Events

2013 Meriden Housing Authority Yale Acres Open House: “R.E.D is Green”

Meriden Housing Authority (MHA) and AEG hosted an open house of the Yale Acres Phase I project on May 17th, 2013. The event was put together to help residents and visitors of Yale Acres understand the “green” technologies used to retrofit the housing complex. Residents filled out surveys to give feedback on the project and many signed up to participate in the Monitoring and Verification portion of the project, e.g. moving into the units and reporting on energy use habits. As part of the open house, Connecticut-based muralist, JoAnn Moran, launched a “R.E.D is Green” art initiative, to produce community artworks that would allow children and families an opportunity to learn about, and then illustrate the various green technologies and concepts related to green living. Lamppost banners and canvas cubes, and mosaic benches were created which are now on display around Yale Acres. Photos of the artwork can be seen at the AEG Blog.

 
 
2010 Event in Pontiac, MI

AEG held its first event for Cities, Townships & Counties on August 10th, 2012 at the historic Crofoot Ballroom in Pontiac, MI. It was hosted by Oakland County and the City of Pontiac, and sponsored by a dozen MI businesses, with major sponsor support from PNC Bank and the Miller-Canfield law firm. The US Department of Energy (DOE) was also a co-sponsor.

Over 200 people attended, including many technology and service providers. But most importantly key representatives from 42 cities and counties in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana also attended: six mayors, eight city managers, eight facilities managers and ten economic development directors or their deputies.

Presentations were made by Hardin Geothermal (now Geothermal Innovations), on its proprietary technologies; Oakland County, on the county’s support for district geothermal programs; the DOE, on how to use its current and future financing mechanisms; and PNC Bank on how to use bonds and traditional financing for district-wide programs. In addition, New Century Career Center and Geo-Net Zero presented their plans to develop geothermal installation training programs.

 
 
AEG’s President, Jim Moran, handled the main presentation detailing programs to plan, develop, finance and implement district-wide geothermal programs, along with their advantages. An example was presented in an accompanying presentation by Jim French of Wyandotte Municipal Services (the non-profit electric company for Wyandotte, MI). Wyandotte had just recently begun its city-wide “geo-utility”. Mr. French discussed the practical applications of the planning, as well as the early problems that were confronted and solved.

A great deal of networking was done, before, during and after the event, and people stayed and discussed their situations until 6pm, long after the official 3pm close of the event. AEG made many new contacts that have resulted in programs of various sizes (the cities of Taylor and Pontiac, and several projects in Detroit). Many of the other service and technology providers also reported that they had made many productive introductions of their “wares”.