Ok, so the gist of this article is that solar power and wind power will harm the electrical transmission grid by placing large amounts of energy far away from where it's being used.

The $700 billion economic bailout plan passed by Congress last month was filled with controversy, and whether or not it has been effective remains to be seen, but there was at least one good thing to come out of the plan, a tax credit for people who install small wind turbines for electrical generation.

...the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008,
H.R. 1424 was passed which included a new federal-level investment tax
credit (ITC) for qualified small wind turbines. The ITC is worth up to
$4,000 and available for units installed through 2016.

The U.S. small wind industry projects that the enactment of this
federal credit, combined with a forthcoming equipment certification
program, will provide thousands of new jobs and could foster U.S.
market growth of more than 40 percent annually.

“Cutting edge small wind systems can play an important role in our
efforts to expand the production of clean, homegrown energy,” said
Senator Ken Salazar. “These tax credits will provide America’s
consumers, small business owners, and farmers and ranchers the
opportunity to bring down their energy costs, while helping to advance
us toward an energy independent future.” 

I'll be the last person to complain about a tax credit for the use of alternative and renewable energy sources, but the tax credit doesn't go far enough.  In addition to the tax credit, or in place of, we need a federal grant system to encourage homeowners and small business to install sources of alternative energy such as small wind generators.

The problem many people have is that in this extremely tight economy, they simply can't afford $4,000 to $10,000 to install a wind generator or solar panels on their house or business. Tax credits are great, but they require homeowners to pony up the money and have the systems installed before they qualify for the credit, which means a lot of people who would like to take advantage won't. They simply can't afford it.

A grant program, like the voucher program for digital TV's, will be much more effective in transitioning homeowners towards alternative energy sources, will stimulate the economy by bringing more business to manafucaturers and installers of green energy sources, and will reduce the load on our already over-worked dirty power plants. It's a win-win situation for homeowners, for business, and for the environment.

Ralph Dull visits with Gov. Strickland at his alternative energy powered farm

.

Brookville, Ohio is basically like every other part of the rural Midwest running along Interstate 70 from Columbus to Denver; It's flat, boring, and full of farms. In Brookville, however, there is a very special place where one farm is showing the rest of the nation how alternative energy and farming practices can not only make a huge difference for the environment, but can make a huge difference in profit-margin as well.

The 79-year-old Dull has since become an Ohio pioneer in green farming and renewable energy, jumping into it in hopes of increasing energy efficiency, cutting costs and protecting the environment.

There are six wind generators on his 2,800-acre farm in western Ohio. In one building sits a machine that produces hydrogen, made from electricity and water. Dull hopes it will soon replace the gas in his forklifts and supplant the propane that heats his pig barn.

Dull's office is geothermal heated and cooled. He dries his seed corn by burning rejected corn instead of propane, and he grinds corn cobs to sell as horse bedding and mulch.

Dull's practices have drawn such visitors as Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and Ohio Agriculture Director Robert Boggs. Strickland came away impressed by the farm and what it could mean for agriculture's role in environmental protection.

“He is demonstrating through his farming practices that you can have a profitable farming operation while caring for the Earth,” Strickland said.

The governor and GOP legislative leaders want the state to rely more on alternative energy and are pushing a stimulus package that would earmark $150 million for advanced energy sources such as solar power, wind and clean coal.

Experts say that while Dull is still the exception, more farmers are expressing interest in green farming and in using renewable energy sources. Beyond environmental concerns, cost-conscious farmers are seeing economic benefits as fuel and fuel-based fertilizer prices soar.

In the interests of full disclosure, I should tell you that I've met Ralph Dull and his wife, Christine, on numerous occasions. I first got to know them through what was then called the 911 Coalition, a loosely knit group of local activist organizations that came together in the wake of the September 11 attacks to protest President Bush's then plans to go to war in Iraq. I've had some wonderful conversations with them and heard some of their incredible story first-hand, usually while standing outside in way too cold weather at a protest or rally.

What many of the articles I've seen on Ralph and his alternative energy farm leave out is that the Dull's are not just regular Midwestern folk who've adopted alternative energy to help cut costs on their farm. They've been activists for peace and the planet their entire adult lives, and are extremely active in the social justice movement around Dayton. Every year they're part of a large group of activists who travel to Ft. Benning, Georgia to protest the since renamed School of the America's, where Latin-American dictators such as Manuel Noriega and others were trained by the U.S. Government. Ralph and Christine were also instrumental in making the Dayton International Peace Museum a reality.

As usual, though, Ralph and Christine are ahead of the curve, this time on alternative energy. The difference is that this time a lot more people are actually starting to listen, take notice, and follow suit. In my opinion, it's about damned time.

For more about the Dull's farming practices, visit their Future Energy and Conservation Center website.

Prince Charles is building the world's first green town.

It takes a lot of guts and a very special type of person to build a town, and say it's going to be the most eco-friendly town in the world. A person like the Prince of Wales, Prince Charles.

A free bicycle with every home and wind-generated electricity - welcome to Prince of Wales' 'eco-town'.

Prince Charles has been granted permission to build Sherford, a brand new town for 12,000 people, in South Devon that is billed as Britain's greenest settlement.

The Prince's advisers have suggested that cars should be banned from some areas and three quarters of buildings fitted with solar power panels.

The ambience of the town will be traditionally English.

Also, there are plans for a cricket pitch and bowling green.

The Prince has said he wants to build places "we all know strike a chord in our, by now, rather bewildered hearts, however 'modern' we are - places that convey an everlasting human story of meaning and belonging".

The project is due to be completed by 2020 on the rolling farmland on the edge of Plymouth and planners intend half of all Sherford's energy to come from renewable sources on site. Wind turbines will loom over the town's 400-acre park.

This is going to be interesting to follow as it's being developed, but unfortunately it sounds like that could take a while. At least they've got the right idea, and now we just wait and see if it works out the way we hope it will.

If you ever watched the show MASH in the '70's, or even still watch the reruns, you get a pretty clear idea that there's a lot of power needed to run a mobile medical hospital. Of course, as technology has advanced, so has the power needs of mobile hospitals. That's why I'm pleased to see that Florida International University is working with the military to build a mobile hospital that is totally reliant on solar power.

Imagine a team of doctors, soldiers or humanitarians airlifted into a remote jungle many miles from the nearest road or power grid. Within 24 hours, a fully functioning, fully powered medical clinic rises from the jungle floor.

Researchers from Florida International University are working with U.S. military planners to develop a makeshift mobile hospital that runs completely on solar power, can purify or desalinate up to 400 gallons of water per day and can treat dozens of people who consider electricity a luxury.

The project began a test run recently in the Honduran jungle.

If successful, the self-sustaining tentlike structure could become a model for the U.S. military and American emergency response teams to set up field operations in remote locations.

Even better, these hospitals won't have to worry about getting truckloads of fuel to power diesel generators into remote regions of the world. So they'll be saving lives and helping save the planet at the same time.

Tuesday afternoon I am stepping onto an airplane and saying goodbye, again, to the Midwest. Having been laid off from my job as a jack-of-all-trades engineer at a small ISP in January, I've spent the last few months doing consulting work as a freelance engineer all over the country. Sometimes I was doing network engineering, other times a little database and software engineering, and once I even consulted for a television show in Seattle.

But to be honest, I'm not the kind of person that likes to travel by plane very much, so I've been job-hunting at the same time. I'd work for a client in San Francisco during the day, and interview for jobs in my spare time. But flying from coast to coast and back to the Midwest all the time isn't really my thing, even though I love to fly. But I only love to fly when I'm the pilot, not when I have to sit in coach and listen to everything that goes with it.

But the few months of freelance consulting I've done has paid off, and one of the clients I consulted for in Boston has offered me a full-time position. I'll still be doing a fair amount of traveling, I'm certain, but nowhere near as much as I've done over the last few months. Primarily I'll be working in the Boston and larger New England area, instead of flying to the east coast one week, and the west coast the following week.

I'm extremely excited about the job, to be perfectly honest. It's not just that I get to move back to my favorite city in the entire world, Boston, but I'm going to get paid to help companies reduce their carbon footprint.

Ecogeek has another really good article up, this time about solar water heaters.

Solar water heaters are low tech. Basically, they're black pipes on
panels. There's no nanotechnology, no monosilicon crystals, and no DC
to AC conversion. Just run a pipe to your roof, through the panel, and
then back into your house. In many parts of the US, solar water heaters
can provide more than 90% of a household's water. And in all but the
cloudiest climates, they can provide more than 30%.

[...]

So why haven't we done it? A few reasons. First, installation can
cost more than $5,000 dollars, especially in older houses. Second, new
home buyers apparently don't like to see solar water heaters disrupting
their "roof lines." But there's good news on both these fronts.

First, banks are looking for new kinds of loans in America. A loan
that would, in effect, pay for itself and be more or less default-free
could be very enticing. A ten-year loan on a solar water heater would,
in effect, be free for the home owner and risk-free for the bank.

I decided to see what it would cost me to install a solar water heater in my home if I went to the bank and asked them for a loan. Now, assuming the interest rate is at 8% and it cost $6,000 to get everything installed, here's what the monthly payments would look like:

• 3 years = $156.68
• 5 years = $101.38
• 7 years = $77.93
• 10 years = $60.66

All in all, that's not too bad. A five year loan with these numbers would run you at a little over $1200 per year. Now factor in the savings on your heating bill, and that number comes down even further. The added bonus, as Ecogeek pointed out, is that it adds resale value to your home, which right now is especially important.