You’ve Just Gotta S.E.E. this Expo!
[published in 2004 issue of Carolina Sun, journal of the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association]
by Sally Robertson
Recent election results suggest that federal environmental and energy policy may not take a progressive turn any time soon. But there is still room for optimism on the sustainable energy front. That much was clear at the Southern Energy and Environment Expo, an annual gathering of people who are way out ahead of the Feds on renewable energy and sustainable living. They are already transforming the system one turbine at a time.
The 4th annual S.E.E. Expo took place August 27-29, 2004 at the Western North Carolina Agricultural Center in Fletcher, just south of Asheville. For three days, the facility was filled with 118 exhibitors standing ready to dispense a wealth of information on green lifestyles.
There were exhibitor booths indoors, four outdoor classrooms offering hour-long workshops, a Clean Air Car Fair showcasing low-emissions auto technology, a Green Building Tour of nearby houses with renewable energy systems, a hands-on cordwood and rammed earth construction demonstration, a hootenanny complete with fire dancers, and an on-site campground.
Expo director Ned Ryan Doyle reports that nearly 6,000 people attended the Expo this year, up from 5,000 in 2003. Visitors came primarily from the Southeast, with some from as far away as Maine and Minnesota.
“I couldn’t have been more pleased with the results,” says Doyle. “We drew more excellent exhibitors and organizations, more of the public from a wider geographic area and offered 72 very successful workshop presentations, many new. Above and beyond the impressive numbers, the public feedback was overwhelmingly positive and supportive of the Expo’s message: that our energy systems, the environment and our economics are all interrelated.”
Exhibitors included nonprofits, designers and installers of renewable energy systems, Back Home Magazine (which promotes sustainable, independent living and was a major sponsor of the Expo), the State Energy Office, and academic energy programs such as those at Appalachian State University and Blue Ridge Community College.
Expo participants were unanimous on the need for more renewable, sustainable lifestyles. But as the initial flurry of good vibes came into focus, it became clear that the event was by no means homogeneous. Instead, it seemed to be a convergence of people who had chosen a variety of paths by which to pursue sustainability.
Green Energy Entrepreneurs
First, there were enough renewable energy consultants and installers to make your head spin. You could walk in as a novice on Friday and leave Sunday with a voluminous rolodex of experts to help you install any kind of renewable energy system you could imagine.
Information (and, in some cases, demonstrations) were available on: passive and active solar building, solar water heating, wind turbines, hydroelectric systems, radiant floor heating, natural building materials, recycling, composting, composting toilets, rainwater collection systems, native plant landscaping, earth-sheltered and rammed earth construction, cordwood construction and more.
Vendors sold solar-powered flashlights and radios, soap and woodwork manufactured using solar power, organic cotton T-shirts, and doormats made from recycled NASCAR tires.
Powering Progressive Policy
Other Expo participants work within or alongside government to enact progressive energy policy. One of these is Larry Shirley, director of the North Carolina State Energy Office. Shirley enthusiastically described the recent accomplishments of the Energy Office, which include cutting state government energy usage four percent per year over the past five years, converting six schools to solar energy and generating electricity from landfill methane at six western North Carolina sites (including a Yancey-Mitchell County landfill where methane powers the neighboring art studios and greenhouse).
The Energy Office also helped Appalachian State University create a wind map of the state to determine the best sites for small-scale production of wind energy. The resulting Small Wind Initiative (www.wind.appstate.edu) operates a demonstration site with small-scale wind turbines at Beech Mountain near Banner Elk, holds workshops at the site, and helps landowners exploit the wind potential of their land.
Bob McGuffey of the North Carolina Solar Center is upbeat about North Carolina policymakers: “The legislature is receptive. Where we run into problems is with the utility lobby. Even home builders are coming around. They are realizing the importance of being ‘green.’ There is more and more awareness that energy is not unlimited. There’s a cliff out there that we’re going to fall off of.”
McGuffey was spreading the word about the state’s tax credits for installation of renewable energy systems. “North Carolina has the best credits in the country,” he said, conceding that Hawaii is a close competitor. The state offers a 35% tax credit for residential and commercial installations of renewable energy systems that can be spread over six consecutive years, subject to certain limits (details on the Solar Center website, www.ncsc.ncsu.edu).
Interestingly, some of the equipment installers at the Expo were unenthusiastic about the credits. “For most of the people I install systems for, it’s just a gimmick,” said Arthur Dougherty of Solar Guys in Asheville. “It gets them interested, but they don’t end up benefiting.” The reason is that the credit is limited to 50% of one’s total taxes and many of his customers don’t pay enough taxes to be able to claim the entire cost of their renewable energy installations. Asked if he informs his clients of the credits, Dougherty said: “If I drive up to their house and they’ve got a couple of Land Rovers in the yard, then yeah, but if I roll up to their yurt, I don’t even bother.”
Another example of working within the system is the NC GreenPower program. In one of the outdoor classrooms, Jeff Brooks explained that NC GreenPower allows renewable energy generators to sell excess power to the utilities. Consumers can subscribe to this program by adding multiples of $4 to their utility bills each month. For each $4 received, the utility buys 100 kilowatt-hours of renewable energy from mostly small-scale producers across the state. Brooks reported that the program has signed up nearly 6,000 subscribers.
Grassroots Idealists Push the Envelope
The Expo also drew a contingent of grassroots activists who are practicing small-scale renewable energy and green solutions in their own homes and neighborhoods. They came to the Expo to share their experiences and collect vital tips for improving their operations.
It became apparent during the Q&A session after Brooks’s NC GreenPower presentation that some activists harbor skepticism toward the state of renewable energy in North Carolina. Though NC GreenPower is idyllic compared to looming nuclear towers and mercury-belching coal plants, there were visionaries in Brooks’s audience who wanted more and clearly viewed NC GreenPower as crumbs from the utilities’ table.
“It’s a compromise, but it’s a bad compromise,” said Tom Morris of Wilkes County, NC, who is frustrated by what he sees as “a needless bureaucratic wall that North Carolina utility companies have erected to prevent widespread green energy production and distribution.”
Morris has a stream on his property from which he is planning to generate hydroelectricity for his own needs. If he lived in any one of the 30-plus states that currently allow net metering, it would be a simple matter to connect his system to the grid. He could then dispense with the expensive and cumbersome battery system used to store excess energy and he would be able to feed any excess power that he produced into the grid for others to use. “But North Carolina rules do not allow for what has been proven to be a safe and routine hookup,” he says.
Some of the classroom presenters and audience members described instances of a sort of energy anarchy they describe as “guerrilla solar,” in which green energy generators connect to the grid without permission, feeding excess energy into the grid for free and obviating the need to install batteries.
The Grassroots Hit the Road
The Clean Air Car Fair organized by ECO, the Environmental Conservation Organization of Hendersonville, was a collection of the greenest vehicles on the market, including hybrids, electric vehicles, compressed natural gas (CNG) trucks, fuel-cell vehicles, and vehicles powered by processed biodiesel or waste vegetable oil.
“One of the best examples of actual results from the Expo,” says organizer Ned Doyle, “came from the incredible interest in biofuels. We offered a dedicated program Saturday afternoon presented by acknowledged experts from around the region.”
The Piedmont Biofuels coop filled up cars with biodiesel from its bright yellow tanker. Dave Goree of Energy Liberty, Inc. in Asheville showed off his VeggieDiesel converter kit, which allows a diesel engine to run on waste fryer oil.
Solon Smith of the Asheville Biofuel Co-Op says the Expo “was a huge boost to our membership and momentum. Partially under that steam, we moved to a new 5,000-square-foot warehouse facility near downtown, changed our name to Blue Ridge Biofuels to reflect a more regional approach, and started working on and receiving large-scale grants.”
This is gratifying to Doyle. “Sustainable energy from biofuels,” he beams. “An environmentally positive activity and a part of the local economy… that’s the point of the S.E.E. Expo.”
The 5th annual S.E.E. Expo will take place August 26-28, 2005 in Fletcher. Stay tuned for details on the Expo website, www.seeexpo.com, which also features a list of the 2004 exhibitors, with descriptions and contact information.
Sally Robertson is a freelance environmental writer and editor who can be reached at sally.robertson@earthlink.net.