Energy Consultants Help Save Homeowners on their Energy Bills
Pro Energy Consultants let us tag along while they performed an energy audit on a home. We now realize how much energy can be lost by having poor insulation in your ceiling, around your fireplace and throughout a number of places in a home. We can all save on our energy bills by fixing our insulation, filling cracks and doing little things around or own homes. A simple trip to Home Depot or Lowes and a couple of hours of maintenance work and you can start saving hundreds of dollars a year.

So sit back and enjoy GLTV’s (that’s us) ride with Pro Energy Consultants. We hope you learn a few tips to start making your home more energy efficient.

Are you a business that is “green?” Have an idea for a GLTV spot?

If you are interested in your business being featured in an upcoming GLTV spot please contact Justin @ 702-525-1605 or send him an email at justin@redhousemediainc.com.

• First energy-generation on The Strip through its 8.5 megawatt natural-gas co-generation plant, providing efficient electricity on site, reducing emissions and using “waste heat” to provide domestic hot water

• World’s first fleet of stretch limos powered by clean-burning compressed natural gas (CNG)
• Nation’s most technologically advanced hotel rooms with exclusive features allowing guests to “green their stay”
• Development of slot machine bases that serve as floor air-conditioning distribution units, efficiently cooling public spaces from the ground up in the occupied zones, rather than wasting energy cooling the empty space below the ceiling
• Energy-efficiency initiatives providing a savings equivalent to powering 8,800 households annually
• Creation of a large-scale recycling operation that enabled the recycling or reuse of more than 260,000 tons of construction waste, including 97% of the imploded Boardwalk Hotel
• More information on CityCenter’s Green initiatives can be found at: http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/mgm/39529/

LAS VEGAS – August 6, 2009 – The green job market in Nevada is growing at a rapid pace, and UNLV students will soon gain a competitive edge in this emerging market with the creation of a new degree program in solar and renewable energy.

The Solar and Renewable Energy Minor, made possible by a $500,000 gift from NV Energy, will be available to all UNLV students beginning this fall as a complement to students’ existing degree programs. The minor is designed to boost student knowledge in the areas of solar and renewable energy utilization, sustainable building design and global environmental challenges. The gift also includes funding for scholarships, undergraduate research opportunities, demonstration equipment and internships with either NV Energy or local agencies with a strong focus in renewable and solar energy.

“The Solar and Renewable Energy Minor is an ideal industry-education partnership that will provide our students with career opportunities in the booming green job market and supply the workforce needed to support the alternative energy industry in our state and community,” said Tom Piechota, UNLV director of sustainability and multidisciplinary research.

The degree program is housed in the UNLV department of environmental studies and consists of both policy and science and engineering tracks. The policy track is open to all majors and includes additional coursework in environmental history, economics and policy. The science and engineering track, which is open to those who have fulfilled the science and engineering prerequisites, includes additional training in solar thermal and photovoltaic systems and design principles of renewable energy.

Scholarships of up to $3,000 will be awarded to 10 students each semester to offset costs associated with the minor. More than $80,000 will also be available each year to support graduate assistantships and undergraduate research opportunities for students to work with UNLV faculty on solar and renewable energy on research projects.

Each semester, four students enrolled in the minor will also have the opportunity to gain valuable work experience in emerging green technology fields through internships with agencies such as NV Energy or other public and private sector organizations with a similar energy mission. In addition, local industry leaders from both the public and private sector will be brought in each semester to teach courses or make presentations in their areas of expertise.

For more information on the Solar and Renewable Energy Minor, please visit: environment.unlv.edu/solar

Clark County woman has the answer for energy efficiency

By Becky Bosshart

The soft whirling sound coming from Nancy Tabor’s backyard resembles the hum of an air conditioner – one that had grown wings and taken to flight.

That is the sound of a 42-foot wind turbine with three 6-foot long blades spinning in the afternoon breeze. That’s also the sound of environmental progress. Tabor, 42, and her partner Allen McLane, owners of McLane Electric in Las Vegas, are producing their own power from a residential wind generator. And, according to Tabor, you can too.

Tabor and McLane are the local dealers for Skystream wind turbines. Since home wind generators are new in Southern Nevada, the couple decided to demonstrate it to potential clients by going through the process first. With an up-front investment of about $20,000, the turbine they installed in early May provides power to their four-bedroom ranch house on one acre near Lone Mountain. The gleaming steel turbine, which looks like it should be on a hillside in Germany or Denmark, often creates traffic congestion around their Clark County home.

“People sit outside and roll down windows and see if they can hear it,” says Tabor, who joined McLane in his electric business in 2002. “People ring our bell and ask to come in and check it out. Everybody is going to want one. It’s going to be like a washer. It just makes sense using our natural resources.”

A wind turbine uses the energy of the wind to generate electricity. Tabor and McLane’s house uses about 5,000 kilowatt hours a month. Depending on wind conditions, their Skystream turbine is expected to produce on average 400 to 1,000 kilowatt hours a month, she says.

When Tabor feels the wind, she gets excited. She can pull up a program on her computer showing how much energy they are producing, and how much carbon the Skystream has prevented from being released. Watching those graphs and counters can get addicting, Tabor says.

The couple is committed to sustainable living at home and work, but Tabor admits that the cost is high. At first. But NV Energy and federal rebates on wind energy will cover about 60 percent of the cost of their turbine. After rebates, the wind turbine will cost $7,500. Tabor says the permit process isn’t too difficult in the county.

Clark County residents living on a half-acre or more must apply for a variance, since the county doesn’t have a specific wind turbine code. Tabor handles all the permitting and rebate applications for customers. She’s quickly become an expert on local ordinances. She’s learned that it’s different for those in the city.

“The city knew this was going to be big,” Tabor says.

So, the city is in the process of developing a code specific to wind turbines. The couple hopes to see it adopted soon so they can install five turbines that have been pre-sold to city residents and businesses.

In addition to all this, Tabor’s job is to answer questions. Is there a chance a blade could fly off? No way, Tabor says. Not after Skystream spent $50 million in research and development. Could anything take it down? A car accident? A hurricane? Some B-movie monster? The turbine is bolted to a 6-foot-by-6-foot concrete base with a rebar cage. She can’t think of anything that would.

What the turbine will do – bring down your power bill.

Our Star has a potent presence. It even makes a difference to a person who is having a lousy day. A person in Seattle, with its blanket of clouds and misery, is more likely to stay quite melancholy. A person in San Diego could just take a walk during a sunshine-kissed day to find immediate relief.

Without needing to perform ritualized sacrifice, modern man has been able to harness the sun’s rays for a benefit to his existence. This solar energy is found in spades in Nevada, California, and the entire Southwest. Nevada is literally a hotbed for the cultivation of this free natural resource.

Fossil fuels are still mostly used in power plants to boil water which converts into steam that in turn rotates a turbine to create electricity. There have been great debates when the peak of petroleum extraction will be reached; but, some power companies are taking advantage of the sun’s abundance.

NV Energy should be commended for its increased use of solar energy. It presently has long-term contracts with five different solar power plants. This includes Nevada Solar One which is the largest solar plant in the world that has been built in the last fifteen years. NV Energy has made a commitment to further integrate solar resources in the future. It would be a great benefit to the environment once this has been achieved. Just transporting in coal shale from Canada or petroleum from the Gulf of Mexico spends fossil fuels and releases their toxins en route to the West. Exclusive solar power usage would make this a moot point. It could get to the point where Nevada could sell this solar energy to California and Arizona which would mean lower rates for the exporting state’s residents.

Cleaner air, cheaper utility bills, and a clearer conscience. These are attainable goals. The sun was always present since the times of antiquity. We just need to stay here on Planet Earth long enough to become an ancient civilization ourselves.