1/25/08 Energy Ideas

Bringing Energy Ideas to the Table. I'm Greg Martin as Line On Agriculture presents the Harvest Clean Energy Report. The Harvesting Clean Energy Conference runs Sunday through Tuesday in Portland and it will feature many of the industries top officials and include many sessions on all phases of clean energy. It also will help you to bring good energy ideas to fruition. Aaron Jones, President and General Manager of Golden State Power Cooperative says it's a good place to get good information and ideas. JONES: If they think in the terms of what's in it for them it would be the opportunity to meet various people who are in the energy industry and probably get some pretty good advice about how to go about assessing their potential energy projects on their farms and ranches and get it without spending a lot of money. While there aren't really what you would call bad energy projects, Jones says there are some that really aren't worth the time and money to pursue. JONES: There are  maybe not bad energy projects but a lot of ways to spend money that don't get you much production or much return in the end. The thing we've found over the last 10 years is that a lot of people believe they have good projects like wind or geothermal or solar and they try to get utilities or venture capitalists interested and find out over time that there's a lot more research needed. So you have an idea for an energy project on your farm or ranch, where do you start? JONES: Well depending on where you are located  if you are one of the fortunate people in the Northwest who is served by a rural electric coop or PUD or a small rural municipal system you can usually go to the office at the local electric coop or utility and get some pretty good advice. You've probably know the people to talk to because they live in your neighborhood, you see them and you know them. Jones says if you aren't in one of those areas you should probably start with your local county extension office. Another great resource available to everyone is the internet. JONES: There's amazing amounts of information available on websites today. That's probably the greatest repository of information and advice that a person could come to and depending on what kind of project you are looking at you could basically just Google that subject and you will get thousands of opportunities to read what other people have done, the science behind it and so on. Golden State is the statewide organization for electric coops in California. Jones will be at the upcoming conference to talk about creating your own energy projects. For additional information on clean energy or the Harvesting Clean Energy Conference in Portland, visit harvestcleanenergy.org. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network. www.harvestcleanenergy.org