Protect Our Winters

We’re proud to announce our new partnership with Protect Our Winters! We’re giving a percent of our profits toward POW’s solar initiatives to help create a brighter energy future together.

POW is a dedicated nonprofit leading the outdoor industry, athletes, and general outdoor enthusiasts toward positive climate action. This means working toward reducing, stopping, or even reversing climate change because “we all need winter.”

While POW is involved with many parts of the climate movement, we are particularly excited about their focus on solar energy.

The amazing thing about solar energy (besides the fact that it’s a renewable, clean, everlasting energy source) is that it can be developed on the personal level (think solar panels on roofs) and the utility/community level (think giant solar power plants). This means individuals, communities, businesses, or just about anyone can get involved with solar energy and help make a positive global energy impact.

But getting individuals and electricity companies to adopt more solar energy is tough and involves a lot of complicated energy policy.

Expanding solar means entirely changing the way we currently pay for and receive electricity. We’ve spent so many years building a system that runs on fossil fuel energy that it’s hard for utilities and power plants to adjust to and adopt renewables. There are also a lot of laws and regulations in place that made sense for fossil fuel power, but not so much for solar.

POW is focusing on these places where policy needs to change to accommodate solar and help utilities and power companies move toward a cleaner energy future.

Net Metering Programs: These programs basically determine how individuals get paid for the energy their personal solar panels produce. When you produce excess solar from your home’s solar panels, you can sell that energy to utilities and they have to pay you! But some states are trying to change laws so that making money from solar panels is more difficult. You can read more about that here.

Renewable Portfolio Standards: These are standards or rules set by each state that determine how much of their energy will come from renewables like wind and solar. Each state comes up with its own goals and then creates regulations state-wide to achieve those goals. You can find out more about your state’s renewable portfolio standards here.

Solar Tax Credits: This is a credit offered by the federal government to individuals and businesses for going solar. It can help adjust for the initial hefty cost of transitioning to cleaner energy. Even fossil fuel companies receive credits to make their energy cheaper, so it’s not a program only related to solar. You can read more about solar tax credits here.

The sun is this amazing perpetual clean energy source. Getting on board with solar means getting on board with a happier planet and happier people. That’s why Conscious Adventurist wants to support POW in their solar expansion mission. Let’s make a happier, better world together!

"Anja Semanco is a professional writer living in Boulder, Colorado. Her creative work has appeared in such places as Terrain.org and Zoomorphic magazine. In 2016 her first published essay, Encounters in a Museum, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She writes about the environment, nature and the wonderful creatures that inhabit this earth. She bakes a mean loaf of sourdough bread which she brings on camping trips to make friends (it always works). Read more of her work or get in contact at anjasemanco.com."