SOLAR TODAY Blog

By Liz Merry
SOLAR TODAY Blogger

Editor's note: Liz Merry is attending a Solar Energy International photovoltaics course in Colorado this week and sending back dispatches for the SOLAR TODAY blog. 

Paonia, Colo., is a study in contradictions. It hosts a vibrant organic-whole-foods-holistic-health community. Within feet of the central food co-op and community center run train tracks carrying thousands of tons of coal to huge power plants in far away Tennessee. And a few yards away, on the other side of the tracks, one of the world's best solar training operations steadily passes on the knowledge and skills we need to build a better, more sustainable world.

These may be pretty weighty impressions for my first full day at Solar Energy International's (SEI's) two-week Grid-Tied Photovoltaics (PV) course. Many thoughts about technology, policy, marketing and energy urgency were hard to quell while I tried to sleep last night after class.

After finally dozing off, I was startled awake after midnight by a loud coal-loaded train horn. For a full five minutes, the train blared through Paonia, keeping people and animals off the tracks and me awake. Back to sleep, until an hour later when the second coal train roared through town. Arrggh! I dozed back to sleep with anger about coal companies and a feeling of impotence.

At 3 a.m., I was awakened yet again, but this time from yips and yowls. A pack of coyotes was traveling nearby. They were playing and chatting, demonstrating and thriving in the star-riddled night. Not all seems lost.

I woke up today with a strong sense of contradiction and major respect for the enormity of what SEI is doing out here in the gorgeous Colorado backcountry. Since 1991, the institute's instructors have focused on spreading their knowledge, so those willing to learn can build renewable energy systems.

Which side of the tracks are you on?

Coal power, business as usual, building for "peak demand" and the rapid decimation of habitats, species and fertile agricultural land? If so, you probably sleep well these days.

Or are you on the side of renewable power and a new sustainable economy? Do you support learning the right way to rebuild our electric grid and our economy? Building systems that last for 50 years as a distributed, yet integrated, grid that supports transporation?

With the oil spill, coal mining accident and looming mid-term elections, it's seriously time to get involved. Join the campaign to pressure our leaders to put a price on carbon. Take action by e-mailing alerts, writing your senator, making calls to your legislator, writing letters to the editor and joining renewable energy focused groups like Solar Nation, Vote Solar, the Union of Concerned Scientists, the National Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club.