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Valley Entrepreneurs Developing Community Solar Arrays

A Roaring Fork valley entrepreneur is pioneering a new idea to encourage people to commit to renewable energy. The Clean Energy Collective is breaking ground, literally and figuratively, on large solar arrays and access to renewable solar electricity. Only about 400 of Holy Cross Electric's 10,000 customers now use solar energy. Dave Wiedemyer explains to KDNK's Marilyn Gleason how finessing tax policy, laws and utilities on the one hand, and building solar farms on the other, is making it simple and economical to own your own solar panel – somewhere else.

Piper Foster of Amatis Controls on Solar Water Heating

A good deal of your utility bill is spent on heating up water. It adds up to tens of billions of dollars annually in America. But using the sun to heat up household water is both relatively simple and unpopular. Holy Cross Electric can hardly give away big rebates on solar hot water panels, since they've only had 10 takers in the last couple years.

Piper Foster worked for the Sopris Foundation before spending a year in Germany studying the links between civic planning and energy use. Now she works for Amatis Controls, an Aspen-based company making control systems that could revive interest in the lowly solar thermal panel. On this edition of NRG with MG, Foster and KDNK's Marilyn Gleason discuss using the sun to directly heat water.

Clean Energy Action's RJ Harrington on How Energy Policy and Politics Affect Electric Utilities

RJ Harrington is the new head of Clean Energy Action, a Boulder-based nonprofit that opposes coal-based energy and uses research and science to affect policy. The group recently stopped in Glenwood Springs to talk about "Energy Policy and Politics" as part of a statewide series of meetings. Marilyn Gleason took the chance to discuss how electric utilities really work with the former policy director for Colorado's solar energy trade group, Clean Energy Action's RJ Harrington.

Dan Bihn, the Biomass Hitman

We're back today with our series Energy with MG– It's our continuing series on energy, and today the topic is biomass. KDNK's Marilyn Gleason met in Boulder recently with Dan Bihn. As an advisor and consultant, the Fort Collins resident is active in developing - and sometimes scuttling – biomass projects in Colorado. He sat on the board of the Roaring Fork biomass consortium. Dan Bihn calls himself the Biomass Hit Man.

Randy Udall on Elevated Gas Prices

What goes up must come down, except where gas prices are concerned. In 2011 gas averaged $3.50 a gallon in the US. That was 76 cents more than 2010 and 29 cents more than 2008 prices, when speculators were blamed for a shocking jump. This summer it's even higher. Today on NRG with MG, KDNK's Marilyn Gleason asks Randy Udall what's driving the price of gas up, up, up.

Mike Ogburn on Energy Tracking

Public buildings in Garfield County are fine-tuning their energy efficiency with help from CLEER, or Clean Energy Economy for the Region, which channels efforts of nine local government  entities into efficiency, renewables and energy savings. KDNK's Marilyn Gleason asked Mike Ogburn to explain the system he built to track real-time energy use in big buildings and how that's saving taxpayer money – lots of it.

How Climate Change Affects SkiCo

For this episode, our energy series turns to climate change, a condition that virtually all scientists agree is impacted by carbon dioxide released by burning fossil fuels globally at an astronomical rate. As Vice President for Sustainability for the Aspen Skiing Company, Auden Schendler thinks a lot about climate change. He's come to regard it as the key environmental challenge and our opportunity to literally "save the world." In this edition of "NRG with MG", KDNK's Marilyn Gleason queries Auden Schendler about the latest in climate science.

Oil Industry Veteran Tom Phillips on Oil Shale on the Western Slope

Today on NRG (energy) with MG, KDNK's Marilyn Gleason is back with a knowledgeable guest to discuss energy and your world. Tom Phillips lives in western Colorado now, but for 30 years he worked in the international oil and gas industry. He's skeptical about oil shale development here, even as the BLM seeks public comments on its plan for leasing land.

Filmmaker Dave Gardner on growth

Colorado Springs filmmaker Dave Gardner worked for oil and chemical companies, Coca-Cola and Enron before awakening to a desire to tell the truth instead of spinning it. His documentary "Growthbusters:Hooked on Growth" is a David and Goliath story challenging the belief that growth leads to prosperity and fulfillment. Energy, especially fossil fuels, is an invisible force behind the explosive growth of the last century. Dave Gardner recently talked to KDNK's Marilyn Gleason to connect the dots between energy, population, growth and a sustainable future.

Green architecture with Steve Novy of Green Line Architects

KDNK's Marilyn Gleason is back with a knowledgeable guest to discuss energy and your world. Buildings give us shelter and commerce, and they do it by sucking energy – lots of it. Carbondale architect Steve Novy tells our host about designing buildings with an eye to greening and the hottest, sexiest new technology to help.

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