From: Rita Schenck [rita@iere.org]
Sent: Monday, June 02, 2003 5:03 PM
Subject: Energy Update #10

Dear Friends:

In the last update, I told you about the renewable energy and green tags education packet we put together for the schools. That packet helped increase the purchase of green tags in the month of March by over 22%. Currently, about 4 percent of residences on the island buy green tags through the Puget Sound Energy program. We hope to raise that number to 10% by year end.

We have a volunteer helping us with this program. Ingrid Clausen has been working in our energy outreach program, preparing packets for the schools and working on fundraising for our solar truck. We need a total of $7,000 and so far have collected $370. Ingrid has been "womaning" a table for us to educate the community on renewable energy, green tags and our planned demonstrations

In our study last year, we found that biodiesel was potentially a good sustainable energy technology for the island. The island uses over 2.5 million gallons of diesel (mostly for the ferries) every year, and about 2 dozen people on-island are running their vehicles (cars, trucks, tractors and boats) on biodiesel. There is even a service station (Dave and Zane's) that sells biodiesel here on the island. We have just learned that the Social Investors Forum, a group of social enterprise philanthropists, has selected us to help develop a business plan to build a biodiesel manufacturing facility on the island. We plan on sizing it to produce a maximum of 3 million gallons of biodiesel per year, using waste vegetable oil from restaurants and institutions in Seattle and Tacoma. The program has the potential to save 60,000 tons of CO2 per year! Turned into dry ice, that is about 40,000 cubic feet of dry ice, or a large warehouse (K2 and then some) full.

We are also looking into the business plan for building renewable capacity on the island. We plan a study that will look in detail at how to make renewable energy work here, and how to finance it.

We have had lots of good press recently. E magazine ran an article about our energy project http://www.emagazine.com/may-june_2003/0503ib_vashon.html, and our efforts were mentioned in the Seattle Times Northwest Magazine, as part of their Earth Day spread. We have also been featured in the local newspapers and radio station.

We are working to install solar cell demonstrations on Vashon this summer. Although Bonneville Environmental Foundation will not be able to fund these projects, Puget Sound Energy has expressed interest in making them happen. Our green tags at work!

We invite you to share this note with anyone you believe would be interested. We will gladly add the names of anyone who requests it to this mail list. Likewise, if you wish to be removed, send me a note and I'll remove your name.

Best Regards,

Rita Schenck
Institute for Environmental Research and Education
P.O. Box 2449
Vashon, WA 98070

206-463-7430
206-279-1570 (f)
http://www.iere.org