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Green technology a 'new avenue to wealth' [The Sun, Lowell, Mass.](Sun (Lowell, MA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) May 29--LOWELL -- Eddie Mercado grew aware of how recycling can help reduce fossil-fuel use while collecting one empty bottle at a time for the United Teen Equality Center's recycling program. He then learned the 30-kilowatt photovoltaic system to be installed on the center's future addition on Hurd Street will generate 90 percent of electricity needed. Now, the Lowell High School senior hopes to learn how to install a panel himself once Nexamp, an Andover-based renewable-energy company, sets up an apprenticeship program with the center. "We are going to need people like Eddie," with hands-on training if the green industry continues to expand, said Scott McClintock, Nexamp's director of sales. Green technologies create jobs, UTEC Executive Director Gregg Croteau said as people participating in the Lowell Green Jobs Day gathered around him. "It's a new avenue to wealth," Croteau said. Community members came together yesterday to drum up support for the so-called green industry. Political organization Moveon.org, which hosted the event, is holding similar gatherings across the country to push for a Congressional energy policy bill, according to Steve Fink, a Moveon member from Andover who coordinated yesterday's event. Legislation would require states to have 25 percent of electricity supplied from renewable-energy sources within the next 15 years. Yesterday's event was held at the Townsend Avenue home, which is equipped with solar panels, of Robert Gagnon. Attendees included Mayor Edward "Bud" Caulfield; Solid Waste and Recycling Coordinator Gunther Wellenstein; state Rep. Tom Golden of Lowell; Amy Greenwood, a representative from U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas' office; and members of the Andover/North Andover chapter of the League of Woman Voters. The evacuated tubes and flat-panel thermal collectors installed on Gagnon's deck heat water that circulates his house for radiant heating. Because radiant heating does not require boiling-hot water, the system works in winter, said Gagnon, a certified master plumber. "I haven't run the boiler in four years," Gagnon said. Gagnon also runs well water through the same system during the summer to cool his house, making it unnecessary to use air conditioners. He feeds the water into the sprinkler system in his yard. Gagnon said showing people that such technologies actually work, as well as training young people for those technologies, are the first steps toward green-energy revolution. "This about businesses and the community," added Fink. "It's great to see everybody working together." |