The Clean Cities Hall of Fame recognizes outstanding contributions to the Clean Cities mission of reducing petroleum use in U.S. transportation. Inductees are ambassadors for alternative fuels and champions for fuel economy. Their exemplary dedication and leadership are paving the way for a new transportation future.
Kentucky Clean Fuels Coalition Executive Director Melissa Howell was inducted in 2011, the Hall of Fame's inaugural year.
Melissa Howell is a cornerstone of Clean Cities. She has been with the program since its beginning in 1993, when she helped found Kentucky's Commonwealth Clean Cities Partnership. Ever the consummate professional, Howell's dedication to reducing petroleum use in transportation has weathered all manner of political and economic conditions. Howell is known for her persistence in inspiring fleets to action, and she brought several high-profile stakeholders to the alternative-fuel table, including Mammoth Cave National Park, Fort Knox military base, UPS, and the World Equestrian Games. And thanks to Howell's leadership, thousands of children across the state of Kentucky ride to school on hybrid electric and biodiesel buses.
Howell is the original Clean Cities mentor, having coached new coordinators to success long before a formal mentorship program was established. She is always willing to share her vast experience and knowledge with other coalitions to reinvigorate stalled projects and instill confidence in rising leaders. Howell's impressive body of work with Clean Cities makes her the example other coordinators seek to follow.
In 2008, Howell was named Clean Cities Coordinator of the Year, and in 2005, she received the Southeast Region Award.
See all of the Clean Cities Hall of Fame inductees - http://www1.eere.energy.gov/cleancities/hall_of_fame.html
The Pioneer Fleets of the Green Fleets of the Bluegrass Program were announced December 7 at the KCFC Winter Meeting. Each are working to improve the environmental performance of their vehicle fleets by reducing petroleum fuel use:
Clean Energy will be building a public LNG/CNG refueling site in Walton, Ky. (Flying J's) as part of America’s Natural Gas Highway. They expect to complete the project this summer. The station will feature the latest state-of-the-art technology for natural gas vehicle fueling. They will initially deploy LNG at the station to service big rig heavy-duty trucks. They may add CNG to the station at any time when needed by the market.
Everyone knows it's important to cook healthy meals from scratch, but sometimes it's tough. You've got to plan ahead. You have to shop for the right ingredients. You have to find the time to cook.
We are now accepting reservations for our Locavore Valentine’s Day Dinner Prix FixeThree Course Meal. This sit down meal, w/full table service, will highlight sustainable foods from our local foodshed. This special harvest dinner is priced at $49.50 per person. You can add a local beer course pairing for $10.1st Seating: 5:30-7:00PM
Cool Earth Solar CEO Rob Lamkin, left, and the former vice president of Sandia's California site, Rick Stulen, stand in front of one of the company’s inflated, concentrated photovoltaic units located at the Livermore Valley Open Campus (LVOC). A new research agreement between the two organizations aims to make solar energy more affordable and accessible and demonstrates how the LVOC can foster new lab collaborations. (Photo by Randy Wong.) Click on the thumbnail for a high-resolution image.The five-year Cooperative Research & Development Agreement (CRADA) calls for researchers with Sandia’s New Mexico solar energy program to help pilot, characterize and validate Cool Earth Solar’s inflated, concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) technology. The Livermore-based company’s equipment will be located on a five-acre site known as the Clean Energy Demonstration Field on the LVOC.One of Cool Earth Solar’s units already has been set up, with dozens more planned over the next five years. The unit is connected to Sandia’s power grid, and up to 500 kilowatts of solar power could be provided to the labs by 2018.“Sandia’s partnership with Cool Earth Solar shows that the labs are looking for new ways of doing business and collaborating with external entities,” said Andy McIlroy, Sandia’s senior manager for LVOC development efforts. “It demonstrates that we’re open to win-win opportunities that meet our national security mission and, at the same time, help our partners to move forward with technology that makes the world a better place.”The LVOC is a 110-acre parcel that spans the eastern sides of Sandia’s California site and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). Historically, both labs have been closed and self-contained, making some external alliances difficult due to administrative and security challenges. The LVOC was established in 2011 as a space for open, collaborative work in such fields as bioscience, cybersecurity, detection technologies and energy applications.Fewer, less expensive materials equal more affordable solar power“This agreement with Sandia and the Department of Energy represents the ‘coming out,’ the first-ever public deployment of our technology,” said Rob Lamkin, CEO of Cool Earth Solar. “We are pleased to be pioneers of both our unique solar technology as well as the Open Campus concept.”High costs have hindered efforts to make large-scale solar a viable energy option. Cool Earth Solar’s approach, Lamkin said, has been to use inexpensive, thin-film plastic as the core material for its equipment. “For our equipment to capture the same amount of solar energy as more traditional solar equipment, we use less than half the materials in terms of weight and mass,” Lamkin said. “Then, when you factor in the fact that the little material we do use is a whole lot cheaper, that’s how we drive down the cost.”Cool Earth Solar’s out-of-the-box approach is exciting and has the potential to meet the DOE’sSunShot program goal of grid parity by 2020, said Charles Hanley, manager of Sandia’s solar program in Albuquerque. The SunShot initiative seeks to make solar energy cost-competitive with other forms of electricity by the end of the decade.“One of the primary goals of Sandia’s energy program and our solar portfolio in particular is to help accelerate technology development for the private sector,” Hanley said. “Cool Earth Solar’s installation at Sandia’s Clean Energy Demonstration Field is a great example of how our partnerships with the private sector support DOE’s SunShot goals.”“Sandia’s CRADA with Cool Earth Solar is an example of how we’re supporting the U.S. solar industry to develop new technologies that will meet our SunShot targets,” added Kevin Lynn, DOE’s team lead for systems integration efforts in the SunShot Initiative.Proximity, mission goals make partnership a naturalThough both organizations agreed that establishing a new business arrangement as part of the LVOC initiative was a challenge, Sandia and Cool Earth Solar were up to the task.“Working with a start-up company like Cool Earth Solar has been fun and energizing,” McIlroy said. “There is a lot of verve and vitality to be found at Cool Earth Solar, and that creates a strong sense that they’re doing something important and exciting.”“For some time now, we had hoped to find a national laboratory partner to give us a different technical perspective on our technology, help improve it and drive it toward commercialization with us,” Lamkin said. Sandia made perfect sense, he said, since the labs possess decades of solar expertise and maintain a Livermore site less than three miles from Cool Earth Solar’s offices. Lamkin credited former Sandia/California Vice President Rick Stulen for championing the partnership and shepherding it to fruition.In addition to the Sandia /LVOC deployment, Cool Earth Solar is developing commercial sites for the future deployment of its technology in northern California and Texas. “We’ve spent years developing the technology, so now it’s time to deploy it and invite the public to come see it,” said Lamkin.As for Sandia, McIlroy said the Cool Earth Solar deployment on the LVOC signifies the first of what he hopes will be other industry partners on the Open Campus.“We very much want to reach a wider community of partners on the LVOC, including academic, industrial and other laboratory collaborators,” he said. “What I hope people see in the Cool Earth Solar demonstration project is that the labs are serious about exploring new ways of doing business, particularly with small businesses and start-ups that are such a strong part of the Bay Area’s culture and economic engine.”