Sunshine

 Something exciting happened for me these last couple of weeks. Ever since I moved to our cohousing community, I've wished I could have solar panels on my roof. After all, our community has always been dedicated to caring for the earth, choosing sustainability over convenience, planting native grasses on our land, doing what we can to nurture the natural world. And yet my small roof was not large enough to have solar panels. Many of my neighbors have them. And our common house does too. And especially lately, when our local earthcare working group was planning our next meeting to focus on solar, I felt almost embarrassed that while everyone else had or was planning to have solar panels, my roof remained vacant. 

But things have changed for the better! Just a couple days ago, I signed a contract to have 10 solar panels put on my rooftop, and that should take care of all my energy needs! The reason I suddenly am able to do this is partly because these panels are a bit more efficient than older ones, and part of it is that they're putting panels on the side of my roof that is facing more north than south. But they all fit on my roof!! Whoopee! I am going to join the flocks of folks who are collecting their energy from the sun. I'm so happy!

I'm sitting here at my desk, with the sun coming in the window, and thinking about how everyone on earth has sun, except maybe someone who lives in a cave! Most people can't go out in their back yard and dig coal or drill for gas and oil. But everyone has sun. In some countries, you can just go down to the corner store and buy a solar panel, hook it up on your balcony or roof, and get your energy pretty easily. In this country it's much more complicated, and expensive. Maybe we can work on getting this simplified. And in the meantime, the sun is there, waiting to be harvested, and there is a solar boom going on. On the fall equinox, September 21st, Sun Day is being celebrated all over the country. Probably there's an event near you. This special day began when Jimmy Carter was president, and with prices going up these days on pretty much everything, championing the sun as a source of clean energy is more important than ever. As Bill McKibben says, rather than depending upon the fossil fuel industry, the way to get the cheapest energy ever is to point a sheet of glass at the sun. And it has no bad side effects to our atmosphere or soil. It is clean energy.

So sometime in the next couple of months, the solar company serving Iowa City will be working on getting my home solarized. In the meantime, our Earthcare Working Group is meeting at Prairie Hill Cohousing (where I live) this coming Saturday afternoon at 2:00. I'm pasting in our announcement, for those of you near enough to attend. Here it is:

Mark your calendars for this special presentation on the power of solar. We'll meet as usual at 2:00 on Saturday, September 6th, at Prairie Hill Cohousing (140 Prairie Hill Lane in Iowa City) in the common house. If last month's attendance is anything to go by, we'd better keep meeting in the larger dining room. And this time our presenter will be on the big screen on zoom. After I sent a message to Bill McKibben, whose interview fired us up about how solar can change the world, one of his associates, Nancy LaPlaca, has volunteered to be our presenter on the 6th. How wonderful!!

Her presentation is titled: 
What's So Great About Solar?
Solar's Promise in Iowa

And here's a short bio:

Nancy LaPlaca, J.D.,has worked on public policy since 1986, spending the last 20 years on electricity issues. Nancy served as a Policy Advisor to an elected public utilities commissioner from 2009-2013 in AZ, worked for two congresspersons (US Reps. Mo Udall and Karan English, both D-AZ), ran grant programs for the AZ Supreme Court, and drafted opinions at the AZ Court of Appeals. In 2006, Nancy and friends took on "clean" coal and carbon sequestration, helping to stop that build-out. Since 2013, Nancy has worked for various solar and environmental nonprofits on energy policy, and is honored to be part of the team at Third Act. 

After a definite lack of parking space for visitors at our last meeting, I will make sure that members park their cars in front of their garages on the afternoon of the 6th, so there will be more spaces. Sorry for that oversight last time! We'll continue to have a break for snacks during our meeting (or maybe afterward if it works better with the zoom presentation). 

Please let your friends and neighbors know about this too. I'm looking forward to gathering on the 6th to be inspired together....


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