Obama

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....

Reports continued to come in Monday night detailing the third explosion to hit the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in the past 4 days.The plant, located in northeastern Japan, was first ravaged by the 9.0-magnitude earthquake that hit northern Japan last week. Soon after, two hydrogen explosions caused fires that have since been contained. News of the first two explosions only worsened the public's fear of a catastrophic release of radiation into the atmosphere. According to one report, the third explosion "was heard at 6:10 a.m. local time on Tuesday, a spokesman for the Nuclear Safety Agency said at a news conference. The plant's owner, Tokyo Electric Power Co., said the explosion occurred near the suppression pool in the reactor's containment vessel. The pool was later found to have a defect."

Not good news. And while leaking radiation is a major fear, early reports still vary when it comes to just how bad the situation is. According to the TIME NewsFeed: "In a televised address to the nation at 11 a.m., Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan spoke of the high-pressure situation. Kan advised people within 19 miles of the affected power plant to stay indoors. According to the Associated Press, some 180,000 people within a 12-mile radius had already been evacuated. "There is a very high risk of further radioactive leaks," he said."I ask you to stay calm." Still, it has been confirmed that "radiation leaks are now severe enough to pose a significant threat to people's health"...and that's a statement from Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety spokesman.

The massive earthquake, which has shifted the entire island of Japan by an estimated eight feet, is truly a disaster on a global scale. It's also a disaster that has very suddenly thrust nuclear power back into the limelight...and to say the exposure has been unflattering would obviously be a gross understatement. This is the kind of disaster, on the scale of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, that will take people—both in Japan, and elsewhere—a very long time to forget...or forgive.

Right now, the hope is that the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant will avoid a full meltdown. CBS News defines a meltdown as "when the nuclear fuel inside the reactor gets so hot, it literally melts. Uranium pellets are inside the long fuel rods. If the reactor is not cooled properly, the tubes can fall apart, with the radioactive material falling to the bottom." A description that sounds scarily like the preface to a China Syndrome-esque scenario, but CBS News has also reported that the situation at Fukushima Dai-ichi is not yet as bad as the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, and nowhere near the Chernobly tragedy: "Even with the two [update: three] Fukushima explosions, so far this is nothing like Chernobyl. In 1986, the control rods malfunctioned and the fuel rods melted down. A subsequent explosion catapulted tons of radioactive material into the atmosphere."

According to the popular saying—one often bandied about real estate circles; when it comes to deciding where to live there's little else that matters more than location. Soon, however, the criteria for judging the desirability of a particular locale may be getting a little more...specific. We're not just talking about the various and sundry aspirations loosely contained under headings like 'standard of living' or 'quality of life'—in these tough economic times people need to crunch a lot of numbers before making the difficult decision to stay put or uproot. For many, the numbers their local utility companies are coming up with are starting to raise serious concerns. Not only in California (see previous post), but across the country in places like Albuquerque, Central Ohio, West Virginia and Holland, Michigan rates are on the rise. At the rate of 4, 5 and 6 percent, the increases have hardly gone unnoticed. Take, for instance, West Virginia State Treasurer John Perdue's recent speech in which he officially announced his candidacy for Governor of West Virginia:

"Over the past few months, I have listened to many West Virginians about their hopes and dreams," Perdue said. "They want good-paying jobs. They want a better life for their children. They are concerned about skyrocketing utility costs." That's right, for the people of West Virginia utility rates are right up at the top of the priority list alongside the desire for good jobs and good schools. If Perdue is elected, he has promised to "stand up to the utility companies and tell them that their rate increases are crippling both our citizens and our businesses". Easier said than done. West Virginia is the second-largest coal-producing state in the nation—they're also the second-poorest state in the nation. But between the environmental concerns and controversy surrounding mountain-top removal and the looming threat of carbon cap legislature—West Virginians are stuck between a lump of coal and a hard place. This means that state politicians like Perdue may have a much bigger job on their hands than just getting "the fox out of the henhouse".

This week, Chinese news outlet Chinadialogue published an informative article about the future of coal in West Virginia. The article is titled: America's Coal War. To put WV's woes in perspective for the rest of us, the author explains

For decades, the advance of distributed solar power in the United States has seen its share of setbacks. Distributed solar, as opposed to centralized (think big desert arrays like these), refers to solar photovoltaic panels—PV panels for short. In fact, just a few short years ago, headlines everywhere were warning investors of the impending burst of a 'solar bubble' caused by too much supply and not enough demand. While it's true that many solar start-ups have since fallen by the wayside, a new industry report by VLSI Research is seeing more than a light at the end of the tunnel—they're seeing the potential for a PV explosion.

According to weSRCH, who published the report, 2011 is slated to be a banner year for PV sales and investment. VLSI's market research states that PV sales are "expected to grow 24%, driving sales to in excess of $12B". Sounds like good news...and boy, did we need some good news. The recent financial crisis caused more than one hiccup for the growth of PV: in 2010, Spain (a global leader in solar installations) was forced to cut back their feed-in tariffs for solar. In the same year, the PACE financing scheme for solar installations in some U.S. states ran into some legal trouble of their own. According the VLSI, however, there’s a silver lining to be found here, too: "Looking back, 2010 was a record year for PV Manufacturing Equipment, beating the previous peak reached in 2008 by around 10%."

The report goes on to name companies like Applied Materials, Amtech, Apollo Solar, Komatsu, Jusung, GS Solar, and Meyer Burger as the big success stories of 2010. It also sites new manufacturing innovations as one reason for PV's surprising growth rate last year. What's interesting to note is that of the companies mentioned above, only Applied Materials and Amtech are based in the U.S. The others are from around the globe: South Korea, Switzerland, Japan, and of course, China. But this doesn't mean the U.S. doesn't stand to benefit greatly from 2011's 'sunny' forecast for solar sales—quite to the contrary...