Lincoln, NE: sharing what "green" we have to attract what we lack.
Nebraska Solar Energy Society re-starting, looking for Lincoln contacts for this spring.......
Hello,
my name is Rita, and I live in Omaha, NE. I am working to put together an educational series with Dr. Richard Komp, a PhD Physical Chemist, Minor in Physics, solar energy researcher and educator who has been doing research on solar panels since 1960. Dr. Komp wil be in our area this coming spring, from April 10-26th. He will be speaking at Earth Day in Omaha April 18, and I am looking for a contact to see about him speaking at Earth Day in Lincoln April 19th, and a possible booth.
In addition, a possible evening dinner/networking venue with him on Sunday night would be good. I am trying to also get a contact to UNL to have him speak at a noon-time forum there somewhere for the Students the following Monday. He will be having a meeting with the NEO from 2-330 that day, and then may have time for a dinner educational event before he goes back to Omaha. This will be the only time he will have available to hit Lincoln with education (19-20th).
If you can email me, it will be the best way for us to be in contact. I will likely not be checking back to this site much, I mainly wanted to get a shout out to some folks in Lincoln to get help with contacts for the events listed above. Two links to Richard Komp for a look at who he is www.mainesolar.org www.skyheat.org
The group sponsoring this is the Nebraska Solar Energy Society. It is a group that was active from the late 1970s-mid 1990s, when it died due to lack of interest. There is a small core of us in Omaha working to re-start it, and bringing Dr. Komp here is part of our effort to bring education about passive solar energy principles to Nebraska. The main goal of NSES is education of the next generation. Many of its original members are in their 60s and 70s, and they want to see the information get passed on. I want to help see a great education program developed for the next generation that will enable them to apply principles of energy efficiency & passive solar energy design to ensure long-term environmental sustainability of the planet.
NSES also needs help funding Dr. Komp, and he has a non-profit association where contributions are tax deductible, and we have just filed our non-profit status for NSES this week (now pending final approval). If you have any funding sources, or computer skills that you may be willing to donate a litte time help with the solar energy society, or sponsorship of Dr. Komp, I would deeply appreciate it. I have put the cart before the horse a little bit in trying to organize Dr. Komp to come to NE prior to NSES being operational, but with the idea that there are 10 years left til global warning is critical mass I decided not to wait another year. NSES's whole focus is education and research. It is not a marketing or selling group, and will be a resource oulet to other energy education already developed. We are a very small membership, just learning ourselves, and any time we have is spent getting things organized at this point. It is our goal to develop highly informative and practical on-going educational activities like Dr. Komp's visit, to bring the education directly to the public. We can then take his information and add it to other educational sources on a website (to be done).
Unlike the first incarnation of NSES, we have the internet now, and a large resource of fully developed educational standards and policies to pattern from other states. I want to see NE get up to speed in its energy profile, educationally and in applied technology of the building design and renewable energy products that other states are implementing. I anticipate NSES to be the platform for education to help get this done.
If you are interested in this subject at all you should consider attending the largest renewable energy fair in the world, held the third weekend of June each year in Stevens Point, WI. It is 2 1/2 hours north of Madison. For 35$ you can join the MREA, and it will be your ticket into the fair (tick is 35$ for the weekend). Camping is available 10$/night in a 30 year old pine forest next to the site, with on the hour top of the line speakers (about 20 at a time to choose from) throughout the day, neat 1/2 day passive solar home tours (homes built RIGHT), and a totally cool evening with an open beer garden and live bands until 11 in the evening. That was a real eye opener, that nerds could party so hearty- all that education, and party too! It is so much fun. It is worth the nearly 11 hour drive to get there.
There is so much more than energy education at the energy fair.... I learned about permaculture from a couple different presentations, and did not even make it to the kitchen or whole foods part of the fair. It was the nicest score I made educationally in a long time. The Iowa Renewable Energy group had a fantastic fair second weekend in Sept too, with Walley Rippel, designer of the EV1 and cofounder of Tesla Motors for a keynote! Here is a link to both for a look:
http://www.the-mrea.org/ http://www.irenew.org/
Thanks, and keep having a great day! email: lightenup1@cox.net. Rita
my name is Rita, and I live in Omaha, NE. I am working to put together an educational series with Dr. Richard Komp, a PhD Physical Chemist, Minor in Physics, solar energy researcher and educator who has been doing research on solar panels since 1960. Dr. Komp wil be in our area this coming spring, from April 10-26th. He will be speaking at Earth Day in Omaha April 18, and I am looking for a contact to see about him speaking at Earth Day in Lincoln April 19th, and a possible booth.
In addition, a possible evening dinner/networking venue with him on Sunday night would be good. I am trying to also get a contact to UNL to have him speak at a noon-time forum there somewhere for the Students the following Monday. He will be having a meeting with the NEO from 2-330 that day, and then may have time for a dinner educational event before he goes back to Omaha. This will be the only time he will have available to hit Lincoln with education (19-20th).
If you can email me, it will be the best way for us to be in contact. I will likely not be checking back to this site much, I mainly wanted to get a shout out to some folks in Lincoln to get help with contacts for the events listed above. Two links to Richard Komp for a look at who he is www.mainesolar.org www.skyheat.org
The group sponsoring this is the Nebraska Solar Energy Society. It is a group that was active from the late 1970s-mid 1990s, when it died due to lack of interest. There is a small core of us in Omaha working to re-start it, and bringing Dr. Komp here is part of our effort to bring education about passive solar energy principles to Nebraska. The main goal of NSES is education of the next generation. Many of its original members are in their 60s and 70s, and they want to see the information get passed on. I want to help see a great education program developed for the next generation that will enable them to apply principles of energy efficiency & passive solar energy design to ensure long-term environmental sustainability of the planet.
NSES also needs help funding Dr. Komp, and he has a non-profit association where contributions are tax deductible, and we have just filed our non-profit status for NSES this week (now pending final approval). If you have any funding sources, or computer skills that you may be willing to donate a litte time help with the solar energy society, or sponsorship of Dr. Komp, I would deeply appreciate it. I have put the cart before the horse a little bit in trying to organize Dr. Komp to come to NE prior to NSES being operational, but with the idea that there are 10 years left til global warning is critical mass I decided not to wait another year. NSES's whole focus is education and research. It is not a marketing or selling group, and will be a resource oulet to other energy education already developed. We are a very small membership, just learning ourselves, and any time we have is spent getting things organized at this point. It is our goal to develop highly informative and practical on-going educational activities like Dr. Komp's visit, to bring the education directly to the public. We can then take his information and add it to other educational sources on a website (to be done).
Unlike the first incarnation of NSES, we have the internet now, and a large resource of fully developed educational standards and policies to pattern from other states. I want to see NE get up to speed in its energy profile, educationally and in applied technology of the building design and renewable energy products that other states are implementing. I anticipate NSES to be the platform for education to help get this done.
If you are interested in this subject at all you should consider attending the largest renewable energy fair in the world, held the third weekend of June each year in Stevens Point, WI. It is 2 1/2 hours north of Madison. For 35$ you can join the MREA, and it will be your ticket into the fair (tick is 35$ for the weekend). Camping is available 10$/night in a 30 year old pine forest next to the site, with on the hour top of the line speakers (about 20 at a time to choose from) throughout the day, neat 1/2 day passive solar home tours (homes built RIGHT), and a totally cool evening with an open beer garden and live bands until 11 in the evening. That was a real eye opener, that nerds could party so hearty- all that education, and party too! It is so much fun. It is worth the nearly 11 hour drive to get there.
There is so much more than energy education at the energy fair.... I learned about permaculture from a couple different presentations, and did not even make it to the kitchen or whole foods part of the fair. It was the nicest score I made educationally in a long time. The Iowa Renewable Energy group had a fantastic fair second weekend in Sept too, with Walley Rippel, designer of the EV1 and cofounder of Tesla Motors for a keynote! Here is a link to both for a look:
http://www.the-mrea.org/ http://www.irenew.org/
Thanks, and keep having a great day! email: lightenup1@cox.net. Rita
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resume - Richard Komp.doc, 30 KB -
NSES introductory doc..doc, 93 KB
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Tyler Mainquist on -
Very cool! (or "hot", as in sky-heat, as the case may be)
I'll keep my eyes and ears open for opportunities.
Are you doing shout-outs to other similar organizations in the area also? Like Bioneers, Green Drinks, Nebraska Green Party, Nebraskans for Peace, etc.? Let me know if you need help spreading the word. Tyler
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Permalink Reply by Rita Corell on -
I haven't, if you can pass the word Tyler that would be great! I did meet a few people from Lincoln at a lunch after a permaculture lecture in Omaha a few weeks ago but lost the paper with their contact info. I remember the bioneers being mentioned as another group to look into. Thank you for you help!
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Permalink Reply by Andrea Davis on
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Permalink Reply by Rita Corell on
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Been a long time since I have been able to get to this site. Thank you Andrea for the link to the Nebraska Public Policy Center Andrea. I will contact them about the events we have coming with Dr. Komp. Things are progressing nicely with the group, and we have two websites now, that will have information on the up-coming educational events April 13-27th for reference. Here are the sites:
http://www.unomaha.edu/news/releases/2009/03/09_nses.php and www.ceen.unoaha.edu/nses
We don't have anything set yet for the evening following the earth day in Linocln on Sunday, April 19th, but we will be there with a booth and Dr. Komp. He may give a brief lecture there and an educational discussion. If you get a chance, come meet him and enjoy his joyful explanation about all the different aspects of energy. He is very fun to listen to and learn from.
Keep up the great work in your area, and I'll do the same. Thank you again for the link to the NU folks, and sorry it has been so long since I responded.
Rita C
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Permalink Reply by Craig Romary on -
Rita - the 'green teachings' link in the NSES doc didn't work. Is there another place to go to look for NSES info?
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Permalink Reply by Craig Romary on
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I guess if you're smart enough to search for the right text, you can find it pretty easily.......
http://www.ceen.unomaha.edu/NSES/
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Permalink Reply by Rita Corell on
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I'm glad you located it Craig. We set up a website at the University through Dr. Bing Chen. Dr. Chen was the founder of the NSES in the late 70s, and is helping us with the society as it is re-forming now. We hosted an intense two week educational series with an international solar energy expert last month, and have been taking some time to re-group.
We will meeting this Thursday in an early breakfast meeting to discuss our next steps. If you are interested in receiving information about up-coming events, please let me know and I will put you on the contact list. I have a few people who are interested in making their own solar oven, so we will probably host a solar oven making workshop the latter part of June. You can make one that will work very well with proper long-lasting materials for just under $30. It will be based on Dr. Komp's design that is in the Maine Solar Primer. Dr. Komp gave us the pdf file to the manual, and I will try to get that on-line for people to have for reference later this week.
The Nebraska Solar Energy Society and the Maine Solar Energy Association are partners now, and as the interest and group develops in NE, we will look at hosting Dr. Komp to visit us again with some Maine Solar Energy Association members to teach us how to make our own solar panels. He has a vast store of applied knowledge, and is very open in sharing it with others. The Primer pdf file is a real gift to have and work with. In longer term goals for NSES over the next few years, I would like to see Dr. Komp and others from his area come to Nebraska to teach us several projects from the solar primer.
If you are interested in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and solar home design, there is a terrific renewable energy fair happening next month in Custer, WI. It is the largest renewable energy fair in the world, celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, over the third weekend of June. It is on the permanent site for the Midwest Renewable Energy Association, the MREA, and has working permanent installations of all types of solar panels and wind turbines. It is located about 2 1/2 hours north of WI. Here's a link to it:
http://www.the-mrea.org/
Thank you for your interest with NSES, and I look forward to connecting with you at an educational event sometime down the line,
Rita Corell, President, NSES
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Permalink Reply by Craig Romary on
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I'm interested in panels for my home and the options available. Just a thought at this time, but would be inteterested in more info.
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