Orcas Throngs to its Energy Fair 2015

— by Margie Doyle, updated June 9 at 8 a.m. —

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Kelsy Green and Linda Lyshall of the San Juans Conservation District greet visitors to the Oprcas Island Energy Fair

The sun shone brightly as a host of local energy-saving enterprises showed their efforts at the Energy Fair on the Village Green on Saturday, June 6.  The Fair was sponsored by Islands Energy, a collaborative group of local citizens and organizations working together to increase energy efficiency and conservation and promote Community Solar. Islands Energy is led by the San Juan Islands Conservation District in partnership with OPALCO.

District Manager Linda Lyshall and other staff from the San Juan County Conservation District welcomed all and distributed free insulated lunch sacks and household conservation hardware such as showerheads, weatherstripping kits and wooden clothespins (!). The Conservation District also conducted tours of the solar panel installation at the public school, and two island homes built with conservation practices in mind.

Winnie Adams, OPALCO board member, manned the booth describing the Member-owned Renewable Energy (MORE) program (see www.opalco.com/energy-savings/renewable-generation/m-o-r-e/  or call OPALCO at 376-3500), designed to support locally-generated renewable power through solar, wind, and micro-hybrid generating systems.

Islanders Bank representatives displayed information about its loans for home energy improvements. The loans come in two sizes, up to $5,000 and $5-10,000, with fixed annual rates between 4.5% and 5.325 purposes, and an application fee of $100.

Janet Alderton collected signatures for the I-732 petition, in support of a revenue-neutral tax on carbon pollution. If Initiative I-732 has sufficient signatures, it must be considered for enactment into law by the Legislature during its 2016 session. If the Legislature fails to enact it into law, I-732 automatically goes to the people at the November 2016 election. (https://carbonwa.org).

Mary Gropp, Program Director of the  Orcas Island Youth Conservation Corps, and Ron Zee, San Juan Island farmer and member of the county Agricultural Resources Committee, answered questions and talked conservation at the booth for Islands Climate Resilience, a newly formed group that envisions an islands community that is more resilient to global and local impacts of climate change.

Electric vehicles from Tesla, BMW, and Nissan Leaf were on display as alternatives to fossil fuel vehicles.

The Opportunity Council offers Home Repair and Weatherization services to those who qualify for specific income guidelines (call 888-586-7293) and Sustainable Connections provides similar services and financial incentives to homeowners and to businesses (at 360-676-6099 or email CommunityEnergyChallenge@OppCo.org. The two programs join together through the Community Energy Challenge serving Skagit, Whatcom, Island and San Juan Counties

Mark DeTray fielded interest in a new island non-profit, Ekomotiv-Orcas, to procure a fuel / service station as a cooperative and, over time, to create a network of affiliates. Mark is the Project Coordinator, and those interested in working with Ekomotiv-Orcas can email mark.detray@gmail.com, or call 376-3460.

Kids play at Energy Fair too

Chom Graecen and others kept the kids hopping at the Stage on the Green Kids Area with solar art, made by the sun’s rays on solar-sensitive photo paper, and other projects. A bicycle-powered “battery” that showed the physical energy required to light up different kinds of light bulbs kept the kids active, and illustrated the huge amounts of stored energy required to run electrical appliances  — 500 kids would have to pump the bicycle for an hour at maximum output to run one load of an electric dryer! (Or one kid for 500 hours, or 50 kids for 10 hours or …!)

Sharon Abreu and Mike Hurwicz of Irthlingz.org were the Energy Fair Troubadours, roaming the Green and entertaining with friendly Earth songs.

The Energy Fairs take place annually on the three major county islands. The next fair will be on Lopez Island on Saturday, June 27.