Most of us are familiar with many energy-efficient measures we can take with our computers, peripherals, gadgets, and consumer electronics. But did you know that the screensaver you may be running on your monitor actually increases the CO2 emissions? Green Daily reports that a large Australian company has recently takes steps to reduce their CO2 emisions by removing screensavers from their office computers. So, now you know!

Filed under: Energy Efficiency

Florida Power & Light (FPL) is asking Martin County commissioners to approve a 75-megawatt solar-thermal project. If approved, this will be the first solar project of this size in Florida and the largest solar-power plant outside California. The project calls for 500 acres and will generate enough electricity to power up to 11,000 homes.

Filed under: Energy Efficiency

A few months ago I signed up for the first in a series of Florida Solar Energy Center’s Energy Gauge Rater classes. I am excited about becoming a rater so that I can know how to measure the benefits of energy-efficient improvements.   There are a series of three classes:

• Class 3 raters can rate new buildings
• Class 2 raters can rate new and existing buildings using audit data
• Class 1 raters can also do actual field performance tests

Registering for the first class, Class 3 (a prerequisite of class 2, as class 2 is of class 1) is easy, they have plenty of seats.   But being able to only rate new buildings is too limited.   The other two classes are much harder to get into – smaller classes with more individualized instruction.  I thought I was going to have to wait until December to take Class 2.  But I’ve been checking daily and was thrilled to see a seat open up today for the June class. YAY!!!

Filed under: Energy Efficiency