Solar Fest sheds light on green energy practices

By Deborah Gardner Walker, Beverly Citizen, June 25, 2009, Fri Jun 26, 2009,
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Beverly, Mass. - In the eye-opening documentary, “Burning the Future: Coal in America,” about the destructive practice of mountain-top coal mining, award winning Appalachian environmentalist Maria Gunnoe stands in Times Square in New York City, points to the gaudy neon lights that surround her and shouts to passersby, “Do you realize your connection? Mountains in southern West Virginia are being destroyed to power your lights. Turn off these lights!”

Making connections like this, both locally and nationally, was what the daylong Solar Fest at Greenergy Park on Sohier Road was all about on Saturday. According to Solar Fest organizers, it is only through such connections that we will be able to confront the enormous challenge of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 90 percent by 2050 to prevent environmental disaster. Each speaker held out hope that we can do this, but warned we must act quickly.

With a break in the rain and the sun emerging, about two-dozen volunteer, governmental and corporate groups set up informational tables to showcase their efforts in bringing about the necessary change.

There was Mass Energy selling electricity from cleaner sources; Beverly’s Solid Waste Management Committee promoting recycling; vendors like Meridian Associates of Beverly and Nexamp Inc. of North Andover offering technical assistance to help companies and homeowners go green; Salem Sound Coastwatch championing clean water; Healthlink sounding the alarm about the coal-fired power plant in Salem; the new dry cleaner, Lapels, providing greener ways to clean your clothes.

Former Wentworth Institute mechanical engineering professor Jim Winter of Beverly, a Solar Now Board member, staffed a booth called “Fun with the Sun” that demonstrated an electric train powered by a small solar panel.

“There are a lot of important things going on in Beverly,” said Fred Hopps, a Solar Fest organizer and the site director for Greenergy Park. “We wanted people to see that there are lots of other groups and understand what we can each do, together, and how we can connect.”

Hopps and Co-Organizer, Lisa Lillelund, who is also a Beverly resident, both hold out hope that together we can make a difference, starting in our own homes and community. As speakers recited alarming statistics — for instance, the Himalayan glaciers, which feed seven major river systems and provide 40 percent of the drinking water for 50 percent of the earth’s population, are melting and may be fully gone by 2027 — Hopps urged, “Tell us the good news.”

The Rev. Jeffrey Barz-Snell of First Church in Salem, one of the environmental experts who led a town hall type discussion, announced that former Vice President Al Gore’s group, Repower America, has an ambitious plan to move the U.S. electric grid off polluting hydrocarbons in the next 10 years.

“It’s a goal, a possibility, something for us to consider,” said Barz-Snell, who has been trained by Gore’s group to make presentations about global warming. “Reducing power consumption is low-hanging fruit” in the effort to stop climate change, he said. “It’s our moral and patriotic responsibility going forward to find ways to reduce power consumption.

“Our choices will impact billions of people who will otherwise be in dire straits in 20 to 30 years,” Barz-Snell continued. “We have an enormous amount of U.S. ingenuity to harness the wind” and other clean, renewable energy sources. “It has everything to do with the choices we make as a country in the next five to 10 years,” he said.

Brad Bradshaw, president and founder of Velerity and president of the Mass. Hydrogen Coalition, told the audience, “We don’t have a choice. Ultimately, all of our energy resources will be renewable.”

Bradshaw cited startling statistics about how much carbon dioxide our homes and automobiles emit each year. “The things we do in our homes each day emit 23 tons of CO2 per year.” he said.

And while the average car weighs 1 ton, it emits 6 tons of CO2 per year – six times its weight (assuming the car is driven 12,000 miles per year), he explained. Coal power plants, which create 36 percent of the CO2 emissions while generating 50 percent of our electricity, are also big polluters.

“We need to address transportation and coal fired power plants,” he said.

Bradshaw pointed to lighting innovations, such as energy efficient light emitting diodes, as the good news. He said he saw many positive initiatives underway in Massachusetts, including incentives for industry to become more energy efficient, Governor Patrick’s support of solar and wind energy, and making polluters pay for carbon emissions. The monies raised are being used to fund renewable energies, Bradshaw said.

Connecting with Appalachian coal communities

The award-winning environmental film, “Burning the Future: Coal in America,” reveals the destruction mountain-top coal mining is wreaking on formerly pristine parts of West Virginia and the havoc it is creating for the residents of Appalachia, where tap water is the color of coffee and many children and adults have become gravely ill.

Lisa Lillelund organized a live video conference with two Appalachian environmental activists immediately after the film during Solar Fest so Beverly residents could ask questions and offer support.

Lillelund had attendees sign two letters seeking an end to mountain top coal mining, one to President Barack Obama and the other to U.S. Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, so the day ended with concrete action and a call for change.

Greenergy Park: a brief history

What: Photovoltaic arrays, commonly known as solar panels, on the hill next to Beverly High School on Sohier Road. The arrays collect energy from the sun and store it in solar cells. The energy is then sent to an inverter house down the hill, where it is converted to electricity and currently provides about 10 percent of the high school’s power. The site also contains a wind turbine.

When: The arrays were installed in 1981 as one of eight experimental solar sites. It is the only one still in operation.

Cost: The site cost $3 million to build. The funds were provided by the federal government under a program created by former President Jimmy Carter.

Size: The site is 2 acres.

Claim to fame: Beverly High School is the first green school in the United states because of this site. “It is an historic site and worth preserving,” site director Fred Hopps says.

Expected lifespan: It was estimated at 20 years, but the site is now pushing 30 years.

Efficiency: The system is making 95 percent of its original output in 1981.

Influence: When the current High School was built in the 1960s, there was no effort to include solar energy. The new building will have solar panels on the roof.

Updates: Some new solar panels have been added in recent years. In 2008, the inverter house was outfitted with six new Selectia inverters, which were built in Lawrence. The inverters make a humming noise. “It’s the sound of power, electrons moving,” says Hopps.