Register Now for WINDPOWER 2009 Conference & Exhibition

AWEA Conference & Education Dept wrote:

WINDPOWER 2009 Conference & Exhibition Chicago, Illinois May 4 -7 Register Now for WINDPOWER 2009! Registration is Now Open for the largest annual wind conference and exhibition in the world. WINDPOWER 2009 Conference & Exhibition features over 13,000 attendees and over 830 exhibitors. Wind energy professionals gather at this event every year to learn about the latest industry developments and technologies, review new products and services, and network with leading industry decision makers. Take a look at the Digital Registration Brochure. It includes live links to video and audio, and information regarding the conference. Don't miss this important industry event May 4th - 7th, 2009, at McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago, Illinois. As WINDPOWER approaches, you will receive additional information from AWEA about conference sessions, the exhibition, networking events and festivities. Our online registration system is now live, allowing you to make firm plans and to take advantage of early registration discounts.       Conference Program Wind Power: Securing America's Energy Future The WINDPOWER Conference program will include over 300 speakers and moderators, 150 poster presentations and 50 sessions on leading wind energy topics organized into tracks with policy, business, and technical focuses. There is no better place to learn the latest industry developments and new technology than WINDPOWER 2009. Attendees can also participate in several day-long pre-conference seminars for a more in-depth education on various topics. This year's WINDPOWER Conference Program is currently being organized by co-program chairs, Mark Ahlstrom, Chief Executive Officer, WindLogics Inc., and Karl Rábago with assistance from Brian McNiff, President, McNiff Light Industry serving as a board liaison. NEW FOR 2009! AWEA Wind Power Supply Chain Workshop Monday, May 4th Growing demand for wind projects means an increased need to expand domestic manufacturing of wind turbines and their components. Join us at the Wind Power Supply Chain Workshop at WINDPOWER 2009 and learn more about: The Anatomy of a Turbine A Wind Industry Overview Major Component Sourcing & Value Chain Services Entering the Wind Industry: Funding, Contracts, and Re-Tooling Case Studies When you are finished your day, explore the exhibit hall from 5:00 – 7:30PM to see a full span of wind industry products and services.   Housing AWEA has negotiated discounted hotel rates at more than 25 Chicago hotels for attendees & exhibitors. Visit http://www.windpowerexpo.org/hotel_and_travel.cfm for information on each hotel such as room rates, amenities, and photos as well as a map showing the location of each hotel. You can reserve your room on-line now, by calling The Housing Connection, our housing bureau, at (877) 505-0678 (toll-free US) or +1 (801) 505-4616 (international), or faxing in a housing reservation form. Exhibitors – if you are booking more than 10 rooms, you can complete the exhibitor block request form to protect your room block without having to provide specific attendee names until later this spring. PLEASE NOTE: There was a 1-day shift in the conference schedule for this year's event. The Opening Event and Concert will be held on Monday, May 4th (instead of Sunday as in past years) with the exhibition and conference sessions taking place on Tuesday, May 5th through Thursday, May 7th (instead of Monday - Wednesday). Please book your hotel reservations accordingly! Registration Information Conference Program Hotel & Travel Exhibition Information Sponsorship Opportunities Contact Us Dates to Remember: Early Registration Deadline: March 9, 2009 Hotel Registration Deadline: April 13, 2009 _____________________________ AMERICAN WIND ENERGY ASSOCIATION Conference & Education Department 1501 M Street NW, Suite 1000  Washington, DC 20005 Phone: (202) 383-2512 Fax: (202) 383-2505 Email: conference@awea.org Web: www.windpowerexpo.org Note: this email message is distributed by the American Wind Energy Association.

This message was sent from AWEA Conference & Education Dept to aqmstaffo@mailbag.com. It was sent from: AWEA, 1501 M Street, NW Suite 1000, Washington, DC 20005.

People Used To Think The Earth Was Flat, Too...

I love these people who decry Global Warming as a hoax, such as this fellow at the "Lighthouse Patriot Journal".

The fellow points to freezing weather in Florida as evidence that Climate Change doesn't exist, or may be preempting what would've been a coming ice age.

That's all just wonderful. The problem is that a warming climate doesn't necessarily mean you are going to get unusually warm weather in any one location on the planet consistently. It means that the average temperature over the entire Earth's surface increases year-over-year.

That means that you take all the temperature readings throughout an entire year from every measuring point on the planet, and then find the average of that temperature, and compare that figure to previous years.

It also means that there is more heat energy in the atmosphere. Greater heat energy in the atmosphere means more powerful winds overall. That includes freaky-seeming winds that blow over the polar regions and then back down to more equatorial regions, which moves heat to the polar regions and dumps it there, and then pulls frigid air down on top of us at lower latitudes.

If the strength and amount of wind increases on average each year, you are going to see more freak storms and weather. Bigger hurricanes. Stronger cyclones. Larger and more intense rainstorms in some areas, hotter and drier weather in others. Bigger winter storms as the prevailing winds push up into the polar regions harder and then come further back down with more cold moisture and snow to dump.

It's more about the amount of heat energy in the atmosphere increasing the power of the Earth's winds at this stage than about locally increased temperatures except in the polar regions.

The poles will heat up faster than the rest of the planet because ice is reflective, and reflects solar energy into space. The less of it there is at the poles, the more solar energy they'll absorb.

If you look around and see more powerful and frequent storms than usual, that's what you should expect right now from changes in the AVERAGE temperature around the globe.

It isn't just heat waves, oh Flat Earth People. It is more powerful winds and more powerful and freaky storms. Hold onto Kansas, Toto, unless it's getting flooded, then swim for it. Or dig out of a blizzard, or chip your way out of an ice storm, or haul water out of the well in an extended drought. Whichever one it is, you'll have more of it, and it will probably be windier.

The vast majority of the world's scientists agree that man-made gasses are trapping heat - and therefore energy - in the Earth's atmosphere, and right now that means wind.

If you want to really hear what the world's scientists have to say on the subject, check out the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's multiple comprehensive reports. While you're at it, have a little sympathy for those poor Floridians getting the occasional freak-freeze, and a lot worse hurricanes.

Thank you for reading - and maybe even listening.

Dan

Great Lakes Zephyr Archives...

... please note that all of our blog archives have moved along with the main blog, dating all the way back to the GL Zephyr's creation in 2003.

Links to all of the archives can be found near the bottom of the lower-right sidebar.

Thank you for reading!

Dan Stafford
GL Zephyr Publisher / Creator

Great news for the Chicago area

I have some underground info that free city-wide wifi is coming to Chicago and some neighboring suburbs. This is coming in via major league sports operators, not the Fed, as I understand it.

Don't ask me how I know, but infrastructure planning is cooking now, and hardware won't be too long to start in the oven.

Now, if the Fed wants to get more bang for its broadband stimulus bucks...

Whyis free wifi good news for the regional environment?

Up tha telecommute and down that gas pumpin', Baby!

More when I can, & thank you for reading!

Dan

Actively seeking industry interviewees...

The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal seeks industry personnel to be interviewed. I have a standardized list of (11) questions that I would like to ask. The interview can be scheduled and conducted via Skype or text-only.

The questions are:


1. What was it that brought you into environmental work? Was there a particular moment or person that inspired you?

2. What do you feel was the most rewarding moment or action you took in your position within the industry?

3. What agency(ies) or programs in the Great Lakes region do you see as making the largest impact on the environment in the next five to ten years, and why?

4. What is the single thing that you see as something easy for the everyday person to do that would have the largest impact on improving the environment or combating Global Climate Change?

5. How do you feel we're doing in the Great Lakes region on environmental issues overall, and what is our greatest area needing improvement in this regard today?

6. What do you think our chances are of tapping wind energy on the Great Lakes given our current political and business environment?

7. What do you think of the idea of using wind turbines out on the lakes to produce clean energy?

8. What, in your opinion, has been the darkest hour during your tenure for the environment in the Great Lakes, and why?

9. What do you see as our best hope of mitigating the circumstance or event in the last question?

10. Are you hopeful given the change of leadership in Washington on January 20th of this year? If so, why?

11. What is the one thing you would most like to “get across” to the people of the Great Lakes region regarding our treatment of the environment?

Interested parties may answer the questions listed above, and e-mail them with credentials and contact information to: aqmstaffo@mailbag.com.

Interviews will be posted on the GL Zephyr as text transcripts and podcasts. Text-only interviews will be read as a podcast and posted.

Professionals in this industry fulfill an important mission, here's a chance to tell of your part in that mission and your vision for the future.

As always, thank you for reading - and for sharing.

Dan Stafford


http://www.archive.org/download/GreatLakesZephyrPodcast0000001/GL-Zephyr-cast-0000001.mp3

Looks like the Interview with CUB will be...

Looks like the Interview with CUB will be in mid-February. I just heard from Celia @ the Citizen's Utility Board of Illinois, and that's the timing that works best for her.

I like the idea as well, since I just moved this blog to a new domain days ago, we need the time for readership to move over and find our new home.

Speaking of the domain move and site revamp, I'm pretty happy with it overall. I think I'll go plug the GL Zephyr into Google and see if they've picked up the move yet.

Thank you as always for reading.

Dan

Intergarden - hooking people with garden space & no time up with people who have time but no garden space

I thought you might want to check this out - http://intergarden.ning.com

The idea is to have local persons that are unemployed, underemployed, or retired, or who just want to garden (and have no garden space) hook up with people who have garden space but are too busy working or don't know enough about gardening up with each other. (WOW, is that a long sentence.)

The idea is that the two parties would split the produce 50/50 in exchange for using each other's time/space/skills.

This site is BRAND SPANKING NEW, less than a week, and it is completely free to join. I'm doing this strictly as a community service. (Ning.com will probably get advertising revenue from it, but I personally get nothing but a sense of accomplishment.)

I hope to get the word out in a big way BEFORE the growing season starts.

This is great for busy home owners with sunny back yard space because they can eat fresh organic produce and supplement their grocery budget just by sharing - and be as local food as you can get.

This is great for the impoverished and underemployed because it can increase their food security through their own individual effort - and provide good skills.

This is great for expert vegetable gardeners because they can help pass on their knowledge for the future and do a great service to the community.

If there's any way you can help spread the word about Intergarden, please do so. People are going to need to start some seedlings as early as March, and given the economic climate, this could really help a lot of people.

With gratitude and respect,

Dan Stafford
Intergarden concept originator
Co-Chair, Progressive Democrats of Illinois
http://www.illinoisprogressives.org

Good News! I have an interview coming up with...

...Ms. Celia Christensen. The Citizen's Utility Board of Illinois Environmental Outreach Coordinator ( www.citizensutilityboard.org ) has agreed to be interviewed for the G.L. Zephyr in the near future.

I would like to thank Mz. Christensen in advance for her time.

I'll be posting a text transcript, mp3 audio, and possibly video of the interview shortly after it's conducted.

We still have timing to work out yet, so I'll let all of you know when it'll be as soon as I know.

Regards, and thank you for reading the Great Lakes Zephyr.

Dan Stafford

Set up Intergarden yesterday

I'm pretty happy I set up Intergarden yesterday. http://intergarden.ning.com -

Intergarden is a site devoted to hooking up people who have unused garden space but would love some free produce with those who have time but no space and need or want free produce.

Share the garden space and split the produce!

Community garden program run out of plots last year? Join and promote Intergarden!

Have community garden plots go unused last year? Join and promote Intergarden!

Have gardening knowledge you'd like to pass on to others for the future? Join and promote Intergarden! Write your tips in our discussion forums.

Intergarden is free to join. I don't make a dime off of it either, though Ning.com might through a few ads.

For me, it's all about helping people all over the world.

So Join and promote Intergarden. It's for all of you.

http://intergarden.ning.com

Dan Stafford


Words are the mind's bridge - its connection to all the universe.
Love is the heart's bridge - its connection to all other souls.
Loving words can work miracles.

01/17/2009 Wind, Energy, Hydrogen News...

Popular Science Flying the Coal-Fired Skies Popular Science - New York,NY,USA John MacNeill In the not-so-distant future, cars could run on electricity, power plants on wind and solar energy, and city buses on zero-emission hydrogen ... See all stories on this topic

The Films Are Green, but Is Sundance? New York Times - United States It explained that the energy for the festival’s official screenings comes through Rocky Mountain Power’s Blue Skies program, which provides wind-powered ... See all stories on this topic

Is the ultimate green fuel particle annihilation? Tulsa World - Tulsa,OK,USA The green fuels are geothermal, wind, solar and hydro. Nuclear plants are not totally green. Hydrogen is green, but producing hydrogen must also be green. ... See all stories on this topic

 

The Desert Speaks

http://www.thedesertspeaks.org - a television series about desert dwellers and habitats, rich in culture, history, tradition, and biology. Quite fascinating.

Thank you for reading!

Dan

Enviro-tip:

After you pour that 1st cup of fresh-brewed or perked coffee, pour the remainder into a stainless steel thermos and turn the pot off. Your coffee will stay hot up to 12 hours without using any electricity, and your coffee won't get that "burnt" taste, ever. Plus, the stainless-steel thermos won't leach plastic chemicals into your coffee. (You should use ceramic mugs or stainless steel travel mugs for the same reason.)

Words are the mind's bridge - its connection to all the universe.
Love is the heart's bridge - its connection to all other souls.
Loving words can work miracles.

Welcome to the NEW Great Lakes Zephyr!

I have finished (for now) the move to blogspot and a new template for the Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal.

I probably still need some tweaks, but here we are, fresh and new but still as we were. I've preserved as many of the features of the old blog on Whizzyrds.com (My personal domain) as is possible.

If you look down at the site meter on the lower right side bar, there's a link back to the old page, but note that I changed the template BEFORE I moved the blog. The old site meter has been imported under the new one, and it will continue to track hits to the old blog as well.

I hope that this change makes things better for you, and for I.

Thank You as always for reading.

Dan Stafford

Feedburner publish test 2

Test 2 for feedburner feed...

Testing feedburner feed update

I just updated my Feedburner feed source URL. This post is a test to make sure it is updating the feed correctly.

Thank you for your patience!

Dan

I am moving this blog!

The new domain should be: http://GL-Zephyr.blogspot.com

This will cause me to lose my hit counts & you'll need to update your links to the new domain, but it will allow me to use the full features of the blog, and claim it properly on Technorati.com.

Please visit the blog at its new location.

Thank You, and thank You for reading!

Dan Stafford

I will be re-vamping this blog soon...

It's long-past time for me to give the Zephyr a new template. I may also need to move it to blogspot for hosting due to technical difficulties with Technorati.com, I'll wait and see on that yet.

I will try to preserve as much of the look and feel of the Zephyr as I can when I move to the new template, and I'll save a copy of the current template script for reference in updates.

The new template should make it easier for publishing and adding features, and make this blog easier to find. It will also allow me to integrate with Feedburner, fix the comments and backlink features, integrate with Twitter, and other things this old template just can't handle.

Please bear with me while I go through this process, and struggle to bring you as much environmental news as I can in one place.

Regards, and thank You for reading -

Dan

Technorati claim post

Technorati Profile

Just me claiming the Zephyr on Technorati & about time.

Dan

01/05/2009 T.O. Enviro-news

The Boston Globe | Wind, Waves, and Watts http://www.truthout.org/010509EA The Boston Globe: "The steady, strong winds over the Atlantic off New England have attracted another developer interested in harnessing them for power generation. A new wrinkle in the proposal by Grays Harbor Ocean Energy Company, of Washington state, is that the supports anchoring each wind turbine platform to the ocean floor would be designed in a way to turn wave action into electricity as well."  Greening the Ghetto http://www.truthout.org/010509LA Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker: "A few months ago, Van Jones, the founder and president of a group called Green for All, went to visit New Bedford, Massachusetts. His first stop of the day was the public library, where someone had assembled an audience of about thirty high-school dropouts. They leaned back in their chairs, hands in the pockets of their oversized sweatshirts. A few appeared to be stoned."

GLIN NEWS: 05 January 2009

GLIN Daily News wrote:

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Great Lakes Daily News: 05 January 2009

For links to these stories and more, visit http://www.great-lakes.net/news/


Engineers to inspect 3 state dams for waste ash
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Three Minnesota dikes that hold vast amounts of coal waste ash will be inspected by state engineers in light of the disastrous ash sludge spill last month in Tennessee. Source: Star Tribune (1/5)


Oberlin sets up more ways to show how resources are used
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Oberlin College has secured an $812,000 grant from the Great Lakes Protection Fund for a four-year pilot project to monitor and display personal and community water consumption. Source: The Chronicle-Telegram (1/5)


Canada ready to plug into electric cars: study group
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Plug-in electric cars can make a breakthrough into the North American market within the next decade as the economy emerges from its current slowdown, says the head of an industry-led panel advising the Harper government. Source: The Montreal Gazette (1/4)


Lyme grass, a new plant 'invader,' could take over dunes
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Lyme grass is flourishing at 125 sites in the coastal dunes of Lake Michigan, according to a new report prepared for The Nature Conservancy. The plant concerns botanists because it competes with native marram grass, or dune grass - one of the predominant species in Great Lakes coastal dunes. Source: Muskegon Chronicle (1/4)


Scientists find signs of 13,000-year-old extinction event
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It's well-known that a meteorite colliding with Earth is considered the most likely reason why dinosaurs died off 65 million years ago. Now a team of scientists says it has found new evidence that a comet triggered a similar extinction 13,000 years ago, at a time when humans were around. Source: Chicago Tribune (1/2)


Pipeline company to pay $1.1M for violations in Wis.
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The company that built a 321-mile, $2 billion oil pipeline across Wisconsin has agreed to pay $1.1 million for environmental violations, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said Friday. Houston-based Enbridge Energy Co. will pay the money to settle a lawsuit accusing it of violating state permits. Source: Chicago Tribune (1/2)


Dow Chemical in talks for Michigan dioxin cleanup
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More than three decades after Dow Chemical was blamed for some of the worst dioxin contamination in history, federal regulators are meeting with the company yet again about cleaning up polluted waterways in eastern Michigan. Source: Chicago Tribune (1/1)


Waukesha may face radium fines
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The state Department of Justice likely will fine the City of Waukesha, Wis., for failing to completely rid its drinking water of potentially cancer-causing radium, Mayor Larry Nelson said. Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (1/1)


Group pushes water-conservation measures
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Investing $10 billion in water-efficiency programs could play an important role in America's "green economy," creating as many as 220,000 jobs while protecting a priceless natural resource says a new report produced by the Chicago-based Alliance for the Great Lakes. Source: Muskegon Chronicle (12/31)


Slowing economy has some ships tying up early for winter
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There are still a couple of weeks in the Great Lakes shipping season, and the Army Corps of Engineers will be operating locks at Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., until Jan. 15. But the recession is drying up business, and a number of Great Lakes ships have already called it quits, tying up for winter early. Source: Minnesota Public Radio (12/31)


Cuyahoga County wins Ohio environmental cleanup grant
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Cuyahoga County is receiving a $2.1 million environmental cleanup grant from the state of Ohio to help rehabilitate the Cuyahoga River channel. Source: Crain's Cleveland Business (12/30)


COMMENTARY: Don't expand the landfill
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Additional hazardous waste landfill capacity in New York State is unnecessary. Demand is down and there's no need to encourage it, the state concluded a long time ago. So, why does the proposed expansion of a hazardous waste site in Niagara County remain an issue? Source: The Buffalo News (12/26)


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