The American Solar Energy Society: Past and Future

The American Solar Energy Society (ASES) is the nation’s oldest and largest renewable energy society. A nonprofit membership organization, it was founded in 1954 to encourage the use of renewable energy technologies, to be a source of sound, broad technical knowledge, and to provide a forum to address critical national issues relating to clean energy technologies. ASES publishes Solar Today magazine, sponsors the annual National Solar Energy Conference, promotes the annual National Tour of Solar Buildings, and supports regional chapters like NESEA throughout the country.

ASES was initially known as the Association for Applied Solar Energy, AFASE. It kept this name until 1963 when our leaders reorganized us as the Solar Energy Society. Shortly after that we became the United States section  of the International Solar Energy Society. While our name has always had "solar" in it, the meaning of the word has changed. Publications from the 1950s to 70s used the term in a broad context, incorporating biomass, wind, and hydro power. By 1980, the term was changing and "solar" was being replaced by "renewable energy" as demonstrated in the change from the US Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Research Institute to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The ASES name reflects these "solar" roots and our mission is fundamentally broader than the word implies today. We continue to encourage the use of renewable energy technologies and to be a forum to address national issues where renewable energy offers significant contribution.

How ASES Is Organized
ASES is organized into six formal Topical Divisions: Buildings, Fuels and Transportation, Resource Assessment, Solar Electricity,. Solar Thermal, and Sustainability. These Divisions form the technical backbone of the Society and perform abstract review and program guidance for the National Solar Energy Conference. These Divisions have rotating elected representation on the ASES board. Each of ASES’s Divisions has volunteer leadership and produces its own newsletter.

ASES also has many standing committees to conduct specific tasks for the Society. The largest and most critical are Education, Chapters, Fundraising, Magazine Management, Public Relations, and Strategic Planning. These committees provide valuable insight, direction and service to help advance the ASES mission.

ASES may be best known as the publisher of Solar Today magazine, an award-winning full-color bi-monthly magazine that covers all renewable technologies, from photovoltaics to climate-responsive buildings to wind power. The magazine is distributed free to all members of the Society as a membership benefit. It is also available by subscription and on newsstands around the U.S. Regular topics include building case studies, energy policy information, community-scale renewable energy installations, industry news, and advice for consumers.

In addition to Solar Today, ASES provides resource material to the public. A broad array of books, pamphlets, videos and cassettes are available for purchase. Every other year, ASES publishes the reference guide, Advances in Solar Energy, which is a compendium of current research and development from around the world. This textbook is used as a reference in many solar energy educational programs. Volume XV will be published late this spring.

ASES Events
ASES hosts the annual National Solar Energy Conference, an event with two distinct components: the National Passive Solar Energy Conference and the Annual Solar Energy Conference. The conference provides a venue for review of the latest research and development of renewable energy technologies; innovations in building techniques, materials and design; policy discussions on local, regional, national, and international issues; exhibitions of the application of the latest technology; as well as hosting participating organizations’ meetings.  Participating organizations include the AIA Committee on the Environment, ASHRAE, ASME, Interstate Renewable Energy Council, Society of Building Science Educators, Solar Energy Industries Association, and the Solar Rating and Certification Corporation, among others.

Solar 2003, the 28th National Passive and 32nd Annual Solar Energy Conferences, will be held from June 21-26 at the Austin Convention Center. Solar 2003’s theme of "America’s Secure Energy" focuses on the critical role renewable energy can play in our nation’s security and environmental integrity, as well as our economic growth and energy reliability.

The largest annual activity sponsored by ASES is the National Tour of Solar Buildings. The tour originated as a regional tour of off-grid homes. Six years ago ASES was asked to manage the tour and try and bring more people to the event. It now ranges from one day to one month long and occurs in communities across the United States and has been duplicated in Canada and Australia. People visit solar homes, schools, churches, and commercial buildings and learn first-hand about the practical technologies they can use today.

ASES organizes the National Tour of Solar Buildings as a partnership between ASES and the many local groups that organize the Tour in their communities. The key local partners are ASES chapters, subchapters, or affiliate chapters. Other local partners include environmental groups, renewable energy businesses, installers, builders, institutions, chambers of commerce, and state energy offices. By creating these partnerships, the Tour is able to have a very large impact with a very modest use of resources. In 2002, through the effort of 165 local organizers, over 26,000 people took the tour of 1222 buildings located in 422 communities in 44 states. Media coverage reached an estimated total national audience of almost 48 million!

The key to success of the National Tour of Solar Buildings is that it meets the needs of the public to see actual installed solar and renewable energy technologies. The other key to this event is that it is local. Regional Chapters have taken ownership of this event and use it to promote what they are doing in their area and the services and help they provide. NESEA, for example, organizes the Tour in the northeast as part of the Green Buildings Open House. This allows the public and media a local source of information.

Changing Strategies for a New Era
ASES’s challenge is no less daunting today than it was in 1954, although significant technological progress has been achieved. Our goal continues to be to advance renewable energy, but our strategies are changing.

ASES firmly believes in the passion of renewable energy advocates, the strength of partnerships, and the common sense of Americans. At every level we must be more active in order to force change within the bureaucratic institutions that manage, govern, regulate, and control energy in this country. ASES is committed to broaden its participation by more actively reaching out to old partners, such as other renewable energy associations as well as working with new partners, such as the American Lung Association. There is strength in numbers and so much of what the renewable community does provides answers to so many well articulated concerns.

ASES strength rests in three areas. First we are fundamentally a professional society with a core made up of researchers, scientists, builders, architects, and academics. We provide good, competent and accurate information. Second, there is a growing appreciation, well understood by ASES, that movement to advance renewable energy into the mainstream will come at the state level before it arrives at the federal level. And third, the American people, for decades, have consistently expressed support for clean energy. In response to an understanding of our strengths, ASES is launching an effort to be of greater service to chapters and to better meet the needs of those who advocate for change within their state.

In partnership with other national renewable energy associations ASES is preparing template legislation texts for renewable portfolio standards, net metering, and distributed generation. We are helping to organize grassroots advocacy training opportunities to empower local advocates to better argue their case with regulators, decisionmakers, and lawmakers. We will serve as a resource to provide links to experts who can testify before decisionmakers. And we are embarking upon a reorganization of our website to interactively serve our chapters, their members, and the public with the goal of being more effective at affecting change. Chapter members who are not ASES members will soon be receive an electronic newsletter designed to share what is going on in solar energy around the country and samples of articles from Solar Today and news from other chapters.

How to Participate
To more actively participate in ASES, I strongly encourage you to join as a member. Memberships are $65 for NESEA (and other ASES chapter) members and $70 for the public. Details of the benefits you receive are available on the ASES website. Most importantly, the challenge of moving to a sustainable world rests most on moving to a renewable energy economy. To succeed in that challenge we must be involved locally and possess a national perspective to make a global impact. Please visit us at www.ases.org and thanks for joining.  

Brad Collins is Executive Director of the American Solar Energy Society (www.ases.org).