Organizers and Leaders: Start Here

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Comment by Richard Barnard 10 minutes ago

Akeena Solar, a designer and installer of solar power systems plan to sell panels at Lowe’s stores in California. Akeena, based in Los Gatos, stocked 21 Lowe’s stores with its Andalay AC panels that can be bought in packages that include built-in inverters, wiring and racking systems.

“This is a brand-new way for homeowners to get solar.”

Does anyone have any positive or negative comments in reference to the above? I’ve personally been waiting for a DIY to stock solar. I Plan to add a few solar panels then continue to add as needed until I’m sustainable. I haven’t gone to Lowe’s yet to qualify any possible caveats - Sounds too easy.

http://ir.akeena.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=429296

Richard Barnard

Comment by J Jay Pirko 1 day ago

Notice to Entrepreneurs in the New Energy Economy:

ADVANCED-ENERGY BUSINESS INCUBATOR IN WARREN, OHIO

The Youngstown-Warren Ohio region (in northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania) is a hotbed for Green Energy technology and business opportunity.

The Youngstown Business Journal published this article, another example of their outstanding business news coming from the Youngstown region. (I strongly recommend subscribing to the Youngstown Business Journal daily news broadcasts, and in-depth printed newspaper.)

- James Jay Pirko
OH-17 District Leader


NorTech to Help Launch Warren Incubator
-- 12/15/2009
Dec. 22, 2009 6:48 a.m.
By Dennis LaRue
WARREN, Ohio -- Possessed of a vision and fortified with $2.7 million in federal and state grants and another $1.7 million in private funding, a steering committee of 26 will, over the next 10 months, work toward the birth of an advanced-energy business incubator downtown.

Midwife to this birth is Rebecca O. Bagley, president and CEO of NorTech, a consulting firm based in downtown Cleveland whose tagline is “Growing Northeast Ohio’s High Tech Economy.”

Bagley, U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-17 Ohio, state Sen. Capri Cafaro, D-32 Hubbard, state Rep. Tom Letson, D-64 Warren, and Mayor Michael O’Brien, outlined their vision Monday of what such an incubator might achieve in the fields of “advanced energy and flexible materials.”

Long on optimism and short on specifics, the four expressed hope the incubator will rejuvenate manufacturing in Mahoning Valley through infant enterprises that one day produce parts for windmills, geothermal, solar and nuclear energy plants and sources of energy other than petroleum, coal and natural gas.

“Four hundred tons of steel go into a windmill,” Ryan noted.

Bagley offered a number of people she expects would be employed in the incubator -- “50 to 70 jobs” – rather the number of companies that would be housed there.

“We have done some market testing,” she said later, reporting that “450 firms” in the region are interested.

The incubator is incorporated as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that will be funded by both the public and private sectors.

The site of the incubator, whether it will be a converted building or a brand-new structure, and its design all must be worked out, to be determined by the steering committee that includes “nine CEOs or CEO-level executives,” Bagley said.

Mike Garvey, president of M 7 Technologies, Youngstown, and William Letson, president of the Trumbull 100, were present at yesterday’s press event in Ryan’s Warren office. So, too, were leaders from organized labor such as Gary Steinbeck, Sub-District 1 director of the United Steel Workers of America, and Mark Catello, business manager of Local 573 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Tony Iarusso, executive director of Warren Redevelopment and Planning, “will be involved,” O’Brien promised.

“Our role is facilitation,” Bagley said, “walking the steering committee through the process.”

The steering committee will look closely at the Youngstown Business Incubator, which Ryan called “a successful model [that will help the committee] avoid landmines.” He praised its success, noting it has earned national attention and, he hopes, the Warren incubator will too.

O’Brien voiced great optimism about the incubator, which in conjunction with the main campus of Eastern Gateway Community College to be established in Warren, should boost his city’s economy. Bagley and Ryan expect a partnership will develop between the community college and incubator.

“From North Park [Avenue] to Main Street,” O’Brien predicted, “within the next year, all [vacant buildings] will be filled.”

After nearly 30 years of neglect from Washington and Columbus, he rejoiced in the funding for the incubator and the development of the community college campus.

O’Brien pronounced himself “thoroughly impressed by the connectivity” of the Ohio House of Representatives, Ohio Senate and Congress that allowed the public funding of the incubator.

Before founding NorTech, Bagley served as deputy secretary for the Technology Investment Office of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development under Gov. Ed Rendell, says the biography provided by NorTech. There she “was responsible for the administration of several major state programs and initiatives, including the Life Sciences Greenhouse Initiative, the Ben Franklin Technology Partners, the Keystone Innovation Zone program, the research and development tax credit program and the manufacturing strategy.”

In that role, she managed “more than $1.7 billion in investments for Pennsylvania.”

Before that she was an investment banker in New York City where she was involved in oil and gas mergers and raising capital for various energy ventures.

She earned her baccalaureate in marketing at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Copyright 2009 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.

Comment by Dave Clement on December 22, 2009 at 9:36am

To all the supporters of the plan helping us get over the 2 Million Member mark!
Merry Christmas!
Click here to watch the video
Santa does support the plan! Watch the video!
The best to you all from the David & Patti Clement Family

Comment by Dave Clement on December 21, 2009 at 11:24am

You are invited! Waste Energy Gas to Power Grand Opening
Glendale Arizona Landfill, Jan 30th, Free tours, hot dogs & hamburgers. 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM
Click here to read the Arizona Republic article
Open house for Arizona's 3rd waste to energy landfill project!

Comment by Robert Schultz on December 21, 2009 at 9:45am

I was surprised to see this message in an e-mail from Mother Earth News


The No-Brainer Push for Wind Power from T. Boone Pickens
11/20/2009 12:46:35 AM

By Bryan Welch - Publisher, Mother Earth News

In my last post, The Prius Effect, I said that "Pundits up and down the political spectrum doubt society’s capacity to change. The left wing expresses disappointment in our general attachment to selfish interests. The right wing resists change when it threatens its traditional way of seeing the world. The Prius Effect suggests that consumers, in general, are more flexible and inventive than most pundits imagine."

But average consumers are not the only innovative forces creating environmental change in the marketplace. T. Boone Pickens is the very embodiment of the Texas oil tycoon. Worth about $3 billion, according to Forbes magazine, he’s a militantly conservative Republican with a big house in Dallas’ prestigious Preston Hollow neighborhood and an enormous ranch in the Texas panhandle, to which he commutes on the weekends in a private jet. He’s also, arguably, the world’s leading advocate for wind energy.

In 2008, just a couple of months after his 80th birthday, Pickens published The Pickens Plan and budgeted $58 million of his own money to promote it. [1] The plan proposes the rapid development of giant wind farms across the central plains of North America, specifically to replace the electricity we are currently generating with natural gas. The natural gas could then be used, instead, to fuel clean, efficient transportation.

(edit) Read the full article HERE

Why are Harry Reid and Whoopi Goldberg publicly giving their love to a swaggering, swashbuckling energy tycoon? Pickens is, after all, only protecting his own investments in wind power. His new role as an environmental visionary is an outgrowth of his new business as a wind-farm developer. The governmental support he is drumming up will eventually provide tax dollars to build the energy grids that are critical to his success.

The Pickens Plan is a self-serving marketing effort to support the Pickens Businesses. But in the process of building his PR machine T. Boone Pickens has given new legitimacy to wind power. By giving renewable energy a Texas drawl and a patriotic tattoo, Pickens has managed to bring wind energy’s practical benefits to light in front of tens of millions of skeptical Americans.

Like the Toyota Prius, T. Boone Pickens is pragmatic and technologically adept. He describes environmental benefits in practical terms that the average person can understand. Most remarkably, he’s voided the tribal politics that separated “tree-hugging environmentalists” from the citizens of the “conservative heartland.”

“This is a global game-changer,” as Boone has said [4], “It’s a no-brainer.”

Comment by John Wesley Nobles on December 19, 2009 at 7:26pm

JOIN US ON THE NATURAL GAS DISCUSSION GROUP

Comment by Jacqueline on December 17, 2009 at 9:28am

Brilliant piece on "Cap & Trade":
http://www.storyofstuff.com/capandtrade/
Please watch & share...

Comment by Dr. Hans J. Kugler, PhD on December 15, 2009 at 9:23pm

Pushing - - on every level - - a strong conservation program should be our # 1 priority; according to RMI (Rocky Mountain Institute) research, doing so we could reduce our oil/energy needs by 30%.
Fact that Washington is not doing this - - just paying a little lip service - - shows how strongly they are under the influence of the wasteful energy industry.
Real proof of this fact is that the present administration informed the coal industry and coal unions that they would not stand in the way of 24 coal strip mining projects - - - SEE WHAT $ 38 MILLION INVESTED IN THE LAST ELECTIONS CAN BUY!
And Washington is apparently also supporting the Hydrogen car - - - highly polluting because the present process of making hydrogen produces lots of polluting CO2. Oh yes, we could make hydrogen with EXCESS solar or wind electricity, but the Loony-Tunes won't acknowledge that WE ARE AT LEAST 30 YEARS AWAY FROM HAVING EXCESS ELECTRICITY. Click here to connect to ElToroEXPOSED.com.
But that's where each one of us - - WITH THE INDIVIDUAL'S ENERGY REVOLUTION - - can play a key role. Spread the word, stop wasting energy, think of how YOU can reduce gasoline consumption, walk short distances instead of taking the car (your unexercised body will thank you for it with better health), turn down the thermostat, and more, and more.
Keep reminding your Washington Bozos about the importance of initiating a strong conservation program; quote them RMI.
And keep pondering this suggestion: DURING THE NEXT ELECTIONS, THROW OUT ALL THE BOZOS!

Our house:

Each one of us can do this. Our return on the money invested in this PV system is 11%.

And don't drink the (by plastic) BPA-polluted water.

Comment by John Wesley Nobles on December 15, 2009 at 2:33pm

Leadership in America is alive and well! Today the Boeing 787 flew---it is 20% more fuel efficient than anything flying today. Clearly, this demonstrates the leadership, vision, and manufacturing skills of Americans!---We can do anything!

Wednesday, 12/16/09, 11 am pacific, 2 pm eastern The Green Revolution Show is going to honor some of our Energy Leaders. Scheduled guest include; John Oxendine, Candidate for Governor of GA, US Representatives, Jim Gerlach, Joe Sestak of PA, Pickens Plan State Leaders of; NY, PA, MD, GA, MO, ID, WA, and CA.

Please show your support by joining us in this salute, and be sure to invite your friends! Call in; 347-637-3101, press 1 to talk, or just go to your computer to listen. All show podcast are archived and may be seen at any time.

Comment by Bob Shultis on December 13, 2009 at 2:15pm

Hi Mike. This is awesome! And, you are right, it isn't just natural gas, it is wind, solar, geothermal, undersea currents,biomass, all of it. It all translates into American jobs and American prosperity, versus sending $25 billion each month to Arab, and other oil exporting, nations. Seems like a no-brainer to me. Now if we can just get Congress to see past PAC contributions, and recognize common sense. Unfortunately that seems to be the hard part.

I also agree with Hazel- we need to properly educate and train our future generations, in the sciences, but also to challenge the status quo, and the Big Government/Big Oil/Big Coal alliance.

I work in the US wind industry, and it is difficult to watch foreign competitors take business here in the US because their governments have provided them with the subsidies necessary to gain a competitive advantage, while our Congress has largely stood on the sideline. If the US wants to remain a global economic power, this has to change, and quickly. Time is running short.

Best regards, and thanks to you both,

Bob

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