I teach classes on renewable energy and green building at The Evergreen Institute, my educational center in east-central Missouri. I also teach through other organizations and institutions such as the University of Colorado’s continuing education program.

One trend I’ve noticed in recent years is a dramatic increase in the number of students interested in pursuing a career in renewable energy or home energy efficiency. A few years ago, only one or two students in my classes would raise their hands indicating they wanted to pursue a career in renewable energy. Now, it’s half my class — sometimes more!

One of the questions students invariably ask me is “How do I get a job in the industry?” I’ll discuss this topic in this blog and a few follow ups.

My immediate answer to this question is “Get as much education as possible — with as much hands on experience as possible, too.”

That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to enroll in college. Many colleges and universities in fact, are only recently awakening to the fact that we need programs in renewable education — and are scrambling to set them up.

(Permit me a bit of soapbox time: It seems to me that colleges and universities, the bastions of forward thinking, are always the last to figure out important trends. As one who has taught at the college level for more than 30 years, it seems to me that administrators haven’t grasped the importance of environmental education or renewable energy until recently. Where have they been?  I know there are programs in environmental science and some in renewable energy, but they’re often fairly new and inadequately supported. Enough said.)

A far faster way to get up to speed is to sign up for courses on renewable energy at one of the main educational centers like ours of Solar Energy International (based in Carbondale, Colo. If you live in California, try the Solar Living Institute). In a few weeks time, spread out over six months to a year, you can get up to speed fairly quickly.

By all means, though, once you’ve completed the basic and intermediate-level courses, sign up for as many hands-on courses as possible. The theory and background material you’ll gain in “Intro to Solar Electricity,” even “Intermediate PV,” is great, and the knowledge you’ll accumulate will help immensely. But if you’re interested in working for a company that installs solar-electric or wind systems, you’ll need experience — as much as possible — to distinguish yourself from other candidates. Sign up for as many installation classes as possible. This will save your employer the cost and time required for on-the-job training.

That leads me to my second recommendation. If you are truly interested in landing a job in this field, get to it right away. You’re not alone.

As I noted earlier, there are a lot of people who have suddenly arrived at the conclusion that renewable energy is an idea whose time has come. So, get going on your course work now.

If there aren’t any classes right now, you can begin by reading. There are many good books on these topics, available through our bookstore (www.evergreeninstitute.org), your local bookstore and online.

In future blogs, I’ll discuss other tips on landing a job in the industry.

Later today the G-20 is expected to announce an agreement to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies.

There is no fixed date in the agreement for the phase out of fossil fuel subsidies but it is expected that such a move would greatly lower greenhouse gas emissions and curb global warming.

Reuters estimated that the annual worldwide spending on fossil fuel subsidies is around $300 billion.

Fuel subsidies for coal and oil help keep prices low for consumers, which drives up demand. As the U.S. saw a couple years ago, when gas prices soared fuel use decreased, resulting in less emissions.

The G-20 met in Pittsburgh this week to discuss global economic issues.

The elimination in fossil fuel subsidies is a small step in global climate and energy talks for President Barack Obama. In December the U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen will be much more substantial. The fact that the U.S. Senate might not vote on the energy and climate bill that passed the U.S. House by the December climate talks will likely affect President Obama’s ability to successfully negotiate with other countries on climate issues.

On the morning of Oct. 1, 2009, 20 student teams from universities across the United States and around the world will crowd onto the lawn of the National Mall in Washington, D.C. They will work around the clock for seven days, compete in 10 contests, and, on the ninth day, guide curious tourists and locals through the results of an endeavor the students have been living for the past two years.

It is the fourth, biyearly Solar Decathlon, hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy. Student teams apply and prepare at least two years in advance, meticulously constructing their solar-powered homes at their sponsoring universities, then disassembling them, transporting them to D.C. and reassembling them on the National Mall, where they will be judged in the following 10 categories: 

1. Architecture
2. Market Viability
3. Engineering
4. Lighting Design
5. Communications
6. Comfort Zone
7. Hot Water
8. Appliances
9. Home Entertainment
10. Net Metering 

In a recent webinar providing information about the upcoming event and requesting volunteers, Director Richard King shared his enthusiasm about the decathlon, and pointed out that the original motivation for the project was a need to integrate aesthetics with reliable technology. The DOE reached out to architectural universities to develop this possibility. The result is a temporary village consisting of beautiful, structurally sound, energy-efficient homes.  

But the vision doesn’t dim when the houses are disassembled on Oct. 21. King noted that the buildings are always placed in a permanent location after the competition, with many being housed on their sponsoring campuses as educational facilities. 

The University of Darmstadt, Germany took first place in 2007, with a deceptively box-like structure discovered to be enclosed with tri-fold, floor-to-ceiling doors. It was followed by the University of Maryland in second place, and Santa Clara University in third. 

This year, eight teams will return from 2007 and one from 2005. They will be joined by 11 new teams. We’ll be keeping you updated as the teams reach D.C., begin assembly and are judged on the overall quality of their solar-powered homes.

Pictured above: The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 2007 Solar Decathlon house. Photo by DOE/NREL/JIM TETRO

Escape from Berkeley II has a schedule, at last! Hopefully we can say it’s a last schedule. To quote the Escape from Berkeley website, “...while not final, our fairly firm dates are April 24 to 27, 2010.”

This time, we'll be racing to the Mexican border. Whoops, I mean rallying to Mexico — it's not a race, it's a rally. Hopefully for this rally, we'll be even closer to our goal of 100 mpg, if not already there.

There have been a number of date changes since the event was announced a year ago. I don't know how impulsive the organizers were being when they announced there would be a second Escape from Berkeley event, but the success of the first event probably was a determining factor.

Success? I'll say. For those of you just tuning in, the self-explanatory competition known as “Escape from Berkeley (by any non-petroleum means necessary)” involves getting from Berkeley, Calif., to somewhere far away, using only renewable fuels. To keep it from being too easy, you can't buy your fuel, no matter what it is. Instead of exercising your Visa card, you have to scrounge, forage and connive your way to the finish line. And this isn't some science fair contest with laps around a track under controlled conditions; it's for street-legal vehicles on real roads, in whatever conditions mother nature dishes out. Anyway, the premier event ran us from Berkeley to Las Vegas, and it couldn't have been more successful for us 'cause MAX won it! (See MAX Wins 800-mile Race, without Gas.)

We didn't stomp the competition, and the event wouldn't have been exciting if we had. The Green Machine, a truck powered by a wood gasifier, gave MAX quite a run for its money. The lead changed hands between us a couple times and it could’ve been a photo finish if they hadn't blown a tire on the last night of the three-day race. It proved there's more than one way to skin a non-petroleum cat.

But then again, MAX and the Green Machine, powered by two quite different alternative fuel technologies, did run away from the rest of the field. The pack wasn't biting at our heels because the pack wasn't quite ready. Man, there were some imaginative machines at the starting line. But as is tradition in the innovation biz, the finishing touches take longer than expected. Now, given the time to prepare for the sequel event, the organizers expect to see a lot of entrants not only ready to roll, but ready to win.

We won't know for sure until April, but Escape from Berkeley II could be quite the battle between the Smokers and the Greasers, as in gasifier technology versus waste cooking oil. Gosh, by the 10th Escape from Berkeley (we'll probably be escaping to Bangor, Maine, by then) it could be a rivalry like Ford vs. Chevy in the early days of NASCAR.

Browse previous MAX Updates.

Check out the 100-mpg Car page for all things MAX.

How long has it been since you last checked the real-world gas mileage of your car? Have you ever done it?

It can be all too easy to assume your car gets 30-something mpg — or whatever the sticker said when you bought the car — and never realize that its actual gas mileage has declined over the years and now is far off what you expect. But it's important to keep tabs on your car or truck's mpg.

First and foremost, "knowing is half the battle," as they used to say in the old G.I. Joe cartoon PSAs from my childhood. In other words, the first step to increasing your car's gas mileage (and saving money) is to know what it actually gets. Also, unless you're lucky enough to have a real-time mpg display in your car, there's no better way to better understand how driving habits influence gas mileage than to check the numbers. As in, on this tank I ran the air conditioning more than usual (you would see the mpg decline), or on this tank I drove the speed limit to work rather than speeding to make up lost time (you would see improved mpg). Last but not least, regularly checking your vehicle's mpg can spot maintenance issues before they become leave-you-stranded and wicked-expensive problems.

If you're a gas mileage geek like me, you'll calculate your car's mpg after every fill up. But even just checking mpg once a month or so will give you real numbers that will make it easy to adjust your driving habits so you save gas and money. Think of it as a personal challenge and you'll find it easier to get excited about the math — can you beat last month's personal best of 36 mpg? Can you beat the official EPA fuel economy estimate for your car?

And, to top it all off, you'll probably be surprised how easy it is to calculate gas mileage. Even a mathematically disinclined journalist like myself can do it. All it takes are two numbers and simple division. How to Calculate Gas Mileage will walk you through the steps.

For what it's worth, here's my system. I write down the number of miles on my trip meter on the credit card receipt from the gas station, which lists the number of gallons I bought. I also write down the car's overall mileage, just to help me track the car's mpg over time. I then plug all those numbers into a super-simple Excel spreadsheet, which does the simple division for me and automatically fills in the mpg for each tank. I can then track the car's mpg over time and see how it changes with the seasons, my driving habits, as I put off maintenance, after I got new tires, etc.

So, do you ever check your gas mileage? If so, how do you do it? If not, why not? Share your two cents by posting a comment below.

I like solar calculators, and this is an interesting one to explore.

The PV Watts1 calculator from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is a simple solar calculator that can help you figure out how much electricity you can generate with a PV system at many locations around the world. (Disclaimer here.)

When you use the calculator, it gives you a measurement of solar radiation in kilowatt-hours per square meter, which is also known as peak sun hours. (Here’s a very detailed explanation of that concept from the U.S. Department of Energy.)  

I used the calculator to compare peak sun hours and kWh of electricity generated for several different locations. You should know that I used all the default settings on the calculator, so the measurements below assume a 4 kilowatt PV system and a fixed tilt, south-facing PV array.

OK, here we go!

• According to this calculator, here in Topeka, Kan., we get an average of 4.95 peak sun hours per day. Over the course of a year that would add up to 5,238 kWh a year, which is worth $403.33 at local electricity prices.

• How about a sunnier location? Well, it looks like Albuquerque, N.M., has 6.48 peak sun hours per day, which produces 6,726 kWh a year for a value of $585.16 in electricity. 

• Or, for less sun, we could look at the Northwest. Famously rainy Seattle, Wash., gets 3.76 peak sun hours a day for 3,879 kWh a year, and $248.26 worth of electricity.

• What about outside the United States? Stockholm, Sweden gets 2.98 peak sun hours a day, and generated 3102 kWh a year. Cairo, Egypt gets 5.66 peak sun hours, and generates 5727 kWh a year.

You can take a look at your location and see how it compares. There’s also a PV Watts 2 calculator, which is more complicated to use, but will allow you to select any location in the United States.

Pictured Above: A PV array in Manchester, Wash., near Seattle. Photo by DOE/NREL/JOHN GROBLER

Congress has returned from summer vacation with much of the news coverage focusing on health care reform, but does anyone remember the clean energy and climate bill?

Shortly before the summer recess the Waxman-Markey bill, the largest and most progressive energy bill, passed the House of Representatives. The Senate has not passed, or even completed drafting its own version.

Politico reported that Senators are fighting about which committee will draft the legislation. Chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, Sen. Barbara Boxer of California believes her committee should have control over the legislation, while Sen. Max Baucus of Montana and Finance Committee Chairman believes his committee should draft the legislation. A quick turnaround of a Senate climate bill after the month-long recess is looking less and less likely.

Meanwhile the environmental advocacy group, Repower America has sent out action-response letters telling their members to send this letter to their Senators urging the them to support a comprehensive clean energy and climate bill within the year. Compromise and cooperation must ensue for the clean energy and climate bill to pass both chambers.

I just ran across this interesting video about straw bale building posted over on Lloyd Kahn’s blog. It’s about the Builders without Borders Straw Bale Eco-house, which was constructed and exhibited in Washington, D.C., during the summer of 2008.

The video shows many of the steps involved in the construction of this load-bearing straw bale house, including how they deal with the problem of too much moisture in the straw. Straw bale building enthusiasts and regular Mother Earth News readers may see a few familiar names, too. The members of the building team include Catherine Wanek and Bill and Athena Steen. Take a look!

Lots of the Auto X Prize design guidelines are worth continuing to follow as we develop our 100-mpg DIY car. If you scroll back to Update No. 19: A Roof Over our Heads, you'll see our first shot at compliance with the Auto X Prize’s no-roadsters rule. And if you scroll ahead a couple of posts from there, you'll find Update No. 21: New Motivation for an Enclosed Cabin, which pretty well speaks for itself.

I've driven a couple thousand miles with that “bikini top” and it's excellent for sun protection and decent for ordinary rain protection, but in serious rain, snow or slush storms, it's no great shakes. It didn't help streamlining either. The bikini top had five of the eight features we want in a top (it was cheap, it was light, it was simple, it was reliable, and it looked kinda cool), but it missed out on two biggies — weather protection and drag reduction, and it only gets a C- in the easy entry category.

I'm confident we can do better, and when I say “we”, I'm including you! If you'll go to the Kinetic Vehicles website and scroll down to the bottom of the page (look for “August 2009” subhead), you'll find some computer generated pix (side, front, top and rear) of the streamlined, aerodynamic body we're currently constructing, with front roll bar and split windshield added in. You have my enthusiastic permission to download those images and doodle up your own cabin ideas.

If you come up with something you think is worth sharing, follow the instructions on the Contact Us page to let me know. I'll write you back and we'll work out a way to transfer it. Use “MAX cabin kv” as your subject when you e-mail me. If you're a Rhino user (our software of choice for 3D imaging and CAM), let me know and I'll send you a Rhino file of MAX to work with. All I ask is you please don't send me any attachments — our system rejects anything with an unexpected attachment and I'll never see it. Actually, I'd rather not get any spam either, but I'm willing to risk it in the pursuit of a better roof.

Browse previous MAX Updates.

Check out the 100-mpg Car page for all things MAX.

Many of our readers are interested in renewable energy, and for some of you there’s a simple and easy way to get your electricity from renewable sources — many utilities offer a green power option.

If you’re looking for more information on green power in the United States, the U.S. Department of Energy has some helpful information about green power programs, including a map and chart showing where they’re offered.

We’d like to hear more about your experiences with green power. Is it available where you live? How does the price compare to what you would otherwise pay for electricity? Why have you — or haven’t you — chosen this option? You can share your thoughts by posting a comment below.

Photo by Istockphoto/Nicholas Homrich