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Ken Smith — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 08:43:13 -0400

Any national economic policy must include an energy policy. Where our reliance on foreign oil and dirty fuels for electricity have clearly cost us more in the long-run, we need to turn to a new model of generating and using energy. We need a situation where energy generation occurs at the point of use and matches demand; where nodes of energy generation are comparable to node on the internet with seamless, rapid, open data communications connecting these nodes enables greater efficiency, control, and planning.

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Ken Smith — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 15:54:51 -0400

New study shows that 300,000 jobs will be created if a renewable energy standard is adopted. Story at: www.buildbabybuild.net

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Ken Smith — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 11:43:15 -0500

Trickle-up must become a torrent in the cleantech industry if we are to make a measurable change in the types of energy we power this and other nations. Innovations now in the lab and those funded with VC must be able to penetrate markets even more rapidly than any industry changing innovation in the past. It took about 20 years+ for TVs to reach 'mass market' penetration, 50 for the phone, and 15 for the Internet - with clean tech/renewable energy we have 10 years - period.

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Ken Smith — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 11:38:38 -0500

Trickle-up must become a torrent for cleantech if we are to make a measurable change in the types of energy we use to power the country. Innovations now in the lab and funded through VC firms must be able to penetrate markets even more rapidly than the Internet. Social, individual and cultural barriers will have to be overcome, but the ecological imperative demands that we find ways to allow 'green' innovations to reach mass market consumers.

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Ken Smith — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 11:33:36 -0500

A must read - the hidden story of coal ash at build baby build blog - http://www.buildbabybuild.net/blog/must-read-coal-ash-the-hidden-story/

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Ken Smith — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 11:30:51 -0500

A must read - the hidden story of coal ash at build baby build blog - http://www.buildbabybuild.net/blog/must-read-coal-ash-the-hidden-story/

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Ken Smith — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 11:21:13 -0500

Perhpas this is the start of a new era, or perhaps this is comparable to the wonderful healthcare Congress has provided for itself for years while denying it to average Americans. Is Congress dedicated to switching all coal fired-plants over to natural gas so no one who lives within a few miles of a plant has to breath the toxic fumes? Or will this just apply to plants within miles of Georgetown and other swank DC neighborhoods? Only time will tell.

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Ken Smith — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 10:33:20 -0500

Building out a network of residential, commercial, and small utility-scale renewable energy facilities is the only way we can make measurable progress towards energy independence in the short-term. To start, we need to know where renewable sources are being used to produce energy. FastCompany readers are asked to go to the following link and add your site to the growing national map.

http://www.buildbabybuild.net/blog/residentialmap/

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Ken Smith — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 09:51:34 -0500

A key element of this discussion is timing. When do we want to start making measurable progress towards energy independence? A Smart Grid will help us be more intelligent about how we use and conserve energy, but it is 10 years and billions of dollars away from mass-market implementation. Off-shore and remote wind farms that promise hundreds/thousands of megawatts of power are also 10 years and billions of dollars away. Only a distributed network of community-scale facilities will help reduce demand on an already over-taxed grid because it generates power where the demand is located.

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Ken Smith — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 15:46:53 -0500

To make the Google POwerMeter truly valuable there needs to be a renewable energy Internet - a distributed network of home, municipal, commercial and small-scale utility facilities generating power from wind, solar, geothermal, and other sources. Why an energy Internet? Because the smart grid to which the Google PowerMeter would be attached is 10 years away, off-shore wind is 10 years away, and major renewable plants are too far from major loads. Only through the development of a distributed network will we begin to move towards energy independence in the short-term.