alternative energy

College campuses are microcosmic. They have long served as institutes of higher education, but also as environments of change and innovation where the free exchange of ideas and influences are encouraged. College campuses are simply primed for social, political, economic, and now environmental experimentation. They can demonstrate efforts in these areas with the potential to extend to larger communities. Whether they succeed is another matter entirely. But either way, their attempts show us where we can go – what we can achieve.

Within the context of energy sustainability, many college campuses are well on their way to this goal, pioneering novel systems design or implementing local sources of renewable energy. And that brings us to the geothermal energy system project currently underway at Missouri University of Science and Technology, giving yet another example of how economic energy efficiency can be. Covered in a recent environmentalLEADER article, this new energy system is predicted to cut the annual campus energy consumption in half. According to Missouri S&T’s project website, the system will also reduce CO₂ emissions by 25,000 tons per year and save 8,000,00 gallons of water per year – not to mention the economic incentive of saving and estimated $1 million in energy costs and operations annually.

To be completed by 2014, the project will replace the existing coal and woodchip fueled steam plant that provides campus buildings with heating and cooling services. Approximately 600 wells will be drilled, connected by an underground system of pipes that will create a larger closed loop system. This network of pipes will link the three planned geothermal plants on Missouri S&T’s campus. Each of these plants will be equipped with heat pump chillers, supplemental cooling towers, and gas-fired boilers.

Of course, Missouri S&T is not the only university that uses a steam plant to heat entire college campuses. Here at the University of Idaho, a biomass fueled steam plant provides 63 buildings on campus with heating services.

In contrast to Missouri S&T’s progress, UI replaced their coal, natural gas, and diesel based system with biomass. While 90 percent of the required steam in produced by burning biomass, natural gas is still used as a backup. The majority of the biomass supply is primarily cedar chip wood waste from the regional sawmills. According to the university website, these saw mills actually own their timberlands. The wood is produced, processed, and the ensuing waste recycled entirely in state – making it a sustainable supply. This fuel choice, like Missouri S&T, was also influenced by cost. Woodchips are about one-third the cost of natural gas and save UI over $1.5 million annually.....

Maybe. From my seat as a journalism and environmental science student at the University of Idaho, things are not looking too great for wind power. While the wind energy industry has seemingly flourished here in parts of the Pacific Northwest (as seen in Beyond the Light Switch’s wind segment), with wind turbines populating once vacant stretches of land, a recent article in The Denver Post revealed that developments like this might come to a crashing halt.

The increased production and assembly of wind turbines in the U.S. over the past 10 years are partially the result of production tax incentives (PTC), a program whose future may be in jeopardy.

Created under the Environmental Policy Act of 1992, PTC has promoted growth in renewable energy industries and supplied many Americans with jobs in sustainability-related areas. PTCs currently offer a 2.1 cents/ kilowatt-hour tax credit to qualified wind industries and other renewable energies like biomass, hydroelectric, and geothermal – with the U.S. currently sporting a total of 38 states with utility-scale wind turbines. The PTC program is currently up for renewal, but deliberations in Congress may tie it up for good. The Denver Post reported that the $1.4 billion program (extended over 10 years) has already failed three times in the Senate.

Here Allison Sherry of The Denver Post quotes U.S. Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado, "It's nuts…it's like Congress will get around to it when Congress is ready to work on it, but that's cold comfort for people getting laid off across the country and the state of Colorado." Sherry adds that cutting this program now would be way more damaging than it would have been 10 years ago because of the industry’s recent and rapid growth. But opponents of the program’s renewal are less sympathetic...

 A February article from The Wall Street Journal offered an example of such wind-opposing sentiment here, “The wind industry simply cannot continue to rely on the American taxpayer," said Rep. Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.), who is currently pushing a bill that would cut many energy-related credits from the tax code. "Each time it comes up to a year of expiration, they say, 'If we just get a few more years our technology will mature and we will become more competitive.' It's time for them to figure out how to do that."

Director of Stanford University Atmosphere and Energy Program Mark Z. Jacobsen’s response to this issue is related more to the health benefits of switching to renewable energy sources versus fossil fuels. A Beyond the Light Switch video interview posed the following question to Jacobson: “If energy from renewables is going to be more expensive, why should we consider our energy mix at all?” Jacobson answered, “This is a really twisted incentive system where we pay people to cause environmental damage, and so as a result they can freeload off the health of our citizens. And at the same time we complain about giving subsidies to renewable energy industries that are effectively eliminating those air pollution health problems and deaths.”

6.13 billion. Approximately. That’s how many individuals worldwide identify with a particular religion, according to 2009 data from the CIA World Factbook. That’s about 88.54% of the total world population. It’s more than the combined populations of the world’s top ten most populous countries (that's China, India, the United States, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Russia, and Japan).

In the United States, it seems that religious perspectives on climate change issues have long been underrepresented. Religious perspectives on science and science reporting tend to be presented narrowly (if presented at all).  Mainstream media punditry generally provides us access to the scientists arguing the science, or religious leaders and institutions arguing their opposition to the science.

Science and religion, however, are more than just institutions–they are perspectives. And a little perspective can go a long way, especially when it comes to addressing global challenges (like climate change) that not only affect religious and scientific communities, but the entire world.

But how can a grouping so broad and diverse maintain a singular perspective…on anything? Where is the voice of religious communities who do accept climate change and are taking action? In the U.S. alone it can be difficult to try and figure out how many religious and spiritual organizations are working toward climate change action or interfaith conversations addressing climate change issues. But let’s take a stab at it.

Here’s a slice, a mere sample, of some local (U.S.) religious, spiritual, and interfaith organization efforts from around the country...

Perhaps the most recent sampling of religious action in environmental and climate change issues is the 2008 documentary RENEWAL. The film follows eight different religious-environmental activist groups in the United States who are “re-examining what it means to be human and how we live on this planet,” according to their website. The film project provides Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and Buddhist perspectives on climate change and environmental issues through the work of the featured organizations. 

One of the organizations featured in RENEWAL, GreenFaith, is an interfaith group based in New Jersey that’s into practicing environmental stewardship in areas like renewable energy and water conservation. GreenFaith’s AP Solar 2012 Residential Solar Campaign is one cool example of the organization’s commitment to climate change action. The program allows New Jersey residents to have their roofs screened to find out whether they qualify for a solar installation. If so, the household will then receive the installation at no cost. The homeowners will also be able to buy solar power at discounted prices.

Cultural changes (like the gradual shift toward a sustainable energy economy) often begin at a local level, and organizations like GreenFaith are certainly helping that transition along. But they aren't the only ones.....

A small college established in Unity, Maine in the 1960’s due to economic necessity has evolved into an unlikely success story and a haven for environmental education. Established on what was once a chicken hatchery, Unity College has grown from humble and precipitous origins into Unity’s largest employer and an example of sustainability and non-traditional education.

Located in the scenic mid-Coast county of Waldo, Maine, Unity College proudly applies the title of “America’s Environmental College,” a moniker earned through years of financial insecurity, perseverance, and a growing dedication to environmental activism and education. Established in 1965 by a group of local businessmen, Unity College has since become a welcoming environment for students looking for an education that centers on ecology, sustainability and global change. Students who graduate from Unity College are poised to become productive leaders in the spheres of environmental activism, business and political policy. Hands-on courses get students out of the classroom and interacting with nature, while intercollegiate and club sports including soccer, ice hockey and ultimate Frisbee cultivate an active and competitive community.

Recently, Unity College appeared in Detroit Public TV’s documentary Beyond the Light Switch for their role in reigniting a national dialogue on renewable energy. This debate has its origins in the presidency of Jimmy Carter, who in 1979 put 32 solar panels atop the White House in a symbolic statement on the future of energy. President Carter predicted, accurately, that the solar panels might possibly come to symbolize “a road not taken,” which is exactly what happened when they were removed during the Reagan administration and stored in a cavernous government warehouse to collect dust. Unity College enters the story in the early ‘90s when then-development director Peter Marbach (now a fine arts photographer living in Oregon) asked the US government if he could take the unused panels for use at Unity College. The General Services Administration assented and Marbach personally picked up the unused solar panels from the federal warehouse. 16 of the 32 panels then went to heating Unity College’s cafeteria [pictured] for over a decade. Since then, many of the solar panels have been loaned out, donated, or put in storage. Last year Unity College earned some press for donating one of Jimmy Carter’s solar panels to the Himin Solar Energy Group of China, to be put on display at the Solar Science and Technology Museum in Dezhou....