...If you are not interested in alternative energy, please ignore/delete...

This is David House, author of The Complete Biogas Handbook (here). As you might know, I also facilitate Beginner's Biogas Workshops (as described on the workshops page linked to the book's website, here)...

I'm a permaculture novice, or maybe even a dilettante-- of very low status in any case-- but based on what I've read of Mollison and Holmgren, Jacke and others, it seems to me that the wealth of information required to gain a certificate-- and indeed almost any effort to live ecologically-- would benefit by more complete and practical information about alternative energy. Direct solar energy is of course a prime candidate, but for ages and cycles it has been the biological collection of solar energy that has powered human systems. And except for food & fodder (and wood burning in a properly designed stove), biogas is arguably the most efficient, least expensive, most ecological form of biosolar energy. More so than biodiesel; more so than ethanol... In fact. (More details? See this article.)

My particular attempt to assist mankind to move in the green direction, in part, is by the above-mentioned workshops, which I've been thinking of as "Zero to Biogas In Two Days". These evolving workshops have been offered at many places in the US, and as far afield as Australia. For example, in 2011, invitations came from the prestigious National Center for Alternative Technology, by permaculturists in CA and PA, by aquaponics practitioners in HI and FL (among others) to provide workshops teaching people how to think about, make and use biogas. (In Australia, our host was a farmer, Steven Hobbs, who has run his tractors on biodiesel and SVO for the better part of a decade, and who was interested in using the leftover press-cake-- most often from from mustard seed, in his case-- to produce biogas.)

And just now, I am in the process of setting up workshops for 2012.

What I am looking for are partners who are well-connected, who can organize a suitable event, and who can mount an effective campaign to inform people locally and regionally about the workshop. I provide everything else, including a 200-gallon (0.75 cu m) biogas digester kit for anyone who wants one. ($35 ea. to class participants. Treat it right and it'll give you all the biogas you need for cooking your meals...) The organizer(s) and I pay expenses out of income and share the profits generated, as I can further explain to those interested.

So: would you be interested in working with me to set up a workshop? Please write to me and let's talk. I'll even throw in a couple of jokes. (Let's not bother the list with our back and forth...)


And meanwhile, if you have a question about biogas, please let me know, and I will answer as possible...