French Broad Electric Membership Corporation (FBCMC) serves over 36,000 members in Buncombe, Madison, Mitchell, and Yancey Counties in North Carolina and part of Unicoi County Tennessee. FBEMC was the first utility in North Carolina to develop a net metering agreement with members, so that members producing electricity through micro-hydro, solar, or wind could sell excess generation back to the utility. In recent years, that has changed. Approximately four or five years ago, the management of FBEMC has capped enrollment in net metering at 50 customers – 1% of members. All other members wishing to produce their own electricity and remain tied to the grid are forced to install a second meter with a $13/ month fee and are paid $.04/kWhr for excess energy produced. The additional monthly fee and the lower than wholesale price for electricity means that investment in alternative energy by the typical middle class family is unaffordable in the territory of FBEMC.

 Members of the FBEMC have become concerned by recent actions of the board and management on a number of issues. In 2009 FBEMC negotiated a contract with Progress Energy that has brought large rate increases to members and the management has kept the terms of this important contract secret.  In 2012, the management began a policy of maintaining thousands of miles of transmission line right-of-ways with herbicides and did not notify members or affected landowners for over six months. Some members have water sources in or down-slope of these ROWs, yet FBEMC management has refused to manage these or any other sensitive areas without herbicide. FBEMC has also raised the member fee to $500 for new customers and widowers whose account was in their spouse’s name.

Members who are fed up with the current management of the EMC nominated three candidates to the board by petition: Barron Brown, Sue Lomenzo, and Sherry McCuller. These candidates are committed to increasing the transparency of FBEMC and to addressing the concerns of members. Whatever your feelings are about the management of FBEMC, we urge you to exercise your power to vote in the May 4election for the Board of Directors. The election occurs between 3 and 5 pm at Madison County High School and you must have an account to vote. Each account receives just one vote, with the exception that an individual with multiple accounts only receives one vote. Members must be present at the May 4 meeting to vote. If they are absent, the can assign their vote to a proxy that does attend the meeting. A proxy form came in the mail to members in early April. Please be sure to keep your proxy form and assign another member your vote if you cannot make the meeting.

Visit the website Members Coop for more information.

 “It feels great to be able to produce more energy than we consume.” This powerful statement, made by Marcus Suess, President of All States Medical Supply stands to demonstrate the viability of on-site solar energy systems. While more and more businesses are investing in solar energy, All States is one of the first in the region, if not the first, to install an on-site solar electric system that will generate all of the electricity used in their facility, making them net- zero consumers.

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Sierra Hollister, co-founder of Sundance, wrote these thoughts for her blog, Dragonfly and the Green Yogini.  She calls to the yoga community for action. We’d like to share them with our Sundance community as well. Ultimately, we are one community, and how we choose to act is something we are called to explore.

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Electric Vehicle enthusiasts gathered in Raleigh on Wednesday, March 13 to celebrate the release of NC’s PEV Roadmap (among them our own James Ward, who sent back the awesome shot of the Fisker Karma’s solar electric roof reflecting the sunshine and his own smiling face, above) andlocal readiness plans from regions across the Read more →

We’re heartened to see Kyocera recognized for the achievement of Clean Industry Certification from Mexico’s Federal Environmental Protection Agency, and applaud them for their leadership. Press Release here.

Their commitment to quality, value, and sustainability is why we’ve been installing Kyocera pv modules for years, and are proud of the dealer relationship that we have enjoyed.

“Consumers who use Kyocera products can rest assured that they are purchasing high-quality, reliable products manufactured with a strong environmental consciousness,” David Hester, President of Kyocera Mexicana stated in response to receiving the certification.”We are committed to continuous improvement in all phases of manufacturing, including environmental impact.” (Of course on- site clean energy generation is part of this mix: a 100 kW rooftop solar array offsets 415 tons of carbon dioxide annually.)

Extending this exemplary value chain to our customers is important to us as we strive to serve their interests and operate in our highest integrity in accordance with our commitment to sustainability.  With partners like Kyocera, its a pleasure.

Sierra deemed these thoughts on Climate Change by Bill Mckibben to be worth sharing in our Energy Current. May you also find it informative and inspiring.

This article was excerpted from Solutions Journal, learn more at www.thesolutionsjournal.com

My solution is: get outraged.  Having written the first book about global warming 23 long years ago, I’ve watched the issue unfold across decades, continents, and ideologies. I’ve come to earth summits and conferences of the parties from Rio to Kyoto to Copenhagen, and many places in between.  All along, two things have been clear.  One, the scientists who warned us about climate change were absolutely correct- their only mistake, common among scientists, was in being too conservative. So far we’ve raised the temperature of the earth about one degree Celsius, and two decades ago it was hard to believe this would be enough to cause huge damage. But it was. We’ve clearly come out of the Holocene and into something else. Forty percent of the summer sea ice in the Arctic is gone; the ocean is 30% more acidic.

There’s nothing theoretical about any of this any more. Since warm air holds more water vapor than cold, the atmosphere is about 4% wetter than it used to be, which has loaded the dice for drought and flood. In my home country, 2011 smashed the record for multibillion-dollar weather disasters- and we were hit nowhere near as badly as some. Thailand’s record flooding late in the year did damage equivalent to 18% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). That’s almost unbelievable. But it’s not just scientists who have been warning us. Insurance companies- the people in our economy who we ask to analyze risk- have been bellowing in their quiet, actuarial way for years. Here’s Munich Re, the world’s largest insurer, in their 2010 annual report: “The reinsurer has built up the world’s most comprehensive natural catastrophe database, which shows a marked increase in the number of weather-related events. For instance, globally, loss-related floods have more than tripled since 1980, and windstorm natural catastrophes more than doubled, with particularly heavy losses from Atlantic hurricanes. This rise cannot be explained without global warming.”

Two, we have much of the technological know-how we need to make the leap past fossil fuel. Read more →

“Where does your electricity come from?”  This is an ideal question for the show Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? in which grade-school level questions are posed to adults. Amazingly enough, many adults and children alike have no idea where the energy that powers their TVs and all their other their plug-in, switch-on gadgets and appliances comes from.

Sundance Power Systems sees energy education as a critical component in our society’s shift to clean energy and is committed to supporting a range of educational opportunities in the community. This fall our Marketing & Outreach Coordinator, Erika Schneider, spent 7 days with over 750 fifth graders and their teachers at Conservation Field days in Buncombe, Madison, Mitchell and Yancey counties. In twenty quick minutes, she was challenged to give an overview of our energy picture with the hope that they would be inspired to learn more, and become engaged in solutions.

See what kids learned at “The Solar Quest Station,” and the other conservation stations by viewing the video below that was filmed at the Soil & Water Conservation Field Day held on September 21.