Appalachian Institute for Renewable Energy
Pioneering community-owned renewable energy
Our friend and colleague, Adam Thada, up in Plymouth, Indiana sent us a photo yesterday of their latest “walk.” I’m talking about the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ and their Center at Donaldson campus. They’ve done so much, in fact, more that just about any institution I know to live by their words. See our
I’ve posted many times on the effort of the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ at the Center at Donaldson to live their beliefs in integral ecology. Their renewable energy development agenda the past couple years is an institutional model that demonstrates how significant progress can be made with committed leadership (and here) all coordinated by
Exponential growth can be good or bad, in other words, something can grow in either direction. I’ll get to that in a minute. Coronavirus is absolutely an example we’re all trying to wrap our minds around now, so we better understand EXPONENTIAL GROWTH!!!! But this also applies to other relevant topics in our renewable energy
Did my EV driving cause a coup in Bolivia? That’s a question too big and complicated for this space on many levels, but the point is to connect a few dots. In the consumption-driven western world, we seem mostly oblivious to dots, or at least look the other way to avoid the messy inconvenience of
Jeff Deal and I spend 3 days up in northern Indiana last week participating in a variety of solar activities at the Center at Donaldson, home to some very inspiring projects of the Poor Handmaids for Jesus Christ. We’ve posted numerous times on their work over the past year plus, so if you wish to
With an enrollment of 550 students, Ancilla College may just have more solar per student than any other college. I haven’t actually verified that because my point isn’t quantitative. Rather, it’s qualitative. It’s about doing what is necessary and what is urgent. DOING. It’s about doing what our youth know that we must and that’s
I received my vehicle registration renewal notice in the mail the other day and saw the $130 “electric vehicle fee” included. My first reaction was….. what? that seems punitive!!! But with some calm reflection on mobility and policy, and some “napkin-level” arithmetic, I decided I could let this one go. Right now, I’m 20 cents
I’ve said in previous posts that traveling in an EV can be framed as an intentional adventure, uneventful and successful trip one charge from home, and in some cases “back side of the moon.”I throw in the nightmare stories just because there’s one thing at AIRE we’ve never been shy about and that’s telling the
I recently posted a piece about the experiences my wife and I have had as EV newbies. (And here too.) The piece mapped out in some detail one single experience with EV charging while traveling. In particular, I listed one variable you have to contend with as an EV driver, especially when “Plan B” recharging
Making a commitment to drive an EV involves a pretty serious paradigm shift. Universal EV adoption is a critical step toward decarbonizing transportation, so long as we’re driving on renewable energy (not coal, natural gas, etc.). Driving an EV to get around town is a no-brainer; you can charge at home or at work and