Dedication

This book is dedicated to the renewable energy and energy-efficiency pioneers throughout the world, like my good friends Henry Rentz of Missouri Valley Renewable Energy in Hermann, Missouri, small wind expert Mick Sagrillo of Sagrillo Power and Light in Wisconsin, and Bob Solger at Brightergy — and hundreds like them from Maine to Montana — who have helped make the shift to a renewable energy economy possible, often at great personal expense.

This book is also dedicated to the founders and the hard-working staff at Mother Earth News, Home Power magazine, and Solar Today, and to the staff and volunteers of scores of nonprofit groups such as Solar Energy International, the Colorado Renewable Energy Society, The American Solar Energy Society, the American Wind Energy Association, the Midwest Renewable Energy Association, Heartland Renewable Energy Society, Show Me Solar, the Iowa Renewable Energy Association, the Solar Living Institute, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association, all of the remaining chapters of the American Solar Energy Association, and last but far from least, the Institute for Sustainable Energy Education.

My deepest thanks to all of them for their dedication, hard work, and perseverance — and for helping create a more sustainable energy system that promises a cleaner, healthier, more economically viable future for all of us.