Ohio Sea Grant, Stone Lab offer new free curriculum on solar energy

A new set of lessons from Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Lab introduces students in grades 7-12 to the basics of solar energy via hands-on activities. The free curriculum is available to download and is aligned with Next Generation Science Standards and Ohio’s Model Science Curriculum.

Stone Lab is Ohio State’s island campus on Lake Erie. The Ohio State-based Ohio Sea Grant program is part of the national NOAA Sea Grant network.

See what Stone Lab’s solar energy system is producing today. (Photo: Stone Lab’s 2016 solar workshop by Erin Monaco via Ohio Sea Grant.)

May 16 at Ohio State: 2 ways to turn your home greener

May’s monthly breakfast program by the Environmental Professionals Network will feature Erik Daugherty, founder of the Nashville, Tennessee-based home-performance company E3 Innovate. He’ll present “Technologies and Strategies for Home Energy Efficiencies: Satisfied Homeowners, Sustainable Planet” from 7:15 to 9:15 a.m. this coming Tuesday, May 16.

Right after, Ohio State will hold its second-ever Green Home Workshop in the same location.

Register for both events by Monday, May 15 (scroll down).

EPN is a service of CFAES’s School of Environment and Natural Resources.

How to cut your home energy bill

CFAES and its partners are holding their second Green Home Workshop on May 16 in Columbus. The deadline to sign up is Monday, May 15.

Included will be tours of Ohio State’s student-designed and -built enCORE solar home, shown here, which is just a short walk from the workshop site. (Photo: Office of Energy and Environment, Ohio State.)

Is solar power worth it on your farm?

CFAES’s Eric Romich will look at the financial prudence of investing in on-farm solar energy as a speaker at the Powering Michigan Agriculture Conference March 9 at Michigan State in East Lansing. Learn more here. Register to attend here. Romich is an energy development field specialist with CFAES’s outreach arm, OSU Extension. East Lansing is about 120 miles northwest of Toledo.

‘A Race Against Time’ to grow the world’s solar

Race Against Time stillNext in Ohio State’s 2017 Environmental Film Series is “A Race Against Time,” which looks at global solar energy development. David Letterman, retired host of “The Late Show,” explores how India is using solar to expand its electrical service, power its economy, and bring electricity to 300 million people who’ve never had it before. In Florida, “Saturday Night Live” cast member Cecily Strong gets the inside story on what’s been blocking solar’s growth in America. The film is an episode in the National Geographic Channel’s “Years of Living Dangerously” series. It screens at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 14, in Columbus. Free admission. Location and other details here.

Solar’s sunny outlook on jobs

The solar energy industry created one out of every 50 new jobs added in America last year, or 2 percent of all new U.S. jobs, according to the 2016 National Solar Jobs Census. Now in its seventh year, the annual census was released by the Washington, D.C.-based Solar Foundation, a nonprofit solar energy advocacy group.

The census also reported that jobs in the U.S. solar industry now total more than 260,000 and have nearly tripled since 2010. Read more.

See examples of Ohio State’s solar efforts here, here and here.

Green fair to host Renewable Energy Workshop

Image of sunshine and two sunflowers_3Fred Michel, a Wooster-based biosystems engineer with CFAES, has solar panels gleaming on his home and his car.

He’ll share his experiences with both setups in a Renewable Energy Workshop during the Scarlet, Gray and Green Fair in Wooster. Continue reading

New series on renewable energy in Ohio

When it comes to boosting the use of solar and wind energy, “Ohio can do better,” reporter Peter Krouse wrote yesterday in a slideshow story on cleveland.com — and until it does, it’s losing out on “the economic benefits that come from a fast-growing industry.” Among those benefits are jobs. The slideshow went with a main story by Krouse, called “Renewing our commitment to renewable energy: Impact 2016,” which says it’s the first installment in a series that “will examine why Ohio lags behind other states in promoting renewable energy and what we might do to catch up, or get ahead.” Check it out.

Want to add solar power to your farm? Go to this workshop

Photo of solar panels on barn 2Farmers can save money with solar energy. So can other farm-related businesses. And grants and incentives exist that can help them get started.

So say the organizers of a March 10 workshop at CFAES’s research arm, OARDC in Wooster, who plan to shed light on those topics.

Read the story …