Center for Sustainable Community Development

Mission:

Understand how communities can transition from global dependence toward community self-reliance by designing and implementing economically attractive, as well as socially and environmentally sustainable, local energy production systems.

Goals:

1. Understand the wide variety of distributed and renewable energy production technologies currently available as well as those on the drawing board. This involves a detailed analysis of the costs and capabilities of each of these many new technologies.
2. Estimate the additional job creation and local economic development benefits associated with local production using the above renewable energy technologies. This involves some input/output economic modeling using IMPLAN software to determine the direct, indirect and induced economic impacts associated with local energy production.
3. Determine the true costs of conventional energy production using fossil fuels and nuclear sources of primary energy. This involves determining the costs of these conventional energy sources as well as the subsidies and externalities (environmental, human health, military etc…) associated with their use.
4. Develop a dynamic computer simulation model using STELLA software to integrate all the above information into a single computer model. This model will allow the user to explore the social, economic and environmental impacts associated with just any imaginable local renewable energy production system.
5. Use the computer model to help communities, schools, businesses and households to understand the benefits of local renewable energy production and develop specific systems for their particular needs