Energy Hub members: Please join us our weekly meeting at 6pm on Wednesdays in the Memorial Union!  New members and visitors are always welcome.

Please take a few seconds to complete our brief Conference Opinion Survey to help us plan the 2010 event.  

Click here to take the survey (no signup required)

Co-Sponsored by: Energy Hub
and our friends at Town and Country RC&D

Join us afterward for discussion
on the Memorial Union Terrace!

Students attend free. $10/carload donation suggested for non-UW community.

Energy Hub’s friends at Town and Country Resource Conservation and Development in Jefferson, WI have helped us bring David Blume, the author of Alcohol Can Be a Gas!, who invites us to reconsider ethanol as a fuel when incorporated into a local fuel/food/energy model.

Can ethanol be an energy solution?  Join us on April 30 in Science Hall to hear David’s case and participate in the discussion.

Here is what our friend Greg David has to say about David Blume:

“However uncertain the future may look, there are a few bright spots out there. David Blume is one of those bright spots. His local ethanol/energy/food economy is a real solution to our energy/food dilemma. It is based in Permacultural design, upon principles of ecology and ethics, and so, not exploitive in nature, but rather restorative, building both social and ethical capital. It’s about creating a solution and not treating a symptom, about honest assessment and fair market values.”

Here is what the founder of Real Goods John Schaeffer has to say about David Blume:

“I have seen David Blume speak several times, and each time he was thoroughly inspiring to the audience. Most recently he spoke at our ‘Alternative Fuels Smackdown’ at our annual SolFest, which draws 10,000 people. David was by far the best speaker on the panel, was animated in his presentation, clear, compelling, and inspirational in his delivery. I hope to have him back in the near future speaking on ethanol, biofuels, and renewable energy. He’s one of the best speakers I’ve witnessed in a long time.”

David Blume on ethanol:

Blume’s website and book:
www.permaculture.com
With alcohol fuel, you can become energy independent, reverse global warming, and survive Peak Oil in style. Alcohol fuel is “liquid sunshine” and can’t be controlled by transnational corporations. You can produce alcohol for less than $1 a gallon, using a wide variety of plants and waste products, from algae to stale donuts. It’s a much better fuel than gasoline, and you can use it in your car, right now. You can even use alcohol to generate electricity. Alcohol fuel production is ecologically sustainable, revitalizes farms and communities, and creates huge new opportunities for small-scale businesses. Its byproducts are clean and valuable. Alcohol has a proud history and a vital future.  To learn more, watch the five-minute “Alcohol Fuel Overview” video below, read the Two-Minute Summary, and check out our Alcohol Can Be a Gas! book and DVD.

Now, don’t you think you should decide for yourself?

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Hear David Blume speak at 7:00 pm, on Friday, April 30th, at the University of Wisconsin Science Hall, Room 180, 550 North Park Street,  (corner of Park and Observatory; kitty corner from the Memorial Union) Madison, Wisconsin. Parking available beneath Helen C. White Library or in a nearby public parking ramp.  Leave some time for parking.

David Blume’s appearance is a benefit for UW-Madison’s Energy Hub and Town and Country RC&D.  Those with student IDs, pedestrians, bus riders, & bicyclists attend for free; $10 donation per carload is being accepted at the door. This policy is to encourage carpooling and alternative transportation. Honor system of reporting. Seating limited to the first 200 attendees.  If coming from a long distance and need a reserved seat, please call me to make arrangements.

Snap a photo of a sticker and upload it to Powered Green’s Facebook page and win cool Earth Day eco-friendly gear!

*editor’s note: Energy Hub does not endorse vandalism

Read the full article here.

Energy Hub members have an exclusive opportunity to have an informal lunch talk with Dr. Schmidt on Thursday, March 25. The brownbag lunch talk will take place from 12:30-2 pm at 2180 Mechanical Engineering. Please register by clicking this link.

Dr. Schmidt will also be giving a public lecture at 4 pm in 1106 Mechanical Engineering entitled “Communicating Climate Science: Tiptoeing through the Minefield.”

March 16, 2010,
7:00-8:30 pm

MMoCA Lecture Hall

Did you know that 50 million new cars roll off the assembly line each year—that’s 137,000 cars a day! If this current growth rate continues, there will be over 1 billion motor vehicles on the world’s roads by 2050. With retail gasoline prices on the rise and a globally dwindling supply of petroleum, we need to find clean and plentiful means of fueling the cars of the future. Will Wisconsin’s pioneering efforts in bioenergy—fuel derived from such renewable sources as plants, trees, and agricultural waste—today transform the way we drive and live a generation from now?

Tim Donohue, professor of Bacteriology, head of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center at UW-Madison, discusses the growing field of bioenergy, the production of energy from such renewable sources as plants, trees, and agricultural waste. With fears of global warming and increased pressure to reduce America’s dependence on fossil fuels, Wisconsin’s pioneering efforts in bioenergy may transform the way we live a generation from now.

Thursday, March 11, 2010 – KEYNOTE LECTURE

“Power to Choose: How the Energy Choices
People Make Will Change Their Lives”
by Saul Griffith
7:00pm in the Pyle Center
(702 Langdon St – at Lake St)

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Special Student Opportunity: Meet Saul in Science Hall!

Students can meet Mr. Griffith in an informal setting starting at 3:30pm in Rm 140 Science Hall on Thursday, March 10 (before Saul’s lecture).  Contact info@uwehub.org for details.

Lecture Abstract:
The average American uses 11400 Watts of power continuously. This is the equivalent of burning 114 x100 Watt light bulbs, all the time. The average person globally uses 2255 Watts of power, or a little less than 23 x100 Watt light bulbs.

What are the consequences of us all using this much power? What is the implied challenge of global warming in terms of how we produce power? What are the things we do as individuals in terms of using power that we might change?

Saul Griffith gives us a realistic, data-driven to do list on how we might change our behaviors as individuals as well as our collective behavior as societies and global citizens, if we are to meet the great challenge of the 21st century – how to live in a world where we increasingly understand the resources to be finite, and the consequences of our actions complex & inter-twined.

What temperature do we set climate change at? What CO2 concentration does this imply we need to aim at? How much power can we get from fossil fuels while still meeting this goal? How much power do we need to install and produce from non-carbon technologies? What does this mean for countries, corporations, and individuals?

Saul Griffith Bio:
Dr. Saul Griffith has multiple degrees in materials science and mechanical engineering and completed his PhD in Programmable Assembly and Self Replicating machines at MIT.  He is the co-founder of numerous companies including: Low Cost Eyeglasses, Squid Labs, Potenco, Instructables.com, HowToons and Makani Power.  Saul has been awarded numerous awards for invention including the National Inventors Hall of Fame, Collegiate Inventor’s award, and the Lemelson-MIT Student prize.  A large focus of Saul’s research efforts are in minimum and constrained energy surfaces for novel manufacturing techniques and other applications.  Saul holds multiple patents and patents pending in textiles, optics, nanotechnology, and energy production.  Saul co-authors children’s comic books called “HowToons” about building your own science and engineering gadgets with Nick Dragotta and Joost Bonsen.  Saul is a technical advisor to Make magazine and Popular Mechanics.  Saul is a columnist and contributor to Make and Craft magazines.

For more on Saul Griffith, see his website: http://www.saulgriffith.com/
For a short video, check out Griffith’s TED talk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LguEk06Wb-U

Madison Gas and Electric has arranged to give Energy Hub members a tour of the West Campus Cogeneration Facility on Friday, March 19, 2010.  Tour starts at 3:00pm.

The Co-Gen facility is a state-of-the-art natural gas-fired generation station, completed in 2005.  Learn more about how the CoGen plant works online, or by visiting the plant and seeing for yourself on the March 19 tour.

Sign up for the tour is CLOSED.

The tour will start at 3:00pm at the CoGen facility (corner of Linden and Walnut on West Campus).

Tour participants must wear long pants and closed-toe shoes for safety.  Participants must sign up in advance.  Limit 50 tour participants.

Contact: info@uwehub.org

Joseph M. Shuster
“Energy Foolishness to Energy Independence”

7:00pm, March 9, 2010
Morgridge Auditorium, Grainger Hall
UW-Madison School of Business
975 University Avenue, Madison WI 53706

*refreshments served at 6:45pm

Join Joe Shuster, the author of Beyond Fossil Fools, for a relevant and revealing talk on the most important issue of our time: energy.

Shuster, a Minnesota businessman, entrepreneur and chemical engineer, will lead you on an energy road trip to U.S. energy independence in one generation. He will outline how we must urgently map a new energy direction to avert the energy disasters that loom on the horizon. His clear and quantified presentation defines the problem, explores the possibilities and then shows the roadmap to a solu­tion, complete with costs and a timeline for implementation.

About Mr. Shuster:

Joe Shuster, a chemical engineer for more than 50 years, founded or co-founded eight companies, many addressing diverse energy-related issues. He co-founded Minnesota Valley Engineering (MVE), the world’s leading manufacturer of high-technology cryogenic equipment used in industry, agriculture, transportation, and medicine. MVE designed and manufactured equipment for hydrogen handling, enhanced oil recovery systems, and transportation fuel systems. Shuster also founded Teltech, a science and engineering consulting firm that produced hundreds of technical dossiers, including reports on photovoltaic manufacturing, fuel cells, natural gas purification, and other energy-related topics. He accurately predicted the oil embargo of 1973 in an energy alert paper he wrote for the U.S. Congress. He also testified before Congress in support of a national technology transfer program.

About “Beyond Fossil Fools”:

“Parts of this book will astound you, and anger you; the rest will give you hope, and if author Joe Shuster had his way, motivate you to action. Most of all, this book, in a conversational and straight-forward tone, will educate you about this country’s and the world’s energy problems. The most important issue of our time is energy, and this book in a clear quantified presentation defines the problem, and then shows the way to a solution, complete with costs and a timeline for implementation.”

“Beyond Fossil Fools is a rallying cry, a call to action, a declaration of energy independence.
The world must abandon fossil foolishness if we are to create and enjoy prosperity and a cleaner environment. Clean, renewable, efficient, eternal energy is available, completely affordable, and attainable within 30 years”

“Beyond Fossil Fools opened my eyes. It is a political, economic, and financial epiphany…. The United States must move to renewable and affordable energy in the next 30 years…. The message is clear and convincing. Every policy maker, corporate executive, and thoughtful citizen must read this book.”
—Tim Penny, former Democratic U.S. congressman, 1983-1995 and co-author of Common Cents & The 15 Biggest Lies in Politics

Look no further than clean energy. Some are calling it the biggest market opportunity in history. Experts of all stripes have repeatedly stated that the nation that wins the clean-energy race will be the nation that leads the 21st century economy. Discovering and implementing cheap, clean and reliable energy technologies is our generation’s final frontier.

But, as Cefali asked, how do we get there? President Obama has proposed doing so by increasing funding for energy education and training through a program called RE-ENERGYSE (short for REgaining our ENERGY Science and Engineering Edge). More than 100 organizations, including the University of Wisconsin-Madison, signed a letter last summer urging Congress to support the program, which would augment energy education in universities, training schools, community colleges and even K-12 teacher education. It’s easy to see why: UW-Madison professor and energy policy expert Greg Nemet said that he thinks “maybe the biggest opportunity is to take advantage of the fact that we have tens of thousands of students here who could potentially be working on [creating a clean energy economy].” However, Congress ignored last summer’s call to action by rejecting Obama’s $115 million budget request for RE-ENERGYSE.

Despite Congress’ lack of support for energy education and training, hope is not lost for Wisconsin. The Wisconsin State Legislature is currently considering a bill dubbed the Clean Energy Jobs Act (CEJA). CEJA rolls out a policy to ramp up renewables to provide 25 percent of Wisconsin’s electricity by 2025. This policy, known as a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), makes sense. The RPS ensures a stable, long-term market for renewable energy, thus creating market opportunities and driving investment in wind and other low-carbon technologies. Investment in turn makes clean energy cheaper and lowers utility bills. Perhaps more important, the state’s Economic and Policy Staff has estimated CEJA would create more than 15,000 jobs. In addition to more jobs, the bill provides an opportunity to develop smarter students and a stronger workforce.

Why add a provision to the bill to increase funding for energy education and training? Because the RPS alone will not create the low-carbon energy system Wisconsin needs. The Governor’s Task Force on Global Warming recommended that Wisconsin implement “substantial increases in federal and state research and development (R&D) for greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction technologies.” R&D is particularly crucial to figuring out ways to modernize the electricity grid, store wind and solar power and invent breakthrough technologies. CEJA could support R&D by giving UW-Madison—recently ranked among the top 10 universities for cleantech—and other Wisconsin institutions the funds to advance our energy system. To sustain the R&D of clean energy, CEJA must also invest in Wisconsin’s students. At a recent town hall, President Obama said: “We’re not going to be able to ramp up solar and wind to suddenly replace every other energy source … [W]e’ve got to look at how to make existing technologies and options better.” To meet our clean energy goals over the next century, Wisconsin will need a new, well-educated generation of researchers.

To meet the short-term objectives laid out by the CEJA, Wisconsin must also invest in its current workforce. Along the lines of the proposals laid out by the Governor’s Task Force on Global Warming, we propose that CEJA directly fund the training of Wisconsinites to create knowledgeable workers who can construct Wisconsin’s clean energy economy over the coming years.

We realize that with Wisconsin currently short on cash, it may be fiscally difficult to add an additional program to CEJA. If adding our proposal to CEJA does indeed prove politically impossible, we recommend incorporating it in the next state budget. Now or in the near future, Wisconsin needs to increase energy education. Gaining a competitive edge in clean energy requires not only opening markets with policies like a RPS, but taking advantage of those markets by creating talented researchers and a skilled workforce.

As the saying goes, if you teach a man to fish, he will build a clean energy future. If we fail to invest in today’s students, we will miss a critical opportunity and give other countries a head start in the global clean energy race. This is our chance to lead the generation of a low-carbon economy.

Stephen Collins and Danny Spitzberg are pursuing master’s degrees in public affairs and environmental studies, respectively. Please send all responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com.

(This article was originally published in the Daily Cardinal)