As you know, Georgie and I bought a Prius last spring, just ahead of my cross-country trip, and we still are very, very happy with our purchase. As a car, it is very effective:
* Better than 40 mph even in winter (when, apparently, the batteries aren't as effective)
* A fabulous turning radius that is easily its most unsung attribute; excellent electronics integration, both for charging multiple handhelds and for channeling both iPod and phone through the car's speakers.

A disclosure at this morning's solar energy session after I filed a previous post from there was that the Red Sox are about to start construction on a solar hot-water project.

According to Christina Halfpenny of National Grid, the team will be able to meet 37 percent of its water-heating load in a system that will take 16 years to pay for itself, after incentives.

It's 8:35 in the morning. The first session of the second day has begun, and the fellow from SEBANE, the Solar Energy Business Association of New England, is telling the gathering crowd some not-so-interesting market and industry perspectives. I'm sure it will get better, or I will have some time to write.

To start, he asked the crowd to show hands on questions about why they are here, and a large number appeared to be homeowners (as opposed to installers) committed to, but early in the process of, installing photovoltaics and/or solar hot water systems.

For the Building Energy show, I've branched out a little bit, sharing my posts with the boston.com and with the VCR (video/commentary/research) arm of CSR wire, a wire service that aggregates and distributes releases with corporate social responsibility content.

There is just an amazingly pervasive gloom at the show, not in feeling, but in expression of the problems the planet is facing.

This morning, Alex Wilson of BuildingGreen Inc., a founder and early supporter of NESEA, intended to give a speech that covered the "challenges" and then gave 10 categories of solutions, but then had to rush through the second half because the governor arrived. So he ended up spending more than 30 minutes, easily, on the many areas in which, it seems, we're just screwed, any minute.

Gov. Deval Patrick delighted an estimated 1,ooo people at this morning's opening session of Building Energy '08 by saying that he's forming a Zero Net Energy Buildings task force. He said he's asking the group to give him recommendations for construction practices in time for this conference next year and to have the specifications in force soon afterward.

I mentioned previously that Building Energy '08, a trade show and conference run by the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association, was coming up, and now it's here. The main event today was a two-hour open forum on energy efficiency and sustainability that was fascinating, inspiring, depressing, and annoying, in parts.

Far from Obama-Clinton, my dream pairing would be Obama and Al Gore.

I concede that there is infinitessimally little chance of this happening that it is sophomoric to expend even these next few electrons on it. But, hey, they're only electrons.

It would be pretty laughable if the folks behind this weekend’s Down 2 Earth consumer expo were driving Hummers to and from the show, leaving the lights on all night and the heat on all day at their palatial Boylston Street suites. But no, organizers say they’ve tried to practice what they’re presenting tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday at the Hynes Convention Center. Here’s some of what they’re doing:

Via Green Building Elements, I got to read this post by Dr Buzz0 (not "bozo," though close) at depletedcranium.com in which he addresses the top 10 things environmentalists need to understand. In his about-the-author section, he says he's very active in the skeptic and debunking community, which gives context for his post.