November 3, 2018
Established in 1954, ASES celebrated its 64th anniversary this year. Now more than ever, we must accelerate the transformation to 100% renewable energy to effectively reverse the accumulation of climate changing greenhouse gases that are already impacting our world. This transformation is not only possible, it is urgently necessary. For 64 years, ASES has advocated for the research, development and deployment of renewable energy.
Given the commercial success of renewable energy technologies and driven by growing urgency to accelerate the energy transformation, ASES is intensifying its efforts to raise awareness, grow community, and inspire actions that need to happen now.
ASES advocates for sustainable living and 100% renewable energy by sharing information, events and resources to cultivate community and power progress. We believe knowledge and community are a powerful combination for change. Our members look to us to sustain the culture required to achieve a 100% renewable energy future.
We have just completed our annual conference, held this year in Boulder, CO,
with the highest attendance we have seen in five years. This conference and summit provided the backdrop for resource sharing and community building, to bring together engineers, architects, educators, and other leaders to solve problems and create change. Please join us at SOLAR 2019, August 5-9, in Minneapolis, MN. We will focus on short term strategies to accelerate the energy transformation at all levels of government and through individual and group actions.
At the conference, we launched our first official new program in several years, Tiny Watts. Tiny Watts (ases.org/tinywatts) is an online platform aimed at getting many more people aware and activated. We are welcoming many new members with a registry for small-scale solar users to track their solar energy usage and share stories and tips. This online community provides resources for using small applications of solar, such as solar-powered phone chargers, cookers, and lights. We are adding up all those tiny watts to make megawatts.
In collaboration with Solar United Neighbors, ASES has upgraded our National
Solar Tour online map and database, expanding the event to include more open houses on this year’s tour, during the month of October. This year’s tour resources are helping more and more neighbors share their solar success stories in new and effective ways to increase solar adoption and work collectively toward the 100% renewable energy goal.
Solar Today celebrated its 30th year in print recently and is the only consumer-based solar magazine in its editorial space. Last winter we hired Sunshine Urbaniak, of SunDesign Studios, as our designer for the magazine and our website, to refresh the look and feel and to maintain consistency with our visual guidelines.
We are working closely with our chapters to facilitate best practices in solar energy education at the local level since we need every citizen working for solar. With a new student chapter coordinator, we are exploring ways to dramatically increase our membership and reach to university students, to support future leaders in renewable energy. We have also just launched our new ASES Career Center to help connect renewable energy job-seekers with the industry.
We are committed to ASES being a force for the renewable energy movement for decades to come. Thank you for your continued support!
Solar Today Editors
Carly Rixham
Paulette Middleton
Elaine Hebert