Daily Loaf

What’s the buzz on the latest issues in the Green Community? Check out what you may have missed this last week:

Is solar PV dead in Florida? – In an important proceeding at the Florida Public Service Commission in Tallahassee, approval of large-scale solar projects is in doubt.

Obama and other world leaders fess up: No climate change deal likely in December – After all of the efforts from people around the globe to get our world leaders to listen up and take action against climate change in December in Copenhagen, it looks like things aren’t going to be changing any time soon.

Tips on heating, cooling and sealing your home to save energy and some green (video) – Did you know that you can save energy and money on your utility bill just by properly using your thermostat and keeping your house sealed from outside air?

Ponzi schemes target green investors – The SEC reports of a $30 million Ponzi scheme involving 300 investors nationwide who participated in a purported environmentally-friendly investment.
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It wasn’t easy for me to resist the temptation to gush happily in print over our President’s visit to DeSoto county last week; but what struck me as I watched the event on TV were the paradoxical images –

Consider this: a utility company executive delivers accolades to the President for his leadership on sustainable energy production. Is this an anomaly? Maybe, but FPL Group’s CEO Lewis Hay, belongs to an exclusive club. Its members are forward thinking business executives readying their companies for a new green economy.

Granted, Mr. Hay’s exuberance may be due to the $200 million of stimulus funding FP & L is about to receive. But you have to admit, it does take chutzpah for him and his activist executive buddies to visit Washington in support of climate change legislation. They gathered as the Waxman/Markey bill was coming up for a key house vote back in June, even taking out a full page ad in DC newspapers. Acknowledging the paradigm shift to sustainable, clean power production so many others deny, they see the legislation as good for business. Whoa, did you hear that, Chamber of Commerce? Jokingly, Obama noted that people get nervous about change, relating Hay’s comment “especially utility executives” to which the crowd, largely made up of utility contractors and employees, laughed heartily.

Or this image: Juxtaposed against gleaming hi-tech solar panels, straw cowboy hats perched atop the heads of men in the first row bobbed up and down nodding in agreement with the President’s words. Thirty years ago this would be a scene in a sci-fi flick, and for some in the Deep South it would have been a horror flick. An African American President telling a rural Florida farming community: Boys, we’re gonna be installin’ some special equipment out here in these pastures, we’re gonna start harvesting sun rays. Yeah, sure ya are, and I just got done putting a trailer hitch on my spaceship to Mars. Oh by golly, farming sure has changed. No horses corralling cattle; no tractors in the fields, no worry of drought damaged crops.
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I intend to describe an emerging tribe that is being formed, not only in the Tampa Bay area, but across the state as well. But while doing, so I want to showcase my own observations of the mindset of a large section of the population that is emerging. I believe and have witnessed the cohesive power of this tribe en mass. This cohesiveness is being brought about with courage from an unknowable source. The people standing up for the changes within our culture are ones that have jumped into a new dark abyss. They go forward with lamps showing the way for others to follow.

Last weekend, I attended the 4th Annual Campus and Community Sustainability Conference and Expo at the University of South Florida’s Tampa campus. One of the first seminars I went to was about a group of young architect students from the USF Center for Community Design and Research designing a sustainable community.  These young ladies entered a contest to design a sustainable city, their design being at the heart of  Tampa between Ybor and downtown Tampa. They readily valued community supported agriculture as a method of enabling people to consume food, not measured in miles, but in feet. Light rail mixed with walkable communities enabled the commuters to enjoy a short stroll to anything needed in daily living. Driving a bicycle was just about the only vehicle allowed within most of the area. There was a centralized farmers market where hundreds of stands could be set up, bringing in the local community garden’s food, as well as that from local farmers.
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The 14th annual ASES Solar Home Tour this Saturday, October 3rd will be the first time tour conducted in Tampa. Don’t miss the opportunity to see some demonstrations, learn how solar photovoltaic installations work and how to save money by using energy efficient systems in your home.

In my last post, the energy savings I mentioned weren’t all that’s available for those of you who want to harness some of the sun’s power and claim it for yourself.  Unfortunately, there seems to be a little placating going on between the citizenry’s desire to move our state toward renewable energy and our legislator’s desire to make us think that they are on our side. Last November, Florida voters passed Amendment 3. What? You don’t remember Amendment 3? Not many people do, but then again, it seems there’s not much of a reason to.

What you may remember about November 2008’s ballot: the long lines for a voting booth, media hype and all of those pesky Constitutional Amendments. One of them, Amendment 3, was placed on the ballot under the authority of the Florida Taxation and Budget Reform Commission; a gubernatorial appointed board that meets once every 20 years. Every 20 years – really? One of the ideas they managed to place on the ballot was amazingly clearly worded, but honestly, I don’t think it was the renewable energy part that prompted so many Floridians to vote for Amendment 3. Authors cleverly name amendments to attract attention, and often word them to confuse the general public, designed for a pass or fail depending on which outcome they prefer. Remember the “Florida Marriage Protection Amendment”? In the case of Amendment 3 it was the storm protection component that played to fear-stricken Floridians: fear of not only hurricane force winds, but fear that they’d improve their homes to protect themselves, and then get taxed. It passed. Couldn’t have been because of the renewable energy, there’s already an exemption on the books for that, but who knew?
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A great opportunity crossed my path when Jamie Trahan from the USF Clean Energy Research Center called. As a local green builder, she thought I could help her search for homes to feature on the 14th annual ASES National Solar Tour being held across the country on October 3rd.

Sadly, I informed her although I researched installing solar on our super energy efficient homes, I couldn’t find a way to make it work. Our mission is to build sustainable and affordable. We went with a gas fired tankless hot water system. Yes, it is natural gas, not a renewable, but still better than a traditional water heater sapping electricity around the clock. I know everyone can relate to waiting for water to come from the tank to your shower and up to a comfortable temp, wasting gallons upon gallons of water in our already deprived region. Tankless saves money and almost more importantly, water. Would I have preferred solar? Damn straight I would, future homeowners of our Ec0-Craftsman would have benefited from a zero energy home, but solar is caught in a conundrum of sorts. There’s not the demand to spur mass production, which leads to lower costs while at the same time, there isn’t the mass production leading to lower cost which would spur demand.
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We all want to save money on energy and utility bills during this time when money is tight. Some people have the misconception that going ‘green’ and putting energy efficient installations in their home can be expensive, but it’s quite the contrary. Why not learn how these solar powered/energy efficient components work and see them in action in homes and buildings around the Tampa Bay area?

The Tampa Solar Homes tour will show you how to go ‘green’ and save money on your utility bills by installing photovoltaic systems, solar hot water heaters, back-up batteries and solar attic fans. Listen to some solar power experts, get a solar photovoltaic system tutorial, and check out the numerous homes and businesses around the Bay that are using these practices- for free! Bonus: There will be a free shuttle to tour participants around to see all of the sites on this tour.

Read more:
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What’s the buzz on the latest issues in the Green Community? Check out what you may have missed this last week:

Hillsborough County receives $7.6 million federal energy efficiency grant- The county plans to use these funds to undertake energy efficiency and conservation projects on its facilities and vehicles.

The pursuit of sustainable happiness- Sustainability in relation to happiness here is used to denote something that is generative, something that will complete us and not deplete our energy levels, something that would inspire us to be better.
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If you’re looking for a simple, fun way to save money on the little things you use every day, consider solar powered gadgets. These also make really great gifts you can give to friends or family members. Electronic gadgets all need a power supply in order to work the devices, so why not go solar-powered?

There are a great deal of devices and gadgets that we use on a regular basis today and this puts a considerable strain on the environment. This is why more companies are using solar powered gadgets and we are not seeing more of these types of items on the market.

Solar power works by harnessing the rays of the sun and using them to power devices. There have even been solar cars created but they are not quite on a mainstream level to be available to the average public yet.
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What’s the buzz on the latest issues in the Green Community? Check out what you may have missed this last week:

Fixing sprawl and redesigning suburbia- Grant Rimbey CNU explores a possible strategy towards improving existing sprawl. Fixing the sprawl that we have, along with sprawl demolition and recycling, are strategies that could be employed in the future as a new green industry.

Nation’s largest solar facility to be in DeSoto County by next year- Florida Power and Light is currently building the nation’s largest photovoltaic plant in DeSoto County, a $173.5 million, 25 megawatt solar generating facility.

Fresh: New Thinking About What We’re Eating screening – What’s wrong with the mega-industrial food industry- Struggling small farms, problems with food safety rules and the mega-industrial food industry, and a film about all of the above.
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The town of Arcadia in DeSoto County is currently building the nation’s largest photovoltaic plant.

According to Florida Power & Light (FPL) the $173.5 million, 25 megawatt solar generating facility should be operating by the second quarter of 2010.

In February, FPL broke ground on its DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center: Florida’s first commercial solar energy facility.  The facility is projected to produce an average of 42,000 MWh of electricity annually.  This enough to meet the needs of over 3,000 homes or over 7,000 people; nearly 20% of DeSoto County.
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What’s the buzz on the latest issues in the Green Community? Check out what you may have missed this last week:

Celebrating Independence Day or creating environmental disaster? – Kelly Rothwell looks at the littered aftermath of Fourth of July celebrations and wonder why, instead of giving back in celebration of their freedom, people decide to light off fireworks, leaving mass amounts of debris in the water and on the beach.

Local Food: Dinner in, and from, the garden at Gateway Organic Farm – Chef Gui Alinat gives information about Gateway Organic Farm’s next “Dinner in the Garden” event, an incredible local foods experience featuring nine Bay area chefs.

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Quivira Vineyards and Winery in Sonoma’s Dry Creek Valley is not only an organic vineyard and farm, but also a biodynamic one as well, producing sustainable vineyards and crops. They specialize in varietals known to excel in the Dry Creek Valley, such as Zinfandel and Sauvignon Blanc and small lots of Rhone Varietals. Quivira also has their own farm, where they supply local markets with fresh, organic food. “Biodynamic farming practices help create healthy porous soils which allow water, gases and nutrients to penetrate deep into the soil strata. This fosters strong, wide, deep root growth that enables the vines to absorb elements from the soil and transfer them as flavors to the fruit.”
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What’s the buzz on the latest issues in the Green Community? Check out what you may have missed this last week:

Steps to becoming greener: Reducing your waste, reusing and recycling: Joshua Poll gives some useful tips for ways to start reducing, reusing, and recycling things you thought you could just throw away.

Genetically engineering cows that will produce less methane, reducing greenhouse gases: Geneticists in Canada are trying to engineer a cow that produces less methane, resulting in less greenhouse gases, reports Brian Roberts.
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Okay, so this might be a little daunting for some, but what does it really take to generate homebrewed electricity?

If you are a little handy, have a few power tools, and really want to get off the grid, check out the videos husband and wife team Dan and Denise Rojas have put together at their site, Green Power Science.
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Green Cities™ Florida hosted in Orlando was last week (May 20th & 21st) at the Orange County Convention Center. The overall focus of the event was to bring businesses and municipalities together to achieve green goals to save the planet, increase profits, and to qualify for possible federal funding. The Green Cities™ conference “demystified ’sustainability’ and provided tools, steps and resources from top experts and educators”.

There was a ribbon cutting ceremony and official “Flipping the Switch” for the new 1 MW Solar Electric System atop the Orange County Convention Center. This is the largest installation of its kind in the Southeast US, and one of the largest outside of California and the Pacific Northwest. This installation was installed with the help of a $1.8 million grant from the state of Florida, an example of the kind of partnerships that Green Cities™ Florida advocates. Read the rest of this entry »

Tile roofs are popular, especially in Florida. If you’ve considered solar power but didn’t like the thought of solar panels mucking up your home’s look, there’s a new alternative. SRS Energy has teamed up with US Tile to offer you solar energy in the form of “barrel-style” tiles.

The additional weight and possibly undesirable appearance of standard solar energy panels might prohibit home owners from taking advantage of the sun’s rays we get in Florida nearly every day. With the solar energy technology built right into the special tiles, there’s no additional weight bearing down on your house and no rectangular panels to avert your eyes from. In fact, the solar tiles actually weigh less than clay tiles of the same size.

Their new product, called Solé Power Tiles, are the same size and shape as US Tile’s standard authentic clay tiles. They will fit alongside the clay tiles or fill entire sections of the roof without ruining the effect of the tiling. Read the rest of this entry »