Alternative Co-ops Are Taking Root

A great piece on the expansion of co-ops in rural communities by Nancy Jorgensen and our esteemed colleagues at Daily Yonder. Have you had co-op experiences beyond utility services in the Appalachian region? Do tell… Rural co-ops aren’t just for electricity anymore. Now small towns, hospitals, schools — and rural residents, too — are joining forces to save on everything from paper to funeral services. Courtesy of Producers & Buyers Co-op Rick Beckler, right, hospitality director of Sacred Heart Hospital, works with farmers like Vic Price to make local produce a bigger part of the hospital’s food service. In rural America, most of us are familiar with cooperatives—businesses owned by the people they serve. Farmers, along with rural electric and telecom customers, have reaped the benefits for decades. You’ll also find rural credit, housing and grocery co-ops. But increasingly the cooperative model is changing. It’s evolved into hybrids that combine two or more business interests, and it’s expanding into new and unlikely service sectors. Stephen Ronstrom forecasts that in five years his concept for bringing together farmers and institutional food buyers will go mainstream. Ronstrom, CEO of Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, was recognized by the state of Wisconsin and the Wall Street Journal for buying local farm products for hospital meals. “Local food is good medicine for everyone,” Ronstrom wrote in a 2008 newspaper editorial that got the ball rolling. “It preserves and expands family farms, provides jobs in production and processing, and keeps money in...

Tennessee Leads the Way in Solar Carports, EV Charging Stations...

Reposted from the Energy Collective: Electric vehicles (EVs) are widely considered an inevitable part of the future of transportation. Every major auto manufacturer is working on their own electric model, with notables like the Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt and an electric Ford Focus scheduled for release within the next year or two. The primary concerns surrounding EVs are, of course, their affordability for the mass market, reliability(batteries?) for long-distance travel — a veritable pastime in the United States — and grid power that’s clean enough to charge them without simply trading fossil fuel car emissions for fossil fuel power plant emissions. Tennessee Leads the Way in Electric Vehicle Charging In that vein, the state of Tennessee has taken its first step toward leading the way in renewable EV charging. The state has installed its first solar carport-slash-electric vehicle charging station at a site in Pulaski. Known familiarly as solar carports, these charging stations are no different than traditional carports except for a roof covered in solar panels. The power produced by these panels can charge electric cars or be channeled (for a price) to the regional electric grid. In Pulaski’s case, that’s the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The Pulaski solar carport is relatively small, with the capacity to shelter and/or charge 12 vehicles, but it is a big start, with a second, larger facility planned for Pulaski, as well as another in Knoxville. All three carports will be installed by Outpost Solar, LLC. The first has been installed using...

New Tool Maps Kentucky Energy Infrastructure

As reported by the Associated Press in the Bowling Green Daily News, a new tool has been posted online to illustrate the workings of Kentucky’s energy infrastructure. The mapping tool is available here. Such tools are a welcome step in advancing conversation about planning and choices related to the Commonwealth’s energy systems. In light of increased participation in the EPA’s and other agencies’ regulatory processes, information like this is valuable to Kentuckians looking to educate themselves on the issues. While power plants, railroads, and mines are included in the DEDI/KGS tool, supporting infrastructure for coal-burning facilities – like retention ponds for coal ash or scrubber sludge—are not included on this map. With the EPA hearing scheduled for September 28 in Louisville on national standards for managing coal-burning wastes coming up, it may be an additional feature the map developers want to consider. Learn more about the hearing here. From the Associated Press: FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky is putting online the locations of power plants, railroads, active coal mines and other coal processing, handling and transportation facilities. The Kentucky Department for Energy Development and Independence and the Kentucky Geological Survey jointly developed an interactive web map called “Kentucky Energy Infrastructure.” The state created the map service with funding from the Kentucky Coal Education grant. Associate State Geologist Jerry Weisenfluh says the map includes tools that allow a user to select a defined area, choose a level of detail and click on mapped items, such as power plants, mines and...

GE to Showcase GeoSpring at Sept 2 Lunch and Learn

As mentioned in a previous post, MACED's Energy Efficient Enterprises Team will host a "Lunch and Learn" workshop, focusing on efficiency opportunities in the water heating and space heating. One of the featured technologies will be GE’s GeoSpring heat pump water heater, recently added to the state’s list of approved products for the federally funded Weatherization Assistance Program. According to The Courier-Journal, the state recently purchased over 115 of these models, which reportedly use 62% less electricity than regular electric tank water heaters, for the Weatherization program. To learn more, register for MACED’s Lunch & Learn Workshop to be held next Thursday, September 2, from 10:30am to 2:30pm (including lunch) at the Kentucky Highlands Entrepreneur Center (120 Scott Perry Drive in Paintsville, KY) Other water-heating topics to be presented: geo-exchange waste heat recovery gas condensing technology tankless water heating systems — for water and hydronic space heating solar water heating systems Industry experts will lead conversations about these technologies, as well as opportunities for contractors to take advantage of energy efficiency efforts in the region. Featured speakers include: Angela Nagler (GE), Bob Peck (Water Furnace), Gary Bryant (Dealers LP), David Hall (Rinnai) and Josh Bills (MACED). For more info, contact .   About Kristin TraczKristin Tracz served MACED’s Research and Policy team from 2009-2012 working on clean energy policy, energy efficiency programs and the Appalachian Transition Initiative. She joined MACED after finishing her Master of Environmental Management degree at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. She now...

Expanding Access to Children’s Healthcare: Giving Appalachian Kids a Fair Start...

The Louisville Courier-Journal’s Debora Yetter wrote a story yesterday about Governor Beshear’s plan to drop the $20 monthly premium that some low-income parents had to pay to cover their children under the state’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (KCHIP). Recent changes to health care coverage have expanded access for many throughout Appalachia. In March of this year, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce prepared summaries for all 435 congressional districts, showing a district-level analysis of what the health care reform legislation would mean for each district. According to the Committee’s analysis, in Rep. Rogers’s district, the health care reform bill will: Improve coverage for 284,000 residents with health insurance. Give tax credits and other assistance to up to 210,000 families and 10,700 small businesses to help them afford coverage. Improve Medicare for 140,000 beneficiaries, including closing the donut hole. Extend coverage to 81,000 uninsured residents. Guarantee that 15,900 residents with pre-existing conditions can obtain coverage. Protect 1,500 families from bankruptcy due to unaffordable health care costs. Allow 52,000 young adults to obtain coverage on their parents’ insurance plans. Provide millions of dollars in new funding for 32 community health centers. Reduce the cost of uncompensated care for hospitals and other health care providers by $95 million annually. Kentucky Voices for Health has analyzed the law and prepared a summary of the impacts on Kentuckians across the Commonwealth, including the opportunity to provide coverage to the 600,000+ Kentuckians currently without coverage. They have collected additional resources on the issue here....

Appalshop Hopes to Debunk Stereotypes of Appalachia

For more information about Appalshop's programs, visit their website. As appeared in the Aug 24 edition of the Courier-Journal: By Andrew Adler Appalachia — the place, its people, their cultures — defies easy summation. Not surprisingly, so does the media center that's devoted more than 40 years to documenting the region's unique resonance: Appalshop. Tucked away in the eastern Kentucky town of Whitesburg, Appalshop is at once a creature of the mountains and a representative of the world at large. Through films and video, radio, live music and theater, still images and the written word, the center exists to tell stories. Some encompass huge scope. Others are intimate. Indeed, through the power of narrative and clear example, Appalshop wants to shatter complacency and debilitating stereotype. “One of the problems that people in the mountains have faced is what I would call a sense of cultural imperialism,” veteran filmmaker Herb Smith said, “where people from other places come here and think they know more about our region than the people who work every day here do.” Smith himself is a product of those mountains. He grew up in Whitesburg, helped organize Appalshop in 1969 and has since become its personification of institutional memory. Not long ago, he completed an appreciation of legendary bluegrass musician Ralph Stanley, exemplifying Appalshop's to nurture its surrounding art and artists. “I started when I was 17, and now I'm 58,” Smith said of his parallel journey alongside Appalshop. He is no fan of outsiders...

Redefining Appalachia

A post by the folks at the City University of New York's Institute for Sustainable Cities. We'd love to keep conversations about rural-urban linkages as they relate to an Appalachian Transition going! As always your thoughts, comments and feedback welcome. The post: Solutions journal has a special issue on the future and transition of Appalachia that is both inspiring–in its discussion of the potential for a resilient, localized, vibrant economy and upsetting–in its disclosure that while coal extraction has “largely defined the public image of Appalachia, the industry is at an all-time low in terms of employment—it represents less than two percent of all jobs—and economic impact. ” This is upsetting not because of the fact alone, we should actually feel rather positive that this destructive industry represents only 2% of the local economy. What is so upsetting is the countless amounts of money and lobbying efforts that have gone into keeping Appalachian citizens–and Americans at large–convinced that coal mining is important, irreplaceable and extremely significant in economic terms. Via Solutions Full with a lesson on the basics of David Ricardo’s Comparative Advantage theory to a discussion of the vision for a more sustainable Appalachia, this article outlines how it came to be that Appalachia became synonymous with mountain top mining, rapid environmental destruction and risk with limited return, that somehow gives the allusion of infinite return, and of course, how this place can be and is being saved. The key concepts from the piece are below, but I...

Duke Energy Pulls Out of Coastal Wind Project

As reported by the News Observer on Friday: Duke Energy will pull the plug on its plan to build up to three wind turbines in North Carolina's Pamlico Sound, the company said today, citing high costs.   Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill signed a contract last September to work together in the demonstration project, which would evaluate the potential of wind energy and its environmental impacts on the sound.   Duke said it will now refocus its work on larger-scale wind projects in offshore waters. High initial costs make a larger project more economically viable than a smaller one, Duke said.   It would cost $88 million to install the first turbine in Pamlico Sound, the company said. The second one would run $14 million. The need for shallow-water construction techniques and a growing potential for disturbing underwater vegetation would also complicate the project, Duke said.   "The cost of the project simply exceeds the benefits our customers would receive if we were to continue," said Paul Newton, Duke's senior vice president of strategy for its regulated businesses.   Duke had committed to spending up to $35 million on the project, Newton said. Building all three turbines in the sound, he estimated, would have cost $145 million including decommissioning costs.   North Carolina's most valuable wind resources are off its ocean coast, a UNC study found last year. The study identified potentially suitable sites on more than 2,800 square miles less than 164 feet deep and within 50 miles of...