In what seems one of the most unlikely collaborations in recent history, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced that it was working with Abu Dhabi to test the effectiveness of specialty solar photovoltaic (PV) coatings designed to prevent moisture and dry dust adhesion, which leads to cementation.

The DOE currently runs 21 national laboratories dedicated to any number of renewable energy and energy-efficiency advances. The alliance with Abu Dhabi, a member of the United Arab Emirates (a consortium of seven oil-producing nations, or emirates, along the Persian Gulf) is less surprising when one considers Abu Dhabi’s involvement in Masdar City, a planned “green” community being built and funded by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, a subsidiary of Mubadala Development Company.

When Masdar is completed, say designers from Foster and Partners, a UK architectural firm, it will rely entirely on solar energy and other renewable energy resources, and exist as the world’s only zero-carbon emissions, zero-waste city.

The DOE/Abu Dhabi partnership is less unlikely when one considers the problems Abu Dhabi is having with solar power in its futuristic, carbon-free city. Because, while Masdar’s level of solar insolation (5.9, or among the world’s highest) is superb, its most recent solar venture, the Shams 1 concentrating solar thermal (CSP) power plant is outputting less than investors expected as a result of dust particles.

This dust leads to the cementation problems on mirrors at Shams 1, billed as the world’s largest CSP facility, and will eventually have an equal impact on solar PV installations planned for Masdar City as well.

The same problems—dust cementation and moisture—face solar PV manufacturers worldwide, so the DOE and Abu Dhabi are working together to overcome them with specialty PV coatings developed at DOE labs and currently being tested at Masdar City, which supports its own clean-tech cluster.

Photo Credit: Shenli Leong via Flickr CC

Go solar like Granville and save money. Find out exactly how much with free estimates!

Recently, a school board cleared the path for solar panels on top of the middle and high school. The agreement allows the school district to buy fixed power at a cheaper rate for the next decade. That is, 7.1 cents per kilowatt hour as compared to the extant rate of 8.2 to 8.3 cents per kilowatt hour.

Good news for the school district, which – like other districts across the nation – is struggling with rising costs and falling revenues. The not-so-good news is the size of the system, which is likely to make only a small dent in the amount of power used by individual schools.

However, instead of seeing the cup as half empty, I think we who are solar advocates should reflect on the cup as half full, and see how such progress, even if by baby steps, can lead to a clean energy future.

In fact, it is just such baby steps that give other school districts, municipalities and even homeowners the courage and inspiration to move forward into a clean, solar energy future. I’m all for baby steps.

The solar panel installation will rely on a solar power purchase plan with SolarVision LLC of Westerville, which will build and operate the 70-watt solar panel systems, one on the roof of each school.

Photo Credit: mcsquishee

Upon installation, Brea will be the largest municipal user of solar power in Orange County. The solar panels will be installed at the Community Center, Civic and Cultural Center and the Reservoir City Pump Yard. Chevron Energy Solutions will design, build, install, operate, monitor and maintain the systems for the city. Also included in the project are citywide streetlight upgrades, interior and exterior lighting retrofits, HVAC upgrades and implementation of new energy management technologies to maximize energy savings from the solar installations.

“The City of Brea is proud to work with Chevron Energy Solutions to save taxpayer dollars by reducing our energy use,” said Brea Mayor Ron Garcia. “This project also helps Brea attain early compliance with goals of the Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32) by reducing our energy use.” AB 32 demands that the state reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, and if the bill survives a referendum this November, will institute a cap on carbon emissions in California.

The project is scheduled for completion in 2011. Data from the project, including the amount of solar electricity being produced, will be made available through a display at the Brea Community Center and on the city’s website.

Via PR Newswire
Photo Credit: FastCompany

Does everybody remember the spotted owl? Well, in 1991 this creature was officially named a threatened species by the U.S. government, and quickly became a controversial symbol for the environmental movement. That pressed harder on the brakes for an already slow logging industry in Washington State, in whose old-growth forests the spotted owl makes its home.

With forests preserved to protect the bird, logging dried up and a wave of mill closures accelerated. One community hit extremely hard was Hoquiam, a town of about 9,000 located on the Washington coast, where a local pulp and paper mill’s closure left 626 people out of work. Suddenly, unemployment skyrocketed to more than 20 percent, along with suicides and teen pregnancies.

In desperation, the community rallied to come up with some sort of replacement for the paper mill, the city’s largest employer before shutting its doors. That’s when Bill Quigg, his family and a group of more than 40 local residents banded together to buy the mill in 1993. Grays Harbor Paper was born and 250 Hoquiam residents went back to work.

In a market full of big companies and deep pockets, it was initially hard for Grays Harbor Paper to compete. They immediately began looking for ways to cut costs while keeping the best interests of their employees, their town and the local environment in mind. The eventual and ongoing solution was an amazing array of eco-friendly tactics.

For starters, the company looked at all the heat and steam put off by the boiler system, which heats the paper machine rollers that dry paper. Instead of wasting all this energy, Grays Harbor decided to capture and use it to produce its own electricity onsite. They converted the boiler system to burn bio-mass (wood waste in this case), which drives three turbine generators able to produce up to 17 megawatts of electricity (excess energy is metered out to Puget Sound Energy). While burning biomass can contribute to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the Grays Harbor method adds very little, if any, by controlling the burn process and scrubbing the smoke with water.

They also use excess materials—like ash from those boilers, extra calcium carbonate and wood fibers too short to use—and rather than throw it out, truck it to a local farm and use it all to “sweeten” acid soils.

In addition to changing how it makes its paper, Grays Harbor decided to change the paper it made as well—for the greener. They began manufacturing recycled paper containing 100% post-consumer content produced via renewable energy. This is truly the greenest paper on the market. Today, more than half the paper produced in the mill contains recycled content, compared to only 2% five years ago, and 20% of all paper sold is made from 100% post consumer waste.

Furthermore, Grays Harbor sources nearly all of its materials and makes 40% of its sales within a 200-mile radius. Almost all sales are made on the West Coast, from Vancouver to San Diego. The mill’s water is supplied from a rainwater reservoir 15 miles away, and wood pallets are made 12 miles away using only local wood. Bio-mass to run the boilers (and create electricity) is sourced within 30 miles.

Indeed, a recent blog on the Grays Harbor website boasts the incredible “greenness” of GraysHarbor 100, compared to other virgin and recycled papers. Virgin paper produces an average of 5,826 pounds of CO2 per ton of paper. 30% recycled content produces about 5,160 pounds of CO2 per ton. Even 100% recycled content paper creates about 3,605 pounds per ton. These numbers reportedly cover just about every aspect of papermaking, from gas-fired dryers to processing to pulping to paper decomposition and more.

Now check out Grays Harbor Paper’s number, given their onsite renewable energy production and various other green attributes. The Harbor 100 line of paper creates only 650 pounds of CO2 per ton of paper manufactured. That’s more than 80% less than other 100% recycled content papers.

At Grays Harbor Paper, a town and company born like a phoenix out of the ashes of the logging industry, businesses can truly find the greenest paper money can buy. The company sells commercial and business paper, as well as two lines of food, industrial and packaging paper.

And better yet, Grays Harbor is helping other companies in the region follow their lead. They are leaders in Building a Sustainable Grays Harbor, a group comprised of 75 local businesses dedicated to driving a local and sustainable economy. One such partner is Paneltech International, to which Grays Harbor Paper supplies 100% recycled paper—from which Paneltech makes PaperStone, a unique and very promising alternative to wood, marble or synthetic stone (think paper countertops).

Remember that I’ve only covered the paper and planet components of Grays Harbor’s triple bottom line. The union-run company also boasts a very unique, team-oriented, highly inclusive standard of operation, which you can read more about here.

After years of struggle and adversity, being the little local fish in a pond full of corporate whales, Grays Harbor Paper is beginning to come out on top. Governments and corporations are scrambling to prove their environmental responsibility, and Grays Harbor—the town and the company—is there waiting with the perfect paper with which to do so.

The company now boasts revenues around $100 million, roughly 1.5% of the domestic paper market.

The primary source for this paper was WhatTheyThink?

Nipton announced on Thursday that it had installed enough solar power to supply a staggering 85 percent of the town’s demand for electricity. Okay, so this little town on the edge of the Mojave National Preserve has a population of 38 people, but it still may be the nation’s most solar-powered city per capita. And they’re doing it with some cutting-edge technology.

The town installed an 85-kilowatt concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) system in which rows of mirrors collect and focus solar energy onto solar cells. This increases the productivity from each solar cell by maximizing the amount of solar irradiance each receives. The mirrors and PV cells are ground-mounted and use a tracking system to follow the sun as it traverses the sky each day.

Skyline Solar is the company that designed and produced Nipton’s solar system. That design resembles parabolic trough solar thermal collectors operating on larger solar farms elsewhere in the Mojave Desert region. Many of those projects, however, remain mired in environmental controversy, while CPV projects like Nipton’s can be built in close proximity to the town and plugged directly into the grid, avoiding the high cost of constructing new transmission lines.

Concentrating photovoltaics had been a niche technology until recently due to high costs. But the continuing fall of solar panel and equipment prices is making CPV a valid option for large-scale projects. Nipton’s array may not be even close to the largest in the Mojave, but with an 85-kW array and a population of 38, each sunny day, the town produces approximately 2 kW of clean solar power for every resident. Even in tourist season, when Nipton’s population soars to about 250, that’s still about 1 kW for every three people. What other town can boast either ratio?

Source: Grist

The city of Tracy sets a fine example of how direct action at the state level can have a noticeable impact on building sustainability, conservation, energy efficiency and a better environment in a community.

Tracy began as a small city along the Pacific Railroad Line between Stockton and Sacramento. Over the years, the rapid population growth of San Francisco and other Bay Area cities spilled over into Tracy. More than 80,000 people now call Tracy their home, and that increasingly dense population makes building a clean and green city tantamount to maintaining Tracy’s long tradition of lush, fertile landscape and productive agriculture.

That’s where California’s Emerald Cities Program comes in. Developed to provide comprehensive green support to municipalities, Emerald Cities essentially creates a road map to sustainability. Tracy has joined Riverside as one of two cities participating in the pilot phase of the program. 2008 saw the inauguration of the Citywide Sustainability Efforts movement, leading in 2009 to the start of the Emerald Tracy program.

Tracy works closely with the California government to develop a sustainable model for any city to follow. It is the only city in northern California currently participating in the Emerald Cities program and, although Riverside was the first to get full status as an Emerald City, Tracy is a symbol of how a city can start from scratch, addressing the challenges that an average community faces on its quest to go green.

Targets have been set and the city is currently working toward achieving a wide range of goals on all fronts.

Among Tracy’s existing sustainability efforts are:

• An expanded single-stream residential recycling program
• Green waste collection
• High-efficiency washing machine and low-flush toilet rebates (up to $125 per toilet)
• Free landscape and interior water audits
• A variety of waste reduction grant and education programs for homes, businesses and schools
• PG&E utility incentives for energy efficiency upgrades
• State rebates for home solar power and other renewable energy installations

Upon kicking off its sustainability efforts, Tracy started working with two consultancy firms, Town Green and Design Community & Environment (DCE), to put together a plan of action. That knowledge and support paid off when Tracy received an Energy Efficiency Conservation Block Grant from the Department of Energy to maintain their sustainable efforts, even as grants for cities dried up during the economic recession.

The plan began by tracking greenhouse gas emissions for a year to set a baseline to work from in reducing future emissions. And while renewable energy and energy efficiency are vital parts of its continually developing action plan (to be completed in 2010), Tracy is taking a broader approach, including efforts in: transportation, water conservation, waste reduction, air quality, agriculture, public health, economic development, biological resources and GHG reduction.

While many other cities already have sustainability goals and measures in place, including its Emerald City partner, Riverside, it is important to reiterate that Tracy had nothing of the sort before 2008. While other communities often feel overwhelmed at the challenge of turning nothing into something, Tracy is leading by facing its green challenges head-on, in the process becoming an active role model for similarly inexperienced communities. Tracy’s dedication to going “Emerald” will not only inspire, but lay out the groundwork for other cities to follow on their own path toward sustainability.

Photo Credit: mel_barries

With its endlessly mild Mediterranean climate, you’d think Santa Cruz would be more about beach blankets and bingo than environment and social activism, but that couldn’t be further from the truth in “Surf City.” Between the blue foam of Monterey Bay and the loamy coastal redwood forests, Santa Cruz has an outstanding passion for green leadership.

Indeed, for nearly three decades, Santa Cruz has been hard at work addressing and curbing climate change, beginning in 1982 with the creation of a Solar Municipal Utility. More recently in 2007, responding directly to the Kyoto Protocol, the city, University of California at Santa Cruz, and Santa Cruz County (of which SC is the county seat) signed a joint climate compact pledging to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. From that compact came a set of General Plan policies for curbing climate change and the subsequent Climate Action Program that sets forth specific goals for reducing GHG emissions and outlines necessary actions for achieving those goals.

The plan is to reduce citywide emissions by 30 percent by 2020, and 80 percent by 2050 (compared to 1990 levels). That includes all new buildings in SC being carbon-neutral by 2030. Progressive goals such as those require progressive action…and Santa Cruz knows all about progressiveness. The city is attacking climate change on all fronts, from transportation to green building regulations to land and water use to renewable and solar energy, sustainable living practices and beyond.

Santa Cruz wants to see 1,000 solar homes by 2012 and 5,000 by 2020. At the beginning of 2010, some 350 residential rooftops are covered with solar panels. And later this year, a $16 million program known as the Solar Finance District will kick off. Cities in 14 counties are participating in the program, which aims to remove the hurdles of going solar, including extra incentives for homeowners and reaching out to get citizens excited and motivated about home solar power.

The value of the finance district, or PACE solar incentive program, is that it ties the cost of home solar power systems to the home — not to the homeowner — through property tax assessments. Locally the wildly popular program is being targeted to landlords as well as homeowners, because 50 percent of its residents are renters (mostly students) who may be at the forefront of the green movement, but have little or no opportunity to go solar. With a financing program tied to property, renters have a better chance of convincing landlords to adopt solar power. The city is working closely with UC Santa Cruz, looking for ways to rate rental properties for their energy efficiency and savings. That can help renters become more aware about their usage and ability to conserve energy. Incentives will also be offered to landlords to facilitate their involvement.

Again, the Santa Cruz environmental movement is not just green. It has its blue side as well. Down on the waterfront, the City Wharf and UC Santa Cruz are working together to do research on renewable energy in the ocean water. The Coastal Energy Research Facility (CERF) is a permanent facility out on the water collecting data and formulating plans to harvest wave, tidal and other forms of renewable energy of use in coastal areas. With these plans for the future comes a preservation of the past as well, in the form of maintaining natural aquatic history by working around the natural habitats of sea creatures and other nearby wildlife.

Santa Cruz’s history of activism is a community history. Little happens without public input, and the public has a lot to say. Public workshops preceded the adoption of the General Plan and are in effect once more as the Climate Action Program takes hold. From nonviolence to the women’s movement to free radio and veteran’s rights, Santa Cruz is aggressively working its way into the new age. Some call it the coming Age of Aquarius. Some call it a pipe dream. But for Santa Cruz, that age is everyday life and the sustainable future is now.

Santa Cruz has already reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 8 percent below 1996 levels, led by a 29 percent reduction among residential homes.

Additional Information:

Santa Cruz Environmental Programs

Climate Action Plan

EcoCruz

Wharf Photo Credit: PBase

Achieving true sustainability requires a diverse approach. The city of Millbrae, California — just south of San Francisco at the end of the BART transit line — is doing just that, setting a magnificent example for surrounding communities. This small town of just over 20,000 has a lot to show the rest of us, from city-sponsored solar rebates to a very progressive food service ware ordinance. A lot of eyes have been on Millbrae’s sustainable progress since it began its exemplary work many years ago.

Sustainable History

Since the early 1990s, water conservation has been a primary focus in Millbrae. The city offers rebates for high efficiency clothes washing machines and toilets, plus free kitchen and bathroom aerators and toilet leak tablets to all residents and businesses. They even hold free water-wise landscaping workshops to inform people about the benefits and means for conserving water at their home or business.

A recurring theme in Millbrae’s run at sustainability is a do-it-yourself mentality. City government does not simply tell its constituents what to do; it leads by example and engages them, giving them the tools for going green and pointing them in the right direction. Instead of forcing homeowners to conserve water, Millbrae offers the tools and simply says, “Now look what this can do for you, your community and our environment.” And the people of Millbrae have responded in a big way. Actions speak louder than words, and Millbrae is a prime example of that.

Millbrae has an extremely high participation rate in its recycling program, well above state-mandated compliance levels. The city has had a curbside recycling program since the late ’80s, and that experience shows. When the state of California required that cities reduce the amount of garbage sent to landfill by 50 percent by the year 2000, Millbrae reached that goal a year ahead of schedule, posting a high current recycling rate of 67 percent.

Millbrae also houses seven participants in the Bay Area Certified Green Business program, including City Hall and the Millbrae branch of the San Mateo County Library, which is leading the local fight against “brown” building.

These programs, led by water conservation and waste reduction, facilitated a remarkable decrease in greenhouse gas emissions in Millbrae — more than anyone realized when the state mandated reductions and the emissions were measured once more. Now, the city and surrounding communities can see how effective progressive conservation policies can be, and Millbrae has a head-start on reducing its carbon footprint even more in the coming years.

Sustainable Food, Sustainable City

It’s obvious the people of Millbrae know all about waste reduction and conservation, and they’re tackling the problem from all sides, including food. Disposable food service ware and utensils are a major source of waste throughout the country. Much of it is made from polystyrene, a non-recyclable plastic that litters streets, waterways, beaches and landfills. So, Millbrae put the kibosh on the product, banning polystyrene food service ware products such as plates, bowls, and cups in all restaurants, delis, cafes, vendors, food trucks, fast food restaurants and city facilities within city limits.

Now, all food service businesses in Millbrae must use compostable or recyclable cups, plates and other service ware. Taking it even further, all disposable utensils must be biodegradable because plastic forks, knives and spoons cannot be recycled. In this way, they’ll at least break down faster and customers can even compost them on their own if they like.

Oh, and if you’re heading to the grocery store in Millbrae, be sure to stop by the Public Works Office and pick up your free reusable shopping bag made from 100-percent post-consumer recycled plastic bottles. Yet another free and easy tool for curbing climate change in Millbrae. It’s no wonder that all eyes are on this small city. It is, after all, setting a big example for the entire country.

There’s not a lot of waste in Millbrae. And nowhere in the city is that fact exemplified on a larger scale than at the municipal wastewater treatment plant. The plant uses brown grease from kitchen waste to create green energy. This biofuel technique now supplies nearly 100 percent of the treatment plant’s energy needs.

The city also offers small rebates for business and home solar power, in addition to the big rebates available from the state of California and the federal government. But in Millbrae, the movement is not all about solar power or any specific path. You may not find Millbrae leading the nation in solar panels installed, but residents have an undeniable drive to get sustainable and they are actively seeking out their own ways to do so. And there’s no doubt you’ll find Millbrae at or near the top of any list of sustainable cities, doing what Millbrae does best: Leading by example.

Links to all Sustainable Millbrae programs may be found at the City website.

Photo Credit: The Magnolia

There are moments when history is made. When necessity, inspiration, creativity and determination come together to change the world as we know it. When individual and collective willpower embrace. Women suffragettes finally won the right to vote in 1920. Ghandi fought nonviolently for freedom, and won it, in India. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus in 1955. In 2007, Berkeley, California became an instant leader in the renewable energy movement with the approval of a revolutionary clean energy financing program.

FIRST

Berkeley has a long history as a cradle of social activism, and while its game-changing solar play is relatively new, its effect is already being felt around California, the United States and the world. The story of Berkeley’s Financing Initiative for Renewable and Solar Technology (FIRST) begins in the mayor’s office. There, a staffer named Cisco DeVries had an idea. You might say an LED light bulb went on in his head. The city had already laid a foundation on which neighborhoods could come together to vote self-imposed taxes to pay for utility and telephone wires to be run underground. DeVries took that idea and ran with it, only with clean energy in mind.

Before long, a pilot program was in the works. This program allowed homeowners to avoid the high up-front costs of home solar power by borrowing cash from the city of Berkeley, and repaying it with interest through a voluntary property tax increase over 20 years. In this way, homeowners avoided immediate costs while the city gained revenue to pay for the financing and program administration. Moreover, the loan is tied to the property, not the individual, so the home can be sold without worrying about losing the value of the system before payback in energy savings is reached.

To say that Berkeley FIRST hasn’t changed the face and mood of the clean energy movement would be a gross miscalculation. A slew of other cities, including nearby Oakland, have adopted their own version of the program and the federal government is working on Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs directly spun from FIRST and designed to guide cities across the country through the process of adopting a Berkeley-esque financing scheme.

Applications for Berkeley’s pilot program were “sold out” in just nine minutes — easily as fast as any Led Zeppelin or Pearl Jam concert. Following the successes of, and lessons learned from, the Berkeley FIRST pilot, city officials are now working with the state and Alameda County to expand the program statewide (California FIRST), and expand it to include energy efficiency improvements much like the federal PACE programs.

Berkeley residents interested in solar power should make a point to stop by the interactive solar map the city set up. It contains a map of all 626 solar systems (including solar thermal) and 2.9 megawatts of solar power installed within city limits so far. You can also enter an address to find out the solar potential of your home, cost of a solar system on that home and energy savings you can expect as a result. Plug these numbers into Berkeley’s online calculator to learn how to finance the system, how much cash you’ll save and how long it will take for the system to pay for itself through those savings.

Climate Action Plan

Berkeley’s dynamic move toward energy independence is not limited to just one solar pilot program, however epic that program might be. Residents of Berkeley have never been keen on complacency, and the environmental ambitions of the city are arguably unrivaled among other large cities.

In November 2006, a whopping 81 percent of Berkeley voters said yes to a goal of reducing citywide greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050.  In June 2009 Council adopted a Climate Action Plan, adopting the 2050 goal and an 2020 interim goal of a 33% reduction. Those goals will be achieved not only through solar and renewable energy, but also waste reduction, building initiatives and transportation, among other specific steps. Not to mention the collective will of residents to reduce, reuse and recycle.

Anyone who wants to know exactly how Berkeley plans to meet those goals or what’s already been done will be happy with the incredible amount of disclosure and community outreach being exercised by city departments and the citizenry. You can find just about everything you’ll want to know, especially if you live in Berkeley, through an interactive website that guides visitors through the city’s seven-tiered plan to make Berkeley as green as green can be… and then greener some more.

Resources: Berkeley FIRST, Berkeley Climate Action Plan, Berkeley Solar Map, PACE, & Berkeley Climate Action Community Forum

Now, if Azusa is the local Camelot of solar power, then Cardinal Laboratories is its King Arthur. This local pet food producer and distributor is the epicenter of solar power in the city, currently on its own crusade to become a completely solar-powered company. Sure enough, just last fall, phase one of that crusade took effect when Cardinal Labs switched on a 367-panel, 71.4-kW solar photovoltaic system at its manufacturing and distribution center, making that facility 100-percent solar-powered. Phase two (already underway) involves the construction of a new solar-powered distribution center elsewhere in Azusa, followed by phase three: the energy efficient upgrade and solar transformation of its Cardinal Pet Care food distribution center. In Azusa, Cardinal Labs is a solar power symbol of Excalibur proportions, and a sure inspiration to the Round Table of solar knights to come.

When the California Solar Initiative went into effect in 2006, Azusa got right to it. Azusa Power and Light, local municipal utility, began offering rebates of $2.80 per watt, plus another $1.20 premium if the owner gave up their green energy credits. And, like a hungry answer to a dinner bell, solar power is moving in to the Canyon City, with at least three more solar projects to come this summer when a new round of government funding arrives.

As impressive as Azusa’s blossoming solar resume is, the city impresses in many other green ways as well. Most notable is Azusa Power and Light’s trendsetting LED TV rebates. Big, flat-screen HDTVs waste a lot of energy and heat. LED televisions, on the other hand, run much cooler and more efficiently, all while providing a better picture. In a land of entertainment, what could be better than a rebate for our number-one entertainment device?

Rebates are offered at 25% of the cost of the television, but Azusa residents can get a check for up to $750 in return for purchasing a more energy efficient TV. Not to mention $250 for an LED computer monitor. Excitement around these rebates is so high, it’s like a renaissance fair in King Arthur’s England — the real deal. Azusa was the FIRST city in California to adopt an LED TV rebate program and possibly the first in the entire country!

Now that’s Solar City leadership. And not without its crusades, either. We’ve already mentioned Cardinal Labs’ winning joust against fossil fuel energy. On the energy efficiency side of the round table, Paul Reid of Azusa Light and Water will be speaking at the 30th Annual Utility Energy Forum in Northern California to spread the good word about LED televisions and monitors, as well as the rebates that have Azusa and a growing number of other cities coming out of the dark ages ahead of the pack, enjoying a knightly mix of solar power, green building and energy efficient entertainment.