Having been involved in the environmental, energy saving and energy producing products industry for some 14 years now, oftentimes one gets the feeling that you have pretty much seen it all. So when I was invited to attend one of the world’s largest green conferences, “West Coast Green”, I jumped at the chance to see what was new and how things were being done or developed in the USA.
The conference was held at Fort Mason in San Francisco, California – yes California, the state that leads the USA in environmental initiatives, legislation, incentives and green-tech businesses.
Land of Extremes
USA is the land of extremes – everywhere you turn you see it, the rich and the poor, the big and the small (and when I say big I mean BIG). The extremes are also evident in how the American people go about life: on one side you have the CONSUMERS – and boy can they consume, and on the other you have the conservationists. As an example, the parking lot just outside our hotel was an even 50/50 split between massive, gas-guzzling SUVs and fuel-sipping hybrid vehicles. I was also surprised by the fact that Ford, Mazda, Nissan and others have hybrid vehicles in the USA and yet we don’t get them in Australia! As they say in the USA - go figure!
Whilst consumption with reckless abandon has been the norm until now, it is changing. Maybe it’s the effects of rising power prices, or it could be that the climate change message is now finally getting through, but there does seem to be a real shift in behaviour taking place. In general I was pleasantly surprised by the ground swell of the green movement in the USA.
Innovation
West Coast Green is all about green innovation for the built environment. The conference offered the state of the art information and insight, while the tradeshow featured the world's most innovative products, emerging technologies and award-winning services developed for the built environment. I would have to say that we learned a lot, both at the conference and at various meetings we had in the week after.
Some of the new products we saw included applications that seamlessly control home electrical devices with the view to save energy. These applications allow users to remotely monitor and control most household appliances using a computer or mobile phone. Users can remotely, via smart phone, turn on and off alarms, hot water systems, heating or cooling devices or even monitor the solar power output of their photo-voltaic solar unit. It can even enable you to see who is at your front door when the bell rings, via a web cam. These products should be available here early in the New Year.
We also saw innovative new wind-power products that I predict will be adopted on a large scale. These products are designed for domestic, farming and business installations as they overcome noise and height concerns and are affordable. These new wind power generators use vertical veins rather than the traditional propeller blade format and are thus virtually silent, extremely efficient and safe for homes.
Other great innovations came from the solar power industry. We saw new photovoltaic (PV) solar systems that will shortly be available as ‘plug and play’ kits requiring virtually no wiring. The new systems allow panels to be clipped onto the frames as using ‘easy fit’ bases which also double as the electrical contact points to relay the power down the line. These neat dual-purpose fittings will save time and make installation safer. Future PV solar power units will also not require large costly inverters fitted to the wall of home close to the meter board as is done with current systems. The new PV panels will have micro-inverters fitted to the back delivering 240V directly from the panel rather than the STD 24V format and then converting power at the inverter. This will also allow for simpler future expansion of the PV system.
Coming of Age
In short, I was positively surprised by the folk in the USA – given all their financial turmoil at present. It was good to see that the green movement is not floundering, as some would lead you to believe. Conversely, it is actually gaining momentum, mainly because it is creating jobs while saving people money.
I think that the green industry has now finally coming of age. It is proving that if people and industry behave in a responsible / sustainable way, that green products and green businesses can actually sustain people and the environment better than old industry could.
Ethical and green industries are now silencing the detractors that once said that green would head nowhere, was too dear, would never catch on or was not marketable.
News Flash: Green is the new Black!
Green is in demand – it’s trendy, hip, today and tomorrow. Green is what is needed for jobs, for sustainability and for our mutual future on this planet. There is now overwhelming proof that green power can be cheaper to produce that dirty power. Who would have thought that would happen? There is a new, greener world out there and it is heading our way!
Who knows, we may even see a BIG environmental conference held down under in the not too distant future – maybe called “East Coast Green”. Watch this space for more!
Images (from top):
- Fort Mason Centre Venue by Mike Kahn
- Wind Spire Wind turbines at a site in Reno in Nevada by Sean Cochrane
- Solar power PV installation in Reno by Sean Cochrane
---
More information about this topic in our construction section.
Green directory of eco-friendly Australian businesses. This green directory is providing you all details about environmental companies around Australia. Find the green business around your place.
Having been involved in the environmental, energy saving and energy producing products industry for some 14 years now, oftentimes one gets the feeling that you have pretty much seen it all. So when I was invited to attend one of the world’s largest green conferences, “West Coast Green”, I jumped at the chance to see what was new and how things were being done or developed in the USA. 
Other great innovations came from the solar power industry. We saw new photovoltaic (PV) solar systems that will shortly be available as ‘plug and play’ kits requiring virtually no wiring. The new systems allow panels to be clipped onto the frames as using ‘easy fit’ bases which also double as the electrical contact points to relay the power down the line. These neat dual-purpose fittings will save time and make installation safer. Future PV solar power units will also not require large costly inverters fitted to the wall of home close to the meter board as is done with current systems. The new PV panels will have micro-inverters fitted to the back delivering 240V directly from the panel rather than the STD 24V format and then converting power at the inverter. This will also allow for simpler future expansion of the PV system.
