Creative Energies Blog

by Jake MacArthur

As Creative Energies trots around the globe, this next entry comes to you from Switzerland. I have been living in the mountain village of Lenk, nestled between the more renown valleys of Adelboden and Gstaad, in the Bernese Oberland. Switzerland has long been praised for their environmental record and for their progressive federal projects. Upon arrival, I was interested to see how the renewable energy boom has hit this area. In my travels thus far, I have found that most of the development centers around solar, both thermal and electric. A number of chalets have photovoltaic arrays and/or thermal arrays. Given the strict building codes, I was not surprised that most of the arrays are roof integrated. I think that the widespread use of ceramic roofing tiles also lends itself to full module integration. These arrays have an incredible aesthetic quality, but they are clearly labor intensive to install.

Beyond the standard small chalet solar arrays, I have also seen a number of small scale off-grid systems in the mountains. Some of these arrays are used for the simple automation of gates and the like. I have also seen a number of small hybrid systems at high mountain farmhouses and mountain huts. Often, these systems combine a small photovoltaic array and a wind turbine. The Air-X seems to be the most popular choice for wind. These small off-grid systems power lights, communications, and other small loads.

Pictures to come…

by Scott Kane

These have been exciting days for politics in Wyoming. Not only were we graced by nearly simultaneous visits from two presidential candidates and a former president but all three of them made prominent statements about clean and renewable energy.

Creative Energies staff and families attended the addresses by Senator Obama in Casper and Laramie and by President Clinton in Riverton.

One of Senator Obama’s biggest applause lines in his Laramie rally was a statement about the job growth and economic development that can be attained through the development of clean coal, solar and wind power. We at Creative Energies are bold enough to remind our readers (including the senator, if he is among them) that only two of these technologies are well developed, proven and currently ready for wide scale deployment. Though clean coal has a chance of becoming an important low-carbon fuel source, it is still in an early phase of its development. In the mean-time, we encourage our national and local leaders to advocate for the well-tried and rapidly expanding technologies in wind and solar power.

by Andy Tyson

Nice juxtaposition. Traveling last year in central China, I visited the under construction Three Gorges Dam. This is the largest dam in the world – touted to produce a huge amount of energy and regulate the Yangtze, a pernicious river, prone to flooding and all but impassible to boat travel. Now there is a long thin lake, great for commerce transport, sightseeing, and lots of electricity, with regulated outflow to control flooding. Despite the debatable gains, the human and environmental costs have been huge. I was interested to see the spectacle and get a firsthand feel for the impact. It is hard to summarize my impressions in a short post. The immensity of the dam and project, holding that volume of water in the face of one human, who doesn’t speak the language let alone understand the culture that brought the project to life. Possibly like visiting Martians and viewing their largest civil engineering project. As the tour was ending, I came upon a fascinating sight. Just down stream from the mile wide, electricity belching dam I saw a solar powered water monitoring station. Despite terawatts of electricity being produced less than a mile upstream, it was deemed financially and functionally appropriate to use solar electricity to power a monitoring station. The message was clear: choose the appropriate technology for the job. Solar electricity is reliable, robust, and independent. Solar is a fixed financial investment and it is well up to most of the everyday tasks we need electricity for in our homes. Our planets future is depended on choosing the right energy source for the job.

While we have several customers that are employing renewable energy systems comprised of two different technologies (PV and wind, PV and geothermal), we now have one customer who has three technologies working hard on a daily basis. This home outside of Cheyenne started with a PV and wind system about a year and a half ago. The system is grid-connected, although includes battery backup to help reduce the impact of their frequent power outages. Late this winter we added more PV and last week a solar thermal system, the latter of which should produce nearly all the owner’s domestic hot water needs. They will now only use propane for cooking. This system was entirely retro-fit, demonstrating the ability of renewable energy to fit into almost any existing home. We applaud this customer’s commitment to renewable energy and energy independence.

We are welcoming the longer days, as it has been a cold and windy winter in Wyoming. We managed to get some quality work done still, at the cost of cold fingers. Soon we will be slathering on the sunscreen and cooking ourselves on rooftops, but for now we are embracing the season of mud.

This space is headed towards keeping the blogosphere up to date on the happenings with Creative Energies, a renewable energy company based in Lander, WY and Victor, ID. The sun is rising soon…