The Push to Stop Farming Genetically Modified Crops on Boulder County Land

As Boulder County Colorado commissioners take public input regarding a possible ban on farming GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) on Boulder County open space, information continues to stream in about the dangers of GMOs. A new article titled, “Take Head – Nearly Every Processed Food You Eat is Contaminated with this Material”, outlines the widespread use of GMOs and the many associated dangers.

On December 8th at 6 pm at the Longmont Conference Center, 1850 Industrial Circle, in Longmont, CO, Boulder County commissioners will take public input on the proposed cropland policy which will address whether or not GMO crops will be allowed to be grown on Boulder County open space land. Read more: “Second committee votes to phase out Boulder County GMOs”

In January 2011, the US government authorized the “unrestricted commercial cultivation of genetically modified alfalfa” which adds another GMO to the list of genetically modified food being fed to cows, pigs and chickens. So even if consumers avoid GMO alfalfa, soy, corn, cottonseed (used in cooking oils), canola (canola oil), sugar from sugar beets, Hawaiian papaya, zucchini and squash, they may still be ingesting GM food by eating beef, pork and chicken not labeled as organic. According to a recent article titled “Monsanto is Using GMO Foods to Destroy our Health”, “GM corn, soybeans, canola, and sugar beets have made their way into approximately 80 percent of current U.S. processed grocery store items now that up to 90 percent of several U.S.grown crops are grown with genetically engineered seed.”

Take action here to urge the FDA to label genetically modified food: JustLabelIt.org Legal Petition to the FDA

For more information, check out the Organic Consumers Association and Non-GMO project on Facebook (click images below):

         

Feasibility of Solar Power

People have lived off the grid for decades powering their homes with solar energy. Still there is a perception within government and industry that solar energy just isn’t feasible and that it could never provide enough energy for us to survive. It’s a ludicrous belief system that has been perpetuated for years by moneyed interests in the fossil fuel industry. It reminds me of this cartoon that has also been around for years.

If solar energy had the same subsidies from the government as coal, oil and gas have had over the past 150 years, we would not have a need to buy oil from any nation. Electric vehicles have existed since the 1800′s. This electric vehicle technology could have been powered by the sun had certain policies been in place to promote and support solar energy technology.

Read more:  The Real Story On Solar Power And Energy Policy In America

SolarTalk: Solar Inverters with Fronius USA

Fronius USA talked shop about solar inverters recently at the Fronius Inverter Training in Denver. Highlighting their Grid-Connected PV Inverters, Fronius representatives detailed information about inverter basics, safety, features, installation, system monitoring, support and warranty during the four hour session.

Training on Fronius IG, IG Plus and CL series inverters included continuing education credits toward the NABCEP (North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners) certification.

Offering extensive technical and field support, Fronius Technical Support representative, Dan “D-Bone” Fortsen, outlined diagnostic support, replacement parts delivery time-frame, warranty and trouble shooting.

Yes, all of the support team are required to have a nickname by orders from their technical support manager, Moe “Papa Bear” Mahone. And since it’s such a cool nickname, we’ll just go with “D-Bone” from here on out.  D-Bone has several decades of pv installation experience and fielded questions from a room of experienced solar installers culminating the session with an operational inverter demonstration.

Fronius USA offers inverters designed for easy installation and I was impressed with replacement product, technical and field support Fronius offers. It was noted that the Fronius inverter warranty covers the inverters for temperature ranges of -13 to 122 degrees fahrenheit. Since it is common in Colorado to have temperatures below -13 in the winter months, Fronius inverters currently installed outdoors in Colorado have more than likely invalidated the warranty. D-Bone stated that each inverter has a computer log of daily high and low temperatures and it is the first thing they check when an inverter is returned under warranty. For Fronius solar inverters installed in Colorado, this requires installation indoors or in an area that has temperatures of -13 or above.

The Fronius website provides a number of helpful tools for installation including the Fronius Configuration Tool for IG and IG Plus series converters and Fronius Solar.web which provides personal monitoring of system data via the internet.

Special thanks to Brad Ritter and Ken Oatman at Solar Solutions and Distribution for the invitation and coordination of this informative event.

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For more information, visit Fronius USA Solar Electronics website: http://www.fronius.com/cps/rde/xchg/SID-13DC8450-4434309B/fronius_usa/hs.xsl/2714.htm 

or

Solar Solutions and Distribution in Denver to purchase: http://www.soldist.com

NBA Green Initiatives Night benefits Colorado Renewable Energy Society and The Nature Conservancy

Join the Colorado Renewable Energy Network on April 5th for the NBA Green Initiatives Night with a portion of ticket sales benefiting the Colorado Renewable Energy Society and The Nature Conservancy.

Event: Denver Nuggets vs. Oklahoma City Thunder
Date: Tuesday, April 5th
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: Pepsi Center, Denver, CO

Use this link to purchase special discount tickets to benefit the Colorado Renewable Energy Network and The Nature Conservancy:

http://www.pepsicenter.com/groups/nuggets/nbagreennight

Network and meet with other professionals interested in Colorado renewable energy and conservation at the Colorado Renewable Energy Network meeting prior to the game.

Move over King Coal, There’s a new Solar Sheriff in Town.

Coal is king in the United States. The state of Colorado currently receives more than 70% of its electricity from coal. However, upcoming years could see a new sheriff in town as solar power plants exponentially increase in size and capacity to produce 1,000 – 5,000 MW of electricity in the upcoming decade.

To provide some context in comparison to solar energy generation, the Comanche Coal Power Plant in Pueblo, CO features three operational units (Comanche 1: 325 MW – Comanche 2: 335 MW – Comanche 3: 750 MW) that produce a total of 1,410 MW.

Until 2009, the largest solar power plants produced under 100 MW.  Spain’s Andasol Solar Power Station features Europe’s first large scale parabolic trough solar power plant. In 2009, the Andasol 2 solar power plant came online and added 50 MW to the existing 50 MW of Andasol 1 for a total capacity of 100 MW.

2010 saw the completion of the Solnova Solar Power Station in Spain with a 150 MW installed capacity and the Solar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS) solar  power plant in the United States with a capacity of 354 MW.  Situated in California’s Mojave Desert, the SEGS solar power plant features nine parabolic trough power plants totaling 354 MW.

The Blythe Solar Power Project in the Mojave desert on BLM land is scheduled to be completed in 2013 and will provide 1,000 MegaWatts (MW) or 1 GigaWatt (GW) of electricity. This will almost triple the current largest solar power plant capacity in 3 years. The United States and South Africa are currently in a race for the first 1 GW solar power project.

With the exponential growth of solar energy expected to continue as new technologies and efficiencies are achieved, it appears there’s a new solar sheriff in town.

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For more information visit the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) website: http://www.nrel.gov/solar/news/

Colorado: The New Mecca for Wind Energy

A recent announcement by Vestas wind energy of a new office opening in Louisville, Colorado, highlights the fact that wind energy companies recognize the many benefits that the state of Colorado has to offer.

New developments include the opening of WindIngen in Fort Collins, Colorado. Specializing in the maintenance of wind turbines, WindIngen is banking on the need for maintenance on the large number of turbines installed in the past couple of years. The United States installed more Megawatts (MW) of wind power in 2008 and 2009 than the total amount of MW installed from 2000 to 2007.

WindIngen provides service, maintenance, upgrades and retrofits for wind turbines throughout the U.S.. As a new division of parent company, Mechanical Dynamics & Analysis Ltd., WindIngen offers complimentary services to the established turbine-generator engineering and outage services that MD&A currently offers.

A wind turbine company based in Lafayette, Colorado, Hybrid Turbines, Inc., has developed a hybrid wind turbine system dubbed “SmartGen”. The combination of a Turbo-Compressor and biodiesel back-up power generation enables the SmartGen System to “generate power at their rated capacity 100% of the time” even during intermittent wind speeds.

Juwi Wind is a German-based renewable energy company that recently moved their U.S. headquarters from Cleveland, Ohio to Boulder, Colorado. The U.S. headquarters for Juwi Solar is also based in Boulder. As a renewable energy hub, Colorado has many resources that are very attractive to renewable energy companies. Michael Rucker, the executive director of Juwi Wind stated in the Daily Camera; ”There are a lot of benefits and synergies, particularly in being able to recruit people,” said Rucker. “Having CU, NCAR, NIST and the National Renewable Energy Lab nearby, all of those are big benefits and draws.”

Boulder Wind Power began operation last April in Boulder. Created by Sandy Butterfield, a former chief engineer at NREL, Boulder Wind Power designs and builds next generation wind turbines and plans to employ approximately 40 people by the end of the year.

Earlier this year, several other wind energy companies moved to Colorado. Wind turbine component manufacturer Aluwind chose Castle Rock as the location for its first U.S. manufacturing plant. Aluwind is a Denmark-based company that manufactures wind turbine components for key clients such as Vestas Wind. Aluwind plans to employ over 100 people in the state. Also flocking to the renewable energy mecca of Colorado is Portland-based wind energy company REpower USA which moved their headquarters to Denver this month.

Time will tell if Colorado becomes the new “silicon valley” of renewable energy but from our front row seats it appears we’re off to a great start.

Find out more about Colorado wind energy by visiting the U.S. Department of Energy – Wind Powering America website:

http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/astate_template.asp?stateab=co

Advancing Renewable Energy with the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory

The Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory announced this week that the Center for Revolutionary Solar Photoconversion (CRSP) has provided $800,000 of funding for 10 advanced solar research projects in Colorado.

Allocated to the four research institutions in Colorado that comprise the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory; Colorado State University, Colorado University-Boulder, Colorado School of Mines and the DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratories, the funding was provided from CRSP corporate members and matching funds from the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory via the State of Colorado.

CRSP scientific director Craig Taylor stated that the advanced solar research “…underpins renewable energy technologies, commonly called third-generation solar photon conversion, for the highly efficient and cost-competitive production of both electricity and fuels via direct solar processes.”

CRSP has fourteen corporate members that include: Abengoa Solar PV, Applied Materials, Ascent Solar Technologies, DuPont, Evident Technologies, G24 Innovations, General Motors, Konarka, Lockheed Martin, Motech Industries, Sharp, Tokyo Electron, Toyota and ZettaSun.

The best part of this story is that the CRSP is just one of six Research Centers included in the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory.

The Collaboratory website defines this mission:

“-Create and speed the commercialization of renewable energy technologies, energy management systems, and energy efficiency

-Support economic growth in Colorado and the nation with renewable energy industries

-Educate our nation’s finest energy researchers, technicians, and workforce.”

The six research centers include:

-Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels

-Center for Revolutionary Solar Photoconversion

-SolarTAC (Solar Technology Acceleration Center) – Research Partnership

-Center for Research and Education in Wind (CREW)

-Carbon Management Center

-Energy Efficiency & Management Center

The Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory has successfully integrated four world-class research institutions with six cutting edge research centers and top corporate partners from around the world to create an exciting environment for the rapid advancement of renewable energy technologies.

Since its inception in 2007, the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory has collaborated on numerous renewable energy projects. From solar projects to convert sunshine into electricity and fuel to partnerships with corporate sponsors like ConocoPhillips who invested $5 million to research biorefining and biofuels, the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory is gaining momentum with each new project. Stay tuned for the results!

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For more information visit: http://www.coloradocollaboratory.org / http://www.coloradocollaboratory.org/crsp/index.html

Rocky Mountain Winners of the Cleantech Open

As renewable energy and clean technology continues to percolate in the state of Colorado, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper recently announced the Rocky Mountain regional winners of the Cleantech Open. For those not familiar with the Cleantech Open, it is the world’s largest competition of cleantech companies vying for millions of dollars of cash awards, business development assistance and private funding.

The three finalists selected from the Rocky Mountain Region were each awarded $50,000 in cash and services. Two Colorado finalists include Boulder-based New Sky Energy and Golden-based SunTrac Solar. Headquartered in Missoula, Montana, Rivertop Renewables was the third finalist. Another company receiving accolades was Boulder-based Cool Energy accepting the Cleantech Open Sustainability Award.

The three finalists compete with finalists from two other regions, California and Pacific Northwest, in San Francisco on November 17th for a grand prize of $250,000 at the 2009 Cleantech Open Awards Gala. Dubbed the “Academy Awards of Cleantech”, the 2009 Cleantech Open Awards Gala showcases the most promising clean technology companies and features keynote speakers headlined by Google Green Energy Czar, Bill Weihl.

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For more information, visit the Cleantech Open website: http://www.cleantechopen.com

Boulder, Colorado: SmartGridCity USA

Photo credit: SmartGridCity.XcelEnergy.com

September 2009 marked an incredible milestone in the world of smart grid technology with Xcel Energy’s completion of the world’s first SmartGridCity in Boulder, Colorado.

SmartGridCity is the high-tech evolution of our current electric grid which has changed little, in terms of technology, in the past 100 years. By combining state-of-the-art smart grid technology, SmartGridCity provides utilities and consumers real-time information about energy consumption resulting in numerous benefits for both.

This “smart” information is used by the utility to provide more reliable and stable power, avoid blackouts and conserve energy. This information is so smart that it has already identified SmartGridCity transformers in need of replacement BEFORE they malfunctioned. In the past, transformers were only replaced after they blew and the power went out.

Ultimately, the consumer utilizes “smart” information to consume less electricity and save money by active participation in energy consumption. Smart appliances allow the consumer further control via ability to program smart appliances (washer, dryer, dishwasher, etc.) to operate during non-peak electric hours when rates are lowest.

Wireless devices and mobile applications, like Boulder-based Tendril Network’s Vantage Mobile, provide the ability for consumers to monitor and adjust electricity consumption from remote locations. Efficiency has never been this fun.

The $100 million SmartGridCity project created a wide range of jobs through infrastructure construction and the collaborative efforts of the following companies that comprise Xcel Energy’s Smart Grid Consortium:  Accenture, CURRENT Group, GridPoint, OSIsoft, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, SmartSynch and Ventyx®.

Infrastructure construction alone included the installation of 15,800 smart meters, 200 miles of fiber optic cables, and 4,600 residential and business transformers.

Smart grid technologies enable utilities to combine and maximize energy generated from various renewable sources such as solar, wind, hydrothermal and geothermal.

Not only is smart grid technology exciting but the economic incentive is equally as attractive. Smart grid research estimates a savings potential of $48 billion for the 200 largest U.S. utilities.

SmartGridCity is also testing the ability to charge and store energy via Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV). PHEV’s conserve electricity by utilizing non-peak electricity to charge the vehicles’ battery. A PHEV can also provide energy storage and power for the grid during peak electricity demand. Boulder-based EEtrex completed the PHEV vehicle conversions and are conducting tests for PHEV interaction with the electric grid, homes, construction sites and emergency power.

In June, the Elephant Journal wrote a blog post, titled “Who’ll be the first Smart Grid City?“, about the quest to become the first smart grid city in the world and five U.S. cities leading the way. Boulder has answered that question with resounding intelligence (ie. “smarts”) and along the way earned the new moniker of “SmartGridCity U.S.A.”.

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Find out more about Xcel Energy’s SmartGridCity program: http://smartgridcity.xcelenergy.com/index.asp

and

EEtrex PHEV conversions: http://www.eetrex.com

The LH4: Lightning Hybrids Strike with New Technology and Style

I love watching new technologies develop. Especially when it’s in my backyard. Based in Loveland, Colorado, Lightning Hybrids is working on some very cool stuff.

Take leading hydraulic technology and combine it with a bio-diesel engine and you get a cutting edge hybrid called the LH4.

Sleek, sexy, and fun, this car brings it. If getting over 100 miles per gallon isn’t enough, how about 0-60 in 5.9 seconds. Pretty good for a hybrid. The LH4 is a 4-seat compact sports sedan propelled by 240 hp of bio-diesel and hydraulic power. Scheduled for release in 2010, the LH4 is the poster child for exciting new things to come. Lightning Hybrids also manufactures a three wheel version called the LH3.

Lightning strikes again! This time it’s electric. Lightning Hybrids is also developing a full electric vehicle (EV) and a bio-diesel plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). Plans for both vehicles include all the bells and whistles to appeal to a mass market and are being developed in conjunction with new 3D Cu2Sb Nano Technology battery research at Colorado State University. The all electric vehicle is slated to get a 100 mile range on a 15 minute battery charge. The bio-diesel plug-in hybrid electric vehicle will feature a 40 mile all-electric range with additional range and power provided by a 1.4 liter bio-diesel engine. The target base price for both vehicles is under $40,000.

Lightning Hybrids is applying for over $50 million in grants for research and development of these vehicles. If funding is received, Lightning Hybrids plans to manufacture the vehicles in Loveland and eventually provide over 300 clean-tech jobs. Lightning Hybrids is urging everyone to contact their local and state representatives and request that they support Lightning Hybrids proposal to reduce dependence on foreign oil, create American jobs and work towards a more sustainable future.

For more information about Lightning Hybrids, visit their website at: LightningHybrids.com