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Brownsville - The Herald - September, 2007
The Paper of South Texas - April 7, 2007
Edinburg Politics-June 2007
Town Crier - June 3, 2007
Town Crier - June 17, 2007

Expo offers ‘Nifty’ concepts for green building
By Aaron Nelsen/The Brownsville Herald
September 7, 2007 - 10:12PM

Flashing a wide smile and mouth full of silvery braces, Jose Aguilar used one word to describe Friday’s green expo: Nifty.

The Los Fresnos resident attended the expo in search of money saving “green” techniques, which might prove useful when he builds his house later this year.

He perused the display tables, picking up brochures on solar panels and alternatives to venting attics.

“You see that,” he said, pointing to Styrofoam panels. “The Styrofoam is separated by braces. You just pour in the concrete for your foundation and the Styrofoam acts as insulation. Easy, and it eliminates a lot of cost.”

The Second Annual Energy Efficiency and Green Building Conference and EXPO got off to a slow start, attracting mostly visitors who are seriously interested in energy efficiency and green building, according to Hilaro Diaz, program specialist at Cameron Works.

The event hosted by Cameron Works and South Texas Energy Partners, among others, was originally scheduled for late August, but was moved to September due to the threat of hurricanes brewing in the Gulf of Mexico.

Despite the sparse attendance at the University of Texas Brownsville and Texas Southmost College ITEC, Diaz was undeniably up beat.

“We’re trying to foster interest in energy conservation here, not rocket science,” he said. “We have businesses are saying ‘hey, this is what we’re doing, you can too.’”

Although green businesses are slowly gaining momentum in South Texas, Diaz pointed to recent start-ups like Sol Technologies LLC, as evidence that the industry is making inroads.

Sol Technologies, based out of Weslaco, sells and installs solar panels that heat homes, power streetlights and pump water for livestock.

One photovoltaic system used on homes runs $1,000. A typical home consumes 800 kilowatt-hours, and to match that output a homeowner would have to buy 46 panels, according to Vicky Ortiz, an engineer for Sol Technologies.

“You could use half that number,” Ortiz said. “It’s just a matter of doing your part to cut down on (conventional) energy.”

Ortiz and her colleagues also took the opportunity to attend the conference’s many workshops, including creating new industries with solar and biodiesel.

There is enough solar power in a parking space in San Antonio to power a car for 40 minutes. Not everybody is blessed with so much sun, explained Bill Barker, a presenter on solar power, but Texas is not taking full advantage of its renewable resources.

According to Barker, 123,000 jobs could be created by 2020 if Texas delved headfirst into solar power.

Texas is first in potential in the country and eighth in actual production, he said.

“We have a lot of potential, but from my perspective we’re falling behind.”

The free conference and expo will return today, featuring more exhibits on energy efficient building, green building techniques and home mortgage financing.

“Change doesn't’t come easily,” Diaz said. “It takes people slugging it out to make it happen.”

Link: http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/green_80039___article.html/texas_solar.html
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The Paper of South Texas
April 04,2007

By David Robledo

Tiny town first in region with solar energy hopes to keep immigrants away and habitat green

  Nights have been black in Granjeno for five years now. After this tiny city edging the Rio Grande was $13,000 past due on its electric bill, CPL turned the streetlights off. But each night, dozens of undocumented immigrants make their way through Granjeno, south of Mission, navigating the thorny brush the town is named for, shuffling through shadowy backyards and driveways.
  Last week the mayor was engaged in an evening conversation with some neighbors in front of his home when an immigrant popped out from seemingly nowhere, asking to borrow a phone.
“We told him we didn't’t have one, that he’d have to find one in Mission or McAllen, and we pointed the way,” the mayor said. “It wasn’t unusual.”

A GREEN LIGHT
  As the state’s electricity costs have skyrocketed, this town of about 350 residents had all but resigned to living in the dark — with the consequent upsurge of petty crime and the continuation of lightless conditions that facilitate human trafficking.
  When Granjeno first incorporated back in 1993, CPL reimbursed the town for its street light electric usage. But after Granjeno installed additional streetlights that would have to be paid for, and after Texas electricity costs surged nearly 100 percent, Granjeno was left without streetlight, unable to meet its $1,500-a-month bill.
  You see Granjeno posts almost no tax revenue. There’s only one actual business here listed as a Texas sales tax outlet, and that business is a small bar with only a few customers hanging around each night.
  With no tax money coming in, Granjeno depends on grant money and other meager funds to conduct city business. The town has only one paid employee, a part-time secretary working less than 25 hours a week. The municipality, then, is run by the mayor and three city officials, volunteers who have been struggling for years to bring light back to their little town.
The lack of funds — with the town thousands of dollars in debt — forced Granjeno to think creatively, and doing so has put it ahead of the local curve for responsible government willing to embrace alternatives to traditional energy sources.
  Granjeno is getting solar street lamps, and it’s the first community in Deep South Texas to do so.

BUMP IN THE NIGHT
  Mayor Alberto Magellan said that in truth, there isn’t much of a physical threat from the thousands — or tens of thousands — of immigrants who traverse the Rio Grande and make their way through Granjeno each year. But there is a problem. They leave behind trash, and they startle residents, often calling on them for food, directions, phones or money.
Granjeno is surrounded by the reserve wildlife habitat of Bentsen State Park and other protected land that makes it a perfect, well-camouflaged crossing point for undocumented travelers. Though the region is distinctly rural, crisscrossed with dirt trails and dusty ranch roads that provide quick access to the river, civilization is surprisingly close, less than a half mile away, where booming development has brought convenience stores, high-end subdivisions and chic restaurants and clothing stores to the south Sharyland area.
  A bike and jogging trail that leads from Bentsen park and edges Granjeno provides a concrete path connecting the river’s shore to the expressway — a path that probably couldn’t have been more perfectly designed to speed undocumented, pedestrian immigrants on their journeys.
With petty crime a growing problem, and the immigrant tide seemingly endless, Granjeno put together a plan that would take advantage of available grants for solving infrastructure problems in small towns.
  It was easier for officials to figure out a way to start from scratch than pay off its CPL debt.

PROGRESSIVE SOLUTION
  Granjeno city leaders are no tree huggers. They’re ordinary people who work ordinary jobs throughout the county. (None of them actually work in Granjeno because, as noted earlier, there’s almost no business there.)
  But tree huggers, or at least progressive RGV residents, are rather impressed that a town as small a Granjeno would be leading the way for sustainable energy alternatives in the region.
“Let’s all move to Granjeno, apparently a progressive town with lots of foresight,” said Carmen Perez Garcia, Executive Director of the LRGV American Institute of Architects in McAllen.
“Today it’s street lights, who knows what tomorrow will bring? It seems that Granjeno has taken a first step in carbon reduction with its street light program. I sincerely wish that reduction in public buildings will soon follow,” Garcia said.
  As far as Granjeno goes, there are two public buildings, a city hall and a convention pavilion which doubles as a basketball court for youth recreation programs.
Granjeno city officials said that they’d be willing to entertain just about any solution to city problems. But for now, the streetlight issue was more or less the biggest one on the list, besides their short finances.
  Vicente Garza, a first-year commissioner, said that when he took office, the attempt at securing solar streetlights had been in the works for some time.
“Past administrations came up with the idea to bring solar lights. We’re the third administration. The first brought it up. The second looked into grants. And the third is going to see the lights used,” he said.
  “As far as paper work, we had to push it real hard. Thank God they are almost going to be up,” he said.
  Almost 60 street lamps are planned, 20 yards or so away from each other along Granjeno’s two short, paved streets.

GEE I COULD HAVE HAD A SOLAR LAMP
  As the first RGV city to embrace solar energy at this level, the Granjeno solar project has no local match, said Brandy Celedon of Sol Technologies LLC, a Weslaco company that received the Granjeno contract to install the solar lamps.
  Granjeno inked the deal with SOL in December, with construction slated within weeks.
Money that made the project possible, some $300,000 stemming from Urban County and Housing and Urban Development funds, is available to other towns, explained Celedon.
“With the cost of energy and fossil fuels, there’s often nothing small towns like this can do except search for options. A small town embracing this technology is exciting, and everyone wins — the people and the environment.”
  With Granjeno smack in the middle of a wildlife preserve, this solar energy project makes a whole lot of sense. Maybe too much sense.
  But with RGV chambers of commerce and economic development corporations scrambling after the eco-tourist dollar, the brilliance of turning an RGV town green is a winner. Let’s see if any local municipalities jump on the bandwagon, a non-fossil-fueled bandwagon at that.•

Link: http://www.thepaperofsouthtexas.com/page.php?kei=553
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Sol Technologies makes it easy to go green with solar lighting in Weslaco
Edinburg Politics

By BRANDY CELEDON

The citizens of Weslaco are pleased to embrace renewable energy upon the donation of a solar light for their new skate park located at the Isaac Rodriguez Park.

This fixture will be the first of its kind to provide lighting in Weslaco.

The donation was was scheduled to be formally accepted at the June 5 public session of the Weslaco City Council.

“A combination of solar panels and the sun offers not only energy independence, but an alternative to traditional electric lighting,” said René Ortíz, president of the newly established Sol Technologies, a Weslaco-based solar energy company.

“We believe that solar energy is the revolution to light in the Rio Grande Valley,” Ortíz added.

Weslaco City Manager Anthony Covacevich, is excited to accept the donation valued at more than $3,000 with the added benefit of never having to pay an electric bill is plus.

“It’s eco-friendly and it saves taxpayer dollars on electricity, everyone wins, said Covacevich.”

“We are pleased to demonstrate how Sol Technologies’ products can help the community reduce emissions and strain on the local utility-grid,” said Ortíz.

Sol Technologies LLC: Sol Technologies distributes lighting products, as well as other solar power solutions while protecting the environment and providing sustainable energy solutions using solar technologies.

Link: http://www.edinburgpolitics.com/?p=82
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Sol Technologies makes it easy for Weslaco to go green
Mid-Valley Town Crier
June 3, 2007

  Weslaco - The citizens of Weslaco will be among the first to embrace renewable energy with the donation of solar light at the new skate park located at the Isaac Rodriguez Park next to Knapp Medical Center.
  The fixture will be the first of its kind to provide solar lighting in Weslaco. The donation will formally be accepted at the upcoming city council meeting on June 5, at 5 p.m.
  "A combination of solar panels and the sun offers not only energy dependence, but an alternative to traditional electric lighting," said Rene Ortiz, president of the newly established Sol Technologies, a Weslaco-based solar energy company. "We believe that solar energy is the revolution to light in the Rio Grande Valley."
  Weslaco City Manage Anthony Covacevich said he is excited to accept the donation valued at over $3,000 wit the added benefit of never having to pay electric bills.
  "It's eco-friendly and it saves tax payer dollars on electricity," said Covacevich. "Everyone wins."
  Sol Technologies distributes lighting products, as well as other solar powered solutions while protecting the environment and providing sustainable energy solutions using solar technologies.
  "We are pleased to demonstrate how Sol Technologies' products can help the community reduce emissions and strain on the local utility-grid," said Ortiz.
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Bright lights for skate night
Mid-Valley Town Crier
June 17, 2007
By Jasel Cantu

  Weslaco-Isaac Rodriguez Park will have more illumination at night thanks to lights at the skateboard park.
  One pole overlooking the skateboard park foundation will have two new lights provided by Sol Technologies. American Electric Power, formerly CPL, already put up two floodlights in the surrounding area at the East and West entrances to light up the parking areas. The new lights are meant specifically for the skateboard park for skaters to use at night.
  "That (light pole) should cover more than the whole foundation," said Pete Garcia, director of parks and recreation for the City of Weslaco. "If we need more lighting we have another pole to light up, and we'll do that ourselves."
  Garcia assures the new lights will not only make the park more acceptable for skaters, but also safer.
  "For one thing there's security in the parking lot," said Garcia. "It's so dark you can't see where to park...safety and security reasons. You don't want cars driving over kids."
  Even thought the heat is almost 100 degrees and the humidity is high Edmund Martinez, 18, and his friends still skate at the park for nearly eight hours.
  "The heat bothers me," said Martinez. "But what can you do but stay at home and watch T.V.?"
  Martinez said the surrounding lamp post give enough light to skate at night, but the new ones will be a helpful improvement. The lights were installed on Thursday morning making skaters anxious for the night to arrive to see how much they'll improve visibility.
  "I haven't seen how bright it is but it's better," said Martinez. "There's light at night and during the day it's too hot."
  The lights not only come free to the city, they are also environmentally friendly. Sol Technologies created the new lights to be solar powered and is the first solar powered lighting of its kind in Weslaco.
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