The clouds gave way to brilliant sunlight just as the Solar Energy & Efficiency Fair began Saturday, powering water fountains, attic fans and other demonstration devices.
It was the second year of the event, and although fewer people attended this year, it was no less an opportunity for local energy efficiency entrepreneurs and policy makers to demonstrate their role in the green movement.
“It’s encouraging to know that Sonoma County is leading the way in renewable resources and solar,”said Ame Nunyakpe, 36, of Santa Rosa as he played with his kids on the grass near dozens of fair booths at the Finley Community Center in Santa Rosa.
The event featured workshops on photovoltaic technology, PG&E’s new three-year energy efficiency rebate and the county’s zero-down financing program for energy efficiency projects on homes and businesses. There were outdoor and indoor workshops and presentations.
At the outdoor Green Jobs Zone, which was sponsored by Assemblywoman Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, job boards featured about 40 jobs. They ranged from “solar panel installer to the executive director of an environmental non profit,” said Logan Pitts, a fair volunteer and Evans’ aide in her Santa Rosa office.
Evans, along with Sonoma County Supervisor Shirlee Zane and Santa Rosa Mayor Susan Gorin, participated in a panel discussion on the status of local, state and federal energy efficiency policies and initiatives.
Dale Roberts, a principal engineer at the Sonoma County Water Agency, also participated in the panel. He said the agency was the county’s biggest consumer of electricity, at 55,000 kilomegawatt hours annually.
Roberts, in a series of mathematical equivalencies, said each person in the county consumes an average of 90 gallons of water, of which 78 percent is used for showers, dish washing, laundry and toilet. The electricity needed to convey that water is the equivalent of running eight 60 watt bulbs for an hour.
When you account for the 600,000 water customers, the agency uses enough energy to power 80 billion, 60 watt bulbs a year. Water conservation directly translates into energy conservation, he said.
At an outdoor stage, the event featured conservation advocate L. Hunter Lovins, the author of NaturalCapitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution. Lovins discussed the urgency of changing behavior that leads to unsustainable consumption of energy and natural resources.
She said that while British Petroleum may have physically caused the current disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the real cause “is me and you and everyone driving on the highway.”
Solar Sonoma County is a non-profit consortium of local government, businesses, solar vendors and energy efficiency professionals working to move the county toward clean renewable energy.
In March 2008, the organization set a target of achieving 25 new megawatts of solar energy production in the county by March 2011. To date, the county has added 11 megawatts of solar electricity.
