[RTC List] New RTC Technologies - solar & efficiency

[Michael Welch]

Hello friends. I am new to your listserver, but have been aware of your organization for many years. I know several of you personally, and appreciate all you have done for technology in our community. I'm glad to see the organization continuing healthily along.

Please bear with me here, I hope my email is not too long. I know you are busy professionals, and this is a bit more lengthy than I like to see on other lists I am on.

Anyway, I have been thinking that "technology" is a pretty widely defined subject area, yet at least on the surface, it seems the focus of the group is mainly concerned with computers and networks.

As a long-distance telecommuter working in the magazine publishing industry (check out www.homepower.com), I do have an appreciation for computer and network related subjects. I spend nearly the whole day in front of my computer, working via email, ftp, and web.

But I am also a renewable energy advocate concerned about human-caused climate change and other pressing energy issues, and am interested in some of the technologies that can help cut back on greenhouse gases and other environmental problems.

I have been wondering about these other important technologies and how they might fit in with RTC. For example, there's photovoltaics (PV). Did you know that Humboldt County has more installed PV power systems than any other region of the world? Yes, Humboldt has been on the leading edge of these kinds of solar-electric systems for many decades mostly due to the existence of Alternative Energy Engineering in Redway coupled with a fair amount of rural disposable income from "farming" activities in the 70s to 90s among back-to-the-landers.

Things are changing in the PV industry, though. Growth in off-grid renewable energy is outstripped due to more recent innovations in grid-tied photovoltaics. Even though local cash-croppers have diminished in numbers and income, there is still plenty of legitimately earned money around for this kind of thing. CA has some of the best-used RE incentives in the U.S., and PV is a growing industry as a result. 

As for Humboldt County, we have some of the most prolific installers of these systems working mostly in north-central Humboldt. I do not know the most recent stats, but as of three or so years ago, the Arcata/Eureka area had more new on-grid PV systems installed than any other area in the state, per the Californian Energy Commission which oversees the state's renewable energy (RE) rebate programs. Pretty interesting technology, with the most implemented systems centered right here in foggy old Humboldt Bay.

That said, here are a couple of invites for all of you. 

First, note that the 2006 Humboldt Solar Neighbors Tour will be held on Saturday, October 7 from 10 AM - 3 PM.  The tour will be neighborhood-based, and will showcase over 50 solar and energy efficient homes and facilities in five communities across Humboldt County.  More information, including neighborhood tour starting locations, is available on the attached flyer. (If file attachments are not allowed, please contact me off-list.)

Separate from this, though it is part of the above tour, I would like to invite any of you to visit Redwood Alliance's two PV systems in Arcata. One is strictly grid tied, and the other is also grid-tied but provides battery backup in case of power outages (this is the ultimate UPS). Just let me know if you want to come by.

Finally, energy efficiency is one of the most important environmental issues of our time. It is also an economic issue for people living with renewable energy, because PV is still expensive. For every dollar a household spends on energy efficiency for the home, it can save between $3 and $5 on the cost of the solar electric system needed to power it. 

For the rest of us, as energy guru Amory Lovins points out, a watt saved is a watt that does not need to be produced by fossil fuel and other utility-scale power plants. His concept of "nega-watts" revolutionized (or should have) the utility industry 25 or so years ago.

Energy efficiency IS a technical issue, and I have a proposal for RTC that should be right up its alley. How about promoting and sponsoring a county-wide contest to come up with the most energy efficient "home" computer? 

Redwood Alliance is willing to co-sponsor such a contest, and even put up some prize money, maybe in conjunction with local computer businesses. But I think that RTC is the perfect vehicle for such a contest. A set of rules would need to be arrived at, as well as a set of benchmark tests. From our viewpoint, such a computer would have to be full-featured using off-the-shelf components and be something that local computer builders could closely copy and sell. My guess is that a very nice computer can be built with all the common amenities (though with some processor speed sacrifice since faster speeds produce heat--the root of all electrical inefficiency) that can be run off of a 15 watt wall-wart, and only cost marginally more than a watt-waster.

Please let me know what you think of this proposal as individuals, we can discuss it on list or wherever. Then if it seems like there is interest, maybe the discussion can be taken up formally by the Board.

Thanks for the opportunity to share these thoughts and proposal with you.
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Michael Welch, volunteer
Redwood Alliance
PO Box 293
Arcata, CA 95518
707-822-7884
mwelch at redwoodalliance.org
www.redwoodalliance.org