CREST is the central project of SEREF, the Solar Energy Research and
Education Foundation. SEREF is an IRS 501 (c)(3) organization.
ReSource is the electronic newsletter of the non-profit Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technology (CREST). CREST uses advanced computer and communications tools to promote renewable energy, energy efficiency, and sustainable development.
Solstice, CREST's Internet information server, continues to add new pages, features, and programs. Be sure to check in often to http://solstice.crest.org/by-type/whats-new.html to see what's new on-line.
Users can reach Solstice by gopher, anonymous ftp, World Wide Web, or e-mail:
| gopher: | gopher.crest.org |
| ftp: | solstice.crest.org (your e-mail as password) |
| WWW: | http://solstice.crest.org/ |
| e-mail: | info@crest.org |
The Sun's Joules, a new CD-ROM produced by the Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technology (CREST), combines the information of a 950 page encyclopedia with the power of multimedia. Sponsored by the US Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Office of Utility Technologies; and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, this multimedia encyclopedia is a powerful new teaching tool for anyone interested in learning more about renewable energy.CREST, with the hard work of our summer research associates Nat Holder and David Wegman, have converted the entire CD-ROM to HTML (minus the animation, videos and other features that take too much bandwidth for most users). The Sun's Joules online is a fantastic resource for students, teachers, and others interested in learning more about renewable energy. The URL is:
http://solstice.crest.org/renewables/SJ/info.htmlDesigned for high-school age students but enjoyed by adults and kids of all ages, The Sun's Joules takes users into a landscape full of renewables ready to explore. Each icon on the main screen represents a different technology or issue. Chapters on wind energy, transportation, solar electricity, solar thermal, passive solar, biomass, the environment, small hydropower, economics, geothermal, and a state-by-state profile of energy use are located behind the appropriate illustrations.
After clicking on an icon, the user is transported into the section of the multimedia encyclopedia that addresses the corresponding technology or issue. Each section is also divided into the sub-categories overview, science, history, case studies, and economics, enabling the user to find exactly what he or she is interested in learning. The CD-ROM features keyword search capabilities, a glossary of energy terms, and lists of resources for students to pursue for more information.
Each section also features an interactive exercise that teaches some basic principles of the technology. In the photovoltaics (solar electric) section, the exercise demonstrates how photovoltaics and energy efficient appliances can be used together to power a house without using electricity from the utility grid. In the transportation section, users can design their own car for energy efficient driving. The wind section allows users to site a wind turbine using their computer mouse, illustrating the available wind power in differing areas of a given terrain. Each of the exercises is an effective means of relating scientific principles in a self-paced, easily-understood way.
Michael Totten, CREST Director, researched and prepared all 950 pages of text for The Sun's Joules. Totten has over 20 years of alternative energy expertise and has brought together images, chapters, and resources for the CD-ROM to create a one-of-a-kind learning tool. Joe McCabe, P.E., CREST Multimedia Manager, designed the interface, graphics, and interactive exercises. McCabe used his skills in three-dimensional design, multimedia programming, and years of alternative energy experience to produce the CD-ROM.
Currently, the Macintosh-based program is selling for US$25 each (including shipping and handling), and a PC/Windows version will be available in late September. Copies of the disc can be ordered on the web site by credit card or First Virtual transaction. If you would like to order by mail, send a check payable to CREST to: The Sun's Joules, c/o CREST, PO Box 1036, Washington, D.C. 20013. You can also send e-mail to joules@crest.org or send a fax to (202) 289-5354 for more information.
By Andrew Waegel
CREST Internet Services ManagerSolstice, the Internet information service of the Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technology (CREST), is one of the most comprehensive and popular sources of sustainable energy and development information on the Internet. Since October of 1994 Solstice has been visited over a half-million times by tens of thousands of different computers from around the world, representing over 60 different countries.
While the Internet has until recently been the domain of academia, the government, and researchers, further analysis of Solstice access reveals that approximately 59% of our US users come from the more private sectors of the Internet, those identified as commercial (.com, 39%), non-governmental/ non-profit (.org, 5%) and network services (.net, 15%). This private sector representation, even in a resource as tightly focused as Solstice, indicates a fertile field for creative and cost-effective marketing (infopreneurs, if you will).
Solstice is already hosting the materials of organizations plying the unsettled waters of online commerce. The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) offers their books, conference proceedings, and research reports for sale on Solstice, as does the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI).
Other groups taking advantage of online marketing are IRT, an energy and environmental information firm; Iris Communications, who offer extensive information about energy efficient and environmentally benign products; and GreenSeal, an environmental certification organization which offers a database of environmentally-certified products on Solstice.
One of Solstice's original missions was to showcase the activities and members of the Washington, DC-based renewable energy trade associations. These groups and databases of their members were among the first files on Solstice, and continue to be some of the most popular, accounting for nearly 8,000 visits each month. By being online, these associations provide a valuable service for their members.
CREST has been able to act as a broker between those seeking information, products or services and companies who can meet their needs. Particularly for those doing business internationally, the Internet is a very cost-effective means of reaching their target market. As more and more companies use the Internet as part of an integrated sales or marketing campaign, Solstice will increase in value as more consumers rely on the Internet for product information.
The Internet is full of valuable resources for the small business owner, non-profit manager, or entrepreneur, and more and more businesses are advertising their e-mail or Web pages in their print advertising as an extension of their marketing. For example, in the August 28 issue of Business Week, 31 of its advertisers had World Wide Web addresses (see page 71, Business Week Internet Address directory). Just a sample of World Wide Web sites devoted to promoting commerce are: The Small Business Administration (SBA) at http://www.sbaonline.sba.gov/, the Small Business Advancement Center http://161.31.2.174/, the Entrepreneurs Exchange http://www.astranet.com/eexchange/jc00indx.htm, and the Virtual Entrepreneur http://emporium.turnpike.net/B/bizopp/index.html. If your business, trade association, or non-profit works with energy or the environment, CREST encourages you to use Solstice and to take advantage of the Internet to stay on the cutting-edge of communications. If your customers are on-line, then you should be there, too.
By Deborah Anderson
CREST Director of Communications and OutreachIn this era of instant global electronic communications, it is always refreshing to actually put a face with an e-mail address. I had a rare opportunity to meet many of my colleagues in renewable energy education when I traveled to Kiev, Ukraine for EcoForum '95, a conference that brought together environmental NGOs from across the former Soviet Union (FSU) and the US for a week of workshops, idea exchange, and information sharing. Despite vast cultural differences and working thousands of miles apart, the message from everyone was the same: educating our young people about the natural environment is the key to improving our planet and our collective ways of life.
From May 22 to May 26 there were four days of workshops, presentations, and seminars on deep ecology, energy conservation and renewable energy, grassroots organization, working with the media, managing an NGO, and more. Sponsored by ISAR, a non-profit organization with a network of offices throughout the FSU, and funded by the US Agency for International Development, the conference brought together individuals from the US and across the FSU who were working to improve our environment through grassroots, non-governmental action and cooperation.
There was a remarkably large number of people representing NGOs working with children in environmental education. Participants from the Ukraine and Belarus who are close to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant told stories of children who could see through the damage and the sickness, and were working for a better tomorrow at ecology camps across the republics. Teachers spoke of innovative new programs that brought young people to wildlife areas that were sadly neglected during the Soviet era, and how much children are interested in helping to save the environment. The FSU participants were eager for teaching tools, curriculum, fact sheets, and ideas for furthering environmental education, and as we shared our own programs it was clear we could all learn from one another. What was even more surprising was that while we were half a world away, our goals were exactly the same: to teach students to conserve energy, respect their environment, and pass along to their children an environment better than they inherited.
I held a workshop on the use of the Internet, and talked about our Internet server, Solstice and our computer-based educational programs. With CREST's laptop computer, I showed them the many different resources available over the Internet for energy education. Incredibly, about 75% of the conference participants had e-mail addresses, and many explained that e-mail is the cheapest, most reliable form of communication for many parts of the FSU today. While most of our programs are in English, there was great interest in developing Russian-language programs or using the more visual-based programs in English. While computers are still scarce, they are becoming more accessible, particularly among NGOs who use e-mail so often and who often sponsor the programs in education.
With so much emphasis on education, it was very encouraging to know that there are so many future environmentalists in training. It also underscored the need for new ways of learning with new tools to do so, something CREST has been developing through its work with computers and the Internet. As I left the conference and said good-bye to many new friends, it was very clear how much technology is changing, and will continue to change, the world around us. When we left, we all exchanged e-mail addresses and URLs rather than mail addresses or phone numbers, and since returning I have received e-mail from many of the people that I met there. Ironically, the more technology brings the world together, the more we realize that we were never very far apart after all.
Austria, Australia, Belgium, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, Switzerland, Chile, China, Columbia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Egypt, Spain, Finland, Fiji, France, Great Britain, Greece, Hong Kong, Croatia (Hrvatska), Hungary, Indonesia, India, Ireland, Israel, Iceland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, South Korea, Kuwait, Luxemboug, Latvia, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Sweden, Singapore, Slovenia, former USSR (old domain), Thailand, Turkey, Taiwain, Ukraine, Uruguay, and South Africa. Plus thousands of you from non-profits, online services, and private US companies that register as one big .org or .com, respectively.
We hope we are meeting your needs for renewable energy information.
Please let us know how we can improve our services or content! Send
e-mail to www-content@crest.org.
CREST is the central project of SEREF, the Solar Energy Research and
Education Foundation. SEREF is an IRS 501 (c)(3) organization.
CREST Staff:
Michael Totten, Director, mpt@crest.org
Christopher Gronbeck, Technical Director, ceg@crest.org
Andrew Waegel, Internet Services Manager, asw@crest.org
Joe McCabe, P.E., Multimedia Manager, jcpm@crest.org
Deborah Anderson, Director, Communications and Outreach, dja@crest.org
Eric Woods, Internet and Multimedia Consultant, elw@crest.org
Jenny Worley, Spanish Language Translator, jdw@crest.org
Ken Sheinkopf, SEREF, kgs@crest.org
To subscribe to ReSource, send e-mail to majordomo@crest.org. Leave the message line blank, and in the body of the letter write subscribe crest-news apollo@olympus.net, assuming you are the Greek sun god. If you are not, substitute your own e-mail address. Questions and comments are most welcome! For content comments, send e-mail to Deborah Anderson, ReSource Editor, at dja@crest.org. For techie stuff, send e-mail to Andrew Waegel, Internet Services Manager and ReSource Technical Editor, at asw@crest.org.