State & Stakeholder Newsletter, 12/15/10
Wednesday, December 15, 2010 Volume #9, Issue #25 Editor: Jane Pulaski The IREC State & Stakeholder Newsletter is a foremost resource for current information on green workforce training, credentialing programs, state activities and best practices on renewable energy and energy efficiency. This free newsletter is distributed semi-monthly to email subscribers and published on IREC’s website. If…
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Volume #9, Issue #25
Editor: Jane Pulaski
The IREC State & Stakeholder Newsletter is a foremost resource for current information on green workforce training, credentialing programs, state activities and best practices on renewable energy and energy efficiency. This free newsletter is distributed semi-monthly to email subscribers and published on IREC’s website. If you have comments or if you would like to submit a news item, email Jane Pulaski. To subscribe to this newsletter, click here and follow the instructions.
If you want the best news about what’s going on in the states and cities, read the State & Stakeholder Newsletter (December 15, 2010)
From the editor…
Adieu to 2010 (changes afoot), and a couple of holiday gifts for you
In the last issue, I mentioned some changes were in the works for IREC’s semi-monthly State & Stakeholder Newsletter. For five years, this newsletter has been (we think) a reliable resource for and about states. We’ve collected stories and posted news items about renewable energy activities in your community, keeping you informed and up-to-date. Don’t worry…this isn’t a swan song.
We’re still going to publish this newsletter–it’s just moving from a twice/month to a monthly newsletter. It will provide you with a thorough recap of activities in IREC’s key program areas–from workforce development and credentialing activities to regulatory activities in the states, along with the latest news from DSIRE. You can still subscribe to any and all of our RSS news feeds, and of course, we’ll continue to post daily through IREC’s social networking sites. Plans are underway to publish a quarterly journal of IREC’s activities as National Administrator for the Solar Instructor Training Network (SITN). Watch for that in early April.
Dr. Barbara Martin, one of the best educational instructional designers out there, wrote a five-part series about good teaching practices that can improve the quality of a training course for IREC’s website earlier this summer. We received so many positive comments on those pieces we decided to combine them into one document, Good Teaching Matters: five teaching practices to improve the quality of a training course. Dr. Martin gives invaluable information about how students learn, and whether you’re a student or an instructor, you’ll find this report relevant to your work.
I wanted to give a special shout out to the recent (4th) edition of Freeing the Grid (FTG), that national report card on states’ interconnection and net metering policies, produced annually by the Network for New Energy Choices (NNEC), with help from VoteSolar, the North Carolina Solar Center and IREC. What’s remarkable about this edition: 37 states received “A” or “B” grades for their net metering policies, up from 13 states in 2007. Extra stars (and recess time) go to Massachusetts and Utah, both of which scored an “A” in both interconnection and net metering, marking the first time in the report’s history that any state has achieved such an accomplishment. That’s some big deal (thank the FTG brainiacs for their work).
Like I said, a couple of nice, huge holiday gifts to us all.
From all of us at IREC, and especially from me, I hope your holidays are merry and bright. Thanks, always, for your support, suggestions and encouragement.
Best,
P.S. The last issue for 2010 will hit your mailbox on Wednesday, December 29th.
Read the full State & Stakeholder Newsletter, December 15, 2010
