further development of a total 77 MW wave energy farm in the Irish Sea following the successful demonstrator testing. As significant cost saving exists when a series of reinforced concrete structures and hundreds of turbines are to be constructed it has been possible to put together a fully commercial project. The overall total project investment for this 77 MW project is approximately £1,740 per installed kW.
An estimate of the total wave energy resource that is available to be utilised in a short term perspective varies depending on how far offshore it will be technical feasible to deploy devices. As a conservative example the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the World Energy Council (WEC) has estimated the potential world-wide wave energy contribution to the production of electricity could be between 10 and 50% of the world’s annual electricity demand of 15,000 TWh.
A recent study by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and The Carbon Trust in UK (Renewables Innovation Review, 2004) states that 200,000 MW installed wave and tidal energy power by 2050 which with a load factor of 0.35 would result in annual power production of 600 TWh (4% of the electricity demand in the world). Independent of the different estimates the potential for a pollution free energy generation is enormous and the development of a completely new industry is underway. The development can be compared with what has happened in the last 25 years within the wind turbine industry.
The planning process for new technologies like wave energy takes time, so the company already has several projects in the pipeline. The first to follow the Welsh demonstration project will take place in Portugal where a company TECDRAGON Lda has been formed with the purpose of establishing 50 MW by 2009-2010.
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