Sustainable energy, Marketing and the internet

While I do use my Website to try and categorize the use of Sustainable Technology in the aeas of Energy, Food, Farming, Water, Education and Community Events, I am finding that the blog works about the best in getting the word out. My websites  www.EmpowerMaui.com and my www.youtube.com/EmpowerMaui site try to bring a little of Maui to those that care to see it. Often I have received notes from family members of people that now live on Maui and are appreciative to see what is going on here. While I am obviously not to only source for this, it is from my point of view. I just wish I had more time and skills to bring it out better and quicker. what for more articles relating to Crowdsourcing. this may be the answer for many to help together in this sort of area.

I am constantly searching and researching Technologies. Being in the Energy Sector, I tend to find it the most relevant, since I know the most about it. Probably the second most relevant area is my interest in Growing and Educating around good Farming practices. That is why I am also sitting as the VP on Maui Aloha Aina Association, a 501c3 Non Profit Organization, and can be found at www.MauiGrown.com which has a conferences coming up On January 16th & 17, 2010 in Olinda, Maui on a Farm. This is around the 10th year since this Conference has started and brings in world class speakers from the likes of www.AcresUSA.org and http://www.westonaprice.org/.

Probably one area I am most passionate, but have the least time to devote to is Education. Within the next few years many people, myself included that have been working in the field of Energy will be hitting retirement age. This is a scary thought from having seen the changes over the last 16 years and the changes that are coming with the Smart Grid.

My concern is, where will the people come from that will do this work. Many of the Colleges are turning out people that are more interested in the glamorous work and not really geared towards Utility work. Granted the Utility as we know it today, may not be the same one as we see in even the next few years.

The Technology of the Smart Grid, Automated Buildings and Meters, Alternate Sources of Energy such as Solar, Wind, Bio-Fuels, Algae, Bio-Mass, Fuel Cells, Concentrating Solar (CSP) which National Geographic did a great article on recently, and even the release this past Sunday in the Maui News for a contractors to lay down Electric Lines that will be used to interconnect the Hawaiian Islands of Maui, Lanai, Molokai and Oahu. Changes in the way we Store and Reuse Electricity through times when it cannot be generated and of course the existing technologies of Natural Gas, Coal, Oil and Nuclear. Europe just announced, I believe it was France, that they will move towards more Nuclear Technology. There are so many ways in which Energy will be provided and how it is used and distributed is probably the bigger question.

Transportation has gone towards Electric Automobiles, surely not an old Technology, but there are firms that can right now build Semi-Tractor Trucks with at least, if not more pulling power than the conventional diesel trucks. Their range is getting better all the time.

Personally, I have been experimenting with products for Battery Technology. This is in regard to the re-use of what was considered to be dead and useless Lead Acid and Gel Cell Batteries that would ultimately be disposed of, if they are indeed disposed of right and end up as hazardous materials and sent to be recycled properly. More often than not, at least on Maui, I find them laying on the side of the road since know one wants to pay the cost to get rid of them.

One particular product that doesn't require opening the battery, has even in it's simplest version, been allowing me to rejuvenate to date about 10 Yuasa Gel Cell Batteries. Five of them are probably 15 years old, wouldn't accept  a charge anymore and sat around with only a 5-6 Volt DC charge when they should have been at least at 12 Volts DC. I've also been successful at bringing back some smaller units from some small UPS (Uninterruptable Power supples).

While I'm wandering a bit in this post, the point is that Sustainable Technology is something that is needed, Education is very much needed and programs to place the workers into the right fields so we can produce much needed products and employ the citizens of our Country the United States. Much of what we should have shifted towards has moved off shore and left towns and workforces idled. It's effected our economy and created a record unemployment of over 10% and growing in many areas. This does not need to be the case.

They are a number of Organizations that can be re-tooled and put these people to work, the resourses are still there to help train and re-train people to produce these goods. The ability to turn our lands back into Nutrient Dense and Useful Lands that can become our Farmacys and help move us away from depending on what has come to become the Medical System and the dependency on new and expensive drugs to try and "band aid" the symptoms of just not eating right. It's never too late and the both the Human Body and the Earth are pretty amazing at responding to the right inputs in healing themselves.

That brings me to the internet. while I would love to fill all my blogs and websites with advertisements for Local Companies, it's a quite a task to approach and help create ads and spaces for them all. I hope to do that with my www.EmpowerMaui.com website. In the meantime I will try to include ads to Companies that not only have something valuable to bring to the Sustainable Table, but can also help provide some revenue for me to keep spreading the information.

We haven't had much rain lately, especially in Central Maui, but I better end now because the lightning and rain are getting pretty intense. Time to disconnect from the grid in the event of a surge.

Take care and if you wish to follow me in short burst and are into Twitter, I can be found under the name of EmpowerMaui on Twitter and my site page is www.twitter.com/EmpowerMaui.


Have a wonderful day or night, where ever you happen to be and I am going to go enjoy the sound of the rain and have some late dinner.

Mahalo

Jim