Heartland Tour of Solar

On Saturday, October 4th from 10am to 4pm Southern Illinois people opened up their places to showcase solar energy & energy efficient technologies, even two off-the-grid homes! The tour is mostly on the Southern Illinois wine trail through the beauty of the National Forest.

It was a very beautiful cool but sunny fall day that reminds you of why someone would live in Southern Illinois.

We had people drive from as far as 2 hours away (Springfield, St Louis area and Mt Vernon). Two TV crews (WSIL 3 and KFVS 12 both had good coverage)came out and there was a detailed article in the Southern Illinoisan that had directions to most of the places on the tour.

Renewable Energy tops 10% in the USA

Just in time for October or "Energy Awareness Month".

According to the latest "Monthly Energy Review" issued by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, renewable energy accounted for more than 10 percent of the domestically-produced energy used in the United States in the first half of 2008.

For the period January, 1 to June 30, 2008, the United States consumed 50.673 quadrillion Btus (quads) of energy. Of that amount, 34.162 quads was from domestic sources and 16.511 quads was imported. Domestically-produced renewable energy (biomass/biofuels, geothermal, hydropower, solar, wind) totaled 3.606 quads, an amount equal to 10.56% of U.S. energy consumption that is domestically-produced.

This share is only slightly less than nuclear power's 11.98% contribution. And while consumption of nuclear power dropped to 4.091 quads, down from 4.119 quads during the first half of 2008, compared to the same period for 2007, renewable energy's share increased by 5% to 3.606 quads, up from 3.439 quads.

To read the full report go to http://www.eia.doe.gov/mer/