GreenFest Philly is today: Sunday September 13th

The fourth Philly GreenFest is taking place today  Sunday September 13th from 11 am to 6 pm at 2nd and South Street in Philadelphia.

The Philly Green Fest offers “green” activities for the whole family:

Come to Philly in September to Get Your Slice of the Renewable Energy Pie

President Obama has pledged that $150-billion dollars will be put towards energy independence over the next 10 years.  Where can you learn about how to get your slice of this pie from leading public and private industry experts?The answer is the The World Green Energy Symposium and Exposition on Sept 25-26 to be held right here in Philly.

The Solar PV Philly Show Opened to the Public: What $20 million will get you AND Let your IMAGINATION run wild.

By Betsy Teusch and Jacques Sapriel

Since Solar PV Philadelphia is a trade show, much of the exhibitors supply solar manufactures and so on, up the chain.  But there are a lot of distributers and installers, and they’re making the case given programs like Sunshine PA, that solar is becoming cost effective.  And when Pennsylvania deregulates electricity prices in 2011, payback will be a helluva lot quicker….

More than 135 companies are represented in the expo hall. Since manufacturing solar cells is a precise scientific based process, a lot of  companies that are represented manufacture some of the complex machinery and measurement tools necessary to set up and run a solar cell fabrication.  This is how I found out, while chatting with the US Representative of OTB Solar from Eindhoven – Netherlands, that $20 million is the approximate cost of a brand new turnkey solar cell manufacturing line. If that sounds like a lot of money, think that a basic microchip fab similar to what Intel runs around the world cost about $2 billion a pop.  Same kind of materials, similar manufacturing process, differences in complexity and need for high accuracy account for some of the difference.

Here are some of the interesting innovations I ran into:

Calling for a GREEN New Deal

The most amazing thing about this presidential election is the wave, the huge wave of energy that unfolded into Barak Obama’s campaign. It was the best organized election campaign I have ever seen: people from all walks of life first registered voters, then switched to canvassing undecided voters and then worked on the logistics of getting out the vote. For the past six months, thousands of people made the campaign the sole focus of their life.

The question I have is: Will the Obama administration manage to capitalize the enormous amount of Energy and Goodwill that poured into the Presidential Campaign and direct it toward moving the country out of the consumption society that is killing us and our environment?

I am not suggesting that we duplicate the type of projects that the Roosevelt administration organized. That was seventy years ago, or rather seventy light years away. Then we lived on a different planet than the one we live on now.
I am suggesting that we use this capital of Energy and Goodwill to move to a more sustainable Economy.

I am calling for a GREEN NEW DEAL that support Urban Farming, local recycling efforts, zero carbon energy production, alternative modes of transportation, higher Energy Efficiency and stronger local communities.

Here are a few examples:

- Organize neighborhood wide Solar Water Heating Buying and Installation Groups.

- Offer very low cost house insulation services for the thousands of Philadelphia row house owners.

- Create Recycling based companies such as The Recycle Bank and “TerraCycle”.

- Offer more efficient modes of transportation than the ubiquitous one person car that is cloging our streets and the air.

With this in mind, PhillyEcoCity is launching the PhillyEcoCity Information Hub

The PhillyEcoCity Information Hub is a dedicated website that you can access from the Information Hub page. The PhillyEcoCity Information Hub is a database supporting  information sharing among people in the Philadelphia area working toward building a more sustainable local economy.
The idea of this database is to help us help each other by sharing information and lessons learned from sustainability projects that have been implemented all around the Philadelphia metropolitan area. Please start sharing the lessons you learned while building your green roof or while installing your solar panels.

Time is short, do it now.

A suburban CSA powered by Solar power and Bio-Diesel fuel

Visit to Anchor Run Farm – CSA in Wrightstown, PA
First of a series on Urban Farming
All the electrical power for the farm is supplied by a solar array. The farmer uses a 1950 vintage tractor powered by bio-diesel fuel, that exactly fits the needs of an organic farm to seed and mechanically remove weeds. This documentary was produced by Julia Hoff from Greendocs for PhillyEcoCity.com

more about “A suburban CSA powered by Solar power…“, posted with vodpod

So you want your Condo to go GREEN?

A tale of persistence.

What do you do when you are a retiring baby boomer, with adult, professional  children, a good income and a good health?

No need to keep a 4,500 sq. feet suburban house since all the kids are married, have their own houses and jobs. And when it is time for vacations, you want to be able to just close the door and not worry about something going wrong. So you and your husband hatch a plan to downsize, simplify your life, have less stuff and be able to get to the airport with little preparation.

Hawai requires solar water heaters for new homes starting in 2010. How about PA?

Hawaii has become the first state to require solar water heaters in new homes,

pleasing environmentalists but leading opponents to note the island chain’s already high home prices.

Nations 4th Largest Solar Power Facility in Bucks County

FALLS TOWNSHIP, Pa., March 19

Today, Pennsylvania Gov. Rendell broke ground in Bucks County for the Nations’ 4th Largest Solar Power Facility.

“When this facility is up and running — likely by September or October of this year — it will be among the largest in the country, and certainly the largest east of Arizona,” said Governor Rendell during groundbreaking ceremonies for the Exelon-EPURON Solar Center. This project embodies the commitment weve made to renewable energy in the commonwealth.

“By enacting one of the nations most ambitious alternative energy portfolio standards, investing our resources wisely, and leveraging our strengths, we’ ve been able to attract exciting projects like this, along with some of the worlds leading renewable energy companies, to Pennsylvania.”

The $20 million Exelon-EPURON Solar Center will feature …