Green Grid Radio

Engaging and transformative reporting on the environment, energy, and sustainability

Monthly Archives: April 2013


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S3E3: Stanford Energy Week – Live from White Plaza!

S3E3: Stanford Energy Week - Live from White Plaza!GGR Producers Adam Pearson, Erik Olesund and guests Debra Dunn, Sarah Triolo (photograph by Diane Wu).

As Earth Day approaches on the Stanford campus, Green Grid Radio and other environmentally-minded affiliates on campus are reaching out to the broader Stanford community for engagement. Wednesday in White Plaza featured Green Grid Radio broadcasting live during the Stanford Energy Club’s Energy Showcase event. With technical assistance from producer Diane Wu and KZSU engineer Mark Lawrence, Green Grid Radio brought a solar-powered (literally– see our photo below!) episode with an appropriate lunch-time focus on food systems.

S3E3: Stanford Energy Week - Live from White Plaza!Solar-powered radio (photograph by Diane Wu).

We had a great, lengthy discussion with our guests this week, Ms. Debra Dunn and Sarah Triolo. Sarah recommended this supplemental reading from the New York Times on some of the “nasty things happening in our food system” today. Thanks to all the audience input and for the support out in White Plaza. Take a listen below, and see you next week!


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Coming up in S3E3: Stanford Energy Week – Live from White Plaza!

This week we’ll have a very special broadcast of Green Grid Radio on Wednesday, April 17th from 12-1pm. Green Grid Radio will be broadcasting live from the Energy Showcase, which is the Stanford Energy Week kick-off event in White Plaza on the Stanford campus.

energy-week-banner-EDITAttributed to Stanford Energy Club (2013).

Not only will we broadcast live, but our booth will be solar powered. We are utterly thrilled to bring our show to the middle of the action, and to demonstrate our environmental commitment at the same time.

Our guest this week is Ms. Debra Dunn of the Stanford d.school. We’ll be talking about sustainability, food, and energy broadly in our discussion. Student Sarah Triolo will also join us for the panel conversation. Green Grid Radio will air an encore edition of this special episode during the regular Thursday, April 18th from 6-7pm PST timeslot on KZSU.


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S3E2: A Breezy Introduction to the Basics: Wind Energy 101

SWEPThe SWEP team working on installing a wind anemometer at the Berkeley Marina (Image attributed to SWEP, 2013)

This past Thursday, the Green Grid Radio team spoke with Dr. Jeff Mirocha, a scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. We were also joined by guest panelist Aaron Burdick, a graduate student in Stanford’s Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. We’ve explored a lot of issues related to wind energy technology on the show in previous episodes, but this time we went back to the basics to gain an understanding of some oft overlooked fundamentals. What are the mechanics of making electricity from wind? How efficient is wind energy? What kinds of engineering challenges are wind engineers currently working to overcome?

Aaron provided many insights about the topics discussed with Dr. Mirocha, and shared his experience working with the Stanford Solar and Wind Energy Project (SWEP).

Note: During the show, we mentioned that wind energy delivered about 6% of America’s electricity in 2012. After the show aired, we found that as of 2012, wind energy comprised 6% of American electricity generation capacity, but only delivered about 3% of American electricity that year. We apologize for the error!

Listen here:


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Green Grid Radio Nominated for a Radio Star Award

This Spring, Green Grid Radio has been nominated for a Radio Star Award through the website Radioflag. Radioflag is a social radio site that aggregates and promotes independent, community, and college radio stations across the country and their content.

radio-star-award2Attributed to Radioflag, 2013.

Radioflag expects,  “that the broadcast industry’s “Best Read Newspaper” Radio World, will once again report the RadioStar Award winners. The paper is Published bi-weekly, and is the definitive source for information on technology, industry news, management techniques, applications-oriented engineering and production articles and new product information.”

Judging for the contest is taking place right now and will end on April 22nd, with the winners announced shortly thereafter. If you are inclined, check out Radioflag and support Green Grid Radio.


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Coming up in S3E2: A Breezy Introduction to the Basics: Wind Energy 101

Wind energy is a relatively mature renewable energy technology that is at the forefront in challenging conventional methods of power generation.  The image of a wind turbine is ubiquitous in representing clean tech (see the header of this very website), but have you ever wondered exactly how those great big turbines actually make electricity? Been curious about how efficient they are? Pondered what might happen when a bunch of bugs get stuck to these turbines?

We have! And so we sat down with Lawrence Livermore National Lab scientist Jeff Mirocha to ask him some questions about the fundamentals of wind energy production. He graciously explained the basics to us, and we’ll be sharing the interview with you on Thursday from 6-7 PM on 90.1 FM and at kzsu.stanford.edu. Aaron Burdick, a student in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department, will join us for a panel discussion afterwards.

Tweet us your questions about Wind Energy Basics @greengridradio or leave them in the comments section on this post and we’ll try to answer them during the show!

S3E1 TurbinesImage attributed to Energy Quest/California Energy Commission, 2013.


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S3E1: The Rise of the Sharing Economy

S3E1: The Rise of the Sharing Economy

The sharing economy is a movement that is gaining more and more momentum both here in the U.S. and around the world. In this episode we dig into what the environmental, social and economic benefits are of sharing compared to the current way of meeting our needs through consumption.

Featured voices are Andy Ruben, co-founder of yerdle, Neal Gorenflo, founder of Shareable and Stanford students Katie Brigham (from the Stanford Free Store), Maayan Dembo and Adam Pearson. Hosted by Erik Olesund and Diane Wu.


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High Ground Organics Supports Green Grid Radio

In case you missed the news on Thursday, we’re excited to report that High Ground Organics has supported Green Grid Radio for our third season.

HGO-header

High Ground Organics are a Watsonville-based, organic family farm that offers a CSA program from Monterey to Palo Alto. We’re excited to be working with High Ground Organics and very thankful for their interest and critical contribution to GGR’s operations.

If you also are interested in supporting Green Grid Radio, please send an email to adam [at] greengridradio [dot] org. We hope to have more information about these opportunities on our website soon!


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Green Grid Radio Honored by Clinton Global Initiative

Green Grid Radio is en route to St. Louis!

CGIU_slider_StLouis2

Earlier this year, the Clinton Global Initiative honored Green Grid Radio by inviting me to the Clinton Global Initiative University meeting in St. Louis from April 5-7th. As Founder of Green Grid Radio, I proposed an aggressive commitment to climate, energy, and sustainability education through Green Grid Radio. The mission of Green Grid Radio has always been to engage the public in these topics, and season 3’s adjusted format will achieve that better than ever before. We’ll be adding some more information about our Clinton Global Initiative commitment on the Green Grid Radio website soon.

And if you’re wondering what a “commitment” is: The Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) brings together college students to address global challenges with practical, innovative solutions. A CGI U Commitment to Action is a new, specific, and measurable plan that addresses a challenge on campus, in the local community, or around the world. Commitments can be small or large, global or local. No matter the size or scope, commitments help CGI U participants translate practical goals into meaningful and measurable results.

I look forward to a productive weekend of working with and learning from our world’s next leaders. Thank you for the support!
Adam


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Coming up in S3E1: The Rise of the Sharing Economy

Neal Gorenflo sharing a ride at SXSW 2011.

Welcome back to a new season of Green Grid Radio. Our first episode of season three will focus on The Rise of the Sharing Economy. The sharing economy is a movement that is gaining more and more momentum both here in the U.S. and around the world. In this episode we dig into what the environmental, social and economic benefits are of sharing compared to the current way of meeting our needs through consumption.

The episode features interviews with users of various services in the sharing economy realm: Couchsurfing and the Stanford Free store. You’ll also hear Neal Gorenflo, founder of Shareable and Andy Ruben, co-founder of yerdle talk about their experiences with the sharing economy and why they’re currently dedicating their careers to promoting it.

Tune into KZSU Stanford 90.1FM on Thursday April 4th, 2013, 6-7PM PST or catch the episode in our iTunes podcast.