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| Our Mission |
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The Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Association (MAREA) is a nonprofit organization, dedicated to informing and educating the public on renewable energy production, energy efficiency, and sustainable living through meetings, workshops, educational materials, and energy fairs.
Your membership makes these activities possible. If you can help, please [Join MAREA]. The support is greatly appreciated and your dollars are used carefully. |
MAREA Board Member Don Bucci talks about the benefits of a solar hot water system.
(Reading Eagle 2/10/2013)
Several decades ago, Don Bucci began heating domestic hot water at home using solar energy and still cherishes that original setup's benefits today. [READ THE FULL STORY] |
MAREA President Vera Cole on electricity conservation (Allentown Morning Call (12/16/12)
The impulse to save electricity may have its roots in an environmentalist ethic, or it may stem from a simple urge to save money. [READ THE FULL STORY] |
MAREA board member Anna Digate talks about recycling (Reading Eagle 12/17/12)
With gift-giving holidays approaching, wrapping paper and décor deserve a chance to be looked at in a greener way.
[READ THE FULL STORY] |
Court Affirms Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Association’s Right to Know,
Orders DEP to Release Solar Data
September 18, 2012, Kutztown, PA A renewable energy organization's request for access to information regarding solar installations receiving rebates from the $100 million state [Sunshine Program] was recently upheld by the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania. [READ THE FULL RELEASE] |
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MAREA Community Project |
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To help reduce monthly expenses for Opportunity House, a multi-service organization improving the quality of life for children, families and adults who face various obstacles to independent living in the Reading area, MAREA has spearheaded a project to install a solar hot water system on their main building. |
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[READ MORE ABOUT THE PROJECT] |
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| Upcoming Tuesday Night Topics |
7:00 p.m. Tuesday, June 25, 2013
"Backyard Chicken Chat (Warning: Fowl Language" |
Have chickens? Thinking of getting chickens? Join us for an evening of informative Backyard Chicken Chat. Backyard chickens provide a steady supply of fresh eggs to feel so good about—far from industrial farming, your chickens are treated kindly and fed well, the eggs are flavorful and nutritious, and it’s hard to get more local than your own backyard. But the benefits to our health and the environment and the pleasures of chicken keeping don’t stop there.
Chickens gobble up table scraps, vegetable trimmings and will scratch through all kind of yard waste, turning it everything into eggs or compost! They eat insect pests, ticks, mosquitos and slugs. Keeping chickens can be fairly simple, but if you’re a tinkerer, chickens can provide endless “opportunities” for invention (coops, chicken tractors, nesting boxes, perches) that are creative and artful (or not!).
There are many different breeds, each with their own characteristics and personality. (And the egg colors—white, brown, sure, but also blue, green, speckled!) Chickens are born entertainers, with curious and ancient ways--luxuriating in a dust bath, scratching for treasure, coming home to roost, interacting with one another, and with you. A family I know calls it “Chicken TV,” sitting on the porch for hours each evening watching the chickens scratch and flutter about in the front yard. Chickens live in the moment. They remind us, young and old, of the cycle of life and the miracle of it all.
We hope you can join us for an evening of Backyard Chicken Chat, on Tuesday June 25 with Andy Dohner from the [Rodale Institute]. He’ll provide information and tips helpful to those who already have a backyard flock and those who are considering the idea, including how to start with new chicks, housing (coop) requirements, and how to tend and care for your hens. Bring your questions, ideas and experience.
If you have pictures of your chickens or setup you’d like to share, email them in advance to [veracole@comcast.net] or bring prints or thumb drive to meeting. We’ll show them after the meeting.
Here are some sites you may find of interest or helpful: [Preparing for Chicks (Andy Dohner)], [McMurray Hatchery], [BackYard Chickens]
After the meeting, plan to stick around and chat with friends old and new. We're also interested in your ideas for MAREA speakers, activities and services. Light snacks will be served. Hope to see you there!
Hope to see you there!
For questions, contact Vera Cole, 215-258-0526 or veracole@comcast.net. |
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7:00 p.m. Tuesday, June 25, 2013
"Backyard Chickens" - More info coming soon
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7:00 p.m. Tuesday, July 30, 2013
"Distributed Generation" Premier of MAREA's first movie!
"AC Coupling" with Bill Hennessy & Bruce Hankins - More info coming soon
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7:00 p.m. Tuesday, August 27, 2013
"Anything with a Cord!" Electronic Waste Recycling - More info coming soon
Dave Peterson, of ECOvanta
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| Information Available From Previous Talks |
April 30, 2013 - Dr. Michael Mann
Nobel Prize contributor, author [The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars]
We had a full house for Dr. Michael Mann's terrific talk and book signing on Tuesday, April 30. He has shared his presentation with us. It, along with other resources, can be accessed through the links below.
[Download the Powerpoint Presentation] 40MB
[TED Talk]
[RealClimate.org]
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Reports [IPCC]
Channel 69 news account of the evening and presentation, by Randy Kraft, “Dr. Michael Mann warns global warming will create a fundamentally different planet”
[69 NEWS] |
March 26 , 2013 - "Homesweet Homegrown: How to Grow, Make and Store Food,
No Matter Where You Live" |
| A resident of Kutztown, Robyn Jasko is a knowledgeable and fun local-foods activist, community garden starter, author and entrepreneur. In 2009, she cofounded [goindie.com], an organization and website that supports sustainable lifestyles, homesteading, eating well, and living local. Check out [her blog] on the site and you’ll see headlines like “save the kales”, a review of “diy-craftyness” in the Kutztown area, and an interview with founder of Victory Garden for Tomorrow. |
| Feb. 26, 2013 - "A Little Light Conversation" (Bulbs, Dimmers and Solar LEDs)" |
| Phil Jones of [EMS Environmental] provided a brief historical perspective to put current lighting technology in context and then walked us through lamp technologies (incandescent, fluorescent, CFLs, halogen and LEDs) and their pros and cons. [DOWNLOAD THE PRESENTATION] |
Jason Jennings, Chris Salvestrini and Amy Miller of [Lutron] presented benefits of lighting control, including why dim?, methods of lighting control, lighting control challenges and applications of lighting control. [DOWNLOAD THE PRESENTATION] |
Don Brown, of Illuminations Inc., present a case study (with good pictures!) of a project recently completed at Kutztown University that uses solar LED lighting for a remote commuter parking lot.
[DOWNLOAD THE PRESENTATION] |
January 29, 2013 - Ann Saurman of Recycling & Solid Waste for the City of Allentown
Ann Saurman, Manager of the award-winning Bureau of Recycling & Solid Waste for the City of Allentown, gave an excellent and well-attended talk. Thanks Ann, we loved it! During her talk, Ann also mentioned a few very useful links and she kindly offered to let us make her presentation available. All are below — |
| [Earth911.com] – Just enter your location to find where and how to recycle near you, works great! |
| [Pennsylvania Recycling Markets Center] – works to develop and expand recycling markets in Pennsylvania, site is packed with terrific resources |
"Trash Talking" - Allentown’s "exemplary efforts" in recycling
[DOWNLOAD THE PRESENTATION] |
Thanks to our students for excellent presentations at the November meeting!
Many of you expressed interest in copies of their. Please see links below. |
Rowan University, Kassandra Grimes and Andrea McFarland
Algae-Derived Biofuels: Comparative Algal Yield of Autotrophic, Heterotrophic, and Mixotrophic Growth Conditions - Download: [Presentation] [Research Paper] |
Temple University, Judith Norkin
Making “Locally Grown” a Year-Round Reality: How a Hydroponic Greenhouse in Lower Makefield, PA, Reduces Food Miles and May Potentially Alter the US Food Supply Chain
Download: [Research Paper] |
For questions, contact Vera Cole, 215-258-0526 or veracole@comcast.net. |
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MAREA Educational Programs
MAREA is planning a series of two-hour workshops on possible topics that include, so far, solar electric design, solar hot water design, structural engineering for solar electric mounting systems, thermodynamics, commissioning solar electric systems, solar oven cooking, reducing electrical use in the home, all about RECs, considerations for commercial solar electricity installations, solar electricity for homeowners and wire crimping for solar installations. Whew! Let us know topics you would like covered and if there's a topic you, or someone you know, would like to instruct. Dates, locations and times will be announced soon. We expect them to be on Saturday mornings with a fee of around $45 for members. We're also nailing down plans for the next solar electric installation workshops. We'll send details as soon as they're available.
With ideas or questions, please contact Bill Hennessy, 484-560-4666, bill@berkssolar.com. |
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Higher Learning:
Rooftop Solar Workshop
From as far as Staten Island, NY to York, PA, participants in MAREA’s most recent Solar Installation Workshop sweated and smiled through four vigorous days of cooperative work and learning. This installation took place on a residential rooftop in Kutztown, PA at the home of Gene and Vivian Mosca.
[FOR MORE INFO AND PICS] |
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