Lexington, KY - The sixth annual Bluegrass Green Expo held over the weekend at the Lexington Center was one very busy event: launching a new green company in Lexington, offering nearly 40 seminars, featuring about 80 exhibitors and vendors, and providing entertainment for all.
Come along as I walk through the crowd and make stops along the way.
The magic of science produces our commercial electricity. Clamp a rotor mounted with magnets to a casing with coiled copper wire and spin that rotor: electricity. Tim Moeller held up pieces of an electrical generator as he explained its workings to a small crowd at the GreenExpo. Behind him was a wind turbine with blades four feet across. Rotors can be spun by the force of water, as in hydroelectric power generation at dams, by steam, as with coal burning power plants, or by wind, as with wind turbines. Moeller is a mechanical engineer with Prestowind ( www.prestowind.com ) of Cincinnati. He was at the Bluegrass Green Expo to help launch Bluegrass
WindPower ( www.bluegrasswindpower.com ), based in Lexington. Toni Kirkner, the owner of the new company, says that she realized the GreenExpo would be the best place to launch it. She sees the opportunity for urban and suburban homeowners, as well as rural dwellers, to start generating their own renewable energy. Her wind turbines come with varying blade spans, from three feet to 10 feet. Moeller developed the electrical generator, which Kirkner says outperforms others, delivering more electrical power from the wind.
At another display table, Solar Energy Solutions ( www.solar-energy-solutions.com ), another Lexington company, offered information about their products and services, certified by the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners. The company specializes in solar thermal and photo-voltaic installations. Matt Partymiller, a partner in the company, says that on the average day Kentucky gets four and a half hours of ideal sunlight. "We are getting more sunlight than numerous places that are investing heavily in solar, including Germany, New Jersey, Ohio, and New York," he said. "For the average Kentuckian it is the best source of renewable energy generation that is available."
Strolling along the aisles, one might have spotted Art Still, the UK Wildcat football champ who in 1977 was All-American with All-SEC honors. In 1999, he helped found a company in Liberty, Mo, that does environmental clean-ups. One of Kentucky's leading arborists, Dave Leonard, spoke with people at his booth. Kentucky architect and UK Professor Richard Levine had a large display featuring his sustainable building designs. The Kentucky Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council had a booth. Kentucky Utilities parent company, E.ON/U.S. had a booth. The Sierra Club and the Kentucky Environmental Foundation were present. Builders, engineers, energy efficiency experts and products, alternative energy companies, water purification systems, battery recycling, electronics recycling, various insulation products, health related services and products - all this gathered together and free to the public. Information abounded. The UK Cooperative Extension Service had a display with dozens of handouts covering a range of energy efficiency concerns for the homeowner. Morris Book Shop had a table with a wide-ranging selection of books on environmental matters.
Outside the exhibit hall, Berea songwriter and musician, Mitch Barrett, performed onstage, and across the way, in the kid's area, Bluegrass Pride and Lexington Children's Theater presented a skit about environmental awareness. Out in the entrance hall a three wheeled, electric, Zap mini-dump truck was on display. Artisans and artists showed their work. Local chefs demonstrated food preparation with local foods and offered sample tasting.
Outdoors, parked along the sidewalk was Dave Leonard's huge organic fertilizer delivery apparatus. Several fuel-efficient cars were there. James Gonyer of Sprocket Jockeys Pedicab, LLC stood by his bicycle-drawn open-air two-seater cab.
Back inside I wandered into a seminar room and listened to John Robbins
( www.johnfrobbins.com ), an energy consultant since 1983, who lives in northern Kentucky. He designs energy efficient homes and educates and advises clients in all matters pertaining to maximizing energy efficiency and working with renewable energy. He mentioned working on a home for a math professor at Berea College. No doubt, Robbins' dedication to crunching numbers to reach conclusions helped get him that job. His presentation was heavy in data, analyzing energy costs and calculating and estimating paybacks from investments in energy systems, but he emphasizes that it's actual measured performance that should ultimately rate the effectiveness of any energy strategy or technology employed. His emphasis is as much on reducing environmental impact, the carbon footprint, as it is on reducing costs. This was one of the forty free seminars that covered a wide range of environmental subjects.
The Bluegrass GreenExpo owes its existence to the leadership of Ben Perry, a staff that that manages all aspects of the event, about 100 volunteers, and the numerous sponsors and exhibitors. Perry says that LFUCG has been a tremendous support to the event. "At age 40 I declared a mid-life crisis," said Perry with a laugh. He left behind a successful entrepreneurial enterprise he had built with friends to follow his passion for study and work in environmentalism. In 2000 he enrolled in UK graduate school to study environmental systems, for which he got a certificate. He continues accruing credits toward a master's degree with studies in geography. In 2002, he became executive director of Appalachia - Science in the Public Interest (ASPI), a non-profit in Mt. Vernon. The Bluegrass GreenExpo started as a project that he directed while with the ASPI. It has since spun off and Perry left ASPI in 2006, continuing as the Event Coordinator. The GreenExpo is now under the auspices of Bluegrass Greenworks, Inc. ( www.bluegrassgreenworks.org ) Perry says that one change they are hoping to make for next year's exposition is to expand it to Friday for school groups to visit.