A longer story starts below the fold on the front page of the Lancaster Farmer: I-Can Optimism More on iCans here and here.  

Commentary by:  Jock Gill   How are we going to reduce Vermont’s carbon footprint and at the same time protect Vermont’s agricultural heritage and family farms, create local jobs, and stimulate small business formation?  Is utility-scale wind part of the solution? I would suggest the answer is no. For a number of reasons, utility-scale turbines are [...]

On the path to a Carbon Negative Future – Marissa, a newly minted 2canologist at Shelburne Farms, has just lit about 4 pounds of softwood pellets in the TLUD [Top Lit Up Draft] stove she has just built. In about 75 minutes, this will turn into about 1 pound of biochar suitable for experimenting with. [...]

History teaches us that, in New England at least, by the 1830s demand for biomass, primarily wood, had completely outstripped supply. By the end of the civil war, New England was essentially clear cut. Finding new forests to the West, as well as the transition to fossil fuels, allowed us to avoid confronting the obvious [...]

Towards a Distributed, Peer-to-Peer, Near Zero Net Energy Strategy With today’s materials, tools, and crafts we can build houses in Vermont, and the rest of the North East, that do not need central heating systems. Should we encourage the building of such housing? There is no longer any excuse for building a house with a [...]

KWB-micro-CHP, originally uploaded by Jock Gill. Wood pellet powered Stirling engine micro-CHP is now a commercial product in Europe! This very strategic product is made by KWB of Austria, who currently refuse to sell into the North American market. Prof. Jerry Cherney of Cornell University learned of this product last week and shared it with [...]

South late sun , Thanks for looking, Jock