Last summer, 11,000 people flocked to rural Kempton in Berks County for the Pennsylvania Renewable Energy and Sustainable Living Festival. Since then, green has gone mainstream with an influx of local, state and federal incentives available for PA residents, and Bill Hennessy, executive director for the Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Association (MAREA), is preparing for even more attendees for this year’s festival on Sept. 18-20. The fifth annual festival has more workshops, more exhibitors and a touch of “Woodstock,” with a full lineup of musical acts on a solar-powered sound stage.
Keystone Edge: How did the organization and festival come about?
Bill Hennessy: It was nothing original on our part. There was a group in Wisconsin that’s been doing this for 20 years, and we’ve been out there for their renewable energy fest and liked what they were doing and wanted to get it going in the Mid-Atlantic area. We did it because we felt there needed to be more education on environmental issues and renewable energy. You have to start somewhere. Seeing it on TV isn’t the same as seeing it in person. We’re a non-profit educational group that started in 2005 by putting on our first festival. Now we’re trying to reach more people, we set up a separate website and published our first book on residential solar installation. We’re holding workshops at colleges to get students involved. We’re trying to reach more people and keep getting the word out.
KE: Are you at all surprised how the green movement has picked up in the last 12 months?
BH: I’m surprised and pleased PA came out with such a generous rebate program for installing renewable energy. That’s been nice, and it’s one of the better programs in the nation. The other part that’s surprising is how slow everything is changing. Solar is still a tiny fraction of what we’re doing. There’s a lot more to do. If we look at it in terms of climate change and how unpredictable that can be, we have to be working a little faster.
KE: What can people expect at this year’s festival?
BH: We have a real good program, some really good speakers, a lot more exhibitors involving solar energy, and we have environmentalist and saxophonist Paul Winter headlining the entertainment Saturday night. We’ve got more music than usual because we had some local groups that wanted to participate, but we also have more than 100 talks on renewable energy and sustainable living and 160 exhibitors. It’s really a place to go where you can get a lot of info and hopefully get some good food and listen to good music. We doubled our parking area and we’re ready for a big crowd.
KE: MAREA recently published the Pennsylvania Homeowner’s Guide to Solar Electricity, written by director for local power, Dr. Vera Cole. What’s the story behind the book?
BH: We started realizing there are a lot of questions from people about investing a big chunk of their money into solar electric. Information is out there but we wanted to put it together in a concise form. It’s available on our website and on Amazon. We’ve tied it into our website so you can get a lot more info there and we keep the book up to date there.
It’s probably one of the more ecologically printed books in history. It was 100 percent designed, produced and printed in PA, we used 100 percent post-consumer waste for paper and borine-free processing. The cover paper came from a company using wind energy and the book’s pages were made by energy powered by biogas. We worked really hard to make the book a reflection of what we’re doing, and as a non-profit, we’re not promoting a specific technology or company. We’re looking at a second book on commercial solar electric and also one on solar hot water.
KE: What is MAREA working on for the future?
BH: We’re looking to set up an education center where we can hold classes on a regular basis. There are models for that in California, Colorado and Wisconsin. We’d like to expand to up to 150 workshops a year. There’s a lot of interest in our workshops and we’re really trying to meet that. If people have any interest in sustainable energy, the festival is the place to go.
