Locavolts Unite! 2008 Bay Area Clean Energy Caucus
(A Green Festival Event)
November 13th, 6-9p
Freedom Hall at Glide Memorial Church
330 Ellis Street (at Taylor)
San Francisco
(Four blocks from Powell St BART)
Join Bay Area local energy enthusiasts (also known as Locavolts) to discuss what's working in local campaigns for clean energy including Community Choice, Energy Efficiency, Solar Financing, and Green Jobs. This is a participatory event. The first half will be brief updates on clean energy initiatives in the Bay Area. The second half will be facilitated topical and regional breakout conversations.
Speakers include
Breakout Topics 7:30-8:00p
- PG&E's history in fossil fuels and energy efficiency, misinformation, and the media
- Collaborating with unions and Redevelopment on workforce development
- Making sustainable energy affordable and accessible
- Fighting Power Plants and LNG
Breakout Topics 8:00-8:30p
- Improving Energy Efficiency and Home Performance
- Building Power and Raising Money for Clean Energy
- CCA implementation steps and strategies
- AB32 Compliance for cities
Food/refreshments will be provided. $5-10 sliding scale. No one turned away for lack of funds. Every person who attends The Bay Area Clean Energy Caucus will receive FREE admission to the Green Festival!
On the Green Job Tour
In conjunction with this event, we will offer for participants to visit a live solar install on the morning of November 14th involving Solar Richmond graduates. More info. Featuring speakers form and co-sponsored by Solar Richmond and Ella Baker Center.
Volunteers Needed: If you would like to volunteer to help out at the event, please contact jan@baylocalize.org. Volunteer opportunities include graphic design, setup, note-taking
during breakouts, timekeeping, and cleanup.
Background on the term Locavolts
The renewable energy movement started in California in 1970's under the
leadership of President Carter and Governor Jerry Brown with generous
federal and state tax credits and landmark state legislation that
guaranteed a stable rate of return on renewable energy investments. By
the mid 1980's, California was the renewable energy capital of the
world. Solar hot water heaters, solar photovoltaics, and wind turbine
technologies were all developed or significantly improved in California
during the 1970s and 1980s.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a homegrown solar energy
movement of renewable energy enthusiasts, tinkers, inventors, and
off-grid homesteaders blossomed in Northern California . This
decentralized movement aimed to bring power to the people by generating
clean, renewable energy from the sun.
Unfortunately, the investor owned utilities and the government
scapegoated the entire emerging solar industry based on a small number
of fraudulent companies and poor quality products. This combined with
expiring federal tax credits, the incoming governor canceling
California's tax credits, and the huge drops in the price of oil and
natural gas in the mid 1980s effectively killed the solar energy
movement and put California's renewable energy industry in suspended
animation for two decades.
With the growing concerns about global warming at the turn of the
21st century, California once again became a leading proponent of
renewable energy in the United States, passing laws such as Senate Bill
1078: Renewable Portfolio Standard in 2002 and AB32: The California
Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006.
Out of the ashes of the solar energy movement, a new movement for
renewable energy, energy efficiency, and green jobs has emerged. In his
September 14th SF Chronicle article, Peter Asmus, a local author and
renewable energy expert, writes:
The "locavore" movement is big, especially in California. With the
bounty of food found locally in the Bay Area, living off the land - and
sea - is not only possible, but also a delicious exercise. But there's
another, less obvious, revolution brewing here in the Bay Area: the
"locavolt" movement.
In response to high gasoline and natural gas prices, global warming and
an increasingly unstable, scary world, residents more than ever are
looking to generate power right in their own homes and neighborhoods
with free energy from nature.
Asmus notes that local governments in the Bay Area are exploring a
new California Program that allows local governments to choose power
supplies for their
constituents. San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and Marin County are all
investigating a plan that would allow them to stay with Pacific Gas and
Electric Co. for billing, distribution and repair service, but allow
local officials to purchase and build more locally produced green
power. This program is called Community Choice Energy.
