JANUARY MEETINGS SCHEDULE
Meetings are from 6-8 p.m.
at 113 East Logan Ave., Gallup, NM
Refreshments are served
The public is always welcome and your input is valued.
January 2 at 6 p.m.
FINANCING SOLAR – DALE DEDRICK
January 9 and 16 at 6 p.m.
OPEN HOUSE FOR SOLAR SEEKERS
Bring your friends and family! Find out how we can help you get the facts. Absolutely no pressure! Just looking into solar is a positive step!
January 23 at 6 p.m.
GALLUP SOLAR BOARD MEETING
January 30 at 6 p.m.
FIFTH WEDNESDAY POT-LUCK
COVER STORY
SOLAR SEEKERS/ROUND 1
One of our solar seekers, Allen Phillips, at the meter which may soon be running backwards.
Eight Gallup homeowners have begun taking the initiative to seriously pursue a solar PV installation. They have responded to Gallup Solar’s flyers or otherwise contacted us for information and have allowed us to begin the process of evaluating their home for PV.
Some essential factors in an evaluation are: electric usage for the past 12 months or more; a house’s east-west orientation; condition and pitch of unshaded south-facing roof spaces; meter box condition; family needs, preferences and financing requirements.
After our pre-site visits, we arranged for one of the solar contracting companies from the Rio Grande Corridor, Affordable Solar this time, to conduct its professional site visits at no cost to obtain their free estimates and recommendations. Note that our impressions of each site closely coincided with the recommendations of Affordable Solar. We quickly learned that each house is unique as to its PV applicability.
More homeowners and a couple of local businesses are following suit so that another round of our pre-site visits is in the works. Down the proverbial road we hope to facilitate a “community solar garden” or program, similar to the “Bright Tucson Community Solar Program,” through which renters, low- or fixed-income residents and others can purchase blocks of kilowatt-hours without any installation
on their homes.
Finally, if your family feels the urge to find out whether solar is right for you, please don’t hesitate to contact us at <
info@gallupsolar.org> or 505-726-2497. Better yet come to some of our Wednesday evening meetings 6-8pm at our headquarters, 113 E Logan Ave. Gallup.
HAPPENINGS
November 29
2012 SCIENCE FAIR AT RED ROCK ELEMENTARY
It was an honor for Gallup Solar to be invited to judge the 149 experiments, the work of K-5th grade organized by April Forman, 4th grade teacher in her ninth year of producing this fantastic science fair and tenth year at Red Rock.
Six Gallup Solarians participated, at least one for the entire 9 hour day.
The place was packed, classes arriving one after another. More than 200 family, parents, friends, community members signed in, in addition to the students of Red Rock Elementary.
Left: Sister Pat Bietsch building tinfoil boats, a Second Grade project.
Right: Audience participants also building boats.
Sister Rose Marie judging a wonderful solar project in which Tristan Keller, 4th grader,
measured the effect of different wattages on a solar insect toy, purchased from the Flea Market. He recorded the distances the insect would move along a wooden ruler depending on the wattage of the light shining on it.
Don Hyde was a big hit giving rides on our solar golf cart,
Sunny Beam.
First he explained how the panels charge the batteries
Who wants a ride?
And they’re off!
Even Mr. John Hartog, Principal of Red Rock Elementary,
wanted a ride.
Of course solar was only one of the many topics examined at this fair but Gallup Solar succeeded in getting a lot of attention paid to it.
Thank you, April Forman, for creating this important event!
DOGS AND SOLAR
Violet with Candace Lee holding the Nokero (no kerosene) light that has changed their lives. Violet looked forward to going to bed with the sun but now she has to stay up an extra six hours while Candace does her art.
Solar Powered Light for the “Other Billion”
Nokero products are designed for the 1.3 billion people without access to reliable electricity. Today many of these people spend upwards of 30% of their daily income on kerosene based fuels to burn in makeshift lanterns and lamps. This not only deprives families of hard earned money it poses a real and serious health hazard through the release of toxic fumes and the high occurrence of burns caused by the accidental knock over of lamps. Through the use of our solar-based products our customers can see a ROI in six months and then have positive income flows through the decreased or discontinued use of kerosene for lighting purposes. Our solar powered light bulbs each contain a solar panel, rechargeable battery and efficient and powerful LED lights.
Check out this wonderful short video
http://youtu.be/HvzOpDksnzk
Intention To Reduce Carbon Footprint
Tanny with Pauline Sargent and their new community leased Nissan Leaf, powered by the solar panels on the Common House below in Santa Fe. For Tanny the Leaf is just another way to avoid a nice walk.
With the help of a third party investor group, this community has installed a 5.52 kW grid tied, photovoltaic system on the roof of their Common House. The electricity produced by this system will power the Common House, but it will also produce enough electricity to power three to four electric vehicles depending on the current electric vehicle technology and driving habits.
The community is putting in place the organizational structures involved in group ownership of cars and developing the practice of sharing cars. The idea is that there will be a small fleet of cars, jointly owned by a group of residents. Some of these cars would be gas powered (including hybrids) for going on longer trips. And some of the cars would be all electric for shorter trips around town.
The idea of sharing cars is a definite challenge for a group of older individuals who are used to having a car for his or her use only.
Experiments with ‘virtual’ car sharing are showing that more than half the number of cars than people will be needed in order to meet driving needs.
OTHER
An array of solar panels supplies energy for necessities at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Calif. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Pfc. Jeremiah Handeland/Released). Photo from Wikipedia
US Army?
Our US Army has a “NetZero” vision for National Security. Army Secretary, John McHugh, announced recently the launch of the Army’s new “Energy Initiatives Office Task Force.”
This is due to the stated need for an “ability of bases to keep functioning despite widespread fuel supply and power disruptions.” This could mark the end of “continued reliance on fossil fuel in the civilian world,” too!
But a sizable segment in the US House of Representatives doesn’t want to fund this initiative forcing the Army to have to send out RFP’s for investments amounting up to
$7.1 billion from private sector partners to build large renewable energy installations on or near
bases.
THE HABITAT PROJECT STILL NEEDS FUNDS
and has been postponed for this winter semester!
Please make a tax-deductible donation to Gallup Solar, Inc. and mail to Gallup Solar, 113 East Logan, Gallup, NM 87301
GO TO gallupsolar.org FOR MORE INFO
