Get 40% off solar, but only if you can type fast!

I had my sheet of paper all filled out and ready to go. I was logged into the site.

Check the clock...7:28am. Click refresh. Nothing

7:29, click refresh. Nothing.

7:30, click refresh. Short delay, this must be it! C'mon internet connection, hurry up!

I'm in, now start typing...

Welcome to the world of applying for a solar panel rebate from Florida Power & Light. The website opens at 7:30am, and it's first come first serve. You have to have your personal and contractor information, the size of your solar panel system, number of inverters, expected cost, and expected KWH production from your system.

I was smart. I pre-typed the information into a document, so all I had to do was copy-paste into the form, and I would surely get in right away.

The prize? $2 per watt rebate from FP&L after a completed solar panel installation. That's a great deal! At less than $5 per watt for most systems, that's at least 40% off the full price. The catch is that you have to compete with everyone else online at the same time to get the rebate, and there are no guarantees.

If it wasn't for the huge discount, I probably wouldn't have even tried. Why not a lottery system, so we don't have to all hover over our computers typing away as fast as we can? Maybe a system that picks a few from each county, to spread it out evenly across contractors and demand needs? I wonder what other states do in this situation. But I digress...

Done! I felt good, no way I didn't get in. I submitted the form at 7:33am...

Not Accepting Applications

Sorry! Due to strong customer interest, all of the rebate funds for this program have been reserved at this time. Please watch www.FPL.com/solarrebates for information about possible future rounds of rebate opportunities.

Please note that any system components installed prior to FPL's issuance of a rebate reservation will not qualify for a rebate.

No!!  3 minutes! That's all it took to run out of money? How much was in there to begin with? How many people submitted? Now I'm thinking back on what I did wrong. Was it the short delay setting up a dual page view between the website and my document? Maybe that ended up costing me too much time. Ughh!

Now what? Good thing I had a backup plan. I won't be installing the 8.8 kW (37 module) system I planned, but a smaller 6.6 kW instead. I still get a 30% rebate from the federal government, but it's still frustrating to not get the larger rebate.

I keep telling myself that someone who did get the rebate was only going to install solar if they got the rebate, so in the big scheme of things, maybe this worked out better for the planet. I am still going forward with my installation, and someone else can proceed with their project as well.  Two projects are moving forward, instead of only one. At least that makes me feel better...

2011 - Year of the Vegetarian

I've finally made up my mind. I'm going to cut out meat from my diet in order to reduce my environmental impact. This is coming from someone who loves meat, and didn't really start eating fruits or vegetables until a couple years ago.

OK, so maybe I don't expect to never eat meat again, but here is the system that I've developed for myself, that I feel I can stick with over the long term.

1) If I have a choice between meat and no meat, I will choose no meat. If I choose meat, I will make a donation of $5 to an environmental cause. I haven't decided which one yet, but I think it should be related to forest restoration or water quality, since those areas are affected by large-scale cattle producers. This should help me feel the pinch if I do have a breakdown, but not make me feel as guilty. More of a "stick" approach than a "carrot", but we'll see how it goes...

2) If I don't have a choice, and the food will go to waste, then I will still eat meat, and not feel obligated to donate money. For example, I was teaching a class for work (in a different city than I live) where the food was provided for us. It was catered in from a BBQ restaurant. There was no on-site cafeteria, so I felt that I didn't have another option than to eat the BBQ. I also did not have a rental car (used public transportation), so I couldn't have easily left and gone somewhere else. In addition, if I didn't eat, the food would have been consumed by someone else. At a different location under similar circumstances at work, I was actually near a cafeteria, so I stepped out and got something to eat without meat, since they provided the lunch meat sandwiches for free. So when there are no other options, the consequences of producing and delivering the meat have already been realized, so I might as well enjoy it. Since my actions would not directly impact the re-ordering of more meat to replace what I consumed, I didn't penalize myself for eating the meat. If I go to a restaurant and order a steak, then that action directly causes the restaurant to order more meat to replace what I ordered. If I don't eat the catered BBQ, then I doubt the person is going to see the leftover meat and conclude that BBQ is not a good option for catering in the future. One could argue that, but to keep things simple in my mind, I'm going to allow myself to eat the meat in those situations.

As I said earlier, this is a complete turn around from how I grew up my whole life. I have said numerous times while growing up, the following phrase: "I don't like any fruits or vegetables, except I will eat a banana."

That didn't change until I met my wife, and I learned that most vegetarians don't avoid meat because they don't like it, but because they have a strong dedication to reducing the impact of eating meat (I'm guessing animal cruelty or environmental impact). That changed my perspective completely. The next step involved the preparation of meals that didn't involve meat. Since she is a wonderful cook, and I am pretty busy, she makes all the meals, and doesn't put any meat in them. Therefore, if I want to eat, I'm going to have to be a vegetarian while at home. She did a great job of easing me into it, using some fake meat products, so my body didn't go into shock. If I was on my own, I don't think I would be making this kind of dramatic change in my diet. I have that common disease of "male refrigerator blindness" and struggle to figure out what to make when I get home. Bottom line, without her, I would probably stop and eat fast food way more often than I do now, which would probably mean more burgers and chicken. My wife, however, is the female version of MacGyver with what she can find in the fridge and turn into a delicious and healthy meal.

In summary, this decision was not a dramatic change, but has been taking place over the past couple years. Although I am proud of myself for making this change, I am concerned that if it takes an environmentalist like myself 2-3 years to eliminate meat from their diet, how long will it take the rest of the world to do the same, if they don't have the same "carrot" or motivation of reducing their environmental impact? I don't know if we can wait that long...

If you also want to take credit for eating little or no meat, read more on our website at HelpSaveEarth.org under "Eat Less Meat"

Environmentalist McKibben drives home urgency of climate change to Iowans

Environmentalist and author Bill McKibben spoke to a captive and energetic audience in Iowa City last night, courtesy of the Office of Sustainability at the University of Iowa. His message was both pessimistic and optimistic, but was most importantly honest.

McKibben started out with the current (and depressing) state of the environment. The earth has risen only about 1 degree in temperature, but already we are seeing the major impacts of that increase in glacier melting, increased floods, increased high temperatures, and increase in disease spread (through warmer climates). We are above the 350 parts per million limit that scientists believe is sustainable for the planet (currently at 390, see image below).

After establishing the current state of affairs, he next showed us his efforts to date with the recent 10/10/10 events, which is a part of the overall 350.org movement. I was amazed at how global this initiative has become, especially since I have not heard that much about his organization. He has made an impact on nearly every country in the world, and it continues to grow each year. He even self-admits that he is not a motivational person and knows very little about how to drive a grass-roots effort like this, but it is clearly working. It reaffirms that anyone can make a difference.
Finally, his message was that people have to make political changes to make dramatic reduction in our emissions. The technology is already here to do that (solar, geothermal, wind), but the policies and investment isn't there yet. He mentioned that 70% of your time should be spent on local actions and 30% on political action.

Video clips are available on the Daily Iowan website
Here is McKibben's latest book, Eearth: Making of Life on a Tough New Planet...






And here is the first book he wrote, which was widely popular, called "The End of Nature"

Planet Earth gets a "beat-down" this month!

This was suppose to be the 40th anniversary of Earth Day this month, however, there were three major tragedies this month related to environmental issues.

1) Coal miners killed in West Virginia explosion - tragic explosion thought to be brought about by a methane leak in a West Virginia coal mine has left 29 dead.

2) Oil rig fire and subsequent spill in Gulf of Mexico - Still ongoing, as a fire erupted on the oil rig, killing 11 workers, and is now spilling 5,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf, which is headed towards nearby coasts.

3) Coal-carrying ship damages Great Barrier Reef coral - coal-carrying ship ran aground on Douglas Shoals in the Great Barrier Reef. The ship was inside a marine protected area. It then rammed into the reef, and leaked about 4 tons of heavy fuel causing a roughly 3 km oil slick, and the damage it did to the reef will take 20 years to repair.

Forget about climate change for a minute. If you don't care about the planet, or are opposed to clean energy, the events of the last month should make you change your mind. If you can't see that these are dangerous occupations for those who work in them, cause pollution, and the risk to national security and increase in terrorism we take on while accessing these fuels, then you are a lost cause.

Maybe if we take away all the gasoline, and shut off the electricity to your house, will you start to think differently. Don't change your mind for the planet, change your mind because it's the right thing to do for humanity.

Depressing trip to the landfill

As part of my company's ISO-14001 team, we took a tour of the local landfill. If you've never been to a landfill, you need to go. It will inspire you to do way more recycling than you do now! Most of them will give you free tours, since they realize the importance of public education. In fact, take the whole family, and you'll see how quickly you can change their behavior!



On the downside, it was pretty depressing to see all the trucks constantly dump loads of waste all day long. One after another. The worst part is that many of the items being dumped could have been recycled (cardboard, wood, fabric, plastic bottles and jugs, paper, etc). But once it leaves the truck, it's against the law to grab the item (for safety reasons), so we saw piles of items that you wanted to go grab and place in the recycling bins, but we couldn't.



If I ran the landfill, I would require every truck to empty its contents, and sort out the recyclable items from the waste, before it ever goes up to the hill. Why do we expect the citizens to know all the rules? Why would they blindly allow people to dump items without any inspection or checks? With the constant updates in what can and cannot be recycled (which also seems to be unclear whomever I ask), educating the public will always be way too costly and too much "after the fact" to make any immediate impact. Spend that money and effort at the last line of defense, and use that information to flow back to the truck drivers and citizens with hard facts.

I realize there would be a lot of extra labor involved, but what about the cost of land for burying stuff we don't need to throw away, and having to buy more land a lot sooner, as a result of this lack of "inspection". If you consider any recyclable item that is dumped as an error or "escape", then common thought is that you go to the prior step and setup an inspection, until you eventually trace back to the source of the "error". Yes, public education is the ultimate scenario we should strive for, where no one throws away anything unless it cannot be recycled. In the meantime, you should manually sort out what doesn't belong until that time comes.

That brings me to the really depressing part. Once an item is dumped, it gets covered and all liquid is eventually extracted from underneath the trash. The hill is covered in a layer of material that prevents any moisture from entering. Basically, it's sealed up tight, and nothing gets in or out.



This is a problem because nothing will degrade or compost in those conditions. Biodegradable materials require water, heat and oxygen in order to break down, which they will not get inside the landfill (at least not enough before its covered forever).

BOTTOM LINE: Don't bother buying biodegradable materials unless you are going to compost them yourselves, or take them somewhere that will compost them for you (which is rare to find for most people)!

Here is some more information on biodegradable materials

P.S. This isn't a rant against my local landfill. They do use the methane to generate electricity, and the people there are passionate about recycling and reducing waste, and were just as upset about the situation as we were. I'm just ranting at the whole broken process...