Calendar of Events
July Meeting
Join us for a presentation on solar and energy efficiency from Mr. Issa Dadoush. He will outline and speak about the programs that have been implemented in Houston for low income residents and give us his insights for ensuring that everyone benefits from the movement towards a green and sustainable future.
Time and Place:
Friday, July 23rd, 11:30 AM
Main Auditorium
El Paso Public Library
Main (downtown) Library
Directions:
501 N. Oregon
Take the Downtown exit from either side of the City. We are located across from the Doubletree Hotel and next to the El Paso History Museum.
Below is a description and summary of his presentation:
As alternative energy sources become increasingly important to the global economy, it is imperative that Texas continue to support the advancement of the emerging technologies that will allow us to meet our ongoing energy needs while reducing our impact on the environment. Under the leadership of Mayor Bill White, the City of Houston has given energy efficiency and conservation the highest priority in order to reduce cost to citizens and to ensure that we meet energy demands well into the future. The City has been recognized as a national leader in the green movement through a comprehensive suite of programs and is leading in the creation of policy to make solar power more affordable for everyone. Outreach efforts include the Houston Green Expo, the Conservation Youth Program, the Residential Energy Efficiency Program which provides energy efficiency upgrades to local residents, and the Houston HOPE program which assists low income Houstonians with purchasing energy efficient homes. As the former Director of the General Services Department, Mr. Issa Dadoush will discuss various conservation methods undertaken by the city of Houston such as the retrofitting of low-income housing in order to reduce energy costs and the subsequent implementation such programs in other major cities.
Brief Biography
IssaDadoush is a registered professional engineer with nearly 30 years of experience in project management, the last 22 years for the City of Houston. He earned a B.S. from the University of Houston in engineering technology, with an emphasis in structural analysis and design. Mr. Dadoush is a registered professional engineer in the State of Texas and
holds an honorary membership with the American Institute of Architects, Houston Chapter.
UnderBill White's leadership at the City of Houston, Mr. Dadoush was the Director of the General Services Department. He lead seven divisions and was responsible for managing one of the largest and diverse portfolios of building assets in the United States, as well as directing the City’s parking management, facility security, real estate and energy procurement. In his tenure as Director, Mr. Dadoush oversaw the development of 26 LEED Silver designated facilities, and managed the energy conservation retrofit of three million square feet. The result of this effort is that while the City of Houston grew in double digit numbers, the city had a net decrease in energy consumption.
Issa Dadoush currently works as the general manager of facility services for the Houston Independent School District.
Join us for a tour of Ft. Bliss' solar installations! Get a unique opportunity to view the installed based of solar power that Ft. Bliss currently has in operation. We will get a brief outline of where Ft. Bliss is headed in their renewable energy future and get to talk to those folks responsible for moving Ft. Bliss into its role as the renewable energy center of excellence for the Department of Defense.
Since we will be on base there are some extra precautions that we need to take. This means that anyone that is going to attend will need a pass!!! Please call me, Harry Schulte, 867-8173 to get one. I will also be at the Cassidy Gate (directions below) until 9:50 to hand them out. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!
Time and Place (and please be punctual):
10:00AM Saturday 26th
Ft. Bliss Museum, directions below:
From I-10 merge onto to US-54/Alamagordo, exit Fort Bliss/Cassidy Rd,
right on Cassidy, enter Fort Bliss, stay on Cassidy to Marshall Rd, left
on Marshall, pass Burger King, Armed Forces and Wells Fargo banks, turn
right on stop sign (big parking lot with tanks, missiles and other
military equipment). Please be on time as Col. Simonelli, Fort Bliss
Garrison Commander, will be at museum at 10 am to welcome and brief you.
After briefing we will board a bus and tour Fort Bliss.
Ft. Bliss Renewable Energy Rodeo and Symposium, June 8 -9, 2010.
From their website, (https://renewable-energy-rodeo.com/):
The U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) and Fort Bliss are co-hosting the first Renewable Energy Rodeo and Symposium.
The objective of the Renewable Energy Rodeo and Symposium is for Fort Bliss and TARDEC to establish a foundation for the accelerated deployment of energy savings technologies into CONUS bases through panel sessions, demo site visits/interactions, displays, exhibits and networking events.
The event will display the latest mature technologies and innovations in renewable energy concepts and alternative fuel technologies available. Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) panel discussions and guest speakers will include some of the nation’s top experts in these fields and technologies. SME panel sessions will convene to brief and discuss critical energy topics affecting the military and the nation.
The Rodeo will feature displays and demonstrations of technologies that support the Army’s Energy Security Goals
- Generation (Renewable & Alternate Energy Sources)
- Distribution (National, Regional and Local Infrastructures)
- Transfer (Infrastructure to End-User Interface)
- Application (Fixed Installations and Vehicles)
For an agenda of the event:https://renewable-energy-rodeo.com/agenda/Default.aspx
May Meeting, May 6th, 7:00PM
May's meeting will feature Mr. Marty Howell, Sustainability Manager for the City of El Paso. Marty will be speaking about the City’s Sustainability Program. In general, he will be outlining how energy efficiency and renewable energy fit into the City’s Sustainability plans. Specifically for solar energy, he will be discussing the City’s future directions for providing a financing district, based on other progressive models around the country, that fund solar energy implementations at the residential level through incentives created by the financing district.
Location and time:
The meeting is scheduled for May 6th at 7:00PM at the McCall Neighborhood Center. The McCall Center is located at 3231 Wyoming. Light refreshments will be served. Hope to see you there!
Brief Bio
Marty Howell is the City of El Paso's Sustainability Program Manager. Marty has over 15 years of engineering experience and has spent the last ten years in municipal government. His first exposure to environmental issues was as an environmental remediation consultant attempting to clean up contaminated soil and groundwater sites. Specific projects included railyards, refineries and "the most contaminated square mile on earth" at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal. Marty moved to the public sector and struggled to balance explosive growth with adequate planning and infrastructure as the City Engineer for the City of Evans - a small City in northwest Colorado. As the Water Resources Operations Manager for Greeley, a larger City in northern Colorado, Marty lead efforts to acquire sufficient water supplies, create partnerships with local agriculture and drive innovative planning for new developments. He enjoys the natural beauty and gracious people of El Paso with his wife and hopes to act as a catalyst to preserve our unique environment for their two young daughters. Marty earned a degree in Environmental Engineering from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and is registered as a Professional Engineer with the State of Colorado.
April Meeting
April's meeting will feature solar expert Mr. Robert Foster. His presentation, entitled " Renewable Energy Development in Afghanistan" will focus on renewable energy and provide a general overview of renewable energy applications and developments in Afghanistan. Mr. Foster's extensive experience in the solar energy field and his perspective on the challenges faced with solar applications in the field promises to provide a variety of unique insights into a myriad of issues facing renewable energy applications. For a more in-depth information please see information following the time and meeting location below.
The meeting is scheduled for April 15th at 7:00PM at the El Paso Zoo. The El Paso Zoo is located at 4001 East Paisano Drive. We are meeting in the El Paso Water Utilities "Discovery Center" which is located to the right of the front gate as you walk towards the front. Please be punctual as the front gate has to be closed because of the after hours event. For more detailed directions please visit http://www.elpasozoo.org. Light refreshments will be served.
Hope to see you there!
Renewable Energy Development in Afghanistan
Robert Foster
Renewable energy is playing a growing role for national electrification in Afghanistan and laying the groundwork for future economic development. Afghanistan is a country struggling to come out of 30 years of warfare, and has one of the lowest electrification rates in the world, with only about fifteen percent of the 30 million population with access to the grid, mostly in urban areas like Kabul, Herat, Jalalabad, and Mazar. As rural villages are widely scattered, often across rugged terrain, extending the conventional electric grid to most villages of Afghanistan is impossible. Renewable energy is often the most viable and economic energy solution for rural Afghan villages, not only for lights and communications, but also for productive use applications such as water pumping, cold storage, crop drying, food processing, etc.
Afghanistan is rich with indigenous renewable energy resources. The country has excellent solar energy resources, averaging over 300 days per year of sunshine with an average annual daily solar insolation over 5.5 kWh/m2. There are also excellent hydro resources totaling over 23,000 MW in potential, especially in northeast Afghanistan (Badakshan). The western part of the country (Herat) also has excellent wind resources ranging as high as Class 6 and 7 categories.
Use of renewable energy technologies is steadily growing in Afghanistan. There are over 100,000 homes using PV to provide basic lighting and entertainment. Nearly 3,000 communities use small scale micro-hydropower turbines for electricity. There are already over two dozen hydro turbine manufactures in the country manufacturing units. Remote rural agricultural communities can benefit from off-grid renewable energy systems to increase agricultural production and economic productivity. It is more inexpensive to pump water through solar and wind energy than gasoline or diesel powered pumps for small to medium sized applications (<10 hp). Crops that normally would spoil can be kept through solar powered cold storage facilities locally and timed for sale when market prices are best. Crops can be more efficiently dried and quality improved through active solar drying systems (e.g., apples, tomatoes, apricots, etc.); these superior solar dried foods can also bring a premium price in overseas markets. Robert will provide a general overview of renewable energy applications and developments in Afghanistan.
Installation of the 85 kWp Sayed Karam village power system in Paktika province
Afghan hydropower workshop in Kabul building turbines.
Installation of a small wind hybrid system in Sharan village, Paktika Province.
Robert Foster
Robert Foster has been with the NMSU College of Engineering (Institute for Energy & Environment) since 1989 and has been in Afghanistan for the past 20 months, where he currently serves as the Chief Engineer for the USAID Afghanistan Clean Energy Project collaborating with Winrock International and IRG. He has over a quarter century of experience in applying renewable energy technologies in 30 countries. Robert was also a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic, where he installed PV and water projects. Prior to that he worked at Cole Solar Systems in Austin installing solar hot water systems. He co-founded SolAqua in El Paso in 1999, which specializes in solar water purification systems. He has published over 120 technical papers on renewable energy technologies, and co-authored 3 books. Robert holds a B. S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and a MBA from NMSU. He has served as Chairman of the Texas Solar Energy Society and as EPSEA President.
UPCOMING Meetings
May
Presenter: Marty Howell, Sustainability Program Manager, City of El Paso
Topic: "Update on El Paso Sustainability and Renewable Energy Plans"
Time & Date: May 5th, 2010 @ 7:00pm
Location: TBA
PAST Meetings
March Meeting
EPSEA's March meeting will feature the Honorable Senator Eliot Shapleigh. He will be presenting his community-based solar initiative that highlights a variety of different approaches for integrating solar power in the El Paso region. His forward looking perspective outlines a policy plan for all things solar. Please join us for this innovative talk on renewable energy and the potential for changing the renewable energy mix in the region.
Location and time:
The meeting is scheduled for March 4th at 7:00PM at the McCall Neighborhood Center. The McCall Center is located at 3231 Wyoming. Light refreshments will be served. Hope to see you there!
February's Meeting
EPSEA's February's meeting will be hosted by the El Paso Zoo. Rick Lobello, Education Director, will be giving us a tour of the new African Exhibit. The exhibit itself is envisioned as a remote research laboratory in the African wilds, and as such, is dependent on its power generation from renewable energy sources. The Zoo will have a solar exhibit and a wind exhibit that shows these capabilities. Come join us for this sneak preview, so to speak, of the El Paso Zoo's African exhibit.
The meeting is scheduled for February 4th at 7:00PM. The El Paso Zoo is located at 4001 East Paisano Drive. We are meeting in the El Paso Water Utilities "Discovery Center" which is located to the right of the front gate as you walk towards the front. For more detailed directions please visit http://www.elpasozoo.org. Light refreshments will be served. Hope to see you there!
January's Meeting
As EPSEA starts 2010 we will be asking for input from membership and guests about the topics that are most important to them, what they would like to hear about, who they might like to hear it from, and any other suggestions for information about everything solar. We are going to lay out a year's worth of topics and we need your valuable input. Please plan on attending and bring your great ideas!
EPSEA's will be meeting on January 14th, 7:00PM, on the UTEP Campus in the Liberal Arts Building, Room 413 - next to the computer lab.
December's Meeting
December's meeting has been moved to December 10th at 7:00PM, on the UTEP Campus inside the Liberal Arts Buidling, 3rd Floor, next to the Computer Lab.
Our guests will be a group of Coronado High School Students who will be speaking on their CAS project and its approach for educating the community about all things solar.
