Welcome to ReSource, the quarterly publication of the Solar Energy Research and Education Foundation. SEREF is a non-profit organization located in Washington, D.C. dedicated to the advancement of renewable energy through education.
SEREF's main project is the Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technology (CREST). Using advanced communications and multimedia technology, CREST is promoting renewable energy three ways:
But enough background, read on! ReSource can be sent to you four times per year by e-mail, and is also available in print (recycled paper). For copies, information, and to get in your editorial two cents, you can contact me at the address below. Hope you enjoy ReSource!
Deb Anderson
Editor, ReSource
dja@crest.org * phone (202) 289-0061 * fax (202) 289-5354
For technical information about the CREST-news list, or info about
Solstice in general, please contact Andrew Waegel <asw@crest.org>.
To subscribe to the CREST-news mailing list, please fill out the
Solstice Registration Form.
The American Institute of Architects, Rocky Mountain Institute, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, and a team of over 100 experts (including Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technology director Michael Totten) participated in the Greening of the White House feasibility study, which identified dozens of opportunities for saving energy and reducing adverse environmental effects at the White House complex while saving money at the same time.
The Greening of the White House initiative was launched by President Clinton on Earth Day 1993, with the resulting implementation plan announced March 11, 1994. The plan identifies cost-effective steps that will make the White House a model environmental residence and office building. Each of the improvements will be documented on the CD-ROM for people to learn how to implement similar measures in their own homes and cities.
Users will be able to go on a "virtual walkthrough" of certain parts of the White House complex and click on objects (such as computers, windows, trees, and showerheads) to find out what the White House is doing to save energy and how they can replicate the process. The CD-ROM will contain hundreds of screens of text, pictures, spreadsheets, interactive exercises, and audio and video clips.
A prototype of the CD-ROM was unveiled at an Earth Day Eve reception at the American Institute of Architects building in Washington, D.C. The CD-ROM will have the ability, as stated by the President on Earth Day, of bringing renewable energy and energy efficiency "from the White House to your house."
Totten points out, "with 40% of all new computers CD-ROM capable, and over a million CD-ROM computers in classrooms today, the potential for interactive education is incredible."
The White House CD-ROM will be completed in December and will be available to the public early next year.
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Over the years, DOE has spent millions of dollars developing multimedia resources about renewable energy and energy efficiency. However, it is difficult for non-governmental organizations and citizens to access these resources, which tend to be scattered in offices and labs around the country. By digitizing and storing the images on CD-ROM discs, these valuable resources can be widely distributed at a fraction of the cost of creating original multimedia resources. This bodes well for groups developing interactive multimedia applications on sustainable energy development to be used for public awareness, education, training, advocacy work, and enhancing the decisionmaking process by policymakers and investors.
CREST anticipates release of the first CD-ROM by the end of 1994 for use on both Macintosh computers and Windows-based PCs. Many of these resources are now being posted at CREST's internet site, Solstice, which can be accessed with Mosaic/World Wide Web client/server software and ftp.
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By Michael Totten, CREST Director
This is the first of a series of articles in a revolving column prepared by different CREST and SEREF staff. Being the first, allow me an overview of why we do what we do. Detailed assessments like Goldemberg et al's Energy for a Sustainable World (Wiley Eastern Press, 1989) indicate that investment in sustainable energy development worldwide in the decades to come could help cut in half the global economy's looming several trillion dollar annual energy bill, while achieving half of all energy supplies from solar and renewable resources. Multiple benefits would cascade from this fiscally prudent action including: achieving deep reductions of environmental pollution; accelerating delivery of energy services to the burgeoning number of poverty stricken families worldwide; freeing up trillions of dollars of financial resources from the energy sector to meet other pressing social needs, like education, sanitation, health and family planning assistance, clean water and air; preserving watersheds, conserving soils and other natural resources; and reducing the risks and costs associated with OPEC foreign oil import dependency and proliferation of atomic bomb materials from increased dependency on nuclear reactors.
However, a pernicious set of market failures and financial and institutional barriers currently inhibit change towards this far preferable ecologically sustainable energy investment strategy. Bold and persistent steps taken by a relatively small cadre of advocates and experts over the past two decades have demonstrated that most of these barriers and imperfections are amenable to change through the application of innovative technical, financial and organizational solutions. These isolated successes, however, need to be widely replicated, and improved upon, in every community across America and around the world. This daunting task will take far more sophisticated tools of knowledge transmission and communication than in current use.
Fortunately, spectacular advancements in the information, computer and communication sectors are racing along even faster than the impressive technological gains in sustainable technologies. It's been said that if cars kept pace with computers over the past two decades, you would be able to buy a Rolls Royce that gets 2000 miles per gallon for two dollars. And ongoing innovations this decade are expected to eclipse these past feats. Nearly half of today's computer purchases come with CD-ROM drives that play interactive multimedia software programs. Each 650 Megabyte disc stores the equivalent of 12 library shelves, or half a ton of paper. Once developed, a disc can be copied for less than $2 (compared to $10,000 to photocopy all the information it contains). Tens of millions of computers in close to 100 countries are now linked to the global communication network known as internet, trading mail, news, documents, photos, sound, and even video. These powerful, cost-effective tools of knowledge acquisition are vital for training a larger cadre of advocates and experts, as well as for inspiring a citizenry to demand this environmentally superior, economically preferable sustainable energy future.
On Earth Day 1993, the Solar Energy Research and Education Foundation broke new ground in establishing the Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technology (CREST) as its central project. When completed in early 1995, the 10,000 square foot CREST building, located in the nation's capital, will serve as a science education center, learning lab, and training theater for domestic and international policy- and decisionmakers, educators, and other professionals. Most importantly, CREST is charting a bold new course more consonant with the challenges and opportunities of the 1990s, by promoting the use of cutting edge computer, information and communication technologies -- CD-ROM and the internet -- as a more rapid, comprehensive and cost-effective means of showcasing achievements and opportunities in sustainable energy development.
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Based upon scientific publications, the game metaphor of a time machine enables the user to go into the future and investigate the paths facing society. Various options regarding energy choices, government spending and the specific user's own buying decisions will enlighten the CD-ROM player with insightful futuristic knowledge.
The production includes an interactive encyclopedia to explain the various technologies involved in solar electric, solar thermal, wind, biomass, micro-hydro and geothermal energy. Interactive exercises will include designing your own photovoltaic system and exercises in passive solar energy design concepts, and imbedded in each decision is a new understanding of the economics and pollution concepts necessary for such choices.
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A longtime Congressional champion of renewable energy and efficiency, Congressman Phil Sharp was presented with a lifetime achievement award from the National Association of State Energy Officials. Representative Sharp announced earlier this year that he would not seek another term in office. The award was presented in CREST on May 25.
The Minister of Mineral Resources and Water Affairs of the Republic of Botswana, The Honorable Archibald Mogwe, was the guest of honor at a reception in CREST on June 3. The reception was hosted by the U.S. Export Council for Renewable Energy in recognition of the Minister's leadership in bringing renewable energy to the people of Botswana.
The CREST building is a historic Washington, D.C. landmark
built in 1924 by William Van Allen, architect of the
Chrysler Building. It is scheduled to open in 1995 as a
training and learning center for renewable energy and
energy efficiency technologies. For more information,
contact Deborah Anderson, CREST Director of
Communications and Outreach, at (202) 289-5370.
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The Traveling Information Center is a library, exhibit, and a host of special events that showcase U.S. environmental technologies to influential audiences abroad. Developed to support three Clinton Administration priorities: export enhancement, environmental information transfer, and increasing public-private partnerships, two copies of Environmental Technologies are touring 28 cities in Asia and the Indian subcontinent in 1994.
"The response to the Environmental Technologies program has been extremely favorable," said Tim Brown, USIA policy officer, "particularly to business and educational audiences."
In each city, copies of the programs and other materials are left as a permanent reference resource. So far the show has been through Pakistan, Nepal, Malaysia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Sri Lanka.
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By Andrew Waegel, Internet Services Manager, and Eric Woods, Internet and Multi-Media Consultant
After many technical learning experiences, CREST's on-line service, "Solstice", is now up and running on the Internet. Solstice was officially pronounced operational to the Deparment of Energy on June 8, and will be announced to the public in August when more content is prepared. Currently, connections to Solstice from anywhere on the Internet using the World Wide Web (WWW), Gopher, and anonymous FTP services are supported. Several documents have already been converted into the hypertext mark-up language (HTML), an easy to read online document format for the WWW that can help to organize material into logical sections, add a graphical interface, allow incorporation of images, sounds, and animations with the text, and generally enliven the online experience.
CREST will be adding WAIS (wide area information service) and e-mail autoresponder services to Solstice this summer. The former will allow users to search the full text of Solstice's data banks by keywords and phrases, and the latter will allow access from computers which can only communicate with the Internet using electronic mail. To reach the WWW server, use a WWW browser program, such as Mosaic or lynx, and direct it to "http://solstice.crest.org/". For FTP, log in to solstice.crest.org using "anonymous" for the login name and your Internet mail address as your password; once logged in, all files can be found in the /pub directory. For Gopher, direct your Gopher software to "gopher.crest.org".
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CREST's first on-line resource locator, "CREST's Guide to Alternative Energy Resources on the Internet," is now in a new format for the World Wide Web (WWW). The AE Guide, which has been available to the Internet community as a text document since December, has been updated to include HTML formatting.
The HTML version of the AE Guide focuses on making the alternative energy resources of the Internet available through one comprehensive site. This one-stop shopping provides information and hypertext links for product information, experts in the field, UseNet newsgroups, mailing lists, file archives and databases, and AE information arranged by subject.
To access the AE Guide, you should use a WWW browser such as NCSA Mosaic and open the URL: "http://solstice.crest.org/aeguide/aehome.html". Other interesting energy-related productions are available on Solstice as well. "A PV-Tour through Switzerland" is a textual and visual guide to photovoltaic installations throughout Switzerland, available on the world wide web at "http://solstice.crest.org/renewables/pv-tour-switzerland/toc.html" and via Gopher or anonymous ftp in the "renewables-and-alternatives/pv" section of "solstice.crest.org". "Supercars: The Coming Light-Vehicle Revolution" is an article from the Rocky Mountain Institute about the new wave of high efficiency personal transportation, available on the world wide web at "http://crest.org/efficiency/rmi/hypercars/index.html" and via Gopher or anonymous ftp in the "efficiency/transportation" section of "solstice.crest.org". Solstice is growing rapidly, so check it often!
If you have comments or suggestions (or possible contributions!) for Solstice, you can fill out our comment form or e-mail them to www-content@solstice.crest.org. If you have any technical difficulties with Solstice, you can e-mail us at www-admin@solstice.crest.org.
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