The Department of Energy announced $10 million has been awarded to 16 cities for 40 new Solar America Cities Special Projects. The funds, made through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will enable the cities to increase solar energy use in their communities through innovative programs and policies that the government believes can be replicated across the nation.

The cities chosen for these awards came from the group of 25 large U.S. cities that are part of the DOE’s Solar America Cities program, which recognizes the participating cities as partners highly committed to solar technology adoption at the local level. Those cities already have been given millions of dollars in funds and technical assistance to accelerate solar adoption.

To this point, the cities have used the funding to develop solar financing models, improve solar permitting processes, and create training courses for solar installers, among other uses. The DOE said this new award will enable the cities to scale up their most promising projects and concepts to overcome key barriers to urban solar energy use. The DOE plans to share the lessons learned and best practices from these projects with local governments throughout the nation through a substantial outreach effort planned to launch in early 2010.

The DOE has selected the following Solar America Cities Special Projects:

Austin, TX

• Solar Curriculum Development and School Demonstration Projects

Berkeley, CA

• Smart Solar Regional Expansion and Solar Map Enhancements

Boston, MA

• Solar Evacuation Route

Madison, WI

• MadiSUN Community Solar Financing
• Target Marketing Solar to Businesses
• Solar Business Center

Milwaukee, WI

• Solar Hot Water Business Council
• Solar Water Heating Demonstration Projects and Best Practices Manual
• Property Assessed Clean Energy Financing
• Solar School Swap

Minneapolis – Saint Paul, MN

• Solar for District Heating and Cooling

New Orleans, LA

• Third Party Solar Tax Credit Implementation
• Sustainable Energy Financing District Implementation

New York City, NY

• Smart Solar City Data Acquisition System
• Community Solar Financing
• Smart Solar Virtual Community

Portland, OR

• Solar Now! Regional Outreach Campaign
• Neighborhood-Based Volume Solar Purchasing
• Residential Solar Power Purchase Agreement Model for Utility-Bill Financing
• Neighborhood-Scale Distributed Energy Systems

Salt Lake City, UT

• Solar Rebate Program Expansion and Third Party PPA Legal Analysis
• Financing Options for Mid to Large Scale Solar Systems

San Diego, CA

• Solar Financing Options for Multifamily Affordable Housing
• Solar-Powered Fire Shelter Integration into Disaster Response Planning

San Francisco, CA

• Debt-Financed Solar Water Heating Retrofits for Affordable Housing
• San Francisco Sustainable Financing Program (SF²)
• Commercial Solar Power Purchase Agreement Model
• Solar Financing for Public Schools

San José, CA

• Property Assessed Solar Financing through Joint Powers Authority
• Solar Loans for City Staff
• Qualified Energy Conservation Bond Financing for Revolving Solar Loan Fund
• Streamlined Regional Solar Permitting Process
• Solar Train the Trainer Internship Program
• Solar Career Training for At-Risk Youth
• Green Vision Education and Demonstration Center

Santa Rosa, CA

• Clean Energy Advocate

Seattle, WA

• Community Solar Financing through Municipal Utility

Tucson, AZ

• Creative Financing for Municipal Solar Installations
• Solar One Stop Shop
• Solar Integration into Green Building Codes and Infrastructure Planning

By Sommer Saadi
Green Right Now

You’ve only got one weekend left to witness the near impossible: a car-free street in New York City.

Summer Streets is back for its second year and is once again offering New Yorkers three weekends in August to play, walk, bike and breathe on a nearly seven-mile stretch of city streets void of any motorized distractions.

New Yorkers can join the festivities during this year’s final opportunity on Saturday, Aug. 22. The path runs along Park Avenue and its connecting streets from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park. The event starts at 7 a.m. and runs until 1 p.m.

Building off of last year’s success, the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) is using Summer Streets to once again inspire people to get more exercise and learn about sustainable forms of transportation. As part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s greening initiative, Summer Streets is encouraging city residents to embrace the ease and importance of eco-friendly modes of transportation.

And how do you encourage people to do anything? Provide them with free and fun activities.

The Summer Streets route includes free bike and skate rentals and free bike and skate repair. Stops on the path also are hosting a variety of activities, including free bicycle helmet fittings, tennis instruction, fitness classes, dance lessons, sidewalk chalk and picnic areas.

Although the disruption to traffic has stirred some complaints, the estimated doubling of last year’s turnout, which was said to be about 50,000 people on each of the weekends, is an encouraging sign that Summer Streets might become another New York tradition. Jen McKenna’s family attended Summer Streets for the first time this year and plans on coming back next year. She thinks complaining drivers just might need to adjust.

“It’s like most other things that are new,” McKenna says. “It might take some getting used to but once people do I think everyone will learn to enjoy it.”

Those who want to participate in Summer Streets can get to the route by NYC Subway, commuter rail or ferry. Group rides are being organized for bikers in neighborhoods around the city. Check the Summer Streets web site for more details.

And if you live outside of Manhattan or can’t make it to Summer Streets, don’t despair.  DOT is also partnering with groups citywide to organize 13 Weekend Walks from June through September in the surrounding boroughs. Check to see if one of the sites is near your neighborhood.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Bitches on Bikes and the Wind Power Pedalers Climate Ride Team will hold a benefit event at New York City hot spot The Eldridge on Thursday from 9-11 p.m., featuring a silent auction of art, curated by Gitana Rosa Gallery.

Climate Ride is a 300-mile bicycle ride from New York City to Washington, D.C. to raise money to address climate change and promote renewable energy. The silent auction curated by Gitana Rosa Gallery will  feature artists including Tom Bob, Tom Billings, Andrés García-Peña, Michael Krynski, Graham T. Slick, Jodi Taylor, Brett Wintle and Suzy Q.

A $10 suggested donation at the door will get you three raffle tickets. All proceeds will benefit the Brita Climate Ride. Free admission and raffle tickets to anyone who donates $10 or more to the Wind Power Pedalers team or any individual rider. Please present proof of donation at the door. To donate online go to: http://tinyurl.com/WPPCR09. To review and bid on the art up for auction, visit http://stores.ebay.com/gitanarosagalleryandgiftshop.

Details:
Bitches on Bikes: Brita Climate Ride Benefit Party
Thursday, August 20; 9 p.m. to 11 p.m.
The Eldridge
247 Eldridge Street; (btwn Houston St. & Stanton St.)
New York City
Space is limited. To RSVP or for more information, contact shawna@rosengrouppr.com.

Fashion Institute of Technology student Jessica Velasquez can soon cycle in style, her own style, after winning a contest to design a jacket, poncho and bag suitable for fashion-conscious bike commuters.

Her winning designs for the “Bike in Style” contest were unveiled this week as the city launched its Summer Streets program, which promotes biking and walking.

The contest and the Summer Streets are both part of Mayor Bloomberg’s program to foster greener practices in the city — and their pairing serves notice that greenie New Yorkers won’t be sacrificing any style impulses to the eco-Gods.

Summer Streets is a celebration of a 6.9-mile route from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park for people to run, bike and walk. It will feature special activities on three Saturday mornings in August, starting on this Saturday the 8th followed by the 15th and 22nd.

The program and the “Bike in Style” contest are being supported by luxury goods firm LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the NYC Department of Transportation and the city of New York. (See Velasquez with a model wearing the jacket she designed, above.)

The contest challenged student designers from the Fashion Institute of Technology to create “stylish, practical and affordable bike gear.” The DKNY division of LVMH-owned Donna Karan International (DKI) mentored the FIT students and developed the prototypes of the winning designs.

Said LVMH Inc. Chairman Renaud Dutreil: “As a citizen company, LVMH is proud to support the efforts of the city and its agencies; this project illustrates the power of public-private collaboration. We remain dedicated to supporting initiatives that enrich people’s lives, improve their health and reinforce New York’s position as a fashion capital.”

LVMH brands include wines and spirits (Moët & Chandon, Dom Pérignon), apparel and accessories (Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, Fendi, Emilio Pucci, Donna Karan, Marc Jacobs, Berluti, StefanoBi), parfums (Christian Dior, Givenchy) and watches and jewels (Christian Dior watches, De Beers Diamond Jewellers Ltd).

(Photo credit: LVMH)

This June may have given New Yorkers an unseasonably rainy stretch crummy enough to keep them inside whenever possible, but it has also delivered a novel way to exploit the rare sunny day: A new park built upon industrial ruins, sustained by both citizens and government, and (to judge from its opening week) enjoyed by all.

Known as The High Line, the park sits upon a long stretch of elevated train track running down the west side of the city’s lower end. The nearly 80 year-old tracks once carried freight through industrial areas, running straight through some warehouses to allow for easy loading and unloading of goods.

The rails were last used for freight in 1980 and soon targeted for demolition, but a variety of residents in affected neighborhoods lobbied against that. In 1999, two enthusiasts founded Friends of the High Line to push for the structure’s re-use as a park. Remarkably, they succeeded. The first phase of the project, about nine blocks long, opened June 8; a second section should be complete in a little over a year; a third and final segment still awaits approval.

Opening weekend was, predictably, mobbed by visitors, a fact quickly documented by those inclined to criticize the project (however flimsy their complaints). But just a few days after opening, when I visited, access was easy. Though the park above was certainly well attended — with visitors ranging from couples and families with small children to the elderly and clusters of college-age friends — there were no lines to get in and no need to jostle for pleasant places to sit or stroll. (Organizers say they have had a line on three weekend days so far, with waits to ascend never longer than 30 minutes.)

Up top, the park is both stylishly designed and ecologically thoughtful. Many of the original construction materials were reused in the final design, after being treated to remove contaminants like lead paint and creosote, and the plants contained in the new gravel beds were chosen with the ultimate natural model in mind. As Katie Lorah, spokesperson for the Friends organization, explained, “the planting concept is modeled on the landscape that occurred naturally when the trains stopped running. Different conditions on the Line — widening and narrowing, varying soil depths, sun and shade, different wind patterns and degrees of shelter from nearby buildings — contributed to an extremely varied range of growing conditions on the Line, what the design team calls ‘micro-climates.’ Many of these conditions remain now that the High Line is a park, so many of the same species are used.”

A high percentage of the grasses, trees, and blooming plants here are native species, which are attended to by some very happy-looking gardeners. Gardeners and other maintenance personnel (who currently are spending as much time answering curious visitors’ questions as pruning limbs) are employed by the non-profit Friends organization, which has an arrangement with the city’s parks department wherein it provides over 70 percent of the annual operating budget. (It also raised a large fraction of construction costs.

Those planted areas, which are feathered into and around concrete paths throughout the park, perform a valuable role when it comes to rain. The High Line “functions essentially like the City’s largest green roof,” Lorah says.

Seedco announced today it has received a $500,000 grant from the Starr International Foundation in Switzerland to launch an effort to help New York City’s low-income workers train for and connect to jobs in the emerging building energy retrofit industry.

An organization focused on initiatives that help low-income people, Seedco also will create opportunities for small businesses to enter and expand into the energy retrofit field. In the coming years, the industry is expected to expand as a result of government-regulated efficiency mandates and demand for energy efficiency buildings.

Seedco said it will work with its network of community-based and training organizations to provide low-income job seekers and workers with training, job placement, and career advancement services. At the same time, Seedco will provide a range of business services, including access to financing, assistance with permits and certifications, and help with hiring and retaining staff, to the many small business contractors positioned to perform retrofit work.

Seedco plans to initially focus its efforts on the Weatherization Assistance Program, a federal program that helps low-income families cut their home energy costs using weatherization projects such as sealing windows and insulating walls and ceilings. The funding was greatly expanded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and this new program will increase the number of building energy retrofit jobs for the communities served.

After a trial run than began last year, TapIt Water, a water bottle refilling service, is officially launching in New York City.

TapIt engages a network of cafes and eateries across New York City that volunteer as partners to provide clean drinking water to those who carry in their own reusable bottle. TapIt users can find partner locations at TapitWater.com and iPhone users can download a locator application from the App Store. The web site also has a map locating water fountains around the city.

“I was so frustrated that in order to get a drink of water when I was out in the city, I had to purchase a bottle of it. I was eager to find a way to both save on the expense and reduce the waste that comes from single serve plastic bottles,” TapIt founder Kylie Harper said in a statement.

In the past 5 months, more than 200 cafes and eateries in New York City have started participating in the network. The service projects it can save it users up to $500 annually by eliminating the need to buy bottled water.  The environment wins by also cutting the carbon footprint of plastic bottles.

The best teachers inspire. Their grasp and excitement of a subject is contagious. Talking to Bertha Vazquez, Susan Vincent and Patrick Curley, you can’t come away without absorbing at least a sliver of their passion for the environment.

This month the National Environmental Education Foundation recognized Vazquez, Vincent and Curley for their innovative approaches to environmental education. Bertha Vazquez, a middle school teacher at a magnet school in Coral Gables, Fla., won the Richard C. Bartlett Education Award, named after the chairman of the Nature Conservancy of Texas. Patrick Curley, a middle and high-school teacher who works with at-risk students in Jacksonville, NC, and Susan Vincent, an earth and marine science teacher in East Harlem, NY, won certificates of merit.

“Kids have always related to the environment,” says Vazquez, who teaches at George Washington Carver Middle School in the Miami-Dade school system. “Teachers need to look for real-life connections that kids can relate to.”

Showing kids how caring for the environment affects them at home or in school is something they can understand, she says.

Vazquez, a biology major, says that today people feel the same about the environment as they did in the ‘70s. “The difference is,” she says, “that this time there’s a more practical side that people can relate to such as installing compact fluorescent light bulbs, driving a hybrid car or using cloth bags for grocery shopping.”

Vazquez, for instance, drives a Volkswagen that runs on biofuel made from chicken fat.

Vincent, who teaches earth science and marine science at the Young Women’s Leadership School of East Harlem, says she sees kids changing their habits. “We go to Central Park, walking from 110th street to 59th street. They can’t believe that people trash our parks. Despite the fact that our inner city students have had little experience with nature, once you turn them onto the environment, they become passionate.”

Vincent also has taken her students (see photo, above right) to such places as Orchard Beach in the Bronx. “They do clean-up projects where they take the train to the beach, pick up bags of trash, and see firsthand the effect that plastic trash has on marine animals. The kids see the trash and become indignant,” she says.

Vincent’s college prep public school is 100 percent minority girls. “They view the environment as the underdog and this resonates with them,” she says. The Young Women’s Leadership School is one of five urban all-girls public schools supported by the YWL Network.

Curley works with kids who have been taken from their regular high school because of behavioral or academic issues. This past year he was hired as an ENVISIONS coach for the entire Onslow County Schools. He brings students to a 66-acre pine forest at the county’s Learning Center where he teaches them to become “citizen scientists.” In this role, the kids learn how to monitor the local creek and track bird breeding.

In one of Curley’s projects, his students built a nature trail for the Izaak Walton League, one of the country’s first conservation organizations formed in 1922 to maintain America’s outdoors for future generations. The trail project included planting native plants and building and maintaining an oyster shell recycling station.

Earth Day is here. In my burg, the streets were filled with people walking and biking to school this morning. Odd thing happened. Many of the parents lingered, talking to each other. You couldn’t have herded them off the sidewalks. So much for suburban isolation. Why don’t we do it more often?

But the big Earth Day event today is in New York City this morning, where Denis Hayes, one of the two U.S. Earth Day founders, and Kathleen Rodgers,  president of the Earth Day Network, are appearing in Times Square to kick off a call to action for the coming year. They’re calling it the “Green Generation” campaign, an effort to enlarge the movement for a fossil-fuel free future and more green jobs. They’re installing a new rotating “Earth Ball” in Times Square as a symbol of the drive, which culminates on the 40th anniversary of Earth Day in 2010.

So, ummm, let’s not drop the ball on this one. Okay?

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Also this Earth Week, the clearing of ditches and planting of trees continues.

All sorts of groups are getting out to tidy up their towns, beaches and public parks. These community projects, while not sexy like lofting a giant globe in the heart of the city, are still the lifeblood of the green movement, which must be strong both locally and globally to succeed. (Hey, how about a slogan, Think Globally, Act Locally?)

There are thousands of these “actions” this week. We’re nominating the one in Long Beach, N.J., as having the most party potential:

The Long Beach Island Business Alliance hosts its first “Green Up Clean Up” (this coming Saturday, April 25, from 9 a.m. to noon) to clean the Boulevard and streets along the island, including debris blowing in the bay and ocean. Volunteers can pick up cleaning supplies, gloves and trash bags at local businesses designated as “Crab Traps”. Early birds will get a t-shirt.  All volunteers will get a bracelet entitling them to business discounts that day, and the first 100 volunteers to visit the Dark Star Café in Ship Bottom starting at 12:15 (after the clean up) will get a free lunch. (So there is such a thing.) A bonfire follows that night.

This is what passes for a work day on the beach?!

****************************************************

Finally, on Green Right Now we’ve got a great story posted on this Earth Day, a primer on global warming called No math needed: A look at global warming by the numbers. This status report on the planet by reporter Laura May gives us some vital information using key numbers from the green movement. Like the number “one”. That’s how many degrees the Earth warmed this last century. Doesn’t sound like much, does it? If only the picture were so simple. The warming is accelerating.

Want to know the significance of the numbers 60, 80 and 360? Check out the piece. It’s sobering, but hopeful too. Time to act.

Happy Earth Day!

Do not underestimate the excitement of Earth Day. Trust us. There is a lot to look forward to this year – the Green Apple Festival and Earth Day Network are making sure of it.

The two organizations have teamed up to put together the largest Earth Day festival in America. The event will take place April 17 to 19 (the weekend before the official Earth Day on April 22) and features simultaneous service events in 10 major cities across the nation including New York, Boston, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Austin, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle.

Volunteers who help out over the weekend will be given a green gift bag and tickets to attend a free “Thank You” concert in their city. And of course, the national flagship festival “Earth Day on the National Mall” will take over in Washington, D.C. The free festival is open to volunteers and the public and will feature performances and speakers throughout the day.

The “Thank You” concerts serve as a great incentive for rolling up your sleeves and making a meaningful contribution to the planet (check out the line-up below).  But just as motivating is the opportunity to be a part of some really creative and significant projects:

• Like finding out why you should have a worm in your apartment. The Lower East Side Ecology Center of New York City is teaching people how to deal with their smelly trashcan problem by keeping Red Wiggler worms handy. You learn how the Red Wiggler rapidly eats kitchen scraps and turns waste into fertilizer, and then learn how to set up and maintain a worm bin in your own crib and use the compost for feeding plants.

• Or discovering why it’s important that everyone aim for energy efficiency. In Austin, you can help retrofit a house for a family in need. The organization 1 House at a Time is teaching volunteers first-hand about home energy efficiency as they install water and energy conserving fixtures and appliances.

• You could even try to atone for your addiction to oil. Builders and bird enthusiasts are being recruited in San Francisco to help construct a cage, shed and rehabilitation pond for oiled birds in recovery at the International Bird Rescue Research Center.

Across all 10 cities there are opportunities to work in parks, beaches, schools and forests and focus on lasting climate change solutions, but you have to sign up to participate, and you have to sign up soon. Volunteers have until Tuesday, April 14 at 11:30 p.m. to register for a service project in their area. The events are listed on the Green Apple Festival site and from there a link takes you to the PlanetGreen website to sign up.

If you don’t live in one of these 10 cities, don’t worry. You can visit Planet Green’s Green Guide to Volunteering to make your own Earth Day plans.

You can also use the EDN green event locator.

Thank You Concert Lineup

Atlanta, GA – Funk and jazz band Galactic & Friends with opener country singer Victoria George at Variety Playhouse.

Austin, TX – Grammy Award-winning Country star Travis Tritt & Friends at Antone’s (note: this one’s on Monday April 20).

Boston, MA – The funk/jazz trio Soulive & Friends at Paradise Rock Club.

Chicago, IL – Alt-rock favorite Cracker & Friends at The Metro.

Denver, CO – Funk band Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk & Friends at Cervante’s Masterpiece.

Los Angeles, CA – The Hotel Cafe Presents indie rock singer-songwriter Cary Brothers & Friends at The Roxy.

New York City – The Soul legend from the James Brown Band Deep Banana Blackout featuring Fred Wesley & Friends at Bowery Ballroom.

San Francisco, CA – BassNectar & Friends at Slim’s.

Seattle, WA – Hip-Hop group The Blue Scholars & Friends at The Crocodile.

Washington, DC – Artists to perform on the National Mall have not yet been announced (it’s all about the suspense).

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

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EARTH HOUR 2009 – PARIS

EARTH HOUR 2009 – DALLAS

• Through the dark, enlightenment
• Closing in on Earth Hour 2009
• Earth Hour 2009, coming to a city near you this spring