Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Vermont Smoke & Cure Cooking with More Solar Power

One of the three local projects helping produce emissions-free solar energy for Vermont Smoke & Cure. Photo courtesy of AllEarth Renewables.

Green Energy Times staff article

Vermont Smoke & Cure, of Hinesburg, Vermont, has been making smoked meats and meat snacks since 1962. Over the years, it has shown itself to be very environmentally aware, with additions of renewable power. Lately, however, it has sharpening its already green image, teaming up with AllEarth Renewables, of Williston, Vermont, on a renewable power project to supply more of its electric power needs.

The new addition is the company’s third solar system, and it will be getting almost two-thirds of its power from the sun. The three projects include a 150-kilowatt (kW) orchard in Hinesburg, a 156-kW project in Essex, and an 88-kW system in Marshfield. Together, they will produce about 610,000-kilowatt hours annually of emissions-free solar energy for the food company.

All three projects were built with AllEarth Renewables’ Vermont-made solar trackers. Chris Bailey, CEO of Vermont Smoke & Cure, said, “We are very proud of our partnership with AllEarth renewables, as it helps us achieve our mission to use local and sustainable resources in our products and our business operations whenever possible.”

David Blittersdorf, president and CEO of AllEarth Renewables, added, “It’s extremely gratifying to be working with great Vermont businesses like Vermont Smoke & Cure with national and international markets on greening their energy portfolio and helping them save on electric costs.” He added, “Vermont Smoke & Cure’s solar mix demonstrates how well solar is working to help these companies gain a competitive edge and do right by the local environment.”

Vermont Smoke & Cure’s sustainable action record goes beyond just building solar systems to cut costs. Whenever possible, it uses humanely raised meats and simple, local ingredients. It will retire the Renewable Energy Credits produced by its project. It employs around 70 people, and its team of employee-owners makes everything in its Smokehouse in Hinesburg, Vermont. Its website is vermontsmokeandcure.com.

AllEarth Renewables makes a dual-axis solar tracker that uses innovative GPS and wireless technology to follow the sun through the day, producing up to 45% more energy than a rooftop solar. The company has manufactured and installed more than 3,800 solar tracker systems. Its website is www.allearthrenewables.com.

Photo: One of the three local projects helping produce emissions-free solar energy for Vermont Smoke & Cure. Photo courtesy of AllEarth Renewables.

from Green Energy Times http://www.greenenergytimes.net/2016/04/15/vermont-smoke-cure-cooking-with-more-solar-power/
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PFOA in Vermont New Hampshire New York

PFOA, a known carocinogenic, is found in microwave popcorn bags. Photo: Wikipedia

By Larry Plesent

There’s a lot of talk in the news about perfluorooctanoic acid or PFOA in Bennington County, upstate NY wells, and in two communities in southern New Hampshire. What is PFOA and its half dozen or more cousins? Is it harmful, should you be concerned, and what can be done about it? Here is the abbreviated version.

PFOA is the shiny nonstick surface found on candy wrappers, waxed food service papers, microwave popcorn bags, carpets, treated textiles, floor wax and dental floss. Teflon is one of its many cousins that can and will break down into PFOA over time. In fact there are 615 compounds known to break down into PFOA. It is primarily fluorine, an element humans need in amounts that are measured in parts per million rather than in macro dosages. Your teeth which are mostly calcium and phosphorus need about five parts per million of fluorine to stay strong, and that is an invisible amount undetectable without specialized instrumentation.

PFOA is one of those invisible chemicals found throughout our civilization, influencing our health without our knowledge or a complete understanding of its impacts. It would take about six years to naturally eliminate the PFOAs in your body right now, assuming you could end all contact with them from this breath onward. This would be highly unlikely given their dispersion throughout the entire planetary ecosystem. PFOAs bio-accumulate in our bodies faster than we can get rid of them. This is not cool, and it is the part that really ticks me off. The PFOA upside is that your cheap candy bar won’t stick to its wrapper. Downside is it takes six years to pass out the molecules that stuck to your chocolate bar and got eaten in the process. PFOAs are measured in the blood in parts per billion. We are not talking about a lot having a big effect here.

According to Wikipedia, “PFOA is a carcinogen, a liver toxicant, a developmental toxicant, and an immune system toxicant, and also exerts hormonal effects including alteration of thyroid hormone levels. Animal studies show developmental toxicity from reduced birth size, physical developmental delays, endocrine disruption, and neonatal mortality.”

Some good news is that a carbon filter appears to work well in removing PFOAs from your water. Bad news is that these puppies are everywhere on the planet now.

But the real crux of the biscuit is that there even exists a mindset that allows novel persistent chemicals to be introduced in mind boggling quantities in the first place, AND then disperses those molecules throughout the planet. All this goes on without any long term understanding of their influence upon living systems.

This, in my humble opinion, is an epitome of complete and utter madness, a dementia that crosses all national borders and appears to be both unending and inexorable in its scope and influence. This is a true evil among us.

The emperor is naked and winter is coming.

All the Best,

Soapman

from Green Energy Times http://www.greenenergytimes.net/2016/04/15/pfoa-in-vermont-new-hampshire-new-york/
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PFOA Alerts in New England Are On the Rise

… And just one of many environmental toxins.

By George Harvey

A toxic substance, PFOA, has been in the news after it was discovered in water wells in a growing number of towns in Vermont, New York, New Hampshire, and elsewhere. Truth be told, however, PFOA is found all over. It can come from spills at chemical plants, but it is found in many other places, such as foods raised in fields fertilized with chemically treated municipal waste and foods in oil-resistant wrappers. It can be found in the blood of about 98% of all Americans.

PFOA is a cause of a large number of health problems. With chronic exposure to small quantities, it can build up in our bodies and lead to serious problems. According to the article in Wikipedia on PFOA, these problems include “kidney cancer, testicular cancer, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, hypercholesterolemia (high cholesterol), and pregnancy-induced hypertension.” [http://bit.ly/wikipedia-pfoa]

But there is a larger issue. The problems do not end with PFOA. Many people are aware of Flint, Michigan, and its troubles with lead. Other communities have had to deal with trichloroethylene. Phosphorus supports algae in our lakes, making the water toxic. Even pristine-looking waters where we would like to fish or swim are polluted with mercury from coal burned in ages past. According to the United Nations Development Program, a child dies from water pollution, somewhere on this planet, about every 17 seconds.

And this does not end with water. Air pollution kills as many people and shortens the lives of nearly everyone. Toxic materials haunt our houses because of ingredients in paint, treatments for cloth in curtains and carpets, which can off-gas such things as formaldehyde, and preservatives for wood. BPAs and other similar substances are in linings for cans of food we buy. They seem to be everywhere.

Most of these materials were either once considered safe, or were thought to be present in inconsequential quantities. But when tiny amounts of highly toxic materials build up over decades, things get very much out of control. This is made worse by the so-called “free market” economics, which touts the absence of regulation as a cure for all ills. Such thinking is unsupportable, not only morally, but also economically because environmental destruction endangers the entire system. People cannot stay healthy in toxic environments, and economies cannot be healthy when the people in them are not.

The World Health Organization recently released a study, “Preventing Disease Through Healthy Environments.” According to the study, one out of every four of us will die of health issues caused by some sort of pollution. Please note the optimistic title, however. Certainly, while the problem is far worse than most people realize, we actually can make things much better.

from Green Energy Times http://www.greenenergytimes.net/2016/04/15/pfoa-alerts-in-new-england-are-on-the-rise/
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April 20 Green Energy News

Headline News:

Six New York State electric utilities and three leading solar development companies have formed a “Solar Progress Partnership” to encourage more solar development across the state, while ensuring that adequate funding is available to maintain a resilient grid. [Marketwired]

Two workers installing a tilt-up PV array on a roof near Poughkeepsie, NY. Photo by Lucas Braun. CC BY-SA 3.0 unported. Wikimedia Commons.

Siemens AG is building a plant near Oxford, England, that makes ammonia by electrolysis instead of through the traditional reaction fed by fossil fuels. If fed by idled renewable power plants, the process would make emissions-free fertilizer used by farmers everywhere. [Bloomberg]
Mitsubishi Motors has admitted falsifying fuel economy test data for more than 600,000 vehicles. The inaccurate tests involved 157,000 of its own brand light passenger cars and 468,000 vehicles produced for Nissan. The problem was uncovered after Nissan pointed out inconsistencies in emissions data. [BBC]
India added close to 3,019 MW of grid-connected solar capacity in 2015-16, which is well above its target of 2,000 MW. India’s total solar power generation capacity touched 6,763 MW as of March 31, 2016, according to the latest update on progress on clean energy initiatives. [Moneycontrol.com]
A partnership of the Navy, TVA and local utilities and agencies announced plans to build Tennessee’s largest solar-generating facility costing over $100 million at a 400-acre site in Millington. The 580,000 PV panels will be on tracking mounts and power about 7,500 homes. [Memphis Commercial Appeal]

For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.

from Green Energy Times http://www.greenenergytimes.net/2016/04/20/april-20-green-energy-news-3/
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