ASES Board Member speaking in Los Angeles

The Los Angeles Section of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers presents:

LA ASME January Presentation:
“Are Renewables Enough to Avoid Hitting the
Climate Change Wall”


At The Metropolitan Water District, Conference Room 101.
Thursday, March 18th, 2010, 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM
All ASME members, student members, public, engineering students and teaching staff are invited.
Plenty of free parking is available.


Prior to the presentation there will be a short business meeting of the LA Section Executive Committee.

Topic: Solutions to the dual crisis of peaking global oil production and global warming will be presented. Nine non-carbon energy options are considered and we will see how they stack up against the goal of an 80% reduction of carbon emissions by 2050. Superseding the technical issues is the inability to reach policy support long enough to support solutions to a century long problem. The concept of “energy tribes” is borrowed from the cultural anthropologists as an aid in understanding the nature of the conflicts over energy perceptions and policy. An attempt is made to find a way to use the conflicts to fashion an approach to a solution. This presentation is taken from the book, Hitting the Wall: A Vision of a Secure Energy Future.

Speaker: Richard Caputo, author of Hitting the Wall: a Vision of a Secure Energy Future. He obtained his MSME at Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and his BME at Manhattan College, New York City, New York. Richard has retired after 25 years as an engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of Caltech and has been a mediator who has done court mediations in three states. He is currently on the Board of Directors of the American Solar Energy Society and is active in the San Diego Chapter.

Directions:
Fwy 110:
Drive to downtown LA, Take 101 South Fwy and exit at Alameda East to the Union Station.
Fwy 5: If going North, take 101 Fwy and exit at Alameda East. If going south, take Fwy 10 exit to downtown, and then Fwy 101 and take Alameda East exit.
Fwy 10: Drive to downtown LA, take 101 North Fwy and exit at Alameda East to the Union Station.

Park anywhere in the underground garage (it’s after hours so there is plenty of parking). Take an elevator to the lobby, and register at the Lobby guard desk. The Meeting is in the MWD Conference Room 101 on the Lobby level, diagonally across from the guard desk.

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AB 920 update

From our good friends at CleanTechnica...

AB 920 now gives solar homeowners two additional options for the excess kilowatt-hours in our credit at the end of the year.  We now have the option of rolling over month-to-month indefinitely – banking credits for later, when we can finally buy an electric car, maybe! – or we can take the cash at the end of each year. (The exact cash amount won’t be finalized by the CPUC till By January 1, 2011.)
So, if you are installing solar this year, you should feel free to overbuild your solar system, because now you can be paid cash (or rollover credits) for the excess. But be sure to sign up for one or other of the new end-of-year credits options with your solar estimator. Otherwise, per
DSIRE: “If the customer makes no affirmative election for either option, the utility will be granted their NEG at the end of the 12 month period with no compensation to the customer”.
OC Renewables will be keeping a close eye on this going forward. Keep us posted as well if and when you hear the latest!
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Meeting Thursday (Tomorrow) Night!

Just a friendly reminder that OC Renewables meets tomorrow, Thursday March 11th, 2010 7pm (6:45 meet & greet).

Speaker: Adam Plesniak, Lead Engineer - Boeing Solar Energy Team

Topic: Introduction to Concentrated Photovoltaic
Location: Irvine Ranch Water District's "Duck Club" meeting room located at
5 Riparian View, Irvine CA. (Look for the OC Renewables Signs!! They look like the OC Renewables logo!!)

Contact ocrenewables@gmail.com for details.
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Solar Buildings Panel Webinar on March 4

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Join us for a Webinar on March 4

Solar Buildings Panel
button_registerNow

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/566867801

The ASES Solar Buildings Technical Division will present a panel of distinguished solar scholars who will present a wide range of topics on solar buildings. They will also focus on questions asked by ASES members throughout the country. The panelists and the areas they initially discuss are: 
     -  Vikram Sami (of Lord Aeck Sargent) – Solar Energy in Buildings: Why its important and what resources are available. 
      -  Michael Bendewald (of RMI) – Environmental Footprinting: including a demonstration of Greenfootstep (RMI’s Footprinting web based program) 
      -  Walter Grondzik (of BSU) – Commissioning Green Buildings 
      -  Tom Butler (of LAS) –  CFD analysis of a historic farmhouse 

After answering questions related to their short presentaions, these panels will address questions received from ASES members that were sent in the run up to this event. Send questions to 
ChaptersQ&A@ases.org

Please forward this invitation to your chapter and subchapter boards and members. Thanks.

Title:
 
Solar Buildings Panel



Date:

Thursday, March 4, 2010



Time:

10:00 AM - 11:30 AM MST

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.


System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista


Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer



Richard Caputo
Board Chapter Representative
ASES Board of Directors

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Upcoming Lecture at UCI

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A.G Kawamura, the Secretary of California's Department of Food and Agriculture, will speak at UCI's Engineering Hall Auditorium.
His topic is "The Nexus Between Energy, Water, and Agriculture in the State of California."

5 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 3
Engineering Hall Auditorium (Building 308, UC Irvine Campus)
There is no cost to attend the lecture, but we do ask that you R.S.V.P. to Jana Santiago at js@apep.uci.edu no later than 5 p.m. on Tuesday, March 2.
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Thank You!

Thank you to everyone who turned out for our February chapter meeting of the Orange County Renewable Energy Society! It was nice to see such a diverse crowd with industry professionals, policy makers and concerned citizens represented.


Also, a special thank you to Dr. Lori Greene of UCI’s Center for Solar Energy for presenting such a complex subject matter in a way that we can all understand! Click here for a copy of her presentation.

Next Chapter Meeting – March 11, 2010 @ 7pm (6:45pm meet & greet). Our presenter will be Adam Plesniak, Lead Engineer. Boeing Solar Energy Team. The meeting will be held at the Irvine Ranch Water District's "Duck Club" meeting room located at 5 Riparian View, Irvine CA.


March Challenge! Please help us spread the word about OC Renewables! Our success depends on the support of each and every one of you. We challenge you to invite as many friends, family members and co-workers as possible for our March 11th chapter meeting. The person who can get the most people to attend will receive a special prize (to be determined). We’ll track everyone’s success through the sign in sheet at the meeting.


Thank you again and we look forward to a successful 2010!



James Matarese

President

OC Renewables
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Helpful Links updates

We've updated the links page with some interesting renewable items going on here in Orange County. It will serve as a one-stop resource for all things renewable. Feel free to add some of your favorites!
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Hello!

Welcome to the ocrenewables.org blog! We'll have something soon for you in the next few weeks. Stay tuned.....
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