For showing significant progress in energy sustainability, the City of Oberlin and Oberlin College have received the Clean Energy Community of the Year award from Green Energy Ohio (GEO). Nathan Engstrom, sustainability coordinator for the College, will accept the award at the National SOLAR 2007 Conference Sunday, July 8 at the Cleveland Convention Center.

“We are thrilled to be named Clean Community of the Year by Green Energy
Ohio,” says Engstrom. “The partnership with the city on our purchase of green energy, the sustainable reserve fund, and the Wind Power Initiative are unique and innovative demonstrations of our commitment to sustainability.”

GEO—a nonprofit organization that promotes economically and environmentally sustainable energy policies and practices in Ohio—conducts public outreach on all forms of renewable energy and is the Ohio chapter of the American Solar Energy Society (ASES).

The organization is the local host of the four-day SOLAR 2007 Conference. Oberlin faculty members John Scofield, John Petersen, Tom Lopez, and Kathryn Janda are taking part in the event, which is the country’s largest and most prestigious annual gathering of sustainable energy professionals.

Scofield, who is professor of physics and astronomy, will present the results of his Oberlin Wind Power Initiative. Petersen, associate professor of environmental studies, will take part in a panel on the educational value of solar projects and give a talk on the College’s Adams Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies (AJLC).

Petersen will lead members of the ASES on a tour of Oberlin sustainability projects, including the AJLC and the Campus Resource Monitoring System, Full Circle Fuels, Sustainable Community Associates, the George Jones Farm, and the Oberlin Wind Power Initiative.

Lopez, associate professor of computer music and digital arts in the Oberlin Conservatory of
Music, and Janda, assistant professor of environmental studies, are participating in a conference forum on the aesthetics of energy. The forum is the culmination of an interdisciplinary course—Making Solar Music—taught last fall by Lopez and Janda, who will moderate the discussion. She also served on a technical committee coordinating the presentation of papers at the conference and will deliver a paper discussing her work on solar consumption.

The conference includes hands-on workshops, tours of renewable energy sites, consumer presentations, and a renewable products and services tradeshow.